The Mysterious Rigger
I know it sounds odd, but what could I do? On the one hand, I am a professor: I studied for years, I’ve accumulated hundreds of teaching hours, and I have over a dozen publications under my belt. On the other hand, since I first learned about Shibari, when I was in college and my then-girlfriend explained to me what the art of rope bondage was all about, I have practiced and enjoyed tying women for an exquisite aesthetic pleasure. I couldn’t choose one and quit the other, neither could I openly be a professor-rigger or a rigger-professor. That’s why I came up with this idea of using a false identity, mask and custome included, to do my rigging jobs, while I remained Professor Smith for my college duties. Little didi I know I was about to meet the Mysterious Rigger.
Amazingly, it has all gone well. I’ve become a very respected rigger on the bondage circuit —even with my sort of ridiculous “Mysterious Rigger” persona. And I’m reaching unimaginable academic heights in the university campus I work at. So far, my two lives haven’t intersected, and it’s better that way.
That is, until last Friday.
I was doing a demonstration in a BDSM festival. It was all going well. Now, I usually include a number when I ask someone in the audience to be my bottom. It’s a simple thing, you know: a couple of quick notes, a few spicy comments, a laugh or two. So, imagine my surprise when one of my students from the campus jumps onto the stage! She’s wearing an ultra-sexy outfit —something not even remotely similar to the clothes she usually wears in class—and now I have to tie her and flirt a little with her in front of all these people! (And let me tell you that a bondage audience is quite different from a college class).
It took me a minute to overcome the trembling of my hands. My mind had gone blank, so I had to remember each step of the knot. It mustn’t have been my most exciting act, but, in the end, it all came well.
The only thing is… I don’t know if I’m imagining things, but I would swear she’s smiling at me in class in the most unusual way.
This is my Shibari story.
