Therapist Ch. 03

As she drives her Ford Explorer into the Ochsner Hospital employee parking garage, Linda McBride is ecstatic that she has finally gotten herself completely free from her ex-husband. How she ever allowed herself to marry such a jealous, possessive, chauvinistic man she will never know.

After four long years of nursing school – two of them fighting her miserly ex-husband in court over alimony payments – she was finally able to secure a job last month that offers her a future.

She looks forward to her new job as a neonatal nurse. The pay is enough to live on without having to depend on anyone for anything, particularly alimony from her ex – she only asked the courts for enough to help her get through nursing school.

The benefits at her new job are fantastic. Her coworkers are great and it's not too far from her apartment; she let her ex keep the house. It was just an old run down two bedroom flat in Kenner that she didn't want anything to do with anyway.

She especially likes that cute physical therapist who works on the fifth floor. She met him her third day on the job. He was sitting alone in the cafeteria and it was unusually crowded for lunch. She asked him if he wouldn't mind sharing his table. He said no. They started talking. At least Linda started talking; George mostly listened and tried to avoid answering her questions. Linda took an immediate liking to him.

He is quiet and shy; shorter than her by about three or four inches, has beautiful long blond hair – long for a man anyway – and the deepest blue eyes she has ever seen. But more importantly he's single.

From his coworkers, she also found out that he has been working as a physical therapist at the hospital for several years and knows all the ins and outs of the department and the hospital. She frequently uses his knowledge of the hospital as an excuse to come see him and get to know him better.

But she is subtle in her pursuit, only visiting him in his department or joining him for lunch once or twice a week. She asks him questions about his job as a therapist, about the hospital, about anything hospital related.

While asking him questions about the hospital, she also asks him about himself. She is trying to figure out a way to ask him out to dinner without seeming too forward. She hopes that she is not moving too fast for him. George is so reserved that she is afraid that she will scare him off if she appears to be too pushy.

At first, George believes her questions are just her way of getting to know about the hospital and he doesn't mind helping her. But her persistent inquires soon begin to annoy him, especially when she questions him about his personal life.

Although he is somewhat naïve – he does not like to admit it – he begins to suspect that her frequent forays to him are for something other than to obtain information about the hospital. He tries to avoid her but he is frequently unsuccessful.

She asks him about his ideal date, about his favorite food, the type of movies he enjoys watching. She asks him numerous questions that he dose not want to answer. He suspects that she wants to invite him over to her apartment for dinner and a movie.

Linda's constant intrusion into his personal life puts pressure on George. He wants to tell her to go away and leave him alone, but he does not know how to do it politely.

In all his 33 years he has only dated one girl. That was when he was in college and he only dated her for about two or three months. He does not know how to deal with Linda's relentless pursuit of him; he has only had that one experience in dealing with a woman whose interest in him was romantic.

After four weeks of her questions, George begins to masturbate to relieve himself, to ease the pressure. Every time he encounters her in the hospital and she asks him about his personal life, he goes home that evening and masturbates.

He hates doing it. His mother told him when he was a child that only bad boys did such evil things. She told him that he would go blind if he masturbated. He believed her when he was a child. But now that he is older, he knows differently. But still, the thought that he is going to go blind assails him.

Whenever he masturbates he immediately rinses his face and eyes off with water.

Nor can he get his mother's threats to 'cut it off' out of his mind if she ever caught him masturbating. He frequently hears her belittling him and insulting him. He begins to hate Linda.

On the Monday morning of her fifth week at the hospital Linda corners George into accepting a dinner invitation for the following Thursday. She catches him in the elevator and asks him pointedly if he would like to come over to her apartment for dinner and a movie.

He wants to just say no but he doesn't know how to. He does not know how to say no politely. His mother told him that he must always be polite to a lady. Nor can he lie to her because his mother also taught him never to tell a lie. He reluctantly agrees to come over to her apartment.

When he arrives home after work he masturbates four times. He curses Linda every time. All the while, his mother keeps telling him that she will 'cut it off' if she ever catches him masturbating. He curses his mother. Then he curses Donna for deserting him.

He does not sleep at all Monday night.

For the next two days the dinner date is the only thing that he thinks about. He knows he has to come up with some excuse to break the date. He is afraid that she will want to have sex with him. But his mother taught him that sex is only for marriage. He is afraid that his mother will 'cut it off' if he has sex with Linda. He does not know what to say to her.

Tuesday he procures a bottle of ether from the hospital and uses it to help himself fall asleep. But the pressure of not being able to break the date does not abate. By Wednesday evening he is sick. He calls up his neighbor Robert and cancels his weekly chess match with him, telling him that he is too ill to play. Robert understands.

His head is pounding. He tries to watch television but that does not help. There are only situation comedies – which he hates – a war movie, some news channels and a movie about a man who kills his wife so he can collect on her insurance. He leaves the murder mystery on but stares blankly at the screen. After about twenty minutes he gets into his car and begins to drive around New Orleans.

George loves New Orleans. As far as he is concerned New Orleans is the greatest city in the world; it has the cuisine, the culture, the history, the architecture, the port, Mardi Gras, music and the birthplace of Jazz. New Orleans has everything.

He drives down Tulane Avenue. He loves to drive through his beloved city looking at the sites. He turns onto South Broad and then onto Poydras Street. He drives past the Superdome thinking about his life and his work at the hospital.

Whenever he gets upset over something George drives his car around New Orleans. Driving around his beloved city and seeing the sights calms his nerves; it fills him with joy. The only other joy in his life is writing love letters to his precious Donna.

He heads toward Lee's Circle and down the beautiful St. Charles Avenue, which he loves. The oak trees, the street car, the beautiful old houses, Tulane and Loyola Universities, they all fill his heart with pride. His meandering eventually takes him back to Canal Street and then to Decatur Street in the famous French Quarter – right down the street from the Café du Monde.

He sees a parking spot and pulls into it, thinking how lucky he is to find a parking spot so close to his beloved beignet shop. He thinks about going to get himself some coffee and beignets; he likes to eat there.

Suddenly there is a knock on his window. He puts the window down; it is a young prostitute. She wants to know if he would like a date. He tells her no and puts the window back up, hating her for intruding into his thoughts and into his life. He watches her walk away from his car. Her short skirt, her high heels, her fishnet stockings and tank top disgust him. 'She is nothing but a whore,' he says to himself. 'Just like Donna.'

A bottle of ether is on the seat next to him. He decides to teach her a lesson. No whore is going to ask him for a date and get away with it. He starts his car and drives slowly down the street. When he pulls even with the prostitute he puts his window down again. She approaches his car.

*************************************

Jinny Swaggart didn't want to be a prostitute; she didn't start out with the intention of becoming one. But neither did she want to continue living with her subservient, compliant mother and authoritarian, hypocritical father.

Every Sunday he would preach against gays and lesbians, against abortion, against Muslims, against fornication, against drinking and gambling and against almost every liberal agenda imaginable. As a Baptist preacher of God's word he felt that it was his duty to rid America of Satan's evil influence. His congregation heard his ranting every Sunday.

He had a fire and brimstone approach that was especially felt in their home. The slightest infraction of the rules would bring immediate and severe penalties. 'American family values will prevail in this house or by God I'll beat them into you,' he would yell at her and her two younger brothers.

He was particularly good at administering his brand of discipline when he was drunk. He kept his bourbon hidden in the linen closet of the master bathroom and although he didn't get drunk very often – maybe once or twice a month and almost always on a Friday night – the children knew to stay out of his way when he was drunk. That is when his discipline methods would hit a crescendo.

Jinny can remember one particular Friday afternoon when she was sixteen. She attended a classmate's beach birthday party at Jamaica Beach. Unknown to her, her father was at the other end of the beach with a pair of binoculars, spying on her.

He watched as she and Roger made out lying together on the beach. She let Roger take off her bathing top and fondle her breasts. He kissed her a few times and stroked her nipples. But that's all they did. But you would have thought she was the whore of Galveston, Texas with the way he ranted when she got home.

She got home from the party about six in the evening. As soon as she walked through the door she could tell something was wrong. He was already drunk and he let her have it. He demanded to know what she did at the party. She told him that she hadn't done anything. Then he accused her of dancing naked in front of everyone and insisted she tell him how many boys she let fuck her. She told him none. He slapped her hard across the face and called her a liar and a whore.

He then dragged her by her hair into the attached garage, tied her wrists to some exposed water pipe in the wall, ripped her bathing suit off and beat her with a belt until her back, her buttocks and her thighs were bleeding. He would scream out that no daughter of his was going to grow up to be a whore and then he would hit her.

All the while he was beating her she could see her mother through the door leading into the kitchen. She just sat at the kitchen table praying that Satan would not tempt her children into sin.

Jinny didn't go to school for a week until the wounds healed and she could sit down. Then her father grounded her. For six months she was not allowed to leave the house except to go to school and church nor could she use any phone or computer.

Then just before her eighteenth birthday Jinny got pregnant. She was attending Texas Christian University near Ft. Worth, majoring in history. She didn't want to go to TCU; she wanted to go to an out of state college – any college that would put a lot of distance between herself and her father. But he insisted that she attend TCU, not some heathen college that allowed the students to indulge in sex, alcohol and drugs. Since he was paying for it she had no choice.

At the time, she was dating a sophomore who was majoring in theology; he wanted to be a preacher of God's word. But he was just another right wing fundamentalist hypocrite who believed in American family values for everyone else except himself.

He kept telling Jinny that he had no intention of indulging in his "sexual indiscretions" – as he called them – as soon as he finished college and became a preacher. But she knew better.

Her father was the same way. On Sunday morning he would preach against adultery but then every Tuesday afternoon he could be found in bed with his mistress. A prostitute her mother turned a blind eye to.

She didn't want to tell her parents that she was pregnant but that isn't something that can easily be hid. She came home from college one weekend seeking advice from her mother. Her mother immediately told her father. Jinny wasn't prepared for that. But then neither was she prepared for her father's reaction.

She thought for sure he would beat her with a belt or something worse. But he just sat at the kitchen table, shaking his head. Both her and her mother sat watching him, wondering. After about five or ten minutes he stood up and said, "We're going to New Orleans. You'll have to get an abortion. I can't have my congregation knowing that my daughter is having sex outside of marriage."

Here she was two months pregnant and her Baptist anti-abortion preaching father was going to bring her to New Orleans for an abortion. He wasn't the least concerned about her, her future, her health, the hypocrite who got her pregnant or anything except what his congregation would think of him.

The following Saturday he took her to a clinic in New Orleans. Two months later she dropped out of college and returned to New Orleans. She got a job as a waitress in a bar but that wasn't enough to pay her rent, car note, insurance and all her other bills. She took up prostitution.

For sixteen months she managed to stay out of trouble, always careful when choosing a john. For sixteen months she lived free of her domineering father. For sixteen months she was happy for the first time in her life.

Her only blemish came last year when she was arrested for prostitution and possession of two marijuana cigarettes – some of her johns like to smoke it before sex. Her case was pending. Since it was her first offense, her court appointed lawyer told her she would probably pay a fine and maybe do some community service.

Unfortunately her happiness ended when she met George.

*************************************

"How much?" George asks.

"That depends on what you want to do," Jinny answers him.

"Is it extra if we go to my house? I live in Airline Park."

"Where's that?" He can tell that she's not from New Orleans; her Texas accent annoys George.

"In Jefferson Parish."

"I don't go into any kinky stuff with the wife and kids and all," she tells him. "Will you bring me back here when we're done?"

"I'm not married," he interrupts her. "If you don't mind playing in my house, then hop in. After, I'll bring you anywhere you want to go."

She looks up the street momentarily and then back at him. She doesn't want to leave the street. But she hasn't had a trick in two days. She needs the money. "For a hundred dollars I'll give you an hour, straight sex, nothing kinky or ropes and bondage and that kind of thing."

"Get in," he orders her.

She walks around the front of the car. George watches her as she does so; he is revolted by her. He hates whores. He tells himself that it's because of that whore Donna that his life today is such a wreck.

"Well, this is one whore who will pay for messing up my life. I'm going to teach this one a lesson that she will never forget."

He picks up the bottle of ether and holds it out of the window, pouring a few drops into a handkerchief. He seals the bottle and after she gets in the car, he immediately puts the cloth against her mouth. She struggles but in a few seconds she is asleep, leaning against the door. He drives back to his house.

He pulls into his garage and is glad that he installed the automatic door opener last year. He carries the girl over his shoulder to the punishment room. There is a thick coat of dust on the bare floor. He has not been in this room for 15 years.

He drops the prostitute on the dirty floor and rips off all her clothes, throwing them in the far corner. He cuffs and padlocks her wrists to the same shackles that his mother used to chain him to. He leaves enough slack in the cable to allow her to lie on the cold floor. Then he shackles and padlocks her ankles to the chain bolted to the baseboard eyebolt.

Next he goes to the bathroom and gets an old towel. He rips the towel into long strips and gags her with it. Standing over her he kicks her in the side and goes into the living room to watch television. He watches the evening news and then switches channels to watch an old movie but soon falls to sleep.

When he wakes up it is two in the morning. He hears a noise and, realizing what it is, goes to his bedroom for a bottle of ether. He then runs into the punishment room.

The prostitute is sitting on the floor, trying to get loose. She has pulled the gag down; it is around her neck. When she sees him she screams for help. He kicks her in the stomach and tells her to shut up. She squeezes her eyes shut and grimaces in pain.

He pours some ether on the remnants of the towel and tries to put it to her mouth. She immediately begins to fight him but George is stronger than her. He punches her in the face several times and through the struggle manages to put the ether soaked towel to her mouth.

As soon as she is asleep he puts the gag back on her mouth. He takes all the slack out of the cable attached to the shackles on her wrists, allowing her to lie down but with her arms above her head. He also removes all the slack from the chain on her ankles. She is now lying naked on her back on the floor but with her arms stretched toward the ceiling and her legs stretched toward the near wall. She is nearly immobile.

He goes to a far corner and picks up the leather whip with a brass handle, the Snake. It has not been used for 15 years; it falls apart at his touch. He drops it back in the corner and toys with the idea of removing his belt and beating her with it but decides against it. She wouldn't feel the pain. He makes a decision to wait until she wakes up tomorrow.

Then he goes to his bedroom to write a love letter to Donna. After he finishes it, he takes a shower and goes to bed, falling to sleep in the nude.

Thursday morning George calls the hospital and tells them that he will not be in, that he does not feel well. Then he calls Linda's department and leaves a message for her to call him later that day. Within a few moments of his calling her, she calls him back.

He asks her to forgive him but he cannot make dinner; he is just too sick to even leave the bed. To be polite, he suggests that she reserve another evening for them to have dinner. She accepts the invitation and tells him that she hopes he feels better tomorrow.

After he hangs up he lies down on his sofa. He is still naked. He feels as if a great burden has been suddenly lifted from his shoulders. He closes his eyes and thinks of himself and Donna swimming together in a tropical lagoon. 'I love you George,' she tells him. 'I love you too Donna.' He soon falls to sleep.

When George awakes it is almost ten o'clock in the morning. He walks naked down the hallway to check on the prostitute. She is still lying as he left her earlier.

As soon as he walks into the room, she begins to struggle against her restraints. He leaves the room momentarily and returns with a belt. He holds it out in front of her face; she screams a muffled cry. He laughs and hits her across her breasts, stomach, vagina and thighs several times with it.