THE SEX REBEL OF JESUSLAND, mini-chapter 76

76. LUNCH WITH EZRA

“Do you think they’ll behead Joshua Grant?”

Eve took a good look at Ezra. Without knowing it, she was comparing him with Adam. Without knowing why, she was beginning to weigh men as sexual partners, and also summing them up on a deeper level as possible marriage partners. Her ambition was becoming sexualized, and after she had finished her summation of Ezra, she realized what she was doing, and inwardly blushed. This made her feel elated and receptive. Her orgasmic experience with Adam had kicked her into a new variant of herself, one who was moving into a new role with men.

Ezra, she saw, was a pleasing symphony in gray. The hair of his temples was grayer than his dark brown, almost black, hair. He wore a dark gray suit with a light gray stippled tie. His eye patch seemed to be different from before, a lighter color. Did he have a set of eye patches, with different colors to fit in with different ensembles? Would she find such vanity attractive? She decided she would. His good eye was blue, shockingly so. That color pierced as well as reflected. One wanted to be reflected back at them. He was an extraordinary-looking man whose entire gestalt projected maturity. A man at peace with himself. His very demeanor invited you in to enjoy him as much as he did. A man in command of an oyster, and that oyster was the world. So different from the man she had married and divorced so long ago.

“They’ve done such things before.”

“But they can get a big ransom for him, can’t they?”

“The Men of the Gospel don’t accede to demands from terrorists.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard regarding this.”

“What have you heard?”

“That the Men of the Gospel pay ransom if the person is important enough.”

“Where have you heard this?”

“Esther Todd told me.”

“You know Esther Todd?”

“I believe you do, too. Very well.”

“Yes. She was an early champion.”

“Is she the reason why you got on in the world?”

“One of them. A big one. Now she wants to get in my way.” He chuckled, as if were already forgiving Esther for any Machiavellian games she might play, since he was bound to outplay her.

“How?”

“She thinks she should take over Sunday Fox when Joshua leaves to run for President.”

“You want to take over?”

“Quite frankly, yes. Sunday Fox needs new blood. Esther is an insider. She will just continue Joshua’s legacy. I can really increase shareholder value.”

“Is that why people become CEOs?”

“No.” He laughed again. “That’s a good question, Eve.”

“In the end, why do you want to become CEO of Sunday Fox?”

She felt proud of herself because she was the one who was probing him, the one who was leading the dance. She felt independent and strong enough to take on men as her equals. Good sex built confidence. Good sex was her equalizer. Thank you, Adam. Thank you, me.

“I want to do something suitably Christian,” he said. “Like stamping my vision on this society.”

“That’s a rather dictatorial focus, isn’t it?” It was, but wasn’t that exactly what she wanted to do?

He laughed again. “Yes, Napoleonically so. I want to rule. Why not? I know what people want. I know what to give them. I know how to play with them. I need a big stage on which to play with people, and being the CEO of Sunday Fox is the biggest communications arena to play with people.”

“But being one of the Men of the Gospel is the real power, isn’t it?”

“The CEO of Sunday Fox automatically stands in line to become a Man of the Gospel. Being the CEO of Sunday Fox is a crucial aspect of the nation’s Behavior Management. Esther does it all the time. But I’m better at it. I know how to manage behavior through programming. You know, it used to be that programming was there simply to attract people to watch the ads. Now the programming itself is a long ad for what we want people to do. It’s not a distraction anymore; it’s real how-to entertainment. It tells you what to do, how to be in this new world that the Men of the Gospel are creating. We’re reordering the world, Eve, and I know how to do that. Esther Todd only knows how to run a company. She’s an administrative and people genius. But I know what Sunday Fox is for. I’m the only man who knows what to do with the mission of the company. I have vision. She does not.”

“You have a vision for the proper propaganda to promote yourself regarding this.”

He laughed again. “That sounds cynical. Eve, you know what we are doing here. We are turning the country into a truly Christian nation. A nation of the proper core values. Verily, we are creating a heaven on earth. Karl Marx was the first man who thought to do such a thing, but unfortunately he rejected spirituality to do that. He thought humans are best seen as economic. He was wrong. We’re spiritual. We live for something bigger than ourselves.”

“And you’re the one whose focus will decide what that something bigger is?”

“No, we know what that something bigger is. It’s living in compliance with the charge of the Lord. Christianity is on the march, and I’m a great general to lead the crusade. Pardon the slip into narcissism. But what I’m good at is translating the grand Christian vision into practical things for people to live up to and to do.”

“What about sex?”

Eve had no idea why that slipped out. But it did. It was a valid question, but she knew as she said it, and as she blushed inwardly for having said it, that she would never have asked such a question if she hadn’t had her confidence-building orgasms. Really, those orgasms cleared a lot of cobwebs. Esther’s freedom in speaking her own mind had set a good example as well. Meeting Ezra was like a new test of her scientific experiment. He was the first man she had met after the experience – the first new powerful man – and the test was going well. She felt very much in control of herself, even as she seemed a bit out of control, bringing sex into the conversation.

“Ah, yes. The primal urge that religion never knows what to do with. We’re a strange nation, being very Christian and intensely interested in pornography.”

He was being like Esther. He didn’t censor what he said. He was not afraid of a Patriot Board. He knew no one could inform on him, not when it was in his power to set a Patriot Unit on anyone who thought to inform on him. He was a Blessed. They lived free of fear. Unlike Beloveds like her.

“Sex should be integrated into Christianity once and for all,” he said. “We need to be clear. Sex is part of life. Our religion should not be suspicious of it. It’s not enough to say that the only safe sex is married sex. And it’s ridiculous to claim that women should not enjoy sex.”

Eve felt her heart lift. She thought she heard herself talking. This appeared to be a meeting of minds.

“I’ve always thought the Bureau of Behavior Design and Management has a focus that treats sex with distaste,” she said. “I agree that dating should be managed, like the Bureau is doing, but I would explore fresh avenues regarding this.”

“Like what?”

“I would have instruction in sex for First Daters.”

“How do you mean?”

“I would focus on running sex clinics for men and women, separately, in which I would explore with them how to make love well, and how to express their sexuality, define their wishes, make them comfortable with whatever it is, adjust those whose predilections cannot be approved, and make sexuality such a natural part of their being in the world that it would not get in the way of successful relationships. I think the whole Abstention thing regarding sexuality is over the top. Flogging kids who want to have sex seems a medieval focus, doesn’t it?”

“You know what you’re saying falls far, far outside Approved Thought,” Ezra observed slyly. Was he trying to scare her?

She tried to backpedal. “If you want Abstention, you should at least be scientific regarding it, not medieval. I could adapt my Sex Aversion Therapy for homosexuals to focus on the problem of Teen Sexuality. It would be simple to have all Teenagers and Twenties undergo a milder form of my Sex Aversion Therapy to get them through those turbulent years. If it works for homosexuals, it could work for teenagers.”

Ezra smiled. “I prefer your sex clinic idea to Sex Aversion Therapy for teens,” he said, and laughed. Then he added: “You and me, we could have done with some schooling like that before we got married.”

Eve blushed again. That was a tap of the past on the present. What was he saying? That they should now try to make up for how they screwed up years ago? A hint had been laid on the table. Feeling her new power, she was not afraid to run with it.

“I’m much readier now than I was back then,” she said. It was wonderful to say that: she felt totally independent. Now she was ready to look for the right man: and he could be the one sitting in front of her right now.

“So am I,” said Ezra.

It was amazing how suddenly they had come to the point, whatever it was.

They looked into each other’s eyes, measuring each other. A challenge had been cast.

“Last night I was making love to a woman,” Ezra said slowly. “Great stuff. Then I thought of you, and I came so hard I just about lost all my protein.”

Eve felt the blood rush to her lower body. What a rude flirt, what brazen effrontery, what a forthright grab. How non-Biblitarian. How European. How Frenchified. Ezra was the devil himself, a snake in the garden, the embodiment of temptation, a challenge to her senses. He smiled, no doubt enjoying the crimson flush that had invaded her face, a red flag to his bullish behavior. Was this what Adam had done -- prepared her for Ezra? Ezra was an ideal match, much more powerful than Adam. She could see herself at the Top Tier in months instead of years. But she would have to switch her allegiance from Esther to Ezra. A scary move. Did she have the confidence to change champions in midstream?

And how did Ezra make love? Was he as good at it as Adam? Eve did not know it, but her new sexuality had made her vulnerable -- to sex. Dependent on her orgasms, she needed them to be caused by a male, who currently was Adam. If she moved on from him, she wanted to be able to take her experience with Adam to the next guy. Repeat that intensity. Her orgasms had made her feel independent, but now she was deeply anxious to have those high-powered big bangs on tap. A paradox: her orgasms had freed her to look for a man because she felt equal, but she needed them again and again in order not to lose her freedom. Her orgasms enslaved her even as they set her up to rule one day. They were her chains as well as her crown.