The Male Re-Training Party's re-election platform could not have been more direct: "For Men: The Last Resort."Not a lot of fanfare-after their landslide win-not much of what had been underway for a year or two now treated as newsworthy. In dribs and drabs, women received Report Without Explanation summonses, packed up their males, reported as ordered. A few weeks later: The Re-Trained Men were returned to their communities; life went on. Bob had always been very well behaved.A Model Male, really Or Sylvia would not have permitted the marriage. And-as the law required-Bob was absolutely surrendered. Those little sparks of temper and tone, however, spikes of disobedience, albeit mild, the occasional sexual churlishness or resistance-Sylvia had to admit-she did find them. . . something of a bother. Still, in the weeks before they made the trip up to the lake, she watched him with just a wisp of wistfulness, knowing that this "version" of Bob now had a clear expiration date: No man ever came back from Lake Cuck-Amok-or any of the retraining resorts-unchanged, after all; that was the point. On their return, he would be not merely "surrendered" but simply, as the updated statutes required, utterly and permanently, "broken." Notwithstanding how completely sodden Sylvia's panties were, just at the thought of the new vistas Bob's retraining would open up for her, she admitted as well-at least to herself-that there would be some loss entailed there too. But then-scant days into their intake and evaluation-things just went radically wrong: Sylvia's actual right to custody of her husband was questioned, essentially put on trial. A different version of Bob?Fine; things change.She was going to lose Bob?No.Just. No. Sylvia's friend Ada has an. . . acquaintance, a lesbian former-lover, from her college days: A retired Marine Corps Judge Advocate General, now a high-powered attorney; people mess with Bobbie at their peril. Will that be enough for Sylvia to retain custody of her husband?And given that-the law is the law-"broken Bob must be," what happens if this team of friends actually do succeed in saving Bob from the staff at Lake Cuck-Amok? The law is the law, he still has to be. . . broken.
