Hadrian's Rage

by Patricia-Marie Budd

  Fernando Pereira

  Heterosexuality has never been illegal in Hadrian. The law simply made it mandatory for anyone under twenty-two to attend reeducation so they would not make the wrong lifestyle choices. What is, and always has been illegal, is heterosexual sex. The new law simply outlines exactly what qualifies as heterosexual sex, that being penile vaginal intercourse. The new law also only encourages parents to send a child to reeducation if he or she displays or admits to having opposite sex attractions. It is in that child’s best interest. That being said, heterosexuals of any age can now kiss, pet, walk arm-in-arm, etc., without fear of banishment. However, I wouldn’t recommend any heterosexual going around flaunting his or her sexual preference. No one in Hadrian needs to or wants to see that!

  Roger Hunter

  I am that seventeen-year-old scholarship recipient. I am completing grade 12 at Pride High and, yes, when I attend Antinous Uni next semester, I will still only be seventeen. Even so, I think it’s ridiculous that people out there believe that my, or any other person’s, sexual orientation can be so easily swayed by one student’s personal essay. I am a gay man. I have always known I am gay, and I have only ever been attracted to men. Nothing anyone can say or do will ever change that fact. Fernando Pereira, you say the parents of children who experience opposite sex attractions should be encouraged to send their child to reeducation camps. Well, my Papa Dean—Dean Stuttgart—was forced to attend one of those camps and the stories he tells are harrowing. I would not wish that on anyone! Be careful what you ask for, for one day it may be your child suffering under the tyranny of prejudice! I, for one, would like to see all of these camps shut down!

  Guillaume de la Chappelle

  @Roger Hunter—well said, young man. It is clear why you won a scholarship award—academic, no doubt!

  Qadria Flore

  @Roger Hunter—you love you’re papa and that good but he is openly bi and men like him are danger to Hadrian. you should encourage him to forget bi feelings. bi men are really het’ro in disguise. At best they are hedonistic to the core.

  Emile Nelligan

  Professor Politis should be whipped for sharing something like this! I know many, including myself, willing to volunteer to wield the whip. Let the press record and film it and then show that to uni students and let them see the “natural consequences” the perverts have brought upon themselves and fully deserve due to the filthy choices they have made. This should be used to deter future youth making such choices. Any good parent would take their children to view the whipping—although this is harsh, reality is harsh, and we should not hide this from our children; they must see us confront het’ro evil!

  Bromek Sobranski

  They should interrogate every student in that class to uncover who the strai is!

  Brindusa-Katalin Poenaru

  It saddens me to read all this hate. I thought we were better than that, Hadrian.

  *****

  Mama Cecilia

  When Mama Cecilia receives the voc link from Cantara, she instantly leaps up from her chair at the kitchen table. Her wife, Angelina, and their son, Hardeep (Cecilia’s birth child), both look up, shocked.

  “What is it, babe?” Angelina asks. Cecilia is usually the calm and centered one. To see her react so suddenly is odd.

  “Nothing, nothing,” she says as she sprints out of the room. Knowing Angelina’s inquisitive nature, Cecilia judiciously elects to take this call outside. “It’s just an important message from work.”

  Seeing Cecilia head towards the door, Hardeep begins to whine, “Where are you going, Mommy? I want to go too!”

  “Hush, you,” Angelina reproaches the child softly. “Mommy has work to do.”

  Now pouting, Hardeep protests, “But she promised to take me to the park.”

  “Mama will take you. Would you like that?” Angelina tries to compromise.

  Pouting even more, he replies, “You never play with me.”

  “I’ll play with you, I promise. But first you have to finish all your soup.”

  Hardeep smiles. “Can we go now?” he asks after swallowing a spoonful.

  Angelina inspects the boy’s bowl. “Three more spoonfuls first.”

  By this time, Cecilia is seated on the yard swing. It is early evening and the cool of this late spring nightfall has yet to settle fully. Still, she has brought a shawl out with her because she is hoping this will be a long call. “Cantara, what’s happening? How are you doing? Is everything okay? How’s my baby?”

  “Hey, Mama Cecilia. Tara needs to talk to you. She’s going through a rough patch, and I told her I believed you would listen and—”

  “Link us up! Link us up!”

  “Please don’t judge her.”

  “I won’t. I swear I won’t. I just want to talk to her. I just want to see her.”

  “Okay, here she is.” Mama Cecilia watches as Cantara steps back and Tara comes into view. At that same moment, Mama Cecilia’s image comes into focus on the wall screen in the small office of Augustus Uni’s GSA.

  “Hi, Mama.” Tara tries so hard not to be emotional, but she blurts out her words between sobs anyway.

  “Hey, baby. How’s my little girl?”

  Tara half laughs. “I’m not so little, Mama; you know that.”

  “I know.” Mama Cecilia stifles a sob by placing her hand over her mouth. “It’s been so long.”

  “You heard what Mom said.”

  “I know,” Cecilia replies mournfully. “But I don’t feel that way. I still love you, baby. I may not agree with you. I may not like it. But I still love you.”

  “I love you, too, Mama.”

  “What happened? Tell me.”

  “They’re gonna fire my teacher because of me.”

  Mama Cecilia’s sudden intake of breath shows she has seen the most recent Salve! “Oh, baby, that was you?”

  “I need to turn myself in. Dr. Politis won’t tell them my name, and they’ve threatened to fire her if she doesn’t.”

  Cantara steps back into view. “Mama Cecilia, tell her she can’t do that. Tell her it’s too dangerous. I know Professor Politis. She wouldn’t want her to.”

  “Your friend’s right, baby.” Remembering the Salve!, Cecilia tries desperately to reassure her daughter that anonymity in this situation is her safest move.

  Tara sighs deeply, her breath wobbling. “But it’s not fair to Dr. Politis.”

  “Who asked her to read your paper? Did you?” Mama Cecilia has turned pragmatic.

  “No,” Tara concedes. “She asked me if she could read it.”

  “And whose idea was it for you to remain anonymous?”

  “Hers.”

  Mama Cecilia’s sigh of relief is audible. “That means she wants you to stay anonymous. She didn’t have to read your paper. You didn’t ask her to read it. She asked you to stay anonymous because she wants to protect you. She knows what she is doing. She is standing up for your rights as a strai—heterosexual individual.” Tara smiles at Mama Cecilia’s effort to avoid an anti-heterosexual expression. “She decided to risk opening up discussion on this issue, not you.” Breathing deeply, tilting her head to the left as she so often does when asking for a favor, sucking closed lips between her teeth, her eyes now those of an innocent doe, Cecilia says, “Baby, please; revealing yourself as the author will not help your professor. All it will do is make your life impossible to bear.”

  “Mama, will you—” Beginning to believe there is a chance for reconnection, Tara ventures out on a limb, exposing her frail psyche to great risk. “—will you come visit me after finals?”

  Without hesitation, Mama Cecilia answers, “Yes, baby, I will.”

  *****

  Hadrian’s Real News

  Real News for the People, about the People

  HRN—Melissa Eagleton Reporting

  Good evening, fellow citizens. I am pleased to be reporting for you once more. Tonight’s episode is the first of what I hope to be many on Hadrian’s Real News
station. That’s right, Hadrian will now have access to another voice, another perspective when it comes to news reporting. When I left HNN, my camerawoman, and life partner, Alsoomse Lund, came with me. Together, we have pooled our life savings and have begun Hadrian’s Real News, HRN. After experiencing the micro-managing of Darien Dumas’ totalitarian control over Hadrian’s news at HNN, I decided our country needed a more impartial look at events as they occur in our nation. HRN’s mission, therefore, is dedicated to providing Hadrian’s citizens with as truthful a dissimulation of the news as possible. I am aware of my human frailty, so feel free to call me on any presentation I give about events that you feel are given in a biased manner. What I have to say about the current happenings in our country will be radically different from the perspective you will receive from HNN, but I will endeavor to give you facts-based reporting. Unlike my old show Salve!, my goal with HRN is to bring you the truth.

  No doubt—no doubt you have all seen the Salve! or have at least heard reports about HNN introducing you to the new voice and face of Hadrian’s News: Danny Duggin. On that Salve!, Danny mentioned that I left HNN due to “irreconcilable differences.” That is very true. I, however, have no scruples sharing with you what those irreconcilable differences are. But, first, I need to give you some of the background that led up to my dismissal. That is right, folks; I did not resign. I was fired. You see, a few years back, Hadrian was hit with some very shocking news: one of our elite high school students, Todd Middleton, son to famous agricultural engineer Will Middleton, had been exposed as straight. He confessed to being an active heterosexual. We were later to learn that his father, the man who genetically redesigned the soya bean so we could cultivate it here in our northern climate, a man to whom all of Hadrian is grateful, was also heterosexual. This news alone should have been enough to shock some sense into our government, making it recognize the need to treat our straight brothers and sisters with the same level of equanimity we offer to ourselves. But there is more to this sad story. Shortly after Todd Middleton was exposed by the woman he loved, whose name remains a profound secret, although the reason for the need for secrecy has never been explained—sorry, Hadrian; I digress, but rest assured, I intend to do a great deal of digging into the identity of this girl.

  As I was saying, shortly after Todd Middleton was sent to the Northeast Reeducation Camp, his best friend and lover, Frank Hunter, murdered him. Although the judge rightly found Frank Hunter guilty of murder, she acknowledged his unique circumstances. His boyfriend, Todd, had been brutally raped while inside reeducation, and Frank believed Todd when he said he would never be able to live a happy and fulfilling life as a gay man. So when Todd asked Frank to help him die with dignity, Frank Hunter agreed.

  What does all this have to do with my sudden dismissal from HNN as host of Salve!? Quite simply this: I agreed with President Stiles’s decision to reevaluate the laws regarding heterosexuality. She rightly had the wording changed so that someone over the age of twenty-two who identifies as straight or bisexual will not be summarily exiled, nor are parents now required by law to register their child, anyone twenty-one or younger, at a reeducation facility. As President Stiles said, the choice regarding the reeducation of our youth belongs to the parent. Parents are still free to choose and encouraged to do so, in fact, which is why, as many had feared, our reeducation system has not collapsed but continues to prosper. Our nation also continues to provide services for parents to use at home, but it is no longer mandatory that a straight or bisexual child be sent to one. The decision is now that of the parent.

  When this report first hit the news, HNN fully backed the President’s move. There has, however, been a change in management since then. I find the new production manager, Darien Dumas, and his team to be far too right of the current politics for my tastes. Darien Dumas and his team are anti-strai. All attempts on my part to report impartially regarding heterosexual issues were thwarted at every turn. My last Salve! episode was likely the worst example of this. You may recall I was interviewing Jason Warith about the new direction reeducation is taking and, well, Danny Duggin makes this easy for me to explain. He told you that his production manager is helping him through his first few episodes of Salve!, that he was training him in essence, and that is why Danny sometimes refers to his right ear. That lovely piece of jewelry Danny wears is actually the microphone for his voc, which is connected directly to Darien Dumas. Darien is telling Danny what to say just as he had been instructing me to cut off and counter everything Jason Warith had to say. Danny Duggin, I’m sorry to tell you that “temporary voc connection” to Dumas is not going away. I am a seasoned news anchor, ten years’ experience under my belt. When I told Dumas I would not have him vocing me during a Salve!, he promptly fired me. HNN now has an agenda, not to provide Hadrian with real impartial news, but with a slanted propaganda that is designed to perpetuate prejudice and hatred of heterosexuals and, as you heard with Danny’s little tirade, bisexuals. I have since learned that Darien Dumas is a member of Hadrian’s Conservative Right.

  So, as I said earlier, this is why I am airing Hadrian’s Real News. My camerawoman, and life partner, Alsoomse Lund, supports me in this endeavor. Together, we pledge to bring you honest and impartial news. Real News for the people, about the people!

  Before I close, I must extend my sincerest apologies to Jason Warith for that debacle of an interview I held with him. He was given no chance to air his views or explain how he is working to restructure Hadrian’s reeducation system. Every time he attempted to respond to the many questions I hurled at him, Darien Dumas ordered me to cut him off and change the subject. Complying with my then superior’s requests showed me in the most unprofessional light. And as I stand here today, Hadrian, I give you my word that I will never again treat a guest in that manner. I give you my word I will give a voice to the voiceless in our nation.

  I also owe our transgendered citizens an apology. During my interview with Jason Warith, I made some very disparaging comments about them. The insinuation that our trans brothers and sisters are bleeding Hadrian’s wealth through necessary transitional medical procedures was both cruel and unfounded. I have come to recognize that our trans brothers and sisters, though we claim to accept and support them fully, are not given the same level of respect that Hadrian’s gay citizens receive. Shortly after my dismissal from Salve!, I went to Hadrian’s Support Center for Transgendered Citizens—HSCT—and offered my apology in person. While there, I learned that far too many of our transgendered citizens don’t even take advantage of the medical services at their disposal for transitioning due to the prejudice of our society against heterosexuals. I was dumbfounded by this statement and asked why this was the case. Daoina Leifsson, President of the HSCT, explained that transmen attracted to women or transwomen attracted to men often fear being mistaken for heterosexuals. In some cases, they fear losing their partners if they do use surgical transition. Not only are the numbers of trans men and women low in our country, but the percentage of those who access the free medical services offered to them is less than 15 percent. My trans brothers and sisters, you are not a drain on the system. Au contraire, it is Hadrian’s backward attitudes towards human sexuality that are clearly a hindrance to you.

  Now that I am to sign off, I’m at a loss for what to say. Vale! was my signature for Salve! and continues to be used by that news service. Vale! sadly is no longer my signature, so I will end my episodes with a new word, a word I believe you need for a real news station, what all of Hadrian needs:

  TRUTH!

  The Past Resurfaces

  Wolf proudly appraises his new office. It’s small, yes, but it is his. He has a window overlooking pier three and an exterior office for his assistant and a secretary, as soon as he hires one, that is. He still can’t believe his good fortune. One day he’s being fired for being a “fucking strai” and the next he’s being promoted to pier manager. “The kid really came through for me,” Wolf mutters in admiration. In return, Wolf of
fered Matthew Molloy the job as his assistant pier supervisor. “Shit,” he keeps reminding himself, “that’s the least I can do after all this.” His arms wave around, following his body in a complete circle as he takes in his eight by ten office, desk included. The reception and waiting area and cubicle for his assistant are slightly smaller in size. It also contains a small fridge for storing food, a sink, and counterspace for food preparation lined up against the back wall next to the door for the washroom/storage room.

  Matthew Molloy, leaning against the doorframe of Wolf’s office, is watching his new boss with amusement. He can’t help but laugh. “Sorry, boss, but you look ridiculous dancing around like that in the middle of your office.”

  Wolf blushes, embarrassed at being caught mid-private rejoicing. “I’m not dancing; I’m just…taking it all in, is all.” Sighing deeply, experiencing contentment beyond his wildest dreams, Wolf ejaculates, “I still can’t believe it’s real.”

  “Well, you earned it.” Matthew, too, is sporting a grin wider than anything he’s experienced since before his time in reeducation.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Wolf muses. “That’s awful kind of you to say, but it’s really all due to you and the big guy’s soft spot for us strais.”

  “It’s more than that, and you know it. You’ve been here fifteen years. You know these piers better than anybody. A hell of a lot better than Malco ever did. At least you can tell the difference between junk that’s reusable and junk that needs to be disposed of.” Remembering the last time he pulled up something poisonous, Matthew adds, “And that idiot couldn’t tell toxic waste if it hit him in the face.” It’s Matthew’s turn to sigh, a sign of relief. “Finally, we’ll have some common sense prevail around here.”