awetbed.txt
                        WET-BED FOR DIANA
                        =================

We had cause to punish one of our previous maids.  She was a
young girl called Diana.  Dorothy and I had made the mistake of
becoming too familiar with her and this had led to a number of
problems.  After receiving an invitation by one of our friends to
join her for a skiing vacation she pestered us relentlessly to be
allowed to go.  She would not take no for an answer.  This was
the last straw.  Now she was trying to horn in on the misguided
generosity of our friends.  There was no way we were going to let
her take that vacation, but we did agree to let her visit two
other ladies of our acquaintance who lived near a ski resort.  We
never told her she could go skiing, but she naturally assumed
that she would be able to.

These friends in the mountains were Sam (Samantha) and Jane.  Sam
had been a nurse in an asylum before retiring to the mountains
with Jane, one of the female attendants she had worked with.  We
had met them on a skiing trip and had stayed with them frequently
since.  They usually stayed with us when they came down to shop
in Los Angeles.  From some of the comments they made we had
suspected that they had bossed around the patients that had been
in their care.  We asked them if they would mind have Diana stay
with them with the idea of "teaching her her place".  We were
relieved that they were understanding.  In fact they were highly
enthusiastic and were very pleased that we had thought to ask
them.  They explained that many of their patients had been too
independent and proud for them to fit into the regimented
structure of a ward and their first task had been to "bring them
down a peg or two" so that they were no longer disruptive to the
smooth operation of the ward.  They told us that some of the
therapies they had used at the asylum would prove most effica-
cious in correcting her attitude.

The following description comes from a letter we received from
our friends after Diana had left at the end of her "vacation". 
We never saw or heard from Diana again, even to ask about her
back-pay or the few personal items she had left at our house. 
When we first read this letter it caused something of a rift in
our friendship, but that has been patched up during the interven-
ing years.  We were a little concerned that the treatment had
been too severe and a little annoyed that we had lost a well-
trained maid.  However we had managed to rid ourselves of a maid
that had become much too familiar with us - a problem we had
ignored because we did not want to confront her.  We have tried
not to repeat that error.  I have left out some of the more
graphic descriptions and have edited it a little too because
their writing ability leaves a lot to be desired.

                      ....................

For the entire two weeks Diana was confined to bed, strapped and
spreadeagled on her back.  The straps were not released once
during that period.  But the bed had also been made up in a
rather special way prior to her arrival.

A thin but firm mattress had been placed on top of the unsprung
metal mesh support.  Then about 10 large and very absorbent
flannel sheets had been spread over the mattress, followed by
another 15 large white cotton sheets.  All 25 sheets hung freely
over each side of the bed.  Another thirty cotton sheets,
comprised of ten flannel sheets sandwiched between two layers of
10 cotton sheets completed the bedding.

We began to bring in buckets of cold water mixed with snow to
form a slush.  Starting in the middle of the bed we poured the
slush water over all 55 sheets.  We allowed the water to trickle
through to the mattress of its own accord.  As the soaking water
expanded its area of influence we began to work out from the
center, smoothing and spreading as we went, to ensure that any
air trapped between the layers was expelled.  After many buckets
had been used the whole bed was soaking wet and squelchy to the
touch.  The mattress had been soaked through in the process.  If
the bedframe had not been an old-fashioned heavy iron design it
would have creaked beneath the weight.  Water dripped onto the
floor and ran down a drain in the center of the room.

Diana was snuggled in front of a hot fire in her flannel night-
gown and was beginning to think that this vacation was going to
be fun.  She had never been skiing before and was looking forward
to the experience

Prior to Diana being brought into the room the windows had been
left wide open for two hours, until the sheets had begun to
stiffen on the outside and were truly ice-cold in the middle. 
When Diana was brought in and saw the bed she was dumbstruck. 
The top 30 layers had been folded back to the bottom of the bed
and the waterproof wrist and ankle cuffs lay on the bed at each
corner.  The ankle cuffs had been passed below the sheets folded
at the bottom.  A thick rubber sheet had been placed over the wet
sheets to diminish the shock whilst fastening her down.

We quickly stripped off her nightgown and slippers and manhandled
her onto the rubber sheet before the shock of the situation wore
off.  She gasped at the coldness of the rubber sheet after being
so hot in front of the fire.  She found that it warmed up quickly
but the air in the room was still bitingly cold even though the
windows had been recently closed.  We quickly fastened the
waterproof cuffs at wrists and ankles and adjusted them until she
was spread-eagled with very little slack.  After fastening her
ankles we had had to pull them beneath the sheets folded at the
bottom of the bed to get them into the correct spread-eagle
position.  This had elicited further gasps of shock from Diana. 
During the entire procedure we ignored the cries of protest and
demands to be told what was going on.

Now we stood back and by way of explanation told her that "Since
you were so keen to have a vacation we have decided to let you
spend it ................... in bed."

We lifted her body and removed the rubber sheet.  As her body
squelched back down, and sunk into the soaking wet and icy
sheets she let out an almighty scream followed by streams of
Spanish curses.  The indentation in the mattress and sheets
caused by her body soon caused a pool of icy water to form
around her.  She tried to raise her body to escape the cold
but she was unable to keep herself raised for long and soon
squelched back.  She wrenched at the cuffs but they had been
designed to hold patients many times her size and strength.

The sheets at the bottom of the bed were unfolded over her
body.  This was a difficult task because they were extremely
heavy in their waterlogged state.  It was quite a struggle to
unroll them and break the ice that had started to form on
them.  Diana groaned as she felt the weight of them try to
crush the air from her body and the unbearable cold wrap
itself around her body.  She was no longer able to lift
herself from the surface of the bed and was crushed more
deeply into the mattress, creating a deeper depression and
even more water to form around her in a pool.

We continued the process up her body to her neck.  We then
began to unfold the sheets over her head and allowed them to
flop on the floor.  Diana was beginning to think that she
might suffocate when she found that her head was being passed
through the slits in the 30 sheets.

She continued to wriggle violently and curse and spit.  We
told her that unless she lay quietly it would be the worse
for her.  She obviously didn't see how we could make it any
worse because she continued to curse and spit.  The sheets
were carefully pushed into place around her to make sure that
they were in close contact with her.  They were carefully
placed between her legs and smoothed down each leg and as
much air as possible worked to the bottom of the bed and
eventually out of the bed altogether.  Diana found that as
the air was squeezed out the wet sheets almost bonded
themselves to her flesh.  She realized that to keep them away
from her she needed a pocket of air and the way the sheets
had been placed around her there was no hope of getting air
back beneath the sheets to form an air pocket.  Her feet were
too far from the end of the bed and the weight of the sheets
prevented her struggling enough to affect the sheets at the
sides or bottom of the bed.  We continued to expel the air
from beneath the sheets and create close contact between
Diana and the sheets; along her arms,around her shoulders and
her torso.  We continued to improve the fit for another 15
minutes before standing back and admiring our handiwork.

To stop her head thrashing around we folded a sheet and
wrapped it around her neck tying it in place with tight
cords.  The wet sheet acted like a neck brace and allowed
only limited movement of the head.

We pulled a wad of 20 pillowcases, that had been inserted one
inside the other and soaked in cold water, over her head and
tied them in place with broad strips of cloth over the eyes
and around her mouth.  As Diana opened her mouth to gasp for
air we tightened the strap, forcing the pillowcases into her
mouth.  We did not tie the strap too tightly.  Diana was
going to have to breath.  We tied it so that if she opened
her mouth very wide she could get air from the bottom of her
mouth.  We bandaged the upper part of her head and hood to
prevent her "blowing up" her hood by breathing out through
her nose.  She was in total darkness.  The curses and
spitting were then replaced with throaty gurglings.  We
placed a soaking wet pillow beneath her head which raised it
only slightly.

We fetched the net restraint sheet and placed her head
through the reinforced opening and lace it closely around her
neck.  We laced the restraint net beneath the bed and pulled
it tight until it further crushed Diana into the bed and was
taut enough to bounce a coin on.  It presented a relatively
tidy appearance, with just a hump to distinguish her body. 
We pinned the ends of the pillowcases to the netting to
ensure that the airway did not close completely.  However it
did not prevent the pillowcases from being sucked right up
against her face and cutting off all air supply every time
she breathed in a little too heavily.

Diana's exertions had succeeded in slightly raising the
temperature of the sheets in contact with her skin.  The pool
of water had largely drained through the mattress to the
floor below.

However her relative comfort was to be short lived.  Before
leaving her we turned on the automatic sprinklers that would
periodically spray torrents of cold water over the bed and
its occupant.  In this way it was insured that the occupant
remained in an uncomfortably cold and wet bed.  This cold
water was just that, coming from the frozen mountains and
painfully cold to even hold your hand beneath the cold
faucet.

Diana was left like this.  She found it difficult to sleep. 
She was constantly shivering and whenever she felt that she
was beginning to warm up a little the showers would turn on
and drench her.  The water would slowly percolate through the
many layers of sheet before it began to freeze her and eat
into her flesh.  The sudden soaking in freezing water caused
the metabolism of her body to race and she tried to gulp
large quantities of oxygen.  Inevitably the pillowcases would
stick to her face and she would be left struggling for air.

The water would form a deep pool around her body where it
formed a depression in the mattress which would remain until
it slowly soaked through the mattress to the floor below.  It
was made worse by having no way to tell the passage of time. 
There appeared to be no pattern to the way the showers turned
on and off.  Sometimes it would spray for only a few seconds
and at other times it would remain on for several minutes. 
Equally it might only turn off for a few seconds and at other
times would switch off for what appeared to be several hours. 
During these brief respites Diana would sometimes find
herself drifting off to sleep, but she was unable to sleep
peacefully because she was always expecting another
torrential downpour and was afraid of suffocating.  She
wondered when morning and release would arrive.

Shortly after a long downpour we came into the room and
released the oppressive net restraint sheet.  Diana took the
opportunity to move her body as much as she was able beneath
the soaking wet sheets and savored the prospect of her
imminent release from her freezing hell.  The cloth strap
around her mouth was released but she said nothing - she had
learnt that.  The soaking wet pillowcases were lifted and she
was able to take welcome breaths of air through her mouth. 
The pillowcases were folded up so that her mouth was visible
but the strap across her eyes was not removed and she was
still unable to see.  After laying a rubber sheet across the
bed the visitor sits on the side and speaks to Diana.  "I am
here to feed you.  Let me lift your head up a bit with these
pillows to make it easier.  Drat! this sheet around your neck
is making life very difficult.  As I bring your head up the
sheet clamps your mouth shut.  I'm going to have to spoon in
the food while your head is down and then lift it up while
you swallow."  No mention of chewing was made but when Diana
tasted the pulp she was being fed she realized that chewing
was unnecessary.  She wished that we could have let her get
up before breakfast - it would have avoided this whole
humiliating procedure.

After breakfast the others enter the room and massage her
limbs and body through the sheets before refastening the net
restraint sheet.  We explain that it it is necessary to
massage her limbs while restrained in the wet bed to prevent
loss of circulation or bed-sores.

Diana asks why she can't just get up and we explain that she
has only just begun her "vacation".  We will feed and massage
her periodically, but we will do so at irregular intervals to
prevent her getting into any kind of routine.  "So we might
be back in a couple of hours or it might be 36 hours from
now."

"You're going to have to let me up soon," says Diana "I've
got to go to the bathroom".  We just laugh and tell her that
she will have to wait.  If Diana had known that she would
have to wait two weeks she would have been less resigned
about it.  We refasten the pillowcases and restraint net and
switch the shower timer back on, resulting in an immediate
and freezing downpour.

**************************** END ****************************
A note from the author; I may be contacted at:

   CompuServe # 72320,475, Rob H.

If you have any comments regarding this material please feel
free to contact me.  I am always happy to talk to anyone
about possible mutual interests.