Even the Modest Must Serve By Steam Train ( steam_t2000@yahoo.com )
Chapter 9: Family affairs
I'm sure you have all experienced the gut retching nervous feeling that builds when you are approaching some thing you are not looking forward too. Now in life I get that feeling when I am waiting for my appointment at the Dentist. Well back then that was exactly how I felt all morning in class knowing that Marcus and I had to front up to Mr Norris in his office at 11am when recess started.
All morning in class my mind was not on the lessons for a number of reasons.
I could not sit down because of the pain from my caning earlier that morning. I was also terrified that Mr Norris would order me to have more ten-stroke canings. They were, as I had found out earlier that day, totally unbearable. I would do anything to avoid having the cane administered so many times in one session, anything, absolutely anything.
I had to ask permission in all the morning classes to be allowed to stand up and that meant all my fellow classmates hearing of my humiliating treatment. In the first class of that morning I was that horrified of having to explain my punishment I tried to sit, only succeeding however in drawing added attention to my self when I yelled out in pain and stood straight back up failing miserably in my attempt at being able to take the weight of my body on my very sore behind.
In this first lesson Marcus was sitting next to me and to my added humiliation it was him not me that asked Mrs Lawless for permission for me to stand, explaining in detail to her and the class why I had called out and thus was standing.
Slowly and subtly Marcus was beginning to dominate our relationship. I could sense this and he knew and desired it. I desired his friendship and love more and was prepared to accept this situation. What choice did I have really anyways, I was a slave he was a freeman. Slave's can't complain about these things they just have to accept them an
make the best of the situation. I fumed inside and I think Marcus could see this reaction in me. Somewhere deep within his psyche, I think he enjoyed achieving this reaction in me it gave him a certain satisfaction. As nice as he was to me there were beginning to be times when he liked to be in a relationship as servant and master. My obvious dislike of Marcus's subtle domination of me didn't stop him however in slowly trying to set out on a course that could turn me into a personal servant to him, if I wasn't very careful.
Jack Strauchan was unfortunately in this class as well and I could see he was gloating over my discomfort and pain. Of all the students in the school he was the one who gave me the biggest problems. I tried, mostly successfully to avoid him but sometime it was impossible. He had his small cadre of friends who taking a lead from him made passing comments in class, in the grounds and especially in the corridors of the school about my slave status and how I should not be allowed to walk the same halls as them.
They never laid hands on me, they were too smart for that but I still found them very intimidating and Jack had on more than one occasion openly warned me my time would come, where the school would not be able to protect me and he would see me in my correct place as a slave to his master ship, just like his slaves at his home.
I remember feeling sorry for his slaves even though I had never met them.
Eventually I had to get my mind off my imminent doom with Mr Norris, so I began thinking back over the last months and how totally my life had changed.
It was the simple freedoms I missed most. No longer was I free to listen to a CD or go for a walk. I was a prisoner in the grounds of Piney Hills School. In fact I couldn't even walk the grounds without permission. I had not been outside the school since I was indentured. I longed for a visit to the shops, to choose a DVD or video at the local store. I would even welcome a basic trip to the grocery store or any shopping centre, something I had
turned to my brother Ed and how Mr Norris had said, Ed was not settling in as well as I. He was ignoring the advice of Inspector Blackmoore and was not accepting his new position in life. To be fair to him he had it tougher than me in many ways. I had a close friendship with Marcus that was developing, whilst Ed had the support group of students that grew eventually to around fifty, none of these became close friends to him, he therefore lacked the support that Marcus brought to my life.
Ed's biggest problem was not the Headmaster who he was houseboy for, but Mr Riley's youngest daughter Samantha. Things had not improved for Ed with Samantha as the weeks went on. She was totally demanding of his services and often irrational in her behaviour, finding fault often when nothing was warranted.
Being punished when Ed felt he had fulfilled his duties properly really added to his poor attitude and flowed across into the other duties he had to perform. He was punished repeatedly for his sullen attitude along with Samantha's constant referral of him to Mr Lindrum for failure to perform satisfactorily.
Mr Norris had warned Ed like he had me, about the mood of the parents at the school and his need to ensure that he gave those parents nothing to base their criticism upon. It had worried me that his constant punishment could lead to us being separated and even worse, us being made to leave the school.
I begged Ed to try harder and he promised me he would try. However he told me one night after he incurred another punishment from Samantha that I didn't realise how hard he was trying or how frustrating it was, as no matter how hard he tried she found fault with him.
`Maybe she likes you Ed?" I replied.
"Likes me HA!!!!, some way to show it Tom, you've got no idea what your talking about".
" No listen, have you spoken to her about why she punishes you? Maybe she likes you and having you punished like that is her way of having you. Talk to her tomorrow about how you feel, ask her for permission to talk to her, maybe she will
't know what else to suggest to help you but it's worrying the hell out of me all this trouble you are getting into. It could be used by those parents that want to get rid of us. Tell that to Samantha, does she want you to go? Ask her this question and maybe she will see what her actions are doing or at least you'll know if she says `good', that she really has got it in for you, then we will have to see if Mr Norris can do something about it before it's too late.
Well for some one who had no idea what I was talking about, Ed listened and tried my idea the next day. I guess he decided he had nothing to loose. Samantha however was not receptive unfortunately and did not give Ed permission to ask her the vital questions.
He was fuming with anger when he came home later that afternoon and his attitude was noticed by Mr Norris and Inspector Blackmoore who just happened to be visiting on her bi-monthly inspection of our progress.
Much questioning followed and Mrs Blackmoore decided that Samantha's actions were vindictive and she asked Mr Norris if she could speak to Mr Riley. Mr Norris too was upset for the same reasons I was as it was jeopardising our stay at the school and he told Mrs Blackwood all about the problems, with certain parents at the school.
I don't know what went on in the meeting with Inspector Blackwood, Mr Norris and Mr Riley. Ed told me that at one stage he was called in to retell Mr Riley all he had told Mr Norris and Inspector Blackwood about his handling by Samantha and was sent to stand out in the hall to wait.
Later Mr Riley left and bought first his wife then later Samantha back in with him. Ed said she scowered at him as she walked bye, head held tall, too proud to acknowledge the insignificant slave that she considered him. Ed told me that at that time he felt a certain satisfaction knowing that she was going to be grilled by Inspector Blackmoore about her behaviour towards him.
Ed gradually heard voices become louder and he could even out in the hall sense the tensions in the room rise. F
scream out "No you can't do this". Then again some time later, the door to Mr Riley's study opened and Ed was called in by Mr Norris. Ed told me he couldn't believe the scene that presented itself before him.
There stood Samantha naked and crying, a bright pink servant's collar affixed around her neck, the pink collar signifying that Samantha had been issued with a short term `Notice of Exemption from Wearing Decent Dress' or NEWDD.
As an Inspector with the Federal Bureau of Servitude, Mrs Blackwood had the power to issue on the spot infringement NEWDD's and always carried some pink NEWDD collars in her bag.
She had presented the argument that Samantha needed to learn that Slave's had basic rights and had to be treated correctly. Mr and Mrs Riley after much thought had agreed. For the next two weeks Ed was informed, Samantha was to be a NEWDD Juvenile and assist Ed with his houseboy duties. As he was the senior servant she was to report to him and he was to inform Mr Norris of any indiscressions for punishment.
When Ed and Mr Norris arrived back at our house with the still naked Samantha, I like Ed was shocked and speechless. Ed tells me my jaw just dropped and I stood there for ages with a stunned look on my face. Samantha was totally humiliated having walked from the Headmasters residence to Mr Norris's residence naked. Of course she was not really naked as she was wearing her NEWDD collar!
When I roused myself out of my shock, my eyes began to study her naked body, her smallish tits, her thick pubic bush, and her shapely body. I was definitely not gay, I knew from that moment, bi maybe but definitely not gay. My penis again betrayed my feelings at the time and tented my track pants.
When Mr Norris asked Ed to train and prepare Samantha correctly for service, I was asked by Ed to do the shaving. If I was tented in my track pants before I started shaving off Samantha's pubic bush, somehow I managed to become even more erect. I could feel the pre cum leaking out of me as I shaved her bald gaining a close first h
or the first time in my life of a female's most private anatomy. There really wasn't much else to shave as she kept her legs and armpits shaved.
Later Ed took her through the servant's rituals of stance and how to address a master. NEWDD's were not required to perform sexual favours which was a bit disappointing but I guess if they could be made to do this, then there was no way Mr and Mrs Riley would have allowed Samantha to be temporarily placed into servitude.
Mr Norris was amazing. I had studied him closely during all of his inspections of Ed and I after we showered and I studied him again as he inspected Samantha for the first time naked that night after she had showered. He never showed the slightest sign of arousal. I was hopeless, mention anything slightly sexy or show even a bit of naked flesh and I was aroused. Not so with Mr Norris. How he had trained himself to be so morally correct and business like I do not know.
After Samantha got over the humiliation and embarrassment of her naked inspections I think she realised quickly there was at least one advantage for her in being a servant and living in Mr Norris's house in the spare room.
She got to witness Mr Norris inspect both Ed and I nightly after our showers.
My modest nature showed again and I blushed profusely the first time I had to stand there naked and be inspected with Samantha observing my total lack of manhood. I saw her smirk as my small bald package was revealed to her for the first time and she saw the little sexually immature boy I still was.
I also saw a different look, a look of desire I thought, as she saw Ed naked. It was not the first time she had seen his penis and balls, having been present at some of the punishment sessions with Mr Lindrum, but it was the first time she had seen him totally naked. It was a totally different look she kept for Ed.
I suspected from that first night she saw him standing there naked, that I had been correct when I told Ed that maybe her actions were partly because she liked my brother and wanted his
fered much during her two weeks in NEWDD servitude but not very much at the hands of Ed or I. We treated her as we would like to be treated but Mr Norris and her father were proper but ruthless masters. Her body was maintained in a shaved state and she regularly received her just punishment for any poor performance by the hands of Mr Lindrum just as we had.
Ed told me that the thing that really brought home to Samantha her changed status was having to serve her parents and older brother and sister at the dinner table, under Ed's supervision. Ed noticed that this duty even more so than school bought her to a realisation about the status of slaves, even temporary ones, in society.
By the time the two weeks were nearing completion she was a changed girl. Her friends all bar two had instantly dropped her at school; she soon learnt who her real friends were. In class she had to sit at the slaves desk. In some classes this meant sitting next to Ed who was in her grade. They soon built a bond based on their situation and when her time was over she continued to sit with Ed.
She saw how Marcus helped me and did the same for Ed even when her time was finished and she no longer had too. She even thanked Ed and me for not taking out vengeance upon her when we had the chance. This more than anything she said had bought her to the realisation of how wrong she had been to mistreat Ed the way she had.
Both Mr Norris and Mr Riley took Ed and I aside after her NEWDD servitude was completed and told us how pleased and proud of us they were with our attitude towards Samantha and the mature way we had handled ourselves during Samantha's period of servitude.
From this time on, Ed like me had that close friend, who would help him through those rough times and share those special moments that occur in a slaves life. The only compensation of my imminent visit to Mr Norris's office was that my best and closest friend Marcus would be with me.
I though also about how my mother and my brother Jim were also on the scene during all these earl
being forced into indentured servitude, even though the law saw it as voluntary servitude, my mind had been set totally against my mother. It would be fair to say that in the first week or so after our indenture, till the first time that we met up with mum, that I had developed a bitter hatred for her as I felt she had betrayed Ed and I.
Our servitude being voluntary and indentured meant that mum was entitled to a visit every month with us. To my surprise she always made the effort to keep that visitation right.
After a couple of visits it became clear that she held a mothers concern for us but no real love. She made the effort to be present on special occasions as well, like when Mr Norris arranged a small family afternoon tea after school for my fifteenth birthday in July. I appreciated her efforts and over the months my attitude to her softened greatly. In her own strange way I realised, she was totally convinced she had done the right thing by us.
Mum had ensured through the terms of the indenture that we could only serve as domestic servants and she kept a strict check that these terms were being adhered too. She told Mr Norris, in my presence on her first visit that she was glad the school had seen fit to purchase our sub indenture, as it was much more likely that the school would keep to the terms.
She arranged with Mr Norris for Jim to have special visitation rights every Friday after school till six pm with Ed and I. Some times one or both of us were excused from duties for a couple of hours till six, so that we could do things with Jim. It was our only time of any real freedom, but we were restricted in where we could go or what we could do.
Jim was at school with us from our first day of return as slaves, but he was in the 8th and so did not mix during class with me in 9th or Ed in 11th.
At PHS we moved into the new school year after the school returned from summer holidays in early September. Jim moved into 9th grade, Marcus and I into 10th grade and Ed into his senior year at school, the 12th grade
vitude both Ed and I had wondered at the time if he would have been appointed a School Prefect, maybe even the ultimate honour `Head Boy'!
Both Ed and I had brief meetings with Jim in the schoolyard in those early days, where he acted very much like the bulk of the students and looked down on our slave status. Early on this caused some real tensions between us three brothers. It was not till he started coming regularly on the Fridays that both Ed and I started to develop the close relationship we had enjoyed with Jim prior to our servitude.
Once we could spend time alone together on Fridays away from Jim's friends and other spying eyes, where there was no peer pressure for Jim to act in a certain way, he soon asked for our forgiveness and begged to be just a brother as before.
I have to confess Ed was more mature on this matter and soon forgave Jim. I was a bit slower but eventually I too couldn't deny our brotherly love and forgave Jim as well. Right from the beginning of our servitude, Mr Norris encouraged the three of us brothers to behave towards each other as just that, brothers, not as free person and servant.
Once over our initial problems, Jim had lots of questions about our experiences as a slave and seemed fascinated with how we were treated. He did witness very occasionally both Ed and I get punished but I also remember Mr Norris caning his hands three times for misbehaviour whilst staying with us one Friday afternoon.
There was real satisfaction to me, in seeing Jim caned. I know I should not be like that with anyone let alone my brother but the truth is, I had a deep down bitter resentment of Jim's free status and seeing him suffer punishment made that bitterness subside to some small extent.
To keep my mind engaged I thought also about how after a few months Mum had told us about a man she had become close friends with since our dad's enslavement.
I had met Mr Walter Vanderbilt a couple of times at our house when dad had invited him over for dinner. He was a very successful and wealthy investor,
children. Mum knew him well and she told Ed and I how he had comforted and guided her through the stressing times of the last few months.
Stressing times I though, try indentured enslavement if you want real stress!
Jim didn't like mum becoming close friends with Mr Vanderbilt. She had spent minimal time with Jim as it was but now she spent even less time with him.
Mum had a new wealthy male companion; her social life was again on the move. This was the life she enjoyed and again she could afford to frequent the elite social circles that had disappeared when she lost the use of my father's money and influence.
Mum with the help of Mr Vanderbilt's money decided after a while to have Jim boarding full time atPHS. Maybe that was tough for him, but what the hell, it was nothing compared too what Ed and I had suffered and would continue to endure as indentured servants.
It might shock you, but I truthfully didn't care all that much what mum did with Jim or at all with Mr Vanderbilt. It did not impact on the lives of Ed and I now that we were indentured and I remember thinking at the time that in many ways we were better off than Jim, who had been shoved out of the way, now having to live the life of a boarder at school.
Jim on the other hand didn't seem to mind the boarding school. He told me that life with mum was very lonely now that Ed and I were not around. Boarding gave him a wider group of friends and things to do and as well we were both now close by if he got lonely. However he also soon learnt that if he came over any other day except Fridays he would be expected to help us in our houseboy duties. Guess what? He mostly only came over on Fridays.
I remembered how on one occasion when Ed and I were having our short monthly meeting with Mum, Ed asked if she had heard anything about Dad. Ed told Mum about meeting up with him at the auction house after he and we had been sold. She seemed concerned when Ed told her about how Dad looked at that time.
However Mum told Ed and I that because Dad was sentenced to more
ude the rules were very different than applied to Ed or I.
There was no way she was allowed to make contact with Dad. The authorities kept his location and owner, confidential information. It was part of the punishment process for long-term and life slaves, that they had lost their former life. They were to suffer the complete separation of their new lives as opposed to their past life. Therefore Mum told us she knew nothing about Dad and was not allowed to try to find out, as there were heavy penalties that could be imposed if she did try.
I asked what the rules were about visitation to those born into servitude. Mum told me that as far as she knew they were the same as the rules that applied to Ed and I.
I though back over how I had promised that one day I would try to buy Raymond if at all possible and I was desperate to find out where he was and how he was. I had only just turned 15, and I knew that then was not the right time to raise that topic with mum. She would just not have been interested. I resigned myself to having to wait till I was older and maybe there would be some opportunity to find out more about Raymond and his brother Peter as well as my two other half brothers. I felt a moral obligation towards them. Ed kept telling me I was stupid and to worry about Jim first.
Well I did worry about Jim to some extent but as a boarder he was probably better off and happier than he had been since Ed and I had been indentured. I was nowhere so sure about Raymond, Peter and my other two half brothers, Dean and Alex. But if the opportunity ever arose in the future I promised myself again, that I would try to help them out as much as I could.
My mind wandering thoughts were broken off at this point as the bell to signal recess rang out. I immediately became aware again of the gut retching nervous feeling that was consuming me.
It was time!
End Chapter 9.
"I dont know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve". JRR Tolkien