Bianca was watching Crystal dissecting a rat, carefully wielding the scalpel so as not to nick the intestines; the reek of preserved dead animal was nauseating enough that four girls and two boys had already bailed out. It was the second week of the semester, and not too late for the squeamish to transfer to another class. Bianca had decided to tough it out, despite having little love or talent for science. Biotech was one of the few growth industries this side of the Mississippi, and with social security non-existent in fourteen states, the companies could afford to pick and choose. She stared as Crystal pinned the hide down to the ancient wax tray; when she dissected something, it actually looked the way it did in the textbook, as though it were nouvelle cuisine rather than a splattermovie shot. Crystal looked up as though she'd heard her thinking, flashed a quick grin, and then froze. Bianca turned her head to see Mrs Hickey, her economics teacher, standing in the doorway. She looked so stricken that Bianca wondered who had died. Mrs Fish also turned to face the door. "The Levin Bill has passed through the Senate," said Mrs Hickey, quietly. "It's just come over the net. Unless the President vetoes it, it'll become law by next January." Bianca turned to Crystal, who had paled to a sickly yellow-grey. Mrs Fish nodded, then turned to the class. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she said, then walked--a little unsteadily--out of the room. Even after the two teachers had disappeared from sight, the room remained uncannily quiet until someone cheered. Crystal flinched. "Come on, let's party!" said the boy who'd cheered. "Hunt's not going to veto it, and you know what that means? More jobs for all of us!" "It means," said Crystal, coldly, "that we're going to lose some of our best teachers just because they're female and married." She knew there wasn't much chance that the President would act; the Levin Bill was too popular with the Promise Keepers and other traditional values groups, employers tired of paying for maternity leave and childcare, and many blue-collar unions. Hunt hadn't even protested when South Carolina passed laws preventing couples with children under sixteen (including first-trimester unborns) from becoming divorced. Tough times, he'd muttered, required tough measures. The boy hesitated, then shook his head. "Nah. The bill only prohibits government departments hiring married women, not--" "That includes re-hiring," said Crystal. "And most teachers are on one- or two-year contracts, as are a lot of other workers. And it's not just government departments; it includes any company with more than ten full-time employees, or any employer who has or wants a government contract." "Yeah, well," the boy blustered, his face reddening to match his hair, "that's good, too. Spreads the work around more. I'm not going to miss Hickey, or the Fish, and it's not my fault your father cut and run. You have to look at the big picture." Bianca reached out and grabbed her friend's wrist, scared that she was going to throw the scalpel. "He's a stupid, ignorant pig," she said, softly. "Sure," said the girl sitting behind her, "but now he's an employable stupid ignorant pig." Crystal shrugged and smiled--a smile that was as technically perfect as the dissected rat on the tray, and just as dead. "What about your mother?" Bianca asked. "Casual," Crystal replied, quietly. "They can fire her at any time, they always could, but there was always the prospect of her getting another job. I guess we'll have to move to some state that still has welfare." "It's only an emergency measure," said Bianca. "If unemployment drops back below fifteen percent--" "Which it never will," said Crystal. "How many jobs are there left that can't be done more cheaply and more efficiently by machines--or by one person and a few machines instead of five, ten, a dozen human workers? Not many, and next year, there'll be even fewer, at lower wages, and people will fight even harder to get them. Before you know it, men'll be shooting each other for the right to clean the sewers, and the government will say it's what we need to do to compete with the Asian economies, when what we really need to do is change the way we think." No-one else in the room spoke, and Crystal realised that she'd raised her voice until it was audible throughout the room, and probably the corridor outside. "You'll be okay," Bianca reassured her. "You won't have any trouble getting into college, and the supernationals will always need scientists..." "Sure," said Crystal, sourly. "What the fuck, I never expected to get married anyway." |
|