Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 04:18:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Steam Train <steam_t2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: A Middle Class Slave Revisited Chapter 16

A Middle Class Slave Revisited
By Steam Train    (steam_t2000@yahoo.com)

Chapter 16: At what price? - Conclusion.


Cal was a changed man from his experience on the other
side of slavery. You could tell it the moment you set
eyes on him. It was confirmed when he began talking to
Master after we showered and dressed upon arrival back
at the residence.

Master handed Cal his release as he had promised and
an offer of employment as the Vice President of
Agricultural Production for Premium Foods. Cal was so
humble in accepting the offer. Gone was any trace of
his former attitude to slavery.

One comment amongst many that he made to Master stuck
in my head.

"You know Will, I often wondered how bad it must be to
loose your freedom, to be enslaved but never did my
imagination delve into the depths of despair that I
have suffered these last twelve months. I always knew
there was a light at the end of the tunnel for me, I
trusted you to keep that tunnel open. All those other
poor guys who are sentenced to a life in slavery, they
have no hope its mind shattering and soul destroying".

In my mind I fully agreed with Cal's sentiments. They
were just how I felt. I had, had at different times a
better life than many free citizens, but it was that
basic right to choose to do what I wanted when I
wanted that haunted me. Sure most free citizens had to
work and were really captives to their employer and
their mortgages but if they really wanted too they
could throw it all in, sell up and go do something
else. I could not do that.

Alex was introduced to us as Masters son. He wasn't so
much changed as wearied. He just said it had been a
year in hell and for now he could not talk about it.
His dad actually apologised to Alex and said that
maybe he had asked too much of his son.

When Master went on to say he was a man of his word
and at the next board meeting he would step down as
President in favour of Alex but would remain on as
Chairman and Chief Executive, Alex stopped his father
and told him to wait a bit longer. Alex said he wasn't
sure he was the man for the job.

Master looked shocked but Alex was firm in his resolve
and just said "I will talk about it later dad, when I
can think things through".

Like Alex I was suffering from my year in the coffle.
There was no doubt my body was trying to tell me I was
no longer a young man; in fact I was forty-three years
old. I was after the year superbly fit for my age but
the aches and pains were constant. I felt like all I
wanted to do was sleep for days on end.

In the privacy of his study Master handed me the
release from indenture papers for Steven White. He
then sat me down and told me all of his plans for me.

Steven White was a real person who was born and grew
up near here at Greenwood, Mississippi. He was my age
to within months and had died working on one of
Masters properties in Canada. He had no known living
kin and having died in another country was thus ideal
for Masters plan.

In fact it was when Masters staff had approached him
with the dilemma of what to do with the original
Steven Whites savings and assets as meagre as they
were, that the idea of giving me a slice of freedom
had first occurred to Master.

The slave tracking system was deliberately loose and
untraceable. This prevented families ever tracking
down and making contact with their enslaved kin. The
only record that had been kept of me from the moment
of my enslavement was that a number of other slaves
including me, all known only by their temporary slave
numbers were shipped out on a particular date. I was
then sold, renumbered, shipped again, and when
eventually sold again I was renumbered.

No one kept a record of which slave got which number,
or how your numbers changed as you moved through the
system. It made it impossible for anyone to trace you,
unless a coincidental meeting occurred or as in my
case my owner traced my parents.

"I can't give you your real freedom Steve but I can
give you the next best thing" Master said. He handed
me a package containing Steve Whites birth
certificate, social security number and other forms of
identification. "Steve all that is now required for
you to do is present my release from indenture
document at a bank, open an account with the two
thousand dollar check that I have made out to you in
the envelope and start a new life" Master concluded.

I didn't know what to do or say.

I sat there stunned. Then I cried. No I more than
cried, I broke down and wept uncontrollably as if I
had lost my closest friend. Looking back it was a
funny reaction but I was so totally overwhelmed I
guess because it came so immediately after twelve
months in hell.

Master did not have to do this. In fact it was illegal
and could result in him being enslaved if he was
caught out. Yet he did.

He told me he wanted to do it just for me. I had been
more than a slave to him. I was an intimate lover. He
could not look at me anymore and see a slave. He saw
someone who was precious to him.

I sobbed away, emotionally bound up in the spell of
this momentous occasion in my life.

"Steve I can't be friends with a slave. So if I want
to be friends with you then I have to set you free.
This is as close as I can manage". Master said.

"Thank you Master, how can I ever repay you?" I
sobbed.

"You have already by being a totally loyal and loving
slave. This is your reward" Master said.

"Steve one word of warning, you are Steve White no
longer Steve Wright. You can't associate with your
family except on the very rarest of occasions. They
are aware of this and want you to have your freedom.
They will all be down on the weekend but after that I
don't know how you will manage to meet up. Your two
brothers are in high profile public positions and
meeting is risky, very risky".

"Michael is now Minority Leader in the Senate and
William has just been appointed as an Associate
Justice of the U.S, Supreme Court. You meet up with
them in public and the press will ask who you are. If
you decide to meet in secret be very careful. Public
figures have no private life and certainly no secret
lives. You will get found out, I can't protect you or
your brothers. I don't even know if I could protect
myself from the fall out from such an occurrence. So
don't even consider it Steve" Master said.

"Yes Master" I humbly replied.

"No Steve its yes Will from now on ok?" master
corrected.

"Ummm yes ....  Will ..."  I replied cautiously.

"Now Josh is waiting for you upstairs and Heath is
waiting for me" Master chuckled. "Oh and you had
better be prepared for Josh's wrath. He knows all
about your nights at Green Bay with Craig and Cal and
all the other slaves, or did you forget Aaron and Josh
are close friends?"

I felt the blood draining from my face, I had worried
from the beginning would my years separation from Josh
impact on our relationship.

"Hey Steve don't panic I was half kidding. Sure Josh
knows but he's been unbearable this last week knowing
you were returning. He loves you Steve. You have
nothing to fear. Now go quickly," Master said.

Josh tried to be cold and formal with me, but one kiss
on his neck, he's very sensitive there and he was all
over me.

I have had lots of sex in my life with many different
guys but nothing compares to the feel of Josh's naked
skin against mine. It is more than love it is lust. I
feel so at one with him. When I am with Josh the
worries of the world cease. We exist for that moment
as a lone solitary couple adrift totally from the sea
of humanity that is swirling around us.

Whilst I was nearing the end of my indenture at Green
Bay Farms Josh had completed his Juris Doctor degree
with high honors and was now a full-fledged lawyer. He
had already decided with Masters help to move to
Harvard to complete his LL.M. - Master of Laws degree.

I didn't want to be seperated from Josh and I agreed
to accompany him to Harvard. I couldn't get a job
there with ease as I was too old at forty three for
most casual jobs and I did not want to draw attention
to Josh and myself. The last thing I wanted was any
suspision that I was a runaway salve.

Masters training of me by Margaret in the kitchen now
became obvious. I was an extremely well trained house
servant. Josh went off to the Law School supported
financially by Mr Booth and I kept house like any good
married couple. My cooking was pretty spectacular too.

You cannot imagine the sheer joy I felt in those first
years of walking the block down to the supermarket and
having the freedom to choose the groceries and food
for our table.

I confess I grew to like my role as the contented
house partner. I made it my purpose in life to ensure
that at home Josh was loved and totally care for. Our
home was his sanctuary away from the stress and trauma
of his studies and then later the legal system.

Josh wanted our gay relationship to be public. I
cautioned him about doing this. Eventually I persuaded
him to go and talk with my brother William.

I stayed at home alone the day Josh visited my
brother.

William strongly advised against going public. The
legal profession was still very conservative. It was
one thing for a master to fuck his slave, a totally
different thing for two free men to have sex together
especially if one or both of them had thoughts of
pursuing a career in law.

It was not this argument however that won Josh over.
It was my brothers comment that by placing me in the
public eye he was risking my freedom and his own. He
didn't care about himself but he certainly cared about
me.

During Josh's two years at the Harvard Law School, he
worked on the Harvard Law Review. Again he
distinguished himself academically, graduating with
high honors and catching the attention of Judge Marco
Esposito of the U.S. District Court of the Northern
District of California.

Justice Esposito hired Josh as his law clerk. I went
with him, setting up house in San Francisco. The ideal
place for a gay couple to reside. Our year there was
possibly one of our most enjoyable together especially
as it was close to the Napa Valley and Mr Booths
estate.

Our time in San Francisco didn't last for very long.
At the end of a year, Josh moved on to another
clerkship on the recommendation of Justice William F
Wright, that's right, my brother, this one to Justice
Harold L Dubois of the U.S. Supreme Court in
Washington D.C.

When he finished his Supreme Court clerkship Josh was
hired by the Administration through the influence of
my brother Senator Michael Wright, first as a special
assistant to the U.S. Attorney General and then as
Associate Counsel to the President. Finally taking up
the post of Deputy Solicitor General.

In this capacity Josh argued numerous of cases before
the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Federal
Government, winning nearly two thirds of them.

When the Republicans won the next Presidential
election, Josh returned to private practice.

He became a partner at Logan and Larson, a prestigious
Washington, D.C. firm, where he ran the `Appellate
Division' and continued to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.

Josh worked for Logan and Larson for the next decade,
earning a yearly salary that financially set us up
life, but Josh practised law first and foremost
because after me it was his greatest love, the
monetary rewards were secondary.

During his time at Logan and Larson, the year when I
was fifty-four years old, two deaths occurred that had
a major impact on me. I guess it is that time of your
life when death amongst your peers and family starts
to rear its head and affect your psyche.

First my father passed away aged eighty-five. I
travelled to his funeral but had to stand back with
the large crowd and watch my mother and my two
brothers grieve for my dad.

My oldest brother Michael read a eulogy composed by my
mother. It spoke passionately about my father's life
and his family. She mentioned the vacant seat that she
had deliberately left next to William. She told the
congregation that my father and her had had three sons
and regardless of what the law said she continued to
love three sons.

She said that no mother who had suffered the pain and
bonding of childbirth could ever allow the love of
that creation to wither and die even if the law said
she no longer had a third son because he was enslaved.


I had to turn and leave at that point the emotion was
too much. I know I attracted some stares but if I had
stayed I would have broken down and drawn more
attention to myself.

Secondly Matt was killed in a car accident driving to
pick up Master Booth from the airfield. Ironically it
was a Premium Foods truck that veered onto the wrong
side of the road negotiating a corner and collected
the car Matt was driving head on. Matt died instantly.

I had never seen or visited Matt from the time I left
with Josh for Harvard. It was judged too risky for me
to be seen in parts where I was well known as a life
slave. It was also unfair on Matts overseer, Mr Woods,
Josh's father, who of course knew I was living with
Josh as a free citizen but would have had to turn a
deliberate blind eye to my presence and status if I
actually visited the `Residence'.

Matt throughout our physical separation had remained
my closest friend. With Master Booth's permission I
had regular Internet and phone contact with Matt at
the William C Booth Indentured Slave Training Facility
where he had continued to serve faithfully up until
his death.

Ignoring the risk I accompanied Josh down to the
`Residence' and I paid to have Matt's body cremated.
At a small private ceremony I scattered Matt's ashes
over the rose garden at the residence as I said my
private farewell to the man who had introduced me to
real sex, sex between men.

There were tears in the eyes of his students from the
William C Booth Indentured Slave Training Facility,
the other slaves from the `Residence' and in my own
eyes as I scattered his remains and said quietly "I
will remember you buddy".

Matt always used that term, `buddies', we had grown
apart as the years passed and he accepted this better
than I did but we remained `buddies! He was born a
slave and thus born to serve as far as he was
concerned. He expected nothing more of his life and
Matt remained until his death totally contented with
that life. Amazed till the end at the luxury of the
life he now considered he was living.

My mother passed away the very next year. With my
father gone she quickly lost the will to live. She now
wanted to join my father in death saying to my
brothers that life had passed her by and that she was
too weary to try to keep up.

I made one private visit to mum when it was obvious
her health was failing. We talked for hours and again
she begged for my forgiveness for what she saw as her
failure in me being enslaved. There was nothing to
forgive but I knew it was pointless arguing with her,
so I gave her my forgiveness. It was the greatest gift
I could have given her. She went to her grave a
contented soul.

Then when I was sixty-one, the new Democrat President
nominated Josh to be a judge on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, widely
considered at the time to be the most important
intermediate appellate court in the country.

During his four years on the District of Columbia
Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Joshua Woods wrote 43
opinions. Only five of his decisions were not
unanimous, and he dissented from other judges'
opinions on only three occasions. Legal opinion was
that Josh through his court opinions showed that he
was a "judicial minimalist," emphasizing respect for
precedent rather than a broader, more controversial
approach.

Josh told me in private that I was the greatest
influence behind his minimalist approach. He did not
want to broker controversy. He shied away from public
exposure through controversial and radical decisions
and kept his private life and especially me completely
hidden and separate from his public duties.

I had been set free as much as possible by Mr Booth
but it had its limits. I never accompanied Josh to any
judicial or social functions. Nothing that would draw
attention to me was ever undertaken. Our holidays
together were always sedate affairs in the privacy of
a summer retreat Josh had bought in Maine. We never
had guests over to our house. My culinary skills were
reserved for Josh and no one else.

What ever the legal experts felt Josh was, he did it
successfully because when my brother William passed
away suddenly aged seventy of a heart attack Josh was
nominated and confirmed to replace him as an Associate
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

I attended my brother's funeral but as I did at both
my parents funerals I stood back in the crowd and
watched my brother's family and my other brother
Michael with his family grieve at their loss.

I could never be a part of my wider family. My nieces
and nephews and their families I never met, I was
still a slave to my sentence. My freedom had its
limits.

Soon after my brother passed away I was called to
California.

My old Master, Mr Booth like my mother before him was
slowly fading away. He was now eighty-four years of
age. Josh and I made it to Napa valley in time and sat
with his family as his breathing became more and more
laboured.

His consciousness roused just before his demise and
seeing Josh and I sitting in the room he beckoned us
over. He smiled at Josh and whispered to him, "Thank
you for coming", then he weakly grabbed my hand and
uttered slowly to me `Thank you too for coming my
friend and lover" then with one last gasp passed away
smiling at me, content in his life.

I was devastated at his death, more so than even Josh
who owed him everything or his two sons and his
daughter. He meant more to me than anyone but Josh. He
was Lover, Master and Friend. With his passing there
was a hole in my soul that even Josh could not fill.

I was still madly in love with Josh and he with me,
after all these years. We had a most perfect
relationship. Sure there were the lovers tiffs and the
moments of `no talk' but we worked our way through all
of those.

I never fully recovered from the loss of Master Booth.
I was sixty-six years of age when he passed away and
should still have had plenty of zest in me, yet within
my soul I began to feel weary.

This feeling slowly grew in me over the next years and
I noticed as I approached my seventieth birthday that
I was not just weary but physically tiring, sometimes
almost exhausted doing chores that previously would
have had little effect on me.

Josh pestered me to get myself checked over but hey
I'm a guy and us guys we shy away from doctors don't
we!

Well I should have listened because by the time I went
to the Doctors it was too late. The cancer had spread
from my bladder through my system. It was inoperable.

Josh took leave from the court and we spent what
little time I have left, here in Maine where I have
written down these memoirs of my time in slavery for
Josh.

Perhaps in time when he too passes on and no harm can
come of my deception he will leave this saga to my
nieces and nephews so that they may truthfully know
what happened to their Uncle Steve.

I doubt very much if the populace at large will be
interested in reading about my life as a middle class
slave. Still as that very old emancipist song states,
`the times they are a changing'. Well all things have
their cycles maybe slavery will have its hour and pass
as all things do. Then my story may be of historical
interest to historians and a commentary on how society
was during this period.

One thing is for certain, my time has passed. I can no
longer rise from my bed and Josh cares for my every
need. I don't want to leave him. I still lust for him.
No one unless they have had real sex with another man
could possibly understand how I could so long for the
company of Josh.

I loved Josh, more than words can ever be written or
actions can ever tell. He has been the reason for my
existence and the light that quelled my depression.
Unwillingly I have to leave Josh now but I know as
long as Josh lives and breathes my memory will live
on.

I cherish the good times we have had together and
there have been many. Now that I must depart forever
don't sink into depression over my passing but go out
and celebrate that you made my life so perfect. You
don't deserve to go to your grave alone, you will soon
be free with my blessings to love another as you
choose. I want you to be as happy till your dieing
days as I have been since I met you.

I was so very fortunate. I met Master Booth then Josh.
Millions of other unfortunate slaves never did. They
lived and died during my lifetime no better than
animals, owned and sold like items of livestock.

Under the slave reforms set up by President Shelley
there was, when it came to slaves, no regard for human
dignity only blatant economic pragmatism.

Yes the streets are safer and the trains run on time
and many enjoy a privileged life thanks to those
slaves but at what price?

Too great a price, far, far too great a price!


Steven Frank Wright
Friend, Buddy, Lover and Slave.


__________________________________________________


Two days after completing his memoirs of his life as a
Middle Class Slave, Steve passed away in my arms as
the first rays of the sun broke through for a new day.
We had slept the night together.

He had called me in to his bed the night before and
said, "Josh cuddle me please, the end is near and I
don't want to die I am frightened!"

At around three in the morning Steve opened his eyes
and looking at me as we lay cuddling in the moonlit
bed, he uttered his last words ..... "I love you".

I held him tight as he slowly slipped away from life
through the early hours of the morning, his breathing
getting shallower and shallower.

When he stopped breathing I screamed out an ear
piercing long wail of "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo"
and then totally distraught with grief I held him
tight and violently cried and wailed till I had no
more tears left to shed.

The love of my life had gone!

I did with the greatest difficulty survive his passing
but one of the principal reasons and focuses for my
life had gone with Steve's last breath.

I arranged a small private funeral for Steve White.

Steve had been set free as much as possible but the
nature of that freedom meant that he lead a very quite
secluded life. He had few friends. He talked and was
friendly to the neighbours but he had no close friends
in Washington. He never mixed within my legal circles.


His closest friends were a small select group of
students from his early days at the William C Booth
Indentured Slave Training Facility who knew our secret
deception and kept it sacred. They were my close
friends too. Foremost amongst them was Brett McDonald
and Aaron Neill. They visited us regularly through out
Steve's life. They paid their final respects at his
funeral simply by being there for him and me.

I will continue to emerse myself in the practise of
law, the other great love of my life till I too end my
days here on earth. I have since Steve's death made it
to the pinnacle of my profession, Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court but life for me will never be the same
regardless of my success or of wether in the fullness
of time I find another companion.

Steve was a most wonderful, irreplaceable,
compassionate man. I was a slave to his love and he
was the strength and support behind my success.
Whatever legacy I leave to the people of the United
States of America it is all due to a slave!

My lover and partner Steve Wright.


Regards,

Joshua R Woods
Lover, Friend & Humanitarian.


End Chapter 16 (Part 25 Continuance of Original)

The End.


I hope you enjoyed the ride!

I have tried to write a story that takes you, the
reader through a wide gambit of emotions from laughter
to sadness and all points in between. You are the
final judge in wether I have succeeded in this aim.

Thank you to all the people who have emailed me with
words of encouragement about this story and my writing
style. I appreciate the time you have taken to contact
me. I have endeavoured to reply to each and every one
of your emails.

I especially wish to thank Pete Brown who gave
permission for me to write this sequel to his
marvellous original story.

Steam.