Chapter 5: The Big Decision

Monday at work, Louise was all over me with enthusiasm for what she called "The Project." The Project would be for her husband -- a man I had barely met -- to take a long series of nude photographs of me for posterity.

I was no prude, and I shared Tad's enthusiasm for the idea of having the photographs. I was also more than a little bit curious as to whether Don's photographic skills could make me look as sexy and attractive as he had Louise. Our height and weight and essential bodily construction were quite similar. But Louise had a tight little athletic-looking body, with small but jutting little breasts. My own body probably was no heavier than hers, but to me it looked softer -- perhaps there was still a little baby fat on me (although I weighed only 95 pounds). As far as I could judge, my breasts were neither larger nor smaller than Louise's -- but they were very different. Mine didn't poke out as much, and the nipples were soft and puffy, like a young girl's. My breasts seemed to be a little bit bigger, in the sense that they occupied a wider area on my chest.

And while Louise's pubic hair was black, thick and curly, my own unshaven bush was somewhat more sparse, my labia more clearly visible through the curls. And I was blonde -- all over. The blonde hair on my head was several shades lighter, but the hair on my pubes remained unmistakably blonde.

All these comparisons were known only to me -- and to Tad, to the extent he'd seen the photographs of Louise. Louise and Don, of course, had never seen my nude body.

At least, not yet.

Don't forget -- it was 1963 in the U.S. of A. Outside of a few obscure nudist camps, there wasn't much exposure of the female form going on. Oh, there were bikinis, and there was Playboy Magazine and its raunchier competitors. Everybody had gotten at least a glimpse of what naked women looked like.

But girls like me? The girl next door? Not without a ticket, sailor! Even the girls who were Giving it Up to their boyfriends weren't generally in the business of parading around, in the daylight, in the altogether. Their sex was usually furtive, in the dark recesses of the back seat of the family Chevy. The Boyfriend might have been allowed all the way inside -- but oftentimes he still had never gotten a really good look at the merchandise.

Even married couples rarely had access to facilities for developing film of a risqué nature. If a guy sent his film off to Kodak in Rochester, or to some other company for out-of-town processing, he might (or might not) get it back. And although no statistics were kept on such matters, the likelihood that some horny technician would make up an extra copy of the prints for himself was very high indeed. So most people didn't even try.

Maybe the Sexual Revolution had started by 1963, but it certainly hadn't carried the day, just yet.

"You're still not certain you want to do it, are you?" Louise asked me at lunch.

"I'm kinda scared," I admitted. "I mean, I know you trust Don not to save copies of the photos, but, jeez Louise, you know, if I was a guy, I'd save copies! And it makes me uncomfortable, knowing that it could happen."

"Listen Sweetie, I swear to you I won't allow Don to save any copies of your pictures, if that's what you want."

"Tad says that would be wrong -- to ask Don not to keep copies. He says Don has always kept copies of his own photographs before."

"Tad wants Don to have copies?"

"Tad says if Don were to promise not to show the photos to anyone except us -- and you, of course -- that his having a set of them wouldn't do any real harm. And I guess that's true -- I mean, he'd see me naked while he was taking the pictures, right? What's the big deal if he kept a set in his files?"

"That's very fair." Louise said. "I'm proud of you, girl! And Tad! Don will be very pleased! I know he'll be happy that you are willing to let him keep a set of the photographs, and I know he'd keep them private."

"Hey, wait. I still haven't decided whether to even do this! I'm just telling you what Tad said. If we do the pictures, we've decided we probably shouldn't make a big deal out of Don's keeping copies."

"Cathy, you know this is going to be such fun! Me and Don had a ball, making my pictures! It was great -- God, it made me so hot! And it's just like Tad said, you're gonna prize them, when you're older!"

"I'll bet you and Don had fun taking yours because every time he took a couple of shots, he probably came over and screwed you silly!"

Louise laughed. "Well, we did take time-outs a couple of times, it's true. It's a first-class turn-on, Cathy! You wouldn't believe!"

"I still feel awfully nervous about it," I told her.