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By Root 1407 0

television set; there was nothing wrong with it. He went downstairs, where he found the husband mixing drinks, and offering him a glass. John Henry’s drink was Scotch, whereas he preferred bourbon, but he didn’t quibble. They sipped their drinks, and the secretary introduced them, saying, “This is John Henry Ingledew. He’s in charge of electronics at the plant, but he repairs televisions on his own.” “Glad to meet you, Jack,” said the husband. “How’s your wife?” “She’s fine,” John Henry replied. “Just had a baby.” “I mean,” said the husband, “how is she at giving head?” “Oh, pretty good, I guess,” John Henry said uncomfortably, feeling that his privacy was being twice invaded. “Would she give it to me?” the husband asked. “Now, look here…” John Henry said, getting angry. He didn’t have to listen to this. He would just as soon bash in the guy’s face for him. “Turn about is fair play,” the husband insisted, “don’t you think?” “You don’t even know my wife,” John Henry pointed out. “No, but wouldn’t it be easy to get to know her? Let’s have a party.” “No, thanks. I’m too busy,” John Henry said, and he set down his unfinished drink and went out the door and got into his van and went on to the next house that needed its television set repaired. The lone occupant of this house was a woman who said her husband was out playing cards and told him the bedroom television set also needed repairs. “No thanks, lady,” he said, and got away from there.

He avoided the secretary thereafter, but after he had been avoiding her for several weeks she came into the electronics shop at the factory at the end of the day and said, “Couldn’t we have a drink and a little talk, like old times?” He gave in, and took her to the cocktail lounge again. When their drinks were before them, the secretary began, “After all, these are modern times we are living in,” and she proceeded to elaborate an argument in favor of free love. She loved having sex with him, she said, and she had been missing it terribly these past few weeks, and she was awfully glad to know that her husband actually didn’t mind, one teensy bit. “But he wants me to return him the favor,” John Henry said. “And you honestly can’t?” the secretary wanted to know. “I don’t think so,” he said. “At least, I sure as hell wouldn’t care to watch.”

He had tried to imagine what it would be like, watching Sonora going down on the secretary’s husband, and he couldn’t even get the picture in focus. “He wouldn’t insist on that,” the secretary assured him. “I just don’t like the whole idea!” John Henry said so loudly that several other customers in the bar turned to stare at him. “Well,” the secretary concluded, “we’re giving a party Saturday night. Would you consider coming to that? It wouldn’t be just the four of us. There will be a lot of other couples there.” “I’ll think about it,” John Henry told her, and for the rest of the week he thought about it. He didn’t want to go, and he wondered what kind of party it would be, whether they would play games or even start fooling around. But Sonora was depressed lately, as she always was several weeks after the birth of a baby, and he thought it might do her good to get out of the house and meet people and have some good clean fun or even some good unclean fun if that was what it was all about. These are modern times we are living in, he kept remembering, over and over. So he said to Sonora, How would you like to go to a party? and when she said whose? he said some people at the factory were giving it. She didn’t have anything to wear, because she was still overweight and didn’t have her figure back, but he offered to buy her a new dress and she was dying to get out of the house for an evening, so she gave in, and they went to the party at the secretary’s and her husband’s house.

It was not a wild party. There was plenty of drinking, but no fooling around. The secretary’s husband complimented John Henry on his wife’s beauty, but he made no passes at her. Sonora seemed to be enjoying herself. Several men made decorous small talk with her, and one man flirted