small of his back with plastic restraints. “I’m sorry. Wait here; a warehouse crew will be up to get you shortly.”
Jeremy sank down on the refreshed bed, defeated and terrified. How can I live like this? How could anybody be expected to live like this? He had a whole new level of respect for the personal slaves he had known in the past. Well, seen . H e had never talked to them. He thought about his friends and wondered if any of them treated their slaves so cruelly.
He hoped not. It didn’t matter now. If he ever encountered any of those people again they would look right through him as if he were invisible. He no longer existed as Jeremy Paxton. He was now just some nameless, helpless toy. He resolved to kill himself as soon as possib le
*****
“Number 537 : does he have a’ buy now’ price?” Evan tried to keep the desperate urgency out of his voice, with fair success.
“You’re the second man to ask me that in the last five minutes. Yes he does. I can let you have him for $300,000.”
“The other man, did he make an offer?”
“Mr. Cavenaugh? He has gone to check his resources."
“I’ll give $900,000 for him.”
The auctioneer stared , wide-eyed, at Evan.
Well? Do we have a deal?”
" How long would you need to get the cash together?”
“I have it now. You can have it wire transferred immediately.”
“Why so much?”
“Does it matter?
“No. But you should know that any overage you pay will go to the debtor family after the debts are retired and the fees and auction house pai d. This large amount, Mr. James.. .people might not understand a citizen helping slaves disguise their true nature.”
“Thank you for your concern. Now, show me where to go to make payment and pick up my bill of sale. He’s bleeding and I need to get him to the doctor before I take him home.”
" To the vet.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’ll have to find a vet. Doctors can’t treat slaves.”
A bolt of anger lance d through Evan’s brain. He gritted his teeth. “Fine. To the vet then.”
“Right this way, sir.”
As Evan completed the paperwork to take Jeremy home, he became increasingly irate . He made up his mind to free Jeremy as soon as possible.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a certificate for his mandatory vasectomy.”
“Why the fuck…excuse me, why does he have to have a
vasectomy ?
T he girl shifted uneasily in her chair. “He’s feral. This is the second time a family member in his blood line has revealed that they are actually slave and not human. He cannot be allowed to perpetuate the blood line. "
Evan hung his head, clutching his knees tightly . He had largely ignored the rhetoric he had been exposed to all of his life about the rightness of slavery , about slaves being actually a sub species that revealed itself through inferior behavior. To have this nonsense spouted about bright, sunny, Jeremy Paxton, sickened him to his soul. He controlled himself and accepted the certificat e.
“You have to take proof of vasectomy to the Slave Licensing Bureau within thirty days of purchase. I can go ahead and register him for you from here, but that has to be personally delivered,” She informed him hesitantly. Evan nodded jerkily. A thought occurred to him.
“Since I’ve made a successful offer for him, no one else has been permitted to sample him have they?”
“No sir. He’s yours. I can open him back up if you want to charge...”
“No. No. I just want to take him home.”
“You also need to know that since you have never owned a slave before you will be on probation with the Office of Slave Regulation for six months.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means that inspectors from the Office of Slave Regulation might make unannounced visits to check on
Janette Oke, Laurel Oke Logan