HELP WANTED

Part One

 

All rights reserved.

 

 

 

I was getting older, 49 to be exact.  And though I could pass for younger, Hollywood for the most part was a young person’s game, and I was getting a little too old for the demand for the young, cute and cuddly.  Let’s face it, I was a dinosaur, and in the age of “reality” television when episodic drama had all but disappeared, I was definitely expendable.  I had worked in the business for a decade plus six, and while I wasn’t A-list, I had been a decent writer and able to provide a reasonable living.  While it was nothing outstanding, I had been able to secure a fine home, nice cars, vacations and the other niceties of a successful career. Circumstances change…sometimes drastically.  My second wife now lived in the house and drove the Mercedes I had purchased for her birthday while I made do in a dingy one-bedroom apartment with my son from my first marriage. I had survived in a tough business and had enjoyed the perks and freedoms of being a writer.  Only now, that career choice wasn’t too rosy.

            My divorce had put a major crimp in the financial situation and I had been out of work for almost two years.  With my savings depleted by the divorce settlement, business was never a strong suit, that, and the brutal shark of a lawyer my wife had hired, I was now on the brink of homelessness.  With bills piling on my desk, I needed employment in a hurry.  Let’s face it, I was desperate which led to a desperate decision that put me where I am today.

My ex and I had been friends with a younger couple for 14 years since our kids met at school—my son, now 20—was a couple of years older than their fraternal twins, a boy and a girl--and when I was offered a job working for them, I said yes despite my hesitancy and embarrassment of accepting employment from what had been friends.  It was a humbling experience when I was out playing golf with Jeff and he said that maybe something could be worked out.  At the time I detected an attitude of slight smugness, but Jeff always had that air about him.  He was intelligent, well-educated and while friendly and cordial, I always got the sense that he felt himself somewhat superior to me though it was so subtle that I always checked it off to my own insecurity.  Yeah, I might be able to beat him on the golf course, but I’m sure he felt that in the game of life he was ahead.

            He was a businessman with his own consulting business and few other side projects.  I wasn’t sure of his income, but it was well into the six figures, the forty-one-year-old Jeff was doing quite well.  Also, he and his wife, Ann, came from fairly well-to-do families.  Married while in college and having kids early, they were exceedingly mature for their age when I first met them during the Kindergarten year of school when my son was in the second grade.  They were comfortable, and while far from being ostentatious, they drove BMWs and owned a large home in a new subdivision, and pretty much did whatever they pleased, money never seeming to be an issue.  I can’t say I was ever jealous or envious of their financial comfort; at least I wasn’t until the work dried up and I found myself struggling to make rent on the dreary apartment that was home.  After the divorce, my wife and I had both remained friends with the couple, though my relationship was much cooler than the one my wife maintained with them, particularly Ann, who remained a close friend to my ex.

I wasn’t qualified for most employment, a self-made writer, I had only made it through a year and a half of college.  I had come to Hollywood with a briefcase full of scripts and was one of the lucky ones to actually find work.  Without any training or education and being on the old side, the work world wasn’t exactly clamoring for my services.  I was close to taking a supermarket job or something similar, maybe an assistant at a food-fast food place when Jeff said I could come and work for he and his wife.  When not involved with their children, his wife assisted with some of the businesses and supervised the maintenance of their household.  I’m sure my ex gleefully filled them in on my financial straits, so I wasn’t entirely surprised that they said they could use my help.  I WAS somewhat surprised I said yes, I guess the thought of looking for a menial job would be more humiliating than going to work for my smug friends.

His wife, Ann, was very attractive, definitely didn’t look her age of thirty-nine.  Tall and almost too thin, her shoulder-length light brown hair framed a pretty face that might have been a tad long, but nonetheless she was looker.  Of course, her smile was perfect, teeth white and straight and she had intense green eyes that flashed with impatience when things didn’t go exactly they way she sought.  She was a perfectionist and subtly demanding.  I knew that working for her wouldn’t be easy, that it would be unlikely anything would be complete satisfactory for her judging from the way she would nitpick and complain about every little thing in her life.

Jeff wasn’t much better.  He was immaculate in appearance and manner.   And he had the same perfectionist manner of his wife.  More than once I could over hear him on his cell phone upbraiding an employee to do their job right.  He wasn’t a screamer, but he knew what he wanted and how he wanted things done and accomplished.  So there it was, I had say yes and found myself one morning ringing the bell to their house, standing at the door, questioning how I got myself into such a situation.

We hadn’t discussed the details of my employment, only that my salary would be five-hundred a week, a far cry from the thirty-grand I used to get for each television script for which I received credit.  Jeff had said he was sure they would be able to find something for me to do, joking even if it was only cleaning their house, but that he and Ann always had a need for another hard working person in their life.  He said that they could use a secretary…administrative assistant he quickly corrected himself, that they could trust and depend on.  He did iterate that he and Ann could be demanding and I said I knew this well, and that I was eager and willing to work hard to please them.

The part-time maid answered the door and said that Mrs. Moore was expecting me in the office.  I walked back to the office, which was located in the rear of the house, a house that was decorated with great style and taste even if it leaned a little to the “shabby chic” generic.  It felt odd to be in the home when it wasn’t a party, play date or social visit.  I was anxious and still feeling slightly embarrassed that I had reached the situation for a mercy hiring by my friends.  The door to the office was partially opened and I walked in with butterflies roiling in my stomach.  Ann was sitting at the desk, typing on the computer keyboard.

“Good morning.”  I tried to sound cheery and eager to be there, though I had a certain dread running through me.

Ann didn’t look up from the computer screen.  “You’re late.”

Thankfully Ann couldn’t see me flush red from her comment.  Yes, I was late, but only by five minutes and I was struck by the coolness in her voice and that I was starting from a negative as it was evident that she was displeased by my slight tardiness.  “Uh, I guess, I’m a couple of minutes late.”

“No, five minutes, Mike.  I know with your Hollywood job things were a little more casual and that you know us socially and so forth.  But this is now a workplace and I expect you to be professional and prompt.”

Anger started to swell up within me and I almost turned and walked out as I felt I didn’t deserve to be treated quite so abruptly, but I didn’t want to fail on the first day and give Ann and Jeff any satisfaction that their standards were higher than mine and I would be unable to meet them.  Plus, I really could use the money.  “Uh, okay, Ann, I’m sorry, I will be on time from now on.”

“Good.  Your fine will be five dollars.”

“My what?”  I couldn’t believe she had the audacity to suggest a fine, particularly with the measly five-hundred I was earning.

“Mr. Moore and I will assess fines as we see fit.  Keep you motivated and from slacking off.”

“You’re kidding…right?”

Ann was not happy with my protest.  “Look, Mike, these are our rules.  If you can’t abide by them, then get out.”

Damn, I knew she could be tough, but this was a whole different side to Ann.  Again, I thought about leaving, but figured the fine thing was simply a ploy to get my attention and wouldn’t be much of an issue.  “No, no, I don’t want to leave.  It just seems a little unfair.  Particularly since I didn’t know about the rule.”
            “Well you know what they say about law.  Ignorance is no excuse.”

“Whatever you say, Ann.”

“Also, Mike, when you are in a work situation, you need to address me as Mrs. Moore and Jeff as Mr. Moore.  Do you have a problem with that?”

Wow, this was going to be harder than I thought.  Here was this woman, someone I had thought of as a good friend, someone ten years my junior, instructing me on how to address her.  “No problem, Mrs. Moore, you’re the boss.”

I could see a hint of a smile on her face.  “Yes, I am your boss now, Mike.  Please don’t let our history cloud our understanding of the current situation.”

“No, Mrs. Moore, I won’t.”

“Good.”  Ann looked up at me, her stern green eyes intensely scrutinizing me.

She looked great.  Wearing a skirt and blouse, barefoot, her toes, as always, perfectly manicured, this time in pink with a flower painted on each big toe.  I was glad, that if nothing else, I would get to be with her even if I was now in her employ.  I stood there for a couple of minutes feeling awkward as I didn’t know what I was supposed to do and I didn’t want to interrupt her.  Finally, I said, “What would you like me to do?”

I could see the familiar wrinkle of irritation cross Ann’s face as she raised her right hand as to stop me from talking.  “I’ll let you know as soon as I’m finished.” 

Again, I thought she was being unfairly abrupt.  She certainly wasn’t making this easy for me.  She worked for a few more minutes, before sitting back and looking at the computer screen as if she was scrutinizing her work.  But I got the sense she was making me stand there simply because she knew she could.

Maria the maid popped into the room.  “Ann, what would you like me to do with these papers on the coffee table?”

Ann looked up and warmly smiled at the maid.  “Just leave them on the kitchen table, I’ll go through it later.”

“Don’t forget that I have to leave early today.”

“I haven’t.  Mike will drive you home after lunch.  You know Mike right?”  Ann said, introducing me to Maria.

I said hello and nodded at Maria who glared back while saying, “Yes, I’ve seen him before.”

“He works for me and Mr. Moore now.  And he will be helping you too.”

Maria brightened at this comment.  “Very good.  I always could use help.  Much to do around here.  I go back to work now.”

Maria left.  Ann had been so much more friendly and warm with her maid, so much for the workplace formality she had just expressed to me.  “Let’s see, where was I?” Ann was looking at the computer once again.  She then swiveled her chair towards me, bare legs crossed, girlishly bouncing one foot as she looked at me.  “What shall I have you do?”  She had a smile on her face as if she was enjoying the fact that I was now her employee.  “This is a little odd, isn’t it, you working for us?”

“Yes kind of…”
            “I’ll have to admit though, I kind of like it.  And I’m sure Joann is going to flip when I tell her you’re working for us.”
            Joann was my ex.  I hadn’t really given it much thought of her knowing about it since I had been more concerned about getting some cash.  I wanted to ask Ann why she liked it, but decided not to press the subject.   I had been there twenty minutes, just standing and watching her work as I felt like a fool.  There was a chair on the other side of where Ann sat, but she hadn’t offered it to me and had made no effort to allow access to it.  So I had stood while she worked.  I thought it ironic that she had upbraided me for my five-minute tardiness, yet I hadn’t done a thing.  Typical boss kind of thing.  Finally, I couldn’t take the idleness anymore.  “What can I do for you?”

“Mrs. Moore.  Please don’t forget the proper manner of respect.”

“What would you like me to do, Mrs. Moore?” I repeated resenting having to address her that way.

“Right now, you may clean my car.  Vacuum, dust, wash it.  You know where I keep my keys.  The supplies are in the laundry room.  If you need any help finding things, ask Maria.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore,” I said, knowing that the keys were on a hook in the kitchen, everything in the house having its proper place.

“Good.  You’re dismissed.”

Dismissed?  I felt like a servant and almost let out a sarcastic, yes oh great Mrs. Moore, but I said nothing.  I gathered the supplies and went into the garage where the SUV was parked.  I passed a large closet full of shoes, as the Moore’s had a rule of no shoe wearing inside the house except for guests who didn’t wish to remove their shoes or the exception of Maria who wore her thick sole nurse type shoes when she was working.  Having a foot and shoe fetish I imagined what it must be like to have to clean and polish Ann’s shoes and wondered if that would ever become one of my duties, though it would be humiliating to actually have to clean the shoes of someone who had been my equal and that I had known so long as a friend, nothing in the least kinky or sexual.

But interrupting my brief shoe reverie was the need to clean Ann’s ride and I got to work for the next hour and a half cleaning her new X5 trying my best to get it as sparkling as possible knowing Ann’s fastidiousness.  When I went back into the house around eleven, I found Ann sitting on the plush sectional sofa in the entertainment room and talking on the phone while Maria was sweeping the kitchen that connected to the area where Ann sat.  She was laughing about something when I began to sit on the sofa across from her.  Phone to ear, looking up at me she shook her head no indicating that I wasn’t to sit down on the sofa.  What was this?  Now I wasn’t good enough to sit on her precious furniture?

“Just a sec.”  She put the phone to her shoulder and said while pointing towards the kitchen, “Go make Maria and me turkey sandwiches and cut up some fresh fruit.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore,” I said, quietly seething to myself.

“Did you bring lunch with you?”

“No, Mrs. Moore.”  I didn’t even think of bringing lunch.  Ann had always been generous in offering food or snacks during previous visits.  I had no reason to think otherwise.

She kind of shook her head and said, “That’s too bad.  I don’t want you eating any of the turkey in case the kids want something later.  Maybe after they have had their snacks, you can have a banana or something.  From now on, you’ll be expected to provide your own food.”

I didn’t know what to say.  I was dumbfounded with her attitude, so I simply said, “Yes, Mrs. Moore,” like a robotic idiot.

“Good.  I’m glad you understand.  Now go!”

I didn’t understand.  Why was she treating me this way?  Why did Maria get to eat her food but not me?  And as I pulled the turkey out of the refrigerator to make lunch and seeing that there was enough meat to feed the neighborhood, I realized that there was something more going on than simply having enough food for after-school munchies.  I could her hear continue the phone conversation and I realized she was talking with Jeff.

“He’s doing all right.  It will be an adjustment for all of us.  Of course, he started out on the wrong foot by being late…Yes, I fined him.”  There was a second of silence followed by much laughter from Ann.  “Yes, maybe we’ll have to do that.  He’ll learn or else.  All right, I’ll see you later, darling.  Love you.”  Ann put down the phone after hanging up.  “Is that lunch ready?”

I was hurrying to put her turkey sandwich together.  I had eaten enough at Ann’s house to know how she liked her sandwich prepared.  “Getting there, should be a few more minutes.”

“You need to work fast, Mike, I don’t like to be kept waiting for anything.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore, I’m aware of that.  I’m working as quickly as I can.”

“That’s a good attitude, Mike.  I know I can be demanding, impatient, even unfair.  But that’s just me.  You’ll have to deal with it.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore, I understand.”  I quickly finished the sandwiches and cut up the fresh fruit and put them on plates as Ann thumbed through a magazine.  “Your lunch is ready, Mrs. Moore.”

“That’s so cute the way you say Mrs. Moore, Mike.  Do you hate addressing me that way?”  Ann said standing and walking the few short steps to the kitchen.  “Maria that’s good,” she said to the maid who was puttering around the kitchen.

“No, if that’s what you wish, I have no problem.”
            “Good, Mike, you are more agreeable than I thought you would be.  You must have really needed this job.”

“Yes, I did…”

Ann was circling her hand for me to finish my sentence.  “Don’t forget your manners.”

“Yes I did, Mrs. Moore.”
            “And?”

Maria had taken a seat at the table and Ann was standing at an end chair waiting for me to realize that I was to pull out the chair for her to seat down.  And?  I wasn’t sure what she meant by that.  “And what? Mrs. Moore?”

The question displeased Ann who snapped as she sat down.  “A thank you.”

“Oh…thank you, Mrs. Moore for the job.”  I could see Maria smirking and trying not to laugh as she enjoyed Ann’s difficult treatment of me.

“That’s better.”  I placed the plates before Ann and Maria and began to clean up the kitchen.  Fixing the food had made me hungry, but I wasn’t about to venture into that territory, Ann had made it clear that her food was not available for me.

“Mike.  Do you think that Maria and I are some kind of philistines?  Where are our napkins?”

Messed up again.  “Sorry, Mrs. Moore,” I said, scurrying over to the table with two cloth napkins that I pulled out of a linen drawer.

“Apologize to Maria also.”

Ann smoothed the napkin into her lap as I handed the other napkin to Maria with my apology.  This was a little weird, but I was going to go long with Ann’s little game.  “Sorry, Maria.”  I turned to go back to cleaning.

“No wait.  I think you should address her as Mrs. Lopez.  Show her a little respect.  After all, you ARE the probationary employee around here.  And since you will be helping her with the household duties, she is going to be your boss too.”

This was getting to be too much.  The maid was my boss?  I flashed back to when I was working in television, the eager assistants hoping to break into the business getting us lunch, doing our errands.  I had sunk a long ways, but it could be worse, and I wasn’t eager to explore the job world any longer.  Besides, there was a little bit of me that enjoyed the new attitude displayed by Ann.  “Sorry, Mrs. Lopez.”

Maria giggled a little and said, “That’s okay.”

Maria and Ann discussed Maria’s trip back to Central America while I finished cleaning up the kitchen.  Ann telling Maria that she would have to train me on the ways of the household.  Even though the details of what I was going to be doing was rather vague when I agreed to work for the Moores, I didn’t really expect to be doing so much cleaning and such, but that’s what looked like would be needed, so that was what I was going to be doing.

After Ann quickly finished her lunch, she said she was going out to inspect the X5 and quickly disappeared.  Maria wasted no time asserting her status.  “Next time, no tomato on mine.”

“Yes, Mrs. Lopez,” I said, looking at her, trying to maintain my cool.

“Good.  Clean up these plates.”

I couldn’t believe she was ordering me to do this like she owned the place.  “What the…”  Before I could go any further, Ann had already returned.

“Mike, are you sure you cleaned my car?”  Her voice was full of disgust and she noticed the tomato slices that Maria had left on her plate, one of them with an obvious bite taken out of it.  “You don’t like tomato, Maria?”

“No, Ann, it make my stomach hurt.  I told him not again.”

“Good.  I’m sure he won’t.  I hate to see any food wasted.  You eat it, Mike.  You said you didn’t bring anything with you.”

“Yeah, but a tomato…”  I could see that the already agitated Ann didn’t want to hear my protest.  “…will be very good.  We all know about the starving kids who would love a tomato,” I weakly joked.  I took Maria’s leftovers and ate the two tomato slices.  They weren’t that bad and I tried not to think about the one that had a gap from Maria’s bite.  Anyway, I had worse things on the horizon.

“I want to show you what you missed on the car.  Follow me.”  We went into the garage where Ann slipped on a pair of older sandals and I put on my sneakers, then I trailed after Ann to the driveway where I had left it for her inspection.  She proceeded to show me a small streak here and there that a quick wipe erased.  And then she showed me a couple of pieces of grass on the carpet and a minuscule amount of sand left in a cup holder and some other dirt far underneath the seats.  “Do it right, then take Maria home.”  Ann turned and quickly walked back into the house.  I furiously cleaned the spots she pointed out then returned to the house where Maria and Ann were already saying goodbye.

“I’ll see you at nine, Maria,” Ann said, giving her maid a hug.  “Make sure you open the door for her, Mike,” Ann instructed, enjoying her little power trip.  “Before you come back, you need to go to the store.  Here is a list of things I need.”  Ann handed me a grocery list and a hundred dollar bill.  “Hurry up, you’ve got a lot of work to do around here.”

I escorted Maria out to my old beater of a Camry and opened the passenger door for her.  “Sorry about the mess, Mrs. Lopez,” I said as the older woman slid into the seat.  Maria must have been in her late forties, plump and somewhat matronly.  She wore glasses and her teeth were somewhat crooked.  She favored print dresses that she probably picked up at garage sales, and always wore pantyhose and those ugly back nursing shoes with the thick soles.  She directed me to her house, nothing else being said except this way or that.  When we pulled up to the small place on a busy street, she waited for me to get out of the car and open the door for her.  “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said trying to be friendly.

“Yes, you have much to learn.”  Maria walked up the cracked cement sidewalk to her home as a teenage girl came out the door to greet her mother and eyed me suspiciously.

I drove to the grocery store and tore up and down the aisles as fast as I could.  I knew it wouldn’t be fast enough for Ann, especially after she called me twice on my cell phone adding items that she had forgotten to list.  Never mind that they were at the other end of the store.  I returned to the house and carried the groceries into the kitchen.  Ann emerged from her office and started looking through the bags of groceries to assess my purchases.

“Store must have been busy,” she said, inspecting the romaine lettuce I had purchased.

“Yes, Mrs. Moore, I went as quickly as possible.”

“I’m sure you did.  These grapes taste like crap.”  She had eaten a test grape then took the rest and threw them into the garbage can.  “Don’t you know how to pick out fruit?”

“I thought so, Mrs. Moore.  It’s hard to tell with grapes.”

“How much were they?”

I scanned the register receipt.  “Three ninety eight.”

“Did you get the little spiral notebook?”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore.”  I was getting nervous and off balance finding myself disappointed that I had let Ann down.

“All right.  Add the three ninety-eight to this morning’s five dollar fine.  That’s part of your job to keep track of the penalties you are assessed.”

I was going to have to pay for the grapes she didn’t want?

“And while you are at it.  Fifty cents for the tomatoes wasted on Maria’s sandwich.”
            I tried to protest.  “But the tomatoes didn’t go to waste…”
            “Quiet.  I don’t want any arguing.  If you are going to do that, then leave.  Now!”

I should have left, but I couldn’t.  Jeff had promised to pay me that evening my first week’s salary and I needed the money.  “No, Mrs. Moore, I won’t argue.”

“These bananas are a little green, but we’ll keep them…”

And on through the grocery sacks, many things earning a criticism.  By the time she was finished, I had been fined again, this time five fifty eight for purchasing the wrong deodorant for her.  She told me I could either take it back and get a refund or use it myself, but that she expected me to purchase the correct one before I returned in the morning.  It was a brand geared for women, so I didn’t want to use it.  And I needed it to exchange it for the correct kind (though I was sure I bought the correct one in the first place) so I wouldn’t be out of any more money.  The fine still stood even though I was going to make it right the next morning.

After I put away the groceries, I was told to vacuum and dust while Ann worked on a project.  As I cleaned, I began to dread the end of the school day when her children would come home and see me in my new role as their mom’s employee.  I hoped it would be low key, or even better, I would be dismissed before Nicole and Jordan came home.  I was vacuuming the formal living room when Nicole entered the house.  She was a senior, 18 years-old.  She stopped for a moment when she noticed me in the living room.  Gave me a little wave and then went to look for her mom.  Though Nicole seemed to always have liked me, she also had the air of privilege and possessed the same keen intelligence of her parents.

A minute later, Ann appeared, again looking displeased.  I shut off the vacuum.  “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Vacuuming,” I innocently said, knowing that this wasn’t the right answer.

“You didn’t see Nicole come home?”

“Yes, I saw her.”

“You work for the entire household, Mike, the entire family.  I know she is a friend of your son and that you’ve known her a long time, but you are now her employee and when she comes home from school or any other time, you will check and see if there is anything she needs.  Got it?”

I didn’t exactly agree to be working for her daughter, but I wasn’t about to argue with Ann.  “Got it, Mrs. Moore.”

I went into the kitchen where Nicole was sitting at the table.  Before I could say anything she said, “Mom said you work for me now.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Miss Nicole.”  Ann was standing right behind me.

“Yes, I work for your family now, Miss Nicole.”

“If there is anything you need, you just tell him.  And if you ever have any problems with him, if he disobeys you or does something wrong, you tell me so we can correct his behavior.”

I was red again, I felt like a dog or something.

“Okay, mom.”  Ann went over and gave her daughter a hug  “That’s my baby.  All right, I’m going to finish up my project.  Mike, after you’re done with Nicole, finish your vacuuming then clean the bathrooms.  I will warn you ahead of time, there will be fines for incompetence.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore, I’ll get right on it.”

Ann left the room, I looked at Nicole who was staring at me with a smirk on her face, it was getting to be a familiar look.  “Is there anything I can get you, Miss Nicole?”

“This is kind of cool.  I’ve never really had anyone working for me before.”

“Well you do now.”
            “Did you forget something?”

 “…Miss Nicole.”

“Going to have to report that to mom.”

Whatever.  “So, is there anything that I can get for you, Miss Nicole?”

Nicole was still reveling in her power.  “Calling my mom Mrs. Moore, that’s weird…and me, Miss Nicole.”

“It’s a matter of respect, Miss Nicole.”

“I like it.  Well, employee Mike, I want some apple slices with peanut butter.”

I simply nodded my head and opened the fridge to prepare the apples.

“Make sure that you peel them, I don’t like the skin.”

I nodded my head trying to avoid the Miss Nicole thing.

“Did you hear me?”

“Yes, Miss Nicole, I heard you.”

I quickly prepared her snack as I needed to get to work on the cleaning as I knew that Ann would soon be expressing her impatience.  “Here you go, Miss Nicole,” I said, laying the plate on the table, peanut butter in the middle surrounded by her apple slices.

“Hey, that looks cool.”
            Finally, a compliment even if it was from a eighteen-year old.  “Thank you, Miss Nicole.  I need to go back to my cleaning.”

“All right.  But I might want something later.”

“Just let me know, Miss Nicole.  It will be my pleasure,” I lied.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning only stopping to fix another snack for Miss Nicole.  After an intense scrubbing and it was getting near five o’clock, I finally decided to tell Ann that I was finished with the three bathrooms of the house.  She was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

“Mrs. Moore, I’m finished with the bathrooms,” I said, feeling childish that I was reporting to her in such a manner.  I’m sure Maria never did such a thing.

“Fine.  I’ll check them when I get a chance.  Now, I want you to scrub the laundry room floor.”

I looked at my watch once again.  “How long were you planning on me working today?”

“…Mrs. Moore.”  Ann corrected.  She wasn’t going to let go of that.

“Mrs. Moore.”

“Until we’re done with you.”  She returned to preparing her meal.

We hadn’t discussed hours, but I assumed it was to be a regular hour gig.  Obviously, Ann had different thoughts.

“All right, Mrs. Moore.”

As I began to leave, Ann said, “Mike, this isn’t going to be easy.”

“I understand, Mrs. Moore.”

“And I mean scrub that floor, Mike.  Hands and knees, buff it clean.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore.”  I glanced over at Nicole who was watching television, I’m sure she was laughing at me.  I got the necessary supplies and began cleaning the bright white tile floor.  I scrubbed for about five minutes when Ann appeared in the doorway.  Looking up from my kneeling position, she had one hand on her hip, the other hand a crooked finger indicating that I was to follow her.  She was imposing and the look on her face meant she disapproved of my cleaning job.

“Come on, Mike, let’s go,” she huffed.

Now what?  I stood and followed her with a dread of pupil going to the principal’s office.  First visit was the downstairs bathroom where Ann ran her finger along the edge of the basin and displayed the residue of cleaning powder that I hadn’t completely removed.  “This isn’t acceptable.  I thought you said this was clean.”

I didn’t know what to say.  I had never seen Ann this angry before, or even angry period.  She had hidden this side of her personality.  “I’m sorry Mrs. Moore…it won’t happen again.”

“It better not.  That’s a ten dollar penalty.”

“Ten dollars…”  I stopped, no need to escalate the issue.

“And the roll of tissue is to be folded like this.”  Ann demonstrated a small triangle on the tissue.  “That’s only going to cost you three dollars.  But each time I find that the tissue is not folded properly, you will be penalized.”  She stopped for a moment as I waited for the next criticism.  “Aren’t you going to write down those fines?”

“Oh, okay, Mrs. Moore.”  I pulled the spiral notebook and pen out of my pocket.  Ann had instructed me to carry those with me at all times, not only to note my fines, but in case she had something she wanted purchased or something to be recalled.

Gee, she expected me to check the paper every time anyone was in the bathroom?  I knew the upstairs bathrooms were the same.  I wanted to run ahead and fix them before I was penalized for them, but I didn’t have that chance as Ann told me to follow her.  We entered the master bathroom and the first thing Ann did was point at the toilet paper that wasn’t in a triangle and simply said, “That’s another three dollars.

She found a couple of hairs in the tub, a little dust underneath the cabinet and a handle that she didn’t think was suitably polished.  Another five dollars worth of fines.  Onto the children’s bathroom where I was informed that fines would be doubled.  Again, a few minor flaws that cost me another ten dollars.  While we were doing this, Jeff had arrived home.  We could hear him talking with Nicole, but the words were indistinguishable.  I could see Ann visibly brighten at the sound of her husband’s voice, I only wished he had arrived earlier to put her in a better mood.  Still, it wasn’t going to be easy to see Jeff in my new role.  And then I heard another male voice and realized that Nicole’s twin brother was home, an arrogant kid who was the typical popular jock at school type.

“Fix what I showed you, finish the floor downstairs while we eat.  After dinner, then you can meet with Jeff.”

“Yes, Mrs. Moore.”

Ann disappeared.  It wouldn’t take long to finish the bathrooms and that would only leave the laundry room.  I was looking forward to going home.  It had been a long day.

I finished the laundry room and avoided seeing Jeff.  After semi-hiding behind my chores, I could hear them finishing up with dinner that smelled so good, my stomach aching for a meal, Ann only allowing me a banana.  I had also bought a candy bar at the grocery store.  Ann was calling for me and I had no choice except to face the entire family.  I took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen where they all sat around the dining table.

“Hi Jeff,” I said,

Ann glared at me and cleared her throat reminding me of my error.

“I mean, hello Mr. Moore.”

“Hello, Mike.  How was your first day?”

It sucked.  “It was fine, Mr. Moore.”

“Mike,” Nicole said.  “Get me more cola.”   Jeff looked at his daughter with a bit of surprise, but the grins on everyone else’s face, except mine of course, relaxed his attitude.

“Yes, Miss Nicole,” I said, getting the soft drink from the refrigerator.

“Isn’t that cool, dad,” Nicole said.  “Our own employee.  Mom says we can boss him around all we want.”

“Oh she did, did she?”  Jeff was now smiling at his wife.

“Yep.  He has to keep our rooms clean.  Fetch us drinks and snacks.  Anything we want.”

“Well, Nicole, to a point, Mike has certain duties that he must attend to.”

“Oh, we know,” Jordan, Jeff and Ann’s son said.  “We know we have to share.”

“This is quite a change isn’t it Mike?  Still want to work for the Moore family?”

“Sure, Mr. Moore.”

“Clean off the table and wash the dishes.  Then in the office.”

Jeff rose from the table.  “Let’s watch some television.”

I watched him for a moment.  He was wearing dark slacks, dress shirt, blue socks, his shoes in the garage closet.  He moved with arrogant confidence.  It was hard to believe this man was in control of my life at the moment.  I had beaten him many times on the golf course as Jeff wasn’t athletic.  In fact, physically, he was kind of soft with a slight belly around his middle.  But he never lost that attitude and could dig the knife in whenever needed.  I finished up my chores as the Moore family relaxed on the sofas.  Jeff and the kids watching a movie, Ann thumbing through a decorating magazine.  When I was done, I went over and stood behind Jeff and said, “Mr. Moore, I’m finished.”

Jeff looked straight ahead as he firmly said, “Didn’t I tell you to go to the office when you were done?  Or are you just stupid?”

Stupid.  I felt ready to punch him as his kids laughed at the comment.  “Well excuse me, Mr. Moore.”  I couldn’t hid the sarcasm in my voice.  “I will go to the office now.”

“I’ll deal with you in a moment,” Jeff snapped.

I waited probably forty minutes before Jeff entered the office along with Ann.  I was sitting at the desk, moping about my situation   “Out of my seat, Mike” Jeff said.  “You’re not allowed to sit on our furniture.”

I stood up and Ann sat in the other chair.  “I don’t appreciate your attitude,” Jeff said as he imitated my “excuse me, Mr. Moore.”

“I’m sorry Jef…Mr. Moore.  I’m very tired and it’s been a long day.”

“I don’t give a damn about your day or your excuses.  You wanted to work for us and we were generous enough to give you a job.  If you don’t like it, then get lost.”

“It’s not that…”
            “And the way you are going, you’ll never make it through the probationary period anyhow.  I should fire you right now.”  Jeff was slinked back in his chair, his fingers interlocking, legs crossed as he studied my reaction.

I don’t know what it was, but I was about to cry.

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I…uh…I need the job, Mr. Moore.”

“I don’t like the Mr. Moore, just make it sir.”

“I need the job, sir.”  I was now calling my former pal, sir.

“I don’t know, honey.  I had to fine him a lot today.  I don’t know if he is worth the trouble.”  Ann was enjoying this, watching her husband put me through the ringer.

“True, from what Ann has told me, by the end of the week, you’ll be owing us money.”

“You were serious about the fines?”

“Of course we were, idiot,” Ann said.

I blushed from being called an idiot.  Jeff said, “Mike, you have to show us that you really want the job,”

“And how should I do that, sir?”
            “Think of something.”

I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but I sensed this was going to take another direction.  For some reason, I was desperate to work for them.  “I really really want the job, sir…Mrs. Moore.”

“You can call me, ma’am, matches the sir.”

“Ma’am.”

Jeff got an evil little smile on his face.  “Beg for your job.  Show us how much you care, how badly you need to work for us.”

I had tears in my eyes as I sniveled, “Please, sir, ma’am, may I work for you.  I’ll do whatever I can for you.”

Ann was grinning as she said, “I think the little baby is crying…wah…wah…wah”

Jeff laughed.   “You know, when I see someone beg, I think they should demonstrate proper respect for their superiors.”

Ann piped in with, “Yes, kneel and beg for your job.”

By now, I no longer cared.  I fell to my knees, sinking into the carpet and said, “I beg you, sir, ma’am, may I please keep my job?”

Ann also had her legs crossed and was bouncing her leg up and down.  I think the whole scene was getting her excited.  “I don’t know, dear, do we allow him to work for us?” she said dramatically.

Jeff was staring down at me, seriously contemplating something.  “I don’t know…I suppose we can give it a little more time.”

“You’re so kind, honey.”  Ann was sitting next to Jeff and leaned over and gave him a kiss.  “Show Jeff your appreciation for his kindness.”

“What do you mean, ma’am?” 

“Kiss his feet and say thank you, kind and generous sir for giving this old washed-up loser a job.”

“What?  Are you kidding?”

“Just do it,” Ann sneered.

I looked up at Jeff who shrugged his shoulders as if to say, what can I do about it.  I knew this was a now or never moment and was strangely excited by the whole situation.  Not kissing Jeff’s feet, that was way beyond anything I had imagined, but I wouldn’t mind kissing Ann’s pretty feet.  I crawled forward and quickly kissed the top of Jeff’s socked foot and said, “Thank you for your kindness and generosity, sir in giving this old, washed-up loser a job,” just as Nicole appeared in the doorway.

“What are you guys doing?”

I couldn’t see her reaction, but it must have been amazing to see me in this position.  And how much did she hear?  It was true, I was a washed-up loser.

“Is he kissing your feet, dad?”

“Don’t worry about it, Nicole, we’ll be done in a moment.”  Jeff was not pleased by his daughter’s appearance.

“Can I make him kiss my feet too?” she eagerly asked.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Ann said, “go back to the television.”

“Sure.”

“And shut the door,” Ann added.

The door shut and Ann said, “Now, where were we?”

“Mike was thanking me.”  Jeff sounded pleased.

“That’s right,” Ann said.  “Do it again and mean it.  And Jeff has two feet.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  I once again kissed the top of Jeff’s crossed over foot, then scrunched over further and kissed the foot that was on the ground.  Jeff’s feet had a moderately strong aroma and it was enormously humiliating to be kissing them.  As I was doing this, Ann had picked up a digital camera from the desk. 

“Again,” she commanded, “I want a record of this.”

I once again kissed each foot, Ann taking a picture each time, making me pose so she could make sure my face could be clearly seen.

“All right, do the same for your Mistress,” Jeff said.

“What was that?” Ann asked, a curious excitement in her voice.

“It seems appropriate.  After all, we practically own him.  Ma’am is ok for public stuff, but Mistress Ann has a cool ring to it.  Not quite so matronly.”

“Yeah, I like it,” Ann mused.  “And that means, he should call you Master.”

“Yeah, whatever, Master or sir is fine.  Go on…” Jeff nudged me on my face cheek with his foot, “Kiss you Mistress’ feet.”

“Yes, Sir.”  I kissed the top of each of Ann’s feet while Jeff snapped a few pictures with the camera.

“I can’t wait until I show these to Joann,” Ann said with glee.

“Please don’t, Mistress.”

“Are you telling me what to do, Mike?”  She took her foot and bopped me on top of my head with it.
            “No, Mistress but…”

“You just do as your told and behave yourself and we’ll see about the pictures.  Can you imagine all the moms and dads at school seeing you kissing our feet?”  Ann and Jeff were both laughing.

“Yeah, that would make quite the impression.”  Jeff agreed.

“Ah, look at the little foot kisser, I think he’s going to cry some more.”  Ann loved rubbing it in.  “Joann was so right in leaving you.  I’m glad I encouraged her to do so.”

I had heard rumors that Ann was behind motivating Joann to leave me.  Ann had always been so nice previously to me, that I didn’t believe it.  Now, it was all too easy to believe.  So much for the image she projected.

“You have no idea how much we know about you,” Ann said.  “When Joann was planning the divorce, she asked for my help, which I gladly gave her knowing what a loser you are.  And Jeff here, being the computer expert, was kind enough to go through your entire computer history.”

I knew I was sunk.  The pornographic websites that I used to visit.  The movies and stories I downloaded.   I’m sure he found it all.  They say you tell about everything from a person from their computer and I know that Jeff was a computer expert.

“You are quite the kinky little pervert.  Female domination websites, chicks with dicks sites, all kinds of weird stuff.”

As Ann spoke, I felt myself go nearly dizzy as if she could see into my being.

“There won’t be any secrets, you’re going to tell us everything.  You’re going to live a lot of those things you fantasized about.”

“When Ann and I first talked about hiring you, we didn’t really know if it would come to this, but if it did, we thought it might be fun to have a wimp to kick around.  We need the help, and the one thing you are besides being perverted, is honest and reliable.  So no matter what, we figured we couldn’t lose.  But when Ann called me this morning telling me how easy it was to push you around, that you scarcely raised a voice in protest, that’s when I told her to go for it, to keep pushing you.  And since we knew that deep down you crave this sort of thing…well, here we are.  You on your knees, kissing our feet, crying like a baby begging for your job.  There are people in this world who rule, and those that serve, and I always got the feeling you were one of the servers, the pleasers.  It looks like I was right.”

I had my head down and was staring at the floor.  No longer sniveling, I knew that any submissive desires I had were about to explode.  Jeff put his foot under my chin and tilted my head up.  “Look at your Master when I’m talking to you, boy.  At least, when you have permission to look at us.”
            “Yeah, I’m not so sure I want the scumbag looking at me,” Ann chimed in.  “In fact, if I see you looking me in the eyes, you will be fined big time.  You keep your head bowed in my presence, look at my feet or something, like you do all the time anyway.”

Yes, it was true, I was always looking at Ann’s feet.  I had no idea that she had noticed.  I looked up at Jeff, his dark brown eyes intent as his wife’s eyes.  His foot still underneath my chin.  “You are now our slave, our servant.  You will do whatever you’re told, without question, without problems.  Quickly and to the best of your ability.  Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good.  Ann and I will continue to fine you as we see fit.  We will also begin punishing you for your mistakes.  I would advise you to do your best because I would love to take a paddle to that wimp ass of yours which I will do anyway simply because I can.”

As I was looking up at Jeff, I began to feel genuine fear as he talked of the paddle realizing that he was serious about being a Master.  Despite his arrogant nature, I never suspected he would be into such a dark and kinky area.

“There is a lot we will have to be going over, but I don’t want to take the time right now.  I’m sure the kids are quite curious about what’s going on in here after Nicole saw you kissing my feet.”  Jeff was smiling.  “I guess that is something she is going to see a lot of.”

“Yes, what are we going to do about Nicole and Jordan?”  Ann asked.

“Like we have been.  Explain that Mike now works for us and that it is old-fashioned strict way of showing respect  It will work out, don’t worry about it, honey.  After all, they are now young adults.”

Ann smiled lovingly at her husband and got up from her chair and positioned herself on Jeff’s lap causing Jeff’s leg to jump around, his foot bumping into my face as if I wasn’t even there.  “Mmm, all of this is making me hot, lover, “ she cooed.

I had never even remotely seen this type of affection between them and it was, again, quite a contrast.

“You’re not looking at us, are you, scumbag?”  Ann asked, between long kisses.

“No, Mistress.”  I stared at the floor.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this in front of him,” Ann questioned.  “He doesn’t deserve such a treat.”

“Have to disagree with you on that one, sweets.  He’s just a piece of shit property, this is a little way to remind him of what he is missing.  What it’s like for a real man and his woman to share intimacy.  I’m pretty sure once we’re done with him, he’ll never entertain the thought of a genuine relationship again.”

“True.”  Ann laughed.  “Not that he was much in bed before.  Isn’t that right, shithead?  Joann told me all about what a limp dick worthless lover you were.”

I didn’t say anything, I was too embarrassed at the truth of the statement.

“She asked you a question, do I have to get my belt off right now?” 

I believe Jeff was serious and wasn’t making a vague threat.

“No, Sir.  Mistress is correct.  I was…am a lousy lover.”

Jeff chuckled.  “I believe you, Mikey, I believe you.  I’ve never worried about you being around my wife.  All that time you spent with her when the kids played together, I never once thought, gee…is Mike screwing with Ann.  Not only because I knew that she didn’t like you, but that we both had a good idea that you were a wimp loser.  Repeat after me…I am a wimp loser.”

Quietly and with great dejection, I said, “I am a wimp loser.”  I looked up at Ann on Jeff’s lap.  They made a great looking couple.  The portrait of young suburbanite success.  They were embraced once again and thankfully they didn’t notice my glance.

“MMm, that was so nice,” Ann said, breaking apart their kiss.  “I’d better go out front.”  She smoothed her skirt and stood up while I remained with head bowed, keeping my eye on the floor.  “What are you going to do now?”

“I have some work to do, shouldn’t keep me up too late tonight.  But first, I was thinking that maybe I should punish that piece of crap down there.”  Jeff kicked me lightly in the ribs.  “So he gets an idea of what he can expect in the future.”

“What about the girls?  They’ll be sure to hear it.”

“Possibly.  We don’t have to tell them anything specific, something like dad is correcting the servant’s behavior.  Eventually, I’m sure they’ll be witnessing the discipline.”

“Or wanting to mete it out themselves…especially that Nicole.”  Ann giggled.  “She can be very tough.”

There was knocking at the door, this time it was Jordan yelling through the closed door.  “I can’t find my guitar.”

“Just a sec.” Ann said moving towards the door, “I wanted to watch you, babe.  Give me a couple of minutes with the kids, then I’ll be back.”

Ann left the room, Jordan peeking in and seeing me kneeling on the floor.  I heard him ask Ann what was going on, Ann simply saying that they were talking to Mike.  Jeff didn’t immediately say anything, letting me squirm in the moment as I stared at the floor, feeling his commanding presence over me.  Finally he said, “If you try to run away from us, we’ll be sure to ruin your life though it’s pretty much headed that way anyway.”

“Yes, Sir, I understand.” 

“But you probably like this anyway.”  Before I could say anything more, Ann returned.

“Okay, they seem to know that something is going on, so we’d better do this quick.  I’ll guard the door.”  Ann was excited as if she was kid on Christmas morning.

“Stand up, shithead.”

I was scared, so nervous I was nearly shaking.  “Please, Sir, do we have to do this?”

Ann laughed at my pitiful plea.  “I think the wimp is scared.”

“Stand up and drop your pants.”  Jeff’s voice was deep and serious and growing agitated.

I stood up and fumbled around with my belt and then dropped my jeans.  Despite my nerves and fear, I was also excited, my cock straining against my boxer shorts.

Jeff had a voice of disgust and impatience.  “Underwear too, idiot.”

“Geez, look how little he is even with all his excitement,” Ann said as I pulled down my underwear, both it and my jeans piling at my ankles.  I was looking down at the ground, but I could hear Jeff undo his belt buckle.

“Bend over the chair.”

I shuffled over to the office chair that was in front of the desk and bent over the arms.  It was very uncomfortable, the arms hard and digging into my ribs though I’m sure that Jeff and Ann could care less.

“Comfortable, Mike?”  Jeff asked his voice filled with obvious happiness at my predicament.

“Not really, Sir.”

“Good.  I don’t want you to be and I want this punishment to be etched clearly on your mind.  You will not…”  Jeff wasted no time and delivered the first blow from the belt, it was firm landing with a loud splat. I gasped from the pain.  “…ever forget your place.”  Jeff punctuating the four words with four quick lashes of the belt.  There was no warm up and nothing erotic about being beaten by the man.

“Please, Sir, I won’t forget my place.”  I had squirmed and thrashed about as he hit me.

“Keep your voice down,” Jeff commanded giving me another brutal slash with the belt, this one causing me to involuntarily cry out.  “Shut up you stupid pig,” he said quietly but angrily.  “You’re not going to control yourself are you?  You are going to have to learn to take a beating without making a sound.  For now…”  Jeff reached down and pulled off one of socks, “you get this.”

Ann laughed and said, “Oh god, that is beautiful,” as Jeff stuffed the malodorous, damp sock into my mouth causing me to gag slightly as he pushed it in deep.

“You like that, darling?”

“Yes, it’s fantastic, sweets.”  Ann was backed up against the door, and I believe I detected a change in her voice and breathing as if she was excited.

“Get ready for more, pig.” 

I bent over and steeled myself.  Jeff laid the leather on thick and harsh.  One lash after the other in quick succession, my mind flashing white with pain as I moaned into the sock gag, spittle running down my face, tears forming in my eyes.  I was nearly hyperventilating from the agony and was praying that this would soon end.  I couldn’t believe how sadistic the mild-manner Jeff was as he continued my beating.  He finally stopped, I’m not sure how much time had passed, but it seemed like an eternity.  I could hear him breathing hard, my ass was throbbing and felt like it was swollen to twice its normal size.  The room was very quiet like everyone was exhausted from one long orgasm.  I didn’t dare move until I was told to.

Finally, Jeff said, “That was quite a workout.  Next time, maybe I’ll use one of Nicole’s riding crops that she loves to use on her horses.”

Ann seemed awed by the situation.  “Look at his ass.”

Jeff laughed.  “Goddamn, I did fuck him up, didn’t I?”  Jeff was moving around and picking up the camera from the desk.  He snapped a few pictures of my battered bottom.  “You’ll look at these everyday as a reminder of the power your Master has,” he said.

“Yes, Sir,” I mumbled, the sock still in my mouth.

“I’d better check out front.”  Before she did, Ann walked over and traced a finger across my bottom.  “Look at all those welts and bruises.  I wouldn’t want to make you mad, honey,” she said tenderly to Jeff.

“Yeah, can you imagine what I could do if I was angry?”

Ann snuggled up and gave Jeff a long hug and kiss.  “Mmm, yeah babe, I don’t know if I could imagine, but I wouldn’t want to be there.”  Ann gave me a hard slap with her bare hand on my tender and sensitive ass, which caused me to jump excessively.  She laughed and said, “Look at that, a little slap from me and he almost goes through the wall.  I’ll see you soon?”

“Yes, I’ll finish up with him and then will be out.” 

Ann left the room once again and I remained still.  Jeff ran the leather of his belt across my damaged ass.  “That was enjoyable and a warning to you that we’re not kidding around.  Understand?”

I mumbled another yes.

Laughing, Jeff pulled the sock from my mouth.  “Yuck, you got my sock all wet and there is drool on the chair.  I should beat your ass for that.”
            Broken, fearing it meant more whipping, I fell to my knees and started frantically kissing his feet, one bare, the other still with a sock.  “Please, Sir, please, Master, no more…I can’t take it.”

Jeff snickered as a kissed his feet.  “All right, if it means that much to you.  I’ve got better things to do right now than beat your ass.”

“Thank you, thank you, Sir.”

“But I like this groveling, Mike.  Very appropriate.”

If possible, I felt even more embarrassed in the manner I had totally debased myself.  This was someone who not long ago I had considered an equal, and now I was groveling and slobbering his feet with kisses, completely defeated.

“You know you look ridiculous.  Pants and underwear at your ankles, crawling around on the floor.  Take off my sock.”

I removed his sock.

“Kiss my foot.”  As I kissed his foot, he continued, “Whenever you remove our shoes, socks, stockings, you will kiss our feet to show your reverence and humbleness.  And you will be doing that often.  In fact, when you are here, you know our rule about no shoes in the house, whenever we enter or leave the house, you will remove or put on our shoes.  You will have a myriad of duties that we will get into later.  For now, pull up your pants.  Wipe the drool off the chair and come out front.”

Jeff left the room while I quickly cleaned up.  I wondered how much the twins heard, they must have heard the slapping of the leather on my skin; what would they think was going on?  I took a deep breath and walked out front.  Jeff and Ann, with his arm around Ann, were sitting on the couch between their children.  They all took glances at me then returned to watching television.  I was exhausted and wanted to go home.  I stood at the kitchen counter that bordered the casual room and waited for Jeff or Ann to say something, the room was eerily quiet, the daughters not their usual perky, loud selves.  I’m sure that they knew.

Finally, I had to say something.  “Is there anything else I need to do today?”

“I want a Popsicle,” Nicole said.

“Yes, Miss Nicole.”  I hurried to the refrigerator.  “What flavor, Miss Nicole?”

“I don’t know…strawberry.”

I retrieved the Popsicle and went into the room and handed it to her.  It meant walking in front of the rest of the family as Nicole was on the far side of the sectional.  As I handed it to her, Jeff showed his displeasure and error of my ways.

“You just got in our way.  Do you expect us to move our heads so you can do your work?”

“No, Sir.”  I was getting fearful again that he would punish me.

“You didn’t open it, stupid,” Nicole said.  No one said a work about her calling me stupid.

“Oh, sorry, Miss Nicole.”

I opened the package then knew I had to retreat to the other side of the room.  Jeff seemed to sense my dilemma.  “Crawl.  Keep yourself low enough so you don’t block our view.”

I fell to my belly to keep low enough, then squirmed across the floor to the laughter of the family, particularly the girls.

“That’s so funny,” Jordan said.

Nicole added, “This is way too cool.  Can I make him do something, dad?  Please…”

“Like what, honey?”

“I don’t know…make him bark or something.”

“All right, you can do that.”

“Bark, Mike, bark.”

“Woof…woof.”

This completely cracked up the girls, “That’s a good doggie,” Nicole said.  I glanced at Mike and Ann sharing a look that they knew Nicole was going to run with this.  She took the wrapper off the Popsicle and threw it onto the floor.

Ann started to say something about Nicole throwing her trash on the floor when Nicole said, “Fetch, doggie.”

I was still on my hands and knees and I turned and looked at Ann and Jeff with pleading and questioning eyes…did I have to do this?  I also glanced at the 18-year-old Nicole, who was looking at me with a challenge to disobey her, her brown eyes as intense as her mother’s.  Nicole was wearing shorts and a blouse, her bare feet rested right next to the wrapper on the floor.

Jeff calmly said with a smirk.  “Do what your told, Mike.”

I turned around crawled to pick up the wrapper.  As I reached for it, Nicole plopped her foot on top of it.  “Pick it up with your mouth, doggie, doggies don’t have hands.”

Ann laughed.  “Nicole, you are so mean.”

Nicole proudly said, “Yep and Mike is going to learn just how mean.”

“Don’t get carried away with yourself,” Jeff warned.

“I won’t, dad.”

Nicole’s foot was directly on top of the wrapper and I couldn’t get to it.  “What’s the matter, doggie, can’t you reach it.”
            “No, Miss Nicole.”

“Ask me nicely and maybe I’ll move my foot.”

“Miss Nicole, could you please move your foot.”  I glanced up at Ann and Jeff to see their reaction to all of this.  They appeared rapped on the television.

“I saw you look at me, Mike.  That’s another ten dollars,” Ann said.

“Yes, ma’am.  Please, Miss Nicole…”I begged.

She moved her foot enough to expose half the wrapper.  “With your mouth, doggie.”

When I leaned over to pick up the wrapper with my teeth Nicole took her foot and planted on my face covering my nose and mouth.  “Do you like my feet, doggie?  Do they smell good?”

Nicole’s feet had a strong odor, I knew she often wore sneakers without socks, and I wasn’t sure what to say.  “You have very nice feet, Miss Nicole.”
            “Yeah right, doggie,” she said, shoving my face with her foot, before pulling it back.  “Pick it up!” she ordered.

I picked up the wrapper.

“Crawl out of here and put it into the trash with your mouth.  No hands.”  Giggles from the others accompanied my humiliation as I crawled through the living room.

Her voice cheerful, Ann asked, “Nicole, where did you learn to be so mean?”

“It comes naturally, mom…Don’t use your hands to open the cabinet door, doggie.”

I was about to reach for the door when Nicole said that, instead, I pushed the door open with my nose and then dropped the Popsicle wrapper into the trash with my mouth, shutting the door with my nose.  I crawled back to the edge of the carpet and the hard wood floors.  Jeff said, “Get out here, Mike, you’re going to have a long day tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, standing.  No one even looked at me.  “Goodbye.”  Again, ignored, like I wasn’t even there.  This was humiliating, I wasn’t even worthy of human acknowledgement.  I left the house, went home, ate a quick dinner and collapsed into bed.  I was sure Jeff was right about one thing, tomorrow was going to be a hard day.

 

 

 

HELP WANTED

PART TWO

 

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Three times during the night I received phone calls from the Moore family, so much for getting sleep, once from Ann telling me to pick up a coffee for her and Maria from the coffee bar.  The two other calls were from Jeff instructing me to be at the house at 7 a.m. and to bring fresh bagels.  Jeff’s second call coming at three a.m. was about the bagels and to tell me to let myself in with a key he had hidden on the side of the house.

When I arrived at the house, everything was quiet and peaceful, a suburban peace that was a contrast to that of what my life was becoming, a servant, almost a slave to the Moore family.  A simple thing like the newspaper lying on the driveway took on new proportions…what if I didn’t bring it into the house on time or even in the correct manner?  Would I receive a whipping for making too much noise entering their home that morning?  I was anxious, knowing that any little error could mean discipline, humiliation, verbal disgrace.

I found the key and let myself into the house, arriving precisely at seven, having waited five minutes outside so I would arrive at the proper time.  Any earlier or later and I knew I could be subjected to punishment.  My thought process was no longer the same, almost not my own.  I had begun to think, anticipate what the family might require next.  I heard nothing when I came into the home, eerily quiet, I wasn’t sure what to do next.  I figured my Master and Mistress…yeah, I was already thinking of my former friends as Master and Mistress, were still in bed and I didn’t want to disturb them.  I was no longer their friend, after all, it had been less than twelve hours since I broke down in Jeff’s office.  Whatever happened, I would never be an equal in their eyes.  There was no turning back.  Unless I was to run and hide develop a new life, it looked like I would be working for the Moore family.  I could only hope that they would tire of abusing me, but I suspected that it would only grow worse.

“What are you doing down there, stupid, trying to think?”

Jeff’s voice had broken my reverie.  I looked up and saw him standing halfway down the staircase.  “Not exactly, sir.”

“First bring me the paper, then prepare the bagels and bring Ann her coffee.  We will be having breakfast in bed this morning.”

“Yes, sir,” I said pacing quickly to the stairs.  I went halfway up the staircase and started to hand Jeff the paper.

“You don’t hand it to me like that, servant,” he said, emphasizing servant like I was a piece of trash.  “You kneel and hand it to me, with respect.”

“Yes, sir.”  I knelt and held up the paper for Jeff to take which he did after making me hold the position for a moment.  His bare feet were almost eye level and I had a good idea what would be next.

“You may greet your Master good morning…”  Jeff put his foot to my lips.  I kissed his foot and then the other.  “Go fix our breakfast.  When the girls wake up, I’m sure they’ll want something.”

“Yes, sir, right away.”

“Good, Mike, your beginning to understand now, aren’t you?”

“Yes, sir, thank you, sir.”

“Very good.  You will find life much easier if you simply accept your new status, your true calling.  The less you think about your pitiful self, and the more you think about pleasing us, obeying us, the better off you will be.”

“Yes, sir, I will try.”

“Trying is not good enough…I’m sure you know that.”

“Of course, sir.  Is there anything you would like to drink for breakfast, sir?”

“Ah, very good, slave, that’s what I mean.  There is hope for you yet.  Orange juice will be fine.”

Jeff returned to his bedroom and I went to the kitchen to prepare their morning meal.  Bagels toasted and sliced, put on nice plates, cream cheese and lox on another plate.  I poured Ann’s coffee out of the paper cup into her nice china, Jeff’s juice into a glass.  I found a silver platter that was in the formal living room and put everything on it and carried it upstairs and entered the bedroom.  Jeff was reading the newspaper, Ann was asleep beside him.

I started to walk towards the bed when Jeff said, “Ahem, aren’t you forgetting something?”  He pointed downward indicating that I was to kneel and shuffle across the floor on my knees holding the tray in hand.

Though this was very difficult with the food and heavy tray, I made it to the bedside and held the tray up for Jeff.  “Ann, honey, breakfast is being served.”

Ann stirred and sat up in bed.  She was wearing a sheer purple nightgown and I only glimpsed at her.  Everything seemed so intimate, yet informal.  Jeff was in his boxer shorts and Ann the nightgown, neither showing any modesty.  It stamped my new status as being so lowly that they didn’t even care about my seeing them in the intimate setting.  She looked over at me and smiled.  “I like this.  The king and queen being waited upon by the serf.”

Jeff kissed her on the neck.  “Get used to it, baby.  Mike will be waiting upon us hand and foot.  And if he ever displeases us…last night’s whipping will be like a walk in the park.”

My arms were already getting a little tired from holding the tray up, but I concentrated on not wavering.

“Would you like some coffee, sweets?”  Jeff handed Ann her cup of coffee and took his juice.  “Is this fresh squeezed?”
            I’m sure Jeff knew it wasn’t.  “No, sir.”

“Five demerits.  Instead of simply fining you, we want you to keep track with points.  Then later, we can decide whether to hand out your punishment in dollar fines or taking it out of your ass, or both.  You do have your book with you, don’t you?”

“Absolutely, sir.”

Sleepy eyed Ann looked over at me with a wry smile.  “This is too cool.  I can’t believe how much I am enjoying this.  Slave, over here, I need to put down my coffee.”  Remaining on my knees, I quickly shuffled around to the other side of the bed and held the tray out for Ann to her coffee on.  “Do it faster next time,” she snapped.

I wanted to look at her, but I kept my head bowed not wanting to risk further demerits.  “Yes, Mistress.”

“Slave, I want a bagel now.”

“Yes, Master Jeff.”  I quickly shuffled to the other side, my knees already getting sore and raw from the crawling.

“More coffee.”  The torment and amusement continued as the couple ran me back and forth enjoying watching me suffer as I tried to accommodate their commands.  They laughed and barked orders until my knees were bleeding.

“Master Jeff, I’m afraid my knees are starting to bleed and I don’t want to get any blood on the carpet.”  I could see that this information displeased Jeff very much.  I was already sweating and tired and it was only seven-thirty; I couldn’t imagine how I was going to feel by the end of the day.

“You think we give a fuck about your knees.  Go into the bathroom and get some tape out of the cabinet underneath the sink and wrap your knees.  Hurry up, piglet.”

“Yes, Sir.”  I put the serving tray on a dresser and did as he told.  I could hear Ann and Jeff snuggling and kissing again as I did my best to repair my damaged knees so I wouldn’t stain the carpet.  Gathering up the tray and kneeling back down at the bedside, I kept my head bowed except for a quick glance where I saw Jeff and Ann embracing and kissing.  I felt insignificant and jealous that he was getting to enjoy the erotic warmth of Ann while I simply knelt and waited like I wasn’t even there.

“Can you go in to work a little late, after the kids are off to school?”  Ann asked, somewhat breathless as she was growing excited.

Jeff was moaning with pleasure as Ann nibbled on his neck.  “I shouldn’t, babe, but you’ve got me so hot…”  Jeff stopped as if he remembered I was in the room.  “Yeah, let’s get the twins out the door, then we’ll have some fun.  Slave, take the tray downstairs and then check on Joran and Nicole and see what they need.”

“Yes, Master I understand.”

“Good.”

Ann stirred from the bed gathering a robe from her closet.  “I’m going to freshen up.”

“I’ve got to make a couple of calls, hurry back when you can.”
            “MMm, you better believe it, lover, I will.”  Ann went over and gave Jeff another kiss as I was exiting the bedroom.  “I can’t believe how horny I am this morning.”

“Me too, baby, me too.”

            I walked over to Nicole’s room and gently knocked on the door.  “Miss Nicole, it’s Mike, may I bring you something for breakfast?”

            I could hear Nicole stirring in her room.  “Bring me a cheese omelet and a cup of tea, and hurry up.”

            “Yes, Miss Nicole, right away.”  I couldn’t believe I was letting this eighteen-year-old girl treat me so rudely.   I then knocked on Jordan’s door.  I wasn’t sure how to address him.  “Excuse me, Jordan, may I bring you something to eat?” I asked politely while feeling ridiculous at the thought of serving him breakfast in bed and being so docile towards him.

            The door flew open and Jordan was standing there.  Shirtless and barefoot, he was wearing blue jeans and a grin on his face.  “Wow, you’re already here.  What did you want?”

            The whole thing was embarrassing.  “I was asking if you would like me to bring you some breakfast.”

            “You want to like, uh, bring me breakfast?  Like breakfast in bed?”

            “If that’s what you wish, Sir.”

            “Sir?  I like that.  And yes, I usually don’t eat breakfast, but bring me a Mountain Dew and a donut.  Make it quick.”

            “Yes, Sir.”  The thought of a soft drink and donut for breakfast disgusting.

            I quickly prepared the twin’s food and brought it back upstairs.  I was relieved that I wouldn’t be required to crawl in their presence, we hadn’t, at least up until then, reached the point where I would have to do that.  Knocking at Nicole’s door, she said, “What?” like I had disturbed her.

            “I have your breakfast,” Miss Nicole, “tea and omelet.”

            “Just a minute, retard, I’m getting dressed.”

            “Yes, Miss.”

            I walked over to Jordan’s room and did the same.  He told me to come in where he was laying on the bed, watching television.  “He is your breakfast, Sir.”  I placed the tray on the bedside table.  “Is there anything else?”

            “Not right now, but I’m sure there will be.”

            “Yes, I’m sure they will.  I need to take Miss Nicole her food.”

            “Whatever, dork.”

I quickly ran back over to Nicole’s room, I hoped I hadn’t missed her request to bring her breakfast.  Again, I found it amazing that I had reached the point already were I was genuinely worried about making an error in my mundane task of serving a breakfast.

As I reached Nicole’s door, my question was quickly answered.  “I said I was ready, asshole,” she said, reaching the door at the same time I did, “where were you?”

“I was serving Jordan his food.”

Whack.  Nicole slapped me in the face.  The shock and the audacity of the blow overshadowed the stinging sharpness of her young hand against my face.  “Listen, old man, I don’t want to hear about your excuses…” she slapped me again, this time even harder.  “I had to get up from the bed to see where you were.”

My face felt warm from where her slaps had landed, I was certain that she had left hand imprints on my face.  “I’m sorry, Miss Nicole…”

“Apologize in the proper manner, Mike,”  Jeff said, walking up from behind.

I looked back, I’m sure pleading was etched on my face.  “Proper manner?”

He pointed downward and said, “Don’t act like you don’t know.”

I looked at the smug face of Nicole who was leaning on the edge of the door jam, tapping her barefoot on the carpet.  She also was wearing jeans, along with a tshirt.  I knew what was expected even though I couldn’t imagine that I was about ready to kneel at the feet of an eighteen-year-old and beg her forgiveness.  I sank to my knees and kissed her toes.  “Please forgive Miss Nicole.”

“Not good enough,” she said, her voice heavy with arrogance.  “Try again.  Impress me, flat on your belly like the worm that you are.”

I laid flat on my belly.  I could sense Jeff and Ann standing behind me as I groveled before their daughter.  “I beg you, please forgive Miss Nicole.”  I reverently kissed her toes of her left foot as the right foot pressed into my neck.

“Don’t let it happen again.”

“No, Miss Nicole, I won’t.”

“Ten demerits,” Jeff announced as Nicole kept me pinned against the carpet with her foot on my neck.

“Yes, Sir,” I replied.

Nicole finally stepped off of me and returned to her bed.  “You may serve me breakfast, worm,” she said.

“Yes, Miss Nicole.”  I picked up the tray and carried it over to her and knelt at the bedside and offered her the food.  “Lay it on the bed and get out of here.”

I did as she told.  The next fifteen minutes were spent cleaning the kitchen until the kids were ready to leave for school.  Then I had to fetch their sneakers and put them on their feet, Nicole having me tie her shoes three times before she found the acceptable tightness.  After they left, I went back into the house that was now very quiet.  I knew that Jeff and Ann were both still home, their cars parked in the garage.  Unsure of what to do next, I didn’t want to bother them because I suspected they were having sex and the last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt them.  I checked the toilet paper in the bathrooms to make sure it was folded properly and did some other puttering around.  After about a half hour I heard Jeff yelling for me.  I ran upstairs to their bedroom and knocked on the door.

“You wanted me, Master?”

“Get in here.”

Entering the bedroom I saw Ann resting her head on Jeff’s chest, the musky essence of sex permeating the room.  They had the sheet pulled up to their shoulders so I couldn’t see much of their naked bodies, Jeff had a devilish grin on his face as he stroked Ann’s hair.  “This is something you will never experience again.”

I knelt at the end of the bed.  How does he know that?  I no longer felt like an equal human, I felt more like I was their property or an object.

“You’re not worthy of entering a woman’s sweet hot cunt.”

Ann laughed.  “Jeff, such talk.”

“You know it’s true, you would never let him near your pussy…at least not unless you were going to piss on him or maybe let him eat my cum out of you if he works hard enough to earn the reward.”

“Wow, you are wicked this morning,” Ann said, her voice edged with excitement.

“Would you like that, slave, to eat my cum out of Ann?”

I didn’t know the answer to the question.  While the idea of Jeff’s sperm was revolting, the thought of being allowed to lick Ann’s pussy almost overwhelmed any revulsion towards Jeff’s sexual deposit.

“I asked you a question slave…”

“Yes, I would,” I finally admitted.

“I thought so.”

Ann’s voice was tarnished with disgust.  “I’m not sure I want his mouth anywhere near my pussy though I do like the idea of him being used to clean me up like he was a mop or something.”

Jeff acted like he was drifting off into a thought.  “I doubt if he is at all worthy of either one of us.  For right now, he’s lucky to taste our foot sweat, maybe I’ll let him feast on my toe jam.”

“That’s disgusting,” Ann said.

“Yes, but Mike here better get used to the idea.  After all, he will be expected to clean my feet after my basketball games.”

“You’re really getting gross.”  Ann was giggling, not sounding all that disgusted.

“He’d better hope that I don’t make him do the whole team.  Now that would be rank.  Wouldn’t it, slave?”

“Yes, Master,” I answered, totally dejected wishing that I had never started with this.  I couldn’t imagine having to do that.  “You really wouldn’t make me do that would you?”

“You never know.”  Jeff looked like he savored the thought.  “Drop your pants and underwear.  I want to see how that ass looks.”

“Yes, Sir.”  I didn’t want to strip for them, but knew it was useless to argue.  I stood up and removed the clothing.  The air in the room was cool and made me more uncomfortable than I already was.  I started to put my hands in front of my genitals.

“Hands at your side,” Jeff commanded.

Ann was laughing as I stood in front of them, again feeling humiliated.  “It’s so freakn’ small,” she said, referring to the size of my penis.

“He’s like a eunuch.  Is that what you are Mike?  A eunuch?”

“No, Sir.”

“You are now.  At least while you’re in our employ.  Turn around.”

I did as instructed, Jeff whistled as he saw my bruised and swollen ass.  “I did a number on you, didn’t I?”

“Yes Sir.”  I felt so humiliated and lowly knowing that the person who I once thought as a friend, an equal, I had consented to allow to beat me, that I was nothing much more than an object to him, something well below his stature.

“You’d better behave today, because it would hurt like hell if we had to punish you further, those bruises would make it very painful.”

Ann was studying me.  “Come over here.”  Her face was serious and I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but I feared it wasn’t good.

I went to her side of the bed.

“Face the wall.”  She traced her fingernails across my bottom.  “Boy, it’s really swollen.”  I could hear her give Jeff a kiss.  “I never knew how powerful you were, honey.”  Ann then smacked my ass causing me to jump from the sudden pain.  Even though it wasn’t much of a hit, on top of the bruises, it really hurt.  They both laughed from my involuntary gasp and jerking.  “Ah, does that hurt?”  Ann mocked.

“Yes, Mistress,” I said, from between gritted teeth.

She smacked me again, this time even harder.  “Good.  Now pull up your pants and go get Maria, she will be training you today.”

“Yes, Mistress,” I said, trying to hold back tears from the pain and humiliation as I pulled up my pants.

“Don’t forget to drop to your knees and crawl out of here,” Jeff said.

I fell to my knees.  “Wait, before you go.”  Ann slipped one leg out from underneath the covers and held her foot out.  “Kiss and thank me.”

I kissed the top of her foot.

“Bottom too.”

I obeyed.

“Same with Jeff.”

I crawled to the other side and began kissing Jeff’s foot all over, his toes, the sole of his foot.  It was so degrading to have to turn my head under and put myself underneath him.  I truly felt at an absolute low.

“You like that, slave?  Kissing my dirty, stinky feet?”

“Not really, Sir.”
            Jeff laughed.  “At least you’re honest.  Get out of here.  I’m sure you’ve got lots of work to do.”

“Yes, Master.”  I crawled out of the room and quickly ran downstairs to go get Maria.

I pulled up in front of Maria’s house and honked the horn.  No one came out, so I got out of the car and went up to the door and rang the bell.  After a few seconds, her 20-year-old son answered the door.  “I’m here to pick up Maria.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly, “she’ll be out in a minute.  You can wait here.”

I stood on the front step for an awkward minute, her son looking me up and down.  “Mom says you’re going to be working for her now.”  He had a smile on her face.  “That makes her very happy.  You’d better do a good job or I’m going to hunt you down and kick your ass big time, white boy.”  The young man had an evil grin on his face.  I had no doubt that he could easily accomplish the task of beating me up.

I nodded my head yes.

“Did you hear me?”

“Yes I heard.”

“Good…and I mean it.”

“I believe you.”  My life was beginning to be like I had a sign on my neck, “please abuse me.”  Maria came to the door, her hair damp and she looked harried.  In her hands she was carrying her thick-sole black work shoes.  She handed them to me.

“Put them on me.”

This was getting out of hand.  “What?”  I was stunned at her request even though by now nothing should have surprised me.

Her son answered my confusion.  “She said to put her shoes on, I wouldn’t argue if I were you.”  His voice was dark menace.  Not only did I have him to answer to, but if I had refused, I’m sure Maria would have reported my insubordination to Ann.

“Hurry up, we’re running late,” Maria snapped at me.

Red faced, knowing there was little choice to refuse, I knelt down before the older woman who was wearing pantyhose underneath her second-hand dress.  I glanced at her toes and noticed that, unlike Ann’s, were not manicured and in need of trimming.  I simply thankful at that moment that she wasn’t making me kiss her stocking feet.  I slipped on the shoe as I heard a car drive by.  What a sight I must have been for the neighborhood, a Caucasian man kneeling and putting the shoes on a domestic.  I tied the lace and slipped on the other shoe and tied it.

“Too tight.  Do it again!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I answered, retying her shoes.  Whether they were really too tight or Maria was demonstrating her authority, I wasn’t about to argue.  I wanted out of there as soon as possible.

“Yeah, that’s what I like…seeing the proper respect for my moms.”

“Yes, Carlos, he knows his place,” Maria said before nudging my face with the toe of her shoe.  “Lick my shoes, then we can go.  I want them to shine.”

“Now wait a minute.”  I began to sit up as this was going too far.  It was one thing to be humiliated and abused by Ann and Jeff, but this?  This was out of hand.  “I’m not…”  Before I could finish my protest, I felt the leather of Carlos’ shoe on the back of my neck forcing my head down.

“Get down there, white boy.”  Carlos then kicked my hard into my ribs pushing air out of my lungs from the force of the painful blow.  “Lick them, and do a good job.”  Carlos kicked me again, I was afraid he was going to break a rib.

“I am, I am,” I cried out, quickly lowering my head, sticking out my tongue and lavishing the dirty work shoes with my tongue.  Carlos placed his foot into the middle of my back as I licked.  I could taste a mixture of leather, dirt and specks of grime.  But at the moment, I was so worried about being beaten by Carlos, that the disgusting nature of what I was doing was overshadowed by the possibility of being beaten.  I spent about five minutes cleaning and licking, my tongue feeling like it was coated with dirt, when I looked up and said, “How is that, Miss Maria?”

She lifted up her right foot and inspected the shoe.  “You missed a spot on the heel.”

She put her foot back down on the cement and I craned my neck to her heel and gave a thorough licking.

“All right, that’s enough.  Get up!”  Maria commanded with unexpected force.

As I began to stand, Carlos kicked me hard in the butt.  “You’d better not disappoint my moms.”
            “I won’t,” I said, as I stumbled forward.

Unbelievably, Maria reached over and slapped my face.  “Show him respect, call him Sir.”

“I won’t Sir.”  It was like she had lessons in how to dominate.

Carlos just grinned at me, an evil grin that portended nothing good.  “Sir…no one has ever called me that before.”

“Well he is.  And if I had more time, I would have him clean your shoes too, my son.  Let him show the respect our people deserve.”

“I like that, moms, next time maybe.”

Maria gave her son a kiss goodbye.  We started down the sidewalk to the car.  “You will walk two steps behind me like a servant.  If you disobey me or disrespect me, I will have Carlos and his friends beat you to a pulp.  Understand?”

“Yes Miss Maria.”

“It is now Diosa Maria, Spanish for Goddess.”

“Yes Diosa Maria, as you wish.”

I opened the door and let her into my car.  She then had me drive to a coffee shop and purchase her one of those flavored coffees that she had seen so many of the housewives drink.  Maria was flourishing in her role as my superior and I feared where it could lead.  I planned on talking to Ann about the situation before it got out of hand.  I was aware that my talk might lead to further trouble, but I was hoping that Ann would understand my concerns that Maria could harm me or interfere with the proper time I needed to dedicate to serving the Moore household.

We entered the house and Maria began looking around to see what would be on the day’s agenda.  Ann was at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea and talking on the phone as Maria instructed me to get started on cleaning the counters and wiping down the cabinets.  I could see Ann with a satisfied smile as she watched her maid taking command of the situation.  While I was cleaning the kitchen, Ann, still on the phone, arrogantly snapped her fingers and pointed at her teacup and saucer as an indication that she was finish with them.  It had already come to that, a snap of her finger and I came running to do her bidding.  She caught my eye as I removed the dishes while she was laughing about something on the phone, I no longer saw the least bit of friendliness or familiarity, I was nothing but a peon to her now.

After she finished her conversation, she simply said, “Phone,” holding it out for me to run over and take from her and then hang it up.  She was writing on her pad and said nothing else to me as I cleaned.

Five minutes later, Maria returned.  “Good morning, Ann,” she said brightly.

Ann looked up and smiled.  “Good morning, Maria, I see you’ve got the servant working.”

“Yes, he is learning.  Isn’t that right?”

“Yes Dioas Maria,” I answered.

Ann quizzically at Maria.  “Dioas?”

“It means goddess.”

Ann laughed.  “Very good Maria.  A natural I see.”

“Yes, like yourself.”

Ann laughed even more.  “You are very funny this morning.”

“Thank you.”

I had slowed slightly in my cleaning as I listened.  Of course, Ann had picked up on my slackened pace.  “Are you eavesdropping, slave?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Mistress Ann!”

“No, Mistress Ann…not exactly.”

“Come over here.”

I walked over next to Ann who was sitting at the table next to the door leading out to the patio.

“Kneel”

I knelt on the hardwood floors facing her.  I could see anger in her eyes.  She slapped me across my face.  “You will only pay attention to what is necessary.”  She slapped me again.  “Any conversation that is none of your business, you will tune out.”  Another slap.  “Understand?”  One more slap.

My face was burning with the blows, Ann could deliver a sharp slap.  “Yes, Mistress Ann, I apologize.”

“Write this down in your punishment book.  Crawl over to Maria and ask her to slap your ugly face.  Tell her you are sorry and that you deserve to be punished.”

I did as I was told.  “Please punish me Diosa Maria…I beg you to slap my face.”

“Ugly,” Ann snapped.

“I beg you to slap my ugly face.”

“With pleasure,” Maria said, sneering down at me as she gave me a resounding slap which brought a chortle out of Ann.

“Not too hard, Maria.  We don’t want to injure him.”

Maria nodded as she gave me another slap, this time less hard, but smarting nonetheless.  Even with the brief blows, I could feel the roughness of her hands, the slight calluses on her fingers.  She slapped me one more time as the phone rang.  I didn’t have to be told to fetch it and I quickly crawled over to where it was kept on the counter and quickly ran back and handed it to Ann.  It was Ann’s mom and they started chatting as Maria told me it was time to get started cleaning the bathrooms.  The rest of the morning was spent with my doing housework and being told what to do by Maria.  Vacuuming, scrubbing and such, Maria doing the laundry, pretty much everything else being left to me with Maria showing up every fifteen minutes or so to yell and prod me to go faster.  Finally at noon, Maria told me to get into the kitchen, as she and Ann were ready for lunch.

I fixed sandwiches for the pair like I had the previous day making sure to omit the tomato on Maria’s lunch.  Ann and Maria sat at the table and I served them their food.   “So, is Mike doing all right Maria?”

“He could do better, but he’ll learn.”  Maria glared at me while I picked up the kitchen and put away the food.

“Of course he’ll learn.”  Ann grinned.  “Slave, show Maria what happens when you don’t learn.”

“What?”

Ann was displeased that she had to repeat herself as I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted.  “Drop your pants and show her what happens to bad slaves.  You don’t mind, do you, Maria…seeing him naked?”

“No, Miss Ann, no problem.”

I had no choice, I unbuckled my trousers and dropped my pants then pulled down my underwear.  I felt humiliated and vulnerable as I stood in the kitchen with my pants down.

“As you can see, Maria, how severely Mr. Moore had to beat him.  I think the bruises are beautiful in their own way.  A way of marking Mike and reminding him of what can happen.”

“Will I ever be able to do that?”

Ann laughed.  “Of course.  When he needs discipline, I expect you to do what is necessary.  I never realized that you had such a streak in you, Maria.”

“Just with him, Miss Moore.  He needs it.”

“Yes, I think you’re right, Maria, he does need it.  All right, Mike, enough of displaying your ugly ass.”  I pulled up my underwear and began to pull up my pants.  “Wait,” Ann said.  “What are those bruises on your side?  Jeff didn’t hit you there.”

“Ahh…I don’t know.”

Maria stepped in.  “I’m sorry, Miss Ann, but my son kicked him there this morning.”

Ann was very interested in this.  “What is this?”

“Tell her, Mike,” Maria commanded.

“Maria told me to polish her shoes this morning…with my tongue…and I…uh, didn’t move fast enough for her son Carlos so he kicked me a couple of times.”

Ann chortled between words.  “Oh my, slave, things have been rough for you.  She made you lick her shoes?”

Maria was looking at her sandwich almost as if she was embarrassed as I continued my confession.  “Yes, Mistress Ann, I had to kneel on her front porch, in public, and lick her shoes.”  I was hoping that I would gather some sympathy from Ann.  And I was relieved that I wasn’t going to have to have a private talk with her

“Cool…Maria you are something else.”  I could see Maria now beaming with a perverse pride.  “This is going to work out better than I could have ever imagined for all of us.  But you need to be careful with him, we don’t want to permanently harm him.  You’ve told me a little about your son and he sounds like someone who could really harm him.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“What do you say, slave?”
            “Thank you, Diosa Maria.”

Ann picked up her plate.  “I’ve got some work to do in the office.  Maria why don’t you relax and finish your sandwich while Mike massages your feet.  I bet you could use that after working all morning.”

I wanted to object as I could imagine how rank Maria’s feet were.  Even when I had put her shoes on in the morning I had a quick whiff of the strong aroma of her feet.  Now, after wearing her shoes all morning, it would only be worse.  “Yes, Miss Ann, that would be nice.”

“Now, slave!”  Ann barked.

I pulled up my pants and moved towards the table.  I hesitated a moment as Maria had made no effort to move her feet from underneath the table.  Ann noticed my hesitation.  “You’ll have to crawl underneath the table.  You don’t expect Maria to discomfort herself for your convenience do you?”

“No, Mistress Ann, of course not.”  I crawled underneath the kitchen table as Ann left the room.  I unlaced Maria’s shoes and slipped off her right shoe.  I was greeted with a strong, overwhelming odor; I did my best to ignore the smell as I almost retched from the awful odor and took her stocking foot into my hands.  Her foot was moist and warm and I gently began stroking her foot.  Her skin was rough and callused and I thought that if I was going to be doing this regularly that I should begin to take care of her feet so that in the future the task would be less onerous.  I was scrunched over and uncomfortable, wedged in between the table, its legs and the legs of the chairs around the table. 

“Take off my other shoe, slave,” Maria commanded, “but keeping working on this foot.”  I removed her other shoe and she rested that foot on my shoulder as I massaged.  She shifted back into dining chair as she began to relax.  “This is good.  This I like.”  Maria took her resting foot and mashed her pungent foot into my face.  “Smell good?” she asked as she laughed and rubbed her sweaty foot all over my face.  “I wipe my stinky feet on you.  It feels good.”

It was immensely humiliating to be used by this older woman as her foot wipe and she was relishing the opportunity to make sure I received the full treatment of being underneath her as she wiped her foot—slick with perspiration—across my face.

“Kiss it.”  She pressed the callous ball of her feet onto my lips and forced me to kiss her foot as I maintained my massage of the other foot.  This went on for fifteen minutes, rubbing one foot, kissing the other, as she occasionally bopped me in my face with her foot.  Ann returned to the kitchen.

“How is he doing?”

“He doing okay.”

“Good, feel free to use him like this everyday at lunch.  While you eat your sandwich, he can eat your toe jam and sweat which is too good for him.  Isn’t that right, slave?

“Yes, Mistress Ann.”

“Yes, what?”
            “Diosa Maria’s toe jam and sweat are too good for me.  I’m grateful she allows me to clean her feet with my tongue.”  I knew it was futile to resist, so I was diving into my new status.

“Enjoy him for a few more minutes, Maria, but then he should get his work done.”

“Yes, Ann, I understand.”  She sighed loudly.  “It does feel good though.”

Another ten minutes passed before Maria finally said enough before roughly kicking me on the side of the face and telling me to put her shoes back on.  When I had followed this command, she said, “Lick them, I want to make sure they shine.”

I licked them for a few minutes then she held up the bottom towards my face.  “Bottoms too.”
            “But, Diosa Maria they are too dirty.”  I had to protest this.

“Do I need to talk to Ann?  You disobey, you in trouble.”

I weighed my odds.  I hoped that it would be hard for Ann to side with Maria and I really didn’t want to clean the soiled soles of her shoes.  “Please Maria?”  I decided to go for begging.  I looked up at her dark eyes magnified by her thick glasses.  “Please?”

She shook her head no and touched my nose with the toe of her shoes.  “Lick.”

I stuck out my tongue and began to lick, dirt and grit soon caked my tongue as I cleaned her shoes.  Another five minutes of this degradation followed before she relented and told me to go clean the bathrooms.  The taste on my tongue and in my mouth was nothing like I had ever known.  A dirty sourness and discomfort from the dryness and friction on my tongue.  I wanted water and mouthwash but knew I would be receiving neither.  As I crawled out from underneath the table I not only saw Maria’s shoes, but the bare feet of Ann standing above.

“How was that, slave?”

“It was fine, Mistress.”

“Show me your tongue.”

I stuck out my tongue.  Ann put her foot underneath my chin and lifted my head up as she giggled.  “That’s disgusting, it’s all dirty.”
            “Diosa Maria had me lick the bottom of her shoe.”

“You’ll do anything you are told won’t you?”
            “I guess.”

“Look at you, you’re disgusting.  Kneeling on the floor, my foot underneath your chin looking at a your filthy tongue coated with the dirt and slime from the street.  How low will you sink?”

I thought the question was rhetorical.

“I asked you a question slave,” Ann snapped.

“Uh, I don’t know, Mistress.”

“I bet you don’t.  I was so right about you, about how you are weak and pitiful.  What would Joann say if she saw you now?”

A wave of panic struck me as I imagined Ann having my ex-wife ready to walk in.  “I don’t know, Mistress Ann.”  My voice was resignedly dejected.

“She would see what you really are.  And your son.  Your parents.  Your former coworkers.”

Ann was hitting deep.

“They would all see that you are nothing but a spineless foot-licking lackey.  What would Audrey and Phillipe think right now?”

Audrey and Phillipe were a couple we used to often socialize with when I was married along with Ann and Jeff.  “It would be very embarrassing if they knew,” I muttered.

“I have a good mind to invite them over tonight for drinks and dinner.”

“Please don’t Mistress.”

“Are you telling me what to do?”

“No, Mistress, I’m simply begging you not to invite them.  I don’t know if I could bear that humiliation.”

Ann lifted my chin higher with her bare foot.  “Look at me, Mike.”

I looked into her eyes staring down at me.

“You must face the fact that many others will see that you work for us now.”

“Yes, I know…but.”

Ann quickly reached down and slapped me viciously.  “Did I say you could talk?”

“No, Mistress.  I apologize, Mistress.”

“You will work and serve whomever I say.  My entire family—who I graciously allowed you and your family to spend holidays and other time with—will know you as our employee now, maybe even learn of your slave status.  Everyone you come into contact with you can assume as your superior, including the maid.  Understand?”

“Yes, Mistress?”

“You may talk.”

“But can’t it be kept at a respectable level?”

“What do you mean?  As in respecting you?”

“Something like that.”

Ann started laughing, her chortles humiliating.  “Yeah right,” her voice dripping with sarcasm.  “Just do what your told and don’t worry about others, slave.”  She withdrew her foot letting my chin drop.  “Get back to work.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon working hard, cleaning the house, pulling weeds in the yard eventually escorting Maria home with little incident.  I also got a break from the Moore kids, Jordan going over to a friend’s house, Nicole playing tennis on the high school team.  Alone with my thoughts, I kept thinking of the ungodly potential humiliation of former friends or even my son witnessing my new status.  Each time the phone rang, I kept imagining Ann inviting someone we knew over to witness my descent into servitude.  Also, as the day wore on, I grew more anxious knowing that Jeff would soon be home and I would be facing that humiliation of having to work and serve him.

Ann sometimes liked to cook and that evening she was preparing dinner when Jeff arrived home earlier than usual, even arriving home before the children.  I was assisting her by cleaning dishes and fetching things as she barked out orders between talking on the phone, even as she was preparing dinner.  One phone call was from Audrey and Ann made me squirm as she talked to our mutual friend.  Of course I only heard her side of the conversation, but it was more than enough.

“Did I tell you that Mike works for us now.  Things were tight, he needed a job and we decided he might be useful.  I couldn’t believe it when he accepted it either.  Yeah well, television is a tough business right now. Laughing.  True, probably not as nearly as tough as I am...I only expect perfection.  What does he do?  Whatever we tell him.  Yes, well, I’m not the one who got myself into this situation.  Yes, it can be a little awkward, but he’s fitting in just fine and is quickly learning how to do things the Moore way.”

They finally moved onto other conversation rather than about me, talking about their daughters as Audrey also had an eighteen-year-old daughter.  I was almost enjoying the moment helping Ann cook, being close to her and she was being reasonably civil to me.  She was curt with the orders, but nothing too overwhelming.  Unfortunately, Jeff came through the door and yelled out for me.

“Mike, where are you?” 

I ran back to the laundry room that connected to the garage.  “Right here, Sir,” I said as he entered the house.  “I was helping Ann prepare dinner, Sir.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow.  “Ann?”

“Sorry, Sir, Mistress Ann.”

“Add it to your book.” 

“Yes, Sir.”

For a moment I was confused as Jeff was standing in the doorway between the garage and laundry instead of entering.  “Are you forgetting something?”

“Sir?”

Jeff pointed towards the ground and I suddenly realized that he was still wearing his shoes.  “You don’t expect me to remove my own shoes do you?”

Well, yes I did, I should say, I used to have that thought, now I shouldn’t expect it I guess.   “No, Sir, of course not.”  I sunk to my knees and reached for his tasseled loafer.

“Wait.”

I looked up.  “Yes, Sir?”

“Clean it first…with your tongue.  I hear you already have a lot of experience with that.”

“Yes, Sir.”  Ann must had told him about Maria.  Immediately I leaned over and began licking the soft leather of his shoe.  I don’t know which was worse, cleaning the maid’s dirty work shoes, or suffering the indignity of lapping at the feet of the arrogant man who I had once considered a friend…and an equal.  The taste of leather flooded my mouth and it wasn’t as bad as the dirt from Maria’s shoes or the acrid taste of her feet.  But still, licking the shoes of another man, this was still amazingly humiliating.  Ann strolled in to see what was going on.

“I thought I heard you.”

As I polished Jeff’s shoes, Ann walked up and gave her husband a kiss, standing on my hand as she embraced him, neither one acknowledging my presence or the fact she was standing on me.  “How was your day?”

“It was good.  Got out early, but have to make some calls tonight.  What about you?”

“It was good.”

“And our slave…how did he do?”

“Adequate.”  Ann laughed.  “Maria put him through the ringer, making him lick her shoes on the porch of her house, then at lunch, he kissed and massaged her feet.  God, they smelled bad, I had to stay in the office while he did that.”

Jeff was laughing.  “Ah, did our poor little slave boy enjoy that?”

“Not really, Sir,” I said between licks.

“Who cares.”

Ann gave Jeff another long kiss.  “Got to finish din-din.  The kids should be home any minute.”

Ann left the room.  “Stop.”  Jeff held each shoe up for inspection.  “Not bad.  I’ll expect this everyday before and after work, a man’s shoes reflect on how he carries himself and I expect mine to be spotless and shining brightly.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You hear me coming home, you be on your knees and waiting in the garage for now on, slave!”  Jeff’s voice rose in anger.  “I have a good mind to beat your ass right now.”  He had momentarily seemed pleasant, but as he spoke, I sensed his anger growing.

“Please, Sir…”
            “Please Sir what?”

“Please don’t beat me.  I’m so bruised.”

“You sound pathetic, you know that.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“What are you?”

“Pathetic, Sir.”

“Removed my shoes.”

I slipped off his loafers, the aroma nearing that of Maria’s strong smell.

“Kiss my feet and then put my shoes in the closet in the garage.”

“Yes, Sir.”  I kissed his socked feet and then crawled out into the garage as he went into the house.  Quickly putting the shoes into the proper space, I walked quickly back into the house and returned to the kitchen just as the front door opened with Nicole and Jordan returning at the same time as Nicole had picked up her brother after practice and driven him home.  To say that Nicole and Jordan were the spoiled royalty of the neighborhood would have been an understatement, though both were highly successful in school and worked hard, they also enjoyed the fruits of Jeff’s labor, lots of clothes, the latest electronics, and in particular, the matching BMW convertibles that they each normally drove, Jordan’s being serviced at the moment.

“Mom, we’re home,” Jordan yelled.

“Where’s Mike?” Nicole yelled.

“Go see what they want.” Jeff commanded as he snuggled up behind Ann and hugged her as she finished the last bit of fixing dinner.

“Perfect timing,” she said as he nuzzled her neck.

I ran to the front door where both kids were sitting on a small loveseat that was near the entrance.  Nicole was in her tennis outfit—shorts, polo shirt, socks and tennis shoes, Jordan wearing jeans, Tshirt and sneakers he had worn to school.  “Did you want me Miss Nicole?”

“Yes, stupid, you need to remove our shoes.”

I couldn’t believe she felt so comfortable calling me stupid and telling me to take off her shoes, it seemed the entire Moore household was made up of demanding dominants.  “Of course,” I said, starting to bend over to remove their shoes.

“Kneel, idiot.  And hurry up, we don’t have all fucking day!” Nicole snapped impatiently causing Jordan to laugh.

“You’re a bitch, you know that, sis?”

“Thank you, brother.  I know I am.  Poor Mike here is going to find out just how much.”

“I’m sure he will.”

I knelt on the hard floor and quickly unlaced Nicole’s shoes and took them off.

“Smell good?” she said, pressing her moist socked foot into my face, “I’ve been playing tennis all afternoon.  I bet they smell real pretty.”

They were pungent, but nothing like her father or Maria’s feet, plus it didn’t hurt that she was so cute, but it was still humiliating to have the girl sticking her foot in my face.  Jordan followed his sister’s lead and did the same after I removed his shoes, this time a male foot that had been in sneakers all day, the smell approaching that of the Maria’s feet.  “Kiss it, pig,” he said, “I know that’s what you do.”

I didn’t have the strength to protest, and kissed the boy’s feet.

They both then strolled away as I rushed the pair of shoes to the garage then returned to the kitchen, Nicole’s dirty socks in my back pocket until I could put them in the laundry later.  The family sat down at the dinner table and was talking among themselves as Ann dished up the food, then told me to serve them.  I gave everyone their plates, filled drink orders and waited upon them.  Of course there was no please or thank you, just get me this, get me that, otherwise ignoring me as they talked about school, how tennis was going, etc.  Mundane dinner conversation everything seemed perfectly normal except that I was now, let’s face it, now I was their slave.  The conversation veered into new territory when Nicole mentioned that she had seen my son, Jonathon, at the country club where he worked and she played tennis.

I kept my head bowed and tried not to react, but I definitely had my ears on as Nicole talked.  “It was kind of weird seeing him.  I remember how I used to treat him like shit in school and he put up with it.  Now, I think I understand.”  Nicole was staring at me.

Jordan snickered.  “We used to pick on him to.  I kicked the crap out of him one day in the gym locker room.  He was such a pussy.”

I wanted to defend my son, but knew it would be near impossible in this room.

“He’d almost be in tears begging me not to hurt him.  Please Jordan,” Jordan mocked in my son’s voice “don’t hurt me…I thought we were friends.”

“Friends?” Nicole exclaimed incredulously.  “He had the nerve to think we were friends?”

I wanted to interject that the three had known each other since grade school, but I remained silent, stewing in the wimpy silence of my own and my son’s disgrace.  Jeff picked up on my state of conflict.

“What do you think, Mike?  Is Jonathon a friend of Nicole’s and Jordan’s?”

“I wouldn’t know, Sir.”

“I can tell you right now, he’s not,” Nicole snapped.  “Get me another grape leave.”  I hurried and served Nicole some more of the dinner Ann had prepared as they continued talking.  “Instead of a friend, I think more of him as being a piece of shit.”  I glanced at Nicole, then the rest of the family, they were all waiting for my defiance.

“Language, darling,” Ann gently admonished her daughter as I readied my defense.

“That’s not really nice, Miss Nicole.  Jonathon liked both of you.”

“That’s not really nice,” Nicole mocked repeating my pitiful voice, “I would never claim to be nice.  Nice is for losers…like Jonathon.”

“Go back to minding your own business, Mike,” Ann said.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

I started cleaning the kitchen as the conversation continued.  “I remember that one time when Frank stuck Jonathon’s head in the toilet and flushed it.  It was hysterical as he yelled, help I’m drowning, help.”

“Can you imagine drowning in a toilet,” Nicole said laughing.

They all were smiling or laughing by now and I could feel myself turn red despite my best attempts to appear not to be listening.  As usual, Ann picked up the change.  “Mike, you aren’t listening to the details of our conversation were you?”

“Uh…uh…” I didn’t know what to say.

“You know that servants aren’t privy to private conversations of their employers.”

“Yes, I know, Ma’am.”

“Hhm, because if you were listening then that means you disobeyed my orders.  Did you do that Mike?”

“Well, I might have heard something, but not purposely…I was just trying to be aware if you needed anything.”  I’m sure everyone was enjoying watching me squirm.  Yes, it was impossible not to hear the conversation; after all, I had to be able to respond to their commands.  But I also understood Ann’s point.  “I mean…I”

“Tell us what you mean, Mike,” Ann said smugly.

“I…I understand that anything that I hear is as if I didn’t hear it.  I mean, I listen so I can hear your commands.”

Ann was immensely enjoying my quandary.  “Maybe we should remove your ears.”  She and the rest started laughing.

“And his tongue so he can’t talk back,” Nicole added.

I was mortified.  Jeff stepped in.  “Don’t worry, Mike, we’re just joking around.”

Ann wasn’t going to be so easy.  “Well, he’s not supposed to be listening in on our conversations,” she said angrily.

Unbelievably Jeff was defending me.  “He does have to listen for our instructions.    Let’s face it, he’s not exactly got it going on and he needs our explicit guidance.”

“True, but still, that would be directly disobeying me.”

“Then, maybe I should fire him.  Mike, you’re fired.”

I couldn’t believe it.  Fired?  After everything I had already been through, firing didn’t even seem a possibility.

“Dad, you can’t fire him.  I have plans for him,” Nicole said, ominously.

“We all do, dear,” Jeff said.  He was smiling and I realized that he was kidding around.  “Mike is going nowhere…fast.  With all the demerits he is earning, he’ll owe us money in the end.”

“Like an indentured servant,” Jordan added.  “I remember that crap from school.”

“But, Sir…”

Jeff lost his casual manner.  “Sir what?”  Jeff startled me with his abrupt anger.

“Nothing Sir.”

“Good.  I don’t want to hear anything negative from you, Mike.  You WILL be punished for disobeying Ann whether it is unfair or not.  Fair is no longer in your vocabulary.  And Sunday, we will have a family meeting to go over the rules of the household for you, what is expected, and how you should anticipate being treated.  Ann and I need to have further discussion on this or I would do it tonight.  Right now, I want you to go into my office and wait for me.  You can clean this up later.”

“Yes, Sir.”  As I was walking towards the office, I could hear the twins eagerly questioning their father what he was going to do to me.  But I didn’t hear his answer.  I didn’t know which was worse…knowing or not knowing.

It was another ten or fifteen minutes before the door to the office opened, but it wasn’t Jeff, it was Nicole.  I had decided it was best to kneel as I waited, and when I saw Nicole, I was embarrassed and began to stand. 

“Don’t bother,” she said dismissively, signaling that I was to remain kneeling.  “That’s the best position for you.  On your knees, serving my family.  You are a loser with a capital L, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Miss Nicole.”

“Yes, Miss Nicole,” she mocked me in a sing-song voice.  “Not only a loser, but a wimp.  I know my dad whipped your ass last night and I hope he does it again.  Every night.  I can’t wait until I get my chance to do the same.”

“Uh, maybe they won’t let you, Miss Nicole.”

She laughed more.  “In your dreams, loser.  I have no doubt I’ll be kicking your butt in no time…making your kiss my feet, run my errands.  Wait until my friends get a look at you.  I bet you’ll want to kiss my boyfriend’s feet too.”

Not on your life.  “No, Miss Nicole I wouldn’t.”

“Are you arguing with me?”

“No, Miss Nicole, just being truthful.”

“Yeah, I doubt it, loser toe sucker.”

Jeff finally entered the office and walked over and stood in front of me.  “Nicole, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.”  She smiled at her dad.

“I bet.   I need you to leave.”

“Can’t I watch?”

“There’s nothing to watch.”

“Are you going to beat his ass again?”

“Nicole…”

“All right, but sometime I wanna watch.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Nicole finally relented and started to leave.  “Have fun, Mikey.”

Jeff watched her leave and was shaking his head as he said, “She is something else.  I like that you’re on your knees.  Nicole tell you to do that?”

“No, Sir, I did it myself.”  I couldn’t bear to look at Jeff and kept my head down.

“Head down, kneeling at my feet.  Wow, how the mighty have fallen.  I remember when you used to think you were pretty hot shit because of your Hollywood job.  Is that the way you used to get work?  Get down on your knees and beg for a job?”  Jeff grinned at me.

“No, Sir.”

“Whatever.”  Jeff sat down at the desk.  “Right now you’re going to be my secretary.  You’d better not fuck up.  We’ll start easy.  Get Sanborn on the phone.  And make sure you call yourself my secretary, not my assistant.”

“Yes, Sir.”  Mark Sanborn was one of Jeff’s best friends and work colleague.  We had met socially over the years and I was sure it was Jeff’s method of further humiliating me.  Still on my knees, I dialed the phone number that Jeff had written down for me.  “Mark Sanborn, please.  Mr. Sanborn, this is Jeff Moore’s secretary, please hold for Mr. Moore.”  I was calling Mark’s house so the formality was a little silly, but Jeff was getting a kick out of it.  Before I could hand over the phone, Mark started having a little fun of his own.

“I didn’t know that Jeff had a secretary.  How long have you been working for Mr. Moore?”

“Just a few days, Sir.”

“I see.  And as his personal secretary, do you do anything particularly personal for him?”

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean, Sir.”

            “Oh, I have a feeling that you do, Mike, you little pussy.   He told me about how you go running around and doing everything you’re told and how he blistered your ass last night and how you like to kiss his feet.”

            “It’s not that I like it…”

            “Are you arguing with me?”

            “No, Sir.”

“You’d better not be.  Give your Master the phone, pussy.”

I handed the phone to Jeff and heard another one-sided conversation.  “Yeah, he’s still here.  Sure, you can use him too.  Yeah, we’ll have our fun.  So what do you think about the Peterson account?”  For the next thirty minutes Jeff and Mark discussed business.  After the first five minutes, Jeff prodded me with his foot and told me to rub, so after removing his socks, I spent the time he was on the phone massaging his feet.  He tilted back in his leather chair, propped one foot onto my shoulder as I massaged the other one.

About halfway into his conversation, Nicole knocked at the door and Jeff had told her to come in.  She had a question and walked over to the desk where I remained in position massaging his feet while his daughter received help from her father.  Not once did he address the situation that there I was with his foot on my shoulder as I rubbed the other one as he laid back in his chair like he was a king.  Nicole simply glanced down at me with disdain, but said nothing.  It was almost as if it was natural that I was doing this for her father. 

Jeff finally hung up the phone with Mark.  “You do that pretty well, slave.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“How did it feel talking to Mark as my secretary.”

“Embarrassing, Sir.”

Jeff snickered.  “I bet.  He and Betsy will be coming over this weekend.  Maybe I’ll have you rub their feet.”

“Understand, Sir.”

“And maybe since you’re such a pussy, I’ll have you wear a dress.  The only reason I might not is because of the kids.”

“Please, Sir, I don’t want to wear a dress.”

“I bet you don’t.  And I bet you don’t want to be rubbing my feet, or licking the maid’s feet or cleaning our toilets.  But you do it, don’t you, you know what you are.”

“Yes, Sir, I know what I am.”

“And that is?”

“Your slave, Sir.  Your pussy slave, Sir.”

“Very good, Mike.  At least you have a talent for knowing what you are.”

Just then Ann entered the office and walked over to the desk and sat down on the edge, dangling her legs over, her feet inches from me.  “How’s it going?”

“Not bad.  Just trying to resolve a few problems.  What are the kids up to?”

“Working on their homework.  What did Mark think of your new secretary?”

Ann and Jeff must have talked about this. 

“Just laughed, said he wanted to have a little fun of his own.”

“Which they will this weekend.  Won’t that be great Mike?  Waiting upon old friends?”

“Yes Mistress.”

“You aren’t lying to me, are you?”

“Well…”

“Mike, that’s one thing we won’t tolerate.”  Ann was shaking her head in dismay and I felt like I was in genuine trouble.   “Have you decided what to do with the liar?”

I began to object.  “I’m not a li…”

“Shut up!” Ann snapped.  “You’ll speak when spoken to.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Since you said you’re not a liar, I want you to call Mark and tell him how excited you are to be serving him this weekend.  I want you to tell him that he should regard you as nothing more than a slave and treat you as such.  After all, you said it would be great to be waiting upon them.”  Jeff had a beaming smile on his face as Ann gave me my instructions.  “Do you think he’ll be alright with this?” she asked her husband.

“I think Mark will be amused.  Call him.”

Nervous, I dialed Mark’s number hoping that the call would be brief.  “Hello, Mark, this is Mike,”
            “Tell him my secretary,” Jeff said, kicking me in the ribs.

“…Jeff’s secretary.”

“Yeah, what?  Mr. Moore wants to talk to me some more?”

“No Sir, I uh, just wanted to say I look forward to seeing you this weekend.”

“That’s what you’re bothering me about?”  Mark was displeased.

“No, uh, I wanted to tell you that I want you to treat me like your…your slave and I’m eager to do whatever I can for you.”

Mark started laughing.  “Oh is that what you want?”

“Well uh, Sir, just wanted to know that it will be great to see you.”

“We’ll see about that…slave I guess it is.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Anything else?”

“Uh no.”  Click.  Mark simply hung up on me.

“What did he say?” Jeff asked.

“Not much, just that we’ll see about how much I like seeing him as he laughed.”  I was relieved that Mark had been easy on me though I doubted the weekend would go as smooth.

“Oh yeah, you think I’m arrogant,” Jeff said.  “All right, what were we talking about?”

“Mike’s punishment.”  Ann was now resting her feet on my shoulders, Mike had his legs crossed, a foot inches away from my face.  Ann began flicking her finger against my head, it was very irritating, but I knew better than to say anything, I accepted her subtle punishment.

“I don’t know, his ass is such a mess that I’m afraid I would do serious damage if I were to beat him again.”

“Yes, we’ll wait until the weekend to work on that,” Ann said.  “Betsy seemed curious about it, though she doesn’t seem like the sadistic type.”  There was a moment of silence as the two considered what to do with me.  I looked at the clock and realized it was almost nine, I had forgotten any notion of having a normal job or normal hours.

Once again as if reading my mind, Ann said, “I bet you would like to go home now, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress, I am very tired.”

“You know, since money is so tight for you, it’s probably best you become a live-in of some sort.  Depending on what we need or how we feel, you can sleep at the foot of the bed, in the closet or in the garage.”

Garage?

Ann giggled, “Or outside, like in a dog house, particularly when he misbehaves.”

“Wow, that’s wicked.  Love it.”  Jeff looked at Ann with a mixture of love and lust.  “Okay, before I finish up with work, it’s time to get Mike’s punishment over with.  Mike, crawl over and lock the office door.”

I could feel sweat start to build upon me as I crawled over and did as told.  What was Jeff up to?  As I crawled back, he told me to strip off my clothes.  Within a few seconds, I was naked and kneeling before the couple who were chatting as if nothing was abnormal.  They made me wait a moment as they discussed what they wanted to have for dinner during Mark and Betsy’s visit.  Finally I was told to stand and put my hands behind my neck.

“All right, slave, keep those hands laced behind your neck no matter what,” Jeff warned.  “Face Ann.”

I turned and faced Ann who was still sitting on the edge of the desk, her legs dangling as she began to lecture me.  “You doing a little better, but I’m still not comfortable with you being intimate with everything in my life.”  She sighed loudly.  “But I suppose that is an adjustment I need to make, eventually I’m sure I’ll see you as nothing but an object, like an appliance to make our lives easier and better and I won’t worry about what you do or don’t hear.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“But in the meantime…” All of a sudden, Ann gave me a swift kick straight to my testicles, it wasn’t real hard, then again, it need not be.  “I’ll expect nothing less the one-hundred per cent from you.”

My knees had buckled and I gasped for breath as a sickly feeling overwhelmed me.  Somehow, I managed to keep my fingers behind my head.

“Stand up straight!”  As soon as I stood up, she kicked me again as in involuntary loud groan came from me and I hunched over in agony as the couple laughed at my misery.

“What’s the matter, Mike?  Something bothering you?” Jeff asked with glee.

“Please…”

“Oh, you want another one?”  Ann kicked me once more even before I could stand straight.  This one sent me to the floor like a pile of rags at their feet and I lost the grip behind my head.

I couldn’t see straight or think, the pain was blinding and I feared I was going to vomit.  “Stand up, slave,” Jeff said through the murk of pain.

I stood back up as Ann made feigning motions like she was going to kick me again.  I jerked back involuntarily as they laughed at my reaction.  “Hold still, dumbshit,” Ann said between guffaws.  “You are disobeying me.”

Tears were running down my face and I was gasping for air.  Ann looked at me without an ounce of pity and the next thing I knew Jeff reached out and slapped my balls hard.  Again, I went down from the agonizing pain.  This time Jeff stood up and pushed me over onto my back with his foot, then planted it square in my chest and held me down, the victor standing over the defeated.  Ann reveled in the sight.  “That looks great.”  She slipped off the desk and then stood with full weight on my chest and stomach as she embraced Jeff for balance and to be able to share a few kisses.

I was now like a carpet, Jeff resting a foot on my chest, Ann feet planted on chest and stomach as I struggled to breathe and I could feel my face turning red from the pressure as they made out.  “I can’t wait until bedtime,” Jeff said, his voice deep with lust.  “What do we do with him?”

“He can sleep in the garage tonight.  There are some old blankets in the trunk of your car.”  Ann stepped off of my as air gushed out of my body.  “I’m going to see what the kids are doing.”

As she headed to the door, I remained flat on my back as Jeff then put his foot on my neck and pressed down.  “Whose mercy are you at now?”

“Yours, Master,” I choked out.

Just before she left, Ann said, “Don’t kill him, honey.”

“I won’t.”

As I felt the pressure from Jeff’s foot on my throat, he had me scared that he might harm me.  He pressed harder.  “You’d better never disobey me, slave.”
            “I won’t, Sir,” I gurgled out.

“Good.”  He released my throat as I gulped for air.  He held the same foot over my face.  “Kiss.”

I craned upward like doing a half sit up and kissed the sole of his foot.

“Stay there.”

My lips remained pressed against his foot, my stomach tightening and burning from the muscle strain of staying in place.  I felt myself begin to shake as the seconds passed.

“If you stop before I tell you too, you get five more kicks.”
            I nodded and began to disassociate from the stomach burn as I feared the kicks more than the current hurt, though I knew that muscle failure would eventually happen.  He held his foot higher and I struggled to keep my mouth against the sole of his foot.  Now, my stomach was really starting to burn, my muscles were shaking and I knew it was almost over; Jeff was having no mercy and glowered down upon me as I struggled.  “Please…” I managed to gasp as sweat formed on my body.  My muscles finally gave out and I collapsed to the floor.

            “Looks like someone is in for a ball kicking.”

            “Please, Sir, I tried as hard as I could.”  I could hardly move my stomach was so fried.  I knew that tomorrow I would be extremely sore, stomach and testicles paying the price.

            “Not good enough.  Spread your legs.”

            I spread but instinctively started to reach down to cover myself.

            “Put your hands behind your neck.”

            “Please…what can I do?”

            “Shut up.”  Jeff was standing between my legs.

            “Sir…please….please…”

I could see that Jeff was enjoying my pleading.  “Try not to scream too loud.” 

The next thirty seconds were the most agonizing of my life as he gave me five quick kicks in succession to my balls.  I was yelling, twisting and turning like I was having seizures as my mind turned white and blank with the pain.  Sweating and gasping, it didn’t last long, but the toll was large and I hoped I never had to face such agony again, though with the Moore family’s sadistic tendencies, that was unlikely.  When I finally regained some resemblance of composure, I saw Jeff looking down at me, arms folded across his chest, with smug complacency at what he had done to me.  “That’s lesson number two of what can happen if you displease any of us.”  I nodded my head.  “You go out into the garage and make yourself a bed on the floor, there are some blankets in the trunk of my car.  I expect breakfast just like this morning and every morning.  In the morning, you quietly crawl into the bedroom, go to the end of the bed and gently pull up and sheets and begin kissing and lightly sucking our toes to wake us.  You will do this until you receive a kick to the face.  Then you will serve us breakfast.  After that, you will gently knock on the kid’s doors and quietly tell them it is morning and time to get up and ask how you may please them.  Do not go into their rooms without permission.  You do so, and this will seem like happy camp.”

“Yes, Sir, I understand.”

“Good, now get your ugly face out of my sight.”

I quickly left the office, and tiptoed out into the garage.  The house was eerily quiet and I’m sure the kids had an earful of my yelling from the pain.  Jeff must have done this purposefully or he would have gagged me.  Entering the garage I was struck at the chill of the area.  I found the musty, dirty blankets from the back of the car and made the best bed I could to keep myself warm and give me a little padding from the hard garage floor.  It would be another fitful night of sleep as I was chilled, uncomfortable and sore from the past two day’s of work and punishment.

 

 

PART FOUR

 

            The next week was rather uneventful.  I was ordered around by the family, by Maria, but no one else was exposed to my submission and Jeff and Ann were relatively light on me as far as corporal punishment.  The twins were busy with activities and I didn’t see a lot of them, and on Thursday Jeff let it be known that they were letting up on the punishments because of Family Night which was going to be on Sunday.  This was definitely a double-edged sword, a respite from pain, but Sunday would be hellish. That would be the day when I would read off my demerits and be appropriately punished. It also meant that I was most likely in for a severe beating since they were concerned enough about my body to make sure it was healed and not bruised. 

            Again, Sunday was a day of tension as I wasn’t sure what to expect except that the meeting was schedule for four p.m.  When the time arrived, the family made themselves comfortable on the sofas and I served them soft drinks.  After telling me to kneel in the middle of the room, Jeff then stood up and in a semi-formal manner addressed the family as I knelt at his heels.  I was dressed casually in jeans, Tshirt and socks.  The rest of the family was also dressed casually and all were barefoot.

            “Obviously Mike here is more than our employee, he is our slave.”

            “No kidding, dad,” Nicole said.  “but why?”

            “With him, I think is some kind of genetic defect where he has this desire to serve others.  He realizes the fact the he is inferior to us, I know that might sound a little harsh, but let’s face it, we’re all not equal.  And in regards to Mike, he’s barely worth licking our feet so he should be grateful to be in our home.  Plus he got himself into a situation that resulted in our hiring him.  Initially we didn’t quite expect all of this…” Jeff rested his foot on my back.  “But it turns out we’re all quite suited for this.”

            “This is going to be great,” Jordan said, “no more picking up or cleaning.”

            “You guys need to be careful about what you say, having a slave is not exactly politically correct to say the least.”

            “We’ll just tell anyone who cares that he works for our family.  Considering that his son is such a pussy, no one will be surprised by that.”  Jordan was probably more arrogant than his father. 

            Nicole brightened, the ennui absent.  “I’ve got an idea, dad, why don’t we hire his son to work for us.  Like father, like son.  I’m sure he’s a natural just like his father.  He was always volunteering to do stuff for me though I wanted nothing to do with him.”

            “What do you think, Mike, should we hire Jonathan?”

            This was awful, I had a hard time explaining to my son why I was always at the Moore household, now this proposal.  “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Sir.”

            Jeff’s voice was angry.  “Are you saying that Nicole had a bad idea?”

            “Oh, no Sir, not that…I just…it would be so embarrassing.”     

            “Thinking of yourself again…tsk…tsk.”  Ann said condescendingly.

            “I think it’s a splendid idea,” Jeff said.

            “But he already has a job,” I protested.

            “Yes I know, works in the kitchen at the country club,” Jeff said.  “Tomorrow, I’ll see to it that he is fired, then you can make the proposal that more help is needed here.”

            I had no doubt that Jeff would have Jonathan fired as he was on the board of directors and well-connected at the club.  Jonathan had gone to work there so he could play the course once a week with the other employees after I was no longer able to afford the membership.  Jonathan was a pretty good golfer though not quite good enough to have played on the varsity squad. 

            “Also, in keeping with the family thing, we will eventually be introducing Mike to the rest of the family as our slave.”

            “I bet grandpa Charles will love kicking his ass,” Nicole said.

            “Yes, I’m sure mom and dad will have their fun with him,” Ann said.  Then added with a giggle, “I can see Dad taking him out to the barn, hanging him from a hook and taking a whip to him.  He used to talk about doing that to some of the workers he employed.  Maybe that’s where I got my sadistic side from.”

            “We’ll leave that for the future.  Right now, I thought it would be nice to have a proper ceremony to recognize our property’s new position.  We will begin by having slave Mike go to each of us, kiss our feet in proper adoration and respect, then pronounce his service for us.  You can handle that can’t you, slave?”

            “Yes, Sir.”

            “Then, begin with me.”

            Jeff planted his feet before me and I kissed them, then said, “Master Jeff, your lowly slave vows to do his best to serve you.  Thank you for allowing me to do that.”

            “We will see how long it lasts.”

            I crawled over to the sofa where Ann was sitting.  She looked smug and pleased as I approached her, then began shaking her head.  “No, no, not low enough.  Go back to Jeff, then crawl over again, this time on your belly like the slime you are.”

            “Yes, Mistress.”  I crawled back to Jeff, this time on my belly just to be safe, kissed his feet one more time, then returned to Ann.

            “Look, it’s a worm,” Jordan gleefully pronounced.

            “He’s not even that,” Nicole said, with that smug boredom that only a teenager can possess.  “He’s more along the level of the slime a worm creates.  Isn’t that right, mom?”

            Ann laughed.  “Yes, dear, I believe you are right.”  Ann, as she often did when excited or nervous, was bouncing her right leg which was crossed over her left.  I kissed her planted left foot, as the right foot kind of bounced off my head, then she stopped the leg bounce long enough for me to kiss the bottom of that foot.  “Thank you, Mistress Ann, for allowing this slime to serve you.  You are far too gracious to allow me this honor.”

            “You are right about that, slave,” she said before bopping me in the nose with her foot, bringing tears to my eyes.

            I then crawled the couple of inches to Jordan and kissed his feet.  “I hope I can please you, Master Jordan, I will do all I can for your pleasure.” 

            “Lift up your head.”

            I held up my head and looked up at the eighteen-year-old who glared down at me.  He took his feet and slapped each side of my face with the bottom of the corresponding foot, whacking my face back and forth several times, each slap with the bottom of his foot resulting in firmer hits than if it had been his hands.  “Boing…boing…boing…” he said as he did this much to the laughter and amusement of his family.

            “What do you say?”  Jeff asked sternly as he moved and sat next to his wife on the end of the sofa, putting his arms around her.   They would have appeared as the typical family except for the fact that I was on my belly kissing their feet.

            “Thank you, Master Jordan.  Please punish me as you see fit.”

            “Oh, I will, dirtbag.  As much as mom and dad will let me.”
            I had a sense of dread as I knew that he could be quite cruel.  I moved on to Nicole and kissed her feet offering her devotion and that I would work very hard for her.  Boredly she said, “Yeah, yeah, we will see.  You know what I feel like doing…” she looked over at Ann.  “Can I spit on him, mom?”

            “Sure, honey, if that’s what you want to do,” she said pleasantly as if Nicole had asked if she could have a cookie.

            “Look up, pig.”

            I looked up and was greeted by a wad of spit flying onto my face, most of it hitting my forehead then languidly dripping into my eyes.  She spit a few more times while laughing, the moisture hitting my face including my eyes and lips; it was dreadfully humiliating. 

            “Mind your manners, slave,” Ann said, the room suddenly quiet after their laughter of watching the spittle rain upon me.

            “Thank you, Miss Nicole.”

            “It’s Mistress Nicole,” she said.

            “Thank you, Mistress Nicole.”

            “That was interesting.”  Jeff said as if in deep thought.  “Mike, go to the kitchen and get a plate.”

            “Yes, Master.”  I quickly crawled to the kitchen and returned to the plate, holding it up for Jeff to take from me.  He immediately spat upon it.  Then again, and again, collecting phlegm.

            “That’s kind of gross, dad,” Nicole said.

            “Yes, but our slave is going to appreciate his position even more now.  Go ahead honey, add your contribution,” he said to Ann, handing her the plate.

            And so it went, the family handing down the plate until it was a liquid mess of spittle that I knew I would be faced with in a moment; just how, I wasn’t quite sure.

            “What a freakn’ mess,” Jordan said after Nicole contributed a large load of spit.

            “Yuch, now what?” Nicole asked, holding out the plate like it contained nuclear waste. “This is really gross.”

            “It’s time for Mike to do the dishes,” Jeff said.

            “Dad…are you really…?”  Nicole asked with awe in her voice.

            “Put in down there.  Lick it clean, slave.”

            I could feel my stomach begin to roil as I faced the viscous mess before me.  “Sir, I’m not sure…”

            Before I could finish my protest, Jeff had produced a crop from somewhere and jumped behind me and lashed my back viciously while saying, “You will do it now, slave.  Lick it clean.” 

            As he whipped me, Jordan put his foot on my neck and smashed my face into the spittle.   “Lick it, dirtbag.”

            I began the onerous task of licking their spit from the plate.  I tried blocking it from my mind, I tried to pretend it was a type of gourmet food, but the reality was, I was actually cleaning their disgusting spit from a plate, licking up the entire vile mess as the family talked among themselves ignoring what I was doing for them.  It took me several minutes to get all slime cleaned from the plate and I could barely keep myself from vomiting, but I knew if I began to wretch or vomit I would be punished for not appreciating their spit.

            “I imagined our toe jam doesn’t taste so bad anymore,” Jeff commented as I finished the plate.

            “Yes, you’re going to be closer to this family than you ever imagined,” said Ann.  “Consuming who knows what?  What do you say to that?”

            “It’s an honor, Mistress Ann, to be your servant, thank you so much for allowing me to consume your spit,” I lied.

            “Oh, they’ll be plenty of that.  With every meal I imagine.  Being the creative chef I am, I’ll create some kind of vile cruel for you, you know, spit, cold oatmeal, some yucky leftovers.”

            “Maybe even some piss,” Jeff added.

            “Dad, you are wicked,” Jordan said with admiration.

            “Yes, piss sounds like a good idea,” Ann agreed.  “The way I feel about you I’d even shit in it except that’s too disgusting even for me.  Plus, very unhealthy, as much as I enjoy torturing you, I don’t want to kill you.  At least not yet.”  Ann was now laughing.

            “All right, slave,” Jeff said, standing up, “return the plate to the kitchen and prepare for your atonement.”

            I took the plate to the kitchen, crawled back and knelt in front of the couch waiting while Jeff and Jordan discussed when his next baseball game was taking place.  “Strip,” Jeff ordered, in between his conversation with his son.

            I took off my Tshirt and shorts, then hesitated about the underwear, he couldn’t have wanted me to be naked in front of Nicole and Jordan.  “Everything,” he announced as if reading my mind.  I took off the underwear and added it the neat pile of clothes.  I was totally humiliated being naked in front of them.

            Jordan and Nicole both snickered when I finished stripping.  “What an ugly body,” Nicole sneered.

            “Yeah, old man,” Jordan said, “you ever hear of exercise.”

            “Yes, Sir, I have,” I said.

            “Then try it some time.”

            “Yes, Sir, I will.”

            “Jordan, I have an idea” Ann said, “you can be his trainer.  Work him hard, I want our property to look suitable for the Moore household.”

            “Oh yeah, mom, it will be my pleasure.  In fact, give me twenty-five pushups right now,” Jordan barked.  “Over here in front of me, kiss my feet each time you go down.” 

            I began my exercise, struggling through the pushups, I began to shake and tremble after only ten, Nicole said, “You are pathetic, you know that.  My poor brother has his work cut out for him.”

            “Feel free to discipline him as needed when you are training him,” Jeff said.

            I finally finished the twenty-five and my arms were exhausted and shaking.  “That’s enough for now, Jordan, we need to get started on his punishment.  Mike go stand in the middle of the room and begin reading from your journal of errors that you have committed.”

            Being so nervous, I could barely make out the words in my small notebook.  I started with the errors made at the grocery store, things left unclean or untidy, a whole litany of minor mistakes that Ann had nitpicked and fussed over.  Then I started on more serious errors, real or imagined behaviors where I was judged to be insufficient in showing respect, etc.  I could feel tears well up in my eyes as I noticed the family growing more perturbed as I read from the list, particularly Jeff.  When I finished, I was left to stand there for a long time while Jeff seemed to be considering my plight.

            “Disrespect for my family will not be tolerated,” Jeff started.

            “Sir, I would never disrespect anyone in your family.”

            “Shut up, I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

            “Of course not, Sir.  I apologize.”

            Jeff then went over and opened his briefcase which was on the kitchen counter.  “This is a little something I picked up the other day.”  I could see that it was a wooden paddle and he was slapping it against his hand.  “About once a month or so, this little baby will be used for to correct Mike’s misdeeds.  We will all have a turn with it and I expect our property will remember his behavior for the rest of the month.  I’d do it more often than monthly except I imagine Mike is going to be in rough shape after we are finished.”

            I began to tremble when he finished the statement and the room was eerily quiet.  Finally, the silence was broken by, “Who is going first?” Jordan asking the question.

            “Good question.  I figure we will let Ann have the honor of going last and finishing him off, particularly after we have him ready for her.  One of you kids can have the honor of going first.”

            “Can I…”  Jordan was beyond eager.

            “You okay with that, Nicole?”

            “I don’t care, I’ll get my time with him soon enough.”

            Jordan jumped up from the couch and walked over to get the paddle from his father.  “First,” Jeff said, “we’d better restrain him he said to his son as he handed him the paddle.  “Pull the ottoman into the middle of the room, slave” Jeff ordered.  I quickly obeyed and then was told to lay over the large piece of furniture.  Jeff then tied my wrists and ankles to the legs of the ottoman so I was stretched out and unable to move.  So there I was, tied down to the ottoman, stretched out naked before the audience that was ready to witness my pain and humiliation along with being eager participants.

            “This is awesome” Jordan said, “I can’t believe I’m about ready to paddle Mike.  You ever think that I would be doing that, old man?”
            “No, Sir.”

            “I bet not.  Are you ready for this?”
            “Not really, Sir.”

            “Too bad, because it’s time for a little beat down.”  Jordan moved behind me.  My hearts was pounding and I almost was hyperventilating with fear.  I could feel him lining up the piece of wood and then there was a sudden wisp of air movement followed by a resounding thwack to my ass, Jordan not even coming close to giving me a warm up.  The sound of wood against flesh echoed and I gasped from the sudden, searing pain.  “I guess those tennis lessons will pay off now,” Jordan said as he delivered another thudding blow against my ass.  I bucked against my bonds and could only think there was no way I was going to survive this; Jordan already had me in agony after two swats and there was three more people to go after he was finished.

            “Good thing we tied him down,” Jeff said casually.  The ottoman was turned sideways and I glanced over at the family sitting on the sofa. Again, they looked contented and like any other normal family, Ann snuggled into her husband’s arms, Nicole looking on with a feigned disinterest, arms folded over as she slumped back into the plump sofa.

            “Yes,” Jordan said as he hit me again, “I would say he would have a difficult time holding still without the restraints.  “Look at that, he’s already turning nice and red.”

            “He won’t be sitting on that ass for a while without discomfort” Ann commented, “and that’s good.  He’ll never forget his place with this family.”

            “Give it to him good, Jordan, you should see his face each time you hit him,” Nicole said.

            “Yeah, I’ve been messing around too much with the pussy, time to get going.”  Jordan then began rapidly and firmly bringing the paddle down on me, time and time again, I jumped, moaned and then finally began crying out loudly from the pain.

            “Yeah, that’s music to the ears,” Jeff said as I reacted to the pain.  “Make him suffer, son, make him suffer.”

            After about five minutes of this brutal beating, Ann finally said, “You’d better stop, Jordan, we’ve got three more of us to go.  We don’t want to send him to the ER.”

            “Oh man, but this is so much fun. Can’t I give him a little more?”

            “Three more, Jordan,” Jeff said, “you’ll have numerous opportunities to beat him in the future.”

            “All right.”  Jordan’s voice was etched with disappointment.  He gave me three hard whacks and I could feel my ass already swelling, tears were running down my face and I was howling with agony.  I could feel myself panicking with the thought of the additional beatings being administered by the remainder of the family, I was hoping for mercy of some sort if not simply that they wouldn’t kill me.

            “I’m next,” Nicole said gleefully as she got up from the sofa and walked over to Jordan who handed her the wicked paddle.

            “Have fun, sis.”

            “I will, though I think Mike here is the one having all the fun.  After all, he is getting all the attention.”

            I was trying to hold in my anxiety, but I couldn’t, the fear and the pain was too much.  “Please, mercy, please, mercy,” I kept repeating as if the mantra was going to save me.

            “Mercy?  I haven’t even got started.”  Nicole was incredulous at my pleading.

            “I can’t take it.  I’ll do anything if you’ll stop.”
            Nicole simply laughed at my pleading.  “You’ll do anything anyway, you don’t have much choice anymore.  What do you think, dear family, should I have any mercy?”

            “Fuck no,” Jordan said.

            “Watch your language, Jordan,” Ann said, as if his use of the word fuck was more outrageous than the fact that I was naked before them and her son had just beaten the shit out of me.  “And as for mercy, no, go ahead, Nicole, this is meant to be an unforgiving lesson.  In fact,” Ann stood up and walked over before me, I was shaking with fright.  “That’s right, shake with fear, I want you to fear us, to know that the slightest degree of disobedience will mean punishment.”  Ann slapped me viciously across the face.  “I don’t want you every questioning us again.”  Another wicked slap.  “Do not ever ask for mercy again.”  She slapped me again, her sadistic nature seemingly flaring up under the situation.  “Give him five hard ones now, darling.” 

            “Sure, mom.”  Nicole let loose with the paddle and a struck my aching ass five times, I could feel myself getting wobbly and about to pass out.  Ann had returned to the sofa, I could see her crossed over leg bouncing up and down once again as was her mannerism when agitated.  “He’s getting purple back here.”
            “Good,” Jeff said, “keep going, hun.”

            “With pleasure.”  Nicole began paddling me again, and sure enough, the pain became overwhelming and I lost consciousness for a moment.  The next thing I knew Jeff was standing in front of me telling me to wake up.

            When I finally did, he said, “Did you get permission to pass out?”

            “No, Sir,” I gasped.

            “Then why did you do it?”  I could see a grin starting on Jeff’s face when he looked back to the family as if he knew the question was impossible to answer.

            “I’m sorry, Sir.”  I was totally devastated.

            “Since you are such a pussy, I guess that Mistress and myself aren’t going to be able to fully enjoy ourselves.”

            “I’m disappointed in you, slave” Ann said as she got up from the couch.  She walked behind me and chuckled, “He’s beginning to bleed too.  We’ll have to stop.”  Yes…I felt relief that the paddling might have been over.

            “I’m sorry, dear,” Jeff said to his wife.

            “It’s okay, we’ll just have to play the crab game.”

            Panic began again.  Not the crab game; despite my fear, I knew to say nothing.  “Good idea.” Jeff began untying my arms.

            “What’s the crab game?” Nicole asked.

            “You’ll see soon enough.”  Jeff had quickly untied me.  “Assume the position.”

            I was stiff and in pain and it was difficult to move, yet I creakily assumed the position, my crotch available and naked before the entire family.  “Too cool,” Jordan said as his mother lined up.  “I can’t believe my parents are so fucking mean.”

            “Language, Jordan,” Ann said curtly.  She took her foot and gave a quick thrust to the testicles.  The small movement bringing further agony as I yelped before squirming with pain as everyone laughed.

            “Ah, what’s the matter, piggie, does that hurt?”  Nicole said.

            Jeff then took a kick and said, “You’d better not pass out on me again, Mike.”

            I screamed with agony and gasped for breath from his hard kick as Ann put her foot directly on my face to hold me down for the next kick from her husband.  Again, the pain was searing and I wanted to vomit it hurt so much as laughter from my tormentors echoed in the background of my agony.

            “All right, your turn, Ann.  It’s almost time for your television show and I’m sure you don’t want to miss it, even though this is a lot of fun.”

            “True dear, we could TIVO it, but there will be plenty of time to torment Mike in the future.”  Ann and Jeff switched places, Jeff planting his big foot right on my face as Ann positioned herself at my crotch.  “Just a couple of kicks, Mike,” Ann said pleasantly, “no big deal.  I’m feeling kind at the moment.”

            No big deal? Kind?  “What do you say?” Jeff barked at me.

            “Thank you, Mistress for your kindness.”

            “You’re welcome.”  Then came the kick, which was anything but kind.  Then one more kick with Jeff lifting his foot off of me after it which signaled that my punishment was finished.

            “Slave, thank each of us for your first Family Night punishment,” Jeff told me as he embraced Ann and kissed her.  Ignoring me, I kissed his feet then hers as they kissed each other, then I crawled over to Nicole and Jordan and kissed their feet and thanked them.  “What do you think, kids, did you like that?”

            “That was way cool, dad,” Jordan said.

            “No kidding, I don’t think I could ever get tired of doing that,” Nicole said.

            I was completely spent and my entire body ached from the beatings and kicking.  I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and forget what my life had become now that I worked for the Moore family.  But I had work to do, cleaning, putting things away and continued waiting upon the family as they requested snacks and drinks.  Since starting with the household, everyone, particularly the children, left clothes and trash everywhere as it was expected that I would quickly clean up after them.  The job seemed endless and I felt I was deep into whatever hole I had created for myself.  I seldom went home and my son was growing more concerned with my extended absences even though it meant he had the apartment for himself.

            Monday offered a surprise when after serving the family dinner, Jeff announced that he was going to let me go home that evening, and it was going to be as soon as I cleaned up.  I quickly performed my duties and was ready to leave before seven.  The family was in the front room when I kneeled before Jeff and asked to be dismissed.

            “May I now leave, Sir?”           

            “Did you get all your work done?”

            “Yes, Sir.”

            “All right.”  Jeff then reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.  “I want you to buy a couple of hamburgers or something for you and your son.”

            Jeff was being almost normal and kind, I had an inkling of what was up.  Jeff held up the money, “I haven’t paid you lately, have I?”

            “No, Sir.”

            Jeff then threw some of the money on the floor.  “Pick it up…with your mouth.”

            I crawled around on the carpet picking up the twenty dollars that Jeff had thrown on the floor, two fives and ten singles.  Jordan and Nicole were laughing as I scrambled to pick up the money as they yelled at me to hurry up.  I kept dropping the bills as I wasn’t able to keep all the money in my mouth and this irritated Jeff.  “What kind of gratitude is that, dropping my hard-earned money on the ground?  Pick it up!”  Jeff snapped.

            I was trying my best to cram the dirty wad of cash in my mouth when Jeff jumped up from the couch as a riding crop magically appeared in his hand.  It seemed anymore that in the Moore household a crop was always at hand.  He snapped it onto my deeply bruised ass and I howled with pain, again my suffering punctuated by more laughter.  “Get out of here, fuckhead.”  I started to crawl out of the room.  “One other thing, your son is out of a job.  We’ve got one here for him.  I expect you to follow through with this.”

            “Sir, my son?...Please….”

            Jeff slapped my face.  “Are you going to dispute my authority again?”  Another slap.  “Don’t you ever learn?”

            Both blows smarted greatly and I felt like he had left an imprint of his hand on my face.  There was no use in arguing, and with all the video evidence they now held against me, I felt it was better to let Jonathon witness my situation rather than the entire world being witness to what I had become at the hands of the Moore family.

            I stopped and bought a couple of hamburgers with the money Jeff had given me.  Arriving at my apartment, I was depressed to see the deteriorating condition of the building.  I entered the apartment.  Jonathon was sitting on our used couch, watching television and drinking a diet soda.  He was quite surprised to see me.  “Dad, what are you doing here?”  He looked upset, almost like he had been crying.   I knew that Jonathon was a sensitive boy, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had been in tears.

            “I got the day off a little early.”

            “Oh.”  Jonathon was disappointed.  “I thought maybe that you had quit…though…”  Jonathon drooped his head in sadness.  “It’s probably good that you didn’t…”  His voice trailed off and I knew what he was about to say.  “I got fired today.”  He was ready to cry.  “I don’t know why, I really needed that job for college.”

            “I’m sorry to hear that, Jonathon.”  Reeling in my mind were the thoughts of the future and what Jeff and his family wanted me to do.  I would hope that they would be a little easier on him, let him witness his dad’s degradation rather than be a part of it.

            “What am I going to do?  I need that money for school.  Do you have enough to help me?”

            “I’m sorry, but with my Joann’s alimony, child support for her daughter and the massive cut in income of late, I don’t.  You know I would help if I had it.”  Yes, it was true, I had agreed to pay Joann child support even though her daughter wasn’t my child and her daughter was nearly twenty-one.  By the time she turned of age and the support was due to stop, the money from my savings would be completely gone.  It was a stupid, and now I see, a submissive act to agree to such a thing, but it seemed a simpler solution to a nasty divorce at the time.  Money I could have used for my own son was being drained to pay for Joann’s daughter.

            “I know dad.”

            I looked at my son.  He was tall and lanky, a little bit of an acne problem, smart, not socially graceful.  If I was to be honest, he was a nerd, and I couldn’t believe it, but I was ready to take the plunge, I had to please my owners.  “Jeff was just asking if I knew anyone that need a job.  What about that?”

            “Jeff?  He wants both of us to work for him?”

            “Well, he didn’t say you specifically,” I lied, “but I’m sure he would at least talk to you about it.” 

            Jonathon was staring at my face.  “Is that a mark on your face?”
            I turned red with embarrassment.  “I don’t think so, I did bump the door of my car getting into today.”

            Jonathon didn’t exactly buy it, but I had been so different since serving the Moores that I don’t think anything would have surprised him.  “Would he expect me to put in the same kind of hours?  How much would I get paid?”

            “I don’t know anything about the details; you’ll have to get that from Jeff.”

            “Well, I really need the money.  I can’t even play golf for free anymore.”  Jonathon shook his head.  “I just don’t understand it, why did they have to fire me.  They wouldn’t give me a good reason.”

            “I don’t know, son, sometimes things just don’t work out the way you expect.”

 

I was at the Moore household at five a.m.  The house was a total mess and I worked quietly until it was time to serve everyone their breakfast.  After serving the twins, I entered the master bedroom, an apt term in this household, knelt down and held up the tray with their breakfast and coffee.  I was nude as I only wore clothes when around visitors, otherwise, I was expected to be naked.  I had already awakened Jeff and Ann by sucking on their toes as I did every morning before I fixed their breakfast.

            As usual, I held the tray as they ate and talked to each other as if I wasn’t there.  I had become somewhat of an object to them, a convenience and except for giving orders or punishing me, they paid little attention to me.  After about ten minutes, Jeff addressed me.  “What did he say?”

            “I believe he will call you today, Sir.”

            “You believe?”  Jeff shook his head in disgust.  “He’d better is all I’ve got to say.”

            “Yes, Sir.”
            “You disgust me.  Get out of here before I decide to beat your ass.”

            I quickly crawled out knowing that my bruised bottom needed relief, not further punishment.  The rest of the morning was uneventful as I continued my household duties without further trauma to my body as everyone was off doing their own thing.  I enjoyed the solitude and doing my menial chores without fear of punishment.  Dinner time finally arrived, Jeff and Ann before coming home a half hour before I served them their meal.  The twins were still off with friends and I was enjoying my daylong reprieve from them.  About halfway through serving the meal, as I was pouring more water for Ann, Jeff cheerily said, “Guess what, Mike, I received an interesting phone call.”

            I didn’t say anything, but from the glee in his voice and the look on his face, I figured it had been Jonathon.

            “Aren’t you interested in the call?”

            “Of course, Sir, may I ask who called?”  I asked in my most polite tone of voice.

            “Why of course you can ask, stupid.  It was Jonathon.  Funny thing, he told me he lost his job and couldn’t understand why.  God, he sounded pathetic, just like his old man.”  In a mocking, whiny voice Jeff continued.  “Do you think you might have a job for me, Mr. Moore,” he sniveled, “my dad said you might have something for me.”

            Ann was grinning at her husband.  “What did you tell him, dear?  Do you?”

            “Well first, I had to teach him a little respect.  Do you have a job for me, sir,” I told him, it was great listening to the loser repeat it back with the sir.  We’ll have him trained in no time, won’t me, Mikey?”

            “I suppose, Sir.”  I was regretting the decision to get Jonathon involved in this though I kept telling myself I had no choice.

            “Don’t worry, we’ll go slow in the beginning.  Let him get accustomed to the idea of being a slave, though it didn’t take long for you to figure out your place in life, did it?”

            “No, Sir, it didn’t.”

            “No, it didn’t you slimy, foot-licking piece of crap.  Hurry and clean up this mess, your son will be coming over soon for his interview.”

            “Tonight, Sir?”
            “That’s right, slave, tonight.”

            I couldn’t believe this was already happening, Jonathon was a gentle person and with this family I knew he would be kneeling next to me in no time.  It was going to be horrendously embarrassing for me for him to witness my situation and the only thing I was thankful for at the moment was the twin’s absence and that they wouldn’t have a chance to start in on him.  Seven o’clock rolled around, the doorbell rang and Ann gleefully called out for me to answer it; I knew it was Jonathon not only because no was expected and Ann sounded too happy as normally an unexpected doorbell ring would have pissed her off.

            I was now dressed and glumly walked to the door.  Standing there was Jonathon.  He was dressed in his “interview” clothes:  black slacks, white dress shirt, a cheap tie, polished dress shoes.  “Hi, you decided to give it a try?”

            “Yeah, there isn’t a lot of jobs around for my age right now.  And, Jeff, said that he would work around my schedule and might eventually work into something for the future, even post college.”

            Yes, it certainly could, I pondered, but not the way Jonathon was thinking.  “It’s Mr. Moore, not Jeff, Jonathon,” I reminded him, knowing that the Moore’s could hear our conversation.

            “He does have a couple of businesses that are very successful, right?”

            Unlike you, dad, I’m sure he wanted to add.  “Yes, Mr. Moore is quite successful,” I agreed.  I looked at my watch.  Seven o’ three.  Hurry up.” 

            Jonathon looked at me strangely.  “It’s only a couple of minutes after seven, dad.”

            I nodded and said impatiently, “Take off your shoes and follow me.”

            “Mr. and Mrs. Moore, Jonathon is here.”  I led Jonathon to the family room where Ann and Jeff were lying on the sofa watching television, neither bothered to pay attention to us.

            “Have him wait in the office.”

            “Yes, Sir, Mr. Moore.”  I led Jonathon into the downstairs office.  There were the usual two chairs, one behind the desk, one next to it.

            Jonathon whispered to me, “Boy, dad, you’re so formal with them.  Mr. Moore?  Sir?”

            It was only the beginning, I’m sure my son could sense my anxiousness.  “Like you want to be, I’m their employee.  It’s a matter of respect.  Wait here and don’t be impatient.”

            “Okay.”

            “And don’t touch anything.”  I left the room and went out to where my owners were lazing back on the sofa.

            Jeff looked up and crooked his finger at me.  When I got in front of him, he quietly said, “Kneel.”  I knelt in front of him fearing that Jonathon might come out of the office and see me, but I had no choice but to obey my Master.  Jeff smiled evilly at me.  “Everything in order?”

            “Yes, Sir.”

            Jeff held up his sock clad foot for me to kiss.  “Good.  Go do your work and we’ll call you when needed.  Be sure to listen closely for us.  In fact, I want you by the door, discreetly, listening to our conversation.  You actually have permission, no make that a command, to eavesdrop.”

            “Yes, Sir,” I said, kissing Jeff’s other foot.  I went back to work as Ann and Jeff watched television and made Jonathon wait.  It was seven-thirty before they left the couch to talk to Jonathon, they had already made him wait over twenty-five minutes and I was a little surprised that he hadn’t come out of the office to see what was taking so long.  Ann and Jeff went into the office and I snuck along outside where I could hear, but not be seen.

            “Hello, Jonathon,” Jeff said.

            “Hi, thanks for giving me the interview.”

            “Sure.  That’s my chair, Jonathon, sorry, but you are going to have to stand for this, we only have the two seats.”

            “No problem, Jeff.”

            Oh no, not Jeff.

            “Uh, Jonathon, it’s Mr. Moore and Mrs. Moore.  This is a professional situation.  I know we’ve known each other a long time, but we don’t forget that this is a real job we’re talking about.”

            “Okay, I understand.”  Jonathon stuttered.

            “Yes, Sir, is better.”

            “Yes Sir,” Jonathon quickly agreed.

            “Mike get in here,” Jeff yelled.

            I quickly ran in.  Jeff was sitting at his desk, his feet up on it, Ann in the chair, legs crossed, looking on with amusement as Jonathon stood before the couple, Jonathon looking frightened.  “Yes, Sir, Mr. Moore?”

            “I’m thirsty.  Get me some water.  Anything for you, honey?”

            “No thanks, dear,” Ann sweetly said to Jeff.

            “Go.”  Jeff ordered.

            I quickly fetched the water, putting in a slice of lemon for my Master.  As I sat it down on the desk, I heard Jeff asking Jonathon why he wanted the job.  As my son gave a stock answer, Jeff knocked a pen off the desk and onto the floor as if by accident when reaching for his water.  I was sure it wasn’t an accident.  “Whoops.  Mike, pick that up.”

            “Yes, Sir,” I answered.  The pen had rolled under Ann’s crossed over leg and as I bent down to pick it up, Ann made no effort to move.  As I reached for it, Ann’s foot was essentially on my back, a quick symbol of my status and demonstration for my son. “Here you are, Sir,” I said handing him the pen.  “Anything else?”

            “Yes,” Ann said, “I decided I would like a glass of water.”  She arrogantly snapped her fingers and said, “Hurry up!”

            “Yes, Ma’am,” I said, turning red with embarrassment.  They weren’t wasting time in demonstrating that I was their lackey.

            “All right, now where were we?” Ann said smugly.  “You were telling us why we should consider you to work for us.”

            I ran out of the room feeling humiliated and for a moment, thought about rebelling and getting myself and Jonathon out of there.  But it was too late.  Most of me perversely liked being their slave, plus there were the tapes.  There was even a little bit of me that wanted Jonathon to submit to them.  He was of my blood, somewhere in those genetics there had to be the same desire to submit.  Returning to the room, Ann snapped, “Put it down there,” as she pointed to a spot on the desk.  “That’s all.  Leave.”  She continued watching Jonathon as I retreated from the room and went back to listening.

            “You do understand, Jonathon, that if you take the job, you will not only be working for me, but for Mrs. Moore and possibly the kids.  You have known Nicole and Jordan for a long time haven’t you?”

            “Yes, Sir, Mr. Moore, since grade school.”

            “And would you have a problem working for them?”

            “Uh, I guess not.”

            “You guess?”

            “No, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

            “Maybe this job isn’t for you.  You don’t sound positive about it.”

            “Oh, no, Mr. Moore, I’d really like it.  How much does it pay?”

            “Fifteen dollars an hour. But you haven’t convinced me you are the right person for the job.”

            That was pretty good money for Jonathon and I suspected he might get a thrill out of working for Nicole.  I didn’t want to think about what Jordan might do to him.  “I’ll work real hard, Mr. Moore.  I’m responsible and honest.”

            “You wouldn’t have a problem picking up our dry cleaning or washing the cars?”

            “Oh, no, Sir, I don’t mind at all.  We all have to start somewhere.”

            “What do you think, Ann, should we give him a try?”

            “Tell you the truth, honey, I’m not convinced.  I mean, it would be great to find someone who could eventually work into our businesses, but I’m not sure that Jon is even capable of fetching us a cup of coffee.”

            Jeff laughed.  “Oh, come on now, dear, I think Jonny can manage that and more.  I even have an idea, maybe we should give him a little test.  Are you up for that, Jonny?”

            Jonathon hated being called Jonny, and I dreaded what kind of test Jeff might dream up for him.

            “Sure, Mr. Moore, like what?”

            “I’m sure Mrs. Moore could use something from the grocery store.  We’ll give a little list and see how you handle it.  I know it doesn’t seem like much, but it’ll show us how you approach your job.  It will show if you take even the small, dumb ass tasks seriously, everything is in the details.”

            “No problem, Mr. Moore.”

            “Got something you need, darling?”

            “I suppose.”

            “Here write it down.”

            There was a pause of silence, then, Jeff said.  “All right, Jonny, here you go.  Here are a few twenties to pay for it.” 

            I slid into the kitchen before Jonathon came out of the room.  “Hey, dad.  They’re giving me a test,” he said when he saw me.

            “Really?  A test?  I’m sure you’ll have no problem with it.”

            Jonathon was looking at the list, concern on his face.  “She wants that?”

            I wasn’t about to ask what that was.  “If you want the job, just get whatever they want.”

            Jeff and Ann emerged from the office.  “You’d better get moving, Jonny, time counts.”  Jeff said, displeased to see that he was talking to me.

            “Yes, Mr. Moore, I’m out the door.”  Jon ran over and quickly put his shoes on and exited the house.

            Jeff walked over to me and slapped me across the face.  “Did you get permission to talk to him?”

            “No, Sir,” I said, trembling in fear.

            He slapped me again.  “Don’t you think for one second that you can slack off just because your son is here.”

            “No, Master, I know better.”  I dropped to my knees and began kissing his feet.  “Please, Sir, forgive me, please.”

            “Head up.” 

            I looked up as he gave me another slap.  “Don’t let it happen again.”

            I returned to my duties while Master Jeff went into the office to do some business.  Twenty minutes later, Jonathon returned to the house carrying a couple of bags of groceries.  Ann told him to take the groceries to the kitchen where she would assess his performance. 

            “Take each item out and place it on the counter,” Ann told him as she stood right behind Jonathon.  I was dusting in the living room and watching the proceedings per my owner’s instructions.

            Jonathon took out a bottle of wine, Ann immediately snatched it up and checked the label.  “Yes, correct vineyard, but wrong year.”

            “But they didn’t have the year you wanted, Mrs. Moore.”

            “I don’t want excuses Jonathon.  Next time call.  You do have a cell phone, correct?”

            “Yes, Mrs. Moore, but I don’t have very many minutes on the plan.”

            Ann gave a look of pity.  “Your destitute father couldn’t afford any, huh?”

            I could see Jonathon glance at me with embarrassment.

            “Uh, it’s not that.”

            “Then what is it?  You’re still in school, correct?  Your dad still helps you financially, doesn’t he?”

            “Not really, Mrs. Moore.”  Jonathon gave me a helpless look.

            Jeff returned to the kitchen.  “Jonathon is back.  How did he do?”

            Ann shook her head.  “He got the wrong wine for starters.  I told him he should have called when he couldn’t find the right one, but he mumbled something about not having enough minutes and that his father doesn’t support him.”

            I wanted to interject that it wasn’t because I didn’t support him, but I knew to keep silent.

            Jeff kind of laughed.  “True, Mike doesn’t have much money, that’s why he works for us now.”  Jeff pulled a roll of money out of his pocket.  “Here you go, son, buy yourself some minutes.  I want you to do well, I want you to have this job.”  Jeff handed Jonathon some money.

            “Geez, Mr. Moore, two hundred dollars?”

            “It’s nothing, Jonny.  But if something like that happens again, you’ve got to get in touch with us.  I don’t want you doing anything on your own.  How did the rest of it go?  Find everything?”

            “Yes, Sir.”

            Ann began pulling out more items.  It was like the first time I went to the store for her, and I could sense that Jonathon was nervous.  She held up an apple.  “Not bad.”  Then she pulled out a few more items that passed her inspection.  As she neared the end of the items, I could see that Jonathon was beginning to relax.  Then Ann suddenly stopped and shook her head like she had discovered dog shit in the bag.  “What is this?”  Ann held up a box of tampons. 

            “It’s the tampons, you asked for, Mrs. Moore,” Jonathon stuttered.

            She made him buy tampons, embarrassing, and not a surprise.

            “No, it’s the wrong kind.  Right brand, yes, but wrong kind.”  Ann looked perturbed.

            “I’m sorry, Mrs. Moore.”

            Jonathon was a pathetic as me, I could see that Ann was enjoying this.

            She waved him off dismissively.  “That’s okay, your father will return them and get the right ones.  At least he knows how to do that right.”

            “Okay, Jonathon, give Mrs. Moore and me a moment to talk this over.”  They went into the office.

            Jonathon looked at me.  “They’re picky, huh dad?”
            I just nodded my head fearing to speak.  There were a few awkward minutes before the couple came back out of the office.  “Congratulations, Jonny, you’ve got the job,” Jeff said.

            “But you are on probation.  Too many mistakes and you’ll lose the job.”

            “I understand, Mrs. Moore.”

            “We’ll see.”

            Jeff said, “I want you to come to my Valley office tomorrow.  Nine o’clock sharp, we’ll get started.”
            Jonathon actually looked happy.  “Thank you, I will work hard for you.”

            “Oh you will,” Ann said ominously, “Harder than you can imagine.”

            With that, Jonathon left the house, saying he’d see me later.  After he was gone, I was summoned to the feet of my Masters.  “It won’t be long, shithead, until he’s kneeling right beside you, kissing our feet, begging for our mercy.  He’s such a fuckn’ loser, just like his old man,” Jeff said.

            I didn’t say anything as I questioned my existence.

            “So, what is your son?” Jeff asked.

            I knew what he wanted me to say.  “Please, Sir, not my son.”

            Jeff smacked me on the back of my head.  “You know better.  Say it.”

            “My son…is a…loser.”

            “Again, shithead,” Ann said.  “Without hesitation.”
            “My son is a loser.”

            “No doubt about that,” Ann agreed.  “I wonder if he’ll like eating our toe jam as much as you, slave,” Ann continued, bringing her toes up to my mouth to kiss and suck.  “Maybe we’ll have a weekend where you two will live off of nothing but our family’s body fluids.  Spit, sweat, piss, toe jam, all things lovely.  Would you like that, shithead?”

            “I guess, Mistress.”

            “You’re not lying to me, are you, slave?”

            “No, Mistress, it would be an honor to receive that from you.”

            “Whatever. Finish your chores, then go home.  Bond with your fellow slave.”  Ann laughed.  “This is going to be so good.  Wait till the twins get a hold of him.”

            Arriving back at our depressing apartment, Jonathon was watching a baseball game on television, still wearing his “interview” outfit.  “So, what did you think?”

            “It was a little weird and kind of embarrassing, but it’s a job and I need the money.”  Jonathon brightened a little as he held up the money Jeff had given him.  “Two hundred dollars, that was really generous of him.”

            “Yes, the Moores can be a little intense and I guess generous too.”  I looked at the money in Jonathon’s hand and knew it was just another way for Jeff to put me down.

            “They seem to have you hopping around a lot.  It’s kind of a menial job.”

            “Yes, it’s menial.  But like you said, it’s a job.  I’m old, Jonathon, not formally educated, I take what I can get at the moment.”

            “But you’re a good writer.  You used to be so successful.  Now, look at you, returning tampons for Mrs. Moore.  And, what’s with this Mr. and Mrs., we’ve known them forever.”

            “They are trying to keep things professional.  Look, I work for them, that’s the situation.  Mr. Moore is generous enough to give you a job that pays pretty well, so I would do my best to keep it.  Besides, you’ll probably get a chance to hang out with Nicole, she’s a real hottie.”

            “I’m a little worried about that, she used to be kind of mean to me in the past.”

            “Don’t worry about it.  Get some sleep, you want to be sharp tomorrow.”

 

I was busy hand washing Mistress Ann’s panties when the doorbell rang.  I was wearing what was now my “uniform” for regular visitors:  black slacks, white shirt and tie.  I answered the door and standing there was Ann’s mother, Roselyn.  She looked me up and down.  “My, you look spiffy.  Ann said she was working on getting you into more presentable shape.”  Roselyn stepped into the house.

            “Yes, Mrs. Harrison, I appreciate all she does for me.”

            “You should.  From the sound of it, without her and Jeff’s generosity you would be out on the street.  Or maybe in jail for back alimony and child support.”

            “Yes, Ma’am, I’m very lucky.”  Child?  I kept fuming thinking about Joann’s daughter and the money she had drained from me.

            Roselyn was an elegant and wealthy woman.  In her Sixties, she had kept herself in good shape, she was thin, her gray hair perfectly coiffed, always immaculately dressed.  Today, she was wearing a silk blouse, black slacks, Gucci loafers on her feet.  Diamonds in her ears and on her fingers revealed her wealth along with the tailored clothes.  She was formidable and direct.  She had always been cordial to me, though typically cold; I never thought she really liked me.

            Roselyn sat on the bench next to the door as Ann came over and greeted her mother.   “Hi, mom, I’m glad you could make it.  Take off her shoes,” Ann commanded me as she hugged her mother.

            I knelt down and removed the loafers from Roselyn’s feet as she said, “This must be quite a come down for you, Mike.  From being a somewhat successful television writer or whatever it was you did, to being my daughter’s and son-in-law’s butler.”

            “I’m just grateful to have a job, Mrs. Harrison.”

            “I’m sure you are, dear,” she said, using my shoulder to push herself up from the bench.  She looked down at me, her blue eyes cold and penetrating.  “You know, Mike, I never understood why Ann and Jeff remained friends with you so long.  I know your kids grew up together, but still,” she shook her head, “you never were made out of the same stuff that they are.  They’re smart, successful, while you were lucky there for awhile.  Now, you’ve found your true calling I believe.  My husband Richard eats fools like you for lunch, just as Jeff and Ann have.  Not to be rude, dear, but we’re superior to you.  Some are born to rule, others serve.  Do you understand that?”
            By now I had my head bowed and was staring at the black cashmere socks on her feet.  “Yes, Ma’am.”

            “Look at me when I speak to you!”  I looked up at her furious eyes.  “You’ll never have the finer things in life. You will always be less than my family.  The same with your son, I could always tell he was way outclassed by Nicole and Jordan.  Look at my shoes that you just took off of my feet.  Gucci loafers.  Do you know how much they cost?”
            “Not really, Ma’am.”  Why was she doing this lecture at the door?

            “Five hundred dollars.  Probably more than you make in a week now.  Do you think you’ll be buying a pair of Guccis?”
            “No, Ma’am.”

            “Of course not, inferior beings do not deserve superior luxuries.”  Roselyn turned to her bemused daughter who stood there grinning at her mother.  “Sorry, dear, but I couldn’t help myself.”

            “That’s okay, mom.  Any reminders of his status are fine with me.”

            “Yes, dear.  And how are the children?”  Ann escorted her mom to the formal living room where they were going to talk.     

            “We’re having tea, Mike,” Ann called back to me where I was kneeling.

            “Yes, Ma’am.”  I got up and raced to the kitchen where I put the water on to boil then brought out the leather case that held the myriad of teas that Ann kept on hand.  I stood to the side of Roselyn and opened the case to show her the selection.

            “Don’t stand over my mother,” Ann growled.  “Kneel, when you present her anything.”

            “Yes, Ma’am.”  I knelt and saw the curious glee in Roselyn’s eyes as she looked down on me with a bemused smile.

            “My, this is quite the service,” Roselyn said as she decided upon the tea.  “Very respectful, I like that.”

            “Mike is here for anything we want.  In fact, when we are having our tea, you should have him give you a foot massage.”

            “Yes, that does sound nice, dear.”

            “And if he doesn’t do a suitable job, he will be punished.”

            “Punished?  My, my, Mike, it doesn’t sound easy working for my daughter.”

            “She keeps me honest, Ma’am.”

            Both women had selected their teas and I was dismissed to go fix their drinks.  From the kitchen, I could hear their conversation.

            “So you really punish him?”

            “Yes.  Now, I don’t want you to be shocked by this, mother, but Mike is a little more than our butler.  He’s more like our servant, you could even say slave.”

            Roselyn nervously laughed.  “Slave?”

            “Yes.  He does anything we tell him to.  And he’s beaten or otherwise punished for infractions or.”  Ann began laughing.  “If we feel like it.  Sometimes quite severely.”

            “Well, this is quite interesting.  Nicole and Jordan also?”
            “Oh yes.  Eventually I hope the entire family will know of our situation so we can use him for our gatherings.”

            “I’m sure your father would enjoy using him.”

            “Of course, mom.  Anytime you want him, let me know.  We’re working on his son too.”

            “His son.  Oh yes, what is his name…The few times I met him, he was so plain, so unnoticeable.  He would be lucky to be Jordan’s servant.  Maybe he could learn something from him since his father is so worthless.”

            The tea was done and I returned to serve the beverages.  I knelt in front of the women and offered them the beverage.  “Well, Mike, Ann has been telling me that you are her slave.”
            “Yes, ma’am.”

            “And that she beats you.”

            “Yes, she does.”

            “You don’t mind that?”

            “Whatever Mistress Ann wishes to do to me I gladly accept.”

            “Mistress Ann?”  Roselyn laughed loudly.  I was red.  “I like that.”

            “You’re okay with this?” Ann asked.

            “Okay?  I love it, dear.  Like I said a little earlier, it’s obvious Mike is inferior.  Your father is going to love this.  He often talks about how he wished slavery was still legal.  That after a hard day at work, how relaxing it would be to come home and whip his property like in the old days.”

            “This is such a relief.  Slave, massage Mistress Roselyn’s feet.”

            “Yes, Mistress Ann.”

            Roselyn has her legs crossed and I positioned myself at the end of the crossed foot.

            “Make sure you show her the proper respect and thankfulness for allowing you to touch her.”

            “Yes, Mistress.”  I kissed Roselyn’s socked feet and said, “Thank you, Mistress Roselyn for allowing me to serve you.”

            “You’d better do a good job or I’ll have Charles horsewhip you.”

            “Yes, Mistress.  May I ask you a question, Mistress Roselyn?”

            “Speak.”

            “Would you like the socks on or off?”

            “Off, stupid!”

            I removed her socks, kissing each one in proper homage to her authority.  I began gently massaging her feet.  Though well cared for, they weren’t nearly as pretty as Ann’s feet.  Roselyn was an older woman and the wear of age was unavoidable.  The toes were crooked, the skin wrinkled and they had a moderate aroma, but it was slightly better than massaging Maria’s feet.  They enjoyed their conversation and paid no attention to me.  After about fifteen minutes, Roselyn focused on me again.

            “So, slave Mike,” she pressed the ball of her wrinkly foot on my face, while resting the other on my shoulder, “how do you like having this old lady’s feet pressed on your face like you’re a doormat?”

            I wanted to say I didn’t like it at all, but I also wanted to live.  “It’s my pleasure, Mistress.  It’s where I belong.”

            Roselyn looked at Ann with mild shock.  “My goodness, he is a panty waist.”

            “I know.  It just makes you want to abuse him more.”

            “He should be wearing a dress since he is such a sissy.”

            Ann laughed.  “That’s a great idea, Mother. A little dress, some high heels, maybe some lipstick, he’ll be our little sissy.”

            “What do you think of that, panty waist?  Ready to wear a dress?”  Roselyn lifted her foot off my face so I could answer her.

            “If you wish me to.”

            “Poor thing, he sounds so sad about his new dress.  Kiss this old lady’s foot and thank her for the suggestion,” Roselyn snapped.

            I kissed the bottom of her foot and said, “Thank you, Mistress Roselyn for the idea of wearing a dress.”

            “Mmm, this feels kind of good having your feet kissed.”

            “Suck her toes, slave.”

            I began sucking Roselyn’s old wrinkled toes.  “What kind of man are you?”  The sneer in Roselyn’s voice was humiliating.  “Sucking a grandmother’s toes.  Oh, that’s right, you’re not a man, you’re a sissy.  You’re going to come over to my house one day, put on your maid’s dress and serve Charles and me.  I’m sure Charles will enjoy having you suck his toes too…that is before he whips the crap out of you, sissy.”

            I didn’t say anything, but kept worshipping her toes.

            “What’s the matter, sissy?  Nothing to say about that?”

            “It would be an honor to suck Master Charles’ toes, Mistress Roselyn.”

            “Shouldn’t a slave be nude before his superiors?”

            Ann looked curiously at Roselyn.  “Gee, mom, I had no idea you were like this.”

            “From the sound of things, you’re a chip off the old block.  Strip, sissy.”

            I quickly removed my clothes and knelt, naked, at the two women’s feet.  Roselyn could see my battered bottom.  “My, dear, you did mete out some punishment on the sissy.  Good for you.  You need to keep your chattel on a tight string.  Lay on your back, sissy.”

            I laid flat before Roselyn who rested her feet on my face.  “At least he’s good for something, like being my footrest.”  As Roselyn said this, I could hear the front door clicking open.  Light shown into the room as the door opened.   “Is that my dear grandson?” Roselyn exclaimed as she saw who was there.

            “Hi Grandma.”  It was Jordan and a wave of fear swept over me.

            “The prodigal son returns,” Ann said. 

            “Where is Mike?” Jordan asked.

            “Over here, dear…under my feet.”
            Jordan began laughing.  “Grandmother…you too?”

            “Yes, the whole family seems geared that way.”

            Jordan approached and I started trembling.  “Goodness, my footstool is shaking.”

            “He should be.”  Jordan kicked me right in the balls and I yelled and squirmed from the pain.  “That’s for having to take off my own shoes.”

            “Hold still,” Roselyn scolded me.  “And be quiet.”

            “We need more fucking slaves around here,” Jordan grumbled.

            “Watch your language…and you might get your wish.”

            “What do you mean, Mom?”  Jordan sat down at the table and casually rested his feet on my legs like they were part of the floor, Roselyn’s feet still on my face.

            “Do you remember Jonathon?”

            “Who?”

            “You tell him, slave.”

            “Jonathon…my son,” I mumbled quietly.

            Jordan laughed.  “Oh yeah, that’s right, loser number two.”  I found it hard that Jordan couldn’t remember a friend that he had grown up with.

            “I think it’s wonderful that Mike and his son are going to be serving our family.  I’m tired of all this equality nonsense.”  Roselyn increased the pressure on my face with her feet as if to emphasize her points.  “The world would be a better place if people simply accepted their positions in life.  They wouldn’t be jealous or envious, they would find it a privilege to serve the upper class.  Not everyone can be as smart or as good looking as Ann, you Jordan, Nicole, it’s just a fact.”

            The phone rang, Ann snapped her fingers, “Get it.” 

            I quickly rolled out from under Roselyn’s feet with a quick, “Sorry, Mistress,” and retrieved the phone for Ann, then resumed my place as Roselyn’s footrest.   From the conversation it was easy to ascertain that Ann was talking to Jeff.

            “How is it going with your new assistant?”  I could see Ann grinning at her mother and son with a knowing glee.  “Really?”  Ann laughed.  After another long pause she said, “This is good.  All right, honey, I love you too.”  She hung the phone and looked down at me.  “Slave, you’ll be glad to know that Jonny is doing a good job.  We just might keep him around.”

            “Great, Mistress.”

            “Jeff says he is a real hard worker and very obedient.”

            Obedient, what does that mean?

            “Oh dear look at the time,” Roselyn said, “I should be going.”

            “Would you like to stay for lunch?” Ann asked.

            “Not today, I meeting your father for lunch.  I’ll fill him in on the details of your new lifestyle.  I’m sure he’ll be interested in hearing about Mike…he always said that there was something odd about him.  Was he ever right about that!”  Roselyn lifted her feet. “Socks.”  I kneeled up and put her socks back on her feet, then crawled after her and Ann as they walked over to the door where I place the shoes back on Roselyn’s feet, giving the loafers a kiss of respect as mother and daughter hugged goodbye.

            Ann was glowing with satisfaction as she shut the front door and strolled back to the dining table where Jordan was still sitting.  “I can’t believe how quickly and easily mom did that.  I would have never known that she had such a sadistic, dominant streak in her.  Makes me wonder what she and father have been up to all these years.”

            “I don’t want to think about it,” Jordan muttered.  “Come here, slave,” Jordan commanded sharply, “it’s time for your workout.”

            I was hoping that Jordan had forgotten about his wanting to get me into better condition as I was certain that he would be brutal on me. I knelt in front of him as Ann took a seat at the table to watch her son.  “Give me some squat thrusts to warm up.”  I started the exercise, up and down and it wasn’t long before I was breathing hard and sweating, my cock and balls bouncing up and down as I performed the physical exertion.

            “Look at his little penis bounce around,” Ann said with amusement.

            Jordan was laughing.  “Yeah, it’s funny looking.  Faster, slave!”

            I increased my tempo feeling ridiculous exercising while nude.  Jordan gave me a couple of slaps on my butt.  “I said faster, cunt.  Now move it.”

            Now I was starting to gasp for air and my arms and legs were getting tired from the effort.  “Up, down, up down.”  Jordan was trying to keep me on a strict cadence.

            “God, you’re pathetic,” Ann said, “he told you to move it faster.  Do it.”

            I was trying my best to go faster, but the body wasn’t cooperating.  On one of the thrusts, when I was in the push up position, Jordan stood up and planted his foot into my back.  “Give me forty push ups now, old man.”

            Forty?  I didn’t think I would be able to do ten.  I went down and started to push back up, Jordan’s foot impeding my already shaky effort as I struggled to finish the first one.

            “Damn, what a sissy.  Mother was right about you wearing a dress,” Ann sneered.  “Is that why Joann left you?  Did you wear a dress for her?”

            I was starting on my third pushup, Jordan’s foot still on me.  “No, Mistress, I never wore a dress.”

            Jordan was laughing.  “You’re going to make him wear a dress?”

            “Probably.  Something cute…maybe a little maid’s outfit with high heels.”

            “He’ll look ridiculous,” Jordan said before standing with his full weight on my back so I couldn’t move.   “Why did you stop?”

            “I…I can’t move, Sir,” I moaned.

            “I’m getting tired of this.  Besides, if you’re going to be wearing dresses, you don’t need any muscles.”
            “Show Jordan your gratitude and kiss his feet.”

            I kissed Jordan’s feet.  “Go fix me a sandwich,” he commanded.

            “Me too, then get back to work,” Ann snapped.

 

            That evening it was gleefully announced by Ann that Jonathon would be joining the family for dinner; he would witness my waiting upon the family.  It was another one of those moments when I seriously thought about running away and disappearing forever, but, as usual, I knew I would stick around and endure the humiliation that was sure to come.  I was very nervous preparing dinner and Ann buzzed around the kitchen eager to get in a few jabs before Jonathon’s arrival.

            “I wonder what your son is going to think of you after tonight,” she said, as I handed her a glass of water that she had told me to get for her.

            “I don’t know, Mistress, I can only worry about doing my job, not what he thinks.”

            “Good answer, slave.  I like that.  Who cares what your own child thinks about you.  You’ve got more important things to worry about…like my son and daughter.  It’s funny how that is.  Their comfort is more important than Jonathon’s comfort.  Isn’t that true?”

            “Yes, Mistress.” 

            “I love the idea of you and your son toiling side by side, working hard to please the Moore family.  This is going to be great.”

            “Yes, Mistress,” I agreed absently.  Both kids were home, up in their rooms doing who knows what.  I looked at my watch and saw that it was six, Jeff would be arriving home soon.  As if answering my thoughts, the garage door opened.

            “I believe the fun is about to begin,” Ann said.  “Go greet your Master.”

            I took a deep breath and went to the garage entrance to the house, at least Jonathon would be in his own car, I thought as I watched Jeff pull in his BMW.  I was shocked to see my son sitting in the passenger seat, why wasn’t he driving his own car?  I rushed up and opened Jeff’s door for him, he handed me his briefcase as he got out of the car as Jonathon exited the other side of the car.

            “Hi, dad,” he said as I followed Jeff to the entrance to the house.

            “Hi,” I muttered, afraid to say anything, though I wanted to ask him how his day was going.  Jeff stopped at the doorway and I knelt to remove his shoes, my face bright red with doing this in front of my son as Jonathon removed his shoes knowing the custom of the Moore household.  At least Jeff didn’t make me kiss his feet as he usually did when he came home.

            “Do a better job of polishing them, they weren’t up to par,” Jeff snapped.

            “Yes, Sir,” I said, standing.  I caught a glance of Jonathon looking at me with dismay and disbelief.

            “Let’s go, Jonny.”

            After followed after them as Jeff entered the main room where Nicole and Jordan were watching television.  Ann came down the stair case and greeted her husband.  “Hi, honey,” ignoring Jonathon’s presence, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug.  Jonathon stood awkwardly nearby unsure of what to do as I returned to the kitchen to finish getting dinner ready.  “What’s he doing here?” Ann asked about Jonathon.

            “I told him he could have some dinner before finishing up a project that I gave him, he’s going to use our computer.”

            “I see.  Very generous of you to feed such a low level employee.”

            “I don’t want his blood sugar to be so low as to cause errors.  Mike will fix him a peanut butter sandwich.”

            Ann smiled at her husband.  “I suppose a peanut butter sandwich is okay.”

            “Did you hear that Mike?  A peanut butter sandwich for Jonny.”

            “Yes, Sir,” I said, as I finished preparing the crab legs and boiled potatoes that the family would be having for their supper.  How embarrassing for Jonathon to eat peanut butter while the Moores ate like royalty.  I could see how out of place Jonathon felt, and I’m sure any discomfort on his part was welcomed by the family.

            “Jonathon, you know Nicole and Jordan.”
            “Yes, hello,” Jonathon said.  The twins ignored him and didn’t answer.

            “Go sit at the kitchen table,” Jeff told Jonathon, “we’ll have dinner soon.”

            “Yes, Sir,” Jonathon said respectfully before taking a side seat at the table.

            “Dinner is ready, Sir and Madam,” I announced shortly thereafter, sounding like a butler announcing the service at a formal dinner party.  It took several minutes before the family to move into the kitchen to eat their dinner.

            As Nicole arrived, she looked at Jonathon sitting at the table and made a frown.  “What is he doing here?  The help isn’t going to eat with us?”  I could see Jonathon turn red.

            “Of course not,” Jeff boomed, “eat at the other table, Jonny.”

            Jon looked confused and embarrassed as if he wasn’t good enough to be with the Moore family.  “Oh, okay,” he said, nervously getting up from the table, then accidentally hitting a glass of water and knocking it over.

            “Geez, you big klutz, look what you did!”  Nicole stared angrily at Jonathon as he scrambled to wipe up the spilled water.

            “Sorry…it’s just water.” 

            “You think it’s okay to spill water on our furniture?” Ann said, as Jonathon and I both wiped up the spill.

            “No, ma’am, nothing like that.  I just meant it wouldn’t stain anything.”

            “No, it might not stain anything, but water can damage wood.  Maybe you don’t care about your things, but we take care of our home,” Ann scolded.   “Hurry up and get that dried up!”

            It only took a few seconds to wipe everything up and I was sure Ann was being dramatic for the show; any opportunity to berate or humiliate was not going to be passed by.  Jonathon was in a daze and stood at the table staring at the spot where the water spilt.

            Jonathon was standing next to Jordan’s chair and as he sat down, he gave a little shove to my son.  “Move, dork, go sit at the other table before you cause any other problems.”

            “Whatever,” Jonathon said with teenage insolence.  I knew that this was a big mistake.  Jeff jumped right in.

            “Whatever? What kind of attitude is that?”
            “Fire him now, dad,” Nicole said, a smirk on her face.

            “Is that what you want, Jonny?  You want me to fire you?”  Everyone was staring at Jonathon who was now greatly embarrassed.

            “No, I don’t want that.”

            “Did you forget something, Jonny?  Repeat after me, no sir, I don’t want to be fired, Mr. Moore, Sir.”  Stunned, Jonathon looked at me for help, but I averted my eyes.  I knew this was a now or never moment and we would be finding out if son was like father.  “We’re waiting…”  The Moore family was standing at their places but none had actually sat as they watched Jonathon.

            “Uh…I’d…Uh, no, Sir, I don’t want to be fired, Mr. Moore, Sir.”

            “Well then you’d better shape up that attitude…also apologize to Jordan for your rudeness,” Jeff snapped.  “You didn’t raise your son to be rude to others did you, Mike?”

            “No, Sir,” I promptly answered.

            “I’m sorry, Jordan.”  Jonathon looked shell shocked and confused

            “Don’t let it happen again, dork-face.”  Jordan slipped into his chair as Jonathon shuffled towards the formal dining table as Nicole tittered at her brother’s comments.  Ann and Jeff were also smiling.  I hated that my son was being called names, but I knew that I was powerless to do anything.  I also pretty sure that Jonathon would be joining me soon as their property.  Everyone sat down and I began to serve them dinner as Jonathon went to eat at the other table.

            After I served the first course of salad, Nicole immediately got on me.  “Mike, I dropped my napkin.”

            I scurried over to Nicole’s side of the table where the napkin laid at her side.  It would have been quite easy for her to reach over and pick it up, but that wouldn’t have made for a good show for Jonathon who could see us from where he was eating his sandwich.  I bent over and picked up the cloth napkin.  “Would you like a fresh one, Miss Nicole?”

            She snapped it out of my hand.  “No, this will do.”  She purposely dropped it again.  “Oops,” she said sweetly, before barking out, “pick it up!” I bent over and handed it to her.  “Not this one, stupid, you expect me to use a dirty napkin?”

            “No, Miss Nicole, sorry, I’ll get you a fresh one.”

            Nicole then addressed the table.  “What the fuck is wrong with him and his son?  Spilling water, using dirty napkins.”

            “They need training,” Ann said.

            “No shit,” Nicole said, “A lot of it.”

            “Jonny, are you about done with that sandwich, you need to get to work on those flow sheets.”  Jeff wasn’t giving Jonathon anytime to eat.

            “Almost, Sir.”

            “Hurry up, you’re not getting paid to sit around the house.”

            “Hurrying, sir.”  Jonathon got up and placed his plate in the sink, his sandwich only half eaten.

            As Jonathon was walking to the office, Jordan barked out a couple of commands to me, more cola, more butter and throughout the meal, it was a constant ring of orders from the four.  I knew that Jonathon could hear them ordering me about with pure callousness, but at least I wasn’t being physically punished or made to perform some of the humiliating acts that they enjoyed inflicting upon me.  So I worked throughout the evening as usual while Jonathon worked in the office until everyone had retired to bed except father and son.  That is when I finally gathered up my nerve and went into the office where Jonathon was toiling on some boring spreadsheets.

            “When are you going home?” I whispered.

            “Why the whisper?” Jonathon asked looking up from the computer, the glow of the monitor reflecting off of his pale face.

            “I don’t want to disturb anyone, they would be very angry.”

            Jonathon had a painful look on his face.  “They don’t treat you very well.”

            I nodded my head in sad understanding.  “True.  You had a difficult night too.”

            Jonathon nodded along with me.  “Yeah, I couldn’t believe how they treated me.”

            “But you stayed.”

            “I need the money.”

            “Of course.”  Jonathon could see that I didn’t entirely believe him, I sensed that same slavish streak within him.  Just then Jordan yelled out from the stairs.

            “Slave, where are my high tops?”

            Jonathon looked alarmed at my being called slave.  “It’s one of Jordan’s things…you know how he can be.”

            “Sure.  I know.”

            “I’ve got to take care of this.”  I ran upstairs to Jordan’s room where he had gone back into and laid back on the bed.  He was wearing only his shorts and was watching Sports center on the television. 

            “Where the fuck are my shoes, loser?”

            I raced to the closet and pulled them out where they were always kept, “Here, Sir.”

            Jordan stared at the television for a moment then lazily sat up.  “Put them on the end of the bed, stick your nose in them as you bend over and pull down your pants and shorts.”

            “Sir…please…my son might hear.”

            “Fuck that, I don’t care.  Hurry up before I get more agitated.”

            “Yes, Sir.”  I quickly pulled down my pants and underwear to my ankles, bent over and stuck my nose in one of Jordan’s smelly basketball shoes.

            Jordan pulled his belt out of his shorts.  He could have used a paddle that was nearby or a riding crop that was in the closet, but he enjoyed the drama of removing his belt.  “You’re going to get a whipping, boy, next time I want my shoes where they belong.”

            “Yes, Sir.”  Arguing was impossible and I braced myself for the pain.  Jordan thrashed me for about five minutes leaving me red before he decided I had enough.  When he was done, he simply pointed at the ground where I knelt and kissed his feet and thanked him for my punishment.   “I should have you send Jonny up here for being rude to me tonight, but it will wait until another night.  Dad said I couldn’t tonight.”

            Jordan had his foot planted on the nape of my neck as I kissed his other foot.  “Yes, Sir,” I mumbled into his bare foot.

            “Get the fuck out of my sight, old man.”

            I quickly went back downstairs, Jonathon was still working.  I couldn’t decide whether to go in there and see if he heard anything, I finally decided to check him out.  “Hey, you must be beat.”  After I said those words we both knew what a Freudian slip I had said.

            Jonathon looked up at me with distress.  “I think you’re the one who is beat.”

            “Yeah, I’m tired.  I’m going to go to bed.”

            Jonathon let it drop.  “Goodnight.”

            “Go home.”

            “I’m staying the night.  Jeff said I could sleep here.”

            “Oh, okay.”  They weren’t wasting anytime on their indoctrination of Jonathon.  I wasn’t sure where I was going to sleep.  Normally, I would have just gone out into the garage and slept on the air mattress that Jeff allowed me to sleep on, but he hadn’t specifically said I needed to stay and I didn’t really want Jonathon to see me sleeping in the garage.  I decided to maintain the tiniest thread of dignity I had remaining and went home to sleep in the crummy apartment.  Somehow I sensed my days sleeping there were about over.