“It’s only tradition,” a woman said.
“Don’t let it hurt you,” a man said. “So many people have gone through this. It happens every year. You’ll get through it.”
“You’re one of us,” a woman said.
I was so grateful for their words but I needed to see Pasha, to see what he was going through, and when I turned to look at the stage I saw Kendall pull a blanket off of a giant spinning wheel with options written on it, like something you’d see on a TV gameshow.
“Pasha,” Kendall said, “Please spin the wheel so we can see what your punishment will be. The gods will determine your fate and your punishment will be carried out in the morning. As you know, many of these options are brutal, very painful or uncomfortable, and of course there’s the one blank option reserved for those the gods would like to see pardoned.”
Pasha looked at me and smiled. Bastian nodded at him and I knew it was his silent way of telling the man he forgave him. How could I have found the most perfect two men in all of Erotic Mayberry? I didn’t deserve either of them.
After a long, deep breath, Pasha grabbed the wheel and spun it as hard as he could. I watched as the multicolored wheel turned around and around. When it slowed enough to read I watched as options whizzed past the arrow. Walk on hot coals, 30 lashes, leech blowjob, sandpaper scrub down, 60 hours in the hot box, naked knee march, one year of sexual denial, and many other options came and went. The wheel slowed down to a crawl and barely passed the two that I thought sounded worst, the one year of sexual denial and the leech blowjob. It looked like it might land on the blank option, the one meant to pardon him, but then it floated past it and finally stopped on naked knee march.
Noises came from the crowd, none of them good, and I knew it must be a brutal punishment.
“First thing in the morning, at first light, Pasha will carry out his punishment. He will start at his house, naked on the street, and he will walk on his knees up and down every street in the neighborhood, no matter how hot or ragged the street is. It will hurt. His knees will be a bloody mess, but he and the community will be better for it in the end.”
Pasha nodded, put his hands in his pockets, and walked off stage with his head hanging low.
“Now, for the final event of the evening and the one I believe most of you have been waiting for,” Kendall said. “As we’ve been here at the stage, some of the community men have set chairs up in a circle out in the field. I will need all pets to please go take a seat in one of the chairs and wait for the drawing.”
Bastian took my hand and slowly walked me out to the field. The crowd was oddly quiet and I couldn’t quite understand what was going on. I would think people would be excited since a pet would become an owner. Then I realized maybe that was exactly why everyone was quiet. No owner wanted to lose his pet. This event meant breaking up a couple, setting them both up to find new pets, meaning going back out into the world to find someone new to love and bring into the neighborhood.
Yes, that was a sad thought.
“Are you worried?” I asked Bastian.
“Yes, a little,” he said.
“I’m sure it won’t be me,” I said. “Look at all those chairs. There must be a hundred of ‘em at least.”
“One hundred and four,” he said. “There are one hundred and five homes and only one of them right now is without a pet so there are exactly one hundred and four chairs. Those are your odds.”
“I don’t win shit,” I told him. “I never have. There’s a fifty percent chance I’ll win a coin toss and I lose every fucking time.”
He smirked and I knew he was trying to force a smile for my benefit.
“Hey,” I said. “Look at me. You asked me last night who I’d choose. I’d choose you.”
“You mean that?” he asked.
“I do. If I win, I will ask them to redo the drawing.” I said. “I tried taking care of myself once before and we both know how that turned out.”
He chuckled.
He led me over to a seat, one that was marked 76 and kissed my forehead before sitting me down.
“Why do you look so sad?” I asked. “I told you, I pick you.”
Around me all the other pets sat down. There wasn’t a single empty seat in all 104. Pasha was far from me so I couldn’t see his face. I looked back at Bastian once more.
“Hey,” I said again. “Look at me.”
He did.
“I choose you,” I promised him.
“You may not have a choice,” he said. “This game has a loser too.”
In the middle of processing his last words, metal cuffs suddenly shot up out of my chair and wrapped around my wrists and ankles, locking them in place.
“What the fuck?” I said.
Some of the other pets made similar comments. One girl started yelling. A guy was freaking out. Fear hit me and I didn’t know why. Nobody had done anything to me other than lock me into my chair. It could be another sexual game. Yes, I was sure that was all. Someone was going to walk up to me in a minute and slap me in the face with his cock. I’d have to give him a blowjob with no hands. That’s all.
“You may not have a choice,” I heard Bastian’s words in my head. “This game has a loser too.”
When I looked back at him I saw the look of fear on his face. He wore almost no expression at all and it was the first time I’d seen him like that.
“Bastian,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Is everyone in place?” Kendall asked. “Good. Let’s begin.”
“Let me out of here!” a man yelled. “I’m claustrophobic. I can’t be tied down like this. I need to get out of this chair. Let me out of here!”
His cries were so real. He was so afraid that it started to freak me out. I couldn’t handle it either. I wanted out of the chair. My ankles began to ache. My restraints felt too tight. My calves and thighs begged to be stretched out. My mind raced.
“Let me out of this fucking chair!” I yelled.
“Sunshine,” Kendall said. “No need for all the profanity. You’ll be out of that chair in a second. Calm down.”
Her voice was so relaxed that it made me feel a little more comfortable. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. More than that, Bastian wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.
“Before anyone hurts themselves,” Kendall said. “Let me get this over with quickly. Ever since my great great grandfather started this community with a group of his friends, appeasing the gods is something that has been of paramount importance. It’s what keeps us moving and growing in our daily lives, it’s what keeps stress from our front door and enemies away from our back door. For anyone who doubts the power of the gods, I need you to think about it for a moment. How else could we go on living and laughing and loving without being interrupted by the corrupt government and greedy politicians and phony forced and fabricated lifestyles outside our gates? By now, we would have been shut down if not for the agreeable gods we’ve appeased year after year.
The owners in the circle around us muttered words of agreement.
“Our gods require one sacrifice each year,” Kendall went on. “Only one. The blood of one of our pets in exchange for a full year of good health, wealth, and freedom.”
Wait. A sacrifice? Like a real sacrifice?
“No,” I said. “Let me out of this chair.”
“But our gods are also rewarding gods so in exchange for the fear that comes with being one of the lambs offered up for sacrifice, one will also be chosen for our greatest honor, the opportunity to leave this annual fear and worry behind and become a full-fledged owner of a home in Erotic Mayberry with only one stipulation, that he or she must find a pet of his or her own within six months from now or they will revert back to pet status immediately.”
Surprisingly, the people I knew had been pets longer than a year cheered Kendall on, all excited about the chance to become an owner themselves. Most didn’t seem worried at all about the sacrifice. Only the pets I knew were new like me seemed
frightened. I couldn’t see Pasha’s face from where I sat but I knew he must be afraid. Bree I wondered about. She seemed to have bought into the lifestyle so strongly that I doubted she was opposed to their morbid annual ritual.
“With that said,” Kendall said, “Let’s begin the drawing. Each of our pets has chosen a chair, each marked with a number, and each of those numbers is here in this barrel.”
Vivi slid a tall table out to Kendall’s side and on it sat a wooden barrel no taller than two feet.
“First, I will draw the winner so we can all be excited about our new owner and then I will draw our loser,” Kendall said. “No, I shouldn’t say it like that. There are no losers in this. To be sacrificed is also an honor, so please think of it as such.”
My heart threatened to shoot through my chest. I couldn’t sit still. Every inch of my body hurt. I ached from my toes to my head and I couldn’t stop the trembling in my hands. How had I come to this? If I hadn’t tried to kill myself I wouldn’t have ended up in that hospital where I met Bastian who brought me here. But then I wouldn’t have experienced all the great things I’d experienced since moving to Erotic Mayberry.
My mind was all over the place. Did I hate this place or love it? Knowing what I knew now I knew that if I won, I could never choose Bastian because that would mean that I’d be a pet again next year and would have to go through this all over again. I’d always looked down on Suzanne for what she’d done, hurting a good man like Bastian, but now I understood fully and even understood why they chose to be together sometimes. They’d been forced apart by this fucked up system.
They’d been forced apart. That meant I was his consolation prize. His backup girlfriend. I meant nothing to him. He knew when he invited me into the neighborhood that I’d end up sitting here fearing for my life. That was the choice he made for me. Even when he took me home and allowed me to think about leaving, this was never brought up. I may have changed my mind if I knew my life was in jeopardy.
I couldn’t grasp what was going on. My mind couldn’t handle it and then Kendall was reaching for the barrel and I knew it was all about to be over. Her hand was nearly inside the barrel when I heard Bastian’s voice behind me.
“Wait!” he yelled. “Stop! Kendall stop!”
I tried to turn and look at him but my neck hurt. My body was stuck in place and I’d struggled so hard to break free of my restraints that I’d exhausted myself. What was he doing?
Kendall froze and turned to look at him.
“Kendall,” he said. “Let me switch places with Sunshine! I give up my rights as an owner and name her in my place. From this day forward she will be my owner and I will be her pet.”
“Umm,” Kendall said.
“What is this, The Hunger Games?” I heard someone say.
“I don’t think it’s ever been done,” Bastian said. “But I love her that much. I don’t want her to go through this. Not now. Not ever. Put me in her seat. She’ll be an owner and you’ll still have me to answer for her number. If I win, I’ll be an owner again. If I lose, you’ll have your sacrifice.”
I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. Was he serious? He would do that for me? He loved me that much, enough to put his own life in danger and to give up his rights as an owner? He would switch to pet status and do this every year for me?
“You do realize,” Kendall said, “That you cannot cheat the system. If you’re doing this with plans to buy yourself back into an owner’s seat after the festival, I will not accept it. You’ve had your chance as an owner and will only gain that right again if the gods see fit in the drawing.”
“I understand,” he said.
Kendall shook her head in disbelief.
“Okay,” she said. “Free her and take her place.”
Bastian walked over to me and flipped switches beneath my wrists and behind my ankles to set me free. I threw my arms around him and begged him not to do it. A second before I’d felt nothing but relief but now it dawned on me what he was doing. What it could mean for him. I loved him too and I was wrong, he didn’t want this for me. He would sacrifice everything. He loved me.
This changes everything.
“Please don’t do this. I’ll accept it,” I said. “I’ll take my chances and if the gods say it’s my time to go, then I’ll go, and if they don’t, I’ll stay with you.”
“No,” he said as he kissed my lips. “I brought you here. I put you in this position knowing full well what it would mean. I knew I loved you but it was a chance I was willing to take. It was an unfair chance for you. It was selfish and I’m sorry. I love you, Sunshine.”
He kissed me again and I couldn’t leave his lips. The pain was immense. It felt like I’d been shot and had a gaping hole at the center of my body. I wanted to collapse in his arms and stay there, but he was pushing me away. I wouldn’t go. I couldn’t go. I grasped at his shirt and clung to him, hanging onto him, begging him not to do it.
“Take her, please,” Bastian said. “Someone pull her away from me so we can get on with this.”
He pushed me away but I fell to my knees and hugged his legs, sobbing into them.
“Don’t do it,” I begged.
“She’s being a little dramatic, don’t you think?” someone said from behind me. “It’s not like he lost already.”
They were right but it didn’t matter. I didn’t want him to give up his right as an owner. Even if he won, it would change everything. I would be his owner and I didn’t want that for him. I loved him and I couldn’t bear to see him stripped of his position in the community. He was a respected owner of ten years.
Two men from the crowd rushed out and grabbed my arms, yanking me back into the crowd. One of them said, “Congratulations. You’re an owner now.”
I couldn’t be happy about it. Not with Bastian sitting in my seat. I heard the ankle and wrist cuffs lock in place and then he was there. It was done. He was a pet and I was his owner.
“Very well,” Kendall said. “This is definitely an interesting night. I might have to start asking if there are any owners who’d wish to switch with their pets.”
The crowd around me laughed. My crowd. I was no longer one of them. I was one of us.
“I’ve wasted enough time and I know you’re all tired so here we go,” Kendall said as she reached into the barrel and pulled out a plastic lottery-style ball with a number on it.
The crowd grew silent as everyone waited to hear who would be the new owner.
“Oh wow,” she said. “Look at her luck. It’s about damn time. After all these years as a pet, Lilly, you’re finally an owner.”
“What?” Lilly squealed from her seat. “Really?! Oh my God!”
Marco stepped out of the crowd and ran toward her.
“Wooohoooo! That’s my girl!” he yelled.
Her straps were released and Lilly stood up, so excited she leapt into Marco’s arms and kissed him on the lips. The crowd around me clapped. I wanted to but I knew that meant Bastian was stuck in the life of a pet now. Year after year he’d be a pet. My pet.
“Congratulations, Lilly,” Kendall said. “If anyone has given time and effort to this community it is you darlin. You deserve it.”
Kendall gave her a minute or two to celebrate before she moved on.
“Now for the part that is hard on all of us, but as I said before, it is necessary,” she said. “This is the hardest part of my job, but without it, I’d have no job. We’d have no neighborhood and no community. You’ve heard it all before so let’s get down to business.”
The crowd grew silent again. I watched Bastian who had his head lowered and his eyes closed.
Kendall reached into the barrel and pulled out a ball.
“Well shit,” she said. “Ain’t this interesting?”
She held up the ball and a camera somewhere focused in on it, projecting it onto the big screen behind her. She’d drawn ball number 76. My seat. Bastian’s seat. No, my seat. What had I done? What had he done?
&nb
sp; What has he done? What does that mean?!
My legs wobbled and I collapsed. I sat there on my knees in the grass, looking through people’s legs at Bastian sitting in my seat. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t complain. He didn’t try to take back his decision or try to convince everyone they were making a mistake. He believed wholeheartedly in the community and everything about it. He believed so much that he’d instantly forgiven me for what I’d done with Pasha.
This was his home. This was the life he chose and he’d been a part of this ceremony for many years. He’d watched as Suzanne sat in a chair just like mine and he hadn’t traded spots with her. He’d done that for me. He loved me. And I had no way to save him.
Welcome to E. Mayberry Page 28