Chapter 5: C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda put their foot down ... and their feet up.
I knew I was in trouble -- big trouble -- as I listened to the vengeful tone of my two supervisors' running dialogue as they frogmarched me across Canford town square, heading towards the Sock Room ...
"Can you believe it, Lindz," said Community Service Officer Karen, in tones that were more of wonder, than of outrage, "that Sock Boy actually told us to sod off? Oh, I'm going to make him regret those words -- the little squirt!"
"Double-oh-seven told us to go and take a running jump, too, Karen. Don't forget that!" Community Service Officer Linda, reminded her colleague. "And, what about him telling us that he was refusing to come back to work in the Sock Room, that he was going back to sleep, and then just throwing the bedclothes back over himself and telling us to close his bedroom door on our way out -- if we didn't mind? Eh? You know, the way he said it, and all? All sarcastic, like. I mean, how insolent is that? Oh, I told you the little pipsqueak was incapable of keeping a civil tongue in his head, didn't I? But he's even more mouthy than I thought ... Well, I'll tell you one thing, Karen: I am determined to cure him of that!"
"I thought Polly Pardew had brought him to heel, Lindz. She certainly made him cry buckets, the way she caned his bare bum, didn't she? Reminding him of all of his insolent offences; pressing home her points, ticking them off one by one, with each and every stroke of the cane. My god, she made him wail!"
"Oh, didn't she just -- she certainly knows how to use a cane! She must have made him cry enough tears to fill up one of the blue soaking tubs -- ha ha ha! But, to be honest, Karen, I don't know what made him blub the most: Miss Pardew thrashing him, or being so humiliated by Norma Newlove -- not to mention, Gina Stainham and Cheryl Chubb ... Ha ha ha! Tormenting him with their stinky feet, while he was handcuffed to the foot of Mrs Newlove's reclinerβ oh, and Mrs Newlove! Ha ha ha ha! Forcing double-oh-seven to 'pre-wash' her dirty socks! Oh, she's got a wicked sense of humour, has Norma Newlove.
"In fact ... I got a real kick out of it. Didn't you, Karen? Watching the show? I was getting off on it -- big-time! I was getting really turned on. It was making me, you know, all ... all wet. I couldn't stop, you know ... touching myself."
"Ha ha ha ha! Oh, I know, Lindz! Me, too! It's not called a ... ring finger, for nothing -- ha ha ha! Yes, it was a real buzz, wasn't it, Lindz? It really put me in the mood, made me come over all ... romantic -- ha ha ha! Simon said I was like a sex-starved nymphomaniac, last night, the way I tore his clothes off him when he came over -- ha ha ha! Simon said, 'Weh hey! What's come over you?' And Simon laughed his head off, Lindz, when I told him!
"And, the beauty of it all, Lindz, is that we are actually getting paid four hundred pounds a week -- four hundred pounds a week, Lindz! -- for something that we would gladly do for nothing! I mean, the ... fringe benefits, are reward enough in themselves, aren't they?
"And, if I was a betting girl, Lindz, I'd say that Sock Boy, here, is in even more dread of the attentions of the ... of the Sock Room girls -- ha ha ha! -- than he is of our canes. Something we should remember, in future, when we consider his chastisement."
"Hmm ... I think you might be right, Karen. Let the girls and women in the Sock Room have some fun with him, you mean? Let them do what they want, with him ... whatever, they want? Oh, Norma Newlove would love that -- ha ha ha! Can you imagine ...? She seems to really have it in for double-oh-seven, doesn't she? You just might have something there, Karen. That's definitely something we should bear in mind."
"You know what's bugging me most, though, Lindz? Something that Norma Newlove said this morning, before we realised that David wasn't going to show up at the Sock Room, and we set off in the van to pick him up at home ... Now, okay, we know that there's obviously some sort of history there, between David and Norma Newlove, and that she seems hell-bent on getting him into trouble, at every opportunity ... But, what she said about her and Gina Stainham seeing David in the Lord Nelson last night, with his brother John ... I can't help thinking, thatβ"
"Ah, yes, right. I think I know where you're coming from, Karen. Now I get it. It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Double-oh-seven, wouldn'tβ"
"That's right, Lindz. David wouldn't have had the guts to rebel against us -- not right off his own bat. He's obviously had some moral support. This must be the work of his brother, John. John is at the bottom of this. John is the one, who's been putting ideas into David's head, getting him all uppity ... Well, Lindz, I'll teach John Smith to meddle. I'll soon scupper him, the brass-necked, interfering, trouble-causingβ"
I had deemed it wise to keep shtum, so far. To ... put a sock in it, as it were. To remain silent, no matter what my two supervisors said about me.
To keep it zipped ... even when I heard, to my profound shock, C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda so brazenly telling each other that they had found it a "real buzz", and that they had derived sexual satisfaction -- no, sadistic gratification -- from seeing me brought to tears of pain and humiliation.
To keep it zipped ... even when I heard, to my utter incredulity, C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda saying -- enthusing! -- that they had been "turned on", and that they had been "getting off on it -- big-time!". From, not only the sadistic thrill of caning me themselves, but also, from the excitement -- the dark titillation -- of seeing their former PE teacher, Miss Polly Pardew, mercilessly and energetically caning my bare bottom ("Your manners are not at all, what they ought to be -- for a community servant!"), after they had handcuffed me to the foot of my neighbour-from-hell Mrs Newlove's recliner, and pulled down my white, community servant's uniform shorts, in accordance with the C.S.O.'s chastisement manual.
To keep it zipped ... even when I heard, to my sense of mortifying shame and belittlement, C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda, gushing -- positively purring -- that they had been "touching" themselves, as they watched "the show". That they had actually been ... pleasuring themselves ("It's not called a ... ring finger, for nothing!"), while I was simultaneously being devastatingly caned, by Miss Pardew, and being comprehensively humiliated, at the tormenting, stinky feet of Mrs Newlove, and by two of her ghastly Sock Room cohorts, Gina Stainham and Cheryl Chubb.
To keep it zipped ... even when I heard the final, icing-on-the-cake revelation of depravity; my sheltered mind, screaming TOO MUCH INFORMATION! C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda saying, all giggle-voiced, that as a result, of such ... stimulation, they had both got ... "all wet".
I had resolved to remain silent. To keep my own counsel, even as I learned of each of these shocking new insights into my two young supervisors' inner characters. Insights, into C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda's ... sexual proclivities. Insights, into their lustful, licentious leanings. Insights, into their sadistic, pornographic predilections.
But, now that C.S.O.'s Karen and Linda had sussed out the truth of the matter, and had brought my brother John into the equation, I was impelled to break my silence -- impelled to intervene, in my older brother's defence.
"No! Please! Please, Miss Karen! Leave our John out of this!" I pleaded. "It was, all off my own bat! John had -- had nothing to do with it! He ... heβ"
"John had everything to do with it!" yelled C.S.O. Karen. "He did -- didn't he? You wouldn't have dared, David, to defy me and Miss Linda! Would you? John put you up to your little game! Didn't he ...?" demanded C.S.O. Karen. "Yes, I thought so," she said in satisfaction when, red-faced with guilt, I made no reply.