My name is Hettie, and I live on the east side of Pretoria, South Africa. I am fit and healthy, with brown eyes and brown hair. I am a maths teacher at high school level. I am married to a handsome man who always listens to me and takes care of me.
I grew up in a conservative family where obedience and humility were most cherished. My mother, an unsentimental but extremely kind lady, had some principles to live by that I was forced to follow blindfolded. My dad was the epitome of everything good. Their authority was such that even in the current day, being an adult, I would wear clothes covering my whole body, not so much to please them as such, but due to habit second nature to me.
I married my husband Daniel at university. He was reading law with a so lovely mind and so gentle heart. He pierced humility shells and saw the fire within me. He never tried to mend me but urged me to stretch up to my limits. We shared a sanctuary of respect and love in the marriage form and a home where I could slowly unfold my wings.
I was grading papers late one evening, and I came across an underground website recounting a hidden gentleman's club seemingly present in the city. The idea was whorish and mad, and it was a departure from my humble, shy existence up to that time. Daniel was at some late business lunch, and there was eerily no noise in the house. I wanted to know more, the urge devouring my restraint. I was surfing the net for the address of the club, my heart racing.
Sense and sensibility, I did actually go to the club. I slumped back into the baggy shirt and the most 'un-Hettie' jeans I ever did wear. I kept telling myself repeatedly it was research, an observation of a way of life that existed outside of my clean bubble. It was creepy driving to the club, every streetlamp casting shadows threatening me with the filthy ride in store. The neon sign on the corner of the alleyway flashed, 'The Vixens' Lair'. I was a filthy Cinderella, racing along with my heart pounding as I entered the parking lot.
I was scared enough to remain in the car. My forehead against the door, a sweat sheen on my forehead. How would Daniel react? My mother? The possibility of their anger being disappointed felt like a knife in my ribs. But the dizzying words of the blog whirled in my ears, a siren's call increasing every second.
Someone who was familiar walked by my car. It was Laura Jenkins, the librarian, and she smiled to herself as she came towards me. She was transformed, her hair loose and a glint in her eye that I had never seen before. "Hi Hettie," she said softly, and her voice sent shivers down my spine. "Come on in The Vixens' Lair. You're going to have a good time here." I didn't have any choice but to comply with her, a thrill of terror and excitement running through my veins.
The club was dim inside with the thudding rhythm of music that seemed to pulse from the walls themselves. Men danced on poles, their muscles strained and their sweat shining in the fluorescent lights. They wore next to nothing, mocking the famished stares of the women in the audience. Laura sat me down at a table where some of my teachers were already sitting, sipping cocktails and giggling like naughty schoolgirls. To see them here, at this whorehouse, was shocking and comforting in a strange sort of way.
I preceded the team with my heart pounding frantically as Laura pulled a chair back for me. Teachers looked at me in surprise and expectation, their expressions informing me that they had been waiting for me to arrive at their secret gathering. Laura stepped up beside me and whispered in my ear, "You'll love our little secret." The smell of her perfume and aroma of the club mixed to add to the intoxication.
I looked around and saw a beautiful woman and saw that she was the same woman who was following the yoga class. She was powerful, movements against the power of gravity. For one moment, her eyes met with mine, and nodded her head in gratitude in my direction. Air was full of passion and liberty that I never experienced before in my life. Laura placed a cocktail against my hand, its vibrant color reflecting the atmosphere of the club.
Andrea, whom I met taking my yoga class, would become one that I would come to know. A sly glint in her eyes, and there was no mistake about it after she and her boyfriend were bare kissing some of the male strippers. Something that would make me sick was something that I would have rather had happen, but instead got something out of it. There was a warmth that ran through my blood, something that was near and exciting. The strippers were having sex with them openly, shamelessly.
My. The teachers, half naked, cheeks flaming with lust but streaked with a tinge of shame. But the longer I watched, the more I understood this was not about sex. This was all about shedding the shackles of our ordinary existence, shedding our inhibitions. I sensed the twinkle in their eyes, the uninhibited laughter for the first time in the staff room ever. They were alive.
A man with the body sculpted out of a Greek god came onto the stage. He scanned the room with his intense eyes, and as soon as he saw mine, I was struck by lightning. He possessed a certain animal's beauty with the way he moved that made my spine tingle. He resembled a bit of a tired and older version of one of my students. I had never thought of one of my students in this manner, but here, in these circumstances, all propriety rules were put aside.
When he danced up to our table, my heart was pounding. His dance was designed to drive the women mad, and it was succeeding. The instructors on either side of me were getting frantic, leaning out to reach him, and I couldn't help but reach out too. When he bent down, whispering in Laura's ear, she laughed and nodded and then glanced over at me. She winked and was suddenly whisked out onto the stage by the dancer. The cold of the metal pole against my skin made me shiver. The lights dazzled, the music thunderous. He whirled about me, hands following the curves of my wrapped form, outlining the shape below. I was a moth to fire, propriety abandoned as his warmth and beat surrounded me. The crowd and judges urged us forward with shouts and applause.
He breathed into my ear, hot sweet breath pouring in like shockwaves, "Take off my jockstrap." Velvet softness of his voice.