The Training of Jeff Stintum Ch. 24

Chapter 24: Another Piece in the Puzzle

Jeff lay in the soft sheets of the hospital bed, his mind descending into an odd state of agitated hibernation as he absorbed the knowledge that he would not be seeing Sarah for an entire week. His first inclination was to be hopelessly sad, very much like he had been a couple days ago when Sarah had left him alone in her house when she went to work — he had unconsciously whimpered with loneliness and longing then. But there was a lot more rushing around in his head now as he lay there in his hospital bed, half listening to whatever his parents were saying to him. Even though he badly wanted to see Sarah...to be around her...to smell her...to feel her touch...he began to feel an incredible relief pass over him. He glanced past his parents out the window, where the bright sun was shining happily, feeding the green foliage that grew on the windowsill. The sun's warm luminosity, the glad smiles of his parents, and the absence of Sarah all coalesced into a staggeringly surreal vortex that paralyzed his mind and left it vacant. He suddenly noticed that he couldn't move his toes.

"I can't...I can't move my toes," he said out loud, interrupting whatever his mom had been saying before.

"That's normal, Jeff," said his dad. "That's the effects of the epidural — they said it should be wearing off in a couple hours."

It was a truly bizarre sensation, to try and will his toes, his legs, to move...and to get no response from his limbs. It was as if the line of communication between his brain and the lower half of his body had been severed.

"And...it's...it's normal that I can't move my legs either?"

Jeff's mom smiled at him. "Totally normal," she said. "They gave you a nerve block at the base of your spine so that you wouldn't feel anything at all during the surgery."

"Well, actually, Jen, it was just to make sure that he didn't have any random muscle spasms or anything like that during the operation," said Jeff's dad, looking sideways at his wife as he corrected her.

"Oh come on Carl, seriously?" said Jen, turning her head to the side in rebuttal. "It's for both things — remember? Sarah told us over the phone that it would help him get through the worst of the pain."

"I thought she said the worst part would be the day after," said Carl. "Isn't that what she said?"

"No," said Jen, laughing at their mini-argument, "she said that the worst pain would be the day after, with the assumption that he'd have the epidural...you see what I'm talking about, Carl?"

"Uhhh, not really, no," said Carl. He suddenly smiled, putting his hands up. "But whatever. I concede to you on this one." He turned to Jeff and gave him a sly smile with a wink. "Always let her win the argument," he advised, "even if you don't even know what you're arguing about."

"Oh stop it," said Jen, playfully punching her husband in the shoulder. Jeff just lay there, finding it very difficult to absorb this routine interaction between his parents without his mind shooting out into hyperspace. It suddenly hit him that they had absolutely no idea, not a single inkling, of what was going on between him and Sarah...that is...if it actually was still going on. His mind wondered desperately into strange places. He strained to think back to his last interactions with Sarah — to her tears in the car when they were in the parking lot — to the knowing expression on her face as she dangled the sound in front of him and put it safely away in her nightstand — to the warm wrinkles around her eyes as she scrunched up her face at him, surely in a smile behind her white mask, when he was on the operating table. They did still have a "thing" going on, didn't they?

"Hey!" said his father brightly, gleefully retreating from the simulated argument with his wife, "let's see those scars, why don't we?"

"Carl!" said Jen, "don't pressure him into showing us all that — let's just let him rest."

"No...no, it's ok mom," said Jeff, who was actually curious himself to see what the incision looked like. He jostled the bedsheets around his right leg and pulled them back. And there it was — a five-inch laceration that ran down his hip and upper thigh. It was all stitched up with black sutures. It looked completely even and professionally done...Jeff inwardly scoffed at himself. Of course it looked like it was done by professionals — they were in a hospital. He wondered whether Sarah had been the one to make the incision, or if maybe she sewed him up. The thought of her holding a scalpel over his unconscious body and slicing into him gave him chills, and yet, the thought was quite exciting as well. He felt his brain tire quickly as it rushed through the power dynamics of such a scene.

"Oooo, look at that!" said his dad impressively, "now that's a scar if I ever saw one!"

"It's not a scar yet, Carl," said Jen. "It'll become a scar when the actual scar tissue develops over it as he heals. Jesus, do some internet research once in a while, why don't you?"

Carl looked over at his wife with an incredulous expression. "Are you serious?" he said. She broke into a grin and they both descended into snickers. Jeff hadn't seen his parents so relaxed around him in quite some time; they definitely were pretty cute, even though their antics could get annoying to him really quick.

"Ok, there's the one," laughed his father, turning back to Jeff. "Now let's see the other one."

"The...other one?" Jeff's mind was blank.

"Yeah, the other leg...the other...uh...I was going to say "scar," but well, your mother..." and he turned his head to his wife in mock passive-aggressiveness.

"Incision," she said curtly through her smile.

"What...what are you guys talking about?" asked Jeff, feeling a steady dread building in his chest. "I—I only had one hip replaced."

His mother turned to his father. "See?" she said to him, "this is why I agreed that Sarah should take care of him for the past week."

"Yeah," said his father, smiling as he shook his head, "I guess that was a good move." He turned and looked Jeff dead in the face. "Jeff — you really didn't know? Come on, you're not messing with us, are you?"

"N-no!" said Jeff, his fear growing, "No! I—I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Now settle down," said his mother gently, reaching over and putting her hand on his thin forearm, squeezing it lovingly. "It's ok — it's fine. Everything's fine Jeff."

"But...but what were you guys saying," asked Jeff, his voice shaking a little, "about...about my other leg?"

"Why don't you lift the sheets and take a peek at it yourself?" said his father, smiling.

Jeff looked down at the left side of his body, covered in the hospital sheets up to his midsection. What on earth were they talking about!? It was only his bad hip that they had replaced, surely!? He was terribly afraid to lift the sheets and see what awaited him underneath.

"He doesn't need to look at it, Carl," said his mother. "Come on, let's just talk about something else, ok?" But Jeff was already pulling back the sheet with a shaking hand; he had to see for himself what this was all about — he just had to.

He pulled the sheet back to reveal a second incision, almost identical to the first, and in the same spot. The dam of anxiety broke in his chest and his heart started racing, his breathing chugging in tandem to keep up with his racing pulse. His eyes remained fixed on the laceration on his right leg as he gave in to panic — he felt attacked...violated.

"Jeff!" said his mother earnestly, putting her hand on his arm again and squeezing it, "Jeff! It's ok! it's alright! We're here Jeff, we're here! It's fine — everything's all fine...the surgery went well! It was a success!"

"But I thought—" said Jeff thickly through the confines of his dismay, "I thought...that I was...that it was...only one hip. I only had one bad hip!"

"Jeff," said his father patiently, though with a touch of sincere disbelief in his voice, "didn't you go over all of this with the doctors on the phone? Didn't Sarah tell you everything?"

"No!" he said spiritedly, trying to push himself up higher in a sitting position in his bed. "No! Sarah...didn't...didn't tell me anything about getting both hips replaced! I thought it was just the one that was hurting!"

His parents turned to look at each other, and Jeff felt a hopeless weight sink within him — there was no way they were going to believe him. He had absolutely no credibility with them.

"Well," said his mother, turning back to him, trying to be gentle, "I'm sure she told you, Jeff, but maybe you just don't remember."

"I do remember," said Jeff, hating how childish his voice sounded, as he sunk back down into the bed. "She didn't tell me."

"Well, Jeff," said his father, trying and failing to erase the condescension from his voice, "the point is that the surgery's done now and...and you're gonna be ok." Both of his parents were looking at him with kindness and something like concern; Jeff hated how scrutinized he felt in this of all moments — he was sure...absolutely certain...that Sarah had said nothing to him about the operation involving both hips. But he was stuck there. Trapped, both physically and psychically. He could only wonder what was going on, and he decided without much labor of thought that Sarah was behind everything, pulling the strings. He strained his mind back through the past week, trying to get some clue, some memory from the image of her face, from everything that had happened. But all his mind could alight on were flashes of her beautiful face as she smiled down at him from high above...the flicker of an image — her huge thigh next to his shriveled chest, clearly bigger...the searing trill of her gargling his cum in aggressive mockery. A chill went through his skin as he remembered her calm loving face behind her white mask in the operating room, smiling and reassuring. He began to feel that Sarah had done something awful to him. But this fear didn't make him want to see Sarah any less — on the contrary, it intensified his urge, his longing to see her and have her tell him what on earth was going on.

An hour or so later Jeff began to get feeling back in his toes, and twenty minute later he could fully move his legs again. The nurse came in, a middle-aged woman with a peppy smile.

"Well, alright, we've got movement!" she said, laughing as she whipped the sheet off the bed. "Come on Jeff, let's get you walking a little — gotta get some movement in every hour or so to prevent blood clots, ok?"

"O-ok," said Jeff, hesitating for a moment as he looked at the crutches leaning up against the bed. Against his will, his mind shot back to Sarah's house, and her list of rules. He suddenly remembered the contract that he had agreed to..."Sarah, I agree to follow your rules," he had said. The sound of Steve's inhuman wails invaded his thoughts...and the lewd circles of Sarah's massive ass as she rode him...Jeff had broken the rules...but he had been punished enough, surely!? A couple days in the cage had made her feel better towards him, right!? Her smiling teary eyes in the car came back to him again; so did the fast-repeating image of her warm face looking down at him as he passed out on the operating table. These two strong images were repeating in his mind over and over. There was no way she was mad at him any more...there was no way...she was happy with him...

"Jeff?" ventured the nurse's voice. "You here with us?"

"Uhh...yeah," said Jeff, shaking his head and trying to bring his mind back into the present.

"Ok, then, let's go now," said the nurse insistently, "come on, let's swing your legs over the side...that's it...you feeling ok? Alright, good...good...now let's get you on these crutches here...uh, hold on a second — I've gotta adjust them down a little bit...ok, yeah, try that now...hmmmm." The nurse had paused, because as Jeff tried to stand up with the crutches' help, his feet were not even able to touch the floor. The nurse steadied his teetering body and guided him back down to a sitting position in the bed.

"Here...uh, just, uh...just sit tight here for a moment, ok, Jeff?" she said. "I'm gonna go see if I can find another pair of crutches. She left the room, and Jeff heard her muffled voice in the hallway, speaking to another co-worker.

"Uh, yeah...Dana...do you know where I can find a pair of children's crutches? Yeah...yeah, he's an adult. No...no, he's just really, really small. Yeah...ok, thanks." Jeff's parents tried to make more small talk amongst themselves to try and mask the awkwardness of the situation — but Jeff was somewhere else. He was wincing a little as he leaned forward, responding to the burning pain that was shooting through his cock as the blood poured in and started thickening his member. Just hearing the nurse's casual remark about his size had been enough to start a familiar chain reaction. The inside of his cock burned, and for a moment Jeff was alarmed at how intense the pain was, and what it implied. Had Sarah done something to his dick when he was out? He wanted badly to look at himself down there, to see if anything was different, but this was impossible with his parents in the room. He comforted himself with the knowledge that it was probably just the after-effects of having the sound in his dick for a few days...surely that was why it was burning like this?

He squirmed about on the bed in frustration, annoyed at how automatically his body had responded to the nurse's comment about his size. He wasn't attracted to her at all — she was short and kind of fat...middle-aged...certainly nothing compared to Sarah. Why was he reacting this way, then? He looked up quickly to see another nurse peeking at him from around the corner of the door. He made eye contact with her for a moment. She seemed to be studying him, and she looked familiar. Jeff suddenly realized that it was that other nurse who had first taken his x-ray with Sarah, what felt like years in the past but was actually just a few weeks ago. Dana...that was the name the other nurse had been saying...that was her name. His eyes stayed locked with hers for another moment or so before her head disappeared around the corner. Jeff felt uneasy — what was that all about? Was she in on all this too? His brow darkened as he hunched himself down, feeling utterly powerless in whatever scheme was happening around him. He began wondering if he was at the center of some kind of conspiracy...but he quickly moved to beat down his habitual inclination toward that kind of thinking. After all, hadn't Sarah chastised him for that? He wondered what kind of conference she was at...and what she was wearing. Maybe she was giving some kind of a speech in front of a huge crowd of other doctors. For some reason he pictured her wearing glasses when she was reading the speech...but Sarah didn't wear glasses, did she? Her eyes were perfect...he chuckled to himself at the silly places his mind went, and his parents looked at him with puzzled expressions.

A minute or so later the nurse came back in carrying a set of child's crutches. She wasn't a tall person by any means, but it would have been obvious to anyone looking that the crutches in her hand were too small for her.

"Here we are!" she said brightly, handing them to Jeff. "All right, let's just ease off the bed here, ok Jeff? We'll just see how you feel, and then maybe we'll try to walk down the hall and back, alright?"

"Ok," said Jeff, not feeling much of anything in his legs even though he could move them. He pivoted his legs carefully off the edge of the bed, noticing that they didn't even come close to touching the floor, and feeling self-conscious at how skinny he was. The other nurse was short and a little overweight, it was true, but Jeff couldn't help but notice that her bare forearm looked huge and tanned next to his pale white, sickly-looking thighs.

"Easy does it...I got you," said the nurse encouragingly, guiding Jeff's body down with her hammy hands. She felt strong...like she could manipulate his small body any way she wished...Jeff wished these thoughts weren't swirling around in his head, but he just couldn't help it. He wanted Sarah to be there...to be the one helping him. But he knew he was just going to have to wait. His bare feet touched the cool hospital floor and the crutch pads dug comfortably into his armpits.

"There we go, now stand up straight, with both feet," said the nurse. "That's it."

There was something wrong. The nurse looked way taller than Jeff thought she should. He looked down at his own legs and saw that they were straight, with his feet flat on the floor. He raised his head and saw that he was looking straight into the nurse's chin, which shifted as her mouth curved upward in a smile.

"Good, Jeff, good!" she said in exaggerated praise. "How does that feel?"

"Uh...good," said Jeff. It was true that he didn't really feel any pain since the nerve block was still working, but he was far more concerned with how tall this nurse looked to him. He had a sudden desire to ask her how tall she was, but even Jeff knew that such a random question would be taken as rude. He looked over to his parents, who were still sitting down. His mind was working quickly — his mom was the same height as he was...just around 5'5. He remembered that Sarah had measured him just a few days before...he had just been under 5'5 then, but that was probably only because of his bad hip, or hips, or whatever it was that was the matter with him. That big medical-sounding term that he couldn't remember...anyway — he should be as tall as his mom now, or probably taller, for that matter. The surgery had probably helped bring him back up to his normal height of 5'6, right?

"Come on Jeff, let's get walking," said the nurse. He took a few steps with the help of the crutches; he felt fine. He was far more concerned about making sure that he wasn't thinking crazy and that he hadn't somehow lost height. He looked again at the nurse — she definitely looked like someone who was rather short, and yet it was clear that she was at least a few inches taller than him. Come to think of it, the hospital bed looked higher than usual, the chairs looked bigger...even the light switch at the room's entrance looked higher up than was normal. He began to feel a desperate pull to know the truth — he had to get his mom to stand up so he could compare himself to her.

"Uh, mom, can you...uh, can you come with me?" he asked, aware that he sounded like a child asking such a thing. "I just...uh, I just wanna make sure I'm, uh...walking the same way I used to." He knew it sounded like an odd thing to say, but he couldn't think up anything better to say.

"Uh, ok Jeff," said his mom, a little puzzled as she chuckled and stood up. "But I don't think you should worry too much...about...wow..." His mom trailed off in her words, because she had stood up and was shocked at what she was looking at. Jeff was shorter than her — significantly shorter. She was looking down at the brown hair on the top of her son's head. She turned to the nurse, her brow furrowed.

"Was this supposed to happen?" Her voice was full of concern and something like hostility.

"Was what supposed to happen, Mrs. Stintum," asked the nurse, blinking.

"Was he supposed to...to shrink like this?"

"Well, it's normal to experience a slight change in height with a procedure of this kind," said the nurse.

"But this isn't a slight change," said his mother. "He's...he's quite a bit shorter now. I mean...look at this." She stood up straight next to her son. Jeff's mouth was completely dry as he felt electricity tingle and shoot through his body. His eyes were even with his mother's shoulders, and the top of his head barely came up to her nose. His cock was stirring under his hospital gown, and he thanked his stars that it was baggy enough for his erection to go unnoticed. He felt sick at this sexual reaction to his shrunken stature — and to a comparison with his mother, no less. What on earth had gotten into him? Why was this turning him on?