Arrival
We arrived at the airport immigration line tired and shaggy like all newcomers - Gran Katan International Airport is an almost 25 hour journey from JFK, including layovers. The city-state is in the middle of Asia, but colonized long ago by some strange offshoot of Eastern Europeans. My wife Loralai looked at the line and grimaced, but I was almost too numb to care. Eventually we shambled up to the front, and summoning a burst of energy she found our passports and handed them over.
The Immigration officer, a high cheekboned woman with a tight bun of hair and no smiles asked a few basic questions and then asked us if it was our first time in Gran Katan. "Yes" Loralai replied. "In that case he will need to go through processing, and you'll need to go through the basic education movies in the theater."
The officer gestured to some of her workmates who took us down a hallway, which split into two rooms. I was taken into one room, marked "Processing" in both English and Chinese. I knew what to expect from the online resources we had read before applying for immigration. Loralai's chance at upward mobility at her job required the move, and it was a chance for me to focus on writing my book.
So I wasn't surprised when a terse woman asked me to take my clothes off and store them in a locker, after which she took pictures of me naked from both front and back. I was then led to the next room, where she typed some data into a computer with me standing awkwardly in front of her while she took fingerprints and a small headshot. Some more typing, during which I was ignored, and then the machine exuded a small metal collar and some paperwork. She put this in an envelope and then led me to the next room, which was clearly a designated waiting room, although without many seats as I would normally expect.
She led me, still naked, to a place on the carpet, and said, "Kneel here until you are told to get up. Memorize the pledge." She dropped a small card on the ground in front of me, again with both English and Chinese characters. Some time passed and with nothing else to do I did my best to memorize the words on the card.
Occasionally she would bring in another man to kneel in the room and tell them the same thing in her stern and bored voice. As it was a large room I didn't get a very good look at any of them other than to see that they were of course kneeling facing the wall as I was, and naked. A harsh look was given to me as I peered about curiously and I went back to the card.
After what seemed like a long time, she came and stood in front of me, and gestured for me to stand up. We went back to the first room, and I was told to kneel again. She left, and then came back in a few moments with Loralai, who was grinning at me in my predicament.
"Speak", the officer said curtly, not even looking at me. Loralai looked down on me from her designated spot - her smile growing ever larger. At the prompting I said the pledge I had memorized. "Dear Loralai Jane Stevens, I pledge during my time in Gran Katan to follow your leadership in all things, to obey and respect you, and to accept your punishments. I understand that your will is my will and that my place is to support you and to please you."
With that, Loralai placed the collar around my neck and closed it with a snap. Then she told me to put my clothes back on, and we exited immigration into Gran Katan itself.
"Well," I said, as we entered the small arrival hall, "That was different." The cab line was short and another Scandinavian looking woman put our bags into the back of her Chinese-made car and we headed off.
"Think of it as one of our special Saturday nights, but all day every day and everyone else is into the game." Loralai mused. "You knew it was going to be a bit intense here!" I nodded, looking out the window at the scenery passing by, a series of farms and light industrial as we headed away from the airport. She squeezed my leg slightly to get my attention. "Once we adjust to their culture you'll love it, I promise."
As we rode towards the apartment her company was providing she removed a beat up e-reader device from a fresh new folder they had given her in immigration. Chinese and English letters marked the front in a light pink. Inscribed on the front of the folder was "For New Women in Gran Katan: A cultural introduction" with a smiling business woman standing over a kneeling male figure. She paged through her e-reader briefly as we drove.
I raised my eyebrow at her. "Anything useful in there like how much to tip?" I asked. "They didn't give me one of those!"
"Apparently there is no tipping here, but they do have what appears to be several hundred pages on how to serve a traditional Gran Katan meal. There's also a whole book on how to help your Western husband adjust as well. All the newcomers get one, I think."
"I didn't get one."
"I don't think men are allowed to immigrate to Gran Katan alone," she pursed her lips as she read further tilting it so I couldn't see the text and I went back to looking out the window.
We arrived at the apartment, furnished of course. Her company had done their best in making the transition easy. There were even fresh cut flowers on the table and some food in the fridge. The bathroom was stocked with everything from soap to scented massage oil. I carried the luggage inside and we took turns in the shower. When I came out Loralai was waiting for me. She was wearing a white robe the company had provided, nicely embroidered, and carrying a leash that I remembered from our Saturday night games back in the States.
"What's that for?" I said.
"The book says that when you begin living in a new place, you should always lead your husband into every room on a leash so he knows that your relationship extends to every part of the house." I hesitated. "On all fours." She said, with more force behind her words, her eyes holding mine. A moment passed between us.
Slowly, I knelt and then went to my hands and knees. She attached the leash to the collar they had put on me in Immigration and then turned and walked slowly through the apartment, tugging me to follow her. We ended in the bedroom, where she sat on the king size bed and parted her robe to pull me towards her. I licked her to an orgasm, and then she pulled me into bed with her, not even bothering to take the leash off before we both fell asleep.
*****
Julia
*****
Not long after our arrival Loralai had to go to another city within Gran Katan for training. As is common she had me stay with one of her co-workers, Julia, while she was away. I'd met Julia once, at a house-warming party Loralai had thrown in our apartment. I remembered a small woman with a fierce smile as she accepted wine from me, and then a dismissive wave.
Loralai dropped me off with a small day-bag at a large house in the suburbs and then continued on her trip without even coming in to introduce me. So I tentatively knocked on the door, then stood back to wait.
I didn't have to wait long, Julia opened the door, saw me, and then stepped back into the house to let me enter. Once she had shut the door behind her she pointed at the floor at her feet silently. There was a brief pause and then I got down on my knees before her, leaving my bag by the door. She gave a brief smile at my acquiescence and then strolled off into the house, a slight snap indicating I should follow her.
She had me follow her, crawling, through each room of her house. Stopping only briefly in each one to remark on its use tersely. "Bedroom". "Kitchen". "Laundry". The wood floors made quite an impact on my knees as I followed her mutely, but I knew better than to complain or get up. In the final room was a set of cages and a large wooden contraption, with leather straps on it. "Get up." She said.
I stood and faced her, somewhat awkwardly after all the crawling. She pushed my face towards the contraption. I gave an involuntary shudder as I looked at it.
"Do you know why you fear that, and I do not?" She said, holding my face towards it. She paused. After a little while I said timidly, "No?"
"It is because you know that as a male you are very likely to be placed in that, tied down, and whipped. You will, after some time perhaps, plead and beg to be released and serve me more pleasingly as many men have before you. I don't have time for men who are anything less than perfect, and my theory on discipline is that it should be immediate, and memorable. I don't make allowances for men's cultural upbringing here. Your wife left you in my care and I intend to give you back better than she left you. The other day a man came from the office to deliver something to me, and he did not immediately strip to the proper attire within my house. Of course he was whipped immediately and I sent him back with a better understanding of his place than he arrived."
I nodded, suddenly even more fearful of this slight woman.
"I'm not going to give you a big list of rules to follow in my house, under my care. You will remember the things I say to you, and you will please me and my guests. Understood?"
"Yes Ma'am, I understand." I said, looking at her. She turned my face towards the device again. We stood there for a long moment. She stroked my ass as I looked at it, as if to calm me, and then tugged my collar once, her sign to get down on my hands and knees and I crawled after her as she left the room.
June
*****
I'd been in Gran Katan for months now, and while I thought I'd adjusted fairly well, especially after my stay with Julia, I still got thrown for a loop by seemingly simple and routine things. Shopping for groceries, cleaning supplies, and the like had to be done completely in cash since men in Gran Katan were not allowed access to bank accounts directly. Loralai insisted I show her receipts and give her the change when she got home at night. Sometime she got home quite late, and as per her new rules I had to remain in what she called "waiting position" in the annex of the apartment from five until she arrived. She sometimes would send me a text telling me her approximate time of arrival if she was going to be late, but other times she would arrive, slightly drunk from after work drinks with her coworkers and I would have been in "waiting position" for hours, unable to even get up to relieve myself.