16 – Forbidden Knowledge (1)

Maple’s brothers were getting less strict with controlling Maple’s whereabouts. They were too distracted with marketing their new peach-flavored Hendi. And it had been awhile since she last saw Jake. So Maple decided to sneak off to Pieway after school to see if he was at work.

Jake was ringing up a customer when Maple walked in. They exchanged greetings, and he slipped her a free pizza to eat while he finished up his shift. After clocking out, he joined her with one of his own. “How was school? Did you learn anything that’s actually correct?”

Maple rolled her eyes. “Have you ever thought that maybe it’s schools in California teaching misinformation? And what I’ve been learning is right?”

“Not for a single moment,” Jake replied, pizza slice in hand. “I mean, you’re all the ones with rigged searches.”

“Huh?”

“I was talking to Axel about a very important historical event, in regards to gay rights.” Jake leaned forward. “When he searched it on his phone, nothing came up. Not a single thing.”

“Okay.” That happened every time Maple wanted to look up anything remotely interesting. She’d always been fiercely jealous of how men could search whatever they wanted, no restrictions. But it turned out they had restrictions as well.

“Aren’t you shocked? Surprised? Upset?”

“Not really. I mean, half the time I search something on my phone, nothing shows up. It’s kinda nice knowing even men here can’t see everything.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Man Controls.”

Jake stopped mid-chew to stare at her for a solid moment, before swallowing. “I'm sorry. Man Controls?”

“Fathers, husbands, male guardians. If they want, they can enable man controls on devices to restrict what their women can see.”

“Like parental controls?”

“Yeah.” Maple took a bite of her pizza.

“And this is something men actually enable?”

“Maybe not every man. But a lot of them do. Like my brothers. They don’t think it’s safe for girls to search whatever.”

“So your phone has… these controls enabled?”

“Yeah.” Maple wiped her hands with a napkin before pulling out her phone. “Tell me something to search for.”

“I don’t know. The Civil War?”

Maple searched with no results. She showed him the screen.

“Seriously? What about… depression?”

No results.

“Harriet Tubman?”

Who? Maple searched anyway. Nothing.

“Warts?”

There was a short blurb on what a wart was, but no pictures or videos. Maple guessed they would be too graphic for someone as delicate as a woman to view. “There’s… something.”

“That’s all it tells you?” Jake dropped his pizza slice back on the plate. "What about cats?”

Information on cats filled the screen, along with pictures to view and videos to watch. “Cats are fine.”

“That’s so asinine.” Jake watched her put her phone away. “There has to be some kind of work around.”

“My brothers check my phone sometimes. I don’t want to risk them catching me doing something like that.”

“Anything stopping you from getting a secret phone?”

“Women aren’t allowed to buy electronics. They’re all under lock at stores. When you buy one, you have to give the employee your fingerprint, so they can see what gender you are. They want to give men the chance to set up the controls before their women get their hands on them.”

“And men actually do this? They actually want to control what their wives can look up?”

“Yeah.” Maple didn’t understand it either. She’d heard arguments about how it was dangerous for women to be able to search whatever they wanted. Reasons ranged from women being too fragile, to women getting dangerous ideas.

“Clearly.” Jake chewed his lip. “What would you say if I bought you a phone with no controls?”

“You don’t have to do that.” But the thought of having access to information on just about everything there was? That would be amazing.

“I’ve got the money for it.” Jake lowered his voice. “Besides, if you have a second, secret phone, maybe we can go back to texting each other.”

Maple had missed texting Jake. She beamed. “Okay!”

~~~~~

Jake walked into the local department store. The only place in Gilran that sold watches and phones. He went straight to the electronics section. There were aisles of phones, watches, and other gadgets. All locked behind glass doors.

He was surprised at the phone selection. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Phones back home were only black, white, or gray. Like their clothes and cars, nothing flashy was allowed. It would be considered too individualistic.

A small, black phone would be easiest to hide. Jake noticed a particularly cheap one. It didn’t have any special features, but Maple wouldn’t need any. As long as it could browse the internet and text. He decided to go with that one.

Now he just needed an employee to give him the phone. But the desk in the department was empty. No one to be found. With a sigh, Jake wandered the store in search of someone who could help him.

He found that someone on the other side of the store, stocking dog biscuits. “Excuse me?”

The disheveled man looked at him.

“I’d like to buy a phone, but there’s no one in electronics. Can you help me at all?”

“Given it’s only me here…” The employee led Jake back to the electronics section, ranting under his breath about someone calling in sick and his boss being too cheap to hire more employees. Clearly he was having quite the day.

They approached the phone aisle. There, stood Officer McNeil with his arms wrapped around Maple, kissing her. Neither noticed they now had company. A sharp pain hit Jake’s chest. Without thinking, he yanked McNeil away from Maple. McNeil grabbed Jake’s shirt collar, and slammed him against the glass case. Surprisingly, it didn’t shatter, though Jake’s shoulder felt like it might have. He clutched it.

“Jake!” Maple took a few steps towards him, but McNeil blocked her with his arm.

“No need to worry about him.”

“But-”

“I’m fine.” Jake let go of his shoulder and forced a smile. “Are you okay? Or is this man bothering you?”

“He’s bothering me.”

McNeil squeezed Maple’s arm, and she fell silent. The stab of anger in Jake’s chest returned.

The employee cleared his throat. “Which phone did you want?”

“Which phone do you think I should get?” Jake asked Maple, struggling to keep his breath even.

“Why are you asking her?” McNeil asked with narrowed eyes.

Surely he didn’t suspect the phone was actually for Maple? “Just looking for advice.”

“From a girl?”

“Yeah. Maple knows a lot about phones.”

McNeil raised an eyebrow at Maple. “Really?”

Maple looked away. “Um… yeah?”

“Okay,” McNeil said. “What’s RAM then?”

“What you just did to Jake.”

Jake snorted. Maple smiled at him in a way that did something strange to his stomach. He pushed the feeling away, and eyed the rows of phones. He had intended to get her something cheap and basic. But something right then and there, changed his mind. No, he’d get her something good. She deserved it, for having to put up with McNeil.

There was a slick, white phone on the more expensive side. Jake pointed to it. “What about that one?”

“It’s a bit pricey,” Maple said. “If you’re not doing anything fancy with it, one of these would be just as good.” She pointed at the cheaper line up.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Jake stroked his chin. The phones came in all different sorts of sizes and colors. A smaller one would be easier to hide. Black would probably blend into most surfaces. He pointed to a small, black phone. “What do you think of that one?”

“Why does any of this matter? You’re not even supposed to be talking to him. Come on!” McNeil grabbed Maple’s hand, and half-dragged her off.

Maple glanced over her shoulder at Jake, and nodded, before being dragged out of view.

Jake looked at the employee, who stared back at him, dull-eyed.

“Is that the one you want then?” the employee asked.

“Yeah.”

There was a fingerprint reader on the side of the case. The employee pressed his finger against it, and the door of the case slid open. He grabbed it, closed the case, and walked over to the register. Jake followed.

At the register, the employee slid another fingerprint reader at Jake. Jake frowned at it.

“It’s no offense to you. We have to do this for everyone. Some girls are good at pretending.”

“Uh-huh.” Jake stuck his finger on the reader. It turned blue.

“All good.” The employee read Jake his total. Jake paid and left, keeping an eye out for Maple.