The Collective Good

There were times when we could escape from it all and spend some time alone together. Of course, it was dangerous, the others of our Collective – like everyone else – were suspicious of people wanting to be alone, or even alone together, but it was possible.

For all their talk of The Collective and how vital we all work together for the good of us all, most people are too bound up in their own petty concerns to pay much attention to what everyone else is doing. As long as you seem to play by the rules, go along with the directives and do not attempt to draw attention to yourself, it is amazing what you can get away with.

Or, so we thought.

Our problem was Melinda. When Carrie and I discovered something in each other that we enjoyed, I immediately forgot all about Melinda and the way I’d left her after the last Monthly Meeting, waiting for me.
I had forgotten about Melinda, but – it seems – she had not forgotten about me at all. Not only that, Carrie also had problems with Melinda in the past, always making comments in the dorm, always accidentally shoving Carrie in the showers, spilling her food and so on. This had been going on since they were young girls together in the crèche. Melinda seemed to enjoy bearing a grudge and Carrie, and now I were on Melinda’s list of those against whom she needed to her revenge.