Chapter 17

Just before 8.30 the rest of the girls appeared. Chrissy looking even more radiant than she had been, was all smiles. The four girls sat with me and Beth all went and surrounded her with hugs and little comments. Sara wasn’t excluded but you could tell that Chrissy was being accepted into the sisterhood. With everyone present, Jim got them moving towards the coach. This was not before all of them, Sara, Kym & Sasha included, came to me and gave me hugs and meaningful kisses.

I grabbed Jane just as they left, “Remember what I asked you earlier, could you make it 6 instead of 5?”

“I had already thought of that!” she responded smirking. “What time are we calling today, 3pm as usual?”

“Yes, and I thought it would be good to introduce the others to the family, and here’s some pocket money for all of you!” I smiled passing her a roll with $1000 in it.

“Good, I will make sure that we are back well before then.” She answered smiling at me as she strode off.

I had arranged with Danny to do the housekeeping in the occupied rooms so after another drink. The pair of us got all the supplies together and started on the rooms above the clubhouse. Rita was able to tell us which rooms the occupants had left to go to breakfast, and which ones were still occupied.

“Jon, can I ask if there is somewhere where my mobile will work?” Danny asked as we were replacing the sheets in one of the rooms.

“If you go down to the Gatehouse, I will organise that Rita will give you access. You do realise that your Sims are aligned to Rita? If anyone calls she will let you know and route the call through to where you are.”

“Jon I’m 17! No one calls these days, we do everything through social media!” he said smiling at my reaction. There was only 9 years between us but it might as well have been a 100 years. I knew exactly what social media was and every little intricacy about it, I could write the programs that controlled it with my eyes closed. What I hadn’t taken on board, due to my naivety or was it distance from the fact, was the dependency that the youth culture had with it. It was the reason I had built Rita’s predecessor and therefore the reason I had Rita. But to hear those words from Danny made everything hit home.

“I actually have an idea that might work if you only want to use the data side of your phone. Obviously, the picture element wouldn’t be able to work in the camp, but most other things could! I could also set up that voice messenger could work if you’re willing to work with me on it.”

“Yea sure, I would be happy too. It’s the only thing I miss, being here. I use it so much it feels that I have cut off from reality.”

“Well when we are finished we will go and see what we can do back at the warehouse.” We had already straightened out all the used rooms in the clubhouse, just the 3 occupied cabins to do.

Meantime, in Little Rock the girls were being dropped off at The Promenade at Chenal. There had been a bit of chatter on the way but, after a short distance, their mobiles started to make the familiar sounds that they took for granted before there had entered the camp gates.

“How did that happen? I have all you’re guys contact details!” Genja exclaimed.

“Yeah, so do I and I have friend requests on Facebook and all my other programs?” Sasha replied.

“I suspect that has something to do with Rita! She is so intelligent it’s scary!” Jane answered.

“Who’s Rita?” Sara asked.

“The computer system that we have at the camp. Jon made her and to be honest, she’s part of the family now!” Jane said and then continued to explain more about Rita to Chrissy & Sara.

They had realised that their life’s had been totally separated from the reality they were used too. Beeps and chimes echoed through the small coach. Beth was very quick to remind Kym and Sasha about not discussing anything about the camp with their friends. So with everyone updated with the things they had been trying to escape, Shopping again became the focus.

“Shall we grab a coffee and then plan what we want to do?” Chrissy asked.

“That sounds good, maybe you can tell us why you have an extra skip in your step!” Sara said causing chuckles from most of the others, and a blush from Chrissy.

“A good girl doesn’t talk of such things!” Chrissy giggled.

“You don’t have to tell us how ‘Good’ it was ‘Girl’ we felt it!” Beth laughed, causing Chrissy to blush even further.

“So it’s true! You all feel the same thing!” Sara enquired.

“Yes.” Both Beth and Jane responded, Claire, Genja and Fiona were all nodding, and all the ‘Girls’ were smiling.

“Don’t ask us to explain it because we can’t. But once Jon has made love to us, it’s like our souls became one! When that happens our emotions are transferred to all the others that have experienced the same feeling.” Jane explained.

They arrived at Yoyo’s which looked like a place they could get a coffee and didn’t have any golden arches displayed on the outside of the building. The nine of them got seated together after the waitress pushed two tables together and everyone ordered their drinks.

“Well, we definitely have to go to a store called Anthropologie. As of this morning they have become the newest direct reseller for ‘Night & Day’. I’m sure they don’t realise that they are only store other than Nordstrom Seattle that stock our product. When I spoke to Pat and asked her to find a store we could do business with in Little Rock, she said that this place was a great fit and have a wide range of clothing for all tastes.” Sara said.

“Why haven’t you worked with any other stores?” Sasha asked.

“Because no one wanted to deal with me, is the simple honest truth. When I started the company 3 years ago I was only 20, I went to all the large clothing chains and they wouldn’t even give me an Interview to show our product. I had to order $50,000 of clothing to get a production run done for me. Luckily I could have different lines and sizes made but I still had nowhere to sell it! So we started selling online and it started to grow slowly from word of mouth. I was really lucky, college had an entrepreneur’s exhibition. It just happened that a buyer from Nordstrom had her son at the college and she liked my clothing.” Chrissy explained. “They bought into my range and started selling at their Flagship store in Seattle. But they aren’t allowing my product in any other store than the main store because I don’t offer enough range of sizing.”

“I heard about that,” Kym said. “They say that you have a bias against bigger bodies, is that true?”

“Well no, that wasn’t the reason to start with. The whole reason I started to make clothes were to support what I wanted to wear and the input friends gave me. Since I’ve looked into it I suppose yes has to be the answer and that is something I don’t like really.” Chrissy continued.

“I don’t understand, so you didn’t start out with the intention of excluding big women, but are you saying that now it is your thought pattern?” Sasha enquired.

“I started making intimate clothing because I felt that what was offered in the market had larger sized people in mind.” Chrissy was trying to explain herself. “I don’t mean separates, you could go and buy a G-string’s and a bra but they would different colours or different designs. Do you know what I mean? Well if you wanted to buy sets, the briefs seemed to be bigger and the bra was not always that interesting. It still looks nice but it’s the 1950’s or 1960’s kind of look. I remember watching my mom get ready to go out with dad and the underwear she wore always looked so grown up and sexy, you can’t get that anymore.” Everyone was nodding and agreeing with her. “When I got to sixteen/seventeen and my shape developed I didn’t think that was too flattering to me. I wanted clothes that made me feel sexy and I didn’t want to be paying hundred and fifty dollars a set. I wanted lace or silk and subtle colours, I wanted High cut briefs and G-strings as part of my set, I wanted bra’s that could be seen through my see through tops that looked sexy and stood out. Not practical and everyday wear that I seemed to be looking at when I went shopping.” She stopped for a moment to take a drink. “I was forced to choose a certain size range when I placed my first production order, so I choose size 2 to 10 briefs and 28 to 36 bras with cup sizes A, B, C, and D. I didn’t have the funds to cover every size even if I wanted to. After the article about the sizing I made some larger sizes for a few friends back home. THEY told me that they didn’t feel right, and you could see it. The briefs cut in when you get larger, the bras just didn’t give the support that was needed. Excess skin would be pushed into the wrong areas causing a really bad look when they put on their outer clothes.”

Sara continued the story, “Within 6 weeks of Nordstrom stocking our range, and online sales we had sold everything and got an order book that was full. So we went back to the suppliers and just repeated the orders, which were a bit cheaper because they didn’t have the set up charges. So with the extra money, we are developing sets for the larger sizes that have more Lycra and lace mix and the bras have a healthy support. It will be under a new division of ‘Night & Day’ called ‘Inclusive’. We’re still 9 months from getting product on shelves but it will be a big thing.”

“So, this store in Little Rock, what’s the story there?” Beth asked.

“We have been talking about better ways to get to market, The Web is becoming the best way but we need to get customer confidence. I don’t know about you but I like to see and feel things before I buy, once I trust it I can buy online knowing it’s what I want. The chains and larger department stores all still need the size range so that takes them out, but local larger boutiques are more open to us so we have started identifying where we could go. We want at least 1 or 2 stores in each state. I must admit that Little Rock wasn’t at the top of list, until we decided to go shopping yesterday. So this has been set up with Anthropologie in less than 24 hours and a full stock range has been couriered overnight. I have no idea what to expect when we get there!” Chrissy explained. “I also have a request for a few of you, I spoke to Jon this morning...”

“I didn’t hear much talking!” Sara chimed in, giggling. She was quickly joined by the others.

“OK, OK, Ha-ha! Well we did talk ... briefly!” Chrissy chuckled, “I don’t know if you can, but I would like Genja, Claire, Jane and Fiona to model for me next week!”

“You’re joking, you have to be joking if you want me to be a model!” Fiona exclaimed.

“Well I would love it! I think it would be fun!” Genja said.

“Me too, I think it would be a laugh, come on Fiona, don’t be shy. We girls could have so much fun!” Jane was giggling with the idea of it.

“Where and when is this show?” Fiona asked.

“It’s actually in Aruba, a week on Friday. It will be my first International show. I was invited and will be using it to showcase my 2018 Swimwear and some new season Lingerie.” Chrissy said excitedly.