'THE LEGEND OF THE HOUSE OF SHAME ...'
Editor's Note: This terrifying manuscript is not offered as an authenticated document, neither is there any indication that its contents are anything other than the day-dreaming of a fantasist (indeed, at several points in the manuscript the anonymous narrator suggests that this is, in fact, the case). Nevertheless, there must be conjecture... did the events so vividly portrayed here actually happen? Can we be certain...? Doubts must remain. Similarly, although the narrator finds a form of salvation towards the end of the testimony, in which he rises above the disadvantages of his background, and the problems of his incarceration, there is a subtext to which he is not probably aware, that his relationship with 'Bryan' will also be of an exploitative nature. That once - at his own admission, 'broken in', his supine acceptance of abuse will continue once he returns to the world beyond 'The House Of Shame', albeit within the framework of a consensual arrangement. Therefore this uncorroborated document is presented for your consideration in the form of what is termed a 'Misery Memoir', yet more as a sociological study of an extreme state of mind rather than an accurate record of lived experience...
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(1) DEAN
A forbidding place, set in wooded grounds behind impossibly high walls. A chilling sense of foreboding the moment the darkness of its gates falls over me. Normal life and the rules that govern it cease forever within its enclosure. This is the moment you know it's for real.
It's September, the death of summer, only bleakness ahead. I'm beyond help, set apart from everything I know, a victim of powers with absolute control over every aspect of my life. And here I'm trapped in a world with no escape clause, inhabited by no-hoper delinquents and no-account maladjusted youths. At eighteen, I'll be one of the youngest. I strip naked and shower as the social worker watches. Entering my new life as naked as I'd come into my old life. Given a pitifully inadequate rough-textured towel I struggle to keep in place as I'm hustled from the shower-room into the adjoining clinic. With a single gesture of his finger the bored doctor indicates its removal, so I stand before him naked again.
I'm weighed and photographed. Yes, I appreciate the need for photographic records, but why does that mean full-frontal nude, arms by my side? I read faded posters blue-tacked to the wall. Warnings of unsafe sexual practices. Illustrations of infected body-parts. Anatomical 'visible man' diagrams of muscle-tissue and the nervous system. The male reproductive organs, showing a droopy little penis, and a cross-section illustrating the chambers that engorge with blood to produce erection. While, during the cursory medical, surely the Doctor's taking too long examining my scrotum for hernias, rolling my balls between his fingers? And why use a rectal thermometer to take my temperature, and why probe it so deep?
"Do you have homosexual tendencies?" he asks, ticking boxes on his chart.
A noncommittal shrug. "Not particularly."
"Pity" he muses. "Spend some time here, you'll come to appreciate certain aspects of it. We can't eliminate sexual activity among inmates. That'd be impossible. But you're all age-of-consent, and at least we can monitor to ensure there's no communicable genital infections. We do that. We're a clean establishment... y'understand?"
I nod, not sure exactly what he's telling me. So I act dumb.
"But any problems, any problems of a sexual nature, come see me, OK? No need to book an appointment."
"I don't have any sexual problems."
"You will. An attractive young boy like you, believe me you will."
Surely that's a weird thing for a doctor to say? Stranger yet, because I'd never really thought of myself in that way. Attractive? - me. Naw, I've always been the problem. Not the solution. He merely nods to indicate the session is over. The chair I'm sitting on is moulded-plastic, so my bare bottom - still slightly moist from the shower, sticks to it. As I stand up it makes a sluuucking-sound, as if I'm not self-conscious already.