Chapter 16

Wednesday after dinner, Molly and Bert sat together monitoring one of the more popular chatrooms. It was a new and rather disturbing feeling for Molly to sit by her naked, hunky brother and try to do a normal activity. On the drive home, she had thought about him and had longed for just this chance. Now, sitting with her shorts-clad leg touching his bare one, his body seemed to scream for her attention. Raising her hand to the keyboard rather than letting it drop to his crotch became a test of her willpower.

Shortly after they had logged on, Molly had been unable to stop herself from just staring at his face for a moment. He happened to notice, and he threw his arms around her for an impulsive hug. It was only feeling her shudder in his arms that broke his euphoria.

"Oh, Molly! I'm sorry. I forget that I'm ... that we shouldn't be..."

"Well, it's my fault for starting it," Molly said as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I never really apologized for the things I did to you that Saturday. They were wrong, but I was so angry and upset. You didn't seem to understand what was bothering me so much, and I just ... I guess I went a little crazy."

"Well, what you did worked, Sis. It changed everything for me. I guess I was the typical guy, thinking the damned Program was all my wet dreams in real life. You made me think past that."

"The bastards who thought up the Program knew what they were doing," Molly lamented. "I think they wanted everyone to become sluts. They knew that once you, uh, tried some things, you could never get them out of your mind again. I thought I had all the sex stuff under control for myself. But you know what? Right now, I have to struggle not to jump you and fuck your brains out!"

Molly's little tirade did several things to Bert. First of all, it made him sad. His sister had changed, without a doubt. Just the coarseness of her language would have been a total shock to him two weeks earlier. To him, there had always been an aura of purity, of rightness about Molly. That was a good thing, and it was wrong that it had apparently been destroyed.

Anger overcame Bert's sadness. What right did the damned Program bastards, as Molly had called them, have to decide that purity and innocence were destructive and should be eliminated? When all of the arguments were stripped away, that was really what it came down do, a war on innocence. What Bert had gone through with Lisa had given him another view of innocence. It was not something dangerous and destructive. No one needed to declare war on it!

That fateful Saturday less than two weeks ago, Molly, in her anger, had shredded Bert's fragile cloak of innocence. Her words drove his mind back to that morning. Coupled with her declaration about what she wanted to do to him right then and his long-term appreciation of her sex appeal, the last thing that happened to Bert was predictable. Within moments, his cock was standing straight up from his crotch.

Seeing his arousal, Molly gasped, and he had an immediate urge to cover up. Because it had been eleven days of nudity, though, he was much better at controlling his reactions, and the stupidity of hiding it from her got through to him.

"It's OK, Molly. It's why I'm practicing. Starting Monday, most of the girls at school will probably see it like that."

"I know, but with family, it just seems ... more disturbing."

"I think the damned Program is trying to erase 'incest' from the language."

"Do you think that's right?" she asked.

"No, I really don't," he answered. "But look, to all of those other girls it's just a curiosity, but..."

"You underestimate its attraction, Bro'," Molly said, trying to keep her voice light. "Object of lust would be more accurate."

"Yeah, well, what I meant was they don't really care about me. I know you do. So, is it wrong for you to see what all the girls at school will see?"

Molly's hand made a reflexive motion toward his crotch that she was just able to stop. "The real question is whether it's wrong for me to touch what all the girls at school get to touch and play with."

"Right! I've been thinking about this stuff a lot," he started to say..."

"While you were in bed with Lisa?" she teased.

"Hey, you know we didn't do anything. You've talked to her."

"Sorry. Guess the subject was just getting too heavy."

"What I was saying," he resumed, "was I wonder if the damned Program has really thought all of this stuff through. I mean, the talk about 'outreach', which I think mostly means going naked with family. Do they think it will improve families, putting sexual tension on everyone?"

"Do you feel sexual tension with Mom naked?" she asked, only half teasing.

"Duh! You remember when she first stripped several weeks ago. I saw how often you looked at my crotch."

"Let me be devil's advocate a little," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's a good thing if kids start to get a true appreciation of their parents' sexuality."

"So you want to know about how Dad has finally started drooling over Mom?" he asked.

"Uh, good point," she admitted. "You asked whether the Program originators thought all of this stuff through. My view is that they don't think they have to."

"Huh?"

"Bert, those people are theorists - idealists - utopians. The kind of people who have brought about some wonderful advances for humanity. But that kind of person often has one real flaw. They envision how things should be, according to their theories. Then they insist on seeing the world as if it fit their theory, rather than as it really is."

"You mean, they think they've got the inside track on the truth? They're the ones who have it all figured out?"

"Right," she answered. "All great thinkers have to think that way. That's how great ideas are born, how advances are made. But it doesn't become science until those ideas are tested and evaluated against reality.

"In 'hard' science, physics, chemistry, genetics, and so forth, the results are tested by measurable experiments. If your theory is wrong, it's pretty obvious. Something goes boom or doesn't go boom, depending, or something grows an extra set of arms and legs. See what I mean."

"You're really serious about science, aren't you, Molly."

"Fascinated. When we were at Jason's and talking politics, I felt a little out of it, but with the subject of science, I'm confident."

"So is the damned Program based on real science, or not?"

"Bert! You're supposed to ask me easy questions so I can wow you with my answers! By the way, how did way go from talking about your, uh, cock, to talking about utopians and science?"

"Well, I'm not as interesting a topic as I was a few minutes ago," he joked. "Maybe I've found the hardon prevention that guys have always been looking for."

"Oh, I disagree," she shot back. "You're interesting soft, too."

"Uh, wasn't that sort of how we got into this discussion of science in the first place? Talking about whether we should be talking about my cock?"

"Forget talking!" she exclaimed. "I was struggling with whether it was wrong for me to fuck your brains out." After that comment, Bert just stared at Molly for several seconds. "What?" she demanded.

With a shake of his head, he said "I can't imagine the virgin sister I knew two weeks ago sitting here talking like this."

"It's the damned Program!" Molly said angrily. "They want to change teenagers, and they're succeeding! I'm still your virgin sister, dammit! But I've had to change a lot of other things. The world looks different to me today, and they had no right to do that. Why couldn't I just take things at my own speed? I was doing fine!"

One of the things that had changed was the crying. Before, Molly almost never cried, but it was becoming a bit of a habit. What happened next was more than just crying, though. She got a strangle-hold around Bert's neck and just dissolved into tears.

Bert's natural reaction to his sister hugging his naked body was to recoil. However, just the shock of her breaking down in this way kept him from doing that. This must be some serious hurt coming out. He managed to get her upright, then scooped her up and carried her to a big chair. He sat there with her on his lap, forcing himself to forget about his nakedness for the time being and just hold her close.

Even while experiencing the undeniable thrill of Bert's sexual draw on her and his comforting embrace, Molly found herself cursing the Program, its intrusion into her life, and the way it dumped unwanted temptations and complications onto so many kids. Her anger at the Program had led her to flee from her home and give up her precious modesty and privacy in a spectacular way. Back in her home environment, she somehow felt the enormity of her sacrifice more strongly.

While Bert's first group of teammates and the girls had been skinny dipping that afternoon, Molly had sought out Lisa and they had talked until Eleanor came looking for Molly. It seemed like Molly had heard Lisa's story at least a hundred times already, but it still grabbed at her heart. No girl should be faced with the kind of choices forced upon Lisa - nor upon Molly for that matter. From many chats with similarly terrified girls, Molly had no question that Lisa's fear was very real, real enough to drive her to suicide.

On the 'surviving' website, Curt had listed Bert as the originator of the idea of the football team 'encouraging' guys to leave reluctant Program girls alone. After several minutes of crying and cuddling on Bert's lap, Molly regained some composure and said "Let's see if any new ideas have popped up."

One very significant idea had indeed popped up. A boy named Royce, a football player, sent an email. He had been trying to organize teammates the same way that Bert was doing, and someone suggested that the girls wear something on their shoes to indicate that they did not want to be touched. Royce's girlfriend had run with the idea and suggested red yarn or a red twisty-tie. She had then popped out the slogan 'Respect the Red'.

Molly and Bert were reading the email together and she started bouncing on her chair. "That's it!" she enthused. "That's the kind of slogan that we need. It's perfect!"

"Perfect for what?" Bert asked.

"I've been thinking that the way to kill the Program is with a revolt by the kids themselves. The whole 'nude-in' thing, Kendra's idea, is great, but 'Respect the Red' is even better. The Program bastards assume that we're all just so horny that when we have the chance to fondle our schoolmates, we will automatically do it. What if we don't? What if we leave it up to the girls?"

"Or the guys?"

"Or the guys. You're right. It's a violation of our rights to make us strip, but it's even worse to make us submit to touching. With this, we can attack the worst abuse."

"But what if some people don't respect it?"

"We can't help that, Bert. We want the whole damned mess to stop, but we can't get there all at once. I feel terrible about the ones who will still be violated, but we have to do what we can."

Molly quickly sent an email back to Royce, asking for his particulars and those of his girlfriend and the guy who had suggested the signal on the shoes. Just as with Kendra, she wanted everyone to see that the hoped-for revolt was not just started by herself, Curt, and Bert.

Of course, Curt needed to know, so she called him. He was as excited about the idea and the catchy slogan as she was. He immediately began putting it on the 'Surviving' website, saying that he would fill in the names of the contributors as soon as she forwarded them. He started by making 'Respect the Red' the blazing opening banner of the site.

This latest development did a lot to bring Molly out of her angry and depressed state, and Bert was delighted to see her more like her old self as they headed down for dinner.

Molly and Win had seen each other at the picnic the previous Sunday, but there had been no chance for any accommodation or reconciliation. The attention that afternoon had all been on Eleanor. To Eleanor's delight and admitted amazement, Win chose to be the adult as they assembled at the table for dinner. "Molly, I'm glad you decided to come home," was all he said, but it was a true breakthrough.

"Thank you, Dad. Could we, um, have a little time to talk, later?"

Perhaps it was his voyeur side talking, but part way through dinner, Win asked "What happened to the woman reporter who was on TV with you?"

"You mean the naked one?" Molly teased. As soon as she said it, though, she realized that she really needed to talk to Porter Arragon.

As soon as she left the dinner table, Molly was on the phone with Curt again. "Can you find Jason and get him on the line?" she asked. Curt had to run him down and call her back, but less than an hour later, the three of them, plus Gwen, were on the phone together.

"What should we do about Porter?" Molly asked, getting right to the point. "We invited her along to pick up Francie, and I know she was moved by what she saw. Nothing has shown up on TV about it, though. I think we need to see where she stands."

"Do we really want any publicity right now?" Curt asked. "I mean, with all the things that are going to happen Monday, why alert the Program to what we're doing?"

"It's all there on the 'Surviving' website," Molly pointed out. "We can't expect that no one in the Program management will notice. Someone must be tracking it."

"Maybe not, Molly," Jason cautioned. "They may not yet believe that there is any real threat."

"I guess I can believe that," Molly agreed, "but I don't think we should assume it. The problem is: what if they are tracking us? If they launch some sort of press campaign before we do, it could really set us back."

"So, you're talking sort of a preemptive strike, huh?" Curt asked.

"So far, I think we have had the initiative and they have had to respond. I, for one, would like to keep it that way," Molly explained.

"So, what if they send a squad of goons to Kendra's school to stop the 'nude-in'?"

"How can they stop it? Jason's legal people are certain that they have every right to show up naked at school."

"And you two had every right to criticize the Program on TV," Gwen interjected. "Look how they responded to that."

"I see what you mean, Gwen," Molly assured her. "But just suppose they send in the Guard, for instance. We need to be ready to get the most favorable coverage of that."

Jason spoke up. "Molly, are you suggesting that we make Porter something of a spokesperson?"

"I don't think she could honestly do that," Molly answered. "She is not yet a 'convert'."

"Then why use her?"

"First, she bought a lot of credibility by exposing herself, just like Curt and I did. Let's face it. We won't find a true supporter in the media that anyone will listen to."

"If she's the best we can get, why bother?" Gwen asked.

"I personally think Porter is too good to be working at that little third-rate station," Molly said. "She proved that she can do a fairly neutral straight reporting job. If we offer her the inside track on our best attacks, it could jump her into the big time."

"Or it could cost her the job she has," Jason pointed out.

"I guess that's something she would have to decide."

"I think Molly's right," Curt opined after being quiet for a while. He finished by joking "I never did like playing defense."

"Thanks, Curt. If you don't object, Gwen and Jason, I'll talk to Porter. OK?"

Porter had been in a quandary since Tuesday morning when she had returned to Hooverton from the 'rescue' of Francie. That trip had forced her to reevaluate a number of her firmly-held opinions.

As a product of a well-regarded school of journalism, Porter was a committed liberal. She had been trained to believe that her job as a journalist was to catalyze changes in society. For many decades, the journalistic targets for those needed changes had been anything that smacked of the traditional or the archaic. To her, 'progressive' was the highest adjective that could be used to describe a concept or a movement.

Fortunately, it was always easy to find flaws in any existing institution, organization, official, or set of beliefs. That meant that catalyzing change was largely accomplished by exposing the negative in the existing.

Porter knew that she was very fortunate to have a job, and she worked diligently to make sure she kept that job. The glut of journalism candidates had only grown worse over the last several decades. One commentator's analogy of locusts swarming over any event that had even a small chance of being newsworthy was far too accurate, in Porter's opinion. Here she was in a third level market with no immediate prospects for moving up. She knew she was better than that, but no upward path had revealed itself.

Another problem that Porter had always avoided thinking about was the paucity of good, solid controversy to cover. The naked show had forced her to give it some thought. Oh, there was always armed strife. The Islamists just would not go away, and every once in a while they were able to pull off an attack of some sort that killed or injured a number of Americans, or destroyed some key component of the infrastructure. After such an attack, the post mortem of the bureaucratic and military mistakes and ineptitude filled many hours of TV and thousands of web pages.

Anti-war and anti-military sentiments pervaded the journalist corps, but they were up against a big obstacle. Every time there was an attack, the public seemed to want retaliation and revenge. If the idiot terrorists would just back off, the military could finally be gotten rid of. As it was, reporters had to back off from their views for fear of incurring the wrath of the public as sympathizers with those who had killed friends, neighbors, and family.

There were always natural disasters. Those were good not just for heart-rending portrayals of human suffering and death, but for diatribes against the governmental and business failures that had left the earth susceptible to such catastrophes.

There was still a Republican party. Occasionally, they even took a position that was different enough from the ruling Democrats' to justify some journalistic flames. And fortunately, there were still religious groups, survivalists, para-militarists and other fringe elements upon whom to heap ridicule and vitriol.

But by and large, there was just this horde of under-employed, under-challenged, talented, idealistic journalists hell-bent to change things in the same direction that the ruling Democrats already wanted to move. So what could they all do? Rail against the slowness of progress? Criticize minutiae? Deride any voices raised in caution or opposition? In moments of honesty, Porter had to admit that just those things occupied most of her air time. Somehow, that just did not assuage the idealistic hunger that had driven her into the profession.

Then, out of nowhere, Porter had ended up naked on TV, watching two young kids shred her friend Merton and level some serious charges at the Naked in School Program, one of the most progressive ideas ever put into action. She was thankful that she had had the presence of mind to take a rather neutral position during the TV show. If she had not, she was sure that her reputation would have been trashed just as badly as Merton's was. Then, she had been given the inside track on covering the liberation of those teens after the incredibly stupid 'arrest' by Program enforcers.

Two things in particular bothered Porter about the TV show and the 'arrest'. First of all was the kids' claim that the Program was a violation of human rights. That really hurt! Protection of human rights was, after all, a central them of liberal campaigning. How could they be accused of what they had always fought so diligently against?

Then, the farcical arrest shook her up just as much. Liberals had always trumpeted freedom of speech. Then, agents of the most liberal program of all time tried to deny the free speech rights of the two kids.

Those thoughts had been troubling Porter the entire weekend after the naked show. The events of Monday night did nothing to get her back on track as far as her thinking.

Molly Parkhurst was a daughter of privilege. Therefore, she must be arrogant, self-centered, and have no thought for those less fortunate. Her views must be rooted in the old ways that had allowed her family to accumulate its obscene wealth. Those things were all universally understood truths. That was the accepted template for pampered girls such as Molly.

Molly's flight from the Program certainly gave credence to the view that she was rooted in the old ways. Then, the girl showed up naked for that TV show, giving the first indication that the template might not fit her very well.

The real problem for Porter came when she was invited to accompany Molly on the flight to rescue Francie. Weary and disheveled, Molly had shown a determination that just did not fit who she was supposed to be. At the hospital, she showed real compassion as she tried to comfort the distraught parents. Then, she took the mousy, unattractive, frantic girl in her arms and by sheer force of personality got her off to safety.

In the six days since she had exposed herself on TV, Porter had not been able to take comfort in any of the truisms that had always given her direction. When Molly called Wednesday evening, Porter had no idea what she wanted to do and was not happy to be facing the challenge that she just knew was coming.

"How much of a risk-taker are you, Porter?" was Molly's opening question. 'How dare some teenager ask her that question?' was Porter's reaction.

Reigning in her irritation and deciding to at least try to appear in control of things, Porter responded "What did you have in mind?"

"The campaign against the Program is about to heat up," Molly explained. "We still feel an obligation to you because of the way we tricked you into that show. Also, we were impressed by the way you took a pretty neutral position and just acted as moderator. Personally, I think you are wasted in the job you have now, and I think this is a way for you to make a splash and get noticed."