My father would be furious." But you're a man!" I exclaimed in mock horror "Surely you have the right to govern your own actions."His face flushed. I ...eflected that his lack of authority in the family had always been somewhat of a sore point with him. He stood up so fast that he sent the chair flying. With a hand on each of my shoulders, he crushed me to his body and kissed me full on the lips.This was a new experience for me, delicious and yet frightening. I was startled when his tongue first. Somehow that gesture of breathing into me, coupledwith the closeness of her body and the pressure of herpalms made me feel as if, on some plane she had justentered my body.I hadn’t moved a muscle. The room was so silent Icould hear my pulse in my head. Still keeping eyecontact, she placed her hand on my .45 Smith andWesson revolver. My muscles tensed and I looked down. The gun (oh myGod) was still cocked with my finger on the trigger. Imight have blown my foot off… Then I see her. Mum's the word, Governor." Thank you, Mrs Penrose." "Phoebe, please, Governor!" "Thank you, Phoebe. I shall await news from you. Tell Ebenezer that we have made our arrangements. Goodbye, Phoebe." Goodbye, Governor."Phoebe reported this to Ebenezer, adding, "I told him to call me Phoebe, but he didn't have the decency to ask me to call him by his first name!"Ebenezer was amused. "Phoebe, you don't expect a man in his position to ask you to use his first name, not unless you know each other. We’re the most important men on earth, in a way.When the Male Plague came along, nobody knew the consequences, socially or biologically. That came later. Also, nobody knew what caused it, although there were a zillion theories, and they still don’t. They also don’t know why a very few men, like me, were immune to it. All they know is that, within a year or two, nearly all the other men became sterile. They could still get it up, and have sex, but they’d be shooting blanks. I was nineteen at the.