Chapter 14

“You’re Jack Junior?” I asked the boy, who I realized was now fourteen: old enough to be extracted as either a sponsor or a concubine.

“Yes, Dad, I am. I know that you didn’t know that I existed until now, so I don’t blame you. I wish that Mom had told you about me, but you two lost contact, just as you did with Aunt Lisa. I know all about how things went down. Mom, Grandpa, and Grandma told me a great deal of late. I think that you’d be pleased with them now, well, more than you used to be. I know that we don’t have a lot of time to talk right now, but I wanted to meet you at last, and Corporal Hirsch agreed to let me speak to you. When we have more time, you, me, Mom ... and perhaps Aunt Lisa if her sponsor agrees, can all sit down and talk, with or without our concubines,” Junior told me, his coal black eyes and jet-black hair a strong reminder that he was Michelle’s son.

“You’re a sponsor?” I smiled, very proud that my son had qualified to serve.

“Not as high up as you, Dad, from what I hear. I just have the two conks. I’m a 6.8. Slated for Marine combat duty once I’m trained. I grabbed Mom and Aunt Sarah, which means that I have to leave now, so that we can set things up for Aunt Sarah to pick up her daughters, my cousins. They’re much younger than me, of course,” Junior told me with a hug, just as I saw someone behind him ... Michelle.

“Okay, then, son. It’s nice to meet you at last, but you’re a man now. You have a man’s duties, and you need to pick up your cousins. Give your mother and auntie a hug from me, okay?” I told him, making him nod and fight back tears to avoid seeming like a crybaby in front of the other recruits.

“I will, Dad. I gotta run, but it was great to see you in person! I love you, Dad,” my son told me as he rejoined his mother.

“I love you, too ... son,” I choked back tears myself as I led my harem toward their destinations, beginning with the pod, to be followed by their concubine orientation seminar and my Civil Service training.

“Wow, Master, your son looks a lot like you! Acts a lot like you, too,” Stacey exclaimed, making me beam with pride.

“Yes, but he also has a lot of his mother in him. That’s a good combo, if you ask me. Did you notice the jet-black hair and coal black eyes?” I grinned.

“His mother’s?” Stacey asked.

“Exactly. Michelle was always the classic raven type of beauty. Dark hair, dark eyes. Pale skin. Lovely. Very pretty in her youthful way. I can only imagine how ravishing she must be now, in her thirties, a woman in her prime. I’m not even sure what she’ll say to me, what Jack Junior will say to it, either. There is something else that you should know. The Swinburnes ... they were my foster parents. I grew up living with them. There was something almost incestuous about my love for both girls, but nowadays, that’s a moot point.

“Their parents were actually good to me for a long time there, and I stayed with them longer than any other foster family. Things only got ugly after Michelle and I became lovers, because of how ... strained things were between Lisa and her. Lisa was kind of the golden girl for a bit, could do no wrong, and while they didn’t condone her cheating, they thought that I could have picked a different girl for my revenge or rebound than her sister,” I explained.

“Wow ... that would get awkward. So, you dated two of your three foster sisters, then?” Julianne spoke up now as we reached the pod.

“Two of four. There were Sarah and Beth, who were both a bit younger. The Swinburnes were good to me, don’t get me wrong, and I always got along with my younger two foster sisters. I think that they wanted a brother badly, because for whatever reason, Reverend Lawrence Swinburne could never quite have sons of his own, just daughters. His wife, Anna, my foster mother, always treated me like a son ... until that point, when they both kind of chased me off.

“I don’t know if they thought that I betrayed them and was an ingrate, or whatever, but I felt betrayed myself and bitter for a good while. I haven’t talked to either of them in years,” I continued as the ladies put the kids down for a hypnotic nap that was meant to keep them busy and feed them information while the conks got their orientation.

“And now you never will. Damn, that really sucks! I bet that they regret it a lot from what I could tell, and they’re wishing for just another chance to clear things up with you, to make amends for how they treated you,” Rosa thought aloud.

“Probably, but what can be done, right?” I thought back to that time and my very sad farewell with both Sarah and Beth especially, that last brotherly hug and kiss I gave each of the girls, and the tears that they shed freely and openly at losing their only brother.

“Well, at least you’ll get to see Michelle and Sarah again, if not Beth and your folks,” Flora reminded me.

“That’s true, isn’t it? I’m not sure for how long and in what context, but the best part is getting to see my son at last. My son! I still need to get used to having a son, and he’s already growing up tough and strong. Becoming a man and I had nothing to do with that,” I shook my head at that realization.

“Oh, I don’t know about that, Master. You’re his father. You gave him half of his DNA, so you helped make him what he is, too,” Miriam assured me.

“She’s right, you know,” Marian added her two cents.

“I just wish that I could have raised him. I know what it’s like to grow up without a father, after all,” I forced myself not to dwell on that, as I prepared to leave for my job training, “but at least he had a mother and grandparents.”

“That he did, Master, that he did,” Amanda agreed with a kiss for me, “so please stop beating yourself up about it, okay?”

“What she said,” Ollie chimed in for his part, “I grew up an orphan, too, but with nuns,” he shuddered at that part.

“That bad, huh?” I asked him.

“Yes and no. They were harsh at times, but they never kicked me out or starved me, and it was much stabler than some other lives that I’ve heard of other kids in the system. I always had food, clothing, and shelter,” Ollie admitted, “and I got a solid education.”

“So, not that different from the Swinburnes, just more institutionalized. We both had religious upbringings, yours Catholic and mine Methodist,” I remarked as I departed the pod with a kiss for each of my ladies, and even a kiss for Ollie, since I was bisexual.

Centurion Thomas Wilde of the Civil Service soon made it plain to me just how overwhelmed he was with all of the concubines in the pool, not to mention their children. He also made it clear that there was a definite pecking order of priority for resources. It was children first, followed by female conks, and then male conks at the bottom. Male conks would be always be at the head of the line for recycling, so they were even more desperate to be picked, and as it was, still less likely to catch a break.

“It’s as noted before. Male conks have a three week cycle at this point, females a six week one. That’s the deadline to get themselves chosen, though those female conks who have no children and haven’t proven their fertility are definitely ahead of those who have children or are pregnant. Actually, pregnant concubines are the farthest of female concubines from the line, and are basically safe entirely until they give birth, if nothing else. Still, it helps them if they can get picked before they give birth, because by then they will have been in the pool for a long time, and time starts to run out for them again,” Wilde explained to Margret, Zoe, and me.