Choir Collusion

She gratefully went on, "We discussed my situation at length, before Dr. H said that he had one particular suggestion for me if I was willing to try it. As I told you, I was desperate to keep my husband, so I agreed immediately."

Her speaking voice was so persuasive I continued to listen, rapt. She wasn't describing a man who took advantage of others. Maybe I'd judged him without all the information.

I thought back to that life-changing day that had led me to meet the man of my dreams. That day that was meant to be one of last ones of a short visit with my sister and niece.

But since then, until I'd recently had to flee, I'd lived with them.

Chapter 6

The visit had been one of my usual short segments of time, culled from a busier than usual schedule. It was nearing the end of this precious time with family when it happened.

Tamika and two of her friends had been bugging her mom, my sister, to take them out to a nearby state park for a class photography project they were collaborating on. Jelissa couldn't get off work to do it, so had asked if I would go in her place.

Well, as I said, I enjoy spending (limited) time with creative kids, and Tamika is a great example of a creative kid, so I agreed.

Tamika and I had developed a special bond, after I'd helped her stop a bully in her tracks. One classmate, 'Giselda the Clique Queen', loved the special jellies and jams that Jelissa made, so she made it a point to take it away whenever that's what Tamika had for her lunch.

Every Tuesday it was the tradition for her mom's sweet sandwich to be the special message of love between them. The only other thing for her meal would be a small carrot. The sandwich, though, was special; two thick slices of freshly-baked bread, slathered thickly with homemade goodness, plenty large enough to fill her stomach for the rest of the afternoon.

One Monday night, after our 'sister's weekly plan for the weak' get-together, as we jokingly called it whether by phone or in person, I was coming to say goodnight to Tamika, only to discover her in the kitchen, looking defeated.

"What's up, kiddo?"

"I'm making lunch for tomorrow; or rather, I'm making lunch for Giselda for tomorrow." She sighed as she looked at the slices of bread and beautiful jar of jam beside them.

"Does Giselda not have lunch, herself?" I asked.

"Well, I think she brings some every day, but she just leaves it in her locker. At the end of school, she takes it out and tosses it in the trash."

"What does she do for her lunch?"

"Oh, she just takes whatever she wants. I'd like her to quit pickin' on me, but she really likes Mom's stuff, and she knows that's what I get on Tuesdays." She paused slightly before adding, "I've thought about just bringing something else, but I'm afraid she'll get mad and get back at me."

There. She'd said it. She'd told me, her aunt, she was being bullied, but wanted to make it stop without making it worse.

Tamika was quiet as I thought for a moment with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, wanting to think about this without any outside distractions.

"I think I've got it!" I said, raising my now twinkling eyes to look directly into Tamika's, a mischievous smile growing on my face.

"I want you to watch very closely, while we make a sandwich that you can love, while Miss Giselda gets sick to her stomach just from watching you eat it!"

"How can we do that?" Her tone was eager.

"Get me a small paint brush and some green food coloring. Get out some cottage cheese - yes, you heard me, cottage cheese. Then, see if you've got a few drops of honey and some powdered sugar."

After Tamika had added the additional items to the counter, still looking askance at the cottage cheese, I explained. "Our palates appreciate different tastes and texture blends. I know you've eaten cottage cheese by itself, right? You know it has a certain texture, a pleasant, bland flavor all by itself. You've also liked it in combination with peaches and syrup, put into suspended jello salads; heck, even put into salads with mixed fruit, dry jello mix and whipped topping, for an airy dessert."

"Are we about to experiment?" Tamika asked with interest.

"Exactly. What we want is to add enough cottage cheese curds to the sandwich jam to make it look like there's mold in it. Of course, we still want it to taste good when you take a big bite in front of her."

We worked together for a few minutes, finding the right blend to be slathered on the fresh bread.

"Wait," Tamika said. "What if she just takes it away after I take a bite?"

"Ah. That's the next part."

Over the next half-hour, under my direction, the fresh slices of bread had been disguised as if by magic. The bread now sported slightly green-tinged areas at several edges, some suspicious-looking spots where a touch of honey had been dusted carefully with powdered sugar, with an additional light dusting, as if from growing mold, from the bottom of the slices to about three-quarters of the way up the edge of the bread. In short, the resulting sandwich for Tuesday's lunch would look revolting enough to discourage even someone voraciously hungry.

I coached Tamika to be sure to mention, in a down-played way, that her sandwiches would all be like that from now on, since her mom'd lost her job and can only get her hands on stuff that's too stale to keep or sell.

The next day, as soon as she finished eating her own lunch, with curious glances in her direction by most of the other students, Tamika hurried outside to make a quick call to me.

"It worked! It worked! THANK you, Aunt Mari'D, she's leaving me alone, now."

From that incident forward, I spent more time with my sister and niece, taking part in their life whenever I could, so of course, I'd agreed to chaperone the girls on their photography outing in Jelissa's place.

Chapter 7

We'd been having a fun day setting up and taking some amazing shots, when Carissa stepped to the edge of a cliff, below which a river lazily wound its way through the forest. We had wandered some distance from the designated trail in pursuit of 'the perfect view' from her camera.

I raced to pull her back from the precipice just in time, as the edge crumbled away.

But even as I yanked her to safety, my own inertia sent my body over the swiftly collapsing rim. My fall was painfully and abruptly halted when I landed on a jagged branch, deeply scoring into my flesh as I hung caught up in the straggling shrub that was clinging stubbornly to the slope of the embankment.

"Aunt Mari'D!" Tamika's head peaked carefully over the edge from above me. "Are you alright? Can you move?"

I struggled to catch my breath and press desperately hard against the outer edge of the wound on the inside of my upper thigh, which was presently gushing blood at an alarming rate.

"No. Call for help," I said as calmly as I could. "I can't climb up from here."

"We're off the trail! How will they find us?" I could hear the pitch in Carissa's voice rising, as did her panic.

"Jennifer," I said, with as much confidence as I could manage, "I'm putting you in charge. Use your cell phone to call the ranger station. Just use 9-1-1 if you have to, to tell them where to start looking. I know you've got GPS and every other bell and whistle, too, so they can surely get close."

I took a few deep breaths, trying to keep my head as clear as I could, despite the darkness that seemed to be gathering at the edges of my vision.

"What can I do?" Carissa pleaded.

"You brought the snacks today, right? Are there any things left, like corn chips or Doritos?" I asked weakly.

"Let me check," she said in a worried tone, "I know we were saving the S'mores stuff for later on. Oh! Here's a Dorito's bag we didn't open. Do you want it? Maybe we can lower it down..."

"No, you're going to use it to start a fire. Find some little sticks and twigs to put on top of the chips after you spread open the bag; and have bigger ones ready as the fire takes hold. The little pistol candle-lighter thingy is in my pack. Once the fire's going, I think you can put some damp leaves or grass on it, to make enough smoke for the Rangers to find us."

I can't really say how long it took, but finally, help arrived. As soon as I saw the first rescuer, I surrendered to the darkness.

Unbeknownst to me, Jennifer had not only summoned help with her handy-dandy cell phone, she'd recorded the arrival of all the personnel and kept filming as they worked out how to save me. Her recording had also captured my body, my face changing just as I passed out, clutching hard at my upper leg, amidst the backdrop of wooden boughs and leaves of that life-saving little scrub bush. Her video went viral within hours.

Someone, with way more time than morals, found a way to photoshop a small slice that somehow showed me nude, holding my pussy, reaching the ultimate moment of blissful orgasm, as if lying in a leafy bower. He or she then put it into a looping playback mode and posted it on public social media under various personas. I not only started getting curious looks, some people actually turned around to look at me, a second time! That doesn't really happen all the time to opera stars.

I started to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. And it pretty much ended my career.

As that day progressed, I was taken to the hospital, where I was treated for my injuries. As I lay in my bed, hours after regaining consciousness, I suddenly noticed a man entering the room and my attention was instantly focused totally on him.

He was tall, with a striking presence, and something about him drew my attention immediately. He never even looked in my direction but went to another staff member and engaged in conversation. My heart rate had increased astonishingly! I didn't understand what was happening, but I knew something special was going on. I couldn't take my eyes off him.

He suddenly started walking toward me, a chart in his hand, and stopped at my bedside. "I see you've had quite a day, Miss Curren," he said. "How are you feeling now?"

"A little weak, actually," I said.

"You'd lost a lot of blood by the time they could get you here. We've given you several transfusions, already, but it may be a few days before you feel alright. We cleaned and sutured the puncture wound, but you'll have some contusions around that area for a while. You got some pretty deep bruising when you fell."

He studied my chart again briefly before saying, "It doesn't indicate any sort of head trauma from the fall, but I'd like to examine you again, before you're released. I'm Dr. Haverson. I was here to give a hand when they brought you in. You kept us pretty busy for a while."

"Dr. Haverson. They need you in the special treatment room, now," said a nurse, hurrying to the doctor's side.

"Oh, right. I'll be right there." He turned back to me and said, "I'll be back to check you over and then let your family take you home."

I was so relieved to hear that I'd be seeing him again, I was able to relax for a short nap before he returned, looking pleased with himself.

Chapter 8

That was the start of the best time of my life. I was attracted to a man who was handsome, in a wonderful, caring profession, had intelligence and charm, humor... I could go on, but you get the picture. He became my everything, and he loved me back, I thought.

Then I watched that damned video, and couldn't help but wonder if some form of control had been used on me, while I was unconscious under his medical care.

When I couldn't stand it anymore, I left. With no word to him.

Now I was trapped. I sat, practically holding my breath against whatever was to come next. I liked these people, all of them. I couldn't imagine what was to come.

"Alice? With your permission?" Dave asked, glancing at everyone at the table.

"Of course, Dr. H. You know I trust all of these friends."

Dave nodded to Jason, who picked up a remote which lowered a large viewing screen from the ceiling. As soon as it was in place, Jason pressed another button, and the screen came to life. At the same time, you could hear the speaker system placed throughout the lodge-like room preparing to emit the recorded sounds.

There on the screen was Alice, totally naked, next to a man I didn't recognize. The camera was focused on the couple lying on the very same reclining loveseat I could see across the room from where I was sitting! I looked at sweet, cherubic Alice with a desperate question in my eyes.

She leaned toward me and said, "Please, just watch and listen with your heart open. If you want to know more about what brought me to this, I will tell you. It's no secret to this wonderful group of friends and, yes, lovers, that we can show care and loving to one another in many ways that might seem quite controversial. We're harming no one, coercing no one. What we do together brings us wonderfully close. We all love one another."

Then she leaned even closer and said quietly, but with excitement in her voice, "And after one of these sessions, Man! We can sing together, too, like you wouldn't believe! It's wonderful."

As she sat back into her chair, she said clearly for all, "This is that first session I had with Dr. H. My breakthrough, as it were. I know you've all seen this before, but please bear with me. I think it's important for Mari'D - May I call you that? - to see how this mind-control chemical is actually being used by Dr. H."

With that, the video started.

Alice was frozen in place next to the man who proved most assuredly to be her husband, Dennis, with three more cameras within the room positioned for different angles.

That explained what turned out to be extremely high-quality video with uninterrupted dialogue but cuts to clips of close, more intimate views that were appropriately interspersed to fit the directions given, and show the responses. Dave was standing in front of them, a caring expression on his face.

On screen, the couple both stared intently at Doctor Halverson, my Dave. He started by explaining to them that this video was being made with their cooperation, in order to assist Alice to recover from childhood trauma that has left her unable to have any intimate relations with her husband.

"You must both understand that the chemical I'm about to introduce will allow me to direct you, Alice, to think about things and feel things in a way you haven't before; or even change how you feel about things you've experienced before. However, this control today will not be having any lasting effects on you. The benefit is to help you get beyond what's happened in the past. This will continue only for this session and is being done with your full cooperation and the assistance of your husband, Dennis. He, himself, will be doing most of the actual touching of your body, but there may be occasions when I will assist."

"How shall we start?" asked Alice.

"I'm going to offer you a gas to inhale. It will cause you to be more receptive to my directions. Are you ready to begin?"

At her nod, Dave leaned forward and placed a gas receptacle across her face which had a hose attached to a small canister in his hand. As he pressed a button, a hiss could be heard over the video, and Alice inhaled and suddenly sat back with a slightly stunned expression on her face.

Dennis looked at Dave with a frightened expression. "Is this normal? Is she going to be alright with everything? We've tried so many things before that haven't worked."

Dave had a strange expression on his face as he replied somewhat oddly, "I can guarantee this will work. Believe me, there was one time when it worked much better than I ever dreamed, and it was the worst nightmare of my life."

I wondered what that strange statement could possibly have been referring to, but my attention was raptly caught on the screen.

I watched as Dave leaned closer to the couple and gently asked Alice, "Please tell me why it hurts every time someone touches you. Why can't you allow someone who loves you, to make love to you?"

Alice started to reply in a somewhat dreamy voice, but it rapidly became more animated as she spoke.

"I learned very early that people who are supposed to love you can hurt you at the same time. And they don't always stop! My brother sexually abused me for years. I told my father about it two years after it started. Nothing made it better! Nobody helped!!"

"Tell me what your brother did."

"He used to look at me, then pull my 'pee-pee place' apart and sniff for a while. Then he started licking me there, and it tickled and felt funny. He'd take out his penis and make me try to put my hand all the way around it. My fingers weren't long enough to reach all the way, though. So, he started making me use both hands at once."

She had relaxed as she spoke in a more natural cadence and snuggled gently into her husband's shoulder. He put his arm carefully around her, looking into her eyes before hugging her against him.

She turned back to Dave and continued, "Now I know that he was using me to masturbate him, but I didn't know what it was, then. After that, he'd make me lick off the sticky stuff that was still left on the top of his thing and swallow it." She looked down and her voice got quieter. "He didn't start doing other stuff to me until after I told my dad what was going on. I'll never understand why he didn't make it stop, then."

Dennis murmured quietly to her, "You know he was a fine man. He did love you. He cried when you finally told him what had happened. He thought his threat would be enough."

"How could he?! You remember what his first question was, after my cousin convinced me that what was going on with my brother was wrong? I was eight years old, and his first question was to ask whether I was pregnant or not!"

She sobbed, before continuing with passionate indignation, "My brother wasn't spanked, wasn't grounded, wasn't even sent to his room after he came out of that meeting with Dad. Instead, he walked up to me and told me very quietly that if I ever told anyone, again, he'd kill me."

She looked directly at Dave before confiding, "My brother was not right, somehow. Even Mom was intimidated by him. I stopped going to her for help with his chasing and hitting me at a really young age, when she slapped me in the face for telling on him, again, instead of trying to make him stop. So, I only had my dad left, and then he never asked, again, if everything was all right. He just didn't care enough. It was then I realized that no one loved me."

"No," Dennis insisted to her, gently. "He just didn't know how to deal with someone like your brother. He did love you. He thought threatening to disinherit Glen would be enough."

"Whatever," she responded coldly. "In any event, after that, I was trapped."

She turned back to Dave and said, "Glen got more and more abusive, especially as I started to develop a figure, and it went on for eight more years! I was sixteen when I went absolutely ape-shit wild one day when he came at me, and it scared him off. I used that ploy several times before he got married and left the house, finally. Since then, I've locked myself away from anything like what he used to do."

She turned to look at Dennis with sorrow. "No matter what I do, I can't let go of the way he made me feel. Shameful; somehow at fault. I'm so sorry, darling."

"Tell me, what are you and Dennis doing when you are the most comfortable with him? What's your favorite way to just be relaxed with him, just the two of you, with no interruptions? Do you watch movies, play games, sit by the fireside?"

Dave's calm questions caused Alice to think for a moment before answering.

"I guess I feel safest and most loved when we're snuggled together on the couch. I'm all wrapped up in a flannel shirt and sweatpants, with fluffy sock slippers on my feet. Dennis puts his arm around my shoulder at first, but after a while his hand travels down to graze against my breast. He thinks it takes me a while to notice, but I do really like how that feels."