A Girl Called Len

CHAPTER FOUR A veiled Dance

I phoned Len to tell her that I would be in London next weekend. I had called a few times, but usually got the answering machine. I did leave messages but there was no way that Len could phone me back, certainly not at home, and it would be difficult in the office. I made the call early, reasoning that as she worked from about two o' clock until nine there was a good chance that she would be in at nine-thirty in the morning. She was. She sounded as if she had just woken up, but came to life quickly as she recognised my voice. I simply said that I would be in London over the weekend and could we meet.

"Of course, Danny. I will call off work on Saturday, come round and we will go out and eat, and do the touristy bit. What time will you get here?" I had reckoned to get the evening train on Friday from Exeter St. David's and that got into London about eight-thirty.

"I will be into Paddington about eight-thirty. I've booked myself into the same hotel for two nights."

I heard disappointment in Len's voice as she said.

"Danny, you know you could stay here." I turned that suggestion down in the best possibly way.

"Len, I doubt that I could control myself, and I am married." Len didn't pursue that, instead she told me to come round as soon as I had checked in and she would get us something to eat.

Jennifer was quite understanding that I had to go to London on a follow up course for two days.

I had a present for Len. It was an extension cable with a six socket block attached to it. I quickly replaced the Christmas tree of double sockets. She was delighted.

"You thought of me, Danny. That's very good of you." That got me another kiss. Len admitted that she was no cook, so our meal was a take-away Chinese. She told me that she had fully choreographed her new act, and was well into rehearsals.

"We can go round to the rehearsal room tomorrow and I can show you the dance. Danny, It was a brilliant idea, and I think it's going to be spectacular. But I think I will only be able to do it on the Continent." That puzzled me.

"Why?" Len looked a little embarrassed.

"It will be a bit more revealing than is allowed here."

"Oh!" I hadn't thought of that. Len went on to explain.

"Because I have more freedom in the dance, as I get to the end the movements tend to stretch my legs apart a little, well quite a lot actually, so I shall have to shave for a start, and wear the small cache-sexe, except in those countries that do not require them." My puzzlement was even greater now.

"So in some countries you could be completely naked?" She nodded.

"It depends on the venue. In some countries you don't have a problem, but in others if it's a public theatre you cannot show. But if it's a private members club you can." Len looked worried. "Will that upset you, Danny?" It would, but I couldn't tell Len that.

"No, Len. You have said it before, it's just an entertainment. If a man was looking at you and your intentions were that he would get closer and to touch, that would be different. You are a dancer, and the choreography happens to require you become naked. It's part of the dance." Then I thought of something else she had said.

"Why shave?" Len laughed.

"Oh Danny, you are so innocent at times. I will have to shave in order to glue a Cache on. If I didn't they would hear the screams for miles around as I tried to take it off ." I felt foolish for asking.

It was now time to tell Len my news. To say she was shocked and angry would be an understatement. She was incandescent.

"That bloody bitch! How could she do that to someone as good as you, Danny. God when I think about it I could kill her." She simmered for a moment. "And you were so honourable when I asked if you would stay with me. Hell! There is no bloody justice in this world." She quietened for a moment, then looked up at me.

"Danny..." I knew what she was going to say.

"No Len. I am still married, and don't forget, there is an outside chance that the baby could be mine."

"How outside, Danny?" I grinned

"According to the Doc who tested me, about a million to one." She smiled, then her smile turned to a grin, then that turned to a chuckle, and finally a full blown laugh, I joined in. She was still laughing as she got up to make another drink. She turned as she went into the kitchen. "Coffee or would you prefer Tea?"

"I am more a tea-drinker." She was a bit upset.

"Why didn't you say something in the first place, you idiot. It's no problem to make a tea."

When she sat down Len started questioning me. "What are you going to do if the baby isn't yours? And that seems to me to be more a possibility than anything else." I had thought long about this scenario.

"I will divorce her." She nodded.

"Yes I suppose you should. Will that upset you?" I had my answer ready.

"Yes and No. I loved Jennifer, but I realise now that I wasn't in love with her. She was a good companion, kept the house clean and neat, but looking back I think it was more her being a good housekeeper and cook with fringe benefits." Len went on questioning me.

"How did it happen? I mean this sterility thing." After Doc Jones had given me the bad news I had thought about it and I could place it exactly.

"Do you remember when Johnny Fisher got measles?" Len smiled at the memory.

"Yes. We were all sent round to get it from him. I did."

"Yes Len, I know. You had a rash that could light up the house." She grimaced at being reminded. "And I got it as well. It was the measles that did it." Len looked astounded.

"The measles?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yes, the measles. It appears that they interfere with the growth of the testicles. Only happens once in a blue moon, but it happened to me." She had a very evil grin on her face.

"Does that mean they are not normal size." I feigned an indignation I didn't really feel.

"I have no idea. It hasn't been my habit to go round checking other blokes dangly bits. Would you know what the normal size is?" Len blushed.

"No idea at all Danny. I told you I haven't had a relationship with anyone. But you said my tits were nice, and according to you, you had never seen any before." Len was smiling now, having got one over on me. I had to concede that one.

"Yes OK. But your tits were nice, they happen to be attached to a nice person." Len said nothing, just blushed prettily and quietly said.

"Thank you Danny."

The next day, we spent with Len showing me around London. Now it may appear silly, having lived just twenty miles away until I was fifteen, but I had never visited London as a tourist. We did the lot, the Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, almost everything in the West End. We did stray a little more eastwards in the afternoon, and when we were close to Ludgate Circus found a little alleyway, with a strange name, 'The Kinges Wardrobe'. Fascinated I bought a tourist guide and read that it was the site of a small palace owned by Edward the Third, where he kept some of his huge collection of clothes and regalia. Later Kings also used it for the same purpose, but it fell out of use during the Tudor dynasty. We stopped frequently for refreshments, and around seven were back in Soho. Len left me in the Olympus coffee bar and went off to get her little bag on wheels which she was still at the club. When she returned she told me she was going to rehearse her new routine. I offered to wait in the Olympus but Len was having none of that. She told me forcefully.

"Danny it was your suggestion, and I need someone to play to, someone who will tell me what works and what doesn't. I can trust you to do that, Can't I?" I sort of nodded.

"Yes, I suppose."

"Good." She said. " Now come on."

The rehearsal room was at the top of an old building. Quite close to Covent Garden. I noticed that on all the floors there were Dance schools, for Ballet, Modern, Ballroom and Latin. Len told me that she had to hire the rehearsal room, and could only get it occasionally. But it had one necessary piece of equipment, a huge fan. On summer days the heat on the top floor could get oppressive, and as it was quite a large room, someone had adapted an industrial fan to provide cool air. Len was putting it to another use. We entered the room and Len flipped the bolt over on the door. She explained that lots of acts did rehearsals there and they had to keep their new routines secret, else some other troupe may steal the ideas.

She brought out a cassette, and slipped it into the big player. Immediately the strains of 'The Glass Mountain' filled the room.

"What do you think for the music, Danny?" I listened for a while then said.

"Very good choice, romantic, dramatic and beautiful. Just right." Len was happy that I approved.

"Right, I will rewind the tape and go and get prepared. When I take up my opening position give me three seconds then press play."

At one corner of the room there was a curtain. Len disappeared behind that, and ten minutes later came out. She was wearing ballet shoes with padding for the toes, and wrapped around her was a Pale Teal coloured chiffon. It was so soft that it didn't hide her figure, but there must have been quite a few turns as nothing of her body could be seen. It covered her from her shoulders down to mid-thigh. At first I wondered why it didn't reach down to her calves until common sense kicked in, of course she couldn't dance as freely if it came that low.

"How many yards of that stuff do you have?" I asked.

"I bought fifteen," she answered. "but I found that twelve yards would do. I can get twenty turns with that, also the fan would not keep the fifteen in the air. Could you give me a hand and drag this cumbersome thing out to here?" She indicated the fan and a point which was about three yards from the centre. The thing was bloody heavy, how Len had got it to where she wanted it I don't know. She switched it on. I was standing in front of it as it started to wind up. The blades must have been so heavy it took about five minutes to get to speed. Then there was a veritable gale blowing out. Len took up her position. Her head bowed, the right foot stepped back about six inches and her arms inclined back from her shoulders at about twenty five degrees. I don't know what it is about dancers, but their hands always seem to be gentle extensions of the flow of their arms. She looked so graceful that I almost forgot to start the music. As soon as the music played she was transformed. Her movements echoed the sentiment of the music. I tried not to get lost in the performance, but instead watched, detached as much as possible, to see what she couldn't see. I noticed her quick movement when she released the first turn of the chiffon, Then I noticed how her choreographed turns would release more chiffon to flow away with the wind, but also how she turned back into the chiffon, wrapping a turn round her body once more. Of course there were more turns unwrapping her, than turns that wrapped. I knew the music and also knew that it would play for about seven minutes, but Len had somehow managed to record the second half twice, it seemed seamless as I listened and I didn't realise at first that I was hearing the crescendo finale once again.

Len was at that point down to about three layers of chiffon, through the fabric her breasts were plainly outlined, and just hidden but suggested was the junction of her thighs. The music moved towards it's dramatic finish, and Len suddenly pirouetted three times letting the chiffon drift away, and for five or six seconds she danced completely naked then moved elegantly into her closing pose exactly as the music died. That pose was a half curtsey, with her head bowed and her arms in what she once called the three o' clock position. The half curtsey meant that her legs were apart, and her sex could be plainly seen. I started clapping. I walked over and switched the fan off. Len was looking at me apprehensively.

"Well?" I thought the whole thing was stunning, a far cry from her strip routine at the club. I was forming my thoughts, so hadn't answered when she stated.

"You didn't like it."

"Len. I think it was stunning. It took the whole idea of stripping, no! Not stripping, disrobing is a better description, and made it a very emotional, dramatic experience. But I do have some thoughts and suggestions. Put some clothes on and we will talk about them, that's what you wanted wasn't it?" Len seemed totally unconcerned about her nudity, but with her like that I could certainly not be objective. But she did humour me by getting her coat and throwing it over her shoulders. Muttering as she did so.

"All this fuss about me being naked. I don't know?" Then in her normal voice. "OK. What are your thoughts?"

I wondered if she would be angry with what I was going to say, but she did tell me that she needed to hear my thoughts. "First, how you wore the chiffon at the start, wrapped round your body and one turn over your shoulders. You looked like a wrapped Mummy. Would it be possible to take some of it over your head like a scarf?" Len nodded. "Yes it would, but why?"

"It would add to the mystery. The music is mystical, you should be as well, at least to start." She gave that some thought. Then her face brightened.

"Yes. I see what your getting at. I start off as a mystical hidden woman, then all is gradually revealed. OK I'll do the routine again and try that. Anything else?" I did have another point.

"Yes your pose at the end. It didn't quite work." She grinned.

"Why because you saw too much of me?"

"No. Personally I like seeing that much of you anyway you would be wearing that cache thing. I didn't think that your three o' clock position was that successful with you in that sort of curtsey. Perhaps if you returned to the position of your arms much the way when you started." She shrugged the coat off her shoulders and took the position I had suggested.

"Like that?" I walked around to view from different angles, a very pleasant task.

"Yes, that looks better." She practiced the final movements two or three times, then agreed with me.

"You're right, it feels better, and it's easier to get in. My balance is more secure as well. Right I shall do the whole thing again. Tell me what you think when I am finished."

Three minutes later she was once again wrapped in the chiffon, but this time with the final drape over her head. With her head down in her starting position it was impossible to see her face. I switched the fan on and started the music. She kept the drape over her head for quite some time, prolonging the mystery, and it looked good. The final unveiling she kept as before, but flowed into the new final pose without hesitation. I had only one comment to make.

"Fantastic!"

Len went through the whole routine another three times before she was satisfied. Then we returned to her flat. She made coffee for herself, but tea for me. We sat down to talk.

"Danny." She started. "Thank you for the comments. As I went through the routine for the third and fourth time I realised that it worked better. It was also easier to start letting the chiffon free, I can trap it with one hand instead of tucking it in at the top. You are quite good at the artistic stuff you know, The right idea for the routine to start and two important points that polished the performance, anything else you could say?" I shook my head.

"No Len. I was blown away by your dancing though. I didn't realise that you could dance so well." Len grinned.

"So all my sweat and pain at ballet lessons did have some benefit." She became serious again. "But how did it affect you?"

I didn't understand at first what she was asking, and answered the question I thought she was asking.

"What you do on stage at that club is taking your clothes off to music. It was probably sexual, but not erotic or sensual. That dance today was both of those things. You had a story to tell in dance and movement. You appealed to the emotions. Anyone who sees that will go away and remember it for a long time."

"Will you remember it for a long time?" Now Len was asking far more than the question.

"Yes." I replied. "I will."

I still hadn't given her the answer she was seeking, so she asked again but worded differently.

"Did it do anything for you." We could beat about the bush for a long time so I decided to put paid to this.

"I was aroused." That seemed to satisfy Len.

"Danny." She began. " Some men and possibly women who see this act will be aroused, that is the essence of the routine. Some will try to meet me. I know you are uncomfortable about how much I show, although you didn't say it, and I respect you for that. It actually means very little to me. But I will tell you now that although some will want to meet me, none will, nor will they ever have me." She paused. "You will, I hope you will, It is your decision." I was going to reply, but she put her hand up to silence me.

"I know you are going to say that you are married, that is understood. But I want you to know some things about me. Despite what I do, I am not a sexual person. I hear what the other girls say about their boyfriends, and how much they want to get to bed with them. I hear them talking about how it feels when they have a cock inside them, and I don't understand why it should be so important. I have kissed boys, and men, I have felt them get all excited. But I never have! If we ever sleep together, I don't know if it will be all that satisfactory for you, but I will sleep with you if you ever want me to, just to show you how much your friendship means to me. You are my best friend. Being together today and doing all sorts of silly and ordinary things was one of the happiest days I have ever had. Now I don't know if that's love or what, all I know is that I hadn't felt so relaxed and comfortable in years. I doubt that I will ever lose my virginity, but if I do lose it, I want it to be with you."

What could I say? The assertion that she had little or no sexual feelings was a great surprise to me. I had to make a reply, but honesty had to be forefront. I couldn't mess with her feelings.

"Len. When you danced you put so much emotion into it, that I thought you had to be feeling something, I certainly had a reaction. But you say you have no feelings about sex at all. I accept that, but if I accept that, how could I sleep with you? These silly thoughts were going round in my head, that if Jennifer and I divorced I would be free to love you as I am certain I would come to love you. But for me there can be nothing unless there is something for us both." I thought about what I had just said, it seemed to be a fair summation of my thoughts.

Len was crying. "Oh Danny. What is wrong with me?" I misunderstood her.

"There is nothing wrong with you, you are a lovely woman. Did I say that I don't find you attractive? I just couldn't take advantage of you." Len shook her head vigorously, her tears flying off her cheeks. "No, it wasn't that. Why am I different, why don't I get those feelings that other women get. Why does it seem impossible for me to love? Why doesn't the idea of a man making love to me make me tingle inside." Her sobs intensified. She blew her nose and got herself together. "Anyway you wouldn't be taking advantage of me. I want you to do it. I doubt that I will get sexual feelings, but the feeling of being so close to you would be sufficient for me. Do you understand?" I could offer no answer.

Len went off to wash her face and repair her make-up. Bravely she cracked a witticism as she came back. Smiling she asked me if my reaction to her dance was an erection.

"What do you bloody think, woman. Of course it was an erection."

Her smile broadened. "Good. At least I can do that for you." She looked slyly at me. "How about we do a strip for each other? See if that can stir anything in me?"