Lutfiyah woke up and turned to the empty place in the bed next to her. Laila had already gone to work. With the new abundance that the great Change had brought in, Laila was fully capable of supporting herself and her family working twenty hours a week as a streetcar driver. Lutfiyah leaned over and kissed the depression in the pillow left by Laila's head.
After using the bathroom, Lutfiyah went into the kitchen. As she did every morning, she bowed before the statue of the Goddess that occupied pride of place in the family's living room. "Thank you for the wonderful gift of womanhood." Lutfiyah repeated, as she did at the beginning and end of every day. Religion was one of the things that had changed the most since the great Change. The Father-god religions--Christianity, Judaism, and Islam--had all shrunk to a fanatical handful of followers. But religion itself was flourishing, because who could deny that the great Change had been a miracle? Hinduism, Buddhism, and worship of the Goddess of nature were now the most popular religions. Lutfiyah and Laila worshipped the Goddess, who was also known by the titles of Jean and Greta.
Lutfiyah heard the noises their daughter Jana made when she was waking up. She smiled, and began making breakfast. She loved Jana more than she had ever loved anything as a man. Getting pregnant was a very different process since the change, but some of the happiest moments of Lutfiyah's new life had been when she was carrying Jana. One of the things about womanhood that Lutfiyah would never experience was growing up as a girl, but she was able to live her girlhood vicariously through Jana. Laila had tried to explain how different it was for girls growing up without boys or men to be afraid of, but Lutfiyah wasn't sure she fully understood it.
"Good morning, mommy."
"Good morning, Jana." Lutfiyah leaned over to kiss her daughter. "Do you know what today is?"
"No."
"It's change day! It's been five years since the great change!"