Dad kept us working almost constantly for ten more days. We would still be allowed the usual sex relief twice a day, but John and I only did Fran's butt once a day at lunch due to our remorse and embarrassment, in addition to our fatigue. We were mostly doing low priority chores that could have waited months or years. We repainted the pump shed, machine shed, and the rest of the house. We built a dozen bird houses and hung them on poles, cut two years' worth of firewood, and cleaned things nobody would ever see or care about. Dad even had us sweep as much of the hay loft as we could, move the fifty tons of hay a bale at a time, then sweep the rest. We knew we deserved it. We had broken the law, and worse yet, centuries of tradition, so we didn't complain.
From the time our parents first told us about marriage and love, we knew dating was very serious. When a couple decided to date, each family gave them a package of 50 condoms. The couple lived with the woman's family for the first 50, then with the man's for the rest of their dating. If they stayed together long enough to use 100 or if the woman got pregnant, they got married.
99'ers were those who broke up shortly before running out of condoms or refused to marry when they should. Few people were willing to risk dating a 99'er, so many of them ended up as spinsters when they turned 25 and were still single. Spinsters stayed with their parents or other family, unless a miracle happened, and somebody married them. They were last in line to become a Matron or Patron, and very few would be willing to date or marry them because of their low social status. Spinsters were only a little better than 99'ers.
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At supper time we got a big surprise. Dad walked in the house with a lady much older and announced, "Family, this is Gertrude Holmes, from four farms Northwest of us. You can call her Granny Gert. Gert, these are my kids John, Jake, and Fran.
