The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Meghan Reid — Monday, June 21st, 2015

Matthew had found his purpose in life. He was going to dick sluts until his heart gave out. It was more than I had expected of him. Now, I was looking at Deborah. She was desperate. I shouldn’t believe it. Her heart beat for my brother. She just asked Matty to get her pregnant.

“Um...” He stuttered and smiled, “But I, uh...”

“Deborah, I’d love to have you as part of our family,” I leaned over and hugged her tightly. She was shaking but physically hot. Her left arm snaked around me. I put my lips to her ear, “If Matty says yes in front of everyone, do you think anyone will respect his rules?”

“Meghan?” Matthew eagerly backpedalled out of Deborah’s question.

“I won’t,” Deborah hardly even mouthed the words, but I heard them.

“Yes, Matty?” He was smiling lamely at me.

“I, I think I’d be—I...Well,” He scratched his hair. Zina climbed up him. She kissed him before he formed an answer.

“He was going to say yes,” Robin leaned into Deborah and me.

I agreed with her. In fact, I smiled. I had to get out of this city. My brother rinsed his cock in Melody’s mouth. She was his prettiest and all these women were hot. I could just feel it; we were made to play around together. I loved men, yet I was often distracted by women. I wasn’t feeling simple distraction for Eden or Sylvie right now. I sat back up and squeezed Deborah’s arm.

“Hmm?” She asked not taking her eyes off of him. He was kissing Zina now and Eden was circling up against his back.

“Can I grab something from the kitchen?”

“If there’s extra,” She mumbled distractedly, “Not too much booze. Please, don’t turn on the cookware.”

“K,” I stood up and walked past her. I took Kelly’s hand. She was safe. Tonight. But I’d be gone tomorrow. I wasn’t going to be his Jiminy Cricket.

“What’s going on?” She asked me.

“We’re getting some supplies,” I looked over and Matthew’s dick had three colors of hands on it. I was proud of him.

“OK...” Kelly let me lead her away. She kept her giant blue eyes all over Matthew. She was a cute kid.

“What are you? Sixteen?”

“Fourteen,” She retorted. Fuck. Poor kid. We took the corner by the office into the servers’ kitchen. There was a steel counter running a line right down the right side separating the main kitchen from this aisle. There were a few glass door fridges and I opened the second.

“You’re a virgin?”

“Yeah!” She grew defensive. She tightly hugged herself.

“OK,” I grabbed two cans of whipped cream, “How’s school?”

“Uh, it’s summer vacation now. I mean, I like school.” To her, I think, I was a Grown Up and, as much as she clearly wanted Matthew to treat her like a Grown Up or the waitresses to include her in Grown Up stuff, I was a different animal than she was. She might have said only the truth and still said nothing at all.

“Good,” I didn’t really give a shit, “Do you like math? Science?”

“Uh, sure,” She probably did very well in both. She seemed like a smart girl. I wondered if she had any idea how pretty she was. She was fair and lightly freckled. She had a figure on her coltish frame. Her tits were prominent but not large. She’d probably be swept away into sex the moment she stepped into a high school. She didn’t have a butt yet but once her skeleton achieved its full size, she’d curve out a bit. That was how I had grown, or she’d be a skinny girl well into her twenties, like how Misty was turning out. Her hair was a darkish rust color and she wore it down to the middle of her back, “Why are we getting whipped cream?”

I turned to her and she smiled back. I lifted the can from her left hand and flicked the top off with my thumb. She caught it offhand. I leaned forward and sprayed a swirl onto the tip of her nose. She went cross-eyed and I leaned in and sucked it off of her face. She was fire truck red and giggling. Her fingers, with really short green painted nails, completely hid away her face as she wiped away the saliva and cream left behind.

“You’re sillier than Matthew,” She noted.

“Yeah, Matthew’s only going to spray that stuff on our tits or his cock,” Kelly and I both turned to see Supergirl. Courtney was the worst of them. My bracelet weighed a ton. Worst of us.

“That’s why you don’t give him the cans,” I rolled my eyes. Courtney didn’t catch the can I threw to her. I smirked at Kelly who laughed as Supergirl scrambled to pick up the can off the brown tiles, “Start along the ridge of someone’s ear, probably Eden.”

“Uh, thanks,” Courtney looked to the can Kelly held tightly with both hands, “You coming Kell?”

“No, I need her for a little longer,” I wrapped my arm over Kelly’s shoulders. She was guarded but still in awe of me.

“There’s a bottles of chocolate syrup too,” Kelly suggested. Courtney took the can from her hands.

“I can’t believe Sylvie got you for him,” Courtney admonished herself. She opened the fridge and grabbed the black squeeze bottle, “Wish me luck!”

“Good luck,” Kelly’s eyes were on Courtney’s butt. Her skirt was up in the back and her legs were glistening from her fuck with Matthew.

“Break a leg,” I grinned.

“What are we going to do?” Kelly looked to me.

“We can watch for a bit but I’m going to take you home,” She was immediately distraught, “We don’t have to go right away. We can see a little of what he’s doing to the girls, But, we’re bridges too far for Matty.”

“I can do anything they can do!” She blustered. I didn’t doubt it, I just didn’t want to be party to it.

“Are you attracted to girls?” I brushed her hair back over her ears, revealing constellations of black emeralds and silver studs.

“I think you and Eden and Melody are really pretty,” She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Think about kissing Eden.” Her eyes went straight to her toes, “See it’s not—”

I had to sway back to keep her lips off of mine. Didn’t help that the girl half my age was an inch taller than me. She looked devastated.

“Have you had your first kiss?” I lifted her chin, preventing her from running away.

“No—But—”

“Would you like your first kiss to be with Matthew?” I asked her and realized I was admitting a horrible truth to myself. The bracelet instilled a compulsion to make Matthew happy. I knew, intellectually, that sex makes men happy and that Matthew was a man. I wanted to fuck my brother. Thankfully, half as much as I wanted to get this girl out of his reach and considerably less than I wanted to flee back to Pictou.

“I do,” She looked to me and her gorgeous eyes that shook with whatever war was going on in her brain.

“Then keep it for Matthew,” She needed the hug less than I did. I felt safer in her arms, “It won’t be too long. I promise. His laws are made to be broken.”

Zinaida Astrikova — Monday, June 21st, 2015

I looked great. I had to look good. I made money with my smile. Great tits help out any smile. I was surrounded by teenagers and young twenty-somethings and I felt gorgeous. It was the effort really. I loved this dress. It slid off of my body and haloed my shoes. I was wearing a dark green bra and panty set. I slipped back into Matthew’s arm.

In his other arm, He was kissing Eden. She had melted tightly against him. She was peacocking for the whole fucking room. He still held me. He still stroked my back. Melody knelt at my hip and drew her lips back from Matthew’s hard cock. I stroked her hair. She looked to me as a question.

All my adult life, I have had an on again, off again thing with the same man. The smell of Matthew, clean but starting to sweat, hungry, titillated me beyond the horniness I found familiar. I leaned in and kissed along his ear as Eden fought his tongue. Matthew was taller, darker, and more handsome than I boomeranged around. He was a little soft in the middle but I bet we could help out his motivation for self improvement.

Melody slipped away and I sidled hip to hip with Eden. He moved his kiss from her to me. I could taste her fruity lip gloss still clinging on him. She edged back. The room was quiet. We were loud. Breathing and kissing like a stampede. We breathed apart, Matthew looked down to both of us.

I was self conscious and not used to the feeling. Flashes of memories of juvenile crushes simmered under my self worth. I was standing next to a twenty-four year old. Competing with a twenty-four year old. Not giving a millimeter to a twenty-four year old. My belly was as flat, my skin as smooth, my desire as evident as hers. I was glad I was still still mostly dressed. My tits only competed because our bras were great. I blushed.

“You’re beautiful,” His eyes told Eden and then myself. He reached for Eden’s hand.

“Don’t leave me like that again,” Eden whispered as she was led to the booth he had fucked Courtney in.

He stripped off her bra. I hovered back. He had left his pants at my feet. She shimmied out of her panties. I hurried up behind him.

I never had been part of a threesome before. This wasn’t the place for it. Eden was laid out on the bench of the booth, her leg flush against his chest. I watched his live cock enter her dripping pussy. I gasped as she gasped.

“Oh God!” She squealed. She looked me in the eye. She was marking her territory. I stepped back. Matthew wasted little time in getting up to speed. I turned back to my dress.

“Leave it off,” Deborah shook her head and gestured to the seat Meghan had left. Courtney got up and left for the kitchen, “We need a better place for this.”

“We have the house,” Russian glasses girl sighed, “Everett’s house.”

“Yes, yes we do,” Deborah grinned, she turned to me.

“Do you want us to move the party?” I asked looking around. The teenagers were whispering to themselves. The old cooks were just watching Matthew’s butt. Robin was grumpy and Erica was scared. The dishwashers ignored each other. Sylvie bounced on her hands and Melody clicked her tongue ring.

“Oh! Oh!” Eden repeated a lot. Her voice spiked and sank. Matthew grunted uncommonly.

“Meghan has the best ideas!” Courtney announced. She had two cans of whipped cream in one hand and chocolate syrup in the other. She looked me over. She looked to Deborah, “I think Zina’s set the dress code.”

“I think you’re right,” Deborah agreed. She picked open her shirt and shrugged it back. The others looked around. Melody hurried out of her clothes. Phoebe stripped off mechanically. Dawn seemed more comfortable as others got naked. Neither she nor Phoebe wore a bra under their clothes. Courtney realized she was stuck in her superhero costume.

“Why bother?” Robin was staring at Melody, “Not like he can get it back up for all of us.”

“He can. Very easily,” Deborah answered, “And for days.”

“No,” Phoebe replied, “Once Melody passes out the magic goes to sleep with her.”

“God!” Erica hadn’t started undressing at all. Neither had Sylvie. Tiffany and Raena were giggling taking the others’ clothes off . Gwen was fully naked and pouty. Nattie, having stopped in her demi-bra and g-string, picked up the bags Courtney had first carried out from the office.

“What is this for?” Her grimace recoiled from the bag.

“It’s to liven us up a little,” Deborah aged phenomenally. I was doing pretty good myself. I’d put money down that Courtney and Raena would burn bright and quickly fade away. Eden had a future in her incredible skin. I flicked my eyes back to Nattie as she lifted out a dildo and a harness. Oh. My.

“I’m next,” I lunged before Courtney as she started to cross the chaos to Matthew. Eden was performing. She was loud, breathy and needful. One ankle was in the crook of his neck and the other was lifting and separating his butt. I hoped I could get him to go running with me. That could be a great ass.

“Next? What about now?” Courtney raised her eyebrow, “Why wait your turn?”

“He’s only got one dick,” Tiffany laughed.

“And that booth is too closed up for a threesome,” Deborah sighed.

“Threesome?” Robin had taken the bag from Nattie as the harness circled the seats. Sylvie passed it on like it was a hot potato. Gwen seemed conflicted on letting it go. I’d wear it, I realized. But Deborah was right, we needed to open things up. I stepped out of my shoes and onto the carpet. We needed a blanket or something.

“Fuck, Eden!” Matthew grunted.

“Come on, Matthew!” Eden surfaced out of a maelstrom of ohs and pleases. I accepted the harness from Melody and draped it over Courtney’s neck. She still had the whipped cream and chocolate sauce cluttering her hands. I slipped over to Matthew.

“Jesus!” Eden giggled, tickled, as the hand I ran down Matthew’s neck and back teased her heel. I ended up grabbing a fistful of Matthew’s ass and just riding along on his thrusts into Eden. Matthew was hunched forward and Eden was jiggling wildly. I couldn’t steal a kiss but I licked his ear.

“C’mon Matthew,” I pleaded, “Fuck her good.”

Seeing a man I was going to fuck giving it to another woman was thrilling. That thought bothered me. I wasn’t surprised. He had a nice cock, even as it splashed out and into Eden’s tightness. She was lurid red. Her belly tightened and sweat defined her hard abs. She was sex and I wanted so much to steal her place.

“Motherfucker!” She hitched.

“Now?” Matthew hoped.

“Now!” I growled. I pressed my tits into his arm. I laid my hand over his over Eden’s hip. He was digging into her with his fingers. I felt that grip on my body in sympathy alone. I wouldn’t have guessed how strong he had held her. I felt it weakening my ankles, knees and hips. I huffed, knowing that I could watch him straggle from Eden to Sylvie or to Deborah and I’d follow him. His little puppy bitch. I wondered if there was a leash in that bag.

Eden throat was wide open and her eyes were hard closed. The table blocked Matthew’s shoulder. He twisted, wanted or needing to kiss her. I shivered, as the cold can ran up my spine. Courtney had joined us. There was a hiss.

“What the fuck girls”?” Matthew’s laughter shook his whole body and the tremors swept into Eden. Courtney left a crinkled line of cream along Matthew’s ear and my tongue chased after him even as he twitched away.

“Matthew!” Eden’s hands had been askew, forced away from the action by dint of booth geometry. The table started shaking as she grabbed onto its single centered leg.

“You’re next.” Courtney whispered and slipped the can into my hand.

Eden was cursing or spitting or sighing or moaning but never quite finishing any action. Matthew was pumping as hard as he could. I watched Eden, knowing how cumming spasms came to me and she was nothing like it. Her toes were curled. Her legs kept trying to straighten. Her torso kinked. Her jaw rattled.

Matthew came like the men I knew. His face darkened. His throat tautened. His grip shook. His voice rumbled.

I had never seen anyone have sex before. I was enthralled. I kissed Matthew on the neck. He was laughing. I couldn’t tell why. He pulled back from the sloppy remains of Eden’s cunt. I almost wanted to dip my finger in their mess. To know what such a thing felt like. Was it different from me? Was it better? Instead, I sprayed a bit of a cream onto Matthew’s nose and kissed the mess until we had to lick it off around each other’s lips.

“Mmm, Zina?” Eden was sitting up watching us. She had the eyes of a happy woman and the frown of a damaged one.

“It’s time I borrowed your boyfriend.” I smirked at her. She nodded.

“Have fun,” She bade Matthew a sweet farewell and collapsed onto the bench with all the ham of shitty actress. He leaned down and kissed her on the thigh.

“C’mon, let’s go see Melody,” He wrapped his arm around my waist and we turned back to the room. Things had changed. Everyone was down to their underwear at least. The seats were pushed back even further, Deborah and Sylvie were coming back in through the kitchen. Sylvie carried a pair of old blankets, I had to guess came from Deborah’s truck. Raena walked over, her young tits high and bouncy, she handed Matthew a bottle of water.

“You know what it’s like when you forget to stay hydrated,” She mothered him and I had to smile. She was half my age and half Matthew’s size. She smiled when Matthew drank. Tiffany, still wearing her simple black bra and panties, came over and swept Raena off to the side.

Deborah took the blankets from Sylvie’s arms. Had they gone out to the parking lot in their underwear? I’d’ve been terrified to do that. I wasn’t surprised about Sylvie. They laid down both layers to protect us from rugburn. Melody crawled over from the corner. She looked at Matthew’s cock, still drenched of Eden, and she took it quietly in her hand. I saw the flash of her tongue stud as she hesitated. He brushed aside her bangs. She resurrected his erection.

Melody took the recapped bottle of water and scurried away. Matthew had turned to me and he dragged me into a kiss. Someone snuck up behind me and undid my bra. Someone else, dragged down my panties. I had a bush and I flared red realizing how different I must’ve looked from Eden’s immaculate cunt. Matthew didn’t seem to mind as he laid me down across the blankets. Where’d the whipped cream go? I wondered in half a thought.

I spread my legs so eagerly. I felt his fingers run up my sex. I needed foreplay. I lived for foreplay. If he wasted a second on foreplay, I’d have screamed right in his face. I couldn’t handle the waiting for him at that moment. He kissed me again. I knitted my fingers behind his neck. Others were on the blankets. I turned my head to see Tiffany’s knee and past her, beyond her hip, watching from a safe distance, I met Meghan’s eyes. His sister. I never felt so judged. She was sharing a milkshake with Kelly. The redhead didn’t see me but the sister. The sister weighed and measured everything about me.

I had existential crisis. I held his shaft with my fingertips rubbing his balls as I made certain he was in me. All those images of my future became untenable. The house, the wedding, the dream. The three of us. Me, the boy, and his father would be a family. I always believed that one of these times he’d stop getting restless. That I’d stop getting impatient. That we’d stop leaving each other. I knew he couldn’t come home anymore; he could only come back.

“Matthew,” I whimpered, “Make me feel like Eden.”

Erica Arnoldson — Monday, June 21st, 2015

Maybe they had been right? Maybe four months was long enough? It hadn’t felt like it. I’d hardly managed to put away the comfort food and rejoin yoga. I screamed in recognition of that familiar feeling. Matthew was bigger than I was used to.

I laid in the wet spot of a dozen sluts. Robin’s weight bore down on top of me. Matthew fucked inside our crisscrossed legs. Robin was a bigger girl than me. Why couldn’t I be on top? Our tits were flattened into each other. She licked around my lips.

I had always believed I was an ally to the gay community. This lesbian, despite the cock that shifting between our pussies, really made me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to see this place ever again. I had only missed Franklin and only when he was in the best of moods. This place rotted me away.

I still worked at The Gala. I still would for quite a while. The job he wanted me for hardly existed yet. I was just his backup chef and a backup whore. Deborah had visited me weeks ago. I had cried a dozen times until I had found myself looking Matthew face to face. Now I was excited.

It wasn’t like me. I had just lost a boyfriend. Just lost a love. My friends had been harping on me for weeks to get out there again. Even if I had been ready to meet someone, I certainly wasn’t ready to be with someone. He pulled out of me again. Robin grabbed my hair and kissed me again. I saw her eyes. She was fighting off the feeling of a cock inside her. She didn’t even like dick, let alone his dick, let alone him. Give me his dick. Give me Matthew. I turned my head. Was I homophobic?

Next to me, those fucking nymphet teenagers were rolling around and laughing as they fingerbanged each other. Supergirl was driving a strap-on up someone’s cunt. She, Supergirl, came like a brick through a window and her partner collapsed like someone had stolen her Christmas. Deborah waited, her legs crossed, still the only woman wearing anything. I guess Supergirl was wearing a costume and her fake dick and Nattie was wearing her glasses. She must’ve cleaned the cum off of them.

The cock went back into me. I sighed, grunted, moaned relief. Fuck me harder! I would’ve yelled but the dyke kept biting my lip. She rubbed my clit too, begging me to return a favor that freaked me out worse than this God awful orgy. Fifteen strokes, I counted, and he was gone again. I tried counting the times Robin’s shoulder impacted mine but I didn’t want to believe that she was getting more dick than me. He was back.

“Oh!” I realized I’d been edged thirteen too many times. I spoke the only words I could form, “Make me cum!”

“Yes, honey!” Robin wiggled herself on my thigh. Her fingers twisted around my clit. Don’t leave me, Matthew. I thrashed and flopped and screamed. When had I become a screamer?

“I think I missed you two. Thank you so much, Deborah,” Matthew laughed. I came because of Robin. He pounded into her. I had get her off; I had to get her off. I couldn’t differentiate her weight on my chest from her sex. I couldn’t reach her as Matthew was straddling my leg as he bounced her ass down on his dick. I swirled my hands around her hips. She put her hand on my cheek, a hand stinking of my own cum.

“Honey?” She pleaded. I kissed her despite my nature. I realized a hundred things. I feared so many more. I was turned on by Robin. I was turned on by Supergirl. I was turned on by giggling teenagers. I was turned on by these whores. I was tearing up.

“Matthew, it’s getting time, we have to clean up before the morning crew gets here.” Deborah had finally come out of her chair, finally, onto the fuck blankets. I was looking right up her leg, into the flooded gusset of her panties. I shivered. Robin yelled. Matthew chuckled.

“You think I’m going to let you out of here without a turn?” Deborah fell, I think she was cumming just from being told.

“Don’t look at her, honey,” Robin pulled my face back to hers, “I just need you for a minute more.”

Oh fuck!

Melody Gardiner — Monday, June 21st, 2015

I had just vacuumed cum out of the carpet where I worked. My jaw was sore and my tongue was numb. Deborah had rushed me to her apartment after the party and we’d showered each other with basically liquid bones. I think she recorded it. I think I was in porn now. I know Raena had burned out her battery with her phone camera. I know there were pictures of my full mouth. I hadn’t even had a cum. I finally believed the restaurant was just about perfect. Except for the last vestiges of mess.

“Good morning!” Franklin’s arrival scared the Christ out of me. I kicked off the vacuum, “You alright sweetness? You look like you haven’t slept.”

“A boy kept me up,” I was shit at lying but I laughed to myself.

“Ah, just you and me?” He looked around the restaurant, “I thought I saw another car in the parking lot.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Oh fuck... I realized who’s car that was. “Zina’s supposed to be in in an hour though.”

“Yeah, well, I’d better get prep started. Make sure Deborah knows you had to vacuum this morning. Whoever closed last night’s gotta date with Ms Flynn.”

“I—” Think she knows. No, couldn’t say that. We couldn’t talk about the harem outside the harem. How come that was the only rule that I felt I had to follow? “I’ll be fine. Get cracking, chop chop.”

“You’re lucky my wife put the fear of women in me, pretty one,” He laughed with a look to the clock, “You clock in yet?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, the schedule says 4:45 to 1,” He pointed out. It was twenty too, “I’ll vouch for you cause of the mess and you don’t open too often but, next time, pour yourself a coffee and don’t do shit until it’s your time to do shit.”

“Good advice,” I agreed. I could really go for a fourth cup. Maybe tea, I had been left a little hoarse. He was going straight to the kitchen. Even the bosses at The Lounge started at the registers, “You don’t clock in?”

“Girl, I’m on salary,” He laughed, “Which means, I don’t get an extra cent for extra work.”

“But you’re always going above and beyond,” He set a standard for his kitchen which explained the massive turnover the back half went through. I think, besides Matthew, the longest working cook or helper was approaching eighteen months.

“Cause I like this place almost as much as I like you people,” He laughed, “Be careful with Matthew though. He’s not the greatest guy to be keeping you up all night.”

I tried not to blush and succeeded in not talking as he went back to start on prep. I took a deep breath. I headed to the office.

Everett looked at me with his cold empty gaze. He was sitting in the office chair. Sitting up straight. Hands folded on the table. Fuck. I closed the door and picked up the phone. Deborah’s was number one on speed dial.

“Hi, Franklin?” Deborah sounded cheerful.

“No, it’s me, Melody,” I rushed.

“Jesus, let me sleep!” She begged. Her cheerful facade hadn’t crumbled, it had disintegrated.

“Deb, Everett’s still here.”

“Fuck!” She swore, “I’ll be right over.”

She hung up in my ear. I put down the receiver. The bracelet on his wrist was cuter than mine. I squeezed the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes. What the fuck was wrong with me? I was going to drink an entire urn of coffee.

“Everett?”

“Yes.” He answered in a normal indoor voice, but much louder than I had spoken.

“Um, what’s happened to you?”

“I was a threat to Matthew’s women. I have given up myself. I am awaiting my suicide instructions.”

“Oh. Good...”

Eden MacMaster — Monday, June 21st, 2015

Matthew snored in my arms. Gwen lay awake in his. I felt so bad for Melody. She had opened this morning. I was fearing making it in for 10 AM. I hadn’t slept, I don’t think, but the three hours had run swiftly by. I was special. I had had Matthew three times last night. I don’t think anyone else had him twice. Though Melody had licked us all off of his cock. I smiled remembering each moment whether alone, alongside Robin, or even spitroasting Sylvie. I kinda loved the strap-on, when I wore it. Ripping away all the feelings Matthew was giving to Sylvie. It made me feel better.

I looked across their shoulders. Everett’s watch sat on Gwen’s nightstand, flush against the music box. I couldn’t quite think about the music box. I read and reread and doublechecked and spellchecked and rewrote the entire manual on that cursed thing. The binder was still on the kitchen counter.

The watch. Well, it scared me worse than the bracelets. The men who wore Matthew’s watches were worth less than the women who wore his bracelets. Except, they wouldn’t know that. They wouldn’t believe that. We wouldn’t prove that. He just wanted to keep his friends. And we were his friends too. He just wanted to protect us. He hadn’t done it the best way. I did not want to give that watch back to Everett.

“Gwen?”

“Yeah, Sweetie?” She was so happy in his arms. She could believe the rest of it wasn’t so bad. He had to hold her to sleep now. I wasn’t Cuddly.

“We can’t give Everett his watch back.”

“No, of course not,” Good she was as understanding as I was , “Everett’s just nothing.”

“OK, so how do we go forward?”

“Go forward with what?” She murmured. She was almost purring.

“Giving the watch to Franklin.”

“Oh no,” Gwen moaned, “That poor sweet man.”