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By Root 1410 0

at him. It is the most beautiful sight he has ever seen, and he understands it. He understands that he must quickly get out of his clothes, and does. He understands that he must climb upon the bed and suspend himself above her, and does. She takes hold of him and guides him into her; the entrance entrances him; Vernon will remember that first entrance for the rest of his life: he cannot understand how anything could be so far beyond understanding as the feeling of her warm moist interior. He sighs aloud at the wonder of it, and so does she. And as soon as he has absorbed the wonder of it, they both begin moving their hips, urgently, as if, having discovered the wonder, they are eager to find how much of it can be found. Vernon does not last long; his quaking burst paralyzes him, but she holds him to her and will not let him go, whispering a question in his ear, “How did that feel?”

Vernon studies the heuristic inquiry, and replies, “It felt…it felt like I was being turned inside out.” She laughs, and says, “That’s beautiful,” and her laughter causes her body to shake, and the shaking of her body rearouses Vernon and he begins to move again, they both again, for a longer time this time, alternately fast and slow as if searching for the right tempo, and finding it, which causes Jelena to begin to tremble, slowly at first, then uncontrollably, violently, amazing Vernon, who is more amazed by the sound that comes deep from her throat, but he seeks to understand it, and understands it, and in the understanding of it reaches his own second crisis and explosion and release.

Then they lie side by side holding one another and breathing deeply, and Jelena teases, “See what you’ve been missing all these years.” He does, but has a worry: “What if you get pregnant?” “I can’t,” she replies. “When Monty was born, I requested that the doctor tie my tubes.” “Oh,” says Vernon, “then you can do it all the time?” “All the time,” she says, hugging him tighter.

The “affair” between Vernon and Jelena, for that is what it is, continues; it is a rare day that her husband Mark is gone from home all day long, but Jelena finds excuses to get out of the house, and she and Vernon begin meeting in the woods, where they remove their clothes and cavort like animals. One day she tells him that she wants to get a divorce from Mark and marry Vernon. Divorces are unheard of in Stay More; at least we have not heard of one yet. Vernon tells her again that he loves her but he reminds her of his declaration that he will never marry. She does not understand it, but she wishes that she could live with him all the time, and not have to go on meeting him clandestinely. If they keep that up long enough they will be discovered.

And sure enough, they are discovered: Luke Duckworth, Mark’s brother, hunting squirrel in the woods, happens to spot the couple, and reports it to Mark, who does not believe it, but confronts Jelena and says, “Somebody tole me they seen you and Vernon out in the woods together without your clothes on. Tell me it aint true.” She knows she can’t go on covering it up. “It’s true,” she says. He slaps her, knocking her to the floor, kicks her, then takes his rifle and goes to Vernon’s swine processing plant and points the rifle at Vernon and says, “If you even look at Jelena again, I’ll kill you.”

Soon everybody in Stay More (there are only twenty-one people this year) knows about the affair between Vernon and Jelena, and several of Vernon’s sisters remark to him that he ought to be ashamed of himself, and his father says to him, “You’re too old for me to cut off your tallywhacker, but I got a good mind to do it anyhow.” Vernon goes to Harrison to see if his watch has been repaired; it hasn’t, so he buys paperbacks on law, psychology, archaeology and an assortment of pornography, and secludes himself with his books, until he discovers one day that there is a boy his own age in Stay More, for the first time since he was born. The boy’s name is Day Whittacker and he is accompanied by a girl who does not give her name, but who may or may not be the