Chapter 12: Katherine’s Earthly Delights

This is another chapter in the serial “Katherine, Renée, and Paul,” but the exact point it fits into the timeline is not specified. It’s almost a stand-alone story, although it takes place sometime in 1995 with the rest of the serial.

Most of this is written in the first-person from Katherine’s point of view, and it describes a masturbatory fantasy she has about her real-life female lover and co-worker Renée. She sets the fantasy back in 1902.

Renée is about eight years older than Katherine (forty-three versus thirty-five), but here Katherine imagines them both being eighteen years old at the same time. The dialogue of 1902 is how she (and I) made it up, but complete accuracy for the time period is not the point here.

The “birching” refers to another, earlier fantasy that she had which is described in Chapter 10. Katherine picked up the idea from a novel she had read.

At the end, the story switches to the third-person, and it describes Katherine’s post-fantasy thoughts when she is in her bedroom in Queens, New York.

About ten days after my birching, Renée and I were sitting on the front porch of her house. She was one of my classmates, and I had known her for nearly nine months by then. She had transferred in from another school.

Renée was a short girl, a bit plump, and she wore glasses. Her hair was medium brown and she had it tied up at the back of her head. Sometimes she joked about being “plain.” However, I could tell that she accepted herself as she was and didn’t obsess about her appearance as some girls did. As time went by, I found that I was growing increasingly attracted to her.

In contrast to her, I am tall and slender, with reddish-brown hair. I too usually pin it up behind my head.

Sometimes when we talked we would hold hands, as we were then. I think most people who saw us thought it was a completely innocent thing for girls to do, but I knew otherwise.

When speaking to Renée, I wanted to confess what my governess Lucille had done to me and then also what I had done to myself afterwards. It was a difficult subject to broach, but I decided to get into it.

After conversing for a while, I suddenly said, “Renée, have you ever been birched or spanked or otherwise physically punished?”

“No, never. My parents didn’t believe in that kind of thing.”

“Well, it happened to me recently, for really the first time ever – I mean a truly serious punishment.”

I stopped to get my thoughts together. “My grades have been rather poor this year. I admit I haven’t been paying attention to my schoolwork. My governess Lucille decided to do something about it and she disciplined me.” Lucille at that time was twenty-eight years old.

“So got ahead, tell me about it.”

“All right, I will.” I had to stop for a moment to get my courage up. “Lucille had me bend over a chair while my tutor Agnes lifted my dress and held me down. Then she whipped me with a bundle of birch rods, whipped me across my bare behind.” Agnes was forty-one.

“Oh Katherine, I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“But here’s the strange thing. It hurt, but it was also stimulating, arousing even. I was surprised.”

“I’ve heard that there are other people who have the same reaction. I mean, the punishment hurts but they enjoy it anyway.”

“I thought I was just perverse.”

“No, you’re probably not. It’s somewhat common, I think.”

“It was so strong that, when I was sent to my, room – well, I immediately fondled myself to a climax. Three times actually, that’s how often I did it.”

“It’s called masturbation; have you ever heard that word?”

“Yes, I do know it.”

“Well, I’ll tell you, I indulge in it too. A lot of girls do, but we can’t talk about it openly.”

“I thought that might be true. I admit, during the second time I imagined that I was, well, being intimate with Lucille. I sort of know how that would go.”

“Katherine, have you ever even kissed a girl?”

“No, not yet, that’s for sure.”

“I have. I’ve done it with a classmate named Cora. We never took it beyond that, however.”

“I’ve thought about doing those things with Lucille, as I just said, but of course, I can’t do them. I wish I could find a girl my own age who was willing to be with me.”

“You already know such a girl.”

“And who would that be?”

“Silly, don’t you get it? It would be me! You can kiss me if you wish.”

“And where and when would we do that?”

Renée replied, “Right now, in that barn behind my house. It’s not used anymore, so we should have some privacy in there. And we can try out a lot more than just kissing.”

“I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable with that.”

“You just said, well implied really, that you did want to try it. Obviously, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

As I looked at this girl, I felt a thump in my heart and another one in my crotch. There was a tightness in my throat too. I realized that I was still holding her hand, and I noted the warmth of her skin.

I said, “All right, let’s go. I’ll try it with you.”

We walked over there and went in. Both of us were wearing white shirt-waists, dark skirts, straw hats, and black high-top shoes. We were two young women about to face the world.

As I looked around, I said, “I’m not sure about this; anybody could just come in here.”

“Then let’s go up to the hayloft. There’s even some hay still in there.”

Once up there, we sat side-by-side on a narrow bench and looked at each other for a moment. She said, “You seem a bit nervous.”

“I am; I feel very tense right now.”

“Well, I feel it too. But really, there’s nothing to worry about. How about I put my arm around your waist?”

“Yes, I think that would be all right. It seems simple enough.”

Her hand went around me and she subtly rubbed the side of my blouse. “Why don’t you do that too – I mean hold me? That’s pretty simple to do.”

“Okay, that seems like a good way to start.”

As we sat there together with our arms around each other’s bodies, she said, “So here we are, two innocent girls just getting to know each other. Except we’re not so innocent! I mean, I know what we do in our beds at night.” Then she added, “Katherine, you’re blushing right now.”

“I know, I can feel my face warming up.”

“So who have you thought about besides Lucille?”

“A few of my teachers; mostly my classmates.”

“Well, I’m one of your classmates. Have you ever thought about me?”

“I’m sorry, not yet.”

“You will be soon! So where is the strangest place you ever did it, I mean touching yourself? I’ve been in the girl’s room at school, but I had to be very quiet about it.”

I told her one of my stories. “On a Saturday I was alone with my mother in our house. She went upstairs to take a nap, while I went down to the basement. That was one of the times I fantasized about having, ah, relations with Lucille. I knew what to think about because a few other girls have told me what women do to each other.” I hesitated for a moment. “I mean, with their mouths and tongues.”

“Right; in fact, ‘touching’ is an understatement. Fondling, rubbing - those are good words.” She sighed,” ‘Sugar and spice, and everything nice.’ Plus that feeling in our loins that is, let’s face it, lust.”

“It can be overwhelming at times. I admit I’ve stopped believing all of those stories about how bad playing with yourself is, I mean for your health.”

“I’ve come to think that’s all nonsense too. A lot of people are afraid to face what we women are really thinking and feeling. So are you ready for that kissing now?”

I said, “I suppose this is as good a time as any.”

“Let’s take our hats off. They’ll get in the way.”

Renée also pushed her glasses to the top of her head. As we turned towards each other, we both now had our hands in our laps. I said, “I don’t think I know how to do this.”

“It’s easy, just follow your instincts. They’ll tell you what to do.” She giggled, “Or I’ll tell you! Come one, just lean forward.”

I did, and I just brushed Renée’s lips. She pushed back on mine. Soon, we were holding each other’s arms, and smooching more passionately. I said, “My, now I know what all the fuss about kissing is. And I’m actually getting that tingling feeling down below.”

“Of course, so am I, although I’ve experienced it before. Try kissing me on other parts of my face.”

I put my lips against her cheeks, and then her closed eyelids. She said, “Try putting your tongue into one of my ears.” I had never heard of that before, but I did it anyway. She giggled, “Oh that tickles, but it feels so good.”

We embraced each other more firmly, and we kissed more intensely. Soon I pulled back and said, “I wonder what our families, our teachers, would think of us now. They’d probably call us lesbians.”

“I’m not sure that’s really true. I would like to have a man someday, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”

I replied, “I already know that, I mean about myself”

“But we have each other for the moment. We can certainly act like lesbians now if we want to.”

I said, “And I definitely want to. Those people we know, they’d probably think we are very bad girls too.”

“We probably are, but it still feels great!”

After some more amorous embracing of each other, she said, “Would you like to take this up to the next level?”

“And what would that be?”

“I think you know. I was referring to our breasts, especially our nipples.”

I felt aroused enough to make a quick decision. “Sure, let’s do it.”

“All right, this is what we’ll do. Both of us will unbutton our blouses, and then we’ll pull our chemises up.” Our chemises were a brassiere and blouse combination.

When we had done that, we gazed at each other. My breasts were small but pointed; hers were bigger and more rounded. Renée asked me, “So, have you ever seen a lady’s bare bosom before?”

“I’ve seen some of the paintings those old artists used to do.”

Renée knew what I was talking out. “Right, and they might use a religious theme, although I suspect it was just an excuse to paint the naughty bits.”

I said, “Like Adam and Eve, or the sinners in Hell. Hieronymus Bosch used to do that. He’d have all of these wild things going on in Hades, and then show Jesus and the Apostles, and the Virgin Mary no less, at the top. That was supposed to show that he didn’t approve of the very things he was painting. But I suspect he was actually enjoying himself. Naked people being tortured by demons too; he really let his dark side out.”

Renée shook her head, “In one painting he had Eve talking to Jesus – I thought he wasn’t even born yet! – and this lady is bare-ass naked. You can see her vulva and everything.”

I wanted to show off my knowledge a bit. “Vulva, I know what that is too. Since we’re talking about artists, have you seen what William Blake used to paint? What was one of his called, ‘Europe Supported by Africa and America?’ Three nude ladies of different races.”

“He was another wild man. And those guys lived, what – a hundred years ago, four hundred years ago?”

“As they say, ‘there’s nothing new under the sun.’”

“Absolutely. So Katherine, are you ready for your own Garden of Earthly Delights right here in this barn?” She was referring to one of Bosch’s paintings. “You do have nice perky breasts.”

“I’m not sure what I should do.”

“I’ll kiss you on them, and you can tweak my nipples. Then we’ll reverse it, and do the same to the other one. You got that?”