The Changeling -- The Switch -- Pt 6 - The Forbidden Zone
Playing a part in my investigation of the Puzzle Palace's flagship webcast strip game was a very different experience than I had previously encountered in journalism. I was blessed by coaching from my look -- alike, the real Maggie Dowd who, as we sat butt -- to -- butt on a splintery bench in a raunchy roadside gym trading punches in the ring, hatched the plan for me to assume her identity to run the investigation into TPP. "It's perfect," the real Maggie assured me, "Taking up residence in my house, you don't have to worry as you scream out ecstatically `Jim, fuck me,' when you're at home with your husband James."
In my daily life, once I crept away from my own house, playing a role convincingly means that you are aware you are always subject to being observed, but playing the part also requires proper preparation and the right costume. The security conscious Puzzle Palace had proven impenetrable to many investigative reporters who preceded me. My cover story was nearly perfect. I acquired an identity of Maggie Dowd a doppelganger, a lookalike so close she could have been my twin. Along with it I had the necessary props, her car, her clothes, her house even her husband Jim, a bit of an artist who attracted interest from the Puzzle Palace and was hired in night maintenance while I worked laundry.
Laundry brought me to every part of TPP glass and steel tower, but that didn't make my task of ferreting out whatever truth there was to find any easier. To enter through the service entrance's female locker room, I had to disrobe, shower and dress in a white frock and sneakers. All the support staff had particular uniforms, even the writers and researchers. Anything or anyone out of place could be identified quickly. I was reminded of the real Maggie Dowd's favorite expression about undercover work, as she'd lean back on the ricket bench allowing her towel to fall away from her body presenting succulent breasts and a neatly trimmed pubis, "An undercover agent must be a perfect actress and like a chameleon able to change her spots with the background."
"Come to TPP to reach the stage!" My partner on the laundry detail declared as we sat on the bench in TPP's locker with our clothes piled up in a wire box, "Occasionally, they film a shower scene; you get paid extra for a `walk -- on,' a nude scene, if they use it for other than jerking themselves off. So much for the sign on the door: FORBIDDEN ZONE FEMALE EMPLOYEES ONLY."
The real Maggie Dowd's husband Jim and I would ride to work at The Puzzle Palace together usually in Maggie's car. Sometimes, we chatted about the job. My final night on laundry, Jim told me that "Mr Erickson, The CEO of the Puzzle Palace, asked for sample sketches to see if I'm ready for the art and design department." Jim sounded hopeful. His eyes lit up with my encouragement.
The real Maggie never rated Jim's talents very highly. Asking me to soap her back in the roadside gym's rusty showers, the real Maggie arched her back as she spoke of intimacies with her husband Jim, "Harmless," Maggie declared, "I could pose nude for hours for him and I still had to attack him to get six inches out of him for my trouble shivering with the windows open to get my tits to go erect." Bending over to touch her toes, inviting me to scrub her tush, the real Maggie observed, "Jim for all his love of painting nudes has to be prompted to revv up those twin engines to do battle in the sheets."
Roaming the bright waxed floors of The Puzzle Palace, one might think, would give me access to whatever hidden secret TPP's glass and silver tower held. I was never out of sight of my partner for very long. After a week or so of lugging laundry carts around, a chance encounter with Adrienne the star of the show resulted in am invitation to join Adrienne in The Puzzle Palace's private gym on Friday morning at 6AM, the end of my shift. I was tired but urged on by my partner on the laundry detail, I made the date.
When I entered the gym's female locker room, Adrienne in her silver robe and mesh stockings was already waiting on the bench. "You're tired after your shift," Adrienne said, "how `bout we get ready and splash around in the pool and then lie around and chat." As she swirled to let her robe fly off her and reveal her luscious breasts and neatly trimmed triangle of golden hair, my heart skipped a beat. What man or woman could not want her!
"Hurry get undressed. No need to be piqued," Adrienne commanded, "We keep separate locker rooms for each sex. The gals won't offer a critique; we leave it to the guys out in the gym to judge your physique." I felt an electric charge go through me when Adrienne grabbed me by the shoulder to lead me into the gym. My nipples went erect. "Good news, Dearie, the studio may have a new job for you, more appropriate to your talents and perhaps occasionally a very small role to test you on camera. This could be your debut."
As the door opened, the silliest, yet, most obvious question came to mind, "What do starlets do, when they're on their period?"
Hugging me Adrienne responded, "Competing for a spot on a sanitary napkin commercial."
As we approached the door, I took a deep breath, reminding myself aloud, "gymnasium originally meant place of being naked."
"The purpose of nudity in the gym is to promote equality." Adrienne explained as we opened the door onto a scene of naked bare round butted beauties clustered around Mr Erickson. "In the full skin, we're all kindred."
Looking over the revue of swirling curves, dangling breasts and rounded butts I quipped, "Still, some are more equal than others."
"On and off stage, clothing indicates status. Here in the gym we are equal." Lifting her head to scan the gym, Adrienne quipped, "Even so, out of the particular uniforms, you can tell all the wannabe starlets," commented Adrienne lying naked on her belly facing me at pool side, "they're the round butts crowding the studio execs."
After our dip in the pool, I, though tired, managed to struggle through mandatory exercises. Adrienne was encouraging. "No worse than anyone else, not one of whom reported in to the gym, after having worked an eight-hour shift."
Leading me up to the desk, Adrienne after retrieving her silver robe, ordered the naked clerk, "Hand her one too." To me, she said, "you're up for a promotion. You may even get a few speckles of spotlight."
I received the same thigh black high stockings and heels that Adrienne wore back stage and was escorted up to Mr Erickson's office where he advised me that Adrienne, who had taken up a seat behind me in his office, had requested me as her personal secretary. "That's a weighty recommendation."
"I think Maggie's able," declared Adrienne, "She had the good sense not to ask why the silver robe comes without panties."
"To keep the audience guessing what lies underneath," I replied.
"The hours are 6AM to 2PM, except when we're shooting. Then it might go later. You and your husband--Jerry--no--John--no James," Mr Erickson looked down at the personnel files, "Oh, Jim usually come to work together. Will this present any problems---in your home life?"
I thought of my home life with Jim. Yes, we rode to work together. We even chatted during the ride, but he generally kept to his room as agreed upon. Split shifts would take one set of eyes off me for enough hours so that I could break away unnoticed to my own house and real husband.