" Felicity seemed to understand without need of explanation. "Lucky her!"I wished I could have said 'lucky me, ' which had been true not long ago, but...was not at present.I knew that the Cambridge term was ending soon, and Em would be mostly free for nearly three months, though I remembered she was attending a symposium on criminal psychology in Chicago in June. Patience began to give way to despair. One night Felicity came round and brought some hash with her. I rather weak-mindedly broke. "It's a slow dance," said Deandra suddenly, as the music coming from themarquee changed. "C'mon, Luce, we can't miss this one."She led her girlfriend over to the marquee, their high heels clicking onthe boarding that had been laid between the tent and the driveway theyhad been standing on in order to prevent those selfsame heels fromsinking into the lawn. Girls were allowed to wear heels as part of theirschool uniforms in year four but they weren't mandatory, yet therewasn't a single girl here. It felt like another walk to the electric chair. How many times wouldmy pride have to be executed?"Hold your head up high and don't slouch," my mother said as we stoodto our feet.On any other night my mother would have asked Dad and Sammy how themovie was or what they had for dinner. But this wasn't like any othernight. She stepped out of the way so that I was in full view of Sammyand my dad. I saw her arms swing sideways as if she was presenting me,which was exactly what she was doing. . For starters, the epidemic had wiped out over three fourths of the world's population. Most of the males that had survived the original infection were rendered sterile. The ones that weren't were almost rendered obsolete by a radical feminist movement that took over governance for the next 75 years. Scientific advancements during this time almost eliminated natural conception and childbirth, replacing them with designer babies conceived in labs and developed in incubators.While this practice.