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the light he asked, “Do you
like your life?”
    “What?” she asked. She was tired and did not
feel like a deep discussion before bed.
    “The way things are, do you like it?”
    “I guess. It’s just the way things are.” What
was he getting at?
    “But what if the way things are could be
different? What if our priorities are all wrong? What if work
should not be our highest priority? What if family should come
first?”
    “But our first responsibility is to the
state. Our duty is a political one.” She had been taught this from
birth. First was the state, then society, and finally yourself.
Otherwise they were just being selfish.
    “But what if they’re wrong?” he asked. He
certainly was persistent tonight. She wondered what was on his mind
that he kept with this line of thinking. He was behaving very
oddly.
    She laid down on the bed and thought about
what he had just said. Suddenly the reality of it struck her. If
family was first, then she was in the wrong one. Because what she
wanted in family was a man who was around, and one who cared about
her. Like D1298.
    “I don’t want to live this way anymore,” said
H662. “I want to leave this life and go where the rules are
different.”
    “But the only place where the rules are
different would be...no, you’re not going there!” She was suddenly
jolted awake.
    “And why not. The outcasts can live any way
they want. They don’t have such rules for living, or so I’ve
heard.”
    “But this is all I’ve ever known,” she said.
How could he even consider doing this?
    “Aren’t you tired of this? You work and you
eat and sleep. What is your life really about?”
    “But this is all I’ve got. I have nowhere
else to go. There is nothing I want out there. Nothing!” She could
feel herself getting upset now. But she could see it written on his
face and she knew that he had already decided.
    “I cannot go with you,” she said.
    She looked up at him and tears stood out in
his eyes, but he said nothing. How could he do that? Theirs was
never more than an arrangement from the government. They had
nothing but a business relationship together.
    “I-I want to go,” he said.
    “I know you do. And you will. But I will
remain here.”
    “I will miss you,” he said. More tears formed
and U1472 could not believe that this was real. It would change the
way she lived. Or would it? She never saw her husband except on
weekends. She dropped her daughter off each morning to childcare
and picked her up after work. She made or bought dinner. Ate,
slept. All without her husband. What would be different?
    Why was it different for him? Had he actually
grown to love her? How could that have happened? She had no such
attachment for him and if he wanted to live with the Outcasts he
could very well go and do that. It would be fine with her.
    She laid down and closed her eyes and thought
of new possibilities.
     

Chapter 18
    H662 lay there, shocked by what he had just
said to his wife and her response. Was he willing to leave her in
order to have a new life? But how could he stay, now having his
eyes opened? He thought about their relationship. How it had been
arranged by the government and how they had entered into it like a
sort of business deal. Was that the way it was supposed to be? She
would either come with him, or it would be evidence that she did
not love him if he left and she stayed. Then he would know.
    But this would be difficult. Not only was he
leaving his wife, but his little girl as well. But currently, who
looked after his little girl? The daycare did. The government
raised their girl. What stake did he have in it? But he realized
that he did care for her. He cared for both of them. But what kind
of life was he giving them if he stayed here? This society was
draining its people of life and by staying he was contributing to
the problem. He was being part of the problem and not part of the
solution. He wanted to be part of the solution, and to do that he
had