I was naked, hands cable tied behind my back, standing on the loading dock with other women brought to The Institute in this haul. Some were crying, some were pleading. This was not the part of The Institute a casual visitor like my boss Geri Waggermann, the owner of National Blogster, a friend of Dr Philip Crenshaw, would be ordinarily allowed to see. "Even with my affectations to subordination," Geri, running her fingers through her kennel clip, wisps of light brown hair left on the top of her head advised, "play acting a slave relationship with Dr Crenshaw, in his sauna, there are boundaries I must observe."
Right now the question was where does the game begin and end. Fortunately, Geri was spared mulling the issue over standing around naked in this cold.
Weeks ago, Geri and I met in the sauna attached to the women's locker of a gym during early hours of a Sunday morning to discuss this proposed exposé.
Leaning back on the wooden bench as thick smoke bellowed in her face, long legged Geri, draped in a towel which scarcely reached her thighs, admitted, "the extent of the social change which accompanied the national retrenchment and revived indentured servitude has all the right elements of abuse: sex, humiliation, and degradation for an eye grabbing exposé. But is the story worth the risk of a one way ticket to indentured slavery?"
Right now, naked and barefoot on the loading dock feeling my body tingling in the cold, I would have gladly have exchanged my rights to the story and even acknowledge compulsory servitude under contract, an indenture, as a new form of freedom for a few moments with Geri in that steamy sauna.
The thought of the sauna beckoned me. Within those warm wooden walls, I had vowed, "Ms Waggerman, I'm Maggie Smith, star reporter. If the risk wasn't great, the story about predatory lending practices wouldn't be worth the bytes my column takes up in your E-zine. Shouldn't we explore the surmise whether the compulsory servitude under eh `voluntary' contract now heralded as a new form of economic freedom has resurrected a new form of slavery in disguise?" On the loading dock, all that seemed so far away.
I restrained myself from laughing. Whenever Geri shifted her weight, her towel's tails parted, exposing trimmed pubes shaped like a wedge suggestively pointed at her portal. Did her flimsy towel conceal a full body tan? Her neatly trimmed pubes advertised more than a casual friendship with Dr Crenshaw, the Director of The Institute which specialized in recapture of debtors in default.
Geri spoke often of her frequent visits to the Institute, "Everything in The Institute, even friendship, has a place and a ranking. To be Dr Crenshaw's friend, one must accept the bond of personal slave," Geri paused. A dreamy look came over her face as she added, "even though it's just a game."
"Your word is your bond and your bond is your person," I quoted the typical catch-phrase.
"Personal slave in the harem," Geri explained, "What a life to pick! Why would any rational person pick slavery? At the pinnacle of indentured servitude, you have access. So, to enter I have to humble myself, play act the naked supplicant."
"Subordination provides you with influence," I was skeptical.
"In The Institute," Geri explained, "complying with Dr Crenshaw's edict that all his meetings whether with freepersons or slaves be held in the natural state, the slave accepts the natural state naturally. The freeperson is on edge: Every guy's fear: will I go erect inappropriately?"
With good reason, strategic influencers like Geri enjoyed the perks of friendship with Dr Philip Crenshaw. However, I understood that to engage with Dr Crenshaw, Geri had to enter the Institute on its terms: a naked supplicant, craving a few precious moments of the master's attention. Geri described the feeling of shucking off her clothes for a few days visit with her friend Dr Crenshaw as exhilarating. "You abandon the vanities and superficialities of daily life and commit yourself to candor, openness and equality."
"Equality?" I questioned, "Now, that does seem incompatible with play -- acting an indentured relationship as a personal slave."
"A slave with a position of power, Maggie," Geri reminded me, "I can request Dr Crenshaw give me your indenture as a present. It might be the swiftest way out of the indenture."
"Exchanging one entanglement for another," I quipped.
For Geri, pay -- acting subordination had its perks: a few days visit to the Institute, presenting herself nude to Dr Crenshaws in his spa, sunbathing nude on the outdoor terrace, massages from a strapping masseur wearing nothing but a smile, an open lab coat, and a chastity device. A dreamy look peered on Geri's face when she spoke of it, "The sexual tension contributes to the intensity of the happy ending."
"Happy ending?" I questioned, "Monsieur masseur can't risk coping a feel, with his hoscus immobilized, caged in stainless steel."
"It's more than legend!" Geri exclaimed, "Nothing exceeds the fury unleashed by manipulation of a frustrated man."
Stood about midpoint in the line of repossessed indentured slaves, I looked at the head of the line. There, a naked prisoner stood head bowed fighting back tears. A blue jacketed security officer, in front of the teary eyed prisoner, holding a police baton in one hand menacingly counted the moments by striking the palm of her other hand with the truncheon. Did I need to be here?
The blue jacketed guard stepped aside to allow a tall, lean woman with a soccer ball shaped belly protruding from the flaps of her blue blazer take a position at the head of the line. "Good morning, Ladies, My name is Angie, I'm the administrative assistant to Dr Crenshaw, Director of The Institute. Welcome to the Institute. Not long ago, I stood right here on the loading dock among you, naked, cold, bruised from capture, and cramping. I was so upset being taken, I went on my period. Bad time to be bagged. Would you agree?"
The girl next to me on line, nudging up to me for the companionship of warmth whispered, "Second time around, you shouldn't be so shocked--hmm."
"First your legal status: upon," Angie intoned the official line, "execution of the commitment you gave when you secured a loan with your person, you underwent a conversion, a change of status. Free labor can come and go as it pleases; upon apprehension and bodily execution of your indenture, you became bound in labor for a chain of years provided in your indenture. That's seems like an enormity. Doesn't it?"
"Yet," My companion interjected in a whisper, "I can make it seem oh -- not -- so bad."