Madam Mim
One Big Modern Mess
- Joined
- May 30, 2013
Paul's Harbor was beautiful in a bleak sort of way. Jenny knew her husband didn't think much of it, and neither did she if she were honest, but they'd been on the ship for months and she needed to feel solid ground beneath her feet again. The sea wasn't in her blood like it was his; she sailed because he was her home. Before dinner she'd insisted on seeing the Orthodox chapel and had spent the better part of half an hour admiring the artful architecture or sitting in silent prayer. She'd been struggling for a long time to reconcile her thoughts, her desires, with her faith and the longer she lived, the more she saw, the more difficult it became to reconcile Catholicism as she knew it with the world as she'd seen it. She'd been praying on this for weeks now, but even as Jack took her hand she still wasn't certain she was ready to bring it up.
"Jack...John..." She never knew what to call him anymore! "Love...we've been married for a hundred and fifty years, and I wouldn't take back a single second of it. We had those rocky five or so years, but five out of a century and a half is nothing to sneer at." Jenny lowered her eyes to the table for a moment. Those years out pirating in parts unknown, followed by Anne... She swallowed hard. Those 'rocky' years had nearly destroyed them. Biting her lip in an effort to bolster her courage she looked up again. She'd practiced this in her head over and over and now she was getting it all jumbled.
"The Word was written for...well, for mortals." It sounded like an excuse even as it left her lips and she nearly cringed. "A man should cleave to his wife, immorality shouldn't be tolerated...but that's basing everything on the average human lifespan, and that's just something we don't have." Jenny cleared her throat and squeezed his hand. "Last year in Boston I was talking to that Emmerson fellow and he told me about this place in Vermont called Oneida. He says that there they believe that all men in the community are married to all women in their souls. I don't think that's true but from what he tells it never got...ah...monotonous." Oh God could he please just understand what she was getting at so she didn't have to say it?? "What I mean is...I mean there are men who...and I mean I've seen you looking at..." Jenny flushed, took a deep breath, and decided to just blurt out all at once what she meant to say.
"I think we should sleep with more people."
"Jack...John..." She never knew what to call him anymore! "Love...we've been married for a hundred and fifty years, and I wouldn't take back a single second of it. We had those rocky five or so years, but five out of a century and a half is nothing to sneer at." Jenny lowered her eyes to the table for a moment. Those years out pirating in parts unknown, followed by Anne... She swallowed hard. Those 'rocky' years had nearly destroyed them. Biting her lip in an effort to bolster her courage she looked up again. She'd practiced this in her head over and over and now she was getting it all jumbled.
"The Word was written for...well, for mortals." It sounded like an excuse even as it left her lips and she nearly cringed. "A man should cleave to his wife, immorality shouldn't be tolerated...but that's basing everything on the average human lifespan, and that's just something we don't have." Jenny cleared her throat and squeezed his hand. "Last year in Boston I was talking to that Emmerson fellow and he told me about this place in Vermont called Oneida. He says that there they believe that all men in the community are married to all women in their souls. I don't think that's true but from what he tells it never got...ah...monotonous." Oh God could he please just understand what she was getting at so she didn't have to say it?? "What I mean is...I mean there are men who...and I mean I've seen you looking at..." Jenny flushed, took a deep breath, and decided to just blurt out all at once what she meant to say.
"I think we should sleep with more people."