I thrashed my way to the surface and tried to call for help, but I sank again. I might have just been able to float to the surface if I had remained calm but like a wild animal I clawed at the water engulfing me. I reached the surface again and cried out.

My sister heard me and dove into the water and pulled me up as I was sinking for what would have been the last time and dragged me to shore.

"You are a stupid boy, Michael." she screamed in fear and anger as I cried.

She took me home and for the rest of that summer I couldn't even look at the lake without crying.

A few months later I cried again as they lowered her coffin into the ground. She had crashed her car coming home from the city with my birthday present. She was nineteen years old.



I held my breath as long as I could and I could hear the sounds of thrashing in the water and then felt myself being dragged towards the surface again.

I popped to the surface and gulped in air again as Neils pulled Amanda and I apart.

She kicked him in the face and tried to pull me down again, only this time I had enough time to grab the rescue buoy that Neils swam out with and stay on the surface.

She released me and dove for the bottom as Katy swam up and grabbed the float as well.

Neils started to go after her, but I called him back.

"Let her go. I'll explain later", I called over the surf noise.

He looked at the spot where she had disappeared and then joined us as we swam back to shore.

All the while I kept looking over my shoulder for Amanda to surface like Jaws and try and attack again.



Neils wasn't exactly happy with being told to forget what he'd seen and was a bit concerned about Amanda washing up on the beach dead.

"Neils, I wouldn't worry. She swims like a fish. The drowning bit was just her way of getting to me." I said sipping a hot cup of tea in the kitchen.

"Why is what I don't understand." he said worriedly.

"Well, she hit on me and I turned her down. I don't fool around." I said, glancing at Katy for a little help.

"She must really be disturbed." he said.

"In more ways than one." Katy said darkly



And that closed the incident so far as Neils was concerned.

Katy on the other hand was not content to let things "sleep with the fishes."



When we got back to my room she ordered me to strip and kneel, face on the floor, and not move until she returned.

I did and waited, knowing that I had really pushed the outside of the envelope, as Chuck Yeager would put it, with my actions.

I hadn't disobeyed an order, but I had certainly put myself at risk.

But I'm a bit stupid that way. Katy was in danger of drowning, and I couldn't just stand there. Neils knew where I was going, so I didn't think I was taking that much of a risk.

When Katy returned, I could see she was wearing high heels but that was all I could see from my position.

"Do not move slave." she said closing the door.

I held my position even as the lights went out. I became nervous as I knelt there. Could Katy be one of the people trying to kill me? I fought with my fears in the dark. What was she doing in the darkness that filled the room? I could hear her moving and then a click of a lighter.

Slowly the room filled with flickering candlelight.

"Are you ready for your punishment?" she asked from behind me.

"Yes Miss Katy.", I answered.

I heard a whiff and then felt the solid crack of a cane across my exposed ass.

I whimpered in pain.

"One!" she said.

Again the sound and the pain.

"Two!"

And yet again.

I moaned from the blow and gasped for breath.

"Three!"

A pause and I felt her hand on my punished flesh, running a finger across the weals.

"You will start obeying properly after this won't you?" she said with a sharp edge in her voice.

"Yes Miss Katy." I moaned.

The hand was removed and I felt the slash of the cane again even harder, collapsing me to the floor.

"I don't believe you. You haven't obeyed properly yet. You persist in doing things your way, without asking for permission or advice. You try and be a good slave, and you do very well most of the time. But you risked your life tonight twice without regard for your Mistress's feelings or mine.

"I will protect you as will the Queen. Your insistence on protecting yourself without help is disrespectful and shows a lack of trust in us. You will trust us, as you do your Mistress, to protect and care for you, or I will recommend that you be returned to your Mistress as a failure."

I lay there and listened to her words, stinging me more than the cane ever could.

I wanted to protest, to tell her she was wrong. I couldn't. She was right.

I had grown so accustomed to having to take care of myself, that when the time came for someone to care for me, I couldn't accept it.

I had to be a man about it. What a crock of shit. Mistress Minx loved me and cared for me. I accepted that. Why couldn't I accept that other people might also love and care for me as well?

I had isolated myself after my wife and daughter died. I stuck to my work, didn't socialize. My friends and I grew apart. I didn't do anything except go to work and come home to my empty house.

When Denise died all of the love in the world and all of the love I had for the world died as well. I punished myself for failing to save her.

If I had just kept driving that night, not stopping to help someone in distress, I would never have been brought to Ay'esha. My life would have continued in the same vein until I died. Alone and forgotten.

I started to weep at my foolishness and pride.

I would never have been forgiven.

Mistress Minx.

I wanted to be with her so badly at that moment.

" Your Mistress does love you, or she would not have sent you here. You are a very special man." I heard Katy say from above me.

I didn't say anything. There was nothing to say.