When he had first been introduced to her something that he didn't fully understand had made him suspect that she was a person with a streak of sadism topped off with a generous portion of cruelty. He was about to discover just how right his suspicions had been. In fact, he was about discover that he had greatly under estimated the depths of her sadism and cruelty.
He hears a key in the lock, then the click of a door. And then another click. The click clack of heels. Her footsteps are heavy. A sign that she's pissed off about something. He hears her enter the kitchen. Silence for a moment. And then her voice. Loud. "Can you come in here. Please."
He gets up from the sofa and walks towards the kitchen. When he gets there she's standing beside the sink. She glares at him. He lowers his head, very slightly, not knowing why he is doing so. "what's this?" she asks.
His eyes follow her finger. "a Coffee cup and a spoon" he tells her.
"Really" she says, her tone a mixture of sarcasm and barely suppressed anger, "Care to enlighten me as to why they are in the sink? Or did you expect me wash them. I work all day while you sit on the ass and do whatever the fuck it is that you do all day. And then I'm supposed to come home and clean up your mess?"
"I've been looking for a job."
"Really" she sneers, "Where? McDonalds? Though you're probably a bit under qualified for a position there."
"That's not fair."
"Fair?" she moves closer to him. He can feel her breath now. "Allow me to explain something to you. As long as I'm paying the rent and you're sitting on your ass then I'll decide what is and isn't fair. Understand?"
He remains silent, though he is burning inside. He wants to defend himself but the words won't come out.
"Understand?" she repeats
"Yes"he answers softly.
She sighs, long, drawn out, and looks at him like one might like at a pet that has messed on the floor one too many times
"There are things you need to understand" she tells him. "If you want to continue living here then you need to learn that I expect things to be done a certain way. When I give an instruction then I expect it to be carried out promptly. If you don't like it then you have a choice."
"I'm sorry about the cup" he says
She sighs again. "Your apology is expected. But It's not enough. I need to know that you are capable of following instructions. Now look."
He looks at her.
"Not at me you fucking idiot. Look."
He sees then that she is pointing with her finger and his gaze moves downward.
"Now can you see?"
He nods.
"Well that's something at least. your eyes work. Now let's see if you can follow instructions, if you can actually perform a task that you are given."
She looks at him then, her eyes fixed on his. He wants to move away from her but he is rooted to the spot. Everything is frozen. And then she points again.
"GET DOWN THERE YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT AND LICK MY FUCKING BOOTS CLEAN."
He looks back at her. "What?"
"NOW! She screams.
Okay, he thinks, she's lost it. I should just leave and hopefully she'll calm down later. I'll go for a walk.
But instead he finds himself sinking to his knees and then lowering his head. And then- And he feels as if somebody is doing it- his tongue is moving, gingerly across one of her boots. slow. just the tip of his tongue, brushing against the boot.
She pushes him away with the boot. "Oh for fuck sake!" She moves away from him. He hears the click clack of her heels. He remains on his knees. The sound of a chair being pulled out. And then she is sitting on it. The chair against a wall. He looks towards her, still on his knees.
She sighs again, a even longer one this time. " It''s obvious that I'm going to have to explain my instructions to you in a way that your feeble little brain is capable of understanding" She taps a boot on the floor. "Crawl over here like the fucking dog you are and I'll explain things. Very slowly.
He crawls across the kitchen floor. towards her booted feet.
When he is at her feet, her lips curl up into a sneer. "Good dog" she says. "Now I'll explain my instructions once again. I said lick my boots clean and that's exactly what I meant. Lick them clean. not sissy little dabs of your tongue. Do it properly." she waves her right hand towards her boots. "Now do it. "
face down on the floor, he starts to lick one of her boots. As he carries out his task he feels as though a fist of total humiliation and degradation is griping him in a vice like grip, He continues to lick, his tongue fully extended. Every now then she gives further instruction.
"You've missed a spot. Lick faster, I want a really good shine on them."
He keeps licking until she tells him to move onto the other boot. When she seems satisfied that the uppers of her boots have been licked clean to her total satisfaction, she extends the soles towards him. "Get all the dirt off them."
He has to lick the soles very hard and very quickly in order to loosen up the ground up dirt.
She laughs softly. "Well, well, well. You do seem to have a certain degree of talent in regards to licking my boots. maybe you're not quite a lost cause. Next time I'll make sure that there's some nice dog shit on the soles for you to enjoy. I'm not a scat person but it would be quite amusing to see a piece of shit eating a piece of shit."
Finally, she seems content and tells him to stop. She looks at her boots. "Hmm", she says, "not bad, but still plenty of room for improvement. " she kicks him then- not too hard but hard enough to make him wince slightly. "You can go back inside. I need to get dinner ready. That's something else that we are going to have to discuss."
She doesn't tell him to do so but he crawls out of the kitchen.
After he is gone, she sits there for a while, looking down at her boots. She smiles. This is only the beginning she tells herself.
...
"Dinner is served" she announces.
He gets up from the sofa and enters the kitchen once again. She is sitting at the table, a plate in front of her. He can't see another plate on the table. He looks at her.
"You look perplexed" she says, a tone of amusement in her voice. "Are you wondering where your dinner is? Well it's down there." She points then and he sees that there is a small silver dish under the table, directly in front of her feet. In the dish there is a congealed mess of what appears to be some kind of meat and vegetables.
"I managed to rescue some food from the bins for you. It's perfectly adequate for a dog. After all if you're going to laze around all day like a dog then that's how you should be treated. Now eat your dinner. "
And once again even though he is totally shamed by his actions he gets down and crawls under the table. There is no eating utensils for him to use so he starts to use his fingers in order to extract his dinner. She kicks him. Hard and he groans in pain. She kicks him. "Eat it like a fucking dog" She tells him.
And as he presses his face into the dish and begins to eat the disgusting mess that she has served him, he can hear her voice above him, laughing, softly at first, and then louder. The humiliation is unbearable but he continues to eat.
When she has finished she gets up from the table. He hears her put her plate into the sink. She comes back with another dish and places it in front of him.
"Just to show you that I'm not completely heartless here's some water for you. Piss would really be far too good for you to drink so I think that I'm been extremely generous. What do you say?"
"Thank you."
"When you're finished you can clean the kitchen. I'm going to have an early night. training dogs is hard work. You can come up when you've finished completing your task. You can sleep on the floor. I don't allow dogs to share my bed."
