“Sophie! Heel!” Dr. Crowe commanded for at least the 100th time. That and, “Sophie, stop.” Or “Sophie, walk.”
We had been walking for at least an hour. Twelve blocks doesn’t sound like that far on paper, but in reality, each block was over a quarter of a mile, so by the time we got stopped walking, we had traveled close to 4 miles. Dr. Crowe kept a quick pace. Sophie loved to run, but only for short distances.
The entire ordeal was a fight between Dr. Crowe wanting to keep a brisk pace, faster than I or Sophie normally walked, and Sophie deciding that she could just run the entire distance, with Dr. Crowe yanking on our collar and giving Sophie a firm swat across my bottom while yelling to ‘heel’.
The building we eventually stopped at had a sign than indicated it was part of the Cal State University system, though we were nowhere near campus. Dr. Crowe pressed a buzzer on the door and after several minutes a young man, probably in his early 20’s, wearing a lab coat answered the door.
He glanced at Dr. Crowe before noticing me standing there. When he did his eyes bulged a bit before he regained composure. He turned back to Dr. Crowe and asked, “May I help you?” without bothering to introduce himself.
For some reason, this place made Sophie nervous. I could feel her anxiety. I’m sure that if Dr. Crowe wasn’t holding onto her leash, Sophie would have run away.
“I’m here to see Dr. Howard.” Dr. Crowe said patiently.
“One moment.” The man said before closing the door and disappearing inside. After several minutes, the door opened, and we were escorted into the building. Dr. Crowe had to give Sophie a firm tug to get her to go inside.
It was evening, but with the long summer days, the sun had not yet set. Inside the building, however, we walked down a long interior corridor with every other florescent light turned off for some reason. The lights that were on made a slight buzzing noise, which all together felt a bit creepy.
The elevator was marked “Out of Order”, so we had to follow the young man up 3 flights of dimly lit stairs before arriving at the Dr. Howard’s office. Each step added more anxiety to Sophie and for me as well. I had no idea what this place was or who Dr. Howard was, and this place was beginning to scare me a bit.
We followed the young man, who’s name turned out to be Tom, into an office suite. Once inside, he ignored us as he headed back to a desk in the far corner of lobby to take a seat at a desk, where he had been working prior to us interrupting him.
An older man entered from one of the connected offices and said, “Shiela, this is unexpected. And this must be Annie?” He asked, looking me up and down with an open smile on his face.
“Not Annie, this is Sophie.” Dr. Crowe corrected. “Though, I expect Annie is here as well.”
Dr. Howard approached and Dr. Crowe handed him the leash. “She has become quite obedient, though still has a mind of her own some of the time.”
Dr. Howard nodded as she spoke, but he didn’t take his eyes off of me. “So, what commands does she obey?” He asked.
“When I first got her, she was as obedient as any well-trained dog. But as I’ve worked with her, I can say that she pretty much understands English, so you can give her more complex tasks, no problem.” Dr. Crowe said confidently. “She needs occasional positive and negative reinforcement, but otherwise is a very good girl.”
Sophie perked up with that. She loved being a good girl. The way Dr. Crowe talked about her, I was sort of proud of Sophie too. I remembered how she handled the patient records. She could follow instructions well. If only I could talk to her and get her to follow my instructions, I might be able to get my body back.
Dr. Howard raised the leash slightly and asked, “May i?”
“Of course.” Dr. Crowe responded.
“Come on, Sophie.” Dr. Howard instructed. As he walked, Sophie did her best to keep pace with him. “You are a good girl.” He announced as he patted me on the butt.
I was shocked at that, but Sophie took it as a reward. I felt my lips curl into a beaming smile as we continued to walk around the office. After a few laps, he led us deeper into the office suite. There were more corridors, most of the had the lights off completely, but the path he took us on was at least mostly lit.
Eventually, we arrived at what looked like a medical bay, with a bed, a stainless-steel table, and a bunch of medical tools. “Sophie, have a seat.” He instructed.
Sophie squatted down, looking up at Dr. Howard with a huge grin. No doubt she was expecting a reward for being so well behaved.
“Sophie, up.” He told her. She stood. “Up on the table. Sit on the table.” Sophie didn’t understand what he was telling her to do. She knew the words, but they made no sense. He repeated himself, so she slowly approached the small steel table. There was no way to sit on it, and if we tried it would have fallen over.
“No, Sophie.” He raised his voice. “Sit on the bed.”
Sophie panicked when he raised his voice. She tried lurching away, only to get yanked back when she reached the end of the leash. This caused us to lose our footing and tumble to the floor. Dr. Howard released the leash, so we didn’t choke on it. Eventually he helped Sophie up and guided her to the bed.
“It’s okay, Sophie. I just want to examine you. Up here, have a seat. Please.” His voice was much more gentle, Sophie was still shaken from it, but she listened and obeyed. Dr. Howard pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket and placed the ear pieced in his ears.
“Hold still, I need to listen to your heartbeat.” He said. Sophie understood the words ‘hold still’, so we sat there. He placed the end of the stethoscope on my chest and listened. It was a jolt of cold, but Sophie didn’t flinch. He moved it around to my side and then to my back.
“Take a deep breath.” He instructed. Sophie obeyed. He repeated that several times, each time making a notation in a file that he had set on the metal table.
“Go ahead and lay back.” Dr. Howard ordered. Once we were lying flat, with my legs hanging over the side of the table, Dr. Howard pulled out two metal stirrups and guided my feet into them. This pushed my knees up into the air and spread my thighs apart, exposing my private area.
Dr. Howard used the stethoscope to listen to my stomach. He kept pressing it in and then listened. Putting that aside, he said, “I need to perform a full physical. Do you understand?” She didn’t. “I’m going to check and make sure that you are healthy. Nothing to be concerned about.”
Next he took my left arm in his hands and methodically began squeezing, inch by inch, from my wrist to my shoulder. Then he did my right arm. Followed by my right leg, from my ankle to my thigh. Then my left leg.
“I need to do the same thing to your body, is that okay?” He asked.
Sophie nodded, so he began pressing my abdomen, starting at my pelvis and working is way up to the center of my chest. Each breast, he took his time examining. I’d heard of breast exams, but never really thought of what it would be like to have a strange man cupping and squeezing each of my breasts. Dr. Howard was as old as my dad, but even so, it was very arousing.
Sophie noticed it too. We were getting turned on. He breathing began to quicken, but as I was starting to feel myself getting moist down there, it ended.
“I need to do a pelvic examination.” He told Sophie. “You’re going to feel a bit of pressure.”
Dr. Howard took a seat in a small rolling chair and maneuvered over to between my legs. He was holding a long silver device that had a handle on one end. “This needs to go inside of you, Sophie. You’ll feel a bit of pressure, but it won’t hurt. I promise.”
He had a tube of some kind of lubricant that he squeezed onto the device. He then pushed the thing up inside of my vagina. I heard Sophie moan. I think if we had not already been aroused by his touching my breasts, Sophie would have jumped up and run away from the shock of being penetrated like that. Instead, she started gyrating my pelvis a bit trying to stimulate my pussy.
“Enough of that.” Dr. Howard told her. “Hold still.”
Reluctantly, Sophie stopped moving and after about 30 seconds, he pulled the thing out of me and dropped it on the table. Next, he removed my feet from the stirrups and said, “Stand up.”
Sophie stood up. Dr. Howard repeated the physical examination, pressing my shoulders, my back, and my butt. He spent a few minutes writing notes in the file before moving on.
When we finished the physical exam, he walked us back to the lobby. To my shock, Dr. Crowe was not there. Sophie looked around in a panic. “It’s okay, you’re going to stay with me for a couple of days.” He told us. “Dr. Crowe wanted me to examine you and help with your training.”
This wasn’t right. Why would she abandon me like this? I don’t even know these men.
“Tom, will you please take Sophie for a quick walk and then show her to her room?” Dr. Howard asked. Tom took the leash and led us back down the stairs and outside. There was a park about a block from the office building. Gratefully, I only had to pee. We walked for about 10 minutes before Sophie found a place she was comfortable with. She squatted down and relieved herself. Tom could not have looked more disinterested.
Once we got back, Top took us to another room inside the suite. This one had a bed with a blanket and a small pillow. In the corner were two bowls on the floor. Tom unfastened the leash and said, “You can sleep here tonight. We will start your training in the morning.”
When Tom finished sleeping, he left the room and closed the door. I heard a second click, when he locked it from the outside. At least Sophie wouldn’t be running off later. She wandered around the room for a few minutes, looking at everything again and again. Not much to look at, but still. The bed was small, but big enough for a teenaged girl, so long as I don’t toss and turn at night.
There was also a small round table with a chair next to it. And on the floor were the two bowls. One of the bowls was full of water and the other had shrimp fried rice in it. So at least they were feeding us people food.
Sophie finished the food and water quickly. Somehow, she was able to eat without her hands, and still did not make a mess on the floor or on my face. She never even picked the bowl up but was able to lap up all the water.
With nothing else to do, Sophie crawled into bed and fell asleep. Another oddity of this situation was that Sophie’s sleep schedule did not completely coincide with my own. She fell asleep while I lay there, conscious, but unable to move. I tried regaining control of my body, but it was out of reach. At first I thought that this was what it was like to be quadriplegic, but I could actually feel everything. I just couldn’t move anything.
I started thinking about how I was able to control the crayon when we were using the coloring book. I had no problem with that, but here I couldn’t lift a finger. After a while, I gave up and let myself fall asleep.
The next morning, everything changed.