JESUS NATION SEX REBEL, mini-chapter 42

42. EVE MEETS A POWERFUL FEMALE

The female made a little plate of delicacies for herself, and Eve followed suit. Their eyes met.

“I don’t know about you,” said Eve, “but I feel very old here.”

The female laughed. “I don’t have that problem. Thaddeus keeps me young.” She pointed at the young man.

“A beautiful young man, isn’t he?” said Eve.

“Yes, he is. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But there’s a difference between him and the others of his age here,” the female added. “The young girls here are all married to their fathers.”

“Indeed. Conjugal concubines, aren’t they?”

“Exactly. But Thaddeus is strictly a plaything, what they used to call a boy toy. He knows I’m not going to marry him. He’s my dear little sandbox playmate.”

Eve was exhilarated by Esther’s breezy talk about men. At her status level of Beloved, such talk would be Non-Sanctioned. Here, where the guests were obviously all Blesseds, different rules applied. Or maybe the same ones did, but as a Blessed, one just felt powerful enough to express the occasional Non-Sanctioned Notion without fear of reclassification.

Eve reached out her hand. “I’m Eve Trent,” she said.

The female looked Eve up and down and then introduced herself.

“I’m Esther Todd,” she said.

Eve had heard the name. There was a big brouhaha about her some ten years ago.

“The Esther Todd,” the female said.

“There was a big controversy about you some years ago, wasn’t there?”

“Yes, there was,” said Esther. “I had the temerity to debate a man on TV.”

Now Eve remembered. “About who’s more fit regarding leadership of the nation, a man or a female, wasn’t it?”

“Exactly. We called ourselves women then. You couldn’t have a debate like that now.”

“Pity,” said Eve, and regretted it.

“I didn’t hear that,” said Esther and smiled. “But I agree.”

Eve felt very strange. She had overstepped the mark with a complete stranger, and gotten away with it. With perhaps the most powerful stranger she had ever met, besides Joshua Grant. There was much to learn from this powerful female, and she was only too willing.