Sweet Surrender
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Gregg flew here from Columbus, Ohio, after reading about McDade on the Internet. After five years in the leather community, he wanted to take his S-M experience as a submissive one step further. “I don’t get the impression that this was a shell game, and that’s very refreshing,” said Gregg, who’s 36. “If there wasn’t anything else, then this was going to be the end of the chapter for me. But I thought there was more, and this just confirms it.”
For the past year, he’s brought that message to hundreds of slaves and potential slaves in classes around Los Angeles, where he works in computer programming. He started taking the course on the road last December, when he taught a class in New York. To prepare for his visit to Chicago, McDade called Slave Bob, a Hinsdale resident and college professor who’s still in training but very eager to help. Slave Bob helped secure the space at Ann Sather, greeted arrivals with a hug, and handed out literature. For eight hours participants weighed how ready they were to explore the path of the obedient heart.
Peter Hulit, who’s 46, is Slave Number Four. Born in New Jersey, Slave Number Four worked as a shoe salesman, then quit a few years ago when his lover died. At that point, “somebody, somewhere, told me to say yes to everything,” he says. Today he wears a nose ring and works in accounting and massage therapy. He lives with McDade, whom he met at a men’s gathering in Malibu.
“You have an enormous contribution to make,” he told Larry, a middle-aged man lamenting how long he’d been in the closet. “What’s behind that door is a treasure. We’re here to see if we can get a little more jet propulsion into your life.” By the end of the day Larry was leering at McDade and saying things like, “Why don’t you just kidnap me and take me with you when you go home?”
