The Diaries of Ay'esha

The Diaries of Ay'esha tell the story of Michael Forbin's abduction and training by a member of a secret society named Ay'esha. The avowed purpose of this group of women is to bring peace to the world by training the men in the world into submission and manipulating them into doing the bidding of the group.

Quick Reference

The Diaries of Ayesha

Have you ever heard the expression "kissed by a muse"?
Michael is drawn to a Goddess which sends him on his own Odyssey

Garden Party

Author: Dr. Charles Forbin
©Copyright 1998

Returning from Ithica, despite the progress I had made in locating my muse, still caused a depression to set in.

Australia was a long way away and my budget didn't exactly give me much hope for going Down Under to speak to Dr. Urania Ironbender.

I moped around the house for a few days after sending her e-mail in the hopes of getting a positive response but with each passing day, my spirits drooped further.

"Michael, I'm having a small party this weekend," Mistress Minx said when she called to check on my progress.

"That's nice," I responded halfheartedly.

"I'd like you to come," she continued patiently.

"Thank you for the invitation, but I don't feel much like a party," I said honestly.

"It's nothing major, just a little garden party. Some food, a little music, a few people who'd like to see you again and a few who'd like to meet you. Please come. For me?" she said.

I sighed and agreed to attend although I still didn't feel like it. Maybe I'd feel better by Saturday afternoon, but I didn't honestly expect I would.

I have depressions at times, but sometimes they're deeper than others.

I felt very lost without Mistress Minx to be there for me.

I suppose it's like a horse going back into a burning barn, but having been released from Minx's personal service, I missed the playtime.

I missed the flogging and the teasing and then the warm approval from her for performing.

Susan was a wonderful girl and Mistress Venus had stopped by a couple of times to play, but it just wasn't quite the same to me.

I wanted Minx.

Dominique , sorry Erato, had given me the same feeling, the same sensations, the same comfort in my mind, and then it was taken from me as well.


I was still in a rather poor frame of mind that weekend, although I'd cheered up a little bit thinking about at least seeing Minx at the party. I knew she'd be roving from place to place, but I was sure I could at least find a quiet place in the garden to sit and relax and perhaps she'd take pity on me.

There were a few people wandering about the garden chatting when I arrived, and Miriam was quick to point out people that I might find interesting.

"Thank you, but I expect to find a nice corner to sit in and watch the party. In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention, well secluded I see all," I said.

She smiled.

"Master, I know what you look like in a dress, and you don't even come close to passing for Patricia Quinn," she rebutted.

"And thank you too," I replied acidly. "I'd like you to bring me a cup of Earl Gray, hot. I expect you'll be able to find me. Just look for the storm clouds."

I walked into Minx's garden and locating a comfortable chair retreated to a corner of the garden where I could sulk in peace.

Miriam brought me my tea and then sensing my desire to be left alone retreated silently.

I watched the people and then closed my eyes and leaned the chair back against the garden wall, seeing the sunlight as only a red tint through my eyelids.

I passed a few minutes this way, tuning the party noises out of my mind until the red turned to black.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was told you're Michael Forbin," a young mans voice said.

"Who's asking?" I replied with a snort.

"I've been reading your work. I wanted to thank you for writing them."

"Tell that to Miss Dawes, she inspired them," I suggested.

"Ah but you wrote them. Tell me, is any of it true?"

Now frankly I hate that question over all of the questions I get. Primarily because it makes me sound like such a dreadful liar, and depending on my mood, the answer is a little different each time.

The mood I was in that afternoon was going to make this answer memorable.

I opened my eyes to face my questioner.

He was young all right. He was sixteen if he was a day.

I decided not to give him the answer that had occurred to me as an act of mercy.

"Tell me something first. Why do you ask?" I posed.

He looked embarrassed and started to turn away from me until I reached out and stopped him.

"Don't be embarrassed. You like the idea of submitting to someone like Mistress Minx don't you?" I continued.

"Yes. It just sounds wonderful," he said.

"Yes, it was. But she's gone onto bigger and better things," I replied." Miss Dawes can probably tell you more about her if you ask."

He blushed slightly.

"She said until I turned eighteen, she wouldn't introduce me "

I nodded.

"Wise woman. Lad, I'm not sure I like the idea of you reading the Diaries at your age. But, be that as it may, the answer to your question is yes, the stories are mostly true. I've changed the names and places in some cases, but I've left the basic facts intact," I explained.

"Oh I can vouch for that," a woman interjected.

Unseen by me, Isis Khambatta had joined us.

"Well, nice to see you again Mi'lady. How's business?" I asked trying not to betray my feelings in front of the young man.

"Very well actually. Young man, would you please excuse Mr. Forbin and I. I've been trying to speak to him for some time now," she said easily, but with the tone of a woman who expected her orders to be complied with.

The boy nodded and thanked me for my time and wandered back towards where Minx was holding court in the gazebo.

"I see Minx decided to make it a real festive party," I said turning my attentions back to Isis.

"Oh, I'm crashing," she laughed." Your Mistress is way too polite to throw me out."

"Do me a favor. Considering the way we first met, I wouldn't use the word crash. And it's technically ex-Mistress as you probably already know," I said pointedly.

"Yes, I've been keeping an eye on you for awhile now. I'd like to renew my offer," she replied.

"Offer?"

"Yes. You'll recall I offered you a position as my slave. If you'd like to accept the position , it's still open. You know I'd treat you well," she reminded me.

"And of course you'd protect me from Lydia?" was my sarcastic response.

"She isn't as bad as you think she is. She's mellowed like a fine wine," was the quiet answer.

Fine wine my ass. More like a case of sour grapes.

"Thank you, but I don't think so. I may not be wearing Minx's collar, but my basic loyalties are still with Ay'esha. Nice try though," I said getting up from the chair and handing her my now empty tea cup." Leave that by the gate when you leave would you? Thanks ever so much."

I walked away from her and back towards the gazebo where Minx gestured for me to approach.

I nodded respectfully to her and sat on the gazebo steps.

"Is that really you?" a voice said incredulously.

I turned to see Mistress Katherine standing behind me, a smile on her face.

I hadn't seen her since she was my drill instructor at the Spa and time had made her even more beautiful.

"What, I grow a beard and nobody knows who I am?" I said. "I should have done that a long time ago."

She reached out and tugged on it gently.

"Still the same stubborn man I see," she remarked.

"Some things are a constant in this Universe. My being a cantankerous old goat is one of them," I rejoined.

"Yes I noticed the gray hair. Makes you look very distinguished."

"Extinguished you mean."

"Stop that Michael," Minx snapped startling me.

"Stop what?"

"I will not have your self depreciating humor at this party," she rebuked.

I stood up and bowed to her.

"Excuse me Mi'lady. I shall remove myself from your august presence," I said and with an equally polite bow to Mistress Katherine, walked away towards the refreshment table, changing course to avoid a strolling guitarist.

I'd had too much of one thing and not nearly enough of another.

I wanted some attention, but would feel like a four year old if I asked for it.

Nobody had an obligation to me anyway.

Especially Mistress Minx.

"I think you ought to know I'm feeling terribly depressed," was Marvin the Paranoid Android's warning to people.

I could make Ey'ore look like he was on Prozac with the mood I was in.

It was in this bitter mood that I heard two people discussing my work in less than glowing terms as I got a glass of iced tea from the refreshment table

"His writing style is appalling, certainly common," the first man remarked.

"Well why Miss Dawes is his patron is a mystery to me," the other man replied. "I'd like to ask him where he learned to write but I haven't seen him."

"She said he was here. Perhaps he doesn't have the nerve to face his critics," the first man laughed.

"Who were you gentlemen looking for?" I asked calmly.

"There's a fellow here named Forbin. A writer if you could call him that. Does these dreadful bits of pornography that Miss Dawes subsidizes," the first man explained.

"Pornography. I'd be more inclined to describe them as erotica," I replied, still calmly.

The second man waved his hand in the air dismissivly.

"Semantics, nothing more."

"And what do you gentlemen do for a living?" I asked with interest.

"We work for a newspaper as literary critics," the first man explained.

I smiled, warming up for the pitch.

"Ah, someone who leaves no tern unstoned," I quipped.

They looked at me blankly.

"I don't understand?" the second critic said.

"You wouldn't. To paraphrase Shaw, he who can does, he who can't is a critic."

"There's no need to be insulting young man," the first man replied.

"On the contrary, I haven't even started being insulting. Let me introduce myself. Michael Charles Forbin," I said with a cheerful tone. "As to where I learned to write gentlemen, I could ask where you learned to be critics."

"You certainly don't expect to sell your work commercially do you?" the first man said recovering from the verbal assault.

"I don't expect to sell it at all. That's not why I write it, and as to Miss Dawes being my patron, if we weren't already outside, I'd have to ask you to step outside," I said with an edge in my voice.

"Oh I see you've met Mr. Statler and Mr. Waldorf," Minx said from behind me.

"Oh yes. We were just discussing the Diaries. It seems that these two fine gentlemen can't find any literary merit in my work," I said turning to her.

"Really? Well each to his own as the countess said kissing the pig," Minx replied. "Michael, please join me in my study for a few minutes."

I followed her into the house and into her study when she closed and locked the door behind us and then sat down in her chair.

"What is the hell is the matter with you?" she exploded.

"I'm in a bad mood is all. I did warn you," I replied controlling my own anger.

"And that gives you the right to behave like an ass?"

"I'm sorry you feel I've behaved badly. I'll leave if you prefer," and walked towards the door.

"How dare you turn your back on me!" she hissed.

I turned back to face her.

"With all due respect Mistress, you released me from your service. I'm operating as a free agent at this point and while I don't wish to be rude, I don't care what you think right now. I'm fucking hurting and all you care about is your image," I said the hot tears of anger beginning to boil up.

"I know you're hurting, but - " she started to say.

"And do you give a fuck? I can't tell . I miss you and I want some of your attention but you just don't seem to have the time for me at all any more. I know you're busy, and part of me understands that, but this part, this part of me doesn't. I love you Mistress and I always will. But I need you right now, more than ever, " I cried.

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I can't give you what you want Michael or even what you need right now. There are things going on in my life that you don't know about and don't need to know about. I need more time. That's why I wanted you to find Dominique, someone who can love you the way you need to be loved, the way I can't love you right now," she said a quiver in her own voice.

"Then I guess I'll just have to suck it up and be a tiresome tedious bastard," I said regaining some measure of control over myself.

"And I don't want that either. Damn you Michael, you're always so selfish about your needs," she rebuked.

I didn't know what to say to that charge at all.

"Selfish? I'm selfish!?" I thought.

"Excuse me. I would hardly consider myself selfish. It's not that I'm not anti-Minx, I'm just pro-Michael," I replied after thinking carefully for a minute.

"Right now I need you to be pro-Minx. Michael, Susan is doing an excellent job in your place, but she's not you. I do miss you and I do need you, perhaps not in the way you want to be needed, but I do need you. Please?".

"Do you really need me?" I asked softly.

She smiled in amusement at the question.

"Yes, I really do need you. As a friend, as an assistant, and yes, as a slave," she said and walked to me, taking my hand and looking into my eyes for the first time in a long time.

I saw the pain in her eyes and felt as if I had betrayed her by my feelings.

"I'm sorry Mistress. I lost control of myself today. It won't happen again," I apologized.

"Yes it will Michael. Your passion is what makes you hurt and feel and love. And I do care for you very much. But Affairs of State ... "

"I know, come before affairs of state. I'm just very tired of being last on the list that's all," I finished.

"You're not last Michael, you're just not first. Now, let's go back out there and put on a good show," she said turning away and unlocking the door.

"Just one thing more," I said as she reached for the knob.

"What?"

I kissed her gently on the cheek and managed to duck before the reflexitive slap made contact.

"That's better. Showtime at the El Sleazo cafe," I said and slipped through the door as the next swing caught me across the ass.

I returned to the garden and located the two critics before doing anything else and while I won't say I apologized, I intimated that perhaps I have been a bit less than open to hearing their comments.

"Anyway, now that I've had my artists temperament, I'd like to hear why you feel the way you do about my writing," I said escorting the both of them to a table.

"Seriously, do you expect anybody to believe the women are running the world?" Statler challenged.

"Well as I noted early on, the best security Ay'esha has is that the majority hear of them and reject the whole idea. I can't help what people believe or not believe. I just tell the tales," I said relaxing into the subject.

"You've made some outrageous claims in the Diaries, that you and Mistress Minx stopped the Mad Cow outbreak in England for example," Waldorf contributed.

"I never claimed we stopped it at all. All I claimed is that we assisted in insuring the proper disposal of the cows. Nothing more and nothing less."

"And the UFO reports in California?" Statler inserted.

"If you noticed, I did include a footnote pointing to a possible explanation of the incident. Is that idea any less probable than, for example, Roswell or Area 51?" I rebutted.

"You're a very gifted liar at a minimum," Waldorf laughed. "But is the work commercially viable?"

"You would have to consult my publisher in England who printed The Fox Went Out to get an answer to that question. I personally doubt it, but you could ask," I suggested.

"Can you prove even one of your stories is true?" Statler pressed as I started looking for Mistress Minx to rescue me from the Inquisition.

"Just call me Commander McBragg," I quipped.

I spotted Isis chatting agreeably with Mistress Katherine at the buffet table and then looked back at my two challengers.

"Would circumstantial evidence suit you both?" I asked as an idea came to mind.

"Even that," Statler agreed.

"Then watch carefully," I said and walked over to where the two Mistresses we chatting.

"I take it Isis told you who she is?" I said to Mistress Katherine as I looked through the array of food for the specific item I wanted.

"Actually no she didn't," Mistress Katherine said.

"Isis Khambatta of Kali, this is Mistress Katherine of Ay'esha," I said with a wave of my hand.

Katherine just stared at me before turning her attention back to Isis.

"You bitch," she said softly.

"Well you know, business is business," Isis said without rancor.

Then I spotted it, neatly arrayed on a plate at the far end of the table. A half a melon.

I picked it up and presented it with a flourish to Isis.

"A little reminder of old times?" I said with a wink.

"Take that thing away from me," she snapped.

"It's only a harmless little melon."

"Take it away!" she ground out through clenched teeth.

"As you wish," and started to set it down on the table again, only to have it intercepted by Katherine.

"Thank you," she said and for the second time in Isis's life, she and a melon had a face to face meeting.

Isis screamed and started to slap Katherine, but Katherine was too fast for her and the slap was blocked as Katherine knocked Isis on her ass.

"Now, get out of here before I decide to throw you out of here," Katherine ordered before the shocked guests as Mistress Minx pushed her way through the crowd.

"What exactly is going on here?" she asked and then upon seeing Isis and the remnants of the melon on the ground started to giggle.

"Michael..." she warned.

"I'm shocked , shocked and dismayed that this could happen here," I said in my best Claude Rains accent.

Isis got to her feet and with a stiff bow to Minx and a glare at Katherine and I, pushed her way through the crowd and towards the gate.

Mistress Katherine bent over and picked up the debris of the melon and handed it to me."

"Your winnings sir," she said in her best French accent.

Mistress Minx just stared at the both of us and then shook her head before walking away.

"Boom chukka lucka lucka boom chukka lucka lucka boom chukka lucka lucka boom," I said as Mistress Katherine and I did the Bump.

I excused myself and returned to where Statler and Waldorf were standing, the both of them wearing looks of distrust.

"Not a very large piece of evidence for the defense, but we take what we can get," I said tossing the ruined fruit aside.

"Frankly I think you had that set up from the beginning," Waldorf dismissed.

"I wish I was that good," I admitted. "But I'm not."

Before either of them could say anything they were interrupted by a loud voice calling for John C. Calhoun.

I turned around to see Ace Lightning and Denny from The Harmonica Virgins rock band waving in my direction.

"Gentlemen, we can continue this later, but right now, I have two very important people to see," I said and hurried to meet them.


"Goddess I'm glad to see the two of you," I said hugging them both tightly.

"I guess so," Ace laughed.

"You've changed a lot since you went on tour with us," Denny said kissing me hard.

"Oh the beard. Well, people seem to expect a writer to have a beard and smoke a pipe," I said leading them away from the crowd.

"And that's why you grew it?" Denny said playing with it.

"Actually, I've been off work for awhile so decided I'd grow one. That's all," I admitted.

We walked through the thinning crowd talking about the band and old times, how Mistress Minx had been and a little about the aborted wedding.

"So you're not working for the Bank right now?" Ace asked.

"No actually, I'm doing Leisure Suit Larry right now," I said with a grin.

"Leisure Suit Larry?" Ace asked.

"Looking for love in all the wrong places," I explained and then detailed my quest to the two women.

Ace listened to me and then reached out and touched my cheek.

"I think the Muse you're looking for is sitting in the gazebo Michael," she said softly.

I looked towards it and saw Minx sitting in her chair talking animatedly with two other women, the young man who had spoken with me sitting at her feet watching her with rapt attention.

"Perhaps you're right, but I had my chance and it's gone," I said turning away from the view of Minx.

"So where are you looking next?" Denny asked.

"I was planning on Australia except for one tiny little detail. I can't afford it," I admitted.

The two women exchanged looks.

"Uh, our next stop on the tour is Melbourne. We're actually only here for a few hours between flights. Do you want to come with us?" Ace offered.

"Don't fuck with my head you guys," I protested.

"Seriously. We can use another roadie," Denny said. "Come with us."

"After the last time?"

"It wasn't that bad was it? Besides, this time we can bunk together," Denny grinned.

Now that was an offer I couldn't refuse.

"What about Val?" I asked cautiously

"Screw her." they both chorused.

"N-no t-thanks General." I stammered.


We wandered back towards the main group where the strolling guitarist was now sitting on the steps of the gazebo serenading Mistress Minx and Mistress Katherine.

We sat down as well to enjoy the music and soon Ace and I were singing along softly to the amusement of Denny.

"Don't you two know anything newer than the seventies?" she teased.

"I don't think he can handle Metallica," Ace retorted nodding towards the guitarist.

Ace leaned over to me and whispered something and I nodded then stood.

"Mi'lady, may Ace and I sing a song for you and your guests?" I asked Minx.

"If you'd like to, I'd be happy to hear it," Minx said graciously.

Ace and I spoke to the guitarist and a moment later the first few chords of Rick Nelson's version of Garden Party filled the air as Ace and I sang the tale.

Statler and Waldorf walked up as we entered the final stanzas and I addressed my words to them with a whole heart and a smile.

"If you've gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lot of luck,
If memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck.
But it's all right now, I've learned my lession well
You see you can't please everyone,
so you got to please yourself."


Chapter 25 Sections 1 to 6

Xanadu
Don Quixote de La Mancha
Far Above Cayuga's Waters
Garden Party
Tie Me Kangaroo Down
Waltzing Mathilda



© The Diaries of Ayesha. Design by CSS Templates For Free. Design provided by Free Website Templates.