Chapter 12
"Dr. Albert Ellis had a great deal to say in his learned works about rational living. His accomplishments in helping people understand each other and themselves better through the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex are major and commendable. Because of the long and intense interest he has demonstrated in all phases of matters sexual," Mildred said, "I thought it would be interesting for him to come visit our little group and see what conclusions he might draw from it.
"Before you start, though, Dr. Ellis," she asked the slender, intense, bespectacled man, all glasses and Adam's apple and curly thinning hair, "have you anything good to say about switchabout couples?"
"Generally it's healthy," Ellis said, "for people to have a wide range of sexual experience. It helps them pleasure their partners better and, perhaps more important, to understand themselves and recognize that others are experiencing almost identical hang-ups to theirs and adjusting to them nicely."
"Thanks, Dr. Ellis," Mildred said, looking at him respectfully. "Now would you like to interview our people in couples or individually?"
Ellis looked at the big, interesting Thelma, the small, pretty Emily, the luscious blonde LaVerne and the sharp, smart Mildred. "Individually," he decreed.
As the interviews progressed, his puzzlement increased. This wasn't working out anything like he'd expected. This was getting to be something like the tendency to veer away from atheism and agnosticism toward religion.
When it was over, he assembled the group.
"You're amazing," he said, "and exceedingly fortunate. I'm delighted to inform you that every one of you prefers his own mate to anyone else's! Also it's interesting to note that without exceptions, this wasn't always the case. It's something that developed through the influence of his group!
"One was once a sexual dullard. Big, handsome, well-endowed, competent in other ways, he simply had nothing special to offer his bride except the satisfaction she might find in causing him to have orgasms.
"Thanks to the influence of the friends he's made here, and I venture to say, on the outside", he's a swinger of the first order and a pretty damned nice guy.
"One of you was a sexual mouse. She didn't do anything. She let things happen to her. Well, that's over now. She's exchanged dignified acquiescence for enthusiastic cooperation and her husband and friends are happier for it.
"Then there's one here who was a weakling, who was so eager to live his transvestite role that he almost forgot that TVs aren't always or necessarily homos. He learned that physical force isn't as important in feminine conquests as demonstration of love and understanding, but he sure knows that now!
"And then there was the opposite: the big, authoritative, competent, dominant woman afraid to risk any sort of failure by entrusting herself or any other responsibility to her husband-until he contrived to take it by force
"One of you fancied herself as being pretty darned sharp She got you all organized and did a fine job of getting trouble started But then came something far different: the realization that she loved her man and, despite his image of strength, he needed more understanding than he'd been getting. Immediately her womanly-motherly instincts took over and she made him a far happier man than when he felt compelled to chase.
"There's at least one fetishist among you and to hear a man say aloud exactly what he thinks he is, is a heartening thing in my profession I assure you! He's solved his problems by naming it and by enlisting friends who helped him with it.
"As to the newlyweds, they present something of a problem-Given their choice of any other couple they could switchabout with, they'd' rather have each other. Why is that, LaVerne?"
"He's mine. I love my possessions," LaVerne said.
"Tony?" Ellis asked.
"I'm hers. I love being her possession," he replied.
"Take command of your men, girls. Understand them and keep them happy," the doctor advised. "Serve their weaknesses and don't let them be ashamed of them, and you'll never lose your men. In fact, if you'd like an extra I'm free this evening."
And every woman there eyed him contemplatively.