“Amelia liked the way the crisp sheets fit the bed.” As first sentences go, it wasn’t bad. It struck a note of quiet domesticity – an unlikely tone for a story about a third world war set in 2050. The other writers at the workshop had launched into their stories with more chutzpah. But as Morgan Mitchell summarised the plot of “Maid to Maverick” for her classmates, it became clear that she wanted to do things her own way.
Amelia, she told the group, is working as a maid, having dropped out of high school after her mother died. But when America goes to war Amelia is called up to fight. She aces a test at an assessment centre by demonstrating her ability to operate “this new drone that mind-melds with you”. The officers in her unit sneer at her and call her a nobody. But this doesn’t stop Amelia, who “goes on to win the war”.
Mitchell, who had pearl earrings and a neat ponytail, looked up from her laptop to gauge the reaction. Thirteen air-force officers – 11 men and two women – were sitting at tables arranged in a horseshoe in a chilly conference room in Montgomery, Alabama. The officers were trim and muscular and dressed in military-industrial casual: sporty polos tucked into trousers, aviator sunglasses. Their blank expressions suggested they would not be avid followers of Amelia’s adventures in world war three. | | |
