Moral Degeneration

“Fourth and fifth?!” Millie yelled. 

“You’re having twins,” the doctor said, uncaring how loud we were. “2 boys.”

“Oh,” I said. “That makes more sense.” My mind was rather sluggish, but I was catching up. “That’s normal for twins, right?”

“No,” the doctor said, locking eyes with me. “There hasn’t been a set of male twins in over 10 years.” 

“What?” I asked. Already sick of asking. 

“The 1 male in 8,000 births has made 2 males being born almost impossible. Even triplets that happen to have a male included, the other 2 have always been female,” she said. She was acting calm but I could tell she was more than a little freaked out. “Are you the… donor?”

“I’m their father, but yeah,” I said. “My…first. Holy shit. I’m having 3 boys?” I asked turning to Millie and Gail. “3 boys? You’re sure?”

The doctor refocused the probes. Her eyes squinting she found them. “There’s the penis here. And…here for the other. I-I-I know I should act indifferent, but I’ve been doing this a long time. You 2 have more than doubled the amount of boys I’ve seen. This…is far from normal. I wouldn’t normally recommend this, but you need to contact the DOL.”

“Why?” I asked. Nervous by how serious she was acting. 

“I usually save this conversation until you’re further along in the pregnancy. But male births are different. You 2 have 3 boys between you. That hasn’t happened in years. Decades. You need protection or something. Male twins, my god, I didn’t think I’d ever see that,” she said, still stunned.

I eyed Millie and Gail, they looked scared. “Let me make a call,” I said. Stepping out I pulled out my cell phone. Putting the battery back inside it booted up slowly. When it did I knew there would be a long backlog of calls and messages but I called my babysitter first. 

“Agent Reels,” she said as she answered. 

“Hey, it’s me, Russ,” I said.

“Fucking shit balls, Russ!” She screamed. “Where the hell are you?! We had people on you.” 

“I know,” I said. “I went to Montana to-” 

“Montana! What-”

“Shut the fuck up, Reels,” I said. “I’m at the ultrasounds for Gail and Millie Manny, my first 2 baby mommas.”

“Everything alright?” She asked, hearing the strain in my voice. 

“Yeah, kids are fine, but…they’re boys,” I said.

“What?”

“All 3 are boys,” I said. There was a long silence. 

“All…3?” She asked. 

“Yeah, Millie said she had twins in her blood. She is having 2 boys and Gail is having 1,” I said. 

“You’re not shitting with me, are you?” She asked. 

“Normally I’d be pissed at the question, but I asked the doctor the same thing. She literally pointed out all 3 dicks. I can get pictures if you want,” I said.

“Russ…this is…holy hell. I don’t know what this is. I need to call my supervisor. I think they’ll want me or someone out there,” she said.

“I understand that,” I said. “But I want assurances. I’m not going back, and I’m not getting a tail, or I’ll leave now.”

“I will see what I can do, please keep your phone on this time,” she said. “Give me 10 minutes.” I hung up and was bombarded by all the missed calls and messages. Not all of the girls had listened to my warning and I had forgotten to tell Sabrina and Chloe, so I was on the phone with them explaining why I couldn’t see them next week when I got a call back. 

“Sorry, Rina, I’ll call you. And I promise a big date when I get back,” I said.

“You better,” she said, but I could hear she was moving on from the anger rather quickly. We exchanged some flirting but Reels called me and I had to hang up. 

“Hey, Reels, what’s up?” 

“Agent Simpson from D.C. is on his way. He will be there in less than 5 hours,” Reels said. I remembered Simpson. He was a black man that had met me in Melena when I first left Gail and Millie the first time. I knew he was higher up in the food chain, but he must have been the top dog.

“And the agreement? I’m not getting a tail,” I said.

“Yeah, he didn’t care,” Reels said. “Kind of shocked everyone with this thing, Russ.” 

 

“Same here,” I said. “This ever happened?”

“Once about 10 years ago. Frozen sperm from one of the older guys,” she said. “He had 4 boys born on the same day from 2 different mothers. But 3…from someone born now? That’s like winning the lottery.”

“What are my odds?” I asked.

“1 in 54,000,000 chance to have 2 boys. One boy after the other? 3 in fact? Gotta be near 1 in a trillion.” 

“I guess I better buy a lottery ticket,” I mumbled, unsure how to take all this. I hung up and was back in the room with the girls. The doctor was wrapping up with her explanation on what they should expect as mothers in the coming months, but all of us were quiet.

 

We walked out in stunned silence and the girls opted to sit in the back together. “What does this mean?” Millie asked in a daze. 

“I don’t know,” I said. “Let’s not tell anyone for now. Just uh keep it to ourselves, and we can figure it out.” The girls nodded and I drove them to the party. 

 

—

 

Millie and Gail’s moms were shocked to meet me. Their excited exclamations about meeting the father were only offset by how excited they were about Millie having twins. The good mood was back as they reminded all of us that it was simply a blessing to have healthy kids. We were at Millie’s mom’s house having a barbecue. I was on and off the phone through the whole thing, but wasn’t shy about kissing or holding hands with the girls. I had tried to talk them into a quickie in the bathroom as our mood got better, but it soured as the door got knocked on. 

 

“I wasn’t expecting anyone,” Gail’s mother said. I noticed the SUVs out front and knew it was for me.

I opened the door to find Agent Simpson outside. The black man eyed me, then did a double take. “Russell?!” He exclaimed. 

“That’s me,” I said, not in the mood. 

“Holy shit, Reels wasn’t joking. You really shot up,” he said. He was a couple inches taller than me, but wasn’t the imposing man I’d met the months ago. “What the hell have they been feeding you?”

“Virgins,” I said, and pushed him outside. “Sorry I wasn't expecting you for another hour.”

“Great thing about the government. Direct flights,” he said. “I already have copies of the ultrasound pictures. Congratulations, you’ve done the impossible. 3 boys from 2 pregnancies.”

“Impossible?” I asked. 

“At least we thought so,” he said with a nod. “2, I wouldn’t have shown up, but 3? You must be either lucky or have magic sperm.”

“Or unlucky,” I said. “What’s going to happen here? Should we tell people? Keep it a secret? Go hide under a hole for a while?”

“Let’s um, talk with the mother’s,” he said. I hesitated but nodded. Escorting Simpson in with 2 women agents, all eyes were on us.

“What’s going on?” Millie’s mother asked. All were nervous. 

“Hello, I am Agent Simpson. I work with the Department of Longevity,” he moved to stand in front of the grouping of women. “I assume this is all family?” 

“Uh yes,” Gail said. She looked nervous, but I waved her off when she looked at me.

“I came personally to congratulate you 2, Gail and Millie,” Simpson said. “I hear that you are having boys.”

Again stunned silence followed, then surprised yelling. Simpson got them under control, I prayed he knew what he was doing. “In the past we tried to keep such events under wraps. When 2 women that are married to each other give birth to boys, it is usually news worthy. Hasn’t happened in a while, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Since Russ here is actually a part of your lives, and I assume grants you full legal rights over the boys…” He eyed me.

I had forgotten I had more rights over boys as a man. I nodded. “Of course.”

“Good, then you don’t have much to worry about,” Simpson said. “We would like to start your payments early, and of course extend our full assistance to you as the mothers of our future.”

 

“Mothers of our future?” Gail’s mom asked. 

“Of course,” he said. “There are currently 11 women in Montana expecting sons. You 2 just increased that by over 25%. That’s amazing. And from what I understand about Russ, he plans to stay in your lives. I don’t know what caused you 3 to make so many boys, it could be something special about the 3 of you, but if you continue to have more kids, this might only be the beginning.” 

“There’s something special about us?” Gail asked.

“Maybe,” Simpson said, but his eyes were on me. “Either way, we want to extend to you the full cooperation of the government.” 

 

I didn’t like the sound of that. I was already regretting calling them, but as Simpson spoke more it did make Gail and Millie feel a little better. I hoped that they really could help, either way my headaches had only started. 

 

—

 

“What was all that crap about something being special about us?” I asked Simpson. “You tested my blood. I wasn’t told shit.” We were on a military transport heading to D.C. It was Saturday night, and I had fought it, but Simpson talked me into going with him. My Chevelle strapped down in the cargo hold, it was hard to say no when it would save me a lot of driving. 

 

Simpson uncrossed his legs and turned to me. “There very well could be something special about you all,” he said with a shrug. “Despite what we say on the news. We really have no idea why the male birthrate is so low. We know male DNA has changed slightly, but we are doing catchup on everything, Russ. Medical knowledge has come a long way in the last 100 years. After landing on the moon people began complaining that space travel was useless if we weren’t alive to make use of it in the next 1,000 years.”

“So why do I have to go with you?” I asked. “For all we know it was luck.”

“Luck? You actually believe in that?” He asked, I frowned. I didn’t really believe in luck. “Russ, I’ve been doing this a long time. Your kids are the first male twins in a long time. And they’re your first. Agent Reels says you have a few more kids on the way. What if one of them is a boy? What if all of them?” 

“All of them?” I asked.

 
“I probably shouldn’t be saying anything,” Simpson said. “I’ll let the doctors talk about the sciency part, but yeah. They’ve been saying for years that the Pox could switch. Only males might be born next.”

“Fuck,” I said. “That would be a shitshow.” 

“I know, which is why it’s unlikely,” he said. “We want a few more samples, then you can be on your way.”

“You’re not going to stop me?” I asked, still skittish. 

“You are a man,” he said. “Do what you want, I don’t care. Hell, you’ve already escaped 2 kidnapping attempts. Just don’t do anything too stupid. Where are you going, by the way? Out to California? Get some sun? I know a few good hotels and I can book you another flight out there if you want.”

I wasn’t sure why he was rolling the red carpet out. I knew Simpson was holding something back. They would let me go, but they would try to follow me. I’d have to check for a GPS tracker on me and the car. Instead of answering I looked out the window and thought.

I was having 3 sons. I had always wanted one. It had been upsetting to know it wouldn’t happen for a long time, but now, that’s all I knew I was having. I had been looking forward to having daughters, and everything had flopped around on me. Letting out an annoyed sigh I wanted answers. Answers to why I had been brought here to take over for some me in this timeline. Why was sleeping with a virgin helping me get bigger and stronger? Why was I making a bunch of boys in a world of girls?

Too much going on, too little to go on, I opted to sleep. Gail and Millie had been upset that I left, but they understood. Shocked and surprised by the news I would remember to tell Simpson to get Gail a better job as a cop. I wouldn’t want them living in that small house with 3 boys. Even 1 boy would tear the 1 bedroom place down.