Indentured Pervitude 01

"Of course it is," Wendy insisted, trying not to come across as overbearing.

"Maybe, but you two aren't even married," her father reasoned.

"It would be one thing if he was your husband, or if you had kids together..." her mom added. It always somehow came back to giving her grandchildren, even at a time like this.

"He's my fiancé! We're practically married..." Wendy fought to hold back the tears. She didn't like to cry in front of her father, and she knew it would convince him to do the opposite of what she wanted.

"Okay, okay, settle down, that's enough." Her dad took a deep breath and wiped a big hand across his reddened face. He didn't want to have this conversation but knew he had to. "We'll bail him out, but it won't be a free ride on my dime. He's going to have to pay back every penny."

Wendy did all she could not to correct him. Pennies, dimes, and all coins for that matter, had been eliminated over a decade ago, sometime in 2040 - along with all physical currency...part of the rise of crypto and its ascendence to supremacy. But, guys like her dad wouldn't ever let go of the past.

"We'll pay everything back, I promise. Just don't let him die in some slave factory in China or Russia." That's where most of the crypto companies sent the people they possessed. And there was nothing you could do about it once they were absorbed into the system. They had to get Tom out before it was too late.

The expression on her father's face was grim. She knew that face. It was the one she usually saw just before he told her no. Finally, he clapped his hands on his knees and nodded.

"I hope you know what you're doing." He stood up, looked at her mother, then at Wendy. "I'll get him out...for you."

~ ~ ~

Wendy had been a nervous wreck all day. She paced around the house, cleaning things that were already clean, and trying to ignore the knot in her stomach. Her father had assured her that everything was all worked out, but she wouldn't believe it until she saw Tom for herself.

A car door slammed shut outside and she rushed to the front door. It was them! By the time she got to the front porch, Tom was getting out of the backseat with the help of her dad. He was wearing a pale blue jumpsuit, like something out of a cheap sci-fi movie. She ran across the lawn and embraced him, the tears coming of their own accord. She had him back!

He had lost weight in the three long weeks he'd been away, and he didn't have that much to spare. His already slight frame now seemed almost fragile. But she didn't care about that, he was there in her arms, and that was all that mattered. He made some indistinct whimpering noises as she hugged him, and kissed his face, and clung to him like she was never going to let him go. She wasn't prepared for how happy she was to see him.

"Okay, c'mon now, the guy barely survived being possessed. Don't kill him now," her father said, trying to peel her away. She fought against it but then gave in not wanting to overwhelm Tom after his ordeal. She didn't have all the details, nor did she expect any, but she knew he had suffered during his weeks of captivity at the hands of BitWize, the crypto company that had him.

He had been sent to a transitional factory at a place called Mulberry Grove somewhere in Georgia. This was where the newly possessed were processed and trained for their new lives of grueling labor and the total loss of their humanity. The brief time there seemed to have taken a heavy toll on Tom, and she supported him as they took him into the house. She couldn't get over the haunted dullness in his eyes and the way he just seemed to look right through her as if she wasn't even there. But she could fix him, make him better, she just knew she could.

Once they got him settled on the sofa, and she fetched him a glass of water, he seemed to come alive a little. Not quite his old self, but he was still in there for sure. He was going to be okay, Wendy assured herself, trying to keep from holding him and touching him too much. He had to adjust at his own pace and she couldn't force things.

Tom couldn't stop thanking Wendy's parents, to the point where it was getting almost annoying. She knew they had gone out of their way to help him, and were taking a huge financial risk, but how could they not know it was worth it? She had her Tom back, that was the only thing that mattered. Sure, things weren't going to be instantly okay now, there was some work yet to do, but they would do it, and before long life would be back to normal.

"Diane, maybe you should help Tom to the shower and get him back into some of his own clothes," her father suggested to her mother. Her mom nodded and helped Tom stand.

"I can do that," Wendy hopped up and took his arm. He was shaking, and that just about broke her heart.

"Now, now, let your mother take care of him for a few minutes. It'll be fine." Her father took her by the shoulders and made her face him. "We have some things we need to discuss."

His tone told her he would brook no debate on the matter, and so she sat back down as her mother led Tom away toward the bedroom. "What is it? What's there to discuss?"

"Nothing to get all twisted up over," he sat down and patted her on the knee patronizingly. "But there are a lot of moving parts to all of this."

"Like what?"

"Like...well, I guess mostly the fact that we got Tom away from the company, but he's not exactly free now."

"Huh? What are you even talking about? You paid everything off, right?"

"Not exactly. It doesn't quite work that way. I bought out his contract, that's all. I now own his debt. Which means...I basically own him."

"Oh, don't say it like that - it sounds awful!"

"I'm not just saying it, sweetie, I mean it literally. Tom is now technically what is known as an 'owned person.' What these days is more commonly called a debt slave."

Wendy had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was a term she had heard, but never fully understood. Now, it seemed, it was something she needed to understand...quickly.

"Wait, but Tom isn't really a slave or anything, right?"

"I hate to be the one to have to say this," her father nodded solemnly, "but, yeah - he pretty much is legally." The tears began to fall and Wendy was helpless to stop them.

"But what does that even mean?"

"It means...quite simply, that I currently own Tom. By law, he's my...slave." Her dad stood up, looked around helplessly, then sat back down. "I don't like this any more than you do, but that's how the law works now. Tom is my property, and if I don't continue to pay on his very substantial debt, the company will repossess him."

"No! You can't let that happen! Look at what they did to him in only a few weeks, it would kill him if he had to go back there!"

"I know, I know," her father put a hand on her shoulder trying to assure her that it was all going to be okay. "You've been through a lot, and this isn't easy to hear. But the fact remains that I own your fiancé." He pulled a sheaf of folded papers out of an inner pocket of his suit jacket and dropped them heavily onto the coffee table. That, somehow, made it all so much more real.

"What's this?" Wendy asked, already knowing.

"A lot of legal mumbo-jumbo mostly, but also the title to Tom's personhood - the thing he gave up when he lost everything to the crypto company."

"This isn't possible, they can't do this, it's inhuman!" Wendy pawed at the papers as if she could magically find a loophole or something the lawyers had overlooked.

"That it is, my dear, that it is. But it's the reality that we have to deal with now. I don't like it any more than you do, but the facts are the facts. However, your mother and I have made a decision."

"A decision?" Words were no longer making sense to her; nothing was making any sense.

"We are turning ownership over to you."

"I...I don't even know what that means..."

He was holding her by the shoulders again as if trying to keep her from leaving her body and floating off into space somewhere untethered from reality in a very actual way.

"It's quite simple really. We just have to sign a few documents with the lawyers, and you will be the one who owns Tom. He will be your slave, to have and to hold, until debt do you part."

Did he think that was some kind of joke? Wendy's mind reeled with the implications. None of this was happening, she told herself. This was some kind of a dream...a nightmare.

"Dad, I don't understand...how...why?"

"Okay, I know it's a lot to take in, and today isn't the day for all of that. Just rest assured that everything is going to be all right. Your mother and I are going to transfer ownership of Tom over to you and you will be his legal master...or mistress, I suppose. A portion of his earnings - all of it actually - will be given over toward his debt, but otherwise he will be yours to do with as you see fit."

"Don't say it like that - it makes me sound horrible!"

"Sorry, I've been hit with so much of that kind of talk over the past few days that it's hard to think like a normal person. Nothing has to change between you two. You can carry on as you were before all of this. It's just a legal arrangement." He waved his hand dismissively at the pile of papers strewn out in front of them. "No one can tell you who you are or what you have to do. Your life with Tom can be whatever you want it to be. Go back to living the way you were, if that's what you want. No one is going to stop you. But be careful. You'll both still know the truth."

"And what truth is that?"

"That you own him...body and soul." He tapped the papers ominously. "He is yours to do with as you please, and that will change things between the two of you...it has to."

Wendy tried to absorb what he was saying, but her mind wouldn't let her. "No! It's not like that at all. I love him - we love each other. Nothing will change. Some stupid papers with a bunch of meaningless signatures don't have anything to do with anything. We'll just go back to the way it was, and nothing has to change."

"I hope so, sweetie." He leaned forward and kissed his daughter on the forehead. "For your sake, I hope so."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~