THE SEX REBEL OF JESUSLAND, mini-chapter 74

74. EVE AND ADAM ARGUE

“You could do with a little shock treatment, couldn’t you?” Eve’s reply was immediate and sharp.

“You could do with a little spanking yourself.” Adam came back fast.

“I want a man who’s strong enough to let me be his equal without feeling insecure.”

“I’ve never felt insecure around women, and I’m not about to start with you.”

“If you can’t let me be your equal, it must be because you’re just another insecure man.”

“We happen to live in Jesusland, Eve, where men are God and females are handmaidens to men.”

“Jesusland could be a whole lot better than you men make it. In my idea of Jesusland, which I will one day help to build, women will be allowed to be strong and powerful if they want it, and stand up to men, like Esther Todd. I’m an Esther Todd, not a handmaiden.”

“I don’t want an Esther Todd. That woman is a bad influence on you.”

“If you want me, you’ll have to take me as I am, won’t you?”

“I made you what you are. You couldn’t even come before you met me.”

“I’m eternally grateful. But that doesn’t give you the right to make me your handmaiden.”

“It’s not just my right. It’s every man’s right in Jesusland. What country are you living in?”

“If you want a handmaiden, go back to your Christian floozies. Why don’t you call Martha again?”

It was a good question. He didn’t want to go back to the Marthas of this world. Eve was totally superior. But that didn’t make her his equal either.

“I don’t need to listen to you splatter the air with these Non-Sanctioned Notions.”

“Why, are you going to put me in front of a Patriot Board?”

“No, I’ll give you a proper hiding, the way a Christian man gives his Christian woman when she gets out of hand.”

“If you touch me, you’ll never see me again.”

He wanted to hit her right then and there, but something stopped him, and he knew he was somehow defeated. Damn. This woman was worse than Martha. He could laugh at Martha. But Eve had her hooks into him. He couldn’t even give her a good hiding. How would he control her? How could he gain the respect of any Christian man if he couldn’t control his woman? Was he afraid of her? No. But he was afraid of being without her, and she was not above using that as a weapon. She fought dirty.

“You’ll have to decide whether you want to be a proper Christian mate and helpmeet to me, Eve. Or some renegade woman who’ll end up classified as a Spinster because no self-respecting man will have you.”

“I can tell you now, Adam, if you want us to continue being together, it will have to be as equals. Or not at all.”

“We’re having our first fight,” Adam said, and sighed. I suppose I have to humor her for now, he thought, while I think of ways to break her in.

“Well, I hope it’s cleared the air for you,” said Eve. She wanted to smile, but decided not to.

“I’ll wear you down, you know, Eve,” said Adam. “I’ve got the whole of Jesusland behind me to wear you down.”

“I don’t want a man like all the men in Jesusland. I want a man who wants more than a handmaiden, a man who is strong enough to mate with his equal. If you’re like all the other men in Jesusland, I don’t want you. I won’t submit to you or any man, not even if all the men in Jesusland came and sat on my head.”

He had to laugh. She laughed, too. But it was the laughter of a couple who had drawn swords, and knew they were in for a long fight, until one of them was forced to surrender.

Eve gritted her teeth as she suddenly swallowed her laughter. The game of love was over. The fight of love had begun.

In the end, the battle with all the men in Jesusland came down to this: a fight with one man. And here he was. She had to start with him. She had to demasculinize him first. Demasculinize? The word had popped into her mind from nowhere. Hmm. Interesting, wasn’t it?

The problem with men? They were men. They had to be made more like, well, women. The whole society of Jesusland had become too masculinized. In this context, men like Adam, who might have a lot going for them, went wrong, because their only role models were those of other malish men.

She would be a role model for Adam. She would show him his equal in a woman. She would teach this one man a lesson, which she would later, when she had the power, apply to all men. In her job she broke homosexuals down to their natural state as heterosexuals – she was an expert at retraining men – so, mastering heterosexuals should be a cinch.

Here we go, girl. Let the battle commence, Adam: man to man. No: woman to man. Let’s see if you’re man enough to be more than a man. Either you accept me as an equal, or I cast you out.

You choose, Adam: which will it be?