The Empath Cycle: 1949 In The Beginning

"Please come in. You must see it from the inside. I make a mean cup of coffee and I owe you for putting up with my neuroses for half the night. Come on sweetheart, I am still the same person and this is just an old house." Her arm around Juliette's shoulder, she gently guided her toward the short flight of stairs leading to the door of the brownstone.

Once through the entrance foyer, Juliette relaxed somewhat. Though reassured by Arianna's friendly attitude, she could not entirely be rid of a whole life's worth of social conditioning so quickly. She was still weary as they climbed to the second floor to reach the woman's apartment.

Before opening the door, Arianna turned with a grin and warned Juliette. "Do not be offended by the state of the apartment, please. I share the place with a slob and each time I open the door it is an adventure in the land of Hurricane Sarah. I never know what I will find waiting for me."

Laughing, Juliette replied, "I come from a large family and it can't be worse than the mess I had to pick up every single evening after the young ones went to bed." But she was indeed surprised by the state of the living room. Glasses, some still half full, bottles of beer and wine seemed to be everywhere, food cartons and dirty plates lay about all over. She could feel her face redden at the sight of undergarments carelessly strung about. A pair of frilly knickers even hung from a lamp shade while she could see two brassieres on the floor. Various other pieces of definitely feminine clothing defined a trail to a closed door that she assumed would open to a bedroom.

"Well, since yesterday was Friday, I guess Sarah hosted one of her infamous parties for her artiste friends. As usual I will have to either get on her case when she gets up or pick everything up myself."

As she walked in the room, Arianna realized that Juliette was not following her anymore. Turning around she saw that she was, in fact, slowly retreating toward the door, her hand covering her mouth and her face suffused with a bright crimson that reached to the tip of her ears.

'Oh no', thought Arianna, 'Hurricane Sarah strikes again.'

Hurrying to her, she took care to stay between Juliette and the mess that was her living room. "I am so sorry, I am so used to this that I forget how it must look the most people. I did not mean to embarrass you. Do not leave, please. Follow me to my study. It is Sarah-free, I promise. She is not permitted in there."

Again, Juliette allowed herself to be persuaded to go beyond her upbringing and followed Arianna into the apartment while taking care to keep her eyes averted from the offending apparel. Once in the study, she saw that it was indeed 'normal'. A simple desk with orderly stacks of papers, a work chair, a second hand filing cabinet and an old love seat that looked very comfortable nevertheless, were the only furniture, but what impressed Juliette was the wall at the back of the room. It was covered from floor to ceiling in shelves and they were filled with books.

At her squeak of delight, Arianna turned around and asked. "What is wrong? Did somebody leave their underwear in here too?"

"Not at all. I just have never seen so many books in a private home. When the job of cleaning the library opened up, I applied for it because it would give me an opportunity to read whatever book I wanted without the librarian looking down her nose at me. I even bribed another maintenance worker with a month's worth of home-made cookies to eliminate the competition for it. I work really fast at the beginning of my shift so I can set aside as much time as possible to read. I just wish I could bring some home. Oh, I could always borrow one on the sly and bring it back before anybody noticed, but it feels too much like stealing. So I take whatever time I can and enjoy them at work."

"Well, you are welcome to borrow any book of mine whenever you wish. I always thought that books were meant to be read, not to gather dust on a shelf. But did nobody tell you that all university employees get an automatic library card? You can borrow any book except the reference manuals."

At Juliette's stunned look, Arianna could only laugh. Overcoming her initial shock at this great news, the young woman could not contain herself. She had to share her happiness and the closest person to her received a great big hug.

Letting go, Juliette made to turn back out of the room. "I must go back to the university and borrow a book I have been reading so I can finish it over the week-end."

With a twinkle in her eye, Arianna replied, "There is no hurry. It will still be there Monday. In the meantime, look around here while I go make some coffee. If you find a book that you like, borrow it for however long you wish."

Chuckling to herself, she left the room and went to the kitchen.

Within seconds, Juliette was running her fingers reverently along the spines of the books in Arianna's personal library. Reading the titles, she was astonished at the variety of subjects represented there. Poetry, old and recent, novels, biographies of historical personages and theatre actors and actresses, books of classical and modern philosophy, reference treatises on medicine, psychiatry, archaeology, anthropology and that new social science: sociology, history books of all periods, technical and engineering manuals, and even some books she knew for a fact were blacklisted by the Church. All were there side by side, in no particular order that she could discern.

She was still surveying the collection, having yet to open a single book, when Arianna came back with a tray holding two cups of coffee, a creamer, a small sugar bowl and a plate of vanilla cookies. She stood at the door for a moment, looking fondly at the obvious joy of her guest, happy to have found another person who shared her love for the written word.

"You can open them too. They do not bite except your mind and then it does not hurt too much if you keep it open to new ideas."

Giggling, Juliette replied, "I don't know which to choose. As soon as I go to pick one, I see another that interests me."

"Well you can take any one. The rest will still be there later on when the first is read. When I said you can borrow any you like, I meant all of them, not just a single one. But let us sit down and drink while the coffee is still hot."

Arianna pulled the desk chair over to hold the tray and they sat on the love seat.

"Those cookies are delicious. Where did you get them? I must buy some the next time I want to treat myself."

"My roommate definitely has many faults, but she is a superb pastry-maker, possibly chef class even. It is only one of her many hobbies. She is quite the dilettante. She will whip up some delicious pastry or other whenever she wants to be forgiven for something that upset me. Let me just say that I had to join the university gym and make use of it regularly otherwise I would have expanded in all direction like a zeppelin"

Both women had to laugh at the silly idea of Arianna bulging with fat. They went on to share a good conversation on a variety of light topics until Juliette noticed that her companion was showing signs of fatigue. At that point, she excused herself to the lavatory, needing to relieve herself before leaving for home. When she came back, Arianna was slumped in the chair, her back to the armrest, her feet folded under her backside.

She appeared so peaceful that Juliette was almost tempted to let her enjoy her rest, but, obviously, she could not do that knowing she would wake up with cramps from sleeping in this position. So she gently gathered Arianna in her arms and, holding her tenderly all the way, she walked her to her bedroom. She had long ago mastered the art of putting children to bed from wherever they fell asleep without waking them and it served her well on this occasion.

Arianna never fully woke up as Juliette sat her on the bed and gently undressed her for sleep. She was not putting her to bed fully clothed after all. It was simply too uncomfortable.

Still holding on to Arianna, She looked under the pillow for her nightgown. Not finding it there and not seeing one readily available elsewhere, she decided to let her sleep in the nude, except for her knickers which, she had noticed in passing, seemed to be of some kind of shiny and soft material. "It can't hurt just for one night", she thought as she tucked her in the soft bed, drawing the covers under her chin.

Arianna reflexively held it with both hands as she rolled over on her side. She had an expression of serenity on her face, her mouth curved in a small smile expressing an innocent sense of security. It made her look so much like a sleeping child that Juliette's motherly instincts rose to the front and. as a pure reflex, she bent down to give the woman a soft kiss on the forehead and, lightly stroking her hair, she murmured a loving "sleep well, dear" before quietly walking out the door, closing it behind her.

Once in the living room, she pulled on her light coat. As she made ready to leave, her hand already on the door handle, she looked around at the after-party disaster surrounding her. "It's just not right", she muttered to herself.

It was not the undergarments that offended her sense of property this time, but the mess this lovely woman would have to wake up to later in the day. So set on to 'make it right'.

An hour later, the various pieces of clothing were neatly folded in a pile on the chesterfield and she had just finished putting the dried dishes in the cupboards when she heard a blood curdling scream coming from Arianna's room.

Fearing the worst, she rushed over expecting the woman to be under attack from some intruder. But there was no grisly murder in progress. Arianna was sitting in her bed with a look of pure terror in her face, her arms flailing in front of her as if trying to protect herself from some monster coming for her blood, a piteous whimper escaping through tightly clenched teeth.

Recognizing the situation for what it was, Juliette was instantly at the bed, gathering the sleeping woman in a solid embrace, her presence a warm but reassuringly strong buffer against the demons of the night which were assaulting this gentle woman.

Overcoming her own tears at the sight of such suffering, she set about offering all the comfort her loving heart could deliver. Catching the now weakly trashing limbs, she pulled Arianna in her arms. Gently crooning words of comfort to her, she showered her head with soft light kisses, the kind that even a new-born child will recognize as filled with the love of a mother.

"It's only a nightmare, baby. The monsters can't get to you. Mommy is here and she will protect you. Shhhhh, you can sleep now. I won't let go. You know you can trust mommy. Nobody will hurt you while I'm here. You can let go now. Sleep, baby."

The warmth of the body pressed against her and soothing presence eventually filtered through to the tortured sleeping mind and Juliette could feel the woman gradually relax in her arms. Still holding her, she laid back with her on the bed.

Arianna, arms still tightly holding on to the reassuring presence, relaxed, her head resting on Juliette's ample bosom, finding comfort, like any frightened young child, in the regular beat of her heart.

After a few minutes of looking down on the woman through misty eyes, Juliette recognized a familiar pattern in Arianna's movements: the woman was trying to suckle. At first, she could not believe her eyes. She surely could not let a grown woman to that to her.

Juliette was still debating with herself when Arianna began to whimper piteously. Her tortured sleeping mind having reverted to early childhood instincts, she seemed, to Juliette, to be searching for the known security of her mother's breast.

Without further thought, acting purely out of instinctual selflessness, Juliette gently unbuttoned her shirt and unhooked her brassiere, pulling it off her breasts. As she put Arianna's head back on her ample bosom, the woman/child let out a deep sigh and began to suckle on the offered nipple with a soft gurgle of contentment.

Tears of tenderness now flowing freely down her cheeks, Juliette looked upon the woman whose mouth was now attached to her breast. She did not feel the revulsion she had expected at having a grown female touching her in such an intimate fashion. She did not feel any kind of sexual sensation either, only an immense joy in her heart at knowing she was providing love and security to another human being evidently very much in need of such.

It took only a few minutes for Juliette to feel the change in Arianna's breathing that signalled her passing from uneasy sleep to profound slumber.

Pulling the covers over them, Juliette followed Arianna in the arms of Morpheus.

Chapter 2

Arianna slowly surfaced from the depths of a very refreshing sleep.

At first she enjoyed the feeling of restfulness, then, as her mind came further awake, she realized that she was not waking to the usual internal turmoil, but to an unaccustomed sense of peace.

She felt confused when her senses registered the raising and falling soft surface on which her head rested and the regular sound on a beating heart in her ear. Opening her eyes, she saw a nipple, not an inch from her lips.

She dimly knew she should be startled at this situation, but she felt suffused in such a primal sense of calm and security that she gave a deep sigh, extended her lips to the nipple and sank back to sleep.

Juliette had come awake a few minutes before Arianna. She felt the woman partly rouse then softly latch again on her nipple and go back to sleep.

She remembered the earlier events clearly. As she relived the deep feelings she had felt, her eyes misted, but a satisfied smile stretched her lips. Juliette did not understand what demons could afflict this lovely woman so deeply, but she felt an intense need to protect her.

She tried to make sense of the situation. She had never felt like this for an adult. Yes, she felt empathic when she saw suffering and she did her level best to help where she could, but she had never felt such a deep need to involve herself personally. Neither had she ever felt such a feeling of connection to another adult, even with her beloved Jacques whom she had known most of her young life. She was doubly astonished that she felt so deeply for another woman.

Taking stock of her internal feelings, she wondered what could affect her so much in this woman who was so different from her after all.

As far as society went, they should never have even interacted except in a role as superior to inferior, but she had felt so at ease with Arianna that it did not matter. This social inequality only coming to the fore when the woman spoke of her origins or when they had arrived at this beautiful place. At every other time, Arianna was so easygoing, she was just another person with whom Juliette could have grown up.

Physically they were also different.

Juliette was the epitome of the traditional housewife of her social class. Short at 5'3", she was plump without being fat. Her husband had described her as being soft in all the right places. He had loved her D-cup breasts with their sensitive dark brown nipples surrounded by large areolae. He would fondle and suckle them tirelessly for the longest time. As they walked down the street his gentle slap or pinch on her well rounded bottom would elicit a squeak and earn him a mock punch on the arm, but he could tell she enjoyed the attention. Her light brown hair fell to her shoulders in unruly curls when they were not held in a pony tail to keep them out of the way as she worked. They framed a soft expressive face that seemed made for smiling and projecting love and happiness.

She felt she was just an ordinary woman with no special physical quality or appeal while she saw Arianna as a beautiful woman who could have been a top model conquering any runway she walked and making it her own or a successful actress strolling down the red carpet with her head held high like a queen.

At 5'9", Arianna was tall for a woman of her day. She had a lean body with good muscle tone and a smooth skin free of imperfection as Juliette had seen when undressing her for bed. At the lower range of a B-cup, her breasts were smaller than was fashionable but they were perky and her small pinkish nipples and aureoles fit her perfectly. As she had sometimes walked ahead of her, Juliette had noticed that her bottom was tight and muscular. Her straight silky black hair falling down to the middle of her back seemed to perfectly accentuate a face that would have been angelic if not for the haunted look in her eyes. She did not look like someone who laughed or even smiled a lot.

At 22 years of age and as a child of her culture with very little experience in adult social interaction, it never occurred to Juliette that she could be attracted to another woman as she would be to a man, so she could not explain to herself the deepening sense of connection she felt for this sophisticated older woman of 30. All she could feel was an almost visceral need to hold and protect her.

So it was with this warm felling of inner peace that she went back to sleep.

When next she awoke, Juliette found that Arianna was laying down beside her with her head resting on her hand, gazing at her with a strange look that she took to be fondness.

"I almost said 'good morning dear', but since we fell asleep with the sun up, I probably should say 'good afternoon, dear'", Juliette said, grinning. "Did you sleep well?"

"I honestly cannot remember the last time I woke up felling so rested. I do not know how to thank you for what you did for me. At first I thought it had only been a wonderful dream where I was again a baby feeling safe and loved in my mother's arms. Then I woke up to realize that it was you holding me. I do not remember how it happened, but I can only offer you my most heartfelt gratitude."

"It's no big thing. I was on my way out when you had this nightmare and I just held you until it passed, then I fell asleep myself."

Arianna had to laugh at that. "You are definitely a mistress of the understatement. It is the first time I have woken with my head on a woman's naked breast and her nipple in my mouth."

At seeing the blush coming to Juliette's face and her lowered eyes, she felt she could not allow the other to be embarrassed at her magnificent gesture. Cupping her face in a gentle hand, she raised it so she could look in her eyes.

"This is nothing to be ashamed of. You were there for me when I needed you and you acted selflessly as dictated by your good nature. You should feel proud of yourself for being such a kind hearted person."

The moment held on for a few minutes, both women loosing themselves in the other's eyes.

With a grin, Arianna went on. "And you did not only help with my nightmare, I saw that you also took care of the aftermath of Hurricane Sarah. When I got up earlier, I found Sarah and her most recent conquest in the kitchen drinking coffee. As the living room was cleaned up, I thanked her for this. She then informed me she had not done it and had assumed that I was the one who had."

"I just couldn't leave it like that so I picked up a few things..."

That brought forth another peal of laughter from Arianna. "A few things you say! The place is spotless. You definitely went above and beyond the call. Then I came back to see if you were awake and decided to let you sleep after making you more comfortable."

That's when Juliette realized that she was almost naked under the bed sheets. Arianna had deftly striped her down to her knickers without waking her, much as she had done herself earlier. For some reason she could not have explained, that fact did not make feel embarrassed in the least.