The Mating Game

Truth Hurts

The cool ocean water is an instant shock to my system as I dive through the waves making my way to the next beehive-shaped crab trap I placed days ago. It took me a week and a half to make six crab traps from sticks on the island. It has been three weeks since I bait the first trap and I have been minimally successful. Aaron is on the shore watching as I check and re-bait the final of the six traps. So far I have a count of four crabs in my sack. Aaron guessed we would have three today and I said five, so I am hoping that this last trap will have a crab.

“Damn it, nothing.” I place the bait in the trap and lower it back into place.

Turning towards the shore, I scream “The final count is four! We were both wrong.”

Making my way back to shore Aaron shouts something and points out to the ocean behind me. Glancing back I see the all too familiar boat that comes to the island every day at dawn and leaves every night at dusk. It’s always the same boat and always around the same time. Walking out of the water and onto the sandy beach, I stand next to Aaron and watch the boat as it passes by.

“Alright, so I say that today the boat is not delivering but is instead receiving a bunch of bananas to take back to the Rancids in the Radiation Zone.”

Aaron and I have been playing this game since I started joining him over a month ago on his chores after Ana kicked me in the thigh.

“Nah, I’m going with delivering a Radiation Zone baby to the containment camp,” he says placing his hand above his brow to watch the final visible piece of the boat go behind the rocks.

“You never know that could be true.” I agree because I know all too well that this is a great possibility.

Looking at the sky, I can see that it’s not yet time for breakfast, so I take a seat in the sand.

“You were a radiation zone baby weren’t you?” he asks. Nodding yes I respond,

“That’s what the nonviables told me when I was growing up. I was brought to the island when I was two.”

“Do you remember anything about the zone?” Aaron probes taking a seat next to me.

“No, I was too little. I try to think about what it was like in the zone sometimes, hoping some memory will come back, but nothing ever does.”

“Do you know if your parents…” he hesitates.

“No, the nonviables weren’t sure if I was taken from my parents or if I was sold to the Purus. How about you? You are a Purus baby right?” Glancing at Aaron, I see his head bob up and down.

“Yep, Purus through and through. I have spent all twenty-five years of my life on this island.” After sitting quietly for a few minutes watching the sunrise further above the ocean, Aaron finally breaks his silence.

“I guess being born on Ubertus wasn’t so bad, at least for the first twenty years. I can’t imagine what the people who live in the Radiation Zone go through day to day just to survive. The stories they have told us about the zone are crazy.” I see this as an opening to ask Aaron a question I have been curious about since the night in the barn.

“I notice you said the first twenty years of living on the island weren’t so bad. That night in the barn after Ana kicked me you mentioned consequences that mates face if they aren’t well… um.. mating. What did you mean when you said that?”

Running a hand through his dark wavy brown hair Aaron inhales the salty seawater and then lets out a small sigh.

“The first year I had my own mating group I had a woman named Sophia in my group. She was twenty-six years old, and she had just come off her first succulent year. It was her first baby, and she had a very difficult time being forced away from her daughter and placed back into the mating pool. We grew close in the first few months, and we spent a lot of time talking about her daughter, and life, and things, you know. I didn’t feel right about forcing her to perform her duty.” Aaron pauses, but I can tell he is going to continue on, so I intently watch his face for any emotion. His brow begins forming a little v, and tiny wrinkles are forming on his normally smooth forehead. “You know it isn’t right to expect someone to forget about their child just like that. How could I possibly expect her or want her to mate with me? So we didn’t. But we pretended like we were, but somehow the elders found out. After Sophia had been in my group for about three months, the elders came in the middle of the night and took the two of us from the house and to a cabin on the island.” Again he pauses, and his hands tighten into fists, as his eyes begin to burn with rage. “The things they made us do were... well they were… unspeakable. Two days later the elders returned us to the farm. The week after Sophia was distant and didn’t talk and then one day she didn’t come back for lunch. My other two mates and I searched the farm for her. When we found her, she was hanging from a tree behind the barn.”

“Oh my god. Aaron, I’m so sorry.” Not knowing what to do or say I simply place my hand on his arm which instantly tenses at my touch.

“She may have taken her own life, but it was them who killed her. After the things they forced us to do in front of them, she couldn’t even look at me. I tried talking to her, but she was quiet all the time. She wouldn’t let me in.”

“It wasn’t your fault; you do know that right?” I say in a soft voice.

“Yeah, I know exactly whose damn fault it is.” He says standing up quickly.

“Did you love her? It sounds like you cared about her a lot.” Looking out at the sunrise again it seems like he is searching for an answer on the horizon.

“Yes, I did love her, and I experienced what happens when you love someone in this f****d up game. That’s why I refuse to be emotional with any more of the girls. When I have s*x with a mate, it’s strictly s*x, no emotion, no kissing, and no love. Just mechanical and mindless. There’s no room for emotions on this island. It’s hard enough developing a friendship with each of the girls and then watching them leave at the end of the year. Imagine if I fell in love each time a new group came. I couldn’t go through that again. Not after what happened with Sophia.”

Standing up next to him I watch his face as I ask the next question.

“Is that why Katie and Laura always come back to our bedroom so quickly?” Swallowing hard Aaron nods his head.

“I just want to get the job done and get them the hell out.”

As he says this he begins picking up our fishing supplies. Noting his behavior and mood I know that there will be no more questions today. The two of us walk back to the house in silence neither one of us breaking it until we walk into the house and like a switch, Aaron goes back to playing his part and puts his mask back on.

“Looks like we’re having crab for dinner tonight Laura. Look what Addy’s traps caught this morning.” He says smiling and motioning towards the sack hanging from my shoulder.

Walking over to Laura I open the sack big enough for her to peer in.

“Those are huge! Those traps you made are working out well.” I hand the sack over to Laura.

“I’m glad that I can finally contribute something without making a mess out of things.”

“Well just give it some more time, I’m sure you’ll find a way to screw things up again,” Katie says mockingly while patting me on the back.

After breakfast, everyone starts on their chores. I go with Aaron to work in the field for the day, and our conversation turns back to normal, neither of us mentioning our conversation from earlier. For the day we get along well and talk easily with one another, but after this morning I know that this is all just an act being put on by Aaron. It doesn’t make me upset or angry that Aaron is just going through the motions. Instead, it deeply saddens me that he has been hurt so terribly by the life we are living on Ubertus. Uselessly I wonder what they did to Aaron and Sophia when they took them in the middle of the night. I’ll probably never know because I’ll never ask him about that night again because of the pain and anger I saw in his eyes. It physically made me sick this morning seeing so much hurt on his face as he talked about his lost love. I think back to when I first joined Aaron’s group and how insistent I was about performing my duty as a woman. God, I must have seemed like such a fool to Aaron.

I’m starting to realize that our duty is to have no life at all. It’s to take orders, to reproduce, and then to have our children ripped away from us. We don’t have any free will, and I was in such a hurry to throw it away. I will never have a family or a home again for the rest of my life. Every year I will be shifted to a new man and forced to do the same thing again and again. Then in the end, after I stop bleeding, I’ll become a nonviable and eventually be purged off the island and sent to the Radiation Zone. After this morning I am thankful I am still a virgin, but now I am distressed about losing my virginity and being thrown into this sick cycle. Maybe the Radiation Zone doesn’t sound so bad anymore.