Keeping Him Awake
It’s now late at night – in the small hours of the morning, in fact – and the town square is deserted, apart from the prisoner-slave in the stocks, of course, and one solitary, female member of the public seated opposite him on a bench.
It might look like the female is offering solace to the prisoner by keeping him company, but, actually, the opposite is the case. For this is Ms Fiona madam who sees it as her public duty, being an insomniac herself, to keep the slave awake at night, especially on the eve of his public whipping, so that he will be sapped of strength and therefore less able to endure the pain of the forthcoming whipping.
Indeed, as we zoom in, we can see that she has already reddened the prisoner’s face by slapping him hard in order to keep him alert. But she also keeps him awake by asking him lots of probing questions, the first of which is to ask him ‘what he’s been up to today?’. It’s a sarcastic, mocking question, of course – a) because she doesn’t much care what the slave has ‘been up to’; and b) because, whatever it was, it can’t have been much, since he has been confined in the public stocks for over a week now!
Nevertheless, the prisoner-slave is at Ms Fiona’s mercy and is therefore duty bound to answer her. He decides to tell her about how he had been studying the top of a beautiful, young black woman’s short, black sneaker-sock on the advice of a kindly monk master-sir – in an effort to take his mind of his impending whipping later today. Ms Fiona feigns interest in the girl’s sock, and orders the prisoner-slave in front of her to describe it in more detail.
The slave humbly explains that he could only see the short sock from a distance as, unlike the kind and beautiful Ms Fiona madam, the haughty wearer of the sneaker-sock had elected to sit with her back to him as she was busy conversing and enjoying some refreshments with her friends. Furthermore, it was just the one sock he had been able to see, as the monk master-sir had kindly explained that the girl’s other sock on her right foot had inadvertently slipped down inside the back of her sneaker thanks to her natural foot moisture on such a warm day. However, there had been enough black sock showing on her left foot for him to be able to study the elasticated top of the short sock.
At this point Ms Fiona madam mockingly hitches up one of her jean hems and points to the top of her own full-length, black cotton anklesock. She asks the slave whether the top of the black girl’s short, black sneaker-sock had resembled the elasticated top of her sock? The prisoner-slave humbly opines that, from memory, the vertical lines of stitching in the other mistress’s sock had been wider and thicker, though he freely admits that he could be wrong about that, as he is feeling very tired and his menial mind may be starting to play tricks on him, if the mistress would be so kind and forgiving, please don’t beat me mistress?
Fortunately for the prisoner-slave, Ms Fiona madam is in a good mood and just laughs at his inability to even remember the number of rows of stitches in the other girl’s sneaker-sock! She asks the slave how he can possibly expect to focus his mind on the memory of the black girl’s sneaker-sock during his whipping, when the pain he will be experiencing will be immense, if he can’t even do so now when he is, relatively speaking, free from pain (the slave’s current ‘lack’ of pain is, of course, all relative, because right now the prisoner-slave not only has to contend with the ongoing ache in his neck and shoulder muscles that comes from being confined for over a week in the stocks, but he is also right now suffering from the stinging bruises across his cheeks caused by Ms Fiona madam’s face-shuddering slaps!)
The prisoner-slave again apologises to Ms Fiona madam for his inability to retain in his mind such important sock details, and admits it’s because he is stupid. Ms Fiona agrees he is stupid, and suggests he will just have to hope that someone in the ‘audience’ for his whipping tomorrow will be wearing a nice pair of socks that he can zoom in on in an effort to take his mind of the biting pain of the whip, though she doesn’t hold out much hope that such tactics will work, so overwhelmingwill the whip’s sting be (Ms Fiona goes on to explain that she, of course, has never felt the sting of the whip on her back – and never will – but she has heard tell that it is indeed the greatest pain known to man, hence its efficacy in disciplining prisoner-slaves like him!)
Ms Fiona also goes on to explain that, unfortunately, she won’t be able to come and watch his whipping live later today in the town square, as she has been invited to a friend’s barbeque. Otherwise she would have stood nearby him so that he could study her socks whilst he was being whipped! The prisoner-slave thanks the mistress kindly for her kind offer, even though she is unable to fulfil it, and confirms that to study her socks during his whipping would indeed have been an honour! Ms Fiona just laughs at him and assures him that she will, nonetheless, watch his pain and suffering online later (all public whippings in the Gynarchy are uploaded onto the Gynarchy Government website for the public to watch and enjoy at their leisure).
And with that Ms Fiona ups and leaves the prisoner-slave, having given him plenty of food for thought as he desperately tries to get some sleep prior to his public flogging later that same day. To be honest, he’s already decided to try and focus on the memory of Ms Fiona’s black socks during his whipping, as they were much more ‘substantial’ than the black girl’s ultra-short sneaker socks had been. And so he drifts into a lonely, fitful sleep – dreaming of girls' black socks, and one sock in particular; the one which Ms Fiona madam had so generously exposed to him on her soft, white leg whilst his face had been throbbing from the burning sting caused by the back of her helpful hand!
