Once Daniel was leashed like a little puppy, Mr. Frontera put a hand on his shoulder, “We will leave you here for the rest of the day.  But it would be wise if you get to sleep early, because Terry will be coming down to wake you up at six o’clock tomorrow morning.”

After Mr. Frontera gave Daniel a rub on the head and a pat on the back, he, Terry, and Robin, started to make their way up the stairs.  But after just a few steps Mr. Frontera noticed a book on the floor, “What’s that book doing way over there?  That’s one of the books that I had put in your chest of drawers.  Daniel, how did it get there?”

Daniel hesitated, “I don’t know, sir.”

“You don’t know?”  Mr. Frontera looked to his sons, “Did one of you leave it there?”

When Terry and Robin shrugged their shoulders, Mr. Frontera looked Daniel straight in the eye and asked Daniel to tell him how the book ended up at the other end of the basement, when his leash was a mere 30 feet in length.

In a hesitating fashion, Daniel replied, “Oh yes, sir, now I recall.  I was looking at the book and accidentally dropped it on the floor, and when I stooped down to pick it up I somehow accidently kicked it across the room.”

“But that’s impossible!  If you had kicked it could not have possibly had a straight line to where it is now, with the legs of the high chair, procedures table, and punishment horse, all in the way of a straight path.  It had to be tossed.”

“I don’t know, sir, how it got there.”

“Just tell me the truth, Daniel.”

There was silence in the basement as Daniel fidgeted.  Mr. Frontera instructed his son, “Terry, run upstairs and get the ammonia.  Unfortunately this is a servant who is going to need a special treatment in order to convince him to tell the truth!”

Daniel, terrified, cried out, “What is that?”

Mr. Frontera, hoping to convince Daniel to tell the truth so he would not have to resort to using an extreme measure, spoke slowly, “You’ll soon find out.”

Waiting for an answer, Mr. Frontera continued, “Please Daniel, don’t make me have to do this to you.”

Daniel started to cry, and then blurted out the truth, “I threw the book across the room, Mr. Frontera, sir.  I’m sorry.”

Mr. Frontera went to the confessing servitor, and gave him a consoling hug, “Son, I would have tried everything I could to convince you to tell the truth so I wouldn’t have to use any extreme punishment measures on you. But now I have to tell you something very important; under the circumstances I have no choice but to give you the ordered number of demerits for your offenses.  Throwing that book while in a tantrum has to be treated the same as if that book had hit the lamp and broken it, as a ‘property damage’ offense; and then you lied about it.  Both offenses get 5 demerits, for a total of 10 against you.”

Daniel, realizing that in after less than one day in the trial program he was one-third of the way towards ending up with a 5-year sentence of indenturement, began sobbing.

Mr. Frontera sat next to Daniel on the bed and rested a caring hand on his leg, “Daniel, you need to understand how important total obedience is in this program.  Total obedience is important because it leads to total reform, and that is our goal for you; to have you become a productive member of society.”

“Remember, Terry will be coming down to wake you up at six o’clock tomorrow morning.  I’ve put him and Robin in charge of your training regime.”

Daniel, showing great concern, asked, “Training?  Training in what, sir?”

Mr. Frontera attempted to ease Daniel’s concern, “Oh, not too much really.  Just some of the basics of good behavior, decorum, and things that will be required of you.”

“But sir, you yourself told me your sons have never before participated in the care of your servants.  They are still in high school, sir.  How could they know what the rules are?”

“Listen you little tyke; I hope you didn’t think I would let them be in control of you and have them just start making up stuff about proper servitor behavior. No way.  I informed Social Services that I wanted to start using my boys to help monitor and train you, and I informed them of my sons’ relatively young ages, fourteen and seventeen.”

“Social Services wants more and more young people involved in the field of servitor control, and they forwarded me a ton of info on how to help prepare family members who are still in their teens for being involved as participating overseers and trainers of a household’s indentured servant.  So you have nothing to worry about!”

Daniel, overcome at the prospect at being under the control of Mr. Frontera’s two teenaged sons, could only look at the floor, gloomy and wordless.

Mr. Frontera noted Daniel’s continued concern and spoke in a soothing voice, “I want you to know if you ever have any problem with the way you are being treated by my sons, you need to come to me and let me know!  Do you understand, Twinkles?”

Daniel was heartened by Mr. Frontera’s response, until he was once again addressed in the diminutive, ‘Twinkles’.

Mr. Frontera gave Daniel a smile and another reassuring pat on his leg and left Daniel’s quarters.

Once Daniel was left to himself for the evening he went to his laptop, a gift from Mr. Frontera, and accessed his email.  Daniel had not seen his email in almost a week, and was surprised to see well over a hundred messages from friends and acquaintances.

But Daniel did not open any of the emails.  From just the subject headings of the emails Daniel knew what the messages were about.  “Man I cannot believe this happened to you”, “my thoughts and prayers are with you”, “this is fuckin crazy dude”, “is it true?”, “NO WAY”, “if you need anything I’m here for you”.

Daniel could not begin to comprehend how to answer any of the emails.  He felt like a loser.  He feared that if he did respond to any of them he couldn’t possibly be honest in the body of the email, or even in the subject heading; ‘not a big deal dude’, ‘this is not as bad as I thought it would be’, ‘I am living now with a great new family’, ‘thanks for caring, but this servitor shit is easy street’.

And then as he thought about his associates, he recalled that in South Dakota all friends, family, and acquaintances, had the right to visit the indentured regardless of the terms of their indenturement service.   Daniel’s first thought went to his chastity cage; no matter how the Frontera’s decided to dress him on any day, the first things his friends would immediately notice was the huge bulge in his groin area.

And Daniel recalled that in the summer Mr. Frontera often had his on-trial indentees working in the yard and doing chores dressed in nothing but their chastity cages.

Daniel was suddenly overwhelmed by shame at the prospect of having his friends find out the most humiliating aspect of his indenturement; that he was no longer a man.  That his most private parts no longer belonged to him; but instead belonged to his 35-year old overseer and his two teen-aged sons.