Most Space Angels muster out by marrying an astronaut. The organization would provide him with orthodonture and cosmetic surgery to improve his appearance, and he would train in dancing and other social niceties. He was planning at 21 to join the W.E.N.C.H.E.S., a military auxiliary organization also known as “Space Angels” that specializes in releasing astronauts’ sexual tensions. At 18, he became a “mother’s helper” caregiver while attending night school. He swore that his own kids would have proper parents, but he knew that, because he was unattractive, he’d not likely get married. The Unmarried Mother explains that he was born a girl in 1945 and raised in an orphanage.

The ring is in the shape of an Ouroboros, a snake that eats its own tail. In fact, a fellow time traveler obtained the ring for him in ancient Crete. The Unmarried Mother points at a wedding ring on the bartender’s hand the bartender replies that it’s there to keep women at bay. The bartender admits that he is, too, and that none of his family ever marry. The Unmarried Mother begins by confessing that he’s a bastard. The bartender bets him a bottle of whiskey that he won’t be shocked. The bartender tells the Unmarried Mother that he read a few of his articles and admires his ability with the “woman’s angle.” The Unmarried Mother answers that he should know that angle, but that the bartender wouldn’t believe him if he told him why. The bartender asks the Unmarried Mother how he is doing the Unmarried Mother replies sourly that “Business is okay. The Unmarried Mother already is tipsy the bartender pours him a drink and leaves the bottle. The bartender narrates the story he’s also a professional time traveler or “Temporal agent.” Into the bar walks a 25-year-old man that the narrator calls the “Unmarried Mother,” who gets his name from an advice column he writes as if he is a woman. The story begins in a bar, “Pop’s Place,” in November 1970.

All you zombies robert heinlein