Chapter 48: The Write Stuff

It took about a week. Rachel was getting stronger by the day. We put some gym equipment into the suite so she could exercise. Sukie was doing a good job of caring for her and I had to admit that I'd been enjoying having the two of them to come back to at the end of the day.

I came back in and Rachel and Sukie were playing chess, Tommy Smith's recording of Eric Satie's Gymnopédie was playing on the CD player. The two of them looked up at me as I dropped my papers on the table. Rachel waved. Sukie got to her feet.

"How's the game," I asked looking at the board.

"Rachel is winning," said Sukie. Rachel looked surprised. I looked down at the pieces.

I could see what she had to do. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice something to get what you want," I said, looking at the position of Rachel's queen. Rachel looked again at the board and then, finally, moved her queen. Sukie, her own king now in check had no choice but to take it. Her capturing knight now lay vulnerable to Rachel's bishop. It swept across the board to remove the knight.

"Check mate," laughed Rachel, clapping her hands. Sukie smiled to Rachel and then smiled in turn at me. Rachel pushed the board away from herself. "You're right," she said. "sometimes you do have to sacrifice things." She turned towards me. "I feel things have started again. Since the attack. It might happen again but it might not. Either way I am here now. I have left a lot behind me. I have to find where I go next, from here, not from somewhere else. Maybe that needs acceptance. Maybe that needs sacrifice."

"Maybe," I said, watching her.

"Sukie tells me you saved her too." Sukie looked embarrassed as she went to clear away the chess pieces and the board.

"No. No, I didn't save her. She saves herself. I gave her a new place in which to try."

"I want to save myself too. I have a new place too, since the attack."

"Can you accept things the way that Sukie does? You have the strength I am sure but can you do it?"

Rachel looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure," she said, "but I want to try. Do what you want with me. I'll learn acceptance. I'll make myself for the life I have to lead here. I'll write for you."

"I want to believe you, Rachel. I'm sure you can make yourself. You just need to follow your own script. Can you write it?"

"Yes," she said. "I am writing it already," she tapped the side of her head. "In here."

"I could get you a laptop. It would be easier."

Rachel smiled. "Later," she said. "Come to bed, now. With Sukie and me. Now. It's in script."

Sukie was standing at the door to the bedroom. They had obviously discussed this already. She was grinning widely, pleased that, at last, she and I would be together again. We took ourselves to bed for over three hours. At one point Rachel was kneeling with her wrists bound, fellating me while Sukie knelt across me, her tiny nipples pressed against my face. At another Rachel tied Sukie's wrists, giving head to her while I stroked the two girls. All three of us, panted and grunted our way through orgasm after orgasm. (Well they did at least, I'm no athlete. But they didn't let the fact that I had spent myself prevent them continuing to enjoy themselves, taking amusement in my exhaustion while they pleasured one another.)

Rachel and I were still together in bed the following morning. She still wearing nothing apart from her collar and the silken cords that she and Sukie had used in bondage play looped loosely around her wrists.

Sukie appeared at the door to the bedroom, naked and carrying a breakfast tray for the three of us. She sat on the bed beside us. The three of us devoured the figs, honey yoghurt, rolls, orange juice and coffee.

Rachel sat up, putting her hand on my thigh. "I meant it," she said. "I'll do what you want. I'll write for you."

"I know you mean it," I said. "I believe you want to. I have a job for you. There is a group of four women going through a new form of orientation. Go and talk to them. Write about them, understand what has been done to them. I want to understand how they feel. You may think it's brutal. Can you do it?"