Chapter 1: Jill's Chain
Jill was sitting on a slightly rusty, army surplus metal folding bed. A ½ inch chain was wrapped rather tightly around her waist and padlocked there. One end of a longer chain was locked around a steel pole with a high security padlock; the other end was locked to Jill’s belly chain. They were, of course, all products of Chain Manufacturing, Inc. Jill’s husband Bob was scurrying around the basement room busy with all kinds of tasks. Jill was deep in thought. She knew what Bob was doing was exactly what she had asked him to do, but she also knew, with great certainty, that in four or five days she would regret her consent.
Jill was pretty much your standard “suburban soccer mom”. Jill had grown up on a Farm just outside of Chain Alabama where her mother still lived. She met and fell in love with her husband Bob at State University, and they had moved back to Chain Alabama shortly after the wedding. Bob had an excellent job offer, right out of school, to join the Chain Incorporated sales force. After living in an apartment for a few years they had saved up enough to build their “dream home” from buying the lot to selecting the contractor to watching every phase of construction. They did have some cost over-runs that caused them to leave the basement unfinished, expecting to finish it later, but they never did.
Jill was an all-American suburbanite with a standard American problem, weight. Jill came from a long line of women in her family who looked great in their 20’s, but by the time they were 40 were clinically obese. Jill had seen photos of her great grandmother who was so huge when she died, she required a special casket. Her grandmother wasn’t quite that big but still was still huge and they both died of heart attacks after suffering years of diabetes, joint problems, and other weight related diseases. Jill’s Mom Lou, who Jill’s daughter called Gran, also had weight issues her whole life. Her weight would rise but then somehow, she always managed to pull her weight back down, a secret Jill was to learn shortly after her marriage to Bob.
In the first two years of her marriage Jill, who had curves to start with, gained over 30 pounds. It wasn’t pretty. She tried every weight loss program on the market, and nothing worked for her because, quite simply, she didn’t have the will power to stick with it. Bob loved her unconditionally, but worried about what the future held for Jill’s health, especially since they had decided they were ready to start a family and pregnancy nearly always involves weight gain. But in a tearful and gut-wrenching conversation with her mother Jill finally learned how her Mom had controlled her weight when other women in the family had not. And it was a shock.
Now, 19 years later, the weight problem had reared its ugly head again. Jill had lost all that weight 17 years ago using the family’s “Special Weight Loss Program” then gained a few pounds during the pregnancy and birth of their daughter Clair. She used the “Program” again for a few months to drop her pregnancy weight but then “life” happened. And having Clair around made controlling Jill’s weight very hard. And so, a few pounds a year, Jill crept up to almost exactly 50 lbs. over the ideal weight for her height, age, and bone structure.
This year Clair had turned 16 and had passed her drivers exam. Grandma had given her the old but still quite usable Honda that had been her grandfather George’s car before he passed. Jill was now relieved of chauffeur duty. Clair was a bright, intelligent young woman who earned excellent grades, enjoyed playing softball and theatre club and was generally well balanced, fit, and happy.
Clair wasn’t particularly surprised when, a few days after her birthday party, Dad called a family meeting. The family would occasionally sit down to discuss issues that affected all three of them. They had, for example, held a meeting to discuss Clair’s having the car, who would pay for maintenance, insurance, gas, what the rules were, etc.
Bob started the meeting. “Clair, I guess you’ve noticed that your Mom has gained a few pounds?”
“DAD! You don’t talk about a woman’s weight”
Jill jumped in “Normally that’s true kid, but this is important.”
“Why don’t you take over”, said Dad, passing the buck to his wife as usual.
“Clair, I assume you remember this photo of your great grandmother? And this one of your grandmother when she was overweight?”
“Yea, they were both pretty large, what’s your point?”
Jill continued, “I have their genes, and if I don’t get control of my weight, I will get that large. And with that kind of weight come all kinds of health problems. You know that in the last few years I’ve tried pretty much every weight loss program and product on the market but none of them work. And they don’t work for one simple reason: I lack self-control!”
“So this family meeting is about your weight?” Clair said to her Mom. “Why am I here?”
“Before you were born,” Bob continued,” your mom came up with a solution that did work. We had decided that we wanted to start a family and your mom didn’t want to start her pregnancy 30 lbs. overweight.”
Jill added “So someone told me about a weight loss program that always works, always!”
“In fact, we did it again for a short while after you were born to help your mom get her figure back.”
“And now we would like to use it again,” Jill said a bit quietly, “but since this ‘program’ affects the entire family, and since we can’t do it without your knowledge, we thought it only fair to include you in the decision.
“Why should you need my permission to start a weight loss program?” Clair asked, “are Dad and I going to have to change what we eat?”
Jill made direct eye contact with her daughter and spoke quickly, “Well . . . . because Dad is going to chain me in the basement and control exactly what I eat for as long as it takes to lose the weight I need to lose.”
There was a short period of awkward silence and then Clair burst out “WHAT? You can’t be serious, like with real chain and locks and stuff? That’s abuse!”
“it’s not abuse if it’s my idea and, more importantly, if I consent to it,” Jill said firmly.
“You’ve explained ‘consent’ to me, I get it, your body, your choice, but this sounds really extreme?” Clair thought for a minute then asked “How will we explain this to, I don’t know, Mom’s tennis partners? This is just weird.”
Jill, still looking directly at her daughter answered, “I know it’s a bit shocking, but you need to trust me when I tell you that I believe it’s the only way I can protect my health and live a long life as your Mom! I need your support and understanding in this.”
Clair was trying to come to grips, “But what about surgery like Alice whatshername had, bariatric something or other?”
“Clair you’ve been over to their house for dinner, you know the kinds of problems Alice has, regurgitation, strict limits on what her reduced stomach can handle, nothing hot or spicy, limited alcohol, etc. And surgery is always risky.”
Clair's mind quickly jumped to the impact on her life, “Like being chained up in our basement isn’t. I’ll be the only kid in school whose mom is a prisoner in her own home.”
Bob answered this one, “That’s in part where your acceptance and cooperation becomes critical Clair, NO ONE can know what’s going on. Even though it’s all consensual, it would take some explaining to the authorities and would be rather embarrassing.”
“So, what do we tell people about why mom suddenly disappears?”
Jill had a ready answer, “You tell people most of the truth, that I got tired of my weight and decided to enter a residential weight loss program, and just say you forgot the name of the place. Dad will use the same line with friends.”
Clair thought about all this for a minute and then went back where teenagers often go, to their needs.
“Who’s going to help me with my homework after school? Who’s going to fix my hair for prom? Am I going to have to clean the house?”
“No need to worry, let me lay out how all this works,” and Bob, with Jill’s support, started to explain the “program” to their daughter:
The next day was Saturday. At about 9am, Jill would be weighed on the family’s medical grade scale, and this would be her official start weight. Bob and Jill had already calculated and agreed on her ideal “target weight.” She would go 5 lbs. below her ideal weight to allow for a rebound after the program.
The “Rules and Procedures” of the program were:
- Jill would remain chained to a steel support pole in the basement 24/7. The only light in the room was on a timer, on at 6 am, off at 10pm. Bob would deliver Jill’s only meal of the day shortly after he got home from work, usually around 7pm. There were only two exceptions to this routine:
- On Monday evening she would be handcuffed and wear leg Irons with about a foot of chain between her ankles. Once these restraints were in place Bob would go into the other part of the basement, hang the cuff keys in a key cabinet and get the key to the padlock attaching the longer chain to Jill’s belly chain. He would then help Jill to the second floor of their home where another, very long chain was attached to a stud in the back of a hall closet. This chain was kept in the hall closet out of sight except on Monday’s when it was attached to Jill’s belly chain. The handcuffs and leg irons stayed on. Also in the closet was the vacuum cleaner, mops, rags and other cleaning supplies and chemicals. Jill would clean both upstairs bathrooms, dust, vacuum the carpets and damp mop the hardwood hall floor. She would also remake beds in both bedrooms and swap towels and washrags.
This would take Jill 3 to 4 hours and then Bob would inspect, looking for dust on the tops of pictures, doorframes, moving furniture to look under it, etc. Only when he was satisfied was Jill unlocked from the upstairs chain, taken back to the basement, and relocked in the chain there. Once that lock was locked, Bob would go to the key cabinet and retrieve the keys to the handcuffs and leg irons. It seemed like overkill, but Bob NEVER had all the keys needed to completely unlock Jill at the same time within her reach. It’s true that Jill had agreed to the “Program”, and of course Bob could physically overpower Jill should she try to take the keys from him and escape. The fact was, and Bob didn’t try to explain this to Clair, It was purely a “mind fuck” for Jill to always know that escape was impossible. - Thursday would be very much the same as Monday except Jill was chained to a long chain in a downstairs closet. The length and attachment point of this chain allowed Jill to reach every room on the ground floor EXCEPT the kitchen, she was pulled up short right at the kitchen door. This did mean that Bob and Clair would have to occasionally clean the kitchen, cook, and do dishes, but it also eliminated any chance that Jill could sneak food.
- On Saturday morning Bob would move the family scale into Jill’s space for the official weekly weigh-in, which would be written on a whiteboard in the basement within view but just out of Jill’s reach. Bob had modified a treadmill and a spin cycle by removing the control panels, including the mileage and calorie counters, from both pieces of equipment. He extended the wiring and would mount the control panels outside Jill’s area of the basement. The weekly mileage and calories burned totals from those two pieces of equipment would also be written on the white board and the counters reset. Finally, Jill had the option of taking a “physical fitness test” that consisted of sit-ups (fingers laced behind head, elbow touching bent knee), Push-ups (from the toes, touch the nose to the floor then all the way back up), Pull-ups (chin completely over the bar) and deep knee bends (all the way down and all the way back up).
The number of pounds lost, the calories burned on the exercise machines and the scores from her physical fitness test went into an elaborate spreadsheet Bob created to determine her ‘points’ for the week. Jill could use points to rent various ‘luxuries’ for the week. For example, she could spend points to rent a pillow for a week, a clear plastic ‘blanket’ for a week, or luxuries like a sample bottle of shampoo. OR, she could spend points for an extra ounce of dinner shake each week. These items did not come cheap, and she only started earning points when she exceeded weekly expectations on weight loss, calories burned or the exercise test. In short, she had to work her butt off just to get a pillow for the week. - Jill’s one meal a day consisted of a concoction Bob made up using the blender. It was mostly a sports protein drink with added vitamins and a few other things. It was designed to provide complete nutrition but be bland. Bob figured out the amount that would represent about ½ of Jill’s daily caloric need and that was the starting baseline. As noted in 1 c above, Jill could earn extra ounces of drink with weekly points.
- Other than exercise, Jill was to have NO entertainment or diversions in her basement space. No TV, radio, reading material, computers, smart phones, nothing. Jill would have a phone for emergencies, the kind of phone made for small children that only have a few buttons that can be programmed by their parents. Jill’s phone would have 3 buttons: “Call Bob”, “Call Clair”, and “911”. Non-emergency calls to Bob or Clair would result in punishments, and of course a call to 911 could be extremely embarrassing and hard to explain. But IF Jill had a health or other emergency while alone, she would have options.
Her stay in the basement was to be total boredom. Bob wanted to make sure that the only thing Jill could do to relieve the boredom was to exercise using the Treadmill, the Spin Cycle or try to improve her sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and deep knee bends. - There was also NO masturbation. This was a little tougher to explain to Clair, but she was 16 now and Bob and Jill were pretty sure Clair was well familiar with the art herself. Bob had two reasons for the ban. The first reason he explained to Clair, the second he left to her imagination. The first was he didn’t want Jill relieving her boredom with hours of rubbing off. The second was that IF he allowed her an orgasm, he also wanted to personally enjoy it.
One might think this would be a hard rule to enforce without elaborate chastity belts. Bob installed two high resolution security cameras with infra-red LEDs for nighttime. Each evening after feeding Jill, Bob would run 24 hours of camera footage on very fast forward in about 30 minutes. He often thought of this as the highlight of his day as he got a quick synopsis of Jill’s day. All he had to look for was more than a few minutes of Jill either trying to hide where her hands were OR actively pleasuring herself. He would frequently back the video up and play sections at real time, or switch cameras to make sure Jill was behaving.
Punishment for masturbation was “the mitts”. Jill hated the mitts. Bob had bought a set of heavy leather bondage mittens that locked on. He had used epoxy to glue coarse sand to the outside of the mitts, effectively turning them into sandpaper. If Bob decided that Jill had masturbated, and he was the sole judge, no appeal, then he would lock her hands in the mitts for 7 days. They were only removed for the Monday and Thursday cleaning times. The mitts didn’t interfere with Jill’s exercises. He had even arranged it so she could use the rings on the end of the mitts to still do pull ups. But the Mitts did make it impossible to masturbate without scraping the skin right off her genitals. They also made it very difficult to wipe after using the toilet and almost impossible to drink or eat normally. Bob would put water and her nightly “dinner” in bowls and Jill would have to get on her hands and knees and lap it up; it was humiliating, especially since she needed to stay hydrated all day while exercising. Only a few times in their past uses of “The Program” had Jill been caught masturbating. The mitts were very effective in discouraging similar behavior for long periods of time.
Clair was still in a bit of shock, “Wow, you guys have really thought through a perverted little weight loss system, I’ll give you that!” Her mom patiently explained, “Honey, understand that we won’t, in fact we can’t, do this if you don’t agree. As a part of this family, you have a veto because this will impact you in many ways. But also understand that we both believe this will help me to live a long and healthy life!”
“One of the things that I can promise you Clair”, her dad said emphatically, “is that I will do EVERYTHING to make sure your Mom comes to no harm. She may be bored, uncomfortable, embarrassed, and even in a little pain if she works out too hard but I will never cause her any harm!
But frankly, we do have a concern that we may harm you, not physically but mentally.”
“If you’re talking about finding out that my parents are into BDSM, I think that train has left the station.”
“Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know that term and yes, there are elements of BDSM in the program.” Bob explained.
Clair was clearly exasperated, “DAD, I am 16 and I also have access to the internet, of course I know what BDSM is, duhh! And don’t tell me you guys were just taking an afternoon nap that Sunday afternoon when I came home from Softball practice early. You nearly knocked me down trying to get upstairs before I did so you could close your bedroom door. You were quick but I still got a glimpse of Mom’s ankles tied to the footboard.”
Jill, laughing: “And we thought we were being so discrete! I guess perhaps we should have expanded our discussion of the “birds and the bees” a bit. Yes, we do have a box of bondage toys and we play around occasionally; but just like what we are proposing for weight loss, it’s always consensual and done as a part of our loving relationship.”
Bob continued, “But Clair, being exposed to these types of activities during your formative adolescent years can change the way you experience and view your relationships going forward. So, if you feel you can’t deal with our weight loss program, or even if you consent to it but later get uncomfortable, please let’s talk about it! What we are proposing is different from societal norms, but your Mom and I don’t think it’s wrong even though it may fall into what BDSM people call “Consensual non-consensual”.
“What do you mean by that?”, Clair asked.
Jill explained, “I fully consent to be chained in the basement under the program your Dad explained. But about 4 or 5 days after we start the program, if history repeats itself, the boredom, hunger, and fatigue will overwhelm me. I’ll want out, I’ll beg, cuss, swear, threaten, plead, yell, and beg some more. And your Dad will ignore it all and keep the chain on. You will have to remember this conversation and stay as strong as he is!”
“Oh, and Dad has failed to mention one important thing... I’ll always be naked.”
“Nothing? Not even panties?” asked Clair.
“Nope, nothing, and there are no sheets or blankets on the bed to cover myself with and when I’m allowed to use a towel it’s just long enough to dry off.”
“But why naked?” asked Clair.
Jill looked at Bob and winked, “Do we really have to explain that to a 16-year-old?”
“Gross, Ummm OK, but what about, you know, your period?” asked Clair.
“You know I mostly use Tampons, and if I leak a little, well, that thin mattress is made for military use,” Jill explained” it’s made with a plastic material which, while really uncomfortable to sleep on without a sheet, is easy to clean.”
“There are some more details you’ll learn as we go, if we go, but that’s the basics. So what do you think Clair?” Bob asked, “can we do it or do you want to veto?”
After a minute of silence Clair asked, “So, you guys going to be having sex in the basement? I mean, I just want some warning, that’s all.”
“Yes, Clair,” Jill explained,” your Dad will not be giving up his ummm, shall we say “conjugal rights”, and I won’t lie to you, a nice side benefit to this “program” is it turns both of us on. But I’m sure you guys can work out a signal or code for when you should stay out of the basement. And thanks for being honest and blunt with your questions. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible with all this.”
“OK, I still think it’s weird, but you guys are “adults,” Clair said, making air quotes, “so if you want to do this then I’ll deal with it. But Dad, you never answered who was going to help with my homework cause we both know you aren’t any good with it!”
“The program works best when your Mom is really, really bored in the basement. But neither of us want to miss out on being your parents. I think eight hours alone during the day is enough, when you get home from school, softball practice, etc., you may go down to the basement, tell your Mom about your day, discuss life, and ask her help with your homework. But you are forbidden from taking any food or drink except water down with you, have your after-school snack before you go down. I’ll ground you for a month if I catch you helping your mom cheat, remember the cameras!”