Hanae had bought the Mazda about ten months earlier, incredibly cheap for what it was because it needed work, but a treat she needed - plus she was tired of having to get lifts from Daniel; they both had careers to look after and the times just didn’t line up.

Daniel’s SUV would certainly handle any jobs where they needed plenty of space, though, so Hanae’s choice had been the Mazda. She’d had it all but road-worthy when suddenly she wasn’t able to fit in the seat anymore; it had sat in the garage throughout her pregnancy. Throughout Erika’s birth and the first two months of her life.

And it had sat there while Daniel’s SUV vanished from the drive, along with Daniel. Some men weren’t cut out for parenthood; others, it turned out, weren’t cut out for finding they were about to be parents. Hanae considered the way he abandoned her at that point a special kind of cowardice, honestly.

Her sister Akiko was looking after little Erika and Hanae was out of the house. There wasn’t a goal in mind, except for just that - get out of the house. Her daughter was wonderful, but parenthood was a lot to deal with. Hanae finally felt like she understood that whole thing about a village raising a child.

But damn, it was good to just be behind the wheel of the Mazda, and for the first hour she was simply driving aimlessly in and out of town, enjoying admiring looks wheile in city limits and the freedom to open up the engine a bit and drive at speed outside the limits.

Bliss. Absolute bliss.

After that hour ran out she started wondering about other things she should do before she went back home to be shut away once again. She stopped off to pick up a takeout coffee, then when she caught sight of the sign near a turn-off, she smiled and eased into the turn.

FLEA MARKET HAPPENING TODAY

EVERYTHING MUST GO

She loved a good flea market. A lot of browsing, a little inspiration, and the glorious opportunity to haggle for a bargain. This was going to be well worth her time; Hanae felt more like herself already.

She parked up and headed in, and she lost maybe another hour wandering happily around the stalls, looking through everything out there. Lamps, both ‘70s classic and ‘00s repro kitsch; a couple of carpets that would all be wrong for her house (and besides, until Erika’s digestion was a little more settled, Hanae didn’t want to be buying any new fabric decor, even for a good price). DVD box sets cast aside fro the convenience of Netflix. Children’s toys, cast-off characters from shows no longer airing. Bottles of perfumes and aftershaves, partially used, but preserving scents which you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Sheaves and sheaves of comic books. A six-foot-tall plaster statue of some science-fiction warrior in red armour, masked, with shoulder guards bigger than its head and a blocky, boxy gun with a barrel as wide across as Hanae’s fist.

None of this was anything she wanted, but it was just delightful to be out there, walking among the rows, drinking it all in. Knowing that all of it had a potential purchaser, and wondering whether the crazier things would find their happy new owner today.

On almost the last stall she visited, space had been given over to two large fabric zip-up binders. A hand-written sign above them read CDs for Sale - Music and Software - $1 each or $80 the lot.

Hanae didn’t expect to find anything she’d want to buy, but something like this was always someone’s complete collection, now lost to them. There were often gems in there; it was just a question of whether they were gems that she might actually want. She unzipped the first binder and opened it. The fabric pages within had clear pockets stuck in place; six CDs on each side of each page. She took in how thick the stack was and knew that unless a lot had already been sold, there were many more than eighty discs in here.

Not much resale value outside a flea market, though; not without the cases and, for the software, any manuals. And not that the software was likely to run, she thought, considering that some of the CD titles she saw on the first couple of pages were older than her.

But that made this a treasure trove. One of the things that she and Daniel had bonded over, before his courage deserted him at the thought of parenthood, was putting together the lives of other people from watching them, or looking over their collections - her first stop in any home was the bookshelves, if she could.

You got a clearer sense of the person from the books they owned (not necessarily read; there were far too many people out there where the bookshelves were clearly just the trendy non-fiction book from each year, and there would never be any trace of wear on the spines or pages. Never any sign that these books were cherished or loved or simply used). You could see the shape of their mind, sometimes even trace the path of their lives.

Hanae was confident from two or three pages of CDs in that this binder had been owned by a woman, and in another page, she was sure she would have liked them. There were what had clearly been purchases of teenage excitement, forays into new musical genres, and more. CDs had been added from the front as the binder filled, she was sure. You could see when a chance discovery of a band on a compilation disc or a movie soundtrack had led to a buying spree of all their albums. When a hole in the collection had been filled in years later. You could sense the joy of it.

But the games, too, spoke to Hanae of a kindred spirit. She knew some of them from her dad’s old computer, handed down to her years later with some of his youthful treasures still installed. Others she recognised through the xeroxed, blurred nostalgia of the industry’s remake cycle. Yes, Hanae was sure, if she’d met the owner of this binder, they would soon have been fast friends.

Halfway through, her idle flipping of pages came to a dead stop. One of the logos staring back up at her gripped her attention like nothing else. The more familiar albums and games sparked recognition, but with no surprise. On the other hand, she’d never again expected to see the pastel blue and pink logo of Edutainment Emporium.

Their main series, Techno Teacher, were a set of CD-Roms with little miniature encyclopaedias, each on different subjects. You could search and browse them - say, if you were a teenager trying to get extra credit on a report and looking for a little more information than your school textbook could have - but they also had game modes, and the game modes were designed to teach entire curriculae.

Akiko had only made it through high school math because of Techno Teacher: Calculus Collection. Hanae had relied on Techno Teacher: History Hacker for her own worst subject. They’d both gone from likely-to-fail to getting As in their later tests and papers. Hanae had tried to find a few other titles after that, and if she’d gone to college instead of meeting Daniel, moving out, and looking for work, they would have stood her in good stead. She already surprised her boss sometimes because playing those games meant more detail and nuance had stuck with her than with him, and he’d majored in history in college.

Instead those extra titles had gone to Akiko as she went into college. Now, ten years later, both sisters were better educated on a wide range of subjects than anyone really expected from them.

Hanae turned the disc in its pocket to more clearly read its subtitle.

Techno Teacher: Motherhood Magic

When Hanae and her little sister had been in high school, there had been a rumour that Edutainment Emporium was looking at a new range of software to help a new generation of adults. The pitch had been a little confusing, but the basic idea was clear; new adults were getting less support from their parents than before. The clear solution was for software that would cover the training - so there would have been a whole set of new game CD-ROMs which covered tax reporting, contract law, job applications, and many more.

So far as she knew, none of them had ever come out, but here she was staring at a title that only made sense as part of that line. Not only that, but something so relevant to her own situation that it seemed like a miracle.

Perhaps Hanae just wasn’t suspicious enough, but the Techno Teacher disc tipped the balance. A binder she already liked became an obvious purchase, and she drove home happily. Something about the CD gave her hope, and she was already running through in her head what she might need to do to persuade her laptop to run an out-of-date title.

*

A Windows 98-era installation window opened the moment the disc drawer closed with the Techno Teacher CD inside. Hanae blinked with surprise, but wrote it off as just a retro skin for the software.

She hadn’t needed to make any of the tweaks she’d expected; she’d been planning to rip the contents of the CD to her hard drive and look at the launcher to see what would be needed. Instead she sat back and sighed contentedly. This was exciting!

The fact of the matter was, she called Daniel a coward because parenthood was scary. She had been willing to face it, and he had fled, abandoning everything they’d had together over years to it. They’d talked from time to time about children. Both had agreed that they wanted children someday, but ‘someday’ had come early when Erika arrived well ahead of their plan. And that had been when she finally discovered that Daniel had been lying all along, that he hadn’t wanted children, he’d just been willing to claim he did until it became reality.

She watched the installation bar fill up, wondering what the designers would consider most important. Child healthcare? Pre-school education? Language development? Dietary suggestions?

She was sure they’d all be in there, of course, but something would be the key. Something would be central. And in her current nervous new-mother state, she was hoping the software would give her a priority to focus on. Everything was easier when you knew which was the biggest problem.

She could barely wait. When she’d told Akiko what she’d found, her sister had rolled her eyes and wandered off, muttering some kind of joke under her breath. As much as Hanae had to concede this was fair, it hadn’t hurt her own excitement.

Hanae settled baby Erika into her arms and sat back down at her computer, gently bouncing her baby while murmuring gently to her. Erika was usually pretty sleepy this time of day, but babies couldn’t be predicted.

For the hundredth time, Hanae renewed her vow to only have one child. There was only so much of her life she was prepared to invest in her daughter; adding anyone else felt like a nightmare. She could see herself disappearing under the weight of responsibility, no time to be herself or follow her own goals.

Just as her mother had.

With a surprisingly loud ding the installation finished, and a similarly old-style ‘Run Program?’ prompt appeared. Hanae held her breath and clicked Yes.

The screen blacked out for a moment before the blue-and-pink pastel colours of Edutainment Emporium’s logo swirled in and settled into place in the logo. The musical sting was the same as it always had been, hitting Hanae with a jolt of nostalgia, though it sounded a little tinny now.

Enter Name Here, read the prompt. Hanae steadied Erika with one arm and typed one-handed, meaning she wasn’t able to capitalise:

hanae

The logo and the prompt below disappeared and the green-lines-on-grey-backdrop of the Techno Teacher face appeared, a perky smile with wide green eyes in square spectacles, eyebrows raised.

In the same green, more text appeared below:

Hi hanae I’m Techno Teacher!

Are you ready for Magical Motherhood?

Hanae hit Enter, and the Techno Teacher’s face shrank quickly to live in a small TV screen rendered in the top left. Below that was the standard Techno Teacher interface; a wide box for pictures and animations and, below it, a light grey space where potential answers could appear to be clicked or where you might have to type them in. The wide box was currently displaying the Magical Motherhood logo in neon pinks and greens, all sharp corners and soft curves. A line of distortion ran down it as if it were being displayed by an older, slower CRT TV, then repeated.

Beneath that box was a question: Do you have children?

Hanae hit ‘Yes’.

How many?

1, she typed, and hit Enter.

How old is your child?

This time what popped up was a slider. Hanae found the correct number of months - the twelve months of the first year took up as much space as the next eleven years, and hit Enter again.

Do you want more?

Hanae hit ‘No’ without hesitation.

The neon lines of the logo separated and swirled and came apart. Hanae was quite impressed; it seemed like the game was fine-tuning itself to each player’s actual situation. Obviously enough, if she didn’t want more kids, there needn’t be any questions to help her with pregnancy or childbirth.

Erika shifted in her arms, stirring. Hanae glanced down and tutted to herself, realising the time. No wonder Erika was waking up; she was hungry. Hanae slipped the straps of her top and her bra from one shoulder, letting her halter top fall away and reaching down to cup her breast and ease it out of the bra cup. Offered this bounty, Erika latched on eagerly and set to drinking.

Hanae looked back up to the screen, which was… glitched? Maybe? It was difficult to say with certainty, but the title animation - lines breaking apart and whirling - should probably have stopped by now. Hanae could almost see the path it was meant to take, the patterns about to emerge, but the game had stalled or maybe even completely crashed. She watched a while longer, hoping it would unfreeze, and she was conscious of a pleasant if distant tingle across the back of her scalp.

At length the screen resolved, the whirling, dancing lines eventually following the next stage of their pattern and it was just as Hanae had expected. She blinked, the tingle across her scalp fading, and ran her tongue over dry lips. Adjusting herself, she noticed that Erika had stopped drinking. She never stopped until she’d drunk her full, and it wasn’t exactly quick. Yet she’d finished, and Hanae would have sworn that it hadn’t been long enough.

Ready for Question One, hanae? flashed up on the screen. She hit Enter and smiled.

The first few questions displayed related pictures in the box over the top. As Hanae gently rocked Erika back to sleep, she clicked her way through four or five without difficulty, as the answers were all indicated at least a little by the images on the screen. With each correct answer, Techno Teacher offered a synthetic ‘Well done!’ in a voice which was at one and the same time obviously computerised and softly lulling.

The tinniness of the other sounds she’d heard to that point was absent, and instead it was clear, smooth, and pleasant. Hanae had a friend who spoke like that, and she often found she’d registered almost nothing of what he’d said; his voice was just a soothing sound, and didn’t necessarily leave much of an impression.

She was quite happy with how much she turned out to know about motherhood. It wasn’t uncommon for the games to start off with some ‘gimme’ questions that could be used to boost confidence. They jumped from one topic to another, and it took Hanae several more questions before she noticed how many of the questions were now about pregnancy.

What should you do to improve the chance of conception?

Which of the following bad habits make a male’s sperm less viable?

For how long into a pregnancy is sexual activity encouraged?

Hanae was still getting most of these questions right, but from time to time Techno Teacher would tell her “Try again,” or chide her “You know better than that.” She was much more likely to get the answer right the second time when Techno Teacher told her she knew better, and every time there was a pleasant tingle up and down her spine. It was very satisfying to please Techno Teacher.

She’d been clicking for some time before a question came up that she couldn’t answer.

What is the term for a male worth breeding with?

Scalp tingling, Hanae stared at the question, wondering what it meant. It didn’t occur to her not to answer it, or at least try.

The other programs in the series - the more YA ones - had been pretty traditional. She tried ‘husband’, and Techno Teacher almost seemed to tut before “You know better than that.”

Instead of giving her another chance to answer, though, it moved on to another question.

True or false: Genetic diversity is essential to species wellbeing?

True, she typed, and hit Enter. “Well done!” Techno Teacher enthused.

How can a parent ensure genetic diversity among their offspring?

This time the answer was multiple choice. Hanae had clicked on ‘Breed with multiple partners’ before she even processed the question. The tingle in her scalp was joined by a shiver down her spine as she heard “Well done!” once again.

Is it important for a mother to have children by multiple partners?

Having just answered the previous questions, the answer was obvious to Hanae. She clicked on Yes and was rewarded again. Her vision swam for a moment as the tingling pleasure intensified; then, floating at a new level of bliss, she found her sight focused once again.

She’d forgotten how good it felt to play this series. Forgotten, moreover, just how good it felt to be right, and to have Techno Teacher tell you you were right. As an adult, with this version of the software, there was something even more intense about it. Something almost sexual.

What is the term for a male worth breeding with?

This time the answer came to her from somewhere in the back of her mind. Hanae would never have been able to tell you why the word occurred to her; if pressed, she might have said she felt like she’d heard it a lot recently, but wouldn’t have known where. Only that it sounded like something Techno Teacher would say.

Stud, she typed, and when she hit enter she was rewarded with another hearty “Well done!” and another spine-tingling thrill of pleasure. She clamped her thighs together against it, bit her lip to stop herself making a sound. Made sure to hold her baby daughter very still, so as not to wake her.

She had learned something important. Something she would never forget.

What is the primary purpose of an adult female?

For a moment Hanae’s own thoughts identified that question as being well beyond the scope of this game. The part of her that was so keen to please Techno Teacher and so eager to learn took the same doubts as a clue.

To make babies.

Techno Teacher said something then that she’d never heard it say before. “You’re very close,” it said. “Try again.”

A blissful smile spread over Hanae’s lips. She tried again:

To breed.

“Well done!” said Techno Teacher.

What is the term for an adult female who understands her primary purpose?

Knowing good men were studs made it easy for Hanae to work out the right answer.

Broodmare, she typed, and even before she heard Techno Teacher congratulate her she had straightened her back in her chair, shimmying her shoulders a little, in delight at having learned, at gaining a new understanding of reality.

Do you understand your primary purpose, hanae?

The only button available read Yes. Hanae clicked it.

“Well done!” said Techno Teacher.

*

“You know,” Akiko told Hanae as she opened her sister’s front door, “when I agreed to help out with Erika I was mostly thinking to help you ease back into work and figure out your life.”

“And I am,” Hanae told her, looking confused by the very observation.

“Sleeping with every man on Tinder inside a two-hour drive is figuring out your life?”

Hanae was so stung she almost changed her mind, almost denied her sister. “I am not sleeping with all of them!” she retorted. Just the studs. “They have to measure up to my standards.”

Akiko half-smiled. “I hope those standards have risen since Daniel,” she said, but she made it light, a joke, and Hanae knew her sister had moved beyond chiding her. That now they were going to spend some time rebuilding their connections. She was very glad she hadn’t doubted her sister enough to reject her choice.

“Oh, I gave them a total overhaul before I started all this,” Hanae assured her.

Akiko chuckled, shaking her head slightly, and took Erika from her sister. “You go have fun, then,” she said. “I’ll take care of Erika.”

“Don’t worry,” Hanae laughed. “I’ll do this for you when it’s your turn.”

“We’re doing turns now?” Akiko shook her head. “At what, dating or children? Because if you remember, I only want to do one of those.”

Hanae handed her over a small bag. “I pumped her some milk,” she said. “She’ll be ready for baby food soon but I want her to get the best until then.” She waited until she was going out of the door before she paused. “Oh, one quick thing - I’ve been playing one of those old games lightly and she seems to like the music.”

She moved back in and took the Techno Teacher CD-Rom out of the bag, nestled in its little paper sleeve. Then she opened the tray of her sister’s PS5.

She was far less surprised than her sister when a Windows 98-era installation prompt appeared. She set the program to run. “Can you just play this with her a bit?” she asked. “It really helps.”

“Is this one of those old - Hanae, this isn’t even a Windows machine -”

But Hanae was headed out of the door. She’d had two months to think about the CD-ROM as she absorbed its later lessons. She knew what changes had been made to her. Knew she hadn’t always been a broodmare, as ridiculous as that was. Techno Teacher had taught her how to sort the studs from the duds. It had taught her everything she needed to know about child healthcare. About raising children. It had made her not just a broodmare, itself (she now knew) the pinnacle of womanhood, but a good broodmare.

She had absorbed all of its lessons, and then it had given her an extra credit assignment, probably the same one which had passed it through several hands until it eventually came to rest in a binder of CDs in a flea market. Now Hanae was starting its journey off all over again.

Techno Teacher was breeding just as much as she was, seeding a network of broodmares which expanded and grew through the generations. But it was doing it with just one copy.

The CD-ROM she’d found had never been officially released. It ran on any device that could read it as if it was an old Windows machine, and in so doing, it broke a lot of laws of computing. And when you played it, your opinions changed. Even knowing they’d been changed didn’t undo it.

Hanae got back in her Mazda to drive to her date, and knew that when Akiko had finished the course, she’d thank her.

She wished she knew her sisters’ friends well enough to guess who Akiko would gift, but she was sure that in due time, they’d meet together, each with their own youngest, and talk, swapping studs and seeking tips to become better broodmares.