Learning
How Boys Are Different From Girls - At Thirty
by Sterling
Chapter 4 of 4
This
time it was a flotilla that approached Our Savior -- that is, it was
both boats. It contained no fertile women, at least not by design.
Julie reflected that she herself might be getting fertile. The original
boat had been improved to the point where bailing was not really
required -- or not more often than every hour or so. In that boat were
Julie and Grace. The second boat was slightly larger than the first,
and it contained Lucy and Emma. All three of Julie's companions had
felt at first hand the danger that men could pose, so they had been
especially avid pupils in throwing rocks, hard, and hitting what they
aimed at. Emma in particular was quite remarkable with the spear. These
weapons lay in the bottoms of the boats.
In broad daylight, they
approached the dock at which the annual boat used to land. They were
noticed. As they paddled closer to shore, a haphazard scurrying of men
turned into two organized lines, with the abbot in the center. Julie
was relieved to see no sign of rocks or spears among the men.
The paddling stopped when the boats were 40 yards from the dock.
"I ordered you never to return," said the abbot. "Why have you
disobeyed me?"
Julie
had an inclination to question why the abbot thought he could give her
orders, but thought better of it. It was his island, after all, not
hers.
"Could I confer with you privately, on the dock?" she called out.
"What could we possibly have to talk about?"
"Maybe nothing. Maybe something. But only in private."
"Very
well," he said with a weary sigh, motioning his men to retreat. Grace
and Julie paddled towards the end of the dock. Julie stepped out onto
the dock, stumbling, but she stayed on her feet. Grace pushed back a
few feet, and Julie walked the ten yards to where the abbot stood.
"I hope all goes well in your community, Reverend Father," she said
quietly. "Or whatever your title is."
He smiled thinly. "And I hope it goes well in yours as well, Reverend
Mother."
"We
need men. Just a few men, but men. Our nighttime visits were
unacceptable to you and you prohibited them. We respect that choice.
The alternative is for a few men to come with us and live on Our Lady.
Permanently."
"Leave the island? Live with you? It is prohibited for a man to leave
the island!"
"Yes, but the Book doesn't cover everything. Things have changed."
The abbot paused. "And just what makes you think any man would consent
to go with you? No man will leave under duress!"
"I'm not certain, but I can think of a few men who might be interested."
He
met her gaze, saw her significant look, and turned away. "There are
certain men here, it is true, who are better suited to our calling than
others. Some of the latter have been subjected to a corrupting
influence."
"Yes, that is unfortunate."
"How many men would you like to lead into a life of corruption?"
"Our boats can carry three with safety. By happy coincidence, that is
also the number we want."
"Three? Not four?"
"Four
would leave your island free of any who have felt the corrupting
influence, it is true. Oh, and then there is you, of course... But that
corruption should be easier to deal with, as the struggle is entirely
within you."
"There is no struggle within me," said the abbot, eying her coldly.
"Of course not," she said. "You are a holy man and the corruption was
only brief, if the tales I am told be true."
He smiled slightly, and it almost had a trace of warmth.
"Yet for one of the four who was corrupted, the corruption led to
bodily assault. This we do not want on Our Lady."
The abbot nodded.
"What if the three do not wish to come with you?"
"Two would do."
"What if none want to come?"
Julie
thought. When baby Paul was 14 or so, he could perhaps make women
pregnant. Jean would be the same age. Of the others, the youngest,
Kira, would be... 29. But what if something happened to Paul? All their
hopes would depend on the survival of one person.
"If none want to come, we will return again and again, as long as
necessary, until we find men -- volunteers, of course."
The
abbot sighed, suddenly looking old. "You are certainly persistent. I
will see what can be arranged. Why don't your boats go to the usual
spot, the one where we captured your boat before, tonight after dark."
"Might it be simpler to just let them leave with us now?"
"Tonight
would be better. The men can consider their decision carefully after
prayer. They can say farewells. And, well, I would rather not have to
watch men who have been entrusted to my care leave the order in front
of my eyes."
Julie nodded. "I suppose if ten men all came racing into the water,
eager to get aboard, that would be embarrassing as well."
The abbot's face became steely.
Julie
realized her remark had been unwise. She continued quickly, "It would
also be very difficult for us, as the boats wouldn't hold that many.
You have made a generous offer. We will come to the usual spot, not
long after dark."
The abbot turned.
Julie said, "And,
most sincerely, Your Reverence, I know the lacuna of the boats was a
heavy challenge to you as well. God answered your prayers differently
than mine, but I deeply respect your decision. I wish you and Our
Savior the very best. I will be praying for you."
"And I for you," said the abbot. "Farewell."
He
stepped off the dock and walked with dignity to join his retinue. Julie
returned to the end of the dock, while Grace tried to maneuver the boat
back into position. But it was clearly going to be a lengthy and
difficult process with one paddle.
So the Mother Superior jumped
into the water, causing a ripple of excitement on shore. She swam to
the boat and Grace helped her up the side and she flopped in.
When
she stood, she saw George standing at the very edge of the sand. It
looked like he might dash out and swim to the boats at any moment.
Julie urgently put her hand up and shook her head. But she also
surreptitiously gave him a thumbs up sign.
At the appointed hour the two boats approached the familiar cove. Julie
smiled to recall the happy nights she had spent there.
When
they were still some distance out, three figures ran into the water and
began swimming towards them, joined shortly by a fourth.
The
first three were, as expected, Luke, Jacob and George. As they
approached, the fourth was closing fast, a strong swimmer. It was, to
no one's great surprise, Peter.
"Great news! The abbot gave me permission to go after all!"
"Sorry," said Julie as he approached the side of the boat. "You're not
invited."
"The abbot said you had to let me come too or else the deal was off!"
Julie said nothing.
The women in the other boat helped George aboard, and then Jacob.
Luke's hand was on the side of Julie's boat.
"Well,
there's always this," he said harshly, and with surprising force thrust
himself out of the water until he was sitting on the gunwale. He then
looked with some surprise at a stick pointing at his throat and
presumably felt a sharp point of wood that rested against his flesh. On
the other end of the long stick was Grace.
Julie's heart skipped
a beat. She thought she knew Grace, but... One sharp thrust with her
powerful arms would do the job. Fortunately Grace's expression was
calm, controlled.
Peter moved his hand up, as if considering
grasping the spear to push it to the side, but then coughed, choked,
and slid back into the water.
"She's a killer!" he called out as
he tread water. The spear hadn't broken the skin; the added pressure
had just been enough to convince him she meant business.
"Tell the abbot what a sinful sister I am for not letting you join us,"
said Julie as she helped pull Luke into the boat.
The women directed the men out of the way and got in position to
paddle. The boats left Peter slowly swimming back to shore.
Conversation
picked up as they got underway. There was news to share from both
communities. Julie interrupted them and ordered the two boats together
again. She stood.
"This is important. If you come to Our Lady,
you accept me as your leader. You pledge obedience to me, is that
understood? Just like you were to the abbot before, you are now to me.
If not, now is the time to swim back to shore."
Julie offered
her fist to Grace, who kissed her ring. When she offered it to Luke, he
kissed it as well. Reaching across between the two boats, Emma and Lucy
kissed it. As Jacob kissed it, George asked, "What do we call you?"
"Reverend Mother," she said.
He hesitated only a second before he kissed her ring as well.
The boats broke apart and headed around the island and towards home.
In Julie's boat, Grace was mostly silent and Julie and Luke did all the
talking.
"The biggest news," she said, "is that we have babies. Two of them."
"Really?" said Luke. "That's... that's wonderful!"
"Just wait, you'll adore them... And, we want more."
"OK, sounds good!" said Luke.
Julie looked at Luke, and he looked at her. She returned to paddling,
but then looked at him again. She bit her lip.
"Um, Sister Grace," she said. "This is really embarrassing..."
"Oh,"
said the older woman after a moment. She smiled. "No problem. I'll just
sit way up here in the bow and look out at the horizon."
Julie
saw Grace give the "everything's OK" sign to the other boat, and heard
a titter of gossipy laughter as she thought about how to get horizontal.
Luke's
pants and underpants were off, his penis hard and ready. The planking
on the bottom of the boat would be hard against Julie's back, and the
water that would need bailing was starting to accumulate.
"Wait,
I've got an idea," she said, falling onto her hands and knees, rear
towards Luke. "It works this way too," she said copying something she'd
seen in one of the books with two dogs mating.
For a moment Luke
was confused, but then he saw how it would work. Julie looked straight
ahead at Grace's back and beyond to the other boat and the horizon
beyond. Behind her she felt hands on her rear end, fingers at her
vaginal opening, and then the hard, hot organ she'd been dreaming about
for months. She adjusted her hips slightly, and the massive thing
surged deep and deeper, and then began the in and out -- fast,deep and
strong -- the motion of the male who, whether he knows it or not, is
urgently trying to father a child.
"Should I, um, wait?" he said in a hoarse whisper.
"No!" said Julie. "Give it to me, as soon as you can!"
That
was a mere five seconds later, as she felt his penis bump into the deep
end of her vagina. It hurt, and she loved it. He banged again and
again, and she loved the hurt each time. Maybe that would knock her
open somehow so she'd be able to get pregnant. She could tell from his
gasp and groan that he was doing his bit.
The transfer complete, they separated and kissed tenderly for a few
seconds.
"OK,
time to get paddling," she said, and Grace returned to the right side
as Julie positioned herself to the left. Starboard and port, she
remembered from a book.
"I don't know," mused Grace with good
humor. "You guys seem to like that a lot. I wonder if I'll try it some
day after all." She added quickly, "With one of the others, of course,
Reverend Mother!"
In
deference to the conservative sisters, the rule was that the men must
never come near the main settlement. Instead, Julie set them up in a
small hut on the other side of the island that was used in support of
fishing. It was cramped for the three of them, but during a rainstorm
they could stay dry in there. They quickly made little sleeping spots
in the forest, a short distance down paths in various directions --
spots that could accommodate one or two with ease, like those they had
fashioned on Our Savior.
Julie assigned a sister to pray with
them at the requisite hours. The men went along with that easily
enough. They protested when told to say the extra misprinted line in
the women's version of the one prayer. But the Mother Superior ordered
them to, and they did. They were also assigned work. A natural fit was
fishing from their side of the island, and gathering from the forest
nearby.
The new mothers brought their babies over to meet the
men. Everyone agreed that baby Jean looked a lot like George. Baby Paul
looked a lot like his mother Lisa, but his resemblance to any of the
men wasn't so clear.
When impregnation required a long trip in
one of the community's two boats, it was under Julie's complete
control. At least she had veto power -- if you weren't on the boat, you
couldn't get pregnant. Now all that was required was a mile's hike
through the forest. She announced that no one should visit the men's
camp without her permission. But knowing the power of sex, she had no
illusions about vigorous enforcement. Even Sister Catherine, when she
was Mother Superior, had not made the sisters account for their every
minute. There was some unstructured time, and walking along the island
paths in a prayerful attitude was part of their mission.
How
many babies should they make? Julie did some figuring. Sister Kira was
now 15. The chances of a sister getting pregnant above the age of 35
were small enough. Sister Ida had died a few years back, but everyone
else in that age range was living. That made 20 of them in the fertile
cohort. Maybe a half dozen of them were conservative and committed to
never seeing the men at all, let alone becoming pregnant. If the other
14 of them all bore a child, they would still not have made up for the
24 boys and girls who were absent because the boats had not arrived.
Julie found herself approving all requests to visit the men's side of
the island, and soon lifted the rule requiring permission. If a sister
specifically asked if she could try to become pregnant, she approved
that request too. Sister Frances could give her advice about the best
time for her to request a sperm deposit from the men.
Despite
her luxuriously wide bed at the Mother Superior's residence, Julie
spent most of her nights in a little bower in the woods with Luke. They
talked for hours, and she began to value his counsel in her many
weighty decisions. During the first days after their arrival on the
island, he gave her his sperm at least twice every night.
"Julie," said Luke as they lazed intertwined after a nearly
simultaneous orgasm.
"Mmmmm?"
"Is it your will that George and Jacob be the only ones who give sperm
to the other women? I will accept that of course."
She
looked at him with a small pang in her stomach. She had explained
marriage to Luke earlier, including its promise of exclusivity. If the
three men followed that pattern, of course, it would create two sisters
beside herself of a different status -- wives and potentially mothers,
probably several times over. That seemed unwise.
"Would you like to?" she asked.
"My
body certainly likes the idea," he said. "And I think some of the women
would appreciate it. Two of them have confided that they would like me
specifically to father their children."
Julie knew that once
they had observed how much Jean resembled George, the women looked over
the three men carefully and developed definite preferences.
"I did pick the best one of you for myself," she said.
He smiled.
"How
about this... What if you only do it doggy style. You look at her rear
end only, you stick your penis into it and deliver the sperm, then you
leave right away. No kissing or hugging or playing around."
"OK," he said with a smile. "That will be just fine. Thank you,
Reverend Mother." He kissed her hand.
"And
you should make sure not to enjoy it. At least not too much. Is that
right -- you can't deliver sperm without feeling good?"
"Uhhh,
that's right. And we can't feel good without delivering sperm, either.
Not in that way. But sometimes it feels better than others. And I
delivered into a few of those other women on your visits to Our Savior,
and it was nowhere as good as it is with you."
"You're very kind."
Julie
held her breath when her period was late, and when she started feeling
other subtle changes in her body, she dared to hope that she was
pregnant. Signs remained good.
A few of the other women also reported missing their periods, and over
time there were several swelling bellies.
Julie
began to hear similar stories in confession. A woman had trouble
concentrating on her prayers because she had pleasant and sinful
memories of Jacob delivering his sperm into her. Another had a strong
desire to go get another sperm delivery even though she knew her period
was due very shortly and it could not serve the noble purpose of
starting a baby. Julie absolved these women of their sins, but she felt
uncomfortable. She had the same desires and she let herself indulge
them. Could she somehow contend that she was married? Sex within
marriage was acceptable and not a sin... It was a stretch. She of
course continued to receive the confessions of the conservative sisters
when they requested it, and if one reported that her hand had strayed
between her legs, Julie looked grave and upheld the woman's own belief
that it was a sin in need of pardon.
Luke lay on his back on the warm sand, totally naked. George lay to his
left, Jacob to his right.
Jacob said, "You know, it was nearly two years ago when we met Julie
and the others for the first time on the beach."
Luke said, "Yeah, sounds about right."
"Who'd have thought we'd be here today? I mean, this is the life!"
George
said, "Oh, yeah. It sure beats praying all the time, and jerking off
somewhere every couple weeks, or trying hard not to."
Jacob said, "Do you think God's OK with this? It's not at all what we
were taught. Here we are, naked on the beach."
"We still pray a bunch," said Luke. He smiled and added, "And I trust
the Mother Superior to know what is best."
George sat up. "Yeah, well you get to cram your penis into the Mother
Superior on a regular basis."
Luke
said, "We're all benefiting from the Mother's wisdom. God didn't mean
for us to die out, and so we've got to make babies, so the three of us
have the chore of pumping sperm into the sisters."
Jacob said, "But you're still pumping the sperm in when she's already
pregnant."
Luke
said, "She says that the act is still blessed even when it's not for
making babies. Once a man accepts he's going to be dumping sperm up
there or a woman accepts she's going to get it pumped into her, they
might as well do it as much as you want."
"Oh, yeah! That's the kind of Mother Superior I like! Not like the old
abbot," said George.
"Not that she puts it quite like that," added Luke.
Jacob said, "Some of the sisters -- I don't know. Every time Nancy
comes over here, she wants it from all three of us, right?"
"You
can tell she really likes to get it, that's for sure," said George.
"Hey look, I'm getting hard just thinking about her. 'Unnh, unnh,
unnnh, Nancy, aaaahhhhh!'"
"She does that orgasm thing with me
sometimes," said Jacob. "I mean, I like to give them sperm, but I
figure there's no hurry. Shoving in and out feels really good, so why
not just keep at it for half an hour and then give it to them?"
George
said, "Not me so much. I like to jam it in deep and shoot. Of course if
I've just done it a couple times recently it can take a little longer,
but I don't hold back. If they're one of the fat ones I just do 'em
from behind, 'doggy style'. Whatever that means."
Luke said,
"Dogs are animals that live out in the wider world. They've got four
legs and no hands. That's how they do it. At least that's what Julie
says."
George said, "Whatever the heck an 'animal' is. And you,
that's the only way you can do it unless it's with the Blessed Mother
herself."
"Yeah," said Luke with a sigh. That was the theory. In
practice, with Emma he'd done more. She'd wanted to see what it looked
like when the sperm came out, so he'd showed her, using his hand. Later
she'd wanted to lick his penis, and that felt good. So when she was on
her back all naked with her legs spread wide, he didn't tell her to get
up on hands and knees. He dove right in, and it had felt great. His
penis was getting hard just thinking about it.
"You got a favorite vagina? They all feel a little different, right?"
asked George. "Jennie's my favorite."
Luke smiled. Jennie was extra special -- hotter, slicker, tighter.
Jacob
said, "Oh, yeah, she's something, isn't she? I can't last long with
her. It's like her vagina says, 'Give me the sperm, right now! Or
else!'"
Luke laughed. "Yeah, and I sure am happy to oblige."
Jacob
said, "Eleanor wanted to just sleep beside me the other night after I'd
done it to her, and I thought that was fine. Kind of warm and nice. But
then Mary showed up looking for me. I woke Eleanor up and told her to
get going because I had someone else to give sperm to. She got mad. But
she did leave."
Luke said, "Yeah, they can get funny that way.
And Mary is hard to resist, that's for sure. You notice how the younger
ones are the ones you really want to give it to?"
George said,
"Oh, yeah. But when Beatrice snuck on over -- well, I was happy to
shove it into her too. I think I'd shove it into anyone. If they've got
a vagina, I want to dump sperm into it."
They sat up at the distant sound of footsteps on a path.
"Oh,
look, it's Meghan with the baby," said Jacob. All three rose, put their
pants back on and walked back up towards their cabin.
"Yeah, my daughter, they say. That part's weird. You dump the sperm out
and the baby looks like you, even if it's a girl."
Luke said, "Good morning, Sister Meghan. What can we do for you today?"
"I brought Jean over to say hello. You want to go to your daddy, Jean?"
George held the girl in his arms and smiled.
"But, Luke, could I talk with you in private?"
George said, "Oh, yeah, a talk, eh? I hope you have a deep
conversation. You want to 'talk' with me later?"
"No thanks," said Meghan. "Got to give everyone a turn, right?"
As Luke led Meghan back into his sleeping spot, his penis got hard.
She took off her worn and patched habit and lay down.
"Um, you know I can only do it one way, right?"
"Yeah, I know, but we can relax a little first, right?"
"OK," he said and lay beside her, naked.
She looked at his stiff organ. "Can I, um, play with it?"
"Well,
OK." He then watched her reverently caressing his penis and testicles
with light touch while she looked at them from a foot away.
"OK," she said with a sigh. "I'm ready for you to use it," and sat up.
"I want to try something," he said. "Lie back down. Spread your legs."
"I thought you weren't allowed --"
"No, it's not that. But some of the sisters think this feels good."
He
covered her crotch with his hand, then began delicately brushing,
rubbing, prodding. He hoped Meghan would keep coming to him in her
attempts to start her next baby, so he was eager to make her like it.
His fingers found smooth flesh, and he began gently probing and
stroking.
"Oh, oh wow!" said Meghan. He kept rubbing, pressing,
fluttering, and she thrust her hips up at him. "Oh, oh, oh, mmmmm,
Yes!" she said, shuddering. Luke slowed his hand motion. She lay there
looking up at him, panting.
The sound of a not entirely happy baby drifted to them.
"Oh, gosh, and I haven't even got it yet!" she said. "Can you do it
quick?"
"I
think so," said Luke. He beheld the rear end presented to him, opened
her soppy pussy with his fingers and deftly place his penis tip right
in her opening. He then grappled her hips and forced himself in, and
after a few thrusts was in to the hilt.
Jean's fussing became unmistakable. Time was of the essence.
Luke shoved in and out at a furious clip, as Meghan whispered loudly,
"Give me a big load of it. Make a little brother for her!"
Delicious
pleasure built and intensified as he rammed in and out. Jean started
crying plaintively. Finally the sperm was on its way, and he plunged as
deep as he could and held perfectly still. He felt great pleasure as
his penis twitched, shooting the first glob of sperm into her. It
twitched again, and another glob shot out. After four shots the
twitching stopped. The load delivered, he let go of the rear end and
let his cock slip out.
"Thanks!" said Meghan distractedly as she rushed to get dressed and go
to her baby.
"No problem," said Luke happily as he lay back down.
What an assignment -- filling vaginas with sperm, over and over again.
He grinned.
Before
the lacuna of the boats, all of the novices had only one mother, the
Mother Superior. She delegated their care to others but made all the
final decisions. But they quickly discovered that real, biological
mothers had a close attachment to their children. This started in
infancy, when the two were joined by the bond of nursing, but it
continued after the children were weaned. In theory Julie had the final
say over the best time for a child to start eating fish, but in
practice the mother had the strongest opinions on the subject. From her
library, which she had by now read completely three times, Julie knew
that this was also the way out in the world at large.
Conflict
arose with the conservative sisters about children. In the old days,
the total population of little girls below the age of 10 was 7.
Attended to carefully by older sisters, children's noise was limited.
When there were a dozen children under the age of 4, the situation was
quite different. Babies cried at all hours. Toddlers raged and had
tantrums. Julie tried to segregate the mothers with children into
certain buildings and allocate the ones farthest away to the
conservative sisters who were bothered most, but it wasn't that large
of a settlement.
In the old days, one thing that arrived every
year along with the new novice were bundles with new habits for each of
the sisters and fresh underwear. The Book of Innocence said that clean
clothes without blemish were an aid to the holy life. All of the
clothing was of high quality and durable. But without replenishment for
over a dozen years, habits became threadbare, and mending more and more
difficult. Underwear ran short first. At first Julie got volunteers
among the liberal faction to forgo underwear unless they were having
periods, in which case it was needed to hold the menstrual cloths in
place. But as the underwear continued to deteriorate, she was forced to
impose the same restriction on the conservative sisters. They were
distressed, but had to admit that they had no solutions to offer.
The
clothing supplies of the community had naturally included no diapers.
Menstrual cloths were a substitute, but it was hard to fasten them in
place, and babies soiled many very quickly in succession. The preferred
solution was for mothers and babies to spend as much time as possible
outside in certain areas and for the babies to simply run naked.
Excretions were wiped away with water from a rain barrel. The
conservative sisters were upset by nakedness, but had no solutions to
offer. They were especially upset by little penises, which in their
view had no place on Our Lady.
Armed with what knowledge she
could glean from her books, Julie had set women to experimenting with
transforming the local plant fiber into cloth. They met with some
success, though the garments were crude and in no way resembled the
dignified cut of the Church habits. It got to the point where habits
became costumes that the sisters put on for certain of the more
important prayers.
Lucy died in childbirth, to everyone's
sorrow. But it did not stop women from wanting babies -- or more
babies, since by then several of them had had two.
Some of the
sisters with boys asked earnestly if they would be required to send
their boys over to Our Savior. Julie quickly reassured them on that
point. The abbot had left relations between the two islands frosty.
Julie also knew that she could never ask the women to give up their
sons.
An initial large crop of babies seemed appropriate to make
up for the lacuna of the boats. Now, Julie revisited the question of
how many babies was the right number for their island. She remembered
her original vision for their survival, premised on keeping the same
total population. Since they were keeping the boys, they should produce
one baby a year. It was certainly part of the harmony of the original
community that the number of sisters was more or less constant, and a
small community with ample room was more conducive to quiet meditation
and prayer.
But the community was changing. Among the sisters
under the age of 35, most were mothers who never wore habits. The real
future of the community lay with the children, who mostly went around
naked. Their mothers continued to say their prayers, but they were more
rote incantations than part of a truly devout life. If a baby cried
during prayer time, the baby came first and the prayer came second.
What was the best size for this new community?
Women
and babies spent more and more time out of doors. Local material was
harvested to make shelters with open sides and thatched roofs. Many of
the sisters without children also found these buildings more
comfortable, and there was no limit to how many could be constructed.
They
had barely tapped the food supplies available to them. There was a
great deal of land available for cultivation, while fruit from the
forest and fish were plentiful.
The island could support a much larger population. The women wanted to
have babies, and Julie saw no reason to restrict them.
When
the oldest children approached the age of three, another controversy
arose with the conservatives. They were looking forward to
reintroducing the customs of the novices and replenishing the ranks of
the sisters with careful religious training. When Julie had audiences
with the mothers, none of them had that in mind for their daughters,
and Julie couldn't see requiring it of them. Besides, what would the
boys do? Would they invent a novice program for them, or just let them
run around in the sun while their sisters developed into humble
servants of God? Julie pointed out that if she had not undertaken her
voyages to Our Savior, the order would be dying out anyway.
And
then after much prayer and meditation, Julie made a momentous decision.
Saying prayers became optional. It rapidly dropped off among the
mothers. She was effectively saying that being a member of the Church
of Innocence was not required.
When
Paul and Jean had just turned six the vernal equinox came around once
more. The vicinity of the dock was reserved for the conservative
sisters to observe one of the most solemn rituals of the year. Julie of
course continued to participate in all the major ceremonies in her role
as Mother Superior.
There was a sudden stir because a boat
approached. But it was not one of the old Church boats. It was a craft
assembled out of local materials, and contained three people instead of
one woman in white. They were monks from Our Savior. The boat was
redirected to a beach at some distance so the sisters could continue
their vigil waiting for the boat that their church taught them to wait
for, but Julie abandoned them to attend to the visitors.
The
word was that the old abbot had died and a new one taken his place. He
had commissioned the construction of this boat and sent this delegation
of three brothers. One purpose was to seek better relations and share
any information they might have on their situation regarding the wider
world, but the sisters had none to share. But their most central
question was to inquire whether God had by any chance blessed any of
them with young boys. If so, would the sisters be grateful if the
brothers would take them off their hands so they could be raised
properly as monks? This question had been decided long before, and
Julie gave her answer. The men inquired after the health of brothers
Luke, Jacob and George, and were told they were well but not available
for an audience. They still kept mostly to their side of the island. It
was a brief visit.
The brothers seemed friendly, but Julie was cautious. She reinstated
training with weapons.
The
boat from Our Savior reappeared a couple weeks later bearing the new
abbot himself, and discussions of a different sort began. Many of the
younger men on Our Savior were dissatisfied and rebellious. They
remembered the brief appearances of the women as if they had been
visits from a messiah. Before they left, Luke, George and Jacob had
confided to some close friends just how wonderful it was to deliver
sperm into women, and Peter's attempt to go with them and his
subsequent bitter withdrawal also suggested that this was something
momentous. They had been agitating for some time for building boats and
trying to reestablish a relationship.
Julie revealed the
grievances of the older, conservative sisters, who felt their island
was a most unsatisfactory place to carry on the sort of life they had
consecrated themselves to. Thus arose the idea of a swap. Although
living with men was a grave disruption of their order, it would be less
disruptive to a life of prayer than living with young women who had for
all practical purposes left the order and their pack of wild,
undisciplined children.
Julie reread the portions of her library
dealing with different conceptions of marriage. If the number of men
rose to match the number of women, it became feasible. It was an
institution that lay behind all of the most stable societies. The very
first marriage was between Luke and Julie. There began a series of
cross-island exchanges using the three boats as ferries. Interested
women went over to Our Savior for dating and courting. A few of the
sisters indulged their carnal passions among the sudden cornucopia of
men available to them, and some of the men who had been ambivalent
about marriage became enthusiastic once they had experienced the act
which lay at the heart of it.
No man was to be allowed on Our
Lady until his proposal of marriage had been accepted by one of the
women. These men came over a few at a time, swore obedience to Julie
and were integrated into the evolving society. A a certain point, the
conservative women abandoned Our Lady together, as fast as the boats
could ferry them. Once the separation was mostly complete, an
occasional man and woman from the religious order on Our Savior married
and joined the community on Our Lady. Once it became apparent that the
woman was already pregnant.
Jacob married Lisa. George never did
marry. A few sisters remained on Our Lady but did not marry, including
some of the older ones who liked the idea of living in a community with
children. No one thought George suddenly became celibate, and no one
inquired too closely about who was sleeping with whom. When unmarried
Emma became pregnant, no one cared -- after all, the entire crop of
older children had been conceived out of wedlock.
The
Church had founded Our Lady and Our Savior on the principle that
knowledge was a bad thing -- that knowledge of something as basic as
the differences between the sexes and how babies were made was an
obstacle to the holy life. Julie had eaten fruit from the tree of
knowledge, and it had transformed a rigid religious community that was
dying out into a vibrant village of married men, women, and children.
Everyone
accepted that there should be an Abbot for the one island and a Mother
Superior for the other to be in charge of everything because they had
never conceived of any other way of arranging a society.
Julie
had designated Frances as her successor as Mother Superior if anything
happened to her. She had gradually shifted the composition of the
Council to include a few mothers -- or other mothers, since Julie
herself had two daughters.
The one thing Julie had reserved to
herself alone was the knowledge that came from reading and rereading a
set of books. She had read about different forms of government. There
were governments whose workings depended on fear, secret spies, and
force, but they made no sense to her. One that amused her was a
hereditary monarchy, according to which her elder daughter would some
day become the new Mother Superior. She could feel the pull of it,
though she never seriously considered it. One plan would have the
Council be the fundamental body, choosing a Mother Superior from among
their number but one they could remove at any time by a simple majority
vote. The Council would select their own replacements. Then there was
democracy, an interesting idea. Each person got a vote, and whoever got
the most votes would be the new Mother Superior. They could vote for
Council members too. It made a lot of sense.
But Julie didn't
trust herself to figure it all out on her own. So she shifted the
composition of the Council slightly and made their primary
responsibility reading the library, indexing it, and figuring out what
it all meant. No longer would she be the one person who knew what was
in the books. When they figured out what was best in terms of
governance, Julie would study it carefully but thought it likely she
would approve it.
The boats still ventured back and forth
between the two islands to exchange news. One day came a message from
the abbot. They were getting to be fewer and could see the day coming
when they could no longer maintain the fields and facilities on Our
Savior on their own. A few couples and older children, chosen because
they were comparatively quiet and reserved, were invited to move to Our
Savior. They helped care for the sisters and brothers in their
declining years. Over time more and more families moved to Our Savior.
Julie convinced the abbot to cede his temporal authority to her, so a
single policy could coordinate activities on the two islands. He
retained his spiritual authority in the prayers and ceremonies of the
Church. On each vernal equinox, a small band of elderly brothers and
sisters waited at the dock on Our Savior for the boat.
Julie
and Luke sat on the porch of the Residence enjoying the sounds of the
community around them. Their two grandsons by their younger daughter
played at their feet.
There was a commotion as younger eyes and
ears detected it first. An object appeared in the sky, somewhat like a
bird but larger and making a steady noise. Some measure of education
based on the contents of the books had by then reached most of the
adults, so most knew that it was an airplane. It circled the island,
flew over it, and the flew off to investigate Our Savior before
disappearing back the way it had come.
Everyone waited anxiously
to see what else might happen. Five days later a boat approached the
island, a much bigger boat than they had ever seen. From its side
descended a boat closer in size to the ones the Church used to send,
though this one was powered by a motor. Men in uniform disembarked and
there were cautious greetings and introductions. An hour later Mayor
Julie sat in her receiving room with her five council members and two
officers of the United States Navy. They received the first news of the
world that any of them had ever heard. Otherwise they had only what had
been passed down to them by the older sisters and brothers and the
contents of Julie's century-old books.
There had arisen much
trouble in the world, including political strife and famine. There had
been a large earthquake in Seattle, the city that was the seat of the
Holy Innocence Church. Contributions to the Church plummeted as all
efforts went to addressing the need within their own city. The
existence of Our Lady and Our Savior had been a closely guarded secret.
The Church could no longer afford to send its own expedition that would
preserve that secrecy. They debated informing the authorities of the
stranded communities but decided against it. Hopefully the Church would
rise to its former glory. If it never did, the monks and nuns would
continue to praise God until they died out. Only within the past year
had the existence of the religious colonies leaked out -- one of the
key leaders had revealed the secret in his senility. The news made its
way through the government, an expedition had been organized to
investigate, and there they were.
The islands were now the
property of them -- the natives. The laws of the world decreed that any
who wished to leave the islands were free to go. Otherwise, they could
decide among themselves what aspects of the modern world they wished to
import -- even which aspects of the modern world they wished to learn
about.
Shortly thereafter Julie and her council agreed to accept
a pair of sociologists who took up residence with them for a year. They
held interviews with all the residents, more with the older residents
and most of all with Julie herself. The case of Our Lady and Our Savior
was of immense interest to their profession, because they were a pair
of sex-segregated communities who had been kept thoroughly ignorant of
a great deal of common human knowledge. They carefully cataloged the
contents of Julie's library and interviewed her for days on end about
how new ideas had occurred to her, which books she had read at
different times and how the reading had interacted with her thoughts
and decisions.
They listened utterly spellbound as she described
the first fumbling and urgent sexual encounter between Abbot and Mother
Superior and the expeditions that had followed in her quest to create
babies. She had earned immortality in the annals of the field.
The
blockbuster dramatization of their story began with the midnight visit
of the Council to Julie's seclusion cell. For some reason, two lines
lived on in the lore of the world for centuries.
The first was
always delivered with a tone resonant with authority, and the second
with a squeak. "I pledge to you my loyalty and obedience, O Reverend
Mother." "Me?"