Doctor's Advice (part 3)

-- read part 1 here --
-- read part 2 here --



It was two weeks later. Meanwhile Sandra had gotten used to her new dresscode, but she had no idea Myriam was already planning more for her. She still felt awkward walking on the street and even worse when sitting on the train in her bright red coat, with her hood up and tied tightly so that the fur ruff left only a small opening for her eyes. Her hands, useless in several pairs of thick mittens, usually lay in her lap. And everyone could see the small padlock that clearly said she was unable to take off her own hood. Sandra couldn't help wondering what people thought of her.

The first day had been the worst. Not only because it was simply the first time she wore such extravagant clothes in public, but also because she had to face her coworkers for the first time in her new attire. When she arrived at the office, everyone she met just stared at her in disbelief, not even knowing who this person was. All they saw was a bright red thick down mantle with shiny black Moonboots underneath. With her hobbled feet, Sandra had slowly made her way through the office.

When she had arrived at her normal place, she had found her desk gone. At first she had thought she was on the wrong place. After all, her vision was so limited that she could have become disoriented. But after taking a 360 degree turn on the spot, she knew for sure that she was where her desk should be. Not knowing what to do, she had just stood there in confusion.

At that point her boss had come in and called everyone's attention. She had taken Sandra's arm and turned her to face all her colleagues. Then she had explained about Sandra's condition. Sandra was glad that she didn't have to explain to everyone herself, but she wished her boss had let her out of the mantle first. The mystery of her missing desk was also solved: Sandra's desk had been moved to be right next to the heating.

After the announcement, Veronica, Sandra's best friend at the office, had come up to her. "I had no idea it was you in those clothes! I hadn't expected to ever see you wearing a down mantle like that. But it looks nice, Sandra. It suits you really well. Let me help you out first. Oh! There's a lock on the drawstrings and the zipper."

"My friend Myriam did that, to make sure I don't take the hood off. The key is in the left pocket. Please let me out now."

Veronica had helped Sandra out of the down mantle, and then she had taken off the heavy down mittens. She had been amazed to learn that Sandra didn't have the key for the sweatshirt hood, and that she was forced to wear Moonboots, down pants, the white turtleneck sweater and the black hooded sweatshirt all day. The collar of the turtleneck was partly visible inside the black hood, so everyone could see how warm she was still dressed. And from then on, she had to sit right next to the heating all the time.

But now, two weeks later, Sandra had gotten more or less used to her situation. And that's when Myriam wanted to increase her restriction.

Myriam had arranged for Ann, the 'doctor', to come around again. She had the results of the blood analysis. Because they were so important, she wanted to deliver them herself. They had found the virus that caused the reaction to be present in high concentration. It was quite possible, Ann said, that exposure to cold could directly lead to death.

Sandra was shocked. "Is there nothing you can do? Some sort of medication?" Ann said no. "We have no way to destroy the virus. So especially when you are outside, I advise you to make absolutely sure no cold can touch you. The good thing is that as long as you do that, you should have no other negative effects from it."

When Ann left, Sandra sat in a daze at first. Myriam comforted her. "Don't worry Sandra. I'll take care of everything. We just have to keep you wrapped up, and then nothing bad will happen."

The next Monday Myriam woke Sandra half an hour earlier than normal. When she asked why, Myriam said it would take a bit longer to get her dressed, and she wanted to make sure Sandra got to work in time.

After showering, Sandra put on her usual clothes: leggings, down pants, Moonboots, a turtleneck sweater and a hooded sweater. She then went to Myriam to get her collar and have her hood drawstring locked to it. This had become a normal routine for Sandra. After that, they had breakfast, and then Myriam prepared Sandra to go outside. But today this last part was a bit different, as Myriam had some extra protection for Sandra.

First Sandra was put into the huge mittens again. But then Myriam showed her a down mask. This would cover Sandra's entire head. It was, of course, in black nylon, overfilled with down.

"It zips at the back and has an integrated collar that I can fasten around your neck," Myriam explained. "It has two small eyeholes but they are blocked with clear plastic lenses so you can see out, but the cold air can't get in. Because the mask doesn't let air in, there is a breathing tube inside. Around the breathing tube is a pumpable gag. By pumping this up, we make sure that the breathing tube remains in your mouth, and also that you breathe through the tube, rather than in the mask, where you would run out of air soon. The breathing tube connects to a hole in front of the down mask. There we can attach another tube that leads out of your hoods. Now, open your mouth so I can insert the gag with the tube."

Sandra didn't want to be gagged again, but she saw no other way. If the virus was indeed lethal, she needed full protection. So she opened her mouth and allowed Myriam to put her into the mask. Myriam zipped it at the back and did up the collar. Sandra found she could breathe normally, and her mouth wasn't filled too much. She relaxed, it wasn't too bad.

Next Myriam came with a shiny black, heavily filled down suit. Was this really necessary, Sandra thought. But she couldn't object very well with the tube in her mouth, so she just allowed Sandra to first put her feet in, then her arms. Of course the suit had attached mittens - as though her hands weren't covered enough already! It zipped up at the back, but even weirder was the hood. It only had two slits for the eyes and one for the mouth - or in Sandra's case, for the breathing tube that would be inserted there.

When she was in the heavy down suit, Myriam started pulling her arms through the sleeves of the red down mantle. Sandra didn't think this was going to work. The suit was just too thick to allow the mantle over it. But Myriam managed to get her hands into the attached mittens, and then she slowly zipped it up, stuffing the black down inside as she went up. The hood was up over the suit's hood already. Before doing it up all the way, Myriam had to take care of the breathing tube and the gag. She took a small hand pump and attached it through the mouth hole of the down suit to a valve in the down mask. With this she pumped up the gag so it would fill Sandra's mouth completely. After a while Sandra's arms started to flail wildly, as this was the only way she could try to ask Myriam to stop pumping. But Myriam wasn't mollified; she pumped a couple more times before taking the pump off.

Next was the breathing tube. She held it up in front of Sandra's face, although she wasn't sure the girl could see well enough to know what it was. "As you see, the breathing tube has a bag attached to it. It consists of two layers of nylon with down between them; the purpose is to preheat the air you breathe in. Here on this side, it has a small opening to let in fresh air. So when you breathe in, you will inhale the heated air in the bag. Because of the resulting underpressure in the bag, fresh air will stream in. When you breathe out, the bag will fill up, causing overpressure, and part of the air in the bag will stream out. This means that you will be partly breathing in the air you exhaled. That's good because the air will be warmer that way. Unfortunately it also means you'll get a bit less oxygen, but you'll still get enough, so there's no danger. You do need to take slow and deep breaths all the time, otherwise the bag won't work. If you take shallow breaths, there won't be enough fresh air in the bag. So it's very important that you take deep breaths."

Sandra didn't want this, she was afraid she would suffocate. But she was completely helpless as Myriam attached the breathing tube to the down mask. The breathing bag had a strap with velcro attached to it. She wrapped this around Sandra's left upper arm to secure the bag in place. It slowly puffed in and out with Sandra's breathing.

Finally Myriam closed the collar of the red down mantle and pulled the chain drawstrings a little - not too much, so that the breathing tube wasn't hindered and her eye slits weren't covered. She locked them to the zipper and put the key in Sandra's pocket, like every day. And so Sandra was on her way, dressed like she would be every day of the coming winter.

And that's why, if you sit on the train in the morning or evening, and an enormous red down figure shuffles inside and takes a seat opposite you - or, if the train is too crowded, she has to stand up, because she takes two seats by herself - you needn't wonder about the extreme way she's dressed. Not even about the black down hood that only has eye slits that you see inside the red hood, and not even about the black bag that's connected to her mouth and shows clearly every breath she takes. You now know why. Poor Sandra has been tricked by her friend Myriam, and she honestly believe it's necessary for her health.

The people that see her every day don't know this, though. They can only stare in amazement. And maybe there are some that even find the sight erotic. Maybe there are some that dream about being locked in such an outfit themselves, or having someone else wear it. Maybe, people like that exist.




Overview