After grading her papers, Molly went down to the neighborhood grocer. She didn't bother changing. Hardly anyone was ever there when she went. A few of the local boys looked at her with a mix of lust and contempt as she walked in. That was how most of the men of the town looked at her. She was hot but they considered her too trashy to ever be a wife or even a date, just a cheap fuck. Of course, Molly didn't really get this. By the standards of the big city, she was a normal, even a well-behaved lady.

Molly was surprised to see the grocer crowded. She was even more surprised to see everyone stop and sort of smirk at her with a certain predatory grin. There was Mrs. Mallone, the wife of the fellow teacher Molly was always flirting with. There was Teddy, the 18 year-old teenager who had tried to grope her when she teased him with a revealing outfit like the one she wore today. There was Rev. Arnold, who was always trying to get her to attend the local Church only to be told mockingly that modern girls didn't believe in such things. There was Agnes Miller, the old widow who headed the local Women's Christian Temperance Society, extinct everywhere but this island, and who always chided Molly for her drinking and partying on the weekends. There was Grover Johnson, the man who made fun of Molly's shorts and pants and told her a real woman wore dresses. And more.

Molly blushed a little under their gaze as she got her groceries, aware of the countless eyes on her long legs, her tacky clothes, her chubbed cheeks and on her face, watching as it turned red with embarassment. As she finished her shopping, she topped her cart off with a newspaper. She blinked at the front page. A new law called the Community Female Control Act had been passed, making immoral female behavior, as defined by local community standards and as enforced by local law enforcement and interpreted by local judges, illegal. Punishments were also defined by local communities. The paper went on to say that the law would likely have almost no effect in major cities, where a modern lifestyle was more or less excepted. In New York or Los Angeles, the law would apply almost exclusively to prostitution or to non-sexual offenses which happened to be committed by women. However, the paper said, interviews with local law enforcement and judicial leaders had revealed a consensus that on the island the law would be enforced against flirting, teasing, irreligion, drunkeness, insolence, nagging, refudal to wear appropriate dress, immodesty and a host of other minor offenses, most of which Molly was guilty of. Local punishments would likely be tailored to making amends to the community and to offended individuals and might include physicial punishment, involuntary labor and servitude, humiliation and lengthy incarceration.

Molly's first reaction to the paper was to stare at it and then exclain in anger. "This is ridiculous! This'll never hold up in Court! Did you guys see this?"

However, when she looked up and saw the stares of the others, no longer lustful or chiding but icy and cold, she paused, her eyes widening with real fear. She quietly set the paper down and started for the door, forgetting to go through the checkout and thus adding theft to her already long list of offenses. She wanted to get home and changed into something modest and hope everything was ok. As she got to the door, that was when she saw the local police.