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Missing the Cut
by
Lex Ludite
Chapter 13
Micky was back home no more than two days when Janice informed her that Mrs. Worthington-Wentworth would like to see her the next morning for a little brunch and an offer that she dare not refuse. Her stepmother would say no more on the subject and so the teen spent most of the remainder of the time speculating about what this offer might be. She assumed that it must have something to do with her return to the ladies golf tour, but Micky was painfully aware that it would take a great deal of time and energy for her to even begin to approach where she had been when her career had abruptly ended.
It was Jake who drove Micky to her meeting, warning his daughter that things would go very badly for her if she did anything to alienate this powerful patron of the arts. It was a very tense and slightly fearful teenager who was admitted to the Wentworth residence, and proceeded to followed the tall, thin servant who had opened the front door and welcomed her. Soon she was ushered into the presence of Grace Worthington-Wentworth who was seated at a large wooden desk, going over a stack of what proved to be invitations to her charity golf tournament.
The gray haired woman was wearing a peignoir, its sheer, peach tinged material revealing rather than concealing her surprisingly firm and shapely breasts, another miracle of the surgical arts. She looked up and gave Micky a warm smile, nodding in the direction of a comfortable chair that was located to the side of the large mahogany desk that seemed to radiate a power of its own.
"You will have to forgive me for a few moments my dear. I'm going over the invitation list to my annual charity golf tournament. Although it's still many months away, it is necessary to get ones ducks in a row to be sure that the creme de la creme of the ladies professional golf world and a few of the rising amateur stars are committed to appearing in this charity event. This is one of the reasons for my asking you to visit me today, so soon after returning from your holiday."
Micky was taken aback that Mrs Grace Worthington-Wentworth, society leader, patron of the arts and the power behind many of the organizations that made sure that the city functioned as it should, would also know such details as where the teen had spent her time. Then it became apparent that the source of this information was probably the Sanyers. She wondered just how much of what occurred between them was now known by this powerful woman seated only a few feet from her. The teen did her best to appear as if nothing was amiss, and watched as the stack of invitations were carefully separated into two groups. Grace picked out a few from one stack and looked up at the girl.
"I'm sure you are well aware that Nordica Nordstrom, also known to many on the tour as the "Ice Queen", currently is the uncontested ruler of the ladies professional tour with very little prospect of a challenger coming from the ranks any time soon. Still in all, she will happily accept my invitation to participate in this tournament without any discussion of appearance money. Then there is Holly Kramer, the new sex symbol for the LPGA, and an excellent young golfer I might add. She will be delighted to accept my invitation for a number of reasons. I'll not go into the details. Finally no tournament would be worth the name without at least three or more of the Pak clan in attendance. I am not sure about all the relationships between the various Paks, but I do know that Grace is the clan mother or whatever they call her when they are off the course. We Graces must stick together and so she and I will independently decide which of the many Paks makes an appearance. Now to make my plan complete I am going to invite you to play, although you are in some respects considered almost a traitor to the ladies due to your previous desire to ignore them and attempt to compete on an equal footing with the men. I hope you now realize just how foolish and downright dangerous that might have been for your career."
Micky felt her chest constrict as if a cold hand had encircled it. She hadn't picked up a club in over two years. How did this woman expect her to compete with the leading players on the LPGA tour in such a short time? Who was available to begin working with her? Worse yet, how would she handle the built in animosity that obviously existed toward her? Her hands began to shake as more and more questions that she could not answer flashed through her head. It took her some time to realize that her hostess had moved so that she was within touching distance of her. For some reason she relaxed the moment Grace's hand made contact with her. However after she absorbed all that her patron was planning for her, her fears returned, although somewhat muted this time.
"Don't be such a ninny! You are a young lady gifted with physical grace and beauty and immense talent when it comes to the game of golf. This is obvious or I would not be spending so much as a minute talking to you about this opportunity. Now I want you to take a deep breath and join me for a spot of brunch which is waiting for us near by. It may well prove to be the last time for many months to come that you will be able to experience food for the sheer taste and texture of it. Once you leave this house you will be under a strict discipline when it comes to what you eat, how much you sleep, even I dare say who you can sleep with and what you can or cannot do with your partner under such circumstances. You will be poked and prodded by doctors, trained by one of the best teachers of your sport and every waking hour will be scheduled to optimize your progress. If all goes as planned, you will make a huge splash at my tournament and in one fell swoop establish yourself as a force to be reckoned with at any women's event. If instead you fail, there is always the boutique. Veronica still raves about you and would give plenty to once again have you in her clutches so to speak."
Brunch was not exactly what Micky needed at this point, but she did her best to avoid insulting Grace's hospitality. They made small talk which soon focused on what seemed to be dominating the teen's life these days, sex. Her hostess made the observation that trying to stay slim and shapely as one aged was a daunting task. To illustrate her concern she stood in the sunshine streaming into the room, effectively making her peignoir vanish. Micky could do nothing but stare, open mouthed, at the flesh now fully displayed. From there the conversation became even more personal. It seemed that Grace's youthful paramour, Chelsea, had been caught straying from her duties to her benefactor and was currently being taught a very painful lesson by of all people, the Sanyers, ably assisted by Grace's good friend, Tanja, who Micky remembered only too well.
"Youth is so ephemeral and yet so desireable. Those gifted to have it usually cannot appreciate what it means and how soon it begins to pale. Such is the case with my dear Chelsea. I am so very tempted to pay them a visit to see how she is faring, but that would not be de rigeuer, and so I must sit and wait for her to return, hopefully inocuated against the crueler aspects of this malady that has struck her. This is her second, and of necessity, last offense. The spanking is now a beating, water is now steam and ice, six of the best is but a prelude to what follows this time. Upon her return the first time she could not sit for a day or two.I am told this time she will take to her bed for perhaps a week before regaining her strength." Micky could do nothing but shudder in sympathy for the girl and once more relive the highlights of that horrible evening which had now been brought to the surface again by the probings of Dana Branley.
Micky had much to think about as she was driven back to her home in Grace's limo. Her hostess had been rather cryptic concerning her new teacher, only stating that Micky's father knew the person quite well and would take her out to make the introductions. After that, Micky's future as far as golf was concerned, would be in this person's hands. Things were happening at a rate that was breathtaking. The charity golf tournament was only three months away and as it stood, she was concerned her prospects for meeting Grace's expectations were remote. One other thing was troubling the teenager as well, and that had to do with her personal relationship with the doyen of city society. She wondered why her hostess had discussed certain subjects that normally would not be addressed to one who was not in a very close personal relationship. Was it possible that Mrs. Worthington-Wentworth was auditioning her to replace the mysterious Chelsea as her youthful lover? That was something that Micky could not and would not deal with until other matters were resolved.
The teen had spent a restless night, her sleep interrupted numerous times as she tossed and turned, her mind running hither and yon and getting exactly nowhere. After picking at her breakfast and preparing herself to meet her new teacher, Micky and her father left the house and began the long drive to meet this mysterious person. On the way over Jake recounted some of his knowledge about Micky's new teaching pro.
"You're going to be taught the game by one of the greats of ladies golf, but few people can tell you much about her. She's in her sixties by now and I still think she could make the cut about half the time on the current ladies tour. She's nearly as tall as you are, but probably has you by at least one hundred and twenty pounds based on the last time I saw her, which was a few years ago. She's a mixture of Hawaiian and Samoan, and has an unpronounceable first name. To those who know her well she's just Pong, some other fools refer to her as Ping. God help you if you ever use that moniker to address her. She'll turn you inside out before she bites your head off. You will always address her as Ms Pong; that little courtesy will keep you from some rather dire consequences."
"In her day when anyone who wasn't white was unwelcome, she played on the fringes and as her reputation grew she picked up a following. You are a big hitter, that's your main gift. Pong can still hit over two hundred from the tee and at her peak she'd have outdriven you by thirty yards. However as you shall discover if you survive her rather unique method of teaching, there is much more to golf than hitting the ball far, even if it's straight as well. Real golf starts after your tee shot, and most of it is mental. That is what separates Nordica Nordstrom and Grace Pak from their peers. Those two play with their brains and have the killer instinct. Ms Pong in her heyday would have beaten both of them most days and on most courses. In truth she could have played with the men and given plenty of them grief."
"Pong's teaching methods are unorthodox, extremely unorthodox. However those who stay with her odd demands and arcane exercises leave with their game and their view on life much improved. Many will argue that their outlook on all things has been changed to the point that success in only one thing is unthinkable. One of her pupils from Japan considers her to be a Zen master, the highest compliment that she could pay her teacher. Although she is no longer playing golf professionally, having retired to become the managing director of a billion dollar corporation that does business on the Pacific rim, she makes an annual pilgrimage to the site where she discovered what she was capable of becoming. There she spends a week carrying Pong's clubs and doing all the little things that a servant does for one's master. She is not the only one who makes this visit. I would like to believe that one day you too will honor her efforts on your behalf in a similar fashion."
"There are many rumors concerning Pong's sexual preferences. They range from the extreme to the mundane. Those who were found lacking are some of her strongest detractors, and yet some speak of her as almost a saint even though they too failed. You'll have to make up your own mind on her, which is as it should be. I guess the best way to sum up everything you need to understand is as follows. If she tells you to stand on your head and sing a song while you are getting ready to try a long putt, do it! Whatever you do, don't ask, just do it! It will all become understandable when the process of changing you is complete. I cannot help you anymore than that." The rest of the trip was made in silence.
Micky was taken aback when they arrived at their destination. They were well outside of the city limits in an area that was mostly commercial. Sandwiched by two sprawling sets of concrete cubes sat a ramshackle house located in a hollow of land that almost looked to be a swamp. The only entry way was a narrow dirt road that terminated at a fence, its top portion covered by razor wire. Jake beeped the horn in a pattern that he repeated twice, then smiled and sat back waiting for someone to let them inside the compound that at first glance looked more like a junk yard. The teen did not know what to make of this place. It certainly did not have the trappings of a golfing school, of that she was sure. When she asked her father who would be picking her up after her lesson, he laughed before replying.
"I'm pretty sure it will be me. However that won't be happening for a number of months unless you flunk out. If that happens, perhaps you won't want to see me, since I'll be mighty upset. The best you can hope for then is that I'll let you ride in the trunk while I drive you over to see Mrs. Worthington-Wentworth to explain why you let her down. Then I imagine I won't see you again until after your session with her friend Tanja, who by the way is a professional dominatrix. That may make what you experienced a few years ago pale in comparison."
Micky sat there in stunned silence. What kind of a school was this? She had no clubs, nothing to wear, not even a pair of golf shoes. To the teenager it looked more like some kind of prison, not an environment that would assist her to regain that lost proficiency in a sport that she had ceased playing over two years ago. Her reverie mixed with discomfort was broken by the appearance of a young male, probably a year or two older than her, who unlocked the gate and waited for Jake to deliver Pong's latest student into his custody. As she followed him to wherever they were going, Micky turned her head just long enough to watch her father's car negotiating the narrow road on its way back to civilization.
It took them nearly ten minutes at a brisk pace to finally reach their destination, a patch of dusty earth with a single tee. There were four buckets of golf balls next to it. The guide told her to wait here and sauntered off, leaving Micky alone with her thoughts. The teen lost track of time as she stood out in the sun and waited for whoever would take her in hand. Micky was startled by the deep voice that announced the presence of Ms Pong. She turned quickly and confronted a mountain of a woman carrying a nondescript golf bag from which protruded the heads of a number of drivers. She was stunned by what the woman said, but quickly recalled what her father had told her, do whatever it was that she wanted done.
"Remove your clothing so I can get a look at you." Micky complied immediately. There was something in this person's voice that radiated authority and power. "Your shoes as well, they'll not be needed. Good, now turn slowly with your arms extended away from your body.I said slowly......Long and lean, I can work with what you have. You'll need to turn some of that flesh into muscle, but that can easily be accomplished. Now pick one of these clubs from the bag and let me see your swing." Lesson number one was about to begin.
( To be continued )
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