It was the day of Ms. Evelyn’s visit and the next-to-last day of our community service. All morning, we worked at getting the place spic and span. Arnold wouldn’t let us break routine for such a visit. “That would be self-defeating,” he said. But our afternoon adventure was spent shopping for dresses. We went to the shop that had helped Maria, and we all got modest dresses for that evening. We had all decided that modest dresses were appropriate; however, we would still all be required to touch a man while he was eating, and we would eat after the men were finished.
We reviewed what questions Ms. Evelyn would be likely to ask and what she would want to see. We decided that seeing the submissive would outrage her sufficiently that we wouldn’t have to do much of the sexy.
Evening came, and we studied while we waited for the doorbell to ring.
It rang, and there was Ms. Evelyn, and … my parents?
“Mom … Dad … I’m so happy to see you!” I beamed and gave each a big hug and a kiss. That was the instinct speaking for me, and it was a good thing, too. I was hugging them with no bra on. I'd told my roomie to fib about where I was. If my intellect had responded to this sight instead of this new instinct, I would have dropped dead, bright red from embarrassment. But instead, I was happy and bubbly, and I led them into the living room and went through introductions.
Marci and Jenny sat with Arnold. Because my mom was there, too, it didn’t quite seem right for one of them to touch my dad, so I did.
“We are conducting dinner according to the rules of the community service, which are based on the Neolithic community example,” Arnold explained. “The ‘bride age’ ladies will be eating after the men finish. You ‘matron age’ ladies have your choice about when to eat. You would eat with your young children that you were assisting, if you had any. Since you don’t, you may eat with either the brides or the men.”
“We will eat with the men,” Ms. Evelyn said firmly. She was clearly not about to give up any status in this early round of the pissing contest … I mean tour.
It was kind of nice to be sitting next to my father with my hand on his leg. As many times as we’d sat together to eat, I didn’t think I’d ever done this before. Doing this and not eating gave me a chance to think about all the nice things he and Mom had done for me. I realized I really didn’t want to disappoint him. I thought about Arnold’s proposal, and I didn’t think that would be a disappointment. Arnold was a fine, successful man, and we should have a good, child-filled life together.
My father was getting a bit distracted as we ate. That was probably not surprising. Ms. Evelyn and my mother were watching all this like hawks. The opening salvo came halfway through the men’s part of the meal when Arnold asked, “Are your meals satisfactory?”
“They are fine,” said Ms. Evelyn. Then she asked pointedly, “Jenny, did you young ladies do the cooking?”
Jenny had been asked directly by a guest matron, so by the rules, she could respond. “Yes, Ms. Evelyn, I helped. All three of us worked on the preparation.”
“Did Professor Oswald help you?”
“Not on this meal, but he has on previous ones.”
“And why not on this one?”
“Because we know what we are doing now, ma’am.”
“Do you call Maria or Jolie ‘ma’am?’”
“No, I don’t, ma’am.”
“Why not?”
She paused to think about this. “Because I don’t talk to them directly while we are eating, ma’am.”
“Why not?”
“I’m supposed to talk only to men and honored guests while they are eating.”
Ms. Evelyn was clearly doing a slow burn as she heard this, in words I've heard her use previously this was submissive chauvinism. My mother and father looked more like they were simply amazed to hear this talk coming from someone they thought of as a well-adjusted college student.
My mother said to Jenny, “This program seems to have had an effect on your thinking.”
“It has, ma’am, a big effect.”
“What sort?”
Uh-oh! My mom was no dummy. That implication was so loaded it would set off metal detectors.
Jenny was no dummy, either. She chose her words carefully. “Well … Professor Oswald has been showing us how to help our community by getting more out of life ourselves. He’s been showing us how to live more fulfilled lives by using our instincts constructively rather than fighting them and keeping them suppressed.”
“Instincts?”
Jenny looked at Arnold. He merely nodded with a bright look on his face, indicating she was doing fine and should continue.
“Instincts—those ideas that come to us after we reach a certain age and experience something that triggers the brain to think in a certain, predetermined way. We have a lot of instincts, and most of them serve us well. But some have been misused at various times and places in human history. For instance, the instinct to fear strangers is being used well when it leads you away from crooks and con men, but it is being misused when it is used to support racism.”
“I see … I think. And what instinct have you been learning with Professor Arnold?”
“Mmm … perhaps you don’t understand, ma’am. You don’t learn an instinct. An instinct is an idea that pops into your head, pretty much uninvited. It comes to you as a suggestion that something you are thinking of doing would be very right. What you do is decide if you should follow the suggestion or not. If you choose not to, the suggestion goes away, and the instinct does not flower. If you choose to follow the instinct, then it flowers and becomes a strong part of your thinking.”
“All right, what instinct have you been growing?” Ms. Evelyn reacted to Jenny’s politeness by getting sharp in her tone.
“The instinct that a young woman should be submissive when dealing with older people and the man she hopes to marry.”
“He’s been teaching you that?” Ms. Evelyn looked at Arnold with a beam of triumph in her eye. As I watched her, I realized that she and Arnold had had a long relation, and it probably hadn’t been cordial.
“No, he hasn’t been teaching us that. We’ve been learning that by our own personal experience. Please remember what I just told you. This is an instinct we are talking about. You don’t learn instincts.”
Ms. Evelyn looked at Jenny with just a touch of concern in her eyes. She had clearly not expected Jenny to speak up like that. Whatever she was hoping to say was not going to be as easy to demonstrate as she had hoped.
Mom and Dad looked confused. I suspected they were confused about a lot of things. I was sure it was strange for them to get an invitation to see their daughter from this Ms. Evelyn lady. I was sure it was strange for them to see me acting the way I was, and I was sure it was strange for them to hear Jenny verbally jousting with this Ms. Evelyn in such odd circumstances. I continued to touch Dad, and this seemed to keep him much more settled. I was happy for that.
“And why would you want to let such an instinct flower? Haven’t we as a society been working hard to get women and men out of the dark ages of abuse and wife-beating? Haven’t we been working hard to give women the opportunity to engage in as full a range of activities as men? This instinct you are letting flower seems to be diametrically opposed to that?”
Jenny thought about this. Her hand was working up and down Arnold’s leg pretty vigorously. She looked up at Arnold. She was looking for help.
“Have you got an answer for Ms. Evelyn, Jenny?” said Arnold gently. It was clear that he wanted her to have an answer, but if not, he did.
For a moment, she looked like she might slip into baby-doll mode and let Arnold rescue her, but she found an inner strength and went on, “What prosperity has given us, Ms. Evelyn, is more choices. And for a while, it was necessary for some pioneer women to demonstrate to the community that those choices—the choices that put a woman on a career path rather than a motherhood path—could be taken without damaging the community. But now we have demonstrated that successfully, and that means we women now can take either path or many other paths without community censure. What I have found out over the last few days is that part of my brain and my body are very happy and very fulfilled if I choose to relate to my community in a more traditional way.
“I’m not being a slave to tradition. I’m mixing in a lot of the benefits of prosperity. I’m letting prosperity amplify what my instinct is suggesting, and boy, this is making me happy! I feel like a princess in a fairy tale, and thanks to prosperity, I see no reason why I shouldn’t feel this way happily ever after!” As she finished, she cuddled closer to Arnold.
What she said was so wonderful I cuddled closer to my dad, too.
I could see that Ms. Evelyn was speechless and not happy at being so. She was probably trying hard to begin one of her feminist editorials, but Jenny did not give her any kind of opening.
“Can I interest you in some dessert?” Arnold asked Ms. Evelyn in an attempt to change the subject.
Ms. Evelyn stared daggers at him.
“Thank you, but I’m watching my weight.”
She was likely looking for weaknesses when she turned to Maria and said, “Maria, I notice that you seem to be demonstrating a lot of affection for Professor Oswald as well. Are you two girls sharing the good professor?”
Marci didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, we are sharing him. We are sharing him in the sense that we both respect him highly, and we are comfortable letting him know that. I think it gives him pleasure, too, knowing that we respect him.”
“I don’t doubt it!” snorted Ms. Evelyn.
“This is one of the advantages we have with prosperity, Ms. Evelyn,” I interrupted. “Because we are more secure in our environment, we can show more respect to all people. Thanks to what I’ve learned from Professor Oswald, I can feel comfortable showing some physical respect to my own father, too, something I couldn’t do before.”
I gave him an extra little rub.
Now Ms. Evelyn was getting desperate. She looked back and forth between my parents. “You're not uncomfortable with what you see here?”
My father answered quickly, “I was quite concerned when we first came, Ms. Evelyn, especially given all the innuendo you were feeding us about what was happening here. But here I am, sitting next to my daughter, and I haven’t seen her this happy since a childhood birthday. Even more amazing than that, she’s excited to make me happy, and she’s found a simple way to do just that. What do I have to be uncomfortable with?”
He looked at Mom and said sternly, a tone I hadn’t heard him use with her in so long … I can't remember when.
“Have you got anything to add, Marilyn?”
She might have thought about adding something, but this whole situation was probably getting too strange for her. She meekly said, “No.”
“I have something to add.” I stood up. Now my heart was pounding. Now I was really going out on a limb. We had only talked about this once, but in my heart, I knew this was the right time and the right place. The instinct of love could become a powerful, powerful thing. I walked behind Arnold and put my hands on his shoulders. I leaned down and whispered in his ear, “I’m telling them.” As I said this, my hands slid down on his chest. After I said it, his hands covered mine, and he squeezed them in affirmation.
“Arnold and I are getting married.”
The sound of jaws dropping was deafening, at least in my mind.
“He proposed to me yesterday, and I said yes.”
I was so happy. That silly grin that I got when I was tied up was all over my face again.
I could not read their faces. It was all of thirty seconds before Ms. Evelyn or my parents even moved.
Ms. Evelyn managed the first words. “Not two … but three? He’s had all three of you?”
“He hasn’t had any of us. And he’s not marrying all of us. He’s marrying me.”
“I’m marrying Jimmy,” said Maria. “Maybe.”
“And I may marry Billy,” said Jenny. “Sorry, Ms. Evelyn, but you’re seeing things.”
“Bullshit if I’m seeing things!” she shouted. “I knew something like this was happening! What time is it? I'm calling Judge Jones. This so-called experiment is getting shut down right now! And you, Arnold, I’ll have your head on a platter before the sensitivity committee before week’s end!”
She got up and said, “Henry, Marilyn, I think we are quite finished here.”
Dad remained sitting. There was a slight smile on his face. Mom watched him carefully. She would take her cue from him.
“You go on ahead, Ms. Evelyn. There are some things I would like to discuss with my daughter right now and my potential future son-in-law.”
Ms. Evelyn got just a trace of worry on her face before she said, “Suit yourself,” and marched out.
After Evelyn left, Dad was quiet for about a minute. Finally, he said to Arnold, “I don’t recall you even being on Jolie’s radar before now.”
“He wasn’t, Dad. Not until this program started. But he’s the right one.”
Dad still looked at Arnold. “Thanks to Ms. Evelyn’s interest in what’s going on here, I happen to know a lot about you, Professor Oswald. You’ve been married before, haven’t you?”
“I have. I was married for twelve years and then divorced twelve years ago.”
“Did you know that, Jolie?” he said, looking at me.
I could have lied and said I did; however, my instinct told me that was not the right way to start this relation, and it truly was just starting. I knew that, and my instinct didn’t argue that fact at all.
“No, I didn’t. There’s a lot I don’t know about Arnold. What I do know from spending time with him over the last few days is that he is intelligent, a very nice man. He’s someone who thinks about things like I do and someone I can trust. I also know that I’m already deeply in love with him, and both my instinct and my intellect say that if I give myself to him, we will stay deeply in love.”
My mother sighed and said, “It's puppy love. How could you get puppy love at this age?”
I ran over to my mom and held her hands. “It could become puppy love, Mom, if I don’t follow through, if I don’t follow my heart. But it doesn’t have to be. It can also be the start of a deep, true love, and that’s what I want this to be.”
“As do I, Marilyn,” said Arnold. “Jolie is not alone in being touched by this instinct. I may be older, but thank goodness I’m a man. Even at my age, I can still feel the flower of love, and with Jolie, I have felt it … deeply and strongly. It is changing my thinking … and changing it in a most wonderful way. This week, the whole world has become a richer place for me.”
Arnold came over and put his hands on my arms. I wanted to spin into his arms, melt into his body, and have him give me a Hollywood kiss. But even more important, I wanted Mom to understand, so I held her hands instead.
She started speaking slowly. “There was once a time I felt like you are feeling now, Jolie. I met a man, and he was a wonderful, kind man. It took a while, but I began to feel very deeply for him. But times being what they were, I couldn’t show him what I felt, and he left me. I was heartbroken. As soon as he left, I knew he was the right one. Then I got very lucky, and he came back. That man was … is … your father. And I’m so very, very happy he came back.”
She went to him and gave him a wonderful little kiss and hugged him.
Dad put his arm around her waist, and Mom melted into him. She cooed to him, “Remember how to do it, dear?”
He leaned her back a little bit, and she loved it. I could see it was a kind of shallow Hollywood kiss. Wow! Old people could do that? My parents could do that? Phew! Well … maybe not phew anymore, but still— Wow!
When they came up for air, Dad said, “We think you two have a real good chance of great happiness. In spite of all the unconventionalness of all this, we give you our blessing.”
I was in shock. We were all kind of in shock. We talked for another half hour as we all kind of settled down, and then we all called it a night while we thought about what we’d seen.
I spent the first part of the night with Arnold. We should have had a million things to talk about, but all we did was lie together quietly and nuzzle and cuddle. The talk would come later. For now, being in love was enough. Later, he carried me to my bed and kissed me good night.