The Summer of Francesca Ch. 10

Ashley went first. Stepping up front, she undid her skirt with one fluid motion and let it fall to her feet. She removed her blouse with the same grace and passed the two garments to Cher. Her owner reattached her bracelets and she knelt at one side of the stage.

Kay was next, and her act was much different. A tart by nature, she did a flashy striptease. Anne felt it was cheap and tawdry, but it would appeal to some.

Then it was her turn. Taking stage center, she thought for a moment on the best way to present herself.

She remembered how Paul had displayed her to Mr. Lum in the restaurant, and in her childhood she took ballet lessons. Drawing on both experiences she did a leisurely pirouette as she removed her skirt, a bit like a stripper but more invitingly, taking her time to make a full rotation and lowering it gradually to her ankles before stepping out of it. Next she undid the buttons on her blouse one by one and held it open, turning slowly to expose herself before removing it and performing a grand plie. When she was bound again she knelt at Martinique's feet in homage before taking her place at the side of the platform.

Susan was nervous and clumsy; she pulled her sweater off and dropped her jeans and ran away to the side of the stage. Anne liked her youthful naivete; bashfulness was becoming to her.

When all the girls were ready, the contests began. Cher put a rubber ball in front of each while Maude set four cups at the far end of the stage. Each girl was to take the ball and carry it over to her cup.

At a signal from Maude, the girls bent forward and picked up the ball in their mouths. Anne was a little slower but she got it and began to walk across the stage. Halfway there she looked up and saw Ashley's thighs; the sight made her drop the ball which bounced away from her. She followed it to the front of the stage where it rolled off the front edge, and barely avoided falling after it.

She ran down into the audience looking for it in the darkness amid laughter and catcalls. A familiar voice called her name; it was her secretary Debbie, watching her debase herself.

Someone in the front row said "There it is" and pointed down; it had rolled into a drain grating below the stage. She crawled in after it and picked up the dirty object in her mouth a second time, holding it firmly in her teeth. Hastily she ran back up onto the stage and dropped it in the cup. At once the cup fell over letting the ball roll out.

That meant she had to start over. Cher set the ball in front of her again and she picked it up, ignoring the taste of whatever clung to its surface, proceeded across the stage by herself and very carefully lowered the ball into the cup. She had completed her task, coming in dead last of the four contestants.

Sweaty and disheveled now she returned to her place with the other three for the next challenge. Cher deposited a pile of round black stones in front of each girl; they were to organize them into a square exactly one-third of a meter on each side.

Anne's brain, already whirling from the last task, struggled to understand. How big was that anyway? She had a vague idea that it was about the length of a man's foot. One of her lovers explained that to her when - she returned to business. She would have to pick up each stone in her mouth like the rubber ball and arrange them in a square shape of the right size.

She began to build the edge nearest to her. When she was done, she looked up and saw that Ashley and Kay had done the far edge first. She realized now that her breasts would slide the closer stones around as she leaned over them. Laboriously she picked up each of them and moved them about a man's foot farther away. Ashley and Kay were finishing their sides now.

In a few minutes, well after those two and even Susan, she was done. But it was not square; the far edge was shorter, giving it the shape of a pyramid with a flattened top. She came in last again and was in tears at her failure. A trifle spoiled as a child, Anne was used to success in her endeavors and to praise for her efforts. This was a new and humbling experience for her. Martinique stood in front of her until she recovered while the others waited and the audience watched her cry.

The last event was the waltzes. Cher put on a recording of slow romantic tunes and the girls stood up to have their hands freed. Anne had lost all confidence in herself by now, but she resolved to do her best even though she would probably fail at this too.

Maude pointed to her and she approached Susan. The girl looked apprehensive and nervous when Anne took her up. Anne saw she would have to assume the lead and held her reassuringly. Susan looked into her eyes and smiled; good, this was a promising start. Anne felt her partner's body relax and held her a bit tighter; Susan responded in kind.

Anne sensed hidden fires in her, something beneath the girl's frozen surface; she wondered if she could bring it out. Susan had no idea how to dance, so Anne led her in the simplest steps with their bodies pressed together; soon she was clinging to Anne and breathing hard. By the end they were kissing one another's neck as they turned. They would probably never meet again, and Anne felt a touch of regret.

Kay was next. She was sexy without depth. Anne enjoyed the dance as one enjoys a sugar candy, but did not want to repeat it.

Her last partner was Ashley, who took the lead at once. Anne followed her direction as they swirled around the floor held close, their bodies linked. She began to lose her funk of a few minutes ago and became Ashley's tool.

She grew amorous in the arms of her companion; she even began to moan, at first quietly and then louder. Soon the audience joined in, imitating her cries.

Keeping one arm around her partner's waist, Ashley reached beneath with the other and began to work her. Anne's cries became louder still; Ashley showed her no mercy and soon she was coming again and again. She would have fallen to the ground without Ashley's support.

When Ashley had wrung the last drop of strength from Anne she withdrew. Martinique helped her return Anne to the side of the stage, where she knelt exhausted and gasping for breath. She forgot the world around her and wanted to kneel before Ashley in gratitude and love.

Maude announced the winners. Ashley was first; Cher put a blue ribbon around her neck. Kay came in second and got a red one. Anne was last, and "you know what that means"; the audience laughed, but if Anne heard this it did not register in her confused state.

Maude put a stool out in the center of the stage and Martinique led Anne over to it before inviting Debbie to join them. Cher brought out a wooden paddle and gave it to Debbie, who sat down and called Anne to her. A little afraid, Anne draped herself over Debbie's lap for her punishment. She hoped she would not stain her secretary's wool dress; it was an attractive royal blue color that she had always liked on Debbie.

Maude thanked the audience for coming and explained that refreshments would be served afterwards, while the young woman stroked Anne's buttocks to calm her. With one hand she pried the two cheeks apart while Maude described next week's entertainment; Anne felt a welcome coolness as the moist space was exposed.

When her speech was done, Maude signaled to Debbie who adjusted Anne's position, raised the paddle and began to spank her. Anne did not know she was so strong, and gasped.

This turned to weeping as Debbie struck her again and again with the hard face of the paddle. It continued for she did not know how long until Maude called an end to it. Debbie gave her a couple more good swats and stopped.

Debbie stood up and Anne with her; Martinique told Anne to bend over the stool, to display her reddened behind for the audience. Some of them came onstage and ran their hands over the tender flesh; Anne responded with incoherent noises and opened her legs for them. Someone pinched her and laughed when she squealed. Her breasts hung over the edge, and two or three people fondled them as well. All the audience tonight seemed to be women.

Anne had not been spanked since her school days, but except for the stinging sensation she liked it. She wanted to thank her secretary, but she couldn't in this position; maybe later.

Above her, Debbie said "See me first thing Monday; we have to go over the Howard file." Anne nodded stupidly in response but could not speak. She noticed her assistant was wearing shiny black shoes with high heels tonight, but did not raise her eyes any further. Two of her colleagues from work were here tonight; she wondered who the other one was.

Maude set out wine and cheese for the guests, and Cher poured bowls of feed and water for the girls. Anne recovered herself enough to crawl over to hers. Her appetite was restored after her exercises and a tantalizing fragrance rose from her bowl. Her pellets were a kind of dessert tonight, flavored with strawberry and vanilla. She savored them while the other three talked over her head, and in a few minutes she was able to join in their chatter.

Susan was raised in a strict religious household where even dancing was forbidden; she was still learning to shake her old attitudes and felt she had a long way to go. She praised her owner for bringing her here tonight and showing her a world she never dreamed of.

Kay was the daughter of parents like that too, she said, but she rebelled early and ran away. Since then she had been kept by one man or another for a day or a week until the diner people took her.

Ashley said little, nothing of importance, but she looked at Anne with a strange expression. Anne could not bear it, she stared at the floor and was silent. She ached, she burned to have Ashley do her again.

Soon the party broke up; audience members drifted toward the door and the owners of the other three girls led them to their clothes and away. Anne remained kneeling alone on the stage after they had gone.

Martinique approached her with news; Ashley won first prize but Anne was the most talked about. Several of the guests asked Maude about her; she gave them Anne's address and expected some visits to come of it. Paul would be glad; their tips defrayed the cost of her care and feeding.

She told Anne to stand but did not lead her to where her garments hung. She took Anne out to the front room; Maude and Cher awaited her beside the glass display case, whose door was open. She was to spend the night and most of the next day inside it.

She entered and Maude suspended her by her wrists. It was like Athene's apartment, but the ceiling was higher. Her feet barely touched the ground.

Maude closed the door (really some clear plastic, she saw) and the three women turned away. Maude was the last to leave, dousing the lights then bolting the door on the outside.

Anne surveyed her new world, lit by a streetlamp outside. The case was closed at the top but ventilated somehow; she felt a breeze rising on her bare skin. Also a circle of holes in the floor, she could not guess their use.

She closed her eyes and tried to relax. It had been a stressful evening with the cold journey here and the two contests she failed at; she was never good with games. But they seemed to like the way she undressed; and the dance with Ashley, that was special.

She felt a tickle on one foot. Something was crawling over her. It moved up her ankle and another, maybe several things were on her other foot now. Soon there was a number of them climbing up both legs; she looked down and saw innumerable black dots emerging from the holes. Anne was not especially afraid of spiders, but she never had hundreds - perhaps thousands - of them crawling up her body before. Alone, hanging naked and helpless in the night, she was frightened out of her wits.

She screamed, then screamed again, but there was no response except the inexorable climb of the arachnids. There wouldn't be; this neighborhood was mostly deserted at night, and cries coming from a shop that sold whips and chains would not alarm anyone. What did the creatures want? Would they bite and take bits of her flesh back to their nests? Would her skeleton be left here tomorrow hanging on bony wrists?

She continued to scream uselessly, consumed by a terror that erased all reason from her mind. They were up to her belly now, burrowing in her fleece and proceeding up her chest. They had reached her breasts and her collarbone. She closed her eyes when they reached her neck.

She wished she could faint and get it over with, but she could not. Her voice was hoarse, her throat raw. At some point she must have passed out through sheer exhaustion, because it was growing light when she woke and the creatures were gone. Her head drooped and she slept again.