Tom and Sigrid came down for breakfast late. Sigrid´s happiness radiated like a torch. They sat eating the last of the muffins, licking the drips of butter off each other.
“Anne, I wish I´d started when you did.”
“I had a whole different way of life, remember. Probably wouldn´t have worked for you.”
They went upstairs again, did not re-appear until the others had left for the stables and the gym. With Alex, they drove to the lumber yard, loaded the van with supplies. That afternoon, Alex and Tom laid a lattice of 2 x 8s on the floor in front of the downstairs fireplace and began decking it with pine. Sigrid took a mason´s hammer and broke out the bricks blocking the fireplace. She had to clean around the damper to free it from accumulated junk. You could feel the draft. She ran up onto the roof and pulled their chimney brush up and down a few times, then went inside and cleaned up the mess. When she had finished, her naked body was coated with grime. After a shower, she laid a fire. It drew like a champ.
They laid the mattresses on the new Big Bed, brought out the cushions that had been in the breakfast nook at North College. Then they went upstairs and roughed in a partition on the western end of the main room. It was to separate their gallery from the living room. They planned to keep their latest works there and set up a small office. Later in the week, they hung Sigrid´s picture on the finished wall. The sofa and chairs took over the space in front of the upper fireplace.
Sigrid and Tom went to bed early, got up late, frequently disappeared without notice. One afternoon, Anne was in the back yard and looked up to see Sigrid´s naked back against one of the window posts in their room. Tom was in front of her and they were making love. When he saw Anne, Tom waved. Sigrid turned her head to look, waved too.
.oOo.
Saul´s folks were coming for the Easter and Passover weekend. On Thursday, UPS delivered a large crate addressed to Saul. In it were the two nudes of Anne and Mary, framed and labeled “Venus” and “Diana”. Saul hung them on the wall with Sigrid´s portrait.
On Friday, when Saul and Sigrid brought them from the airport, they were all on hand. Harry was tall, trim, slightly gray. Muriel was tall and slim with a laughing face and sparkling eyes. They both wore comfortable clothes that looked a great deal more expensive than they were.
Harry looked at the three pictures, then at Sigrid. “You´re not that girl anymore.”
“No. That´s Before. I´m After. Will´s working on a new one.”
“Can I see it, Will?”
“Not yet, Harry. Soon, maybe.”
“I sent the goddesses down to you for your new home. They are a loan from the Harry and Muriel Katz Collection of Erotic Art. You can keep them as long as you want them.”
Muriel said to Mary as they went into the kitchen, “Harry and I are really going to miss our two goddesses. We´ve really come to love them.”
Mary helped Muriel prepare a Seder. “It´s not completely kosher, but it´s the idea that counts.” Harry and Saul hung a Mazuzah beside the front door.
They sat and talked in front of the fire until first Tom and Sigrid went to bed, then Harry and Muriel, taking the west front bedroom. Everyone else went downstairs.
As they started making breakfast next morning, Anne said to Saul, “I´ll get a shirt or something to put on. You want something?”
“No, don´t bother. Mom and Dad aren´t any more into dressing up than we are.”
“If you say so.”
Harry wore briefs, Muriel bikini panties. They both had great bodies.
Alex said, “Can we get some more of those cushions like we had at North College?”
“I suppose,” said Anne. “Why?”
“I miss the way we used to sit together on the cushions and eat breakfast.”
“You used to keep dropping jam in my lap.”
“Well, sure. You always let me lick if off.”
The Katzes and Anne got dressed and went to synagogue. Muriel wanted to show Anne what it was all about. Will and Mary went with Alex to the stables. Sigrid and Tom went back to bed.
In the afternoon, Anne and the three Katzes put on jeans and walked down the road to the stables. They met Sarah, who stopped and chatted with them. Harry was checking out the facilities with his businessman´s eye. Mary came up to meet them, riding Hero. She swung down and looked Muriel over.
“You look like you´re ready to ride. Good shoes, not really boots, but they´ll do. Ever ride?”
“Not for years, but I´d love to. Would it be all right?”
“How about you, Harry?”
“No, Mary. Thanks. Saul and I´ll watch.”
“Muriel, I have a class in half an hour. Get up on Hero, here, and get used to him. Do you ride English or Western?”
“What I did was Western, Mary. Only had a few years when I was a kid and until Saul came along.”
“Okay. You just listen during the class, I´ll tell you what to do. Get used to Hero and I´ll go saddle The Bay. It´s time he started helping me teach.”
“You´re teaching the class?” asked Harry.
“Yeah. Sarah made me do it.”
“Harry, she´s the best teacher I´ve got. I just can´t get her to teach the kids. Of course, she brings in twice as much money teaching the adults.”
Muriel mounted, walked Hero gingerly around the yard and came back smiling.
“He´s wonderful. A lamb. Almost anticipates what I want.”
“When Mary first came here, I put her on him to see if she could handle him. He was a little rough around the edges. She´s taken that out of him.”
Mary came with The Bay. Sarah murmured to Harry, “I got this one in a package deal. They called him ‘Killer´ then. Now, I can ride him.”
Will came along on one of the stable horses, followed by the rest of the class. Mary led them all to the big corral.
“This is Muriel Katz, she´s going to watch today, maybe try a few things on her own. Today is review day. We´re going to start with the easy stuff and work up to our basic show routine.”
When the class was over and they had had a nice run through the woods past the tangled hedges that hid their home, they all put up their mounts and strolled back to the house together.
“Will,” said Harry, “How´s your riding?”
“Fair, Harry. I´ve got a lot to learn, but I´m enjoying it. I found out I need to know how to ride so I can paint.”
“How about going down to Kentucky in a couple of weeks? Over a weekend. I know a guy there who wants a painting of a young stallion he´s trying to syndicate. Won´t pay top dollar, but you need to start somewhere.”
“Fine with me. I need to check the exam schedules, see if Mary will come.”
“You don´t need me, Will.”
“Yes, I do. You read these animals like a book. You tell me more about a horse in the first five minutes than I can see in a day of drawing.”
“If you want, I´ll come. Have to read up on how they ride like that.”
.oOo.
Anne and Mary made dinner, Muriel helped and joined in their talk. Tom and Sigrid came downstairs just as the food hit the table. Harry poured wine, later showed Anne how to make coffees with brandy and other things.
“Dad, I haven´t told you. Anne´s got some coffee specialties of her own.”
“Shut up, Saul Katz.”
Muriel had the devil in her eye. “Like what, Saul?”
“Well, the one I like at a time like this is cappuccino nudo.”
“Saul, I´m going to kill you.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Anne?”
“Yes, Muriel?”
“Will you teach me how?”
Harry laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks.
.oOo.
When Harry and Muriel had gone upstairs, they straggled downstairs to bed. Tom and Sigrid went upstairs, came back shortly with their duvet, plumped it on the Big Bed in front of the downstairs hearth.
Tom picked Sigrid up in his arms and set her down next to Will, who took her in his arms.
“You first, Will,” she said, “You saw it in me.”
.oOo.
They brought the cushions upstairs for breakfast, snuggling in a corner of the kitchen. Muriel and Harry joined them, snuggling with each other.
“Love,” Harry said. “Have we got room for something like this?”
“Probably.”
“Where´s Will?” Anne asked.
“He´s in the studio, got up early and took coffee with him.”
“Sigrid, you look like you´re on fire.”
“Muriel, I became a full member of the group last night. I made love with your son and with all the others. I´m so happy I could burst.”
“Congratulations. Give me a hug.”
Sigrid gave Muriel a hug and a kiss.
“Do I get one, too?”
“Shut up, Harry,” Muriel said.
Saul whispered to Anne, “See, she does that, too.”
Sigrid got up and stood in front of Harry and Muriel, feet apart, hands on hips. The sun shone behind her, outlining her naked body. “Do you mean I shouldn´t hug him, or that he shouldn´t ask?”
Muriel threw up her hands and laughed. Sigrid sat in Harry´s lap and hugged and kissed him thoroughly, then went back to Tom and snuggled in his armpit.
“Harry, come here this minute and kiss me. I can´t let that go un-rewarded.”
Will came downstairs, a large drawing in his hand.
“Guys, Harry, I´ve finished a new picture of Sigrid. Help me hang it.”
The pastel went next to his earlier one. “I needed last night to be able to finish it,” he explained.
The difference was night and day. This Sigrid was semi-reclining, her thighs apart. She radiated a feeling of shameless, sensuous joy, enticing lustfulness.
“This is Leda.” Will said.
“Where´s the swan?” Harry asked.
“I think we lay too much on Zeus, Harry. I think Leda was asking for it, like our wonderful Sigrid, who has found out there is no shame in love.”
“Will, can we do something with my old one?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want you to make prints of it: full size, if we can. We should keep the original for us, but I love it so much I want other people to share it. Anyway, dad and mom want one.”
“Will, if we do that one, should we do the others, too? Would you agree, Harry?”
“Yes, Anne. Just as long as you credit the Katz Collection. And Will, I´d like to buy Leda, too. You keep it on the same loan basis.”
“Fine with me,” said Will. “Alex, you´d better get going with those catalogs.”
.oOo.
“You really enjoyed yourself last weekend, didn´t you?”
“Oh, Anne, I know it sounds corny, but ‘If I knew then, what I know now´...”
“Something you have to experience. I guess Tom got you off to a good start.”
“He was wonderful. I wanted him so badly. We´ve been practicing a lot, just not the final act. But he wouldn´t hurry, he kept making me hotter and hotter until... Well, I came almost as soon as he put it in me the first time, and I just kept right on. I had to beg him to stop so I could catch my breath. And then, until the weekend, he kept right on making me so happy.
“I saw you two doing it on the window-sill.”
“I know. That really turned me on, knowing you were watching. See, I´d asked Tom to do me there. I told him, ‘maybe someone will see us´. And you did.”
“You talked about it, then?”
“Boy, did we! Once I got over the first glory of it all, I made him tell me what it´s like when he screws the two of you. I´d get him inside me and make him talk about it: ‘Tell me how it feels when you do Anne this way.´ Made him crazy. Me too. What a kick! And then, he´d get me to tell him what I thought it would be like with Saul or Alex or Will. I´d talk about that, guessing, but I was wrong about all of them. They were much, much better than I thought.”
“I notice you talk a lot when you´re doing it.”
“Do you mind? I mean, does it bother you?”
“No, I love to hear how much you enjoy it. Turns me on, too.”
“I´ll tell you something else I like. When I´m lying there next to you or Mary, I can feel the mattress moving. I can feel you moving. Oh, it´s wonderful!”
“I know. I like it when you touch me, too.”
“Oh, good. I wasn´t sure at first, but you didn´t say anything, so I stopped worrying.”
“Both Mary and I do that, too. Feels good to touch two people who are making love when I am, too. Seems to hook us all up, like we´re wired.”
“You´re right, it does. And afterwards and at night, it is so great to be surrounded with warm skin, loving hands, yummy bodies... Uh... I saw you eating Mary on Sunday, after she´d made love with Saul.”
“I like the way the different guys make her taste.”
“I´ve never done that. Have to think about it... The guys do taste different. I was kind of surprised, even though Tom told me you said so. Uh... Will you let me?... Oh, your lips are so soft, you taste of toast... Wait a minute, let me get that off... Ah!... Oh... Yes... Say, that tastes like Tom...”
“It is, Sigrid, it is.”
.oOo.
They found a store on the college shopping street that was going out of business and took over the lease. They put up some walls for a posing room, built some display panels and hung a number of the Life Studies. The sign in the window said Still Waters Graphics.
Alex installed his own graphics machine in the posing room and worked out a deal with the copier people for a rental. Tom got the copier-printer running, connected the graphics machine on a DSL line to Alex´s clunker that was now at the house. Then, he re-built it into a powerful server.
Traffic was slow at first. Alex spent most of his time working hard on the designs and layouts for the catalogs. When Will was satisfied with them, they printed some proofs and sent them off to Harry Katz. He wanted changes – more white space, larger images, higher prices. Eventually, they ran fifty copies and mailed them to Harry´s collector and dealer friends.
Anne came in and set up several easels in the window with some of the Life Studies. She and Will created a display of the stationery line. There was a sign,
Put a little Art in your Room.
Light up your Life with
Life Studies
$20
They began to sell. The stationery line went more slowly until they put an ad in the campus paper. Then they had a fairly steady stream of customers, but they still weren´t breaking even.
Alex did another catalog, low-cost production, low-cost products. Life Studies and stationery, mostly. They distributed copies to the Art School, the Student Union, College Store, University Bookstore.
Anne organized a mini-show of Life Studies at the University library and at the city´s Public Library.
One day, a group of gay women students appeared at the store with signs. They shouted slogans for an hour and left. Alex sent pictures and an audio tape to the papers and the radio station.
A week later, the protesters came back, this time with a TV crew. Sigrid was on duty that afternoon. A woman reporter entered the store with the camera behind her and asked questions.
The evening news showed Sigrid with several of the best studies of Anne and Mary. “We´re taking the opportunity to bring some fine art to the campus scene. We´ve bought these studies from artists who are working here at the University today. Some of them may go on to become famous. But in the meantime you can have a fine, original drawing on your wall for only twenty dollars.” The cameraman made a point of getting good footage of Sigrid´s slim figure dressed in a most becoming dress that set off her dark beauty and showed plenty of collar bone and upper chest.
Business picked up dramatically.
“Saul, how much did you have to pay them?” Anne wanted to know.
“Not me. Of course, I did mention to one of them that I´d seen this new store with scandalous pictures of nude women.”
“You sneak.”
“I thought that´s what you love about me.”
“It is.”
.oOo.
They began getting orders from dealers. Generally, the dealers wanted one or two pieces to test their markets. And, of course, they wanted the goods on consignment and expected a good commission. Harry had warned about that, so their policy for the Explicits was cash at a dealer price that left plenty of room for big markups. For the Erotics, they required a minimum order, paid in cash, with later shipments on consignment. Sigrid monitored these sales and was quick to know when a dealer was trying to cheat.
The Nudes were offered at $5,000 for new, original drawings, $300 for the limited prints. If any series sold ten copies, they raised the price to $500 each.
They printed a catalog for collectors, advertised it in men´s magazines and women´s fitness periodicals. Any publication that showed more than minor nudity went on the list for consideration. Their limited budget had to stretch. But orders came in with surprising regularity, and the collector´s catalog was a genuine money-maker.
.oOo.
Will and Mary flew to Kentucky with Harry. Mary showed up at the thoroughbred stable in her boots, hat and a great-looking shirt over a simple divided skirt. Somehow, she managed to look both feminine and professional. Will wore a suit, his cowboy boots and Stetson.
They looked through the stud and saw the young stallion Will was to paint. They looked him over. Mary spoke to Will under her breath, and they walked around to the other side of the animal. Mary nodded, pointed and spoke quietly again.
Soon after, Will said to the owner, “You want him from the off side, right?”
“Well, yes, it is his best side.”
“I didn´t think you´d want to show that near shoulder. How do you want to pose him? Conformation pose?”
“Well, that´s usual.”
“You want to sell his service above his value, don´t you?”
“I certainly don´t intend to cheat anyone.”
“Of course not,” Mary said. “But you want him to look as good as he can. May I take him into the ring?”
“Well, I really don´t think that´s suitable...”
“John, I´ve worked with horses since I was six. I´ll take my chances, okay?”
Mary led the stallion into the ring. In a very few moments he was her friend. She walked him around, showing him off as Will sketched.
“Mary, can you get him to step out a little?”
“All right with you, Jimmy?” She spoke to the horse´s trainer. He nodded his consent.
Mary gave a word of command, ran a few steps and the stallion, apparently just to please her, cantered once around the ring and came to a stop facing her. She rubbed his face and cheek.
Will said, “That´s fine, Mary. Thanks.”
Mary said goodbye to the horse and walked to the gate. His trainer, none too friendly earlier, put a friendly arm around her shoulder as he let her through.
“He´s a good boy, Jimmy. I like him.”
“He likes you, too, Mary.”
John looked at Will´s sketches and they agreed on a painting of the horse trotting across a paddock, moving left to right. They settled on a price a little higher than Harry had suggested.
John´s cell phone rang, and he stepped away for a few minutes to take the call.
“Will, could you be here tomorrow? My wife would like a painting of her on her favorite horse. Not as big as the stallion´s, just for her dressing room.”
“Don´t see why not,” Will said.
In the morning, they met at the farm again. John´s wife was smugly beautiful with the arrogance of wealth, exquisitely dressed and mounted on a fine hunter. She was a difficult subject, unwilling to accommodate Will´s attempt to liven up the picture. He did all the sketches he needed, took a few photographs, and thanked his subject for her patience.
Mary had been chatting with the stallion´s trainer, Jimmy Dikes. As they drove to the airport, she said, “Jimmy says to watch out for ‘Lady Wilson´. Says she´s as nasty as she looks and doesn´t hide it.”
“Didn´t need to tell me,” said Will. “You can tell when you draw them.”
“Good to know, Mary,” Harry said. “Got a good relationship with him?”
“Jimmy? Yes, we´re buddies now. Said he´d pass the word around about Will´s work.”
The picture of the stallion was delivered on time and was everything the owner had asked for and more. Will had more time with the mounted lady. Passing his studio one day, Mary looked at the unfinished painting. Lady Wilson´s figure on the horse´s back was done in careful detail – completely naked. When she finished laughing, she called Anne and showed her. “Serves the bitch right.”
Will said, “Helps me keep things in perspective. Sort of like the one about how all men put their pants on the same way, one leg at a time.” A fully clothed Lady Wilson was delivered within the agreed time. When the check came in, John had added ten percent. His note said, “My wife is extremely pleased with your work, I really appreciate it.”
The phone labeled Horses began to ring more often
.oOo.
“It´s very strange to feel like I do. I don´t know where I´m going, I´m not even sure where I´ve been. These women have changed my life – given me confidence I´ve never known... Even though I don´t know what to be confident about.”
“You´ve just got a worse case of what the rest of us have. We´re all changing so fast it´s got us in a spin. Anne and Mary – and Sigrid – keep us working hard, growing and learning...”
“If you want my opinion, if it weren´t for the fact that they´re so horny, we would have busted up long ago. Somehow they keep us in line at the same time they´re making us happy.”
“Yes, but it´s making them happy, too. They love sex, they love doing things well, and by the way, they love us. They´re just as involved in doing well as they are in getting laid regular, and they´ve chosen us to join them. And have you noticed how much they´ve changed, too?”
“I sure know how Sigrid has. She´s turned into just as much of a high-achieving sexpot as the others. Or, maybe she´s just always been that way, needed the right environment to bring it out.”
“It´s out, all right. And no one is happier about that than she is. She´s so proud of herself it´s funny. And wonderful at the same time.”
“Let´s not be over-modest, though. Yes, they keep us in line, they make us work hard – all those things you said. But it works the other way, too. We´re all striving. We´re all working toward some goal we aren´t really sure of, just that we know we have to work hard to get there.”