Hannah

"Poor Jasper," I said. "Come next to me."

He moved next to me and I took his manhood in one hand and began to stroke it vigorously. It did not take long before he pulsed his creamy ejaculate over my breasts.

Thus began our twice-daily naked romps. With the exception of worship sollights when I floated through each agonizing visitation by a Council elder.

Jasper was more than up to the task. I was glad that the Council had not specified in any decree the manner in which males and females could join. Jasper and I tried every position I could imagine and Jasper invented a few of his own. We kept our liaisons short. Lengthy sessions might draw attention to our meetings if they exceeded the usual time Jasper took to update me on the local activities and neither of us wanted that scrutiny.

I was nearing the three quarter point of my mandated mourning when Jasper arrived expecting the usual warm greeting. Instead I met him fully clothed with all the frilly petticoats, dresses and under things. He was confused as he should have been.

I sat him upon the settee, took his hand and began to speak.

"Jasper, I have news that is both wonderful and distressing at the same time."

He looked further confused.

"I am with child," I said.

He brightened for an instant and then his face darkened as the full impact of my statement occurred to him.

"How?" he uttered.

"How is the easy part," I said. "The proper question is why?"

"Then why?" he asked.

"All these seasons I thought I was barren. I was unable to conceive a child with Isaac and I was convinced it was my failing. The entire village and the Council were clear it was my responsibility and I had failed. It is apparent now that the problem was Isaac's not mine. Because of that belief, I, we, took no precautions and this child is the result of that miscalculation."

"I am proud to be the father of our child, but how can we manage? We cannot publicly announce the situation without the condemnation of the Council and the entire village. We cannot bond before the end of your mourning and, if I calculate properly, the child will be birthed shortly after."

"You are correct in your mathematics. I have had time to think and we have two choices that are immediately apparent. We can pack and leave the village in the middle of the night and escape like criminals or we can stay and navigate through the obvious obstacles. My mind is of the opinion that the latter is the proper path but I need some time to work on the details."

Jasper and I resumed our usual activities while I considered the options. He was unusually considerate in his approach and I attributed his deference to the presence of the baby.

It was barely two sollights later that Jasper brought me word of the rumors spreading throughout the village. Citizens were speculating that I was pregnant and that he, Jasper, was the father since he was the only male to come in contact with me during my isolation. The source had to be one of the several females who made the daily deliveries. Somehow, she must have seen or heard something that provoked the thought and could not wait to spread the rumor.

It seemed the disaster was upon us and we were not prepared.

That evening I determined to go on the offensive rather than wait for the impending confirmation of the rumors and the inevitable reaction of the Council.

I penned a letter to the Council. In the letter, I recognized the existence of the rumors and confirmed my condition without identifying the father and sought their deserved discipline. I could not be more contrite. I laid my body and soul, and the body and soul of my unborn child, into their hands and expressed that I was willing to accept their judgment without objection.

I also requested that the letter be published in the Village Chronicle so that my humiliation would be public and complete and that they add a short note to the letter to let the publisher know he had their blessing to print the letter in its entirety.

I placed the letter in an envelope to give to Jasper to deliver to the Council. I would instruct him to wait for a response and to do whatever they asked.

Jasper took the letter the next morning and waited. It was a short wait. A clerk of the Council returned the letter to him with a note for the publisher of the Village Chronicle to publish the letter 'with haste' and instructions to Jasper to deliver it immediately.

Unknown to the Council, I had also penned a second letter that evening. My instructions to Jasper were to take the letter the Council gave him and switch it with the second letter before delivering it to the publisher. He was to destroy my original letter.

Again I waited.

It was a short wait. The next day my second letter was printed, in larger than usual font, at the top of the first page of the Village Chronicle.

"To the Council and Citizens of the Village," it began.

"It has come to my attention that there are several rumors spreading among the citizens of the village as to my condition and the reasons for it.

"The first rumor is that I am pregnant. I am delighted to confirm the truth of this rumor. I am with child. I have never been happier than I am now to bear a child. For almost sixteen seasons I have thought myself barren, unable to have children. This belief has been the basis for much scorn among the populace toward me and a lack of understanding of my feelings regarding the condition. I am now elated to know it was not my doing that left me without child but the failings of another.

"The second rumor is more difficult to deal with as it concerns the paternal origins of my condition. I am unable to identify, and therefore, confirm, the father of my child.

"Let me explain. Since the first day of my imposed mourning and the isolation it required, I have been visited by members of the Council. Each worship day, following the ceremony a single member of the Council has visited my bedchamber. Each time, he has lain with me and deposited his seed deep within me.

"There have been seventy-nine such visits. Each of the seven Council members has come to me in turn and none have been excluded. I have lain with each of them no less than eleven times. It is because of this activity that I am unable to identify the father of my yet to be born child.

"These visits have been in secret as I am convinced that such action on the part of the Council members is contrary to their own decrees and not revealed to their respective partners.

"I humbly close with the certitude that my child will be delivered into a loving environment and that I, under the circumstances, will have the understanding of the citizenry.

"With love, I am,

"Hannah, widow of Isaac."

The reaction to my letter was immediate and loud. Citizens, mostly female, came into the streets and approached the Council building demanding to know if the allegations in the letter were true. They were hard to deny when several other widows confirmed the story and related their own carnal relations with the Council members. Their stories were quickly followed by similar tales by younger females, some under eighteen seasons at the time, forced into relations with Council members.

Several Council members, in spite of the Council decree as to the rights of the male to home and hearth, found themselves without a place to sleep that night.

The next day, I dressed in my finest clothing and walked out into the sunshine for the first time in almost two seasons. I was greeted heroically by many citizens, mostly female, and a few male. Many of the males had sided with the Council and avoided contact with me.

Within two cycles, the members of the Council were forced to resign in disgrace. The first election ever in the village was declared by the citizenry and a new Council formed consisting of five women and two men who supported the women. Their first official act was to appoint a committee to review all the Council decrees and recommend retaining or discarding each one.

Things were looking up for the village.

A week later, the Village Chronicle, published another letter. This one from Jasper. In it he recounted the treatment he and his mother had suffered under the hand of the previous Council. He penned, "As a single male, without female prospects, he would be proud to be bound to Hannah and accept fatherhood of her unborn child."

We were bound in matrimony within the cycle and took up immediate residence in my home. I did not have to lie naked on the altar of the worship center while Jasper claimed my body. No other virgin has had to do the same since.

With the review of the decrees many became void and others weakened. Among the voided was the definition of the breeding age. Many couples could be seen in public for the first time without fear, holding hands and even kissing occasionally.

Our child was birthed without incident. With my sanction, Jasper named him Isaac.

Jasper has formed his own engineering company and, with the help of others, has begun work on completing the addition to the Council house. His mother now lives with us and is a remarkable help with Isaac. She remarks frequently how much Isaac and Jasper resemble each other.

I am employed as an aide in the village infirmity, renamed the Isaac Center. I find the work to be unusually fulfilling.

Jasper and I continue to have daily relations, repeating many of the positions we experimented with prior to my pregnancy. We hope to add to the population of the village sometime soon.

Things are looking up for us as well as the village.