Willow Chapter 10 Furthering Her Education
Gorp
Willow was sitting in the guest suite. It was located on the Master’s side of the house and she had never been in these rooms before. With its muted tones and stained wood furnishings, it was all very masculine, like the library had been.
The suite consisted of three rooms. There was a small sitting room that held a leather-covered armchair, leather love seat and a small table with a reading lamp. As she sat in the chair, she could see into the bedroom area. The very large bed was covered in black sheets that set off the wood headboard nicely.
Willow had time to consider and examine all of this because she had been sitting the chair for almost an hour. Page had given her very strict orders not to move from the chair.
However, it was how she was dressed that was the source of most of Willow’s curiosity. Like everything, Page had given her very specific instructions. It had begun with a shower that included a different body wash than she had been using. This one was clearly meant for men and had a much more earthy scent. Page then used wide leather straps to tie Willow’s hands behind her back hands to elbows. While very secure, her arms and hands where not stressed in any way.
Next Page made her step into a strap-on harness. The dildo attached had a portion that fit up inside of Willow and, after applying lots of lube, Page pushed it in to place. Now, projecting out from Willow’s crotch was a very lifelike rubber cock. After checking that the harness was secure, Page helped Willow on with a pair of men’s boxers and then a pair of dress slacks with a belt.
Page next draped a man’s collared white dress shirt over Willow’s shoulders. She buttoned the shirt all the way up including the collar button. The reason why was made clear when Page next adorned the shirt with a silk necktie, complete with Windsor knot. The shirt was tucked into the slacks and Willow was told to sit down. Next came the men’s socks and a pair of wingtip men’s dress shoes.
Willow was sitting in front of the same mirror where Page had shaved her head, but facing away from it. She was very curious how she looked when things got even more surreal. Page took an eyeliner pencil and began drawing a mustache and heavy eyebrows on Willow. She then strapped a red ball gag in place. Page completed the ensemble with cologne and a dark blazer.
Finally, Page allowed Willow to turn towards the mirror. Except for the empty sleeves and the ball gag, the effect was quite good. Willow’s short dark hair added to the effect. With the dildo tenting the front of the slack, the overall impression was of a well-dressed randy young man.
Page then led Willow to the guest suite and told her to sit and wait. After the long wait, the door finally opened and in walked Page.
While she was dressing Willow, Page had been in her normal household attire; collar and high heel shoes and nothing else. She now wore a fancy thin silver collar with a small chain hanging down between her breasts. The wrap-around silk dress she wore clung to her curves and showed a lot of cleavage. Stockings and strappy high heels completed the outfit. She had done her hair and makeup so that the overall effect was to look like she was headed for a very expensive night on the town.
Page closed the door softly and said, “Sir, my name is Page. I am Lord Blackmon’s slave. I am his gift to you for tonight.”
Willow could not help but rise to her feet, partly in shock and partly to play the part of the young man Lord Blackmon had so honored.
Page walked forward. Willow could not help but be amazed and turned on by how Page seemed to writhe across the room. It was not exaggerated or forced, but was a dance unto itself.
“Sir, Lord Blackmon made it clear to me that I am yours to enjoy.” Page began slowly walking around Willow and whispering softly. “Have you ever been with a slave before? No? Then will you let me guide you? It is very important to Lord Blackmon that you are pleased with your stay here at Rose House. He will ask you if you have enjoyed your visit and I want you to be able to say it was the most amazing time of your young life. If you can convince him of that, my lord will be pleased with me. But he is very perceptive and will know if you are sincere. I am going to make sure that your words to my lord are sincere…very sincere.”
Page stopped behind Willow and placed her hands on her shoulders and brought her red lips to Willow’s ear. “I am a slave. Whatever you desire, I will do. Whatever you wish to do, I will encourage. Tonight is your night to explore all that a woman can offer. Or tonight could be a night for your dark fantasy that you have never dared utter to be fulfilled.”
Page again stepped in front of the pretend young man. She ran her hands down the front of Willow’s shirt and down to his pants. Page grasped the fake cock that was tenting the slacks. “I see you approved of the plan. But do you approve of me?”
Page stepped backwards and began slowly running her hands down her across her own body. As her hands came back up, her right index finger traced the beautiful valley between her breasts that were so wonderfully displayed.
“Sir, do you see this? Do you like this? Are you getting hard because of me?” Willow could not help but moan through the ball gag. Willow closed the distance between them quickly and placed her lips just on Willow’s. Page’s voice was soft and full of promise. “My lips will bring you pleasure.” With that, Page began passionately kissing Willow even though she still wore the gag. Page closed her eyes and turned her head and her tongue caressed the exposed part of the ball gag like it was Willow’s tongue. Page’s hand gently held Willow’s face in place while they made out. There was no rush to Page’s actions. It was like she could have kissed Willow all night. But there was so much more to do.
“Let me take your coat,” Page said. Her hands eased the blazer off of Willow’s shoulders and she let it fall to the chair. Next Page began to loosen the tie and slip it through the collar. Shen then slowly unbuttoned the white dress shirt, pulling the shirt tail out of the pants and adding it to the pile on the chair.
“Come over here for a moment please,” Page said and guided Willow to the leather love seat and gently pushed her down. Page then stepped back and reached around to the knot holding her dress together. She slowly undid the bow and let the dress fall open. Her breasts held on to the silk so that it was still a tease, but then Page brought her hands up and slowly parted the two halves of the dress. Willow had been around Page every day for weeks and they both had been naked the entire time. But somehow this was exciting and erotic to watch. As the dress fell to the floor, it was like Willow was the young man seeing her for the first time. She could feel the lust rising in her and longed to be able to touch, kiss and make love to this beautiful vision. Page held the pose for a few moments so Willow could feel the full effects of the carnal display. Page only had on her heels, stockings and collar. Her skin seemed to glow with health and sexual energy. Every part of Page, from her mane of hair to her full lips, to her breast, to her flat sculpted stomach to her sex peeking out between her thighs, seemed to beg for attention. Page slowly turned around and showed off her back and ass. Peeking out from between her ass cheeks was a jeweled butt plug. Page looked over her shoulder at Willow and tapped on the jewel with her fingernail. “This is for later.”
Page turned again and then knelt. Her arms pushed her breasts together putting them on display. Once Willow gaze was fixed there, Page leaned forward and began to crawl towards Willow. It took just a few minutes for the shoes, socks, and pants to join the other clothes on the chair. As she exposed each part of Willow, it was blessed with a brush of her lips or a slow stroke from the very tip of her tongue. Willow was soon down to just her boxers and the added accessories.
Page then began to caress the false phallus through the silk boxers with both hands. Because part of the dildo was also embedded in Willow, the movements were transmitted to Willow’s pussy and clit. Her excitement rose further.
Page pulled the boxers down to reveal the realistic looking cock. Page locked her gaze on Willow and hardly looked away. Page used her tongue, the top and bottom of it, to lick the cock up and down. She did not spit on it, but allowed the saliva to roll from her mouth onto the dildo. She then sucked it back up, drove down on it with the cock deep in her throat. Fast and slow, up and down, Page worshipped the dildo. Willow could almost feel Page’s tongue as it caressed the fake appendage. Willow was not sure how Page did it but by the end of Page’s blowjob, Willow had cum. She realized later that it had been a combination of the movements of the appliance lodged in her own pussy and the sight of what Page was doing with her mouth.
Page looked up a Willow and said, “I think you like that. But there is so much more to do and to feel. Tonight is about new things. Slide down here.”
Page helped Willow slide down to her knees on the floor, and then gently turned her shoulders until she was facing the loveseat again. Page slowly pushed her head down so that her face was on the cushion and her ass was sticking out. Page gently parted Willow’s cheeks and ran her tongue from the top of her ass all the way to where the dildo disappeared in Willow’s pussy. Again she used both the top and underside of her tongue as it passed back and forth. She then speared into Willow’s ass with her tongue while jerking off the fake cock with her hand. The combined stimulation sent another orgasm ripping through Willow. Page licked, sucked and fucked Willow’s ass over and over until Willow was cuming over and over.
Willow was panting, trying to recover when Page whispered in her ear again, “I am your slave tonight. Every hole, every touch, every lick is for you. Would you like to fuck my pussy first or have you ever dreamed of fucking a woman’s ass? It does not matter. You are going to do both.”
Page helped Willow to stand and guided her into the bedroom and onto the large bed. She laid Willow on her back with the dildo sticking straight up. Page straddled Willow’s waist and eased the phallus into her pussy.
“Let me do the work. Just enjoy for now,” Page whispered.
For the next twenty minutes Page put on a show. She had started with slow hip rolls and moved on from there. She moved up and down, sometimes pounding downward and sometimes she moved teasingly slow. She rocked her hips back and forth then the cycle would start again. Page developed a very sexy sheen of sweat and made her skin glow even more. Twice Page jumped completely off of the cock and licked or sucked it like it was the source of life itself. She made sure to lean over and brush Willow’s breasts with her nipples and once laid completely down on her and kissing her gagged mouth, crushing their tits together. Willow did not need the additional lube Page had applied. She was plenty wet herself.
“Do you want to fuck me now? Do you want to take me, and pound me with your hardness until you make me scream?”
Page lifted off of Willow and had her mount in the missionary position. Now it was Willow’s turn to work. With her hands still secured behind her back, she did not have a lot of leverage, but she made the best of it. She fucked into Page as hard as she could and still Page encouraged more.
Suddenly Page put her hand on Willow’s chest and said, “Wait. I want to make sure you have energy left to really fuck my ass.
“Have you ever fucked a girl in the ass? Have you ever wanted to?” Willow could not help but nod. “You are going to stretch my ass with that cock of yours and shove it all the way in. You are going to take all it, all of my ass.”
Page pulled her legs up to her chest and then pulled the jeweled plug from her asshole. She brought it to her puckered lips and pushed it slowly past the barrier and into her mouth. While holding the plug in her mouth, she reached down and guided the dildo Willow was wearing to her hole. She eased it into her back door and then pulled Willow’s hips forward until it was completely seated. A moan escaped around the plug still in Page’s mouth.
Willow started moving slowly in and out of Page’s ass. But Page was not having it. She took the jeweled plug out of her mouth, reached up and grabbed Willows head with both and brought it down to where their foreheads were touching. “Fuck…Me…Hard!” She roared.
Willow bent to the task with a will. She fucked her as hard as she could for as long as she could. She rocked herself to another orgasm and Page to at least two.
But finally Willow’s muscles gave out and she had to stop. Page took this opportunity to slide off the dildo and up beside Willow who had collapsed on her side, panting.
Page spooned up close to Willow’s back. She stroked her hair and caressed her shoulder. Then she leaned close to Willow’s ear and said, “I hope you have enjoyed your time with this slave so far. I know you have run out of energy. Rest now. When you wake, we can continue. A slave is an ocean of possibilities. If you wish, you can bind me and fuck me again. You can whip me till I cry, then keep whipping me. In the cabinet over there are clamps you can put on my nipples or gags for my mouth. There are many worlds of pleasure and decadence to explore and I am your vessel of exploration. But rest now so you are ready for the rest of your journey.”
With that Page eased back down and snuggled Willow till she fell asleep.
Willow was awoken by a slap on the ass. Page was saying in her commanding voice, “Get up, slave. We have more to do before you can sleep.”
Willow’s arms were still bound and she still wore the harness with the cock. She scrambled off of the silk covered bed to kneel in front of Page. Page was covered again by the wrap-around dress.
Page indicated she was to stand and turn. She then unbound Willow’s hands and told her to put everything away to be cleaned and to shower, with special instructions to remove the mustache. Page ran off to comply, the fake cock waving back and forth in front of her.
While Willow was getting things cleaned up and put away, Page walked over to the table where the wooden box was sitting. It was time to play Lord Blackmon’s Box Game again.
Page shuffled then cut the cards. Her card for the day was the ten of diamonds. She looked in the box to find the envelope marked ten of diamonds and pulled it out.
This would be the second challenge from the Box Game she would face. She had so much going on training Willow she wished she could devote all her time there. But this was her master’s game and she had been instructed to play.
She read the instructions.
The Ten of Diamonds challenge
Slave,
It is time to visit our old friend Igor. You are familiar with him so there is no need to describe what is to happen. But you do need to determine how long and how difficult it will be. I would decide these for you if I were there, but this time we need to leave it to chance.
Here is how you will set the values.
Roll one die to determine the time setting. (1-6 hours)
Roll two dice to set episodes (1-12)
Roll one to determine size (smallest to largest)
Flip the coin for Ass or Pussy (tails is ass)
Flip a coin for wet or dry (heads is wet)
For torment value, roll the dice, then subtract one from the number (if you roll a four, then set the value to three)
Remember to send me a message about your time and experience.
Blackmon
While Lord Blackmon loved primitive machines, he was even more adept with modern technology. He had explored a number of ideas regarding punishment devices. He thought the market for such things was too small to be profitable so he never put them into production; however he loved to tinker and would develop prototypes and test them. Page was quite familiar with Igor; in fact she had been the one who named it. She knew it was a monster.
Page had spent some time talking with Willow about different ways a slave could be punished or tortured. One of the points Page wanted Willow to understand was that some methods, such as whipping or hanging, had natural limits. For a whipping, a natural limit was the master’s arm getting tired, or the slave dying. How long those things took depended on how harsh the whip was, how heavy it was and how fit the master was using it.
However some punishments and tortures worked around some of these limitations. If, for example, the torture was mechanical, arm strength was not a factor. The Wall ride Page had taken could have gone on for weeks, long after Page had died. But again there was a limit to how much Page could experience because of the physical damage to her body, thus creating a limit.
But if a torture did not damage the body, the activity could go on for much longer. Pain did not require physical damage. Fear did not require physical damage. Both, if carefully moderated, could be extended for very long periods of time. Another method was to complete a punishment or torture, then come back and repeat it over and over again. In cases such as these, the limiting factor was the mind because it, like bones and skin, can break too.
Such devices needed careful design and control elements to bring someone to maximum discomfort but still keep them physically unharmed. That was the mission of Igor.
Page took the paper from the envelope and turned it over on the back. She wrote down the values for each variable so she could program the machine correctly.
She rolled one die. It came up four. She would be spending four hours in Igor. She rolled two dice and it came up a three and a five. There would be eight episodes of activity with the dildo. She rolled one and it came up a two. She would have the second smallest dildo inside of her. Shen then flipped the coin and it came up heads. The dildo would be in her pussy.
So far all of those were tolerable settings. She could have had the largest dildo in her ass running twelve episodes. That might have damaged her. There were safety protocols on the device but she did not know if they would have covered that.
She flipped the coin again and saw she was going to be wet. This was bad. But the worst was the last roll of the dice. It was a two and a six. She subtracted one and knew she would have to set the torment on seven. At the seven power setting and with her being wet, she was sure this was going to be agony.
Willow would be an observer again.
The box known as Igor was a nightmare. It looked like another cabinet set along one wall in the Training Room. However the front was hinged at the top, creating a clamshell effect. Page showed Willow how to load the dildo with lube. The dildo they were using had six holes just behind the head. Lube was forced from a reservoir in the base out of the holes as the dildo moved up and down, continuously making sure everything was slippery. What Page did not tell Willow was that it could also be loaded with other creams or lotions. There were lotions that burned, some that itched, and others that did both. Some would stop after a few minutes while others could last for hours.
Page mounted the dildo on an electrical drive device that had a number of functions. It could thrust, rotate, vibrate, and wobble. It could heat and cool the dildo as well as keep the lube flowing. It was connected through a padded curved piece call the saddle that was placed against the crotch. It also vibrated. The drive was so versatile that Lord Blackmon had sold this subassembly design to a number of other manufacturers that made slave training and torture machines. It would probably never break even financially but Blackmon enjoyed tinkering with new ideas and improvements.
The drive was mounted inside the cabinet which had its own bits of specialized horror. It was all driven by a computer program that not only drove the other torments in Igor, but also monitored the health of the person inside.
Page gave Willow instructions about making sure she was not stuck in the device for more than four hours and how to get her out if something went wrong. While she talked, Page programmed the values for the session into the laptop attached to the monster. Willow could see that Page was agitated, even more than when she was about to ride The Wall. She wondered what kind of evil this machine would commit on Page.
Just before entering Igor, Page took off her heels and collar and had Willow spray her down with water. Her hair was already in a tight bun on top of her head so that it would be out of the way. Then Page stepped backwards into the machine. She pressed her back, arms, head, ass and legs into the cushioned back of the device, her arms spread wide and her feet about twenty inches apart. Sensors recorded the pressure and determined that Page was in the correct position.
Once she was in position, the dildo device extended the saddle until it came in contact with her crotch. This would set a limit on the down stroke length of the dildo. The lubricated dildo then slowly extended until it was well seated in Page’s pussy. This was also recorded in the computer as the furthest upward the dildo could stroke. With the dildo and saddle in place, Page was effectively pinned in the bowels of the beast. The front cover slowly lowered down until there was a soft clunk as the two halves met. Igor was about to awake.
The head section of the machine was made of rigid plastic that formed a kind of helmet around Page’s head. There was a foam section covered in very soft cloth that came across Page’s eyes and functioned as a blindfold as well as gently pressing her head back into the padding in the rear of the helmet. The lower part of the helmet around the neck was thickly padded to create a seal. In effect, Page’s head was isolated from the rest of her body.
The edges of the lid that had lowered down were similar to a refrigerator door creating an air tight seal. The inside of the lid was a heavy rubber like material covered in hundreds of electrodes. The material was clear except for the electronic parts. The lid itself was made of smoked plastic and as the machine came to life, LEDs lit up the interior so that Willow could see Page in the machine. Her face, at least below her eyes, was also visible through the plastic of the helmet. Willow was going to be able to witness Page’s ordeal.
“Initializing…” the deep mechanical voice said in Page’s ear. She had asked Lord Blackmon why he had chosen this scary voice for the machine. He had told her it was because of the name she had given the device.
There was a low humming vibration; it was too quiet to be called sound that told Page the vacuum pump was running. After only a few moments, she could feel the front and back sections come together, touching every part of her body except for her face that was protected by the helmet, and rendering her completely immobile. She was now in a vertical version of a vacuum bed, except this vacuum bed had quite a few other surprises.
“Confirm sensor and electrode location. Respond with ‘Yes sir’ when correct part is stimulated. Say ‘Yes sir’ if you understand this command.”
“Yes sir” Page said.
There was no sensation for a few moments. Page knew that the most outboard electrodes were being energized first then the next inward. After a few moments page felt a mild shock on her left hip.
“Yes sir.”
“Continue” the menacing voice droned
Time after time Page responded when an area was stimulated near the outside edge of her spread-eagled figure. The sensations appeared all along her torso, legs, arms, soles of her feet and the palms of her hands. She knew the machine was plotting the outside of her body.
“Identify left nipple”
An electrical tingle began on the outside of Page’s left breast above her nipple. The sensation was not unpleasant but quite noticeable. The sensation moved inward then outward again. Then the process began a little slower on her breast. It moved inward then outward again. When it began the third time, it was in line with her nipple. She waited until it crossed the nipple itself before she said “Yes sir.” The process was repeated for her right nipple, the center of each ass cheek, the inside of each thigh and the center of her stomach.
“Confirming proper dildo placement. ”
The dildo, forgotten in all the other sensory input, began to move slowly, lubricating its way up and down Page’s pussy. Then it stopped.
“Initialization complete, please stand by.”
There was silence for a few minutes, long enough that Page was thinking, hopefully, that something may have gone wrong. If that was the case, she could stay here for four boring hours until Willow released her. That sounded quite appealing!
That pleasant thought was erased when the voice came back.
“Please stand by for the beginning of the program.”
Page’s fear came rushing back, but then was replaced by a cascade of emotions.
Lord Blackmon’s voice came from the speakers near her ears, “Page, can you hear me?”
“My lord?”
“Yes Page, it me! This is a surprise for both of us. I had been working on Igor over the last couple of months, adding a few things in anticipation of my absence. One of those is an email notice of when Igor is activated. This could be used to ensure your punishment was carried out even if I was not around like I am now.
“But I also built-in the capability of logging onto the machine itself and taking control remotely. When I realized I had internet access for the next few hours and that you were beginning this challenge, I decided taking personal control would be more fun!”
“Thank you my lord, it is great to hear your voice and to know you are here with me.”
“You are welcome Page. I am just sorry I did not build in a video feed. I could have watched, but I was afraid I would not have the bandwidth.
“I have overridden the values you programmed into the machine. You are now under my control and my whim. If we lose the connection, Igor will revert back to the original program.
“I have added quite a few options and new capabilities since you were in this the last time. You should be safe. But know this; I will test the full capabilities of the new programing. I will be with you and want your input. I will tell you when you can speak and when you need to be silent.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes my lord.”
Without any other warning the dildo thrust upwards. At the same moment an army of electric ants began crawling up her legs. Robbed of sight, each sensation was heightened and each word from Lord Blackmon amplified.
“My goal today is to give you at least ten orgasms and to have you scream ten times. Make sure and keep count.”
Her first scream came after twenty minutes and her first orgasm came five minutes after that.
Two hours later the front panel lifted and the dildo retracted to allow Page to exit the fiend call Igor. Willow was there to help her over to the padded table where Willow has so recently been deflowered. Page was covered in sweat and her muscles trembled with exhaustion.
Page lay there panting. Lord Blackmon had been true to his word taking the electrical stimulation all the way to maximum, but only for a few moments. Those moments had been very painful but had been spaced far apart with orgasms. She had been fucked with the dildo every way imaginable. Sometimes it had been slow and teasing and others it was like a monster alive inside of her pounding her to putty. The saddle had a vibrator that had buzzed her to orgasm. She had cum so hard she was sure she had passed out at least once.
The electrical stimulation was something else altogether. When she had been in Igor before, the basic program had shocked her in large areas at a time. If she cried out, it would shock her tits. If she failed to respond to the voice system correctly it would set her ass or the soles of her feet on fire.
The new program had transformed Igor from a brute device of pain to a hypersexual thrill ride. The electrical stimulations were now in patterns and shapes. The feelings went from tickles to blasts of pain, with each pattern being different. One time the sensations started at her feet and were very gentle, but moved up her body till by the time they reached her breasts 30 seconds later is was like dragon fire. Then it reversed with the gentle tingling beginning in her chest but becoming lava by the time it reached her toes. Sometimes it stimulated just one breast or even just one nipple. Sometimes it was a pleasant buzzing and sometimes it was a red hot needle piercing her flesh. But all was in concert to the movements of the dildo.
When the voltage was low, the feeling reminded Page of a hand traveling all over her body. When the voltage was higher it was more like lines of fire. Blackmon had even experimented with making sensations like a whip stroke across her ass or stomach. He had also added a compressed air feature that would blow on the outside of the rubber sheet, simulating someone touching, kissing or even striking her skin. In the two hours she had spent inside, she had endured hundreds of combinations. Very few had been painful in the extreme, however her body felt like it had been a percussion instrument that had been played for hours, very hard.
“Ma’am, are you ok?” Willow’s voice seems so distant.
“Water,” was all Page could get out. Then after she had parched her thirst she doubled her vocabulary by saying “Bed.”
Willow laid Page in her bed and covered her with a sheet. Page was already asleep before the sheet settled on her body.
It was midafternoon before Page stirred. She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom where she relieved herself then took a long, hot shower. When she emerged, she felt human again and went looking for food and for Willow. She found them both in the same room.
Page had left instructions for Willow in the event she was not able to work with her for a while. There was a dildo stuck to the hard wood of the kitchen floor and Willow was gliding up and down on it. There was a container of lube next to her and she was covered in sweat from the exertion.
“How long have you been at it slave?”
Willow looked up and said “About an hour, off and on ma’am.”
“This task is now complete. Properly clean the toy, wash up and fix me some scrambled eggs and toast.”
Willow jumped up and turned to lick the dildo clean. She had been reluctant to do this the first few time. Page could still see some hesitation. However Page had a plan on how to correct that.
Willow picked the dildo up and ran to put it away in the playroom sink. Page then thought she heard the sink running in the bathroom. Willow came back a few moments later drying her hands on a paper towel. Page could only sit at the kitchen table and watch as Willow efficiently scrabbled three eggs, made sourdough toast, put them on a plate and laid them before Page.
“This is too much food for me, please eat some of this.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Willow turned to get the dish she had been using for eating while kneeling on the floor but Page stopped her.
“No; not right now. Sit here at the table with me. Get another plate and silverware.” Willow did as she had been told and Page divided the eggs and scrapped Willow’s portion on to her plate.
They ate slowly but quietly. Page got up and poured both of them orange juice. For this brief time, they were equals, fellow pilgrims. Even after the food was gone, they both sat there quietly. Page was enjoying the company and Willow did not want to break the quiet mood.
But soon, Page stirred and the normal order of things began again.
“Slave, wash the dishes and put everything away, then meet me at the gazebo.”
Fifteen minutes later, Willow was at the gazebo on her knees in front of Page, hands crossed behind her back and head bowed. There were three one gallon buckets lined up behind Page.
“Find a shovel and fill a bucket with dirt.” Willow had worked in the rose garden and knew where the tools were kept. She assumed this was an obedience test so she filled the bucket so that the dirt was even with the top of the bucket.
“Fill the second bucket with the stones from the bottom of the small fish pond that is along the north side of the house.” Willow had to lean over to reach the stones on the muddy bottom. The fish pond scared Willow a little because there were frogs and turtles and other things that lived in it. This bucket was also heavier than the bucket of dirt.
“Take a third bucket and fill it with the water from the fish pond. When you are done, meet me on the porch.” When Willow was done, all three buckets were set on the deck of the gazebo near the middle of the back garden about one hundred yards away from the back door of the house.
She came back to the porch to find Page bringing out three large glass fishbowls. She set them on the table and then took a marker pen and made marks along the side of each bowl.
She left Willow on the porch but came back a few minutes later with a set of leather mittens and a leather strap. She placed the mitten on Willow’s hands then snapped them together so that Willow’s hands were secured behind her back. Next she ran the strap above her elbows and brought them together. Now Willow’s hands and arms were tightly secured behind her.
“Slave, I have a project for you. Listen carefully because I am giving you all the instructions you will need or get. Here is your task. You are going to help me make our master’s garden even prettier. There are a number of fountains in this garden. He wants more water plants for them and he needs containers to use to start some new ones. Look at these fish bowls. You need to fill the bottom third of each bowl with rocks to the mark on the side. The second level, to this line, is to be soil. The third level is to be water. It needs to be the pond water because the tap water has other chemicals that would hurt the plants. Do not move the buckets or the glass bowls.
“You will not eat or be allowed inside until this task is completed. If that means you sleep out here hungry in the cold tonight so be it. If you say it is done and I am not satisfied with it, I will whip you twenty times on your tits, dump out what was done and you will start over. Ring the bell on the table when you have completed the task.”
Page turned and went inside, making it clear that she had locked the door behind her.
Years ago when Page had been given this task, it had taken almost two days before she figured out what had to be done and the will to do it. She had been cold, hungry and desperate. She wondered how long it would take Willow.
Just after midnight Page was reading when she heard the bell ringing. She had stayed away from the windows and French doors that led out to the garden to stay out of Willow’s sight. When she stepped outside she could see Willow kneeling with the bell held in her teeth. Her head was bowed so she could not see her face, but water and mud was smeared through her short-cropped hair. She ignored Willow and went to look at the bowls. The bottom third was filled with rocks, the second third was filled with dirt and the top third, all the way to the brim, was filled with muddy water. It had taken Willow seven hours.
“Well done. Stand up.”
Page took the bell from Willow’s mouth and set it on the table. She could now see Willow’s face and it was covered in mud, except where it had been washed away by tears. She released her hands and arms from the bindings.
“Go wash up. If you are hungry, there is cheese on the table. If not, go clean up and fix your bed.”
Page was not surprised that Willow did not stop in the kitchen but went straight to the bathroom. She doubted she had much of an appetite. Page knew what it had taken to fill the bowls with the rocks, dirt and pond water. Willow had carried them from the buckets to the bowls, load after tiny load, in her mouth.
After Willow’s five nightly swats, Page hesitated before turning out the light. “Slave, did you watch me when I was in Igor today?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Did you hear me scream?”
“It was muffled some, but yes ma’am I heard you scream many times.”
“Which task was harder today, yours or mine?”
Willow was not sure. What she had done in the garden was disgusting and humiliating, but it had not been painful. Clearly Page had spent a good bit of time while in Igor in pain, some of it severe.
“Ma’am I am not sure.”
“Why?”
“I…I don’t know what it is like to be in Igor. I could tell it was intense…but I have never done it.”
“That was a very good answer. Clearly you did not like what you did today, but you are unsure how it measures up. There is no set answer to the question of what is worse other than what you just said. When confronted with a challenging situation, ask yourself ‘have I done this before?’ From that you can find resources to endure. The practical lesson of this experience today is that, as a slave, all kinds of things will go in your mouth. You might be told to lick someone’s boots clean, suck a cock after being in your ass, or worse. After today, could you do it? I know you could. You just did worse over and over again, and you lived through it. That is the key. You will live through it, no matter the pain, the humiliation, or the revulsion. Those cannot kill you. Other things might, but not those.
“But you are not ready for Igor yet. It throws a lot at you very rapidly or even at the same time. It also tests your endurance. You have not experienced all of those things at once. There is still much to teach you about controlling your panic, enduring long ordeals, and combined stimulation. We will get there.”
“Now, about your adventure with me as a young man, we will not talk about it tonight. But I do want you to put some thought into what happened. It will one day be you. Will that young man be sincere in his praise of you? Will Lord Blackmon believe him? After the adventure out in the garden, is making that young man happy so awful?”
Steve was about to start his route when he saw his boss waving at him through the dispatch office window. He got out of his truck and walked back to the loading door. Standing with Ralph, his boss, was a woman in her late twenties. Her dress was out of style and way too tight for someone of her weight. She wore scuffed low heels and had a cloth bag on her shoulder. She did not look like a cop, so he relaxed.
“Steve, she needs to talk to you for a minute. You know I don’t like personal business on company time so wrap this up quick and get on the road.” Ralph walked back into the office leaving Steve standing with the stranger.
She was looking at the file folder in her hand when she asked, “Are you Steve Symke?”
“Yea, I am. What is this about?” Steve’s first thought was that the company had found out about the damaged Honda he had scrapped up a few weeks before. It was parked way too close to the intersection and he had tried to make the turn wide enough, but the back bumper of the delivery truck had caught the last few inches of the Accord. He had not stopped or reported it so he thought he had gotten away with it. But now he was not so sure.
“Are you from Fresno?” She asked. If someone was asking about Fresno, it had nothing to do with the Honda. His pulse began to race. He looked to see if the side gate was open in case he needed to run.
“Yea, I grew up there. I…I have not been there in a long time.” He stopped walking forward so that he would be closer to his emergency exit. He had been looking over his shoulder every minute for weeks. Anything out of routine made him nervous.
The frumpy woman came towards him. “I am Melody Peese and I work for an attorney in Fresno. Your mother is Margaret Symke Lopes?”
Steve relaxed. This was about his mother. No surprise. “Yea, what has she done now?”
“I..I am sorry to tell you this here and without some warning, but your mother passed away.” Ms. Peese tried her best to look sympathetic and comforting. She did not pull it off. She looked more like a beaten dog.
Steve was taken off guard by that. His pause gave Ms. Peese a chance to continue. “We, my agency, have been trying to track you down. She left some financial matters that need to be taken care of and we have been retained to get your help clearing this up.”
“Look, I don’t have any money to pay her bills. I left home and she was a major reason for that. Don’t come looking to me to pay for her shit.”
“We just need your signature on some papers so that my firm can pay her outstanding bills and disperse the remaining money.”
Steve thought about that for a moment and decided he could sign some papers if it meant his mother was done fucking up his life forever. “Sure, ok. There is a break table around the corner here. Will this take long? I have to get back to work.”
Ms. Peese followed his lead to the break area with a table under a white and green umbrella. There were five metal frame chairs and she sat down in one and began pulling papers out of the cloth bag. “This will just take a minute. There is not much to it. There is the funeral expenses and paying off some outstanding debt at local stores. A local bar says she owed them about four hundred dollars but they did not have any receipts to prove it.”
“I am sure that was a low estimate of how much she owed Murphy’s. She had been going there for twenty years. They let her drink there without paying because she has known the owner her whole life. Fuck’em if they can’t prove it. They helped make her a drunk in the first place.”
Ms. Peese was pointing out the places for Steve to sign while he talked. The more he talked the less he read. “Yes, I think that was the name of the place.”
She shoved another stack of papers in front of him. “These two documents will allow the release of the funds we have in escrow. The first says that you are the last legal relative of your mother and the second that you agree to the settlement of the estate.”
The first statement was basically true. The second document was really a release of liability for her death in exchange for a settlement amount. Margaret was killed in the slave auction bombing. There had been lawsuits filed by some victims against the auction for wrongful death and damages. The auction house’s legal team was finding the next of kin of the other victims, giving them a token amount and getting them to sign a release of liability. This could save the auction millions.
Steve asked, “How much money are we talking about?”
Long practice had shown that, when running this kind of scam, an odd figure worked much better than big round numbers. Ms. Peese pretended to look through her bag again. She pulled out a check, already made out to Steve, and handed it to him.
“It looks like nine thousand, four hundred, and two dollars and seventy cents.”
Steve looked at the check with growing excitement. “This is made out to me! I can have this?”
“Yes, you can have it today if when you finish this paperwork. Here, you have one more thing to sign.”
After the last signature was done, Ms. Peese began putting the documents back in her bag. She wanted to get out of there before any more questions were asked. She almost made it.
“Why is this going to me and not my sister? Willow lived with Mom.”
She stood up and began walking away, “She is unable to sign these documents. This was the only thing we could do.”
“Why?”
“Steve, I seem to be the bearer of bad news today. I am sorry to tell you this, but your sister is a slave.”
“What? How could she be a slave?”
“Well, all we know is that she was registered as a slave the same day your Mom was killed.”
Steve had assumed his mother had been found dead in some gutter covered in her own vomit. He really had not wanted to her the details, but to hear she had been killed shook him up. “Mom was killed? How was she killed? What happened?”
Shit! Ms. Peese had wanted to avoid this discussion and she had just brought it up herself. Shit, shit, shit! She tried to get the conversation back on the unexpected windfall, “She died in the slave auction bombing there in Fresno. We think she was dropping your sister off because she was there near the time your sister was registered. So you see that your sister has no legal standing and is not eligible for this money. It is all yours.”
Steve just stood there looking at the check in his hand. He did not realize when Ms. Peese quietly slipped away. His mind was completely occupied with what he had been told.
He had just learned two startling facts.
His own sister was a slave.
He had killed his own mother.