(1987) The Celestial Bed Read Free Page B

sexual troubles in their parents, siblings, other relatives. All the candidates, no matter what their previous callings, were bound by a common desire to assist sexually crippled men in becoming fully normal males.
    Always in his interviews, Freeberg kept in mind something that a colleague had once remarked: ‘A good surrogate is sensitive, compassionate, and emotionally mature.’ A qualified surrogate was someone who was also comfortable with her own body and her own sexuality. Every female that Freeberg seriously considered, if she was presently unmarried, had to have had a normal sexual relationship, had to know that she was sexually responsive, and had to have confidence in her own femininity. Above all else, she had to burn with the desire to repair the sexually wounded among the male population.
    In the end, Freeberg wound up with four highly promising female sex surrogate candidates - Lila Van Patten, Elaine Oakes, Beth Brant and Janet Schneider. Once trained, they would make a perfect group to team up with his soon-to-arrive Gayle Miller.
    Freeberg had required only one male sex surrogate. Male
    surrogates to work with dysfunctional female patients were not in demand. Freeberg had discovered that a male surrogate did not fit the value system of most females. It was the old nonsense, lingering into the 1980s: if a male had numerous women, he was OK, a cocksman; if a female had casual sex with many men, she had round heels and was a fool. Generally, having sex with a stranger, in this case a male surrogate, was unthinkable by American social standards. Usually women - far more than men -needed time to build toward a satisfying relationship. But this was California, times were changing, a little, just a little. Freeberg could see that there would be a female patient now and then, and so he would need at least one male sex surrogate. In Freeberg’s screenings, a single applicant had stood out. He was a young man from Oregon, experienced, interested in his personal growth, thoughtful, warm, and with a real desire to help troubled and suffering women patients become normal. His name was Paul Brandon. Among the handful of male candidates, Brandon was the one that Freeberg selected for training.
    The door to his office had opened, and Freeberg came out of his reverie. ‘They’re here, Dr Freeberg,’ his redheaded personal secretary, Suzy Edwards, was saying. ‘The surrogates you selected, they’re seated in the all-purpose room waiting for you.’
    Freeberg smiled and heaved his stocky body to his feet. ‘Thanks, Suzy. Time for the curtain to go up.’
    Dr Arnold Freeberg shut down the piped-in music, left his office, and walked briskly to the far end of the all-purpose room - a thirty-foot room that resembled a sparsely furnished living room. Here and there, on the floor, lay mattresses, and at the far end was a sofa facing the five surrogates, ranging in age from twenty-eight to forty-two. They were seated on folding chairs in a semicircle.
    With a smile, Freeberg nodded to them, was pleased to see they were all neatly dressed and alert. He knew that they were comfortable - his nurse Norah had already introduced them to each other - but on their faces were expectant expressions.
    Freeberg sat down on the sofa, settled back, crossed one leg over the other.
    ‘Janet Schneider,’ he said as if reading a roll call, ‘Paul Brandon, Lila Van Patten, Beth Brant, Elaine Oakes - I’m so pleased to have
    you here. Welcome to the Freeberg Clinic. I am delighted to tell you that you are all, without exception, decidedly qualified, highly qualified, to become valuable and useful partner surrogates.’
    He observed their immediate and unanimous pleasure at the compliment.
    ‘I am going to speak to you today about your training programme, which will begin in this room tomorrow at nine o’clock in the morning. Your training will be entirely under my supervision, five days a week, for six weeks. Only in the final Kages will I