How I Spent My Summer Vacation

by C. Sprite

 

Chapter Seven

 

I had the most fitful night of dreams, or possibly nightmares, that I could ever remember. The memories of everything that had happened at the dance came back to haunt me. I guess my drugged mind had suppressed them initially, but I relived them in my dreams throughout the night, in vivid detail. I saw the up-close faces of every boy and man whom I kissed, many times while their tongues were inside my mouth. I also had other dreams. I saw myself growing up with my cousins, but in the dream I was a little girl like them. When they wore shorts, so did I, but when they wore dresses, I did too. After they moved away, I saw myself growing up as a girl at my schools and at home. Instead of a life of playing video games, I saw myself shopping at the mall with other girls from my school and neighborhood. My last dream of the night had me as the girl whose wedding we had catered on Saturday. George was the groom and I pictured us going on our honeymoon. I actually viewed us consummating our marriage. I woke up with a start; my pillow soaked in sweat, or possibly tears. I had never before dreamed that I was a girl. My own mind was now subverting me. My imagination seemed to have constructed an entire history of me growing up as a girl. When I consciously thought back to my childhood now, I could see mixed images of myself, sometimes as a boy, but mostly as a girl.

The sun was up but I was still chained tightly to the bed so I couldn't get up. I grabbed my wet pillow with my teeth and moved it off the bed, then I lay there thinking about my predicament. I had done wrong so I deserved the punishment, but my arms ached and I longed for it to be over. I promised myself that I would be good from now on and do whatever Lizbeth, Nicole, or Suzanne told me. If they wanted me to be a girl, I would be a girl. I would be anything they wanted, if it meant having the handcuffs removed. And I desperately wanted out of the corset. I wasn't having trouble breathing as long as I was immobile, but it felt like my ribs were being crushed. I hoped that I wouldn't have to wear it this tight again, and vowed that I'd be such a good girl for Lizbeth that she wouldn't make me. I fell asleep again thinking those thoughts.

 

Lizbeth came to my bedroom about an hour after I awoke the second time. I couldn't see the clock so I could only guess at the time.

"Ah, you're awake now," she said.

"You were here before?"

"I stopped in when I first woke up, just to check and make sure that you were okay. You must have been dreaming about yesterday because you were saying over and over that you'd be a good girl from now on."

"I will be. I promise, Lizbeth. Will you release me now?"

"I can't. Your twenty-four hours aren't up until noon. Nicole will come home and release you. She did give me the key to the lock on the chain holding you to the bed though. I can unlock that now. She said that she was surprised to see you chained to the bed when she checked on you last night. Did George chain you up?"

"Yes, I didn't want to take any chances on having my sentence extended. I asked him to do it."

"Oh, I see. Do you want some breakfast?"

"I have to go the bathroom."

"You'll have to hold it for a few more hours. I don't have the handcuff keys so I can't help you get undressed."

"I may not be able to hold it."

"Want me to move you into the shower?" She asked, smirking.

I looked at her with a shocked expression. "Of course not."

"Well, don't go in the bed or Nicole may decide to extend your punishment time to 90 days and leave you chained up like that for the entire time." Lizbeth bent over me and unlocked the chain holding me to the bed. "Want to stand up?"

"I'd better not. If I don't move, I may be able to hold it better. I'd like a different pillow though. The other one is soaked."

Lizbeth gave me a fresh, dry pillow and then left me alone after telling me to holler if I needed anything. My arms ached and my ankles were extremely sore from wearing the steel handcuffs. My wrists were at least protected a little by the gloves, but my ankles were only covered by my nylon stockings. The next three hours were incredibly long as I lay there thinking about my punishment. I would do whatever I had to do to avoid being confined again, and I meant anything. If that meant being a girl for sixty days, then I would be the most convincing girl ever born. I would put all thoughts of Jimmy out of my head and only think of myself as Ashley Michelle until my sentence was up.

 

Nicole came home at noon and came straight to my bedroom. She immediately unlocked the handcuffs and I was able to stretch for the first time in twenty-four hours. The muscles in my arms screamed as I moved them around.

"I'm proud of you Ashley," Nicole said. "You admitted your mistake and you accepted your punishment like an adult. None of us will ever mention this incident again."

"I'm sorry that I was a bad girl, Nicole. I promise to be a good girl from now on." I didn't stumble over the words at all.

"I know, hon. Do you need some help getting out of that dress."

"Yes, please. I can't even take my gloves off unless somebody removes the two bracelets."

Walking to my closet, she opened the bi-fold door on one side and hung one pair of the handcuffs on a clothes hook mounted on the left wall. The other pair of handcuffs still dangled on the two-foot chain. "I'll just leave these here as a reminder, or in case they're needed again."

"They won’t be," I said.

Nicole smiled and set the handcuff keys on my dresser, then began helping me until Lizbeth showed up. Lizbeth was more familiar with the corset since she had laced it and I was freed within a few minutes. As the pressure was taken off my internal organs I could barely suppress the urges and rushed to the bathroom as soon as I was free of the corset. I quickly peeled off the remaining underwear and plopped onto the toilet seat. I know how to spell relief, and it's not spelled the way that it is in those repetitious Rolaids television commercials where they spell it R-O-L-A-I-D-S.

The warm water of the shower felt wonderful and I stayed under it for quite a while, letting it relax the stiff muscles in my body. When I was feeling better I shampooed my hair and washed my body, even spending some time washing the fake breasts that drooped from my chest and tugged at my skin.

I must have spent over a half hour in the shower, where I was normally in and out in less than ten minutes, but I felt like a new person when I was through. I wrapped my hair up in a towel and put on clean panties. The handcuff keys were still sitting on the dresser where Nicole had placed them to help me undress. I put them in my jewelry box thinking that if Nicole couldn't find them, she wouldn't chain me up again. The fifties dress and gloves were gone from my bedroom, and there was nothing laid out on the bed, so I selected a short denim skirt and blouse from my closet. It was almost a pleasure to tighten the corset just enough to get into my regular clothes, and it required only a little effort. After having my waist compressed to twenty inches for two days, it almost seemed like I wasn't wearing it at all, even though I was still reducing my waist to twenty-two inches. For shoes I selected a pair with only four-inch heels, the smallest heels in my closet other than my work shoes. In less than a week's time I had become so used to wearing skirts and heels that I didn't give them on a second thought. I didn't make up my face at all, but before going downstairs I washed the underwear that I had been wearing for two days and hung it up to dry in the bathroom. Lizbeth was reading a magazine when I went downstairs. She put it down and looked at me as I came down the stairs.

"Hungry?" she asked.

"Starving."

"There are plenty of lunch leftovers from Sunday in the fridge, or you can make some breakfast items if you feel like it. Let me know if you need any help."

I walked to the refrigerator and peered in for a few seconds before lifting a pan of chicken out and selecting a thigh. While it was heating up in the microwave oven, I put small scoops of potato salad, macaroni salad, and tuna salad onto my plate. The microwave timer sounded and I removed the steaming piece of chicken and added it to my plate. I sat down and devoured everything, the constriction of the corset making me feel like I had eaten the entire chicken.

"Feel better?" Lizbeth asked when I had finished eating.

"I feel like a new girl. My arms and shoulders are still a little sore though. They felt great in the shower but the muscles are tightening up now."

"Want a muscle relaxant pill?"

I shot her a hard look. "Don't even joke about that. That's what got me into trouble in the first place."

"Okay, I'm sorry. I was only making a funny. I'm sorry that things got out of control. You were the hit of the dance you know."

"I can imagine."

"I never saw anybody change so radically. One minute you were a shy wallflower and the next you were kissing every man at the dance. I couldn't believe it when you sang on the stage."

"I sang?" I asked in horror.

"Yeah. You announced that it was a song you sang in a movie called 'The River of No Return'. I think you had really started to believe that you were Marilyn Monroe."

"It had to be the drug. I had kept telling myself that I was Marilyn so that I could find the courage to go dressed like that. The drug must have really affected my mind and I thought that I was her temporarily. Um, what did I sing?"

"You said that it was called, "Who's Gonna Help Me File My Claim."

I remembered the song well. Images of Marilyn singing it in the movie, while she flirted with all the men in a bar, coursed through my head. I groaned. I hoped that I hadn't mimicked her actions as well as her song.

"Did you see your trophy?"

"I got a trophy for singing?" I asked incredulously.

"No," she said, giggling, "you were good, but not that good. But you did win first prize for best costume. Every guy in the place screamed your name when it came time to vote for the finalists that had been picked by the judges. You had already secured their votes by kissing or flirting with all of them. I don't think you got a single vote from the women there, except us, but the guys are always louder anyway. The women only wanted to know how you got into that dress."

"I remembered a lot in my dreams last night. I don't know if I can show my face in this town again."

Lizbeth laughed and walked over to a closet where she removed a large trophy. "The name plate is being engraved and we can get it mounted later this week."

The trophy had the figure of a couple dancing on top. The girl was definitely wearing fifties clothes with her skirt flaring wide to expose her panties as she was upended over her partner's head, and the guy was wearing clothes so tight he almost appeared naked.

"I remember seeing this in the newspaper picture."

"Yes, you were holding it in your right hand when you tried to swallow Rick Arnott's tongue."

I started blushing. "Please, Lizbeth. I want to forget about that."

"Okay, Ashley. I won't bring it up again. This is a great trophy, though. Maybe I should rethink my costume for next year. So many girls come with poodle skirts that it's hardly unique. You were the only girl there in a form fitting gown."

"I'll be happy to lace you into the corset it you decide to wear that dress. I think that I can guarantee you that you'll only wear it once."

"I'll think about it. Nicole took it to get it dry-cleaned for you, by the way. She decided it was best to get it done right away, before any stains set in."

"Oh, I wondered where it had gone. I wish that she hadn't taken it. I'm not going to wear it again so I'll probably just give it to the thrift store. Let somebody else suffer all night."

"Are you sure that you don't want to donate it to a museum. That was quite a performance you gave. I don't think the guys of this town will ever forget it."

"I probably should spend the rest of my vacation in the house so that I don't run into any of them."

"Can't do that; you're still in the negative column for your clothes. Your pay for the two days has made a major dent in the balance though. You're also going to need a few more things since you'll be a girl for an extended time. We have at least two engagements booked for every weekend through the rest of the summer so you won't have any trouble paying the money back and building up a nice balance for yourself."

"I'd like to get a bathing suit. I haven't been in the pool since I got here."

"Okay, we'll pick one up later. Nicole is coming back after she runs a couple of errands."

"I can't go that soon. My control briefs are both wet. I washed them before I came downstairs."

"You still have the one that I loaned you last week."

"But it's not padded. It makes my tush look too skinny."

"It'll have to do. Wear your summer dress and it won't be as noticeable. We'll pick you up an extra padded one while we're out."

"And I need some different shoes. All the shoes that you helped me buy have four or five inch heels. I'd like a pair of normal shoes, and maybe a pair of sandals."

"Ashley, your boyfriend is almost six feet tall. You need the height because you're as short as I am."

"But you don't wear four inch heels."

"My boyfriend is a lot shorter than yours is."

"Wait a minute, George isn't my boyfriend."

"No? It didn't look that way last night. You could never tell that from the pictures I took."

"I was absolutely helpless. My hands and feet were chained. I had no choice."

"A girl always has a choice. We control men, not the other way around. We just let them think that they're in control because it keeps them happy and compliant."

"Even when you're chained hand and foot, and mummified in clothes that barely let you move?"

"Even then. You just say no, or claim to have a headache."

"I was afraid to refuse him."

"Come off it; you enjoyed it. I saw the way you were kissing him. You were sucking on his tongue like it was a lollipop and you hadn't eaten in days." Noticing my reaction to her statement, she said, "Don't get upset. You're a lucky girl to get a man like George. He's a real catch."

"I don't feel much like a lucky girl. I just spent a day and a half chained up and helpless, and I made a complete fool of myself at the dance."

"Don't worry about it; you were the highlight of the dance. People will probably remember it happened, but they'll forget who did it because they don't know you. Now go get ready to leave while I clean up here."

I looked at her skeptically as I stood up and walked to the stairs. People would definitely remember that dance. At least I would.

 

I was ready by the time Nicole arrived home again. I only had one summer dress but it was light and comfortable. It would have been great it I had a pair of sandals, but I had wear a pair of white pumps with four inch heels.

I had expected Nicole to just drop us off after driving us to the Mall, but she parked the car and came in with us. Our first stop was the discounter that specialized in women's clothing. We picked up another padded brief, another bra, a dozen pairs of stockings, and several slips in different colors.

We went to another store for the bathing suit. There wasn't much of a selection left and they were already starting to put out the fall and winter merchandise. Lizbeth and Nicole selected a two-piece suit for me. The top would completely cover the breast forms but I was concerned about the bottom not being able to hold me in. Despite that, they had me try it on, but I put it on over the control brief.

They decided that it looked good, or at least that it would look good when I wasn't wearing the control brief, so I bought it. No one was going to see me in it anyway since I'd only be swimming in the backyard.

Before we left that store, Lizbeth dragged me to the perfume counter and we spent an hour trying different scents. Lizbeth and Nicole would dab perfume on my wrists then sniff it, before wiping it off. When one or the other found one that they liked, they held it up to me.

"What's wrong with the perfume that I've been using?" I asked.

"It's my scent. I don't mind sharing it with you, but you really should have a unique scent. One that works especially with your body chemistry."

We finally found one that we could all decide on and purchased a small bottle.

As we walked towards the car I said, "Wait. I want to get some shoes with lower heels. I don't have anything smaller than four inches. I feel like a hooker."

"We can't stop today. We have to get to the dancer's supply store before they close."

"Dancer's supply?"

"Yes, so you'll be able to wear your new bathing suit. You'll see."

An hour later I was the owner of an elasticized dancer's belt. Shaped sort of like a jock strap, it was designed to be worn under the tights of male ballet dancers and hold their genitals tight against their body. It was nude in color, and small enough that it wouldn't be seen under the suit, and, with my small equipment pushed backward through my legs, it would hold me tight enough that nothing would be noticeable. It was approaching dinnertime so we returned home to start preparing dinner. It was still pretty hot and we had decided to go for a swim later.

After eating dinner, and waiting an hour, we changed into our suits and went out to the pool. It was very warm outside and the water felt wonderful as I slid into the pool. It was a new experience because I had always swum bare-chested before, but swimming with a top on wasn't the only strange thing. I discovered that my breasts floated like life preservers. None of the others had that problem since their breasts were natural. It made swimming a little difficult, but I still had a good time. After spending about two hours outside by or in the pool, we turned off the lights and went inside to shower, change, and relax until bedtime. I put up my hair while it was still wet.

As during the previous night I had another fitful night of dreams and nightmares. I replayed the dance over and over, and again watched myself growing up as a girl. There wasn't a single dream in which I appeared as a male, but that was how I had willed it to be, for sixty days.

 

At breakfast the next morning I asked Lizbeth if there were any plans for the day.

"Yes, Suzanne wants me to bring you to the hospital. She thinks that you're looking a little pale. Nicole will pick us up in an hour. Then she'll drop us off at the Mall."

"I'm only pale because I haven't had much sun yet."

"I never argue with Suzanne on medical things. She's the trained professional and she must have noticed something. It won't take long. Let her listen to your heart and take your blood pressure. It can't hurt, and it might help."

"Okay. What should I wear?"

"Wear your black skirt with the side zipper and the beige blouse. Your black shoes of course."

"Will we have time to get some shoes with lower heels today? With these oversized breasts and tight clothes, I feel like a hooker every time we go out. Nobody else is wearing high heels during the daytime."

"You're just not looking well enough. Lots of women are wearing heels. And usually it's the shorter ones like you and me. Your breasts are not oversized. Oversized is a double D or bigger. Your breasts aren't abnormal."

"But you don't wear heels when we go to the Mall."

"Only because I had an ingrown toenail that I'm still recovering from. When I wear heels, it aggravates that toe."

It sounded like a phony excuse to me, but I only had heels anyway so I'd have to wear them today. I dropped the subject for now.

 

Nicole picked us up and brought us to the hospital and then waited while Suzanne led me off to an examination room. After I had removed my outer clothes, she checked my blood pressure and listened to my heart, then took a blood sample.

"Well? Will I live?" I joked.

"I think so. We'll know more when we get the results of the blood test. Your blood pressure is a little low, but otherwise you seem fairly fit. You can put your clothes back on. How does that corset feel?"

"Okay, I guess. I've gotten used to it after wearing it for two days with the gown. At this slightly larger waist size, I can almost forget that I'm wearing it, although I look forward to taking it off at bedtime."

"Okay, I'll see you tonight, hon."

I finished dressing, and walked to the waiting room where Lizbeth and Nicole were reading magazines.

"All set. Suzanne thinks that I'm going to live," I joked.

"You'd better," Nicole quipped. "We have two weddings for this upcoming weekend. We need everyone healthy and ready to work. If you're going to die, Nichol will want two weeks notice."

I giggled and Lizbeth grinned.

 

Nicole didn't come into the Mall this time, but rather just dropped us off near the main entrance, and we had only walked a short distance inside when Lizbeth met some friends coming out of a store. I was introduced to Helena and Marguerite and we stood around for ten minutes talking. Actually I listened while the other three had a very animated conversation. Eventually, we started moving further into the Mall, headed for a shop that sold greeting cards and small gifts.

As we moved around the store, Lizbeth would hand me things to look at, with a comment such as, "Isn't this darling?" or "Ashley, look how cute this is." I had been closely watching and listening to the way that she and her friends had interacted, and I started using the same expressions and body language. Their giddiness was actually infectious and I found myself joining in. This further helped me become an accepted part of the small group. The more I acted like them, the friendlier we became.

After picking up several cards, and a small Teddy Bear that Helena simply couldn't live without, we left the store, headed for a department store near the center of the Mall. We hadn't walked very far when I heard someone shouting, "Marilyn. Hey, Marilyn."

I began praying that they weren't calling to me so I kept walking without looking back, but Lizbeth stopped and turned around. I was finally forced to stop because I couldn't walk on alone, and Helena and Marguerite had stopped when Lizbeth did. As I turned, an older man passed Lizbeth and rushed up to me.

"Marilyn, I knew it was you as soon as I saw that hair." My hair again. Why hadn't I gotten it cut? "I've been trying to find you since the dance but none of the James' in the telephone book know you."

"My name is Ashley, not Marilyn."

"I'm sorry. Since the dance I can't think of you as anyone except Marilyn Monroe, even though I know your real name. Do you have a minute? I'd like to talk to you."

"My friends and I were on our way somewhere." I wanted to get away from this guy. He was at least sixty and I was afraid that he was going to say that we had kissed at the dance. No wonder he was at the dance, he probably remembered the fifties.

"It will only take a minute. I wanted to know if you might be interested in working at a local television station?"

Lizbeth, Helena, and Marguerite had by now moved around me, cutting off my escape route.

"No, thank you," I said. "I already have a job."

"This probably pays better. What do you do?"

"I'm a waitress for Powder Puff Caterers."

"Then I know this pays better."

"What kind of job?" Lizbeth asked.

"Who are you?" the man asked. "Wait, weren't you at the dance?"

"I'm Lizbeth. I'm Ashley's cousin, and agent."

I looked at Lizbeth quizzically.

The man extended his hand to Lizbeth. "I'm Frank Souter. I'm the advertising manager at KBXF-TV."

Taking his hand, Lizbeth said, "I'm Lizbeth Gates. What kind of job, Mr. Souter?"

"Our weather girl has gone on maternity leave until September and the person filling in isn't happy doing it, so we've been trying to find someone with the right 'personality' to take over the slot. The idea that Marilyn, excuse me, Ashley, might be exactly the type that the program manager is looking for didn't occur to me until after I had left the dance Sunday. Since then I've been scouring the city looking for her. I'd about given up. We even ran a clip from the dance on the news last night, and asked that anybody who knew her call the station, but we didn't get a single call. It was just luck to run into her here today while I'm calling on a few of the larger merchants."

"How much does the job pay?"

"Well, we'd have to test her first. I saw her in action at the dance and I know that she has the personality for the position, but we'd have to see if she can actually stand in front of a camera and read the weather while pointing at an empty blue wall."

"But how much does it pay?"

"That would be determined by the news producer."

"What's the range?"

"Oh, say about four hundred a week for five minutes of airtime at six and ten."

"That's all?"

"We're just a regional station, not CNN. The station manager might pay a little more to a seasoned veteran, but Ashley isn't a trained professional."

"No, I mean, just ten minutes a day?"

"That's on-air time. Ashley would have to come in a couple of hours early to prepare, and then hang around the station until the second news broadcast was over at eleven o'clock."

Lizbeth turned to face me, blocking Mr. Souter's view of me, and said in a low voice. "What do you think, Ashley?"

I replied, in a voice just as low, "I don't think that I could do it, Lizbeth. I can't pretend to be a weather girl."

"Okay, fine," she said. Turning back to Mr. Souter. "She'll do it, Mr. Souter. What now?"

"Good. I'll add her name to the list of girls being tested this afternoon. Come to the station at four o'clock and ask for me. Ashley can watch our present guy go through the routine and then get some practice time after the broadcast is over. We'll tape a couple of tests of each applicant and the station manager will make a decision."

Lizbeth extended her hand and Mr. Souter shook it. Then he extended his hand to me. I looked at it for a couple of seconds and then raised mine. As soon as we shook hands he said, "I'm late- gotta run- see you at four," before turning and rushing off.

Helena and Marguerite immediately began asking questions about the fifties dance and what I had done to get offered a job. Thankfully, Lizbeth said nothing about the medicine, only mentioning that I had won the award for best costume and had sung a song on stage. I breathed a sigh of relief. Over the next half-hour Lizbeth, Helena, and Marguerite plotted my career from local weather girl to network chairwoman. If I wasn't so nervous about it, I would have been amused.

It was still before lunch when we said goodbye to Helena and Marguerite. Lizbeth told them that we had a lot to do before four o'clock and she dragged me off while I was still saying good-bye. I promised to call them and let them know how I made out as soon as I knew.

Lizbeth practically ran through the Mall with me in tow, pulling me into a woman's foundation garments shop before I even knew where we were. She quickly told the sales woman what she wanted and told her that we were in a major hurry. The woman grabbed a tape and started measuring me. I had never been measured so many different ways before. The woman looked to be about fifty, judging by her face and the first signs of gray in hair, but she had the shape of a twenty-year-old.

The woman 'Hmmm'ed a lot and then said, "You have a very unusual figure. You have the developed chest of a woman, and the hips of a teenage girl. But I think that I can help you. It's so nice to see a young woman who's interested in training her figure. So many young girls let themselves go these days. By the time they're thirty, they're fat, and struggling to lose weight with pills and diet drinks, or doing exercises that make them look like men."

Then she walked into the back and came out with a thin, flat box. Opening it, she pulled out a cellophane wrapped garment, removed the wrapper, and held up a white corset, bordered in lace. Little embroidered flowers decorated the entire outside. The woman wrapped it around me and smiled.

"This will fit you perfectly, dear, and will be much, much better than the one you're wearing now. It will also be much more comfortable and less noticeable beneath your clothes. Put the one that you're wearing away and never, ever use it again."

Lizbeth said, "We'll take it. Do you have one in black, or maybe dark purple?"

"Let me see," she said walking into the back again. Lizbeth followed her.

They were gone for almost five minutes. As they emerged, the saleswoman was putting several more boxes into a bag. She added the first corset and Lizbeth handed her a credit card and asked to use her phone. Ten minutes later we were headed towards the main entrance where a cab was waiting.

As soon as we arrived home, Lizbeth headed for my bedroom, telling me to take off my blouse and skirt as we went. She quickly went through my closet and selected a new outfit for me. Taking a box from the bag, Lizbeth produced a padded panty.

"Take off your brief and put this on."

As she watched, I slipped off the control brief and pulled on the new panty. It was much smoother than the inexpensive ones and I could see the difference immediately in my shape.

"Much better," Lizbeth said. "Now for the corset."

After unlacing the one I was wearing, she took out the white corset that I had seen at the store and began lacing me into it. I did have to admit that the new one was much more comfortable, having been selected to fit my shape, even if she did lace it tighter than the first one. It was also easier to move in, although still restrictive.

"It's too tight," I said. "My clothes won't fit."

"They will after I alter them. I chose these things because you'll look great in them and because they're easy to alter. We going to make you look so good that they won't even consider not hiring you."

"I don't think that I should go. I can't perform in front of a camera."

"You don't have to perform. You only have to look beautiful, read a few lines, and point a little. The most important thing is to look beautiful, and you're going to look so hot that they won't even hear a thing you say. After they pick up their tongues, they'll hire you in a minute."

Lizbeth had me put on the clothes that she had selected and she marked them for the alterations. She practically ripped them off me in her haste to get to the sewing machine that she kept in a closet downstairs. I stood by in my corset and underwear until she was done, then I tried them on again. She wasn't satisfied, so she made some more marks and then turned to her machine again. When she was done with the second changes, she seemed satisfied with the fit. That made one of us, because the skirt was so tight that it seemed like the fifties gown. Thankfully, it ended a couple of inches above my knees, so I could walk in it. The altered blouse made my chest look a full cup size larger, or maybe it was the way the new corset pushed everything up and out.

With my outfit ready, Lizbeth called Nicole, then started in on my hair and makeup. She was just finishing up when Nicole arrived home.

"What's the emergency," Nicole asked. "I was working on an order with my poultry supplier."

"We need a ride out to KBXF, the television studio. One of their people offered Ashley a job as weather girl."

"What?"

"It wasn't a job offer," I said. "He just wants me to come for a test."

"I thought you were happy working with me."

"I am. This is Lizbeth's idea. She told him that she's my agent."

"It's a weekday job," Lizbeth said. "Not weekends. It's only for ten minutes a day for four hundred dollars a week."

"That's eight dollars a minute," Nicole said.

"Now you see why I'm so excited. Can you take us? We have to be there at four."

"Okay. Are you ready?"

"I just have to find some jewelry for Ashley and we'll be ready."

Lizbeth had brought down a large jewelry box and she hunted through it until she found a pair of gold earrings with teardrop pearls. She removed one of the studs from each of my ears and put an earring in each. Another hunt yielded a gold chain with a teardrop pearl hanging down that matched the earrings. She found a ring for my right hand and then stepped back and looked at me.

"Perfect. Not too much or too little. Simple and elegant. Let's go."

The three of us hurried out to the car and Nicole drove us to the station. It took ten minutes to get there because it was just outside the city limits.

I don't know what I expected, but the building that the station was in, wasn't it. It looked like an ordinary two-story office building, sort of like a place that you'd find doctor's or dentist's offices. The only difference was the side yard full of satellite dishes. Nicole said to call when we were ready to be picked up and zoomed off, no doubt anxious to get back with her poultry supplier. A receptionist was talking on the phone when we walked in and we waited until she was done before Lizbeth said, "Miss Ashley James to see Mr. Souter. He's expecting us."

Without a word, the receptionist punched several numbers into her computer keyboard and spoke into her headset. "He'll be right out," she said to us, then answered a ringing telephone.

Mr. Souter arrived a couple of minutes later and escorted us in. "You'll have to fill out a job application and then someone will come get you to show you and all the other applicants around."

"All the other applicants?" Lizbeth said.

"Yes, we advertised the job in the Sunday paper, and a few others are here to compete for the position. My money's on Ashley though."

He escorted us to a room where at least twenty other girls were waiting, and all eyes turned to us as we entered. All of the women were fairly young; some were beautiful, while the others were only extremely pretty. I didn't have a chance, and it felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I couldn't hold a candle to any of these women. All I had to do was go through the motions and then we could leave. That's not to say that I wouldn't try. I had to try in order to satisfy Lizbeth or she'd be angry and there's no telling what she'd do to me or make me do if she was angry. But because I didn't have a chance, I didn't have to look for a way out, which is what I had been doing since meeting Mr. Souter at the Mall.

A woman working at a desk just inside the room handed me a job application on a clipboard, and a pen, telling me to complete everything that applied. I walked to a sofa where there was enough room for both Lizbeth and myself, and sat down. Lizbeth was still at the desk, reading a folded newspaper. She joined me in few minutes. I had only put down my name, 'Ashley Michelle James', so far.

"Put down eighteen for your age," Lizbeth whispered in my ear.

"Why?"

"Because the newspaper ad specified that the applicant must be eighteen years or older."

I hesitated, thinking that I could use that to disqualify myself, but then took a look around at the beautiful women in the room and put down 18. Better that Lizbeth didn't think that I was trying to be disqualified. I used my cousin's house for my local address and contact phone number. The only job that I had ever held was with Power Puff Caterers so I entered that in the employment area, giving a simple description of the work that I performed. It only took about fifteen minutes to complete the two-page form and I returned to my seat after bringing the form to the woman at the desk. I felt every eye in the room following my movement, and appraising every inch of me. To them I was the enemy; somebody to be beaten and destroyed, by whatever means possible. To me, they were my saviors. One of them would save me from getting this job and effectively announcing myself as a woman to the entire city and region.

 

(continued)

  

  

  

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