Chapter 1

 

"I'm scared, Jack."

The lovely young woman's husband looked uncomfortable. "I know, love." He was trying to be supportive but he was as frightened as she was. "Look, Ellie, you know the rules as well as I do. He's coming because we've been married over two years and have no child. The law says we have to have our first child within two years so they can regulate the population ..." He paused for a moment or two then took her small hand in his. "Anyway, he's from the Ministry. Just do as he says and we'll be all right ..."

"But he's coming tomorrow," she wailed.

"So he's coming tomorrow. As I say, do as you're told and everything will be all right."

He didn't really believe that, deep down. These visits were talked of in hushed whispers amongst his peer group. You were supposed to get your wife pregnant within twenty-four months-or else. No-one really liked to talk about the 'or else' but they all knew these visits from the Ministry of Population Control often led to a man leaving his work very suddenly and sometimes neither he nor his wife were seen again at the neat little house in the neat little street to which they had been assigned at marriage.

You didn't ask where they had gone. These men from the Ministry were apt to descend on clerks who asked the wrong questions and everyone knew their interrogations were not pleasant, even if the details were a complete mystery.

Jack was, in truth, as scared as Ellie. The men always started with the wife but if those investigations proved fruitless-or rather, if they found she was fertile, then they came for the man. He didn't want his lovely wife unhappy but then neither did he want the man sending the little blue chit to his boss informing him that he was required for investigation and would not be reporting for work until further notice.

Life was very ordered these days. In the beautiful city of Sydney in the year 2095, everyone had their place and as long as they stuck to it, life was pleasant. When you finished your education (with the appropriate grades), you were allocated a job based on the reports from your school. You worked hard and you remained with your parents until at age eighteen you chose a girl of the same age to marry (subject to the Ministry approving of your choice, that is). Depending on your work status, you were then allocated a little house which you were expected to keep neat and tidy and as clean as a new pin. As you progressed, passed exams and were promoted, so you moved to a better house in a nicer street.

Ministry inspections were frequent and unannounced and if your house was not up to scratch, you might be summoned to the Ministry to explain and possibly suffer punishment if your explanation was not satisfactory. Such an event was rare, however. All the houses in Ellie and Jack's street were neat and clean. The men cut the lawns and did the gardens while the wives looked after the housework.

On weekdays Jack left his home at precisely the same time as each of the other men in the street, (7:50 am) all dressed in very similar neat suits and collar and tie, all walking with briefcase and umbrella down the street to catch the fast train into the city. He returned precisely at ten minutes past six and sat down to his dinner at half past six. In the evenings he studied the prescribed course of instruction for his department's exams for two hours, watched wall-vision for an hour, did his physical exercises with Ellie in their gym then went to bed with her at eleven.

On Saturdays he did the garden in the morning, competed in the gymnastics club competitions with Ellie in the afternoons and maybe went to a dance or a party or even an old-fashioned picture-show with friends in the evening.

On Sundays they could hire a car if their credits were sufficient and go out on a picnic with friends.

Yes, their life was very ordered.

But now that order was being threatened. They had failed to conceive the prescribed child within the prescribed time limit and the Ministry took a very dim view of that. A very dim view indeed.

They were not a happy couple that night although they made love together as prescribed and the next morning, Jack found it hard to look his beautiful young wife in the eye. She was truly lovely. Her hair was long, fine, dark brown and silky. He loved the way it cascaded down the sides of her face and waved around as she moved.

Her face was oval and quite perfect. Widely spaced big brown eyes, fine dark eyebrows and a perfectly straight nose which flared just a trifle at the nostrils. Her skin was smooth and pink and her mouth full and wide. Her teeth were perfect and very white.

Her body too was just perfect. Slender but with rounded curves in all the right places. He especially loved her firm breasts: two perfect half orbs of creamy-smooth flesh capped with lovely pink aureoles which were surmounted by delicious nipples and which he delighted in cupping in the palms of his hands to feel the nipples erecting in response to his touch.

They delighted in each other's bodies actually. In this day and age, all citizens were enjoined to keep their bodies in top condition all their lives. Alcohol and smoking tobacco were things of the past and so was drug abuse. Good food in moderation and plenty of exercise in the gymnasia provided in every single house and at the wide variety of sporting facilities in every community, left no excuse for flabbiness of body.

And Jack really was a good gymnast. Ellie was good too but Jack was champion material. Of course their own gym did not run to the larger gymnastics equipment such as a horizontal bar, climbing ropes and other items such as a vaulting horse but it did have a set of parallel bars, mats and many small items and he was able to keep up his standards pretty well with the Saturday afternoon visits to the neighbourhood gym.

As a result of their dedication, both their bodies were trim and nicely muscled. No-one aimed for hugeness of muscle these days. The Ministry frowned on such ostentatious show but a neat, finely wrought and well-defined musculature in both males and females was to be aimed for.

Jack was sorry he couldn't do more for Ellie. He would like to have stayed home to be with her while the Man from the Ministry visited but that was a definite no-no. Ministry officials had supreme power when it came to the way citizens behaved and unfertile wives were interviewed alone - at least at first.

He kissed her goodbye at precisely 7:48 am and walked out of the front door, giving her an encouraging wave as he pulled it shut behind him, then walked down the path to join the line of other clerks of his status walking at the same measured tread towards the station.

Ellie went about her business then, clearing away and washing the breakfast dishes, sweeping the floor and then seeing to the rest of the house. She knew because her mother had trained her, exactly what she had to do each day and she did it now, ensuring there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, that their clothes were clean, pressed and set away in exactly the right drawers or in the other parts of the wardrobe which the Ministry declared they should be, and that the whole house sparkled.

As a result, although she was trembling with fear, she was ready for the Man from the Ministry at 10:28. She went into their front room - it was not called the lounge or the drawing room or the salon in their standard of house; those names for such a room came with promotion and the better standard of house which accompanied each major upgrading. She peered surreptitiously out of the window. Yes, there it was. The black car from the Ministry, just pulling up. She glanced at her watch. Yes, 10:29. She had better go back into the hall and wait.

She moved slowly and stood halfway down the hall, waiting, her knees knocking together in fear. What would he say? What would he ask? What would he do?

Her watch ticked over the half hour and at that moment a key turned in the lock. Men from the Ministry did not knock at doors. They had access to every house up to their level of competence.

The door opened and was pushed aside by ... Heavens, there were two of them! The younger one had opened the door and pushed it aside to let his superior enter. This one was tall and thin. His head was balding and he wore steel-rimmed glasses on the end of his long nose. He looked down over them now, sniffing as he beheld the beautiful girl who stood trembling halfway down the hall.

He waited while the younger one closed the door and then joined him in the hall. Both wore similar suits but while the older man clutched just a briefcase in his right hand, the other one had a much larger case.

The older man spoke, but not to Ellie. 'It seems Mrs Pearce isn't ready for us, Smithers."

"No Sir," replied the younger man.

"Not ready ...?" faltered Ellie.

The older man looked up and down her body significantly and she suddenly blushed remembering the way she was supposed to prepare herself for this visit. She turned as if to run to her bedroom.

"Wait," snapped the older man. She paused and stood facing him again.

She didn't like him, she decided. His skin was tight and shiny and almost white and the bones of his cheeks stuck out. He looked almost cadaverous, she thought. His hands looked like claws. She shuddered at the thought of them touching her.

Would he? she wondered. She had heard vague whispers that he might.

She glanced at the other man. He was much younger than the forty-five years she judged the senior man to be. Oh yes, this one would be lucky to be in his late twenties. He was quite handsome. She wondered how he had been promoted so quickly.

"Since you are not properly prepared for us, we will accompany you while you do so ..." She didn't like his voice, either. It was too high-pitched but it suited his image, she decided.

Then his words sunk in, "accompany me ...?" she faltered.

"Yes, it means go with you, you stupid woman," he said, not in anger or even with raised voice but matter-of-factly, as though she was indeed, not quite all there. "Go on then," he finished.

She turned and led the way to her bedroom while the two men followed. "You will stand there, at the foot of the bed. We will sit here while you do what should have done half an hour ago."

She blushed again. She had never undressed in front of anyone but Jack since her marriage and to do so now in front of the cadaverous looking Man from the Ministry and his assistant, seemed horrible.

But she knew the drill. She was supposed to be naked - stark naked when they arrived and it had clear gone out of her head in her attempts to get the house just right.

She slipped off her top, folded it neatly and put it on the chair behind her. The two men sat there, staring blankly at her, their faces both quite neutral as her torso came into view, now covered only by her bra.

Her blush deepened but her hands came down to the clasp on her skirt, undid it and let it fall to the floor so she could step out of it. She bent over and picked it up, folded it and placed it on top of the other garment. She now wore her bra and panties, suspender belt, stockings and shoes.

She glanced covertly at the two men. Still their expressions hadn't changed. They stared directly at her body but there was no hint of any sexual interest in her.

She unclipped the right stocking from the suspender then rolled it down her smooth well-shaped thigh and leg, kicked off the shoe and took the stocking right off, folding it properly and placing it with the other garments then she did the same with the left before unclasping the belt and adding it to the pile.

She racked her brains trying to remember which of the two remaining garments had to come off first. Oh yes, the bra first. She reached around and unclipped it, still blushing furiously that she had to undress totally before these two fully dressed men. She took it off and her lovely breasts slipped out, free of the encumbering garment.

Still the men stared at her, their eyes raking up and down her lithe young body but there was no flicker of emotion in their faces or even their eyes.

Now for the last terrible part. She had to reveal her most private parts to them.

She paused and the older man looked up at her inquiringly. "Is there some problem, Mrs Pearce?" He turned to his assistant. "Note down, Smithers, that Mrs Pearce was not ready for us and that she now seems reluctant to undress for her interrogation ..."

The other man nodded. "Yes, Mr Fitzgerald," he said and took out a small notebook with the Ministry badge on its front. He made some entries in it while Ellie shrank from them.

"No, please. I will do it ..." She put her fingers in the waistband of her panties and quickly pushed them to the floor. She stepped out of them then bent down to pick them up and place them on the pile.

"Dispose of the clothes properly then return here - and be quick about it," ordered Mr Fitzgerald.

Ellie scooped up the pile of clothes, remembering that once clothes had been worn once, they were not to be put on again until they had been appropriately laundered. She placed them all in the soiled linen basket in the laundry then hurried back to her bedroom to find the two men going through her private drawers.

She didn't comment, however. They had the right to inspect all and everything in her house. She resumed her place at the foot of the bed and waited while they checked that hers and Jack's clothes were in the right places, that they were spotlessly clean and that the numbers for each item were correct.

Then, apparently satisfied as to that point, they returned to sit on the bed. The two men just sat and stared at her, their eyes roving up and down her svelte body but their faces were as bland as ever. They said nothing for long minutes and her blush deepened still more, now spreading down her neck.

"She hasn't properly prepared her body, Smithers, do you see?"

"Yes Sir. She hasn't shaved herself ..."

"Quite right, Smithers. Make a note of it ... and Smithers?"

"Yes Sir?"

"See to it."

"Yes Sir."

Ellie stared from one of them to the other. What was this? Not prepared herself? She had done everything, hadn't she? Bathed her body. Put the correct perfume on it ...? Oh God, of course. Her vagina! It was supposed to be totally nude and she had last shaved it over a week ago, when Jack had done his pubes. Oh why hadn't they elected to have their bodies properly depilated! It was possible. Expensive if you took the painless method but at least then you couldn't be caught with stray hairs where there were supposed to be none.

She watched now as Mr Smithers went to his large bag, opened it and took out a silvery gadget like an orbital sander and plugged it into the wall outlet. Then he approached her.

"Spread your legs, Mrs Pearce. As wide as they will go. Now place your hands up on the back of your head. This will hurt but you are expected to remain still - and silent."

The older man sat on the bed still. He hadn't moved. His legs were together and his hands were on his knees but he was quite self-assured.

Mr Smithers lifted the flat plate of the instrument up to Ellie's slightly hairy vagina and pushed it down onto the lips firmly then pressed a switch on the handle.

"Aaaaaggghhhh," Ellie screamed and brought her hands down to push the horrible thing away.

"Do you wish me to hold you down over my lap, Mrs Pearce?" asked Mr Fitzgerald mildly.

"No Sir. I will try to be good."

The senior man nodded to his assistant who again pressed the flat part of the instrument to her vaginal lips and activated the switch.

Ellie gritted her teeth and fought against the awful shocks which stabbed and pulsed at her most sensitive parts. It really was horrible but she hated even more the thought of being made to lie back across the senior man's bony knees with those cadaverous hands holding her down while Mr Smithers applied the thing to her open privates.

She bore it but only just. It took over five minutes of agony and then he released the switch and replaced the instrument in the case. She glanced down at her vagina. It was now very red but it was also quite smooth. She knew she would never have to shave it again. It was permanently naked.

"Very well," said Mr Fitzgerald, "we will now complete the inspection of the house. The bedroom appears to be in order," he added, not ungraciously.

He wasn't so happy with her kitchen, however. While Smithers took notes, he reeled off the errors. "Vegemite and peanut butter on the wrong shelf. Insufficient milk for the evening meal. Middle saucepan in the wrong place. One fork upside down in its container ..."

They were tiny errors but Ellie well knew they would count against her. Everything had a place and everything was supposed to be in it - in the right order.

There were other little errors, too. He checked the wall-vision log and found they had watched it for an hour and a half one day last week while Jack was supposed to be studying. That would be a mark against both of them, she knew.

"Very well. Not so good, so far, Mrs Pearce. You are aware that the Ministry lays down these rules for your own good and that babies depend on a well-ordered household?"

She nodded. "Yes Sir. I am sorry. But they are such little errors ...?" she added hopefully.

"No error is too little to be important, Mrs Pearce. And it does you no good to try to play down your sins."

"No Sir," she sniffed.

"And stand up straight. Your body is supposed to be the receptacle of your mind. You are slouching. Get those breasts out and suck in your belly!"

She jumped to obey and he calmed down a little. "All right, we will observe your exercises."

He led the way to the gym and she followed while Mr Smithers brought up the rear. "Proceed," he ordered and she began the standard routine which every husband and wife of their status was expected to perform every night before bed.

She was good at gymnastics and her body was both fit and supple and she performed them all very well. Of course she and Jack didn't do it naked. Nudity was not encouraged except during intercourse and was actually forbidden outside the bedroom once one reached the age of puberty although little children were brought up naked as being a healthy introduction to life.

There was a rigid order to the exercises, laid down by the Ministry as being the best combination for the development and maintenance of a perfect body and Ellie performed them all in the proper sequence.

There were the warming up exercises consisting of jogging on the spot, touching her toes, swinging her arms, etc, all of which she performed perfectly. Then the heavier group involving strain against weight such as chinning the bar, throwing the heavy medicine ball high into the air repeatedly and after that the heaviest of all, involving strain against immovable objects; the isometric exercises which kept her muscles at peak strength. Last there were the finishing exercises which let her heart down gradually ...

All of these she performed very well but she wasn't sure about any of them. Jack didn't ever touch her during their routine together and she left him alone too. It was not exactly forbidden but she knew the Ministry didn't encourage sexual shenanigans during the exercise sessions.

But now, Mr Fitzgerald, and Mr Smithers too, touched her constantly as she stretched this way and that. They didn't explain their actions but Ellie knew better than to question them. She hated their hands - and particularly Mr Fitzgerald's bony claws on her flesh but she presumed this was part of their inspection so she tried to ignore it.

It wasn't easy. Their hands roved over her breasts as she bent forward, feeling their firmness in that most relaxed state, then smoothed down her belly as she stretched backwards, outlining each of her abdominal muscles clearly.

Then as she twisted this way and that they moved over her buttocks and hips, pressed her biceps and gripped her powerful thighs.

She hated it but she pressed on, trying to ignore their questing fingers - even when they delved into her now totally naked pussy and between her buttocks.

"All right, you may shower now, Mrs Pearce. We will watch your ablutions ..."