yancey grew up in a small town in the shadow of the great mountain. he had a mom, just one, but no dad and no brothers and sisters. he had no pets, because his mom was allergic to all animals, or at least she said she was.
yancey’s mom was named yolanda. during most of yancey’s childhood she worked from home, about seven or eight hours a day, on a small device on whose screen yancey never saw any pictures of any kind, just letters and numbers.
the letters and numbers were usually but not always green on a light gray background. yolanda also had a small speaker into which she spoke continually, and an earbud which prevented yancey from hearing anything that she heard. she always spoke rapidly, most of the time too rapidly for yancey to make out anything she was saying. as she was speaking most of the time herself when she worked, yancey assumed nothing much was relayed aurally to her.
as a small child yancey was curious about yolanda’s job and would ask her questions about it, but she always brushed these aside.
yolanda made it clear that she did not like yancey much, and regretted having given birth to him. over the years she told him thousands of times how much she regretted not having had an abortion. even though she received money from the revolutiont to support him, and was frugal enough to make a small profit from the arrangement.
yolanda could have returned yancey to the government at any time, but never did. yancey was properly grateful for this. living in a small town, he and his schoolmates had no clear idea how children raised by the revolution were treated, and heard many conflicting but mostly scary and unedifying stories about the process.
yancey continued to dream of having a pet, preferably a dog. one day he came home from school and informed yolanda -
the teacher said people are animals.
so?
then how come you are not allergic to people?
yolanda thought about it for a few seconds before answering. maybe i am allergic to them.
are you allergic to me?
I might be, a little bit. i like it better when you are not around. I might be when you are fully grown. besides, you shouldn’t believe everything you hear, especially in school.
but if you can’t believe what you learn in school, what is the point of going?
i don’t know. ask the revolution, not me.
after that, yancey stoped asking yolanda questions, or trying to communicate with her.
he concentrated on getting through school.
when he got through school he wanted three things - a girl, a dog, and a job.
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