The Choice Era. Part 1. Nata Kay

call, though it was one of Harry’s favorite tunes, was completely out of turn in that serene atmosphere reigned in the field.

      Harry didn’t want to wake up and return to reality. He could have walked across the field for a very, very long time, and perhaps finally he could have reached the cliff.

      When Harry woke up and realized where he was, and that he was no longer sleeping, he was still seeing the images from his dream.

      THE LIBRARY

      During the next two weeks Harry secretly left the book he had read at the office and immediately took home the next one. The pile was the same size, and during working hours Harry pretended not to be interested in books. He looked at them with the neglect and begged Bob to take them away. Bob blowed him off and wasn’t going to take anything. Other colleagues were kidding about the fact that books became a cute and original part of the interior.

      From time to time the head of the department came into the office. At first he was skeptical about such an interior thing, but then he understood the humor of his workers.

      For obvious reasons, Harry couldn’t read in public. He had to hide almost from everyone. After work he went to the park, found a secluded corner, sat on the grass or among the roots of large trees and started reading. At home he read only after Mona went to bed or somewhere on her business.

      Harry was finishing his last book, sitting on the edge of the bathroom with the sound of water pouring from the tap. The water served as a cover, of course. The next day Mona said she didn’t expect such accurate hygiene from her husband. After such a statement Harry was afraid his new hobby was revealed, but after Mona’s following laughter he understood his wife was joking.

      «The check-up is soon,» Mona reminded one day at breakfast, pouring Harry tea and setting up cookies on a plate in a beautiful way. Her skill of table setting and creating patterns from any kind of things amazed not only Harry, but all who had ever been drinking tea with Mona. «As well as desexualisation.»

      Harry carefully took one of the cookies, trying not to damage the pattern. He didn’t look at Mona. He perfectly remembered that the elective procedure was coming up.

      No pain, no complications, hundred percent safe. The desexualisation procedure was perfect, and just two weeks ago Harry had no mixed feelings about it. But things were more complicated now. Harry was still completely confident that he could give his child the free choice. Only now he desperately wanted to know who this child would be regardless of the procedure. His imagination was intrigued and excited by guesses and that was making life brighter and more interesting.

      Nevertheless, gender recognition was prohibited. Society believed that parents who knew the sex could accidentally tell it to a child, and this would influence on personal identity and future choice, which a child certainly had to make on his own. It was too risky to lose the freedom.

      Harry kept his thoughts to himself, although that was really hard for him. A couple of times he came up with the idea of suggesting Mona to think it over, just to consider refusal to desexualise, but Nelson immediately abandoned this crazy idea and then reproached himself for such an incredible stupidity for a long time.

      In fact, he had a right not to sign a standard agreement between future parents and the clinic at the legislative level, but such actions were made only by the most reckless people, who were far from conventional life in society and had a vigorous outlook on life.

      Of course, there was no punishment for such actions. None of the employers had a right to fire a person for extraordinary views. And relatives and friends had no right to refuse to communicate with those who went their own unusual way.

      Moreover, parents who decided to abandon the procedure had exactly the same rights as the others, but the attitude towards them was still quite particular. Not in a good way.

      «I know,» said Harry after a pause and started eating cookies to keep himself busy and to avoid saying something carelessly.

      Harry knew there were no options for Mona, there was only an obvious need for desexualisation. And he couldn’t blame her for that. Mona was an expectant mother. She already loved her child, wished him or her happiness and wanted to give all the opportunities she could. This amazing and unique maternal love often outweighed all other feelings and arguments. And, perhaps, this was normal.

      After breakfast Harry felt wreck. He was walking up and down around the apartment to find something to do, but in vain. The morning was so long. Harry had a day off and no plans for it. Mona didn’t offer anything either.

      The Nelsons used to improvise during non-working hours, but now it didn’t work out. Worse still, it was annoying. Annoying for Harry.

      But Mona seemed to feel comfortable. She was doing some chores, mumbling songs. When she felt Harry’s eyes on her, the songs began to sound louder, more expressive and emotional.

      However, Harry couldn’t even sing along as he loved. The Nelsons had made a pretty good and funny duo in the past, but this morning Mona was singing solo.

      Harry tried to watch TV, but the programs he came across were uninformative, and the films seemed boring from the start. Disappointed with the TV, Harry tried to spend time looking something up in his laptop, but he quickly realized he didn’t want to text with anyone, didn’t want to play and didn’t want to search for anything on the Internet. Harry was staring blankly at the shortcuts on the desktop for a few moments, then sighed and hopelessly closed the laptop.

      Another way to get away from his own inner world could be the outer world, namely a real, most ordinary window. Harry got up, walked over to it, opened the drapes and stood next to the frame.

      Nothing was happening on the street that could seriously attract his attention, but Harry was staying motionless by the window for several minutes. He looked at occasional pedestrians until he caught himself thinking that he was looking at them, but he wasn’t noticing anything about them, as if pedestrians were just some clear plastic like windows.

      «Would you like to take a walk?» Harry broke his own silence. He heard Mona coming into the living room.

      «I thought it was raining outside,» said Mona with a note of surprise. She started to put her nail polishes on the table. Small jars were lining up in color order with other fingernail accessories next to them. Most of them Harry could describe as «obscure stuff».

      «Not yet, but it may start soon,» water drops could soon rain down from the clouds. Harry peered up in the sky. He wasn’t very good at cloud types, so he relied on intuition which suggested the dry weather should not be expected from these gray giants.

      «Then why would we go outside?» Mona took out three polishes and painted her three nails, then blew on her fingertips, leaned back to see the results and choose one of the colors.

      Usually the process of turning nails into a work of art took a long time, so Harry didn’t think Mona would agree to go out, even in clear sunny weather.

      «I don’t know,» said Harry. Many people didn’t understand why they should go for walks, but Nelson wasn’t at all one of them. He loved going out with Mona, with Ivy, with friends or even alone. «I’m in no mood to stay at home. If you want to stay, I may go alone. If you don’t mind, of course, do you?»

      Mona distracted from her nails, smiled and looked playfully at Harry.

      He loved her smile. It made him smile too. And now this trick worked perfectly. Harry immediately smiled back, although he had been gloomy for the last few hours. The world could shift not only because of great changes, but also because of one simple smile.

      It was so amazing how Mona’s smile magically fascinated Harry and many other people. Mona was able to easily blend into any society, whether it was elderly relatives, neighbor’s kids, her husband’s colleagues or a typical company of women that used to have «ladies nights». Mona could become the life of any company at once if she wanted to.

      «Men