Yorkshire, England. 1984. Margaret Thatcher is in power, Boy George is in the pop charts and Katie is about to take her first plunge into a new, exciting world.
New Girl at the Old Blue Ball Part 1.
Katie stood naked in her bedroom and studied herself in the full-length mirror.
She sighed. What will they all think, when they see me nude?
Since turning thirty, she had put a little weight on around her tummy, and she could grudgingly concede her breasts might not be quite as pert as they once were in her teenage years, but overall she was mostly comfortable with her body. And is any woman ever really happy with their body anyway? She softly ran her hand over her stomach and breathed in.
But despite her doubts, Katie knew inside she was considered attractive by most people. Her hair was naturally light brown, and she wore it long, straight, and parted on the right. This was quite unfashionable during the current era of big hair and shoulder pads, (most of her friends got through two cans of hairspray a week). But Katie was quite comfortable being seen by others as a 'hippie' type. 'More Joni Mitchell than Madonna', as someone had once said. Her face was open and friendly, and whilst not considered classically beautiful, her even features and large eyes gave her an air of cheeriness and quiet confidence.
Katie had known only three lovers in her life, the first two being embarrassingly inept due to drunkenness and inexperience, and the third being her husband, Mark.
Her ex-husband, Mark, as it happened. And since the divorce three years ago, Katie had gone through two distinct stages of her life. Firstly, she loved the freedom that came after seven years of an increasingly boring marriage. She relished being able to please herself in matters of food, entertainment, home furnishings and nights out. But during the first phase of this new freedom she actually felt guilty for loving the freedom so much. What a selfish life! Well-meaning friends chorused "you'll find someone else" and it seemed to Katie that enjoying living alone was somehow wrong.
But then came the second phase. The guilt began to disappear and she saw her new single life as empowering, exciting, and something to be cherished. Why feel guilty about enjoying being single? Whatever the future had in store for Katie, she wasn't about to throw it away by worrying that she hadn't got a man.
She bunched her hair up on her head, moved it around and pursed her lips. No, that look didn't suit her. She let her hair back down. It fell over her chest and covered her nipples, reaching just below the curve of her shapely breasts. She scooped it behind her neck, exposed her breasts and let her hands down and looked again in the mirror.
She'd always been slightly embarrassed by her nipples. They seemed too large for her breasts, and puffier than other girl's nipples in the changing room at school or the swimming baths, (how many lives have been damaged by fleeting changing room comparisons, thought Katie). When cold or aroused, her nipples soon lost their puffiness and stood very proud, hard and firm. Because of this, she was too self-conscious to go braless in a T shirt. Her breasts weren't large, but they were shapely. She often thought her nipples belonged to larger breasts.
She ran her fingers delicately over her nipples and they started tingling; stiffening and even the colour seemed to redden. She noticed a soft warm blush across her chest, just below her neck. Her heart beat a little heavier. She was getting aroused.
Outside, through the drawn curtains, she could hear a workman's radio blaring away. Top twenty sounds from Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Culture Club. It wasn't Katie's music, but she had to concede much of it was melodic enough. This reminded her that she needed to choose some music for next Thursday night. Five or six minutes' worth Mr Spencer said. He said most of the girls went for pop hits of the day, or songs with sexual content, like Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. That all sounded a bit obvious to Katie. She wanted her first time to be special, classy, more personal to her. She'd choose something instrumental, something vaguely Arabic perhaps, something with a sultry Eastern vibe. It had to be right, it had to be something special. After all, it wasn't every day you perform your first striptease show.
However ridiculous the idea of a divorced woman in her early thirties performing in a strip club for the first time might have seemed to others, to Katie it made perfect sense. Although she wasn't a sexually promiscuous person, she also wasn't a sexual prude. Her opinions on sex were enlightened, not judgmental. Consent was the key to everything, and she didn't judge promiscuity in women any different to men. She didn't, in any way, hold traditionally conservative views on sexuality. And although she considered herself sexually shy in essence, she didn't attach any negative morality to sexual pleasure taken from none-conventional means.
And everything had fallen in place so easily with the stripping booking. An old school friend who worked the local circuit set her up for the interview with Mr Spencer, who wasn't in the least bit lecherous as she imagined the club owners would be, ("Mr Spencer's lovely" Marie had said, "he really looks after the girls, it's the best club on the circuit"). Thankfully, he hadn't even wanted to see her nude in the flesh, he was happy with a series of photos Katie had taken with a tripod and timer, and gotten processed at a small chemist shop that offered discreet darkroom services.
She worked part-time at a florists shop, but would earn three weeks' worth of money in just one evening. The only stipulation was, she had to be on stage at least six minutes and be fully nude by the end of the act.
"Some girls give it a quick flash at the end" Mr Spencer had explained. "They drop their drawers and run off. That's okay but the girls that stay longer, and flash it about a bit, they get a better reception. And if it goes well, we'll put them on a Friday or even a Saturday. Saturday's the big one."
Marie explained how the club had strict rules. There were four bouncers keeping everything in check. Rowdy behavior wasn't tolerated. "The girls get respect at The Blue Ball" Marie said. "That's a rare thing, a lot of these clubs have blokes pissed up shouting abuse. None of that happens at The Blue Ball. It's the classiest strip club in Yorkshire. Couples go there see, men and women. Gangs of drunk blokes don't get in".
When Marie mentioned women would be there, it gave her a little jump her chest. So women would be looking at her too? Perhaps judging her, comparing their bodies to hers?
They'd be wondering what their men would be thinking of her perhaps? Wondering what the men would like to do to her? Would the women be thinking of doing things to her as well?
Katie held her head proud as she carried on looking in the mirror. She parted her legs slightly and looked down over her blushing chest, her bare breasts with nipples now taught and tingling, her soft belly and down to her pussy.
Was she really going to show a room full of strangers her pussy?
On a stage, in a spotlight?
Her heart pounded at the thought. The blush on her chest reddened and spread.