Chapter 5

The third weekend, we had another full house, luckily we had added another guest room.

Jessica found another executive and his wife at my soon to be former company who wanted the full treatment. Rob had invited two groups. The first was an assistant district attorney along with his fiancee. The other guest was his law firm partner. Tara continued to identify people. The woman who covered the weather for her station would be here by herself. Another woman Tara suggested was at a marketing firm which sold ads to their station. The final guest surprised me a bit, but I guess several people had been working on her for a while. Julie was the customer from the bookstore several months ago. I had seen her occasionally at the yoga studio, but we never had a reason or excuse to put her under the Device before.

The other interesting thing is that once you were part of the family, we didn’t mind if you used the facilities. Especially if you also helped open up new guest rooms, clear brush, or in some way make the place better. When the new guests showed up, they saw people on the tennis courts needing partners, or jogging down to the lake for a swim. Everyone was consciously trying to hit the sweet spot between empty and crowded.

We’d have to hire a full time maid soon, but since we introduced the Device early in the guests stay, we could do some things differently. For example, we didn’t bother changing the sheets or towels while they were here. It’s bad for the environment you know. And instead of having maids clean the rooms after the guests left, the guests helped strip the sheets and clean up after themselves. The three full time employees we had were jack of all trades and we kept them busy. Nancy was the receptionist, dinner host, part time maid and whatever else we needed. Jim and Laura not only were our personal trainers, they helped our guests out during their “massage” before they were introduced to the Device.

I probably should count Brenda as not just an investor, but a full time employee. However, she kept avoiding the paperwork. It was odd that she was so successful in doing something I didn’t want. If I told her to do it, she would drop everything to obey. Somehow though, whenever I thought about it, she was never around. If I saw her, there was always someone or something to distract me. Kristen thought that Brenda was subconsciously trying to give me an excuse to discipline her. That didn’t quite make sense to me since Laura had been helping Brenda with scratching that itch quite a bit.

We trained most of the guests without anything unusual happening. Kristen came to me and suggested that we do something different with Julie. She and Ashley had been talking with her since we met at the bookstore months ago. Inch by inch, they had helped encourage her to rebuild her life. To be honest, I’m not sure why we didn’t bring her into the community earlier. I guess it was their pet project and they knew I didn’t want more slaves. Their request was that rather than Improvement, that we bring Julie in as either Loyal or even possibly a full slave. This forced me to think about what I was really doing here.

Eighteen guests had gone under the Device, along with the three employees. By the time we had expanded our guest rooms we’d be training up to thirty people a weekend, or almost sixteen hundred a year. Granted they weren’t slaves, but still, that was a lot of Improved people. In the end though, I gave in to Kristen and let her decide what to do. I reminded Kristen that there was a reason I wanted her to be free. I needed my wife to be herself and make decisions like this on her own. I loved and trusted my wife, and she should feel that love and freedom every day. She cried as she hugged me, thanking me for being brave enough to free her.

Laura’s slave Becky came out on Saturday to use the facilities and spend time in the attic with Laura and Brenda. We’d have to find Laura a better space to play in. The interesting thing is that Becky asked if we had any entertainment scheduled for that night. She volunteered to play piano and sing for us, if we wanted. We hadn’t thought about it, but that did sound nice. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a piano. She smiled and said she planned further ahead than that, her equipment was in the car if she could get a hand. After dinner, she was wonderful. Everyone seemed to enjoy her performance, she was even taking requests. I asked if she could come back every Saturday, but that we would pay her for it.

On Sunday morning, I woke up to find Julie, the woman from the bookstore, kneeling naked in my bedroom. Kristen and Ashley were conspicuously absent. Kristen’s choice was obvious now, but why did she leave her here for me to find?

“Julie, good morning.”

“Good morning Master. Kristen asked that I present myself to you. She also asked me to tell you why I agreed to this.”

“You agreed? I’m not sure I understand.”

“Master, you met me when I had just ended my third relationship in a row. I kept allowing people in my life who lied to me and cheated on me. I was looking for answers. Your wife and the other women at the yoga studio had been helping me find myself. I knew something was going on with all of you, and over time, asked Kristen about it. She never said much, but told me to be patient. Yesterday, she gave me a choice of staying mostly myself, or of becoming someone who was a full member of this family. I took the opportunity gladly. Is there something I can do for you now?”