The Place Where

by Rodion Pretis

  Jenson thrust his hand into the pocket of his shirt and waved two roots in the air.

  Our alibi was going to the cinema, where they showed all the series of Star Wars in a row. This gave us enough time to hang out around the neighborhood, eat and after that even really watch a few episodes if we wanted to. Jason passed the timber depots, drove outside the city and turned onto the highway leading to Mackenzie. Powerful trees encircled the road, and in their dense shade it became cool enough for me to stop sweating. Jason drove through the Lieburg dam, drove into a narrow bridge, turned left after him and braked on the gravel road leading to the river. Here he parked the car. When the engine stalled, I heard the buzz of flies and mosquitoes and raised the glass so as not to let them in. I started sweating again.

  Jason was on top of me when I was still trying to figure out how to react. It was not so easy to understand how far you could let him go. My pants sounded a warning tone, followed by a buzzing tester.

  He clung to me and stuck his tongue into my mouth. Then he put his hands under my shirt and began stroking my breasts. For a moment, I ceased to worry that at that very moment my mother was probably looking at the display, which clearly showed what we were up to. Jason leaned on me, pressed against the seat. When his tight crotch crawled over my body and my breathing quickened, adapting to him, I felt a tingling sensation at the base of my back, spreading outward. I decided that it was an orgasm - my first orgasm in my life! - realizing too late that the tingling portended an impending electrical discharge.

  My trousers erupted in a stream of sparks, cod and heat. I screamed in surprise, and Jason screamed in pain as I rolled off me. A curse! I could continue until the very morning!

  - What the heck! He shouted, wiping his saliva; his hair was disheveled, and his eyes were red and watery.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I'm really sorry.”

  He drove me home. We did not talk. I never saw him again.

  Merck Advertising [66] in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), summary (for complete instructions, see the professional information brochure):

  UPOR is based on technologies of lie detection, laboratory testing, skin sensors and psychosensors, using them to recognize the presence of HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, as well as changes in EEG and cognitive abilities, suggesting the presence of stress and insincere behavior.

  Directions for use

  "UPOR" is a conductive chip designed for implantation in a layer of subcutaneous fat (usually on the thigh) and is indicated for use to prevent sexual contact. It can be used both by itself and in combination with other desensitizing agents.

  Hiroshima Day - August 6 - The first bombing

  Coming out of house arrest, I immediately made an appointment with a guy named Billy, whom I somehow met in a store. Mom modified my shepherd trousers, providing them with a tracking device - but it seemed to me that I found a way to outwit her. Billy was my test drive. I could not wait to get out of these trousers and embark on all the hardest.

  I stocked my backpack and told my mother that I was going to the library. Arriving there, I ducked into the restroom, opened the package of “hot wraps” from the ambulance kit and changed her shepherd pants to jeans. After that, I attached the bag an inch below the thermostat and GPS sensors in the crotch of my pants, carefully put them in my backpack and went with it to the information desk.

  “Can I leave this with you for a while?” I asked. “I forgot my library card and I want to run home after it.”

  “Of course, please,” the librarian answered.

  I gave her my backpack, and she put it under the counter, where he will be safe and sound, until I come back for him just before the library closes.

  Excerpt from the editorial of the "Trivial Times" for September 20:

  Republican Senator Hieronymus Bartholomew Bush of Jefferson County resigned yesterday on charges that he was the father of three illegitimate children from three different women. Senator Bush's legislative career has been hopelessly tarnished, as it is known that his campaign was funded by the five millionth Chastity Party, which helped Bush rise from relative obscurity to a national figure.

  The political platform of his election campaign was based on the promise of a return to family values, he successfully promoted several bills that provided tax abolition and guaranteed the possibility of training for minors, whose virginity tests would be positive. Senator Bush recently led a national bill banning the sale of condoms without a doctor's prescription. His lawyer declined to comment on the charges against him.

  Seretta checked the display information shortly after Ginny left home, and immediately realized that her daughter was up to something. GPS, apparently, worked fine, Ginny was supposed to be in the library. However, the temperature curve was too smooth, and the location remained unchanged, and this was alarming.

  Ginny never listened to her warnings. Seretta did everything she could think of to protect her girl - but apparently this was not enough. What is the point of being a parent if you cannot use your experience to protect those you love from pain and suffering? It was time for serious action, it was time to resort to cardinal means, until Ginny did something that she would later regret. The time has come to activate her “SUPPORT”.

  Excerpts from the article “Hands Off My Body: The Ginny Wuoto Story” - an interview with Ginny Wuoto, taken by Kitty Kelly:

  Everyone laughed at me ever since the first article appeared in Natural where my mother told me in detail how she invented the Stubborn Girl and how she was going to try it on me. Of course, I feel embarrassed, but I try to think about it as if this is not happening to me, but to someone else.

  My mother does not want to be a monster at all, but nonetheless it is. Some things must remain personal. We should all have the opportunity to make mistakes, just as we should all have the opportunity to succeed on our own. Therefore, I believe that the “Stubborn Girl” could not be legalized. Because even if it really “saves” us from ourselves - and from guys - as a result, we do not learn from our own experience, we only react to some kind of mechanical device, but what can it teach?

  I know that there are many problems in the world, and it seems to people that they just have to do at least something. I really have no answer what to do with teenage pregnancy or AIDS. Maybe you just need people to get better. The world is constantly changing, and morality is changing with time. Perhaps we live in a world where every girl must give birth to a child before she learns to drive a car - and there's nothing to be done about it.

  Actually, I think that soon the world will cease to exist - because of war, global warming, or because of some terrible catastrophe, so in fact what is happening to me still does not matter much.

  “The Crisis of Feminist Values: A Persistent Girl,” excerpts from a report presented by Lilith Miller-James, Ph.D., MSW [67], Department of Women's Studies, California State University, Fullerton:

  In connection with the latest publications on the Stubborn Girl, numerous protests have appeared in the feminist press: the opinion was expressed that UD promotes the idea of women as helpless creatures who are unable to choose the right line of behavior for themselves. I could argue that “UD” should be considered only what it is in fact, namely, a temporary tool that should be used until some other device that can influence harassment behavior that would better meet the requirements of modern sexual relationships.

  It is naive to ignore the realities of women's lives. Statistics show that every fourth modern woman becomes an object of sexual harassment in one form or another. Inaction cannot be considered a choice. To paraphrase Hippocrates, we can say that "extreme diseases require extreme medicines."

  * * *

  Hal lounged in the back seat, preparing to wait. His camera was equipped with a high-quality telephoto lens and equipped with film for slow motion. Fast processes require slow motion, as he liked to say. Classes at school ended twenty minutes ago, and the girl was supposed to appear any minute.

/>   They made a special issue for the “Enquirer" about teenage pregnancy. Hal's task was to catch this girl with “The Stubborn Girl” - the one whose mother is a famous inventor - and to make a couple of scandalous shots with her, to which their copywriter could come up with a catchy headline.

  Once, Hal wanted to do the material on the first judicial investigation, before the device was implanted, when the father failed to win custody - but it was a big deal, the rights of the parents were against the rights of the person, and his boss entrusted the task to another guy who had more experience. Five years have passed since then, the hype subsided, and now he's doing yesterday's news. Sometimes he hated his job.

  A girl appeared near the house.

  He glanced at the old newspaper photograph, comparing it to a girl running carelessly along the path in front. Yes, that is undoubtedly her.

  Oh my god, he thought, but this is just a child! The girl was tall and used makeup too hard. Her face was still childishly plump, a natural blush played on her cheeks, her legs were a little long, as if she had not yet grown to them. She reminded him of his youngest granddaughter.

  He drummed his fingers on his camera. Fuck it, he thought. She is still a child. Let someone else do this dirty job. He picked up a cell phone and was ready to dial a number to say that he was very sorry, but he was not able to take a picture - but then he saw some movement in the car parked in front of him. It was Morgan from The Star.

  “Your mother,” Hal said.

  He pushed back the lens cap and brought focus. With one foot, he pressed the beep. The Stubborn Girl turned in his direction; there was surprise on her face, and maybe even fear. He snapped the shutter over and over, shooting half the film before she met his eyes. He felt too guilty to continue filming after that.

  Transcript of one of the episodes of the MTV broadcast “More Real World” of October 6:

  (The camera takes a panorama of the living room where twenty-something-year-old Jill, Mandy, and Tim are sitting on the couch.)

  Jill (sipping a dietary cola): Seretta said that from Prozac she began to gain weight and therefore switched to a herbal antidepressant, but he also did not help much. She said that it seemed to her as if a dark cap had been thrown at her, as if the whole world had begun to close around her, crushing her in the middle.

  Mandy: Yeah. We all felt very sorry for her. Clothing did not suit her, and she constantly complained that she looked old-fashioned and much older than her forty. (Chuckles). We tried to convince her that she was not old, but she, of course, was old and knew perfectly well that we were time.

  Tim: It seems to me that she didn't really care about her appearance, only that she was supposed to set an example for other women.

  Mandy: It's all so sad. This whole family is kind of stupid.

  Jill: Oh, and what are we, isn't it?

  Tim: Hey! I think we should all try these sausages.

  (Going to the kitchen. Seretta sits at the dining table, clutching her mug with both hands. Ginny enters. She is dressed in black and has a new piercing on her lip.)

  Ginny: Mom ...

  Seretta: When you turn to me “mom” instead of “Seretta”, this usually means that you want something.

  Ginny: I'm late for school, but first I want to tell you something. So come on, you just listen, okay?

  Seretta: Okay.

  Ginny: I think I would love to live with dad.

  Seretta: With this donkey!

  Ginny: He's not a donkey, mom. He is my dad. And in general, you promised that you would listen to me.

  Seretta: You can't want this! We moved to this television house only because you said that we would be fine here. You can't take me and leave me with these idiots like that!

  Ginny: I guess I was wrong. Ok, I have to go. (He grabs a handful of “fruit rings” from the plate and hurries out.)

  (Going to the living room.)

  Mandy: Officially, this is called the “Behavioral Assessment and Response Device” - but people around the world, apart from the mother of Ginny, who invented this dirty trick, call him “Persistent Girl”. Sometimes I can't believe that she really did this - she turned Ginny into a laboratory rat. But although I can't believe it, it's true nonetheless.

  (Going to the kitchen. Jill and Seretta drink herbal tea.)

  Seretta (wiping her eyes with a handkerchief): Nothing can prepare you for this when you have a baby. Sometimes you just don't know what to do.

  Jill: I never really thought about what it was like for my mom. However, she, too, does not say that she thinks a lot about what I have to do.

  Seretta: I keep telling myself that I just have to drop it all, but it's not so simple. (An herbal stimulant swallows, accompanying him with half a bar of low-fat chocolate.) I have never felt a special suicidal tendency, but one thing still scares me. Too often it seems to me that being there can be as easy as here.

  * * *

  Richard's lawyer said: “Of course, in cases like this, the decision is usually made in the mother's favor - but since the child himself wants you to be the guardian, we have a network of hope.”

  This process was accompanied by such a passion, such hype! The phone rang unceasingly, even in the middle of the night. Reporters kept Richard at the door like hungry dogs, waiting to be let in. Fortunately, all legal expenses were paid to him by the organization “Rights of Men” (PM), founded by men deprived of custody of their children.

  “The only thing that can hurt us,” the lawyer said, “is if she charges you with rape on a date.” Of course, I understand that this is not true, but I am worried about how this may sound in court.

  As far as Richard remembered, Seretta then wanted this no less than he did. However, since then she constantly tried to poison his relationship with their daughter, spreading about the fact that he took her by force. He remembered that first night to the last detail: how Seretta was dressed (black lace blouse, tight jeans, high-heeled shoes), the light aroma of spices at the base of her neck, the way she worked with her tongue - his wife had already long forgotten, how it's done.

  There was no violence. He played everything that happened in his brain often enough to be sure of it. It was only later - when her delays began, when Seretta finally realized that he was not going to leave his wife for her - she began to accuse him of taking advantage of her weakness. And it was not that he had ever promised her anything; she knew from the very beginning that he was married, but she never had the idea of the immorality of what was happening - until it was too late.

  They were about the same age, and she was no higher than him. Why did she blame him for her pregnancy? Of course, he believed that she had taken precautions - if he were at risk of having an unwanted child, he would certainly do so. Maybe he really pressed her a little too hard for her to have an abortion - but at that time it seemed to him the best way out. When Seretta's feelings for him changed, she accused him of wanting to kill their child.

  Maybe he should have tried to show more attention to Seretta's needs? Maybe. He saw it now, but not at that time. She blamed him for everything that went wrong. So did his ex-wife - who, at least, had a legitimate reason for this. Thank goodness though Ginny didn't hate him. His marriage broke up many years ago, and he was tormented by guilt that he had hurt everyone so much. His daughter meant more to him than the rest of the world.

  Excerpts from the transcript of the Jerry Springer Show:

  Jerry: Richard Derringer, after his very public connection with Seretta Wuoto, has acquired the unpleasant stigma of a "woman hater." However, according to Richard, this is not true: he does not hate all women, but only Seretta!

  Richard: Mr. Springer ...

  Jerry: Call me Jay.

  Richard: Mr. Springer ...

  Jerry: Ok, call me Jerry. You are very nervous. What's the matter? Have you ever watched my show?

  Richard: Once or twice. I saw a release with Siamese twins.

  Jerry: Oh, this is my favorite! So, tell us about your ex-wife
.

  Richard: She was not my wife. We were not married.

  Jerry: Well, anyway. Head I swear she was a hot little thing! Or was your wife as cold as a fish?

  Richard: Listen, I'm not going to answer such questions.

  Jerry: Seretta Vuoto was doing science, right?

  Richard: She has a degree in psychology. This is a humanitarian, soft science - not as hard as, for example, physics. However, Seretta nonetheless behaves as if she knows everything in the world.

  Jerry: Oh, I like these terms - “soft”, “hard” ... Maybe we'll talk about this in more detail?