How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

Zinhle is firm and clear when she rejects her parents’ plea for her to get pregnant, pressuring her to ask “the Sandersens’ boy” who “doesn’t charge much” and “doesn’t try to hurt girls” (150-51). Zinhle is unsatisfied with life because no one tries as hard as she does, so she constantly “compete[s] against herself” (151). Her classmates, other than her best friend Mitra, don’t care for her and she is sometimes the victim of bullying. All her teachers are less intelligent than she is and though she is “polite” about it she loves to rub it in (152).

After receiving “the highest possible score on the post-graduation placement exam,” Zinhle is pulled aside by one of the teachers named Threnody (153). Threnody tells her that “a representative” is coming to talk to her “[f]rom beyond the Firewall” (154). For a second, Zinhle is nervous but quickly becomes suspicious of Threnody instead, wondering what stake she has in warning her about the meeting.

Zinhle knows why the representative is coming. Every year the creatures beyond the Firewall—creatures that have been the enemy of Zinhle’s people “for centuries”—“take ten percent, plus one” of their population and never return them (156). The 10% is made up of the stupidest ten percent of teenagers, and the one is made up of the smartest teenager, known as “the valedictorian” (154).

Zinhle seeks out Mitra, who is in a bathroom stall wiping the tears of a fellow student named Lauren. Lauren has just failed a test and is afraid she is going to be part of the 10%. Zinhle was once able to retake an exam, so she gives this advice to Lauren, who calms down.

The next morning Zinhle gets called to the office at school and is asked to meet with a normal looking, but oddly acting man named Lemuel. Zinhle tries to be brave and steer the conversation. Lemuel insists he is not much different than Zinhle and her community except that he is part “artificial intelligence” and has the ability to “transmit […] around the world” and to change bodies (164). He explains his kind began as “[m]icrobes in a digital sea” (165). They eventually “merged” with poor children and evolved into creatures superior to the humans in Zinhle’s community (165). Zinhle’s ancestors did not want to “adapt,” which is how they ended up trapped in by the Firewall (163). Zinhle asks what will happen to her if she goes with Lemuel. He says she will be expected to “join” his kind (165). Zinhle asks what happens if someone resists the invitation, and Lemuel explains that they are separated behind a Firewall of their own.

She points out that this is dehumanizing, and Lemuel responds that it’s only a reflection of how Zinhle’s community has acted. He tells her he has been alive since the beginning of the separation between his kind and her kind and he believes she deserves better than to be raised in a society which only values conformity. He tells her that her community could fight to save the teenagers they take from them, but they don’t. If they ever bothered “to fight”, then his kind would release them from captivity (167). He explains that they must prove their compassion. Zinhle realizes he is right: Her family will not fight for her. He tells her she can decide whether she wants to stay with her family and settle for conformity or whether she wants to go with him and be her best self. Zinhle aces her test the next day, ready to become valedictorian, and ready to move on.