Confessions of a Mailgirl Ch. 15

"Really? I hadn't heard that."

"Yeah, it hasn't been publicly announced yet. Now that I'm doing this though," she said waving a hand in front of her nude body, "I'm sure it won't take long for word to get out."

I knew there was a Mailgirls movie in the works. It was a project that Barbara had been pushing for almost two years and what Barbara wanted at DDE, Barbara got. It was set to go into production soon with most of the filming being done on location here by DDE's film department. This was the first time I'd heard that Diana Clarkson had been cast in it though. "Wow, that's a big departure from your role as sweet little Ellie Bixby," I said to her.

"Yeah, no shit. That's why I'm doing it. I've been typecast by that role for so long that it's hard to be taken seriously as an actress in adult roles. When you're a washed up child actress you can try to create a new image by either going into rehab, constantly making an ass of yourself in public for the tabloids, or by taking your clothes off. Since I've never done either of the first two things I'm doing the third." I could see why Barbara wanted Diana for the role. The movie was part of her plan to help push Mailgirls into the cultural mainstream so who better to have playing one than a girl who had once been one of America's sweethearts?

"So you're doing research for the role now by doing this?" I asked.

"Yeah, that was part of the agreement to get the role. Barbara Anderson insisted I had to go through the full six weeks of Mailgirls training in preparation for it. God, does it really take six weeks to learn how to deliver shit around an office building?"

"No. You can learn the basics of the job in a few days. Most of it's about getting the girl in shape and making sure she'll accept her role as a naked inferior."

"What if she doesn't?" Diana asked.

"Then they'll wash her out of training."

"Really? Do they have to pay the financial penalties if that happens?"

I shook my head. "No. The first six weeks are considered probationary. Tangos are paid minimum wage during training and the company has the option of washing them out or the girls can quit during that time without any penalties."

"That's surprising. I've always heard they were like slave contracts and once you start as a mailgirl it's just about impossible to get out."

"That's pretty much true after completing the training. If a girl wants out she'd better do it before the contract is put up for bid and the full bonuses and penalties kick in."

"Well at least they're giving them a chance to back out if they decide they don't want to do it after a couple of weeks," Diana said.

"They aren't doing it for the tango's benefit, believe me," I scoffed. "There are so many women applying for Mailgirls jobs that Barbara wanted to be able to weed out the weak ones along with any potential troublemakers. If a girl racks up too many demerits during training or shows any kind of insolent attitude they're gone. Barbara wants only the most beautiful, fit, and obedient girls to come out of training and go up for bid."

"Are there really that many women applying?" Diana asked.

"Oh yeah. There are many more applications than openings. Women come from all over the country to apply."

"Why?"

"Lots of reasons I suppose. It's a tough economy for young people right now and there are virtually no other jobs out there that pay this well to start out."

"Yeah, I can most definitely relate," Diana said. "If this movie flops I may have to become a full time mailgirl myself to make ends meet." I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"Don't you have any money left from being on The Bixby Girls?" I asked.

Diana shook her head. "Not much. Most of it went into a trust fund that my dad raided when he left my mom. I've had to sue him to try to get it back. I'm earning some residuals on syndication but that money's mostly going toward lawyers' fees."

"Ugh, that sounds like a mess."

"It is. It's the kind of crap that's pretty damn typical in Hollywood, though. I don't know any child actors who haven't eventually ended up in some kind of financial mess because of family, agents, taxes, bad financial advice, the studio screwing them, or whatever."

"I didn't know that," I said.

"Yep. I need the money so that's why I'm doing this. My mom thinks doing this movie will kill off my career like 'Showgirls' did for Elizabeth Berkley though."

"Do you really think it's going to suck that bad?" I asked.

Diana shrugged. "You never know but it's not as if my phone was ringing off the hook with job offers anyway. I doubt it, though. I've read the script and it's actually quite funny and sweet."

"What's it about anyway?" I asked. "Besides tits and ass."

"It's a rom-com about a mailgirl and a computer geek who fall in love and have to keep their romance a secret from their friends and co-workers to keep the company from finding out. Boy meets naked girl, boy loses naked girl, boy overcomes obstacles to get the naked girl back. Not exactly original, except for the naked girl part. Most films in this genre are pretty formulaic though." It may not be original but it sure as hell was a lot closer to reality than Diana realized. They could just follow Anna and Ben around with hidden cameras and film pretty much the same story, I thought to myself.

"It's not nearly as raunchy as 'Showgirls' was," Diana continued. "And I really like Katherine DeAngelo as the director. I would never have signed on if not for her." Although DDE would handle most of the technical aspects of the filming Barbara had insisted on going outside of the company to hire mainstream screenwriters and the director. Romantic comedies weren't exactly in DDE's wheelhouse.

"So are you going to be naked through most of the movie?" I asked.

"Some of it takes place off the job so I'll be wearing clothes in those scenes. There will be plenty of nudity in it, though. I've talked to Katherine and she's planning on starting the film with a long unedited tracking shot of me running naked through the building on a delivery."

I thought about Diana having to resort to this to try to revive her acting career. "You're so beautiful and talented I have a hard time believing you're having trouble getting offered roles."

Diana sighed. "Beautiful women are a dime a dozen in Hollywood and talent is only marginally important," she said. "The film industry is no meritocracy, that's for sure. I can totally nail an audition for a part that's perfect for me and it'll end up going to some girl who has a look they want or is blowing the producer. That's why most actors tend to be so damned neurotic. You never know where your next role or paycheck is coming from. Even if you're successful for awhile you're always just one or two flops away from the scrap heap."

"If it's like that why do you want to keep doing it?"

"Damn good question," she laughed. "Believe me I've asked myself that more than a few times. Vanity mostly, I suppose. I liked being famous and I miss it. I hate it when people look at me now like you did and wonder where the hell they used to know me from. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love acting but if that's all it was about I could just do community theater."

"And you think this role will make you famous again?" I asked.

"It'll get me attention again, that's for damn sure. Whether that turns out to be good or bad remains to be seen. For better or worse, though, I've decided to roll the dice on this project and see what happens." Diana wrapped her arms around her body and shivered. "Damn, it's cold in this stairwell."

"Yeah, I think they intentionally keep the stairwells freezing to keep us moving and make sure our nipples stay hard." Down below us I heard the sound of a door opening and several female voices. Probably more mailgirls heading upstairs to the showers. "We'd better get going," I said. "You do know you're going to have to shower and shave right now in front of a bunch of horny geeks, don't you?"

"Oh yeah," Diana said. "Believe me my mom made damn sure I was aware of every sordid aspect of the job before I signed on." She sighed as she looked up the stairwell toward the fifth floor. "Let's go do this. Lead the way Mailgirl 9."

A STEAMY SCENE

The look on Diana's face as she surveyed the Mailgirls locker room was a combination of wide-eyed wonder and terror. The room was filled with beautiful, naked mailgirls in various stages of preparation for their shifts. I'd been doing this so long now that showering and shaving in front of an audience seemed almost normal to me, but seeing Diana's face reminded me of how very not-normal this really was. "And that's the two-way mirror where the horny geeks get to watch all this naked female flesh every morning," she said to me as a statement rather than a question.

"Yep," I replied. ''Turnover is down to next to nothing in the 'Gangsta' department since they built this, or so I'm told. A lot of guys even show up early to work to catch the show." DDE had released Demon Slayer 3 a few months earlier and it had also been a big hit which meant the guys on that floor were bitching about not having their own Mailgirls showers to peep into. I knew Barbara was mulling over ideas on what to do for them and whatever it turned out to be was guaranteed to be yet another humiliation for us mailgirls.

"Wow," Diana said, shaking her head. "I never ever would have imagined this kind of thing taking place in a modern American corporation."

You've never encountered the irresistible force of Barbara's will either, I thought to myself. "We'd better get started," I said to her. I began walking toward the shower area but when I turned to check on Diana she hadn't moved. She remained frozen in place staring at her nude reflection in the mirror. I returned to her. "Are you okay?" I asked.

Diana shook her head. "I think I'm a very long way from okay. Do you think anyone out there is taking pictures or videos?" she asked nodding toward the two-way mirror.

"Probably," I said. There was no reason to sugarcoat things for her. "Pictures and videos of your shower might end up on the internet this morning before you're done drying off."

Diana shuddered. "You mean because you think they'll recognize me?"

"No. That's not exactly a 'Bixby Girls' crowd out there. Unless you've been in 'Game of Thrones,' 'The Walking Dead,' or a superhero movie I doubt any of them will know you. They take pictures and videos of all the girls, especially the new ones."

"God this is crazy," she said shaking her head.

"Didn't you think about this before you signed up?"

"Of course I did," she replied. "I'm not naive. But now that I'm actually here doing this..." Her voice trailed off as she turned her attention from the mirror to me. "How were you able to do this the first time?"

I began telling Diana the story about how I was the first one to "inaugurate" this shower room and how scared and nervous I'd been. "Have you ever heard of the sonnet 'Ozymandias?'" I asked.

Diana nodded and began reciting part of it. "And on the pedestal these words appear. 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away." She must have seen the look of surprise on my face. "Hey, what can I say? I love poetry and literature." Diana was obviously no empty-headed starlet.

"I guess thinking about that is what finally helped to get me through this that first time," I said. "Knowing that whatever I did would someday be buried under the sands of time anyway. That helps free me up to live more boldly. To take chances."

"I don't know," Diana replied. "That sounds pretty damned nihilistic to me. I like to think that what I do in this life has meaning and purpose." I obviously lacked Barbara's powers of persuasion seeing how quickly Diana dismissed a philosophy that Barbara had gotten me to buy into. No, it's not that, I thought to myself. Barbara knows how to read people and can quickly discern what drives and motivates them and what doesn't. She somehow knew that philosophy would resonate with me just as she probably would've guessed that it wouldn't work at all with Diana.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked her. "Maybe Barbara will let you slide on doing some of this stuff since you're not going to be a real mailgirl anyway."

Diana shook her head. "It's in my contract that I have to complete the entire training just like any mailgirl and Barbara made it clear that she'd fire me from the film if I didn't. 'No diva bullshit' I think were her exact words." That sounded like Barbara alright. She always negotiated everything to her advantage from a position of strength and must have sensed how desperate Diana was to get a starring role in a film.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked again.

"I'm just going to have to do it and act like I'm loving every fucking second of it," she said. Diana closed her eyes for a minute and then took a deep breath and exhaled. When she opened them a confident smile spread across her face. "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." The transformation in her look and attitude was amazing. She can definitely act, I thought to myself.

Diana followed me across the locker room, although calling it that was a misnomer now. Barbara had ordered the lockers removed after banning clothes beyond the employee lobby. In their place were numbered hooks on the wall where we hung our MMU's while showering. We were allowed nothing of our own anywhere in the building so there was no need for a place to store things. Towels, soaps, lotions, razors, makeup kits, hairdryers, brushes, and even the food, drinks, and snacks we would consume throughout the day were all supplied by the company. It was intended as yet another demonstration of control over its mailgirls and was meant to make us feel completely vulnerable and dependent. And it did.

We placed our MMU's on the hooks and headed toward the showers grabbing the disposable razors, gels, and shampoo we needed from the shelves on the way. If any of the girls recognized Diana it wasn't obvious. As just another new tango she was mostly being ignored. Anna was already almost finished at the far end of the shower. I looked around for Kelly but didn't see her which was unusual since we normally had the same start time. I led Diana to an open shower head next to Sasha Gutheridge and her two daughters.

Much to the delight of the Gangsta floor, Sasha's second daughter Becca had also joined the Mailgirls club at the urging of her mother, although by the sounds of it there hadn't been much need for arm twisting. When Becca saw the paychecks that her mom and sister were bringing home she'd wanted to sign up as a part time mailgirl after turning eighteen even though she still had another semester of high school left. Barbara had thought long and hard about letting her work after school and on weekends before ultimately deciding against it. She was worried that the optics of having a high school girl doing the job would just stir up unnecessary controversy.

The outgoing and adventurous Becca, Mailgirl #28, was the polar opposite of her shy sister April. She'd been a cheerleader and gymnast in high school and Barbara had once remarked that she had the ideal mailgirl body. It was a compact, athletic body that was a perfect combination of functionality and aesthetic beauty. Becca had a sculpted ass, powerful thighs, and round, firm breasts just large enough to give her body nearly ideal symmetry without bouncing too uncomfortably. That body, along with her brown hair, blue eyes, and natural good looks, had made her an immediate fan favorite at DDE.

Becca also had the ideal personality for the job. She was a born exhibitionist who loved being naked in public and was ultra competitive by nature. She saw making deadlines on her runs as a continual challenge and took pride in rarely missing one. She also knew exactly how to play the game in dealing with the norms at DDE, exhibiting just the right mixture of overt sexuality and submissiveness. No mailgirl earned fewer demerits than she did. If some mad scientist ever wanted to clone an army of perfect mailgirls he could use Becca's DNA to do it.

I stepped into the shower next to Becca as her mother and sister April shared a shower head together on the other side. I knew April was still mortified by having to shower and shave her pussy next to her mom every day but if that bothered Becca at all it never showed.

"Hey Nine, how are ya," Becca said with a smile as I turned on the water and began to adjust the temperature. Even the other mailgirls called me Nine these days even though they didn't have to. I'm not sure if Becca even knew my real name.

"Hey Becca. This is Diana. She's just starting training."

"Ah, fresh flesh. How did you manage to score the famous Mailgirl 9 as your trainer? I didn't think she ever trained anyone."

"I asked Barbara Anderson to train with her," Diana replied.

"Wow, you must have some juice. What did you do before this?"

"Just odd jobs here and there." I guess Diana didn't want to reveal the real reason she was doing this for some reason.

"Well this is definitely an odd job," Becca laughed. "You should have no problem with it then."

A very pretty blonde named Linda entered the shower next to us and I also introduced Diana to her. Diana recognized her immediately. "Hey aren't you the one who was suing DDE with that feminist group?" she asked her.

"That was me," Linda replied.

"And you came back here as a mailgirl?" Diana asked incredulously.

"I didn't have much choice once I dropped the lawsuit," she replied. "It was either this or pay the penalties."

"I'm surprised DDE agreed to let you come back," Diana said. Linda merely shrugged in response.

I'd always assumed that Hiromoto had paid her off to get her to drop the suit but whatever had happened Linda was remaining tightlipped about it. What I did know was that she had completely torched the feminist group United American Women and its lead attorney Jennifer Erickson on her way out. Not only had she dropped the suit against DDE but she'd filed a suit against UAW claiming they were the ones who had recruited her and forced her to sign the contract so she could be used as a pawn in the organization's war against DDE and its Mailgirls program. On top of that she told the media that DDE had always treated her fairly while it was Jennifer Erickson and other women at UAW who had made unwanted sexual advances toward her. Erickson and UAW vehemently denied these allegations but the scandal had put them on the defensive and had taken a lot of the wind out of the sails of the anti-Mailgirls movement.

Since returning to DDE Linda had fit right in with the other girls and seemed like anything but the strident feminist that she'd been portrayed as by the media in the early days of the lawsuit against DDE. If I hadn't seen with my own eyes Barbara's reaction to the intense pressure that the suit and its publicity had put on her I might have thought that she had orchestrated the whole thing herself.

As we soaped up I took a couple of quick looks over at Diana and she seemed to be doing fine. She remained quiet but followed my cues until it came time to shave our pussies. This was the part that new mailgirls usually had the hardest time with.

"How are you doing?" I asked..

"I'm totally fucking freaking out right now," she replied with a calm smile on her face.

The girl can definitely act, I thought to myself.

TRAINING DAY

Our visit to Human Resources on the third floor of the tower to get Diana's ID photos taken turned out to be a chaotic mess. Since she had never signed a standard Mailgirls contract there were no proper computer records for her which led to mass confusion among HR personnel. It took a long phone call to Donna Haverly's office to sort the matter out as the two of us knelt on the floor waiting. The room also had several clothed new hires waiting to be processed staring wide-eyed at us, one of them a cute guy with a large boner straining against the fabric of his pants he was trying to hide..