In an upper middle class California city that shall remain nameless, there is a cul de sac called South Marlin Circle, or as the street sign reads, "S. Marlin Cir." Many of the families of that pocket of humanity have been there for generations, most since the state's 1950's and 1960's building boom that saw the Golden State become the world's fifth largest economy. The result is that the people on that 16 house piece of the city are tight with one another like one big extended family. And there was a secret that cemented that bond and helped keep the last names on the block stable for such a protracted period in a country where people move, on average, twice or more a decade.

WWII had a huge effect in helping to internationalize America's culture. For example, Italian, French, Chinese and Japanese cooking became widely popular nationally for the first time after returning soldiers, seeking the great food at home that they had a chance to consume during their time fighting fascism overseas, began frequenting what had been very local and relatively unknown eateries in otherwise ethnically segregated enclaves in their search for it.

The war also exposed the soldiers to other habits and this is where the story begins. Roger Perlis was an L.A. native and a veteran of the Pacific War against Japan. Maybe it was because of the sexual repression inherent in the American culture of that era, but Perlis was among the tens of thousands of GI's who frequented the red light establishments of Tokyo during the U.S. occupation of that island nation between 1945-1952. During one such visit, Perlis heard the agonized cries of a woman emanating from the room next to where he was waiting for a girl to attend to him. Being a gallant representative of the American white protestant ethic, or so he fancied himself, he left the chamber he was going to share with a professional vendor of the sexual arts and opened the sliding doors of the one from which the pained protestations originated from.

He had never seen anything like it in his life. There stood a short, stout and mustachioed Japanese man holding a bamboo cane in his righthand while a woman was bound up in artfully knotted ropes and gagged. The man shouted to Perlis to "get the fuck out of here" in Japanese just as he applied another smack of his cane to the posterior of the barely 5'0" whore who was acting as his victim. Well, or so that is how Perlis interpreted it, that this woman was being beaten for god only knows what trivial offense the strict Japanese culture of the era seemed to him to dictate. Perlis intervened, kicked the smaller Japanese man's ass from Hokkaido to Kyushu before he got jumped by a hoard of Yakuza whose establishment he was disturbing the business of. Other GI's ran to the defense of their compatriot and a huge brawl ensued, with the Yakuza being thoroughly overpowered by the then much bigger American boys.

The madam of the brothel was furious with the GI's, especially Perlis and dressed him down. Through a Japanese-American interpreter, the "mama" informed them that what was happening in the room wasn't a woman being victimized, but art. She ordered another girl to strip in front of them and then another Japanese man came and neatly bound her hands and feet in various configurations, explaining what was happening compositionally, like the girls who were being encapsulated in silk or hemp were living sculptures and the rope the external frame for them. Then she moved on to elucidate on the nexus of power and sex and how "shibari," known in America as, "rope bondage," resonates with the aficionados of that particular practice.

Most of the GI's, of course, fresh off the farms of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas and rather naive about the extent of the panoply of sexual possibilities, thought that the madam was bullshitting them and it struck them mostly as sexually deviant anyway even if it was true and therefore of no serious regard.

Perlis, though, was mortified because he realized he made a jackass out of himself. The artistic aspect of shibari was undeniable and, mostly because it was exotic and had a sexual undertow to it, he began to research it on the down low. Hustling some black market rice into the right hands so that he could gain access to both lectures and materials pertaining to this expression of the Japanese soul, he himself became a dab hand at manipulating the contours of knots and harnesses. And in the course of his delving into the subject, met Mieko Hadakayama, a 20 year old very comely submissive who he married just before he returned to America.

After using the GI Bill to obtain a Phd in psychology, partially to understand the need for his wife and others to submit to the will of another, he decided to move Mieko and their three kids, Roger Jr, Richard and Rachel, out of L.A. in 1953 to South Marlin Circle, which was across the street from a vast orange grove in a town whose population grew geometrically seemingly every year through the early 1960's. Roger ultimately became a professor at a new California State University campus in that general vicinity. The orange groves were gone by the early 1970's to make way for more housing developments.

Now back in those days, neighbors tended to fraternize more than they do now. Roger became very friendly with Jim Samuelson, his next door neighbor, to the point where he invited Jim over one day to show "something really weird I saw in Japan" he wanted Jim to keep under his hat. He took Jim into his bedroom and called out to Mieko, who came hurriedly to him. Roger closed the door and locked it. "Yes Master?' Mieko said to Roger. "Mieko, take your clothes off and stand with your hands behind your back." "Yes Master." Jim was astonished. This just wasn't done in 1950's America! Before he knew it, Mieko was starkers right in front of Jim. Roger grabbed a length of tan hemp rope and bound his wife's  hands and feet. "Jim, have a gander at her and tell me what you think," Roger offered. "Give a detailed rundown of what you think of different parts of her body," he continued. This, of course, was what in the 21st century we know as the humiliation part of the scene Roger had planned.

Jim broke out in a sweat. "Boy, I don' t know Roger. Are you sure? You won't coldcock me if I give you my honest opinion, right?' he confirmed. "Face her and outline exactly what her strong and weak areas are, Jim. She wants you to do it, so have at it." Jim criticized Mieko's small breasts and ass, her chubby legs and sometimes found her accent hard to understand. "Thanks Jim. Now, stick a finger in her pussy and see if she's wet." "What? Did I hear that right?' "Yes you did, Jim. She wants you to do it. So knock  yourself out," Roger assured him. "O-o-o-okay," Jim stuttered. He extended his index finger and inserted it into Mieko's cunt and then withdrew it. "Yeah, she's definitely wet," Jim analyzed. Roger then got a pair of alligator clips and fastened them to Mieko's tiny nipples, making her cry out in pain. "Mieko, what do you say when your Master enables you to experience a new sensation?" "Thank you Master." "Good girl, Mieko."

"Geez Louise, Roger, what did you do THAT for? That must hurt something awful!" "Yes, it does hurt. But she loves it," Roger disclosed. In fact, Mieko was so aroused that she was sopping wet and her heart was doing backflips and she felt hot at the embarrassment of being exposed this way in front of her neighbor, which only fueled her horniness further. "And what's with this 'master' stuff?"

Roger, after having Mieko fold her knees and kneel on the floor, explained what seemed to be happening in her mind and also regaled him with the tale in the Japanese brothel back in 1946. The Kinsey Report came out in 1948 and set off a firestorm of controversy, the evangelical nutbars calling it "pornography" and wanting it banned because it seemed to indicate that behaviors that the conservative Christian community saw as deviant were actually far more common in America's bedrooms than was previously thought. Kinsey didn't say much about BDSM, but Roger surely thought that Mieko's and his desires were another area that perhaps bore further study.

"Okay Jim, now watch this," Roger alerted, as he unzipped his trousers and stuck his cock into Mieko's mouth, whereupon she eagerly began licking and sucking it. Jim was hard as a rock seeing his neighbor's wife naked and now giving a blowjob. "So does she do that whenever you want Roger?' Jim inquired. "Yes she does, and she swallows, too," he bragged. "You're a lucky man. Betty Lou won't touch mine that way," Jim lamented. Mieko bobbed her head up and down urgently even though she felt deeply ashamed. In short order, Roger began blasting his petite Asian wife's mouth with his jizz, which she gulped down. "Good girl Mieko." "Thank you Master," she recited in her Japanese brogue.

"Do you want her to do you, too?" Roger asked his buddy. "Uh, wow, gee Roger, uh..." "Oh come on Jim, you said your wife never does it for you, you sad sack. So let mine pep you up," Roger encouraged. "Uh, okay," Jim consented uncertainly. "Mieko, suck Jim's dick," Roger commanded. "Yes Master." Jim walked around to stand in front of Mieko and, with trembling hands, unzipped his khakis and out pointed his penis, as straight as a ruler. Jim felt Mieko's warm, soft mouth envelop his stone hard shooter and he let out a loud moan. "Shit Roger, I haven't felt anything like that since I bought a girl in China," he averred. "Do a good job Mieko or you will be severely punished!" Roger growled. "Yes Master," she responded and went back to tantalizing Jim's tube steak with her lips and tongue. Her silky lips going over the taut skin of his shaft was out of this world for Jim. He was moaning up a storm and then he felt his prong twitch and launch cum rockets into the tiny Japanese woman's piehole. She swallowed and thanked Jim for his cum.

"How was it Jim?' Roger asked. "That was tops in my book, Roger!" Jim enthused. "Good girl Mieko." Roger critiqued and then untied her and allowed her to get dressed. Once her modesty had been restored, Mieko bowed to Jim and left the room. Roger and Jim spent the ensuing two hours discussing what just happened, the theories around it and stuff they saw in the brothels of Asia during the war. Roger had bought Jim's silence with that blowjob he compelled Mieko to perform on him.

A few months later, during a weekend neighborhood cookout where everybody had gotten pretty plastered on martinis, beers and boilermakers, Roger brought out his ropes and, positioning it as "showing you knots you'll never see in the Boy Scouts," he tied up just about everybody there during his demonstration, watching carefully to see if any of the subjects enjoyed their temporary restraint a little TOO much. Much mirth was generated with nobody realizing that they had been introduced to kink. Back in those days, the BDSM scene was so far underground you would practically drown in an aquifer before finding it. Roger began to suggest it to the guys in the neighborhood as a way to snazz up bedroom play by framing it as damsels in distress play.  An astonishing percentage of the men found their wives asking for that kind of play repeatedly. Roger would then help them extend it to outside the bedroom and thus the South Marlin Circle Bondage Club was born.

They started having parties every now and again with just the couples who liked to engage in bondage play.

One problem arose, though, and that was Roger's kids. When the eldest, Roger Jr., was seven, he asked his dad why he was beating mom. At the time, all he could tell junior was that he and Mieko were just engaging in rough play and there was nothing to worry about, they weren't fighting. Of course, as the kids got into junior high, that explanation made less and less sense and, finally, one day, Roger sat them all down and explained exactly what was going on. By the time the three sprogs graduated high school, they knew if they were personally submissives or dominants.

As housing sales churned in the neighborhood, the ones who were interested in bondage tended to stay. All three Perlis kids, for example, bought homes in that neighborhood. Rachel, a submissive who had a lot of the same taste for humiliation as her mother, met her husband Royce at an underground bondage club while at university. The two boys found submissives for wives.

By 1975, all the homes were owned by bondage aficionados and it has been thus since.

Over the decades, the club has set down a code, the so-called "Tantalizing 20," that the families in the club follow. They are:

1. Keep all play indoors so that no outsiders will find out what goes on and ruin the public reputations of the residents; fun for both parties shall be the paramount concern.
2. Children are to be told about sex, including BDSM, by age 12, but they won't be taught about rope and restraint usage until age 14. All instruction concerning restraint and  rope use will be by the child's parents only.
3. When a child turns 14, he/she will be able to dominate another under parental supervision and is considered under probation.
4. No child who is a resident of the street may submit to another until age 15. However, children who are non-residents of at least age 14 may be taken as a submissive by a dominant member of the club who is within one year of the submissive's age.
5. No child under the age of 15 may use ropes unsupervised. All supervision shall be done by a legal adult.
6. Since being collared involves a kind of contract, no child under the age of 18 may permanently collar a sub. However, they may be given provisional collars that may be forsaken at anytime by the submissive.
7. All club members must have partners who are either dominant or submissive. No vanillas are allowed.
8. All members older than 14 must be on birth control unless they are over 18 and are  trying to have children.
9. Any stated limits of the submissive must be adhered to, including that dealing with retention of virginity.
10. No one under 18 may engage in humiliation or any play involving use of a non-battery powered device or medical equipment.
11. There shall be no photography of club members engaged in BDSM play.
12. All Masters shall be recognized as such, no matter their age.
13. Nobody shall talk to outsiders about the internal matters of the club.
14. All sex toys must be kept clean and each toy shall be specific to one submissive. All anal play shall involve the use of condoms on the toys except butt plugs.
15. Use of illegal drugs is forbidden for either dominants or submissives. Alcohol consumption shall be limited to one 12 oz. beer or glass of wine per day per person.
16. Any club member who has been adjudicated guilty of a felony shall be expelled.
17. No new resident of the block shall be approached about BDSM for one year  from their move in date.
18. Anyone deemed incapable of leadership by the club tribunal shall lose his or her right to dominate another for life.
19. Any health episodes suffered by a club member will be allowed to be properly attended to even at the risk of public sanction for the reporting party.
20.  All bathroom related fetish play is banned.

Both Mieko and Roger are deceased now. Their children all downsized and sold their homes on the street to their children, who in turn now have junior high and high school age kids of their own. Four of the homes now have "Perlis" on their mailboxes.

At the home of Alan and Lynn Perlis, their two sons Jeff and Aaron, aged 14 and 16 respectively, got ready for school. They went out the door and first stopped at the home of Bill and Daphne Chillsworth, who also live on South Marlin Circle. Aaron knocked on the door and Mrs. Chillsworth answered the door. "Hi Mrs. Chillsworth, Is cumtoy ready?" Aaron asked. "Cumtoy" was the Chillsworth's 15 year old daughter, Andrea, a 5'4" 115 pound 10th grader. "Yes she is Master Aaron," she responded brightly. At that moment Andrea came bounding out the door. "Good morning Master!" she sang. "Good morning cumtoy," Aaron countered, kissing her. On her left wrist was a leather band with Aaron's name on it and attached to it was an o-ring as a symbol of her being his property..

"Have you finished your restraint training yet Jeff?" Aaron asked as he held Andrea's hand on the walk to school. "Almost Master Aaron. Memorizing some of those complicated ties is taking me a while," Jeff confessed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But the sooner you learn it the sooner you can take a subbie," Aaron reminded.

Meanwhile, at the home of Paul and Summer Perlis, 17 year old Mandy was waiting for her master. She was dressed in the outfit he told her to wear, a pair  of white hip huggers, a matching blouse tied off at just above the belly button, and white chunky heels. She was permitted to wear a bra, but hasn't been allowed panties for the last year except when she was on her period. Finally, her 17 year old Master, another denizen of the block, David Ransom, came to get her. "Is fuckhole ready?" he asked Mrs. Perlis. "Yes she is Master David. Fuckhole!" she called. Mandy quickly made her way to the door and greeted him. David took her hand and off they went to school.

For the brother and sister combination of Scott and Kathy Delasso, they just happened to be going out with another brother and sister pairing of Arlene and Eric Stevenson. Kathy, who was dubbed "cumbunny," by Eric  and Arlene, AKA "fuckdoll," greeted their masters and they all also cheerfully set out for another day in their high school's classrooms.

18 year old  Dale Johnson was in his last semester of high school. He was dominating a 17 year old junior, Donna "spunkdrain" Simonson, who was an outsider. When he met her two years ago and found out she was interested, he basically told her what he wanted and she accepted his terms. She took a while for him to train, but now she was collared and very obedient, servicing his sexual needs on a near  daily basis.

The household of Troy and Berniece Perlis had five kids, brothers Daniel, 14, Dante, 16 and Ethan, 12, and sisters Erin, 18, whose slave name is "cumbucket," and Carly, 17, who is dominated under the rubric of "creampie." Daniel had completed his restraint training and was just a couple months shy of turning 15. He was tall and blonde, which caught the eye of the youngest daughter of Shota and Ai Hamamoto, Aoi, a 5'2" 96 pound 14 year old cutie who had been exposed to BDSM since she was ten, the first time that her father tied her up after she had said something defiant to him. He then paddled her and from there he made her undergo periodic training sessions along with her 5'4" 105 pound 15 year old sister Tomiko. Tomiko, whose slave name is "cumface," subsequently hooked up with 16 year old neighbor Prentice Oldfield and had recently lost her virginity to him. Aoi and Daniel were still in the formative stages of their relationship and hadn't yet formalized a D/s coupling.

Dante was the owner of his neighbor from across the street, 16 year old Cheryl Benson, who was otherwise known as, "spermdrop," Cheryl was a little on the chunky side, 5'5" and 140 pounds with full d cup breasts and big hips but could suck the chrome off of a trailer hitch and he loved how soft her body was.

Then there was Lisa Westfield, a 17 year old domina who was daily humiliating and feminizing her toy, Marshall "sissyboi" Culver. Lisa was gorgeous, 6'0" in four inch heels and haughty to boot. Everyday, she went to school dressed to kill and had a seemingly never ending string of boys asking her out and giving her presents, only to then see Lisa brush them off like so much sand under her feet. She met sissyboi in ninth grade and she just couldn't resist taking the 5'5" barely more than a hundred pound drippy wimp on. She feminized him, making him wear women's clothes, shoes and make up after he came home from school. She was also cuckolding him. Lisa would go to the other side of town to get her holes drilled hard and often by well hung black guys and then make her sissyboi eat their cum out of her ass and pussy.

Of course, she also had him in a chastity belt. He was allowed to cum no more than once a month and he never complained, at least anymore, since if he whined about his confinement she would tack on another month. And if he got out of line, she would put him on her knee like a child and spank and paddle him until he cried and was so sore sitting in class on the hard wooden seats became a form of torture for him. Sometimes the way he would be allowed to cum was being milked by Lisa, which allowed his semen to be cleared out of his balls but had no pleasure attached to it at all. Then she would make him wear a strap on and fuck her to endless orgasms with it while his pathetic five inches when erect dick would become hard in vain before she locked him up again. He carried her book bag for her everyday and was often rewarded with hard and public kicks in the ass. His theme song could have been, "She Hit Me and it Felt Like a Kiss." He was grateful for it all. They were both technically in violation of the rule forbidding humiliation play by minors, but the residents of the block, given the situation, decided to look the other way.

Because it was important to the residents of South Marlin Circle that they seem as respectable as possible in an outward sense, the culture of the block dictated that all the children be high performers in school, especially as discipline and self control were important parts of BDSM. When the children came home, they would go to the Westfield's house to do their homework before they were permitted to return to their own houses. Mrs. Westfield, like her daughter, was an iron fisted domina and brooked no nonsense from any of the children. The submissives all had to strip naked when they arrived and neatly fold their clothes and leave them on a shelf near the doorway. They would then prepare food for everyone as Mrs. Westfield showed them how to cook and clean up properly. The subbies were consigned to a lower profile table in the Westfield livingroom so that they would be on their knees while they did their studying for the day. The dominants sat at the regular dinner table to do their's. If any of the dominants became sexually aroused in the course of doing their homework, their submissive had to service them immediately n front of everyone while not spilling a drop of the dominant's cum. That inevitably resulted in all the boys getting hard and needing to be sucked off pretty much every week day. If a dominant was unattached then an unattached submissive could volunteer for the duty, but it wasn't mandatory. Of course, Aoi Hamamoto would always volunteer when Daniel Perlis' cock became stiff as a way to win his favor. No cumming outside of the mouth was allowed in order to keep things tidy and it always had to be swallowed.

The people living on South Marlin Circle were a happy lot. Each knew his or her place and they all could trust each other. The kids on the block also protected each other at school and ensured that none of their members got out of line, too. To them, what they had was a model community. Too bad, then, that they had to keep part of their activities hidden.