Read Futureland - Nine Stories of an Imminent World for Free Online Page B

victory party thrown in Madison Stadium in honor of the tremendous victory over Konkon.
    "I always knew you had it, baby," he told his daughter.
    "It was Pell, Daddy. He brings out something in me, something more than boxing."
    "What do you mean, Fifi?"
    "I don't know, Daddy. I don't even know that it's something I can know." 5
    The celebrations that followed the Konkon fight were spontaneous. It wasn't a championship fight. The Fijian was only ranked eighth in the world. But there was something about Fera's heart and about her man, Pell. Everyone watching the fight knew how much he loved her. They saw how deeply his passions went.
    THE MAN BEHIND THE WOMAN, the cover of Sports Illustrated announced, displaying the photograph of Pell's contorted face between rounds at the Konkon fight. Sixty Minutes did a fifteen-minute piece on the vulnerability and valor of her drug addict father and Backgrounder friend, Pell. Fera was being asked to speak at political fund-raisers and feminist luncheons around the world.
    "But what do I have to say to these women?" Fera asked Selma Ho, publicist for the Green Party and SepFem sympathizer.
    "You don't have to say anything, dear."
    "Why invite me if they don't want me to say anything?"
    "People talk to explain things, to prove a point. You are the proof, M Jones." Lana Lordess, governor of Massachusetts, head of the vote-strong FemLeague, came to visit Fera at the Fifth Business three days before the Zeletski fight.
    "It would be better if we talked alone," Governor Lordess said as she sat on the overstuffed couch. Pell sat on the edge of the stone fireplace. Leon reclined in his portable electric chair, shocks jolting his thin frame every forty-three seconds. It was one of many therapies he was to try in order to stave off the collapse of his brain.
    "This is my family," Fera said.
    Lana Lordess was only five foot four, but her presence was large. Even if Fera had not seen pictures of Lordess on the news every night, even if the FemLeague wasn't the third largest party in the Congress, even if Lana had not personally led a march of ten million women in Washington, D.C., even if Fera had never heard of this small, overall-wearing woman, she would have still felt the power of those eyes. Leon's shoulders jerked.
    Pell stared at the floor.
    "I don't discuss woman-business in the presence of men without having my lawyers present," Lana said.
    "Then get the fuck out," Fera replied.
    Lordess's security guards both stiffened. They were big women with chemically enhanced muscles. Fera knew the black one from the ring.
    "Watch yourself," the black guard said.
    "While I do I suggest that you count your teeth."
    Pell snorted out a laugh.
    A shock went through Leon. His head twisted and shook.
    "I don't want to fight," Lordess said, reaching out with both hands.
    "No, you don't," Fera assured her.
    "Can we have a word?" Lana asked.
    "My father always taught me to make my presence known from the first second I'm in the ring," Fera Jones said. "If you lose the first few seconds, he always says, then the fight is lost until you make up ground."
    "I come here as a friend."
    "You came here 'cause I won fights against men."
    "That makes us allies."
    "I never saw you out there with me. I never saw you when me an' Daddy were poor and down."
    "But I'm here now."
    "I'll tell you what," Fera offered. "You send the girl guards out in the hall, and I'll ask Daddy and Pell if they'll wait in the kitchen."
    "As leader of the FemLeague I am bound to defend myself from harm. I cannot be left unprotected."
    "Then there's no more to say," Fera said firmly.
    Lana Lordess rapped her knuckles upon a denim knee, her dark eyes staring straight into those of the boxer. But Fera Jones was not worried. She'd stared down men who had threatened to beat her to death in the ring. They had tried and failed.
    "The FemLeague wants you for our pinup girl." Lordess fell right into the discussion when she realized that she could not expel