Chapter 34

At eight o'clock Monday morning, Joyce Collier entered the Clifford & Jamison offices with Rajah padding along beside her. Following the instructions Bobbie had given her the day before, she found her way to the conference room that she had been told about. Opening what seemed to be the correct door, she stuck her head in and found Bobbie at the table talking to another beautiful blonde. It was Judy Morris, now stripped to the waist with a baby nursing at her breast.

"Hi, Joyce! You look great this morning," Bobbie said in a voice scarcely above a whisper. Then she said, "Joyce Collier, I would like you to meet a dear friend, Judy Morris, with the youngest Morris, Gail." With a very warm smile she added, "Unfortunately, she's like Kris Clifford. She hasn't learned how to curtsy yet, either. Moreover, you arrived at a time when she is apparently much more interested in her breakfast than in you."

"Breakfast, hell!" Judy whispered with a grin. "That was hours ago. This is just a little snack."

Joyce remembered that Judy was the mother of Michael Morris and married to a Marine hero. Just then a younger woman stopped to just look at the scene. Looking at her, Joyce was amazed to see that she was crying but for no apparent reason. Judy had just finished nursing the baby and now cuddled her in her arms. The child made a series of noises, all of which were different, but all of which sounded so happy. After telling the girl to wait, Judy carried the baby out of the room and returned alone a few minutes later.

As she strode across the room wearing skin-tight Levi's and an unbuttoned work shirt now completely open in front, Joyce couldn't believe her eyes. Here was a woman who was the mother of at least two children who appeared to be barely twenty-one. Her figure was utterly perfect.

Rejoining the group Judy said, "Marty, I would like you to meet a wonderful new friend of ours, Joyce Collier. And, although I'm sure you know Bobbie Conroy, I'm not sure you have ever been introduced. This is Martha Bradford, who's normally found in the Leper Colony, downstairs."

To the girl she asked, "And what brings you up here this morning, Marty, and, more importantly, why the tears?"

Marty Bradford looked enough like Judy Morris to be her twin sister. Both women were five feet eight with golden blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes and perfect figures. The girl just shook her head sadly while her tears still streamed and said, "I came up for some coffee filters, to answer your first question. The answer to the second is the problem is you, Judy Morris!"

"Me?" Judy asked in amazement. "What did I do?"

"What did you do, you ask?" the girl replied. Although she was still crying, she was obviously trying to smile at the same time. "You married any woman's dream of a lifetime, Mike Morris, for openers. You wallow in his love constantly..." Glancing at her watch she said, "It is now eight-fifteen, Judy Morris. How much time have you spent making love with Mike ... in the last twelve hours! And I mean actively — I'm not even going to count the hours you were asleep with your body molded to his. How many?"

Judy licked her lips at the memory, shrugged, and replied softly, "Two? Three? Something like that."

"And he took you all three ways, didn't he?" This time Judy just nodded. "And early this morning while Mike was taking you again — probably after giving Gail her breakfast — Mikey and Danny came into your room, got in bed and watched their father making love to you, right?" Again Judy nodded along with the warmest smile Joyce had ever seen. "But don't you see, Judy, that's the problem!"

"I'm sorry, Marty. I don't see. What is the problem? I don't get it."

"The problem is, Judy Morris, you make me feel so incomplete ... so utterly useless! You have it all! You have an adoring husband, three children who you adore and who adore you ... Judy Morris, you're totally fulfilled as a woman! You really are. Just look at your children! Could you imagine any living souls better than yours? Take little Gail, for example. She can't talk yet, but she doesn't need to. She has the largest collection of happy sounds any of us have ever heard!" Pretending to glare at Judy she said, "I'll bet you five dollars, Judy Morris, you have never heard Gail cry. Ever!"

Judy grinned, stuck out her hand and said gleefully, "Pay me! You're wrong, smarty, so there!"

Marty found a five-dollar bill and was about to offer it when she said, "Wait! Before I pay, you tell me when and under what circumstances."

"Ha!" Judy replied. "That's easy. It happened when I spanked her. Boy, did she yell!"

"You? Spank that baby!? Utterly impossible," the girl declared. "I don't believe it!"

"It was at the moment of her birth. I understand you need to spank the infant to get its lungs working or something. Anyway, I held her by her feet and gave her a good swat. I guess she has a healthy pair of lungs because she sure let out a scream."

"You?" Marty asked, still incredulous. "What was the doctor doing? And besides, how could you possibly do it when you were all doped up."

Judy looked very cute as she gave a little shrug and said, "I guess we've mostly given up on anaesthesia. Hell, Marty, you know that when we're about to deliver we look like most women do when they're entering their third month. Delivery? One hard push and it's all over."

She grinned and added, "I've had bowel movements far more painful than my last two deliveries. Anyway, when Gail was born, the doctor — who has a wonderful sense of humor, by the way — gave her to me still wet from my womb and said that since I had done it all by myself to that point I might as well finish the job."

"But don't you see," Marty said with her tears flowing again, "that's the problem. Just look at you! Judy Morris, do you even own a bra?"

Judy thought for a moment and shook her head.

Marty continued, "Just think! Here you are, a mother of three, with a body that looks like it belongs to a very well-developed teenager. Who ever heard of a woman who has been nursing babies more or less constantly for over six years with tits that are still so firm, and with pectoral muscles so developed, she doesn't need a bra even when her tits are loaded with milk? It's unreal!"

Then she wailed, "Judy Morris, I would hate you if I didn't love you so damned much. You're so complete as a woman. And you're an utterly perfect wife and mother to a husband and children who adore you. You feed on Mike's love — you really need it to live. But then you amplify and focus his love for you on your whole family. That's how you can give 100 percent of your time and attention to Mike, and still give at least 50 percent to each of your three children! And they're still coming, aren't they?"

"I certainly hope God continues to bless us," Judy replied softly. Then with a wonderfully warm grin she added, "After all, it doesn't make sense to stop when you're on a winning streak, does it?"

Just then a gorgeous green-eyed brunette entered the room. The look on her face was one of overwhelming joy. Bobbie recognized her as the single girl who had made the funny speech at the firm Christmas party the previous year. Seeing her Judy called out, "Pam Smith, did what I think happened, happen?"

The girl came over to join them, utterly glowing with joy. "It's happened!" she exclaimed. "God has blessed Gerry and me! I'm pregnant! I'm going to have a baby!" Hugs and kisses were exchanged with all the other women rushing up to congratulate the girl on the wonderful news.

When the initial excitement abated, Marty shook her head and said, "But Pam, you've only been married for about four months!"

"I know, Marty," the girl replied, "But you don't always get pregnant on the very first try. Of course Gerry keeps my cunt pretty well flooded with his cum all the time, so in case there's an ambitious little egg lying around somewhere, looking for some company..."

Then she looked at Marty and said, "But what about you? When are you going to start having children?"

Marty, knowing she was being gently teased, replied, "I need to be married first, turkey!"

"Oh," Pam replied, apparently bemused, "I guess that's right, too. Well, when are you getting married?"

"I don't even have a boyfriend," the girl wailed. "That's the problem!"

"Oh, I see!" Pam exclaimed. "It's like that old story: If I had some ham, I could have ham and eggs, if I had some eggs. Lady, do you have anything?"

"Hell, no!" Marty exclaimed dejectedly. "Of course not. If I did, do you think I would have been watering the carpet with my tears?"

Only then did she focus on Joyce. First she apologized for her tears and her terribly poor manners. Then she snapped her fingers and said, "But you're on the Eleven O'clock News on KNBC with Jack Johnson! Oh, Joyce, we saw your show Friday night and it was utterly marvelous. Could you come down and meet the other girls in the Leper Colony?"

Only then did Joyce learn that the Leper Colony was the name given to a new lounge and conference room on the floor below and the offices around it. With the growth of the firm, Clifford & Jamison now occupied the entire 38^th floor and half of the 37^th. For the most part, the newest associates had their offices on the lower floor, and very recently, in response to their request, a new lounge/conference room had been built. Because all the girls were single, it had acquired the name — ostensibly because the married women claimed that if they had to continually associate with singles they might catch something and wind up single again, too.

But then Marty saw the beautiful ring on Joyce's third finger and her face fell. "Oh," she said in an utterly dead tone of voice, "that story was just to entertain the peasants, I guess..."

Shaking her head sadly, she continued, "But it seemed so real! Miss Collier, you really seemed so ... so aware of the problems of a single girl..." Whatever she might have been intending to say just died off as she began to cry again.

At that point Bobbie Conroy spoke sharply, "Martha Bradford, it was real, damn it!" Then in just a few sentences Bobbie reviewed what had happened to Joyce in just the twenty-four hours following the telecast.

"Honey," she concluded, "when you saw Joyce, believe me when I tell you the situation for her was a hundred times worse than yours could possibly be! You see, for Joyce there was only one possible man for her, Jack Johnson, and she was convinced that Jack thought of her as a piece of filth — which, in fact, was exactly the way she thought of herself."

Glaring at the girl she said, "Now tell me you're in that shape. I dare you!"

"But ... but ... but..." Marty stammered, "you mean it was all true? There really is a Rajah?"

"Martha," Joyce said softly, "if there hadn't been a Rajah, I would be dead right now or very close to it!" In the meantime Rajah had found a comfortable place under the huge conference table and had gone to sleep.

"Rajah Collier, you get your large self out here this minute. There are some people for you to meet."

Then to Marty she said with a grin, "This is a new one. Would you believe a 600-pound tiger could make himself disappear in a conference room?"

The tiger came out from under the table and then sinuously stretched his muscles. The girl gasped when she first saw him and then covered her mouth when he stretched his body to nearly nine feet in length. Then, in what appeared to be a single flowing movement, he came out of his stretch and ended sitting upright beside Joyce's chair.

She put her arm around his neck and nuzzled her face in it, then as his head turned she kissed him full on the mouth. With a little grin she asked, "What's the matter? Didn't you get enough sleep last night?"

"As a matter of fact, no," he communicated haughtily. "And it was all your fault, too, Mistress. It really was."

"I kept you awake?" Joyce asked raising an eyebrow. "And how, exactly, young man, did I do that?"

"One of the world's most beautiful women was lying naked on my chest. Her perfect tits were moving on my fur every time her glorious body moved. Then, whenever I moved my paws the tiniest little bit, she would stretch and I would feel more glorious sensations. Finally, there was the intense heat radiating from her loins — that certainly didn't help, either."

Nodding his head sharply for emphasis, he concluded, "And since the tits, the body, and the cunt are all yours, beloved mistress, it was all your fault. Right?" But then he leaned forward, kissed her full on the lips again and added, "But, of course, I love you more than life itself, so every movement of yours utterly thrilled me. And besides: I can sleep anytime!"

Marty Bradford just shook her head incredulously and said, "But ... but ... but I could hear him! How can that be?"

Joyce said, "Miss Bradford, what you just said touches on the primary reason I'm here today. You see, I have a theory that, so far, is holding up." Turning to Judy she asked, "You heard him very clearly, too, didn't you, Mrs. Morris? From the expressions on your face, you must have."

Judy just nodded. She was puzzled but not nearly as amazed as Marty had been. Joyce, who had been about to tell them her theory, changed her mind. She said, "Well, we'll see if it holds up. I'll tell you about it this afternoon."