The Man In The Cage - An Allegory by Doc

                              The Man in the Cage: An Allegory

Jeremy lived in a cage – most of the time.  Well, not really.  Only from when he came home from work until he left again the next morning – and sometimes all day Saturday.

Joanne would meet him at the door, give him a peck on the cheek, and point to The Cage.  He would obediently enter it and she would lock it behind him, placing the key on a peg on the wall just a few feet out of reach (for safety, she patiently explained the first time….).

The cage was one meter high, two meters high and three meters long, or (for you Americans) a bit over three feet high, six and a half feet wide, and a bit short of 10 feet long.  “It’s big enough,” Joanne told him his first day.  That was seven months ago.

Today was an unusual day, as Jeremy only realized later.  Today, Joanne wasn’t there at the door to give him a peck on the cheek.  Her best friend Karen was waiting.  He didn’t dare give her a kiss, but it was obvious she had no desire for it anyway.  She pointed at the cage.  Jeremy entered, wondering.  “Whatever is going on?”  He maintained silence.  That was one of the rules.

Karen squatted down, legs spread before him.  Though she wore (as she did on all her visits) those tight jeans.  THOSE jeans.  Jeremy frequently imagined things… including images of what might lay beneath the denim.  THAT denim.

She spoke.

“Joanne isn’t coming back, Jeremy.  Not today.  Not ever.”  He felt a shock run through his body.  The only word that echoed was “never!”
 
“Listen to me, Jeremy.”  He did, though it was difficult.  (Never!  Not ever!)  “Joanne found someone else; that’s the bad news.  The good news is that I am moving – no, actually – have already moved in.”  Jeremy stared into her eyes.  He was a bit shocked to realize that he knew she was not kidding.
The world was moving.  His world.  It was spinning.

“Yes, I can see you’re shocked, Jeremy.  That’s to be expected.  But let’s understand each other.  It was my idea, not hers originally.  It took a lot of work to persuade her that she should follow her dreams – and her new love – and turn your key, the key to this cage, over to me.  And I want you to know that nothing is going to change – at least not for a while.”

She paused.  Then she repeated herself, as if daydreaming, “… for a while.”

Jeremy nodded.  He tried desperately to manage a smile, not quite pulling that off.

Karen stared at him, fixing him with her gaze, then letting it wander over him.  He felt naked.

“I have plans for us, Jeremy.  I know that Joanne has simply left you the comfort of this cage, feeding you scraps from her dinners and breakfasts, and letting you sleep in there on that filthy sleeping pad in that sorry sleeping bag.”  She paused.  “That is going to change.”

Karen smiled.  Jeremy looked up expectantly – hoping.

“No, Jeremy, not that!”  She giggled. “I have other plans there.  No, Jeremy, what I mean is that you are going to start doing my chores from now on.  You’ll just sleep in there – by yourself.  Do you understand?” He nodded.

Karen got up, turned, and walked away into the kitchen.  Jeremy gazed at her long thighs, her tight butt and her trim calves – all encased in denim.

Jeremy knew he would now simply lie in his cage after doing his regular job, then his home chores, and dream.  Dream of what beauty lay under those jeans.  THOSE jeans.  The jeans he would never see Karen shed for him.