Training
With Wolfie
By Karen Singer
Chapter 7
– Part 1 of 2
Friday
morning, Brian literally prayed over his telephone for it to ring. But the gods of phone calls once again didn’t
shine on him. So when it did finally
ring, he already knew who was calling before he answered.
“Brian! Why aren’t you here yet?” Rosa’s
voice cut over the line the moment he picked it up. “Wolfie and I are waiting for you!”
Brian
tried to answer, but she had already hung up.
Dejectedly, he put the phone down again and headed for his room to
change…or rather undress…completely.
Totally
naked once again, he peeked out his back door to make sure the coast was clear,
then he dashed for her fence where he got down on all fours. Wolf was already barking at him excitedly as
he made a mad scramble for her gate before anyone could see him. He didn’t have to open it this time since she
was already there, waiting for him. He
only had to crawl through…and wait as she closed it behind him – as if locking
him in her yard.
“Stay!”
Rosa commanded the minute the gate was closed,
preventing him from going any further.
Totally ashamed of himself, Brain once again allowed her to tape his
hands into uselessness…into paws. More
shame filled him as he stood there on all fours letting her fasten the dog
collar around his neck. “Good boy,
Bobo,” she said as she ran her fingers lightly through the hair on his
head. She stood up again and walked
off. He was Bobo…the dog…again.
It was
only then, after he had been turned again into Bobo, that his brain was able to
notice how cool the morning still was.
With Wolf licking at his face, he forced himself to crawl forward,
toward the trees they usually played under.
Wolf licked at him and rubbed his big furry body against him again and
again, trying to get him to play. But
Brian was too depressed to play. And the
longer he was out there, the colder he was getting. Mrs. Murphy had disappeared into her
house. He and wolf were alone.
Once he
reached the trees, he stopped and sat down, leaning against one of the trees. Wolf, sensing his mood, sat next to him. Then the big dog leaned over him and nuzzled
his face, licking him again and again.
Brian wrapped his arms around the big dog. Wolf felt warm and soft. He held Wolfie there for a long time and
rubbed his bound up hands over Wolf’s fur as the dog occasionally licked at
him.
He was
Bobo, the dog! And he had never felt
more ashamed of himself then he did just then.
She had said there was a way out.
But for the life of him he couldn’t see it. No way at all. He was sure now that she used to work for the
CIA, torturing spies most likely. She
used to hurt men – professionally! Of
that he had no doubt at all! No, there
was no way out. Not unless his telephone
rang early enough in the morning to rescue him by sending him to…another kind
of torture. No way out at all.
Between
phone calls, Rosa occasionally glanced out her window at Brian and Wolfie. They were still right where they had been
since Brian arrived, except now Wolf was laying down across Brian’s lap. Brian’s position wasn’t exactly like any dog
position, but she wasn’t about to change that right now. Besides, it was still cool out and she had no
doubt that he was relying on Wolf’s fur coat to keep him warm. Well, the weather would be warming up very
soon and this was just another something he would have to learn to deal
with.
With
most of her morning business finally taken care of, she grabbed her box of
treats and went down into the back yard.
Wolf came bounding at her excitedly, but while Brian followed, he
crawled at what she would have called a lackadaisical pace. “Bobo!
Get a move on!” She was rewarded
to see him crawling a little faster.
She put
them both through all the tired old commands she had done with them every day
now. They both performed mostly
flawlessly, except for Wolf who hadn’t been interested in the down command
until she threatened him. When she was
done, she threw two treats towards both of them and went back into the
house. Five minutes later, she left
again – through the front door, locking it behind her.
Brian
had just barely sat back against the tree when Wolf suddenly turned his head
toward the house as if he had heard something and started barking
furiously. Then he took off for the
house at a dead run. Afraid that she had
another visitor, Brian scrambled further back in the yard and tried to hide
himself behind another tree, which didn’t offer him much protection at all
since the trunk was way too thin.
But
Wolf was back again two minutes later wanting to play. Did she have a visitor? Maybe somebody just stopped by to give her
something and then left again. It was
almost the first of the month. Rent
would be due…tomorrow! Maybe someone had
just stopped by to pay her early.
Thoughts about rent made him worry about his own rent. Of course, he hadn’t gotten paid yet from the
school week. That money wouldn’t be in
his account until Monday. He prayed it
would be enough. Once again he hadn’t
worked all that much.
Wolf’s
infectious energy finally sank in.
Playfully, he pushed back at Wolf with his bound up hands. Wolf was back jumping on him. The two of them wrestled in the morning air,
undisturbed by anyone or anything…for a very long time.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Rosa
felt a bit guilty about leaving the house the way she did. But if she was going to treat Brian exactly
like a dog, then this was another thing that he would have to get used to. She corrected herself…another thing they
would both have to get used to, because she would have to get used to too. She worried that he would do something that
he shouldn’t, but if he did, there was nothing she could do about it.
She had
several errands to run, most of which lasted only a few minutes at each
stop. Finally, she turned into the
parking lot of an old run-down strip mall, the home of Edward Tolliver’s store
and workshop. The sign out front boasted
custom leather goods, but Rosa knew from long
experience that he often worked with many things other than just leather. A bell jingled as she pushed the door
opened. It jingled again as the door
closed behind her. Her nose was
assaulted by the smell of leather that permeated the air.
The
jingling bell brought Edward out of his back room workshop to see who had
entered his shop. “Madam Rosa!” he
exclaimed with delight.
“Good
morning Edward,” Rosa returned with a smile.
He was, as usual, dressed in leather from head to toe. The incongruity that caught her attention was
the magnifying goggles perched on top of his head.
“Right
this way,” he said as he held open a low wooden door that led to behind his
counter so she could follow him back to his workroom.
Rosa
had never seen the workroom before. Her
first impression was that it was a horrible cluttered mess. Her second impression was that it was huge!
Edward pulled the goggles off of his head
and set them down on top of a bunch of junk on his workbench. Then he picked up a large drawing pad from
further down on his bench. “I think
you’re going to love what I’ve dreamed up!” he exclaimed excitedly.
There
were a lot of drawings sticking loosely out from between the pages of his
pad. He flipped open the top blank page
and pulled out two drawings and laid them on top of the bench so Rosa could study them.
The first was a pencil drawing of a dog – very basically done. The second…while it wasn’t Brian for sure, it
showed Edward’s impression of what he had come up with for Brian. It was a man, obviously on all fours, but
from the side view of the drawing, the lower part of the man’s legs didn’t show
much except that they looked a bit thicker in the thighs than they should. And coming out from the man’s back was a long
tail. As she looked close, the drawing
of the man certainly didn’t show him as having any hands. Instead, Edward had penciled in paws…she
thought.
“You
can’t see much from this picture,” Edward said, but I wanted to show it to you
for reference. As you can see, the
biggest problem we face is in the hind legs.
That’s where the dog gets his power from as he moves. Since a human’s legs are not built the same
way and to the same scale, there are no usable joints there that I could work
with. I’m afraid that is the one
obstacle I wasn’t able to satisfactorily overcome. But…I think that the rest of this more than
makes up for that little shortcoming.”
Rosa hadn’t
been able to tell much from the picture he had drawn. There were very few details in it. She didn’t know why he seemed so insistent
that this was something new and different.
She shook her head. “But I don’t
see…”
“Aha!”
Edward pounced before she could go any further.
That picture is just for reference!
Don’t judge me yet!” He had a
distinct air of delight in his voice that Rosa
couldn’t ignore. “Now, let’s start with
his hands…or rather, his front paws.”
Rosa
watched as Edward pulled another picture out from the stack in his drawing pad
and laid it down next to the picture of the man. And she saw…what? She stared harder. It sort of looked like a dog’s paw,
only…different. “Um… I’m confused,” she
said. “What am I looking at?”
But
Edward only smiled. “You are looking at
the finished product,” he said. He stuck
two more pages of drawings down next to it.
“And here is what I am going to build you inside of that…the part you
can’t see.”
Edward
picked up his pencil and pointed at the picture that dominated the first half
of the first drawing. Rosa
saw a man’s hand with the fingers pressing down on top of a round disk. There was definitely something inside of that
hand, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
“As
you can see,” Edward began, the hand position is somewhat unique from other
things that anyone has done before. The
weight of the individual is supported by the entire hand.”
“How?”
Rosa asked, not seeing anything more than just
the fingers pressing down.
Edward
pointed to the material inside of the hand.
“Molded rubber padding,” he said.
“Shaped exactly to the hand. All
parts of the palm and fingers are now involved with supporting his weight. And the fingers are all held firmly by
adjustable leather straps so they are pulled in tightly to the padding and
can’t move. His fingers become a solid
part of the whole package – not separate pieces at all.”
Rosa
was wondering if he was looking for some kind of comment. Basically, she still didn’t quite know what
to make of his device. But fortunately,
she didn’t have to say anything as he moved over to the drawing on the other
side of the page.
“Here I have drawn the mechanism inside of
the paw. As you can see, each of the
finger straps come through and are wound around this central spindle. A simple turn pulls the straps tighter and
the ratchet locks it in place.”
The
drawing was complex. Rosa
could only take his word for what obviously he could see in it.
Edward
moved on to the next page. “And here,”
he said with an air of excitement, is the best part!”
The
drawing showed the same picture of the hand as the first picture had shown, but
now there were new elements added.
“The
bottom slides into the tracks here,” he pointed at a spot with his pencil, “and
the cover gets pulled over his hands and wrists and is laced tightly. The ends of the laces and the cover flap are
tucked into the inside of the paw and the bottom is slid fully into place. Two set screws, one on each side, secure it
so it won’t come loose. And viola! A paw!”
He pointed at another small picture.
“And as you can see, it even has a rubber pad on the bottom that will
leave a perfect dog print in the mud.”
It was
only then that the entire concept of the thing fully registered in Rosa’s
brain. Edward was right, it was
certainly different. “But why so
elaborate?” she asked.
“Aha!”
he exclaimed with delight. “You said he
would have to wear it for months…at least!
His fingernails, Madam, his fingernails!” He pointed to the drawing again. “As you can see, his fingernails protrude
from tiny slits at the end of each finger, just like the nails that a real dog
would have. Of course you may want to
cut them…or shape them more like a real dog’s nails, but the opportunity to do
whatever you like is there. And his hand
can stay encased in this for a very long time.”
Now
Rosa was shocked. And now she saw the
light. The thing was padded on the
inside. His fingers would be strapped
tightly into the padding and would be totally useless to him. The bottom was rubber shaped exactly like a
dog’s paw. And when the whole thing was
in place, it did make his hand look more…canine. She couldn’t help saying it. “It’s brilliant!”
Edward
was beaming with pleasure. “I knew you’d
approve! But that’s only part of the
story.” He picked all the drawings up
and placed them in a pile off to the side.
“Now for his back end,” he said as he started laying out more
pictures.
The
first drawing Rosa saw was a close up of one of the back legs with the lower
extremity pulled up tightly to the man’s thigh.
“As
you can see, Edward began, I started with the basic arrangement we have
here. The best part of this is under his
knees. The same molded padding system
that will support his hands is under his knees to cushion them. I’ve also raised it a bit to compensate for
the height of his front legs with the arrangement I have there.” He pointed at another detail on the
picture. “And here I decided on a large
rounded pad of rubber to go over the bottom under all of it.” He held up his hand. “No, I decided against putting another paw
there. His legs simply aren’t built that
way and the rubber strip going under the entire bottom of the back leg will
allow him to move easier and will protect the leg system better.”
Rosa
nodded. From the picture, she could see
what he meant. She didn’t get to dwell
on that information long though as Edward placed another picture in front of
her. This picture included…the
tail!
“Of
everything I came up with,” Edward said, “this one was the most fun. See how I’ve pulled his feet in toward each
other and encased them both so they can’t be seen?” He turned to another picture. “This is what’s inside of that casing. As you can see, instead of simply overlapping
his toes or keeping them separate, the feet are drawn inwards towards each
other, but are still up at an angle that will be less of a strain on him. The tail mechanism protrudes right between
his toes so that it’s up out of the way and anatomically looks like it would be
coming out of his backbone like it should.
Rosa
giggled again as she tried to picture it.
Before she could comment though, Edward placed a larger picture of just
the tail in front of her.
“As
you can see, this is the tail,” he said.
“This metal protrusion fits through the socket attached to his feet and
will be locked in place so it can’t be pulled out. It can only rotate in the socket. The rest of the tail will be made up of three
fairly strong springs. The springs
should give the tail plenty of motion that I hope will be quite lifelike.” He pointed toward one of the springs. “As you can see, the heaviest one will be
attached to the socket and will extend straight out about three or four inches
from his backside. That way, when he
sits down, the tail will have no problem flexing into just the right
position. Also, when he has
to…um…defecate, as he bends his backside down, the tail will remain far enough
out of the way so it won’t get…messy.”
Rosa
was actually surprised by that little bit of detail.
“The
rest of the tail will be shaped as you see, mostly like a modified ‘S’. If you pull it straight down, it will not
quite reach the ground when he is standing, but its normal shape will keep the
end of it more horizontal to the ground.
And if we cover it in the right fur, then I would think it should make
for a very nice tail indeed.”
Rosa
stared at the drawings. She was beside
herself inside as she fully came to grips with Edward’s concepts. As she had specified to him a few days
before, she wanted no odd looking nose or other head gear for him. Not even any
strange ears. He had to be as naked as
possible and obviously a man reduced to a dog.
And everything Edward had come up with was…unique! “It’s perfect!” she declared. “I love it all!”
Edward
smiled broadly. He was obviously proud
of himself. “And if we pick just the
right leather for everything, he should look wonderful!” he exclaimed.
Rosa
nodded her head. She was still coming to
grips with the things he had created.
Then one little pesky detail slipped its way into her mind. “And how much is all this going to cost me?”
she asked.
Edward’s
smile slipped momentarily. He pulled a
clipboard from the shelf over his workbench.
“Not as much as it should, dear Madam.
Since this is such an interesting concept, I’m not charging near what I
should. Besides, if it works out, who
knows, I may get rich from it.” He
placed the clipboard in front of her.
Rosa
looked at the page. There were long
series of numbers, most of which she ignored.
Her eyes instead sought out the final amount at the bottom of the page. She gasped.
It was a lot! But then, she knew
it would be. “Um…” she said as she
stared at the figure. Her eyes went back
and forth from the final price, to the drawings. She picked the drawings up and started
leafing through them for another look, but her mind was mostly on other
things. What if Brian did finally get up
the courage to fight back? What
then? She would be stuck with this stuff
and never use it. Of course, she was
sure that she could always work out some kind of arrangement with Brian where
he would be her dog for a short while…maybe…and that was a big maybe. But the most likely scenario as she could see
it, was that Brian would never fight back.
“And how long would it take you to make all this?” she asked.
“Most
likely, about two or three weeks I’m afraid.”
Two or
three weeks. Just about the time before
Connie would have to move. She stared at
the final price for a moment. She stared
at the final picture of the tail. “What
the heck!” she finally exclaimed. “One
way or another, it’s not going to be permanent anyway. Let’s do it!”
“Excellent!”
Edward exclaimed excitedly. “I can
assure you that you’re going to love it when I’m done.”
“Edward,
I’ve always loved everything you make.
Now, can we look at some material for the coverings? And of course for the tail.”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
No comments:
Post a Comment