Glass Houses - Science Fiction Short Story by Gail Brown

 

 

Glass Houses

Science Fiction - Short Story

 

by Gail Brown 

 

The sky clouded over. 

It wasn't rain time. The dome over their village would protect them from unwanted weather. Qualella carried her basket of garden produce. 

Reshinda ran up to her. "Momma. I've chosen." 

"Who have you chosen?" This would be Reshinda's first child. A blessing. And a curse. Her twin brother would soon be forced to move outside the dome. 

"Braith. He has the same colour eyes. I'll go to his home tonight." 

Qualella laughed. "You know he leaves soon. I think half the young women your age have chosen him." 

"Doesn't mean all of them were successful. I have to try. The timing is right." 

"Go then. I suppose your brother should have a visitor soon." 

"I hope so. People think being male, and second born, he isn't any good. He is though. He is as strong as me. He'll do fine beyond the dome. The men will train him." Reshinda ran off to make preparations to spend the night with Braith.  

Hopefully, it would be fruitful. Qualella joined her mother, Perlema, in the council house.  

"Has Perry had any visitors?" Perlema pushed her work aside to make room for Qualella. 

"No. Reshinda is going to her first tonight. With Braith. She thinks it will be successful." 

"A good choice." 

"Do you think Perry can stay another season? He deserves a chance. He works well in the garden." Reshinda tore apart a piece of cloth to be remade as a fire starter rag. 

"He is close to the cut off in age. The men might allow another year. I intend to go beyond the dome this year." 

"Mother. You mustn't!" 

"I must. I am the one chosen to see if it is safe for women to live out there, on the planet's surface." Perlema closed her eyes. "I want to go. I want to take my grandson with me. However, I want to give him a chance to create a child as well. You must speak to Reshinda's friends. We only have a month left." 

"We can have a gathering reminding all who leave this year. I don't want to lose you."  

"I am the oldest woman here. You will lead in my place." 

"I can't be next in line." 

"I waited long, too long to choose to have you. I will go. I want to see the animals that don't live in the dome. I want to taste deer meat. I want the dreams of my mother. And her mother." 

"Out there is scary. Beyond the dome. What have men become?" 

"We see their faces from time to time. They look in." 

"With a scary hunger. I fear it. I fear the time of the dark days. The reasons they hid us in the domes." 

"It is time. I think soon, villages will lose their domes. We may live out there, among those trees and birds we sometimes see. Gardens grow good with climate control. Some will stay. The sick, the elderly. For now. I am ready to go." 

Qualella let her hands focus on the familiar work while her mind raced. Her mother would leave the safety of the dome. The only home she had ever known. She would have to give up Perry to the men beyond the dome. As all young men were given up. She would only have her daughter, and hopefully her daughter's child to comfort her through the cooler weather of winter.

Glass Houses is a reprints of a story previously published in Concurrent Earths (2021) Originally published in Mirror Worlds (2019 as April D. Brown).

Gail Brown writes paired science fiction internal journey stories and novels full of hopes and dreams. She found science fiction brings hope and light through worlds of colourful dreams. It mirrors daily life as it could be. Perhaps should be, in some ways. Worlds where disability is accepted, and people live their lives without overwork and fear.