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Introduction
In Britain, the New Order government has been in power for almost twenty years, pursuing gyno-centric policies that have progressively deprived men of status and political relevance. With women as the economic power house and men treated as little more than property, society has reshaped itself. The New Order Government, beset by the usual problems of internal political manoeuvring, outside events and the gap between the ideological and the achievable, has built up all the mechanisms needed to make sure that the country continued to tread the path set out for it by the New Order pioneers.
In the homes of women around the country, the mundane problems of everyday life and of making sure that the man of the house doesn't contravene the range of New Order laws and control orders are more important than the intellectual basis of female led politics. And, of course, while some of today's women see New Order as the inevitable face of society, some of them just get off on having men at their beck and call.
Against that backdrop, New Order has civil servants and party officials set up in the roles that make sure that the country goes the way it wants.
Chapter 1: From the Agency
The knock on the door was unexpected. Caroline Bullworthy was enjoying a quiet afternoon. She had just got back from work an hour earlier. Her husband, Graham, was busy with his chores in the garden; her daughter supposedly diligent with her school work upstairs. It wasn't worth summoning Graham so, for once, Caroline answered the door herself.
Two women stood on the step. One was a quiet, mousey-looking, rather pale woman wearing gold rimmed, half-moon glasses and carrying an e-pad. The other looked sterner. Her straw blonde hair was scraped back from her face and pulled into a pony tail. She wore dark glasses, a dark jacket, dark trousers and low heeled ankle boots. Even without the lapel badge on the woman's jacket, Caroline would have known that she was a New Order party agent, put in place to make sure that some civil servant or other was doing their job.
"Mrs Bullworthy?" The mousey woman blinked down at the screen of her e-pad and then looked up again.
"Yes," Caroline responded, "How can I help?"
"Care and Confinement Agency," the mousey woman said, fumbling in her pocket for a wallet with her identity card. "Just one of our spot checks. Nothing important really." She shook her head from side to side, smiling. Caroline wondered if it would fall from her shoulders. Her party companion didn't look as though she thought it was 'nothing important really'. She didn't bother to introduce herself.
Caroline knew about the spot checks. It was an annoyance for her. She didn't see why the government should be able to come around disturbing people but on the other hand, Caroline approved of making sure that people did what they were supposed to. The checks had become more frequent recently. The government had said it was because of increased risk of dissident activity; the opposition had claimed it was a disgraceful infringement of civil liberties because the Home Affairs minister wasn't up to her job. In theory, Caroline knew, she could insist on seeing their inspection warrant but, in practice, that would only irritate. It probably wouldn't worry the mousey looking woman but the thin lips and the cold stare of the party agent suggested she might make life difficult if Caroline refused. "Come in," she said, showing the way to her living room.
The living was comfortably, if conventionally, furnished. A floral print fabric covered the couch and two armchairs. The three women sat down. Caroline on one of the armchairs, her guests on the couch.
The mousey woman seemed no less diffident. "Oh. Sorry. Should have said. Isobel Harris. I'm a junior inspector with the agency. Just starting. I'll try to make this as straight forward as possible." Her companion allowed herself a momentary glance ceiling-wards.
"Quite all right. It's no problem at all." Caroline was reasonably sure it was no problem. She thought she complied with all the regulations although it was difficult to be sure; they kept changing all the time. She sat back. The print of the dress she was wearing blended almost matched that of the chair. To Isobel it looked like her head, with its ruddy, chubby face, and her podgy hands and legs were emerging from the chair itself. "So how does this work? I mean do you want to look around or anything?"
"Ah, oh, err, yes. Just a moment." Isobel flipped screens back and forth on her e-pad. Finally, she seemed to work out what she was doing. "Right. Fine. I'd like to see all the members of the household please, first, and their ident cards."
"Of course. My husband, well ex-husband. You know. And my daughter. I'll just get them. Excuse me Ms Harris, and …." Isobel's companion didn't bother to fill the gap.
Caroline Bullworthy pulled herself out of the chair and headed towards the back of the house. "Graham"" she called from the kitchen door. "In here, please." She didn't wait for him to acknowledge her but went back to the foot of her staircase and called up. "Sue-Linn. Someone to see you."
She went back into the lounge. "They won't be a minute. Still, at least I can give you my ident card." Caroline pulled her purse from her handbag and took out two of the plastic covered cards; her own, coloured pink, and her husband's white card. She held them out to Isobel.
"Oh. Thanks. Yes." Isobel smiled. "That's good." She swiped the cards through a reader on her e-pad and handed them back. "I'm glad to see you keep your man's card."
"Well, I think that's what I'm supposed to do isn’t it?" Caroline responded primly. She wasn't in the mood to be patronised by a women twenty years her junior. The regulations were perfectly clear on that. Graham wasn't allowed to carry his ident card except when specifically authorised and absolutely necessary. That was what having a sponsored male meant.
"Yes. Yes. Of course. You would be surprised how often people don't do it though."
Isobel's thin-lipped companion gave a half smile as though recollecting some particularly amusing incident where she had been able to take advantage of just such a situation but continued to keep her silence.
Moments later, Graham and then Sue-Linn appeared. Caroline waved Graham to stand in the corner of the room facing the wall. Sue Lin, still wearing her school uniform with its short grey pleated skirt, white knee-length socks, white shirt and red and black striped tie, came and sat on the arm of the chair beside her mother.
"Could I see your ident card, please, Miss," Isobel said. Sue-Linn took her card from the small purse that she had strung on her hip strap and passed it across. Isobel slotted the pink card into the reader of her tablet, prodded the screen a few times and passed it back. "I'm sorry we have to do this personal stuff, but I'm sure you understand."
Caroline wasn't in the least bothered and Sue-Linn seemed interested by the whole process.
"Now, perhaps I can check a few details. Sue-Linn, you're eighteen, right?"
"Nineteen next week," Sue-Linn responded.
"And Ms Bullworthy… I see your divorce went through just three months after the Transfer of Marital Assets Act but you've had – ah, what's his name – oh yes, Graham – as a sponsored male ever since."
"Well, you know how it is."
Isobel didn't really. She found it hard to understand why women carried on sponsoring ex-husbands but it was quite common, especially for those of Ms Bullworthy's generation.
"He isn't Sue-Linn' s birth father, is he? Even though you were married at the time?"
Caroline laughed. "Well, he was there for the conception but he wasn't involved, unless you count kneeling by the bed with my knickers over his face." Sue-Linn giggled. She always found the stories of how her mother cuckolded her husband funny. Graham looked abashed. "He's useful for some things but that's not one of them. I think that you'll find details of Sue-Linn' s natural father if you scroll down on your information. A very agile Chinese gentleman." She raised her voice and turned her head so that her words carried clearly to Graham standing with his face in the corner, "Very well equipped and very well able to use it."
Isobel smiled. These inspections often threw up interesting details and old enmities. She looked down at her e-pad. According to the records Caroline looked to be a law abiding woman. She hadn't had any problems in the past. It looked like this inspection was going to be straightforward. "Well, that's fine. Perhaps I can have a look at your care and confinement resources."
In the corner, his face hidden from the women in the room, Graham allowed himself a raise of the eyebrows. "Care and Confinement Resources!" he thought. "Caroline's toy box would be a better word."
"Of course," his ex-wife said. "Come upstairs. I'll show you."
© Freddie Clegg 2012
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