I shrugged. “I once asked her that and she said that he had a nice smile.”
Cameron scratched his neck. “Maybe it would be better if the brides got a chance to get to know the five champions before they made a choice between them.”
“At least they have five to pick from. Did you know that at the first tournaments, there was only one winner and he got the bride?”
Cameron stared at my dad. “She didn’t haveanysay in it?”
“None. As a father of three daughters, I’m pleased that those days are in the past.”
“It’s all because of that stupid wall.” I threw my head in the direction of south. “There’s millions of women on that side and we’re killing each other for the few we have. That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, well, would you rather be ruled by women and give up your manhood? They castrate men on that side of the border,” my dad reminded me.
“No, of course not! I’m proud to be a free man, but…” I scrunched up my face. “It’s been almost two hundred years since that border was established. Why can’t we break it down and take back power? Why should the women get all of the world while we only get the North?”
“Yeah.” Cameron nodded his head in support and then his eyes grew large when he focused in on something behind me. I spun around to see Wilma watching us with a funny look on her face.
“Are you talking about breaking down the wall?”
Cameron gave a nervous laugh. “It was just a joke.”
“That’s disappointing.” She moved closer to Cameron, who straightened up and pushed his chest out, and then she turned her back on him to face us. “I would love to see what’s on the other side.”
The way he leaned forward, as if he wanted to get closer and smell her hair, had both my dad and me sending out warning sounds. No one touched a woman except for her family members, protector, or other women. Cam was none of those things to Wilma and we were reminding him to keep his distance.
Wilma twisted her neck to look at him standing behind her. “What did you do?”
Both his hands flew up in the air. “Nothing. I didn’t do anything.”
I almost did a double take when my sister gave Cameron a flirtatious smile. She wasn’t a little girl any longer, but it was hard for me to always remember that when she was still acting like a petulant child around me.
“Cameron, would you do me a favor, please?” Her eyes dropped to the bottle in her hands and I knew that she was going to ask him to throw it over the border for her.
“I’ll do it.” In two decisive steps, I was close enough to snatch the bottle from her. This wasmything.Ithrew it over the wall andIgot to read the letters from Devina.
“Hang on. I’m always happy to help,” Cameron piped up but I was already walking away from them.
“Where is he going? What’s in that bottle?” my dad asked behind me.
“It’s just some seeds she wants me to plant, but I’ve got it.” I shot her a glance over my shoulder with a silent message to keep her mouth shut. To my relief, she understood.
“That’s right.” The rest of Wilma’s words were lost to me since I was moving fast through the garden to the hole in the hedge that led to the green belt in the back of our property. It was only a five-minute walk before I reached the spot where I always threw from. Opening the bottle, I pulled out Wilma’s letter and skimmed it over.
Dear Devina,
I think it’s the most amazing idea for you to write a book about me. Promise that you’ll throw a copy over the wall so I can read it when it’s done. I can’t believe people will know my name in the Motherlands.
There are so many things I want to tell you about myself but let me start with the questions you asked. I’m sending you a map of our area, a floor plan of our house, and a picture of my room. The painting above my bed was a gift from my sister Claire, who painted it herself. I love the orange and blue colors of the bird. It’s from a children’s book that she used to read to me when I was little. The bird is called a phoenix and according to the book it can regenerate by literally bursting into flames and being reborn from the ashes. Isn’t that amazing?
Do you have them in the Motherlands? I’m hoping the phoenix isn’t extinct like so many other animal species that disappeared after the Toxic War.
To answer your question about Tyton, let me just tell you that I have two brothers. Tyton is the oldest at twenty-nine and then there’s Frederick, who is twenty-seven and married. Last month he and his wife Starr told us she’s pregnant with their second child. We’re all hoping that this time it’ll be a girl. Whenever a girl is born here in the Northlands, it’s shared on the news. That’s how rare it is.
My sister Marni is thirty years old and she has four rowdy boys. Claire is twenty-three but she doesn’t have any children yet. I hope I’ll be blessed with many daughters when it’s my time to become a mother.
I read the rest of the letter, but Wilma hadn’t answered Devina’s question about how I treated her. Studying her floor plan of our house, I frowned. It wasn’t very good. For one, the proportions were all wrong. According to her floor plan, her bathroom and bedroom were the same size, which wasn’t right. She had also left out the numbers of floors, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like any of the readers of Devina’s book would come by to fact-check the floor plan.
I held the family photo that Wilma had enclosed. I never liked this picture since it was taken after a funeral and we’d all been sad and quiet. I was in the back towering over my mom and Claire, who stood with an arm around each other.
