Aunt Phoebe's Masturbatorium Ch. 03

For a moment it grew quiet, and all I could hear was the sound of the wind rustling in the trees. I wanted desperately to know exactly what it was that had provoked my uncle's resentment and condemnation, but nothing specific could be deduced from the content of their conversation. What "ridiculous thing" was my uncle referring to? And what was so "disgraceful" about it?

"You are my daughter, Angelique," my uncle said, breaking the silence. "And I love you very much. I am sorry that I hurt you and your mother, but you're involvement with these people can only lead to no good. I want you to stop seeing them."

"I'm sorry, papa, but you can no longer tell me what to do."

The finality of the retort caused another long, uncomfortable silence. And then I caught a brief glimpse of my uncle as he stormed out of the courtyard, looking very distraught. As he reached the door leading into the house, he turned around sharply and faced his daughter.

"I am not coming back," he said emphatically. "I will not step foot in this house until you and your mother come to your senses. And you can tell her I said so."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and quickly exited the courtyard.

I didn't see Angelique for the rest of the day, and knowing that her dispute with her father would have put her in a decidedly sullen mood, I thought it best not to seek her company. I returned to my bedroom and made some entries in my journal, and then put on my bathing suit and went for a swim in my aunt's indoor pool. I swam for about an hour and then took a nap on one of the lounge chairs. I fell asleep quickly, waking up several hours later to see the sun dipping low in the western sky.

It was now almost 6:30 PM, and I was feeling hungry and a little chilly. I threw my towel around me and headed up to my room, encountering not a single servant along the way, which I thought strange. Even the kitchen was deserted. So much for dinner I thought.

After I had showered and dressed, I made my way to the kitchen to find something to eat. The refrigerator was full of all different kinds of food that required time-consuming preparation, and I was not in the mood to spend several hours in such a task. After some searching, I came across a plate of cold lamb chops, which I cut into several thin pieces and placed between two slices of bread. I then poured myself a glass of wine and sat down at the kitchen table to eat. I had only taken a few mouthfuls when my cousin came bursting through the door.

What the hell are you doing?" she asked gruffly.

"What does it look like?" I responded.

"Are you crazy? We're having dinner with Lenore tonight. Did you forget?"

"No, I didn't forget," I replied between mouthfuls. "But I was hungry. And besides, where is everybody anyway?"

"They'll be here in half an hour. Now put that stuff away."

I did not like being reprimanded by my cousin, so I ignored her and took another bite of my sandwich just to show her that I was not one to jump at her commands.

"Holly, please!"

"All right, take it easy," I said, as I slowly returned the plate of food to the refrigerator.

"What happened to the cook and all the other servants?" I asked.

"Mom sent them home."

"Why?"

"Because Lenore requested it."

"Lenore requested it?"

"She has her reasons."

"And what about dinner?"

"They're bringing home Chinese food. You like Chinese food, don't you?"

"I like Chinese food when it's made in LA," I replied, shaking my head. "This is getting weirder all the time."

Angelique laughed at my comment, showing no sign of the distress she must have felt from her previous confrontation with her father. In fact, she seemed very excited about our upcoming dinner with Lenore and her friends, and could hardly wait to get me to her bedroom to show me what dress she was going to wear for the occasion.

She pulled the doors to the armoire wide open and pulled out a simple, low-cut, black dress with lace frills on the bottom.

"How do you like it?" she asked.

"It suits you," I replied. "Direct and to the point."

"You better get dressed, too. It's getting late."

I had already chosen my outfit the day before. It was a beautiful, emerald-green dress that I had bought at one of the Parisian boutiques on a previous visit. It had always been my favorite dress, and when Angelique saw me in it she was spellbound.

"A young Elizabeth Taylor," she said, sizing me up. "That's who you look like. I finally figured it out."

She had me model the dress for her, complimenting me highly on my appearance.

"Lenore is going to love you in this," she said happily. "You have no right to be so fucking gorgeous!"

I allowed her to make some last-minute adjustments to my hair and clothes, enduring each little poke and jab with a patient sigh.

"Did you know that this dress is the same color as your eyes?" she asked as she pulled my hemline down. "Outrageous!"

I thought it incongruous that we should be dressed so formally when we were going to have a casual dinner of Chinese take-out food. But my aunt had insisted we wear our formal attire out of respect for Lenore, and I was in no position to argue the issue. Although I was still feeling nervous about meeting her, I still wanted to make a positive impression upon the older woman, if nothing more than out of respect for myself.

It was just after 8:00 PM when the front door opened and my aunt came waltzing into the foyer, where Angelique and I had remained making final adjustments to our makeup. Lenore, Justine, and Estelle followed her closely; all of them dressed in evening gowns and high heels like my aunt, as if they were going to attend some formal gala event. Jake came up behind them carrying two large bags of Chinese food.

"Leave it all on the kitchen table, Jake," my aunt instructed him.

Jake quickly obeyed and hurried into the kitchen with his packages. As he walked past us, my aunt caught sight of us standing in the corner in front of a huge, ornate 18th-century mirror, which we had used to inspect our appearance. Upon seeing us, she stopped short and stood there with her mouth open.

"Will you look at this, Lenore?" she said. "Who are these two beautiful women?"

"Mon amour!" Lenore exclaimed as she walked over to me and kissed me on both cheeks. "How lovely you are—and so tall!"

Her warm reception seemed to me genuine enough, but the voice inside my head told me to be wary.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Ms. Marceau," I replied with a slight curtsey.

"No, no!" she laughed. "Call me Lenore, please. And you don't have to be formal with me my little beauty. The gowns are just for show, not to impose restrictions upon anyone."

Justine and Estelle greeted me in much the same fashion, commenting on how much I had seemed to mature over the past year. They hadn't changed much themselves during that time. Both of them still sported the same short coiffure, but their auburn hair seemed to have more of a touch of red in it than I had remembered.

"I'm surprised you haven't gone into modeling with a face like yours," Justine said to me.

I might have asked the same of her with her beautiful smile and round, but pretty, face.

"Modeling doesn't interest me," I said. "I'm studying to be a writer."

"Studying?" Estelle said. "One doesn't study to be a writer. One is or one isn't. The little that can be taught isn't worth learning."

"And how would you know?" Justine said. "What writing have you done? You're an accountant!"

"I know a little about the arts," Estelle said, defensively. "You have to live life in order to write about it, that much I know. Holly, you're wasting your time in college."

"She is not wasting her time," my aunt chimed in. "She just doesn't want to get by on her good looks. Come on. Let's have dinner. I'm famished."

We followed my aunt into the kitchen where Jake was busy arranging the food selections on the table. After he was done my aunt dismissed him and she invited each of us to help ourselves to the food, which we then carried into the dining room. My aunt sat at the head of the table with Lenore to her immediate right and Justine and Estelle taking up chairs to her left. Angelique sat next to Lenore and I took the seat next to my cousin, grateful to have a little distance between the Sisterhood leader and myself.

Having feasted on the wonderful Chinese cuisine of downtown LA all my life, I found this particular incarnation of that venerable food greatly lacking. Nonetheless, my aunt and her friends seemed to relish every bite, pausing only to speak a word of praise about how delicious the food was before taking another mouthful. We didn't talk much at the beginning of the meal as we were all hungry, but after our appetites had been whetted somewhat, and the white wine began to take effect, the conversation began to flow freely.

Most of the talk that evening centered around rather mundane issues concerning my aunt's and Lenore's various business ventures, with a heaping serving of jokes thrown in for good measure. For a time the sole topic of discussion was business-related, and Angelique and I were left out of the general conversation. I could see that my cousin was getting irritated at being ignored for so long a time, and she suddenly spoke up, rudely interrupting her own mother who was in the midst of relating a funny tale.

"Dad was here today," she said to my aunt.

"Oh," my aunt replied, trying to hide her annoyance at her daughter's lack of propriety. "What did he want?"

"The same complaints as usual. He said he's not coming back."

"He has to come back to check on the wine. Did you tell him that?"

"I don't think he cares any more mom," my cousin replied, sticking her fork into a piece of meat. "He doesn't approve of...what's going on."

As she said this, she stole a look at Lenore and then at her mother. The older woman cleared her throat and drew herself up in her chair.

"You are not answerable to Pierre any longer, Phoebe," Lenore said. "We can find someone else to take over production here."

"But we are still friends," my aunt said. "And he has great wine-making expertise. It's just that he doesn't like..."

"Me," Lenore said, completing the sentence.

"And then of course..."

"Yes...that."

My aunt suddenly looked at me as if seeing me for the first time that evening.

"Oh, Holly, I'm so sorry," she said. "I think it's time we told you what's going on here."

"That would be nice mom," Angelique emphasized.

All eyes turned to Lenore, who sat contentedly with her wine glass in her hand. She took a sip from the glass and gently laid it back on the table.

"You have been found out, my dear Holly," she said in an incriminating voice. "Your secret has been revealed."

The discomfort I felt in my stomach at that moment made me regret that I had eaten so much of the barely palatable food. The moment I had dreaded for so long was now upon me and I didn't know what to say or do. I looked from face to face, but there was no hint of pity or sympathy in any of them. Lenore's face was the most stern of all.

"What? What secret?" I stammered.

"Phoebe," she said. "Show her."

My aunt lifted her handbag onto the table and withdrew a videocassette, which she handed to Justine.

"Go ahead," she said to her associate. "Let her see it."

Justine walked over to the television set that was standing in one corner of the room and placed the cassette into the VCR. Angelique gripped my hand hard.

"It's going to be okay," she whispered.

But I didn't feel okay. And as soon as I saw the first frame I felt even worse. For there, on the television set's 27-inch screen, was the image of a huge, black penis being furiously masturbated by two sets of hands. One of these belonged to Megan, and the other set, as one could see as the camera panned upwards to reveal the leering face, belonged to me.

"Oh, my God!" I uttered as I buried my face in my hands.

Without thinking, I stumbled out of my chair and ran out of the room, heading toward the front entrance as a chorus of women's voices trailed after me. I flung open the front door and ran out onto the driveway where I halted after hearing Angelique's desperate pleas for me to stop. I stood there shaking in the cool night air, angry with my cousin that she had been so careless with the incriminating tape.

"The only thing worse than this," I said to her as she ran up behind me, "is if that tape wound up in my parent's hands. How fucking stupid can you be?"

I was not used to using curse words as a general rule, and I never used them with Angelique, even though she felt no similar restraint in my presence. She had never seen me really angry before, and I think it shocked her because she stood silently for several moments with her mouth hanging wide open, unable to say anything.

"Are you that careless that you could allow such a thing to get out of your hands?" I said confronting her. "What did you do? Offer it as a gift to your mother?"

She did not remain shocked for long. Reaching out her hand to me, she grabbed it and pulled me to her with a violent jerk.

"Didn't you hear what I said? I said it was going to be okay. Mom and Lenore know all about the video. Their fine with it, trust me."

"Fine with it?" I sneered. "How can they be fine with it? It's a goddamn porno tape!"

"Oh, there's so much you don't understand, Holly. Come back inside and they'll explain everything."

"No!" I hissed. "Do you know how embarrassed I am over this? And you! How could you set me up like that? I want to rip your fucking hair out!"

"Holly, stop it!"

It was my aunt's voice. She was standing in the doorway with Lenore at her side, both of them looking like two truant officers who had just cornered a juvenile delinquent.

"You humiliated me," I said to my aunt. "How could you do this?"

"There is nothing for you to be humiliated about, young lady," Lenore said. "Your aunt found the tape by accident and brought it to me, and I'm glad she did. The tape is the reason why I had your aunt invite you here, so that I could introduce you to our Society."

"Please, Holly, don't make this difficult for me," my aunt implored. "Come inside and we'll talk. Things are not the way they seem."

Angelique stood there quietly, waiting to see what my next move would be.

I lingered for a time considering what to do, but soon realized that my desire to get to the truth outweighed any other desire of mine. I decided that the best thing to do would be to hear them out and proceed from there. With Angelique following closely behind, I went back into the house and sat down once again at the table next to my cousin. Justine and Estelle eyed me curiously, but said nothing.

"Holly," my aunt began. "I want you to listen very closely to what Lenore has to say. If you don't like what you hear, we'll say no more about it and that will be that. Fair enough?"

"I guess so."

My aunt smiled and turned to Lenore. "Do what you think is best."

Lenore reached for a bottle of wine and began to fill her glass. I watched as the golden liquid rose toward the top, the little bubbles reflecting the light like miniature prisms.

"I know you must have a lot of questions," the Sisterhood leader said. "But I would like you to hear what I have to say first. If you have any questions to ask after that, I will gladly answer them. Agreed?"

I nodded my head.

"Very well."

Before she began, she had Angelique trade places with me at the table, so that I was now sitting right next to the older woman. I had never felt more ill at ease in my life.

"I don't want you to feel embarrassed by the fact that we saw the video. Actually, we found it quite amusing."

"Very amusing," Justine laughed.

"I didn't find it amusing when I first saw it," my aunt said to me. "Especially when Angelique told me she had engineered the whole thing. But it proved to me that she and you have a great deal in common with us. More than you know. Lenore will explain it to you."

Lenore took a sip of wine and softly cleared her throat.

"Holly, when I met you last year," she began, "I saw something in you that reminded me of myself at your age; a charming forthrightness, a desire for accomplishment, and the need to control and dominate the world around you."

"You're talking about Angelique," I said.

"No, I'm talking about you," Lenore replied, slightly displeased at having been interrupted.

She let her eyes fall upon my aunt Phoebe, who in turn looked at me half pleadingly.

"Okay," I said. "I'm sorry."

The older woman accepted my apology and continued.

"Angelique does share many of the same qualities as you, but she is a blunt tool compared to your, let's say, more refined sensibilities."

Lenore turned to my cousin who now sat there wearing a frown.

"Don't be insulted, Angelique," Lenore said. "I speak the truth and you and your mother both know it. You are headstrong and determined to have your way at all costs. And while these traits may serve you well in certain circumstances, they are not the qualities I am seeking in a protégé."

Angelique seemed to take this news with casual indifference rather than with disappointment, as if she had been expecting such a disclosure.

"You, on the other hand," Lenore said turning to me, "possess great insight and flexibility in your dealings with others. And, most importantly, you temper your judgment by considering all circumstances, not just those that suit you. This is the mark of a true leader."

Lenore smiled as she said this, and I noticed that both Justine and Estelle nodded their heads in agreement with their superior's estimation of my psychological profile. But my aunt's face looked sad as she stole a glance at her daughter, who now sat with her hands folded on the table looking pensive. By the looks on both their faces, I surmised that this issue had been discussed previously between all of them, and that they knew what to expect. I, however, had to wonder how Lenore had managed such a prodigious feat of psychoanalysis upon me given our limited contact. I could only imagine that our original encounter had made such an impression upon her that she could not help but arrive at this singular determination.

"From what I have seen," Lenore continued, "and from what your aunt has told me about you, I would like to invite you to become a member of our Philanthropic Society, and to serve alongside me as my protégé in the administration of its duties."

I forced myself to react with surprise to this news, since Angelique had already warned me that the offer would be made.

"It's a great honor," Justine said to me. "No one your age has ever been admitted before."

"Or to such a position of power," Estelle agreed.

I could tell that my aunt was happy for me, yet equally dismayed that her own daughter had been passed over in my favor. Angelique forced a smile, the foreknowledge of Lenore's decision seeming to have less effect upon her than my aunt.

"Well," Lenore asked me. "What do you have to say to that?"

"I'm...flattered." I stammered. "I had no idea you thought of me so highly."

"Nonsense. I can recognize superior quality when I see it."

"Thank you," I said graciously. "May I ask what this Society does?"

"Simply put, it is a Society of women such as myself, your aunt, and others who possess a genuine desire to promote humanitarian efforts throughout the world. We have chapters in over 30 countries, but our corporate headquarters are based here in Paris. We have a very aggressive outreach program spearheaded by some of the most wealthy and influential women in the world. Our intent is to provide money and resources to fund educational and social improvement programs to developing countries, as well as offering charitable services on a global scale. Our ultimate aim is to create a better world by virtue our humanitarianism. Does that sound like an organization you would choose to belong to?"