Chapter 1

When the knock on my apartment door came, I answered the door expecting to find the delivery boy from the pizzeria down the street.

Instead I found myself face to face with a man in the uniform of a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy, carrying a clipboard.

"Lt. Paul Chapman?" He asked. I nodded.

"Sign here," he said.

"Hold on a moment," I said, "Just what am I signing for?"

The CPO rolled his eyes and sighed. "Great. Another one who didn't get the news." He refocused on me. "Under executive order 2332, all persons of the rank of O1 and above currently on active duty in the United States military are required to be married in order to promote family values and moral character. Since you are unmarried and show no signs of getting married in the near future, the US government has issued you a wife."

I blinked at him. "You're joking right?"

He gave me an evil grin. "Nope. Sign here please."

"But I don't want a wife!" I protested. "I like being single!"

The CPO shrugged. "Your choices are to either accept the wife issued to you, or to resign your commission immediately. I have both forms right here."

"This is a little much to take in at one time," I said, "don't the women have any say in whom they are issued to?"

The CPO smiled tiredly. "Look Lt. Here's the deal. You know that the last war left the women outnumbering the men here at home 30 to 1."

"I know all that," I interrupted, "it's a single man's paradise out there."

"All of the wives that we issue have signed up for the program voluntarily," the CPO continued as if I hadn't spoken. "After 30 days, if you prove to be incompatible, you can put in a request for another wife to be issued to you. Otherwise the term of the marriage runs to the end of your military career."

"Do I at least get to see the woman before I make up my mind?" I asked a little desperately.

The CPO grinned again. "Of course," he replied. He turned and waved to someone just out of my sight. In a moment a woman came close enough for me to see her.

Maybe about 20, she was pretty enough in a 'farmer's daughter' sort of way, with

long brown hair and a decent figure. She was wearing the long, somewhat shapeless dress that became mandatory public dress for women outside of the home since the new indecency laws had been passed a year ago.

The CPO started to say something, but I held up my hand and he closed his mouth with an audible snap. I faced the woman directly. "Are you agreeing with this set up?" I asked. "If you are under duress, I can and will protect you until State Security shows up."

She shook her head. " I am not under duress." She replied softly. "I signed up for this of my own free will."

To me it sounded like a rehearsed answer, but I had no grounds to dispute it. I turned to the CPO. "Give me the papers." I signed on the dotted line.

The CPO saluted and then left at a rapid pace.

The woman stood there staring at me curiously. I remembered my manners. "I am Lt. Paul Chapman. Please come in."

She gave me a smile then. "A little formal for talking to your wife isn't it?"

I flushed a little and stepped back a few paces so that she could enter. She closed the door behind her.

I led her into the living room and set her down on the couch. To tell the truth, I was still somewhat in a state of shock. She noticed this and smiled again. "My name is Cathy Ellsworth." She stopped and shook her head. "I guess it's Cathy Chapman now." She looked up at me where I was still standing there as if rooted to the spot. "Oh come on and sit down, I won't bite."

I flushed again and moved to sit down on the couch a foot or so from her.

"Relax," she told me. "I got into this program because I didn't care for the alternatives. I didn't want to risk the lottery for the 'Homeland Replenishment Corps' and wind up being forced to undergo artificial insemination if my name happened to be drawn. Nor do I have any inclination to go gay, especially with the new 'purity' laws." She shuddered.

I shuddered a little too. Ever since that preacher got elected after James Cromwell and most of the rest of Washington, DC died, when someone had managed to sneak a rather large nuke into the city and set it off 20 years ago, things were starting to resemble Taliban era Afghanistan. The penalty for being openly gay was forced sterilization and lifetime confinement on the Wyoming Undesirables Reservation.

Penalties under the provisions of other of the so-called 'Purity' laws were equally draconian. Public stonings were becoming more and more common for violations of the public modesty acts. And as a member of the military, I had been required to officiate at several of these executions, which meant reading the death warrant to the gathered crowd and throwing the first stone. It always gave me nightmares for weeks afterward.

The military service was the safest of the available jobs for men these days. Unless you were in one of the other 'protected' occupations, farming or medicine for example, you were subject to draft by the Reclamations Corps, which was currently engaged in clearing the debris from what had been the nation's capital. I thought about the radiation and short life expectancy of those poor devils and decided that marriage wasn't such a bad idea after all. Of course, there was always the route of the Church. But the requirement that all priests and acolytes be gelded made that a choice of little appeal, at least to me. I'd just as soon hang on to my balls, thank you very much.

Still, I couldn't believe that this pretty young woman sitting next to me on the couch was now my wife. Somehow I had always pictured myself falling in love and then settling down to a nice, quiet home life with a passel of kids.

There was anther knock on the door. This time it was the pizza delivery boy. I paid and tipped him, then took the pizza back to the living room and sat down on the couch again. Cathy took the box from my hands, set it down on the coffee table and opened it. The tempting odor of the hot pizza wafted up to my nostrils, but I just didn't have much appetite now. Cathy had no such reservations and started chowing down on the pizza. "I don't mean to seem greedy," she said as she licked a bit of sauce from her upper lip. "but I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"No problem," I told her. "Eat all you want."

I wasn't too surprised that she was hungry. With the rampant inflation and general shortage of food these days, malnutrition was the second most common cause of death among women.

In short order, Cathy had finished most of the pizza and even the half slice that I had been too queasy to eat. Finally sated, she sat back and looked at me speculatively.

I stared back trying vainly to think of something, anything, to say.

Finally Cathy looked away. "I think I need a bath." She sniffed "No, I know I need a bath."

"Down the hall, first door on your right," I said.

Something occurred to me then. "Don't you have any bags? Clothes and things?"

She shook her head. "When I signed up for the program they made me leave everything behind."

"For Pete's sake, why?" I asked.

Cathy shrugged. "The proctor told us that they didn't have the resources to haul around bunches of feminine frippery and that it was bad enough having to haul us all over creation just to find husbands for us."

I shook my head in disgust. No doubt that proctor had by now sold off all of the women's belongings that he had forced them to leave behind. Well that I could do something about. But not tonight.

"There are some sweat pants and shirts in my ... our, bedroom. Put those on after your bath. We'll see about getting you more clothes and whatever else you'll need in the morning." I said.

Cathy nodded and headed for the bathroom. I leaned back on the couch and thought for a bit. Then I picked up my phone and called my commanding officer.

By the time Cathy had come out of the bathroom, I had explained the situation to my CO and he confirmed the executive order was genuine. He gave me a few days leave to get settled into the new domestic situation and then I'd have to report to the base to pick up my assignment. "Most likely more domestic security duty," he said with a sigh. "Damn it, I'd prefer combat duty to acting like a goddamn policeman."

I agreed with him, but didn't have the rank to be able to say so safely. A slip of the tongue on my part could land me in the reclamation corps, or on a gallows.

Cathy came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel with another towel wrapped around her long hair. She glanced at me and I pointed to the doorway at the end of the hallway. She nodded and flashed me a smile, then went on into the bedroom.

I waited for a while to give her a chance to get dressed. I killed the time by cleaning up the living room. Then I headed down the hallway to my bedroom and my first night as a married man.

Cathy was already in the bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. For all her seeming confidence earlier, she appeared nervous and never took her eyes off me, as I undressed down to my boxers and slipped into bed beside her. I turned to face her and propped myself up on my elbow.

"This is new to both of us," I said, "so nothing has to happen that you do not want to do. I am perfectly happy just to get some sleep. It has been a nerve wracking evening."

Cathy ducked her head and blushed a little. "Could we just, you know, cuddle for a while?"

"Sure," I said. I rolled over onto my back and left my left arm outstretched. She wriggled closer and gingerly laid her head on my shoulder. I bent my left arm to rest the forearm across her shoulders where I could stroke her back and hair. She put her arm across my chest and put her leg partially atop mine, then she nestled her face closer to me and sighed contentedly. I slowly and gently stroked her hair and upper back until she fell asleep.

I wasn't a virgin, and hadn't been one for over a decade, but I was sensitive enough to know that she needed to ease her way into the new situation as much as I did.

She was wearing a pair of my gym shorts and one of my t-shirts as pajamas. She felt soft and warm and altogether desirable lying there in my arm. I stared at the ceiling and thought about tomorrow and what trouble I was going to get into for poking that crooked Church proctor one right in the nose.

After a long time, I slept.

I awoke in the morning to the wonderful feeling of having a woman snuggled up close to me. Cathy didn't appear to have moved all night. She was still sound asleep and I didn't want to wake her so I stayed right where I was and took the time to think things through.

OK so I had a wife. Now what? Well, first things first. Get her some clothes and all the other 1001 things that women seemed to need.

Next I would look up that proctor and tear him a new one. After that? I had no idea. Christ on a crutch, I didn't even know where my new wife was from or what she had done for a living or anything about her except for her name, and that she claimed to have signed up for the issue wife program freely.

Cathy interrupted my train of thought by stirring, and then stretching, squirming delightfully against me as she did so.

"Good morning," I said.

"Morning," she mumbled and snuggled against me for a moment before reluctantly getting up and stumbling toward the bathroom. I watched her go and decided that she did, indeed, have a nice firm figure to go with that pretty face.

Shaking my head to clear it of thoughts I couldn't take the time to explore right then, I sat up and stretched. Then I got down onto the floor and did my morning pushups.

I got to my feet when Cathy came out of the bathroom wearing her shapeless dress again. "I'll fix breakfast while you shower," she said. "what would you like?"

"Surprise me," I said with a quick grin. Then I headed for the bathroom to shit, shower, and shave in preparation for the day's activities.

Cathy proved to be a very good cook, and had a hearty breakfast waiting by the time I was dressed and ready to face the day. I had decided to wear my dress uniform today. I figured it might give me an air of authority when I went to deal with that damned proctor.

Cathy sat across from me as I ate, her chin cupped in her hands and her elbows planted on the table. She smiled when I complimented her on her cooking. Indeed it was better than I had eaten in many years.

After the dishes were done, I escorted my new bride downstairs to the secure parking level. As an officer in the military I had access to a small armored car and I used it. Military officers and churchmen were often targets of malcontents, and I had no wish to be one of the dozen or so officers assassinated every day.

Cathy had never ridden in a military designed vehicle before and was suitably impressed.

What impressed me was that while I was describing the various functions of the devices around us, Cathy spotted the vehicles weaknesses and had suggestions to eliminate them.

The Church dogma was big on the "women should be at home, preferably barefoot and pregnant" line. Officially there was equal education for both men and women. Unofficially, educating a woman beyond the minimum required for whatever job she was destined for was considered a waste of time, and was frowned upon as a waste of resources. In Cathy's case this was an error of mammoth proportions.