I did not do so.
It was on a Monday afternoon that I received the assignment, and I was to report to the designated studio on Wednesday morning. I had no assignment for Tuesday. The evening before I had dismissed my colored maid and cook until Wednesday. I wanted the house to myself, to be alone, to read and play records.
I slept late Tuesday morning.
I was awakened by the sun streaming through the curtains. I stretched. It was a warm, lazy day. It was near noon. I sleep nude, between white satin sheets. I reached over to the ash tray on the night table near the bed and lit a cigarette. There was nothing unusual about the room. A stuffed toy, a fluffy koala bear, lay near the foot of the bed. The books lay on their tables. The lamp shade was tilted slightly as I remembered from the night before. The alarm clock, which I had not set, lay on the vanity. The cigarette did not taste well, but I had wanted it. I lay again on top of the sheets and stretched again, then swung my legs over the side of the bed and into my slippers. I pulled on a silken peignoir. I jammed the cigarette down into the ash tray and went to the bathroom to shower.
I tied my hair up and slipped off the peignoir and slid back the door of the shower, and stepped inside. Soon I was luxuriating in the warm water of the shower. It was a good day, a warm, lazy, lazy day. I stood there for some minutes, head back, eyes closed, letting the warm water run over my body. They I picked up the soap and began to soap my body.
As my fingers applied the soap to my left thigh, I was suddenly startled. There was something there, that I had never before touched.
I leaned to my left side, my left leg extended and straight.
Suddenly things went almost black. I could not catch my breath. I looked in horror.
I had felt no pain.
But it had not been there the night before!
There was now a mark on my thigh. It was high on the thigh. The mark itself was about an inch and a half high. It was a graceful, cursive mark. In its way lovely. I knew it could not have been the result of a natural wound. It was in its way perfect, rather deep and clean. It was a deliberately, and precisely inflicted mark.
I gasped for breath, and felt for the wall to steady myself. Numbly, I washed the soap from my body and turned off the shower. I left the bathroom, still wet, and walked barefoot over the rug to stand before the full-length mirror at one side of the room. There, again I gasped, and again the room seemed to reel about me. On the mirror, which I had not noticed before, there was another mark. It had been drawn in my most scarlet lipstick on the surface of the mirror. It was more than a foot high, but it was the same mark that I wore on my thigh, that same graceful, cursive mark.
Disbelievingly, I looked at myself in the mirror. I touched again the mark on my thigh. I looked again at the red mark drawn in lipstick on the surface of the mirror. I beheld myself.
I knew almost nothing of these things, but there was no mistaking the lovely, deep, incised mark on my thigh.
Everything went black, and I collapsed to the rug before the mirror. I fainted. I had been branded.
2 The Collar
I do not know how long I lay on the thick rug before the mirror. It was perhaps better than an hour, judging from the position of the sun coming through the curtains.
I rose to my hands and knees on the rug and looked at myself in the mirror. I screamed.
I was going mad!
I threw my hands to my head, and shook my head.
I locked my fingers in the band at my throat, trying to tear it from my neck. It had been placed on me while I was unconscious!
About my throat, snugly, there was a graceful, gleaming band of steel. Gathering my wits I simply reached behind my neck to release the catch, and remove it. My fingers fumbled. I could not find the release. I turned it slowly, carefully, because it fitted rather closely. I examined it in the mirror. There was no release, no catch. Only a small, heavy lock, and a place where a tiny key might fit. It had been locked on my throat! There was printing on the band, but I could not read it. It was not in a script I knew!
Once again the room seemed to go dark, and swirl, but I fought desperately to retain consciousness.
Someone had been in the room to place the band to my neck. He might still be here.
With my head down, hair falling to the rug, on my hands and knees, I shook my head. I tore at the pile on the rug. I would not lose consciousness. I must keep my wits.
I looked about the room.
My heart nearly stopped. It was empty.
I crawled to the telephone on the night table by the bed. I lifted it with great care, that not the slightest sound be made. There was no dial tone. The cord hung freely. Tears stung my eyes.
There was another phone in the living room, but it was on the other side of the door. I was afraid to open the door. I glanced toward the bathroom. That room, too, frightened me. I did not know what might be within it.
I had a small revolver. I had never fired it. I though of it only now. I leaped to my feet and darted to the large triple chest at the side of the room. I plunged my hand beneath scarves and slips in the drawer and felt the handle. I cried with joy. I looked at the weapon, disbelievingly. I could not even sob, or moan. I simply could not understand what had happened. Most of the weapon was a shapeless lump of metal. It was almost as if it were a piece of melted, steel chocolate. I dropped it back onto the silk. I stood up, numb, and looked at myself in the mirror. I was defenseless. But my terror was not a simple terror. I sensed that more had occurred to me than could be accounted for simply in the terms of the world I knew. I was afraid.
I ran to the floor-length curtains before the huge window of my bedroom and flung them open.
I looked out on the city.
It hung dark with the gases of pollution, made golden in the sunlight. I could see thousands of windows, some with the sun reflecting from them, in the unreal golden haze. I could see the great walls of brick, and steel and concrete and glass.
It was my world.
I stood there for a moment, the sun streaming in upon me through the thick, dirty glass.
It was my world!
But I stood behind the glass nude, on my throat a band of steel, which I could not remove. On my thigh there was a mark. "No!" I cried to myself. "No!"
I turned away from the window and, stealthily, made my way to the door to the living room, which was slightly ajar. I summoned all my courage, and opened the door slightly more. I almost fainted with relief. The room was empty. Everything was as I had left it.
I ran to the kitchen, which I could see from the living room, and threw open a drawer. I took out a butcher knife. I turned wildly, my back to the counter, holding the knife, but there was nothing.
With the knife in my hand I felt more secure. I returned to the living room, and the phone on the end table. I cursed as I saw that the cord had been severed. I examined the penthouse. The doors were locked. The house was empty, and the patio on the terrace.
My heart was beating wildly. But I was elated. I ran to the wardrobe to dress, to leave the house and summon the police.
Just as I reached the wardrobe there was a heavy, firm knocking on the door. I turned, grasping the knife.
The knocking was repeated, more insistently.
"Open the door," commanded a voice. "This is the police."
I almost fainted with relief. I ran toward the door, still holding the knife. At the door I stopped, clutching the knife, terrified.
I had not called the police. In the penthouse it was not likely anyone had heard me scream. I had not tried to signal anyone when I had found the phones had been destroyed. I had only wanted to escape.
Whoever was on the other side of that door could not be the police. The knocking repeated again.
My head swam.
Then the knocking became even louder. "Open the door!" I heard. "Open the door. This is the police!"
I controlled myself. "Just a moment," I called, as calmly as I could. "I'll open the door in a moment. I'm dressing."
The knocking stopped. "All right," said a voice. "Hurry."
"Yes," I called sweetly, sweating. "Just a moment!"