Just Another Plain Jane Pt. 02

"Because I want everyone to understand that we are empathetic to the problem. I want to drive home the point that even you, the girl who was first affected by this curse, understand how important it is to save this collection."

"But what if destroying the collection could really work?" huffed Janet. "I'm sick of strangers thinking I'm weird or unlucky. I can't go anywhere without exposing myself somehow."

"I know, honey. But I'd have you go naked forever to save something so important. I'd do it, too."

"Yeah, you say that..."

Ryan kissed Janet on the forehead. "Thank you," he said. She decided not to fight him anymore on the content of the letter. Janet knew Ryan was passionate about it.

**

Three days later, Janet came home from the supermarket. She was screaming and jumping up and down. Ryan rushed from the kitchen to see her practically kissing the ceiling. "I did it! No accident! Nothing! The curse is lifted!"

"What? How?"

"I have no idea! But we need to tell the committee. They're supposed to burn the collection tomorrow."

"What? No!" Ryan had hoped his letter would have at least delayed their decision.

"Yeah, we talked about your letter at last night's meeting. In fact, it was emailed to everyone on our mailing list and we had lots of feedback. Far more than we could all read. The opinions were split about fifty-fifty. Ultimately, the committee decided to move forward."

"We have to stop them. At least tell them that the curse no longer affects you, so it may be the same for everyone else, too."

"I'll call Meredith and have her reach out to the others. Maybe we can convince the committee to wait and see, before moving forward with incinerating it all."

**

Though it was against rules, Ryan insisted on injecting himself in the emergency meeting. Set on convincing the hard-to-convince, Ryan emphasized Janet's miraculous recovery, more than on the arguments for saving a rare treasure. Elaine Benson was not happy about Ryan's presence. One, because it was against the rules to have uninvited speakers. And two, only committee members were to be involved in this kind of special session, anyway. Oh, and also three, when Elaine got out of her car on the way to the meeting, her dress got caught in the door. The strap ripped right off and she had nothing to hold them back up in place. She didn't particularly care for being exposed to this stranger this way. Or any man, for that matter.

"Unless you can explain how or why Janet is free from this curse, and how others can be, too," said Elaine, "then we are going to move forward with destroying the material."

Ryan was exasperated. "Miss Benson, I don't know WHY Janet is free from the curse. Perhaps it is because she was first to be exposed to it. After so many days, the effects might wear off. We will only know this if you give it time."

Janet, wearing a fitting, new dress and having no trouble keeping it on, interrupted, "Elaine, I was exposed to it before anyone else. Ryan's right. It may be that in time we see the same thing happen for everybody. All I know is, even before I was 'cured' of this, I was on the fence about saving the collection. We know there is something strange, perhaps even supernatural, occurring. But I wasn't sure it's worth saving if it creates misery. Nevertheless, I wanted you to hear Ryan's argument, too. I thought it only fair. It wasn't until he shared my story with all of you that-" Janet suddenly stopped, pausing. "Wait. I think I know what it is. I think I know what cured me." She looked desperately to Ryan, then back to the members of the committee. "In Ryan's letter, he went into excruciating detail about some of my incidents and challenges. Ryan, whether he realized it or not, contributed to my grandfather's collection the moment he wrote that story. And the moment you all read that story, that's what broke my curse. I know it! And if you destroy that collection now, I think you'll do the exact opposite of what you hope to achieve. I think you'll make the curse permanent!"

Silence hung in the air for some time. Elaine took to the microphone. "Alright, Janet. If you really believe this to be true, we can easily test it. Let's find three women who will share their stories. We'll then review them and see what happens. I move we delay destroying the materials for one week. Everyone in agreement say 'aye.'"

It was an easily passed motion.

**

Deborah shared her story first. Having had the curse almost as long as Meredith, she was eager to be rid of it. Rather than a write-up, Ryan followed her around for a day with a camera and made a video montage of various flesh-exposing incidents that they shared online. Ryan got hard on more than one occasion filming the voluptuous woman. And that's one thing that bothered Deborah so much. She could see the effects these mishaps caused on men -- see their reactions -- and she, too, would get horny. She just refused to admit it to anyone. She barely admitted it to herself, she felt so shameful.

Of course, Meredith herself also contributed her account. With her brother's help, she drafted her story with honesty and humility. She expressed how she felt about being stripped and exposed to strangers. Unlike Deborah, she also told the truth regarding what she liked about it, too. How these incidents made her reevaluate herself and her feelings about her own body. When finished, the piece was authentic, sad, sexy, and funny, all at the same time. Even Meredith recognized this. But sharing her humiliating story was worth it all. After thousands of online readers read it, Meredith became free from the curse.

In fact, every woman who had contributed to the experiment were freed from their curse a short time after their own, personal material was released. In a follow-up meeting, it was made clear by Elaine herself, when she said, "Unfortunately, we cannot hide the Jane Collection. Nor bury or destroy it. The only way to control it is to allow it. We will be putting up a website that distributes and publishes any and all material related to the Jane Collection. Any women currently afflicted with the curse may share their stories, pictures, and videos there, should they wish to be free of it. Unfortunately, we must allow access for these stories. It seems the collection needs an audience to lift the curse."

"An interesting paradox," whispered Meredith.

Janet leaned into Meredith. "Do you happen to know if one can get the curse more than once? I haven't dared look at a single thing in that collection since my curse was lifted. Have you?"

"No."

"Huh, I wonder..."

"I'm not sure I want to find out."