Three days passed before my mother had news for me. “Charlotte phoned,” she announced as we were alone having breakfast. “She has asked me questions about you and agreed to interview you. Then she’ll decide whether to take you on.”

“Here’s her phone number,” Mom added, handing me a scrap of paper. “Phone her and introduce yourself. She’s expecting your call. Be as polite as you know how. Address her as ‘Mistress Charlotte.’ If her husband answers, answer any questions he asks — again, as politely as you know how — and ask to speak with her by that name. When she comes on the line just obey her in everything and take it from there.”

I went to my room and dialed the number. A man’s voice answered. “Hello, he said.”

“Hello sir,” I answered. “May I speak with Mistress Charlotte, please?”

“Who’s calling?” he asked gruffly.

“My name is James Woodruff,” I told him. “She doesn’t know me but may have heard my name. She may be expecting my call.”

“Are you a client of hers?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” I answered. “I hope to be her pupil.”

“Ah, you must be the new boy she mentioned. Just a moment. I’ll put her on.”

A few moments later, a warm woman’s voice came on the line. “Hello,” it said. “Who’s calling please?”

“My name is James Woodruff, Mistress,” I answered her. “I think my mother has mentioned me to you. She told me you’d be expecting my call.”

“I’m not your Mistress yet,” she said. “Not till I accept you as my pupil. You call me Ma’am or Ms. Charlotte until I tell you otherwise.”

“Yes, your mother did call me about you. She thinks you may have some potential as a pleasure boy. Do you?”

“Truthfully, Ma’am I don’t know yet. All I know at this point is that I need money for my college tuition, that I admire my mother very much, and that she thinks I might do well in her profession. She said you might agree to interview and test me, and perhaps accept me as an apprentice if I meet your standards.”

“Tell me now,” she said, “Before I invite you for an interview, apart from income, what is it that attracts you about pleasure work?

“I’m not sure yet, Ma’am, but I think pleasure has more value than most people give it. Of course, I enjoy it and wish that I and others got more of it it, but there’s more to it it than that. Something cuts us off from pleasure that might be easily obtained. The business world sells products with the hope that they’ll give pleasure, but tends to make people postpone actually feeling it. It wants us to spend our money first, on things that mostly disappoint.”

“My,’ she replied. “That’s a mature thought for an 18-year-old boy. Did you get that opinion from your mother?”

“Partly from things I’ve hear her say to my dad,” I answered. “Partly from things I’ve read, but partly from conversations with my friends. Most of us feel that we’re being pushed to make and spend a lot of money, instead of focusing on what’s important in life.”

“And what would you say is important?”

“Well, my dad thinks that making money is important, and serving other people’s needs. He says that in business, the power of the market doing one achieves the other. He tells me I’m too young to know what’s important. But what I think is that happiness is important, and that doing work that that you find meaningful may be a precondition for happiness. I don’t think anyone can be happy if everything they do feels meaningless.”

“And where does pleasure — your mother’s profession — fit into that?”

“She and I have discussed that several times,” I answered. “She says that pleasure is a component of happiness, because it’s hard to be happy when you’re incapable of feeling pleasure, or when you’re in chronic pain. She says that meaningful activities feel pleasurable, and that pleasurable ones feel meaningful — at least to the extent that they feel worth doing for their own sake.”

“You know,” Ms. Charlotte said, “You’ve told me what your mom and dad think, but you haven’t told me what you think about pleasure and meaning. Do you have any thoughts of your own?”

“On this subject, I’m not sure I do yet, ma’am,” I answered. “I know that pleasure is something we go after, not as a means to something else, but for its own sake. Along with pain, it reminds us that we’re alive. It’s not all there is to happiness, but it’s a big part.”

“Beyond that, I know what feels good and what feels yucky, but, I’m still trying to figure out what feels meaningful. Maybe everything does. Maybe nothing. I don’t know what ‘meaning’ is yet.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “But I have to warn you: If I agree to train you, you will find yourself doing a lot of things that will feel yucky until you learn to enjoy them, and some things that will go on feeling yucky no matter how often you practice them. How will you feel about that?”

“It doesn’t scare me ma’am,” I answered. “I think I can take it in stride. In school, so far, I’ve learned how to work. From my coach on the swimming team, I’ve learned how to train. I know that everything worth doing is sometimes boring or painful or both. If you’re asking about Sex, my mother had me watch a whole lot of Porn before she agreed to phone you. She wanted to know if it grossed me out.”

“On the whole, it didn’t I saw some things I wouldn’t want to do unless I absolutely had to, but most sexual activities look good to me — straight or gay, dominant or submissive, as long as everyone consents, and no one gets injured. I’ve had no experience with gay Sex or with BDSM, but I’m curious about both. The scenes of scenes of discipline, service and obedience really turned me on. I feel excited by the idea of learning about this stuff… learning about it from you.”

“When you watched that Porn,” she asked, “was your mother measuring your responses?”

“Yes, she was,” I told here. “She had me wear a collar that measured some parameters and recorded them. Like a lie detector, I understood.”

All right, Ms. Charlotte said. We’ve talked long enough. Here’s what we’ll do. “I’ll ask her to send me that response data, and you’ll allow this. It will save us the trouble of doing it again.”

“I will accept you on probation as my apprentice, and we will both sign a contract to that effect. You’ll have your mom check it over before you sign.”

“You’ll come in tomorrow at 2 PM for your first lesson — if that’s an acceptable time.”

“In early training, you’ll mostly be nude in front of me and anyone else who’s here to watch you or work with you. You’ll do things that you’ve only read or heard about — or seen on those Porn clips you watched. Depending on how that goes, we’ll make arrangements from there. Does that work for you?”

“Yes ma’am, it works fine,” I answered. “Thank you so much for this opportunity!”

“Very good,” she said.” “See you tomorrow.” And she hung up.

That evening, when I reported this conversation to my mother, she smiled approvingly. “Charlotte doesn’t waste time,” she said. “That phone chat was all the interview she wanted. Now she’ll start teaching you and testing what you’re made of until either you quit or she gives you up as a lost cause. At some point, when she thinks you’re ready, she’ll start having you work with other pupils and with paying clients. When she thinks it’s time — usually, in about a year, if you have talent for the profession — she’ll recommend you to the Guild of Pleasure Workers (the GPW). They’ll put you through their own tests, give you a journeyman’s license if you pass, and then you’ll start getting some employment and an income.

“What’s a journeyman?” I asked her.

“Just like in the middle ages,” she answered. “A journeyman is a person certified by the guild as a qualified worker who may be gainfully employed as a subordinate by a licensed master, but is not yet qualified to work on their own, without a master’s supervision.”

“In the meantime, what about university and tuition?” I asked her.

“We’ll see,” my mother said. “I’ll work on your dad to see if I can get him to front your studies and lend you the money. That will be best. You won’t be defying him, and he’ll be giving you his blessing.” I don’t think it will happen, but if he’s adamant, I’ll co-sign for a student loan as promised. In any case, I think your wisest course is to ask for a deferred admission, start at Columbia a year from now, and qualify as a geisho in the meanwhile.”

“Now, this is the last kibbitzing I’m going to do. You’re Lotte’s pupil, now — Charlotte’s. I can tell you that she’s as good as they come. If you have questions about your training or the profession, you should ask your teacher. From now on, unless and until you become a qualified journeyman, I’m just your mother.”

“Oh yes. Unless you object now, I’m going to send her those test results. She will need them to plan your training. There’s no point having you watch that tape again. As a geisho apprentice you’ll have Free access to a specialized library with all the Porn you could want.”

“She’s accepted you as a probationer — not as an apprentice yet. You’ll be registered with the Guild, but for the first month or so, she’ll put you through her own tests before making you her apprentice. Just get a good night’s sleep, obey her tomorrow, and keep an open mind.