Parallel Lives
In case you haven't read Part One (and why on earth haven't you?), a brief introduction to set the scene...
The year is 2025, and in a parallel universe to our own, men have become endangered. A virus - commonly known as Anderson-Swift's Disease, after the Victorian scientist who originally identified it - that attacks the male immune system, has resulted in a world where only one in five boys survive into adulthood. Those that are fortunate to live to the "survival milestone" of eighteen years of age find themselves living in a world where they are greatly outnumbered by women. As an unfortunate side effect of the virus, men who survive to adulthood also find themselves rendered infertile by the effects of the disease. However, a small percentage of men experience a temporary window of fertility - an opportunity for procreation that simply cannot be allowed to be wasted.
With so relatively few adult men to go around, it is no wonder that the sexual marketplace has changed beyond recognition. Sex-starved women hound and pursue men for sex, causing men to have to take measures to protect themselves from unwanted advances, and in some cases, being raped. Men now find themselves in what has become a woman's world.
This story follows a group of young people living in this parallel universe where women greatly outnumber adult men.
In Part One we met two young men, Rupert and Kevin, who found themselves unwillingly being drafted into the Global Repopulation Program.
In Part Two, we get to know two young women, Claire and Kat, as they embark on a journey to volunteer for the Repopulation Program, but not before enjoying an afternoon of indulgence with a couple of handsome "masseurs".
Finally, in Part Three we'll meet Johnny, a young and enthusiastic personal assistant to a junior executive at an interactive media company in London, who is tasked with entertaining an important investor from across the pond, and discovering that she has more than just a trip to the theatre in mind.
It goes without saying that all the characters portrayed in this story are over 18 years of age, and any resemblance of any character or any company, or any thing for that matter, to anyone living or dead is entirely unintentional and totally coincidental. So there!
Right then, on with the story...
PART TWO - Claire and Kat
A Testing Time
"I want to do it, Mum, I want to do my bit," Claire insisted as she sat eating breakfast with her mother.
"I understand that," her mother, Steph, responded patiently. "I just don't want you to go through the heartbreak that I went through."
"I know, Mum, I miss him too - he
was
my little brother after all," Claire replied, calling up the memory of the day her younger brother Ethan had died from the Anderson-Swift virus. "But the world needs more men - some of them do survive. Uncle Alvin made it to adulthood - and he became fertile for a while too. I mean, maybe male fertility runs in the family."
"I know, dear, it's just... well, so many of them die so young and it's utterly heartbreaking when they're taken by the disease - I just don't want you to go through it as a mother, like I did."
"Mum, I
have
to do this... I
have
to volunteer," Claire insisted.
"But what would you do if you have a boy?" her mother countered.
"The same thing you did," Claire replied as she buttered her third slice of toast. "I'd love him and cherish him, and pray every day that he lives to reach eighteen."
"And if he dies before then? Like Ethan did?" Steph asked speculatively.
"Then I shall have to live with it and deal with it, like you and all the other mothers who have lost sons to Swift's Disease have to deal with it. But I can't let that put me off - the Global Repopulation Program needs as many women to volunteer as possible, and I'm fit and healthy and willing to do it."
"But... you're a virgin," her mother pointed out.
"Does that matter?" Claire responded.
"Well, no of course it doesn't. It's just... well, wouldn't you want to experience sex for pleasure first? Before attempting to conceive?"
"You mean, would I like to just grab a young man off the street and rape him, like that woman on the news last week?" Claire countered. "Or hire a prostitute, perhaps?"
"Well, a prostitute, as long as he's a respectable licensed one - I'll not have a daughter of mine paying for sex from a disease-ridden common street whore!"
It was surprisingly acceptable for women to make use of licensed male prostitutes. With the decline in the male population that had come about with Anderson-Swift's Disease, being a licensed prostitute was a lucrative business for a young man willing to sell his body to whichever woman wanted to have a good time with him. And there was no shortage of eager clients for whom sex toys and robotic aids could not compare to the real thing. For a woman to hire a man to have sex with was no more of a taboo than going into an emporium and purchasing a dildo or a vibrator. It was also one hundred percent legal, as long as a man registered himself as a sex worker and paid his taxes. Licensed prostitutes were not cheap however, and for those whose budget could not stretch to employ their services, the only alternative was to pick up an unlicensed prostitute off the street and hope not to get caught by the police.
"Well that's good to know," Claire answered back. "And you know I'd never rape a man."
Though goodness knows it's tempting sometimes
