Chapter 8
Candy was coming to. Before her eyes reality swirled effulgently, then resolved itself into a sharp, pricking sensation in her backside. She was half-lying, half-standing against some sort of board or table, and her wrists were attached to it. She couldn't see very well what was going on behind her, but in the next instant she felt again as if someone were sticking a pin into her buttocks.
"Hey!" she said. "Stop that!"
"Ah," said a rich masculine voice behind her. "Good... it worked!"
Straining her neck, she turned and found herself staring into the tragic brown eyes of the young man into whose office she had stumbled earlier that afternoon.
"I was just using a bit of acupuncture, the ancient Chinese pin-therapy, to see if I couldn't bring you back to consciousness," he said. "Now just hold still while I take them out."
"Them?"
Candy looked over her shoulder and was startled to see a number of silver pins projecting from her marvelously rounded derriere. Surprisingly, she hardly felt them, but a dark blush colored her face at the idea that this young man, sitting inches behind her, was extracting pins from her bare bottom.
"... you were out for quite a while," he was saying, chatting calmly, "... partly an accident... someone gave you ether to inhale by mistake... so I decided to try the pins... I wasn't sure I was getting the 'points' correctly..."
"'Points'?" Candy said. She was still quite dazed and couldn't think what had led up to this incredible awakening.
"Oh yes! It wouldn't do to stick them in any old place, you know. There are important neural points in the body-418 in all-and by placing the pins in certain combinations of the points it's possible to speed up, or slow down the functioning of the various internal organs."
Candy wondered whether all the points were located in such incongruous areas, but she said nothing, being much too absorbed in a rapid inspection of the room to see where her skirt and panties were.
Krankeit had detached her hands from the metal rings that held them-she had been on some sort of tilted operating table-and now she stood, awkwardly, looking for her clothes. She considered if she should cover her pubic region with her hand. After all, she thought, he was a doctor, and accustomed to seeing naked women-mightn't it look terribly bˆte for her to try and hide herself like that?
"Was I unconscious for very long?" she asked, trying to sound calm and assured.
"For about a half hour. But are you feeling all right now? Because I'd like you to assist me. I'm about to examine your father, and your presence could be very helpful. He hasn't been able to recall his identity yet, and, when he sees you, perhaps it will aid him to overcome his amnesia."
"Do you-do you think my father's mind has been permanently impaired?" Candy asked, half afraid to hear what the answer would be.
"It's hard to say. I don't know yet which of his mental faculties have been affected, or how severely. That's the purpose of this examination. We'll do our very best, of course, but only time will reveal the full extent of his injury. But are you sure you're feeling well enough to assist at the examination? It may be upsetting, you know."
Candy wanted to say that she would feel a lot better if she had her panties and skirt, and could put them back on, but she saw that he was not thinking about such material things... she decided it would be much too banal... even vulgar.
There was a moment of silence during which she looked deeply into Krankeit's thoughtful brown eyes.
"I'm ready," she said decisively. "Good Heavens, it's Daddy's condition we're concerned with, not mine!"