"He didn't," said Isa with a smile. "I was the one who finally broke the ice. My sister and her husband were involved in a very bad car smash in which...the whole family except for Peter was killed. He came to live with me and as he did not know anyone in this area I asked Joe to come with his daughter to a barbeque at my house so that he would know at least one person when he went to his new school." Everything else flowed from that," Joe said with a laugh. "When a beautiful co-worker asks you. She said she thinks they warn us about pregnancy just to scare us.”Nancy said, “I read in a magazine that you can only get pregnant during your period. Nature gives you a sign to let you know when it’s time. So you can do it without worry the rest of the month.”“Really?”“I’m sure.”Melissa’s period had ended ... what, a week ago? Something like that. So that was no excuse. She said, “And you remember what Julie used to say, about ‘genuine rape’? How it’s really true that you can’t get pregnant. She lived next door. We talked some, and I asked her where was a good place to meet single women in town. She told me I was mostly out of luck because most of them had left for college or moved away to work in a larger place. Nadine explained that she and most of the other women on the street had married early and were destined to remain in Atown for the rest of their lives.Two weeks later I was sitting on the porch again and I heard Nadine talking on the phone. She sounded upset and telling. A spokesman said increases in recent years in the number of suicide bombings has resulted in a shortage of virgins in the afterlife.The suicide bombers' union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs ( B.O.O.M.!) responded with a statement saying the move was unacceptable to its members and called for a strike vote. General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don't ask for much in return but to be.