Chapter 117

THE RETREAT: LATE THURSDAY NIGHT

Arlene and Selina sat on Selina's bed, their backs propped against pillows as they played with Billy. Arlene slid her hand back and forth under the sheet as Billy pretended to stalk a terribly dangerous prey. He held his body and his head very close to the bed, occasionally lifting his head slightly to peek at his target, the tip of his tail twitching continuously. Then, he would jump as high as he could, coming down on Arlene's hand, tussling with it through the material.

"Ouch," the older girl said, swatting Billy's front feet. "Get those claws in, Big Boy. That smarts."

The kitten seemed to realize what she meant, because the next time he pounced, he did so without extended claws. "That little beggar is smart," Arlene said. "He knew what I meant when I swatted his feet." She had no sooner said it than the kitten pounced again with his claws extended, then sped to the foot of the bed attempting to escape.

Arlene reached out and caught him by his tail, which resulted in an indignant scream followed by intense hissing and spitting. Arlene picked him up with her hand under his chest and his legs dangling down as she held him just above her face. She rubbed her nose against his, then caught him by the loose skin behind his neck, holding him up. He instantly curled into a partial ball, and just hung there.

"Is that hurting him?" Selina worried.

"Nah. That's the way the momma cat carries her kittens. See how he instantly relaxed. I guess it is his instinct to submit to the mother cat, or something."

"I wish I had possessed that knowledge when I first attempted to bathe him. I am certain I would have received far fewer scratches."

Arlene giggled. "I don't know whether it will work during a bath or not, but generally, it will calm a kitten." She put Billy on her tummy, but realized that might well be a mistake when his little nose went up and he sniffed.

"Mmmeeeeooow," Billy cried pitifully as he sniffed again.

"Would you express some of your milk into Billy's dish? I would like to watch."

"And what did our Queen say when you asked her about watching me?" Arlene said, putting the kitten back on the bed and away from her breasts.

"I have not asked her yet."

"Then I can't."

"But it is a natural function of the female body. I don't understand why..."

"We've already talked about this. It is, indeed, a function of the female body, but it also has sexual connotations. Tomorrow, I will go with you to ask my mother. If she says it's sexual, then you're going to have to wait until you're older."

"But the kitten won't be a kitten then," Selina tried to reason.

"But I'll still have boobs and I will probably still have milk in them. And ... you might have boobs yourself by then."

"So it will be years before I can watch you do it," Selina grumped, more the six-year-old than the genius for the moment.

"It..."

Selina continued with a slight subject change. "How does it feel to have breasts? They move about when you walk, unless you are wearing a bra. What does it feel like? Can I see them? I can see their outline, obviously, through the material of your negligée, but I would like to see them unhindered."

"Selina, that would not be appropriate. I think we need to change the subject."

"But we were all nude together when we changed into our bathing suits."

"You've already used that argument," Arlene laughed. "But changing into bathing suits was then; this is now, and I feel uncomfortable with it. We need to talk about something else."

"When Doctor Boswell announced that my mother and father were coming here, everyone went to put on bras. As soon as they left, the bras were removed. It appears that as long as only family members are here, the women and girls do not wear bras, but if outsiders are here, bras are the norm."

"Our husband, as well as the other family men here, like to see us without bras, but we don't feel comfortable with outsiders seeing us that way. And ... our husbands are not comfortable with us doing that, either."

"So the movement of your breasts is a sexual thing?"

At Arlene's tentative nod, "Then why am I allowed to see all of you without bras under your clothes, but I cannot watch you express your milk?"

"Seliiiinnnaa," Arlene said, drawing out the word. "Give it up."

Selina, grinning, turned over to all fours and bounced up and down next to Arlene, watching Arlene's breasts jiggle under the negligée. Arlene reached for the child, tickling her. Selina giggled and tried to tickle Arlene back. "I will persist," the little genius stated as she wiggled away from Arlene. "I will continue until I am allowed to watch you express your milk."

"Yeah, but Momma spanked my butt when I was your age. I'll bet she still remembers how. I would be careful, if I were you."

"I am certain she does, indeed, remember how." Selina said, slightly mollified, but not really worried.

"If you think Mom won't spank you, you had better rethink that. And she has other ways that don't necessarily involve corporal punishment, but are equally obnoxious on the receiving end..." Arlene tried to change the subject. "So, tell me about Billy's bath"

Selina sat and crossed her legs under her, her face a study of conflicting emotions.

"Come on. Spill it. I know what bathing a cat is like."

"I had read that felines do not like water, but the article did not emphasize that fact sufficiently."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Arlene said, giggling.

Seeing the smile on Arlene's face, Selina decided to describe what had happened.

"Billy had an unpleasant odor about him. Conversely, my bubble bath has a very pleasant odor, and I was going to bathe, anyway. I prepared for Billy's bath by putting towels down on the bathroom floor to absorb any spilled water, plugged the hair drier in and placed it on the floor out of the way.

"I had drawn a bath, adding a considerable amount of bubble bath. I petted Billy and stepped into the tub with him. After I sat down, I gently lowered Billy toward the water while speaking to him and assuring him that it would be a pleasant experience. Upon reflection, I can only assume that Billy had never seen more water than was normally in his water dish, and thus was unlikely to recognize what was imminent. Although he appeared to be very tense, he exhibited no resistance until one of his back feet touched the water.

"I assumed that I was fully cognizant of a cat's reflexes, but I suppose I had never really experienced them during my short acquaintance with Billy. His reaction was ... instantaneous. I still do not fully understand how he escaped my grasp and exited the tub. I felt my forehead sting, and he was just ... gone. He had made a sound that I had never heard before — a sort of yowling screech. I found him in his kennel, and the door was closed. The lock had not engaged, but somehow the door had closed. Perhaps, he hit it in his panic as he entered the kennel, and the door closed behind him. He was sitting in the middle of the cage, growling, and licking his left rear leg. The leg was the only part of his body that was wet. How could a tiny kitten escape from being held in a tub of water and get only one leg wet? It is not possible."

"So what did you do?"

"I picked him up and returned to the tub. When we reached the bathroom, he immediately began to howl. I swaddled him in a small towel to prevent him scratching me, and submerged his body up to his neck. He hissed and growled, then suddenly went limp. He just looked at me with his ears flat against his head. I carefully unwrapped the towel and poured shampoo on him..."

"He let you do that?"

"Yes, he remained quite limp throughout his bath, although he did continue to growl."

"So that one time was the only problem he gave you?"

"Not precisely. I rinsed him with the spray wand, having only slight problems, exited the tub and towel dried him without incident. Then ... I turned the hair dryer on..."

"Oh, shit," Arlene laughed.

"I suddenly received several more scratches, but not all were deep enough to require a Band Aid. I found him hiding under my bed that time. It took several attempts before I could recapture him on that occasion, and he seemed to be determined to convince anyone within hearing that I was torturing him to death. I held all four of his legs together and returned to the hair dryer, but I had to release him for fear he would break his own legs. I had no idea a kitten could be that strong. I found him under the sheet on my bed that time."

"Did he fight to get away again?"

"No. He yowled, but he did not fight me at all. He submitted to being dried, but later, when I went back into the bathroom to retrieve the wet towels and return the dryer to its place, I found that he had obviously urinated on the dryer. I am certainly glad that I had unplugged it, otherwise he might have electrocuted himself."

"He peed on the dryer?" Arlene said, giggling. "He peed on it?"

"Yes. At least he is small, and the volume of urine was not considerable," Selina grumped. "It required several minutes to clean the dryer sufficiently, but it does not appear that any of the urine leaked inside it, or I would have had to dispose of it. The article I read did not mention a cat's disposition toward a dryer. If anything, it was worse than the water. Billy did not like the sound the dryer made, and he appeared to be even more afraid of the air ruffling his fur."

"So there won't be any more baths for Billy, huh?"

Selina seemed to start for a second. "Of course there will be. I think a schedule of every other day will suffice. I will restock with Band Aids first, of course, but I will eventually prevail. He will, in time, realize that fighting a bath is counterproductive."

Arlene just looked at her. Doubtless the little genius was determined, but then Arlene imagined that Billy was, also. Seeing the look on Selina's face, Arlene decided to refrain from teasing her.

A little later, Selina went to use the bathroom. Arlene got up and retrieved Billy's dish, pulled the negligée down enough to expose a breast and quickly expressed some milk into the dish; although, it was a struggle to keep Billy away as she did so. When she put the dish back in his kennel, the kitten jumped off the bed and ran into his cage. When Selina returned, Arlene, with her clothing now rearranged, was lying innocently in bed. Selina, hearing the lapping sounds Billy was making, stopped to stare, then stood with her hands on her hips.

Just as Selina opened her mouth to make an indignant comment, Arlene interrupted, "Don't start. I'm not going to do it in front of you unless Mother agrees to it, but Billy wanted the milk so badly, I did it for him. If you get mad at me, then Billy is the one who will 'suffer' by not getting what he wants."

Several expressions chased themselves across Selina's face, but logic won out. Finally, she just walked around and crawled back onto the bed. After pulling the sheet up, she turned on her side. "You may stay up as long as you like, but I intend to sleep now."

Arlene turned the lights down, then hugged Selina. "I'll ask Mom if you can watch. I'm beginning to think that what you want isn't sexual, after all."

"Thank you," Selina quietly said. "I do not wish to create difficulties, but I must again confess that my curiosity has frequently caused them, and the curiosity remains. Overall, my propensity to be inquisitive is generally a good thing, but there are occasional — negative effects," she finished, the embarrassment in her face evident.

Billy climbed the comforter to the foot of the bed. Purring, he crawled under the sheet and onto Selina as she turned onto her back so he could lie on her chest. He curled into a ball, contented, his tiny purr still audible as the girls drifted off to sleep.

Jeff and his women had made love. Diana had awakened and lay waiting for her husband to finish with Caitlin, who was last tonight. As Diana snuggled her head onto his shoulder a little later, she quietly whispered into his ear, "I miss Arlene being with us."

"Me, too."

"Baby, have you thought about having Little One ... check out the kitten? Kittens are sometimes fragile. It would be a shame for him to get sick and die. I really like the little dude, and it would devastate Selina if anything happened to him. Do you suppose Little One could, you know, check him out or something? I'm sure he hasn't had his kitten shots or anything, and getting him to a vet to take care of that is something we need to put on our agenda. But..."

Jeff smiled at his wife. "She did that last night."

"What..."

"I woke up and knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so I sneaked into Selina's suite with Little One. If I'm reading the Healer correctly, she's fascinated with the cat. Billy was asleep on Selina's chest. Little One sort of curled up with him for thirty minutes or so. Afterward, she wanted to know about pets in general, and I guess, cats in particular. I tried to remember about them, and project those memories to her, but I probably left out a lot of stuff that I'll think about later. She assured me the kitten was healthy though, and seemed to imply that he would stay that way now that she had done her thing."