The second story in the issue and the second with a female child as the main protagonist! In the near future, young Melissa is the daughter of a privileged family – they have wealth, property, and the services of those without those privileges to work for them as domestic servants. When dad finds out that Melissa has befriended a child from very much the wrong side of the railway tracks, his instructions are clear. However, Melissa is an independent girl with a mind of her own.
Personally I’d have preferred the story to have been from the POV of the parents, addressing how to raise a child in the difficult economic climate, and the choices that have to make, and how they address the issue, rather than the child’s eye view, rather than dad being a cardboard cutout hardass pater familias. (Can you have a hardass if you’re made out of cardboard?)
