Chapter 7

It was mid December now, and Susan's bandages had long since disappeared. She was moving freely now that the pain from the embedded bullets was gone. Moreover, she and Ginny had continuing competitions in everything from weight lifting to tennis, to swimming, to golf. The love and mutual respect between the two beautiful young women was a delight both to them and to everyone with whom they had contact. All of Ginny's friends knew the story well and they all rejoiced in the way Susan had blossomed.

When the two young women went out together which was often, they attracted the stares of everyone around. First, at five feet eight, both women were quite tall. Beyond that, though, their figures were utterly perfect and they were incredible beauties, Virginia Cameron with her magnificent auburn hair and emerald-green eyes, and Susan Jennings with her hair like newly-minted yellow gold and the most brilliant blue eyes anyone had ever seen.

Moreover, the two women truly adored one another and took every opportunity to exchange kisses. Whenever their lips met, the two both felt an incredible flow of the purest love and joy. Finally, both women were very intelligent, well read and very well informed. Before long the two found themselves temporarily in demand for appearances on daytime talk shows — until it was learned that neither woman was at all "politically correct."

Late one afternoon Ginny said, "Let's go inside, shall we? In spite of almost being Christmas, it's awfully hot." With a grimace she added, "In fact it reminds me of that late, unlamented POW camp."

Going into the cool house they went on to Ginny's bedroom. Once there, Ginny suddenly stopped in front of a full-length mirror. Susan had to stop suddenly to keep from walking into her. Since both women were nude having been soaking up the sun, Ginny just said casually, "Take a look. You don't really look half bad, little sister."

The two girls had been tanning nude, Ginny because she liked to, and Susan because Mike was concerned that the tiny scars from the surgery might be revealed as white lines on a tan. They were not. His work had been utterly perfect: There were no marks of any kind showing on Susan's now-perfect body.

Susan looked at her reflection in the mirror and was stunned. She did not recognize the girl looking back at her. The girl in the mirror had perfectly formed tits with tiny up-thrusting nipples. Her stomach was flat, her hips were slim, her buns were small and tight, and her long legs were feminine perfection. With her golden tan, and hair the color of newly minted yellow gold, Susan was a vision in shades of gold. The only color was the incredibly bright red of her lips — even without any lipstick — and the brilliant blue of her eyes.

Susan Jennings was now utterly exquisite and, in a whisper, Ginny told her so.

Then to Ginny's surprise she could see tears forming in the corners of Susan's eyes. Turning to Ginny she hugged her tightly and exclaimed, "Oh, God! Thank you. Ginny, do you think he'll like me now? Do you?"

"Who's 'he'?" Ginny asked professing ignorance with a puzzled look on her face.

"Virginia Cameron, I will cheerfully kill you right now," Susan said in a flat tone of voice. Then folding her arms on her chest she cocked her head and looked at Ginny thoughtfully. After a few moments she nodded her head firmly just once and said, "Yep. I knew it. I should have eaten the damned nutrition bars myself instead of wasting them on you. This is all it got me."

Dropping the act, Ginny enveloped Susan in her arms, hugged her tightly and then melted her lips against hers. There was an instantaneous two-way flow of pure love as the two women poured out their hearts to one another.

In a whisper Ginny said, "My darling Susan, I adore you. I hope you know that." Then pulling away she pretended to glare at Sue and said in her normal tone of voice, "Susan Jennings, what is your problem? He loved you in Vietnam when you were cut to ribbons and as thin as a rail, didn't he?" Susan just nodded once. "He's not blind," Ginny continued. "You are one of the most beautiful women alive in the world today. I know he will love you!"

Apparently changing the subject, Ginny said, "Incidentally, before I forget, Mike and I are going off to the Islands — without you!" she said with her nose in the air.

She sniffed and interjected, "This is to show that I can too make love to Mike Chapman without you giving me directions!" Then she just hugged Susan tightly and kissed her again murmuring, "I adore you, Sue." Back to her original line she said, "It will be a sort of pre-wedding honeymoon. Since we want to give Maria time off to visit her family in Mexico over the holidays, the house will be sort of empty.

"Anyway, I checked with Rick Jackson and he said his apartment is empty. He has been traveling a lot and he would be very happy to have you use his apartment while we — and he — are gone." With her eyes wide she asked, "Sue, do you mind?"

"Of course not, silly!" Sue replied with a grin. "When can I get into his apartment? And where is the key, for that matter?"

Ginny swallowed hard, reached into her purse, and pulled out a ring of keys. "This is the key to the apartment," she said. Pulling out another she continued, "This is the key to the BMW, and this is the one for the Porsche. I would drive the Beamer myself — it's much easier to handle. Both are ready for you now, though, and the choice is yours."

Going through an envelope she had produced she added, "Oops, I forgot something. This is for you, too. Rick said you should open your own bank account." Then she passed the very fat manilla envelope to Susan.

The girl opened it and found a stack of one-hundred-dollar bills. It contained five hundred — there was fifty thousand dollars. Susan looked at the money and then up at Ginny, utterly bewildered. "I can't take this, Gin. Really, I can't."

Ginny just slowly shook her head and said, "Sue, you really can't appreciate how much money Rick Jackson has. Suffice it to say a lot more than this just spills off the edge of the table every day. To him, that is a couple of days' grocery money. Okay? Please use it like it is. Please?"

Susan packed her things, kissed Ginny and Mike, and remembered to wish Maria Merry Christmas in Spanish. Maria smiled broadly when she heard, Felices Navidad! and gave Susan a warm kiss.

"The señorita is very beautiful. You always very beautiful, but now..." She gave Susan another warm kiss and retreated to the kitchen with tears streaming down her cheeks.

When Susan Jennings arrived at Rick Jackson's apartment, she didn't know what to expect. She found it had been completely redecorated from the time she had been there before her operations. It was spotless. Since there was only one bedroom, she unpacked there. Finding a whole empty chest of drawers, she carefully unpacked her new clothes. Now she was wearing sizes she had last worn just before going to Vietnam.

Susan spent the next few days stocking the apartment. While doing it she found a note from Rick suggesting that she open an account at the bank branch across the street from his apartment. The manager's name was Mr. Smith. He turned out to be very nice. He told her that there was already money at the bank waiting for her. Moreover, he said, the headquarters branch was transferring money to her account at the rate of $50,000 per week and Susan had not even signed the bank's signature cards yet!

Poor Mr. Smith was terribly upset. After Susan carefully signed all of his forms he felt much better. Finally he gave her all the charge cards and bank ATM cards made out in her name that had been waiting there for her.

Susan decided to buy a Christmas tree. She could not even remember how long it had been since she had had the last one. After calling several places listed in the Yellow Pages, she finally found a place that claimed to have a lovely blue spruce. At least they said it was lovely, and when she saw it, she agreed it really was. After buying lights, ornaments, tinsel and a Nativity set, she was about to return to the apartment when she saw something else.

On a whim she bought a set of Lionel electric trains. It was complete, so over the next few days she worked on her tree and her electric trains. It was truly a labor of love. Sue managed to assemble the train with its switches and men and dumping cars. Then she spent hours on her knees playing with it under her now-beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

Finally she went food shopping. With all of her preparations complete, she even spent two full days making and decorating Christmas cookies. Susan was delighted to find that the apartment now had a fully-equipped gym she could use for her daily workouts. Otherwise, she thought, she would have blown up like a balloon.

Shortly before Christmas, acting on a whim she called Jim Reading, the hair stylist who had worked on her in the hospital. He remembered her instantly and asked when he could work on her hair again. Susan told him that was why she had called him. He told her to come right down to the studio, so she did.

When she arrived, he looked at her and just shook his head. "Susan Jennings, you are incredibly, utterly beautiful! It is a real pleasure for me and my people to have the opportunity to work on you. Come on in!"

He worked on her for three hours. When he finished, he spun the chair around so she could see herself. Susan looked at her reflection and was disappointed. "Jim," she said, "It ... It ... It still looks like ... me. Aren't you going to do something dramatic to make me look beautiful ... or something?"

Reading just smiled and slowly shook his head. "Susan Jennings, we do that a lot. Sometimes, even, because the rôle requires it, we might even cut off all the hair and shave a skull. Far more often, though, we work to draw attention away from something. You are as genuinely beautiful a girl as I have ever seen. Incidentally, that includes Marcia Matthews who had the natural-beauty record around here until you appeared."

He shook his head and continued, "Just look at your hair. It is full, full-bodied, naturally wavy ... It is just exquisite. I hope you like the way I styled it. I think you should have a little more than ordinary length, but I guess I am prejudiced. I would like to see you as Lady Godiva naked with only your glorious hair falling all the way down to your waist!"

Reaching out her hand, Susan took his. "Thank you, Jim. It really does look beautiful. And thank you for the kind words." Then with a little smile she asked, "Now how much do I owe you?"

"Not a penny! It's been a real pleasure for both me and my people. Incidentally, speaking of pennies, Penny Watts, the makeup director you met at the hospital, knows you are coming in today. She asked me to ask you to do her a big favor and please stop by her place before you leave. Do you have a few extra minutes?"

Susan told him that she had no plans at all. After thanking him again and wishing him a merry Christmas, she went off to find Penny.

Following Jim's directions, a few minutes later she knocked on Penny's door. The woman opened it, took her hand and then set her in a makeup chair. One of her people started giving Susan a manicure while Penny worked on her face. There were hot towels, cold towels, packs of every kind — in short, everything. Susan decided that this time they were really going to do a job. She giggled as she felt her shoes being removed so she could be given a pedicure. There was a great deal of discussion regarding the precise shade of nail enamel to be used. Of course, Susan was not consulted.

Finally they finished and Penny whipped the sheet off Susan's body with a flourish and spun the chair so she could see herself in the mirror. Susan's face fell when she looked at herself. It was the same face she always saw in the mirror; there had been no change. Looking down at her fingertips, she saw that her nails were a beautiful Christmas red, and there was a tiny bit of the same color on her lips, but that was all she could see.

"But ... but what did you do, Penny? Why don't I look different?" Susan asked.

The woman just smiled warmly and said, "I cleansed your face, freshened it, dried it, put a tiny bit of powder on the tip of your nose and tinted your lips. You're done."

With a broad smile she continued, "I understand you had a similar conversation with Jim. All I can say is women wear makeup because they have to, not because they like to. Susan Jennings, if everyone who came in here was like you, I would be out of business. Fortunately, almost none are. There are only two that I know of: you and Marcia. And I suppose it's only right that the two most beautiful women in Hollywood are best friends..."

Suddenly Penny interrupted herself. "No!" she exclaimed. "You're not friends. You're ... you're ... sisters!" With a delighted look on her face, the woman clapped her hands and exclaimed, "That's it, isn't it? You adore each other, don't you?" Then she shook her head slowly and continued, "You know what? Even sisters doesn't quite do it. The intensity of your love for each other is truly remarkable."

Taking Susan's hands in both of hers, Penny just looked intently into Susan's eyes. "You offered your life to save hers, didn't you?" Susan tried to demur but Penny insisted. Finally, with the greatest reluctance Sue nodded her head just once.

Changing the subject dramatically, Penny asked innocently, "By the way, who is the poor guy?"

Pretending ignorance, Sue just shook her head. This, in turn, caused Penny to archly raise an eyebrow. "Young lady, I should have said it earlier. You look utterly spectacular right now. We were all so delighted to hear that the operations were completely successful. Now the perfection of your body matches that of your face." Shaking her had sadly, Penny said, "The poor guy! He doesn't have a chance."

"What poor guy?" Susan asked.

The poor guy you're getting all fixed up for. Will you see him on Christmas?" Penny asked shrewdly.

Susan's face fell as she replied, "I don't know, Penny. Honest. I really don't. I desperately hope so, though. But why do you ask?"

"Because the poor slob doesn't have a chance." Then she gave Susan a small bag and said, "I have some more lipstick and nail enamel for you to take home. I'll see you in a month or so. Just call Jim Reading and he'll let me know you're coming. And, Susan, have a very merry Christmas!" Like Jim, Penny waived away any payment.

When she got home, Susan looked at herself carefully in a mirror and decided she looked very good. Only then did it occur to her that she was pleased with her appearance and really had not been for years — since before she had been sent to Vietnam.

Finally it was Christmas eve. Susan was curled up in a chair reading a book — or trying to. Although it was a very good book, she was unable to get into it. Instead she found that her eyes were just moving across the lines of type while her brain was preoccupied with thoughts of Rick Jackson. Please, dear God! she prayed, Make him come to see me. Checking her watch she found it was already after eleven o'clock. She had just about given up hope when there was a knock at the door. Catapulting herself out of the chair, she ran to the door and threw it open. Rick was standing there in the hall.

When the door was thrown open, Rick could only stare at the golden-blonde apparition standing in front of him. Then there were the most brilliant blue eyes Rick had ever seen on anyone. Thank God that the hair and eyes don't change, he thought. Otherwise I would never recognize her.

With a little smile he said, "Hi, Susan. Do you remember me? I know it's awfully late, but may I come in?"