Free Out There by Simi Prasad

achieve?”
    â€œWell yes, but this one is different.”
    â€œHow so?” Mother stood and walked over to the fireplace. “It’s written by women.”
    She turned with wide eyes. Slowly she turned back and pushed some of the buttons on the fireplace and it came on in full blaze.
    â€œAva, I need to tell you something.” She walked over and sat next to me. “Now I know you have always been taught that men are the root of all evil. But the truth is, they were more than that.”
    I stared at her in awe, transfixed by what she would say next.
    â€œMen were not only evil, they were also manipulative.”
    Some wisp of hope in me vanished.
    â€œSo much so that they had ways to get into people’s heads and make them believe things that weren’t true. Most women were in fact so mystified by the lies of men that they didn’t even know what was happening to them. So, when the world was crashing down around them, they finally realised that they had been tricked all those years and they took action. And that is why we are so fortunate to be here today. Do you understand?”
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œThis leaflet,” she said, snatching it out of my hands, “was a mistake. We don’t like to give you children artefacts like this because it confuses you.”
    â€œHow would it confuse me?”
    â€œDon’t you see? Men were so manipulative that for a moment you believed their lies, and you were only reading about it. These women that wrote this did it while under man’s spell.”
    â€œBut I don’t get why you don’t keep artefacts like these.”
    â€œBecause even though it is something from pre-Movement, and we try to preserve everything we can, sometimes it is too hard for you to understand.”
    â€œUnderstand what?”
    â€œOh Ava, it’s pretty pointless for me to try explaining this to you. But those of us that have lived through the times of men know their deceitfulness. Your mind is young and impressionable and the last thing we want is for you to get the wrong idea about men. They were all evil, it’s as simple as that.”
    She stood up and walked back over to the fireplace, the little blue cover poking out of her hand.
    â€œMother, was my father evil?”
    She whipped around. “Excuse me?”
    â€œI know that everyone had a father because there was no other way to create children back then, but does that mean that even though you needed him to make me, he’s evil too?”
    Mother’s eyes blazed stronger than the fire burning behind her, then they froze over like ice. “Your father was merely a necessity to get you, because a child is the most precious thing anyone can have. But, apart from that, he was pure evil, just like the rest of them.”
    She glanced at the leaflet in her hand then, with a flick of her wrist, threw it into the fire.
    â€œGoodnight, Ava.”
    And as she walked away, I watched any hope of gaining a deeper understanding burn into nothing.

Chapter Four
    Ava, Later That Night
    â€œKatelyn, wake up.”
    â€œFive more minutes.”
    I shook her shoulder harder. “Kay it’s me.”
    â€œAva?”
    â€œYes,” I whispered, “wake up girl.”
    She rolled over in her bed to face me. “What on earth are you doing in here?”
    â€œI had an idea.”
    Katelyn groaned and buried her head under her blanket.
    I yanked it off her and said gleefully, “It’s a great idea.”
    â€œI’m sure it is, but can’t it wait for later? Like when the sun is actually shining later?” She reached out for the blanket.
    â€œNo, not really.”
    She sat up and yawned. “What it is?”
    â€œOK, so I was up tonight and I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about our discussion at the café earlier and how things were so different before because of Sylvia Carter, blah blah, and it gave me an