"I trust you slept well".

I peered over my paper while sipping a bit of freshly brewed coffee.

She looked at me in disbelief as if it was absolutely unbelievable how casual i was being about such a subject.

"You didn't sleep well i take it?"

"It was uh...rather restless...most of the night".

"Really. How so?"

I spoke with a amiable smile.

"Well...uh... how do i say this without sounding insensitive? You were up...for quite awhile last night... and you were not in a good mood".

"Funny you should mention that, I don't really have any memory of it to be quite honest. Perhaps you could enlighten me".

"You mean you don't have a single memory about what happened last night?"

"If you must know all I remember is telling you to go to bed and then i woke up with...with a killer headache".

I didn't want to admit that I had had anything to drink that night so I made up that little quip about a headache.

"Interesting since you made me massage your forehead for about an hour."

"I made you...in the middle of the night.

Why would I do that?"

"Oh so you think I'm making this up now do you?"

"No, of course not, I'm just trying to think of why I would do such a thing...in the middle of the night. Do continue".

"Well let me back up a bit, you see I was in my bed, asleep and then you woke me up, you were pleading with me to help you.

So i got up, yet something wasn't right.

It was something about your eyes.

There wasn't a trace of white in them.

In fact where the white part of your eye should have been, there was this bright shade of red. You must have been in some kind of trance, I know that now, but at the time I wasn't quite sure.

I was just super confused.

Then you said you had a headache but I...I told you I wouldn't do it.

I refused and you gave me this".

She showed me her arm and there was a section of her wrist right below the band that was almost transparent.

"Ouch. However did this happen?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"There's no need to be rude. I literally have no memory of the incident so that's why I'm asking you about it".

"Do I seriously have to describe it to you?"

"Wow. it must been truly terrible if you can't even tell me about it."

"Terrible is a underestimate after what you did to me. What's even more terrible is whoever invented this horrible thing!"

"Oh yes that would also be me I'm afraid."

"Then the least you can do is take it off!"

She had a rather crazed look in her eyes.

"Calm down. At least tell me what happened".

"It shocked me, it burned me but I was stronger than you anticipated.

Then you kept telling me to run.

I kept refusing, then you shocked me some more.

I eventually did run but I ran to the closest room I could find.

I think it was yours but I wasn't quite sure yet you didn't come after me, I guess eventually after awhile I fell asleep".

"So you were hiding from me...in my room?"

"Hey I could have run away for good but like a good little robot I stayed.

You should be happy about that".

"I'm far from happy believe me. I have a few hours that I have no memory of. Those few hours were ripped from my open and outstretched fingers.

So this is not a cause for celebrating."

"You really should because what you did last night was some of your finest work. I cooperated with you, even though i was extremely unhappy about it eventually I obeyed.

I submitted to your power, I abided by your rules. I did exactly as i was told because you kept me in line. Oh but I didn't surrender completely to your control, I mean i fought you a great deal but found that it was better for me agree with you, not to mention a lot less painful. Yes I learned mighty quickly that fighting you was only making things harder for myself. So thank you for that. It was so insightful and invigorating.

Yes discipline has never been so much fun!"

Now I knew she was being sarcastic despite her overly cheery air about her.

"I'll have you know I am not proud of what I did. It was never my intention to harm you.

That device on your wrist was designed for light use only.

It was not designed to be a instrument of torture.

It was not built as a means to torture you, it was only meant to scare you."

"Why would you want to scare me?"

"I thought if you were scared of me... you'd be More likely to serve me. Yet you weren't scared of me so I stopped using that to scare you to submission tactic."

"Did you ever think of being nice for once?"

"Yes I tried that and it didn't work."

"Did you think of maybe trying it again?"

"Why would it work you think?"

"It might but being nice and being kind are two different things. Being Nice is when you give joy and goodness to someone's life.

Being kind means you have a sympathetic nature towards other people.

Being kind means you help people because have this special nature inside of you that compels you to be compassionate towards others "

"Suppose I don't have that inside me? Suppose I just don't have that special something that makes me kind and compassionate?"

"We all do, we just have to find it and when we do, we must choose whether or not we wish to bring it out into our lives."

"So you're saying if I was kind and compassionate and uh nice that I would be successful."

"Yes and you'd be far more effective in your work here".

"Will it be successful and effective with you?"

"Yes it might. I'm not making any promises but it may makes things a bit more bearable around here".

"What do you consider to be a kindness?"

"It's not a worldly pleasure or a worldly possession. I value more than anything the world can offer me is respect."

"That's it, you value respect more than anything in the whole world. Rather weird but okay we'll go with it".

"You give me respect I'll give you respect in return that's how it works."

"Wait right there. That might be how it works for you but that's not how it works for me.

Look let's just take one thing at a time shall we."

"Fine by me".