Chapter 6

[Dale] Early May

Dale had always run for conditioning, but in the last miserable week, since finding out about the cancellation of his scholarship, he had stretched out the distance because it was the closest thing to a drug that he would ever indulge in. He needed it now more than at any time since the plane crash.

It was a week and a half until finals, and then, his world would undergo another wrenching change. Even though he had known since the first few weeks that he really did not belong at Thurston, it would be very hard to leave. His little circle of friends was made up of some exceptional people.

Catherine was a combination of grandmother and substitute mother. Caroline was a brilliant, insightful, caring healer who seemed to have taken a genuine interest in him. Lisa was the little sister he never had, and Barry was his only good male friend in the town.

And Faith. He had to force himself not to think about her. It was impossible to run well while crying. The only thing he could compare it to was the feeling of the loss and helplessness he had experienced when his dad died. He was in love with Faith, there was no doubt about it. It seemed that the forces tearing them apart were overwhelming.

He had thought of taking some sort of menial job in town, just to be near her. There were two things wrong with that idea. First of all, Mercedes Charles would certainly use her influence to see that he lost any job that he happened to land. Beyond that, Faith would never stand for him giving up on his education. Her awe of his capabilities and her belief in what he could accomplish were almost religious.

When he had told Faith, rivaling the news of his father's death as the most agonizing moment in his life, she had suggested that her father might give him a job. That could have kept him in town, but did not solve his education problem. Besides that, Max had told Dale that he was seriously considering moving his business.

Just walking away from Faith was unthinkable, but in the near future, there were no realistic alternatives. Lately, the only time they had been able to see each other was at school. Faith caught endless grief from her mother, who seemed to know everything that Faith did, but she endured it willingly for the precious minutes they could share.

Despite being in public, they had cried together in the cafeteria when he told her that he had to leave. They had pledged to each other that somehow, sometime they would be together.

He did not mention that her mother was behind it. In fact, he could not tell her that he knew about the cancellation. It hurt to have to lie to her about why he would not be back, but the number of people that could be hurt was just too large.

No matter how hard he tried, he could not help playing the events over and over in his mind as he ran. Still, it was not as bad as when he tried to study, or tried to sleep, or any one of a dozen necessary activities that the anguish and the anger intruded upon.

As he entered the house after his run, he could hear Catherine in the master bedroom, so he went right for the shower. When he had finished and dressed lightly, he drifted toward the kitchen in the semi-daze that had been his demeanor since learning about the cancellation.

This time, he was jerked to full, acute awareness as he entered the kitchen and saw Catherine standing at the counter, completely naked. He just stood there motionless, staring at her bare backside. He knew quite well what her body looked like. They had worked out together many times and at Marilyn and Barry's pool, she had worn a very revealing suit. Still, the sight of her without even the minimal coverings of her bikini was a jolt.

Having either sensed or heard his presence, she turned around in a series of awkward motions, making it clear that she was struggling to make the final disclosure.

Dale remembered very well how Catherine had looked only into his eyes as he stepped naked from the powder room that first night they had met. With his own effort of will, he returned the courtesy, focusing his questioning look only on her face.

"Y ... you can look at all of me," Dale. "You're going to be seeing a lot of this body before you l ... leave. There's a really good reason."

When he still just stared silently at her face, she said "This is necessary preparation for your new job back home. You start right after your last fnal. Sit down and I'll tell you about it while you eat."

Dale was not sure about the eating part, but she had his curiosity at an all-time high. He sat and watched her as she made up a plate for him, no longer limiting his gaze to her face. Catherine would never be characterized as more than nice looking, but her body did show the evidence of her disciplined workout regimen and intelligent diet. She carried very little extra weight and she gave the impression of energy and strength. He had noticed those things before, but seeing her now, the impressions were reinforced.

"What are you talking about - a job, I mean?" he asked when he could be patient no longer.

"Read these," she said and handed him a brochure along with a multi-page email that Caroline had received from Dr. Julia Waxman, the director of Transformations.

"My sister had heard about this place. It has only been going a few months, but it appears to be very successful When we discovered the plot and we knew we were going to lose you, she..."

"Catherine, you will never lose me," Dale blurted out. "I may have to leave, but after everything you've done for me and as close as we've become, we are best friends for life."

That was too much for Catherine. Together they had drawn the boundaries of their relationship and stuck to them. There had been lots of hugging and cuddling, but no sex and no direct sexual stimulation. What she did next pushed those boundaries.

Breaking into spontaneous tears, she threw herself onto his lap and hugged him hard, crying into his shoulder. Realizing how much she needed it, he ignored her bare skin and hugged back, even stroking his hand up and down her back in a comforting way.

"You can read the email, but Transformations has a wonderful success record already," she said, her face still buried in his shoulder. "The women who go there are naked all the time. Many of the attendants are male. The Director has agreed that you will be an ideal attendant.

"One of their requirements is that you be comfortable with nudity before you start. Your posing qualifies for your own nudity. I'm giving you practice with a naked woman.

"It sounds like a wonderful place to work. What really caught my attention was that you get really attractive tuition to Addison as an employee."

Dale had an endless list of questions, and Catherine tried to answer a few of them. Finally, giving him a quick kiss, she got up off of his lap and told him "Caroline will be here for dinner tomorrow, and she can give you a lot more details. She has actually visited the place."

"She has? When?"

"Just a few days ago. She came back just raving about it. She was so excited I'm afraid she might move away to work there." As she spoke, Catherine saw the moisture in Dale's eyes. "What's wrong, Honey?"

"She went there just to check out a job for me?" he asked.

"Well, that started it, but a lot of it was professional curiosity, too. Oh, and she had a delightful visit with your mom. She'll tell you about that tonight."

"So, you're just going to stay like that all the time I'm here?" Dale asked when he had regained some of his composure."

"Uh, huh. When Caroline talks to you tomorrow, you will understand better."

Dale did not have any late classes that next day, so he had ridden his bike. He and Lisa were studying together in their usual fashion when Catherine and Caroline arrived together. Dale could not understand why Catherine looked so puzzled, but after a moment he figured it out and almost choked as he tried to suppress his laughter.

The sisters did one of those non-verbal conversations and headed off to the master bedroom together. Dale was very surprised when both came out naked, Caroline looking very flushed and nervous. Needless to say, Lisa was beyond surprised. It was Caroline who sat down to explain things to the girl.

"When Dale goes back home, there's a great job waiting for him. He'll be working in a place where women come and stay for a few months as treatment for physical and psychological problems. The women are naked the whole time they are at this place. Dale is going to be an attendant there, and he needs to get comfortable being around naked women.

"So, we are helping Dale get ready for his new job. Catherine will be naked at home until Dale leaves. I will be, too, whenever I am here."

Lisa began crying softly, a common reaction since she heard that Dale would be leaving. Knowing that her feelings for him went beyond just a girlish crush, Dale was unsure about what, if anything, he should do to try to comfort her. Giving Caroline a helpless look, he saw her nod, so he pulled Lisa up onto his lap and hugged her for a while.

There was no more conversation about Transformations until Lisa had left and they sat down to dinner. Seeing him looking at her, Caroline said "It's a lot harder to be clinical and detached about nudity when it's my boobs hanging out. I have a whole new appreciation for what Catherine put you through last fall. And I don't even have the 'big problem' to worry about." She ended with a giggle.

Though a few years older than Catherine, Caroline had also taken care of her body, and the two sisters looked very similar. "Dale, I've got a lot of things to tell you about Transformations."

"Catherine said she was afraid you might move and go to work there," he said.

"It's tempting. Dr. Waxman is unbelievable. She needs help and it would be a privilege to work with her. There is no definite offer yet, though."

"That would leave a lot of people without help in this crazy town," Dale quipped.

Perhaps forgetting her state of undress - or perhaps not - Caroline gave Dale a quick hug and told him how much she appreciated the comment. "Now, if we can arrange for Catherine and Lisa and her family, and ... and ... shit!" That was as far as Dale got with his attempt at humor.

The sisters knew that it was Faith he was thinking about and they ached for him. The relationship between Dale and Faith was such a poignant story that everyone who knew them was touched by it - except for Mercedes, of course. If two young people ever deserved to be together, it was them, but like the tragic lovers of drama and song, the fates seemed aligned against them.

"Dale," Caroline said gently, "Catherine has promised not to do anything that will get her fired. Will you please tell us exactly what happened?" Considering what Caroline was doing for him, how could he refuse, and he recounted everything.

"If I could get you a teaching job there, would you consider moving?" Caroline asked her sister?"

"You'd really leave Carla and the baby, and Claire?" Catherine wondered.

"You have to see Transformations and what they've accomplished to understand. I can't really understand why they'd want me, but they sounded serious. It would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Carla has already told me that she will disown me and I will never see the baby anyway if I refuse an offer from them. She understands how special the place is."

"You shouldn't ask me right now, Sis," Catherine said. "I'm so upset with the way Mercedes controls and subverts things that I'm ready to take a high school job some days. When I cool off, though..."

They had all but forgotten Dale as they talked. "What got you so excited?" he asked.

"Well, I actually got to go in and talk to a number of the women. They all had to give their permission, and if they wanted to, they could stay in their rooms while I was there. None did, and that made me feel accepted.

"The whole idea is that they are isolated from all of the other influences in their lives for a while. They can totally focus on getting better. I saw before and after pictures of some who were nearly ready to leave, and it was unbelievable. Some of them described what they were like when they entered, and they did not even seem like the same people.

"The other thing was the dynamics between the women. In some ways, it seemed like they did more to heal each other than Dr. Waxman could ever do, and she agreed with that. It seemed like being naked gave them all an openness and a sensitivity to the others that was hard to imagine.

"Dale, it will be like you have twenty mothers or grandmothers there," Caroline started to say.

"You mean it will be as good as it has been here?" he asked seriously. That got him the predictable hugs.

"You would think the women would resent having to be naked with men around, but it's just the opposite," Caroline enthused. "The young guys are just as nice as they can be, and I think the women all fall in love with them. As far as any concerns about modesty - forget it! Dr. Waxman said that one of their challenges is to work with the guys on how to gently maintain a professional detachment with the women."

"You're kidding!" both Dale and Catherine said, almost together.

"I'm serious. They did a tremendous amount of research before they opened the place, and they seem to have gotten it right. The concepts they talk about are 'immersion therapy' and 're-birthing'. I guess the key concept is that healing is more likely when all of the normal pressures and influences are removed."

"But I'm no psychologist," Dale objected. "As far as women, I'm even more mystified than most men."

That earned him a playful slap from Caroline. "But you've got the most important attribute," she told him. "You are naturally considerate of other people and concerned about them."

"What kind of things does an attendant do?"

"Well, naturally, there is some cleanup work, but mostly, it's helping the women. You would supervise their workouts, assist them with the different learning activities, and..."

"Learning activities?"

"Yes, there are computers all over the place. The residents are encouraged to take courses, or to just investigate something that will be helpful to their transformation.

"Oh, something interesting for you. The CFO has an office right in the women's section. He runs his own accounting business and it seems to be growing. One of the other attendants works for him while finishing his accounting degree."

"That has to be the strangest working environment ever," Dale commented.

"You don't know the half of it. His son is an attendant there, and his wife works there, too. She meets all of the new residents and tries to help them through the first tough days. She spends most of her time naked so she is more like the residents. Oh, the son, Mark, is engaged to Lindsey Hall, the country singing star."

"I would say," Dale said, "just from your level of enthusiasm that if they offer you, you're gone."

"It shows, huh?" Caroline laughed.

"And they're ready to hire me sight unseen?"

"Well, they have my unbiased professional recommendation," she answered with another laugh, "and they've talked to your mother extensively."

"They have?"

"Oh, yes. They're very strong on not letting jobs there harm family relationships in any way. This is, uh, nothing firm, but I will tell you that they are considering your mother for a job, also."

"I thought the attendants were all male."

"Not all of them, and there is a men's side, also. But that's not what they are talking about. Lindsey Hall is talking about a new facility, kind of a group home, for good kids trapped in lousy family situations. They're thinking about Muriel as a live-in house mother. They like employing whole families. It has worked well for them so far."

"Wow!" was all Dale could think to say.

"Um, Catherine said they had a special deal with Addison."

"That's right, and Gerald Magnuson, the Chairman of the..."

"THE Gerald Magnuson?" Dale asked in amazement.

"Yes. His Magnuson Foundation provided the funding for the startup of Transformations."

"Then I can see why you're so excited. That man does everything right," Dale told them.

"So you follow the movers and shakers pretty closely?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah. Funny, isn't it? I know a lot about money and the people who have it, but I can't ... I can't..." Then he broke down. Regardless of their nudity, the sisters surrounded and hugged him until he regained his composure.

"There's one attendant task that I didn't tell you about," Caroline said to break the somber mood. "Let's have you practice for that right now. It's massage."

"Massage? But the women are naked! Do they make them get massages like that?" Dale asked in disbelief.

"Make them? Not hardly!" Caroline declared. "All of the women love it, and a few told me it was the high point of the day for them."

"But that's so ... so intimate," he protested.

"It sure is," Catherine broke in. "What are we waiting for."

"But I know nothing about it."

"Even more reason for not wasting any time."

[Cliff] Early May

Either because of Mel's threat, from guilt over the anguish she had caused, or from a surprise resurgence of true motherly concern, Marie had been very supportive of Jessica in the weeks since the divorce. While good for Jessica in the short run, it made Julia's job more difficult. There was no chance of real normalcy without a complete break from Marie.

All Julia could do was feed any doubt or any inclination toward independence. Now, she had the ultimate wedge in hand - Cliff, but that wedge had to be used very carefully. The ideal situation would be for Jessica to break away from Marie before meeting Cliff.

Even though she had been quite aggressive with him at their first meeting, Julia was impressed with Cliff and she wanted to be very up-front with him. Calling him in three weeks later for another short meeting, she told him her objective. "I don't know if I can pull it off, but I believe it will be much better for both Jessica and you if she breaks away from Marie before she meets you. Are you willing to wait that out?"

"After fourteen years, am I willing to wait a few weeks or months longer? Of course I am. And I agree with your analysis. I do not want to get into a mother or dad choice situation."

"Still afraid you might lose?"

"I don't know how, but you seem to know Marie very well," he retorted. "What do you think?"

Julia wanted to have Cliff listen to some of the taped conversations. Unfortunately, Jessica was on those tapes and she was Julia's client. Julia could not even ask for a confidentiality waiver without revealing that she had contact with Cliff. It was too early for that.

"You're right. It isn't really a matter of rational choice, Cliff. That's why I wanted to get your input. I believe we are in agreement on most of what is best for Jessica."

"Do you think there is any chance for reconciliation between Jessica and Matt?" Cliff asked abruptly.

"I wish I could hold out some hope there, but I can't. There are some factors that make it very unlikely. I am bordering on breaking a confidence, but I will tell you that I am not sure that is what Jessica really wants."

"What? I can't understand that," Cliff objected. "Why is she so broken up, then?"

"You must know that I can't say any more about a patient."

"Do you think I should contact Matt?"

"For what purpose? To plead for Jessica?" Julia demanded.

"That would be my impulse, but if you don't think I should, I won't. At least, I would like to find out all I can about what went wrong."

"Cliff, you have to decide what information is going to make things easier for you and what is just going to make it worse. You also need to think about Matt and what he is going through. My guess is that any contact from you would only make things worse for him."

"In what way?" Cliff wondered.

Julia had to think about how to respond to that. Matt had given her permission to tell Jessica anything about him. Should she extend that to Cliff? "Matt believes his best hope for healing is to try to forget all about Jessica. Your meeting him would not help that at all."

"And if the last thing I want is for him to forget my daughter?"

"Obviously, I have no power to prevent you from seeing him."

"Except that you are the key person in my daughter's hope for a good future," he corrected her.

Releasing an uncharacteristic sigh, Julia admitted "I don't honestly know if it would be better for them to reconcile or to just go their separate ways. Given that, having you act as the wild card might not be all bad. It could not make it any worse for Jessica, but it could for Matt."

"I assume he is also your patient."

Without answering his question, Julia asked "Will you tell me how the meeting goes?"

[Cliff & Matt] Mid May

"Are you here to plead for Jessica?" Matt asked sharply when he and Cliff were seated in a booth at the bar. Cliff had called him at the office and asked if they could meet.

"Of course, I would love to see the two of you reconciled," Cliff admitted, "but I will say no more about it. I want to learn as much about Jessica as I can."

"Why?"

"I have been shadowing her closely all of these years. I know everything there is to know publicly and a lot of what the public cannot find out. I need to know more."

"Why don't you just ask her?" Matt asked. "Surely any legal restrictions have expired by now." Cliff went through the same explanation that he had given Julia earlier.

"I assume you know all about the divorce and how it came about, then," Matt commented.

"Not everything, of course," Cliff answered. "Given the business you are in, the house must have had sophisticated surveillance equipment. The fact that Jessica actually cheated on you is what is hard to believe."

"You have no idea," Matt said glumly.

"Does that mean that sex was missing from your marriage?" Cliff probed.