CHAPTER 1: ROBERT GOES SHOPPING
It was high summer and the boy lay in the grass. He gazed lazily up at the clouds
drifting by overhead. An occasional heavy sigh was the only sign of the impatience and
anxiety he felt within.
Nearby on the porch steps sat the old man. He knew what his grandson was really feeling,
but had no qualms about making his own impatience much more obvious. "Just once I`d
like to see your father be ready on time," he snapped.
"He`ll be here soon, Gramps," answered the boy, with an unconvincing sigh.
The old man was impatient because he was a stickler for punctuality. But the boy was
impatient for a much more immediate and personal reason. He`d been working part time and
saving his money for a couple of years, all in anticipation of this moment. And the five
months since he`d turned eighteen had already seemed an eternity. Today he was finally
ready for one of the most important purchases of his young life, and his father seemed to
be deliberately making him wait.
At long last the door swung open. "Oh, here you two are!" called the boy`s
father. "What are you waiting around for? Are you ready, or not?" At which both
young man and old man alike rolled their eyes.
Gramps pulled himself to his feet, complaining the whole way up, although at 106 years of
age he actually got around quite well. In fact it never ceased to amaze him that he was
still around at all. He could remember clearly when, as a boy of six, he`d witnessed the
big millennium celebrations back in 1999. It had never occurred to him then that he`d live
to celebrate another major New Year, with the year 2100 just six months away. Even more
amazing was the fact that he could expect another couple of decades of health thanks to
all the advances in health care over the past century; he was still twenty years shy of
the current average male life span.
Ambling along to catch up with his son and grandson, he kept up a steady stream of
grumbles and gripes. But despite his complaints, Gramps was really delighted to be there
that day. Allan had always been his favorite son, and Robert was his favorite grandson. He
wouldn`t have missed this day for anything.
The three of them climbed into the auto and Allan punched in the address for their
destination. As they settled back for the automated ride into town, Robert, as usual,
wanted to hear more about the strange time when Gramps was young.
"So, Gramps," asked Robert, "weren`t you saying they didn`t even have pet
stores when you were a kid?"
"No, no, I never said that," replied Gramps. "What I said was pet stores
back then only sold things like cats and dogs and fish and birds. You know,
critters."
"Wow," said Robert. "That is so strange. People kept those kind of things
in their homes then?"
"Yup."
"As pets?"
"Well, don`t forget the word `pet` had a different meaning back then. You keep
forgetting that."
The young man shook his head in confusion. "Right, right. Okay. But I guess I still
don`t really understand how you got your females then."
The old man sighed, as though he were annoyed about his grandson`s interest in the old
days. In fact, he never got tired of telling Robert, or any other youngster, how much
better they had it now.
"I know it`s hard for you to picture how things were back then, Bobby. It`s kind of
hard for me too, sometimes. When I was a young fella like yourself, it was before they
repealed the nineteenth Amendment, before they passed the first of the Female Education
and Control Acts. It was a really different world back then, believe me."
The old man stared out the window, momentarily distracted by the orderly, computer
controlled flow of traffic on the highway. He could vividly recall what it was like to
drive manually in such traffic. Next to him Robert cleared his throat, and he turned his
attention back to his grandson.
"Tell me about your first female again, Gramps," said the young man.
"Bah! You`ve heard all that before."
"I know, but it still fascinates me."
"Well, all right," agreed the old man, with a wink. "My first female ...
Let`s see. She was something we called a `wife` back then. And a wife was ... Well, a wife
was supposed to be the only female a man would ever, um, own, although we didn`t call it
`owning` then."
"What did you call it?"
"Used to be called `marriage` and the man and the female were considered
equal."
"No kidding!"
"Would I kid you, boy?" growled the old man.
"No, Gramps! It`s just an expression. I didn`t mean--"
"I know, son. Just yanking your chain. Heh. Anyway, this wife-thing ... She was
supposed to be kind of like a combination of what we`d now call a Pleasure pet, a Breeder,
and a Domestic."
"Wow," said Robert. "All at the same time?"
"Yeah. Well, not simultaneously, of course. But a good `wife` was supposed to be
good at all three. Sometimes she was a Worker too, and maybe even a Talent. But no matter
what, a man couldn`t have more than one of `em."
The young man shook his head, bewildered. "I can`t even imagine what it was like,
Gramps. I mean, in order to be all that, a wife must have been really expensive! How could
you afford one? I mean, if you weren`t rich and all."
"Well, remember, boy, you didn`t just come right out and buy your female then. You
had to go through a whole series of long, complicated rituals. There was `dating` and then
`courtship` and finally `engagement`. You`d spend a bundle getting through the rituals,
and buying the required `engagement ring` but even after spending all that money ... Well,
it still wasn`t considered the same thing as just buying them."
"I think I understand," said Robert. "Still, the men with the most money
got the best females, right? Just like today."
"Yes, but--Bah! It`s so hard to explain to kids raised under the new system."
The old man fumed for a moment, before resuming. "Look, females were considered equal
to men, legally, and they had to consent to the, uh, purchase. But, um, well ... Aw hell!
I guess the economics of it were pretty much the same as these days. A man got the best
female he could afford then, just like now."
Robert persisted with his questions. "But even if you were really, really rich, you
could still only own one female at a time?"
"That`s what I just said, boy!" Gramps glared at the young man for a moment,
then grinned and winked at him. "In theory at least. In practice, men had as many
females as they could afford, same as they do now. The real problem wasn`t getting them,
though. You wanna know what the real problem was?"
"Sure, Gramps!"
"The real problem was getting rid of one when you didn`t want her anymore. Like that
first `wife` of mine. Before the FECA laws--I hate that acronym--sounds like
`fecal`--anyway, before then I would`ve had to go through something called a `divorce` or
I couldn`t, uh, purchase or acquire or whatever, a new one. But a divorce was ... Well, it
was nothing like the simple sales transaction we have today. In fact, instead of getting
cash from the deal, a man could end up paying for the old female, even after he got rid of
her. I know, I know. Sounds crazy to me too, now, but that`s the way it was."
After reflecting a moment, Gramps continued. "Thank goodness I never had to go
through that myself. Just around the time I thought I was ready for a new female, FECA
passed and, as a `husband` I was given title to my former `wife` along with any assets she
possessed on her own. It wasn`t long after that when I sold her and purchased my first
open market female. I was doing pretty well for myself at the time, and I bought me a
Pleasure pet the likes of which I could only have dreamed of under the old divorce
system."
The usual hard edge to Gramps` face softened. "Boy, she was something!"
Then, continuing his tale, he said, "Of course, it was a little awkward selling my
`wife` back then. After all, she was considered my equal when I married her. Also, she was
not one of the females who supported the changes in the laws at the time. Not by a long
shot. Come to think of it, I didn`t support them at first myself."
"What?!" exclaimed Robert. "You`re kidding me again, aren`t you,
Gramps?"
The old man shook his head. "Afraid not, Bobby. Ya gotta remember that the psychosis
of female equality was pervasive. It was like mass hypnosis, and I was immersed in it. The
twentieth century was the only time in history when men experimented with full female
equality, and I grew to manhood right before it collapsed from its own internal
contradictions. Like Communism before it, but that`s another story. So it took a while for
me to get completely comfortable with the new mindset. When I sold Mary, she wasn`t very
happy about it, but I made sure she went to a good rehabilitation center, where they
worked their magic on her. Out of curiosity, I did a title search on her several years
later, and found her listed as a Domestic pet, which I thought was funny, `cause she was
certainly no Domestic when I `owned` her."
As Gramps chuckled to himself at a joke only he got, Allan announced, "Okay, Dad,
history lesson`s over for today. We`re here."
"All right!" shouted Robert, fumbling with the hatch release in his eagerness.
The three men climbed out of the auto and hurried from the parking garage into the mall.
Gramps did his best to keep up. His grandson was about to pick out his first Pleasure pet,
and he knew the boy couldn`t wait to get to the pet shop. But it didn`t take long before
he was lagging far behind.
Allan slowed down to walk with him, letting the youngster hurry on ahead. "There
goes one excited boy," said Gramps.
"Can you blame him, Dad?"
"Nope. Not in the least."
The two older men strolled leisurely past the shops in the mall. "Well, Dad, how do
you think the Browns will do this year?" asked Allan.
"Hmmph," snarled Gramps. "I think they`ll disappoint me again, like
they`ve been doing for the last hundred years."
Just then, they passed a couple of Domestic pets out on their own running errands. Both
of the females had hair trimmed just shy of shoulder length, and wore shapeless frocks of
gray with light blue trim. They wore no jewelry, but their collars and ownership tags were
plainly visible as required by law. They approached quickly in their flat, functional
walking shoes, and acknowledged the two men as was customary with respectful nods and
diverted eyes.
Gramps could tell at a glance that the Domestics belonged to two different households.
The public passes attached to their frocks were color-coded and had large, easy-to-read
license numbers. Their owners were probably neighbors who sent them out together to save
on cab fares.
Females, of course, were no longer permitted to drive, like they were in the old days.
They had to rely on autocabs when they were permitted out on their own. Even then, females
could be monitored at all times. The public passes, besides allowing them to travel in
public without male escort, also contained global positioning chips along with a program
of permitted destinations. Significant variances would immediately sound an alarm at the
Female Control Agency, which could then track down the delinquent female.
As the Domestics passed, Gramps smiled and nodded at them. Sometimes it still amazed him
how unthinkable the very notion of an unaccompanied female without a public pass had
become.
A little further along, the two men met an old friend of Allan`s, a successful
businessman named Martin who liked to flaunt his expensive status symbols. That day he
walked through the mall holding the leashes of a Breeder pet and a Pleasure pet, which
followed behind him at an appropriate distance.
Allan and Gramps stopped to talk to Martin, asking first about his Breeder, which was
obviously well along with a pregnancy.
"Yep," said Martin, grinning broadly. "Queenie here is seven months along.
The doctor says it`ll be another boy. That`ll make seven boys and five girls for me."
With a wink at Allan, he added, "From six different Breeders, by the way."
Queenie was a very attractive female, probably close to thirty years old, with a dark
complexion and deep brown hair. She wore a simple, conservative maternity dress, with a
jeweled collar and tag. She also wore jeweled leather cuffs on her wrists and ankles,
although the cuffs were not joined in any way.
After expressing their congratulations on another son, Gramps and Allan turned their
attention to the Pleasure pet. She was strikingly exquisite, with long flowing auburn hair
and large dark brown eyes. Martin was obviously partial to red, because he had dressed his
Pleasure pet in a red corset-like top that left her firm, full breasts fully exposed. Her
only other clothing was a red garter belt holding up red stockings, and red five-inch
high-heels.
Like Queenie, the Pleasure pet wore leather cuffs at her wrists and ankles, but in her
case, the ankle cuffs were linked by a twelve-inch hobble chain. A third pair of cuffs
circled her elbows. These were locked behind her, joining her elbows tightly together. A
short chain connected her wrist cuffs in front, forcing her to keep her hands up at her
waist.
The Pleasure pet`s pubic patch, plainly visible below the garter belt, had been shaved
into the shape of a heart, and her permanently glossed lips sparkled in the bright
artificial light of the mall. Small ruby-colored pendants attached to her nipple rings
swayed lazily to and fro as the men inspected her.
Allan was visibly impressed with the vision of female beauty and vulnerability. He walked
slowly around the Pleasure pet, closely appraising her up and down from all angles. Gramps
did likewise. The pet appeared to be completely flawless to his eyes.
"Is--is this a new one?" stammered Allan.
Martin was beaming with pride as he saw the frank envy on his friend`s face. "Oh
yeah," he replied. "Just bought her last week." He waited another moment
while Allan and Gramps felt the pet`s firm buttocks and hefted her perfectly shaped
breasts, appreciating their fluid, natural bounce.
"Fifi here," continued Martin, "took `Best of Show` at the Midwest Pet
Show last Spring. And ... she won third place in the National Show just last month."
"No shit!" said Gramps. "She`s a fine bitch, Martin. That`s for damn sure.
Uh, should I ask how much?"
Martin laughed. "Gramps, if you have to ask, you can`t afford her. Let`s just say
she`s a little reward I gave myself for my most profitable year ever."
The men talked for a few more minutes, mostly about Fifi`s many exquisite assets. The
whole time she remained quiet and still, with her head held high, but with eyes lowered.
As a trained Pleasure pet, Fifi was completely comfortable with being the center of
attention, as well as being the subject of explicit assessments of her physical
attributes. As with any Pleasure pet, she knew the effect she had on men and accepted her
place as perfectly natural.
Suddenly, Allan remembered why they were there. "Uh oh!" he exclaimed. "We
better get going. Bobby`s probably thinking we got lost or something."
"I saw him hurry by just before I ran into you," said Martin.
"He`s on his way to the pet shop. Buying his first Pleasure pet today," said
Gramps.
"Then by all means, get going!" said Martin. As they started to walk off, he
added, "I`ll invite you over sometime, Al. You can try out Fifi if you like."
As Allan and Gramps rounded the last corner into the section of the mall with the pet
shop, they saw Robert standing at the door hopping mad and looking like he was going to
burst.
"C`mon Dad! Gramps! You guys are killing me today," he scolded.
"Okay, Bobby, we`re here now. Let`s go."
And together, the three men walked through the main entrance of Midwest Pets and
Supplies.
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