Tuesday, February 5, 2008

jamie and eric-22-girly talk

“So,” Dahlia asked in that woman gossipy voice, “did you meet your ring counterpart yet?”

“No.” Bridgett rubbed her bare index finger on her right hand. “It was just my town ceremony though, so I might meet him next year.”

Were they speaking gibberish? “What?” Eric spat out incredulously.

They giggled. Eric glared at him as he took his next bite.

“I’m sorry Eric. I thought you would have remembered.” She placed her hand reassuringly on his arm, but the words bit. “My people are assigned spouses through a very powerful ancient spell that matches people based on residual energy stored in rings given to us at birth.”

“I wish we did something like that here.” Dahlia commented, “It would be so much easier.”

“That’s retarded.” Eric couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be paired off like that. “Why would you want to be just stuck with someone.”

“It’s not like that Eric.” Bridgett replied, “the idea is that you’re matched with the perfect person for you.”

“I didn’t get a ring at birth.” Eric argued, realizing somewhat belatedly that it could be construed as flirting.

Dahlia gagged between French fries, and Eric shot her a look. Bridgett giggled. “It’s true that the system is very elitist, very isolated. My government is slowly allowing outsiders to apply for citizenship and ring privileges, but there’s still a strong bias against foreign people, ideas.”

Eric took another bite of his burger, still a little against the idea.

Dahlia spoke up again, “What’s the longest it could take you to get matched up with someone?”

“Well towns tend to hold ceremonies once a year. Then sister cities hold ceremonies every other year or every three years. I’m a Ranga resident, and we’re part of Willington District which holds ceremonies every other year. States are required to hold ceremonies every four years Then there’s a national ceremony every six years. Most cities and districts try to time their ceremonies so that unmatched participants wait the least possible amount of time before entering the national ceremony.”

Eric didn’t realize that Bridgett was going into excessive detail for his benefit, but he still didn’t understand. “Your people like to party it up then?”

“No,” Dahlia retorted, “The ceremonies are to match rings up.”

“The system is a little complicated, but it was designed to be as efficient as possible. Most people find love in their own town. For those people who aren’t matched they move up to the next geographical level. And they keep doing that until they find their match.”

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