Jean - the Birth of Venus

Part 7: Groomed

This story takes place in 1976 before there were cell phones and personal computers.

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Chapter 12

I had barely gotten back to sleep after the last time Ellen had rattled our cages as part of her 'suicide watch' when she shook me awake from a terrifying dream. In the nightmare, I was tied to a raised alter surrounded by a hoard of screaming fanatics all of whom carried sharp knives. My uncle was the high priest and he was offering my naked, sweaty body to his disciples. It took me a moment to recover from my terror and pay attention to the police woman's babbling.

She said, "I finally have a jumpsuit for you to wear. We can't have a member of the Exhibition running around in a skimpy bikini."

She made me strip out of my swimsuit in front of her. I knew better than to ask for underwear. I stepped into the bright orange jumpsuit and buttoned up the front. The jumpsuit had seen better days. There were holes and missing buttons. Still, it provided a lot more cover than my ruined swimsuit which Ellen tossed into a garbage can in the hallway.

Ellen said, "Your aunt brought in some items for you. I put the toiletries and your diary in a bag for you. I had to toss the birth control pills. It's policy. Some idiot smuggled in heroin disguised as birth control. You won't need it anyway. It's going to be a long time before a man even kisses you."

Before I could protest, she directed me to kneel. While she was putting the shackles and cuffs on me, I said, "Is this necessary?"

"The judge ordered you bitches to be treated as prisoners until you fulfill your community service. The Exhibition staff can let you out of them if they see fit. When I'm transporting a prisoner, I follow the regulations."

I shuffled to the police van along with another girl, and we were driven up the hill to the Exhibition complex. I was led into a white building with a red tiled roof. The policewoman talked to a receptionist who placed a phone call. I had to wait for a moment before Dorthey, and a middle-aged woman came scurrying down the hallway. When Dorthey saw me, she burst into a smile.

Dorthey said, "I'm so happy to see you, Jean. At last, we have our Venus. This is Maggie. She'll be your handler. If you keep her happy, then I'm sure the judge will be happy too."

Maggie held out her hand and then frowned when she realized I was in restraints.

Maggie said, "Ellen, perhaps you could remove the chains? I promise I won't let your prisoner escape."

The policewoman removed my shackles and said, "Please have her ready at nine tonight when some other lucky cop will come to pick up the community service volunteers."

Maggie and Dorthey led me down the hall to a door with my name on it. Above my name, the sign said 'Venus.' I was puzzled. The sign looked professional. I had only accepted my plea deal an hour or two ago. When my handler opened the door, I saw three women waiting inside a small room.

Maggie led me inside and said, "This is your dressing room, and these women are your team for the Exhibition. Our job is to groom you for your presentation and give you any support you require for the rest of the summer."

The crowded room had a cot next to the far wall. The rest of the space was taken up by a chair in front of a make-up table with a large mirror. I looked at the eager faces of the women as they stared back examining my face like it was a blank canvas they would bring to life. I swallowed hard when I saw a large color print of Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus' on the wall. Any doubts about the meaning of the nameplate on the door disappeared.

I said, "I don't understand" even though I understood all too well that my uncle's wish to have me play Venus in the Exhibition had been fulfilled. I also knew that his friend, Judge Okazaki was serious about sending me to prison if I didn't comply. By pleading nolo contendere, I had removed any possibility of legal relief without a long and possibly futile court fight.

Dorthey said, "Maggie, I'll leave Jean in your capable hands. If you have any problems with her, let me know. I promised to provide a daily report to the judge."

Maggie said, "Let's get our actor out of this ugly jumpsuit. We don't have a lot of time, and I want to see what it is going to take to get her body ready for presentation."

I was forced to stand naked in the middle of the room while the four women inspected every inch of my body. I had to listen to them note every flaw and problem area. Evidently, my boobs were too large and my neck not long enough. One of the women commented on my tan lines and joked about how tiny my swimsuit must have been.

After what seemed forever, Maggie said, "I think we have an idea of what we have to work with. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day if we are going to be ready for our Sunday opening. Right now, we need to send our Venus over to Nina's Saloon for laser removal of every hair on her body below her neck. We don't have time to shave her every day."

I said, "But isn't that permanent?"

Maggie looked at me as if she was surprised I could speak. "Is it a problem?"

I kept being reminded that my options are limited. Unless they threaten me with bodily injury, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"No."

"One treatment is not permanent, but we don't have room in our schedule to shave you every day. With your dark hair, we'll have to do a couple of follow-up treatments. I think by the end of the summer, you'll never have to worry about shaving again.

If I thought having my pubic hairs shaved was embarrassing, the laser treatment was far worse. I had to grit my teeth for a couple of hours while the technician pulled and stretched my labia every which way. By the time they were done, my private parts, as well as my arms and legs, were bare and stinging. They'd even treated my upper lip which had always been an area of concern for me.

I got back to my dressing room just in time to catch the van back to the city jail. A policewoman put me in shackles and drove me back along with several other girls. All of us were quiet. I gazed out the window. My mind was too numb to engage in conversation. Thankfully, all the community service actors were placed in a different and much nicer section of the jail, and Sonya was my only cellmate,.

I looked at Sonya and said, "What are you doing here? Isn't your Dad a big shot politician?"

"My Dad said I was an adult now and had to accept responsibility for my actions. The police said I stole an expensive pair of diamond earrings from a store I haven't been near in months. They took me to the station and made me empty my purse. I swear, someone must have planted them in my purse. I was facing a felony grand theft charge. I couldn't bear the thought of spending two years in the state prison, so I took their plea deal. I should have known volunteering for the Exhibition would mean I'd be playing "The Nude Maji."

I explained to Sonya how I'd ended up playing Venus. I tried to find the humor in the way Sonya, and I had been 'volunteered' for the Exhibition. Somehow, the thought of being exhibited naked in public took all the comedy out of it.

I had to ask, "Sonya, I thought you were eighteen? When I met you in the beachwear store, your father said he was buying you a bikini for your birthday."

"I am eighteen. My birthday was over a week ago. Why do you ask?"

"The DA claimed you were under eighteen when we partied on the beach. They accused me of pandering a minor. That would have added another eight years to my sentence. He must have known your age. If he was trying to frighten me, he was wasting his time. I was already terrified. I was facing five to six years for assaulting a police officer and causing him great bodily harm. What're another eight years? My life would have been over either way."

A policewoman walked down the row of cells and said, "Ok, lights out. Get some sleep ladies. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

After the policewoman left, I whispered, "Sonya, what did you mean when you said you knew you'd be playing "The Nude Maji?" I had no idea what they would have me do until I got to the Exhibition."

I was surprised when I heard Sonya crying. "I'm sorry Jean. It's all my fault you're here. My dad said if I wasn't willing to support the Exhibition this summer, the least I could do was help recruit someone. The beach party was a setup. I knew the police officer would be up on top of the cliff taking photographs. My job was to get you drunk and stoned. I didn't expect the guys to have sex with you. Oh God, I'm sorry."

My mind was reeling. The whole community service thing was bogus. I had been entrapped. A good lawyer could get the charges thrown out.

"That changes everything. I need to talk to my lawyer."

"What good will that do? You and I pleaded nolo contendere. As far as the state is concerned, we are guilty. If we don't satisfy the terms of our plea bargain, they'll send us to prison."

"Seriously, we have to fight them."

"Jean, do you remember the woman clearing tables at the restaurant? You know, the one with the lifeless eyes. Well, when she found out they wanted her to pose naked for the Exhibition, she refused and hired a good lawyer. The judge sent her to prison for three years. She got into a fight with a guard and was put in solitary in the maximum-security unit. The male guards raped her repeatedly. She was pregnant within a couple of months. The state put the child up for adoption. She got pregnant again and had a second baby just after she got out. She's trying to support her second daughter clearing tables. As a felon, she wouldn't even have gotten that shitty job if your uncle hadn't helped. Jean, you can't fight them. Everyone in Santa Teresa is involved in the Exhibition. They'll just use you as another example."

"But my uncle is the head of the Exhibition. He must have some influence."

"You still don't get it. Who do you think selected you to play Venus?"

I was stunned into silence. I thought about my arrest. I could understand most of what had happened, but I couldn't figure out how the bag of weed had gotten into the locked glove box. I was pretty sure it wasn't the one James had tried to give me on the beach.

I fell into a deep sleep despite the fact I couldn't stop thinking about how I had been entrapped.

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Chapter 13

It was early in the morning when a much nicer policewoman named Vicky roused us. We only had a couple of minutes to pee and splash some cold water on our faces before she shackled us and loaded everyone onto the van. I was sitting next to the window with Sonya as a seatmate. As we drove past the front of the Exhibition Hall, I noticed a new huge banner hanging from the building. The thirty-foot-tall poster was framed by two swaying palm trees. The banner announced the dates and times for the 1976 Pageant of the Master. This year's theme was Erotica Art Through the Ages. What alarmed me was the Pageant's logo. It was a segment of Botticelli's painting containing just the image of the naked Venus with her enigmatic expression. I swallowed hard when I thought about being exhibited nude to throngs of strangers.

The Exhibition facility was chaos. I heard shouts and cries over the din of power tools the entire day. Maggie and my team began working on my body as soon as I arrived. I managed to eat a bagel and down a cup of coffee while they poked and prodded. I whined when they sliced off my bleach blond hair. They used electric hair clippers to shear what remained down to an eighth of an inch of stubble. I felt like crying when I ran a hand over my prickly scalp. The ignored my sniffles as they fitted me with a massive golden blond wig. A couple of tresses were loose around my face, but most of it was gathered into a long flowing braid. The braid had a stiff wire down the middle that ended in a ring that went around my middle finger. In Botticelli's painting, Venus is holding the end of her long tress over her pussy. The ring and wire prevented the braid from being blown away by the breeze from the gods of wind. My other hand half covered my right breast.

The entire front of my body was plastered with heavy makeup to match the pale skin color in the painting. My tan lines were hidden. The shadows under my eyes were made up to look like I wasn't wearing makeup. After a couple of hours of intense effort, Maggie declared it was time to fit the exhibit to my body. One of the women removed my wig before I left to practice. I was led down a narrow hallway past several doorways before stopping at one with a sign taped to it. The sign simply read "Venus."

The door led into the back of the exhibit booth. The front wall was a large panel of glass with a curtain that was closed. The back wall had the background for the painting. On one side were paintings of the wind gods. A giant scallop shell rested on the floor in the middle of the booth. A thin metal rod rose out of the center of the sea shell. There was a slight bend in the top of the rod covered in sheepskin. On the side of the exhibit, opposite from the wind gods was a frame to support the woman portraying the Hora of Spring.

Maggie said, "The problem with this painting is the unnatural pose of Venus in Botticelli's painting. Her legs are swayed to the left so that the weight of her upper body is offset. The metal rod is hidden behind your left leg and provides the only support. You will stand with the padded piece under your perineum. I was happy to hear you were a dancer. You will need all your strength to hold your pose steady. We will start by practicing short exhibitions, but we need to get you up to forty minutes per session before you take a twenty-minute break. We can't afford to annoy our audience by having the main attraction closed longer than that."

I looked at a copy of Botticelli's painting taped to the back wall and said, "You've got to be kidding."

Maggie said, "Oh, I'm very serious. If you want to satisfy your plea bargain, you must work hard. I don't know if you were told, but only your actual exhibition time counts against your public service requirement of 400 quality hours. We will generously credit you an hour of community service for each completely flawless shift. If you so much as sneeze, the entire hour will not be counted. The Exhibition runs for nine weeks and is open from ten until six with Mondays off. If you manage eight flawless shifts a day, every day except for days when your period is heavy, you will earn the required hours with some to spare. I expect you will not achieve perfection every shift, but if you do not want to finish the rest of your sentence in a maximum-security prison, I recommend you limit your failures and quickly adapt to long hours of holding your pose steady."

"But that's inhumane."

"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you attacked a police officer."

I was shown where to stand, and a technician loosened the rod. I jumped when he slid the tip up to the juncture of my legs. Maggie tugged my naked body into Botticelli's unnatural pose, and the engineer locked the rod into place. She moved my left hand to cover my now hairless pussy. She moved my right hand up over my right breast. When I tried to cover all my breast, she tugged my hand up to expose the bottom of my breast including part of my areola.

Maggie said, "Don't be alarmed. You'll have the end of the wig to cover your pussy when we go live. So, just relax and give me your best effort. I'm going to let your team take a lunch break while you practice holding your pose. I'm going to stay and time you. We can grab a bite later. We still have a lot of work to do before we're ready."

Maggie flipped a switch, and I felt a cool breeze from a fan blowing air from the mouth of the gods of wind. I shivered, and my nipples quickly hardened. She yelled at me when I turned to look for the source of the breeze. "I'm not letting you down until you give me ten flawless minutes. I'm starting my stopwatch again."

My muscles were tense by the time I managed to complete ten flawless minutes. I had to be helped off the support, and half carried back to my room. I was given a sandwich while one of the team worked on my toenails. As soon as I finished my lunch, they repeated the process on my fingernails. They painted my nails a neutral color to match the painting. My eyebrows were plucked and teased before being dyed to match the golden wig.

They led me back to the exhibit and Maggie said, "Give me twenty flawless minutes."

I got a cramp after fifteen minutes and was brought to my room for a massage on the cot intended for resting during my breaks. The firm hands of the trainer on my muscles felt wonderful. Fifteen minutes later, I was back in my booth. I was shaking by the time they let me quit. I hadn't satisfied Maggie's request for twenty straight minutes despite trying three times.

Maggie said, "Jean, you are too tense. We need you to relax. Try some deep breathing. You'll never meet your community service requirement otherwise."

I stared at her for a moment. "Why wouldn't I be tense. The damn guard at the jail won't let anyone sleep, and I've been threatened with eighteen years in maximum security prison if I don't expose myself to hundreds and hundreds of strangers."

Maggie laughed at my pain, "Actually, Jean, it will be at least a couple thousand visitors every day. I'm going to call the Exhibition doctor for help. I think you need a tranquilizer. It will help with your anxiety as well as ease your muscle cramps."

A few minutes later a young man entered the room and pulled up a chair next to my cot. He gave my naked body a cursory examination. He took my blood pressure and pulse, as well as my temperature.

"Jean are you on any prescriptions?"

"I was on birth control, but the policewoman in the jail threw them out."

"When was the last time you had any alcohol?"

"It's been a couple of days."

"Well, you won't be drinking while you are working for the Exhibition. How about other drugs, marijuana, cocaine ...?"

"Again, it's been a couple of days since I smoked some pot."

"Have you ever taken any tranquilizers? Sometimes they are called downers or other names on the street."

"I don't normally take anything other than alcohol and weed. I've used speed to cram for finals in college, but that's about it."

"Good, good, I'm going to write you a prescription for Seconal. I want you to take two tablets now and two more in four hours. For now, I don't want you to have more than six a day. We'll see how well that works for you. Let me know if you experience any side effects. I'm going to give Maggie a sample pack until the pharmacist delivers your prescription tomorrow. I want her to administer the prescription, so you don't miss any. Maggie, tomorrow, you can give her two after breakfast, two after lunch and two after dinner. Please don't let her take any alcohol. Any questions?"

"What will it do to me?"

"It will relieve your anxiety. Hopefully, it will help with the tension you're feeling from holding still for prolonged periods. I've seen it work wonders for other exhibition actors. It may give you the sensation of being inebriated. Often it lowers a person's inhibitions. I wouldn't worry about that since you have Maggie and her crew to protect you."

"Could you also write me a prescription for birth control pills?"

"I would be happy to, but barbiturates interfere with the effectiveness of birth control pills. If Maggie feels there is a possibility of you engaging in sex, I can suggest alternative forms of birth control."

Maggie grinned. "I don't think Jean has anything to worry about. She's locked up at night and is under constant supervision during the day. I promise she won't be engaging in any sex during the Exhibition - at least not with a man."