Lemuel looking across the breakfast table at his mother.
Elizabeth was frowning. 'Are you okay?' He asked, 'we're up-to-date with everything?'
'Yes, of course, we're on schedule as regards the work and maintenance of this place, just something is bothering me.'
'Can you tell me what it is, he asked, a slight note of concern in his voice.
'I'm just going to check,' and so saying went off to her bedroom, he heard her rummaging through draws and cupboards, when she came back, she was looking distinctly uneasy, 'damn, it's my pills, I must have miscalculated, I really thought I had another box.'
Lemuel looked puzzled, 'you didn't bring any contraceptive pills, we had to scour the camp, remember?'
'No, it's nothing like that, these are different pills.'
He breathed a sigh of relief, 'so, no real problem then? What are they for?'
'They're to stop me lactating,' she looked embarrassed at admitting this.
Lemuel almost choked on his coffee.
'Lactating, that means you produce "breast milk", impossible, I mean, I've sucked them, played with them, your age is against you.'
'In the natural scheme of things, I'd have to agree, but, well it's a long story.'
Lemuel looked at her, 'have you been lactating ever since I was born?'
Not exactly, I was, still am in fact a member of "La Leche", it's an organisation which promotes breastfeeding, in fact it's done such a fantastic job it's almost made itself redundant.'
Lemuel figured out that it was French for "The Milk".
'I'm listening, go on.'
'I had a friend, Penelope Blackwell, met her in pre-natal, we called her "Penny Black", you know after the first ever postage stamp.'
Lemuel nodded, not wanting to break her flow.
'She was the chairwoman of "La Leche", being an organisation for breast feeding women, the term chairperson or chairman was never considered, anyway, she talked me into taking the vice-chairwoman's role. When her twins were born and yourself, all on the same day,' she said emphasising the closeness between the two mothers. 'I was producing more milk that you needed so I allowed one of her boys to suckle me. The doctors noticed how well you were growing and asked if he could take a sample of milk from each of us for analysis, to cut a long story short, our milk was not only extremely rich, but it had anti-bodies that struggling new-born babies needed.
Lemuel issued a 'wow, you were a super-mother.'
'More of a super-milker, so both me and Penny agreed to take pills which allowed us to continue to produce milk even after you three were weaned, and we donated it to the hospital.'
'Lemuel stared at her, she hadn't looked at him once during her explanation, 'there's more to this isn't there,' he asked?
'Yes, you see a company producing breast milk formula did research on us both, me, and Penny, and incorporated our milk contents into their product, next year I receive a large sum of money from a trust fund they provided for us.'
'Why wait so long?' Lemuel missed the significance of the "us".
'Me and your dad weren't getting along at the time, he didn't like my constant milking, so I decided to put my earnings into a trust fund.'
'So, you're rich?'
'Next year,' she affirmed.
Lemuel pondered all the information she had provided. 'How do you milk a woman?'
She laughed at the mystified look on his face, 'in a similar way as you milk a cow, or you use a "milking machine".'
'I've seen cows milked by a machine, they produce gallons of the stuff, doing it by hand would take ages, and, put the cost up. But a human?'
'Yeah well, milking a woman doesn't take anything like as long as milking a cow, so cost doesn't come into the equation, however I did use a "breast pump", it took about 20 minutes.'
'How much did you produce?'
'At my peak it was a good two pints, though that was being milked twice a day, though when a woman first starts producing milk, she only makes a small amount about one imperial ounce, basically.'
'How much is that in pints?'
'Very little, about one twentieth of a pint,' She screwed her face up, trying to remember, 'it seems such a long time ago. A lot of women felt as though they were failing their baby but, babies have such small stomachs at birth, that's all they needed, mind you they required feeding about every four hours.'
Lemuel had grown a beard during his time at the camp, and he stroked it as he contemplated this information.
'You look very professorial when deep in thought, the beard suits you.'
He shrugged off the compliment, 'how's this going to affect you, should we look in the pharmacy for a breast pump?'
'We could try but I doubt if we'd find one, after all we scoured the place looking for contraceptive pills.'
He nodded his head, 'I take it if you saw one, you'd remember it, especially with your background,' a pause ensued, 'so what now?'
'Well, If I try and milk myself it's really awkward, milk goes everywhere, but I need to be milked, so maybe you could milk me.' The words came out in a rush.
Lemuel squirmed in his seat, he was starting to get an erection, 'I think I'd like that.'
'So would I,' she replied, as she began to unbutton her blouse, 'can you get two glasses off the bar?'
He did as she asked, putting them on the coffee table, he helped her remove the blouse, then reaching behind her back undid her bra sliding it over her arms, he knew she liked her clothes to be neatly folded, which he did, though it took all his efforts of concentration to do so.
'They don't look any bigger,' he sounded perplexed.
'No, they produce milk, they're not storage containers, a common misapprehension.'
'They look a little more spherical though,' he added.