A Study in Scarlett

"Sexual Behavior In The Human Male," she read aloud. "The Kinsey Report."

"Well I am a nurse," Alice said in way of explanation.

"I heard there are places in this country where they actually banned this when it came out earlier in the year," Scarlett noted.

"Well now that you've seen it," Alice said. "I'd be happy to lend it to you to look over. It's the least I could do."

"No thanks," Scarlett said as she handed the book back. "It really doesn't interest me."

"You're kidding?" Alice said in surprise. "Based on what my friend in the book store told me, they can't keep the book in stock. Of course no one wants to be seen buying it or admit they're reading it."

"Maybe so," Scarlett said as she dropped back in her chair. "But I really have no interest in reading it. Maybe if they get around to writing Sexual Behavior In The Human Female I might find it interesting."

"I don't think you'd find enough women to admit to the things they write about in here," Alice said, tapping her fingers against the book cover.

"I don't know," Scarlett smiled. "After all, it is 1948, not 1908. You might be surprised what some women might be willing to admit to."

Not sure were she should to go with a statement like that, Alice decided to stay on safer ground.

"A lot of women have read this to find out about their husbands and boyfriends," Alice said.

"Well, last time I looked, I didn't have either one of those." Scarlett replied as she refilled her glass.

"You mean a beautiful girl like you doesn't have a whole fraternity breaking down the door trying to date her?" Alice asked.

"Ravenwood is an all-girl college, there are no frats," Scarlett laughed.

"I didn't know that," Alice said, noting that most women this day and age wouldn't be so happy to be going to an all girl college.

Their conversation was abruptly cut short as the bright red orb of the sun began to dip beneath the horizon. They turned their attention to the spectacle spread out across their vista, watching in silence until it faded from sight.

"It's been a real long day," Alice said as she drained the last of her glass. "I think I'm going to turn in."

"Have a good night's sleep," Scarlett said as she poured the last of the bottle into her own glass. "I'm going to stay up a little longer."

Alice got up to leave and began to clean up after herself. Scarlett told her to just leave everything where it was and she'd take care of it later. After all, she was her guest.

Over the next six days, Alice was treated to a vacation far beyond she could have ever imaged. Scarlett showed her Los Angeles like few tourists ever saw it.

They rode the new green and yellow electric trolley back and forth across the city. The two of them explored the Memorial Coliseum and Grauman's Chinese Theater. Scarlett took her to Universal Studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Paramount, where her family name seemed to open all doors.

The Griffith Park Zoo was a delight and when they went to dinner in Chinatown, Scarlett took her to a restaurant where the owners led them to their private dining room and treated them like family. A courtesy Alice was certain they extended to few other patrons.

The nights were even more marvelous. Be it a concert at the Hollywood Bowl or a chance to spend half the night peering through the lens at Griffith Observatory. There were quiet nights as well, building a fire on the beach and counting the stars. Or actually sitting in front of the television and watching an evening's programs, much to Alice's delight and Scarlett's sufferance.

By the end of they week, they were almost as close as the cousins they'd pretended to be on the train. It was hard to tell which of them was going to be sorrier to see it end.

"I think these two are my favorites," Alice said as she held up two small black and white photographs.

Scarlett looked over Alice's shoulder at her choices. She agreed with her choices.

The first showed the two of them on a small observation deck near the top of the new City Hall. It was the tallest building in the city and the view had been spectacular.

The second was an even better shot, because it contained an element of the magic the whole vacation seemed to be made of. It was a picture of them in the hills outside of the city, with the battered Hollywoodland sign spread out behind them.

"Even this camera is amazing," Alice said as she picked up the Polaroid Camera off the table to look at it again. "Imagine being able to take a photograph and have it develop right there and then. No waiting a week or more for it to come back from the drug store."

Well I told you my Grandmother loved all the latest gadgets," Scarlett said. "They only came out with those this year."

"It really is nice," Alice said. "I loved using it."

"I know, that's why I got one for you to take with you when you leave for Korea," the redhead grinned.

"What?" a surprised Alice exclaimed. "Scarlett, I can't take a gift like that. It's too expensive. I saw in a magazine that these cost almost a hundred dollars."

"Yes you can," Scarlett insisted as she rested her hands on Alice's shoulders and gave her a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "You've made this week the most fun I've had since I was a little kid. I'm really going to miss you."

"That's such a sweet thing to say," Alice said in return as she gave Scarlett a friendly kiss of her own. "I'll take it only if you let me cook you dinner tonight. It's the only gift I can really afford to give you."

"Seeing as my cooking skills aren't worth a damn," Scarlett laughed, "I'll accept."

"It's nice to see that you're not perfect after all," Alice replied with a grin. "After the last week, I was beginning to wonder."

"Oh I'm far from perfect," Scarlett quickly responded, a touch of sudden sadness in both her tone and her eyes. "But I'd settle for just being happy for a while."

"I hope I've made you happy for a while." Alice said.

"That you have," Scarlett said in reply. "Which is why I'm going to miss you so much."

"Well you're not going to have to miss me for another day and a half. So in the meantime, how bout you let me check out that pantry and see what I can come up with for dinner."

Leaving the younger woman behind as she headed for the kitchen, Alice didn't notice the single tear running down Scarlett's cheek. If she had, she might have wondered if it was a tear of happiness or sadness. At that moment, not even Scarlett was sure.

After only a few hours of sleep, Alice found herself awake and staring at the ceiling of her bedroom. Despite the long day, she found herself fully awake. Dinner had been wonderful, they had talked and laughed late into the night.

She lay there for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the soft crash of the waves against the sands beneath her window. Finally, Alice decided she had to get up.

The tall brunette sat up in her bed, dropping her feet over the side of the classic four-poster. Alice was wearing a full-length sheer black nightgown that she had been given at her wedding shower two years before. Her sister Donna had sent all the way to Hollywood for it so that Alice might have something really sexy to wear on her wedding night. A night that had never come about. Conventional mores stated that a girl was supposed to go to her wedding bed a virgin. The reality was that having the ring on her finger was enough to open most girls' legs. Especially as was the case with Alice and the groom to be, who was nine years older and had seen military service during the war. Few men like that came home virgins and didn't want to wait until the wedding night.

Alice wasn't too disappointed when she lost her maidenhood in a wholly unsatisfying act. Both her mother and older sister had warned her previously that it would most likely happen like that. Both of their husbands had deflowered them in rushed, unfulfilling love making sessions. They did, however, assure her that it would get better with time.

By the second month of their intimacy however, Alice had concluded that it wasn't ever going to be any better than that first time. It wasn't that her intended was a bad or even an inconsiderate lover. Quite the contrary. Based on what she heard from other women, Jack was a most thoughtful and caring lover. And it wasn't as if she wasn't trying as hard as she could either. While in the Army, Jack had been introduced to the delights of oral sex by a Parisian whore. Unlike some of her more timid girlfriends, Alice didn't consider fellatio or anything else that brought someone you cared about pleasure an unnatural act and willing engaged in it. Jack enjoyed her efforts immensely, but it still left her feeling as hollow and unfulfilled as intercourse had.

Three weeks before the wedding, Alice had abruptly announced she was breaking off the engagement and joining the Army. She had enrolled in a program that would send her to nursing school in exchange for military service. Neither her fiancee, nor her family, ever really got an explanation for her sudden decision. The twenty-four-year-old had just packed everything she owned into two bags and left a week later. Alice liked to wear the nightgown while on leave since it didn't exactly fit into Army life. Through the open window, Alice could see the reflection of the full moon on the water, but not the moon itself. No longer tired, she decided to step outside to have a good look at it.

The house was as quiet as could be and Alice measured her steps carefully as not to disturb Scarlett. The two small guest bedrooms they occupied were next to each other on the main floor. Passing through the kitchen, Alice was surprised to see small illuminations from out on the patio deck. Moving closer to the sliding glass door, Alice could see a half dozen lit candles spread around the verandah.

Gently sliding open the door, Alice stepped outside and could see a figure sitting near the edge in one of the recliners. Without being able to see her face, she knew it was Scarlett.

The redhead was wearing light magenta colored pajamas, embroidered with flowers and birds. Her rich red hair hung its full length, stretched behind her chair. She was staring out onto the horizon and as the taller woman moved closer, Alice could see that all of the buttons of the pajama top had been undone. It was also clear that Scarlett had one hand beneath the waistband of her bottoms. Realizing that her younger hostess was energetically engaged in what her mother had described endless times as self-abuse, Alice told herself that she should just quietly back up the way she had come. She was too educated a young woman to believe her mother's description of the act she was witnessing. In fact, she really hadn't believed it when she'd discovered the act herself. It was impossible for her to believe that something that felt so good could be bad.

Truth be told, the scene unfolding in front of her fascinated Alice. The first time she had ever watched a girl pleasure herself had been when she shared a room with her sister, Donna. She never really saw much, and definitely never had the nerve to ask her about it. Still it always enthralled her.

In the almost two years since she'd joined the Army, Alice had the opportunity to see several other women pleasure themselves as well. When you shared quarters like they did, it was impossible not to be aware of those late night acts. The unwritten, unspoken rule was that even if it was happening in the next bed, you turned a blind eye to it. Alice sometimes wondered if it was the same way with men. That had been one of the reasons she was so anxious to read the Kinsey Report.

Even more unspoken than the precept that you ignored another woman touching herself in a sexual way was the even more prohibited act of having another woman do it for her. Back when she was in nursing school, it had been rumored that two of the students had been guilty of just that. No one would actually talk about it, but everyone seemed to know.

The two girls involved had just failed to show up at morning assembly one day. No announcement was made of their status, but the word quickly got out that it was in your best interest not to ask. The one result that Alice remembered from the incident was that it was a long time after that before she heard the quiet sounds of self-pleasure from one of her bunkmates.

Another memory quickly reasserted itself as she watched Scarlett. The remembrance of the warm tingling between Alice's legs that watching and listening to those other young women had always produced.

It was the doubts produced by those feelings that had caused her to cancel her engagement at the last moment. The lack of those feelings in encounters with her boyfriend had sent Alice on her journey of discovery, without even knowing what it was that she was searching for. She just knew she wasn't going to find it in Ethan Falls or as Mrs. Jack Fisher.

"I hope you're not too shocked." Alice's head snapped back at the sound of Scarlett's voice. It took her a moment to realize that the younger girl had been aware of her presence all along.

Scarlett turned to face her, the folds of her pajama top opening even more, giving Alice a clear view of her candle illuminated breasts. The sight sent a strong flush through the older girl. As a nurse, she had seen countless naked breasts, but none in such a sexual setting.

"Are you shocked?" Scarlett asked again.

"Was I supposed to be?" Alice asked in turn.

"I was hoping you wouldn't be," Scarlett said. "I was hoping that instead you might be ..."

Scarlett didn't finish. Instead, Alice watched as the look of self confidence that she had associated with her new friend faded from her face. The expression that replaced it was that of a frightened young woman. "Oh God, what am I doing?" she asked herself aloud as a tear formed in the corner of her eye. "I can't believed I really thought this might happen."

"That what might happen?" Alice asked as she tried to control the beat of her racing heart.

"When I saw you come out here," she stammered, the tears becoming more visible. "I somehow thought that you could sense what I wanted. What I've been dreaming about since I met you. Somehow, I thought ... I mean I felt ... oh I don't know how to describe it. That you felt the same things that I was feeling."

The now crying young woman pulled the top of her pajamas closed as she bent her head down in embarrassment.

"How could I even think such a thing," she went on. "How could I have gotten it so wrong." Scarlett hadn't noticed that Alice was now kneeling next to her chair. Or that the brunette was gently stroking her long red hair, brushing the strands away from her tear stained face.

"Scarlett," she whispered as she wiped away a tear with her finger.

The brief touch of flesh against flesh finally alerted Scarlett to the older woman's presence.

"Scarlett," Alice repeated. "You weren't wrong."

"What ...?" Scarlett asked as she stopped her tears and looked up into the face of her friend.

"I don't know how you would describe it either," Alice whispered. "But all those things you thought I might be feeling as well, I do feel them. I know that women aren't supposed to feel such things for each other, or so we're told, but some of us do. Somehow I think we were able to see that in each other."

"I've never tried to do anything like this before," Scarlett admitted.

"Neither have I," Alice said. "But if I'm going to explore those feelings that have been inside of me, I've always hoped I'd have someone like you to explore them with."

"Oh Alice, I was so afraid that you'd think I was some kind of ..." Scarlett confessed.

"Never," Alice smiled, no longer wanting to contain the thumping within her breast. As if to reinforce her statement, Alice leaned over and pressed her lips against Scarlett's. The warmth she found there spread to her very soul. A second kiss followed, this time initiated by Scarlett. Alice responded with all the fires within her, sliding her hand beneath the folds of Scarlett's pajama top to gently cup her ample breast.

"Oh Alice," Scarlett gasped as she felt the strength of her hand pressed against her mound.

Alice then took Scarlett's hand and pressed it against the softness of her own lace-covered bosom. An action that brought an even brighter light to Scarlett's emerald eyes.

Both young women stood and held each other hand in hand, gazing deeply into each other's eyes. Scarlett could see her own emerald orbs reflected in the deep blue of Alice's, as so many other things were reflected within the taller girl's body. She pulled her body against her own and held it as tight as she could, drawing on both the warmth and strength she found in it.

"I think I've fallen in love with you," Scarlett said as she held the taller woman.

"I feel the same way," Alice replied as she brushed Scarlett's long hair.

"What are we going to do?" Scarlett asked. "You leave in two days."

"We live those two days and not worry about what happens after that." Alice answered.

"Oh Alice," Scarlett said as she kissed her new found love once more.

The two women continued to kiss and fondle each other, removing bits of clothing as they went. Scarlett took hold of the straps of Alice's nightgown and slid them down her arms, until the sheer black lace was bunched around the brunette's waist. Her small rounded breasts stood exposed in the moonlight, the quarter dollar sized dark areola drawing the attention of Scarlett's eyes. In the center of each circle stood small erect tips the size of erasers. Fingers outstretched, the redheaded woman rubbed the tips of her fingers against the small stubs, delighting in both their hardness and the electric excitement just touching them produced.

"Oh yes," Alice said breathlessly as she felt Scarlett press her fingers against her nipples.

In turn, Alice ran her hand up along the sides of Scarlett's chest, pulling back the still open fold of the pajama tops. Scarlett's breasts were almost twice the size of Alice's, with bright pink areola and thick nipples. Alice pushed back on the magenta shirt until it fell back and down to the floor. Before the material hit the wooden deck, her hands were cradling the soft yet heavy globes.

The older woman bent over and planted a kiss on each nipple, rubbing her lips against the warm, excited flesh and then her tongue against the thick hardness. The action caused Scarlett to call out with joy.

As a nurse, Alice was well aware of the female body, and the sensitive spots it contained. This was her first chance to explore those spots and she approached the chance with unbridled enthusiasm. She continued to kiss Scarlett's rich mounds, running her hands all over the rest of her exposed body as she did.

Scarlett lifted Alice's face from her breasts, letting her lips replace her nipples. She kissed her new love twice more on her lips, then dropped to her smaller mounds. She found them no less delightful than her own.

Scarlett continued to lovingly kiss her way downward, pulling Alice's nightgown all the way down. When she reached the plain white panties beneath it, she kissed the damp center, before pulling them down as well.

Alice's mound was large and very bushy, the hair of which was as dark as that on her head. With two outstretched fingers, Scarlett parted the hair and pressed her lips against the brunette's womanhood. Her tongue pressed forward with an almost religious fervor, sampling that which she had only imagined on a hundred empty nights.

Alice opened her lips to respond to the warm wet embrace of her sexuality, but could only managed an exhaled breath of approval. Despite her previous sexual experience, it was the first time she had ever been touched in quite that way. Jack Fisher's interest in oral sex hadn't extended to cunnilingus.