Dr. Hillerman was in all ways unremarkable outside the four walls of his home. He worked with diligence, but no particular genius, at his medical research, sat in on Rotary Club meetings, and voted the party ticket.
And kept his wife and nineteen year old niece in a state of perpetual sexual serfdom at home.
As is often the case with pervasive sexual tyranny, it just sort of happened one day. Hillerman had been in line for a promotion for a long time, but his merits never quite tallied up to a corner office. But THIS time he was working on something big, a drug to isolate the parts of the brain stricken by Steinhalter's Syndrome, conceivably giving tens of thousands of people a somewhat normal life again.
But the timing, the timing was off. The board would consider promotions next week, and it would take months to get approval for human testing and find volunteers. He knew it worked. He KNEW it, and finally he would be the heroic provider of the house, the important man again!
So, he gambled. He mixed the drug in with the evening dinner of his wife, son, and niece and, noting that they did not instantly perish, was internally much relieved. He went to bed early, leaving everybody chatting around the table, visions of an imposing wooden desk in his mind.
The curious thing happened next morning when, coming downstairs, he noticed that the three members of his family were precisely where he had left them, only this time without the clattering conversation. They stared at each other, or perhaps merely at the walls behind each other, in perfect stillness.
Goodbye, corner office. Hillerman cleared his throat, "Sooo... how is everybody?"
With a concerted voice, all three answered, "How should I be?"
"Oookay," Hillerman exhaled and slunk to the refrigerator. "Are we out of milk, then?"
"Should we have milk?" his wife asked, eyes expressing a true concern, a deep philosophical curiosity.
"It's customary, yes," Hillerman grumbled.
Instantly, his wife, Josie, smiled widely and openly. "Then I will GET some for us!"
"Or I can!" the niece chimed in.