Chapter 34

The next morning, Little Bit stumbled out of Tony’s room, leaving him, as usual, sound asleep after their morning love-making. In the kitchen she found Penny and Henry Hall along with Jenny Clark. She learned that the previous night Jenny had taken care of the little children while Penny and Henry had looked after the older ones, ably assisted by Sandy Kramer and Samantha Christian.

After eating, she went back to Tony’s room to haul him out of bed. It was his turn to drive out to the C-store, this time to meet the Executive Aviation flight crew that was driving up from Disneyland.

When the group arrived, they, like everyone else, were startled by the lack of clothing, but Trudy Elliott and Brandi Barnes lost no time in joining the crowd. The first thing Trudy did was to ask about the Female Fitness machines. Little Bit led her to the Kramer’s gym and she climbed on the computer-controlled unit. To Little Bit’s surprise, Trudy had already lost significant weight, even though it had only been a few days since she had started to reduce.

“It’s not really hard,” Trudy explained. “As I may have intimated on the plane coming out, I’ve been fighting for years to put weight on. My body doesn’t like it at all; it keeps trying to get down to about 120 or so.”

So off she went.

After lunch, they were surprised to see Tami and Chad again. Chad had driven over to return the driveway locator but was told to keep it. Tony explained that there was an interesting element to it. When he had first been given it, Little Bit had ensured that Chad made a thumb print on it. After that, he became the only person who could use it. If he were to lose it, even if the finder knew what it was and where it was supposed to work, it wouldn’t work for him or her.

Tami had another reason for coming. She located Kim and had a proposition for her. “Mrs. Kramer,” she began, “I know you’re the designer of all the Female Fitness units, and...” She slowly stopped.

“And what?” Kim prompted.

“Uh ... Well ... It’s the saddle on the computer-controlled unit,” Tami said softly.

“What about the saddle?”

“The unit has ultraviolet lights positioned all around it, so the user can tan while using it...”

“And... ?”

“And the white mark on the user’s bottom is really tacky!” Tami blurted.

“That’s for sure,” Kim admitted. “But she has to sit on something.”

At that point Tami opened a plastic shopping bag she had with her and took out a saddle with its mounting rod. Both were clear and apparently made of plastic, as were the internal cylinders. “How about using this?” the girl asked. “It’s ... it’s something I’ve been fooling around with. You can see that it’s clear, but what you can’t see is that the whole unit is transparent to ultraviolet light, even...” she blushed, “the cylinders that go inside the woman.”

Kim’s eyes widened. “You mean a girl can sit on this and her bottom would tan anyway?”

Having gotten this far without an explosion from Kim, Tami continued with a grin, “It’s really sort of neat. The fact is that since the saddle sort of spreads a girl’s asscheeks, even her crack gets tanned.” Then she mused, “I wonder if it will tan inside the vagina, too?”

Kim examined the unit carefully. She found that it felt really solid in her hand; it’s construction was anything but cheap. Moreover, the saddle, although crystal-clear, felt like the finest leather while the supporting post had the feel of steel. “Strength?”

“Stronger than the saddle and post you’re using now,” Tami replied. “The plastic has a strength about 50 percent greater than steel for the same thickness. But since it’s plastic, it’s far lighter.”

Then there was the $64 question: “Price?”

Tami quoted a price, but added that it was only for the initial quantities. If there was a significant production run, the price should drop dramatically.

Kim whistled softly. “Young lady, the initial price you quoted is about one-third less than we’re paying for the saddle now, and we’re buying in quantity. Are you sure?”

Not only was Tami sure, but she pulled out a paper with all the cost calculations on it, and at the same time produced the engineering drawings for the saddle’s production.

Then Kim changed the subject dramatically. “How was your night last night? After the dance, I mean.”

“It couldn’t have been better!” Tami exclaimed. She was slowly rubbing her crotch as she said it.

“You spent it at Chad’s, didn’t you?”

The girl just nodded and grinned.

“What happened this morning? Do his parents know you spent the night with him? Do yours?”

“That’s part of what was so funny,” Tami replied. “Chad was deep inside me this morning ... I was on my back and his back was to the door when his mother, Bonnie, came barging in. It seems that she and Mr. Palmer took my parents for $12 at Bridge last night — an all-time record for their little group, by the way — and she couldn’t wait to tell Chad about it.

“Anyway, between orgasms I managed to gasp, ‘Good morning, Mrs. Palmer. I’m Tami Baker.’ I was afraid she was going to have a fit, but that’s not what happened at all. Instead, she went scampering down the hall and hauled my parents and Charley Palmer in to see what we were doing.

“Then, you won’t believe what they did next! The four of them were critiquing our fucking! Can you believe it? And the two men were admiring my body, while the mothers were admiring Chad’s. It was unreal!”

“What was their conclusion?” Kim asked with a little grin.

“They decided that, although we needed a lot more practice, we showed real promise. And can you believe it? Do you know what my mother had the nerve to say? And she’s a professor of engineering, for Heaven’s sake!”

While maintaining her little grin, Kim slowly shook her head.

“She said, ‘When your cunt loosens up a little, you’re going to be a great little fuck, sweetie.’ Can you believe it? That’s really what she said. “Oh, yeah,” Tami added with a grin, “It was so much better than trying to follow some dumb script from The Joy of Sex!”

Then she smiled at Kim warmly and said, “By the way, my mother, Connie, asked me to thank you.”

Kimberly was puzzled. “Thank me? For what could she possibly be thanking me?”

“She’s thanking you for her position as a tenured professor of engineering at Cal Tech,” the girl replied. “It seems that the school really got hot for the idea of having you on the faculty. When they finally decided that it wasn’t going to happen, they had become so charged up with the idea of having a female professor of engineering, they hired Mom as a consolation prize. So thank you!”

“I guess your mother and father did the saddle, didn’t they?” Kim said.

Tami blushed. “Uh ... No. I did.”

Kim was astonished. “You did it? Good grief, girl, how? For example, what kind of plastic is this? Where did it come from? I’ve never heard of a plastic that’s completely transparent to UV!”

“I did a little work on the Internet,” Tami replied, “and I put a few things together.” She paused and said, “I guess you kind of like the saddle, huh?”

“Like it? Good grief, girl, it’s outstanding!” Kim thought for a moment and then said, “I’ll tell you what I propose to do and you can see if you like it. First of all, although you made this one, I’m assuming you don’t have a production facility. Am I right?”

Tami just nodded her head dejectedly.

“You did a helluva job on the cost figures. Assuming they’re correct — and they look right to me — Female Fitness proposes to manufacture the saddle, paying you a royalty equivalent to one-third of the price we’re now paying for the complete saddle assembly. How’s that sound?”

The girl just whistled softly. “It sounds like it’s much too much to me.”

With her eyes sparkling Kim replied, “I’m sorry, Tami, but it’s the best we can do. I can’t go any lower than that. I’m sorry. So take it or leave it.”

Tami extended her hand and said, “Done! I’ll take it.” Then she added, “Mrs. Kramer, no wonder everyone loves you, loves Aerospace Technologies, and loves Female Fitness! You people are just too damned much!”

With that the two rejoined the others at the pool. A short time later, Trudy Elliott appeared, having finished her exercise regimen on the Female Fitness machine. At that point the fun really began.

Kim started by raising the question of the new magazine, Mrs. Trudy reacted by getting a notebook and began asking Kim questions. With every answer, Trudy’s eyes widened farther. At the same time, Trudy took out a little electronic camera and began to take pictures. This joined the mini recorder that she already had in action.

But Kim, after looking at the camera, sent Tony back to their house to get a better one for her. “If there’s ever a chance you’ll want to use any of these pictures,” Kim said, “you had better use a better camera than that one to take them. Its resolution isn’t nearly good enough for publication purposes.”

The interview continued all afternoon. Late in the afternoon, Chad and Tami left for Tami’s house. She was going to change and the two were going to have dinner together. Both Ann and Little Bit agreed that the two were an utterly charming couple.

By dinner time, Henry Hall and Penny Watts had also departed, leaving the Kramers, the Christians, and the flight crew. Poor Trudy rubbed her belly and complained that she was about to put back all the weight she had worked so hard to lose during the day, and probably even more.

The next day, Monday, the women decided to do some shopping. Brandi Barnes elected to stay at the compound and work on her tan, but Kim, Carol Christian, Ann, Little Bit, and Trudy all set out for the mall.

After shopping for most of the morning, they decided to change venues for the afternoon’s “work”. (They had cleaned out all the stores in that mall with respect to anything they might have cared to buy.)

On the way to the next stop, Kim, driving the Kramers’ van, elected to stop for lunch at Mickey D’s. They got their orders and took a couple of tables close to the door. While they were eating, four men entered the restaurant.

“Uh, oh,” Kim murmured, “I don’t like the looks of this.”

The men got her attention in two ways: First, although the temperature was close to 80, all four were wearing long coats. Moreover, they all had a distinctly Arabic appearance. Little Bit watched as Kim’s hand moved toward her purse. Her eyes widened when she realized that she was not opening it in the normal way. Rather, she was opening its back.

At that moment, one of the men opened his coat and raised an AK-47 assault rifle into position and declared, “This is a holdup! Don’t anybody move!”

One of the counter girls was both shocked and scared. When she jumped in fright, the gunman just shot her.

Instantly it was clear to Little Bit what Kim had been doing. As fast as a striking cobra, her hand emerged from her purse but this time she held a Smith & Wesson 9mm. automatic. B-Bam! The gunman dropped to the floor with blood pouring from his head. While the entrance wound was small, the hollow-point bullets almost removed the far side of his skull.