Chapter 20

Although Sharon had no sexual desires for Sweetness, she felt great responsibility for the girl. After all, she was blind and even more helpless in this strange country than she was. What would happen to Sweetness if she abandoned her? How could the girl feed or fend for herself? So, she decided that for the purposes of convenience alone, and because it was what was expected of them, she should present their friendship as being a mistress/slave one of the type that appeared to be the norm in Sodom. It provided an excuse for her to continue to take care of the girl, and might even protect the two of them from any worse advances from other people. She explained this to Sweetness, and tried to stress that there was no real meaning to the relationship.

"I'm not a fucking dyke, you know," she stressed to Sweetness as they lay together on the mattress in Faith's spare bedroom.

"But I still love you," sniffed Sweetness. "Can't you love me in return?"

Sharon could say no, but she was aware that their relationship was not totally innocent. Sweetness wrapped her naked body around her, and stroked and cuddled her, which Sharon reciprocated as long as their fingers never probed their crotches and there were no tongues involved. "We can cuddle, but that's fucking all!" she insisted.

However, she quite enjoyed helping Sweetness. Somehow, this role as Sweetness' carer had awakened in her feelings of responsibility she didn't know she had. Every morning, she would carefully shave Sweetness' head, just as she did herself and tenderly thread the chains and rings into her pierced nipple and clitoris: tasks which blindness made nearly impossible for the girl. Her heart would sometimes melt as she regarded Sweetness' vacant gaze in her direction as she washed the last signs of stubble off the girl's pate. On such occasions, she would tenderly kiss Sweetness on the lips and then curse herself for giving the girl cause to expect more of her than she was willing to give. Sharon had started to get quite used to this look of baldness and the array of chains. In fact, as she regarded her own face in the mirror as she carefully shaved the back of her head, she wondered what it might be to have hair again. What did it feel like to have all that stuff sprouting out of the top of the head, over the ears and onto the shoulder? And what was it like to wear clothes, rather than have chains pulling down relentlessly on the nipples and cunt, so often giving her inappropriate feelings whenever one was accidentally tugged or brushed?

Faith was happy for Sharon and Sweetness to stay in her spare bedroom, but she wasn't a wealthy woman so she did what she could to persuade Sharon to find work. "In this country," she reminded Sharon, "a mistress is expected to provide for her slave. There are plenty of jobs in the local newspaper, so have a look there."

Sharon agreed, taking the copy of the Holiness Evening Advertiser that Faith had handed her and browsed through the pages. It was remarkably dull. Every page was nothing but newsprint, with no photographs or cartoons of any kind. She commented on this to Faith.

"Illustrations of any kind are forbidden by the Sodomite religion," Faith told them sternly. "I suppose it's different where you are, but here it is firmly forbidden to see images, painted, drawn, filmed or photographed."

"Is that why you have no telly?"

"I've no idea what you mean," sighed Faith impatiently.

"No television. Just a radio," continued Sharon, noting Faith's blank expression. "Oh never mind."

Faith sighed again and returned to the book she was reading. However, now that it was mentioned to her, Sharon reflected that she hadn't seen any images or pictures anywhere. This was one distinct difference between Sodom and back home, as well as the funny religion and the weird way you were expected to dress. She was sure she'd find more such differences, but it seemed weird to her that people exposed themselves in a way that would get you arrested back home, but were prudish about something as harmless as pictures. What were these people on?

There were many jobs advertised, and many of them were just like jobs she'd had back home. It was reassuring to see that there were jobs like factory workers, toilet attendants, security guards and computer programmers, just like she would see in jobs advertisements back home. She had no real idea where to begin looking, but she ringed a few who paid more Sodomite dollars than the others. It was those boring jobs in offices like sorting out files and answering the phone where there was most demand, and she'd soon had a few advertisements ringed in biro, and a few interviews arranged using Faith's telephone.

Seeing Sharon busy at work, Faith abandoned her book and made some tea and biscuits. Sharon could see that Faith's grumpiness was probably still to do with the fact that Sharon didn't want to have sex with her, but, fuck it! Faith could have sex with Sweetness any time. All she had to do was ask.

Finally, Sharon arranged an interview which was for a clerical job with a shipping company, and set off across the city for the interview which was to be that very afternoon. She asked Faith how she should dress for the interview, which caused her a little amusement. "Just as you are," she said with a laugh, but nonetheless loaned Sharon a dangling pearl cunt ring to make her look slightly smarter. She also recommended that Sharon take Sweetness with her, as interviewers tended to look more favourably on applicants with steady relationships. She lent Sharon a chain with which to lead Sweetness: the same one, she remarked ruefully, that she'd used on her own slave.

Sharon was still finding life in Sodom curiously like normal life after her ordeal in Buggery. Here were city streets, shops, buses and all the accompaniments of civilised life. But the differences were becoming clearer to her. And not just the bizarre way that everyone dressed, and the disproportionately large number of people with missing fingers, tongues or other parts of their body. Now that it had been drawn to her attention, she was aware of the total lack of images around her. Advertisements were in text only, and there were no signs of illustration even in shop windows. She found her way to the block of offices where she was to be interviewed by bus, which was full of people of all ages, children and old people, dressed only in chains and rings threaded through their body. Not many had their tongues removed or their vaginas sewn up or their testicles removed, as with the Sodomite pilgrims, but several were, and she noticed that they were generally treated with quite exaggerated respect.

Sharon was at first rather unhappy with having pull Sweetness along by a chain, worried that her ward could so easily get hurt finding her way through all the people, but she was a girl who was more than accustomed to her disability, and held onto Sharon's arm for support. There were many other couples like her: sometimes a man leading another man on all fours, or a woman pulling a man along by a chain through his nose, or a woman slapping a man as he cowered under her open palm, or other women like her dragging another woman about. It was fairly obvious who was the mistress and who was the slave. Clearly, Sodom wasn't a country that practised equal relationships.

Sharon waited with Sweetness in the reception area of the office for a short while, leaving Sweetness behind when she was called for her interview which was with a rather stout short man who might have been balding if it were possible to say in a country where everyone appeared to be bald. The interview was cordial and brief as the man asked her about her office skills and what jobs she'd had in the past. He was particularly impressed by the fact that Sharon had come from another country.

"We get very few foreigners in Sodom, and fewer still who choose to settle here," he mused. "There are the pilgrims from other countries who come here to see the Holy relics and the Holy shrines. Otherwise, there are hardly any at all. But I hear that you foreigners have some fairly outlandish customs. Is it true for instance that you don't shave yourselves back where you come from?"

"The men do. But mostly just the face. And the women do, but mostly the legs and under the arms."

"You mean the men don't even shave their legs and armpits!" exclaimed the interviewer, whose skin, like everyone else, was smooth and hairless. "Truly, it sounds like you come from a very strange place. Hairy people everywhere. And you even have films and something called the 'cinema'. Don't your religions proscribe anything?"

"Religion isn't that important back home. And most religious people do things very differently to how religious people do things here."

"I imagine they would. I wouldn't call myself a religious man, although I've been baptised," he displayed his truncated third finger, "but I'm glad that Sodom is a religious country, where our morals are protected by our religious leaders." He sniffed, and glanced at a plaque on the wall which held ornate text which Sharon could see read 'To be humble is good. To suffer divine'. "However, you seem like a good girl to me. And you're not flaunting any strange foreign customs that might upset my staff. I see you even have a slave. Is she from Sodom or did you bring her from where you come from?"

"Neither. She comes from Buggery."

"Buggery. We've fought so many wars with them over the years. So much of their kingdom is land which once belonged to the Sodomite people. They have taken advantage of our people's aversion to war and unnecessary suffering. A Sodomite principle is never to cause pain to anyone who doesn't expressly ask for it. These Buggerians don't seem to have any scruples at all on that front." He frowned severely, and then smiled. "Well, your slave seems a pleasant enough girl. Blind as well. Is that for religious reasons?"