A BILL STILL OWED

At least Rita could tune out the noise when in the kitchen. Not here in the sitting room, where The Commander and Mrs. Waterford were sniping at each other. Indeed, that's where she needed to be -the kitchen - since the Waterfords were entertaining in a few hours.

The Cushings, they were coming over. 'Damage control' was what The Commander was lecturing his wife about. To Mrs. Waterford. In front of Rita. This was one of those times when Rita wanted to sink into the floor, but she had to attend them regardless - coffee refills were something the Waterfords could not manage on their own while sniping.

The Commander would barely acknowledge her presence as he hand-waved the latest refill away. Mrs. Waterford had actually pushed her - physically - so hard that the pot almost slipped from her hands. Rita steadied herself with a quiet prayer, 'Lord Jesus, get me through the next hour'.

Serena then said, "Fred, this is all your doing. No manner of groveling within Chancery can make up for your weaknesses. You simply have to get it together."

Fred countered by reminding Serena that she was his Wife. It was her job to see to the house, "not to my private concerns," as he called them. "Offred would not have been so depressed if you'd made a place for her. Here. She was going to bear our children. You treated her like shit." He then paused and said more quietly, "it was you who were once better at damage control. I'd told you that I'd married you because there was always a rabbit in your hat. Where is that hat now?"

Serena noticed that her cup was now empty, wondered why Rita was not refilling it. She glared at her Martha, who immediately responded - now well practiced at a 'quick pour' that never dribbled into the saucer. The last time that had happened, it had not ended well. For Rita.

"Are we getting another one?" Serena asked Fred? "I'm owed a child, Fred. I'm owed!"

"Of course we are," Fred replied. "I've not been replaced from Chancery, not yet anyway. Pryce says that he," Fred adopted a sarcastic tone, "has the utmost confidence in me." His tone returned to normal, "But I've been taken off of diplomatic duty in the meantime. No more junkets. Guthrie petitioned to go in my stead. But Pryce shut him down."

Serena cut to the chase, "So no 'upward mobility' until we get another Handmaid? What is it with you boys? Where's that in anything that the Sons of Jacob stood for? Where's that in my book?""

Rita took advantage of the lull to say, "Ma'am, Commander. May I get a start on this evening?" Mrs. Waterford glared at her for interrupting.

The Commander just hand-waved her out and away. He said vindictively, "Mrs Waterford can pour our coffee."

THE WORST PART

Rita had just informed the four diners that dinner would be in 30 minutes. Thirty excruciating minutes. While Ray and Fred were alone in Fred's office doing 'who knows what', Serena and Sonia were in the sitting room trying their best to be civil.

Sonia had got off to a bad start. "Wow, Serena. You really could use another Martha or two. Here you are, poor darling, having to pour coffee. For me."

Serena had vowed that she was not going to soil her own home by telling Sonia, 'to go fuck yourself'. 'Naomi Putnam has had that effect on me,' she thought.

But the silent sitting room couldn't be contained. "Hey Serena," Sonia said, "Do you ever worry when it gets quiet in Fred's office like this? No telling what he and Ray are up to, is there?"

Those thirty minutes were, by far, the worst part.

At dinner, Serena was on the lookout for some imperfection that Rita had let slip through. The table was immaculate. Loaves and Fishes must have been well stocked that week.

Before grace, Serena's calculated remark to Rita was meant as a signal to the Cushings: "Rita, thank you so much. This dinner is perfect. All four helpings are as requested, made to measure - I don't know how you do it. However, the knives…. the cutting side of the knife is always face in. We've been over that. But you can remain as the Commander says grace."

Which Fred did. He'd even worked 'mercy for the handmaid' into the prayer, as well as Rita's loving hands in the meal's preparation. Serena knew he meant that as a barb at her. After, Rita left to get a head-start on the dishes, keeping as quiet as she could - the last dinner Rita had been hit by Mrs. Waterford for interfering with, 'such a perfect evening with all that clatter'.

Fred invited his guests to 'dig in', Ray leaned back from the table and said, "Fred, we may as well inform Serena of what we've decided."

Serena and Sonia looked at one another, then stayed silent for the inevitable. The boys had decided. This was a long way from St. John's, Antigua, when the two women were free to roam as they had pleased.

Fred finished a mouthful while Ray remained somewhat removed from the table waiting for him to speak. Fred then put his cutlery down, lifted a napkin to his mouth, and cleared his throat. "Ok, if you want to do this now. I guess no need to wait for cocktails in the sitting room….."

Fred turned to Serena, said, "We're being vetted by the Red Centre. Aunt Lydia will be here sometime next week to, 'go through some expectations', as Ray has put it."

Serena put down her own cutlery. "The Red Centre? In a Commander's home? Again?"

Cushing answered, "Especially in a Commander's home. Serena, you have to relax. This isn't from Chancery, it's from Pryce. The High Commander. Don't take it personally. It's really Guthrie. He's soiled all our nests."

Serena said, "Whatever happened to the sovereignty of the Commander's home?"

Ray continued, "Pryce has taken that into account - but reproduction belongs to the State, so Pryce has given it to the Red Centre. The Aunts. I'll admit, I'm troubled by the precedent. Women. In oversight over an aspect of a Commander's home." But then Ray leaned forward into the table, picked up his knife and fork, said to Fred, "But some commanders can't seem to exercise self-control." Cutting the meat and taking a bit into his mouth, while chewing he added, "We're going to rout out deviancy - The Aunts will make sure placements are handled through, shall we say, 'expectations'."

Ray finished, "Of course, I'm talking about Commander Guthrie. Fred: you'll note his seat tomorrow will be unfilled. He's been arrested. Can't control his pecker. Play your cards right, and you'll once again be the face of New Gilead in other jurisdictions, I promise you. It starts with Lydia's inspection. Deal with it."

The worst part? Sonia was enjoying all of this.

GUTHRIE

The human race is at risk. What is important is efficiency. All remaining fertile women should be collected and impregnated. By those of superior status. - Commander Guthrie

Mrs Guthrie had just been taken from the home, perhaps quite like she had been dozens of times. Escorted by a phalanx of Guardians befitting her husband's status in the New Gilead District. Except that the household Martha, as well as Handmaid, had never seen Mrs. Guthrie taken in handcuffs.

Commander Guthrie had once sealed his reputation as a first rate field commander by taking New York - the world financial capital was now in Gilead's hands. It had been no small feat. Standard military tactics had cited how essential 'high ground' was. New York, especially Manhattan, had been nothing but high ground - every office window potentially concealing renegade units of a United States' military in disarray.

When told that the only entry to the high floors of skyscrapers were up the stairwells, Commander Guthrie rejected it. "My boys climbing 60 floors of stairs, and only then starting the fight? All the while being fired on from above? Forget it." Guthrie had cleaned out the highest towers by first airlifting soldiers to the towers' roofs, at night with running lights off. Risky, but at least they were fighting their way down, not up. It turned out not to be the suicidal move everyone had feared, it returned the 'high ground' to Gilead. Skyscrapers fell like dominoes.

Guthrie had parlayed that success into a lucrative political career in Boston. Being an original Sons of Jacob helped. He with Commander Waterford had convinced Pryce to make fertility services more streamlined - as well as to ensure genetic continuity with the Sons of Jacob. This meant that Commanders would 'do their duty for Gilead' by accepting one, two, or three of the rare fertile women into their homes.

Commander Guthrie had been turned in by his Martha. Pryce had turned the covert operation against Guthrie to young Nick Blaine. Nick had befriended the martha, Beth; as well as the house Handmaid who'd been a Boston original. Nick also was a friend of Guthrie's chief aide, who in exchange for leniency showed how the budget-skimming had been done. Unlike other more nuanced commanders, Guthrie had not covered his financial crimes very well. Being responsible for transportation meant he commanded one of the larger budgets that the New Gilead Chancery had responsibility for. Being on a wartime footing, not all transactions could be properly vetted by the bean counters.

Guthrie's Martha, Beth, was sent to the kitchen at Jezebels. The Handmaid was now back at the Red Centre. The main trouble she'd been in was constant griping about a daughter she claimed was taken from her. She was being prepped for service at Waterford house, her second posting, as well as the second for the Waterfords. Nick, known for adopting hopeless cases, kept his eye on both of them.

Commander Guthrie's eventual disposition was never known. Blaine had been with High Commander Pryce when Guthrie had been escorted into the Eye's Centre. Before they departed from one another, Pryce gave Blaine new marching orders. Watch the Waterfords. "We're going to clean up Gilead, son," was the way it had been put.

It was rumoured that Mrs. Guthrie had ended up in the colonies. Her arrest had encouraged the other Wives to accept things like The Ceremony without too much complaint. Without too many assaults on Handmaids.

THE NEW HANDMAID

The Waterfords had yet to see Offred #2's face, neither had Nick nor Rita who were standing by the door to the kitchen, hands neatly folded. The Handmaid was masked by the newly instituted, large white-winged bonnet, around which Fred tried to peek while Aunt Lydia was going through all the 'expectations'. Fred thought, 'Please God, not an ugly one.'

Aunt Lydia turned to Mrs. Waterford and bluntly asked, "Do you smoke?" Rita almost coughed, knowing what would have happened if either she or Nick had asked something like that - in the Waterford home no less!

It was The Commander who answered: "Both my wife and I are quite normal people, like everyone we struggle with the temptations of the 'before times'. We're not perfect. But we acknowledge that starting a family requires true sacrifice, and that is what we're prepared to do."

Aunt Lydia's gaze never left Mrs Waterford. Lydia repeated, "With due respect, Commander, I'd like to hear from Mrs. Waterford."

Serena stumbled only slightly as she began, "As my husband has said, we are very normal people. We yearn to take our place in Gilead's struggle against infertility. I will say this to you, Aunt Lydia, I will quit smoking. Our intent is to make this home fit to raise children."

"Excellent," said Aunt Lydia triumphantly. "I suppose I should ask where you're getting the cigarettes, but that will be for another time." One of Gilead's fault lines sliced through the room right then. While not explicitly illegal - that was for The Commanders to deem - such things were available only through a dark-gray market. Like the Commanders' booze.

JUNE

"Okay," said Lydia as she opened the file in front of her, a file marked at the top, 'June Osborne'.

"Offred comes to you after a failed, first posting. We are confident that she is fertile and pliant, she has an offspring currently adopted into another Commander's home. We've had no problem with her in that regard. Neither have we had any problems when her previous Commander had told her, that her mother was working now in The Colonies. We in the Red Centre discourage Commanders from revealing such information. It can be upsetting, and non-conducive to a happy home."

Lydia read further into the file. "I see that Commander Deed's handmaid will be Offred's shopping partner. We will monitor that." What Aunt Lydia did not tell anyone in the Waterford house - Ofglen was suspicious, on many counts. What Lydia said out-loud was, "it will be Offred's job to keep us informed as to any problems with her shopping partner."