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The Roommate Chapter 16 The Grand Tour Finishes
From the conclusion of Chapter 15
However, it is uncivilized not to let a fine lunch settle. With that Beau led me out of the tent and toward a place just over the ridge. There two lounges had been set up, and complete with a masseuse we both lay down, had an absolutely fantastic massage, and I took a nap.
The Roommate Chapter 16 The Grand Tour Finishes
Beau was not exaggerating when he said that the getting to the mountains where the last of the tour of Pleasant Acres was to occur was a fairly long trip. As we went up and down the foothills, we went across what looked like a series of pastures, and went through gates in a series of fences.
"These are the pastures for our grazing herds like the cows and horses." Beau explained as we made this journey. Beau was correct that crossing all these pastures took some time, and the sun had definitely moved from its zenith by the time we got to the foothills of the mountain range.
After was passed what would be the final pasture gate, Beau stopped.
"Listen. Do you hear anything?" he asked.
Listening carefully I heard what seemed to me some men yelling, and the sound of something crashing down to the earth.
I reported that I heard the sound of people talking or yelling and something crashing down..
Beau smiled. "You have good hearing. It's about three miles, and we will be at the beginning of the timber line, and there you will see the servant gangs who work in our lumber operation."
I stared at Beau because I had not even thought that what I thought to be a somewhat classic plantation would eventually farm trees as well as everything else.
"Well, I keep saying it, but you keep surprising me. Is the lumber operation the last of Pleasant Acres profit centers?" I did not know if that term would be a correct application for all the areas of Pleasant Acres, but "profit centers" is the term which my family used to refer to the various businesses from which we derived our income.
"Well, I was going to hold the last for a surprise, but since you asked, the answer is No. We actually operate a stone quarry as our final profit area at Pleasant Acres."
"Beau I do not know how your family keeps track of all this. You must have a business model that is unique!"
"Well actually the whole organization is pretty straightforward. Each gang reports to an area supervisor reporting on what tasks were accomplished that day. The supervisor compiles the reports of the gangs, and also of course any supervisor's report of problems or concerns, and the supervisor of an area then sends that report by telephone and computer data transfer to a center in a building that is a part of that set of pens and buildings you first visited this morning. The reports from all the centers are then delivered to my Father or the family member who is in the Plantation Main Office, which is in the basement of our home. This system started years ago when couriers rode horses from all the areas of the plantation to a plantation office in that same area by the tree stand. Then after radio became a means of communication we had all the supervisors report by radio. However we discovered that radio signals can be intercepted and we had some indication that others were finding out our information by intercepting our radio messages. That was when a set of buried phone cables were put in. It took two years, but eventually we had the buried lines all in place. It is the method we still use, except that we have upgraded to fiber optic cable now, and of course the reports are now done by the computers which encrypt the information and sending it by the cables to the main office where it is decrypted."
I just sat on my horse and shook my head in amazement and admiration.
"Beau, I will have to tell you that before I came for this visit, I was very satisfied with my family's accomplishments in business, but Pleasant Acres is more than a dozen of our operations."
"Frank you and your family are amazing. I truly enjoyed the family togetherness that I felt there, and I even enjoyed the independence when I stayed with you. As you have come to see, we have many servants, but little privacy. I really enjoyed being able to go to bed, and even get up and shave etc. all on my own when I was with our family. There is a closeness at your home I love."
I thought for a moment at making some comment about getting rid of his parents for the summer, but decided that my snooping best existed without anyone but myself being aware of its occurrence.
Beau looked at me, and I realized that I was just staring.
"Sorry," I managed to get out. "I was just overwhelmed at all of this. I think the term in that Pleasant Acres has left me `speechless."
Beau looked at me and laughed, and I joined him.
"Lead on Macduff." I managed to quote (trite, I know) from Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
We crossed a small stream, and soon came to the area where crews were cutting down large trees.
The trees were being harvested more than just being felled. I could see that some trees were marked by green painted bands around the trunk, and others were marked with yellow bands and still others had red bands.
Answering my question even before I asked it, Beau explained. "Trees have multiple usages and the bands indicate what the evaluator has determined would be the best usages for the tree. Of course a team of evaluators create the list of trees to be felled before the actual felling of the trees in done. Then when the crew come to cut the tree down there are supervisors there to note the use, and to make sure that the correct servant team comes to finish the tree after it has been cut down."
"Beau it sounds like everything else at Pleasant Acres. All activities of servants and supervisors is like a well maintained machine all making use of this fabulous resource which is the land and all it can grow."
After paying attention to the trees I finally really paid attention to the servants. These servants showed that they handled heavy items. They were massively muscular and could use the saws, both gasoline and manual, to strip the tree that hand been cut down into multiple units. These then were loaded large transports and taken down roads that were mostly paved with a combination of sawdust and the ever present small stone and pulverized stone.
At this point I finally looked more closely at the servants, and discovered that the stripes of their servant uniforms were a sort of forest green in color. I could not resist and commented.
"I see Beau that even the servants' stripes are color coordinated." I said, actually thinking I was making some sort of irrelevant comment.
However, Beau replied. "Around the outside of and near our home, servants wear black and white stripes because black and white stripes are the traditional convict and servant uniform and would be what persons would expect servants to be wearing. Away from the house, in the fields where are food crops are grown the servants wear the brown and white stripes since these servants work close to the earth, which we represent by the brown stripes, and here in the forest and also in the quarry the servants wear green stripes as these servants work with the earth in its original form with trees and granite, and therefore we thought that these servants are being `green' for being close to nature."
.
I was amazed that even the stripes on the servants was thought out and coordinated with the servants' tasks. I just nodded my head in admiration and amazement.
.
Beau smiled, and for a few more minutes looking at the servants stripping down the tree and using all of it in from branches, bark, to trunk sections and then other servants coffles took the separated tree parts each to a separate staging area. There seemed to be a coffle assigned to each of the areas. I was reminded of seeing a film of ants working in small groups each doing some part of the task of keeping an ant colony running efficiently. As there were several supervisors on their horses and in their pressed clean brown shirts. How could these shirts not show wrinkles, or even damp spots as they watched and supervised the servant gangs? Their riding breeches also looked both immaculate and fit tightly to their legs as they guided their horses through their legs as well as the reins. I was sure I was watching what would become many board feet of lumber as well as many other products that used wood as a part of them.
I noticed that these supervisors also did have a whip coiled on their saddles, but I did not see any servants receive and kiss from these whips. I thought that the servant crews seemed well skilled in their duties and self-motivated to get the job done.
Just as I decided to make a comment on this observation, I heard a crack of a whip off to my right and slightly behind me. I turned in my saddle, as did Beau.
"Shaker, you and Moocher better pick up your stripping speed or I make sure you dance tonight at assembly."
"Boss yes boss" rang out from two servants working on a tree that had just been felled. "Speeding up Boss!" both added.
"You know I think you two need a little inspiration. Get over the log and shuck" the supervisor yelled.
"Shucking and bending Boss" the two miscreants yelled as I saw them then move over to the trunk of the tree that had just been felled. As they moved over the entire coffle, since they were all attached along a long chain moved with them. I could see that there probably was about five to six feet of chain linking a leg shackles of each coffle member between the ends of the coffle.
When Shaker and Moocher got to the trunk of the tree, both of them dropped their pants and underpants and bent over the tree trunk.
The supervisor rode over, uncoiling the whip that was circled over the pommel of his saddle. Moocher I will do you first. You count'em out nice and loud so that the other gangs know you will be piss and shit house cleaning tonight."
"Boss yes Boss!" Moocher yelled.
"Shaker, don't think Moocher will be alone piss and shit house cleaning tonight, and as soon as I am done with Moocher, Shaker you'll get stripes too."
"Boss yes Boss!" Shaker yelled.
I watched as the Supervisor expertly pulled the whip back in a fluid motion. "Count them Moocher!"
I watched fascinated as the Supervisor uncoiled and flexed the whip to get it into a straight line on the ground. Suddenly the Supervisor flexed his wrist and his arm, and the whip disappeared from the ground in a blur, and I heard to sound really more than saw it connect with Moocher's bare butt. It connected with a very loud crack."
"Boss, ONE, Boss!" Moocher yelled.
After the third stroke, the Supervisor yelled. "Moocher pull up, button up, and stand aside."
Moocher stood pulled up his boxers and his pants, buckled his belt, and stood at attention.
The scene was repeated with Shaker.
The Supervisor then looked at the two. "Remember that you are here to work, and not to play games with each other. I saw you Moocher try to trip up Shaker as we worked this trunk into position. That's why tonight you Moocher will be in the stocks bed."
I saw Moocher droop just a slight amount, but almost immediately responded with "Boss yes Boss.
Boss thank you for your correction, Boss." Shaker made his own statement of acknowledgement and correction, and they both got back to work showing much more attention to the tasks than they had done before.
Beau saw my look of surprise.
"Frank, the quarry and the logging operations do not use the same servants as the rest of Pleasant Acres.
These involuntary servants are big strong men who have become involuntary servants at the category of servants who have almost no restrictions on their use. They are life servants who committed serious felony violent crimes like murder and armed robbery in which someone was injured or killed. The state welds their leg shackles and connecting chains on them, and they remain chained for the rest of their lives. Also you will see that their collars and cuffs are thicker and are not round but the flat style. Their collars and cuffs also are twice as thick as the normal cuffs. They also are welded on by the state.
The supervisors at the logging and the quarry both have certification as prison guards, and are authorized to use the punishment whips you saw being used. Still, we do watch these two operations and when I have talked to some of the involuntary servants in these two places they also tell me that the pens here are known by punishment involuntary servants as having the fairest and least sadistic guards in the state."
I shook my head a little bit. "I understand. I remember how hard those convict hard labor servants were treated who were working at the landslide site," and here I paused as I thought back to that experience, "and how liberal the guards were with their whips."
Beau added. "Actually we allow these servants to become skilled in their tasks, and though we recognize that they do work literally under the whip, we encourage the teams to develop a team unity and pride, and we try to support that unity and pride by recognizing the teams at the end of each week. We give them rewards that really resonate with the servants...and actually come from asking many years ago what they themselves would like as a recognition of their skill and hard work." Beau paused here, and I knew that was my clue.
"What's the big reward?"
"Hot showers at the end of the week, which is Saturday, as we do not work servants on Sunday."
"However even with these servants whose crimes showed these highest violence and have life sentences as involuntary servants, we still try to recognize skilled workers here in the logging and quarry operations.
We are limited by state rules, but the best performing teams get cages with warm water showers all week, and heated floors as you saw back at the cages by the house. Actually we have discovered that the servants in the agricultural fields have little pride or special skills and develop no pride in their work, and therefore must receive more encouragement to continue working at all, and even more to work at their optimum level of efficiency than the forest and quarry servants."
I nodded my understanding. It would not take any expertise to dig up weeds and loosen the soil around the base of the plants.
"Well, let's go to our final stop" Beau said. "It is the quarry, and although there are indeed some skilled jobs at the quarry, much of the work there is just pure manual, hard, dirty labor, and there you will see that when we have to deal with humans working at the most primitive and almost animal level, we have to supervise these servants in ways that make sense to these servants."
We then rode toward the mountain itself, and I heard and then saw where the earth had been removed and the rock exposed. We approached the quarry I could see that the many coffles in their green and white stripes working in leg shackles, and almost every coffle had a supervisor. I was amazed that the coffle supervisors were also in the green and white striped pants and shirts, and had their ankles shackled together with chains between their ankles cuffs. The fact that they were unchained from the coffle was one mark of their authority, but the whip that each carried certainly showed that these involuntary servants had the authority to make the coffle do their bidding. The whip established that failure of the coffle, and its members individually, to obey would be met by stripes from the whip.
"Quarry work takes muscle and is dangerous." Beau noted, and I also noted that the guards seemed to mimic the servants. They also were large and intimidating to me. The servants also worked with a servant leader here sort of keeping the tempo of chiseling rock from the rock face by singing some song and the beat of the hammers on the chisels match the rhythm of the song.
Beau added "There are involuntary servant workers here who have become very skilled in planning where to work the rock, and how to best plan the harvesting of the rock."
"I assume those servants who do this work have some reward for their skill." I replied.
"Yes, and just like the forest gangs, those with special skills get warm showers, and warn floors to their pens. These extras are very much appreciated by the involuntary servants.
We watched the quarry for a while. I did notice that there was more cracking of the whips here than I has seen any other place at Pleasant Acres. As I was watched I saw a gang of twelve servants move up the rock face, sit down, and took our chisels from their belts, and begin to etch a line across the top of a level of rock. I looked at, and he acknowledged that these tapped lines would become where another block of stone was taken from the mountain to the service of humanity.
Down the rock face, I could see another servant gang was enlarging the etched line the earlier gang had created, and this gang worked together to enlarge the crack into a fissure. Further down the rock face a final gang was pounding wedges deep into the lines the other crews had created, and I could see that these would become the rock blocks which would be further worked by other gangs into the blocks of stone which would be the façade of many important buildings.
"Do you want to go closer?" Beau asked.
When he asked I noticed down the roak face where some of the large blocks of rock, four gangs of servants were harnessed to a block, and were pulling it over to an area where I could see other coffles of servants were further shaping and finishing the rock for its final use. I especially noticed the coffles who were harnessed to the blocks. These servants were hugh muscles animals. I looked at Beau. "I guess I have found your Cliydesles."
Beau laughed. "Yes they are very strong, but I would not want to try to talk to them about almost any subject besides pulling blocks of rock around. They are really our strong horses, and are even kept in stalls in a stable like facility. They have a strong sense of their special skills, and are not ashamed of their use. They actually like to show off to strangers. Do you want to go over and see them prance and pull to entertain you?"
I thought about it but decided that I could appreciate their skills from a distance.
"No," I replied I am getting tired. Let's head back. I think I indeed seen the extent to Pleasant Acres, and been truly amazed with that extent, and the variety of products that are produced here. I never imagined that a forest and a quarry would be included as well as the normal farm vegetables, and animal operations.
I am impressed with your family's skill in managing such a truly huge enterprise."
"Well, if you would like, then let's go back to the house. However, I did promise to let you see the punishment area by the house more up close and personal."
With that comment Beau took off on his horse at close to a gallop, and I followed behind. It was not exactly a race, and it was not exactly not a race. As we rode through the pastures, we again had to stop to open several gates, which did allow Beau and me to rest, and along with the horses to catch our breath between the pasture gallops. After several fences, the gate opened onto the paths.
We galloped along to the paths which defined the fields, and we since we did not pause to look at anything, we arrived at the punishment area amazingly quickly, I thought.
Beau led the way over to the shed stage like structure and the large concrete paved area with the squares painted on the concrete and identified by Roman numerals. Beau rode over to an area behind the stage and there was a hitching rack for the horses where there was grass on which they could munch as Beau gave me the tour.
Beau first let me up a set of stairs to a door at the back of the stage area. Beau got out a set of keys and unlocked the door, and opened it for me to enter. From the sunlight I entered a fairly large room which was only dimly illuminated by the sunlight from outside. Beau tapped a switch, and lights came on bathing the area in bright light. The contrast from cave to high noon was almost disturbing, and it took me a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust.
When I could see, I discovered that I was surrounded my many devices that I would certainly have identified as punishment perhaps even torture. There were three structures right in front of me that almost caused me to say I wanted to leave. There once again were two heavy sawhorse structures with a padded three inch wide board at the top. I remembered only too well the punishment horse on which I had been fastened in the SHU at Enfield Correctional.
Beau noticed my reaction. "What's wrong Frank?"
"Well," and here I paused to gain a bit of composure, "You did not see the punishment horse on which I received my punishment strokes at the SHU at Enfield, but these four horses with the padded top and the straps could be made by the same manufacturer."
I paused here, and Beau seemed to sense I needed a moment to compose myself.
"I thought that I had pushed that excruciating experience so far back in my memory that I would never think of it again, but this brought it all back. I can almost feel that paddle striking my bare butt again."
"Do you want to leave?" Beau asked, and his voice revealed his concern.
I thought about leaving, and it took me a few seconds (or more, as I really had no sense of time at that moment), but then I said slowly.
"No Beau. I need to exorcise the demons of that experience. Let me glace around, and then let's leave."
"Certainly buddy." Beau said.
Curiosity did get the better of me however, and I did not rush out. I looked around and saw a collection of whips and floggers neatly arranged on four racks to one side. I would estimate that there were perhaps a hundred of these instrument of pain and punishment arranged on the racks. I did look at these and saw that they varied in the number of leather strands from just one, to what I assumed would be the famous cat of nine tails. However, in each type of whip there was a variety of weights to the leather strands and widths to them also In addition to the whips and floggers was a collection of paddles. They also varied in length, width, and length. I would guess there were several dozen of these paddles neatly arranged so that whoever would wield these would have a choice of exactly how much damage would be done to the servant being punished. I could see that a servant undergoing a paddling or a whipping on the frame could experience a painful, perhaps up to almost terrifying experience depending on the instrument being used and the number of strokes, but I suppose that the amount of force behind each stroke of either instrument of punishment could also tailored to customize the experience for each servant. I involuntarily began shaking.
"Let's get out of here." Beau said, and he grabbed my arm and guided me toward the door.
"I'm sorry roommate. You have never talked about that punishment session in the SHU, and I did not connect that the types of discipline devices used here in the South for involuntary servants would find their way to the discipline program of a state like Massachusetts."
"I can understand Beau. Actually the connection between finding the exact same device here as a state mandated device to discipline the involuntary servants as what I was strapped down on in the discipline room in the SHU does actually give me real cause for concern that the supposed civilized way we in Massachusetts treat our most troublesome convicts is, in fact, identical to what is used in Tennessee.
As Beau lead me out the door and down the stars, I still found myself shaking slightly as the memory of those disciplinary strokes of the paddle in the SHU punishment room came rushing back in much too much a vivid and painful way.
We traveled around the side of the stage building, and when we turned the corner I saw up close the wood and steel state-mandated involuntary servant discipline/punishment devices the Pleasant Acres was mandated to have available.
Right in front of me were four modern versions of those colonial era stocks. These were made of steel rod, and there were three different heights of the stocks. Beau flipped a tab on the side of the first one and folded the top half up. "I guess you can figure this little punishment device here."
Indeed I could. "So I guess the three different heights are to accommodate different heights of the servants."
"Yes," Beau paused, "but there is more to these different heights than just accommodation. The manuals that come with these suggests that taller servants could be locked into a slightly lower than comfortable stock, and this would greatly intensify the miscreant's discomfort. It would be a sort of a thing that you would use it the first session in the stocks did not get through to a servant that following orders was required. The manual suggested you put that servant into the next lower stocks the next time. This forces the back into a more painful position, and, the manual notes, it presents the servant's butt up and just inviting some strokes from the Board of Education' which is the manual's little joke' term for one of those paddles you just saw."
I did not react to the "Beard of Education" line as a joke if that is what it was intended to be.
Beau stood there looking at me, although I was so concentrating on the stocks, that I really did not concentrate on what Beau was doing.
After a few moments of watching me, Beau shook his head, showing he had made a decision. "Would you want to try a stock out?" Beau asked.
I was in a quandary. I really did want to try it out for some reason, but I did not want to be locked into it.
"I will try it out but only if you stay in front of me so I can see you, and know you won't lock me into them `Just for fun.'"
"I am both shocked and chagrined that you would be suspicious of your old roommate!" Beau replied, in fake shocked surprise.
"Well I am sure you remember that old saying, `Trick me once. Shame on you. Trick me twice. Shame on me.'" I replied, only partially in jest.
"I promise on my honor as a Southern Gentleman, and as your host that today I will not lock you into any device here on the punishment plaza."
I then did what I wanted to do for some reason, and I put my hand and head into the first set of stocks.
The height was uncomfortable, and so I went to the next set, and tried that set off. That set was at a height that was comfortable, realizing that comfort was a relative term in this context.
I looked at Beau, and he looked at me expectantly. Instead of calling him over I pulled the top of the stocks over, and lowering it down and then letting it rest on my neck which I moved up bit off the bottom of the stocks, I moved my other wrist into its slot and lowered my neck. The stocks settled down onto my neck and wrists. I was really proud of the fact that I had outwitted Beau. Beau just kept smiling at me, and I did not quite understand why until I moved a little bit to make myself more comfortable, and I heard the latch move away from its unlatch position, and heard it slip down over the lower part. I was locked in the stocks, and I had done it to myself. I was afraid that Beau would leave me locked up, but he moved immediately to release me from the stocks.
"Thanks Friend." I said as I left the stocks. Freed from that set of stocks, I looked at the second set of three stocks. These stocks however were on the pavement, these stocks were clearly meant to go around ankles as they were a bit bigger than the openings for wrists. The stocks themselves were fastened into the concrete. Beau again asked if I would want to sample these, and before I could let my rational mind answer my inner mind answered. "Yes."
As I laid down Beau placed my ankles into the stocks and closed them.
"Now Frank, the servant locked into the ankle stocks can have several things done. The first is to have his hands cuffed and pulled forward. This puts a lot of stress on your back and leg muscles. Servants placed in this stress position usually begin yelling in about five minutes I am told. The other is to have the hands cuffed behind the back and attach them to the servant's collar. This position also causes great pain in a very few minutes.
"I think the State of Tennessee has some punishments that might be even worse than I experienced in the SHU."
"Well you have not seen them all yet." Beau said. Beau left me in these sitting stocks for a few moments. "Let me know when you're ready to be released convict." he said.
"Now, please SIR." came out of my mouth. I was actually embarrassed at my convict-like response.
The next place Beau guided me to be one of the punishment stations not made of steel but rather two ten foot high wood posts which disappeared down into the concrete.
"These poles are buried to a depth of 48 inches in concrete." Beau informed me.
When I got closer I saw that there was a steel cable which was attached to thick leather cuffs near the bottom of the poles, and probably ten feet up the pole I saw another set of leather cuffs also attached to a steel cable.
As I got closer, I could see that the cables went through the pole and each was then attaches to a wench on the outside of the pole.
"The servant being punished has his hands and legs cuffed by the leather cuffs," Beau told me as we got close to the poles. "Pick up the cuffs," Beau instructed. "You will see that the leather is thick and also is lined with fur. The servant being punished has the cuffs put on wrists and ankles, and then the officer or owner then can order the offender to be stretched between these poles at a level of stress from one to ten. It is all computer controlled. There are ten levels between each of the one to ten base points.
Supervisors are authorized to order a servant into punishment at levels one to four, but an owner must authorize any punishment stretching beyond four."
Here Beau paused. "Would you like to experience this punishment station?"
I looked at Beau. What would make him imagine I would want to be stretched? Then I noticed a twitching on the little head at the bottom of my trunk. It was showing an interest in this device. I was confused. My rational brain did not want any part of this, but somewhere deep inside me, I did want to have this experience. I think that I might have been sweating and perhaps trembling a bit as I had this internal approach/avoidance conflict. Finally I decided that I would not reveal this desire which both excited me and terrified me.
"No Beau, I think I'll not go for being stretched, but if I ever need a chiropractor I know I could just
come down here and get adjusted for nothing."
Beau actually began laughing. "Well I believe the servants have a less flattering term for this punishment station, but I think in the future I will call it `The Chiropractor.'"
I shared Beau's laughter, but behind my chuckles, my brain was in high alert. I could sense that inside myself two sides...one rational and one emotional and the two sides were having a conflict. The emotional side of me, irrationally, wanted to feel the stretching, but the rational side of me wanted nothing to do with the pain and stress that I would experience in this device.
The final device that I saw Beau called the windlass. I was like the device I had seen at some horse farm.
There was a central hub and radiating out from the hub were six poles. At the end of the poles was a set of steel manacles.
"If a supervisor believes that a servant is malingering, then the supervisor can assigned the servant for a night on the windlass. The slave is attached to one of the poles, and the supervisor can set a certain number of revolutions per hour that the slave much achieve to avoid a shock. Once attached to the windlass the servant must just keep moving at a reasonable rate set by the supervisor to avoid being shocked.
I knew that I did not want to even get near the windlass much less get attached to it. Beau then told me what I already would have guessed.
"The supervisor can assess a certain time period for each revolution of the circle, and the servant must attain and maintain moving around each revolution of the windless for the period of time assigned. Of course if the rate falls below the standard the servant is shocked."
I stood, with one hand resting on one of the spokes. "You know Beau, I think this whole place is shocking. Let's get back to the house. I think I would like a soak in a tub and have a nice leisurely dinner. You have worn me out both on my bottom from all the riding, and mentally from all I have seen today."
"You know Frank, my good buddy, I think you are absolutely correct. Last man to the house just might have to come out here for a punishment."
We both ran for the horses, and had the horses at a gallop...but I think the horses were tired too, as I think their full speed gallop was not as fast as it was early in the day.
After we went through the tree visual barrier from the house to the plantation, we rode up to the house, and there were two servants waiting our arrival.
Beau of course won, and he said "Let's go for a bath before dinner. I happily agreed and we both went up the stairs for a shower or, for me, a soaker tub bath. Jeremy was awaiting my arrival in the bedroom, and I again marveled at the efficiency of the alert system. I was sure that some servant was assigned the task of notifying the appropriate servant that his services might soon be required. When I entered the bedroom Jeremy smiled.
Master Frank, your soaker bath is being drawn. Sir. SIR may this servant help you out of those riding clothes, and if the tub is not full by that time, your servant would be honored to give SIR a massage as SIR waits.
I decided that as decadent as I had first thought it was, having a personal servant in the bedroom did have some real positive features. All I really had to do was stand there as Jeremy first removed my shirt and then my riding boots and socks. Then he carefully removed my riding pants and shirt, and finally my boxers. I no longer thought much about the fact that I was now naked in front of another man. As I stood there awaiting Jeremy's information about whether I would go to the soaker tub, or receive a message, I smiled to myself. "This kind of personal service can really become a very pleasant part of life.
I could easily become addicted to it.
Jeremy came back. "Master Frank, your tub is just filled, and I have added the scented oils. Please come in and step into the tub. SIR. SIR after you have soaked, I will have your shower ready for you to rinse off, and I will lay out your clothes for dinner, SIR."
As I soaked, I had a lot to think about. I had to try to really come to grip with the size and diversity of Pleasant Acres Planation, and also with the variety of the work and environment for the involuntary servants who made Pleasant Acres a place of great beauty, great industry, and great service and comfort for the free persons who lived here. As I thought about the diversity of work of the servants that I had observed who, as far as I could see, were not badly treated, but who were still living in a manner that I really had not even had the smallest concept until my trip down to Dixie.
After Jeremy had me get out of the hot tub, helped me in, and then helped me into the warm shower, and dutifully washed my back, I sent him out of the shower. "I can do some things for myself." I said to him.
"Of course Master Frank. When you are done, I will have your clothes set out and ready for you to go down to dinner." Jeremy said as he disappeared.
I finished, dried myself off...noting that this was almost the first time here that I had performed this task myself, and went into the bedroom to see Jeremy waiting for me, smiling, and ready to help me into the appropriate dinner clothes which he had laid and would help me into.
"Yes," I thought to myself, "this much service could become addictive."
With this thought I let Jeremy practically dress me and went down for dinner.