Chapter 9: Bad Hair Day

Course 8 / Day 2: Course Progress Meeting

Participant Notes: Fifty

Jo: Fifty will be a stretched by her encounters today. Everyone, please be aware of this, if you have any contact with her after her sessions this morning or afternoon, please refer to Gerry or Celia in order to check on how her sessions went.

Jenny's Recollections

I've got over the exercise session and I've finished breakfast. Jo appears. I'm handcuffed and taken out of my room.

As I am led through the building I see some of the other girls hard at work cleaning and tidying. I pass Judy. She's on her knees, wearing some sort of grey track suit. She's scrubbing at the floor. She looks up as I go by and I see she's been gagged with a bright red ball. Jo tells her to keep busy and Judy responds with a "Hnng Hnngstregh" which I take to mean "Yes, Mistress."

I wonder if something like that will be done to me. I suppose so. Suddenly I'm feeling confused. All this time I've been thinking about the course and I've no real idea what is actually going to be involved. I look back over my shoulder as I follow Jo along the corridor. Judy is working hard. She looks up again as we reach the corner. I can't tell if she's unhappy about what she's doing or if she's enjoying it. Maybe she doesn't even know herself. I'm in two minds about most of what's happened so far.

Jo takes me to see the genial and enthusiastic black American who was on the coach with us yesterday. As soon as he speaks, I think he could double for Eddie Murphy. "Hi, Honey. Nice to see you again. For now, just call me Gerry," he says.

Why is it that if you have a bunch of Americans, there's always one called Gerry? And of course, he calls me 'Honey'.

I'm still standing in the doorway.

"Well, come on in Honey. Come on in and sit right down!"

"Do I have a choice?" I'm finding the combination of his polite tone and the fact I'm handcuffed confusing, to say the least.

He laughs. "Gee, you Brits are all so droll. Nope, you ain't got no choice at all. And, to make sure you stay put, you get strapped to the chair here, too."

So, he takes my cuffs off and clips each wrist to the chair. The chair is comfortable and heavy. As Gerry would say, the chair and I weren't goin' no place.

He stands back and looks at me. It's a curious stare, appraising but not sexual.

"Hmmm, so you just startin' out here, Hon?"

"Yes, that's right; I arrived here, er, yesterday, I think." What am I thinking? He knows exactly when I got here. He was in the bus with all of us.

I have no watch — they said not to bring one - and there's no clock in my room. Room? Actually cell, I guess, but I can't quite bring myself to say that. I feel a bit embarrassed to be here. Now that is incongruous! Worrying about being here, when maybe I should be more worried about the fact that I'm naked and restrained in a chair. I have not been given any clothes, save for a collar which has been locked around my neck and bands around my wrists and ankles. The collar has a dog tag style ID disc which apparently says I'm Fifty. Number Fifty, I hope. Not age Fifty!

Gerry brings me back to the present. "OK baby: this is going to be a fun day for you. This is make-up time!" He takes a comb and draws it through my hair. "Say, weren't you supposed to get this cut before you got here? Make your hair manageable?"

"Well, yes I did. It's much shorter, it's..."

Gerry interrupts, "Uh uh, no you didn't, Hon. WE said ask for a number 4 buzz cut and you asked for a trim. Right?"

"Well, yes. I just thought a crew cut might be a little on the short side."

"On the short side?? Gee, I just love the way you Brits talk about a crew cut. So navy! Well, babe, the thing is — do you read?" Gerry is looking really inquisitive now.

"Read?"

"Yeah, read, as in books?"

"Well, yes. I work at a university. Books are us!" Immediately, I worry about my flippant remark and how he will take it.

"Works at a university!" Gerry furrow his brow. "Well, I just wondered if you had done any reading ... about DS relationships and how when the Master speaks to the slave what the slave is supposed to do is to just go and do?"