The Housekeeper - Chapter 54 Part 1 of 2

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 54 Part 1 of 2

Janice flipped through the still images on her phone that she had taken of Jacob’s house and neighborhood.  It was time to move on her plan… but not until tonight.  She knew what she wanted to do.  She had everything ready to put into the car.  And she had already discussed with Carol what she needed her to do as well.  Now she just had to wait.

Carol came into her room.  “Momma?”

“Yes dear?”

“Don’t forget about what we need to get for Mr. Brinkley… for the exam.”

It was all Janice could do to not roll her eyes.  “Yes dear.  We need to do that too.”

“How about today?” Carol asked.  “We don’t have to go anywhere until later tonight.”

Janice thought about that.  “Candy is working somewhere right now,” she replied.  “I think he said it’s off somewhere near the church.”

“Will he be there all day?” Carol asked.

“I don’t know,” Janice replied.  “Let me call him and ask.”  A minute later she had dialed Roger’s cell phone and was waiting for him to reply.  “Candy?” she asked after he had picked up the phone.  “Do you expect to be working out there all day today?”  She listened to his long reply.  “Then we’ll expect to see you here sometime after lunch.  I think we’d like to do a bit of shopping with you this afternoon.”  She ended the call and turned to her daughter.  “He’s mostly just looking over the job and ordering materials today,” she said.  He should be back shortly after lunch sometime.  We can go then.”

“Great Momma!” Carol replied, her enthusiasm growing.  “This is going to be soooo good!”

As Carol turned her back to leave, this time Janice did roll her eyes.

The workers who had carved his limbs came back and the lights were clicked on.  Halifax blinked several times trying to get used to the added light.  He saw the man setting a box down on the floor.  He couldn’t see what was in the box though.  He saw them sniffing the air in the room, then looking over toward him and shaking their heads.  He had peed a number of times and had also defecated once… the result giving the room a somewhat foul odor.

He was hungry.  Very hungry.  He didn’t know how long it had been since he had eaten last, but he knew it was a long time.  He had drunk water from his bucket, but that’s all he had.  He searched the two for any signs that they might have brought him food, but these two never did.  This time they were simply standing around… waiting he realized.

It wasn’t long before someone else arrived – the one person he never wanted to see again.  His torturer.  The man who had taken delight in ripping out his fingernails.  His apprehension grew.  He watched as the man spoke briefly with the two workers, then he turned and approached him.  Fear ran though him. The Chinese words that were yelled at him meant nothing to him, but the kicks and pushing to get him on all fours again pretty much told him everything the man had wanted him to know.

And then the man started positioning his limbs, spreading them out just slightly wider than the way he had been standing.  And by the time he had been “arranged” just as the man wanted him, he saw the man who had carved his limbs approaching with a drill in his hands.  His torturer pointed to a specific spot on his front arm, right on the back of the ball that encased his hand… and the man with the drill went to work drilling a fairly large hole through the rubber, where Halifax was glad to note that the drill bit never touched his hand that was balled up in a fist inside.  His other front limb was done the same way, then his two rear legs.  And then, most strangely, the torturer had the man with the drill put a hole through the ball that housed his genitals as well.  Halifax breathed a sigh of relief when the drilling was finished. 

The woman brought the box over to his torturer.  Halifax couldn’t see inside that box but he still feared what it might contain.  He found out soon enough as he saw his torturer begin inserting a large steel ring through the hole that had been drilled through the rubber on his left front limb.  And as he was inserting the ring, Halifax couldn’t help but notice someone else now entering the room.  The man who had welded the steel on his legs. 

He barely paid attention to the conversation the welder had with his torturer.  He couldn’t have understood any of it anyway.  But as his torturer inserted another ring into the hole that had been drilled in his other front appendage, the welder started working on the first ring.  Halifax noted Susan Wu’s appearance during the procedure.  She simply came into the room and stood out of the way and watched closely. 

The welder took the most time because he had to close the rings, weld them, and then the weld area was rotated through the opening until it was somewhere inside the rubber.  All four limbs got rings.  His front ones at the back of the balls where his hands were, and his rear limbs got rings at the front just below where his knees most likely ended.  And finally one of the rings was welded in place to the ball encasing his genitals as well. 

When the welder had finished, his torturer came back.  Halifax heard him removing something from the box, but he couldn’t see what it was.  He felt something happening on his left leg.  He realized that something was being attached to the ring that had just been placed there.  Whatever it was, seemed to take a long time.  He suddenly felt something happening with the ring attached to his genitals and then his torturer came around to his front side.  Halifax couldn’t see exactly what was being done under him, but he could feel the man now doing something with the ring on his right arm.  

He suddenly felt a slight tugging on his left knee, his genitals, and his right front limb, and Halifax realized that his torturer was connecting something between them all.  Again, it seemed to take long time.  It wasn’t until his torturer got up from the floor that Halifax could move his head far enough to see.  And when he did, he wished he hadn’t.  There was now a shiny thin steel cable permanently attached to the ring of his front arm.  And since the cable seemed to be angled upwards, he had no doubt that it ran up through the ring at his scrotum before going down to the ring at his opposite leg. 

Panic set in as he realized his range of motion would be severely hampered.  The panic never left as a second cable was run from his right leg, up through the ring in his genitals, and down to his left arm.  By the time his torturer finished and got up again, Halifax wanted to run… anyway he possibly could!  The only problem was, he no longer knew how!

He heard a short conversation between Susan Wu and his torturer.  He got the impression that the woman was very pleased.  Halifax didn’t care much though, he certainly wasn’t pleased.  They had bound his legs back permanently.  Encased all his limbs in hard industrial rubber so that he no longer had the use of his hands either, and now they had run cables through it all, further limiting what little use of his limbs he already had.  Why?  The only thing they hadn’t done to him so far was to drop him into a block of cement and leave him to die!  He supposed he should be grateful for small favors, but he wasn’t.  He would much rather they had killed him!

His attention was caught by Susan Wu issuing another command to the two workers.  The woman worker came over and pulled something that Halifax couldn’t see from the box.  She came around and stood in front of him, directly over top of him.  She grabbed the collar at his neck, and he suddenly heard a loud buzzing noise.  A moment later, he felt an electric razor being run over and over against the top of his head, shearing his hair off.  The process didn’t last long, and when the woman was finished, he felt her running her fingers through what was left of his hair.  Hair that he was surprised he still had.  He realized she had only trimmed it all down short and to a consistent length.

There was a bit of conversation between Wu and the torturer, and then the torturer came back.  He called the man and woman workers over.  Halifax soon found his head being held firmly… to the point where he couldn’t move it at all.  And all too soon he found his torturer kneeling down in front of him, studying his face.  At a word from him, Susan Wu pulled something out of the box and handed it to him, and Halifax was horrified when the torturer stuck something into his nose that went slightly into each nostril.  He jerked in pain as whatever it was tightened all too firmly on the septum between his nostrils.  He jerked, but his efforts earned him nothing. 

The torturer turned a way for a moment and then was back, and Halifax felt a horrible piercing pain at the point of his nose where the torturer had put the first instrument.  The tears started rolling from his eyes… even as he realized that his nose had just been pierced.  He felt the clamp that had been put into his nose being removed.  And all too soon he felt something being inserted into his nose.  Something was being done to whatever was in his nose that took a few moments, and then his entire head was finally released. 

He could now feel the weight of whatever they had put into his nose, but he couldn’t see it.  As he moved his head a little he felt something brush slightly against his upper lip.  A ring he realized.  They had put a ring through his nose!  Every time he figured they couldn’t do anything to make matters worse for him, he found out he was wrong!

As the workers moved away from him again, he now noticed another man in the room.  Someone he had never seen before.  His limbs felt like they were rooted in place, not that he could go anywhere anyway.  Fear and confusion totally ruled him as he stood there while Susan Wu walked all the way around him several times, taking him in, inspecting him. 

And then she was there in front of him. She stepped back where he could see her better.   And finally she spoke… English.  She spoke to him… so that he could fully understand what she was saying. 

“You’re magnificent!” she said.  “I find that what we’ve done to you excites me beyond belief!”

Halifax had other feelings about it, but he was too frightened to utter a sound.

“You can no longer use your legs as they were intended.  You no longer have hands that you can grasp anything with.  You can’t even feel anything through all that rubber that everyone assures me is very, very strong.  Your genitals have been sealed away as well so that you can never again feel pleasure from them.  And now your range of motion has been decided as well by the cables that link everything together.  I find you simply… magnificent!”

The part that bothered Halifax the most was that she made it all sound like something wonderful… when in reality, everything she had mentioned was something totally horrible.

“From this point on,” she said, “you will now assume your rightful place in life… and in particular, here in this compound.  Everyone works here.  Everyone has their duties and functions to perform, and you will be no different.  You will be put to work in any way we can find a use for you. 

From this point on, you are no longer a man.  Instead, you will be considered nothing more than an animal.  The question is, what kind of animal?  And the closest description I can come up with right now is… a sex animal.  From now on, your purpose in life will be to give sexual pleasure to everyone else… men and women alike.  You will be trained to behave as an animal in every way possible… removing from you all possibility of doing anything remotely human.  And… you will be trained in the best ways for you to give everyone pleasure. Yet you yourself will never be allowed to feel pleasure.”  She smiled.  “It would no longer do you any good anyway.”

She paused to consider her words before she continued.  “From now on, the only food you will receive will be a mixture of dog food and scraps left over from what others eat.  You will eat everything you are given, no matter what.  And any time you displease anyone, you will be limited to only dog food until decided otherwise. 

“You will most likely be beaten and inflicted with pain often… solely for the amusement of whoever wants to give you the pain.  And I hope it is often!  But again, this is now your lot in life.  If giving you pain brings pleasure to someone else, then you will have no choice but to endure it.  It is all simply part of the punishment you will live with for the rest of your life.”

She motioned to the new man who had come in to step forward.  “This is Meng.  He will be your trainer.  He will rid you of all human abilities and teach you to be an animal instead.  And… he will be your primary trainer in ways to bring pleasure to others. 

For now, Meng will communicate with you in a mixture of Chinese and English, but the English you hear will become less and less as time goes by.  All commands that you learn now will be taught to you in Chinese.  Once you learn these commands, you will most likely hear very little English spoken for the rest of your life.  You will be rendered as incapable of understanding what is said to you as any other animal would be.  I’m sure that with time, you will perhaps pick up a few things, but you will have to learn those words as any other animal would have to learn them. 

“And as for your own speaking… I expect that for the most part, you will remain silent… mute!  But in the event you do have to make any noise, I have decided that you will be taught to express yourself as a dog would.  You will be allowed to only make sounds that any dog would be capable of… and nothing more.  I have instructed Meng to be particularly strict in your training with this. 

And finally, you need a new name.  Since you are no longer a man, I can no longer call you Halifax… or even Joseph.  So from now on, you will be known as Ben-ben.”  She smiled.  “The name is most appropriate for you.  In Chinese, it means… fool.”

She turned away from him then and turned toward Meng.  “I will leave Ben-ben in your care,” she said to him in English.  “I expect you to teach him quickly the way his life will be now.”

Meng bowed and stood there as she and Xiang departed.  The other two workers gathered up their things and left as well.  And Halifax shook with fear.  All the things that Susan Wu had told him were bouncing around inside his head, yet his brain couldn’t seem to be able to process them or even make total sense of it all.  He only knew that he was afraid.  So much so, that as Meng turned back toward him, he lost control of his bladder and peed on the floor beneath him. 

The sight of Ben-ben peeing on the floor was not lost on Meng.  He hurried over and roughly grabbed Ben-ben by the collar, twisting him around and driving him straight down toward the concrete with his weight.  The human yell of fear issued by “the animal” wasn’t lost on him either.  His voice was pure menace as he hissed, “You will learn that there is only one place where you will be allowed to relieve yourself.  And you will do it in that place only!  All other times you will learn to wait until you are taken to that area… no matter how long the wait!”

He removed the chain from the ceiling that was attached to Ben-ben’s collar.  Halifax immediately was nearly choked to death as he found himself being dragged across the floor by that collar.  Meng pulled him over until Ben-ben was right in front of where he had defecated… right in front of his own small pile of shit.  “Eat!” Meng commanded.

“No!” Halifax cried, completely repulsed by what Meng was forcing him to do.

Meng pushed Ben-ben’s face down toward the pile of shit.  “Eat!” he commanded again.

Halifax fought to keep his head away from what was right beneath the ring in his nose.  “No,” he gasped, struggling as hard as he could.

Kneeling on Ben-ben’s back, Meng pulled back hard on the collar, while his other hand pushed down on Ben-ben’s head.  Halifax found himself gasping for air as the collar choked the life out of him.  His eyes closed at the strain of his neck being pulled back while his head was pushed down.  He opened his mouth, trying to gasp in air, and Meng shoved his mouth straight into the pile of shit and held it there.  “Eat!” he commanded again as he eased up on the collar, but continued to hold Ben-ben’s head down in his own shit.

Halifax was left with a pile of shit in his mouth that he couldn’t get away from.  The pulling on his collar had eased up so he could breathe again… except that now all he could smell… and taste… was his own shit.  He gagged.  He fought.  But all his struggling did was to lodge more of his own shit into his mouth. 
“Eat!” Meng commanded again still pushing down on Ben-ben’s head, holding it firmly in place.  Not seeing the results he wanted, he began pulling on Ben-ben’s collar again while holding his head down where it was.   

Halifax found himself choking again.  He tried to cry out, but the shit in his mouth prevented any sound from escaping. 

“Eat!” Meng commanded one more time.

Halifax could stand no more.  The only way out of his situation was to do as Meng wanted.  Hating even thinking about what he was doing, his jaws went to work as he tried to do the unthinkable. 

Meng eased up on his collar as he finally saw Ben-ben eating his own shit.  The dog would learn his place if it killed him.  And Meng had no problem with that either.  He thought of him as a dog, primarily because that had been Susan Wu’s original intention.  Her declaring him simply an animal did nothing to change his thinking.  “Eat… all!” he commanded as he got up off of Ben-ben’s back and stood over him.  “Eat, and get used to it.  You may have to do it in the future.”

Halifax didn’t even want to contemplate that.  Feeling sick to his stomach, he finished eating what was on the floor, even having to lick the remains up before Meng was satisfied.  Only then, did his training really begin.

Within minutes, Halifax was taught to stand up… and lay down.  They were difficult concepts to master given the way his body was restrained by the cables.  The commands were always given in Chinese… that he struggled to remember.  And then, once he could stand up and lay down, Meng began teaching him to walk.  Right front leg and left rear legs having to move at the same time.  Left front leg and right rear leg followed.  Over and over.  Around and around in a circle, or wherever Meng led him around the room.  The soft swish of the steel cables running back and forth through the ring at his genitals seemed to amplify his newfound disabilities a hundred fold. 

And finally, Meng gave him the Chinese command to stop, which Halifax didn’t know at all.  Meng grabbed his collar to stop him.  Then he reached into his pocket to pull something out.  Going around in front of Ben-ben, he grabbed the ring through his nose and pulled. 

“Ow!” Halifax screamed as he immediately tried to move in the direction the ring was pulling to relieve the pain.

“No words!” Meng yelled angrily.  “No human sound!”  With that, he grabbed the nose ring again and pulled it straight up, purposely hurting… the animal.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Halifax cried again in pain, unable to help himself.  The pulling up continued until his head was bent up at a painful angle and his mouth was wide open.  And then he felt Meng’s hand inside his mouth.

Still pulling up on the ring, Meng reached into Ben-ben’s mouth and grabbed his tongue.  Pulling it out of his mouth and holding it firmly, he finally released the nose ring.  His free hand now took the object he had retrieved from his pocket… and clipped it to Ben-ben’s tongue.  Then he let the animal go.

Halifax felt the sting of something being attached to his tongue… and then suddenly Meng let go of him.  His tongue started to come back into his mouth… and then it was suddenly yanked out again as the weight of whatever was now attached to it pulled it back out.  He could sort of pull his tongue up a little, but he couldn’t get it all the way into his mouth again, and the weight only pulled it back out again.  He realized something was hanging down from his tongue.  Something heavy.  He could literally feel it swaying back and forth as he moved his head, trying to get used to the weight.

“Learn double lesson now,” Meng said, sounding satisfied with himself.  “No human sound.  And tongue learns to get strong!”