Even the Modest Must Serve By Steam Train ( steam_t2000@yahoo.com )
Chapter 2: The best laid plans don't always work
At 9am the family assembled at the front entrance, Dad in an imposing hand tailored dark suit, conservative red and dark blue tie, and white silk shirt. Mum in a stunning designer dress that like dads suit was made to fit and highlight her body. She looked stunning and we three boys were of course in our PHS uniforms. The Bentley pulled in to pick us up and the servant chauffer came round and assisted us in to the vehicle, then we were all off as a family to support dad as the judge handed down his sentence.
The drive seemed to take for ever. Everyone was very sullen and no one said hardly anything. I was so nervous as we got to the courthouse in downtown Eastbrook, and I wasn't the one being sentenced. There were TV cameras everywhere from all the national and local stations and when we entered the courtroom the cable legal station was setting up to broadcast the sentencing live; such was the national interest in this case. I tried to stay away from the cameras as I could not see any benefit in having my face broadcast across the nation.
Dads legal team had argued in their sentencing submission that dad should not have to bear the full financial liability for the collapse. They argued that he had a wife and children to support plus an extensive servant holding along with overseers who depended on his livelihood.
The prosecution submitted a firm but by no means draconian submission, mellowed through influential contacts in the high places my father and his legal team inhabited. The Prosecution argued that a firmer line had to be taken and they had asked the court to confiscate all dad's assets in part payment to all the suffering policy holders that had been affected.
Dad's senior counsel said the Prosecutions requests could have been worse but he had ensured through his contacts that no servitude order would be asked for by the prosecution.
At precisely 10am the court was called to order and the Honourable Judge George Unwin took his place.
The clerk of the court stood and said, "Edward Raymond Carter III please present yourself for sentencing. Dad rose from his seat and turned and kissed mum then clasped the hands of all three of us kids sitting behind him. It was a genuine clasp of my hands, even though it was also meant to focus the Judge on our family. I said to dad "Good luck" and squeezed his hand tight. I had never felt closer to my dad than at that moment. When he finished with Jim, he turned and with as much dignity as he could muster, walked to stand before the Judge, he was escorted by two court Bailiffs.
As he stood there before the Judge, I though dad with all his dignity still looked worried and nervous standing there waiting to receive his sentence. I was not used to seeing dad in such a powerless state.
Judge Unwin began his summing up.
"Edward Raymond Carter III you have been tried and convicted by a jury of your peers. I have listened to the arguments submitted on you behalf by the defence team and find them inadequate in compensating for the scale of loss suffered by the numerous policy holders of C.I.C. the company of which you were the Chief Executive. Responsibility ended with you and you failed to take that responsibility seriously and with due financial prudence. The prosecution has placed a strong argument that greater compensation for all the distraught and financially disadvantaged policy holders needs to be made by this court and I believe the community expects this court to impose a substantive sentence on you the person judged responsible for the collapse of C.I.C."
"I therefore order that all the assets of Edward Raymond Carter III are to be liquidated by the state and the funds raised used to partially compensate the effected policy holders. And due to the fact that I consider the communities concerns about this case to be stronger than the prosecutions presented sentencing request. " "I further order ...'
I heard dad's senior counsel mutter "What the heck" to his colleague
"... that Edward Raymond Carter III is from this time forward stripped of his rights as a free citizen and placed into criminal servitude for the term of his natural life."
Everything happened at once.
My mother screamed "nooooooooooooooo !"
My brother Ed gasped.
Jim cried out "Fuck you!"
I was just totally shocked and sat there open mouthed, totally unbelieving of what was happening before my eyes.
The packed courtroom gave a simultaneous inhalation of shock.
Dad turned and looked at his counsel with a look of complete fear and panic in his eyes and face,
The counsel just shook his head and held his index finger up to his lips to indicate silence.
That chill that had been in my soul froze, then spread instantly over my whole body, my heart ached and felt like it had stopped beating.
The Judge banged his gabble and ordered the court to order.
Dad collapsed onto the floor.
The Bailiffs standing at dad's side didn't even try to catch him, they just let him fall to the floor. One Bailiff then walked to the defence bench and picked up a pitcher of water returned to dad's prostrate body on the court room floor and very unceremoniously began tipping the water over my dads face and expensive suit whilst rudely commenting "Wakey, wakey slave boy".
When dad revived consciousness the other Bailiff ordered "Get to your feet boy and hurry up about it!"
Judge Unwin again called the unruly court to order, then addressing the Bailiffs ordered, "To emphasise the slaves new status, a slave appears before a court in this jurisdiction naked. Undress him!"
Dad just stood there totally shocked and as white as a ghost. To dads utter humiliation and mine but to murmurs from the courtroom, the Bailiffs roughly removed his wet suit coat, tie, shirt, wedding ring, watch, shoes, socks, undid his belt removed his suit trousers and then the final humiliation his boxers. Dad tried to cover his genitals but one Bailiff removed an electric slave prod from his belt and with a light jab sent an electric shock through my father, forcing him to scream, whilst the other Bailiff told dad "Slaves don't need to worry about being modest, that's a freemen's right."
One Bailiff's grabbed dad's penis and lead him to the clerk of the courts desk where the clerk was busy typing into his computer. After a minute he produced a microchip, from a drive on his computer and placed it in the lock of a new servant collar. I knew from lessons at school all about servant collars and that this chip would contain all of dad's details including his new community servants number. The collar was made of a metal chain coated in mesh and plastic. The design and color indicated the status, state and country where the slave was registered.
I noticed how easily it went on around dads neck, just a soft click!
His arms were hand cuffed behind his back and then the ceremonial removal of dad's head, pubic hair and pit hair to symbolise that his free life was over was done in front of the assembled court by the other Bailiff using a battery powered clipper.
Dad just stood there in a large plastic tub, looking totally broken, totally humiliated, totally embarrassed shoulders slumped standing amongst the small mounds of his dark blond hair that were falling into the tub around his bare feet.
One of the Bailiffs' then grabbed dad very tightly by the ear and started pulling him to the other side of the courtroom. As he pulled him forward across the room, he also tugged downward on the ear. For the first time in his life, dad had to stoop like a humble slave.
When they got to the other side of the courtroom, dad was pulled up onto a raised platform with a low padded hand rail. The bailiff had him turn his buttocks to the audience and bend over the rail. Dad was on view to everyone his cuffed hands trussed against his back, his buttocks sticking up, and his shaved scrotum clearly dangling between his legs.
Two of the Bailiff's came up on the platform and stood on either side of Dad. One Bailiff selected a purpose designed punishment paddle from the implements cupboard. It was in shape and design similar to a large hair brush without the bristles and along it's surface were perforations that reduced the wind drag and maximized the impact on the recipient.
With his left hand the Bailiff grabbed dad's shoulder, while the Bailiff's standing to dad's sides each grabbed an ear and did a very tight ear twist to hold dad down in a stooping position over the rail. Once they had him secured by the ears, the Bailiff swung the paddle and let the first stroke land.
Even though it was my own dad I sat mesmerized seeing for the first time my own father having to endure a bare naked slave paddling. It was also a mesmerizing sight for those gathered in the courtroom as dad began to kick and flay his legs about as he lost all semblance of composure, his once posh and refined voice screamed out, desperate to try and relieve some of the pain he was experiencing.
As the strokes reigned down on dad's ever reddening bottom I noticed through his legs that his penis was erect and heard the unmistakable sound of dad bawling like a prepubescent boy and dad's voice begging shamelessly for mercy from anyone who would listen.
No one in authority of course listened to his pleas. Everyone knew even I that slaves have to get bare naked paddlings all the time and the assembled audience in the courtroom knew very well that the pro forma paddling dad was receiving before them was the traditional way of assuring them, the respectable, law-abiding citizens including our family, that dad was now truly a slave.
When the paddling was over the Bailiffs stood dad up and turned him around to face the public gallery. Dad was totally erect and to add to his humiliation his nose was running and unable to use his hands to gain relief, dad regardless of the humiliating spectacle did the dance of the spanked on the spot up on the platform before all of us in a vain attempt to ease the throbbing pain he was experiencing in his red raw bottom.
Some of the courtroom visitors laughed out loud at dad's juvenile antics and humiliating aroused state.
I just lowered my eyes, embarrassed and ashamed.
Once the paddling was completed the Bailiffs made my father face the judge who then said, "As is tradition, I present to the public here represented at this court a new slave. Bailiffs parade the servant to the community."
With this order one of the Bailiffs again grabbed dad's penis and lead him around the court so all could see and inspect his naked body. I looked away in shame and my brothers and mum bowed their heads and we all cried, mum Ed Jim and me. However before I turned my head I noticed dad too was crying.
The final act in this scene of utter humiliation was when the Judge ordered dad taken to the cells for processing and shipment to the Tallahatchie County Servitude Processing Centre to start his new life. A life the Judge summed up that would consist till his dying breath of serving the community so that in some small way he could feel he had made amens for the financial grief so many had suffered.
The last I ever saw of my father was as he was taken down the steps inside the courtroom to the cells below and he glanced back, our eyes briefly met and I'm sure he saw in my eyes, my love, I hope and pray he did and that it gave him some strength to endure his new life. At that moment I loved my dad more than I had ever loved him before.
I was shattered. Why had I come?
Till this day I have not forgotten every detail of that morning and the fate that befell my family because of those events.
End Chapter 2.