Last Night for Briony Part 7 (Conclusion?)

James and Briony face a live devoid of all sexuality. How do they 
cope?

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Last Night for Briony  (Part 7 conclusion?)

Briony spent several days in the hospital. The result of her 
Nullification Africanum procedure insured her early menopause. The 
symptoms that went along with menopause were in full effect when 
James Johnson took her home with him. James’ neighbors knew the 
whole story of Briony’s ordeal and several of the men in the 
neighborhood had secretly obtained videotapes of Briony’s 
nullification and watched them regularly. A few remembered their 
part in her public handling.  

Briony suffered from hot flashes and spent much time crying with 
depression over her lost sex. James would try to comfort her at 
these times and many times she fell asleep in his arms, her tears 
staining the pillows of their bed. James really cared for Briony 
and her ordeal made him feel forgiving for her part in what had 
been done to him. Briony had suffered more than anyone and the 
Leader Court had almost succeeded in breaking her emotionally. 
James continued to be there for her in her time of greatest need. 
Their physical contact unfettered by the need for sexual expression 
developed into a different kind of love that knew no physical 
expression. It hung in the air between them so thick that it almost 
took on a physical presence.  Because of James’ constant 
cmpanionship and support Briony’s depression finally started to 
lift. She began to enjoy simple things, with no expectations of the 
future. James slowly started to become the glue that held her 
fragmented being together.

After a few months Briony accidentally walked into the bathroom as 
James was emerging from the shower drying his backside with a 
towel. His ruined sexual remnants were a gruesome reminder of what 
he had experienced and she walked over to him, embraced him and 
whispered in his ear “James, I’m so sorry.” Her statement had many 
meanings. 

James dropped his towel; his naked emasculated body against hers 
fully clothed and kissed her full on the lips. Briony flashed back 
to the last time he was naked and vulnerable in her presence. She 
stepped back and revealed herself to him by slowly stripping and 
displaying her altered body to him. By now Briony’s mastectomy 
scars had healed and faded somewhat appearing as two horizontal 
scars on her freckled chest. Her smooth pubis with short, light, 
sparse red hair was punctuated only by her urinary orifice but was 
otherwise featureless. Her lithe, trim and breastless body offered 
not for its sexuality, but for its warmth and beauty similar to the 
beauty of a sexless angel. Together they entered the shower again 
and gently explored each others altered features massaging each 
other’s body areas leaving no scar or stub untouched or unmassaged 
as they soaped and rinsed until their skin was pink and wrinkled. 
Their bodies were now more alike than they were different. So were 
their separate beings.

Briony and James never experienced orgasms. It was not possible. 
The need to experience sex had left them but the deep feelings that 
they developed for each other’s well being was apparent to all who 
observed them. In a crowd they could not be told apart from a 
couple who experienced rapant sex. Soon James had persuaded Briony 
to wear artificial breasts and to any whom was not aquatinted with 
their story they appeared to be a young heterosexual couple who was 
deeply in love. Their physical contact was no different than two 
who still possessed their sexuality but somehow they seemed closer 
because the urgency of their intimacy was not present. This did not 
make their contact seem sexual in nature. Their togetherness gave 
the feeling of a very old couple that conflicted with their obvious 
youth. They were truly an enigma to any who observed them for the 
first time and knew nothing of their histories. When they are 
observed strolling with each other at sunset, hand in hand, arm in 
arm or seemingly joined at the hip, any observer can tell that they 
are deeply in love. Love permeates their being. Sex now never 
enters the picture.

So it is with James and Briony. The need for sex is gone now. Even 
if pleasant memories of sexual encounters remain with them they 
never made or they never could make sexual contact with one 
another. They are completely relieved of sexual connotations when 
they make physical contact. They have come to enjoy sleeping 
together in the nude because truly neither has anything to hide and 
the comfort of feeling skin against skin, the physical warmth of 
another human soul comforts them. Closeness to them is as 
comforting as it is after sex because truly sex is now in their 
past. Although the need for sex is completely gone from them, the 
need for companionship and someone to care for them remains strong. 
They fulfill each other in a way that it is hard to understand if 
one still possesses their sexuality. One who was cut by the other, 
and the other who in many ways was cut as a result, completely and 
intimately close without sex. James and Briony now have found love 
despite sex, not because of it. Gender doesn’t matter to them 
because they have none. Both are truly eunuchs but neither is 
bitter because of their lost ability to engage in sex. When they 
observe someone who would have been sexually attractive to them in 
other circumstances, neither would give someone else a second 
glance. Why should they? The glow and strength of their attraction 
to each other is unfettered by something as unimportant as sex. 
Truly their attraction for each other is decidedly not sexual.

For James and Briony sex has become what it should be for all…
something that doesn’t matter. It has been completely put into its 
place and that is no place at all! Their love, true love, survives 
despite sex, not because of it. To them, their world and their love 
is complete. The mystery is ours to contemplate.