The Bet - Chapter 52 (Monday – week 8 part 8 of 8)

The Bet

by Karen Singer

Chapter 52 (Monday – week 8 part 8 of 8)

     Chad was cooking dinner when he heard the door opening.  He ran to the living room and curtseyed as Mel was coming in the door.  “Hello Mistress.  I’ve got dinner almost ready,” he said in his sissy voice.

      “Good!” Mel replied, her arms loaded under a ton of papers.  She carried everything over and dropped it all on her coffee table.  It was too much work.  Only then did she realize that dinner smelled good.  Very good!  She saw Sissy just staring at her, not tending to anything.  “Well go finish dinner!” she ordered.  “I’m hungry!”

     Chad hurried back to the kitchen.  He had only been watching Mel because he had never seen her come home with that much work before.  He stopped for a moment.  Did that mean she would be too busy to do anything with him tonight?  He could only hope.  Maybe she’d let him go home early.

     He finished preparing her dinner and set it on the table, after which he was again banished to his perch in the corner while she ate.  It was his usual place to be during her dinner.  Out of the way.  Out of mind.  Like the vacuum cleaner she kept in the closet.  He didn’t bother taking a baby bottle with him to drink because after all the liquids that Robin had forced him to drink all day, he was already wetting horribly!  He had no doubt he would make his time limit fairly easily. 

     He was now well used to standing unmoving in his corner for long periods of time, so he was surprised when before he expected it, she called him.  “Come get your own dinner together Sissy.”  He was very glad about getting out of his corner sooner, but he would have been happier about getting his own dinner together if it could include something other than baby food! 

      “Call me when you’re ready to get into your highchair,” Mel said as she headed out to her mountain of work in the living room.

     Chad glanced at her more than a few times as he dumped jar after jar of colorful mush out on one of his plastic child plates.  Mel seemed to be sorting through her paperwork and distributing it in piles up and down her couch.  Since he could get his own dinner, he spooned out more baby food for himself than usual just so he would have more to eat.  He took the tray off of the table and climbed up into the chair.  “I’m ready, Mistress,” he called.

     Mel looked up from her task of sorting the papers, trying to figure out why they weren’t in the proper order.  It was so odd.  A page here and there would be stuck in the middle of a bunch of pages from a whole different portion of the agreement.  Why?  Not for any reason she could see.  With her mind almost totally on her contract problem, she stuck his tray on his highchair for him, tied the bib around his neck, stuck his dinner in front of him, and stuck another full baby bottle on the tray.  But through the whole process, she barely noticed him.  Barely saw him.  All her mind wanted to process was the odd arrangement of the papers now on her couch.  Two minutes later, she was back at it again.

      “I’m finished, Mistress,” Chad called from his seat in the kitchen.

     Mel looked up, bothered by the distraction.  He was done already?  She glanced at the clock.  When had it moved so fast?  Frustrated, she left her work and released Sissy from his highchair.  But the moment he was free, she turned right back to her work again without saying another word to him. 

     Chad once again noticed her mood.  Whatever work she had brought home seemed to be totally consuming her.  Knowing she needed to be left alone, he began cleaning up the kitchen.  But the bottle he had just finished with dinner had done its job… as had all the liquids he had consumed all day.  “I’m leaking!” he suddenly called excitedly.

     Mel cursed.  One interruption after another!  And she still hadn’t figured out why the damn contract was so oddly out of order.  Page 32 was stuck between pages 167 and 168.  Page 112 was stuck between pages 74 and 75.  And that didn’t even begin to explain why whole sections were either turned around or were completely in the wrong place.  So she was now trying to put them in order, but she was trying to solve the mystery at the same time.  And she was getting nowhere! 

     She glanced at the clock.  He had managed to be leaking fairly quickly this time.  But that’s as far as she wanted to think about it.  “Go change Sissy!  I’m busy!”

     Chad was sure now that this would be an easier evening for him… as long as he kept leaking.  He happily went about changing himself, making as little noise and intrusion as possible so as not to disturb her.  Then he went back to cleaning the kitchen… very slowly.  Since she was so busy, he didn’t want to disturb her and give her a reason to find him something less appealing for him to do. 

     When there was nothing left for him to do in the kitchen, he started cleaning the rest of her apartment again, but not the living room where she was working.  He dusted and straightened her bedroom.  He gave her bathroom a once over again.  He even sorted through the laundry – but he didn’t start any because he didn’t want the noise of the washer and dryer to disturb her.  He simply tried to stay out of her way.  But he wasn’t the one who interrupted her.

     Mel cursed under her breath when her cell phone suddenly rang.  But there was no way she could ignore it.  “Hello?”

      “Hi Mel.” Sandy’s cheery voice replied.  “I was wondering if you wanted to get together tonight and pick out some new music for Sissy’s ballet next weekend.”

     Mel inwardly groaned.  She needed to do it, but…  “Sandy, I can’t.  I’m totally swamped with work that I’m getting nowhere with.  Hey, maybe you can you put some music together for me and I’ll listen to it tomorrow.  Can you do that for me?”

     Sandy was a bit surprised since she knew how important Mel’s planned little ballet was to her.  “Sure.  I can do that… if you want.”

      “It would be a big help – a lot!”

      “No problem.  I’ll put something together and we can go over it tomorrow.”

      “Thanks, Sandy.  I appreciate it.”  Mel hung up her phone.  His ballet was her project.  Her responsibility.  But she didn’t have time right now to work on it.  But then she realized that there was nothing wrong with Sandy helping anyway.  This whole new direction for his ballet performance was mostly Sandy’s idea anyway.  Maybe they could work on it together.  She smiled at that idea.  It would take a lot of the pressure off of her. 

     She glanced over at Sissy.  He was doing something with the dirty clothes over by the washer, but he wasn’t washing anything.  “What are you doing?” she asked.

     Sissy curtseyed.  “Sorting laundry,” he replied.

      “But you’re not washing anything?”

     He curtseyed again.  “I was trying to stay quiet so I wouldn’t disturb you.”

     She moaned to herself.  And yes she appreciated him being quiet.  That was a good thing.  But him doing nothing?  “Since you have nothing to do, grab another bottle and get back on your perch!  You can spend some time being quiet there instead.”

     Chad was very disappointed.  Being on his perch was the last place he wanted to be.  But since she wasn’t taking her eyes off of him, he went to the refrigerator and pulled out another bottle and took it over to his corner.  A few seconds later, he was staring at the corner of the ceiling as his head was tilted back so he could drink his bottle. 

      “Just let me know when you start leaking,” Mel said as she went back to her work.

     When he started leaking?  He wasn’t exactly sure what time it was, but he was fairly certain that he still had over an hour before he needed to be leaking.  That was an awfully long time to be stuck up on his perch!  Resigning himself to the ordeal, he closed his eyes since there was nothing to see.  Back in his corner again with nothing to do but drink his bottle – as long as it lasted.  Dull.  Boring.  Put away.  Useless.  Again.

     When his bottle finished, he pulled his arm down to his side and lowered his head to a more comfortable position – relatively anyway.  Being pressed into the corner like he was could never be considered comfortable, especially when his feet were bent and stuck over his perch.  Ouch!  As usual, he did his best to ignore the pain in his toes and the ever growing ache in the calves of his legs.  He tried to ignore it because there was nothing he could do about it. 

     He tried to concentrate on trying to pee instead because there was little else to concentrate on and the sooner he started leaking, the sooner he would be off this darn perch.  The only good thing he could find about being stuck in his corner with nothing else to do, was that it gave him the opportunity to pay close attention to each time he peed.  All too often now, he never noticed it at all.  He only wished he could hold back, but with the leaking deadline he had to worry about he didn’t dare even try.  Not even for a moment.  He had to pee, and pee a lot… and pee some more – just to get his diaper leaking on time.  It was a never ending job!  And while he was now able to notice how often he was peeing, it was always for only a very brief amount of time and the feeling never lasted.  But each time it was a nice relief from feeling nothing at all since he was so bored.  And since he was peeing fairly frequently, he was more happy about it because it was the only way for him to keep from being punished! 

     Mel’s eyes began to blur.  She had read the last paragraph three times and still didn’t understand it.  With a grunt she looked up.  She turned her head and noticed Sissy still in his corner.  How long had he been there?  She glanced at the clock, it had been quite a while now.  Where was the time going tonight?  He still had a little while left on his deadline, but that time was growing shorter.  “Are you leaking yet?” she asked.

     Chad was startled by the question thrown out into the room.  “Not yet, Mistress,” he replied.  His feet and legs had gone numb.  He had almost fallen asleep in the awkward position he was stuck in.

      “Then get yourself another bottle and get back up there again.”

     It took a moment for her command to fully register.  Then another few moments for him to figure out how to move his body again.  He managed to pull one foot straight up and step off of the perch, but his foot didn’t want to bend right.  His toes wanted to be stay down at the angle that they were.  He had to flex his ankle a few times to stand fully on that foot before he could repeat the process with his other foot.  Finally he was standing normally again.  His legs felt numb – in fact, his whole body felt numb.  He shook each leg a bit before trying to walk – which was another problem.  Eventually, he managed to get into the kitchen and get himself another bottle.  But he had to head straight back to his perch with it.  Climbing back onto the darn thing was a lot easier than getting off of it.  His body seemed to be more used to the torturous position than when he wasn’t on it.  His toes quickly grew numb again as he put the bottle back to his mouth and started drinking.  Back in the corner again.  Ugh!

     Mel watched him the whole time he had gotten out of the corner till he got back into it again.  She could tell how badly his body must ache, but he still seemed to be managing it fairly well.  She thought anyway.  She actually considered his corner to be a good thing.  He was there… but he wasn’t.  He was out of the way – put where he could easily be called when he was needed.  And when he was needed, he would be right there… handy.  But otherwise, it was as if he hardly existed.  She thought it set just the right tone for the relationship between them.

     She was sure that the perch he was standing on was probably torturing him, but that wasn’t her problem.  He would just have to get used to it… if necessary, for longer and longer periods of time.  After rubbing her tired eyes, she went back to work again – still no closer to figuring things out than she was when she started.

      “I’m leaking!” Sissy’s muted voice called from the corner.

     Mel looked up again and automatically glanced at the clock.  Once again time had passed faster than she would have imagined.  But at least he had made it with plenty of time to spare.  She was glad because she didn’t really feel like taking the time to punish him tonight.  She was too busy.  “Okay, get off of there,” she said as she set her work aside and got to her feet.

     Getting off his perch was not one bit easier this time.  In fact, if anything, his body seemed to protest more.  But he was still glad to get away from his corner – if only for a while. 

      “Get yourself another bottle,” Mel said as soon as she saw that he could move a little bit.  She really had left him there too long.  Way too long.  Yet he had managed.  But she wouldn’t put him back there again tonight. 

     Chad grabbed another bottle from the refrigerator and immediately put it to his lips.  The cool liquid felt good in the back of his throat.  His body ached so much, he didn’t care if he was wetting or not.  He was grateful for the low heels on his shoes because he still felt nothing but pain from his toes.  Bottle in his mouth, he headed out of the kitchen to find Mel – who was in her bathroom laying out fresh diapers for him.  He was happy to see that she had laid out more than one.

     Mel diapered him in four thick layers of disposable diapers.  Since she was done before his bottle was finished, she let him lay on her bathroom floor till it was empty.  Then, when he was done, she sent him home, back to his own apartment for the night – with the usual instructions of course to drink three more bottles before he went to sleep.  “Get a good night’s sleep, Sissy,” She told him before he left her apartment.  “Tomorrow’s another day.  You may need it.”

     Chad curtseyed.  “Yes, Mistress. Good night, Mistress.”

      “Good night, Sissy,” she replied.  But once he was gone from her apartment, she couldn’t get him off of her mind.  She also remembered that she had never thanked Robin for all the pictures she had sent her.  She would have to make amends for that somehow.  But how?  Was an email just thanking her enough?  Was there anything else she could do for Robin?

     She looked back at the door that Sissy had walked out of just a few minutes ago.  “Good night, Sissy,” she said very softly once again.  “Sleep tight.”