Dry Spell:

Simone’s Notes:

There are three pieces of entertain that are high-selling in the world, anime, music, and porn. Porn is an addictive piece of literature. It can enhance a dry sexual situation or save someone from going insane from a no-sex situation. But, pornography has a dark side. It has been known to tear families and relationships apart and ruin lives. The church and conservatives went porn to be banned altogether. But in reality, it all depends on tolerance towards the erotica. Some can take it, others cannot. It all depends on the person.

Major Mike Thomas sat in the cafeteria at Central trembling. You see, he had problem. Yes, it has something to do with women. No, it wasn’t in getting one. He had no trouble with that. Mike was normal looking guy. Twenty-six with short reddish-blonde hair and grayish-green eyes. He was between Havoc and Mustang’s height and had an average body weight. The guy was a pure gentleman when it came to ladies. He respected them to the fullest but yet didn’t neglect his own dignity the relationship. Mike had many girlfriends. The problem was he just couldn’t keep them. The girls weren’t stolen, they were just driven away. To come clear, Mike had another love in relationships. It wasn’t another woman; it was many women-- on paper. Thomas has a massive addiction to porn. He could trace it back to his childhood. The man had a strict religious father and an over-protective mother. They both used shame as a method of discipline to him. The Bible was strongly upheld in the household. Life looked doomed for young Mike. But at thirteen, a classmate and friend of his introduced him to Playboy one stormy day when board games had lost their appeal. His friend persuaded him to come with him to his father’s study when they were home alone. The boy quietly unlocked the door and they walked inside. Mike watched as his friend pulled a drawer open. The other boy drew out a brown paper bag and reached inside. He grinned wickedly. “You ready?” the boy asked his curious friend. Mike nodded eagerly. “Okay,” his friend exclaimed. “Here we go!” Mike kept watching as he drew out a magazine with a woman dressed in a sexy rabbit costume on the cover. She was winking straight at the youth as she seemed to blow a kiss at him. Her body was of a supermodel’s. Her long blonde hair was a slam dunk for the sexy range. Mike was completely shocked at this display. This was completely new to him! The boy wanted to look away but he found himself drawn to the woman. His friend couldn’t help but smile. “It’s okay,” he said. “No one has to know.” The innocent youth began to relax at those words and looked at the cover again. The woman seemed to say the same thing. “It’s okay, no one has to know,” both reassured him with their eyes. Right then, Mike decided to give her and the whole magazine a chance. The boys spent the whole day looking at Playboy. Mike found that he loved the naked and half-naked women inside and outside. That began the whole illness.

From then on, Mike began stealing money from his father in order to buy porn. He had to hide in order to avoid being scolded at and being told that he go to Hell for his sins of the flesh. The sexy women on the pages became an escape from the strict purity in the boy’s home life. This was Mike’s little secret until he was seventeen. The boy was getting home from school that day. He couldn’t wait to help himself to the women in Penthouse. But, there would be a change of plans. Mike came home to find his mom and father sitting in the living room waiting for him. They both had serious frowns on their faces. An icy feeling came over their son. That only meant one thing to him. “I’m in trouble!” he thought. “Well, just act normal.” “Hi mom, dad,” he began. “What’s wrong?” They said nothing. His father just slammed a Playboy magazine down hard on the coffee table before him. Mike’s eyes grew big in deep fear. “Oh no!” he thought. “They know!” The whole afternoon was spent on lectures of sins of the flesh and eternal damnation. His father now saw him as a pervert. The whole nightmare ended up with the pornography being destroyed and Mike going away to a church camp. That didn’t really do much. Mike found more porn there to feed his cravings. In the middle of the third week in Hell, he finally decided that he would try to escape from his parents forever. But how could he do that? A year later, the answer came to him in a strong force. Mike decided to join the army. Despite how many times his mother pleaded him to reconsider, the boy joined anyway. With him, Mike took his porn addiction to the state alchemists. Sure the military was strict, but at least they didn’t use shame or the bible as a weapon of discipline to keep their men and women in line. There, the man found friends and his sense of independence. But also, his porn addiction grew and began spiraling to a new high. So many girlfriends have walked out on him because of it. Countless times, Mike has sought help but he would just end up back at square one.

“Three whole weeks,” the major thought to himself as his hands began to shake yet again. It had been three whole weeks since he had last looked at a Playboy magazine. His friends decided to step in and help him this time. They took away the porn and locked it away in a cabinet in his dorm and kept the key with them. At first, it was all easy. (Isn’t it always?) But by day three, the torture backed up again. Mike tried to find other things to do in order to keep his mind off of his precious locked away porn. This would work in the beginning. But right in the middle, his mind would wander back to the beautiful naked and half-naked women on the pages. This addict wasn’t going to quiet without a good fight.

Away at another table, his friends sat watching him. “Can’t we just give him at least one Penthouse mag?” Jim asked in pity. “The poor guy looks like he’s going to snap at any second!” “No!” Andrew said strongly. “That would defeat the purpose of our intervention! Besides, he said not to give him anything no matter how much he begged for a porno mag.” “He’s got a point.” Don agreed. “Well, yes,” Jim began. “But can we really undo years of damage?” “We can try,” Andrew reassured. “It’s not like we’re dealing with Doug!” “That’s true!” Jim agreed. First lieutenant Doug Kobe was a huge leech. He got with women by the scores. Nurses, teachers, doctors, single, married, it didn’t matter. If they were hot, Doug was game for them. As a matter of fact, he was the number one cause of divorce within the military. “And speak of the devil,” Don spoke up. “Look who’s here!” All of the men looked up and saw Doug walking into the cafeteria. He was looking as suave as usual. The women were staring intently and men wanted to throw up. “Hey guys!” he called out to his usual table. “Hi,” the guys mumbled to him. Doug kept grinning at them. He turned to Mike. “Is he porn deprived again?” the lieutenant asked. The men at the table tried not to answer. “Yeah,” Fuery answered, forgetting who he was talking to for a moment. Jim violently elbowed him in the side. “Ow!” the master sergeant exclaimed in pain. “You weren’t supposed to tell him that!” the second lieutenant hissed under his breath. Fuery said nothing and just rubbed at his rib cage while looking at him. Doug kept smiling. “Don’t you dare do it!” Andrew barked. Doug looked at his subordinate innocently. “Do what?” he asked like a little child. “Tease Mike!” Andrew replied harshly. “I know how you are! You pick at the open wound and make it infected! Not this time! If you even think about walking by him and whisper something perverse in his ear, I won’t be held responsible for one I do to you next!” Doug just shrugged innocently. “Okay, okay.” he said harmlessly. “I won’t mess with his head.” The men all glared at him coldly. “*Sweat drop* They don’t trust me…” he thought. The playboy just sat down at the table and looked around. He noticed Havoc. The guy seemed away in happy country. He had a goofy grin on his face like a little high school boy that just got kissed by the hottest girl in the whole school. The cigarette was burnt almost to the butt but he didn’t care. Doug turned back to the guys. “What’s with him?” he asked. They tried to answer. Fuery began speak but Jim looked coldly at him with his elbow ready for another blow. So the master sergeant wisely kept his mouth shut.

Mike watched them from the other table. He tried to listen to what they were saying. But it was like watching a TV on mute with the remote. The man felt like the narrator in Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Mike’s worry grew even sharper. “Doug’s here!” he thought. “He’s going to mock me again!” He began remember the last time he tried to quit his porn addiction. The guy would’ve clear but good old Doug had to walk by and whisper, “Double D cups.” That spiraled poor Mike back down to the bottom. He ended buying a whole year’s worth of porn. Mike felt himself become sick all over again. He hadn’t even touched his head. The guy didn’t feel hungry. He just wanted to crawl away somewhere and hide for the rest of is life. He seemed to be losing again.

“Oh dear,” Don said at the other table. “He’s going to loose it.” “Maybe I should go talk to him.” Doug suggested undamagingly. “NO!” the other men barked. “Okay, okay.” Doug said with a shrug. “I was only trying to help!” “We don’t want your help, thank you!” Andrew snapped. “Sheeh!” the lieutenant said harshly. “I’ll talk to him.” Don offered. “Good idea.” Andrew said. Then, Mitchell rose to his feet and walked over to Mike at his table. The suffering man stared at him. “Oh no!” he thought. “Here comes the pity team!” Don sat down next to him and pat him on the back. “There, there.” he said to Mike. “You managed to make it through three weeks just fine. Hang in there, buddy.” Mike slowly turned to him. “Can I even pull through this time?” he asked him like a little child. Don just nodded. “Something tells me that this will be the time that you finally break free from years of slavery to those shiny pages and have a healthy relationship with a nice girl!” he reassured. And for once since a week and half, Mike was actually smiling. “There you go!” Don said. “Just keep thinking about that nice girl you’ll spend the rest of your days with as the ultimate prize!” “Yeah!” Mike exclaimed. The lieutenant kept smiling. Don decided to spend the rest of lunch with the struggling major to keep him on the right path. He knew that the battle was won for now, but the war was officially on. Mike was clearly going to need all of the help that he could get in order to conquer it and finally keep a girlfriend.