I suppose I knew from that morning at school. In gym class. On the climbing rope next to Judith. Judith with her long dark hair. And I felt myself getting wet. I was so embarassed. But then I knew. Both things. Hanging from my arms on the rope and the shape of Judith's breasts, pressing against her gym slip. And her hair.
Anyway, things progressed in the usual way from there. Exams. Uni. A few easy-come, easy-go girlfriends. A few girlfriends who were into the same things as me. Once in a while a boy, just so I was sure. I was.
And toys. Then harder stuff. Stuff I could still do to myself.
I freelanced. Perfect really. A bit of writing to pay the bills. My time when I wanted it. No questions asked if I came into the office with marks on my wrists (or marks on my back, if they could have looked there). No office. Perfect.
I tried out clubs and things, but it really wasn't my gig. Scene is so boring.
Then I found a few folks I could trust on the web. (You can't trust anyone. Some people you can trust a little bit, but not really).
I guess the playing got more serious.
And as I knew I could never have Judith, and I only really wanted Judith, I decided I'd find someone I could trust to let me have the thing I wanted second most in the world.
There are some people who will do this, you know. You have to find them and trust them.
I talked to a few. Some were shits. Some were weird. OK, so you think I'm not entirely not weird I guess.
They had proposals. Mid-West or some corner of the old Soviet bloc seemed favourite. Empty spaces and cops that take bribes.
I decided on this guy in Belarus. Made the plans, got the visa. Two days holiday in Minsk. It was anticipatory fun.
Then we met up. I talked it all through and he agreed. He had some friends. They'd film it. That was the deal.
So we went to the forest.
I forgot to mention, he had a girlfriend. Blonde. Beautiful. We made out in the back of his old van. Just once. I was glad we did.
Then it was time.
He'd arranged for a doctor, someone who'd been a doctor anyway, to come along and check me over. Seemed to me an odd precaution, given what was going to happen.
The stuff was ready. He'd had the St.Andrew's cross made in Minsk and brought it on top of the van, in two pieces. A cross on a van would look odd. And the wagon wheel was already there. From a village near the forest, he said.
We sat around on canvass chairs for a while. Coffee, a bottle of water for me. It was early morning and the mist was still around the birch trees and the dew was wet on my feet. We waited for his friends to arrive and set up. And his girl made them coffee too. They joked in their language. I felt so amazingly calm, so amazingly excited.
At a certain point he said they were ready and told me to get myself prepared.
I was so wet, so fast.
I took off my clothes and folded them neatly on the chair. Then I walked over to where the cross had been set up and I stroked it.
I was perfect.
I lay down on it, my arms outstretched, and the girl came and tightened the leather cuffs on my ankles and wrists. She touched my lips with her fingers. I think she wished she could do what I was going to do. I think so.
They were in a circle around me. The camera was ready. He asked if I was. I was.
He had a bar, a long one, just like I imagined.
The flash of white was brighter than any light I had ever seen, the agony sharper and more exquisite. He smashed my left shin with one blow. Seven more to go. I gasped and screamed and felt my skin burst with sweat. I raised my head to look at my broken limb. I was so happy.
Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
I felt myself flying out of myself and back in. My body heaved in pain. I was so happy. I think I loved the smashing of my thigh bones most of all. Such a deep, tranquil ecstacy of pain.
Then they unbound me and carried me, shrieking, to the wheel. I know I was shrieking. I was supposed to I think. And they entwined my smashed limbs in the spokes, and poured some water into my open mouth, and lifted the wheel up onto the post that fitted into the hub. The hub that pushed into my back, arching my back. My bloody, broken limbs dangling around the rim.
And at that moment, at last, I saw Judith, back on the rope, and she smiled to me.