(the next day)
"The mansion used to be where my models and staff had their vacations at. Some of them still do. But when the business got bigger and with more people working for me, it was not big enough. So I bought this old resort near the mountain and completely rebuilt it. It has everything my models need to relax fully, which means it also has a Suspendor." Walker Winson turned and winked at his nephew. "And it is close to my airfield yet out in the country and private enough so nobody asks questions. People might start to talk about all the women moving -or not moving- around here."
Dave Brighton originally thought his uncle could drive SUVs very well. But Walker could not take tight turns at high speed while talking and not keeping his eyes on road at the same time. The older man had gotten distracted, while the younger one fidgeted. "Uh, Walker, there's a turn coming up."
"Oh. So there is." Walker looked back and turned the SUV onto a marked private road. "Thanks for telling me. I don't want to hit anybody here. There's no statues here yet but you never know what could pop up."
As Walker talked, the fast-moving SUV passed a group of lithe, athletic looking women jogging or running. Some were in track clothes and sweatshirts but some wore clingy triathlon outfits that left little to the men's imagination. They were moving very fast too and Dave saw they all had pistol holsters strapped to their legs.
"Some of your security?"
"Yes. They like to run when they're activated. Part of the exercises they do when they're not frozen. Sometimes I freeze them during the run for a while without warning. They keep going afterward as if nothing has happened when I unfreeze them. It's quite fun."
Walker was talking about the Suspendor, an electronic device that created the gorgeous, beautiful female mannequins and statues from the gorgeous, beautiful women who worked for Walker at his stores and businesses. Dave had seen the latest form of the Suspendor use receiver/transmitters that were hidden in things like earrings and rings to send coded pulses of radio signals. Depending on what kind of signal was received from the Suspendor's controls, the waves created a field that could instantly freeze a living model into what looked like a display mannequin or statue that couldn't be told from the real thing. Another coded signal could wake up the model and yet another pulse would allow limited posing of model without her waking up. Dave had already seen it in action at both the department store and Walker's mansion with its gallery of living artworks.
I still can't believe what I see. Dave thought. It feels like a dream. A wonderful dream.
The suspended model could be hard-frozen to complete immobility or they could be left flexible enough to be posed by somebody else into a stance they would hold rigidly until another radio signal came along to wake them up or make then become completely immobile. When in that frozen state, they would be as stiff and rigid as the display figures they were imitating. Once the device was activated to immobilize the model, no additional energy was required to keep them in a totally frozen condition, no matter what happened afterward. That meant there were no worries about batteries running down or power failures for the stationary users of the Suspendor. It also meant the immobilized models could spend years or centuries fully suspended as a mannequin-like statue and the subject would never know time was passing. Dave had seen the amazing effects in the basement of Walker's mansion: hundreds, nay, thousands of frozen models appearing as display figures in a variety of poses and costumes and clothes and accessories after having been "transformed" or suspended permanently, and only unfrozen to be poseable for a limited period but never woken up.
"I still can't believe all those beautiful women have chosen to be frozen forever. They've got to think it's the greatest thing to be frozen."
"That's true. Have to ask why they love it so, before they transform. But it's hard to get girls to talk about it beforehand, and they're hard afterward so they can't talk about it then!" Walker laughed.
Dave was surprised because his uncle didn't know he was echoing his own thoughts.
"Every year I want to ask and every year I forget." My models, though, they're patient.
Dave thought back to the night before. After getting the 'grand tour', his uncle had turned in, leaving his nephew to explore on his own after dinner. Guided by Colette, one of the beautiful maids who were employed at the mansion, he had gotten hands on a remote and had some fun reposing the transformed models, along with a few other things. Some of those transformed had a different pose now; he had so much fun he had not slept very much. So this morning he dozed off, lulled by the jostling of the road and his uncle's infrequent comments. In slumber, he re-experienced the night's adventures:
Making his way downstairs from the bedroom suite, Dave managed to find the entry hall once more. The vast mansion had most of the lights dimmed for the evening so the shadows made it appear even larger. There were a few people moving around even at this hour, but most of the staff had retired in a different way. They had been frozen in their tracks and stood about like so many modern sculptures. There was one, however, that Dave had particular interest in and as Dave approached her station, he smiled.
Colette, one of the first attractive servants costumed as French maids he had met, was standing upright on a small platform alongside the immense entry door. She remained stiff as a statue and cute as a button, gazing blankly out into the vast hall with a content half-smile frozen on her full lips. Her face was oval and framed beautifully by a helmet of carefully coiffed blonde hair, the tips of which barely touched the edges of her jawline. Like the others, Colette possessed a spectacular figure that the tight bodice, nipped waist, and short skirt of the costume only enhanced. On her shapely legs, she wore garter-suspended fishnet stockings and on her tiny feet were high-heeled pumps. Her rigidly crooked arms held a silver platter; upon which rested the remote control that could bring her back to full animation at the touch of a button. Dave picked up the control, finger poised, then he paused. This was the first time he had ever been alone with one of his uncle's magical mannequins; Colette could wait, very patiently, for a few more minutes. He decided to examine her more closely.
As expected, she showed no reaction as he stepped right up to her rigid figure, far closer than he would have been if she were not frozen. As a statue she had no 'personal space' to worry about intruding on. Her still face was like a carving, with chiseled cheekbones, wide-set large eyes, and that sensuous mouth. A spattering of freckles covered her cheeks and across the bridge of her upturned pixie nose; they were almost invisible under the strong foundation makeup she wore. It was amazing how clear and deep blue her eyes were, staring unblinkingly at him even as he ran his fingertip over the delicate butterfly wings of her eyelashes. Colette's skin was smooth and very stiff to his touch in places that he would have expected to be soft and silky. Her mounded breasts peaked above the bodice of the costume like petrified grapefruits while her shapely backside was unnaturally firm under the thin fabric of the gathered skirt.
Knowing she could not see him, nor move a muscle, Dave lifted up the skirt to reveal her frilled satin panties and the lacy garter belt she wore. The maid's slim legs were very supple and smooth within the tight crisscrossing mesh of the elastic black net that embraced them; he wondered idly if she were ticklish as his inquisitive hands explored the motionless artwork that she had become. There was a faint scent of an exotic flowery perfume lingering around her, mixed with her own sweet fragrance and the fresh aroma of her carefully styled hair, offset by the more pungent sweet odor of hairspray. Colette wore a minimum of jewelry; only a pair of silver earrings that Dave guessed concealed the Suspendor receiver and narrow engraved gold band that was not on her left ring finger. Around her sculpted neck was a thin black ribbon that tied in a bow at the back. "You're so astonishingly beautiful," he whispered in her ear, "I think I'm falling in love with you..." Colette, looking like a life-sized painted doll, had no response, even when he kissed her lightly on her solid lips.
His recollection was that something interrupted the interlude at that point, perhaps a set of footsteps or the sound of the wind outside. Whatever it was; the moment had passed. Dave stepped back, out of the maid's 'space', lifted the remote, and pressed the activation button. For a second, there was no change even though she had come alive once more. The she blinked at the same time she took her first breath in over twelve hours. Her chest rose and fell and he knew those breasts were no longer hard and solid.
"Oh," she exclaimed with a little gasp, then a dazzling smile, "Bonsoir, Monsieur Bree-ton. You 'ave startled me."
"Sorry; didn't mean to," he replied, thinking how surprised she would have been a couple of minutes ago.
"It is sometime in the evening, no? My duty is not finished."
"Yes; past eleven."
"Why 'ave you awoken me? Where is Yvette to take my place..."
"Don't worry - everything's OK. I just needed a -guide- to show me more of the residence. My uncle has turned in for the night already."
"I cannot leave my station - the entryway muzt be staffed at all times!"
"Hey, the door is locked. Anyway... who's going to find out? Walker is asleep; all of your compatriots are also sleeping, or frozen. There hasn't been anyone by here in the last fifteen minutes; I know."
"Zis is not such a good idea..." Colette shifted her balance from foot to foot, producing a very pleasing syncopation in the rest of her now alluringly responsive body.
"Besides, Mr.Winson, your boss, is my uncle. If something goes wrong -- and it won't -- I'll explain everything. It'll be OK."
"Very well, zhen. What is it zen zat you wish?"
Oh, what a question, he thought. But he said, "I'd like to see more of the Gallery. This afternoon we kind of rushed through there."
"I know little of zat area; my station is in ze rezidence," she replied, watching as his face fell. "'Ow-ev-air, permit me to 'elp you as I may."
"Great! Let's go, then."
Colette stepped off her low pedestal, came forward a few steps, then turned and looked back with hesitation. "You will return me to my place when you are finished?" She was worried about going off without telling anyone.
"Of course! Now, c'mon; time's a-wasting..." He started walking towards the back of the mansion and Colette followed a few steps back; she caught up when he reached a junction and was unsure which path to take and then she led the way onward. Dave was more than content to follow a couple of steps behind and watch her shapely body move.
They managed to find a few new areas; the gorgeous maid was being modest when she claimed not to know much about the immense multi-level Gallery where hundreds or thousands of women had been frozen in various poses and dress styles. Off to one side hall there was a huge wardrobe closet, with hangers suspended on ropes that went up into the ceiling. Literally any dress style and period could be found here, along with a few creations of Walker Winson's own fashion staff. Most of the garments were on hangers, but some were preserved within clear plastic covers or in a few cases inside a Plexiglas tube. Another wing held accessories and props for the various dioramas when they were not in use.
A display section Dave had not seen before, but right next to the cheerleaders, was a group of majorettes and baton-twirlers dressed in tight sequined leotards or spandex catsuits and wearing dance-heel boots on their feet. The frozen models were younger than in some other dioramas and had been made up to look like seniors in high school or as college students. Their poses were quite artistic, with their movement halted in mid-step or during tosses of the baton, which often remained high overhead, suspended from a network of almost invisible wires. The majorettes wore shaker hats like the band, along with stylized morning coats that left their support-hose clad legs exposed. A few of them had a very toy soldier look going on, with prominent epaulettes, bandoliers, and polished buttons on their colorful tunics along with high cavalry boots that covered their legs up to mid-calf. Some even carried faux muskets slung on shoulder straps. They might have stepped right out of the playroom of 'The Nutcracker' and had been frozen here. Dave spent a few minutes gawking at them before moving along.
Around what seemed like a corner, but could have been a quarter of a mile onward, he came across the strip-bar tableaux with its frozen exotic dancers in various stages of undress. After glimpsing Colette looking longingly at one of the pole sets; he wondered if this was her choice of setting once she decided to be Transformed. He was about to ask her about it when they were interrupted by a lab-coated worker who approached the grouping. Perhaps it was the subdued lighting or the comparative stillness with which they stood, but the man did not notice Dave or Colette as he stepped up to one of the frozen dancers and very carefully inserted a dollar bill into her G-string. The worker was evidently a very careful person, since he shifted the bill around several times to make sure it had been accurately placed. On the other hand, perhaps he had seen some lingering bits of dust upon the statue's impressive breasts that he -very conscientiously- was removing by brushing his hands over them.
"Sweetening the pot, I see?" Dave inquired in a normal tone of voice. The worker literally jumped a foot in the air, coming down in a way that he pushed the frozen dancer and almost toppled her over if he had not grabbed her rigid body even more firmly and pulled her back into position.
"Jesus! Mr.Brighton, you gave me a fright." He gasped.
"Didn't mean to," Dave fibbed, winking at Colette, who stifled a chuckle. "Was just taking a look around. Couldn't sleep for some reason."
"Um, could you kind of avoid mentioning this little event to Mr.Winson when you see him in the morning?" The worker had finished straightening the motionless suspended dancer and was edging away. Dave raised an eyebrow in question; the man replied "He doesn't like us to, er, interact with the displays; likes to keep that privilege for himself."
"I can understand..." Dave started to reply, then was cut off by a familiar voice off to one side, saying "Dave? Are you listening to anything I've been yammering on about?" It was his uncle's voice.
Taken aback, but not about to show surprise, he turned to reply and then noticed that Colette and the worker were frozen and the Gallery was becoming very hazy and indistinct. "Huh? What d'you mean," Dave replied, then opened his eyes...
...when he awoke the SUV was slowing down and soon stopped outside a very sturdy looking fence.
"Don't worry about it now," Walker said from the driver's seat next to his nephew, "We're here."
The vehicle had arrived at a closed gate with a little sentry house next to it. There was sign posted reading 'Private property. Entry allowed only by permission of owner.' A big furry dog came up to the stopped SUV, then licked Walker's hand.
"Hello Fred." He patted the dog and the dog started to wag its tail.
A dark haired woman dressed in a service uniform like a cop was standing next to the gate. She had a curvy figure and was standing tall, feet apart, with both arms bent and hands resting on her waist. She looked straight ahead, gazing at infinity. She didn't move a muscle when SUV arrived at the gate and stopped right beside her. Dave realized she was frozen, not just at attention.
Walker looked at the attractive young woman. "I see Tamara is standing guard again. That girl loves to be suspended so much, I think she will want to be transformed soon." He sighed. "She's very fit too and doesn't need to train before being put on display. She'll look good in anything she chooses. Oh, hello, Paula," he said upon seeing a movement inside.
"Hello Mr. Winson. Another visit to the retreat?" A mobile redhead with a lush figure like Tamara's walked out of the little sentry house and welcomed Walker. She carried a walkie-talkie and did not seem surprised at all to see her fellow guard frozen in place like a life-sized lawn elf, knowing they'd be swapping places in another hour. Fair was fair.
"Yep. Just my regular look-see, along with a guest. This is my nephew David, by the way. I'm giving him the tour of the place."
"Hello, Paula. Nice to meet you." Dave said. Paula waved, smiling a little.
"Tamara has suspended herself again, Mr. Walker. She really likes the idea of being a 'scarecrow statue' as she calls it." Paula said to them, then spoke into her walkie-talkie. "OK to open the gate; security code Tango Alpha. Mr. Winson is here for a visit." She turned to the pair of men in the car, and wave-saluted them onward as the metal grid retracted into the roadway. "You are clear to go on through, sir."
"Thank you, Paula. When Tamara wakes up you can replace her on duty." The SUV drove through the opened gate but Dave saw a smile on Paula's face as the beautiful redhead struck a pose and blew a kiss at him. As soon as they had passed, the gate rose into blockade position once more.
"Are those statues real girls?" Dave asked a minute or so later. They were driving past several white marble statues scattered across the greensward next to the road. They looked like classically posed Greek or Roman statues. "Or are they marble statues?"
"Actually, a mixture of styles." Dave was surprised. The statues looked so real, he thought, but his uncle explained. "Some of them are made from a kind of styrofoam material; something they use in Hollywood to craft fake dinosaurs and things like that. I saw it on a website, how they can take a detailed scan-image of a real woman and produce a model to scale from rigid foam in any size and shape and pose. I picked up a machine, scanned some of my favorite models in different poses, made the copies you see. Sprayed a lacquer covering on them and put them out here. Can't tell the difference, can you?"
"How can anybody tell?" Dave blurted. "They look so real!"
"How many girls are seven feet tall?" Walker asked as he smiled. "All of these statues are."
"Oh. That would be a good way." It was still hard to tell if they were real women or not from the details. However, the statues close to the road were taller than most women were and did not have the lanky proportions normal to persons of that stature. These figures retained their voluptuous physiques even at the enlarged scale. Other lovely statues closer to the buildings were of more normal size and were probably immobilized models, Dave guessed correctly.
As at the mansion, the grounds were immense and well cared for. The resort was a large, sprawling, four-story building in the middle of cleared spot in the forest. It was painted off-white with beige trim and had lots of windows. Dave could see groups of attractive-looking people walking around but he was concentrating on something else. In front of the entry portico, next to the driveway, a group of beautiful women was in the middle of yoga class. Dave had dated a girl who practiced that discipline once, and he saw they all had assumed a position called 'The Wheel'. It was a pose wherein the women faced upward, with their backs up and arched; their hands and feet planted on the ground below their backs, giving the impression of someone imitating a table. Some girls had their feet flat on the ground while others were on tiptoes. It was a strenuous position to keep for very long. But Dave looked and saw not one tiny movement from any women there. "Walker, I'm sure that pose doesn't take that long to maintain."
"That? Oh, the frozen yoga class, of course!" Walker chuckled. "There are several yoga classes where the students do poses, then they freeze in them for some time. I've been told it improves their meditations enormously. While it does take a couple of hours to get through a regimen that usually consumes only an hour normally, the girls seem to like it a lot. And the engineers running the place like it too." He pointed high up on a roof cornice where a security camera remained pointed at the static participants of the yoga class.
They stopped the SUV in front of the main door, disembarked, and a valet quickly drove the vehicle off to park it. Waiting at door was a perky looking girl in tight blue exercise shorts and white T-shirt. Her chestnut hair was gathered in a ponytail and she looked like a natural beauty without any bit of make-up apparent. "Hi Mr. Winson!" She said happily upon recognizing him. "It's so good to see you again! We've missed you so much. So much!"
"Hello, Michelle. It's nice to see you too and it has been a long time since I last was here." Walker and the girl hugged. He continued. "This is David, my nephew. I'm giving him the tour of the place."
"Hi. Nice to see you as well." Dave said. It was incredible how many beautiful women seemed to always be around. Not just pretty, mind you, but dazzling; stunningly lovely in a way you don't usually see outside of health or fashion magazines. This place wasn't usual.
"It's great to meet you!" She hugged him too. "Has Mr. Walker showed you the store and mansion? I'll bet he has. So you know all about the secret bonus program he has for all of us. It's so great to be suspended frequently and also be able to work at something you love."
Walker explained. "Michelle wanted to be aerobic instructor. Here she can do that, and more."
Dave wondered, Such as becoming a lawn statue?
"And I get paid for it, too!" She smiled, a big happy unconcerned smile. "Have you met any of my friends at the store? They're named Danielle and Janice and Tanya and. . . "
"Hey, I do know them. I met them at the store when we were watching them pose the mannequin models."
"Oh, they're so great aren't they? I really like that you think that too!" Michelle bubbled, almost hugging him again. Dave was blown-away by her energetic excitement. She continued, "Would you like to have the cook's tour of the resort? I can be very helpful in doing it for you."
Walker laughed. "Of course, Michelle. We'd love it if you could. Right Dave?"
"Uh, yeah! Right!"
"Oh goodie goodie good! Would you like to go now? That would be a great idea." Michelle took Dave's hand. "Let me show you around our humble little retreat. Hope you like it!"
They entered a big room through the main doors. Dave saw a typical check-in desk where one received rooms and the bell you hit to get luggage moved, along with another button marked 'press for service'. In a shallow niche next to the rows of pigeonholes for mail stood a very pretty and very still young woman dressed as a clerk. She waited, suspended, to be activated when the need arose. Dave glimpsed additional static staff standing rigidly in other niches all around the lobby. Not too surprisingly, almost all the staff were young women. There were chairs and tables and couches and magazines and several of those gold-tube-framed carts that luggage was moved on. There was a cascading waterfall in the middle of the lobby and a windowed restaurant area and everything else. It looked almost like a regular hotel in most all ways, with a few important differences: The lack of an animated staff and a lobby filled with beautiful female statues. These latter figures were not just the typical ornamental sculptures found in many upscale hotels. Some were painted white, gray, or gleamed in metallic hues but most were the totally motionless gorgeous women Dave had expected to find in a place run by his uncle. The marble-looking ones were posed in classic poses; the cavorting figures in the waterfall looking like they belonged there. Bronze-gold statues stood along the wall, some supporting light fixtures, others posed dramatically in what seemed to be a long-term display. Otherwise, the many frozen mannequin-like women were standing in their poses on little marble pedestals scattered across the room, dressed (if that was the term) in variety of skimpy clothing. From leotards to swimsuits to aerobic or exercise wear, they presented the female figure at its statuesque best, proudly displaying the excellently toned and fit bodies they all possessed. When Dave looked carefully at each one, he was impressed to see how good each of the women appeared. He wondered if they were all staff or guests too.
Once again, someone had anticipated his thoughts. "Some of the people staying here like to be put on display like this during their visit!" Michelle said happily. She stopped abruptly and pointed at one of the statues. The motionless figure was tall blonde with the lithe sculpted body of a runner or swimmer. Her blue eyes looked ahead confidently as she stood on the pedestal with just a thin lycra exercise top and bottom on. "Fiona here came to us from England. And all she wanted to do was to stand out here for everybody to see. There are lots of ways to spend time besides this and lots of poses too if you want to be frozen. Most of our guests like to try that along with everything else It's so super!"
"Nice to meet you, Fiona." Dave said as he quickly ran over the woman's smooth body. It was completely toned and completely solid.
"Fiona is taking some time off before coming to work in my store in the city." Walker said strolling back from the desk. He handed a remote to Dave and kept one for himself. "Part of our exchange program. Since she arrived in the states a bit early, Fiona decided to have a short vacation here." He looked briefly at his watch. "In fact, she should be waking up soon. Right, Michelle?"
"Yep! A couple of days more. She wants to be woken up before her vacation was up, so she could take in a massage or two." Michelle ran up to the frozen girl. "Do you want me to wake her up now?"
"I think Dave would like that." Walker smiled. "Would you?"
"Oh, yeah!" Dave said first thing come to mind, and the complete truth.
"Here we go. You could do it too." Walker pressed a button. On her pedestal, Fiona blinked a few seconds later, then blinked again, before raising her arms while stretching and yawning. She looked around and then down at the three people gathered around her pedestal. "Oh, hello, Michelle, Mr. Winson. Is my vacation quite over?" She said with a charming English accent.
"Hello Fiona," Walker replied. "You still have few days left, but I'd like you to meet my nephew David, here. I'm giving him a tour of our facility."
"Oh, splendid. Nice to make your acquaintance, David. I'm Fiona Highcastle, as your uncle said. Can you help me down? I seem to be slightly stiff right now." She didn't seem to care about how she was dressed.
"Sure." Dave offered a hand and the lithe woman stepped down. She straightened her top so that it covered more of her mounded pointy breasts and smiled at Dave. "How do you like all this?" She meant the resort, but Dave was looking at her body when she said it.
"Don't know. I'm blown away. How do you like it?"
"It's a wonderful job I have over here. I thought things were going well modeling in London but when your uncle offering to have us fill positions in the States, I couldn't believe how much better it could be." She smiled. "And it is!"
"It's like she says. It's the most wonderful thing in the world." Michelle said excitedly. "Do you want to see more of this place? We've got lots of things to see!"
"What can beat this?" Dave asked rhetorically. Walker smiled but Fiona answered. "There are many wondrous things to see. I think you might enjoy them as much as my simple presentation. This lobby is only the beginning." She looked back at the pedestal. "I guess someone else will be standing here when we finish. Still, it's been fun even if I found it hard to move from there."
Dave pondered the double meaning of her phrasing as she led off, followed half a step behind by the vivacious Michelle.
"Let's not keep the ladies waiting!" Walker chuckled as they hurried slightly to catch up.
"Who are you?" Dave asked to someone who would never answer him. He was looking at a frozen woman standing on a white-marble pedestal clothed in a white sleeveless leotard and nothing else. She was posed feet together but arms straight up in the air. Her dark hair waved slightly from the breeze and her eyes saw to infinity. Her figure was spectacular. Even the clingy leotard seemed cut to show the firm toned abs of her torso and did nothing to hide her sculpted arms and legs. A little sign on the pedestal read 'Donna - 31987'.
There were twenty pedestals total in the hallway. Two more were occupied. One by a gorgeous black beauty in a purple and gold spandex aerobics outfit. The other held an olive-skinned woman clad in simple running clothes. All pedestals had little signs on them even if nobody was there. All the light coming in the windows let Dave read the signs with no trouble.
"Donna. One of our yoga instructors. Isn't she great?" Michelle said happily. "This is where our program instructors pose when they freeze. If they have nothing to do yet, they can freeze here. And anybody looking for a free instructor for a class or something can come here and see if one is free. Just use the phone on the way," Michelle pointed at the instrument on the wall, "And tell the attendant the instructor's name and number. Then they'll wake her right up and she'll be ready for your lesson. It's a really great system! The instructors can spend more time suspended and any guests can have a private class whenever they want, without waiting!"
Walker smiled. He knew the 'private classes' sometimes were vigorously athletic but not quite in the way Michelle thought.
"Not that many guests come this way. They usually go out the door onto the veranda." Fiona said. The group went out the door as well.
"I like this." Dave said. He was impressed. The area featured a large outdoor pool with the usual floats, chairs, towels, wet bar and everything one could conceivably find in a pool area, along with a few unique artworks as well. A good number of people were enjoying the pool area but there were a lot more women than men. "Who are all these people?" Dave asked as he looked at a couple of sunbathing beauties lying in the sun, the straps on their bikini tops undone to give them an even tan line.
Other girls were playing water polo and having a fun. A couple of men cheered from the bar at a geeky looking man who had trouble playing.
"Come on Howard! You can do it!" The girls all called.
There was a girl in a one-piece violet swimsuit getting ready to dive. She stood at the end of the board, raised her arms up, hopped lightly on the springy board, and then jumped. She did a perfect swan dive into the pool and people clapped appreciatively even as the next girl got into position on the board. Watching everything carefully were a couple girls in solid red or blue swimsuits with word "lifeguard' embroidered on them. The suits seemed to have shrunk with frequent exposure to water as they fit like a coat of paint, revealing everything. Even their obvious nipples and their soft mounds of pubic hair could be clearly seen.
"Most are models. You can see that already." Walker smiled as Dave blushed. "Like I said, the resort and spa is primarily a place to get away and relax for my employees. The rest of the guests are executives and other employees." Walker smiled. "My engineers don't use this pool - they're all busy in their labs and workshops." He turned to both aerobics girls, who had accompanied them. "Do you still have your suspendors on?"
Both nodded and Walker said, "Take them off please." After Michelle and Fiona had removed the rings containing their suspendors and placed them on a table, Walker took his remote and pressed a number of buttons, a lot more then usual. Dave looked from his uncle to the pool scene in anticipation. He did not have long to wait.
When Walker pressed the last button, the remote gave a brief chirp. Dave was surprised because he never heard something like a sound from the suspendor remote before, but Michelle and Fiona grinned. They knew what was coming.
Almost all the girls in the pool suddenly stopped what they were doing in mid-action. Not only the girls swimming in the pool but also those around the water. A couple at the bar was about to drink from their glasses or coconuts with the little umbrellas in them. They halted instantly into a still-life. A lifeguard who was about to blow her whistle had been frozen as she pointed at two girls suspended while running in the pool area. The diver about to jump from the board was frozen in the middle of her move. The water polo game instantly stopped as the ball splashed into the water as the clumsy man found everybody else in the game was immobilized. He scooped up the ball and threw it into the opposing goal. The only people not frozen were the men who took that opportunity to gaze at all the frozen girls fondly along with a few lifeguards who made sure none of the immobilized girls fell into deep water.
"Wow! How did you do that?" Dave asked as he saw the tableaux of frozen girls. It was like the store display, the mansion, or the gallery of the Transformed but nothing there looked so active while being so still. "That wasn't just a simple press of a button."
"Right; I pressed several buttons. I can trigger a command that changes each receiver/transmitter the girls are wearing so they suspend the girl and also sends a signal to another receiver transmitter telling it to freeze the next one. Kind of like a chain reaction or something like that. My engineers have told me about it before but I don't remember the details. Anyway, it's very useful when you want to freeze a lot of people from one remote and not run back to the main suspendor or spend minutes trying to remember all the codes. But it will freeze everybody in a given area so I had Michelle and Fiona here take off their suspendors. I wanted to have them able to talk, otherwise they'd now be statues like all the rest." Walker smiled. They both took in the scene for a few more seconds.
"You are so cruel, Mr. Walker!" Michelle said, with mock dejection. "We like being suspended and now we have to pass up a chance to be frozen!" Playfully, she reached up and pushed the girl on the diving board a little, but enough to unbalance her so she fell stiffly into the water. This earned Michelle a stern look from one of the lifeguards and a chuckle from Dave.
Fiona smiled. "Michelle, we will get our chance to freeze in due time. Why complain? We do enough hard things often enough!"
"Now ladies. You all will have the chance be frozen all you want. But later, after we finish showing my nephew around. He should see everything before you all freeze up for the rest of the day."
"Oh, all right - thanks!" Michelle bubbled, back to her cheery self. "What are we waiting for?"
"A nice place to stay in." Dave said as he entered the girl's hotel room.
Fiona nodded. "Its bigger then my flat in London. At least when I was still keeping a flat. That was a while ago, before I was in your uncle's employ. Now, I use company billets or hotels when not on assignment. Regardless, this resort offers particularly splendid accommodations." She strolled in, acting again like a tour guide as they walked around.
There were many windows that let a flood of sunlight in, making the whole room bright and colorful. It was like a small apartment, with a living room in the center and a small kitchen and dining room off to one side. There were doors leading off to different parts of the apartment where the bedroom and bathroom were located. The shower stall had a clear glass door and multiple spray heads; it looked large enough for several bathers, which set Dave's imagination running.
"We all get our own bedroom and bathrooms. Not that we spend much time in them." Fiona commented.
"Why go back to a stuffy old apartment when you can be suspended, instead?" Michelle said as she ran to the window of the distinctly unstuffy room and pointed. "Look, they've started the next aerobics class!"
"What are those?" Dave asked, pointing to a series of platforms of varying sizes and heights spaced around the living room. "Do you freeze in here too?"
"Yes, we just assume a pedestal or other location, phone the desk at central control and they'll freeze us directly there." Fiona said.
"You seem to like freezing a lot." Dave looked at the pedestals. "I thought you went to your room after you'd finished with everything out there, to kind of take a break from being statues."
"Why?" Michelle asked. "I love being frozen! Why not be frozen anywhere and anytime and as often as you can?"
"Nobody can see you!" Dave said. Walker smiled and let Michelle handle it as Dave continued, "I mean, this is a private room. Do you want people to just come in and look at you frozen on the pedestal? Any stranger could come in look at you or touch you?"
Michelle nodded "Sure. We do that. If you leave the door unlocked you are letting people do that. And we all try to leave our doors unlocked; anything valuable goes into the bedroom safe. Want to see some of the sights?" Michelle said invitingly, and then ran out of the room. Dave followed, hesitantly.
Walker laughed. "It's really okay, Dave. Just go and see what you can see."
Dave followed Michelle as she tried all the doors to several different guest rooms and they all opened. She was right; all the doors were unlocked. Moreover, most rooms were occupied, with strikingly different sights to be seen in each. Dave wondered how anyone had time to sleep. It seemed if they were frozen enough, rest became unnecessary.
One room had two girls statued in classic upright poses on their pedestals. Each had the firm body and toned figure of trained athletes. They looked like they were throwing discs or javelins or something with both arms away from their body. A big hand-lettered sign next to the two lovely naked bodies read, "Paint us"; several cans of white paint and brushes were placed nearby.
"Hey Dave, why don't you try a little artistry?" Michelle teased as she took up a brush and ran it over the nearest girl from her neck to her crotch. The motionless figure was already covered with paint over some parts of her body but the line of fresh paint was very noticeable. She also did the same thing on the other girl and painted over her crotch area then finished the line on the back of that one's neck into one solid line. "It's fun and they don't mind!" Dave shook his head 'no' with a blush. Michelle shrugged, dropped the brush back into the paint, and zoomed out the door, in search of more fun to have.
Another room held a girl wearing a bikini. Both parts of the suit had probably been the same color some time ago but now the skimpy gold colored top looked totally different from the old-style polka-dot bottom. A sign beside her read "Mix and match swimsuits" beside a big box of discards and a clothing rack that held a huge number of two piece swimsuits ready to be worn by the frozen girl. Even the best-covering bikini couldn't hide the awesome bosoms she had. Dave was impressed and wondered the old question: Are they Live or are they Memorex?
"I like Cindy better." Fiona commented as she stripped off both the top and bottom from the buxom frozen girl. "She's actually built like the rest of us girls! We don't have to change the top to fit her specially and can use her like a dressing dummy to see how the rest of us will fit into the swimsuits. Is she frozen in her room right now, Michelle? We could show Dave straight off."
"No, she's taking yoga at this time, but she must be frozen in that pose there for a while though!"" Michelle said as she looked at the palm pad she carried. "Don't go getting ideas either; you know they don't like us changing the outfits on the classes. Remember?"
"Right. Oh, bother." Fiona replied.
The next room contained two immobile girls. One sported a dog collar, chrome chains, and handcuffs accessorizing a revealing knit low-cut outfit like a hooker's. She was posed kneeling on her pedestal, looking upward. The other girl was clad in dominatrix leather complete with whip, black fishnet hose, and tall-heeled boots; posed as if punishing the other girl. A sign stated simply: "VICE versa. Same size."
The two animate guides looked to each other, both with sly grins on their faces. A silent agreement was sealed with a quick nod.
Dave saw only little of the scene before Michelle and Fiona closed the door to room after pushing he and Walker out. "Be out in a sec!" The two said together, giggling.
"What are they going to do?"
"Something fun." Walker said. "Let's find something else while they're busy in there."
They entered a room across the hall which had three girls posed together on largish pedestal. A sign next to their nude forms read "Wanna have fun tonight?" At that Walker laughed. "They did again. I thought they had enough 'fun' last time but this scene must be really good!"
"What?" Dave asked.
"Last time Andrea and her friends Jenny and Sabrina posted sign like that, they were put into some of the strangest poses you could ever imagine! I mean, I've seen many all things around the world and a lot of -ah- acrobatic women, but even a few of those poses surprised me!" Walker smiled. "Would you like to arrange them into a pose you'd like to see them perform for you?"
"They're OK with that?" Dave still was flabbergasted by the openness of the implied invitation. Andrea was a Nordic-looking blonde with classic high cheekbones and lithe figure, while Jenny was an exotic mix of what seemed like Asian and African lineage who possessed latte-colored skin, an oval face, and dark straight hair. The third girl was also dark, with a skin tone that looked like polished ebony and had contrasting caramel-colored hair. Together they already formed an interesting composition.
Walker nodded. "Trust me. They'll go with anything you can think of and a few things more you can't think of."
"Well... I can think of quite a few." A lot of dirty thoughts came up in Dave's mind as he took the remote and closed the door, opening it a few minutes later.
"That's very interesting thing to put three girls into. You surprise me sometimes, Dave." Walker said as they left the room. "I didn't think you were so imaginative" The pose had a beautiful symmetry to it, something he thought might look good for some of the Transformed, someday.
"I try." Dave allowed, and Walker laughed. Then Dave looked back at the room Michelle and Fiona were just leaving. "What did you do in there?"
"Why don't you take a look, Dave?" Michelle offered. "Nothing complex. Just -- different."
Dave looked into room and saw the two frozen girls had swapped places. The dominatrix now was in the kneeling one's place and the kneeling girl now had become the dominatrix, but the one was who was wielding the whip wasn't the only thing that had changed. Their clothes had been switched too, and their wigs. Deja vu. "Oh, that's what the sign means!" Dave finally figured it out.
"Yep. They like finding out what other people will do to them. Just like Andrea and her friends." Fiona looked at the door Dave and Walker had come out of. "And you did something to them too -- ahh."
"A little. Let's see some of the other rooms."
Another room had two girls dressed in multi-colored leotards and leggings. They were posed in active exercise routine poses, just in the middle of the floor while the pedestals were empty. "I see other girls have been busy." Fiona said. "We usually pose Marilyn and Paige in exercise routines we want to see before doing them ourselves. Allows us to see if we like it without trying it. Though we usually put fewer clothes on them for most of the routines. A lot of the men usually want to see how the girls look in different poses with the least amount of clothes on; sometimes 'nothing' is just the right amount!"
"Not that we mind!" Michelle said as she ran her hand over the beautiful girl on the right. "Marilyn, here, almost always ends up naked! For some reason everybody wants to strip her often as possible."
"Happy to oblige..." Dave wasted no time in slipping the stretchy leotard over her shoulders, exposing her full breasts that had been slightly compressed by the tight fabric. Continuing the undressing, he tugged the garment over her curvy hips and down her slim legs. Without being asked, Walker assisted him by tipping her rigid figure first one way and then the other so Dave could remove the leotard from around her feet. As a nude, Marilyn was stunning, though she still had sweatbands around her wrists. "Very nice," he commented wryly when she was back in position.
"You are starting to get the hang of this place, my boy!" the elder Winson beamed.
"So is there any other place in this resort that you want to show me?" Dave asked after a few moments of appreciative contemplation.
"Want to go to the display galleries?" Walker asked. Michelle smiled. "It's something you will really enjoy. It's much like the transformed but also very different."
"There hasn't been anything here I haven't liked so far!" Dave exclaimed, getting his second, or third, or fourth wind.
"Some girls like to be frozen the whole time they're on their vacation. It's a shame because we have many fun things to do here. But if they want to spend all their time as statues, they can." Walker said as group walked through the resort.
"What s that?" Dave asked. He pointed at a sign on wall next to a door. It said "Spas and Mud bath. Please take-off all electronics." With the word 'all' underlined and in big black letters.
Fiona shrugged. "Well, the suspendors don't work very well in the very high temperatures like a spa or steam room or mudbath. And it can be dangerous too; I don't want to find out if it's dangerous. I also don't want the suspendor to go off when one of women is in a mudbath. She might slip down and disappear and we wouldn't know where she is if the bath is full. Even so, we drain the baths once a week."
Walker grinned. "Just think of finding that kind of treasure in the mud. Fun, but I like better ways of finding treasure."
"Your uncle is very stubborn on the rules, too. Once a couple of us tried to hide in the bath, to sort of scare the guests. When he caught us, he wouldn't let us be suspended for a whole week!" Michelle complained. "It was so awful to not be able to not move for whole week!"
Everybody laughed at that.
"It's very good reward for everyone that's following rules." Walker smiled. He patted Michelle on the shoulder and she smiled. "I don't want my ladies to get hurt, even if Michelle and some of the girls think I'm just a cantankerous old fart." They stopped before a new portal. It had double doors and was decorated in an elaborate way. A sign reading 'Tableaux Vivant of Fitness' in big gold letters was over the doors, painted in a nice fancy curvy style script.
"Now Dave. You saw the Transformed and I'm sure you agree that was something. Here's a different kind of gallery. We don't transform any girls for this gallery; they are all merely suspended. Any of the girls can be frozen here for as long as their vacation lasts. And since they decide the duration as well as the poses, this place can surprise me a lot of times." Walker took something out of a pocket on his jacket. It looked like a PDA or some electronic notepad, such as many business people carry. "And since gallery is for teaching at the same time it entertains people -- not like my basement gallery -- we can't put every little thing on signs for the displays. The signs would be too big or the words too small to read. So, the engineers gave everybody who goes to the gallery this." Walker showed Dave the PDA-looking thing.
"Looks like a common palmpad. What's so special about it?"
"Well, a little. There's a small set piece, a description, about each display that operates on command from PDA." Walker opened the cover and pulled out a stylus from his pocket. "Just point this and press a button and everything about the poses in the display will pop up on the screen here. You can read everything you want from this, completely up to date, and I save money on ink." Walker offered the door. "Do you want to try it out?" He swung the double doors wide.
"This I've got to see." Dave followed his uncle into the room.
Inside the gallery, Dave saw a sea of motionless bodies. It was a large white room, but smaller than the Transformed Gallery of course. There were tall windows everywhere along the outer walls in the room and lots of sun was coming in. Some people were walking around, looking at the displays, and using their PDA devices. The displays themselves were presented on wide and long white marble pedestals.
What displays! Models were arranged sequentially for each exercise displayed, one at each important moment in doing the action. For yoga, Dave recognized The Wheel, an upward facing backward bend that had several girls showing how to get through it, and a couple others showing variations of it. Other frozen models demonstrated The Cobra, Warrior, Lion, and other classic stances. Not all the poses were yoga. There were other physical exercises like aerobics or strength training or tai-bo or whatever. Some were very exotic and Dave wondered where the poses had come from.
"Sometimes we girls like to come in and start changing the poses around. Change a girl from a headstand." Michelle pointed at a series of girls stopped motionless in different stages of a headstand including the lithe blonde doing the real headstand. As in the Transformed Gallery there were fine transparent lines holding the models in position when balance alone would not. "And maybe change her into doing a flying kick." She nodded at another set of girls caught in middle of doing a high kick with their torsos twisted away and standing on one leg, like a Bruce Lee karate movie. They, too, were fastened down for balance.
"Or we go to rather something else!" Fiona laughed. "We like to play tricks on the girls here. They do it to us, then we pose them as well, but we all have fun at it. We do all sorts of nasty things."
Most of girls were dressed in form fitting body stockings, leotards or exercise tops and bottoms that seemed very much like swimsuit tops and bottoms. Others had on more dressy outfits like cargo pants or sequined dance outfits. Animal prints seemed to appear a lot. There were occasionally even stranger outfits like a ninja or a belly dancer costumes. Nothing Dave had not seen earlier on the figures of Transformed of course.
However, some were completely naked in many different enticing poses. They were scattered across the room but they always seemed to be placed in attitudes that emphasized their excellent physiques. Though some did show some modesty with hands covering the right places. Others were open to the world for everybody to see.
"Is this open to public?" Dave asked. He walked up to and looked at a nude girl posed face up on pedestal, with her feet together flat on the marble and the top of her head against the floor. The motionless body was lifted in an arch off the marble and her arms were crossed over her chest at the high point of arch at the bust line. However, the lithe, dark hair girl had her legs together and arms over the best part. "Looks like you have covered this girl in right place. But what about everybody else?"
"Oh, people can come in here. If somebody outside the business comes to visit, we make sure to dress or arrange the girls here. Alternatively, we spray some paint over them if we have to be fast. That way they'll look just like alabaster sculptures." Walker grinned. "Hardest part is getting the paint off after the visitors leave the display. You would be surprised how many girls have hard time getting it off."
"It sticks like another skin!" Michelle said. "I mean latex helps make you look better but it is a hassle to take off without all kinds of trouble. Once painted, I'd rather stay that way for a time."
Walker shrugged as he looked at a petite frozen girl in a triathlon top and bottom. The Asian woman was posed lying on her stomach. Her head was looking upward and her arms were up and behind her. The back was bent backward and legs were bent back towards her head and arms. Her hands were holding on to the sides of each foot. Next to her was sign where somebody had written, "Rock me" with a rocking chair picture drawn to give the correct idea. "Well, we do warn them about it. People can visit anytime and sometimes there's not a lot of time to avoid mischief." Walker pushed the rigid girl slightly and she rocked back and forth. He spoke to the unmoving model; though it was unlikely she could hear him. "Hmmm… and you wanted to be transformed like this Mariko… strange pose, The Bow."
Dave saw another series of girls. They were caught doing tai-bo exercise in exercise shorts and tank top. What surprised Dave was that they looked absolutely the same. Not only in make-up and wigs, but their faces and bodies too, like identical sisters, or clones. "You have four identical twins?"
"No, just a pair of twins. Suzanne and Leah are twins that joined as models together. Same time, Jolene and Katie came in at different stores." Walker pointed at the two girls on the right. "When you look at them side-by-side, they seem completely identical! Surprised me and everybody! We finally got them together one day and they just hit it off from the first time. They all work out of my main store in the same group -- usually a floor display or diorama -- for everything and they really like it. They even take vacations at the same time!" Walker shook his head. "They are really good team. I have to use them more."
"Wow." Dave couldn't believe how much the four beautiful frozen women looked like each other. They all had the same lean, tall figures. "Man, that must surprise people at parties if they all dress the same."
"Oh a few times. Always makes it really funny looking at everybody who gets confused." Walker stepped up on the pedestal and ran a hand over Suzanne's -- or Leah's? -- face while make small changes to the girl's pose. "Sometime I even have some of them frozen as mannequins at the parties and the others awake to mingle. Makes people really interested. And when you change who's frozen and who's awake… that can really get people wondering sometimes how the 'same girl' can appear with a slightly different pose and look in only a few minutes."
"Yeah; I would be confused too." Dave walked around them to admire their finely sculpted bodies. He turned to another diorama of posed girls. This time they were like every other set of girls in that they all had different appearances and costumes; they were posed in the middle of an aerobic routine. There were props like weights or step platforms in this tableau to help the appearance of a gym or studio, but the two girls dressed in white socks and sneakers and nothing else was something you did not see in any normal fitness show. Another set of pedestals held girls posed as if in the middle of a fitness competition routine, something you might see on sports shows. But the barely-there leotards were not something you would ever see on TV, at least on a network station, and Dave enjoyed the excellent view.
A few of the girls frozen in the gallery looked like art works. There was a very tall blonde whose hair cascaded down her back. Next was a shorter blonde with very sculpted legs and beside her was an Asian woman with an impressive bust who was slightly shorter then the shorter of the two blondes. They had a piece of cloth covering part of their front private areas and they had their arms around each other. The scene had an arty feel to it and Dave said something to his uncle. Walker just replied something about "special guests" that had come to visit and decided to get into such a pose. Before Dave could ask to use Walker's PDA device, his uncle strolled away and Dave had one last long look before he followed him.
Michelle and Fiona had meanwhile been busy rearranging some of the girls' poses and changing a couple of the outfits. They even lifted one dark skinned lady from where she perched on her bent forearms on the pedestal, her head looking slightly up, her body above her upper arms and her legs swung just above her head and forearms. The girls carried the frozen lady next to the girl in the display who was posed like a bow until the two frozen girls were facing each other. Michelle got a large piece of cardboard from somewhere and wrote something on it, putting it next to the two girls. Dave took a close look at the sign, reading 'The Human scales. Something is heavy.' Dave shook his head with a chuckle as he looked at the sign. Behind him, the two girls laughed.
"We've been trying to get back at Arianne and Yuku for a long time. Those two had some really tricky sense of humor. Once both of us were moved from here in the gallery to poolside and they put a couple water hoses in our hands spraying upwards all over our bodies so we looked like a bunch of water fountains. This is after they stripped us naked, of course. They took some photos and put them up all over the place." Fiona explained. "I don't really mind these sorts of things, but at least we should be told of it before hand."
"And they froze two lifeguards and moved both girls in here to take our places." Michelle laughed. "Think of their surprise when they woke up in our poses! They were not ready for it and one of them fell off the pedestal! Arianne and Yuku tried to pretend it didn't happen but we all know it was them. Well, they'll get our revenge today."
"I heard they wanted to go for something really spectacular. The two of them wanted to move everybody in this room out to do something or other. I forgot exactly what." Michelle went on.
"A really large archway over the path over the garden," Fiona supplied. "At least that's what Ellen says we should do. Two on the sides and one on top."
That would have been something to see! Dave thought. He was about to look at another display when a model wrapped in a bathrobe came into the gallery. She was a red haired beauty and had smooth skin and green eyes. The bathrobe made it hard to tell from a distance, but she appeared lean like a swimmer.
"Hi Michelle, Fiona. Who might ye be?" She asked in an Irish accent, turning to the young man with a smile.
"Dave. I'm Mr. Winson's nephew." Dave offered his hand and she shook it.
"Nice to meet you, Miss?"
"Colleen. I'm a model for your uncle. Just came in from over the pond." She smiled. "Decided to drop into a display for a little rest and found all of you parked in here."
"Colleen likes to use the gallery most of the time she's here." Michelle said to Dave in a soft voice, almost like a whisper. He didn't take the hint and barged onward.
"Why? The poses look, well, hard to pull off. Your muscles must get tired even if you are frozen most of the time."
"Not really. I get the usual soreness from the suspendor, as you've likely heard of. But, that's all. Even the hardest poses you'd think to be in won't get me much more than some soreness like to exercising a lot. And it's very restful. Very restful." Colleen giggled. "In fact, I can't wait."
"I've been hearing that a lot. What does it actually feel like?"
'Well, um, it can seem rather sensual..." Colleen started, blushing slightly.
"Like the most intense orgasm and the best massage and best fantasy rolled into one endless moment!" Michelle piped in with much enthusiasm. "It's hard to explain, if you've never tried it, but there's no better rush in the world. And it lasts; oh, does it ever!"
"Michelle has a more graphic way with the words than me. I never can describe it precisely. Not enough wonderful words to say." Colleen grinned. "Now, if you excuse me, Dave. It was nice to meet you." She left the but you're holding me up unspoken.
"Nice to meet you, too." Dave watched raptly as Colleen tapped some buttons on a control panel on the wall, then got up on one of the empty pedestals and pulled off her bathrobe, revealing just a simple blue legless leotard that sparkled in the light. She suddenly bent over backwards while putting her arms on back of her legs. Tossing her head back, she held her position just as the computer activated her suspendor and froze her into position. It was striking pose, with head bent back a lot and her arms holding her up from the legs.
"Wow!" Dave was impressed again by the sudden change from an active vibrant woman to a suspended statue-like figure. He never got tired of seeing it, and it still surprised him.
"We all get that reaction a lot." Michelle explained. "The only thing that beats it for us is being the person being suspended. That's the only thing that's better than everything else."
Fiona nodded in agreement, looking at the suspended figure of Colleen, then over to an empty pedestal, with some longing.
And yet, that was not the end.
The resort had a beautiful garden in the middle of the building. It had small ponds, streams, little bridges, flowers, trees, paths that went all over and a waterfall that featured a white statue posed under the falling stream. The statue's arms were raised above its head and its hands were flat to sky and allow the water to pool there briefly and then fall again onto and over the statue's body. Another white statue was posed as bathing in the water couple of feet from the waterfall.
There were many statues in the garden. A gray stone statue was placed under a tree next to a stream. It looked like she was resting in the shade. Further on, two more white statues with gold veins running across white were posed on either side of the path. One arm of each statue was held above and the other leg of each statue was on its toes and bent at knee. Another gray statue looked almost part of a bunch of matching rocks; the figure was same color as the stone and was posed lying on top of the pile with one arm propping its head up. From a distance, they appeared to blend together.
"Yes, they're all suspended girls. So of the models taking longer vacations. It takes a long time to prepare each model look like that." Walker said when Dave asked him. He pointed to one of the marble statues. "We use same methods as with the statues at the mansion. But we sand the outer shell after painting to give the surface a rough look."
"Must be a large piece of sandpaper." Dave said as he looked closely at the petrified model. She had both her arms bent and hands clasped together behind her head. Her back and head were posed in a curve forward and then back as if the statue was stretching for the sculptor. "How do you get the gray tone?"
"Special resin. It's like a metallic color to start with, but we get it looking dull instead of shiny. Makes it look more like rock." Walker smiled as he saw what was next in sight. "I think you might like the next attraction better."
It looked like a normal modeling shoot in open. There was a crew, photographers, and everything, with all their equipment, taking some pictures and giving instructions. There were some models dressed in hiking/camping outfits. Some were moving as photographers gave directions to them. Others were already frozen, quite still. Outside of the shoot, another group of people were dressing a few other models, while a few models were active and putting on their own outfits. Others were frozen and being worked on by the crew. Dave could see the crew enjoyed the 'work' of dressing the beautiful frozen model.
"Why are some models frozen and other awake when they take photos?" Dave asked.
"Oh, it's something different. How many times can you shoot all live and all frozen models? It gives them something different to work with. Live models interacting with frozen ones and changing them around, freezing the live and waking the suspended models. Gives some extra spark to it, I think." Michelle said as she looked at the photo shoot and sighed. "We volunteer too if we're about to go on vacation and they have an outdoor shoot to do. We all come here and do the shoot. The models then go on vacation, mostly without moving a muscle, and the crew has a bunch of photos for the next catalog."
"I'm always trying to do something a bit different. This also saves money and my models like it a lot." Walker explained. "Beside it gives everybody another reason to get it done quickly. They can't wait to start, just as Michelle here can't wait to be frozen again." He smiled and everybody laughed. Michelle's face reddened slightly but she smiled too. It's true!
Dave was surprised to see another crew and group of models doing the same thing. This time they were shooting swimsuits and the models were getting wet posing in streams and ponds and next to them. "We can do a couple photo shoots at same time. So why not? The models wouldn't mind. They love being frozen for whatever reason. And we're out here already. It also gives some models on vacation who want to do a little work without leaving their vacation to do that. Sometimes almost anyone can get bored of resting in luxury."
"As long as we have you, Mr. Winson, never." Fiona said, and then everybody laughed.
After some more walking they came to another photo shoot. Except these models were in stretchy leotards, exercise gear, and wristbands, the models were also stretched out into all sorts of poses. There was video gear with crew and a boom microphone with spotlights and sound gear. "We do more then just catalog and fashion shoots here. A lot of exercise videos we sell are done here, and the photos for exercise/fitness books too. It's very interesting to watch them do the routines they have." Walker smiled at the crew and waved hello to some models, who returned his greeting. The other models did not wave because they were already suspended so they couldn't wave anyway.
Dave watch their taunt lithe bodies bend into all sort of poses. He thought he knew some of the gorgeous faces from TV but his mind could not place them. Besides getting instructions from the crew, some of the models were leading others and they said a lot to the camera through a radio headset as they went through their energetic routines. He heard one of them say '...and hold it..' just before freezing in place. Well, she's going to be holding that for a while.
They were walking along the path when they heard a sound of rumble and tumble. Dave turned to see a statue/frozen model had fallen from its pedestal and was resting on its side. Half of her was on the grass. The head and other half was on path. This statue was posed in a classic Roman or Greek style. It was hard to tell exactly because the statue was on its side. However, Dave was shocked to see cracks in the statue and parts of the white shell lying around the toppled figure. He could see glimpsed of the skin of the frozen woman inside the shell. "That looks bad. I can see the shell has broken away from her!"
"Yes, it happens once in while. Always when they land on the path, too!" Walker walked up to the fallen statue and examined the girl briefly. "My engineers will make another shell for her. In the mean time, would you want to help me get what's left of the shell off her? We have to make another whole shell and this will all have to come off."
"Sure." Dave pitched in without hesitation and started pulling away pieces of the shell. The coating felt rough on the outside but was very smooth on the inside where it touched her skin. He saw the girl was really naked as he took away more pieces of the lacquer / resin / plastic shell from around her rigid body. It was easy if you could grab a piece but the faux stone was tricky to grab because it was slippery. However, with diligent effort, soon the entire shell was off and Dave helped Walker straighten the girl upright. Dust from the coating was all the covering the frozen model had on.
She was beautiful brunette. Her eyes were closed with a faint smile forming on her lips. Her arms did not do much to cover her and Dave could see that she was totally smooth from below her head. "It might make taking off the shell hurt if she had any hair down there." Walker told his nephew. "We can do stuff with the head area to protect the hairstyle there, or use wigs, but for the girls it's better if the rest of their bodies did not have any."
"I can see that." Dave ran one hand over the back of girl from shoulder to butt. It was smooth and very solid. He could not push into it. "She's hard frozen?"
"Yes. So the fall should not have done anything to her."
A team of engineers arrived. They carried all sorts of gear that made funny noises as they waved it over and around the frozen girl. One of engineers turned to Walker. "She's all right. The readings are all normal. No lapse in suspension."
"Good. You can take her off to have a new shell made, pronto." Walker said. The lead engineer nodded and then the team lifted the naked girl and carried her off into the building. Dave looked to his uncle, but Walker stood there and looked pointedly at his watch.
A few minutes later, the same team of engineers came back carrying a completely white statue. They straightened her upright and put her on the pedestal, setting her feet into a large dollop of whitish cement-looking stuff and wiping off the excess. It took Dave a while to see that this was the same girl that had fallen over!
"How do they do it so fast? Couldn't have been more then a couple minutes at most!"
"We worked on the process so long that we have found quick ways to do things. And we have built special equipment that now allows a computer to do everything, if we want. It's all complex but we can do things fast if we want to." Walker touched the face of the frozen girl, now encased in a fresh shell. "See? She's just exactly the way she was."
"It's amazing." Dave said as he touched the hard face of the statue too. "It's just amazing."
Michelle and Fiona smiled, knowingly.
"What's this? It looks like some kind of frozen forest!"
They came to an open area where the path turned into a giant patio. There were trees on two sides to provide shade. The other two borders were lined with frozen girls on pedestals. They all had been posed standing, holding out both hands like they were holding a tray or something.
"Great place to barbecue in the summer. There's a grill there." Walker pointed to a fake looking tree hiding a really modern gas grill. "Just bring out tables and chairs and you ready to eat. And if you need more places to put things down, just put them down in these handy spots." Walker demonstrated by putting his PDA device in the flat open hand of a frozen model, painted all in white.
Dave looked at the girls standing there. Some were in a shell of white or gray or some other color. Others were just like any other women except they posed standing on the pedestal. Some were naked and others wore clothes of skimpy lingerie kind. The number of clothed statues soon dropped as both Michelle and Fiona each stripped one of the figures of their swimsuits and put the crumpled garments in the hands of the statues that had been wearing them. Dave thought they seemed to enjoy playing these pranks a lot.
"You've done it again, Walker. I don't know what to say about this." Dave walked past the frozen girls, looking closely at each one. They all looked like they were enjoying the experience. "They seem happy about being here. They all have the same smile on their face and the same expression."
"Somebody has to volunteer standing on a pedestal here for a time. They know they going to be posed like this but they don't care. In fact, they go further then that." Walker nodded to another path coming into the patio.
A couple of resort employees wheeled in carts covered with white cloth. They quickly set up a table with a white table cloths and chairs. Then more employees came and set the table with forks, spoons, and knives for a meal along with china dishes and plates. Then came another cart that carried what looked like a buffet selection of some kind. Somebody finished the table with a big basket of bread in the middle and a drinks cart to one side.
Walker walked up to the table and waved for everybody else to follow. Then he looked at Dave slyly. "Why don't you take a quick peek under the table?"
Dave did and was surprised yet again. Holding the glass surface of the table up was a frozen girl. Actually, two frozen girls bound together with a strange system of chains and stuff. They were holding the round glass surface in an odd arrangement that Dave never saw before, even in the Gallery or the hotel rooms or the tableaux. They looked composed of nothing but arms and legs and backs, but Dave could not see more because both girls were covered, completely covered with lycra zentai suits like the ones Dave had seen in the Transformed gallery and that strange display.
"Wow, ah, wow." Dave said as he pulled back. "That is the strangest thing yet. Your idea?"
"Well, I had help on it." Walker said to Dave. He smiled as he sat on his chair. "But the basic idea was mine. Just like most of the ideas behind my fashion display center originated here."
"Center? What's that?"
"It's a place where I can display all my fashions and other people's fashions in one place. Anybody can visit but it's supposed to be for the fashion buyers for boutiques and stores across the world. It's one place they can see the different fashions and styles in one place and see if they want to buy them. A good way to get everybody together and," Walker winked, "A good place to see if there's something created by somebody else that I'd want to put on my models or in my transformed displays. It's also a good place to see many more beautiful women standing still. I'll have to show you it someday."