N.E.A.R. and Dear
Jamaica
Knox was bored as usual. Her bronze skin
glistened a bit as she watched the sun reflecting off the polish on her
toes. Her breasts were still taut and
full but there was no one there to appreciate them. It was just her and grandmother alone in a
large rambling home. At 20, she hadn’t
seen much of the world outside of her family estate. She stood on her front porch staring out at
nothing really. She draped her 5’4’’
inch frame on the porch swing and let her hair swing in the breeze. This is how she spent most of her time when
she wasn’t daydreaming about what her life might be like somewhere else,
anywhere else. There had to be more than
a porch swing on a wraparound porch in the middle of an isolated fortress.
The
closest neighbors were over five miles away.
They were older and their kids had all left home years ago. Leaving was a common theme around the
area. Her grandmother was fixed on her
perch in the living room watching 21st century television and her
parents were off on yet another adventure.
Jennifer and Samuel Knox had been her first dose of leaving and
longing. Her parents had thankfully
blended together after the identified mate ritual but that was partially
because they shared a desire for something more. They raised her and loved her dearly but as
soon they had reached their obligatory time as parents they packed up, promised
to check in and left the planet on the first thing smoking. They had spent very little time at home since
she had turned sixteen.
There
was little for her to fear at this point.
Crime had been eradicated on all of the outer world planets. Most illness could be addressed at home via
their medical pods and there hadn’t been a natural disaster, famine, or war in
over three centuries. Part of that was due
to the last major conflict that happened 2057 on OE. No one really discussed the dismantling of
Original Earth. When most of what had
been the Middle East had been bombed into oblivion apparently the leaders of
the rest of the planet decided it was time to relocate before they got even
more out of hand. Frightened citizens
from every major and minor nation boarded long range shuttles and headed out
into the darkness of space. Her
ancestors had chosen one of the more isolated settlements and thus she was
safe, healthy, bright, and bored out of her skull for the moment on the lovely
planet New Earth Associated Resettlement.
Jamaica
had always called it NEAR like the other people her age. They had never experienced a bad day in their
lives. Neither had OE since the mass
exodus. Apparently relocating hundreds
of millions of citizens had caused those there to calm the heck down. It wasn’t the panacea of most of the off Earth
settlements but generally speaking they were doing well. The ozone layer had been repaired, famine had
been a long ago thing that most people had no tangible experience of, there
were plenty of jobs and homes and whatever else interested them. The thing that made Jamaica envious though
was the residents of OE were able to do things that were explicitly banned on
NEAR. There was no freedom to just be
and explore and let your curiosity run wild.
Kissing a classmate in junior high could get you expelled if they
weren’t your identified mate. What she
wouldn’t have done to spend one day at home with the memory of someone’s kiss
on her lips.
The
settlement leaders kept everything in order by restricting every option they
could possibly have. Food options were
directed towards their honed palettes, meant to provide nourishment but not
enjoyment. Clothing tended to arrive in
the colors their pupils dilated most to when they were witnessed, functional
and comfortable, but nothing that got them excited. Music was designed to make you feel good and
keep you calm, nothing more, nothing less.
And sex outside of a recognized arranged partnership was expressly
forbidden. No foreplay, no anticipation
of meeting your lover, just your identified mate and prescribed life. If you broke the fraternization rule at all
you could be shunned by everyone or “reprogrammed” if your mistake was deemed
minor. Grandma Joan had been
reprogrammed for experimenting with a neighborhood girl. Jamaica’s parents, especially her mother, had
learned from Grandma Joan’s mistake. They never did anything to violate the
rules of NEAR but they had abandoned her here to go explore the universe and
one of the things that had been leaked in one of the old Earth entertainment
that was readily supplied. Jamaica
hadn’t yet learned what motivation could come from longing. Even if she had, no matter how interesting it
might have been, she couldn’t act on it—at least not without being very careful
and very private.
Her
grandfather hadn’t been as careful as he needed to be so he packed up
eventually as well. Grandpa Steven had
left not long after her parents. He felt
as though he had done his time in hell and he wanted to live out the last years
of his life anywhere that felt more real, to see what pleasures and
undiscovered things the universe had left to offer him. He wanted to kiss a woman who wasn’t his
wife. He wanted to lounge around and
watch what was referred to as pornography but just appeared to be racy movies
from before the OE conflict. So he
disappeared days before the reprogramming was set to commence. That left her and Grandma Joan alone unless
her friends or siblings stopped by. As
long as food was ready on schedule and Jamaica was there to eat with her, Joan
largely ignored Jamaica. That was
helpful because it allowed Jamaica the freedom to explore without fear of
reprisal from the only family member who hadn’t abandoned her to chase their
own need fulfilment.
A
few months shy of her twenty-first birthday Jamaica ventured out one night with
friends after Joan had gone up to her bedroom.
Her friends from secondary school had told her about a growing
underground scene that was nothing like their daily experience. There were allegedly all manner of decadent
things to explore, from the food to the people.
They promised her that her senses would be overwhelmed and she would
never be the same again. Jamaica was
sure that it felt more clandestine than it really was but she wanted to do
anything but spend another night alone taking an unnecessarily long bubble bath
and going to bed. They journeyed out to
a massive expanse of desert and stood on the edge of a large lake. This was the way of NEAR, create a vast empty
space, pretty but abandoned, then adorn it with an equally pretty but out of
place thing. She hadn’t been to OE but
she was almost positive there would be not be very many ten mile wide lakes in
the epicenter of a desert. Still it was
captivating. That juxtaposition of
natural and unnatural gave birth to the hidden world she was about to
enter. A voice emerged from the
darkness.
“Please
leave any traces of your real identity in your vehicle. Be sure to enable the masking cloak that was
provided to you so that your car is not spotted randomly in the area by
overseers. When you are ready please
step on the platform.”
As
soon as the voice stopped speaking a burnished silver disc emerged from the
sand. They stepped onto it and began to
disappear beneath the sand. Jamaica
panicked briefly, thinking that the sand would fall in on them but her friend
Denise convinced her they would be all right.
She tapped on the clear glass tube surrounding them and hugged
Jamaica. When they finally made it to
the street level of the underground Jamaica was caught off guard by what she
saw. Music was blaring from a number of
what appeared to be nightclubs styled after 21st century
buildings. There were a few cars
scattered about that you could drive through the city streets. And then Jamaica saw something that captured
her attention and she went running full steam towards the entrance. Her friends looked at each other and then
back in her general direction before shaking their heads and walking another
direction. George broke the silence
first.
“Who
comes here and gets excited about a book store?”
It
didn’t make sense to anyone else as they went to explore what was available and
intriguing to their senses. Jamaica
nearly tripped through the door. There
were books, actual books, not digital maps or touch screens. She fingered through a few pages before the
lone other shopper noticed her. She went
from aisle to aisle, touching, giggling, getting oddly aroused by the smell of
the old paper between the bindings. She
had always been fascinated by the concept of books when she was a small child. She only saw them on what counted as their
television but the fact that people seemed so enraptured by what was on those
pages had always captivated her. She was
so lost in her exploration that she didn’t realize that anyone was following
her or even in the store. As she rounded
a corner towards the racier fare, her companion finally spoke.
“Excuse
me, I hope I didn’t frighten you. My
name is Arthur. I had to speak because I
haven’t seen anyone here in the year I’ve been exploring this place.”
Arthur
was just shy of six feet tall and wiry.
His skin was a smooth rich chocolate color and she found herself wanting
to lick it to see what he tasted like.
As she continued to look at him she thought he was handsome and his
voice felt like it was hugging her when he spoke. His face was partially covered by a full
thick beard that she was intrigued by.
She wanted to touch it but felt that would be intrusive. He looked strong and she just wanted to fall
into his arms. She felt a stirring in
her body that was both foreign and welcome. She let out a quick gasp and then
laughed at herself. What could really
happen in a bookstore? “My name is
Jamaica. I’ve never seen a book in
person so I had to stop in. I hope I
wasn’t interrupting you.”
They
both smiled and realized that if they never wanted to see each other in the
store they wouldn’t have to. It was
fairly large and if you were tucked in one corner wouldn’t notice anyone else
come or go. But yet here they were,
staring at one another like they were slices of birthday cake, one of the few
indulgences that had been held over from OE.
And so it was that Arthur found his Jamaica. They spent the next few hours talking. He
showed her the books he really liked and thought she might as well. Shakespeare, Anne Rice, Hemingway, Vonnegut
and then all of the girly fiction he had worked through, some of it better than
others. She found it fascinating that he
wasn’t overtly hitting on her and he was amazed any halfway attractive young
woman was in a bookstore.
They
were heading towards the front entrance when her friends stumbled through the
door looking disheveled. She didn’t want
to ask what they had been up to but took it as a cue that it was probably time
to go. She looked back at Arthur and
they exchanged another generous smile.
“Until
next time, my dear sweet Jamaica.” He
bent over at the waist and gave her a generous flourish of his right arm.
She
smiled and was dragged out of the store by her companions. As they ascended back to the desert lake,
they pummeled her with questions. Who
was he? What had they been doing? Did
she really spend the last few hours playing with dusty old books? What kind of person comes here without hoping
to do something illegal? They couldn’t
possibly understand what had just happened to her. At that moment, neither could she, but it was
the beginning of the rest of her life.
###
She
had ventured back many times both with her friends and alone over the next six
months. Each time she headed to the
bookstore looking for Arthur. She found
him more often than she didn’t but on the days she was there alone she found a
corner chair and thumbed the pages as fast as she could. Some nights they ended up in tangled in each
other’s arms while one of them attempted to read their chosen novel between
kisses. She was feeling adventurous one
night and explore the love and sexuality tomes while she had the store to
herself. As her eyes scanned pages, she
felt her body react in ways it hadn’t completely before now. Her breath was catching in her throat a bit
and her nipples were becoming tight against her red and white polka dotted
sundress. She pulled her skirt around
her waist and took off her panties as she compared her sex to that on the
pages. The women in the drawings looked
to be enjoying themselves, especially when they were connected to another body
physically but she had never contemplated what it would feel like before that
night. She redressed quickly and went
home to a fitful aroused dream.
In
it, Arthur was there, hugged close to her back and completely naked. She could feel his erection against her thigh
was beginning to throb. Feeling totally
out of sorts, she reached between her legs and guided him inside of her. She mewed as he broke through another level
of her resistance. She moaned softly and
began to cry as he moved gently inside of her wetness. He bit into her shoulder as she arched back
against his body. They continued to rock
together for a bit until his fingers sought out her clit and twirled it between
his fingers. She bucked against him as
her orgasm overtook her. He smiled in
her ear and whispered, “Sweet honey.”
She awoke with stickiness between her thighs and wanted nothing more
than to get back to their store.
He
was there waiting for her. He lit up
after seeing her come through the door but suddenly started looking serious as
she moved towards him. She pulled the
book she had been glancing through off the shelf and showed him what she had
been reading, The New Joy of Sex.
“Have
you done this before Arthur?” she asked as she flipped to one of the more
complicated pairings. She was urgent,
insistent, and nearly feral even though she hadn’t really understood the
concept of lust until she met him.
He
shook his head no. “I haven’t been that
adventurous yet Jamaica. Yes, I’ve had
sex but it wasn’t as intense as people made it out to be. Maybe you have to be invested in the person
for it to be better.”
She
stepped closer to him and cocked her head to the side before she asked her next
question. “Are you invested in me,
Arthur?” Before he could speak again she
kissed him. Deeper than any of their
other kisses had been and long enough that both of their bodies began to warm
up. He pushed her away for a moment and
asked if she was sure that she wanted to go further.
She
responded by unzipping her dress and asking him to help her step out of
it. She led him to a storeroom they had
found a few weeks back when they got tired of being in the main
storefront. On a completely out of place
leather sofa she waited naked while he undressed. She motioned for him to sit on the sofa next
to her and she watched his erection twitch in the cold air as he did so. Her eyes got large and her hands reached out
for his dick impulsively. She stroked
him gently, letting her fingers dance around the tip. He felt like nothing that had been in her
hands before. More give than the only
thing she could think of like it but still harder and more urgent than she
could have imagined. His breath started
to become ragged as she explored him with all the curiosity of a young
child. They were nimble and soft and she
seemed insistent on making him rigid.
When she was satisfied with her machinations she climbed into his lap.
She
slid down onto him as slowly as he had entered her in her dream. The pressure was amazing. She felt full, light, bursting with energy
and like she was floating at the same time.
Her walls clenched around his shaft and she felt a tug that she had never
experienced before. His mouth found her
nipples and added to the heat that was creeping over her body. The pressure got more intense, which made her
hips pick up their pace. Soon she was
gyrating on him like she was unhinged and she had her first orgasm. As the shudders racked her body, Arthur held
her close and repeated the words from her dream. And so it was that Jamaica was bonded to
Arthur.
Each
time they met after that they would read, explore the sexuality or erotica
sections and then act out whatever caught their attention. They changed positions, locations and
orifices at will. The first time she
took him in her mouth he almost exploded immediately and she lapped at his
juices like they were the only thing promising her salvation. When he let his mouth explore her folds, she
trembled and shook so much he was afraid he had broken her. Her orgasm was so long and loud that they
both looked sheepish when it was over.
Sheepish and horny as a dog in heat, touching each other was the only
thing that seemed to extinguish the fire. They tried as often as they could to
exhaust one another.
They
were in the throes of a steamy and intense session when the sirens went
off. Initially she thought they were in
her head and meant her body was going to explode from the inside out. When she heard the screams they broke away
from each other and got dressed in a rush.
They barely made it out of the bookstore before they were separated from
one another. Guards were shoving them
towards separate holding areas for processing.
The lights went dark and suddenly they were rushed into the emergency
pods. Jamaica made it home without being
stopped but she had no idea what had become of Arthur and what would happen to
anyone they had captured underground.
The
invasion of their underground cell hadn’t been a fluke. A young man had fled after impregnating a
girl he had met there. This wouldn’t
have been a major issue except she was the daughter of the undersecretary of
the Defense Ministry, Chairman Louis Paulson.
He had not taken the news well that his oldest child was pregnant and
had been traipsing around underground violating the edicts of NEAR. He turned her over to the scientists that
handled the reprogramming and let them violate her brain until they had found
the location of the cell. She had
essentially been lobotomized as a result.
Never one to accept the blame, like all of the NEAR leaders, he had
launched a full out assault on the underground dwellings.
Chairman
Paulson spent the next eight months eradicating what the nightly propaganda
called, “the most insidious ill that has ever plagued our peaceful
planet.” Each underground cell they
found was raided and destroyed. It was
dismantled on the local news and the dissidents’ names and faces were periodically
shown on the screen as well. Dissidents
were anyone that deemed to try to enjoy a life that was not part of their
script. Those that were captured were
isolated and reprogrammed to the point they may not recall their past
lives. They had to restore balance
became the rallying cry of the government.
Eventually a curfew was imposed so that it became illegal to be anywhere
other than your domicile after dark.
Life that had already been heavily controlled slowly began to be no life
at all.
The
fact that there was now no safe place and no safe way to indulge in anything
remotely pleasurable was starting to cause a series of riots. Apparently, those cells had allowed the
residents of NEAR to burn off those baser instincts without derailing the settlement. A quickie in the movie theater meant a
husband wasn’t overly aggressive with his wife.
Being able to sing in an underground nightclub had meant quite a few
housewives could release their artistic urges without drawing scrutiny Without those outlets there was initially a
growing sense of unrest. Neighbors were
short with one another. Classmates were
fracturing over minor debates. All at
once it seemed there was a palpable anger and the tiny cracks began to splinter
the foundation of NEAR. There was
vandalism, a rash of break-ins and even a few fights. Local propaganda blamed new immigrants and
unruly young people but they were not fooling anyone who was paying attention. And then like a wildfire she read about in
the bookstore, the revolt spread in record time.
Those
that had escaped the raids had formed a loosely organized but well planned and
well-funded rebellion. They had targeted
a few key areas to penetrate and hoped to topple things from the inside. The dissidents had infiltrated the government
forces, news outlets, transportation companies and the programmers. They put hackers in key roles and let them
loose. It admittedly wasn’t hard to hack
the systems because they assumed no one could ever get into their ranks without
arousing suspicion. Once they were in
place they altered troop schedules, changed delivery routes and content, and
began sanctioning those that had enacted the new regulations that were
destroying life on NEAR. Minor
infractions in those ranks meant dismissal and potentially reprogramming. Most were spared that treat except Chairman Paulson. The nightly news opened with his guilty
sentence and a live reprogramming. Some
watching had been horrified by the procedure which was part of the plan. The truth of the matter was they just didn’t
want to leave him as a potential threat in the future.
For
two months, the revolution held together tightly. The NEAR power structure had been overrun and
they were mostly in hiding. And the
people were unhinged in their lust.
There were parties and music that made you hyper and horny and sleepy
and sad. There were decadent foods that
made you moan when it passed your lips and luxurious clothes to wear that felt
like soft caresses whenever you warn them.
And most of all there were bodies coupling and uncoupling at will all
over NEAR. Jamaica hoped it meant she
was going to be united with Arthur but at no time did she see him on the news
or in the streets. The worst part though
was that as quickly as the rebellion had stormed up and took over the remote
planet it had come to fall apart.
They
were not geared to run a planet. There
was some benefit to the NEAR officials. Even if they had been sapping the
enjoyment of life they understood the ins and outs of keeping them all fed and
safe. The rampant overindulgence had
proven to be just as problematic as not being able to indulge at all. The rebellion leaders were smart enough to
know there had to be some balance.
Either extreme was too much for NEAR to handle long-term. So very quickly and quietly NEAR leaders and
the revolution forces began meeting. They
spent months hashing out a way that each side could come away with some of what
they wanted without the looming threat of more unrest.
The
result of those meetings was a treaty that allowed heavily regulated
exploration of one’s base desires. The
nightclubs looked much better under moonlight.
The bookstores were plentiful even though largely unused. The parks and lakes were not randomly placed
and were stimulating on multiple levels.
However, the most radical change was the dismantling of the forced
partnering programs. That had been a
tradeoff but you were allowed to pick your mate until you reached the age of
29. At that point if you had not done so
then you agreed to have a partner selected for you. That dismantling also led to the rise of a
burgeoning legalized sex industry.
And
that is where Jamaica found herself tonight.
She was sitting in the business office of her club. She had spent months locating and decorating
a Victorian styled home to make it into a den of iniquities to borrow a phrase
from one of the novels she had devoured during her time underground. She had spent the last few weeks selecting
men and women to help the customers act out their desire when they
visited. Each had been trained using the
old sex guides she had first perused with Arthur. The thought of him still sent a chill up her
spine but it had been over a year since she’d seen him and she wasn’t sure what
to think about him now.
The
club had opened successfully and was proving to be a popular enterprise. She had been excited about the opportunity to
indulge in the carnal activities as well but after a few months she realized
that while her staff and the patrons were interesting they never gave her the
same charge as Arthur could. She decided
to focus on making sure that the club was never in violation of the treaty but
she quit taking clients over time. When
one of her bookers started stalking her, Jamaica decided to listen to what was
causing Nadene to become so distressed.
Nadene kept insisting that a client wouldn’t go away until he met
Jamaica. He wouldn’t say why, only that
he had heard she was running the best club in the area and he wanted to meet
the owner. Jamaica didn’t want to call
the authorities because she didn’t want the club to come under scrutiny. There was an uneasy agreement to leave the
clubs alone provided there was no trouble.
Jamaica finally stopped Nadene’s ramblings and asked where the man
was.
Jamaica
made her way to the oversized bedroom with the library attached and entered
quietly. “I understand that you wanted
to meet the owner before you departed,” her voice was soft and tired.
“Yes
I did, I’ve been looking for someone I lost a while back and was hoping it
might be you.”
Her
body felt his words and it started a familiar two step in her brain. He moved across the room to her slowly,
masking the heat that was drawing them back together. Soon enough Arthur was wrapping her in his
arms and pulling her close to him. She
looked up at him and then kissed him hesitantly because she didn’t want to wake
up if she was dreaming. The kiss became
a dance for power which she happily lost.
He sat in the oversized desk chair and asked her to strip. She had picked up a few tricks in their time
apart and by the time she was naked she noticed the sizable bulge in his
pants. She knelt in front of him and
pulled him free of his clothing. Her
eyes locked on his as she took him in her mouth and slowly suckled on him. The sensations were so much more pleasurable
without the fear of being exiled looming over the encounter. She licked up and down his shaft while
planting tiny kisses along the way. She
was enraptured by the taste of him, salty and warm and pulsing against her
tongue. When he could take no more he
pulled her up by her hair and spun her around so that she was laying on the
generous oak desk.
She knocked over the decorations as he pushed inside of
her. They moaned in unison and fell back
into step with each other after a few strokes.
She bucked against him as he tangled his hand more deeply in her hair
while pressing down on the small of her back with the other. She knew she wasn’t dreaming but she was
convinced she might be high. Her body hadn’t
been fully alive since they were separated.
But now he was here, he had found her and she was a volcano on the verge
of erupting. Instead of holding off and
hoping they weren’t discovered, she came hard and often. He held off much longer than she thought he
would but then collapsed on top of her.
She giggled to herself and he was momentarily confused.
“You
always seduce me surrounded by books,” she stated, her voice tinged with a
smile and cracking from exhaustion.
No comments