There was no onus or stigma attached to trying anything here, which meant that men would try things that they would be afraid to try under usual circumstances for fear of being found out and ostracized. A man might be a well-known judge, or a business tycoon on the outside, but he could be an ardent cock-sucker or childraper in The Club without endangering his social standing or reputation in any way.

When we finished eating. John called an attendant and asked him to take me to Jeannie's room. I thanked John and said goodnight, and then followed my guide to another floor where he knocked on a closed door, and then left me. A soft light childish voice told me to come in and with my mind full of curiosity and expectation, I entered the room.

A delightful little girl of about ten was sitting at a small desk, doing what looked like school homework. She got up as I came in and came slowly toward me, smiling with a sort of pleasant shyness, her hand out to greet me.

“You are George. I'm glad to meet you, and I hope we have lots of fun together tonight. I'm Jeannie and you got here at just the right time. I'm just finishing my homework for school tomorrow, so I won't keep you waiting.”

“Your homework?” I gasped, taken back at such a mundane and commonplace item in this bizarre club of sexual erotica. “School, tomorrow?”

“Oh, yes. I go to school regularly. I'm in the fifth grade, and doing pretty well.” she explained calmly and a little proudly. “1 don't know what you heard about me but I suppose I'm sort of the mascot of The Club, and there are special rules about me. The most important is that I can decide what I want to do with any of the people who visit me here. And another, that I don't like so much, is that I have to be in bed and asleep. ALONE, by midnight every night. I take a nap alter school every afternoon, but even so I can't stay up alter midnight, except sometimes for special occasions on weekends or during vacations.”