The Pleasure Boy 19

In the end, that's what we agreed too, and 'Master Tom' as I was to call him in his dungeon said he would draft a contract to this effect, and send it to Lotte for her and my approval. We shook hands and I left. "I'm looking forward to working for you," I told him, going out the door. I learned a lot in your class at Guild school, and expect to learn a lot more working here."

"You will," he told me. "Dungeon work is special, and you won't have gotten much experience of it yet with Lotte. The clients come in off the street, and some of them are weird - queer, in the original sense of the word. You have to learn to read them, give them what you can of what they want, and make sure to take care of yourself as you serve them. I'll be around to screen them and set up your sessions with them. And I'll watch you closely, especially at the beginning. My security arrangements are trustworthy. But use a nick-name, never give out personal information, use and insist on condoms, and play only with implements that have been sterilized since last used."

"Oddly, a well-run dungeon is like a hospital in that respect. It's not especially dangerous, if its safety precautions are stringently observed."

On my next visit with my parents, I came early to have a private talk with my mother. I wanted her view of my internships, of Lotte's claim that HanaLot had no place for me now, and that the two placements she'd suggested were the best she could find for me in Montreal. What I got was not the second opinion I was after, but a scolding. "Lotte is your training Mistress," she told me. "You have to trust her. As I told you when you were starting, it's not my place to interfere."

"As it happens, I agree with her about HanaLot. Not only for the reason she gave you - that the work we could give you would be a full-time job - but also because you need a lot more experience under your belt before you're ready to mentor others."

"As for those placements, her knowledge of the Montreal Scene is more current than mine. If she says the two places she sent you two were the best she could find for you, I'm in no position to do better. I can tell you that escort work pays well, and will be great experience for you now. I don't know Monique Allard, the current Mistress of that firm, but I did know her parents. The Service d'escorte Allard had an excellent reputation in my day for being clean and honest, and for having a fine assortment of geishi on offer for its customers."

"Master Thomas, as you've described him, sounds like a gentleman, even with his gay mannerisms. He's right to be concerned that you may not care much for some of his customers, though your age and body type will be in big demand. Some of his clients - the posh well-dressed daddy types who like to fondle naked boys on their laps (or over them) - I think you'll like them very much. I can see you're getting aroused as I talk about them."

"I agree with Thomas that dungeon work will probably not suit you in the long run but, starting out, it will give you a lot of experience very quickly. Both those placements will. And you'll make good money for the time involved, which was the point of the whole exercise. You'll have time and energy for your school work."

"Now let's drop it. I've said more than I wanted to. Once you graduate, I will treat you as a junior colleague - and as my son, of course - and give you career advice when you ask for it. But as an intern, you're still Lotte's apprentice. I would not have sent you to her if I didn't think she was fully competent to guide you. I would stay out of it now, even if I disagreed with her judgment. Which I don't. If you want her to turn up other placement options for you, you should tell her, not me."

I thought it over and decided that my only real problem with Lotte's placements was that I was nervous about doing real work. She reviewed the internship contracts I'd been offered and suggested some minor changes (having to do with time and privacy) to protect my prospective academic career. These were negotiated with little difficulty, and the contracts were signed. Soon, I would be doing what I'd been trained for. I'd be a geisho for real.