As she enters into the Ochsner Hospital employee parking lot, Linda Myers is ecstatic that she has finally gotten herself completely free from her ex-husband. How she ever allowed herself to marry such a jealous, possessive, chauvinistic man she will never know. She looks forward to her new job as a neonatal nurse. After four years of nursing school two of them fighting her ex in court over alimony payments she was finally able to secure a job last month that offers her a future. The pay is enough to live on without having to depend on alimony; the benefits are fantastic; it's not too far from her apartment; and her coworkers are great, especially that cute physical therapist who works on the fifth floor. She met him her third day on the job. He was sitting alone in the cafeteria and it was unusually crowded for lunch. She asked if he wouldn't mind sharing his table. He said no. They started talking; at least Linda started talking, George mostly listened. Linda took an immediate liking to him.

He is quiet and shy; shorter than her by about two inches, has beautiful long blond hair for a man anyway and the deepest blue eyes she has ever seen. But more importantly he's single. She also found out that he has been working as a physical therapist at the hospital for several years and knows all the ins and outs of the department and the hospital. She frequently uses his knowledge of the hospital as an excuse to come see him and get to know him better. She is subtle in her pursuit; she asks him questions about his job as a therapist, about the hospital, about anything hospital related and interspersed within her questions she also asks him about himself. She is trying to figure out a way to ask him out to dinner without seeming too forward. She hopes that she is not moving too fast for him. George is so reserved that she is afraid that she will scare him off if she appears to be too pushy.

At first, George believes her questions are just her way of getting to know about the hospital and he doesn't mind helping her. But her persistent inquires soon begin to annoy him, especially when she questions him about his personal life. Although he is somewhat naiveté, he begins to suspect that her frequent forays to him are for something other than to obtain information about the hospital. He tries to avoid her but is unsuccessful. She asks him about his ideal date, about his favorite food, the type of movies he enjoys watching. She wants to invite him over to her apartment for dinner and a movie.

Linda's constant intrusion into his personal life puts pressure on George. He wants to tell her to go away and leave him alone, but he does not know how to do it politely. In all his 33 years he has only dated one girl. That was when he was in college, and he only dated her for about two or three months. He does not know how to deal with Linda's relentless pursuit of him; he has only had that one experience in dealing with a woman whose interest in him was romantic.

After two weeks of her questions George begins to masturbate to relieve himself, to ease the pressure. Every time he encounters her in the hospital and she asks him about his personal life, he goes home that evening and masturbates. He hates doing it. His mother told him when he was a child that only bad boys did such evil things. She told him that he would go blind if he masturbated. He believed her when he was a child. But now that he is older, he knows differently. Still the thought assails him. Nor can he get his mother's threats to 'cut it off' if she ever caught him masturbating out of his mind. He begins to hate Linda.

On the Monday morning of her third week at the hospital Linda corners George into accepting a dinner invitation for the following Thursday. For the next four days it is the only thing that he thinks about. He knows he has to come up with some excuse to break the date. But he does not know what to say to her. He cannot sleep. He procures a bottle of ether from the hospital and uses it to help himself fall asleep. But the pressure of not being able to break the date does not abate. By Wednesday evening he is sick. He calls up his neighbor Dave and cancels his weekly chess match with him, telling him that he is too ill to play. Dave understands.

His head is pounding. He tries to watch television, but that does not help. There are only situation comedies, which he hates, a war movie, some news channels, and a program about a man who killed his wife. He does not watch the other cable channels. He leaves the wife killer story on but stares blankly at the screen. After about twenty minutes he gets into his car and begins to drive around New Orleans.

George loves New Orleans. As far as he is concerned New Orleans is the greatest city in the world; it has the cuisine, the culture, the history, the port, Mardi Gras, music and the birthplace of Jazz. New Orleans has everything. He drives down Tulane Avenue. He turns onto South Broad and then onto Poydras Street. He drives past the Superdome thinking about his life and the women in it. He heads toward Lee's Circle and down the beautiful St. Charles Avenue, which he loves. His meandering eventually takes himself back to Canal Street and then to Decateur Street in the French Quarter right down the street from the Caf du Monde.

He sees a parking spot and pulls into it. He thinks about going to get himself some coffee and donuts; he likes to eat there. Suddenly there is a knock on his window. He puts the window down; it is a young prostitute. She wants to know if he would like a date. He tells her no and puts the window back up, hating her for intruding into his thoughts and into his life. He watches her walk away from his car. Her short skirt, high heels, stockings, and tank top disgust him. She is nothing but a whore he says to himself. Just like Donna.

A bottle of ether is on the seat next to him. He decides to teach her a lesson. No whore is going to ask him for a date and get away with it. He starts his car and drives slowly down the street. When he pulls even with the prostitute he puts his window down again. She approaches his car.

"How much?" he asks.

"That depends on what you want to do," she answers him.

"Is it extra if we go to my house? I live in Airline Park."

"Where's that?" She's not from New Orleans; she has a Texas accent.

"In Jefferson Parish."

"I don't go into any kinky stuff with the wife and kids and all," she tells him. "Will you bring me back here when we're done?"

"I'm not married," he interrupts her. "If you don't mind partying in my house then hop in. After, I'll bring you anywhere you want to go."

She looks up the street momentarily and then back at him. She doesn't want to leave the street, but she hasn't had a trick in two days. She needs the money. "For sixty bucks I'll give you an hour, straight sex, nothing kinky or ropes and bondage and that kind of thing."

"Get in," he orders her.

She walks around the front of the car. George watches her as she does so; he is revolted by her. He hates whores. It was because of that whore Donna that his life today is such a wreck. Well, this is one whore who will pay for messing up his life. He's going to teach this one a lesson that she will never forget. He picks up a bottle of ether from his console and holds it out of the window, pouring a few drops into a handkerchief. He seals the bottle and when she gets in, he immediately puts the cloth against her mouth. She struggles but in a few seconds she is asleep, leaning against the door. He drives back to his house.

He pulls into his garage and is glad that he installed the automatic door opener last year. He carries the girl over his shoulder to the punishment room. There is a thick coat of dust on the bare floor. He has not been in this room for 15 years. He drops the prostitute on the dirty floor and rips off all her clothes. He cuffs her wrists to the shackles that his mother used to chain him to. He tears a towel into long strips and gags her with it. Then he goes to the garage and gets a rope. He ties her ankles together with it. Standing over her he kicks her in the side and goes into the living room to watch television. He watches the evening news and then switches channels to watch an old movie but soon falls to sleep.

When he wakes up it is two in the morning. He hears a noise and goes to the punishment room. The whore is sitting on the floor, trying to get loose. The gag is around her neck and she is screaming for help. He kicks her in the stomach and tells her to shut up. She squeezes her eyes shut and grimaces in pain. He pours some ether on the remnants of the towel and tries to put it to her mouth. She immediately begins to fight him, but George is stronger than her. He punches her in the face several times and through the struggle manages to put the ether soaked towel to her mouth.

As soon as she is asleep he takes the slack out of the cable and puts the gag back in her mouth. She is now standing naked on her toes with her arms shackled above her head. He goes to a far corner and picks up a leather whip with a brass handle. It has not been used for 15 years; it falls apart at his touch. He drops it back in the corner and toys with the idea of removing his belt and beating her with it, but decides against it. She wouldn't feel the pain. He'll wait until she wakes up tomorrow. Then he goes to bed.

The next morning George calls the hospital and tells them that he will not be in; that he does not feel well. Then he calls Linda's department and leaves a message for her to call him later that day. When she does, he asks her to forgive him but he cannot make dinner; he is just too sick to even leave the bed. To be polite, he suggests that she reserve another evening for them to have dinner. She accepts the invitation and tells him that she hopes he feels better tomorrow. After he hangs up he lies down on his sofa and goes to sleep. He feels as if a great burden has been suddenly lifted from his shoulders.

When George awakes it is almost ten o'clock in the morning. He walks down the hallway to check on his whore. As soon as he walks in the room she begins to struggle against her restraints. He leaves the room momentarily and returns with a belt. He holds it up to her face; she screams a muffled cry. He laughs and hits her across the stomach with it. He beats her with it until her back, buttocks; thighs front and rear stomach, sides, and chest are streaked with welts. When he is finished, she is hanging motionless and crying softly. He leaves the room taking the belt with him.

He drives to a local hardware store to buy some more cable, a three-foot long metal rod, and another set of shackles. He wants to modify the existing shackle and cable set up to prevent her from removing the gag and so that he can spread her legs apart. While standing at the checkout he sees some address numbers and letters and has an idea. He asks the salesclerk if she has a Yellow Pages phone book that he may borrow. He looks up the address for a printing supply shop. There is one on Magazine Street; he goes there and purchases a set of metal letters of the alphabet. On his way home he drives by a feed and garden store on Jefferson Highway. Inside he finds just the right leather whip that he needs to punish his prostitute.

Upon arriving home, George goes to the punishment room without delay. The prostitute is hanging still. She looks up when he comes into the room. Her eyes beg him for mercy. He ignores her and attaches the second set of shackles and metal rod to her ankles. She is now hanging naked with her arms above her head and her legs spread open. Then he drills a hole in the wooden floor in front of her and screws an eyebolt into the hole.

He is glad that his mother's house is built on raised cement blocks and not on a slab as are most of the other houses in Airline Park, making his drilling easier. He runs the metal rod through the eyebolt and then attaches the new cable to a D ring to which her hands are cuffed. He runs the cable across the floor near to where the other cable is tied off. He will finish with the cables later. Right now there is something more important he wants to do.

George shows her the metal letters he bought but she just stares at them uncomprehendingly. He leaves and returns with a cigarette lighter and some pliers; he shows her the lighter.

"You're nothing but a whore and I'm going to make sure the whole world knows it."

She muffles an answer but it is unintelligible. He punches her in the stomach, commanding her to be quiet.

"What, don't you want everyone to know what you are? Don't you want everyone to know that you're nothing but a whore?"

She shakes her head no and pleads with her eyes. She has no idea what he is going to do but she knows that it cannot be good.

He begins to heat the letter "W" in front of her face. When she finally realizes what he is going to do she begins to struggle against the constraints. He orders her to be still. But she continues to wrestle against the shackles and cable binding her.

"I thought I told you to be still, bitch!" He commands. "Now hold still and take your punishment like the whore I know you are."

She ignores him and continues to fight against the restraints.

"Be still bitch!" he yells and punches her in the stomach. "I have to brand you. You're a filthy little whore and I have to let everyone know it. Now be still."

She refuses to stop struggling against the shackles.

"OK, have it your way."

He puts the letters and cigarette lighter on the floor in front of her and picks up the whip and beats her with it. He hits her until he is exhausted and out of breath. There are deep red welts all over her body; many of them are bleeding. He stands in front of her, watching her. She too is breathing heavily. Her head is down and she is not moving. George departs from the room, returning a few minutes later with a piece of sawed off broom stick in his hand.

"Since you refuse to be still so that I can brand you."

He leaves the sentence unfinished and begins to beat her with the broom stick. He beats her back, her buttocks, and the back of her thighs. She hangs motionless throughout the whole ordeal. After several minutes he moves around and faces her and begins to beat her breasts and stomach. But after only a few whacks he stops. He rams the broom stick into her vagina. She grimaces in pain. He takes it out; looks at it and then at her. Then he plunges it back into her vagina and fucks her repeatedly with it.

When he is through she is still hanging motionless but is now breathing weakly. Her eyes are closed. He drops the broom stick and picks up the cigarette lighter and the letter "W" and heats it. Branding her with the letters, he spells out the word WHORE across her chest just above her breasts. Other than a quiet whimper she does not try to stop him; she is too weak. When he is finished he leaves her hanging there and goes to bed for the night, taking the letters into his bedroom with him.

"Good morning my little, whore," he says to her with a smile on his face as he walks into the room early the next morning. She does not respond but is just hanging there. He walks up to her and hollers into her ear: "Hey bitch, it's time for your. . ." He touches her. She is cold; she is dead.

He steps back away from her. For several minutes he just stares at her. He did not expect her to die. He wanted to punish her some more. Finally, he makes a decision to throw her body into the Mississippi River tonight after he gets off work. He goes to the other side of the room and unhooks the cable, lowering her to the floor. He departs for work leaving her lying on the bare floor.

When George arrives at the hospital Friday morning Linda meets him in the parking lot and asks him when he would like to come over for dinner. He gives her a vague answer, telling her he is not sure when he can come over. He uses as an excuse his sickness yesterday. Right now George has other things on his mind and does not want to be bothered by her. Then he rethinks his answer to her and tells her he will give her a definite date later on during the day. But the day drags on.

The only thing that George can think about is the dead prostitute he left lying on the floor in his house. He just wants to get home and get her out of his house. He thinks about checking out early but decides against it. He cannot do anything with the body until after nightfall and checking out early will not help there. So he sticks it out until five o'clock. He figures that Linda will probably try to corner him into setting another dinner date so he goes to the other side of the hospital and leaves by a different entrance. He has been avoiding Linda all day. He even skipped lunch, afraid that he would meet her in the cafeteria. He just got himself a candy bar and soft drink from the machines near the elevators.

As soon as George gets home he goes to the punishment room. She is still lying where he left her. He was hoping that she would be gone, that she would somehow have just disappeared.

"Filthy whore," he says to her. "Why did you have to go and die? Why did you have to fuck up my life like that? I have to spend my Friday evening getting rid of your body. I hate you. I hate all women. They ain't good for nothing but doing housework and killing."

George sits on the floor in front of her; his arms crossed over his knees. He sits and stares at her for a long time. He does not know why he kidnapped her, why he beat her. He realizes that something in him has changed but he does not know what it is. He does not know what brought on the change. He is lost and confused. His head is swimming. He thinks about his dead mother, about Donna, about Linda. He closes his eyes and puts his head on his arms. When he opens them again it is dark and the phone is ringing. He gets up and goes to his bedroom to answer it, but it's a wrong number. He glances at the clock next to his bed; it is almost nine o'clock. He is hungry so he fixes himself a sandwich.

After he finishes eating he goes to the linen closet and gets out a white bed sheet. He unshackles the prostitute and then wraps her lifeless body in the sheet. After he puts her body into the trunk of his car, he stands over it and stares at it. For several minutes he just stands behind the car with his hands on the lid of the trunk and stares at the corpse. His mind is a blank. He slams the lid.

"Filthy bitch!" he says and then drives to Audubon Park, dumping her into the Mississippi River behind the park.

But George has no desire to return home at this time; his mind is too frayed. So, instead of heading for his house and in order to get away from the traffic, he turns right onto South Carrollton Avenue. He continues to drive slowly down Carrollton Avenue past Canal Street on to where it runs into Wisner Boulevard. He turns onto it and heads out toward the lake. He drives past Bayou St. John on his right and City Park on his left.

His meandering eventually brings him to Lake Pontchartrain and he pulls into one of the parking bays and turns off the ignition. He gets out and sits on the sea wall and stares out onto the lake. He hears the laughter of a woman and looks to his right. A young couple is wrapped arm in arm sitting a few yards from him. He thinks about moving farther left; he wants to be alone. But before he can move, they get up and leave. His thoughts turn from them as he watches the lights of the cars crossing the lake on the Causeway Bridge. He wonders where they are going and if any of them has a corpse in the trunk of their car. He gets back into his car and goes home.