From Jenny to Mei Ch. 11

Thanks to KD for the awesome editing!!

Please start with Chapter 1 if you want to know the whole story.

*****

Five rolled around before Mei Chun was ready for it and she prepared to bid her work friends farewell. As she grabbed her purse Dr. K emerge from his office looking pensive, bleak and distracted. She surmised that his son's test results had come in and been bad news. She sensed that now was not the time to speak with him and on the way out the door vowed to offer her sympathy tomorrow.

The cab was waiting at the curb and she thought about the avuncular doctor on her ride to the center. 'Gosh, how terrible. He's such a nice old guy. To have a kid sick like that, maybe even dying... how horrible.'

As the center's cinderblock walls peeked from behind low rent apartment housing she found herself still thinking, imagining what he must be feeling.

The center was in a building that looked a lot like a school but was fenced in, no doubt to keep out the dangerous neighborhood thugs rather than keep the kids inside.

"Hi, Mei Chun." Sarah was always glad to see a volunteer, especially today. Mei Chun had been one of the best so far. Unlike the older church lady types, convinced of their goodness and confident they knew what was best for the children, Phil's girl was an enthusiastic follower of direction and listened rather than proposed.

"Hi, Sarah. How are the kids?"

"About the same." Mei noticed that Sarah looked worn and tired. "We had to send Kevon to general, he was in an insulin shock after he got hold of a bag of sugar but he's ok. He'll be back tomorrow. Ready for rounds?"

Rounds, like in a hospital, were an opportunity to brief staff on each child's condition and, while she had been present for them in the past, she had never gone on them with Sarah alone before.

"Where's Mrs. Carter?"

"Not here this evening. You're going to be in charge."

"What!? I can't do that. I wouldn't know what to do."

"You won't be alone. Micky is here and Erica."

"But they... but I ... until when?"

"Two more will get in at eight and then the morning crew will be in at eight tomorrow. But Micky's got to leave at ten so you'll be shorthanded."

"You want me to lead the night crew all night?"

"Not all night. I'll be back at four or five. I have faith in you Mei Chun. You'll do fine and I'll be here for another hour. You've got my cell phone and you know how to dial 911."

"Yeah, but..."

"Listen," Sarah stopped walking and looked at Mei in the eyes, "You are either a short timer playing at Florence Nightingale or you are in this to make a difference. Which is it?"

"This is my third time here, Sarah. I'm not qualified to be in charge. Anyway, I have work tomorrow."

"Don't deflect. Which is it?"

"Your pushing me, Sarah, it's not fair."

"Look around you. Listen to that screaming. That's a little girl who's lost her mind. Is that fair? Jerome nearly split his own head open Tuesday, is that fair? Get over your fear and take responsibility."

Mei was close to panic. She still felt helpless confronting the reality of what this place was about. She smelled the hopelessness that permeated the atmosphere, like the stink of sulfur at a paper mill. She saw how the other women ran from one calamity to another, losing heart by the end of their shift, drained as they left for their cars. What was she supposed to do, dedicate her lives to these hopeless children? Philip would have to decide. She obeyed him and in return he was supposed to make these kinds of decisions. But what if he decided that it was what she would do, quit her job and go full time here? What would that do to her? What would it do to their relationship? She could not see herself as Sarah's successor, running this place ten years from now, prematurely old and prematurely bitter.

"Sarah, I will do what I can and I will do it without fear." She saw Sarah smile and felt dislike for her for the first time, "However, don't confuse my volunteering for an endless commitment. I'll have to ..."

"Talk to Phil?"

"Yes. It's his choice — our choice and that's it."

"Do you call him when you need to shit too?"

"Belittling me is not a good idea, Sarah. You need help, these kids need help and I'm here to help. If your attitude is a problem then you deal with it but don't give me shit. I'll take the responsibility for tonight, sure, but you take the responsibility for putting me in charge. If something happens that I'm not qualified for then it's your problem. Got it? Let's go," Mei said and turned on her heels.

They reviewed all thirty-six children, Mei taking notes. As they came to the last door, Sarah finished her sentence, "...she'll be fine till her next meds but restrain her if she loses control."

So that was it. Mei was going to be in charge of two staff caretakers she didn't know and her back up was the nurse and the cleaning crew that didn't speak English. That was the help she had to care for thirty-six severely handicapped kids. TV would help, snacks would help, it was nearly dinner time and Sarah would stick around through that but afterward she was on her own until relieved ten hours later.

In an hour, dinner completed and the kids standing around the TV, running about, or staring into the corner, Sarah came in to see if she had things under control. "Listen, Mei Chun, I'm sorry for snapping at you. I've not slept in two days and that's an excuse but it's all I have right now. If I don't go home and sleep and shower I'm going to crack. Ok, sorry for being a bitch. You can do this. I need you to be able to do this."

Mei saw that she was tired and she felt better for the apology. She would do what she could and only call her as a last resort. "I'll do my best, Sarah. Get some sleep." She nodded, patted one of the kids on the head and told her to be good to Miss Chun and walked out.

She saw Jerome still sitting before his untouched meal, looking at the ceiling tiles, rocking back and forth. She hadn't had a moment to sit with him since arriving. Micky and Erica were putting out fires but things were under control. She took a minute to just be with him.

"Jerome?" she said, taking the seat opposite him. "Jerome?" He didn't react. She sat patiently, taking one of his hands in hers. Two minutes passed, the noise that only insane kids made was washing around them. Over the next five minutes he began to look down at the table, then finally at her hands surrounding his. She had been humming a nursery rhyme her mother sang to her. Jerome seemed to respond, taking tentative looks at her mouth. She'd never had him react in the slightest degree before and she felt it might be progress so she began singing the words.

Mèimei bēi zhe yáng wáwa

Zǒu dào huāyuán lái kàn huā

Wáwa kū le jiào māma...

He looked into her eyes for just an instant and a lump formed in her throat. She began to tear and sang louder than before. She felt the connection with him in the moment that his eyes touched upon hers and knew there was someone alive inside him. She resolved to sing to him every chance she could.

A disturbance dragged her away, but before she dealt with the situation that had grown too large for Micky to handle, she gave Jerome a caress along his cheek.

Somehow she survived the next hours. There was no call on her to make an important decision and she knew she was only nominally in charge. Micky and Erica were much older women, full time staff with more experience. This made Sarah's action a more obviously contrived attempt to bind her more closely to the center. She didn't know how much of Sarah's decision was genuine confidence in her and how much was manipulation.

Bedtime brought some relief, most of the kids were long used to the routine but some refused to sleep. Walking the hall she heard mumbling coming from Jerome's room and opened the door to find his roommate, Tony, talking to himself and Jerome sitting up in his bed. Tony kept repeating, "Yarom no ired," and she realized he was saying that Jerome wasn't tired, didn't want to sleep. She laid Tony down, stroked his hair and told him not to worry, she would take care of Jerome. He quieted with the touch and soon closed his eyes; perhaps asleep, perhaps not. She sat with Jerome, a boy nearly her size, and took his hand, began singing the song again and brought his head to her shoulder. She would do anything for this boy. Anything to give him a few moments of peace. Before long, his head heavier and heavier on her shoulder, she heard the soft snoring. She lay him down gently, covered him with a blanket, kissed his forehead, turned the lights low and left the room.

There were a few issues to keep her busy, a bed wetting, some night terrors but a good night according to Micky.

Sarah returned a little after four, not looking much better than she had when she left. She thanked her though, and seemed appreciative. Mei called the taxi company and arranged to be picked up.

She returned to her apartment, got three and half hours of sleep and felt surprisingly energetic when she returned to the office, a Friday morning at last. Still overwhelmed by the goings-on at the center she had no mind to think about her sex life.

Her heart sank when she saw Dr. K's pain in his eyes and the drag in his step. She found him alone in his office at about eleven thirty, stepped in and closed the door. "Bad news about your son?" He told her it was cancer. She squeezed his arm, gave him a quick, sweet kiss on the cheek, hugged him for just a second and left without another word.

At lunch she slept in an exam room.

##########

Philip got a call from Eric, his one-time cell mate and the guy that Mei Chun had blown in the utility room.

"So how is it going with Jenny?" he asked after some opening pleasantries.

"Very well indeed. I call her Mei Chun now to help with the disassociation."

"Good, her childhood name I assume. Good idea. Need my help with anything?"

"No, I've got it. Thanks for asking." He knew he must've wanted more of her.

"She is a fine one, Phil. You treat her right."

"I am. I was putting the finishing touches on a gift for her when you called."

"Something special?"

"Yeah. I'll show it to you next time you're round."

"Sophie's left," he said abruptly.

"Ah shit, sorry man." Sophie was his wife who'd stuck with him through his prison term.

"Yeah. This time I think it's for good. I'm not clean anymore and, well, there's not much to stick around for."

At times like this, Philip remained silent.

"Can I come by, get a beer and one of those sandwiches or something."

"Can't do it man, not now. Gotta get this thing ready and I don't want Mei Chun to see you. Not for quite a while. Might disturb her. You understand."

"When does she get back?"

"Not till late but I've got lots to do."

"A couple of hours? I'll lend a hand."

He considered. He didn't like Eric that much. Sure they shared a cell for a year and were companionable enough inside, enduring the shit prison was together but Philip had grown since then and wanted to put the whole era behind him. Eric and a couple of other guys were his only connection to that time and he'd outgrown them.

"You need a shoulder to cry on or money?"

"A little of both wouldn't hurt."

"I don't fund addiction. That's a hard and fast one for me. If you need someone to listen then start talking. I'll listen, tell you what a fool you are and give you any advice I can think of. That sound like enough?"

"No, but it's all I'm going to get."

"Yeah. It's all I got right now."

He switched to a Bluetooth headset and went back to work. For the next hour and a half he listened while Eric castigated himself for losing control and surrendering to temptation.

A thought occurred to Philip; what Eric needed was a master, or mistress, or whatever. He needed someone to take absolute control over him just as he had done with Mei, but even more unconditionally. Someone who would assume 24 hour supervision who wouldn't let him eat, sleep, or even think on his own. The only equivalent was Ranger training but that wasn't an option. He needed an experienced, dedicated dominatrix who cared enough about him to turn his life around.

He let him drone on while he finished the software. He had five programs ranging from ten to thirty minutes. Some were based on an interval training routines exercise equipment used, periods of intense fast thrusting with relaxed slow periods. Too bad he didn't have it ready when Ai was over, he thought.

The more he recalled it, the more he realized how much he enjoyed the experience with her. She was bright, cheerful, cute even. Digging through her private life, he found a love for her family, a concern for political issues. She was a Republican, of all things, though all for same sex marriage. She was indeed enrolled at SJS in the engineering department, had excellent grades and kept her private life private. No evidence of porn site memberships but her browser history and cookies showed that she visited the same site Mei Chun had among others. Her online calendar, not the one on her phone, showed that she had been in her current occupation for only a few weeks, as she had said, but had been quite active in her efforts to earn money. Her assets showed a respectable fifteen-thousand eight-hundred and thirty-seven dollars in various instruments. Ai obviously had it together, which was refreshing to find in a woman so young.

He ran through the Boléro routine, watching the pace of the machine slowly keep up with the ever mounting and relentless tempo of the music from his desktop speakers. It excited him thinking of Mei riding this to one orgasm after another with well-timed strokes of the whip.

He'd move the whole thing into the back before she got home. It would be after her encounter with Karla but he'd tell her to go light on the lesbianism tonight as there would be a surprise waiting for her at his place.

Eric kept on jabbering and Philip responded with a few 'uh huh's every so often. It sounded like she'd really left him, which was too bad but every woman has her breaking point. Going back to junk at this stage of her life was too much. He'd been off it for years; prison breaks most guys' of their physical dependencies but they always seem to creep back into the same habits. Philip knew he was in danger too. After all, hadn't he used the same techniques that got him arrested on Mei? Now he was breaking those same laws looking through Ai's private life.

He thought about Ai again. Her offer to return on her own time, the friendly way she offered to suck his cock. He appreciated the sweetness of the gesture, sex for him was not about domination, even though he had, on at least one occasion, purposefully held Mei down and fucked her as brutally as he could to force her to relent and submit. But that was therapy and not love making. He wondered what it would be like getting head from her while Mei rode the machine.

He was getting tired of Eric and decided it was time to end the call. "Eric, gotta go. Listen, don't backslide. Don't use this as an excuse to poison yourself with that shit... ok? I'll make time for you tomorrow or Sunday but I just got to get off the phone."

Eric thanked him, told him not to bother about this weekend and rang off.

##########

It was 2:30 when Mei's phone showed a FaceTime call coming in from Markéta.

"Ahoj, Mei Chun," she said, trying to make herself heard over the blaring thump of music, "Where are you?" Mei made her way into the bathroom by the elevators. "I'm at work... where the hell are you?"

"Václav and I are at a disco in Paris. He's a friend from Prague I knew in school." A man's face appeared and smiled with a wave of the hand. "Hello!" the face said. "I told him I met a beautiful young Chinese woman in San Francisco and his horny balls couldn't wait to see you."

She heard them talking in what she presumed was Czech. "He says you are more beautiful then he imagined. What are you wearing darling?"

She held the camera away, "Your selection of course, the long skirt with the blouse and jacket."

"You look totally lovely. We must do casualwear next visit."

"Tell him he can flirt all he wants since he's too far away to get into any trouble."

She saw his face reappear, taking hold of her phone by the look of it and pointing it at himself. "For you, lovely girl, I would be on airplane in ten minute to your city by zee bay."

"He's a charmer, Markéta, a real silver tongue."

"Yes, well," she wrested back control, "he believes the more women he flatters the higher probability he will get laid."

"He's cute, any chance he'll get laid tonight?"

"Hmmm... If I am hungry enough, he might be good for a snack."

The volume suddenly diminished markedly as Markéta entered what must have been the ladies bathroom in the club. "Listen, the reason I called, other than to see you, was that my friend said your pearls were lovely and he thought he recognized the ruby. He's a famous jeweler, even makes things for the President, and he was very impressed and would like to know who made the necklace for your man." Markéta was mature enough to know that she should not refer to him as her master more than once a day, unless in the proper context. It might make Mei Chun feel self-conscious or that she was making sport of her.

"Oh, you know I haven't taken it off since he gave it to me, unless it's to put on the other collar. I'll ask him if you'd like but he might not want to tell me."

"I would email him, of course, but it might not be appropriate. You be the judge."

"I will."

"Ok... I must be going. I can't leave Václav alone in a place like this."

"I envy him and I envy you too."

"Un petit bisous!" she said and made a kiss to sign off.

Mei returned to work, got a text from Karla saying how she looked forward to this evening and one from Philip telling her the same but to go light with Karla this evening as he had something of a treat for her.

At three she saw Dr. K leave for the weekend and took a moment to follow him out into the hall. "Are you going to see your son?"

"Yes, Mei Chun, and thank you for your kindness in my office. I'll be spending the weekend with him and his family."

"Is he strong like you?"

"My boy is a better man than I. Stronger, more brave, he's a better father too."

"You know," the chime for the elevator rang, "It takes a pretty great father to say that." He stepped through the door and turned. "Tell him we are pulling for him, and for you Dr. K."

"Thank you Mei, have a good weekend."

She noticed he used the familiar form, 'Mei,' but didn't correct him. She liked hearing him call her that anyway. As she returned she thought that he seemed really out of it, not the companionable, friendly man who'd warmed a room with his smile just a few days ago. He seemed to be deflating, surrendering to old age and heart ache.

##########

Ai took a sip of tea and reread the last line she'd written; "I think, when I listen with the right ears, I can hear the universe talking to me," and pressed enter on her keyboard. She was half an hour into a texting session with a friend who'd gone to college on the East coast.

"What's it saying?" her friend responded.

"That I've met a great guy."

"Again?"

"The others were nothing. This one's so dreamy."

"Dreamy? You sound like you're 14!"

"Whatever! He is. He's the kind that show up in your dreams. You should see his eyes."

"Sex?"

Ai hadn't told a soul that she'd been gratifying men's sexual needs in exchange for money and wasn't about to tell her how she had met Philip. So she equivocated.

"No."

That may seem unequivocal, but for Ai it wasn't. She felt she hadn't really had sex with him even though she swallowed quite a prodigious load of some rather tasty semen. Sex with him was going to be so much more, so, in comparison to what she expected would come what they had done really didn't qualify.