Ella Mansfield (2 page)

She nodded.  “I remember studying that.”

“The pods produced a slightly higher amount
of boys than girls, about ten percent more boys, but boys tend to die faster, so they thought it would all work out.”  He took a sip of his coffee before resuming his pacing.  “But the girls were frail and weak.  By the time that first generation reached adulthood, there were less than fifteen percent of the girls left.”

“Oh that’s terrible!  I had no idea it had worked out that way.”
  She felt badly for the men of the world.  There were far fewer women than there should be. 

He nodded.  “There’s a reason we’ve never let you leave the community.”  He sighed.  “Anyway, the girls that were left were sterile.  They were unable to have babies or have eggs retrieved at all.  All of the women who had initially given eggs were now too old to do it again, and much too old to bear children naturally.  So the last generation is about thirty years old now, and there’s not a female among them.”

“Oh, Daddy, how terrible for them!”  She felt genuinely bad for the people of the world.

“Here, we decided to stick by the old ways and
not mess with God’s will.”  He shrugged.  “That means that we have something the rest of the world really needs here.”

She blinked at him for a moment, suddenly understanding.  “Healthy women?”

“That’s right.  There are brokers who have set up a few auctions for women in our community.”  He stared down at his coffee after taking the seat across from her again.  “We really need the money, April.”

She swallowed hard.  “You’re selling me?”
  Surely she didn’t hear him right.  He must be saying something else.

“I don’t have a choice!”

She shook her head against the words.  “But what kind of man would buy a woman?”

He sighed.  “It will probably be a group of men buying you. 
Trillionaires tend to set up groups for just such a reason.  You might be shared between two men or between twenty.  I asked that the groups be four maximum for this.”  His face tried to convey that he was doing her a favor.

“Four?  You want me to have…sexual relations with four men?”  Her mind raced.  She’d been taught since she was a little girl that you only did that within marriage.  “Without being married?”

“Part of my requirements is that one of the men needs to marry you before you leave the auction.  I’ll have a preacher standing by.”  He seemed to have all the answers worked out.

April stared at her father, swallowing hard.  “You want me to marry a stranger who will let his friends…use me sexually?”

Ed shrugged.  “I have to.  Your future mother needs more money than I have to be comfortable.”
 
His voice pled with her for understanding.

She jumped up from the table and ran into the woods, where she felt safe.  How could her father do this to her?
  She kept running until she came to a small stream where she knelt and washed the tears from her face.  Her father had given so much to her over the years.  Did she really have a right to balk at what he was asking of her?

She sat back and hugged her knees to her, watching the beauty of nature all around her.  Why had he hidden the harsh reality of the outside world from her?  She’d known about the pod babies, but the rest of it?  She’d had no clue.  She had never even been kissed, because she’d been raised to have high morals.  Her father had prevented her from ever dating a boy.  Because he knew this was a possibility for the future?  Or because he cared about her?

She had no real way of knowing.  She sighed.  She also didn’t know when the auction would be.  She needed to go back and pack, preparing herself for her life.  She felt a slight tingling between her legs wondering what it would be like to have a man’s penis there, plunging inside her.  Would she enjoy sex?  She laughed sadly.  She’d better.  She’d be having so much of it that if she didn’t like it, she was in trouble.

*****

April’s father was still in the kitchen when she got back, he looked devastated by the way she’d run off.  She took a deep breath.  She was angry with him, but she would do it, because he needed her to.  If his life could be better through her sacrifice, then what choice did she really have?  He’d sacrificed too much for her over the years for her not to be willing to sacrifice for him.

She put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.  “I love you, Daddy.”

He stood, pulling her against him and hugging her tightly.  “I love you, too, baby.” 

After a moment
, she pulled back.  “I’ll do it, and I’ll do it with a good attitude.”  She sighed.  “When’s the auction?”

“Tomorrow evening.”  He gripped her hand tightly.  “I’ve made some rules for the men of this auction that will make it easier for you.  Groups of more than four men are banned from bidding.  Those four men must be the only men you’ll have relations with.  One of them must marry you, and if the group ever gets tired of you, they have to send you back to me.”

April took a deep breath and nodded.  “I can take my things?”  She’d never had much…just a few jumpsuits in different colors and a few mementos of her mother. 

He nodded.  “Of course you can!”  He stroked her cheek with his fingers. 
“Thank you for understanding.”

“I want you to have the best life you can have, Daddy.  If that means marrying Jane and selling me to a group of strangers, I can deal with that.”  She gave him one last quick hug before disappearing into her room.

She would make the most of her new life, she promised herself.  Money had never really mattered to her, but having enough to do anything she wanted certainly appealed to her.  Would she be able to travel?  She sighed.  Her life was about to drastically change, hopefully for the better.

*****

The following evening, her father drove her to the coliseum in Madison where the auction would take place.  She was shocked at the sight of the city.  She’d never imagined there was a place like this anywhere in the world.  The buildings were much taller than she was used to, and all of the vehicles could fly.  She knew her father’s car had flown at one time, but it had long since lost that ability.  No one in the community really drove cars, because they could walk wherever they wanted to go. 

When they arrived, her father
drove them around to an entrance that was marked, “Employees Only—No Entrance.”  He helped her from the car, and they walked to the door, her father knocking sharply. 

A man came to the door and flung it wide.  He was dr
essed in a pink and orange jumpsuit, and the brightness startled her.  She herself was wearing a mint green jumpsuit and slipped into the hall with her father when the stranger beckoned.

They were rushed back to a small room full of costumes.  The man took April’s hand in his and exclaimed in an exuberant voice, “You’re exquisite!”  He turned her in front of him.  “We’ll need to fix your hair, of course
, and put you in something sexy, but the men are going to go nuts for you!”  He clapped his hands together, and four men ran to his side.  “We need one of you to take care of her hair.  One on make-up.  One doing a manicure.  One doing a pedicure.  I will personally choose her clothing.  With a body like that, she needs to wear something slinky.”  He held his hand out to her, and she was shocked by his limp handshake.  The men she knew had very firm grips.  “I’m Xavier.”

“April,” she whispered in response.  It was then she realized she’d never met a stranger.  Everyone she knew, she’d known since she was a small child.  She’d had no idea there were people like Xavier anywhere on earth.

One of the men pushed her into a chair and began unbraiding her hair.  The braid reached her waist and once it was unbraided it was past her knees.  He quickly brushed through it and picked up some scissors.  She shook her head when she saw them.  “Just a little.  We’re going to make you beautiful.”

April nodded and closed her eyes.  She really didn’t want to know what they did to her hair.  She sat still, letting them work their magic on her, hoping against hope she’d be able to recognize the girl in the mirror when they were finished.

Her father patted her shoulder.  “I’m going to go get your things out of the car.”

She felt totally alone without him there.  She didn’t want to be alone with strange men, but she gave a half laugh when she realized it.  She was about to be alone with strangers and she had no choice.

In the next thirty minutes, she was pulled and prodded and her hair was tugged.  She felt like she was being transformed into someone else entirely.  When they were done, they made her stand and undressed her, putting her into the miniscule dress they’d chosen.

Once the dress was fastened in the back, she stood in front of a full length mirror.  Her hair was piled atop her head in a strange twist, but thankfully they’d left the color alone.  Her make-up was thick and, in her opinion, overpowering, but she would be on a stage, so that made sense.  It was the dress that shocked her.  It was short, landing just at the center of her thighs.  She wore nothing over her breasts, and her nipples show
ed clearly through the sheer pink fabric.  The sides were cut out, so the sides of her stomach could be seen.  She felt naked.  She didn’t wear this little to sleep in.

“This is too risqué!  I need more clothes!  Is there a sweater I can put on over this?”  It was June, and a warm night, but she didn’t care how hot she got.  She couldn’t let men she wasn’t married to see her that way.

Xavier just laughed.  “You look beautiful.  The men will love you.”  He glanced at the clock above her head.  “Besides, there’s no time.  The auction starts in twenty minutes, and you need to be shown off!”  He took her hand and led her through a tunnel toward the middle of the coliseum. 

She tried to breathe, but the swarm of people startled her.  There must be millions of men out there, she thought.  She’d never seen so many people in her life. 

She was led to the stage, and climbed the four steps leading up to it.  Xavier led her to the middle of the stage and had her spin once, so everyone could see her from every angle.  She knew she was blushing and was thankful for the thick layer of make-up covering her face.  What would everyone think of her, dressed in this get-up?

She closed her eyes, trying to block out her embarrassment, and stood for a moment with her hands at her sides.  She was shocked when Xavier began talking.  “Gentlemen!  This auction is for a rare beauty that you will find nowhere else on
earth.  She has been examined by a doctor, and she is fertile.  She is also untouched.  Judging by her blushes, I would say she is even un-kissed.”  He walked to April, his hand moving the microphone to her mouth.  “Have you ever been kissed, April?”

“No, sir.” 
Her voice was weak and embarrassed sounding even to her.  She looked out over the sea of faces and was startled to see just how many men were willing to bid for her.  She swallowed hard, hoping she’d be able to restrain from running off the stage in a fit of panic.

She blocked
out everything else that was said until the numbers started.   Xavier opened the bidding at fifty million dollars.  She almost choked.  Her father made less than a million a year.  That was his lifetime of salaries. 

She stared at the men who had made the bid and hoped she didn’t look like a deer caught in the sights of a hunter.  She breathed deeply, only half-listening as the numbers climbed.  When the numbers hit one trillion, her eyes got wider and she started to try and find the men throwing out the big numbers in the crowd.  There were only three or four men left bidding
, and she was shocked there were that many. 

After they reached two trillion, she saw that they went down to two men bidding.  One was tall with dark hair and eyes.  He looked like he was of mixed race, something she’d never really seen before.  Her small community was definitely Anglo-Saxon
.  The other was short for a man, with red hair.  He looked very thin.  Who would win her?  Who would she marry before she left for the night?

Finally, the taller man shook his head and sat down.  That left only the short man with red hair standing.  The final bid was for three and a half trillion dollars.  She stared at the man and watched as he and three other men stood and walked toward the stage.  A minister stepped up onto the stage beside her and she blinked.  She was marrying now?  She didn’t even know any of their names!

*****

Bill strode toward the stage and his future wife.  He felt a tingle of anticipation run through him, thrilled that he was getting the chance to marry.  Finally.  His three friends were behind him, ready to take possession of the woman who now belonged to the four of them.  Sure, she’d be Bill’s wife, but all of them would take her.  Tonight.

Bill handed his driver’s license to the man running the auction and waited while the funds were confirmed.  After a moment the man nodded, looking down at the license.  “William Jennings.”

The minister nodded slightly and took April’s hand putting it in his.  He didn’t hesitate as he began the ceremony, using the familiar words they’d all seen on screen a million times.  “Do you
, William Jennings, take this woman, April Moore, to be your lawfully wedded wife?  To love, honor, and cherish her for as long as you both shall live?”