The Pleasure Boy 20 (Jim's Internship)
The next two months, as the saying goes, were the beginning of the rest of my life. Not only were they my first introduction to real geisha work; they were also the start of what I was to have of an academic career. For it was just two weeks after my first escort gig from Monique Allard that the fall term started at McGill. Instead of taking a student loan, I'd paid tuition for the fall term with money borrowed from my father - enough for two months living expenses as well, since I would not be getting paid until I passed internship and became a journeyman. Dad was delighted that I was now comfortable asking for his help. Nonetheless, once I graduated, I worked hard to pay him back as quickly as I could. I still wanted him to know that I was serious about my new career and my independence.
My training relationship with Lisa continued, but with much less significance for both of us. She used me as an escort from time to time, and required my sexual service when she felt like it. She was strict in awarding demerit points when I displeased her in any way, and saw to it that these were faithfully recorded in the performance book I kept on myself, as Mitch had taught me early on. We arranged to meet every two weeks for 'maintenance sessions,' in which demerits for that period - those that she awarded, plus those I gave myself - were reviewed and punished.
As she'd been taught, she made a ritual of it: requiring me to strip naked, kneel before her and read each demerit aloud, wording each one as a confession of negligence or failure. Then I had to ask for appropriate correction in a formal way, suggesting a certain number of strokes with the implement she used, but leaving the actual sentence up to her. Next, when we'd arrived at a total, I had to ask for them properly - on my bare bottom, laid on to help me regret my failures and resolve not to repeat them. And finally, I had to lie across her lap, receive the strokes, thanking for each one, and truly feel that each was to be valued - something I needed, to make all well again, and help make me a better person.
If this ritual of corporal discipline seems juvenile to you, as it did to me at first, it was deliberately so. The idea was to make the penitent feel childish and ashamed for having erred as he did. The tawse she used had a painful sting, but well within the range that I could tolerate. Humiliation, more than pain, was the effective ingredient of these punishments.
To this extent, Lisa remained a Mistress to me, now at arms-length unfortunately, while I remained a lifestyle submissive in her charge. I missed the intimacy I had felt with her when she was training me daily, but it was better than nothing.
McGill University had accepted me a year ago, and given me the one year deferment that I'd requested. Now, when I registered and paid the first term's tuition fee, they welcomed me as an undergraduate in their Honours History Program. To have time for geisha work and further geisha training, I gave myself a light schedule at McGill, deciding that if it took me five or six years to get my Bachelor's degree, it would be time well spent because I had been learning a good profession at the same time. My first choice would have been three courses per semester, but I was told that so light a course load would turn me into a part time student, subject to various restrictions. So I ended up taking four 3-credit classes, which would earn me a degree in 10 semesters: 5 years if I took summers off to work full time, as I intended. This gave me more stress than I wanted, but seemed manageable if I used my time well and borrowed from my Dad when I needed money, paying him back by taking escort gigs from Monique over the summers and at other times when I had leisure to perform them. In the event, four introductory courses took up my freshman year:
β’ research and writing;
β’ the Russian language;
β’ a survey of world history and an
β’ introduction to social science.
Research and writing was a compulsory course which taught us how to use the library and had us turning out a constant stream of papers - mostly on topics that were assigned to us, but also on a few that we chose ourselves. Except for the volume of work involved, this was an easy course for me as I enjoy writing and am good at it.
Russian was a language that I would need to pursue my interest in the history and geopolitics of central Asia. I already had this in mind as my intended area of specialization, partly for its current marketability in the academic world, but partly for its relevance in the history of the Eurasian landmass, and in world history to-date.
The survey of world history, intended as a prerequisite introduction for all future work in McGill's history department, was a broad survey of human history from the emergence of 'anatomically modern humans' about 200 thousand years ago, through the old stone age (the 'paleolithic'), to the advent of sedentism and agriculture some 10-15 thousand years ago, to the emergence of city-states and empires in the ancient world. The course ended on the eve of modernity with the Seven Years War (known to Quebecois as 'La guerre de la ConquΓͺte' and in the US as 'the French and Indian War) which is really best thought of as 'World War Zero' because it was a global conflict in which the four great powers of Europe at that time, (Britain, France, Prussia and the Habsburg dynasty in Austria, Spain and the Spanish Netherlands), fought each other for global supremacy, with Britain emerging as victor.
'Introduction to Social Science' was an experimental course given jointly by profs of Social Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics and Engineering, which sought to provide undergraduates with an overview of current issues and knowledge in the science of human societies as self-organizing systems. More on this later.
Between geisho work, university, and aikido twice a week, the program I'd strapped myself into was just barely do-able. What with the time spent with Lisa and a visit to my parents every other week, I scarcely had room for any other activities or social life. Fortunately, my life with that load was full and well balanced, and would be easier when the writing class and first-year Russian were out of the way. In the introduction to social science and the survey of world history, I was at last at grips with the field I hoped to study. As a geisho I often met interesting people, and had a varied sex life that was sometimes fulfilling when I really 'clicked' with a client. I found both spiritual depth and great physical exercise in practising aikido. All-in-all, my life as a new journeyman and student was much more stressful than I liked, but it was very good.
Mistress Monique, of
Service d'escorte Allard