Chapter 5: Run for the Border

SUNDAY MORNING, Anna and I bracketed Patricia in church with Little Toni. Patricia’s parents and Tony’s parents were in church with us, and so were Elizabeth, Christine, and Ronda. Just before the sermon, Mom performed the baptism.

“I’d like to invite Patricia Kowalski to bring her daughter Antonia to the front of the church. If the godparents and grandparents of Little Toni would join us, please.”

We all got up and shuffled up to the front. Toni was sound asleep, of course. When we were all gathered, Mom addressed the congregation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ:
Through the Sacrament of Baptism
we are initiated into Christ’s holy Church.
We are incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation
and given new birth through water and the Spirit.
All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.

I already had tears in my eyes and I knew Anna and Patricia did, too. Mom addressed the nine of us—well, eight since the whole thing was beyond understanding to Toni—and asked the ritual questions.

On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you:
Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world,
and repent of your sin?

It went on from there. I won’t bore you with the entire service. The important part finally came around and Mom took Toni from Patricia and held her in her arms. She dipped her fingers in the baptismal bowl and sprinkled the water lightly on Toni’s head three times.

Antonia El Kowalski, I baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Holy Spirit work within you,
that being born through water and the Spirit,
you may become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mom carried Toni up and down the aisles of the church so everyone could see her and greet her.

Now it is our joy to welcome
our new little sister in Christ.
We also want to welcome her mother, Patricia Kowalski,
into membership in the Tenbrook United Methodist Church.

When she returned to the chancel, she handed Toni back to Patricia. Patricia turned and handed her to me as she took her membership vows in the church. The rest of the ceremony was lost to me as I held and gazed at my little goddaughter. She was wearing a long Baptismal dress that Patricia had worn at her baptism. It didn’t look like Little Toni stood a chance of inheriting Patricia’s pale blonde hair, but her sparkling blue eyes were every bit as bright as her mother’s.

We all returned to our seats and, in the spirit of sharing, I handed Toni to Anna. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about what Mom’s sermon was about.

We were all invited to Sunday dinner at the Bergs’ house. Kat ‘finally!’ got to hold Toni for a while. Tony’s sister Vanessa was in the same grade as Kat and both girls would soon be thirteen. They had lots to gossip about at lunch. Somehow, I think Kat managed to convince Vanessa to ‘sit’ for her in the studio while she sketched her and then painted a portrait. Well, I was glad the studio was going to get some use while I was in Chicago.

After dinner, we took Patricia and Toni to the studio—we being Ronda, Chris, Anna, Elizabeth, and me. I set up to take a week one portrait of Toni in her baptismal gown and she remarkably opened her eyes for it. I wanted to say she smiled, but Ronda told me it was probably just gas and immediately held Toni and patted her back until she burped. Oh, well. Then Patricia undressed for her first week post-partum picture.

“I’m not thin,” she complained. “You said I’d be right back in my old shape.” She looked like she was going to burst into tears, but started laughing instead. “I told you my tummy wouldn’t be flat yet. Little girl stretched me!”

“You’re still beautiful,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have children, but if I do, I hope I come out of it looking as good as you.”

“You’re so sweet,” Patricia said. “Well, take the pictures. There’s no sense in me being naked if the camera isn’t clicking.”

“He’s here, Elizabeth,” Anna said from the studio door.

“I guess that means we have to say goodbye for now,” Beth said. “I’ve had so much fun here this week that I don’t want to go.”

“Thank you so much for holding me and helping me in the van on the way to the hospital,” Patricia said. “I feel like you are really part of our family. This has been a good week in so many ways.”

I was busy kissing Anna, but I had to break that off so I could kiss Elizabeth. Anna hugged Ronda, Chris, and Patricia, and bent over the little bassinette that I found at Wilson’s and cleaned up to use here in the studio.

“I just know she’s going to be all grown up by the time I get back,” Anna said. “Will she forget me?”

“Oh, we’ll keep reminding her,” I laughed. “Really. You’re only going to be gone a week. I’m just so happy you two are going to work together with Theresa and Leora to get Attic Allure East whipped into shape this week. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“Well, Deke is waiting and it will be after seven by the time we get home as it is,” Beth said. “We’d better go.”

I walked them out to the car and carried their bags. Deke quickly took them from me and stowed them then opened the door for the girls to get in. One more little kiss with each of them and they took off. I went back to the studio.

Chris and Ronda were going out and wanted to know if we wanted them to bring us anything. I said I thought we’d just go to the parsonage for ice cream and kissed my two girlfriends goodnight.

Then I carried the little cradle up to the fourth floor and Toni stayed asleep while Patricia and I stretched out on the bed together and took a nap.

Anna had been busy during my two weeks away before Toni was born. She had four senior photo sessions set up with girls from the class of 1969 in the next two weeks. I wasn’t collecting new models, so these were all paying customers who wanted a senior portrait and Attic Allure glamour photo.

I’d agreed to keep the rates the same this year and Miss Sullivan was paying me $15 per portrait for the yearbook. Then the girls paid $25 for the Attic Allure sitting. For their money, they got a 5x7 portrait to give to the yearbook staff and an 8x10 Attic Allure photo. They could order additional 5x7s of any shot for $3.00 and additional 8x10s for $5.00. Anna had fixed up a price sheet for various custom orders like getting them on archival paper or getting larger sizes. I didn’t expect we’d sell too many of those. Instead of glossy prints, I’d moved to a satin finish paper that people really liked for their portraits, but it was still RC paper and not what I called archival or art paper.

Chris and Ronda were at the studio to assist with the first one on Tuesday and it went pretty well, if unexciting. The girls in our class had built up a mystique about the photo sessions and the sexuality of them. That excitement hadn’t been passed on to the junior class, so this year’s seniors seemed more reserved. I thought they seemed less mature as well. Maybe that was just me as a graduate passing judgment on the next class. I needed to get past that.

We got really good photos of the first client, but she didn’t get naked or even want an off-the-shoulder glamour shot. She pulled it off incredibly well, though, in a plaid shirt and blue jean cut-offs. I set her up on the plank table with the cloudy backdrop and a couple of tree cutouts. She unbuttoned a few buttons on her shirt, but was very conscious about making sure her bra didn’t show. She had a bit of straw she used, sometimes in her hand and sometimes to chew on.

What really made her photo was her hair. The girls in my class tended toward short hairstyles. The next class let their hair grow a little longer. This girl’s medium brown hair was shoulder length and curled like a big-hair country singer. And her smile was brilliant. I was pleased with the results.

I went to Patricia’s house after the shooting and visited the baby for an hour before I picked up Christine for dinner over in Fulton. And making love in the microbus.

Friday, we had a rather frustrating girl in for a portrait and Attic Allure photo. Chris and Ronda helped again, but the girl didn’t want to follow any directions and when I physically tried to turn her shoulders a little, she batted my hand away. Frankly, I thought the best Attic Allure photo we got of her was when she was scowling at me with a big leatherbound book in one hand, lecturing me. It turned out she thought that was the best, too, and ordered five copies. You just can’t predict what some people want.

Ronda and I went out after a visit to the baby and grabbed chicken from the Colonel in Huntertown before we made our way to the backwoods place she’d found early in the summer. It was Friday night, so we camped and spent all night making love in the back of the bus.

“It was so much fun staying with Elizabeth and working with the girls at Camera Warehouse!” Anna enthused when she got back to town Saturday afternoon. Of course, she had to make an appearance at home, but she wanted to go see her goddaughter and then to go out for a campout. For Anna, ‘campout’ meant ‘get naked.’ I wholly approved.

“I’m so glad you got along well there,” I said. I was far more focused on putting my cock in Anna’s pussy than on the details of her trip to Chicago. And when I was in, Anna’s focus changed as well. My first girlfriend, who didn’t want to kiss until she turned seventeen, was a voracious lover. I filled her and she screamed her pleasure into the night sky.

After we’d come down a bit, she continued her narration about Chicago as we continued to kiss and get ready for the next round.

“It was fun to meet a girl from your former school who was sweet on you. She says she really started it on the wrong foot and still regrets calling you Alfred E. Newman.”

“That did kind of cool things between us. I didn’t help matters.”

“So I heard. We hired a new girl to work on administration for me.”

“What? You just hired someone? Usually, I get some say in who works with me.”

“You’ll like her. She’ll do a lot of the stuff that I do, but mostly maintaining records and calendars,” Anna said.

“Who is this girl?”

“Your friend Nancy—maybe first girlfriend before me???—called your Uncle Nate. She said there was a girl in the hood who needed some help. She said she knew she couldn’t just keep asking you to hire friends, but this girl had some unique talents she thought you could really use. Uncle Nate interviewed her. Her name is Cassie Robinson. Nancy didn’t think you’d remember her because she is a year older. She’s had a rough time of it since she got out of school, including having been beaten by her ex nearly to death.”

“Oh no. Please don’t tell me she has anything to do with the gangs,” I moaned.

“Only to the extent that her ex was picked up by one of the gangs and was never seen or heard from again.”

“Crap!”

“Listen to me a minute before you jump to conclusions,” Anna said, taking my face in both her hands and turning me toward her. “She made some bad decisions, but she didn’t get involved directly with the gangs. The guy who’s leading the club down there—Nancy’s brother—has been trying to protect innocence, as she says. He considers a girl who says she doesn’t want to be involved with the gang to be just as much under his protection as a girl who joins the gang and becomes a club toy. The problem is that the beating she took somehow affected her speech. She speaks slowly and with difficulty. She’s smart as all get-out, though. Uncle Nate brought her to the studio and had Beth and me interview her. Nate, she’s a sweetheart. She can handle the calendar, supplies, and releases with no problem. And Levi said he wants her to work for him when she’s not involved with the studio, so she’ll be a full-time employee of Camera Warehouse.”

“I guess those are all stellar recommendations,” I said. “And I do trust you, Anna. If you say she’s the right person for the job, then she’s the right person. I get nervous about how involved we are with the gang. I walked with them after Dr. King was killed to help keep peace. But those guys are dangerous. I just don’t want to get on their bad side.”

“I should tell you one other thing then,” Anna said. I stopped sucking on her tit and looked up at her. “I met with him. With Nancy’s brother, Malcolm.”

“I thought you met with Hammer.”

“He says Hammer is like a DBA. It’s his business name. His real name is Malcolm.”

“I knew him for two years and never knew that was his name,” I snorted. “But you met with him?”

“Yes. I laid down the law. He’s a very protective kind of guy and I just told him flat out that if Cassie came to work for us, she was no longer under his protection. She’s under yours.”

“Fuck! How can I protect someone in the hood? I can’t even protect my friends here in Tenbrook.” This was serious.

“She’s no longer in the hood. As part of her compensation, Levi rented her a room in the Loop. She only has a couple of blocks to walk to get to work. It’s kind of like he adopted her. Malcolm did say that if you needed muscle, you should call him, but it would cost you,” Anna said.

“Because she’s my responsibility now.”

“That doesn’t make her a lover or a girlfriend, though,” Anna continued. “She’s really emotionally damaged. She was tolerant of the girls working in the studio naked and said she doesn’t mind being around the models who pose nude. She might not want to join in, though.”

“Looks like I have plenty of work cut out for me when I get to Chicago.”

I had a senior photo on Monday and another on Wednesday. The Monday shot was okay. She followed instructions and moved where I asked her to. It was hard to match anything up with her as far as a prop or setting went and we ended up with the most typical glamour photo you could ask for. She could almost use it for her yearbook portrait instead of the portrait.

Anna and Chris helped with the sitting. Ronda went with Patricia to her pediatrician appointment in Huntertown to get the baby checked out. We were all happy to hear that everything was fine and Little Toni had put on eight ounces in two weeks. It didn’t seem like much to me, but the doctor was pleased and said she was doing fine. I danced her around the room when she got home and generally made a fool of myself over her.

Wednesday, the senior photo session was different. Lisa Anderson, the editor for this year’s yearbook, was the client. Anna and Patricia helped as much as possible, but it was Judy who came to the rescue. She’d been to St. Louis for her interview and was bubbling over about being accepted to the costuming program at the college there. It seemed they were working on getting her some scholarship and financial aid that wasn’t based on sheer academic standing, like so many were. Judy was an okay student, but not stellar. What she loved was sewing and designing costumes.

Lisa pulled me aside where the other three girls couldn’t hear her and whispered to me.

“I don’t know how you usually do things, but when it comes time, I’d rather you just undress me however you want to. I don’t think I could make my hands move to take my own clothes off in front of a boy,” she said.

“Lisa, you don’t have to do a nude picture. None of the girls in your class who have been in so far have done a nude,” I said gently. She looked crestfallen.

“But ... I ... Won’t ... Please?”

I had to decipher that and get it to what I thought she was asking. I stroked her cheek with a finger and she looked hopefully at me.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll take care of you. Do you want me to have the other girls leave? They’re very helpful to me when it comes to getting scenery and props changed. They’ll help you with costumes and makeup, too.”

“Donna said you won’t actually fuck me in the studio, right? So, I guess it’s okay to have them around. I’ll be embarrassed when you touch me, though. Just ... um ... make me forget about them.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said. I ran my fingers up through her hair to poof it out a little. Then I adjusted her collar and got a tissue to dab at the corner of her eye. None of that was necessary, but it got Lisa comfortable with my touch and relaxed her to know I was taking care of all the details.

I led her by the hand to the stool the girls had prepared in front of the standard blue backdrop, and seated her there. I did a lot of adjusting her positions and the lights. Like most of the girls who came to the studio, she wore a shorter skirt than was allowed in school, though I understood the phrase about a skirt touching the floor when kneeling had been cut from the dress code. Lisa had very pretty legs and I let my hand rest on her knee while I talked to her about expressions. Then I went to the camera and started taking pictures.

I think if I ever write a book about photography—as if anyone would be interested in what I have to say on the topic—it would be titled The Art of Seducing a Model. Granted, I simply enjoyed touching and looking at my models, but what Avery told me about being a therapist was also true. Many of the girls who came to me for an Attic Allure photo wanted something more to be revealed than their smile. That often involved revealing their bodies. Some just wanted to try on a bold persona. Some wanted to reveal their sexy side. And a few actually wanted to be seduced by the photographer ... or the camera.

Lisa was a combination of these. She’d been with the yearbook staff when they worked on my gallery installation, but since she hadn’t had an experience in the studio, she did not do any ‘work’ upstairs. But she’d seen the looks on the other girls’ faces when they returned down to the second floor and wanted to wear that look herself.

As to my girlfriends and other models, I think they enjoyed watching another girl being brought into the inner circle and actually hoped they’d witness my newest model have an orgasm. I wouldn’t mind seeing that myself.

After we got the portrait taken care of, I conducted Lisa over to our costume rack.

“Do you like the water?” I asked.

“Yes. I love to swim and go boating,” she said. “I even like to fish.”

“I thought you might. Do you have your bathing suit with you?”

“A bikini,” she squeaked.

“Oh, it will be so nice to see you in a bikini,” I said, rubbing her waist. “I’d like to start with this over it.”

I handed her a little sailor outfit Patricia had come up with. It had a short white blouse that had just three buttons to hold the front together. They’d definitely show some cleavage. It had an equally short navy blue skirt with white edging around the hem. Finally, there was a collar that had that kind of flap back, like a sailor, and fastened together under her chin.

“Judy, you know how this costume works. Could you help Lisa get into her bikini with this over it?”

“Sure. Come on, Lisa. This is so sexy. I saw Patricia wear it once. You’ll love it,” Judy said as she led Lisa to the dressing room. Anna and I scurried to get the scene set up.

“We’ll use the beach scene backdrop,” I said. “Patricia, do you suppose you could find the nautical props upstairs? I’m sure we have a compass, a telescope, and a sextant up there. We’d better have a beach blanket, too. Maybe a beach ball and umbrella.”

“Call if Toni fusses,” Patricia said as she went upstairs. Her photos the past Sunday showed that at two weeks after birth, her body was proving its elasticity. She wasn’t quite as trim as she’d been before she got pregnant, but it was definitely coming.