Episode Three Vaccination Station

R oman

Everything about today is wrong. Everything. Well, except for making love with my lovers this morning. That's heaven. Always.

But everything else is fucked.

Having to drive a brilliant woman somewhere because she's not allowed outside without a man? Fucked.

Having to go to a women's-only vaccination station as if women could contaminate men if they're in the same cavernous room together? Fucked.

All the rich and powerful people safe Up Above while we choke to death Down Below on pollution we didn't create? Extremely fucked.

"If you'd asked me ten years ago if there was a snowball's chance in hell this could happen, I'd have laughed at you," Shanna says as we drive to her vaccination station. "I remember reading about women in Afghanistan. One minute they were teaching college, directing laboratories, and driving wherever they wanted and the next they were wearing burkas and unable to leave their houses unless accompanied by a male relative. Unfathomable."

"Until it happened here," I finish the thought for her.

"Yeah."

The streets are clogged with other cars, all driven by men, taking women for their vaccinations.

"Shit. I'm going to make you late," she says.

"There are several perks to the uniform and the badge. I'll park in the fire lane, walk you to the front of the line, and we'll be back in the car in no time."

As we walk inside after I park near the front door, I focus on the female at my side. I love this woman with all my heart and soul. I would have voted myself the least likely to engage in an illegal polyamorous relationship, especially because of my profession. Yet I fell into it hard and fast.

Alex and Shanna were already a couple. He deposed me on a case he was working, and we hit it off. When he asked me to have dinner with him and his wife, I had no reason to refuse. I honestly believe none of us had sex in mind until the third time we hung out.

We were having so much fun at their backyard barbecue—that, plus a few beers and some lingering looks—the three of us tumbled into bed. That it was illegal just made it more fun, until it wasn't fun anymore. It was the opposite of fun. It was serious.

I wouldn't in a million years have imagined I'd fall in love, but I was and still am madly in love with both of them.

Chaska was another surprise. He was on work-study at Shanna's lab. She says her invitation to dinner was an innocent response to his starving student routine. To this day, she insists his smoldering black eyes that look like they contain the secrets of the ages had nothing to do with it.

Although I think what brought me into their relationship was a surprise to the three of us, I think her invitation to Chass might have been the teeniest bit premeditated.

After our first dinner together, the three of us came back to the house and wordlessly voted with the thumbs up, thumbs down method. Our three enthusiastic thumbs up were all we needed to pursue Chass, who was thrilled to join three lovers who thought he hung the moon.

The angry miasma swirling in this cavernous, abandoned shopping mall interrupts my happy nostalgia. Women haven't taken to the streets in an uprising. I think that's because instead of their rights being taken away from one day to the next, they were whittled away before anyone believed it was happening.

Just because there hasn't been blood in the streets about the complete erosion of their rights, doesn't mean women are happy about it. Get this many women in a room together, and I can almost feel their hatred and resentment. Add my uniform to the mix, and I wonder if one of them might lose it and attack me from behind.

"Quick in and out," Shanna says as if she can read my mind. "Surgical strike."

I muscle her to the front of the line without even explaining myself. The police's powers have grown exponentially in just the five years I've been on the force.

Within minutes, Shanna gets her jab. Five minutes later, her arm tattoo is complete. It proves she's received her shot. Everyone on the planet has a line of dots and dashes up their left arm so that anyone in law enforcement can determine at a glance if they're up to date on their vaccinations. Not having the proper tats will earn you a swift trip to jail.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Shanna says, none too quietly.

I give her a stern look and a verbal warning. "You're lucky I don't add more days to your sentence. You are well aware swearing in public is against the law for a female."

Taking care not to hurt her, I yank her closer and pull her toward the exit.

"Sorry," I mutter. "Five people heard you. If I hadn't reprimanded you, someone would have reported me for dereliction of duty."

She's properly contrite now, following meekly with her head obediently tipped down.

"Sorry, sir," she says. More quietly, she adds, "I fucking hate my life."