Chapter One
I have been a bracer for a long time and I really enjoy stories about braces. I decided to write a story of my own, partly because I needed to get it out of my system, but also partly to motivate others to do the same. This story may not be the best you’ve ever read, and my english is far from perfect, but hopefully you’ll still enjoy it – Neckie
Since I was a little boy I’ve fantasized about braces, both on me and others. When I was about 12 years old I discovered neck-bracing for the first time. My sister, who is a few years older than I am, was going out one night, wearing high heels. She wasn’t used to walk on them so when her friends came by to pick her up, and she tried to run towards the car, she fell. The result was a small wound on her left knee and a hard collar for three weeks.
During that time I used to steel a glance at her every chance I got. In those days her curly hair was dyed red and she always wore it in a pony-tail kind of a way. The collar was made of plastic and had a chin-piece so that she couldn’t really move her head sideways, not to mention up or down. I wouldn’t say I got excited by looking at my sister, but still, the sight of the collar did something to me. I was hooked.
After the three week period she had to wear it, she had the collar just lying around in her bedroom. Her friends sometimes tried it on for laughs when they came by, but most of the time it just laid there. So after a while I decided to make a plan. Every day for one and a half week I moved the collar a little bit and finally I had it lying under her bed. The plan was to make it disappear from her room, but to make sure she wouldn’t miss it I kept it under her bed for some days. After that I “borrowed” it and went into my bedroom, locking the doors behind me. This was the first time I tried the collar on. I had been too embarrassed to ask her for permission. My sister’s neck was somewhat longer than mine in those days so I had to adjust the length in front before I put it on. It felt great! The feeling of the chin-piece pressing against my jaw and chin, the snug feeling of the collar around my neck… I almost couldn’t breathe; I was too excited by the whole thing.
Years went by and I became a young man. Every now and then I’d wear “my” collar for fun and thrills but the time came I was a lot taller than my sister and the collar was to short. I started to go between pharmacies and bought all kinds of soft and semi-hard collars. I even managed to buy a philly from the biggest orthopedic company in my country, claiming I’d gotten one two years before, while traveling abroad but that one had been destroyed. The ortho-guy wasn’t willing, but finally he agreed to sell it to me under the condition that I would try and see afterwards if my medical insurance would refund me part of the money. Needless to say I didn’t try, but the ortho-guy wrote my name in his file system and I knew that in my small country all these files are linked. That means I can’t pull that story again.
By the age of 22 I had moved to a bigger town and was living on my own. Some nights I would put on one of my collars and go for a walk. Maybe go to the movies or a café. I enjoyed imagining that my neck was hurt. I also enjoyed all the looks and stares it brought me. After a while I knew too many people to continue this outdoor. It wasn’t that big of a town…
Seeking comfort on the Internet I found great sites like NBAK and my interest for braces grew further than I thought it could. After trying for several months without luck to find another bracer in my region, or even country, I enrolled in a local BDSM-club. After all I had a huge fetish for braces and I was very open-minded about trying something new. That’s when the ball started rolling.
After a few months I was asked to be the spokesman of one BDSM-meeting, telling the group more about bracing and medical bondage. Of course I did so with great pleasure and after the meeting I was approached by another member of the club.
“Hey, nice introduction, I found it very interesting,” he said to me as he sat down beside me.
“Thank you,” I replied, a bit worried that maybe he was making fun of me.
“You know, I’m an engineer and most of my work is in the orthopedic field. I’ve heard some of the guys I work with talking about men who like amputees and things like that, but I think this is the first time I hear about a fetish for braces,” he continued.
We didn’t really say much more about braces that night, but talked a bit about the club and other things.
Some months later I found myself too busy at work, and too different from the rest of the people in the club to continue to go to meetings. However I still continued to visit their chat room on the Net, but only a few times each month.
By that time I was 24 and working as a graphic designer for a popular magazine. Getting this job wasn’t easy, but by working late-hours as an assistant I convinced the editor I was loyal, hard-working and full of ideas I could put down on the screen. So, finally, he offered me the position of a designer and a handsome paycheck. It was what I’d wanted since I was 14, but it had cost a lot. Including not having a lot of time to socialize, and therefore not meeting too many girls my age.
That was when Anna stepped into my life. It was mid-summer. I was getting behind with a new fashion-episode in the magazine and the deadline was the next day. One of the things I needed was an advertisement from the sponsoring company so I called the agency handling their stuff and pushed them a little, lying about how the editor was blaming the whole delay on me and so on. They promised to send the ad right away, and so they did. When the delivery-person came I almost forgot why she was there. Her hair was blond, going down to her mid back. She was tall, thin and had curves that simply turned every head of every guy in the whole office. She was, in one word, stunning.
“Hi, I’m Anna from “One-step ad agency”. Phil Carter told me to bring this to Ed Summons,” she said and showed me a zip-diskette in her hand.
“Oh, uhm, errr… That’s me!” I said in the silliest way I’ve ever said anything.
“Oh, great!” she said. “Do you mind if you copy this now so I can return the diskette?”
“No, no, not at all,” I said and sat down in front of a computer to copy the files.
As if by pure luck, the computer crashed and I had to restart. Because of some conflict in my ID file I couldn’t log on and I had to call one of the computer geniuses in the office to help me. He sat down by my computer and started going through some files. Meanwhile I apologized to Anna and we started chatting about computers, bad luck, nothing and everything. Few minutes later my workstation was functioning and I could finish to copy.
Having done that, I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly noon. I don’t know if I was extraordinary brave, or if my brain just fell asleep, but as I handed her the diskette back I heard myself say something like “Listen, do you have time for a quick bite before you return? It is almost noon and I was thinking about going to a café down the street. If it’s not any problem I’d like you to join me.”
Not the fanciest pick-up line I’ve used, but after thinking for a few seconds and looking at her watch for confirmation she gave me a small smile and nodded her head.
“Sure, why not,” she said.
During lunch we were both very shy, but she did tell me that she was new in town and didn’t know that many people. I figured that was partly the reason she agreed on having lunch with me. She had come to go to the university in town, but decided to come early in the summer to work a little and get to know the town. That’s how she ended up in the ad agency as a helping hand. It didn’t really pay that much, but it was interesting to get to know the advertising world a little. She also told me that she was 21 years old and was the only child of very loving parents. One of her hobbies included photography and she really loved ice-cream.
By the end of the meal I was assured this was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She wasn’t only pretty and had a very nice figure, but she also had this glow. This charm that tells you how kind and warm the person is. So when we stepped up from the table I thanked her for joining me and asked if I could see her again.
“Yeah, I’d like that…” she said hesitating. “But you must not thing I’m too easy to get or anything. It’s just that I’m kind of all alone these days and I would like to see you as a friend, ok?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied and we both went back to work.
Days and weeks went by. Partly because I’m a very stubborn guy and partly because Anna is the greatest person in the world, we started dating and by the time she started school we always together. By mid-winter she moved her stuff from the room she rented down-town into my flat. In less a year my life had become as great as I could want it to be.
Then, one night when Anna was studying at another girl’s place, I turned my PC on and started surfing the Net. After a while I decided to drop by at the BDSM chat room. One of the people there was that engineer from the meeting. We started chatting and all the sudden I had an idea.
“listen, I want to ask U a HUGE favor???” I wrote.
“Sure! What?” He replied.
“Well, since U R working with ortho-goods, could U try to find out if a person can buy a brace directly from the company without a prescription from a doctor?” I wrote, getting excited by the thought.
It had been a long time since I’d thought that much about bracing. But as any bracer knows, it doesn’t go away, it just lays deep back in your head and when it comes out again, and it’s twice as big as it was before.
“Sure, no prop. :-)” He replied and that was that.
Few days later I met him again in the chat room.
“Asked the guys at work, they said no prop. But U have to pay full price, and some of the tech’s won’t sell it to anyone who doesn’t have prescr.” he wrote.
I answered; “can U call me?” and gave him my cell-number. He did call and we started talking about how I could buy a brace from the company he was currently working for on a temporary assignment.
After meeting a few times in the chat room and calling on the phone, we had it figured out.
I would aim to get a CTLSO. Any kind would do but a clamshell with a SOMI superstructure would be best. He would talk to an ortho-tech and say he wanted to do a little experiment for another assignment he was working on and he needed a special brace for that, something that would keep the “lab-rat’s” spine immobile from torso and up. The tech gave him some brochures and wrote down a few prices for him and told him to choose from this and he’d see what he could do.
We met and after thinking about how much it was wise to spend on a brace without it being noticeable for my financials, I decided that a Jewett hyperextension brace and a 2-poster fitted together would be restrictive enough and the cost would be well within my range.
Three weeks later, right before Christmas, Anna went down to the university library to read for an exam she had the next day. I used the chance and drove to my chat room-friend’s house to pick up the brace he’d gotten for me 2 days before. It looked great. I regretted a little not having spent the extra money on a clamshell, but once Alan, my friend, had helped me to put the Jewett on and fitted the superstructure to it, the regret flew away. After a little adjustment the brace was in perfect place and my spine couldn’t move from my hips to my head. My “little friend downstairs” was having as much fun as I was and I could see by the cruel grin on Alan’s face that I would have to get used to the brace before wearing it in public. It wouldn’t do to have the pecker trying to escape…that, combined with the massive brace, would just be too funny to look at.
Anyway, I paid Alan back the money he’d put out for the brace, took it off and wrapped it in a huge plastic bag and drove home.
Getting into my flat I discovered I’d forgotten two things. Anna spent most of her time at home, so when was I supposed to get to wear my brace? And where could I hide it?
I decided to go down to the basement and put the brace in a safe place in our storage-room. I would just have to figure out later when to wear it. The main thing was I’d gotten my first back-brace and I was thrilled.
When Anna came home that night I felt a bit nervous. This was the first time since she moved in that I’d thought seriously about bracing. I almost felt like I was cheating on her. Maybe now was the time to tell her? No, not yet. I trusted Anna and I felt like I knew her better than herself, but still… There is quite nothing that prepares someone for “Oh, by the way, I really enjoy posing as an injured person. What would you like for dinner?” I would have to wait.
Being the angel she is, Anna sensed that something was bothering me. Even if she had an important exam the next day, we cuddled for hours and then made long, passionate love. I think she had about 3 hours of sleep before she had to wake up and go to the university. But she never complains. It’s like she enjoys making me feel good when I’m down.
So, the weeks pass again. Every time Anna went out, I snuck down to the basement and got my brace. I’d take it upstairs and wear it for one or two hours before returning it to the storage-room. It felt so good, being unable to bend and feeling the brace press against my body and my head. Anna sometimes wondered why I was so frisky and in the mood for love-making when she’d been away. If only she had known… One time She got home earlier than I’d expected and I’d just been in the basement, returning the brace. She felt awfully tired and suggested we went straight to bed. Of course I agreed and we slid under the sheets. We lied against each other and talked for a while before her eyes became funny, you know, like when your concentrating on something.
“Hey, what’s that?” she asked and pointed at my chest.
“What?” I asked and looked down. I wasn’t quite prepared for what I saw. The pads on the Jewett brace had left marks on my chest and since it was such a short time since I took it of, they were still visible. I was busted. I had to think real fast.
“Oh,” I stuttered. “I don’t know, must be from watching the TV. I fell asleep in the couch, lying on my belly…”
“Oh?” she said, and that was it. No more questions.
It was a close call and after this I decided not to wear the brace for such a long time it would leave marks. That didn’t leave very much time, but it would have to do. Hours and hours I spent thinking about how I could extend the time with my brace on and how I could wear it in public. Then one day, my answer came all by itself.
I was at work, trying to figure out how the new look for the home-cooking section in the magazine should be. Somehow, I didn’t feel like making graphic connection to pots and grocery. I had been working a lot that week and was kind of worn out. So the editor walks to me and asks me to see him in his office. I went along and sat down, facing him and a big window with a beautiful view over a park.
“Ed,” he started. “You’ve been with us for some time now…..”
Oh, no! Was I getting kicked? I couldn’t believe it.
“How would you feel,” he continued, “about getting a week off? There is a seminar in London where they will teach the participants the basics of that new program from Touch-it. Since we’ve printed a lot about Touch-it programs, they’ve invited us to send someone on the seminar for free. Afterwards you can write something about it. The seminar will last for two days and you’ll have the rest of the week off. How does that sound?”
Wow, I was thrilled.
“Well, thank you sir. This is… this is… really nice.”
So, there it was. The chance to wear a brace for 5 days! This was better than I could have wished for. That night I took Anna out for lunch and told her the news. She was very happy and proud that it had been me who was offered the trip but not one of the older guys in the graphic-department. Although I didn’t really want her to come with me, I still asked if we should scrape together some money to buy an extra ticket.
“No,” she said. “I’ve got too much to do for school. You must promise though, to call me every night?”
“Every night and every morning,” I replied and reached for her hand to kiss it.
The dinner was really great but the whole time I was planning my bracing in London.
So the day came that Anna dropped me off at the airport. Early that morning, before she got up, I had taken my suitcase down to the basement and put my brace in it. I’d already packed the day before, but I left the suitcase only half-full so I could fit the massive brave in there.
After a long goodbye and a few tears, Anna waved me off and I was ready to begin the adventure.
Arriving in London I checked into my hotel and got unpacked. In my room there was a big closet so I put my brace in there and but a plastic sheet over it. I would have to go to the seminar without the brace, but the minute it would be over, I would put it on. That afternoon I took a cab to the place the seminar was held and was surprised that there were only about 40 of us enlisted.
The tutors were good, and I learned a lot those two days, but after the final lesson I went straight to my hotel and opened the closet in my room. This moment was almost as ceremonial as when they give out the Nobel’s. My heart was racing. I pulled of my jacket and trousers and took of my shirt. I put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Next, I took the brace and put it on. Few adjustments and I was set. For the remaining of the week I would only take it off to change T-shirts. I’d even bought a sponge so I could give myself a sponge bath and wouldn’t need to shower. Every detail was planned. I was going to get as much out of this experience as I could.
The first “brace-night” I went out for dinner. I wasn’t really dressed for anything fancy so I thought I’d just step out for fast-food. I put on a sports-coat and walked out of the hotel. Immediately I found people staring at me and some of them even gave me a smile as I passed them. I felt really good and inside I had the same feeling as I used to have as a kid, when I opened my birthday-presents. I was standing as tall as I could and the upper part of my body could not move an inch, except for my arms. Few blocks down the road I saw a hamburger place that wasn’t too crowded. I walked in and ordered a burger and fries. The girl who was working couldn’t take her eyes of my brace and I had to repeat my order twice so that she could get it right. When I was handing her the money she asked what had happened to my neck. I told her that I’d fallen when rock-climbing some weeks ago. She put on a caring face and told me to sit down; she’d bring my order to me.
This felt great. It was working! She really believed me. After a while she brought me my food and told me to call her if I needed anything else. I said “Thank you” and gave her a smile. Then I reached for my burger, which was actually out of sight, and brought it to my mouth. Oops. A problem. I couldn’t really open my mouth enough to put the burger in. After a quick solution-solving episode of my brain I took the upper bread of the burger and tried again. There wasn’t much space left, but it did the trick. Needless to say it is very funny to chew food with a massive neck-brace on and I must have spent half an hour just eating as simple of a meal as they get. When I finally finished I stood up, slowly, and waved the girl at the register goodbye, and headed to the street.
I was really getting into this. I felt like I’d worn that brace for months, it was so good and almost as if it was a part of me. I walked a bit down the road and came to a pub. Oh well, I thought. You haven’t really been to England if you haven’t been to a local pub. So in I went. I bought a beer and sat down at a table. There weren’t too many people in there, and none of them seemed to be interested about my brace. I wasn’t sure if I should feel left alone or accepted. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the beer, I don’t know, but I got myself another beer when I’d finished the first one and sat back down at the table.
As I was half-way through it the door opened and in came a girl. It was the girl from the fast-food place and she recognized me right away.
“Hi, you again?” she said and went straight to the bar. She said something to the bartender and then came back to my table with a beer in her hand.
“Mind if I sit down? You look kind of alone?” she asked but didn’t wait for my answer and sat down.
“So, where are you from? I can hear you’re not from the UK. Are you on a visit or business?” She had so many questions. I tried my best to answer them and even asked her some back. It turned out she was 22 years old and her father owned the pub. They lived upstairs but she didn’t want to be a barmaid for the rest of her life so she thought it would be just a little better to work at a burger-place while she finished her school.
“So, what are you studying?” I asked.
“Orthopedics,” she answered and all the blood drained from my face. If anyone could tell I was bluffing, she was the one. But it didn’t come to that. She did ask me about the brace though and I tried to tell her what I thought a regular patient would know. She than asked if I was married and I told her about Anna. She didn’t seem to have a problem with that. As a matter of fact she became a bit easier to talk with. It became clear to me that her only interest in me was the brace and I decided just to enjoy that. So we continued talking for the rest of the night.
Chapter Two
When it was time to go home she walked me outside.
“You know,” she said. “A friend of mine had to wear a hard collar once and she said that all the boys became a lot more interested in her while she was wearing it.”
“Oh, really?” I answered as if I didn’t know.
“Yeah. Do you think It’s also the other way around? I mean, have girls been more attracted to you since you had your brace?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t really been out that much since the accident,” I lied.
Coming to my hotel-room, I threw myself onto the bed and let out a small sigh of sheer joy. I’d done it. I’d actually let my dream come true, and I still had 4 days of it left. I stood up again after a while and got undressed. Taking my jeans off I discovered my “little friend” had been quite motivated. I thought about giving him a bit of a stroke, but then I thought again. If I’d really been injured, what would I do? I decided I’d go straight to sleep, although the tension was pretty near to keeping me up the whole night.
The next day I slept in late. I hadn’t gotten much sleep that night, so I was still pretty tired when I got up at 11 am. The first thing I felt was the chin pad, then the pad below my stomach. I quickly remembered what state I was in and a smile ran across my face. At the same time I was feeling very soar in my jaws, right at the back of them. After thinking it through I decided it was pretty normal under the circumstances so I didn’t think any more about it.
The sponge bath was pretty, how shall I put it, slow… This was my first time and I really wasn’t that good at it. Also the brace really did limit all movements of my body, also in a way I hadn’t thought that much about. like for instance when I was sitting on the toilet and planning to wash my feet. I bent my left leg towards me and stroked the sponge over my toes. Now, that doesn’t sound too difficult, but when you’re not able to bend at your lower back, upper back OR neck, this becomes quite a challenge. You only have a very limited vision of what you’re doing, and your arms only reach so far. Somehow I managed to finish off though, and put on some fresh clothes. I took the brace of for a minute to put on a new t-shirt, and already I felt kind of naked. I put the brace back on and started feeling good again.
The next step was to call Anna. “Hi, how are you? Why didn’t you call last night?” she asked. “Well, honey, we went to a pub to celebrate the end of the seminar,” I lied. “I was home pretty late and was really a bit too drunk to make much sense over the telephone.” She seemed to be OK with that so after the usual chit-chat I told her I loved her and that I’d call again that night.
It was closing to 3 pm when I finally got out of the hotel. I took a walk down some streets and learned a bit about the little things that make your life different when you’re in a brace. It could be hard to read street-signs, look both ways before crossing the street, looking the other way if someone was staring. All in all it was no big deal, but I can imagine that if your hurt after an accident, this can be one of the difficult things you have to deal with. The worst part was when I stood on a street corner, right across Big Ben, and I couldn’t put my head back to look up. But hey, it’s only a clock…
Well, somehow the day passed away too fast and I found myself really hungry. I thought about going back to the burger place, but instead I decided to go to the pub and get myself a real english pub-meal. When I found out that it consisted mostly of well-fried sausages and tomato-sauce I felt a bit guilty. I’d spent some years trying to change my diet at home and only eat food that’s good for me. I wasn’t chubby or anything, but I kinda felt like I was being rude to my heart, veins and the rest of my body, eating fast-food two nights in a row. But as I was on a vacation, and you can do anything whilst on one of those, I just ordered a large beer with it and sat down.
Needless to say, it was a lot easier to eat than the burger, and it tasted real good too. After the meal I just sat and looked at the other people. They were busy chatting, drinking, throwing darts or just looking at the walls. There wasn’t really anything going on and I must say I was wondering why I didn’t just leave. The door swung open and the answer walked in. It was Geri, the girl from last night, and another girl. They went to the bar and asked the bartender to give them two glasses of soda. I was facing a bit in another direction but still I couldn’t help noticing that under their coats they both had on the knee-length white dresses from the burger place. Obviously the other girl was working with Geri.
They stayed at the bar for a while and I tried not to stare. As they were both rather good looking I ended up finding it hard not to. Then Geri turns and sees me. “Hey Liz, come on, I want you to meet someone,” she said and pulled her friend towards me. I tried to look as if I hadn’t noticed them and seemed very surprised. “Hi. Nice to see you again,” I said and tried to nod towards her. It didn’t really work but she got the intention. “Ed, this is Liz, my friend I was telling you about, you know, the one that had to wear the collar,” Geri said and Liz put her hand towards me for a shake. She was dark-haired and a bit shorter than Geri, but not at all worse looking. “Hi Ed, Geri was telling me about you earlier at work. She said you hurt yourself rock-climbing, is that right?” she asked. “Well, actually it was more of a rock-falling,” I replied with a smile and tried to look as if I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. The truth was that I’d never tried rock-climbing and didn’t want to have to answer questions about it. Luckily she didn’t ask any, but instead told me how she’d hurt herself two years ago. “I was just sitting at a bench in the park in front of our school, just reading a book. Then this boy comes up behind me and pulls the bench backwards. He caught me totally by surprise so I landed rather badly on my side and my neck kinda snaps, but not really, you know,” she said and I nodded. Well, I meant to…
Anyway, we talk a bit about the time she was in her collar and how it affected her life. Finally she said: “But I swear it was worth it. All the guys wanted to talk to me and asked if I was alright. It was the only time they treated me like a lady, sort of.” Geri laughed. “That’s not true you silly,” she said, smiling. “But I know what you mean. Remember the time I was in cast?” she asked Liz. “I think I didn’t carry one single book the whole eight weeks. I honestly believe guys get a kick out of injured girls. Is that the case with you Ed,” she asked me with a joking-tone in her voice. “Well, not really,” I managed to lie, yet again. “But on the other hand I think it’s true we pay more attention to girls if they are wearing a cast or a brace. But I think that’s only because we like to feel needed and a person who is hurt is more likely to need someone to help her. I think that’s why you had all these boys around you… Finally they had an excuse.”
They seemed to be satisfied with that explanation so I asked Geri how she’d ended up in a cast. “Oh, it was silly,” she said. “I was sneaking out of my bedroom, which is upstairs, and I meant to use the emergency-steps on the side of the house. Well, it was dark and it had rained earlier that day, so I didn’t really see where I was putting my foot, slipped and fell down about 10 feet or so. I landed pretty badly on my leg and had to wear a full-leg cast for eight weeks, and then a knee-brace for six more. It was pretty boring, but most of all the time I had to stay home in my bed, the first week or so. That was terrible.” She finished her soda and looked me in the eyes. “But what about you? Any girls made a pass on you today?” she asked with interest. “No, not that I recall. There were those two who I met at a pub,” I continued as a joke, “and they seemed awfully nice. Still I think they just wanted to brag about their own luck with boys, knowing I couldn’t turn my head away in a shame…” They both put on a small smile. Suddenly Liz’s eyes lit up. “Hey Ed, when do you go back home?” she asked. “Three days from now, Thursday,” I replied.
She then went on to tell me about a club not too far away that was having some sort of a party on Wednesday night. “Why don’t you come with us, and we can see if any girls suddenly snaps like a magnet to your brace.” I didn’t really know what to say. Sure, I wanted to go, but maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go to a club in another country all alone, well except for two nice girls I didn’t know at all. “Come on Ed,” Geri agreed. “It will be fun. Your last night in England has got to be a bit special, doesn’t it?” I could not argue to that so we made it a deal. I would meet them at the pub at 8 pm and we would share a cab to the club. We talked some more that night, but my neck and back were starting to really hurt around midnight so I told the girls goodnight and walked to my hotel.
The next two days I pretty much spent walking around or riding buses around London. They have a great deal of cool museums and buildings there, so I bought a cheap camera and took a lot of photos. It was a bit hard, not being able to tilt the head and all, but I managed.
I called Anna every night and every morning, but didn’t tell her about the brace or Liz or Geri. To me it seemed all innocent because I figured they were more interested in the brace than in me. She’d ask me what I was doing and I told her pretty much all of it, but kept out the parts where I’d need to explain about the brace.
The first three days were quite bad on the back and the neck. As I learned to relax more and not to strain against the brace, the pain started to ease off. I was beginning to long for a shower when I woke up Wednesday morning, but I was going to go through with this the whole way, the whole time, so I gave myself a sponge bath.
Anyway, around 7 pm I but on a better set of clothes and headed to the pub. When I came there Liz and Geri had already sat down and both had each beer. I went to the bar and ordered one for me and sat down with them.
“Hi,” Liz started. “You look really good tonight. I bet you will be floating in girls.” This embarrassed me a bit but Geri came to my rescue. “Oh, don’t worry; I know you have a girlfriend. We’ll keep an eye on you for her,” she said with a smile. “Thanks,” I said. “I’m sure she´ll be glad.”
I couldn’t help looking at them. They were both dressed in tight short dresses and had either long stockings or pantyhose on an high heeled strap sandals. Their hair was done in similar ways so I figured this was “it” for girls in London today. As a matter of fact I could also see why. They looked stunning.
We finished our beers and went outside to grab a taxi. At first I didn’t really know how to get in, but after a little time I managed, without any serious damage. In fact, I only bumped my head three times. Pretty good for a first time, I thought. During the ride, we didn’t say too much. The girls sat on each site to me and I could obviously not turn my head to speak to them. I felt their bodies next to mine and I could see their feet from knee-down. Other than that they were out of my reach.
I had put on a shirt and jacket and the uprights of the two-poster came up from the shirt. Other than that I thought the brace wouldn’t be too noticeable.
The club was quite special. It had two floors and a DJ on each one. It was filled with young people and most of them were spread out on two huge dance floors. The music was very fresh and cool and I really liked the place the minute I got in. We had skipped the line because Geri knew one of the door-men and had talked him into letting us pass. “He’s not really comfortable standing. It’s best to get him inside and get him seated,” she had said, pointing at me. The guy seemed OK with that so Geri gave him a kiss on the cheek and we walked in.
We sat down at a small table and ordered a drink from a waitress that seemed to have lost most of her clothes. “How do you like it?” Liz shouted over the music. “It’s great!” I replied smiling and tried to nod my head to the beat of the music. When was I going to learn…?
For a while we just sat there and exchanged a few lines. The music didn’t really allow much conversation so we didn’t bother. After a while some guy comes to our table and places his arms around Liz. They said something to each other and then they were off to the dance floor. Geri turned to me and explained. “This is our friend Leo. They used to go out couple of years ago but they’re just friends now.” It sounded like she was justifying things for me. Strange.
As I was clearly not going to be involved in much dancing for that night, I felt bad about keeping Geri off the floor. She was obviously in the mood to party but instead she had to keep an eye on brace-man. “Listen,” I started. “If you want to go and dance, it’s OK by me. I’ll be fine just sitting here.” She shook her head. “I’m fine. Maybe later. Thanks though.” So, we just sat and chatted.
At some part, during that night, three girls came to our table and sat down. Geri introduced them to me, but partly because the music was loud and partly because I’d had a few drinks, I didn’t really catch their names. They all looked beautiful and I started to think that Geri and Liz were in some kind of a babe-clan where they only allowed you to enroll if you had certain looks. Good looks.
Anyway, the girls stayed for a while and we all talked a little. Mostly about a rather boring boyfriend one of them had, but also about me and my brace. They seemed concerned but not in any way as interested as Geri or Liz. After about half an hour they wanted to go dancing and asked us to join. “I really can’t move that much, I’m sorry. I really would have loved to dance with you all though,” I excused myself. Geri just gave them a smile and a wink and they were off. I didn’t really want to spoil her night so I told her my back was beginning to hurt, which was true, and that I’d needed to go to my hotel. She looked at her watch. “Listen. I really would like one dance with you before you go and they’ll start playing slower music upstairs in about twenty minutes. Can you please wait that long?”
What could I say? Of course I wanted to dance to this gorgeous girl and she was practically offering me a slow-dance. I thought about Anna and if I would feel OK if she did the same with some guy. Finally I decided that Geri would mostly be dancing to my brace and I didn’t really want to miss out on the experience of holding a beautiful girl in my arm while in the brace. I therefore told her I’d wait and for the first time did not try to nod my head. I was getting used to this life.
Some thirty minutes later we went upstairs and she’d been right. The music had really slowed down, but was at the same time very modern, in a drum ‘n’ bass kind of way. We went to the dance floor and she placed her arms around me. I did the same, feeling a little guilty. We moved really slowly, but in rhythm with the music, and Geri put her head on my shoulder. In the high heels she was wearing she stood almost as tall as I did. I wanted to tilt my head a little to make contact with hers, but I knew I couldn’t. We danced through 3 or four songs and then the music started to speed up again. It must have been some sort of a tradition, since Geri had known about it. When I asked her if we should sit down again, she lifted her head, looked me in the eyes, grabbed hold of the front upright of my brace with both hands and gave me a long, passionate kiss. At first I didn’t know what to do, but then I gave in. Her lips just felt too good to miss. Our tongues did a little Swan-lake-dancing with each other and we finished in a long hug.
Shit. What was I thinking? I was practically cheating on my girlfriend. I walked to the wall and sat down. She followed and sat down beside me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just really wanted to.” I was really not sure what to say. “It’s OK,” I started. “It’s not your fault. I wanted this too. I just can’t, you know…” She nodded and looked a little sad. “Hey,” I said in a comforting way. “I said it’s OK. Come on, let’s go out of here and take a walk or something” She agreed and we went outside.
The London night is a bit chilly. It didn’t really bother me and Geri had a coat so she was fine. We walked for a while before she started. “You know, I really am sorry. It’s just that I couldn’t control myself. I’ve wanted to do this since the other night at the bar.”
“Hey, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry so much about it,” I replied. I didn’t want to dwell on this for long. It had after all only been a kiss.
“No, it IS a big deal,” she said. “But you wouldn’t understand.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re not like me, almost no one is,” she answered.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it´s…. No, I don’t want to tell you. It’s too embarrassing,” she sounded really depressed.
We stopped walking and I turned to her and put my hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. Normally I would feel like the luckiest guy in the world after tonight. But, you know, I love my girlfriend and…”
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s something much more embarrassing.”
“Listen,” I started. “At the same time tomorrow I’ll be gone. Nothing but a memory for you. I don’t know anyone you know apart from Liz and I’m not sure I’ll meet her before I leave anyway. So why don’t we just sit down and you’ll tell me?”
She thought about it for a while and then nodded her head.
We sat down and she tried to build up the courage.
“Well, it’s just that I really…” she started but didn’t continue.
After a pause she began again. “You know how people like different things?”
“Yes,” I replied without really knowing what she meant.
“Well, it’s like some people really like to sit in front of a fireplace and drink red wine and that’s what does it for them. You know what I mean?”
“You mean like getting pleasure from life?! I asked.
“Kinda,” she replied. “But I’m talking more like, you know man and woman stuff, romance and lovemaking and all that.”
I started to wonder if she’d really had that much more to drink than I had.
“Well,” she went on. “There are those who like to dress up, you know, leather or PVC. And then there are those who like bondage. Do you know what I mean?” she asked and looked me in the eyes with a worried face.
“Yeah, I guess.” I said and reflected shortly on my “thing” in my mind.
“Well. The thing is that for me, its braces.” She said with a lower voice, turning away in embarrassment.
It took a while for me to register.
“What?” I said a bit startled. “You mean like my brace?”
She nodded but didn’t turn. I guess she was crying, or at least holding back the tears.
This was incredible, a pretty girl like that in a foreign country sharing my feelings for braces. And no more than 15 hours until my flight would leave. I thought this over a few times and made up my mind to tell her about my secret.
“You know, I know how you feel,” I began. “I have exactly the same feelings.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” she said, still facing away from me. “I’m sorry, but I was just really attracted to you in your brace and really wanted to do something about it. Most guys would have played along but I had to try the only one who is loyal to his girlfriend. But don’t make fun of me. It’s just what I am. I feel bad enough about it as it is.”
“No, I’m telling you the truth. I DO know how you feel. I am a bracer too.” And so I went on and told her the whole story, from the day my sister hurt her neck and to the present moment. In return, she told me about how she had become friends with Liz after she hurt her neck, just to be in her company while she was wearing the collar. She also told me she had a collar of her own back home she’d bought in a pharmacy and that the real reason she was studying orthopedics was that she wanted to work with braces and wanted to be able to make new and beautiful braces for other people, but mostly for herself. Her final project in workshop-class this year would be a clamshell and she was going to ask a classmate of hers to join team with her and they’d make one for each.
We talked a lot that night but mostly about braces. She wanted to know how I felt in mine and asked if she could try it on. I thought about it for a while, and since it was getting really late and we needed to get back home I told her that if she’d join me for coffee in my hotel-room she could try my brace on.
She agreed and we went on to take a taxi to the hotel. On the way we stopped at a 24 hours coffee-shop and got ourselves some coffee to go. While back at the hotel, we drank it and talked a little about bracing. After I finished my coffee she helped me to get my shirt off and then assisted me in taking off the brace. it felt weird taking it off but all good things must come to an end and my flight back home was the next day.
When the brace was off she held it in her hands for a while and just looked at it.
“You can use the bathroom if you want to change. I suppose you know how to put it on.”
She nodded her head and went into the bathroom without saying a word. I sat down and took a soda from the mini-bar. I’d had enough alcohol for the night.
Few minutes later the bathroom-door opened and she came out. She had nothing on except for her high heels, her panties, a bra and my brace. She had had to do some adjustments to it, but not too much. She stood in the doorway, looking so happy and so sexy. My little guy reacted like a well-trained soldier and my jaw fell half-way to my chest. “You look…stunning,” I gasped.
“Thank you,” she said and walked towards me with a smile on her face. The brace looked so much better on her body than mine and she somehow managed to move her hips in a very feminine way although she was restricted from waist and up.
She sat on my lap and placed her arms around me. I put my soda on the floor. She couldn’t bend so she grabbed my chin and moved it up to her mouth and gave me a long kiss. This time I didn’t mind at all. The sight of her in almost nothing but the brace was simply enough to make me forget Anna. I put my arms around her waist and hugged her. The feeling was strange. It felt like holding something that was blend of a perfect female and a shell or a support-frame. It did feel wonderful.
Chapter Three
Geri then stood up slowly, still kissing me, and pulled me by the string of my trousers towards the bed. We stood next to it for a while and kissed and hugged and fondled each other. Soon she had her right hand inside my pants and me little soldier was being given the best pat he’d ever gotten. I slowly slid my right palm towards her panties, and slipped two fingers inside it. I gently stroked her and caressed her until I felt the warm wetness on my fingers. I took my left palm off her right breast and slid myself slowly down, taking her panties off on the way. Since she was unable to bend she had no option but to stand still, looking at the walls and pleasantly moan while I stroked her thighs and let my tongue play to her most sensitive areas. She grabbed me by the head and thrust me against her, letting out an even higher moan than before. Next she pulled my head in short movements up and down, up and down. She was getting that anatomical rhythm people get when they long so much for sex that they’re about to burst into hot flames. I did my best to keep playing with her, but she pulled me up to her face, kissed me a deep kiss and then whispered in my ear in a seductive way: “I broke my back yesterday, but I really want you to have sex with me. Long, hard, wild sex. My brace will make it all right for you to take me as hard as you want.” She was obviously playing this like the game I’d played. Only she was so sexy doing it. She then closed her eyes and kissed me again, sitting down on the bed, pulling me down and back with her until I was lying on top of her on the bed
I pulled off my trousers and pants and kicked off my socks, leaving me naked. Geri still had her bra and heels on. I grabbed the jewett by the sides, pulled Geri’s body to mine and opened her bra in the front. Since she’d put the brace on over the bra, it didn’t really come of easily so I just let it be and sucked her nipples while I let my fingers pleasure her even more, getting them all warm and wet.
Finally she pulled me by the hips and assisted the little soldier to find his way in. She was so warm, so hot, so wet and sooo sexy. She felt better than all the girls I’d met put into one. She couldn’t move a lot, but she thrust her hips against mine and let out a loud sigh. The brace was clearly magnifying her sensation to an extend she hadn’t expected. She stopped breathing for a while and held her breath down and then let it out with a giggle.
“Take me, please take me! I need you to take me now!” She moaned as a helpless deer. I was in no way unprepared to submit myself to her wishes and as we had the best sex of my life, I watched her C-cup breasts jiggle and bounce against the sides and top of the jewett-brace. This made me so excited that I came in the most intense way I’d ever known and to magnify it, Geri came at the same time, making her body squeeze my active soldier in every stroke, with a punching rhythm and shivering motion.
I was done. I fell asleep lying almost on top of her, holding her and the brace as she started her silent cry of sheer pleasure, with tears rolling down from her eyes. We’d both experienced pure bliss.
The next morning I woke up, seeing Geri putting on her dress. She had nothing else on, except for her shoes, which I suspect she slept in. The brace was laid next to the bed, on a chair. She moved in a quiet motion, probably trying not to wake me. “Geri? Good morning.” I said with a friendly voice. She turned and smiled. “Morning,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind but I have to get myself ready. Liz called me on my cell-phone 20 minutes ago and said she’d come and pick me up.” I hope you don’t mind but since you are awake I think it would be best if you put your brace back on if you’re going to meet Liz. She doesn’t know about my thing for braces and it would get kinda hard to explain.”
“But I thought Liz was a bracer too, she seemed very interested,” I said riddled. “No,” Geri answered. “Not that I know of, but it’s true she does seem to have the interest.” After thinking about this all, and last night, for a few minutes I got out of bed and started to re-adjust the brace for me. I was really sad I would never get to see Geri wearing it again, but that’s how life goes.
Ten minutes later, Liz was there. She kissed Geri on the cheek and gave me a smile and a small wave when she walked into the room. “So, Ed,” she said. “What time do you have to be at the airport?”
“Eeerrr, 1 pm,” I managed to remember. “What?!” they both asked. “But it’s 12 pm now!” Liz shouted and looked at her watch. “You’ll have to get moving!” I looked at my watch. She was right. I’d overslept and the airport was 35 minutes away, possibly more if the traffic was heavy. I started picking my things together and as Geri and Liz helped me we cleared out the place and had my things packed in twenty minutes flat.
“Shit,” I cursed as we walked fast out of the room towards the lobby. “I’m never going to get there in time.”
“Don’t worry,” Liz said. “I’ll drive you. We’ll take a short cut outside the main road.” After I checked out we went to Liz’s car and she took off towards the airport. On the way I started to think about Anna and felt the guilt coming over me. I had done a terrible thing and broken the agreement we had done without words. I had cheated on my girlfriend.
The way to the airport seemed shorter now than the day I arrived and as I waved the girls goodbye and walked into the terminal with my bags I started to feel real bad about last night. To top it off, the metal detector went off when I walked through. At first I couldn’t understand why, but as the guard just smiled at me and waved me though without searching me I suddenly remembered: I had put the brace on this morning and was still wearing it!
I sat down and wondered if I should go to the restroom and take it off before the flight. On the end I decided to wear it. The plane landed in another town from where I lived and I would have time to take it off there before I went home to meet Anna. So I proceeded to check-in and then walked straight to the plain, feeling good about extending my brace-time.
The flight was quite pleasant. The crew was really nice to me and I had extra pillows to make the journey more comfortable. One of the stewardesses even sat down next to me and asked me what’d happened. I told her the “rock-falling” story and she went on to tell me to be brave and not to give up. Things seemed bad at first, but they’d get better. She’d been in a bicycle accident two years ago and had to spend almost a whole year in a clamshell. “Then they decided to fuse my back and now I wear a lot smaller brace,” she said and knocked on her tummy, making a solid plastic sound. She smiled when I looked a little surprised. “This is my second flight after the accident. I only have a few weeks left of rehab and I’ll get rid of the brace the day after tomorrow. My doctor said it would do me good to get back to work.” We talked a little about back problems and when she went back to her duties I couldn’t help but to feel both a little sad on her behalf, missing out almost to years, but also quite happy and excited, having experienced the luck to meet her.
The rest of the flight passed quickly and when we landed the other passengers made room for me to be one of the first to get of the plane. I started thinking about if I should try this again sometime, over a longer period of time. All in all, things had gone more than a little good for me the past days. The minus was that I had been unfaithful, but under other circumstances I would have been thrilled to have met Geri.
After retrieving my bags I walked towards the exit of the terminal and started thinking about where to take the brace off. As I walked through the gate to the hall were people were waiting, I heard a familiar voice.
“Oh my god, Eddie, what happened?!”
I turned my whole body and saw Anna coming running towards me with a worried face. She had decided to surprise me and meet me there and drive with me back home…
Chapter Four
Naturally I was in what you could call a bit of a shock. Why was Anna at the airport? Why had I decided to wear the brace? What on earth was I going to tell her?
“Eeeeerrr… It’s not as bad as it looks honey,” I managed to say before she put her arms around me and then suddenly jumped back and apologized for hurting me.
“No no, it’s ok,” I said in a comforting tone. “I’m not really in any pain and nothing is broken.”
“What do you mean, nothing is broken?” Anna asked. “Are you telling me that all this is for a sprain or what'”
“Eeeerrrr…..” I was lost.
I somehow managed to calm Anna down and we sat down at a table in the airport launch. I went on to tell her about how I had been drinking with “the guys” and had fallen from a table I’d been dancing on. I figured since I obviously had to lie to her and I felt bad about that, I might make the story a bit embarrassing for me, just to ease my conscious. So I told her my spine had bruised in few places and there were tiny cracks in 3 of the bones in my back. Not enough to be dangerous, but certainly nothing to play about with. So the doctors had decided to put me in this brace for some time, to ease the stress on my spine while it healed completely.
She bought the story and nodded her head with a really caring look on her face. We talked a bit about my “injury” and the trip. I told her most of what had happened, but of course left out Liz and Geri. She seemed so worried about me I had to tell her over and over again that I was fine.
Shit. What had I done? How was I going to lie my way out of this? This obviously meant wearing the brace full-time for some time, which was a good thing, but also it meant lying to everyone, all the discomfort of wearing a brace in normal day’s life and not taking a bath for at least a month…. Now THAT was just too much. I decided I would tell Anna I could take the brace off for one hour each day, just to bathe. That way I could live through some weeks at least.
Anna helped me carry my things to the car (she had taken a bus) and sat in the driver’s seat. On the way home we talked a lot, she asking questions about how it had happened, how it had felt, how was I doing and so on. Suddenly, after a small pause she asked me “How long do you have to wear this thing?”
Uh-oh. Now what? I had made up an injury I didn’t know anything about because it sounded small enough not to upset Anna too much. Problem was, I didn’t know how long that sort of injury would need to be treated, if at all.
“Oh, anything from three weeks to three months, depending on how well things go,” I lied, thinking it gave me an opportunity to later decide how long I would really wear the brace.
“So do you have to meet a doctor or something?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied, figuring it was the right answer.
“When?” she asked.
“Next week,” I replied.
“What day?” she asked.
“Uh, Wednesday,” I replied.
“Oh?” she said.
Arriving at home, Anna carried the bags upstairs and I followed. What was done was done. I just had to play my role now and carry on with it. After a small cuddling-time where Anna hardly dared to kiss me, she offered to call my boss and tell him I wouldn’t be showing up for work for some time. I thought about it for a few seconds: If I took a long vacation they would want to see a note from the doctor or the insurance company, in order to pay my salary. If I didn’t have any note, I wouldn’t get paid. But if I came to work the first day after the trip it would seem too small of an injury for that huge brace. So I told Anna “Tell him I’ll be there in two or three days.”
That way I could manage without the doctor’s note.
Well, to cut the story short, life went on. I went to work and everyone was really worried. After adjusting the height of my monitor I could work without great troubles and my boss said something about them needing more employees like me. If he only knew…
Anna finally started to trust the brace to hold my back in place and we started making love again. The first time I couldn’t help but to wonder what it would feel like if it was Geri on top of me but not Anna. I forced myself then to put Geri out of my mind and succeeded up to an agreeable point.
Occasionally I would fake a little pain in the back or my neck, just to be convincing. I took the brace off for one hour every night to bathe and was careful to move around more slowly without it on. On Tuesday-night Anna came into the bathroom while I was taking a bath. She had to use the toilet and since we were, well a little more than close, it didn’t bother her to use it even if I was naked in the bath. Afterwards, she put the seat down and sat on it again.
“How are you?” she asked for the twentieth time that day. She sure cared for me.
“Pretty fine, it’s good to be out of the brace,” I replied. It wasn’t all lie. It was becoming rather frustrating not being able to do all the things I usually could.
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Anna said a small pause. “How does it feel to wear it anyway?”
“Well, it holds you in place. I think that’s the best way to describe it,” I said and put my hands down to my little fellow who was already thinking ahead of me, about Anna wearing the brace.
“Would you like to try it?” I asked. Anna looked at me silently for few seconds.
“Is that OK?” she asked. Her voice didn’t really sound as she was excided, more like she was just wondering. Perhaps she was faking it though?
“Sure,” I said. “If you do it now, before my hour is up.
She asked me then to help her putting it on and I went out of the bath, slowly, trying to hide my erection. I put a towel around my waist and asked Anna to take her top of. Of course I only wanted to see her topless with the brace, but I told her it would be more comfortable that way. While adjusting the brace I kissed her on the back of her head and told her how much I loved her taking so good care of me.
With the brace on, Anna looked…. better than everything I’d ever seen before. Geri was way out of my head now and all I could think about was that my beautiful Anna was wearing my brace, topless, and that I wasn’t allow to move my spine a lot. We walked around and talked and Anna said she didn’t really like the feel of the brace, but it was informing to know how it felt. She tried to bend her back but with little success.
“How do you tolerate this the whole day?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t really have a choice, do I?” I lied.
“But, like, you know,” she continued. “When we’re having sex do you feel very different?”
I stepped in front of her where she was standing next to our bed and started kissing her. “Want to try?” I asked. “Yes, ok.” she whispered.
So we did.
Chapter Five
Well, needless to say the sex was great, and afterwards Anna took the brace off and I put it back on. I had tried to move as little as I could, and Anna had insisted on being on top most of the time, so that I wouldn’t strain my back. It wasn’t easy for her, being so immobile, trying to do most of the movements she was used to when on top, but we had great sex none the less.
I slept like a log, strapped in my brace, and the next morning I felt really good – this whole thing was turning out real good. Who knows, maybe she’ll ask me again if she can wear the brace during sex or other stuff. Maybe she´ll even want one herself – that would be super.
“So your doctor’s appointment is today then?” Anna asked during breakfast, interrupting my deepest fantasies about her and braces.
“Huh, it is? – I mean; yeah I guess so, uh, Wednesday right?” I blurred out.
“Yeah, that’s what you said, isn’t it?” She asked, just to make sure I wasn’t missing it.
“Err, yes, it is. I guess I should be off then,” I said, looking at the clock. “I have an appointment at 9:30 am, before I go to work.” I figured going off early would give me some time to think this over: Was I going to get the brace removed? Was I going to have made any progress at all? I just hadn’t thought about it yet.
“Oh, well then let me drive you. It’s no sense in taking a taxi when I don’t have to go to school until after lunch,” Anna said, taking her last sip of orange juice and standing up from the table, ready to go.
Shit. Now what? Was I going to have to tell her the truth? No way – this was gone too far for that. I would have to play along and just walk around the hospital I guess, while she waited in the car for the appointment to be over. This was awful risky though.
“No, it’s OK, I don’t know how long I’ll be and besides I’ll just go to work when I’m finished. Don’t worry about it.” I said with a casual tone.
“Oh don’t be such an idiot!” Anna said with a fake mocking tone in her voice. “You know you’d insist if I was the one going to the hospital…”
We debated a little and finally I gave in – I would have to think of a way to make the whole thing look real.
So we went to the car, Anna in the driver-seat and me in the passenger-seat, and off we drove. The whole way I thought of how I could make this look real. How long time would I have to spend inside to make it credible? What should I tell her the doctor would say? And so on and so on.
We didn’t speak much on the way. I guess Anna felt I was a bit nervous, although she didn’t have a slightest clue why.
When in front of the hospital Anna parked the car and took the keys out.
“Ok, honey, let’s go inside,” she said and although I was forced to face forward I could see in the corner of my eye that she was giving me a comforting smile.
“No, it’s OK, I’ll rather do this on my own,” I told her, trying to be somewhere between shy and proud.
“Ed,” she said. “What’s gone into you? You’ve never acted like this before. Why won’t you let me assist you and help you through this?” She was obviously a little hurt.
“Oh, come on Anna,” I nagged. “It’s just that I don’t want you to feel too obligated to me, just because I’m a little hurt. I want to be able to think that you’re not giving away too much time and effort towards me now, because the truth is, I can manage on my own.”
I felt really ashamed for saying this, and the worst part was not being able to look her in the eyes.
“Ed.” She was dead-serious. “I like to take care of you, OK? I love you. That means I want to be able to help you when I can and I know that you would do the same for me. Besides this helps a little bit to overcome the shock I got when I first saw you. You know, it wasn’t easy at all to know that you’d been hurt and there was nothing that I could do for you. Not being there when it happened was also hard on me. I felt so helpless Ed.” I could hear that she had at least one tear in her eye. I couldn’t do this. I am by nature a rather soft person so seeing how much this all had upset Anna, I had to give in. It was time to tell her.
“Anna. There is something I have to tell you,” I started.
“Yes?” she said.
“Well. It’s not easy and it’s going to take a while so please sit back and relax.”
She did and I went on to tell her that the brace I wore wasn’t at all as necessary as I had said. In fact it was more of a pleasuring thing for me than anything else. I told her that there hadn’t been any accident. There wasn’t really anything wrong with my back. I then told her all about how it began, how I had gotten the brace, how I’d hidden it from her and how I had been happy to get the chance to go to England in order to wear the brace. I also told her that I had meant to take the brace off on the way home so that she would never had noticed if she hadn’t come to the airport to pick me up.
There was an awkward silence.
“Anna, are you alright?” I asked. “I know this is weird and you might think it’s kinky, but it doesn’t have to hurt anyone and I can’t do a think about it. It’s just the way I am. The reason I didn’t want to tell you about this is that you would probably think of me as some sort of a freak. But I really didn’t want to lie to you, and right now that’s even a worse feeling than how afraid I am of what you’re thinking of me.”
“So this is all some sort of a joke?” Anna asked with an angry tone.
“No, honey, it’s not a joke. It’s a fetish. I have a huge fetish for braces and casts. You know, like some people like leather or bondage. As a matter a fact there are people who like to urinate on each other as a part of their sex-games. I actually find this much saner than that.”
“So do you just do this to turn you on or something?” she asked. She was starting to get the idea, but I don’t think she was anywhere near to accepting it.
“No, not only. I mean, it is a huge sexual drive for me, but I also just enjoy it to wear braces. And while I’m wearing a brace I feel better about myself than normally. I know you must think I’m sick or something, but…”
“No no, it’s ok,” she interrupted with a cold voice, slid the key into the ignition and started the car. “Let’s go home and finish this talk there.”
“OK,” I said and we went off.
We didn’t talk much on the way home either.
When entering our apartment, Anna went to the bedroom, closed the door and went threw herself on the bed. I stood like a dork for a while, but found that to be rather boring so I sat down in the living room sofa, turned on the television and tried to focus on what was going on in the movie or show or whatever was on that darn screen anyway.
Time passed.
Finally, about 3 pm, Anna came out of the bedroom, looking firm and dedicated.
“Ed,” she said with a superior tone. “I’ve already called your office and my school. We are not going to show up for the day.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“No,” she confirmed.
Than she sat down next to me, rubbed her hands together and looked at the floor for a while.
“Ed,” she sad still with that superior tone. “I want you to tell me all about the brace. Where it comes from, who got it for you, why you like it and so on.”
“OK.” I replied. Was she going to show interest or was this something else?
I went on to tell her about my first fascination of braces as a kid. I then told her how lucky I’d felt when I discovered the websites. She than asked to see some of the sites, so we moved towards the computer and I punched in the URL of some of my most visited sites. She had a lot of questions, like “what’s that for”, “what does that do”, “can you bend over in this”, “what does that word mean”, “is this still being used” and “what do you call that”. She also asked me why I liked being immobilized and I tried to answer her best I could.
Afterwards Anna seemed somewhat eased but very deeply thinking about something. She didn’t say much for the rest of the day but other than that, things seemed fine.
The next morning Anna was already up and dressed when I awoke. I had asked her the night before if she wanted me to stop wearing the brace. She had said no and we had gone to sleep.
“Anna,” I said hesitating. “Are you OK?”
“Sure,” she said with a metallic steadiness. “You?”
“Err… yeah, sure,” I managed to spit out. I sat up and started to dress. She came over, pushed me softly down on the bed again and looked me in the eyes.
“Ed, yesterday I called your office and said that something had happened with your back earlier that night so you had to be taken to the doctors’ office. Now, it wouldn’t look good if you showed up the very next day seeming fit and well, now would it?”
“Guess not,” I stuttered.
“Right,” she continued. “So you’ll have to stay in for at least 4 or 5 more days I figure.”
“Uu…blah…yeah, sure, OK.” I was hardly awake and this wasn’t really making much sense to me.
Anna left for school and I had the next days to myself. I used the opportunity to get some time off from the brace. I spent the days watching television, fixing things at home that had gotten delayed, organize my CD, video and DVD collections, going through our book-keepings and then, of course, surfing the Internet for pictures and stories about braces. I discovered one site that I hadn’t seen before and contained information about a study that was being made in a nearby university about magnetic-powered-braces. The site told the story of how this could be helpful, especially in the cases when the patient has to be able to use the braced limb for work etc. I examined that site a bit and wondered what braces of the future would be like. Would we have t-shirts and jeans powered with batteries and equipped with magnetic parts that would do all the healing? The technology of today was clearly making its way into the orthopedic industry.
At nights, when Anna came home, I would have put the brace back on and greeted her the best I could, without being too much of a beggar. She was really moody the first 2 days, but then her mood got better and she finally crawled into my arms during the 4th night. One more day to go until I would show up to work and things were getting OK at home. Well, this would probably work out just fine in the end, right?
So. The last day of my “hospitalization” came with a buzzing alarm-sound. Anna knocked the snooze-button, rolled over, gave me a kiss on the cheek and stood out of bed.
“I’m coming home at around 1pm today,” she said.
“Oh, I thought you had school ‘til 5 today,” I replied.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to but I don’t have to show up for the last classes unless I want to.”
“OK, see you then,” I said and tried to get back to sleep.
I had just finished lunch (well, brunch really) when Anna came in. I was in the kitchen when she came so I couldn’t see her coming in, but I could hear that she brought something with her in a plastic bag. She came running into the kitchen, looking determined.
“Ed – to the bedroom, now,” she said, like a drill sergeant or a football coach.
“Yeah, but..:” I was cut off and pushed into the bedroom and on the bed.
“Take off your brace, I’ve got a new one for you to take to work tomorrow,” she said with a firm tone.
“WHAT?” I asked. “YOU have got a brace for ME? Why? How did you get that?”
“Ed!” Her tone was ascending from firm to authoritative. “Since you wanted to lie to the world, I think you should bear with me now. If you don’t want me to tell your boss and your friends about the whole thing, you’ll do as I tell you to do. If you do as I say, this won’t take long and you and me will be back to normal again. If you disobey, I’ll leave you.”
There it was – payback. For someone as sweet as my Anna, she sure did have a thing for revenge. I’d discovered that some time ago. For example it wasn’t a good idea to give her a tickle unless you really wanted one yourself. One time I had splashed a little water on her when we were doing the dishes and the next day she came into the bathroom while I was taking a shower and poured a whole bottle of cold orange-juice down my back. Yes, she did like to get even. But what did she have in mind now? I lay back on the bed and started undoing my brace.