Emma had grow up in the valley, and she knew she would spend her whole life there. Everyone did. The valley was a couple miles long and a quarter mile wide. It was surrounded on all sides by cliffs that could not be scaled. A high waterfall was the start of the stream that ran through the valley, and on the lower end it disappeared under the ground.

They were all descended from the same two people, her great-great-great grandparents Elijah and Patience Smith. The two had been part of an expedition of 20 men and 12 women to South America in search of a new home. Their supplies were on mules, while they walked. Progress was slow over rough terrain. Their path blocked by a steep ridge, the group fanned out, trying to find a way through. Patience stepped forward through thick growth and the ground crumbled beneath her. She gave a cry, then fell and landed hard. Elijah heard and ran to investigate. He saw Patience far below through the gap in the earth, scratched and bloody and holding her ankle. He fancied Patience, and while trying to find a way down to her, the ground gave way beneath him too, and he landed next to Patience. He was bruised and scratched. Their cries went unheard by the rest of the party. He carried her down to a shady area by the stream. As Patience's ankle healed, Elijah explored up and down the valley for a way out. But there was no break in the cliffs, no way to get up. Weeks turned to months, with no sign from the rest of their party. They were stuck.

They were also in a paradise. The weather was mild year-round, the trees were always laden with fruit. Potatoes grew wild in abundance. A cave provided shelter until huts could be built.

As they really grasped that they were stuck, their thoughts turned to the future. Though there was no preacher to perform a ceremony, they swore marriage vows to each other. Patience bore children, one by one, 15 in all. With no other mates at hand, brother had married sister, and more children had come, generation after generation. And so by the time Emma Smith married Ebenezer Smith, they were a community of twelve hundred souls. They were all Christians, because that's what Elijah and Patience had been, but as time went by and children asked what that meant, the adults found they didn't really know. The legend told of bibles, other books, and writing, but there was none of that in the valley.

Emma had been nervous on her wedding night, but discovered that sex was not painful. It was strange at first but pleasant. Within a couple weeks she thought it was just wonderful. Ebenezer thought so too, and they fulfilled their marital duties to each other morning and night. Emma looked forward to being a mother, but for three months they had no success.

Then Hepzibah Smith came down with a cold. Sneezing and coughing marked the progress of the malady through the community. Such colds were a common enough occurrence, and recovery from this one took only a couple days. But after Ebenezer and Emma had both recovered and they lay together, kissing and caressing each other in preparation for the act, his penis remained soft. Night after night the organ refused to come to attention. He confessed that he also just wasn't interested in sex any more. He still shared Emma's enthusiasm for children, so he tried his best, but nothing happened.

Like women everywhere, women of the valley confided their private difficulties to their friends. All of Emma's friends' husbands were affected the same way!

Before Emma married, Stephen had shown an intense interest in her. He was deeply disappointed when she chose Ebenezer as her husband, and she still recalled the lustful looks he gave her. Surely if any lust was strong enough to weather this affliction, it was his for her. He was not yet married, and she went to him secretly. He was friendly enough, but there was no spark. He seemed unusually oblivious to her hints about sexual availability, and when she finally asked him directly, he blandly said he had no interest. He recalled that he used to, but he didn't any more.

Weeks went by, and not a husband in the community could get an erection. Teen boys couldn't either. Not a single penis in the entire colony was capable of an erection.

Soon all the adults knew. Some enterprising souls hoped to make creative use of the sticky secretions of wet dreams, but there were no wet dreams. Some women confessed their sexual frustration to their closest friends. It was plain that if nothing changed, they were doomed to extinction.

But it was not an imminent disaster. Five years passed. Discreet attention was paid to the boys who grew into puberty. They became muscular and hairy and seemed normal in every respect -- except they had no interest in sex and could not achieve erections.

Maintaining their lifestyle in the valley required no special exertions by anyone. Up until that time friendships, love, and marriage were on people's minds as much as ever in human communities. Now the men reported a peace and contentment they had never known before. They lazed around, admiring nature. Aside from the most basic functions of eating, drinking, and elimination, they moved little.

The women still cared about the children, the future, and each other. They felt their men slipping away and becoming alien creatures. Each sex found the other tiresome. Most marriages evaporated, and men preferred to live peacefully with other men. More and more it became a society run by women. They watched their sons emerge from puberty with the tranquility and indifference of their fathers, and then the young men went to live with the older.

Six years after the emasculating cold swept through the colony, a strange man stumbled into the settlement. When he spoke it sounded to them like gibberish -- certainly nothing like English. Although scratched and bruised from his fall, he was basically OK. Emma noticed that he was definitely handsome. Taller than the hundreds of Smiths, with broad shoulders and a square jaw, somewhat darker in complexion, and with dark brown hair. His eyes were a color they had never seen before -- brown! She could tell from their glances that the other women also found him attractive. The women were excited and debated what it might mean. He might well be able to impregnate all the women who wanted children.

The new man sought out the men of the valley. But in response to his attempts at communication, they just nodded and smiled serenely.

The women actively engaged him in the hunt for gestures and signs to convey meaning. He brought them to where he had landed and pointed far up the steep slope to show where had come from. It was the same place Elijah and Patience had come from. The man wanted to return to the world above. They casually conveyed that this was not possible, but he did not seem to get it. Of course no one could leave -- they had all known that for generations. But they recalled that Elijah and Patience had assumed they could get out somehow to return to their companions, so this man would as well.

The Smiths vacated a hut for his use, and he was content to share the food they offered and spend the night.

The next morning he set out confidently, accompanied by a shifting audience of curious children and women. As he walked around the edges of the valley they saw his confidence turn to doubt and then alarm. As he returned to his hut after a day of strenuous exploration, a couple enterprising young women spent time with him, smiling and flirting, sitting close, even leaning up against him. He seemed to understand their meaning, but he shook his head. The next day he began a more thorough investigation of the valley walls, picking a section a day and exploring every foot of ground. The women tried again to pique his romantic or sexual interest, thinking he had perhaps been too tired at first. Then they thought perhaps he had particular tastes, so more young women were encouraged to come visit, including the most comely, the large and small in each and every dimension, and the shy. But he showed no sign of interest. This was disappointing. Unlike the men of the valley, he definitely had will and spirit. But he was just like them in displaying no sexual interest. The women wondered if he was capable of an erection. There would be time to find out more.

Except there wasn't. He went to sleep the sixth night after his arrival and never woke up. He had simply died in his sleep, and none could recall him looking sick or complaining of any unease the night before. The valley was generally a healthful place, with no life-threatening illnesses and few unexplained deaths among the young and healthy. With sadness they interred him in the burial ground alongside their hundreds of Smith forebears.

The women wondered about future possibilities. If one man came, maybe more would. The first man's death was probably a fluke -- but they wondered if there was anything they had done that might have caused it. Any unusual plants or animals in the section of valley wall he had been exploring that day? And then there was the question of sex. Did he refuse their advances because of no interest, or perhaps moral concerns? Perhaps he was married to someone in the vast world above? Some thought they had seen a special sparkle in his eyes as he tried repeatedly to engage the young men in conversation. After all the speculation, there was little to be done. Life returned to the normal they had come to accept over the preceding six years.

Two months later, another man tumbled down into the valley. He had badly twisted his ankle, and it was his cries that brought some nearby Smiths running to help him down into the settlement. In coloring and build he was similar to the first man.

The first man's untimely death was a reminder that nothing is certain in life. This man didn't immediately express a strong desire to leave, which the Smiths figured was because he wanted to give his ankle time to heal. But some young women decided not to wait, as a healthy ankle is not required for what they had in mind.

Emma's younger sister Elizabeth was the most enterprising. She devised a plan with Emma and set it in motion. As he finished eating his first meal that afternoon, she helped him up and put his arm around her shoulder while Emma offered herself for support on the other side. At his guest hut, Elizabeth helped him inside, and by arrangement Emma stayed outside to turn away any other visitors. She had quite a few to turn away.

Inside, Elizabeth helped the young man onto his sleeping pallet and then sat beside him. She gave him her best flirtatious smile and rested her hand on his knee. The man took her meaning. He stroked her cheek and rested his hand on her shoulder, then slowly slid it down towards her breast. Elizabeth sat up straighter and smiled.

His hand then cupped her breast firmly. His face conveyed unmistakable interest. He paused and gestured outside while saying some gibberish in his own language, then pantomimed people coming in and out.

Elizabeth shook her head and said loudly, "Emma, he wants to know if anyone will be coming in."

"That sounds promising," came the muffled reply. "No, everything's looking fine in that regard."

Elizabeth made reassuring gestures.

The man then did a series of wonderful things in quick succession. He stroked her other breast, then let his hand slide lower. Elizabeth lay back on the pallet to encourage him, and his hand landed on her left knee and rapidly slid up under her dress to her crotch. The Smiths all dressed in simple homespun shifts and had no undergarments. Elizabeth smiled encouragement and the man stroked her crotch a few times. Then he turned back, whipped off his shirt and worked his pants off quickly, along with a white undergarment.

And there, between his legs, was an erect penis! Elizabeth feasted on the sight as he crawled on top of her. She quickly pulled her shift up over her head so she was naked too. She was about to get what none of the hundreds of Smith women had gotten for six years -- a penis inside her vagina!

Then the man paused, and began gently stroking her between the legs. It felt nice, but Elizabeth had a more specific hunger. There was a hard penis, she didn't know how long it would stay hard, and she desperately wanted it to penetrate her body.

A single finger pointing at her opening conveyed her desire, and he gave a big grin as he lowered himself into position. She saw the tip disappear from her view while the warm blunt end pressed against her. It pressed hard, harder, and harder still, and then suddenly broke through. There was a sharp pain and she winced.

The man paused with a questioning look, but a little discomfort was nothing to her. She mimed with her finger the motion she was looking for. He then pressed in with greater force and in a series of strokes worked his organ in deeper and deeper. Elizabeth was dimly aware that it hurt, but mostly it felt absolutely right. She had a man lying on top of her and a cock thrusting in and out of her pussy. He was thrusting fast and hard, with enthusiasm. She felt the tip of the hot, hard thing hitting against the deep end of her tunnel. And then he pressed himself in all the way tight and gasped. He was delivering sperm! The stuff that made women pregnant ... She might get pregnant from this!

A few breaths later the man let his penis slide out, eased himself down beside her and lay on his back, favoring his ankle. He looked very happy as he let her snuggle against him.

Not too long after, she heard a gentle, "Elizabeth? Elizabeth?" from outside. So she rose and pulled her shift on, then parted the drape that formed the hut's door.

"Did it work?" asked Emma excitedly.

Elizabeth glowed and nodded.

"My turn?"

Elizabeth hesitated, and Emma turned it from a question into a statement: "My turn!" She disappeared into the hut.

Other pairs and trios of women approached. Elizabeth stood with dazed satisfaction and told her story. The key fact was that he had ejaculated deep in her vagina, and they could hope for the same treatment!

As she entered the hut, Emma saw the man reach for his trousers to cover himself up, but she signaled she didn't care about that. She squatted beside the pallet, giving him a clear view up under her shift. He noticed, and she then observed the most wonderful, amazing thing. The man's limp organ was swelling, getting bigger. More importantly, it was getting stiff. Stiff and hard, just like Ebenezer's used to. Just like a penis had to be to penetrate women.

He curled the fingers of one hand and poked his index finger in and out with a questioning look.

Emma nodded eagerly, lay back and pulled her shift up out of the way. She spread her legs wide, wide apart. Anything to make it easier for him to get that thing into her. He knew what to do -- and he wanted to do it! He mounted her and nuzzled his hard tip in just the right spot, then forced it in. Emma's pussy had been empty and unused for six years, but it was not a virgin pussy. The man's strokes were insistent and soon he had buried his whole organ inside. It was bigger than Ebenezer's!

He fucked in and out of her fast, grinning vacantly down to where his member was penetrating her body, stabbing it in and out -- such a wonderful invasion. It went on and on. She dimly remembered from her early married days that after finishing one bout of sex, it took Ebenezer longer the second time. This man had just done it to her little sister. The wonderful glow built in her loins, the glow of sex, of desire, of hope for a baby.

She felt his strokes intensify, and all at once the glow broke inside her and she gasped -- an orgasm. Seconds later she felt him thrust with abandon as he groaned and relaxed -- the sign he was delivering his precious load. He rolled off of her and lay back. He was lost in his own world, with an idiot grin of satisfaction. Emma got up to leave, reminded unpleasantly of how all the Smith men had acted these past several years. But there was reason to hope this was temporary.

Another young woman entered the hut right after Emma left, but came right back out, reporting that he had held up his hands to head her off.

In the morning there were several women hanging around outside his hut, and when he appeared hopping on one foot, they all rose and looked at him expectantly. He looked them over and pointed to one. With her help he made it to and from the latrine, and she helped him back into the hut. She later reported his lustful advances, and she of course accepted them enthusiastically. It ended as natural mating acts do with sperm deep in her vagina.

A sprained ankle is no serious obstacle to copulation. He went at each of the women with zest and enthusiasm.

On the fourth day his ankle was mostly better and his gestural questions about how to get out of the valley became more pointed. He was upset when he realized he was trapped -- but not as upset as the man before. It didn't stop him from satisfying his lust with 3 or 4 different women each day.

He tapped Elizabeth for a second bout of sex. The other young women grumbled, but he was the one in charge. Just as they were entering the hut, a few men were ambling by. He pointed to them, pointed to the women, and turned his palms up to indicate a question. Elizabeth thought she understood, but led him inside his hut before giving her clarifying question. Pointing out there and to herself, she then pantomimed fucking with her fingers. The man nodded and turned his palms up again. Elizabeth turned just a little pink as she used one hand to form a vagina, and with the other did her best to convey a flaccid penis. The man seemed to understand, and was surprised. He pointed all different directions outside the hut, and held his own finger in the relaxed, deflated position. Elizabeth nodded.

She then used her hands to shape an imaginary man beside her. She shifted her hips seductively, ran her left hand over her left breast, and batted her eyes at this imaginary man. Then she stepped over to take his place and gave a smirk of disinterest and a yawn.

The man nodded. Then he looked puzzled and pointed over his shoulder repeatedly. Elizabeth didn't understand. He thought another moment, and then pantomimed a small child, and pointed all around.

Then Elizabeth understood -- he wanted to know where all the children came from if the men had no interest in sex. She pantomimed a man with lust in her eyes, and put an upward-pointing finger between her legs to indicate an erection. Then she used her hands over her stomach to show a pregnant belly swelling, then swept her hand down from between her legs to the floor. She then brought the hand up, hopefully showing children growing taller. She then waved her hands to change context, put her hand at the height she estimated for a 5-year-old child, nodded as she raised the hand higher. She then returned it to the 5-year-old level and moved it downward, shaking her head. He nodded, apparently understanding that the men used to be interested until about 6 years before.

After a moment with no further gestural questions, she pointed to the pallet with raised eyebrows. He hesitated, and then drew her to him and gently offered a kiss. Elizabeth was a bit surprised, but didn't hesitate. She felt more vulnerable being kissed than being fucked, but she found this man attractive in every way. If he was going to take a special shine to her, that would be wonderful. Besides, she figured they would soon get around to sex, and regular sex was better for making babies than occasional sex. The kisses grew more passionate and his hands roamed all over her body. It felt great.

When they lay on the mat naked, he surprised her mightily by shifting downward and moving his head between her legs. What was he going to do? He grinned at her puzzled look, and then she felt his tongue lick her private place. Gross! She yelped and wriggled. When he looked up she shook her head, and pointed between her legs, moving her pointed finger forward and back in a clear indication of sexual intercourse.

He nodded, then with a twinkle in his eye, he sat back and yawned.

After several seconds, she pointed at the stiff penis between his legs, then pointed between her own legs, holding her lips open with the other hand. He feigned incomprehension. With a sick feeling, she worried that perhaps he was succumbing to the sexual indifference of the Smith men.

But there was a penis, and it was still stiff. If she could get it into her, get it to unload once more...

She pushed him onto his back, and he let himself be pushed. She then lifted herself up to straddle him. She and her girlfriends had talked over everything sexual when they were adolescents, and then the women talked more about sex once the men had checked out. She knew this kind of sex was a possibility. Emma told her she'd done it that way with Ebenezer a few times.

The man smiled when he saw what she was up to, and she managed after several attempts to get herself in position over his penis, aim it between her legs at the right spot and angle, and slowly descend, forcing it up inside of her. She them moved up and down. He looked up at her and smiled, but it didn't seem like the sort of urgent smile men made when they were about to ejaculate. She began to move up and down more vigorously, looking at him intently. His expression didn't change. Soon she was very tired from the vigorous up and down and stopped. Defeat.

He then gently pushed her off of him. Had he really succumbed? Would the one time the women had had with him be enough to make any of them pregnant?

But then all at once he pushed her back onto the mat and raised himself over her, growling and snarling, pressing her legs apart with his knees and then surging up inside her hard and deep. He held her wrists firmly against the mat. She was caught, trapped, helpless. She couldn't have moved if she wanted to. But it sure looked like he was going to do the thing she craved, and she laughed. He smiled and stopped growling, but he kept thrusting his organ into her deep and hard, over and over again. Then he released her hands and lay down on her, putting his whole weight on her body while he slid his hands down below to grasp a butt cheek with each. She couldn't breathe very well, but she loved it. A minute later she felt him give the hardest thrust of all as he groaned his pleasure. His pleasure was nice, but she thrilled at what came with that pleasure, and what mattered so much -- his sticky seed pulsing into her where it could start a baby.

When he seemed fully satisfied, she gave exaggerated gasps to show her breathing problem, and he slid off of her. After a minute of relaxation, she stirred in preparation for getting up, but he held her against him and looked at her tenderly. Maybe he really did have a thing for her. Imagine if they actually got married! He'd still have to do his best to impregnate all the others, but even so...

On his sixth day the man took another walk around the perimeter of the valley, looking up at the cliffs that clearly could not be scaled.

That night he sought out Elizabeth and indicated he'd like her to sleep the night with him. She was delighted at the prospect. She hesitated briefly, remembering that the other man had died during his sixth night. The timing surely meant nothing, and if by chance he did have some sort of distress she would be there to do whatever could be done. She went to sleep happy to have this man beside her -- this man who cared about life and cared about her. His more vital good qualities were that he got stiff, fucked women, and spewed his sperm into them.

She woke to a rapidly shifting set of emotions. She was surprised to feel a man next to her, happy to remember where she was and the circumstances, curious that he didn't seem so warm, and then horrified when she suspected that he was cool because he was dead.

She screamed.

They checked and double-checked their memories. Both men had died during their sixth night in the valley of the Smiths. This was unlikely to be a coincidence. If another man tumbled down into their midst., how could they prepare? Had the men died because of something they had eaten? Something in the hut? They decided to offer a future visitor only the simplest diet, potatoes and a bland fruit. They cleared out a different hut in hope of another visitor and kept it especially clean. The consensus was that only two notably healthy women would get close to him, to minimize the chance of some infection. Most young women started tracking their periods so they could argue better for a chance with the man if they really might be fertile.

So when a third man did arrive 64 days later, there was hope but also consternation -- a palpable fear that he too would die soon.

He had not twisted or sprained anything, and after taking in the community and accepting their simple meal, he immediately set out to find a way out of the valley. He was notably upset when he finished his first circuit of the valley.

The original plan had been for just two women to come close to the man. But between the formulation of that plan and the third man's arrival, it had become apparent that four women had gotten pregnant from their time with the second man. Most others wanted babies too -- some wanted them desperately. Some thought it wasn't right to stress a man with sex if his life was in danger. But others, especially those who wanted babies the most, pointed out that the first man had died just as soon as the second and had had no sex at all. Others thought it just wasn't proper somehow when in an important sense his life hung in the balance.

The women who were interested in sex under these uncertain circumstances flirted with him, leaving no doubt as their availability. He resisted their advances the first day. He gave in on the second night, and then every night after. Apparently he was the sort of guy who couldn't or didn't want to have sex more often than once a day. He didn't encourage any to spend the night. He barely got his cock tip into the first woman before he came. He lasted a minute in the others. He seemed to care for nothing but his own pleasure, and he fucked his way straight to spasms of release. The women were still delighted. The possibility of his imminent death led the second woman to try to spread the wealth. She held her pussy lips tight around the man's shaft as he withdrew, then hurried with her precious vaginal cargo to another hut, where she dipped her finger inside before plunging it into the vagina of another woman. On hearing of this, the women decided among themselves that it wasn't fair for any other to take his gift directly unless she was willing to share later. She would plunge a magically coated finger into four vaginas that they hoped were fertile.

Some thought they ought to warn him of what had befallen his predecessors. With six fingers and pantomimed corpses, they got across the danger he was in. The man was alarmed until he determined that his predecessors had not been killed but had just died. Then he just shrugged, apparently thinking this was some superstition of a backwards people. He chose a sex partner for his sixth evening and in under a minute delivered his precious fluid just where it was wanted.

A couple women wanted to watch over him that sixth night as he slept, but he wanted to share neither his mat nor his hut. Several women did stand vigil outside all night. At first light of dawn, the one who first couldn't stand the suspense any longer went in to investigate.

Like the others, he was dead.

A few came back with gold. Most came back with none, and a few others never came back at all. But whatever the odds, the dream of riches is always enough to attract a few enterprising young men.

Miguel and Juan were exploring from their base camp.

"Hey, look here!" said Miguel. "You have to see this!"

Juan quickly joined his friend.

"See through there? Through those bushes? It looks like there's a big valley of some kind."

Juan said, "That is strange. I wonder what --"

As he came up beside his friend, the ground gave way beneath them both. They struggled to find their footing, but the slope was steep and getting steeper, they were tumbling, then there was a sheer drop.

Juan groaned, checking for damage. Nothing serious.

"Miguel, are you OK?"

"I think I hurt my hand."

"Looks like it. Well, we wanted to see what was down here, and now it looks like we'll get our chance. Wait, who's that?"

"Heck, they don't look like any of the other people around here. They could be from Norway or something."

Three women hurried up the path. They babbled something, but it certainly wasn't Spanish.

Juan replied in Spanish. The women babbled more. Spanish and babbling, but no communication. Gestures would have to do.

They led the two young men down the trail. It got much less steep. Lush plants appeared all around. They saw what looked like bananas. They came to a settlement, with primitive huts here and there, people hanging around, children playing. People stopped what they were doing and looked.

The women led them to two neighboring huts and indicated one was for each of them, and they took a brief look inside.