Chapter 13

It was early on a Sunday morning in mid-February. Susan Collins and Barbara Jensen were lying on the bench soaking up the now-very-moist heat of the sauna. Susan looked across at Barbara and realized she couldn’t even see her through all the steam that now filled the small hut. It was impossible to see anything more than shapes even three feet away. Getting up, she went across to where Barbara was lying, sat down on the bench, lifted the woman’s head and rested it on her thigh.

Barb, who had been dozing, opened her eyes looked up and said, “Good morning, again, my darling mistress. How may I serve you today?”

“By just lying still and letting me caress your golden body,” Susan replied.

Barb was startled. Her eyes opened wide with surprise. “But ... but ... but I’m ugly, Mistress...”

At that Susan began to chuckle. Startled, Barbara stopped in mid sentence. “You never really look at yourself in a mirror, do you?” Susan asked. Then she giggled and added, “There’s that marvelous biblical line, ‘They have eyes, but they do not see.’ Lady, it was written with you in mind. I know it’s kind of thick in here but look down at yourself, anyway. Please?”

When Barbara did as she was told, she was genuinely shocked. In the sixty days since she’d come to live with Susan and Jeff, she’d lost sixty pounds. From 185 she had dropped to 125. Moreover, with all of her exercise, now she was almost a physical duplicate of Susan, except she was shorter. Susan weighed only three pounds more than she did and, at five feet ten, was two inches taller.

Looking up at Susan’s face, she murmured, “I’m not so ugly anymore, am I?”

“Barbara Jensen, you’re utterly exquisite.” At that Susan very gently stroked the woman’s eyelids and Barbara’s eyes closed. Looking down, Susan just admired what was there. The woman’s very long and full eyelashes spread across her cheeks like tight little fans and her body was flawless.

Moreover, unbeknownst to either of them, while Barbara had been working out under the constant supervision of Susan and Steve, Susie Sloan had been busy as well. The result was that, while she’d been losing pounds, she’d also been losing years of age. Now Barbara was physically only twenty-two — and her years were continuing to drop away. Susie wanted her to be nineteen, the same age as Susan Collins. Similarly, she’d been working on Steve Sloan. While he had been working out with Barbara and was now in the best shape of his life — better, in fact, than when he was a Ranger — Susie had been running the calendar backward on him, too.

Although only sixty days earlier Barbara had almost drowned trying to swim one length of the swimming pool, now she and Susan had intense competitions with both girls flowing through the water like porpoises. One day, when Andy and Jack Taylor and Kevin and Kelly Fitzpatrick came over for the afternoon, the four women had a swimming competition. The men, after watching for a few minutes, went inside and started a poker game. When they heard that the women were going to have a race at 200 meters, Jeff started the electronic timer in conjunction with the automated starting sequence.

Although the men appeared blasé when the women rejoined them, in fact a new world record had been set and all four women had finished under the previous record. But they didn’t say a word about the time and it never occurred to any of the women to ask.

Barbara, still lying with her head on Susan’s thigh, felt something strange on her belly. Opening her eyes she looked down but only saw Sue moving her finger on her skin. “What are you doing, Mistress?” she asked.

“I’m playing tic-tac-toe, silly,” the girl replied. “What else would I be doing. Now shut up and lie still. I’m trying to figure out my next move. It’s really neat. You’re sweating so much I can draw on the sweat covering your stomach. And it’s a lot of fun, too!”

Just then the door to the sauna opened, a small figure entered quickly, and the door was closed again. “Wow! You two really cranked up the heat and the humidity both, didn’t you?” Caitlin Fitzpatrick said as she came over to them through the dense fog.

Upon her arrival, Barbara sat up on the bench beside Susan. When the little girl reached them, she looked up first at Barbara and then at Susan. With a burrowing motion she climbed up on the bench wedging space for herself between the two. Dropping to her knees she reached out and touched both women at once.

Then she said softly, “Mrs. Anthony, you’re unbelievable! I didn’t think a person alive could ever get in the same shape as my darling Aunt Susan, but you certainly did. And in only sixty days, too! How did you ever do it?”

Barbara, who had only come to the realization that she’d lost all the weight a few minutes earlier, couldn’t respond. Instead she asked, “To what do we owe the honor of the presence of Miss Caitlin Pierce Fitzpatrick of the New York City and Stowe, Vermont, Fitzpatricks?”

Caitie grinned, jumped to her feet on the bench, and then made a perfect curtsy — or what would have been a perfect curtsy had she not been stark naked.

Barb shook her head and said softly, “Only you, darling Caitie!”

“Only me, what?” the girl asked puzzled.

“Only you can look elegant when you’re naked. You’re so poised and graceful!” She shook her head slowly and added, “Poor Johnny! The poor guy never had a chance.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Caitie responded blithely, “but getting the right father for your children is important business. It’s not something dumb like trout fishing, for example. There you can afford to be sporting. When you’re grabbing a husband, you can’t.”

“Mistress,” Barb asked, “how old is your niece? Nine going on thirty-nine?”

Before she could do or say anything else, Caitie had spun and then just dropped onto her lap. As soon as she landed, she reached up, grabbed Barb around the neck, pulled her head down and just melted her lips to hers.

For Barbara, the sensation was beyond belief. First, there was the flow of the purest love coupled with joy that just increased in both volume and intensity that poured into her body from the little girl’s lips. As she began to feel lightheaded with joy, she recalled Susie’s characterization of Caitie: the littlest angel. And she really is, Barbara thought.

Then, trying to look stern — and failing miserably — she repeated, “To what do we owe this great honor?”

Caitie turned on Barbara’s lap and then put her face between her sweating tits. She kissed each one, then turned to Susan and said, “Your slave is simply gorgeous, Aunt Sue. Boy! I sure wish I had one...”

“And?” Susan asked with one eyebrow raised.

“And could I borrow yours? For just a few hours? To go to church? Please?” Then she sat up very straight and said, “But without the decorations on her body this time, please?” This was a reference to something that had happened a few weeks earlier.

Then, as now, Caitlin had appeared and asked Barbara if she would please take her to church.

The woman immediately agreed and went for Steve. Going into the exercise room, she knelt upright while he whipped her back and shoulders. Although Caitie was crying out, Susan was holding her tightly. “Stop, Steve! For the love of God, please stop!” the little girl had screamed.

Although Susan tried to hold the girl tightly to her breast so she couldn’t see what was happening, using almost superhuman strength the girl’s head couldn’t be turned. When he finished, Barbara kissed the bloody end of the whip and thanked him for his services. Then she held her head up straight as he dropped the rough circular garment over her head that Susan had initially made for herself. Although she hadn’t made a sound as her shoulders were opened up by the whip, the agony of the very coarse fibers on her open wounds caused her to wince.

Again she thanked Steve after he slapped her face. Finally, even though it was early January and there was snow on the ground in New York, the cloak-like garment was all that Barbara was wearing. When Caitlin asked about shoes, Barbara replied that her feet were tough and needed to be tougher. Although the poor girl was still crying when they left the apartment, it was apparent that Barbara was truly happy. At the church the little girl thought she discovered why.

In exactly the same way as Susan, at the point in the Mass when the priest tells the congregation, “Let us offer each other a sign of peace,” Barbara, whose body was completely encased in the tent-like garment just looked up at Steve. Even from her position standing beside her, Caitie could see the longing in Barbara’s eyes. Steve turned, put his hand under her chin to lift it, then melted his lips on hers. Caitie could see the electricity flow between the two in a kiss as beautiful as any her parents had ever exchanged.

When he gently released her, she turned to Caitie, dropped to her knees, looked into the little girl’s eyes and waited. The girl did exactly what Steve had done. Using both of her small hands she tipped Barbara’s head and melted her lips to hers in a flow of pure love. When she was released Barbara whispered, “Thank you, darling Caitlin, for allowing me to accompany you to church today.”

“You accepted that brutal beating and wore that horrible cloak that has to be tearing up your battered body just so Steve would kiss you. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Barbara just kissed the girl lightly on the lips and said, “You sure are! And after a kiss like that, he could have beaten me twice as much and I would still do the same thing.”

“Aunt Susan,” the little girl said softly, “I’m really not as big as you and your slave are. There’s not as much of me to melt. And frankly, most of what little there was is already headed down the drain.”

Susan ran her fingers through the girl’s short-cropped hair which caused Caitlin to object that her hairdo was being ruined. Then all three went out the door, dropped into the refrigerated pool and then ran into the shower room. When they had the jets of water running, Barbara was on her knees beside the girl carefully washing her lovely young body.