Hope Floats

The experience of being treated as an object helped Hope to fill in the gaps as far as what was expected of her and started to fix in her mind the character of the part she was playing. Soon she had accepted the fact that no one spoke to her or asked her permission before they moved her around or placed their hands on her body. She found it harder and harder to pay attention to what was happening around her and more often than not her eyes simply gazed down at her tabletop or slipped shut as if in a doze.

The trolley was wheeled out into the warm air of the evening and into a area beside a pool that had been cleared to accommodate a small stage and space for an audience.

As she was unloaded from the trolley and moved into position amongst what seemed like dozens of other living tables, all with similarly submissive expressions on their masked faces, Hope accepted the feel of the hands that brushed her body without much in the way of conscious thought. She kept in her mind the image of statues and carvings made to resemble the human form, trying to think of her own body as nothing more than a piece of furniture that happened to have been made in that same shape.

By the time barstools had been arranged around her and a number of bowls containing various and sundry snacks placed on her tabletop, Hope had managed to lull herself into a state of mind where the fact that she had been made into a table could not have been farther from her thoughts. All that mattered was that in the here and now was that she was a table and there was nothing more to it. Tables did not have opinions, stories to share or issues with their situation, they just sat there and got on with it.

It was only when Hope felt the sensation of something being placed on her tabletop that she realised she had fallen into a light sleep after being put in place and then left alone. Seemingly she had been asleep for some time as the air was now filled with the sound of conversation and people were milling about amongst the tables. Something was happening on the stage, but as she was facing in the opposite direction, her ears muffled by the hood, Hope had no idea of what was taking place up there.

Hope blinked to clear her eyes and saw that what had been deposited on her tabletop was a pair of rather over the top cocktails. She chanced a quick scan around and saw the owners of the drinks pulling back the stools that had been placed next to her and felt her heart judder in her chest as she recognised their faces.

Marie and Geoff; of all the people at the resort, her own friends were the ones that had chosen to sit at her table. Beneath the hood, Hope's face flushed with embarrassment. She had never even considered her friends seeing her being used as a human table, let alone actually having them sit down and make use of her.

"This is new," Geoff eased himself onto the stool and took a sip of his drink, "seems like they're going all out right from the start this year."

"You're not kidding," Marie took a moment to glance under the tabletop before she sat down, "should I be jealous that you chose to sit around such a fine female specimen as this one?"

"You mean this isn't a man?" Geoff's sarcastic apology made his wife shake her head and laugh, "I really hadn't noticed. We can always move to another table so that you can appreciate the aesthetics more."

"No," Marie slipped a discrete hand under the table and caressed one of Hope's breasts through the latex, "this will do just fine; plenty to amuse myself with here."

The sudden and unexpected caress took Hope by complete surprise and she bit her lip as Marie's dexterous fingers played with her in a distracted manner, all the time her attention split unequally between conversation and manipulation.

She thought at first that her friends were playing along with the idea that she was to be treated as an object and not making themselves known to her as a result. But Hope soon realised that they had simply failed to recognise her beneath the hood and in her current circumstances. Neither of them was unfamiliar with the sight of Hope's naked body, but the combination of holiday spirits, a few drinks and the extreme nature of the bandage in which she was held had rendered her a stranger to them.

This new anonymity only served to add to the feeling in Hope that she had become a conscious object, seeing her own friends convinced of the fact as well. There was also an element of voyeuristic intrigue for her as she was able to watch and listen to them as they behaved as though they were pretty much alone. Hope knew that Marie and Geoff were a very open-minded couple and enjoyed this kind of thing immensely, but she was aware that there was always an element of acting in the face that people chose to show even to their friends. To have the chance to see behind it was intriguing, despite the extremes in which that chance had presented itself.

The first thing that Hope discovered was the fact that Marie was very good with her hands. During all the time they were sitting around her, there were few times when she was able to recall both of her friend's hands being visible above the tabletop. Hope found that she was straining against her bonds more and more as Marie pinched and stroked her through the latex with the same casual attention that one might have given to sending a text message while eating a meal.

All the time the conversation between the couple continued as if nothing out of the ordinary were going on. They watched the stage, commented on other guests and finished their drinks before Geoff rose from his seat and meandered towards the bar to fetch more.

As soon as he was gone, Marie slipped her foot out of her sandal and manoeuvred her toes into the vicinity of Hope's groin. She stroked the surface of the latex and watched the reaction on the hooded face in the middle of the tabletop. Hope felt a deeper flutter of sensation than ever and the feeling showed as she raised her chin and closed her eyes with the pleasure of the Marie's attention.

She applied more pressure and inadvertently tripped the vibrator lying until that moment inert against the lips of Hope's vagina. Suddenly the vibrations began and both of them were taken by surprise for a moment before Marie laughed and pushed the device harder against the sensitive flesh. Hope's eyes closed as she struggled to keep from crying out and her lips parted as she drew in breath.

"What seems to have gotten into our erstwhile piece of furniture?" Geoff placed the new round of drinks on the table and gestured at Hope's head as she moved with the effects of the vibrator.

"She comes complete with working parts," Marie could hardly take her eyes off the intimate show that was going on right in front of her, "vibrator in the crotch, very nice."

"Those are some oral gymnastics," Geoff seemed to have become hypnotised by the motion of Hope's lips and tongue as she gasped and pouted. "I'd love to put something in there right about now, but I don't think I could get away with that even here!"

"Next best thing is to watch," Marie gave him a quick wink before she deftly inserted the first two fingers of her left hand into Hope's half open mouth. With the other hand she discreetly reached over into Geoff's lap and began to stroke his penis through the fabric of his shorts.

Hope was in no position to resist as Marie's digits slipped into her mouth and within moments she was pulling them in with an urgency that caught her friend off guard. Though she had been stimulated by the motion of the vibrator and teased by the caressing of her breasts, Hope was a woman who responded with passion to the feeling of penetration. If she could not feel her body entered from below, then the reality of another person's entry above was something she would seize upon for all it was worth.

Geoff watched, his throat gone dry after his mouth hanging open, as Hope seemed to try to swallow his wife's fingers whole. All the time Marie's right hand, which had now managed to find its way inside his shorts while hidden under the table, massaged his penis. The effect was not perfect, but it was as close as Marie was able to come to actually serving as a connection between her husband's manhood and the vigorous attention of Hope's eager mouth.

Finally Hope's body shuddered enough to shake the entire table and threaten to spill their drinks as she climaxed.

The sight of her peak also resulted in Geoff spilling something else seconds later.

As Hope sank into a delirious state of near torpor, Marie turned to her husband with a smile.

"I think we've had our moneys worth out of this little piece of furniture for the evening. How about we leave her to sleep it off and you think about going to the bathroom to get cleaned up?"

Hope hardly remembered the rest of the night and seemed to have sleepwalked through the process of being freed from her restraints and escorted to her room afterwards. The first thing that she truly recalled after the intensity of her orgasm the previous evening was waking up in what she presumed was her bed, her arms and legs still holding the dull memory of her time as a human table in the form of aches and stiffness.

She dragged herself out of bed to shower and dress, vaguely aware of the fact that she seemed to have been booked into a twin rather than single room.

Somewhere was a recollection of Marie and Geoff filling her in as regards room allocation, but that was soon barged out of the way by the memories of last night and the experience of being used as a toy by her own friends.

Hope was surprised to discover that while there was a small amount of cringing associated with the whole thing, for the most part she was rather less than ashamed by what had happened to her. After all they had not known it was her under all that latex and perhaps that meant there was really no guilt or recrimination to associate with their antics.

For her own part, Hope had simply accepted the attention as being normal for an object such as she had been. People leaned on doorframes, grasped balustrades and did all sorts of things while sitting on toilet seats. There seemed to be a strange logic that when presented with a table that had erogenous zones all of its own, people might be inclined to stimulate them.

There was something so simple and liberating as well in having her element of choice removed from the equation. Hope was not ready to become some kind of submissive slave on a permanent basis, but she could see the appeal of occasionally casting aside the complexities of consent on a moment to moment basis for the understanding that she was ready and willing at any given moment instead.

One thing that worried Hope however, was the fact that she had no idea of what had gone on at the opening ceremony beyond her own little adventure into her friend's private lives. While she was okay with the idea of paying for her trip by working, it occurred to her that doing so might mean she missed out on the best experiences that the event had to offer.

As she showered and dressed she resolved to track down Lennox and put her concerns to him in the nicest possible way. She figured that she would need to see him anyway in order to find out what else was expected of her and so both issues could be tackled at once.

Hope tried Lennox's office, assuming that it was the logical place to start her search, but there was no sign of him and it was deserted.

She asked after him at reception and the woman behind the desk offered to call his room on her behalf. Hope decided that it was her only chance to get hold of the man, save for wandering around and asking everyone she passed as to his whereabouts, so she nodded. The call was brief and the woman hung up with a cheery smile before informing her that Mr Lennox would see her in his room and providing the number and directions.

Hope located Lennox's room on the upper floors of one of the resorts multi-storey blocks overlooking the main pool and bar.

Her knock was promptly greeted with a shout to come in and she opened the door onto a very modest hotel room that could have been unlived in save for the presence of Lennox himself, standing on the small balcony and beckoning her towards him.

"Good morning," Lennox was as positive and beaming as ever, "I trust you're recovered from last night's high jinks enough to enjoy yourself today?"

"Still a little sore," Hope admitted, "but it's not a problem."

"I'm not surprised," Lennox gestured to a jug of water and glasses as he spoke, but Hope shook her head. "I had a little look around myself when things had quieted down and I can tell you that one of those tables would make for quite a conversation piece!"

"It was quite an experience, I can tell you."

"And I expect you're here to see what job I have lined up for you tonight, eh?"

"Not exactly," Hope shook her head.

"Oh," for a moment she felt guilty as Lennox seemed to have been wrong-footed by her negative statement, "please go on?"

"Well, the thing is that after last night I'm kind of feeling too washed out and used up to really get anything out of what's on offer today. Don't get me wrong, I'm committed to working as we agreed. But I was wondering if I could sort of speed things up, maybe put in more hours now and have more time for myself later in the week?"

"Well," the smile had reappeared on Lennox's face, as if the unexpected detour into territory that was not covered in his marching orders was finally over, "that's not a problem of any kind. If you want to work longer and sooner, I can shuffle some paperwork and get you onto something in the next hour or so, if you're willing?"

"Sounds good to me," Hope looked out over the resort from the balcony, "need me to be a barstool or a hat-stand?"

Lennox smiled; more it seemed to show his appreciation of the effort than to actually express amusement at the joke.

"I could get you on down there," Lennox had followed her gaze down to the pool, "not much in the way of demands except for floating around in the water. Might help you to relax into the bargain?"

Hope had been watching the people around the pool, in particular those that seemed to be employed to enhance the experience of the guests. Some were just serving drinks while wearing outfits that would have got them arrested in the real world, but around the edge of the pool she had seen some more interesting sights.

Lounging on a slope of imitation rocks and man-made waterfalls on a small scale, Hope could see a trio of man-made mermaids who seemed to be doing nothing more than flipping their rubber fins as they basked in the sun. Each was different from the next, the first being covered from head to tail in green latex, the second sporting a blue tail and corset that ended below her breasts and a matching hood and the third wearing only a pink tail, a hood of the same colour with blonde pigtails of hair on either side and pink shells barely covering her nipples.

She watched as a guest dressed in swimming trunks walked over and struck up a conversation with the blue mermaid. Whatever he said, she seemed impressed and held her arms up to him as he scooped her off the rocks and disappeared to who knew where.

Hope watched the two remaining mermaids for a moment, pondering whether or not she could manage to do nothing more than flaunt herself in a latex tail and shake a pair of shell covered breasts at passers by. Like many women, she had always had a soft spot for mermaids and at least their hands were free. If she admitted it she was also curious as to what was happening right there and then to the blue mermaid.

"Sound fine to me," she was already picturing herself with a tail as she spoke.

"Okay," Lennox led her to the door, "if we have you on pool duty for the best part of the next two days that should pretty much see you free for the rest of the week. Can you find your way back to Alison and her people from here?"

"Of course," Hope hurried out of the door, ready and willing to become a rubber denizen of the seas for as long as she had to endure the agony of simply being adored.

Hope stood naked on the cold floor of the prep room and asked herself, for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had walked in the door, why she had not specifically asked just what Lennox wanted her to do before she agreed.

Her head had been so full of thoughts of latex tails and worship from men with perfect beach bodies that she had failed to hear Alison when she said the words: inflatable and pool toy.

By the time the words had sunk in, Hope was stripped off and being helped into a new rubber garment that would form the inner layer of the costume she would be wearing. At first she could have been mistaken for thinking that she was being dressed as a mermaid after all as the thing lacked separate legs and ended in a pair of flippers, but then she saw the mask that was attached to the front of the hood and noted the snout and whiskers.

"I'm going to be a seal?"

"What's wrong with that?" Alison asked as she yanked the inner garment up Hope's legs, "they're really popular at those sea park places, people love them."

"I suppose."

Hope had to sit down as she was eased into the garment as though there were no separate legs to it; the inside of the lower half did have a compartment for each leg within it. When her feet finally reached the bottom and slid into the thick rubber flippers at the base, she raised it up and wistfully thought of mermaids again. Soon her arms were inside as well and her fingers held still in the rigid plastic flippers that ended the sleeves. Alison zipped the suit up her back and all that remained was to secure the hood in place.

"I suppose there's some mystique to pinipeds when you think about it," Hope mused as Alison pulled the hood over her head, "some people think that the Loch Ness Monster is actually just a very large leopard seal."

"You don't say," Alison shook her head as she sealed the hood in place.

Hope now looked like a bizarre blending of seal and scuba diver, the black rubber of the suit covering her from head to toe and the mask and flippers giving her the vague appearance of a semi-aquatic mammal.

I can cope with this, she thought.

Maybe I'll be something different to the conventional mermaids, something that appeals to a more enlightened eye.

"Right," Alison hauled another mass of black rubber towards Hope, "time for the next layer."

The hood effectively rendered Hope silent, but her eyes could be read easily even behind the clear plastic lenses of the mask.

"Of course there's more," Alison stood Hope up and began to yank the new rubber layer over her head, "without this you'll just sink!"

This was a heavier layer than the first and once she was manhandled into it, the thing covered her entire body save for her head and the flippers at the extremities. Hope watched as Alison attached an air hose and began to inflate the entire thing, wide bands of the rubber revealing themselves to be chambers that ran across the width of her body and arms. If she had been restricted by the undergarment, Hope was now all but unable to move as the pressure of the air held her ever tighter inside the rubber. Even her head was forced to move upwards until she was able to do nothing but stare at the ceiling with her arms outstretched and her legs pinned together below. Fully inflated the costume bulged out to three feet in width at its widest point before tapering to no less then two at either end.

The effect was completed when Alison and an assistant pulled a final skin of shiny black latex over Hope's new shape and gently lowered her onto her stomach. From there she found that she was able to push herself up on her flippers enough to move around at an achingly slow pace, but apart form that all she could manage was to simply lay prone on her inflated belly.