May 28th
Tina came rushing into my office, too eager with suppressed information to heed my warnings about the room being "off-limits." The babysitter, who had just walked with her all the way from preschool, was hot on her trail in an attempt to corral the little filly, but she was running a distant second. "It's her birthday!" my daughter squealed. "It's Dawn's birthday!" And so (I learned, after a bit of pointed interrogation) it was. Number twenty-three.
The three of us wandered into the village together after I finished for the day, and Dawn took her leave from us so I could help Tina pick out the perfect gift. We met up with her again half an hour later outside the grocery store, where I had just purchased a carton of ice cream and one of those mini-cakes with a generic "Happy Birthday" inscribed on top. "It's perfume!" Tina announced loudly, waving a plastic sack. "But you can't see it until after it's wrapped because it's a surprise!" Dawn swore that she would certainly be surprised. She, for her part, had purchased another blouse and slacks ensemble, plus something in a bag from the nautical store.
We stopped for a carry-out pizza on the way home and rented a short cartoon movie. Tina wrapped the perfume herself (it wound up being more tape than gift paper), and Dawn ... following a minute-long ordeal unwrapping it ... played the part of surprised recipient very well. My gift to her was a small, ornately carved wooden box ... for her necklace, I told her.
It took awhile to get Tina down that night (undoubtedly due to the sugar high from the cake and ice cream), but Dawn and I were finally alone. I had packed my suitcase while Dawn had read the nightly book to my daughter and put her to bed. I was due in Amsterdam for a Saturday meeting, but the airline had cancelled the Thursday evening flight, and my office had rescheduled me for one earlier in the day. I'd have to leave the house in the morning. She came to me, hugged me, demurely accepted my tender kiss, and told me that her day had been perfect. I asked her if she was going to use the box for the necklace.
"The necklace belongs to you now, sir. Everything that was mine is now yours. I have freely given you all that I own ... all that I have ... all that I am."
I put my arms around her. I was getting used to the weirdness, but she still surprised me. "Don't be absurd," I told her gently. "I am a great proponent of women's issues. Even if you DO take this subservient attitude with me, I refuse to accept it ... especially when it comes to your possessions."
She seemed to work her body further into mine, her arms around my waist. She shrugged and sighed. "I regret to inform you, sir, that your attitude is superfluous. It simply doesn't matter to me. I belong to you now. I will continue to belong to you until you tire of me and send me away."
"Dawn ..."
"And so, now the box is yours, too. But ... if you really want to give me a gift, could I request one? It's all I really want. Please, sir?"
I drew away from her enough to see her face, and I gazed at her with my sternest countenance. "This conversation is NOT over. We will discuss this when I get back from my trip. I am NOT going to have you dictate some sort of hierarchical order in MY household and ..."
She smiled up at me, then she lowered her face to my chest and hugged me fiercely. "Of course, sir. I'll do anything you ask. Anything at all."
I sighed. I was holding an enigma in my arms. "Very well, then," I said levelly. "I will grant you one birthday wish. Anything you want. What is it?"
"I want you to let me call you Master," she told me simply.
The request staggered me. I sat down hard on the edge of the bed, thinking. She let go of me when I did that, of course; then she started to sit next to me in order to recapture our broken physical intimacy; but she finally just stood there before me, her gaze submissively downward, her arms at her sides, waiting. How had all this happened so quickly? Two weeks before, I was an emotional cripple over the loss of a wife through divorce; and today I was ... what ...? A master to a sex slave? At what point should I call it quits with all of this? When should I simply end this little game? But ... I hadn't solved the puzzle yet. How had such a concept as emotional slavery become so ingrained in Dawn's psyche? I had to figure this out. Perhaps just a little while longer.
"Very well," I told her; and she looked up at me sharply, a huge smile on her face. "But with one restriction." Her bright countenance didn't fade, but she cocked her head in question. "You may only call me that while you are naked," I continued. "Is that agreed?"
In fifteen seconds flat, every shred of clothing she wore lay in a heap on the floor, and she was on her knees at my feet. She threw her arms around my legs and put her head on my lap. "Yes, Master. Thank you SO much, Master." I reached down and stroked her hair, contemplating this, when she said softly: "I got what you wanted in town today, Master. Do you want it now? Do you want me now?"
She couldn't see my expression. "What did you get?"
"You know," she answered softly. "You put the suggestion in my head. I've been thinking about it all day."
I let out a long, silent breath. "Sure. Go get it."