Chapter 18

The despair that clouded Sharon's perceptions gradually lifted, and she even came to view her shaven-headed companions as her friends, although she was frustrated by not being able to communicate with them: her sexual tastes precluding her even from doing so in the sexual way that Sweetness did with them every night. The countryside they wandered through changed from barren fields, to forestry, and then to some high hills covered with grass and the odd wood. And then they were at the border of Buggery.

Sharon hadn't thought ahead at all. What thoughts she'd had were focused either on the here and now, or on her past. Her original anxieties about Sodomite pilgrims resurfaced for the first time in many days. Would she and Sweetness have their tongues removed? What barbarous customs did the Sodomites practice in their own land? She wasn't at all comforted by the sight of the Sodomite border guards with their automatic firearms, their dress of chains pierced to their genitals and nipples, and of course the total lack of hair.

However, she was comforted when one of the guards, a tall thin man with dangling earrings and a large ring through his navel, addressed her. "Glad to see a convert to the Sodomite cause," he said cheerfully. So, not all Sodomites had their tongues removed.

The pilgrims were clearly excited to be home, and signed enthusiastically to each other, while they led Sharon and Sweetness to a small railway station and onto an electric train that was waiting there. They sat in a carriage together, Sharon by the window, holding Sweetness by the shoulder and clasped their hands together. No railway tickets were purchased, and no one else got on the train while they were at the border. And finally, the train departed and glid through the Sodom countryside. Sharon was perhaps expecting to see a countryside as impoverished and barren as Buggery, and was pleasantly surprised as they passed fields in which there were tractors and farms much like those at home. The stations they stopped at were serving small towns also much like those at home, and the people who embarked at the stops were no more dumb than herself. They may have been shaved and the only items of dress they wore might have been chains and rings, but they were otherwise like ordinary people, talking to each other, looking out of the window or reading newspapers and magazines. Perhaps it was only the pilgrims who'd had their tongues cut out.

Soon enough, the Sodomite pilgrims stopped at a larger station than any other they'd passed, in the centre of a small city, full of the tall buildings, apartment blocks and busy highways that Sharon associated with cities at home. In a sense, all this was very surreal. It almost didn't feel like a foreign country at all. She took pleasure in describing all the familiar things she saw to Sweetness. "Ooh! There's a lamp-post. And a funny church-like building. And there's a double-decker bus. And over there, I can just about see an advertising board for toothpaste. It's fucking magic!"

It took some while for Sharon to realise that to Sweetness these things were totally unknown and unsuspected. She nodded as Sharon spoke, her mind perhaps on other things, and then she asked, "What is a 'car'? And what are 'office blocks'? And what do you do in 'shops'?" Sharon blushed a little, and looked up at her pilgrim companions who were smiling kindly and sadly at Sweetness. The girl who'd first met them, signed some comments to Sharon, but of course she had no idea what was being said, although she nodded her head as if she did.

Then the pilgrims parted at the railway station concourse, kissing and hugging each other as they signed goodbye, and Sharon and Sweetness were left with just the girl they'd first met, in a vast concourse, surrounded by shaven heads and the occasional station announcement to places Sharon had never heard of before. She was just about able to ascertain that the city's name was Holiness, but beyond that she was totally lost. The girl smiled and gestured to the two girls to follow her, which they did by a taxi where again no money parted hands. Despite being an old man and quite fat, the taxi-driver was still shaven and wearing only chains and rings like everyone else. He signed to the girl who had befriended Sharon, and chatted idly to his passengers.

"Your first time in Sodom?" he asked cheerfully. "We don't get many foreigners here. Any idea why that is?"

"I've just never seen a holiday advertised for Sodom," admitted Sharon. "Anyway, what's there here to see here?"

"It's a beautiful country," he smiled. "As it has to be to be the home of the Sodomite faith." He raised his left hand in a gesture whose meaning was totally lost on Sharon, but she noticed that he too had most of his third finger removed.

Finally, the taxi stopped outside a tall apartment block, and the three girls entered the building and ascended by lift to one of the higher floors. Sharon and Sweetness were escorted by the pilgrim to one of many apartments where she rang the doorbell. It was answered by a slim girl with dark brown eyes, full perky breasts, and the usual shaven head and full accoutrement of jewellery. Two large earrings dangled from her ears and she had a broad grin on her face as she saw the three girls.

"Oh, Grace!" she cried with enthusiasm. "I've not seen you for so long! How was the pilgrimage? And who are your friends?"

Grace hugged her friend, kissing her full on the face, and then signed furiously to her friend, mouthing as she did so and occasionally pointing at either Sharon or Sweetness. The girl whose apartment it was smiled at the two girls as they stood shyly in the corridor.

"Well, come in both of you! My name's Faith, although that name's a bit inappropriate unlike my darling Grace's. And Sweetness! What a lovely name! It's a Buggery name but it could almost pass in Sodom. But what's your name? Grace wasn't able to sign it very well."

"Sharon."

"'Sharon'? What a weird name! But then you come from a very distant country. Does it mean anything?"

"No! Names don't mean fuckall. They're just names."

"Really?" commented Faith amusedly, as if this were a notion that had never occurred to her. "Well, come in. Come in. Sit down."

Faith's flat was relatively simple, but to Sharon's eyes was more luxury than she'd seen since Throb. In the living room, there were a set of chairs and a table, but no television and no pictures on the wall. Faith sat arm-in-arm with Grace and the two exchanged signs and kisses for a few minutes. Then Grace stood up and got up to leave. She kissed Sharon on both cheeks, and then knelt down between Sweetness' legs to kiss her on her crotch. And then she was gone.

Faith smiled at Sharon and Sweetness when they were alone. "Grace has told me about how little you know of Sodomite ways and customs. You're both foreigners, and apparently very ignorant of even the Sodomite religion. She's a lovely girl and we've been very close friends since we were at school together. But she's passionately religious. Always has been. And now she's been on a pilgrimage, she will always be known as Pilgrim Grace."

"Why's she had her tongue cut out?" wondered Sharon. "Did she commit some crime or other?"

Faith laughed. And then continued laughing. She shook her head as she tried to straighten her face. "The idea of it! No, never! It's a privilege to go on a pilgrimage. A pilgrim has to be very committed to the Sodomite faith, and the cost of leaving the country is, of course, to leave your tongue behind."

Sharon winced. "That's fucking horrible! You mean you have to have your tongue cut out if you want to go abroad."

"Well, of course! It's traditional. It was a religious thing originally, but as there's so little distinction between Sodomy the country and Sodomy the religion, it's required of everyone, religious or not."

"But you're religious, aren't you?" Sharon wondered.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I'm not. I'm an agnostic, which means I can't get any of the top jobs in this country, but I probably wouldn't have been able to anyway. Why, what makes you think I'm religious?"

"Being friends with Grace?"

"That's no big deal. I'm sure Grace would want me to go to the temples and pray. Or follow the five daily observances. Or fast on religious holidays. But I'm not. And Grace respects me too much to expect me to follow the state religion. After all this is a free country. And I take it you're not religious, either. So why do you think I should be?"

"Well, you dress the same. All the chains. And the shaven head. And not wearing clothes."

"'Clothes'? What are they? Well, I don't know how people look where you come from. Grace has told me about some strange outfits in Buggery, but then it is an ignorant country of savages. They have a 'king' and a 'royalty'. And all sorts of funny shit. Here, it's a proper democracy where we can vote for our spiritual and political leaders. And of course in a country as religious as this, they're essentially the same people. No, if you want to know if anyone's been baptised into the Sodomite faith, and that's not done till they're old enough to know for sure, you look at the third finger on the left hand." Faith held her hand up for Sharon to see. "Mine's intact. That means I've chosen not to be baptised. Most people choose baptism and of course the ceremonious finger-removal, but it's their choice. I'd rather keep my finger, unless I was convinced it was worth it. I'm not unsympathetic to the Sodomite religion. I sort of half-believe. But I'm not really religious."

"It's different back home," commented Sharon.

"Really? What's it like?"

"Well, different. There are churches and vicars and crosses and things. I don't know much about it all, but it's not like the weird shit you've got here."

"I suppose so. It all seems normal to me, but then you're a foreigner. I've heard bits about your country. It sounds quite horrible. And very cold and wet. I don't know much about foreign religions much. I listened to the radio once about your religions. They all have strange takes on it. Many of them don't even recognise the sanctity of anal intercourse. Or even understand the virtue of total bodily and sexual submission. Or even recognise the value of sacrifice of parts of the body to the greater good. And many of them do not even practice beatings or understand the meaning of humiliation. What religion do you have in your country?"