Petticoated.
I knew I'd lost it the moment the car's wheel skidded into the curb. I knew that I had lost a lot more than the car, the first of the losses was the issue of my career, ten years of learning and effort, that was gone. The car belonged to my mother, and she could be mean, the loss of liberty she would impose wasn't much of an issue though; not when I knew I was going to be in hospital for a long time.
Mom had never been the suburban housewife type. She had ridden super bikes in races before I was born and never lost the love of speed she had. Her car was a Maclaren 570S, and she loved it. I knew she was going to go apeshit as I ran out of reflexes and talent, going around a corner very fast, with the river on the outside.
Even as the car screwed around in the air losing parts in slow motion while at the same being very fast, I knew this was going to be bad for me when I got out of hospital. I hit the water dimly aware that a lot was hurting and the windshield was ripped away as the car skipped like a stone. This meant the car was going to sink very quickly when it hit the water again and I was well strapped in. Feeling relief that I was dead instead of having to face mom, the water hit me like a full body punch and I replayed all my sins as consciousness slipped away.
She still needed to hear about me dying the whole school baseball team purple with gentian violet when I put it into the shower heads. A mental image rose in my mind as they needed to play a championship game in orange uniforms while dyed purple. More relief flooded my mind to know that they weren't going to get me. I was not that lucky.
The river was low, I nearly made it across too, and a woman was walking her dog on the other bank. She called emergency services and dived in, got my seat belt loose, and my head above water before I tried breathing it. The disappointment I felt seeing the helicopter hovering overhead while other people did stuff in the water around me was surprising, then I blacked out. I woke up in hospital knowing there was hell to pay, looking around I saw mom's face, and wished for almost anything else. She was staring at me, her mouth a thin pale line, her eyes cold. She was speaking to someone else.
"Take him! I've tried!" She snapped.
"How long?" I croaked.
"As long as it takes!" Mom snapped.
"If you're interested, Craig, you turned eighteen yesterday." Another woman said.
That meant I had been out for three days. I looked around, unable to turn my head. Another woman came into view, her eyes were better to look into than Mom's, and they were still not friendly.
"Your mother has had enough of your bad conduct; you turned eighteen which means I can have you legally. You will be with me until she is satisfied."
I turned my eyes to the ceiling again, this was going to be bad. The car had been the last in a series of things I had done starting when I was twelve. The first thing had been me breaking into a freight rail yard on a Sunday afternoon. I had built myself a train using a small tractor they used to pull light freight around on trailers and I was riding it along the railway line when the cops got hold of me. My reason, when they asked me, was that I wanted to go on holiday again.
The one a week before the crash had been an issue with my girlfriend, well she was ex immediately after it. She had cheated on me (with a baseball player) so I took her to a movie to break up. I took two bite size candy bars into the movie with us and felt her up while it was going, her bad judgment was that she liked to wear white tops. She walked out of the theater and got laughed at with a large brown spot on each breast where the chocolate in my palms had melted. That one had not blown over yet when I crashed Mom's car.
I wondered how much it would help if I reminded mom that I had also done a lot of good in that time. I caught her bookkeeper stealing money from her business by catching him paying for Amazon vouchers out of the marketing account. I was a straight A student too, amazing but true, nobody believed that I had done it honestly, but I had. I faded to sleep as medication kicked in, hearing them talk about ambulances and medi-lift aircraft and needing to find the right person for me.
I woke up in a new room, the ceiling was different. I reviewed: I had been in hospital for two weeks, supervised every second I was awake. No bones had broken, just a few dislocations and a lot of bruises. I had received physio, especially on my neck. In all that time I didn't see mom once, only the people supervising me, usually a woman who looked as if she could go toe to toe with a silverback gorilla, and win. I was not restrained to the bed, a first in two weeks. I had a headache but that was minor. I looked around the room to get where I was.
It was pink. Everything was frilly and soft; except for the low post on a pedestal, that was black, hard, and forbidding. There was a dressing table, a closed wardrobe, a full length mirror, and two doors. I could see a hint of a lounge suite, if I turned my head as far as it could, I seemed to be in some sort of apartment. Of the two doors I could see, one door was probably a bathroom, the other was the way out. I needed the bathroom so I flipped the covers aside and staggered to the door nearest me. It was what I needed most urgently but I had to pause. The toilet had a fabric cover, even the seat was covered. Then I got a nasty surprise.
My penis was locked up. The cage was stainless steel, the piece over my penis was just a bent pipe with a domed cap and a slit to let urine out. There was no way I could pee standing up without peeing on myself, so I sat down. I shuddered with relief as I peed without being supervised for the first time in two weeks.
"Oh! Well done!" A woman said enthusiastically from the door; "Most males make a mess the first time."
"Uh, where am I?"
"Mistress Avelyn's Finishing School for Young Sissies. Have you finished? Remember to wipe!"
I looked down, a drop of urine hung from the domed cap of the tube encasing my penis. I took some paper and dried it up.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, come to our room so that I can explain."
It was not a request. I stood up, flushed, and followed her. After three paces I laughed because I was covering my genitals, there was no point, she had seen them already. Keeping my hands by my side by conscious thought I went back into the room.
"This letter is for you." She said pleasantly, handing me the envelope.
It was from Mom: