The minivan cruised down the highway toward the retreat. The farther away from the city that it traveled, the more the highway became surrounded by trees. It was the first day of summer vacation, and the sun shone during the lazy afternoon.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Victoria said from the back of the car.
She rode with four of her coworkers, who were all high-school teachers.
"Well, I thought that this'd be good for us," said Mildred, who drove.
"But for the whole summer?"
"Do you have anything else better to do?" Donna replied, who sat in the middle seat on the passenger's side.
Victoria didn't answer. For some reason, she still held on to the retreat's brochure, which she now skimmed for the umpteenth time. It was one big nondescript building sitting on many acres out in the boonies, and it was supposed to get you centered with the universe or something.
One Madame Melanie ran The Transformation Retreat. Her bio was short on details, only saying that she was "a master of techniques guaranteed to free and transform your mind, body, heart, and soul."
Oh, please
, Victoria thought, shaking her head.
She used to be our school's guidance counselor ...
"You okay back there?" Susan, who rode up front with Mildred, asked.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine."
Molly, who sat next to Donna, turned to face Victoria. "It'll be okay, Vicky. We're all here for each other."
Victoria managed a weak smile. "I know."
She was grateful for that, at least.
After another half hour on the road, the women finally reached their destination. After parking, they unpacked their carry-ons and walked toward the building. While doing so, Victoria couldn't help but notice that theirs was the only car in the lot ...
They entered the lobby, which was just as barebones as the exterior. Behind a desk typing at a computer was a woman in her late fifties. She stood up and came around to greet each guest in turn.
She was partially nude. The only clothing she wore were two hair elastics, which gave her pigtails.
"Welcome to The Transformation Retreat," she said, in a low, husky voice. "I'm Elaine, the receptionist."
The women stared at her birthday suit. Elaine was physically fit from head to toe. Her dark gray hair reached to her shoulders, and she had a round face and high cheekbones. Wrinkles, especially around her mouth, showed when she smiled, but Victoria felt that that only enhanced her beauty—that and her penetrating eyes.
"Uh, yeah—hi, Elaine," Mildred said, "we're happy to be here."
Victoria couldn't help but notice that Elaine's eyes were glassy ... The teacher asked, "Uh, so where are the other guests?"
"Oh, you're the only ones, dear," Elaine said.
Before anyone could respond, a voice from behind them said, "Ladies! It's been forever!"
The group spun around to see Madame Melanie standing before them. She was middle-aged with long, curly brown hair and green eyes. She had a big smile and a big rack and was dressed in a loose, flowing white dress. She was also barefoot.
"Ooh, let me take a look at all of you!" she said before greeting everyone in turn with a hug and a kiss on each cheek.
Mildred was an English teacher. She stood 5 feet tall with blonde hair and wore dark clothes. She was skinny with a small rack. On her feet were black, open-toed, chunky-wedged flats, and her toenails were painted black.
Donna was also an English teacher. At 5-foot-5, she was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pert woman. Curvy with a full chest, she always tended to have a smile on her face. Wearing a purple dress, she wore flip-flops and had French tips on her toes.
Susan, an American-history teacher, was a plump woman with big tits. Her hair was brown, short, and curly. She wore a green pantsuit with heels. Her toenails and lips were the same raspberry color.
Molly, the last English teacher in the group, also stood 5 feet. She wore a white dress and her brown hair in a ponytail. She was skinny and had a small chest, and she wore sandals on her feet. Her toenails were painted brown.
And then there was Victoria. A little over 5 feet tall, the world-history teacher had brown eyes and straight black hair with bangs over her forehead. She wore a shirt, jeans, and sneakers.
"Well, I can't wait for us to catch up!" Melanie said. "Elaine will show you all to your rooms, and then we'll have dinner—she's such a wonderful cook!" She looked at Victoria. "I'll explain everything then."
Victoria nodded. "Sure ..."
Elaine brought them to their rooms on the second floor. They were each furnished with a bed, a chair, a garbage can, and a lamp table. The bathroom was also very modest, with only a tub, sink, and toilet. The women were told that, once they were settled, dinner would be served at 7 in the dining room on the first floor.
"From this point forward, The Transformation Retreat requires you to wear your hair in pigtails and to be naked at all times," Elaine said before leaving them. "You will find your hair elastics on your beds."
"What? Are your kidding?" Victoria protested.
"Of course not," Elaine said. "You must understand that this is Madame Melanie's proven way of shedding the outside world and embracing your inner self."
And with that, she left.
The guests looked at each other uncomfortably, but complied. After all, it was summer and the place was comfortable enough ...
When it was time, they walked downstairs to the dining room, where Elaine sat them down and fed them a multi-course meal. Drinks consisted of water and wine. Melanie sat at the head of the table with Elaine, Victoria, and Mildred on one side and Susan, Molly, and Donna on the other.
"I can't remember the last time I ate this well," Mildred said.
"If there's one thing I don't miss about teaching, it's the salary," Melanie said, to which all but Elaine and Victoria agreed.
"So, what have you been doing since you left?" Victoria asked their hostess.
"Well, helping students inspired me to want to help everyone I can," said Melanie. "So, I went back to school and, once I graduated, I opened up this retreat."
"Right, right," Victoria said. "And why are we the only ones here?"
"Because I want feedback. I want to get the last few kinks out before opening it up to everyone—"
"So you're using us as guinea pigs?"
"Who better than some of my closest friends?"
"Right ..."
Molly cleared her throat. "So why pigtails?"
"They symbolize our return to innocence and playfulness." Melanie sipped her drink. "So, what's going on with all of you?"
"Well, not to bring everyone down," Mildred said, "but I thought coming here might help us cope."
"With what?"
"Vicky and I recently got divorced, and our exes had custody over our kids. And Susan recently lost her husband."
"I'm sorry to hear that ... And Molly and Donna?"
"We're just here for support," Donna said.
"That's very admirable ... Well, why don't we call it a night? I'll prepare our itinerary for tomorrow so we can hit the ground running. Elaine will be down the hall from you if you need anything."
The teachers agreed. As they returned to their rooms, Victoria said, "Okay, does all of this seem weird to any of you?"
"Yeah, I'm not feeling walking around naked," Susan said.
"And she was very general when she answered my questions, wasn't she?"
"True ... So what are you getting at?" Mildred asked.
"We should leave."
The others looked at each other. Then Molly asked, "Maybe give it one more day?"
Victoria sighed. "Yeah ... Okay ..."
So the next day, after breakfast, Melanie led the teachers in a session of yoga and meditation. Then, after lunch, she met with each guest privately in her office on the first floor, after which they spent time in the common room. All of them, even Victoria, felt better ... though they couldn't remember anything—
"Dinner is served," Elaine said.
While they ate, the conversation centered on the glowing praise everyone had for the retreat. Even Victoria acknowledged that she was feeling better ... but couldn't help notice that everyone's eyes seemed glassy ...
That night, Melanie told her guests that a relaxation tape would be playing over the speakers in their rooms while they slept. She wanted then to give their opinions of it the following morning. While Victoria slept,
she wore pigtails and walked into a room wearing skin-tight leather. Her four friends were stretched out over a bed on their backs, their legs raised. They all begged for mercy, but Victoria tied their two big toes together, and then worshipped and tickled their feet ...
And then she bit their feet ... and gave them bastinado ... and poured hot candle wax on their feet ...
They screamed and begged for mercy—
And Victoria woke up with a start. She turned on the lamp and found that she was wet between her legs. She wiped herself off and went back to sleep, though it took a while ... In the meantime, she went through her dream, trying to understand it ... and she liked it ...
The next morning, everyone gave glowing reviews about the tapes. Mildred and Susan, in particular, said that they forgot what they were sad about ... Victoria agreed, but didn't say anything about her dream. And again, she noted that their eyes were glassy ...
And so it went for the next week. Victoria never dreamed that she'd celebrate Groundhog Day in the summer ...
Then one day after lunch, Melanie broke the routine.
"All right, ladies," Melanie said, "into the common room for a new exercise."
They sat on their yoga mats in a semicircle, with Victoria in the center. Mildred and Susan were to her left, and Molly and Donna were to her right.
