Comfort Women Ch. 02

Victor Benning stepped in front of Sam and blocked his way.

Sam was slightly built, his voice high pitched and almost effeminate. During boot camp he struggled with PT and battlefield training and had been assigned to the medical corps.

"I reckon you could fill that suit nicely," Victor pushed Sam in the chest towards the mannequin.

"What do you mean with a little help?" Buddy turned to Wesley.

"Well she'd have to put on a wig and some makeup otherwise she'd just be a man in a dress," Wesley sniggered.

Victor produced a hip flask, took a slug and passed it to Buddy who took a swallow.

"Don't call me 'she'! You're the fucking Girl Friday!" Sam sniped at Wesley.

"And I'm not putting on the fucking suit!" Sam wailed.

It may have been Sam's bellicose attitude, it was certainly the alcohol but it was also a need to bully intimidate that fired Buddy's resolve to force Sam to wear the suit.

"You're wearing the fucking suit Sam!" Buddy growled.

"Who wants to see Sam wear the suit?" Buddy asked drunkenly.

Victor went along with everything that Buddy did, Wesley was a toady who pretended he was someone special because he worked directly for Brody but the others knew he was a cowardly wuss. Dale Snitterman was the closest that Sam had as a friend but seeing Sam being bullied by the others meant that he was being left alone so he joined the bullies.

They all raised their hands.

"Sergeant! Stop this idiocy please," Sam turned to Bill Brody and begged.

Bill had little time for any of them but he'd read their diaries and had their personnel files and knew them all intimately. He should have put a stop to it but he found the situation amusing.

"Put the fucking suit on Nurse Steele," Brody took out his own hip flask and took a slug.

"You guys are joking right? Sergeant? Surely you're joking?" Sam could sense the situation was getting out of hand.

He'd been the butt of their jokes for some time now but this was really going too far.

"Wesley! Help me! Convince your boss that this is just plain ridiculous," Sam turned to Wesley for help.

"Wesley? You mean fucking Wendy. You can help Sam get into that fucking suit and then you can put on that dress. Then you two ladies can come back to the Copperlode and serve us real men some drinks and snacks," Brody chuckled and the others joined in.

Except for Wesley Meakins.

He had suddenly become pale and was speechless. Staff Sergeant Brody had called him Wendy. How did he know about Wendy?

Bill Brody turned to Wesley Meakins and hauled him by the collar.

"I know all about you Wendy; now git to gettin' sissified with your girlfriend here," Brody hissed in Wesley's ear but the others overheard and were very interested.

"What's the story Sarge? Why'd you call Meakins Wendy?" Victor Benning asked.

"Let's go back to the bar boys and I'll tell you all about it. You two ladies better show up wearing those fucking clothes or else I'll beat you into them," Bill hissed at Sam and Wesley and stormed off followed by the others leaving Sam and Wesley alone in store.

Sam couldn't believe what was happening. What had he done to infuriate Bill Brody? The others had been teasing him for weeks now and he was used to it but why had Bill turned on him? And what was the story with Wesley Meakins who stood there looking totally dejected.

*****

Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands - North Pacific, 1944

Wesley Meakins knew that he was gay as soon as he entered adolescence. He'd been an average student and found employment as a bank clerk when he left school with no real ambition other than to live a comfortable life and keep his homosexuality in the closet except for when he met up with his friends at Newport, Rhode Island on the weekends.

He and his friends all stayed at the same hotel which tolerated gay men. Wesley frequented the Pink Parrot nightclub where he performed as a drag queen to supplement his income. Being effete and quite the accomplished mimic, singer and actor Wesley performed as the drag queen Wendy Wayne three nights a week.

When the United States entered the war Wesley wanted to do his part but did not fancy storming beaches or being shelled in a foxhole and so he joined the USN as a clerk. His good fortune prevailed and he was posted to USS Polari an auxiliary repair ship which spent most of its time anchored in Pacific island lagoons following the battle fleet but out of harm's way.

Being far away at sea USS Polari became a heterotopic space where some men sought the companionship of others. Despite official prohibitions of such behaviour the CO turned a blind eye provided the men carried out their duties to the best of their abilities. The ship was required to remain away from port for extended periods as it was a vital element supporting the fleet and the crew worked long hours under harsh conditions and had little to do in the way of recreation.

The tradition of dressing as women for entertainment, including theatre shows, was more common on ships on boringly long inactive voyages than it was in the army or air force. Wesley Meakins let Wendy Wayne out of the closet and dragged up for concert parties in a troupe of three. He impersonated the singer Ann Sheridan and his two shipmates were Rita Hayworth and Katharine Hepburn.

The ship's company was amused by the three crossdressers who were very good at their art of female impersonation. The crews of other warships tied up alongside the Polari for periods of maintenance and repair would come on board and attend performances, the sailors eager for any distraction from the long periods of boredom broken by short periods of terror which constituted war at sea.

It was a loose secret that the 'sea queens' would offer sexual favours after the show in secluded spaces below decks and many a 'straight' sailor succumbed to their feminine wiles. 'Any port in a storm' was a phrase often uttered by men starved of female companionship and sexual gratification.

Wesley was enjoying a peaceful war until his good work got him promoted to Petty Officer and a posting to USS Antilles a Lexington Class aircraft carrier where he got a taste of the real war. But being on a ship with such a large crew there were bound to be other homosexuals and Wesley's 'gaydar' soon located another sailor of the same disposition. But it was to be his undoing when a Chief Petty Officer caught the two in flagrante delicto.

Meakins was given the option of paying bribes to the bellicose Chief Petty Officer or being beaten by him and his homophobic buddies and then brought before the mast. Under great duress Wesley stole cash from the Pursers safe and doctored the books to hide his crimes. He got away with it for a while but his crimes were eventually discovered.

His defence at the court martial that he was being blackmailed by a Chief Petty Officer was not considered an excuse and most of the Board found his blatant homosexuality distasteful although some were briefly amused by his anecdotes of performing as Wendy Wayne. It did him little good however and he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, the harsh sentence due to the Judge Advocate's hatred of gay men.

In Leavenworth Wesley kept his homosexuality a secret for fear of being beaten or killed by men who hated faggots although he sometimes found himself on his knees in the ablutions block fellating a bully.

Wesley's secret life however was fully chronicled in his Personnel file and that file was now in the possession of Staff Sergeant William Brody.

*****

Villawood Montana, 1959

"What the fuck is going on Wesley; I can't believe this is happening," Sam stood in the middle of the department store entrance dumbfounded.

"We're being bullied Sam, that's what's happening," Wesley said forlornly.

"The Sergeant knows about my past, that's for certain," Wesley sighed.

"Past? What past?" Sam was confused.

Wesley gave a Sam a condensed story of his exploits on board the USS Polari, leaving out the part about having sex with the sailors. He amended and edited the story explaining that he and three others and been performing drag shows on the ship to break the boredom and entertain the ships companies.

"Bill Brody has some files locked in his safe that I can't access so I'm guessing he has our Personnel files in there," Wesley opined.

"What has that got to do with anything?" Sam was still confused.

"Don't you see Sam it doesn't matter? You and I are the weaklings and those other four men are big and strong and in control and they want us to dress up like women," Wesley sounded exasperated.

"Dale is my friend," Sam said pouting like a spoiled child.

"Dale has joined the others. We have no friends. This place is just as bad as Leavenworth. It's a gilded cage," Wesley sighed.

"But why make us dress like women?" Sam was still confused.

"To bully us, to mock us, to tease us and to belittle us. It's just another way of exerting their superiority. They want female company but can't have it so we will be the next best thing. It was will be harmless fun. We'll serve them drinks and prance around a bit and they'll slap our asses and make lewd comments and then we'll take off our makeup and dresses and everything will go back to how it was," Wesley began to undress the mannequins, carefully putting the clothing into a shopping trolley.

"They're just blowing off steam and we're the butt of their jokes," Wesley reassured Sam but deep inside he didn't think that was the case at all.

"We gotta get out of here. This is not part of the study... experiment... whatever. We gotta tell Colonel Flagg," Sam circled the mannequins not paying attention to what Wesley was doing.

"Sam! There is one vehicle in Villawood and Bill Brody has it. There is an electrified fence surrounding the town. The only direct communication with the outside world is the emergency telephone and this ain't yet an emergency. Now stop flapping around and come help me," Wesley had taken the pencil-skirted suit and the fitted dress off the mannequins and put them in the cart.

Sam stopped walking in circles and looked up at the mannequins. They looked almost lewd stripped down to their underwear. He stood there gawking at them transfixed, staring at their foundation garments and nylon stockings.

"Leave the mannequins Sam and come with me," Wesley began to push the cart into the store.

Sam followed Wesley like a loyal pet, not knowing what else to do. He was led around by Wesley who visited a number of stations in the department store and put various items into the cart. They came to the Health and Beauty department and Wesley parked the trolley and told Sam to strip.

"I beg your pardon?" Sam sounded stunned.

"Sam. I've got no more time to waste on you. If we don't do what we're told, those boys are going to come back here and as Bill Brody so eloquently put it: they will beat us into those clothes," Wesley pointed at shopping cart.

Sam surrendered. For now at least there was no escape, nowhere to go, no one to help. He would put himself in the hands of Wesley Meakins hoping that Wesley would keep him safe. Wesley was Bill Brody's Company Clerk so he knew secrets that the other didn't, like what was actually in the Villawood Rules & Regulations folder that Brody refused to let the others see.

Sam stripped down to his skivvies and Wesley appraised him.

"You're small in stature but you have long legs and a decent ass, your waist is slim and your feet are small for a man. You've hardly any body or facial hair. There are drag queens out there who would kill to have that body; in fact there are women out there would kill to have that body if you only had tits," Wesley studied Sam carefully.

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about Wesley," Sam said standing there stupefied in his underpants and undershirt.

"Women's clothes fit differently Sam but I'm not going to waste time explaining to you why. I'm going to beat your face then I'm going to dress you and we'll take it from there," Wesley was laying out cosmetics on the counter.

"Why are you going to beat me?" Sam was disappointed that his friend was threatening him.

"It's a drag term honey. Beating your face means putting makeup on you," Wesley explained and Sam just nodded.

Wesley has Sam sit on a stool next to the cosmetics counter and scurried away and came back with a bowl of hot water, shaving soap and a razor. Sam sat still and allowed Wesley to shave his face.

"I'm wasting my time really; you hardly have any facial hair," Wesley commented as he wiped away the post-shave lather from Sam's face.

"I'm going to put up a mirror here on the counter so you can see what I'm doing and I'll explain the process. I don't have time to teach you but you'll become adept with practice," Wesley said and Sam wondered why he would day that.

Why would he become astute with practice? This was to be a onetime thing. He and Wesley would dress up as women and the others would intimidate, tease and torment them and that would be that.

Sam watched Wesley turn his handsome face into a pretty feminine face using foundation, finishing powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner mascara, rouge and lipstick. Sam was mesmerised by the process as Wesley for all intents and purposes turned him into a girl.

"We used to have saying back in the day: 'pretty boy means pretty girl'," Wesley said as he put the finishing touches to Sam's face.

He took the brunette bob from the trolley, brushed it out and fitted it to Sam's head. The transformation was complete. Looking back as Sam in the mirror was a beautiful woman with flowing shoulder-length brunette locks and bangs which highlighted the makeup complimenting her pretty green eyes.

"I don't believe it," Sam stared into the mirror.

"Now is the time I stop thinking of myself as 'he' and think of myself as 'she'. It helps with the transformation," Wesley explained as she began to apply cosmetics to her own face.

Sam wouldn't admit it but that was how she felt. As of right now, looking at her reflection, she thought of herself in the feminine vernacular.

"Just call me Wendy. Wendy Wayne is back in the house honey," Wendy poked at her honey-blonde, curly bouffant updo with the spiky handle of the hairbrush, getting it to sit just right.

Wendy looked amazing too. There was no doubt that Sam was the more attractive of the two in her mind but Wendy was quite the doll. Sam didn't understand why she felt that way. Why would she consider herself more attractive? They were two men dressing as women for a lark because they had been made to do so.

"Ok honey here comes the good part. Now this going to feel a little strange at first but I think you're going to like it. In any event you're going to have to get used to it," Wendy produced a pair of white rayon high-waisted panties with an elasticised waist.

"These are tight fitting and smooth so they won't spoil the lines of your pencil skirt," Wendy placed them on the counter and put a matching brassiere beside them.

"I don't have your waistline honey so I'm going to have to wear a girdle with garters but because you have that waist you can get away with just wearing a garter belt," Wendy held a piece of lingerie made of a lacy fabric that was elasticised and had six suspender straps with silver clips fitted to them.

Sam knew that the garment was designed to go around a woman's waist and the garters were used to hold her stockings. He'd had a fascination for women's legs in nylon stockings since he could remember but the thought of actually wearing the garments had never entered his head.

Sam had been in the military and in prison long enough that she was not embarrassed by nudity so when Wendy told her to take off her skivvies she did so with no anguish. Wendy fitted the garter belt around Sam's waist getting her to step into it. Once she was happy with the fit she had Sam sit on the stool and offer her a leg.

"You have to careful not to put holes or runners in these things when you put them on," Wendy explained as she rolled up a gauzy black fully-fashioned nylon stocking and slipped it over Sam's toes.

The feel of the silky cool nylon as Wendy smoothed it up Sam's leg was indescribable. Sam knew how lovely stockings felt on women's legs when she stroked them but feeling the diaphanous garment on her own legs was absolutely delightful. Now she understood why women went to such great lengths to get their hands on good quality hosiery.

The sensation she felt putting on her stockings was exceeded only by the tingling exotic tickle of the fabric of her rayon panties sliding up her legs. Sam was becoming tumescent despite the absurdity of the situation.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," Wendy snickered when she saw the effect that donning her intimates was having on Sam.

Sam blushed.

"I can't help it. I've never felt anything like this before," Sam admitted.

"Well that unsightly bugle will ruin the line of your skirt," Wendy said.

While they waited for Sam's erection to go down Wendy went looking for shoes. Sam had never felt so silly in her life. She had endured sitting on a latrine inches from another person taking a dump in a field head. She had lined up alongside a dozen men and bent over so that a prison officer wearing rubber gloves could examine her asshole for contraband. She had lay awake in the bottom bunk listening to the man above her masturbate and then followed suit knowing that he could hear her.

But sitting on the stool dressed only in nylon stockings and a garter belt waiting for her erection to subside so she could pull up her panties was the most absurd thing she had ever done.

"These will fit," Wendy returned waving a pair of open-toed strappy high heels.

She too looked absurd running down the cosmetics aisle, her face painted expertly and her blonde do wobbling as she held onto it with one hand and waved the heels with the other, dressed only in boxers, tank top and socks. Sam couldn't help but laugh which helped the last of her erection diminish.

Wendy showed Sam how to tuck her genitals and hold them in place with her tight panties.

"When I did drag we taped it all in place because we were singing and dancing and performing acrobatics but we are just going to be serving drinks and snacks to a couple of drunken men," Wendy said, as if it that wasn't the most absurd thing ever.

She helped Sam finish dressing, padding her brassiere cups with rolled up nylons to give her chest some shape. Putting on the open-toed heels was easy but walking with them was torture and Wendy left Sam to practice walking, holding onto the counter for support until she had her balance.

"Point your toes slightly inward and unnaturally as it feels, put your sole down first then your heel. Those things aren't combat boots," Wendy advised her whilst putting on her own lingerie.

Wendy had been undertaking mostly sedentary duties and enjoying the meals provided by Dale Snitterman and dodging Company PT whenever she could and had put a few pounds since arriving at Villawood.

The added weight actually made her face a little prettier when she put on her makeup as it disguised her wrinkles and gave her full rosy cheeks. She'd had to step into a full corset which covered her entire torso and included bra cups and garter straps. It featured an inbuilt girdle that shaped her body into an hourglass figure and as she was carrying the extra pounds she had an ample bosom which she showed off by wearing the sleeveless, strapless dress with the fitted bodice and a full skirt that the mannequin had modelled in the store entrance.

Wendy looked like a voluptuous, attractive middle-aged woman who was confident in her gait and poise. Her transformation was amazing and unless you knew Petty Officer Wesley Meakins you would never know that it was him under that lipstick, powder, heels and finery.