Chapter 10

Mary and I returned to our home approximately 13 miles away from the town. However, we did move back to Town (as it was now being called officially) when Mary's water broke. Her delivery was performed by one of the experienced midwives, so I did not have to do that, after all. Mary and our new son Henry, Jr. were probably better off for that, considering how excited and nervous I was at the event. As was usual among us, Henry was circumcised, just as I was.

Now that we were living in Town, I was approached more and more often to decide this and that on policy. Pretty soon, this became a full time job for me. As my friend John put it, "Hank, you are now mayor of Town, whether you want to be or not."

At the insistence of everybody but Mary and me, we moved into the palace. However, it was now known as City Hall. All of the administrative tools were there, so it was the logical place for the mayor to live. As soon as she was able, Mary was appointed Assistant Mayor. All of our stuff was moved to Town from our previous home, and we were comfortably established in City Hall.

Yes, we had servants. Specifically, I had wanted the former queen to be our household maid. It particularly amused me that she had to clean the toilets every day. As a joke, I once took a photograph of her bent over the toilet bowl scrubbing away, using a tooth brush. The thing I thought was funny was the way her "P" brand was so prominently displayed on her right buttock.

I had that picture framed and posted so that I could see it every time I used the toilet. It was also posted on our version of the internet. Of course, the ex-queen was embarrassed—that was what I had in mind. No, I didn't hate her, but I did hate so many of the things that she had done or had allowed to be done while she was queen. I made sure that she understood that was what she was being punished for, and she had a life sentence.

The other former boss's wives did the same duty throughout Town. I did take pity on them in one respect: I allowed them to wear knee pads because their weight made it especially painful for them to spend so much time on their knees. Cleaning 500 toilets or more became a full time job, and I did let them graduate to larger brushes. However, the ex-queen had to stick to her toothbrush as her toilet cleaning tool. By the way, she did have a different toothbrush for her teeth, but the threat was always there.

****

Mary made an excellent Assistant Mayor. She took over all of the routine stuff so that I could concentrate on the unusual problems that kept coming up. One of the first things she did was to assign the pool of ex-overseers to clearing and building roads and other infrastructure during the summer and clearing the snow from the roads and other public places during the winter. She did allow them to wear clothes in the worst weather.

Some people had agitated for a public brothel making use of all of the female overseers. There were 27 of them who had survived the revolution, and the only real skill some of them had was located between their thighs. Personally, I didn't think that prostitution was that big a deal as far as public morals were concerned, so I okayed the project. The brothel was managed by Betty, my second wife.

Betty and Mary had come to a very comfortable working relationship. Mary agreed that it would only be fair that I fuck Betty some of the time. As it turned out, Betty did not have nearly as active a libido as did Mary, so Mary still got all of the fucking she wanted. Nevertheless, Betty did have three children by me, and Mary had a total of four before they decided that they were too busy for any more pregnancies. They had contraceptive shots regularly after that, and were very happy with their lives.

Anyway, back to Betty and the brothel. Betty set up a registry that allowed a man no more than one visit per week, and if he came in more than once per month, he had have a note of permission from his wife. After only a few weeks, men were only showing up during the times when their wives were having their menstrual periods. The wives did not complain about those visits.

At first, Betty had a rule that the women were not allowed to have orgasms. That was to add to their punishment: stimulation without relief. A lot of the prostitutes went to sleep in tears as a result of that ruling, but the rule didn't last long. It seemed that the prostitutes were not cooperating with their customers, even with the application of a switch, or a whip in the worst cases.

The prostitutes were trying to avoid too much stimulation, and that cut into the stimulation that their clients got. Betty did rescind the order about no orgasms for the prostitutes, but she did order that their clits be removed surgically. That way, the prostitutes could have an orgasm only if their G-spots were adequately stimulated. That certainly improved the quality of the fucks as far as the customers were concerned, and the prostitutes had no choice but to cooperate.

At one point, some wag hung a sign on the brothel: "Betty's Whore House, the best fucks in Town." The sign came down when some of the wives complained. Their complaint was that the sign implied that they did not provide an adequate fuck, and they were insulted by that. Betty laughed, but she did have the sign taken down.

****

With the replicators providing everything that a person or a family needed, people started to get bored. At least, when they were working as serfs, they did not have time to become bored. The only real job for a citizen was in supervision of the ex-overseers. Everything else was done by computer or by replicator. Even education was not much of a chore because of the teaching machines and that a full education could be gained in less than three hours of a child's life.

The ex-overseers were put to constructing all kinds of sports venues. Everything in the alphabet, starting with archery, was available. Even ice skating, hockey, and anything else to be done on ice was available the year round, courtesy of the replicators. To my surprise, even the violent sports such as hockey, lacrosse, and American football became popular. I did insist that the rules to prevent head injuries be rigidly enforced.

As the population grew, more sports attracted enough people to form teams and leagues. After about 10 years, wagering began on a wide scale, and money was put into circulation just to honor that sport. Everybody was issued $25 to use for gambling, and I put a block on the replicators so that they could not make any for individuals. Very soon, the money was used for other things, and we drifted into a money-driven economy.

Since almost no one had a regular job, I started issuing $100 per month to all citizens over the age of 8. Those who were working at other jobs received an additional $100. Having had no experience with money, myself, I just guessed at how much to give everybody. I figured that it would not be long before I heard about it if I had made a mistake.

Some people, especially women, started producing craft items and selling them to other citizens. I stayed out of that and let the market set its own prices. So far, everybody was happy, and my stock in the public was rising even higher. That made me happy, but I admitted to being a little concerned at the inevitable bust in my popularity.

****