ONE MONTH LATER

Amy lay on her stomach on the bed, absently petting Puppy, reading through hanging scripts, half-conscious of Jana and Melissa at their desks, marking up their textbooks with highlighters, when she heard footsteps pounding down the hall. She smiled, knowing it was Runner, and felt a little surprised -- Runner was usually watching television at this time, sometimes by herself, sometimes with any of a number of students who took turns sitting with her and fielding her questions. The students seemed to enjoy being with Runner, both as informal teachers and sexual partners. Amy believed that watching television would acculturate Runner more quickly than anything any of the students could tell her, and at present she was watching two hours of news, talk shows and soaps each morning and a movie every evening -- whoever among Amy, Melissa, Jana, and Holly were free usually joined her for the latter. Her afternoons were usually spent in the library -- she was reading simple children's books now, sharing and giggling over her favorites with Amy. The library had acquired a number of books for kids over the last month. The context of many of the books had given Amy the opportunity to explain family relationships to Runner, and they had decided that her mother was most likely a work slave impregnated by her owner, rather than a breeding slave, as none of the other girls in her pen seemed to have been her sisters. At least, according to Runner, none had looked much like her, though Amy was sure, from her own observations of the island population, that several of them would have shared some of Runner's native genetic background to a more limited extent.

Runner's library routine was interrupted twice weekly for sessions in the dean's conference room with a sociologist from the university, who was excited by the opportunity to publish the first research describing day to day life in a Purity Island breeding pen. Amy had met the woman once after a session. The professor, laughing, had told Amy that in the session just completed, she wasn't sure whether she or Runner had asked more questions.

The footsteps now stopped, followed by a hurried tap at the door, another of Runner's recent acquisitions in social etiquette. Amy's smile spread to a grin. "Come in."

The door opened and Runner burst in, an excited look on her face. She was fully dressed -- she did that more often now, and Amy suspected the khaki outfit, cut like a student uniform, added to Runner's feeling of belonging, as she'd hoped. "Amy, I figured out about money!"

"Ummm..." Amy wasn't quite sure what the issue was. "What did you figure out about it?"

"What it's for! Why people have it! It's so cool!" A recent addition to Runner's vocabulary.

Amy sat up and patted the bed beside her. "Tell me about it."

Runner crossed to the bed and sat down, crossing her legs and leaning back against the wall, giggling as Puppy, as usual, licked her face in greeting. Amy glanced at Runner's legs, remembering the fine hair that had covered them when she'd met her. The skin was perfectly smooth now, the result of laser treatment in the salon, making their curves that much more attractive.

Runner was wearing make-up now as well. She didn't need very much -- most women wore it to accentuate features of their faces which in Runner were naturally dramatic to begin with -- but Runner had learned to use it in subtle ways. She had overdone it at first, but she remembered every tip the salon girls gave her.

Melissa and Jana had turned to listen as Runner spoke, each with a smile on her face.

Runner started, "I've been watching on TV, and I'd keep seeing people trade pieces of paper for things they wanted, and I couldn't figure out why the pieces of paper were such a big deal. The girls would tell me it was money, that this person was using money to buy that thing she wanted, and I get it about trading except I didn't see why the second person wanted those pieces of paper. But I get it now!

"Everybody has a job they do, like maybe they work in a..." Runner hesitated, "... a fictory..."

Amy tried to follow the context. "A factory?"

Runner laughed and pointed at Amy. "Right!! I was mixing it up with fiction, I think. Anyway, suppose you work in a factory, where you make..." She looked around the room. "...chairs. So you have these chairs you made. And you want food, but all you have is these chairs. And you see a woman who has food, but she doesn't want chairs. You find some man who wants chairs, but he doesn't have food, he has..." She looked around again. "...shoes that he made. And maybe he does want a chair, and maybe the woman with food wants shoes, so you could trade your chair for shoes and take the shoes to the woman who has food... But the man with shoes, maybe he doesn't want a chair, so you have to keep looking for somebody who wants a chair and has something the woman with food wants...

"But money is so you don't have to do all that! In the factory where you make chairs, you have a boss, and he gives you money, the pieces of paper, because you made the chairs for him. And you can take the money to the lady with the food, and you can trade it to her for the food, and she takes the pieces of paper because she knows she can use them the same way! She knows she can trade the money for something she wants. And your boss at the factory... He gets money because people buy the chairs you made -- maybe more money than he paid you to make the chairs, so he has extra money left and he can buy things he wants!" She beamed at Amy. "It's so simple! When you want to have something, you trade money for it, and people take it because they know they can get things they want with it!"

Amy knew to expect Runner to lean forward for a hug -- she always distributed hugs freely, and usually kisses, when she was this excited. As Amy held Runner, she reflected on how many complex ideas seemed "simple" to Runner. She is, thought Amy, very special in so many ways.

Suddenly, Runner broke off the hug and frowned. "Why don't we use money, Amy? On TV they do, but we don't."

Amy wasn't sure how to start. She looked at Melissa, who tentatively offered the same thing that had first come to Amy's mind, but had seemed so far from a complete explanation that she had hesitated. "We're slaves, Runner." She looked at Runner hopefully, with a does-that-help-at-all? expression.

Runner's frown deepened, and she seemed to go into some internal zone. Amy could almost visibly see the mental processing going on, the collation of all available information.

Runner suddenly took on an astonished expression, her eyes wide, and whispered, "People don't give money to us, they pay money to have us." Her excitement flooding back, she bounced slightly on her seat on the bed. "We're not the woman who makes the chairs. We're the chairs!! People want us! Because we can hang!! I don't see anybody hang on TV like we can! There was a girl on a game show, but she couldn't do it anything like us!" Runner had increased her hanging time to five minutes, and was making a number of advanced moves -- her ability now indeed went far beyond that of any girl outside the building. "People buy us because we can do something they want to see!"

Amy looked at Runner in amazement, relieved that she could now check off several items on her mental to-do list. She hadn't felt ready yet to explain why there was such a place as the Academy, and what a "slave" really was, knowing the explanations would involve so many ideas which Runner had not yet grasped. Now Runner seemed to have worked it out entirely on her own.

What remained, Amy thought as she hugged Runner yet again, was to get across to Runner that a Hanging Girl was bought for a single performance, ending in her death. In this case, it wasn't that Amy didn't think Runner would understand that yet. It was the way the subject related to Amy's own future that made her hesitant.

We have to talk about that very soon, Amy reminded herself again.

Puppy, reacting to the flow of affection, rubbed against Runner with a yearning whine. Runner began stroking her.

THAT AFTERNOON

Tina smiled as Amy arrived at the dean's office. Amy could tell, from her face, that something was up. Tina was struggling to avoid giggling.

Amy entered the office, and saw Holly sitting in one of the chairs. Holly, as far as Amy knew, had been working out in the gym. Amy smiled and nodded to her. "Hi, Holly." She turned then to the dean, with Holly's sudden giggle adding further to the mystery. "Sir?"

The dean simply turned to Holly, smiled, and shook his head in wonder.

Amy loved jokes as much as anyone, but preferred to be in on them. She turned back to Holly. "Okay, come on, what..."

She was stopped by the expression on Holly's face. The amusement, the air of something mischievous going on, that all seemed normal. Behind that, though, were clear indications of non-recognition. This was a girl who had never seen Amy before.

Amy gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. She had rarely felt so stupid. She had known this was coming, that by now it could only be days away, and she, Holly, Melissa and Jana all had been growing tense with anticipation. Especially Holly. Yet on seeing the girl in the flesh at last, there was just no visual cue to tip Amy off that this was anyone other than Holly.

Through her fingers covering her mouth, Amy breathed, "You're Haley, aren't you?" She looked to the dean for confirmation.

The dean nodded, smiling again. "I did have a sense that they look quite a lot alike. But I haven't spent nearly as much time with Holly as you have. I thought your reaction might be different."

Amy could only stand staring at Haley, who colored a little at the intense examination. Yes, thought Amy, I've spent a lot of time with Holly, sharing meals with her in the caf, helping her with hanging practice, and Amy wasn't sure how many nights in bed with her. "Haley..." Even calling her by her correct name wasn't easy. Haley was the distant unseen sister, Holly the one present in Amy's life. "I'm Amy. I'm... sort of your sister's mentor, I guess you'd say." She could see Haley had already been processed in as a permanent resident -- she was wearing the standard white First Year uniform and "Slave Girl" collar, another factor confounding Amy's ability to distinguish her from Holly. "Do you want to go see her?"

Haley looked ready to leap out of her chair. "Oh yes, please!..." She turned immediately to the dean. "May I go, Sir?" Her voice was Holly's as well.

The dean nodded, and said to Amy, "She's all signed in. I'd like to see both of them in a few days, with you, to talk about their joint presentations at parties. I'm sure you and Holly will fill her in on the details by then."

"Yes, Sir. Ummm... Sir?"

"Yes?"

"It really would be helpful to have some way of telling them apart." She rubbed her chin in thought. "What if... You know those letters girls sometimes wear on necklaces? Their initials? I think if we got a letter 'O' for Holly, and an 'A' for Haley, that's all we really need. The letters could attach right to the ring on the front of their collars, maybe."

The dean nodded. "I'll have Tina order something like that."

Amy grinned at Haley and took her hand. She could feel it trembling with excitement. "Let's go see if Holly's back from the gym."

Almost breathlessly, Haley said, "Okay," and picked up a bookbag from the floor beside her seat. Amy blinked -- students were allowed to bring a few personal possessions from home, but it wasn't often a load of books.

The top of the bag was slightly open, and Amy saw a three-ring binder on top. Oh, of course, Amy told herself. Amy suspected the rest of the bag was full of more of the same. She pointed. "Diary?"

Haley looked a little startled. "For Holly, yeah."

Amy smiled. "I know all about it."

Amy couldn't stop shaking her head in amazement. They had passed a half dozen girls in the hallways, each of whom had smiled at Amy and Haley with barely a glance, one of them saying, "Hi Amy, Holly." Not one perceived Haley as a stranger. Amy was eager to see the reactions of the girls who knew Holly much better.

Amy pushed open the door to her girls' room. Only Melissa was present, industriously scribbling at her desk for a class assignment. She looked up and smiled at Amy. "So what'd the dean want? Oh, hi Holly. You done already?"

Amy burst out laughing. She knew that, for each girl, their first meeting with Haley was a one-time-only thing. She wanted to savor the moments. "Where's Jana?"

Melissa gestured with her head towards the window. "Out jogging with Puppy. I imagine Runner's still in the library."

"Could you signal Jana to get back in here? Then I'll go find Runner. I want everybody here when Holly gets here."

Melissa looked back and forth between Amy and Haley, puzzled. "Amy, she's standing right..." Then she must have seen the same meeting-a-stranger look on Haley's face that had given it away to Amy. Her eyes flew open wide, and she squeaked in a near-whisper, "Haley?"

Haley and Amy both laughed. Melissa stood and crept closer for a better look. "Wow!" She threw her arms around Haley. "It is so nice to meet you. Holly's tried to be patient, but she's been biting her nails for the last couple of weeks. I imagine you've been the same."

Haley brushed a sudden tear away. "Oh yeah."

Amy said to Haley, "You are used the mix-ups, right?"

Haley shrugged. "Not exactly. We've spent a long time around people who know both of us, and they're kind of used to us. Every once in awhile in the last year I'd run into somebody and they'd say, 'I thought you went to the Hanging Academy,' but mostly they know about us. People we're really close to can tell us apart. Some of the time, anyway."

Amy gestured to Melissa again to go to the window, and said, "Everybody gets pretty close around here."

Melissa opened the window, waited for Jana to come around and whistled, then gave her a come-here gesture. Amy could see Jana come straight towards the window, Puppy trotting beside her, and Melissa gestured towards the building entrance.

A minute later Jana appeared in the doorway, wiping away some sweat with a towel she'd been carrying. Puppy came straight in and licked the back of Amy's leg, looking for some fondling. Amy knelt and began petting her, her eyes on Jana.

Jana glanced at Haley. "Done already?" Then she turned to Melissa. "What's up?"

Melissa grinned at her. "Notice anything different about Holly?"

Jana turned to regard Haley, frowning. After a moment she shook her head, and turned back to Melissa. "What's the joke...?" She gasped suddenly and whipped back around, staring at Haley. "Are you...?"

Amy laughed. "Jana, meet Haley. You two start getting acquainted while I go find Runner."

Haley was looking down at Puppy, astonished. "You've got a puppygirl?"

Amy heard Melissa start explaining, "It's a long story..."

Runner walked beside Amy down the hall towards the room, eager to discuss the book she'd found. "It's for second graders. 'Molly and Donna Roast Mom.' It's about two sisters and the stuff they do to get ready to cook their mother. They don't really do it all by themselves, but it's all about how good it is to help with family things..."

She was still talking as she and Amy passed through the door into the room. Runner suddenly stopped short and stared at Haley, who was looking back at the new arrival. In an astonished voice, Runner asked, "Who are you? You look just like Holly does!"

Amy spun towards Runner, her jaw dropping open, unable to speak for a moment. At last she stammered out, "What... H-how do you know it's not Holly?"

Runner shook her head. "She's just like Holly, but..." She stopped, looking as if she was searching for words. "She's not looking at me right."

Amy felt her knees get weak. She was constantly amazed by Runner, but this was a new dimension of abilities Amy hadn't encountered before. The rest of the girls, Amy included, had done the same thing within a few seconds -- reading the lack of recognition on Haley's face when she met them. It was an easy enough task, with the training Hanging Girls go through. But Runner had done it much more quickly than Amy or the others, so fast that it seemed instantaneous -- and without any formal training at all. And without knowing Holly nearly as long.

Amy squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Okay, she told herself, she's just the world's most natural Hanging Girl. Get used to it. She cleared her throat. "Runner, this is Holly's sister, Haley. Remember?" They had discussed Haley on a few occasions.

"Oh, yeah." Runner grinned. "Hi." She stepped forward and hugged Haley. "We could sleep together tonight so I can get to know you better."

Amy almost strangled herself holding back a laugh, and again when she saw Haley's wide-eyed reaction. Runner was still working on social conventions. She said gently, "Not tonight, I think, Runner. I think she and Holly are going to want to spend some time together."

"Oh!" Runner nodded her head. "Okay, I get it." She gave Haley a quick kiss and let go, then knelt on the floor to greet Puppy, who had been bouncing on her front legs, whining for attention. Puppy licked Runner's face as Runner began petting her.

Jana suddenly raised her arms. "Hssshht!" And now Amy could hear footsteps approaching the door. They waited in silence, easily able to hear Haley's increasingly fast breathing.

Holly appeared in the doorway, and blinked at the unexpected number of people in the room. "What's..." Then, it appeared, she finished a more complete census of who was present.

They took off at a run for each other, grunting at the chest-to-chest impact, and Amy decided it was a good thing they hadn't spotted each other from any greater distance -- they hadn't had enough space here to work up to a dangerous collision speed. They both were sobbing immediately, each with the side of her head pressed against the other's, four arms seeming to try to touch everything at once. They turned their heads to kiss, mouths wide open, still crying, and simultaneously reached around each other to fumble with bra clasps.

Melissa and Jana, their own eyes streaming with tears, had each grabbed books and a pile of papers and were already backing into the hallway. Amy tapped Runner's shoulder, and whispered, "We need to go."

Runner, her mouth hanging open, shook her head vaguely. "I want to watch." In front of her, the two girls finished shrugging off their bras without breaking the kiss, and reached down to unzip each other's shorts. Their crying had turned into breathy moans.

Amy smiled and pulled Runner up to a standing position. "Runner, they need some time alone. We can spend a lot of time with both of them later."

Reluctantly, Runner stood and followed Amy, with Puppy following behind her. Amy closed the door to the room, muffling the sounds of still-vertical lovemaking within.

Amy hesitated at the door of their second room. Amy's "family," the term she had begun applying to herself, Melissa, Jana, and Holly, had swollen to six members with the addition of Runner and Puppy, and they had taken to distributing themselves in varying groupings between two different rooms in the Second Year dorm. This late in the school year, there were several vacant rooms, so the arrangement caused no trouble. I think we'll need three rooms now, thought Amy. Holly and Haley should have their own space. And I think we need to start now. Melissa and Jana both have work to do, she pointed out to herself. I want to talk to Runner, and it'd be better if we don't bother the others.

Telling Melissa and Jana "We'll see you guys in awhile," and leaving Puppy in their care, Amy took Runner's hand and led her down the hall... Okay, she remembered, room 12 is empty. Ginger had moved out of it after her roommate Celia was hanged at a demo.

Inside the room, as soon as Amy closed the door, Runner began shedding her clothes, as she still invariably did when alone with Amy. Amy shrugged out of her own uniform as well. She wanted to work on clarifying some nuances of pair relationships such as Holly's and Haley's, and thought that emphasizing some of the features of their own pairing would help.

As Amy sat on the bed and Runner joined her, Runner spoke first, with a slight frown. "That book I was reading..."

Amy remembered. "The girls helping cook their mom?"

Runner nodded. "Molly and Donna. I was just thinking... Free women get to decide when they want to be eaten, right? And who eats them?"

"And some slaves, too. Hanging Girls get to choose."

Runner, who had been visibly tense, suddenly broke into an excited smile. "That's what I was going to ask! We can decide too? After somebody buys us, and we do some hanging for them, we can say when we want them to eat us? On the island, I don't think slaves get to decide anything. It's different here. Women can do things, they can make things and build things, just because they want to, they can build themselves to be who they want, and when they've finished being what they want to be, then they get to say it's time to be food. But Amy, how do you know when it's time? Is there like a feeling inside, where you know it's right?..."

Somehow Runner, off to the conversational races as she often was, had got this far before it occurred to Amy that Runner was handing her the key to the subject she had so long worried about bringing up. She grinned and took both of Runner's hands. "Wait, wait, slow down. It's not quite like you're thinking..."

Runner frowned again, and Amy could read the fleeting thought in Runner that her hopes were going to be dashed, but Runner could see Amy's smile. "Okay..." She waited for Amy to go on.

"Runner... When somebody buys us, it's just to hang one time. We do all our kicking, all the things you're learning, for as long as we can, until we're dead." Amy hesitated. "You understand what it means to be dead, right?"

Runner nodded vigorously. "Oh, sure. It's like you go to sleep and you never wake up, and that's when you're eaten. Oh!!" Runner had that expression, that Amy had so often seen, saying that the lightbulb had gone on. "Everything we learn about hanging is for that one time, and then we hang and we don't stop, and after awhile we're dead. And they eat us right then! And we get to decide when all of that happens?"

Amy nodded, her eyes glowing. "This is why we're here, Runner. When somebody buys one of us, they have a big party..." Runner knew about parties. "...and they have all of their family and friends come to watch the Hanging Girl, and she does what we call a 'show.' She does everything she learned to do here, and the people at the party get very excited, watching, because they can't see a show, like we can do, anywhere else. Only girls from the Academy can do what we do. They watch the Hanging Girl until she dies, and then they eat her."

Runner suddenly realized her original question wasn't quite answered. "So... how do you know when it's time to do that?"

"Well, when you're a student at the Academy, there are things you have to do. You know how Melissa and Jana are always going to 'classes'?" Runner nodded, and Amy went on, "In the classes, that's where they teach you new things that you need to know to be a good Hanging Girl. The classes go on for three years..." Amy knew that Runner had picked up the idea of a "year" being a length of time, though she might not know exactly how long it was, "...and when you finish, you know you're ready to hang and be eaten. So it's really easier for Hanging Girls to know when it's time."

Runner clenched her fists excitedly. "Hanging Girls who finish are graduates! Right? You're a graduate, aren't you, Amy? I heard other girls say that about you. You don't go to classes! You finished. And Holly, she's a graduate too. She doesn't go to classes either."

Amy shook her head. "No, Holly hasn't really even started yet. She's been waiting until Haley could get here, and they're going to take classes together. But I'm finished, yes. Right now I'm the only graduate left, until some more girls finish. All of the girls who graduated at the same time I did have had their shows, and they're dead and eaten. I would have done it by now, but..." She smiled. "My brother kind of got in the way, and I ended up on the island. But I'm glad that happened now, because I met you."

Runner smiled and kissed Amy. Amy somehow knew it wasn't because of what she'd just said, but because Runner had learned something she considered important. At the end of the kiss, Runner gasped suddenly. She looked at Amy wide-eyed. "So when are you going to do your show?"

Amy bit her lip. The conversation seemed to be going well, but she was still uncertain of the reaction she was about to get. "Soon, I think. I haven't set it up to happen yet, but I'm going to try to do that in a few days." Amy had been doing something unheard of for a Hanging Girl -- procrastinating on her own hanging, until she found a way to clear this up with Runner. She felt a rush of warmth and excitement rush into her. If I can get to the end of this talk with Runner and everything is still okay, that's the last hurdle! She thought about how to specify a time to Runner, and the obvious occurred to her. "Do you know how long you've been here now, at the Academy?" Runner shook her head uncertainly, and Amy went on. "Well, it's about one month. I'm going to try to do my show in about one more month."

Amy's heart sank when she saw the sudden cloud take over Runner's face. Had Amy misread her somehow?

"Amy..." Runner's lip was quivering. "Won't I get to eat you? Your owner will eat you. On the island, you said I could eat you." A tear started down her cheek.

Is that all the assurance she needs?? thought Amy. She smiled and kissed Runner. "You can eat me! Not all of me, but you don't want to keep me all to yourself, do you? Other people will share, but I promise you can be at the party and eat my meat with them. I'll make sure whoever buys me knows you have to be there. You can have me inside you always. Okay?"

The sudden light of Runner's face, emerging from behind the clouds, was almost blinding. Amy couldn't remember seeing her this happy about anything before. "Yes!!" Runner threw her arms around Amy and almost squeezed the breath out of her, before fastening her lips to Amy's for her most passionate kiss ever. She looked at Amy, tears of joy washing away the earlier ones of sorrow. "Amy, I love you!"

Everything Amy felt about Runner came to the surface of Amy's mind. Runner had never said those words before -- likely she had only recently learned, from movies, that it was something you said when you felt this way. Amy returned the kiss with interest. "And I love you, Runner."

Runner sank onto her back on the bed and pulled Amy down on top of her. Lips locked together, arms and legs entangled, moving against each other, they didn't say any more words for a long time.