The Freshman Ch. 34

"Yeah."

"You were right. It turns out he took out several mortgages and was nearly four million dollars in debt. Your house just got seized and the banks are still fighting over it. They grabbed everything: the property, the cars, even the furniture. That includes whatever you might have had there. It's all gone. They wouldn't even let me on the property to get any of Cassie's things."

Jason was glad about the house. Good riddance. He was more convinced than ever that it was the house that had destroyed his family. As for the fancy furniture, he was glad that would be gone as well. Whenever he went back, there would be nothing to remind him of the hellish existence his family had endured during the final year of his parents' lives.

Jason thought of something else, the neighbor he barely knew who had saved his sister's life with his shotgun. He was curious:

"Grandma, I know this is kinda a dumb question, but what's gonna happen to our neighbor? You know, the guy who saved Cassie?"

"Him? Nothing. They're not gonna press charges. How could they? It was self-defense. That kid was breaking into his house with a loaded gun. He had just shot four other people and was trying to kill your sister. I don't think there's a jury in Wisconsin that'd convict him. I sure as hell wouldn't."

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The following Sunday Jason went over to Victor Dukov's house for dinner for the first time. He was dressed in his best business suit, the one he had worn on the first day of the trial when he testified. Alongside him stood Vladik Dukov. The two men were there to "sit at the table" of Victor Dukov, the head of the household in which Cecilia Sanchez and Tiffany Walker were staying. The dinner was an important occasion for Jason, because until he had sat at Victor Dukov's table, the society dictated he did not have the right to visit Cecilia at the house during the week.

Cecilia was dressed in her formal Danubian gown, while Tiffany stood beside her completely naked. She was wearing Vladik's engagement jewelry, which was the only detail from her normal appearance she could change. The dinner, with its fancy dishes and formality, came and went. Once the dinner ended, Victor Dukov granted Jason permission to start seeing Cecilia, something he already had been doing in the U.S. for nearly a year. It was an absurd situation, but they were in Upper Danubia, and protocol came before anything else.

Jason invited Cecilia to go for a walk and work off the large dinner. They had to change out of their formal clothes because of the hot late afternoon sun. Cecilia changed into a simple one-piece sundress that was in fashion in the capitol, while Jason changed into a very old pair of pants and a short sleeved shirt. They spent a long time walking along the shaded sidewalks along the East Danube River. They passed several river beaches full of nude swimmers and sunbathers, but neither had any desire to go swimming, in spite of the heat. Instead they walked quietly, as though something was compelling them to make their way towards the Old Temple.

They passed their former hotel and the outer watchtower of the Old City Wall on their way to the Plaza of the Ancients. They passed the entrance to the Temple and decided to stop at the café where Kim's husband had worked years before when he was a criminal. By pure chance they ran into Cynthia Lee, along with her sister Kimberly and her brother-in-law Sergekt. All three were dressed in black prayer robes.

Pure chance...or was it?

It turned out that Cynthia had decided to pursue her plan to perform public penance. She was very nervous, because her intention was to perform penance for at least the duration of the entire summer. She added that she probably would perform penance much longer than that, perhaps through the end of September of the following year.

"I'm kinda nervous, because once I start, I'll have to keep my collar on until the Ancients give me a sign I can take it off. I have no idea when that's gonna be, but I'm gonna have to wait for a sign."

"What kind of sign?"

"I don't know. That's what's so scary about what I'm about to do. I'm gonna be surrendering control over my future to the Ancients, and I don't know when they'll give it back to me."

The thought of public penance stuck in the minds of both Jason and Cecilia. Neither was aware the other had secret thoughts on the matter, but that was about to change.

It was Jason who asked the first question.

"You know, I'm...kinda curious. Do you think...maybe I could...could talk to one of the Priests about penance? I got some questions...and I...with my dad...and my family...and the whole coup thing...I don't know how to handle all this. I'm curious...just kinda got some questions..."

"Sure, they'll talk to you. If you want, I can translate."

Cecilia looked at Jason and drew a deep breath.

"I'm gonna want talk to one of those Priests too."

Kim and Cynthia looked at each other with bewildered expressions. It could not be a coincidence that Jason and Cecilia would just happen to show up in front of the Temple of the Ancients a few minutes before Cynthia was about to be collared. Their two friends had been brought to them as part of their Path in Life. It was obvious they were destined to go into the Temple, and in some way or another come out changed before the night was over.

It was Kim who took charge of the group.

"Cecilia, I want you to come with me. Jason, you're going with Cynthia. Start thinking about your questions, and we'll translate for you."

Kim turned to her husband, and in Danubian asked him to go into the Temple and find the Priest who had converted Cynthia. He would need to explain that there were two foreigners who were seeking counseling. As Sergekt entered the Temple, Kim turned back to Jason and Cecilia.

"There's something I gotta tell you about the Temple before you go in. Whoever you talk to is going to try to see into your soul and figure out what you need. If they think your soul is damaged, they're gonna tell you what they think you should do about it. You don't have to be a convert for them to talk to you, but you are going to have to take whatever they say seriously."

Jason and Cecilia nodded. Sergekt came back out and summoned the others with a loud whistle.

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Kim led Cecilia to a Priestess who had a particularly severe demeanor. It turned out she was the Priestess who had given the rough sermon at that nudist conference in Indiana back in February. Kim knelt, touched her head to the floor and then stood up. The Priestess saluted her and she saluted back. Kim began speaking to her in Danubian, but the Priestess stopped her.

"I speak to young woman in English. Maybe my English no good, but I listen her word and look at her eye. She talk, I listen." She turned to Cecilia and asked her a question that surprised her:

"Why you come to Danube City? Why you here in Duchy?"

"I...'cause of the trial...'cause I had to testify..."

"No...that no reason...you say me why you here. Say me real truth, why you here."

"I...I 'spose I came here 'cause of my boyfriend, Jason. I...didn't want him to have to be by himself, you know...alone...dealin' with..."

"No...that no reason. Truth is YOU no want to be alone. You no want to live without Jason. Jason come, you come. Because you need Jason, no?"

"I...I 'spose that's true. I didn't wanna live without him."

"So you love Jason?"

"A lot. A lot more than he knows..."

"Now we find truth. You need Jason. You love Jason. You come to Duchy to be with Jason. That why you here."

"Yes, ma'am. That's why I'm here."

"Good. Now you say truth. So say me about Jason. Say me truth about Jason."

Cecilia spent a very long time talking about her strange relationship with her boyfriend, and in doing so revealed much about her own life and personality quirks. It turned out the Priestess was an excellent judge of character. Somehow she knew that Cecilia would find it very difficult to talk about herself, but would find it much easier to talk about Jason. The Priestess looked hard into Cecilia's eyes and interrupted her whenever she became vague or evasive with a severe: "You no say me truth. Say me real truth."

It was only after the Priestess had a good feel for Cecilia's personality that she began asking direct questions about her own life. She knew that Cecilia's soul was severely damaged, a detail about the young American that became more evident as she began confessing some of her inner thoughts. The Priestess began closing in on the events of Cecilia's life when she was 15. She drew out of her the stories about her brother Raul and his relationship with her boyfriend Vicente, their criminal activity and drug use, and lastly, the story about the abortion.

Cecilia was terrified at having confessed such a thing to a religious person, but the Priestess was not interested in judging Cecilia for her past. Judging was the duty of the Creator, not the Clergy. It was the Creator to whom Cecilia would have to show her mirror, not the Priestess. Instead what the woman wanted was to get Cecilia to put into own words the deep-seated fears she had about losing control over her life, and her insecurity over the fact that was precisely what had happened in her relationship with Jason.

"So now we find out truth. You scared."

"Yes, I'm scared."

"Now I scare you more. I ask you, and you say me truth. You think about..."

The Priestess turned to Kim and quietly asked her a question in Danubian. Kim answered:

"Slov nák anglalís, 'custody'."

The Priestess responded "doc-doc" and turned back to Cecilia.

"You think about custody for Jason? Maybe use custody tell him so he no tell you?"

Cecilia's heart stopped. That Priestess knew. Somehow she had figured out one of her most secret fantasies, the one she had about collaring Jason.

"I...I...yes, ma'am. I...thought about...usin' the Church...'cause I had this fantasy..."

Cecilia explained how she found out about the concept of custody from her correspondence with Apprentice Lee and how she had thought about using it to control Jason. Kim gave her a very offended look, obviously displeased over what her friend had been thinking. The Priestess did not seem any angrier however, because from the beginning she had suspected Cecilia had harbored a fantasy that was offensive to the Church. The frightened young woman would have to atone for her fantasy, but that was why the Creator had brought her to the Temple.

"Now I know truth. Now I know why you scared."

"Yes ma'am."

"You want fight scared? Make right with Creator?"

Cecilia nodded.

"You do what I say?"

Again Cecilia nodded. That was not good enough for the Priestess. She stared coldly into Cecilia's eyes and repeated the question:

"You do what I say?"

"Yes...I'll do what you say."

"You give me hands."

Reluctantly Cecilia stuck out her hands and the Priestess grabbed them. The woman then closed her eyes and stood very still for several minutes. When she opened her eyes, she let go. One final time she asked the question:

"You do what I say?"

"Yes."

The Priestess then reached up and put her hands around Cecilia's throat. She was terrified, thinking that the Priestess was about to choke her, but what she was doing was measuring her neck. She wrote down a measurement on a small piece of paper and handed it to a Temple Attendant. Then she grabbed Cecilia's hand and took her to an outside patio that overlooked the Sacred Grounds. Cecilia found herself facing a small stone platform. Off to one side there was a stone pit enclosing a fire burning from coals.

"You no move."

The Priestess produced a pair of very sharp scissors and cut the shoulder straps of Cecilia's dress. She gasped as the cloth fell off her body and bunched up at her feet. Before she had time to react, two more quick snips cut the waistband of her thong. Within a second, Cecilia was completely naked except for her shoes. Her heart pounded as the Priestess moved in front of her.

"You put cloth in fire."

Struggling to catch her breath, Cecilia did as she was told. She stepped out of her ruined dress, picked it up, and reluctantly tossed it into the fire pit. There was a brief flash as the cotton caught on fire, but quickly the flames died back down. The Priestess grabbed Cecilia's shoulders and pushed her into a kneeling position.

"Hold out hands"

Cecilia stuck out her hands. The Priestess held a metal collar in front of Cecilia's face, and then laid it in her hands. By that time she was shaking badly from fright. The Priestess moved behind Cecilia and placed her hands on her shoulders. She prayed out loud in archaic Danubian while the trembling American continued to kneel and hold her collar.

Oddly enough, when the Priestess finished, Cecilia's nerves had calmed down considerably. She now was ready to accept the collar.

The Priestess took the collar from Cecilia's hands and placed it around her neck. She inserted a key and locked it. Now it was official. Cecilia Sanchez, just three weeks after arriving in Danube City, had begun performing public penance.

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A short while later the Priestess released Kim and Cecilia after reciting a final series of prayers and handing her a sheet of paper explaining the proper protocol for a person performing public penance. Among other restrictions, she no longer could salute a public official. She would have to kneel whenever a public official greeted her and wait to be given permission to stand up.

Even before she left the Temple grounds, Cecilia felt very exposed and vulnerable. It wasn't just the thought of having to remain completely naked into the foreseeable future, but she also was experiencing a much deeper feeling of her soul having been stripped bare for the whole world to see.

Everything Cecilia had been to that point was gone, burned up in that fire along with her dress. She suddenly felt very free, very liberated as the warm late spring breeze gently reminded her of her exposure to the word. Yes, let them see me. I'm starting over. I'm leaving my psychological baggage behind and I'm starting over.

Cynthia and Jason were waiting for them in the Plaza as they left the Temple grounds. Both were naked and wearing collars. Cecilia rushed into Jason's arms and hugged him, excited at the thought that they would be performing public penance together. It felt good to be outside like this, to feel the warmth of his body and the springtime air on her bare skin...this really felt good.

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Cecilia and Jason returned home not really knowing how their host families would react to seeing them naked and with collars around their necks. They were surprised that there was not much reaction at all. There was absolutely nothing dishonorable about public penance, as long as the person performing it understood and respected the proper protocol.

The Danubians in Jason's life actually approved of his decision to wear a Temple collar. It seemed a logical thing for him to do; given the fact his father had committed so many evil acts in his life and now was dead. The Danubians interpreted Jason's penance as a public effort to redeem the honor of his family. Without knowing it at first, Jason was performing a ritual that any young Danubian under similar circumstances would be expected to perform.

The fact that Cecilia was performing penance alongside Jason also made sense to the Danubian way of thinking. She was Jason's partner, so it was quite appropriate that if he were to publicly humble himself, she should as well.

The naked young couple would become a familiar sight around Danube City over the summer as they went about their business and struggled to learn enough Danubian to enter the university as regular students in the fall. Sometimes people asked one or the other how long they planned to stay collared, but they always provided the most accepted answer: that they really weren't sure. At some point one or both of them would receive a sign to turn in their collars and resume normal lives, but they neither knew nor really cared when that would be. It was up to the Ancients to make that decision for them.

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There was one pleasant irony in the lives of Jason and Cecilia that resulted from their decision to wear collars. They applied for membership in the Socrates Club and were accepted as full members by the management. Within a very short time Jason and Cecilia had established their social group at the Club. Normally they sat with Tiffany Walker and Vladik Dukov, along with Cynthia Lee and a young Danubian who also was performing public penance. As the summer progressed Cynthia's relationship with him became more serious as he visited Sergekt and Kim's house and sat at their table.

Their membership in the Club also meant the intimacy rooms were open to them, along with the renewed chance to enjoy each other's bodies. The nightly visit to the intimacy room became a welcome part of the routine of Jason and Cecilia. The time they spent together continued to be a very important part of their lives: whether it was massages, or Jason's tongue gently caressing Cecilia's clitoris, or Cecilia waving her bottom in the air to tempt her boyfriend. No matter what else happened during their day, the time they could spend together always awaited them. Those precious moments were crucial for helping them get through their first summer in Danube City.