Binding Agreement

Janine was excited. Tom will be so happy, she thought. He was
always complaining about the amount she spent on clothing, even
though she was unemployed. Well, it wasn't her fault that large
sizes were in fashion, so all the size 6's were grabbing all the
size 14's and 16's. But Tom found this clinic. She gets a 2
month vacation, and will take off 50 pounds! She'll be back to a
size 10 again, and can buy all her clothes on sale instead of
having to pay full price! And Tom didn't even argue about the
price with her (not that she knew what the price was; she never
worried about such things...).

So there she was, in the waiting room. In walked a nurse, who
escorted her to the doctor.

"Are you familiar with our procedures?" asked the doctor.

"No," said Janine, "but I would REALLY like to lose weight."

"Well, I think that you will find our procedures...effective.,"
said the doctor. The nurse stifled a giggle, and Janine was a
little puzzled. But she would do just about anything to take off
the weight; she had spent thousands on diets that just didn't
work, and she was hoping this would do the trick. "Lisa will
take you to the orientation room."

Lisa, the nurse, led Janine to the orientation room. It was
obviously some sort of gym, thought Janine. There seemed to be
all sorts of exercise equipment around. At least it LOOKED like
exercise equipment, with all those straps and weights. "I have
to leave for a few minutes," said Lisa. "Just make yourself
comfortable."

Janine went over to one likely looking piece of equipment. It
seemed to be some sort of full body exercise machine, and it
looked like fun. She put the straps around her ankles and her
wrists, and tried to pull on the weights. Hmmm....they were
heavier than they looked -- they didn't even budge. Oh well, she
thought. She can try a lighter piece of equipment. So she
started to remove the straps. Except they wouldn't come off.
This was embarrassing, she thought, as she struggled with the
straps. And she noticed, they were getting shorter and shorter.
After struggling for a few minutes, she found her hands and feet
were held fast against the bars of the machine, and she had her
back against it. At which point, Lisa re-entered.

"Ah," said Lisa. "I see you have found the Hollen Machine. I
was going to start you off on a slightly lighter machine, but
this will do fine."

"I can't seem to work this machine, Lisa," said Janine. "As a
matter of fact, I can't even move!"

"That's perfect," said Lisa. "But this is a program of disci-
pline. As part of it, you are to call me 'Ma'am', not Lisa."

"Isn't that kind of ridiculous, Lisa... Owwwww!" said Janine, as
a painful vibration went through her body.

"We have ways of conditioning discipline into our patients," said
Lisa. "Now, are you ready to lose some weight?"

"Yes L...Ma'am," said Janine. And she began to guess at why Tom
was so happy about this clinic...