The Girls’ Volleyball Association of
Greater Mecnita Ajinblambia, the great lady who had come
to Eldor Palace as our guest, soon became Queen Udi’s dear, dear friend and
constant companion. Though I was still
the Queen’s husband and had retained the title of Prime Minister, Ajinblambia
had marginalized me completely. Whenever
there was an important function or a ball, Ajinblambia and Udi would greet everyone
as if they had been the royal couple. I
would merely be another member of the court. I was expecting that the palatine crowd would
manifest surprise, disbelief or indignation upon seeing that Ajinblambia had
demoted me to anonymity while she herself paraded around majestically with the
Queen, but no one seemed to notice or care.
It was as if everyone thought that it was entirely natural that
Ajinblambia and Udi should reign together, relegating me to the role of minor
dignitary. After all, Ajinblambia was
much taller and more imposing than I, beautiful and shapely, far more talented
and intelligent. It would have been presumptuous of me to suppose that I enjoyed
some sort of priority with the Queen merely because I was her husband. It was against this distressing backdrop
of circumstances that, one day, Barti, Usha, Vinja, Mlechi and Dhabbi, five
girls from Gangawar Province in Qazudistan, on the distant continent of Ub, appeared
suddenly at Eldor Palace. I had played
volleyball a few times with them on their team, the Kshaddi Geese, back in
Gangawar. This had come about because of a mere comedy of coincidences and
errors, but Udi, who found it very amusing that I had been on a girls’
volleyball team and who was ever merry and full of fun anyway, suggested that,
for the nonce, now that the girls were in Mecnita, we name the reunited team the
Eldor Geese and play a few games at the palace right away, to celebrate our renewed
sorority. She saw this as a great lark,
an opportunity for hilarity and mirth.
Has there ever been such a fun-loving Queen before? Queen Udi was unable on such short
notice to find another volleyball team that we might play on the afternoon that
we, the Eldor Geese, were extemporaneously so dubbed, but Ajinblambia, a superlative
athlete who had often starred in volleyball herself, offered to play all six of
us singlehandedly. I demurred earnestly,
frankly because I was quite apprehensive that she might beat us after all,
which would have been extremely embarrassing, but Udi understood that the protestations
of chivalry and sportsmanship towards Ajinblambia that I conjured up in my
attempts to prevent the match were in reality a ruse to conceal my fears, and
she mischievously insisted that we play, so the match was held. Queen Udi
accused me of being scared, and when I denied it, she dared me to play, to
prove that I wasn’t scared. So what
could I do but agree to the match? Ajinblambia did indeed beat us, shutting us
out by a score of 25 to 0. I
was utterly astonished and humiliated. Queen Udi quipped that perhaps I should have
had a dozen girls on my team, instead of just five. How was it, she wondered, that a single woman
could defeat five girls and myself as if we had been silly children or real
geese? Maybe if there had been thirteen
of us, we might have stood up to the heroine and goddess from Bihaka. After the game, Ajinblambia remarked
apparently in all seriousness to Queen Udi, who was now wildly enthusiastic
about the taller lady’s magnificent triumph at the net, that although she
herself, Ajinblambia, had beaten us so emphatically, she still felt that we had
definite potential on the volleyball court, which seemed like mockery or irony
in view of her smashing victory. She
recommended to the Queen that the Eldor Geese be officially chartered as the
palace volleyball team. She proposed
that the station of Prime Minister be abolished and that I be assigned to the
Eldor Geese permanently. What? I was no longer to be the Prime Minister of Ung,
but just a member of the Eldor Geese, our new girls’ volleyball team? Queen Udi
delightedly agreed that this was an excellent idea, and the team was formally
incorporated. Barti was named captainess of the team, and the Eldor Geese were
enrolled in the Girls’ Volleyball Association of Greater Mecnita. This was an association of over 1000 girls’
volleyball teams that represented Mecnita’s 400 districts and many of the
suburbs. Ajinblambia had trivialized me
totally and absolutely. I was no longer
the one and only Prime Minister of Ung but just one of 6000 girl volleyball
players. In spite of myself, I was
flattered and delighted. Ajinblambia said that this was an
historic moment, the first time that a male had ever been admitted to the
Girls’ Volleyball Association. It would
also be the last time, because of a regulation she was introducing prohibiting the
enrollment of any other males in the association. She thought it fitting for me to be the only
one ever. I would be unique in girls’
volleyball history in Ung. She found this highly amusing and titillating, I
think. This seemed to be part of her
plan of reducing me to absolute frivolity and inanity. She surmised that probably no one would guess
the truth about my sex anyway, especially since she changad my name to
Rani. I was no longer to be known as
Vocno Ganven, Prime Minister of Ung, but rather as Rani, the middle hitter of
the Eldor Geese. My full name, imprinted
on my identification card was Rani Barti Eldor, that is, my personal name, the
name of my captainess, which served as a sort of surname, and the name of my
district. We Geese would live together in the
clubhouse Ajinblambia and Udi had set aside for us on the palace grounds, in a
secluded thicket with a brook that had a small cascade. Barti would be in charge of me not only in
matters related to volleyball, but in everything. She would decide when I would rise and when I
would retire, what I would do all day, where I would go, what I would wear, what
I would eat and drink, when I could talk and when I must remain silent. She could restrict me to the clubhouse and
assign duties to me. She could reward
and punish me as she saw fit. I had always claimed to be six feet
tall, and I knew this was an exaggeration, but I didn’t realize how great an
exaggeration it was. Back in Gangawar,
when the girls were younger, they were all around 5’- The team uniform consisted of a bright
red leotard with a round neck, bright red tights, a bright red felt cheerleader’s
skirt with self-panties of red stretch satin, white gym shoes, white bobby sox
and a white crepe neckscarf. A goose
emblem was embroidered on the bosom of each of my leotards. A six and the name Rani were embroidered on
the back. The red self-panties of my cheerleader’s
skirt bulged tremendously because of my full hips, so Barti decided to have a
great mass of white feathers sewn to the seat of the panties, like a goose’s
tail. However, I soon developed a tendency to tug at my skirt, pulling it down
over my tail of feathers, so Barti arranged to have a semicircle cut out of the
back of each of my skirts, making it impossible for me to cover the
feathers. The perimeter of the
semicircle in the skirt was sewn neatly to the base of the mass of feathers,
which were thus rendered much more conspicuous.
In this costume, I became the icon or mascot of the team. I was issued several uniforms and was
forbidden to appear in public in any other apparel. I was terribly embarrassed when
Ajinblambia told me she and Udi would
have me appear briefly in the palace in my goose uniform, feathers, miniskirt,
tights and all. She wanted everyone to
know that she had had the Queen remove me from authority so unconditionally, so
unequivocally. This would add to her
own prestige and glory, as if it signified that Queen Udi, now that she had
Ajinblambia at her side, no longer needed a husband. When I wiggled and waddled
to the throne, as instructed by the royal couple, everyone giggled and
tittered; I thought I’d die of humiliation. The typical team in the Girls’
Volleyball Association of Mecnita bore the name of its district plus the team
name, often the name of a bird or other animal, sometimes a sentimental or
fanciful name. Among some of our more
illustrious teams were the Chanzli Tits, the Piljandar Swans, the Onjmo
Rubythroats, the Ulmla Honeybees, the Zipno Fireflies, the Shuva Hornets, the
Spranceld Ladybirds, the Corlamarn Pennies, the Dachno Nuns, the Devanasc
Sprites, the Plembrust Nightingales and the Queshganc Quails. It took me several months to learn the
names of all the teams and meet all the girls.
My first feelings of foolishness passed away, and I became deeply
involved in the affairs of the Association. The names of the teams were not always to be
trusted. Who would ever imagine that a
team called the Lambs or the Squirrels would have such towering, well-built
young athletic women that seeing them opposite you on the volleyball court
would scare you to the point of hysteria?
I recall that Rita Nanci and Jessamina Nanci of the Spranceld Ladybirds,
two seven-foot goddesses of incredible strength and grace, once rolled me up,
tied me in a ball and put me in a bag, throwing me back and forth playfully for a few minutes
before the game began. Alter that, whenever I saw Rita or Jessamina, I would
quake and quail uncontrollably. I even
fainted on one occasion. So how could I
vie with them? I recall, however, the day we played the
Tits. The other Geese all played quite
well, but I was more or less lost in the shadow of their skirts, running about
helplessly and accomplishing nothing. Opposite
me was Trisha, a statuesque goddess 7’- I started a scrapbook about the Eldor
Geese. I photographed my teammates. I even included a picture of Barti pinning me
to the ground in a wrestling match we held.
I wrote articles about the girls. Some of my articles were published in Obscont,
Ung’s leading newspaper. I recorded in
that journal the history of our team, relating how, by just a coincidence, I
had been in Ujjama, Gangawar, back in 386, one night when the Kshaddi Geese
were scheduled to play the Ujjama Cranes.
One of the Geese was absent, having missed the train from Kshaddi to
Ujjama, and, yielding to the sweet entreaties of Barti, Usha, Vinja, Mlechi and
Dhabbi, I substituted for the absent girl, Meruert. One thing led to another. The game was covered by the local
newspaper. A photograph of the eleven
girls and me appeared on the sports page and was forwarded to Eldor Palace by
someone in Ujjama who recognized me from telecasts. Queen Udi,
angry that I had turned the important diplomatic assignment for which she had
sent me to Ujjama into a merry party with schoolgirls, banished me to Kshaddi, as
a punishment, divesting me of my dignities and honors, and installing me as a permanent
member of the Kshaddi Geese. I was to
replace Meruert, who was planning to return to her native Kara Darya. Later, however.
Udi vacated the order of banishment and I was restored to my dignities and
honors. She said she had just been
teaching me a lesson, and had had no intention of really making me a permanent
member of the team. Nonetheless, there
was no denying that I had played for the Kshaddi Geese. Now I was wondering whether Udi wasn’t
changing her mind again, deciding to make me a member of the team in perpetuity
after all, with the sole difference that we would play in Mecnita instead of
Kshaddi. The appearance of Ajinblambia
on the palace scene made a felicitous justification for eliminating me from
royal affairs once and for all. Anything that I had done in the palace as Prime
Minister could be done much better by Ajinblambia, everyone seemed to agree. I
was not impressed with the argument that my new role offered me brand new
opportunities for success and glory, and that perhaps I would become one of the
supernovas in the pantheon of the Girls’ Volleyball Association. This line of reasoning was one of
Ajinblambia’s favorite little jests. Now that the girls had come to Eldor Palace
and I had joined them once again, it was as if it all had been meant to be, as
if the intervening years had been but an interlude, and now it was time to get
down to our real business again. My
joining the Girls’ Volleyball Association was apparently the fulfilment of my
destiny. Yes, I came to see my membership
on the Eldor Geese as my true life work, and the days of my Prime Ministry as
just a fleeting episode. Queen Udi was absolutely delighted that
I would play for the Eldor Geese instead of functioning as Prime Minister. She told me that I was adorable with my
feathered tail. She found my petite
stature completely in keeping with my disposition. Udi herself was short by the standards of
height for Ungian women, being only 6’- Barti seemed to look upon me as a pet or
personal attendant. Each day I would
help her dress, anoint her with her oils, brush and comb her hair and apply her
makeup and her lipstick. I would tidy up
her room and tend to her wardrobe. I would wash her clothes by hand, caring for
them lovingly. I would cook and serve her breakfast. I would read her correspondence, summarize
the contents to her orally and compose letters of reply in accordance with
instructions that she gave me. Usually I
spent the whole day in her room, even at those times when I was not performing
duties. She would seat me in a little
chair of rose-colored crushed velvet in the corner of her room, because she
liked to have me close at hand in case something came up that she wanted done
quickly. I was required to sit there
placidly and silently, waiting for her next orders. Eventually, she thought it would look pretty
if she tied each of my ankles to a leg of the chair with a white crepe scarf and
each of my wrists to an armrest with another, to discourage me from fidgeting
or moving about restlessly. Then she began
to tie my waist to the chair with an even longer crepe scarf. She said that she liked everything to be in
its place at all times, and that she considered me in my place when I was tied
in the chair, that is, whenever I was not busy with the numerous errands and
chores that she assigned me. At first, I
may have been a little skittish about being tied by Barti in her room, but
after a while I acquiesced in it, accepting it as my place. The scarves were very pretty, and Barti tied
them very artistically so that I could not untie them regardless of what I
might do. She, though, could merely pull
a bow to undo each scarf. One day when I
started complaining playfully about being tied, Barti, looking around jovially for
something to silence me with, found a pair of panties, which she rolled into a
ball and stuffed in my mouth, placing a wide piece of adhesive tape over my
mouth. The panties and tape became a
part of my bindings from that day on I
found them very comforting when I got used to them.. There were rewards too. Often she would kiss me on the cheek, tickle
me or fondle me as she passed by.
Sometimes she spanked me though, gently or hard, depending on when I had
erred slightly or seriously. She hung a
brass paddle on a chain from my waist, so that it was always handy. She found that paddling me caused me to do my
chores better and faster. One day Barti had delivered to her room
a cabinet of wood and openwork, with top, walls and back consisting of panels
of woven rattan painted white. The front
had a door of openwork. It was all very
ornate and pretty. It was about two feet
wide, three feet deep and four feet high, very much like a large basket or tiny
belvedere. Then she had small brass
wheels installed on the bottoms of the legs of the chair where she kept me
tied, so that she could roll the chair into the cabinet, which was provided
with brass hinges and security hasp. Thus,
when she went out, she could easily move me into the cabinet and lock me in. I accepted all this with consummate docility. I regarded docility as one of the supreme
virtues. Barti expected absolute and
total obedience and I was perfectly willing to tender it, even if it meant
being tied most of the day every day. There was volleyball practise too of
course. During our practise, Barti would
let me out of my cabinet and lead me onto the volleyball court, but I was not
allowed to wander more than a few feet from the bounds. Because of my small size, Barti supervised me
very rigorously, making me do all sorts of exercises from which the others were
exempt. Barti found a ten-year-old girl
who was exactly my size, and I was required to wrestle with her regularly. She always won with ease, so Barti told me
that I would have to continue until I could beat her, even if it took me
several months. The only problem was
that the girl, whose name was Nini, was growing, whereas my size remained the
same, so beating her became more and more impossible with the passage of time. I suppose that the strenuous exercise was
salutary though. After practise I would bathe and then
help Barti bathe in warm perfumed waters, drying her with her towel and
bringing her her clothes. As soon as we
were refreshed and had eaten, Barti would tie me in my chair again and wheel me
into the openwork cabinet, unless she had errands for me to do. At nightfall, though, she would untie me and
admit me into her bedchamber. I slept in
a large drawer built into the bedstead of Barti’s curtained bed, beneath her
mattress. The inside of the drawer was
padded on the bottom, and when the drawer was rolled closed on its small wheels,
two brass rings came into alignment so that Barti could drop a peg through them
to lock me in. If she wanted something
to drink during the night, she could merely pull the peg, roll open the drawer
and order me to rise and fetch it for her.
If she wanted to rise herself, I would fetch her peignoir and help her
don it. It hardly needs to be said that
my labors were all performed with elegance, propriety and chastity. The slightest deviation from irreproachable
etiquette and grace was liable to strict punishment.
