Alphabetic Intolerance

Installment 1
© 2006 by Michael Mort

As XYZ1341 stepped very slowly under the shade of the big trees, her braided ponytail tickled her sticky back. It was a warm September morning for her first day at her new school, but it wasn’t just the outside temperature that made her sweat. She was apprehensive of the ABCs she would encounter today. 341 (as her friends called her) had been one of a few hundred high schoolers chosen to attend a new alphabetically integrated school in a very alphabetically divided province. Of course, she’d seen ABCs before. They were easy to pick out by the way they walked, the way they talked, and especially by the way they swam. But she’d never really interacted with them much.

Frankly, 341 didn’t find anything so reprehensible about the ABCs she had seen. Some were beautiful, some ugly, just like her own triple. Some smiled, some didn’t. Yes, most swam different than XYZs, or even LMNs, but she thought the differences weren’t necessarily unattractive. However, her parents talked about ABCs (or “Cs” as her grandfather referred to them, derogatorily) in only the poorest terms. They told her that ABCs were mean, coarse and had no interest in anyone but themselves. Their self-centeredness was a result of the fact that the alphabet had been created by one of their own thousands of years ago. Their group had quickly claimed the first triple as a description of themselves, separated from all others, because they thought of themselves as superior to all other sapients. Despite the ABCs’ self-superior intolerance of all other triples, all of 341’s relatives found ABCs to be disgusting, ignorant, and actually inferior in every way. Her grandmother, poor old dear Nanna, had warned her about the possibility of being attacked, maybe even held under water with her gills closed during school. Nanna had told her to be on the lookout for a streak of slime on the surface, which might indicate a “C” was nearby.

Deep in thought, XYZ1341 reached the edge of Lake304 and dove in without missing a stride.

***

As XYZ1341 dove into Lake304 on the east side of The Province, ABC4342 dove in on the south side and started to swim toward her new alphabetically integrated high school. She was having second thoughts about what she might do if she ran into a XYZ on the way. When she’d told her friends that she had volunteered for the alphabetically integrated school, they thought she was crazy. Why would anyone willing interact with Z’s, they wanted to know. She winced even now at the disparaging way her friends referred to XYZs. But 342, as her relatives called her, wanted to learn more about the other triples, their way of looking at the world. Just because their triple hadn’t invented the alphabet, certainly that didn’t make them less sapient. She’d heard that XYZs were really good at terra-based art and technologies, for example, and that interested 342 greatly.

But now, as the time was at hand, 342 worried that she had made a mistake. What if it was true, what her friends said about XYZs, that they were mean, coarse and interested only in their own kind? They had, after all, distanced themselves as much as possible from ABCs right from the start of modern history, when they chose the other end of the alphabet for their own. All her former history teachers had used that fact as proof that XYZs were aloof and anti-social, perhaps even sapient-cidal. And her former boyfriend had even warned her that XYZs’ dirty bodies soiled the water in a way that could make you sick if you were in constant contact with it the way you are at school or work. He suggested it would be better if she tried to stay surrounded by other As as much as possible.

Suddenly 342’s heart raced, for off to her right, coming from the east, and headed in the same direction she was, 342 could make out the unmistakable swimming stroke of a XYZ. She decided to avoid the encounter for the moment, so she opened her gills and dove under.

***

341 was very relieved when she saw that ABC off to her left dive under the surface. She wondered what she would have done if she had to swim right next to a ABC right now. Then she almost stopped in mid-stroke when she realized that was exactly what she was going to be doing all day at school, except maybe for the time during their lunch break. Oh, she hoped she would find some fun Xs to chum with at lunch. Supposedly the island that had been chosen for terra breaks at the new school was really beautiful. Well, at least the XYZ side would stay beautiful. She would see to that personally, even if she had to clean it up herself. The ABC side would probably turn into a dump right away. She was sure the ABCs would congregate only amongst themselves. Just as she was thinking about a beautiful terra break, perhaps with a really good looking male X next to her, she sensed something that made her scream.

To Be Continued ...