The Pullover
Part One — Preparation for the Cell Called Passive Obedience

Chapters 19 and 20

My three days with Annie and Nel ranged from tediously boring times alone tied up to spectacular sex that I still remember. The sex was with Annie when Nel was out working. Nel and I never did anything, at least not that way.

The first night, down river in a seedy hotel whose halls stank of urine, I slept on the floor, bound more carefully than Elizabeth or Dot ever cared to do. The tying was Nel's work, done while she complained about how I'd ruined her ass, accented with a few kicks that did no lasting damage. Annie was able to seduce Nel from Nel's delight in abusing me and they spent the night in the bed making love. I witnessed, by ear, I wasn't able to see them, a new and different face of Nel's and could perhaps better understand her hostility toward me.

Nel peddled herself afternoons and evenings; Annie stayed with me. I remained bound, my feet untied for visits to the bathroom down the hall led by Nel. I began to know how a dog must feel that must stay inside all day and its reaction to its master's footsteps.

I'm not quite sure how Annie proposed to shift the dynamic so that I would be in charge as their, or more properly her, man. I think she imagined Nel's work would replenish the billfold and that someday everything would be as she'd promised me.

Even after three days I couldn't tell if Annie was truly blind. There were moments when I believed her eyes were as good as mine.

Annie's use of me, in Nel's absence, was sedate and prolonged. I won't pretend that I didn't look forward to those times in her amazing cunt, but I found myself more and more pretending I was with another which caused not a little confusion since it wasn't proper to think such things of one's high school principal.

While Nel and Annie made love in the bed above me I thought back, after a day the weekend seemed ages ago, to Elizabeth, her scent and her smile and the way her skin felt against mine. If it had been Elizabeth who'd taken me, I couldn't help but believe I would have been a great deal happier.

My rescue came Wednesday night before Nel was back. Jasper and Dot appeared in the open doorway, Annie stopped briefly what she was doing on me then continued more briskly. Dot shut the door behind them, stood next to Jasper watching us. I smiled up to her.

"You're in trouble with Miss Nichols, I hope you know."

"Do it," Annie said. "Do it."

My back arched and my eyes pleaded with Dot's as I came. Annie fell across me.

"The deal," Dot said, "is that you get to borrow," she emphasized the verbal, "him. Not keep him."

Annie held me and didn't say a word. I couldn't move with her on top of me and my hands and feet tied.

"Elizabeth's down in the car waiting for us, Charlie. When you're done." Dot sat on the bed.

Jasper leaned against the wall and grinned at me. I guess he knew what this felt like. He must have an older sister too.

"What upset Miss Nichols the most, Charlie," Dot said, "Was that you didn't take The Charterhouse of Parma with you."

"I didn't have an opportunity to pack."

"Check to see if there's any money around here, Jasper."

That roused Annie. She sat up, still gripping my cock tightly so I couldn't slide out. "That's ours," talking about the billfold Jasper had found.

"You owe Elizabeth, dear." Dot kicked her feet like a little girl as she looked down at us.

"Charlie wanted to go with me. Isn't that true, Charlie?"

I shook my head.

"You said yes."

"Nel was torturing me."

"She loves you."

I rolled my eyes.

"I love you." She began to rock her hips.

"I think he's done for a while, Annie."

Jasper took money from the billfold and handed it over Annie's head to Dot. Annie grabbed for it.

"You can see," I said.

"Is he stupid or what?" Dot said. She stuffed the money into her sweater, got off the bed and kicked me.

Annie jumped up, almost tearing my cock off, and struck at Dot. Jasper held Annie as she struggled. Annie managed to kick me as I tried to roll away.

"Untie me," I said.

"Why?" Dot said. She took the money out of her sweater and began counting it.

"So I can go. Nel is crazy. She wants to kill me."

"Sounds sane to me," Dot said. She separated the bills into three piles. She folded one pile in half and stuffed it back into her sweater. "This is yours, Jasper." She touched a pile. "And this is Elizabeth's."

"Please," I said.

"Oh, all right." Dot bent and struggled with the knots. "I'm going to need a knife."

"Are you going to be good?" Jasper asked Annie. She gave a nod and stopped fighting him. Jasper took a pocketknife out of his back pocket, opened it and handed the knife to Dot.

Dot's eyes gleamed when she held the knife. She rotated the blade so it glinted. "If you weren't finally beginning to pay Elizabeth back for everything you put her through, brother mine, I'd cut it off and leave you here."

I watched the blade as it moved overhead. I twisted to watch her cut my hands from the bed leg. She only nicked me once. My ankles were cut free and I sat up.

Annie dressed in a corner. I found my clothes, put them on after removing the ropes from my wrists and ankles. I wanted to leave before Nel got back.

Dot handed me a pile of money. "This is Elizabeth's. You give it to her."

I saw a twenty on top and didn't look further. My hands were shaking when I put it in my pocket.

"What about me?" Annie said as Jasper opened the door to leave.

Dot looked to me. "Well?"

"I don't know," I said.

"That's the truth." Dot said to Annie, "Come along and we'll see what Elizabeth says."

Annie put her hand on my shoulder and followed me, putting on her blind act again.

"What about Nel?" I said.

"I don't care about Nel," Annie said behind me.

"So be it." Dot led us down to the car.

Elizabeth jumped out of the Chevy, ran to me and gave me a big hug. "Charlie!"

I was happy to see her too.

"See the car I bought. Once you learn, you can drive it." Elizabeth noticed Annie and stopped. "Oh."

Annie said, "I want to go back too."

"It's your choice," Dot said.

"Charlie?" Elizabeth pulled me away from Annie's grip.

Jasper got into the driver's seat; Dot sat next to him. Annie waited next to the car watching us.

"What do you think, Charlie?"

I honestly didn't know. I still liked Annie for some reason but trusted her about as far as I could throw her.

"Is she good in bed?" Elizabeth asked this and looked down. She was blushing.

"Yes," I said.

"Better than me?"

"No. I love you."

She raised her eyes and smiled. "You still love me?"

"Of course," I said. She was in my arms.

"I've made you a ton of money, Charlie. Not as much as you've made me, that's true."

"Oh," I said. I took the wad of bills out of my pocket and handed it to her.

She counted the money twice before folding it and putting it in her coat pocket. "New dress, Charlie. See?" She unbuttoned the coat and showed me.

She looked so beautiful. The dress had only one stain, on the bodice, and that looked recent. Her blonde hair glinted in the sun. "We'll keep her, Charlie, if she gives half to me, half to you. How does that sound? And she'll get a freebie once a week. Seems only fair." She grinned at me. "I've missed you."

"Elizabeth, you have no way of knowing how much I've missed you."

"Shall I tell her?"

"Please."

"Go wait in the car then." Elizabeth turned back to me. "Isn't she a beauty? Cost a hundred but isn't she a beauty?"

I watched Elizabeth walk to Annie, noticed Elizabeth had new shoes too. I sat in the car behind my sister and waited. Elizabeth sat next to me and Annie behind Jasper.

Elizabeth and I held hands during the drive back; everyone in the car was silent. Jasper parked in front of my Mom's house and Dot and I got out. We had to wait as Elizabeth tipped Jasper. Annie watched us from the back. She motioned to me with her finger.

I went to her window. "Thank you," Annie said.

"Thank Elizabeth."

"I will when she's done." She paused. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?"

I didn't have the heart to tell her, on the balance, no, although there were moments.

"I'm sorry," she said. She cried beautifully.

I gave her hand a squeeze and left her. Elizabeth joined us after a few moments and she took me upstairs to our room, the twins were sleeping on the couch.

Elizabeth watched me with so much happiness in her face as Dot tied me to my bedstead. After putting me to bed she and Dot left to go downtown. Elizabeth wanted to see if she could get a few more in before tomorrow.

As I lay in my bed, warm and at home, the best place to be, with the love of a good woman sustaining me in lieu of dinner, I tried not to think of the total number. Elizabeth would tell me tomorrow morning. It could be hundreds.

Chapter 20

Before third period began I knocked on Miss Nichols' office door. "Come in," she said.

She was behind her desk, dark hair in a tight bun, collar buttoned, her hazel eyes flashed when she saw me. "Sit down. I will be with you in a moment."

I sat in the chair placed in front of the desk and breathed a sigh of relief. In a perverse (very perverse!) way I'd begun to think Annie and Miss Nichols were the same person. Of course they weren't and I knew that. Perhaps it was wishful thinking except Annie terrified me, whereas Miss Nichols only frightened me. They were similar — dark hair, same general outline of the face — but their eyes were entirely different. Annie's were almost lifeless. Miss Nichols', while they were able to freeze me, had warmth. A hint of the emergence of green in spring.

I'd only finished the first sixteen of the fifty pages of my assignment and I knew I had no excuse to offer. Plenty of reasons, but I couldn't offer the goings on of a brothel to Miss Nichols. She was worlds apart from such adventures; another way in which she and Annie were diametrically opposed.

The bell rang; Miss Nichols put down her pen and raised her eyes. There was no smile. "Well," she said.

When I swallowed the noise was so loud she winced.

She stood and walked toward me. As she circled my chair her dress brushed my shoulder. She went back toward the desk, passed it and stood in front of the window. A halo of light surrounded her; I could just barely make out the details of her face.

"Well, Mr. Johnston. What do you have to say for yourself?"

I didn't have anything to say for myself. I couldn't even plead stupidity.

"I understand that sweet Elizabeth wasn't enough for you. After debauching her, you set out to turn your sister to ruin."

"My sister?" My voice squeaked.

"My understanding is that she, like Elizabeth, will be," she paused, "working, an euphemism if ever there were one, at Sally's. Next weekend." She leaned forward, placed her hands on the desk. "I also understand that one of the poor unfortunates who," she paused, "works there, is now under your sway. When will enough be enough, Mr. Johnston?" She stood, turned toward the window and shut the curtains. "I find it hard to bear even looking at you." She shut the other window's curtains and the room was pitch dark. "You outshine the devil himself."

I heard the chair scrape, a rustle of cloth. I could see nothing in the room. I heard her settle the chair close to me, heard her sit down.

"When. If, rather, you reach the end of The Charterhouse of Parma, you will read where the two lovers meet in silence and darkness. Like this, but we aren't lovers, Mr. Johnston. Oh no. You are the fiend and I a poor woman who must devise a way to save my gender from your evil clutches. Put out your hand."

I stuck out my hand and it was taken, held between both of hers. I broke out in a sweat. She didn't speak which made it worse. My hand was held by hers, and I felt such a rush of pleasure. I could smell her, not her, the toilet water she used, the powder on her face, and her dress' starch.

I didn't want to think of her naked and in my clutches, or me naked in hers, but that's what came to mind. What came to mind was how Annie felt when she used me. I bit my lip.

"There," she said. "Perhaps that will help. Prayer has remarkable powers, Mr. Johnston. And I pray I may stop whatever pernicious influence you have on young females. I pray they see the error of their ways. And I pray you become again a son whose mother would be proud of him." She let go of my hand.

I had an erection. I left the book on my lap and held the wood chair seat with both hands.

"Tell me about your weekend, Mr. Johnston."

I was dumbfounded.

"I already have Elizabeth's astounding numbers. Well, Mr. Johnston. I can guess, without asking, that you didn't do your reading assignment. I can only assume by where you were and who you were with what you were doing instead. And then that little gallivant with two denizens of such a place. Alone in a hotel room with two women of the night for almost three whole days. Tell me. Was it worth it?"

I was sweating profusely. My erection jerked and the book fell off my lap.

"We're waiting," Miss Nichols said.

"Annie and Nel kidnapped me."

She gave a snort. "Surely it was the other way around. I was told you were found engaged in an act of . . . Such things must not be talked about on these premises."

"They did. They kidnapped me. Nel beat me up."

Miss Nichols gave a low laugh. "You fantasize, Mr. Johnston. The woman you call Nel is a victim. A weak defenseless creature coarsened by contact with the likes of you."

It felt so close in the room I was finding it hard to breathe.

"Well, Mr. Johnston?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Nichols."

"Sorry for what?"

"That you don't believe me."

"Why should I?"

"Because it is the truth."

"You think you are able to discuss truth with me? What is sweet Elizabeth?"

"My girlfriend?" Even I wasn't sure any more.

"She's a . . ." Miss Nichols rose to her feet, said above me, "You know very well what she is."

I swallowed noisily.

"And this woman you call Annie. Don't you imagine she has a family, a sister perhaps, who worry about her? Who would like nothing more than to have her home again rather than, what? Mr. Johnston."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Sorry for what? This discussion is going in circles."

"I'm going to be sick."

She moved closer, took my head and held it close to her. My face was buried in stiff cloth. I could feel a corset underneath. I didn't know then what it was — stiff and unpliable. When I finally did understand what a corset was and what it felt like, I hearkened back to this moment.

"Come, Mr. Johnston. Be a man."

I could barely breathe.

"Feeling better?"

I shook my head as much as her hands allowed. Her fingers moved slowly across the back of my head, down my neck, onto my back.

"What is it about you, Mr. Johnston, that makes young women lose their senses and do wanton acts? You look and dress average enough. You have no money, in spite of three women's efforts to make you wealthy. You are a failure and you aren't even a man yet. What abut you makes women into sots?" She pulled my face back using a handful of hair.

I could see nothing but she moved and acted as if she could see plain as day.

"Let me tell you a secret. Kneel first. Down on your knees."

I slid off the chair after she stepped back. I looked from my knees up into darkness that was bright and coruscating. I heard a rustle of cloth and realized Miss Nichols knelt in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was inches or feet away.

"Hands behind your back. Hold them."

I felt her move close to me, her arm circled around me, and her hand held my wrists.

"Say, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, Miss Nichols."

I could feel her breath on my cheek.

"What is there about you that makes me want to do certain things? Things a woman shouldn't, mustn't do or even let the thought of them linger for a moment."

My heart hammered. I licked my lips.

"I see your smirking visage and my immediate impulse is to lash out. I want to leave deep fingernail scratches down your cheeks. I want to brutalize you." Her voice softened.

"I think of poor Elizabeth or the woman you call Annie held in your fetid embrace. I want to tear you limb from limb. I want to revel in your disemboweled corpse." She sighed. "I'm lying of course."

Each syllable was a puff of her sweet air on my cheek. I was utterly lost. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"When you come to the end of The Charterhouse of Parma, remember our discussion. Remember the darkness. Remember the silence that surrounds the lovers' embraces." She let go of my wrists, moved away. "We'd best not meet like this again, Mr. Johnston." She stood. "I'm stronger than some of my sisters. You will not prevail."

I heard the curtains open, kept my eyes closed.

"To be in such a state in a woman's presence is an affront, Mr. Johnston."

I looked down and blushed. I held the book in front of me. "I'm sorry," I said.

She rushed across the room, slapped me hard. She stood above me where I sprawled on the carpet breathing in painful gasps. Her cheeks were flushed.

I wanted so much for her to like me.

"When you are presentable, please leave." I heard her sit at the desk.

I got up off the floor and sat in the chair, covering myself with the book. It was a long twenty minutes. Miss Nichols ignored me until I got up to leave.

"Third period tomorrow, Mr. Johnston. I hope, after our discussion, that you will want to read the book. No more shilly-shally."

I turned and looked into her hazel eyes. There was the faintest of mocking smiles on her lips.

Go on to read the next two chapters.

The Pullover Page
Chapters 1 and 2 | Chapters 3 and 4 | Chapters 5 and 6 | Chapters 7 and 8
Chapters 9 and 10 | Chapters 11 and 12 | Chapters 13 and 14 | Chapters 15 and 16
Chapters 17 and 18 | Chapters 19 and 20 | Chapters 21 and 22
Chapters 23 and 24 | Chapter 25

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