30: On Freedom and Possession

LIZ WAS A FANTASTIC LOVER. Remember Liz? The women’s liberationist from San Francisco? You might think that after 4,000 years on earth, I must have had hundreds of women whom I possessed. In reality, there were only a handful. In fact, Liz was only the fifth. Having a woman ask you to possess her is a rare thing, and as a result, those who make themselves my possession are treasures to me.

Josie, Pari, Princess Agora, Maya, Liz. Precious jewels in my crown.

I mean, not like I have a crown, but they make me feel like a prince. Still, Liz needed to know what she had gotten herself into and, yes, I would give her an option out if she wanted it. I expected, as most, that she would be more than happy to find this bondage was the freedom she sought.

When we woke up the morning after our one-nighter, as she called it, she looked at me, rather startled.

“Wow! Did I really just hop into bed with a guy I hardly know?” she asked, pulling the covers up around her.

“Not only that, but you asked me to possess you. And I have.”

“Possess? As in own me? Sorry, Jack. Nobody owns this chick,” she laughed.

“No. Possess as in take charge of your body and soul and bind you to me for all time,” I said. It was actually much more than that, but I figured I should break it to her gently.

“You’re kidding. I mean, I could just get up and walk right out of here. You don’t possess me. That’s ridiculous.” She tittered nervously.

“Why don’t you do that?”

“Yeah. I will. Don’t try to stop me. I’m getting out of here.” She didn’t make a move.

“Well?”

“Well ... Um ... I was just thinking there was really no rush, right? I mean, we had a really good time last night, didn’t we? I wouldn’t mind a little repeat. There’s no reason I need to rush off to be anywhere. It’s not like I’m married. To you or anyone else. Right?” She didn’t make a move to get out of bed, but she did let the sheet drop below her breasts. Now that was distracting!

“Why are you here—naked in my bed?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. We had a date ... Well, it was more like a pickup, but you treated me like it was a date. And it’s not that I’m easy. I don’t just sleep around, but I’m a liberated woman who makes her own decisions. I decided I wanted to sleep with you. Nothing wrong with that. You aren’t the first guy I’ve slept with. And so, I’m here. Um ... I guess because I want to be. I mean, logic tells me I should run and not look back, but something inside me tells me I belong here. I don’t want to leave. Ever. You are ... Oh, my god! You possess me!”

“Does that frighten you?”

“Um ... It should, I think. But it doesn’t really.”

“Why do you suppose that is?”

“Because I know ... I mean deep down inside, I am positive you will never abandon me, will always care for me, will make my dreams come true, and will be everything I ever want or need. Why do I know that, Bob?”

“Because I will never abandon you, will always care for you, will do everything I can to make your dreams come true, and will be everything you ever want or need. I possess you and I would never want you to be unhappy.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and held out my arms. She threw herself into them and hugged me as she began to cry.

“Are you upset, Liz?”

“No! I’m happy. I’ve never been so happy. You are like a drug and I’ve already been hooked. I love you, Bob.”

“Maybe not yet, but you will. We will love each other like no other love you have ever imagined, just like I love my other possessions,” I said.

“Do you have many others? Those women who were with you yesterday ... I think I’m supposed to be jealous, but I’m not.”

“Only Maya is my possession of those you’ve met. But Esmeralda is my wife. And there are other concubines.”

“Possession, wife, concubines ... That implies more.”

“Yes, I have a few.”

“Like some Arabian sheikh. What are you?”

“I’m a demon.”

She was struck silent. She looked at me as what I said fought for a place in her consciousness beside all the things she thought she knew.

“I ... I should go. I should see a priest and have an exorcism. My head will start turning in circles. Strange voices will come out of my mouth. I saw Rosemary’s Baby. I’ll have Satan’s child. He’ll eat my soul!” she said. She was more and more agitated, but clung even more tightly to me.

“No one bears my children,” I said firmly. “The movie was a well-constructed fiction. And I am not Satan. I’m just Bob. And I’m going to set you free.”

“Why?” she said in alarm. “Don’t you like me? Don’t you want me?” She crawled out of the covers and into my lap, hugging me and placing kisses all over my chest and neck.

“Um ... Haven’t you heard the saying that if you love something set it free? I want you. There is a thing about you that captured my eye, even before you took off your bra. If you want me to possess you after I set you free, then it was meant to be,” I said.

“That’s so profound. Like, okay then, do it. I’ll bounce right back.”

“Not yet. First, I want you to know what it is like to be mine.”

“So much for women’s lib, huh?”

“On the contrary! I hope you will be very liberated.”

“How does that work, Bob? How can I be possessed and liberated at the same time?”

“I want Lakshmi to explain that to you. She’s much better at it than I am. In fact, she explained it to me,” I said.

“Is she possessed?” Liz asked.

“No. She joined me and asked to be a part of my world and of my harem. She is my wife. That is very different. Regarding possession, I’ll have you talk to Josie. She was the first and has never regretted it in nearly 4,000 years,” I said.

“Wait! Four thousand years? What? Do we like, live forever?” she asked.

“Entering the infinity room from earth slows aging to an almost imperceptible crawl. Now that is not true of those born there. I don’t understand the physics exactly, but those born in the infinity room age normally. Or normally for the infinity room, which is still slower than on earth. But no one wants to be a baby for a couple of centuries.”

“Oh. I bet,” she said. “When can I see this ... you called it an infinity room? That’s bitchin’, man.”

“Right.” I opened the gateway and half a dozen of my women came through with breakfast for two. Three were naked and three wore clothes appropriate for working in the shop.

“Wow! You asked Bob to possess you as fast as I did!” Josie said as she brought a plate to Liz and sat beside her. Liz started to reach for the plate but Josie started feeding her instead. “I’m Josie and Bob possessed me so long ago, my memory struggles to comprehend it. You’ll discover, though, that in the infinity room, time is pretty meaningless. It’s not like we celebrate our thousandth birthdays or anything. I’m going to take you into the infinity room and show you around. Don’t think you’ll see it all. It stretches on, like, forever.”

“How did you know I was possessed or that Bob was going to show me the infinity room?” Liz asked.

“Oh. I don’t know. I just somehow always know what Bob wants. I think the wives and possessions are all like that. I’m not sure about the concubines.”

“How many people are there?” Liz asked around a bite of scrambled eggs and cream cheese.

“Oh, gee! How many are there now, Bob?”

“Mmm. Nimia would know. I think it’s around three million. Why bother counting? I’m not Caesar,” I laughed as I took a bite from Pari.

“Really? Three million people, like, right through that door?” Liz squealed as she looked around, expecting they might all be in the bedroom at any moment. I guess in a way they were. The satchel was right there.

“Just in there,” Josie confirmed, pointing at the open gateway.

“Let me get dressed so we can go. I want to see!”

“Oh, hon, you can get dressed if you want to, but none of the rest of Bob’s women are.”

Liz closed her mouth and refused another bite until Josie led her through the gateway. I’d catch up later.

Possession, I think, is a two-way street. Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m always thinking of new things about it. Like, I might as well say Liz possessed me. Liz, Maya, Princess Agora, Pari, Josie. They were as much a part of me as I was of them. When Josie said she always just knew what I wanted, that goes the other way, too. I always just know what one of my possessions wants or needs. We become that integral a part of each other.

I believe that in some ways, it is a closer relationship than I have with my wives. Nimia seems always to know what is on my mind, but that comes from being married to me for four thousand years. We do communicate mentally with each other, but it is on a conscious level. I think, ‘Nimia I need to create a temple,’ and she goes about getting together whatever it is I need for the project, but I thought about it to her. She might think ‘Bob, I really need some long gentle loving tonight,’ and she will be the only one on my mind when I’m ready for bed.

Now take the difference with when I opened the gateway in the tent where we were held captive. I didn’t have time to think specific instructions about sending warriors or that kidnapped women needed to be cared for. But when the gateway opened, the warriors were ready to charge into the room and my women, led by Josie, were all over the captive women, freeing them and comforting them. She simply knew what Bob needed.

Well, I could feel the sense of awe Liz had at being introduced to the infinity room, and it filled me with the same sensations as she toured the house and harem, the libraries, and the temple. She really didn’t even get out of the central district to see the lake or the ocean or the farms or the bushmen or the people from different ages of mankind. It all affected me the same way. I made this thing with a spell from Pinaruti’s scroll, but I really had no idea how it all worked.

It made me wonder sometimes, what happened to the people who had been possessed by demons who were then exorcised. Were they happy about it, or did they feel a sense of loss when the demon set them free?

“Now you know exactly what kind of a monster I am,” I said to Liz that evening. I brought her back out into the natural world as we called it. “Let’s go for a walk and I will set you free.”

“Um ... Really? I mean, you don’t have to, you know. I mean, you’ve got me and I’m happy, so you might as well keep me,” she giggled.

“I want you to be absolutely positive and to know in your heart that it is your choice and you make it freely. The ultimate freedom is to choose to whom you are bound. I don’t want there to be any lingering doubt that you might have chosen differently if you’d been able,” I said.