The Living Statues: Cindy’s Story

by CMQ, with excerpts by Dmuk, Dr Cuffs, and Bill Shakespeare

(Hellllo…) Mitch was stopped dead in his tracks as he turned the corner from Classical to R&B.  The most amazing pair of legs rose out of two inch red platform shoes and ascended into the cutoff denim shorts covering the most delicious butt cheeks he had ever seen. Peeking out from the frayed threads of the short shorts an enticing glimpse at the amazing glutes that wagged as the woman shifted her weight from one leg to another.  Mitch’s eyes rose above the bare naked legs as he mentally undressed the shapely posteriored girl.  She wore a tight-fitting white tube top that didn’t quite reach all the way to her shorts.  Her tanned midsection peeked out from behind the mane of dark black hair that cascaded down her back like a mountain waterfall.

Mitch had gone into the record store (did they call them ‘record’ stores anymore?  They didn’t sell records…) to find some new music for his living statue models.  More accurately the music was for his benefit during the photo shoots he staged.  The statued models couldn’t hear the music in their frozen stasis mode but occasionally when he felt generous he let them run around his studio and do whatever they wanted.  Sometimes his models requested a certain piece of music, again why, since they couldn’t hear it while in their statue state, Mitch didn’t understand.  But he did whatever they wanted to keep his living art happy and around for a long, long time.  Women…Now, face to butt with the glamorous gams he was staring at, Mitch prepared himself for salesmanship mode.  There’s nothing like adding a new piece of art to the collection, he thought as he approached the woman looking through the CD racks.  “Ahem, excuse me….” Mitch started when the woman stood up and straightened out to her full height.

She was almost six feet tall, with the sweetest face and figure.  Mitch forced himself not to stare down at the woman’s bust.  The fact that her eyes were above his helped but he could see peripherally that she was quite well endowed, thanks to the strapless top that hugged her curvy bosom.  She had the most flawless skin, the color of light honey and seeing her from the front could almost make Mitch forget about the awesome view from the back.  “Yes?”

(Wow….)  Mitch was almost speechless but quickly recovered lest she think she was speaking to a drooling, incomprehensible lecher.  “I’m an artist (photographer actually, but Mitch found most women took to being ogled better if he said artiste first rather than some guy who could have picked up a camera at a second-hand used store and wanted to use it to take half-naked pics of them) and I couldn’t help but be (careful here, the choice of words almost always was the make or break moment) completely (Blown away? Smitten?  Turned on?) amazed at how gracefully you move (ironic considering if I have my way that’s the thing you won’t be doing).  He paused for effect (and slap, it had been known to happen).  “I’m sorry,” he offered his business card, which he pulled out of his pocket, brushing his hard cock and hoped she didn’t notice the bulge growing in his pants.  “My name is Mitch Kirkland, and I was looking (collecting) for a model for one of my latest shoots (not to mention how hot you’d look naked as one of my statues) and wondered if you would be interested.”  Okay, sales pitch done.  It all relied on whether she believed he was sincere or not.  Mitch tried to look innocent, harmless even.

“Cindy,” the tall woman said softly as she accepted the card.  Mitch snuck a glance at her bosom while she read his business card and was amazed at the cleavage the girl had packed under the stretchy fabric of her top.  She wore no bra underneath and Mitch could see the faint protrusions of her nipples underneath.  Were they getting harder?  Was she getting turned on by being picked (up) by a photographer?  (Time to go full on!)

“Yes, I’ve got this studio just outside of town and I’d love it if you’d drop by.  I’ve got this collection of photos (statues) that I’m planning and I think you’d just be perfect for this project.”  Mitch pointed at the web site listed under his name.  He tried mightily to avoid staring at Cindy’s breasts but snuck a glimpse again.  (Her nipples were getting harder!) “Check out some of my work when you get the chance and give me a call if you’re interested (You’re interested, based on those awesome aureoles!),” Mitch down-played the pressure but inside he was screaming to lay on the charm thick as pea soup.  (You don’t want to come across like you’re picking up some cheap date at a bar!)

Cindy looked at Mitch with those amber-brown eyes and brushed some of her fountain of raven hair off her bare shoulder.  She smiled faintly and responded with a little hesitation.  “I’ll think about it,” she offered as she started to walk towards the doorway. 

Mitch (You’re losing her!  Follow her!  NOT so eagerly!  Go casual!) followed behind and continued speaking in a friendly, yet persuasive way.  “No problem, give me a call and drop by anytime!  You can even meet some of my models and ask them all the questions you’d like!  They’d love to meet you!”  He held the door of the music store open like a gentleman as Cindy stepped outside.

“Your models live at your studio?” Cindy raised an eyebrow.

“They… hang around for long periods,” Mitch replied, not wanting to get into specifics.  So much the better for her to see them in action (inaction, heh) first rather than spoil the surprise.  “Really, I’m not fooling around, take a look at my work, come and talk to them and decide then whether you’re comfortable or not.  No pressure!” Mitch smiled and held out his open palms (geez I bet I look like some sleazy used-car salesman on TV).

“Well, I’ll…” Cindy began.

“Hey babe, I got your triple mocha latte but I forgot your…” a deep voice from behind Mitch and Cindy spoke.  Mitch turned around and then up at a well over 6-foot tall bearded mountain of a man with a broad chest and very, very large muscles evident under his equally form-fitting tank top tee.  “Is this guy bothering you?” he growled.

Oh man, time to go.  “So, ah, I’ve got to go, but think about it okay?”  Mitch smiled and started walking briskly away. He didn’t dare look back as he turned the corner and quickened his pace lest the burly guy was in pursuit.  (Oh well, win some, lose some….)

“Was that guy hitting on you?” the guy lifted his sunglasses and stared at Cindy with suspicion.

“Oh Dan, he was harmless.”  She looked at Mitch’s business card once more as Dan stared down the street Mitch had escaped down.  She slid it into the pocket behind her curvy ass.  “He was just offering me an opportunity…”

***

Mitch was still dejected over the loss of his latest model.  (She would have made a damn fine looking statue!)  Mitch imagined Cindy nude, completely naked and frozen solid in his studio. … (damn that would have been such a sight)…. Mitch rubbed his eyes and slumped down on the couch.  Damn, damn, damn!  He mentally cursed his bad luck.  (She was so ready to go for it too, until Mr. Gorilla-pants had to step in and ruin the whole thing….)

His self-loathing was broken by the un-melodious plinking of guitar strings.  Mitch blinked and looked over to Susan, one of his live-in living statues. 

The five foot ten blonde girl was playing, or rather trying, to play the guitar.  She stood holding the instrument in front of her naked body.  Mitch would normally be admiring Susan’s athletic nudity but the blown opportunity with Cindy still haunted him.  Susan plinked one of the strings after tuning it, than another.  The two notes definitely didn’t sound like they went together and Mitch visibly winced. 

“So you failed to get another model,” she said to Mitch’s silence while concentrating on tuning her guitar.  “Not everyone is cut out to be a frozen figure, you know.”  She plinked two more nail-scratching strings and was amused by Mitch’s reaction as she peeked up.  “Hey, if you had gotten me that CD I wanted you wouldn’t have to suffer through my practicing,” she smiled as she turned her attention back to the instrument.

(I’ve got another way to avoid being tortured ;) Mitch walked stealthily towards the control panel and froze Susan in the very pose she was ‘playing’.  Mitch was rewarded with the satisfying sound of silence as he walked over to the stiffened Susan and gently removed the instrument from her frozen fingers.  He held the neck of the guitar in one hand as he smoothed out Susan’s fingers back into the position they had been in.  The few moments when his frozen statues could be repositioned were a blessing.  “Enough practice for today, Sues,” Mitch walked away to put (hide) the guitar in the closet while Susan hardened into a statue. 

He got out the hand dolly and wheeled it over to Susan.  Sliding her rigid figure to the left he managed to move her onto the support.  She did not budge at all.  She was completely rigid and would remain that way until Mitch decided to release her from that position. With a practiced move he tipped the dolly back, holding Susan’s waist to make sure she didn’t fall off the dolly.  It had happened a few times before to a couple of his other statues early in his collecting days.  Not that it hurt them; they were completely hardened head to toe.  Not even a bruise would result if he dropped her but that was something he avoided.  These women were here voluntarily and it was in his best interests to treat them as the beautiful works of art they had become. 

Wheeling Susan through the house and into his studio, past his gallery of nude statues, was almost enough to make Mitch forget about the loss of Cindy.  He stopped in front of each one to admire their lovely naked forms rendered into immobile sculpture thanks to the immobilizer device each ‘statue’ wore around her ear.  He could feel his creative juices flowing again and another photo-shoot of lingerie was going to be due, Cindy or no Cindy.  He cracked his knuckles and got ready to get down to work when the phone rang.  Mitch strolled past his gallery of living nudes and picked up the receiver. (Did I miss a deadline?)  Mitch often wondered if his obsession with his live statues would someday be his undoing. He plopped down onto the chair, expecting an irate editor. “Hello?”

“Hello, Mitch Kirkland?” a sweet sugary voice answered.  “This is Cindy.  We met the other day in the music store?”

Mitch’s mind exploded into a supernova of happiness.  Cindy had called back!  That meant she was interested!  That meant she could become one of my statues!  “Uh, yes, I remember you, Cindy!” Mitch feigned nonchalance.  How could he ever forget her fabulous figure?  “So,” he tried to avoid sounding too excited. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was looking at the web page on your business card,” Cindy said. 

“Uh huh,” Mitch replied.  Her voice was like music!

“And I saw some of your pictures,” she continued.

“Uh huh,” Mitch could barely contain himself.  (She’s in!  She wouldn’t be calling otherwise!)

“And I think they’re really great,” she said.

“Uh huh,” Mitch was on the verge of jumping for joy.

“And I think I’d like to come over and see your models and maybe…. pose for you,” Cindy concluded. 

(TOUCHDOWN!!!!! AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!)  “Uh huh,” Mitch collected his thoughts.  She sounded a little uncertain and embarrassed.  But that was nothing that Mitch couldn’t deal with once she got there.  “Well we’d love to have you come down.”

“Can I come today?” Cindy asked.

(You’re making me cum right now!)  “Sure, you have my address,” Mitch said.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a little while,” Cindy hung up.

“HOLY SHIT!” Mitch jumped up off the chair.  (Deadlines be damned!  I might have another statue to add to the collection!  Cindy.) His head swam as he rushed about to get the house and studio cleaned up.

About an hour later Mitch was pacing inside his house.  (Where’s Cindy?  She said she’d be right over?  What if she chickened out?  What if I came on too strong? It’s getting dark out there!   What if she brings that gorilla with her?)  Mitch stopped pacing.  That last thought stopped him in his tracks as much as one of his live statues.  (That would be completely logical for her to bring a chaperone around.  How the heck will I be able to convince her to pose as a statue for me if he’s around?)  That big muscle-bound mountain would probably be none too happy to see his girlfriend become a permanent fixture in Mitch’s collection of statues.  Mitch wondered if he should maybe turn Cindy away.  Some sort of excuse that he could call her later. 

The doorbell rang.  Mitch snapped out of his contemplation.  He ran to the door and hesitated.  (What if….)

Mitch opened the door.  Cindy was standing there.  Alone.  (Happy Days)!

“Hi,” Cindy smiled, showing cute dimples.  Mitch melted at the sight.

“Hi, come on in why don’tcha?” Mitch swept his arm like a butler and Cindy strolled in.

She was wearing sandals, and Mitch immediately realized she was not as tall as he had noticed in the music store.  Now she was about his height, but still devastatingly slender in fitted white slacks that hugged her hips and flared out at the ankles.  Cindy wore a t-shirt that hugged the curves of her breasts and bared a little of the flesh around her middle when she moved the right way.  “So, I hear you need a model?”

“Um, yes, I do!” Mitch closed the door and walked over to the kitchen.  “My portfolio is on the coffee table, but can I get you something to drink first?  Coffee? Tea? Beer?” (Immobilizer?)  Mitch launched into step one of his custom how-to-convince-a-girl-to-become-a-statue-plan. 

“A beer would be good,” Cindy sat down on the couch and started riffling through the pictures Mitch had set up.

(Bingo!)  Mitch took out a cold beer and set it on the table next to Cindy.  “As you can see in my portfolio and the pictures I’ve put online I do lingerie work for a number of clients.”

Cindy flipped through the photos, lingering on each one for a few seconds.  She took a sip of beer and continued looking at the scantily clad models.  “It’s really great looking work,” she admired the photos.

“Yes, I have this special technique I use with my models,” Mitch’s eyes darted between Cindy and the beer, counting each sip she took and wondering if now was the right time to make his move.

“Technique?” Cindy asked as she flipped backward through some of the pictures she had just seen.  Mitch had been careful to set up consecutive photos with the same frozen model but wearing different lingerie.  Cindy looked at one picture, then flipped back to another, then held up both photos in her hands at the same time.  “All these pictures are the same pose,” she scattered the pictures into a fan on the table.  “And these are the same ….and these are the same…”  Cindy stared close at two pictures of Susan, one in a pink teddy the other in a crotchless bra and panty set.  “They’re exactly the same,” she marveled between sips.

“You got it,” Mitch smiled as Cindy took another drink from the can of beer.  “That’s my secret technique!”

“You use a computer to get them to look the same?” Cindy asked.

“No, no, no, nothing as obvious as that,” Mitch smiled.  “Would you like to know how I do it?”

“Sure,” Cindy giggled as she got up and wobbled.  “Whoa… little dizzy,” she smiled.

“Step this way,” Mitch led Cindy through his house to his gallery.  “My work studio is in here, that’s where my models hang out.”  He opened the door.

Cindy stepped into the bright lights of the studio and blinked.  There were light stands and reflectors all around.  Colored paper backdrops and posing platforms in one corner, tripods and racks of clothing on another.  Shelves of cameras and drawers full of photographic paraphernalia were all about.  And in one corner, standing silent and still on the roll of yellow paper hung from the ceiling stood a model in pink bra, panties and garters being prepped for a photo shoot.  Or at least what looked like a model.  The curvy young woman didn’t move an inch as Cindy and Mitch walked around the studio. 

“Is this one of your models?”  Cindy asked as walked closer to the half-dressed woman, but still she remained still.  “It’s a mannequin!”  Cindy waved her hand in front of the posed woman, who still refused to flinch.  “That’s how you shoot your photos?”

“Not exactly, look closer,” Mitch walked up to Natalie and put his hands on her hips.  He pulled the elastic around the panties and let them fall to Natalie’s knees.  She didn’t move a muscle as he undid the brassiere clasp on her back and pulled the loosened undergarment off her body.

Cindy stared at Natalie’s brown aureoles and the trimmed triangle of pubic hair.  “That’s one very detailed mannequin!” she laughed as she raised her hand to touch Natalie’s exposed breast. 

“Please don’t touch her.  Natalie’s not a mannequin.  And neither are any of the other models I use in my photo shoots,” Mitch started to explain. 

“Are you telling me this isn’t a mannequin?  I mean, I know mannequins aren’t created like this.  She’s just made of wax, like in one of those fancy wax museums right?”  Cindy stared at Natalie’s motionless figure.

“No, she’s not a mannequin, and she’s not made of wax either.  She’s a real living, breathing model!”

“No way!” Cindy snapped her fingers in front of Natalie’s vacant, glassy eyes.  Still no response.  “You’re putting me on!”

“No, and I have some others over here you’d might want to meet!” Mitch indicated a darker section of the studio where some shadowy, unmoving forms stood as fixated in place as Natalie.

“No fucking way are these real people!” Cindy looked over Susan, Jennifer and Amy.  Each as rigid, and naked even, as the statuesque Natalie.

“And it’s all due to this little thingamajig,” Mitch had taken an immobilizer device out of one of the drawers to show to Cindy.

“That?”  Cindy sounded doubtful as she turned the device over in her palm.  “What does this do?”

“Have you ever heard of suspended animation?” Mitch asked.  Cindy looked at him blankly.  “It’s like being put into a deep trance, hypnosis sorta, but all of your life functions are slowed down to the point where they’re barely even detectable.  The body literally hardens, turning stiff like a statue.  That’s how I can take my pictures; the models can’t move a muscle while they’re in stasis.”

“You’re lying, there’s no such thing as suspended animation!  This is all one big put on right?  Am I on TV?” Cindy looked around for hidden cameras, her flowing hair trailing her quick movements as if in slow motion.

“No it’s not a put on, and if you’d let me demonstrate I can show you how I-” Mitch was interrupted when the doorbell rang.  (That’s weird; it’s a little late for deliveries.)  “I’ll be right back, probably a late EdFex document,” Mitch apologized.  “Please don’t touch the models!” he reminded Cindy as he dashed through the studio door to the front door of the house.  “Wow you guys are working late toda-” Mitch started to say as he flung the door open.

Dan’s 6 foot three frame filled the doorframe and Mitch visibly blanched.  “Is Cindy still here?” Dan asked.

“Cin…” Mitch stumbled “Dee?” he meekly replied.

“Hey babe, you gotta take a look at this!” Cindy came rushing out of the studio and led Dan through the house.

“Uhm…no” Mitch stammered.  “Oh no.... please no….” he tried to say as Cindy led Dan into the studio and right up to the under-dressed Natalie.  (This can’t be happening!)

“She’s one of his models!  But she’s not a mannequin or wax, she’s real!” Cindy laughed as Dan stooped to peer into Natalie’s eyes.  “He says they’re all like frozen like this!” Cindy took the immobilizer and showed it to Dan.

“What the hell is going on here?” Dan waved his hand in front of Natalie’s face.  Cindy pulled him over to look at Susan, Jennifer and Amy too.  Dan’s eyebrows went up as he looked over the living statues’ naked bodies.  Their breasts and pussies were completely uncovered.  He lifted his hand to touch Susan and Mitch jumped up to intervene.

“Don’t touch her!” Mitch insisted, horrified.

“Why, afraid I’m calling your bluff, bub?” he gruffed.  

Cindy whirled around.  She still seemed a little off, thanks to the beer.

Dan looked really close at Susan.  The fact that he hadn’t had a few drinks and had a clear head made him doubt what Cindy was saying was true but what Mitch was claiming was equally doubtful.  Still, there seemed to be something going on that couldn’t be explained.  “She looks like she’s real…”

“She IS real.  They’re just standing still, babe,” Cindy put her hands out to touch Susan and Mitch interceded again.

“You can’t touch them!” Mitch was visibly upset that his well-laid plans were going to pot.  Cindy’s doubting, know-it-all attitude was getting to him, this unwanted guy had seen his gallery of frozen statues, and his plan to add Cindy to his collection was now totally impossible.  (Unless….)  “But I can prove what I’m saying is true.”  Mitch thought quickly.  (Maybe there was something I could salvage out of this after all).

“What you’re going to let one of your statues go talk to me now, like you said? Cindy mocked Mitch. 

“No, that would be too easy.  You’re so sure they aren’t really statues, why don’t you try putting the immobilizer on?  Mitch laid his hand on the table.  (All or nothing now).

Cindy looked at Mitch for a second.  Mitch was poker-faced.  “You’re seriously thinking this can freeze me up into a statue?”

(A perfect statue too).  Mitch shrugged his shoulders.  “You say I’m lying, but I’m telling you the truth.”

Cindy laughed again.  “And what, I become a statue in your little art museum if I put this thing on?”

“For ten days,” Mitch upped the ante.

“Oh there’s no way you’re telling the truth,” Cindy prodded Dan in the gut.  “Tell him, babe.”

“I dunno, there’s something weird about this, Cin.” Dan stroked his beard.  These frozen women are really good at holding their poses.”  He hadn’t seen so much as a blink or breath taken and he was looking at them very carefully.

“Oh don’t tell me you’re being taken in by this hokum?”  Cindy was disgusted that Dan was spending more time ogling the naked statues than backing her up.  “There’s no way this is real!  I’m calling your bluff!”  She put the immobilizer behind her ear.  “Okay, turn me into a statue!”  She raised her arms out ward, palms up and out.

(So tempting…Sooo tempting but I’m so close now I can’t blow it. Don’t do it…not yet…) “No, we have to make this all legal,” Mitch countered.  “I have some paperwork for you to sign.”

“Oh you are so stalling now!”  Cindy had her hands on her hips.  “Come on, turn me into a statue now!”  She posed in a mock Venus-De-Milo type of pose.  “Come on, afraid?”  The beer was clearly having an effect on Cindy’s demeanor.  (Nothing like an angry drunk who wanted to be turned into a statue.)

“Just fill in your weight here, and sign here,” Mitch had written Cindy’s name onto the release form and ten days under the blank space for duration of immobilization.  Usually he got to write ‘indefinite’, as he had with the other statues in his studio gallery, but that was out of the question with Dan present.

Cindy snatched the pen away from Mitch and signed on the dotted line.

“Aren’t you going to even read it?” Dan asked, somewhat nervous as to what Cindy might be getting into.

“Oh he’s got you bad, babe!” Cindy punched Dan in the bicep.  Even mountain-man flinched at his drunken girlfriend’s attack.  “Nothing is going to happen!  He’s just trying to scare me off and prove he’s lying!”  She flipped the contract over to Mitch, who looked it over and smiled a very satisfied smile.  “OK, there’s my signature!  So are you going to freeze me or not?”

“So…” Mitch savored the irony.  He had won.  He probably wouldn’t live to see tomorrow with Dan here but he would at least have the satisfaction of having the smug Cindy shut up.  “How would you like to pose?  You are going to be a statue for the next ten days.  You should have an interesting pose….”

“Oh, I can’t believe this!  You’re still not giving up?” Cindy slapped her thighs and bent over.  “Here you go!”  She straightened out her long legs, the white pants straining against the curves of her hips as she spread her legs apart further and further. 

Dan stared at his girlfriend’s ass and wondered if what Mitch was saying could possibly be true.  “You’re going to make a hot statue babe,” Dan said.  “You should bend over, you know like the way we…”

Cindy shook her head at her gullible boyfriend and arched her back as she settled her fingertips on her knees, letting her breasts squeeze out between her arms.  Her ass was tipped up and she raised her head to stare at Mitch.  “So what are you waiting for, Mitch?  Turn me into a statue!”

Dan looked at Cindy’s erotic pose and wondered somewhere in the back of his head if maybe what Mitch was saying was true and how maybe that might not be such a bad thing.  He had seen Cindy naked before of course, but he wondered what it would be like if she was really frozen like that….

Mitch couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.  He couldn’t believe this was happening! He walked over to the control panel and looked back at Cindy’s smug look.  “You asked for it Cindy,” Mitch could feel his crotch bulging in anticipation as he set the device to Cindy’s weight and turned the corresponding dial.

“Ha! See nothing’s happening!” Cindy gloated for a moment.

Then she froze, stiff as a board.

“Babe?” Dan said.  Concern was in his voice as he looked at Cindy standing there.  She was silent and motionless.

Wh-what happened to me?  I can’t move!  Omigosh he was telling the truth.  I’ve been turned into a statue! Cindy’s heart raced.  She tried to move her arms.  She tried to move her legs.  She tried to speak.  She could do nothing!  I’m frozen!  Oh no!  What have I done?

Mitch walked over to the still figure of Cindy and spoke into the ear that had the immobilizer. “You should have believed me Cindy!  Now you’re going to have to pay the piper!  If you had read your contract you’d have realized that I have the option to keep any of my statues in the nude so I’m going to take away your clothes and while I’m at it, shave your pussy bald!  Hairstyling is 100% included in the release you signed, even hair down there….” Mitch straightened Cindy’s head so that it was even and opened her mouth as wide as her jaw would allow.  “In a few moments you’ll be completely stiffened and unconscious – a beautiful sexy work of naked art!”

What?  You can’t!  I won’t let you!  I didn’t know!  Help me Dan!  Cindy’s pulse quickened as she felt Mitch make the final improvements on her pose.

“Hey what are you doing to her?” Dan asked, not so much defensively but more out of curiosity.

“I call it fine-tuning, my dear Dan,” Mitch tried not to gloat but having Cindy frozen like this more than made up for the fact that his secret was blown.  “Come on over here and see what a fine looking statue your girlfriend makes!”

No! I’m not a statue!  I’m n-

Dan walked around Cindy, amazed at how quietly beautiful she was.  “She’s not fooling is she?”  He touched her and she didn’t move, but she did wobble in her fixed-frozen position.  “Holy fuck, she’s frozen solid!” He tapped Cindy’s delightful backside and she rocked forward, threatening to tip completely over.

“Careful!” Mitch righted Cindy’s statued figure so that it stood upright again.  She was rock solid now.  Completely 100% frozen and unable to move, think, or do anything at all until Mitch released her.  “Well, I was telling the truth and now what do you think about that?”

Dan looked at Mitch and then again at his frozen girlfriend.  “I think we should do just what you said and teach her a lesson!” He smiled.

“I like the way you think, Dan,” Mitch slapped Dan on the shoulder.  He took a couple cameras off the shelf. “Give me a hand with her?” 

Dan wrapped his hands around Cindy’s small waist.  His big hands practically touched fingertip to fingertip as he lifted Cindy up.  She remained frozen in her pose as Mitch removed her sandals and snapped some shots, alternating video camera and still-frame.  “Oh man she really is frozen!  This is unbelievable!”  He was really starting to enjoy this.

(Thank goodness she wasn’t wearing high heels, we could never get her balanced without shoes if she was) Mitch used a pair of scissors to cut away Cindy’s top.  She wasn’t wearing a bra so there weren’t any strap marks to mar her bursting breasts.  Her nipples were completely stiff and Mitch let his hand brush against the hardened pegs as he stripped Cindy’s shirt away.  (Boyfriend present.  Have to be careful), he reminded himself as he took more pictures and video from every angle of the topless statue.

Getting Cindy’s pants off was more time-consuming, but with Dan’s help in maneuvering Cindy’s rigid body into whatever position was convenient, Mitch eventually succeeded in cutting away the garment, leaving Cindy clad only in her g-string panties.  Dan did the honor as he hummed a bad rendition of the striptease song and wiggled her panties away from her fine shapely ass.  Unable to stretch the undies down her spread wide legs, Dan snipped the panties off and slapped Cindy’s frozen rear end with a loud smack.  “That’s what you get for not listening to the man, babe!”  He roared as Mitch finished off the roll of film with a close-up of the camel-toe crack between Cindy’s legs.  Her crotch was highlighted by a stripe of fine, soft strip of pubic hair.  “Now we’re going to shave the bitch, right?”

“I’ll let you do the honors,” Mitch put down the video camera (god, her pussy is so enticing) and took out some shaving cream from a drawer (always helps to be prepared) and flipped it over to Dan who squirted out a handful of goo and generously got to work spreading the white foam all over Cindy’s pussy.  Dan was really getting it into every nook and cranny of Cindy’s crotch; Mitch was visibly jealous but thought doing that intimate work might have been pushing his luck a little too far.  (Dan seems to be enjoying Cindy’s immobility up to this point, no reason to give him ammunition to turn on me). 

“Oh yeah, getting it in everywhere!” Dan stroked Cindy’s gooey crotch with his fingers.  The cream was dribbling down Cindy’s legs and with another loud smack, a hand-print was left on Cindy’s hardened butt-cheek.  “You got a razor?”

“Right here,” Mitch handed it over and continued to shoot pictures and video of Dan’s shaving technique.  (It looks like he’s done this before. Lucky guy.)  A few swipes with the razor and it was all done.  Mitch threw Dan a towel and soon the freshly shaven crotch was completely out in the open for all to see.  Mitch zoomed in for a close-up of every fold and crevasse of Cindy’s privates.  (Boy I’d love to fuck her now…)

“Boy I’d like to fuck her now!” Dan exclaimed.

(Was there an echo in here?)  Mitch couldn’t believe his eyes as he saw Dan pulling off his shirt.  “Um,” was all Mitch could utter as Dan started to undo his belt.  “Wait!”  Mitch yelled.  If only to prevent seeing something he didn’t want to see.  (Think fast. Think fast. Think…) “Here!” Mitch reached in a drawer and threw Dan an immobilizer.  “How much do you weigh?” Mitch ran over to the controls.

“Hun? What do I need this for?” Dan looked at the immobilizer quizzically.  

“You’re going to be going… inside her,” Mitch tried to put it delicately but there was no other way around it.  “You’re going to need protection.  A counter-immobility field.”

“Oh, okay,” Dan slipped the immobilizer behind his ear.  “190” he said quickly as Mitch handed him a release to sign and he started to undo his pants.  “Okay babe here I co-” and Dan froze stiff.

(Whew) Mitch breathed a sigh of relief as he raced back to controls and froze Dan before any genitalia could be revealed.  (Close call.)  Mitch waited out of sight until he was sure Dan was fully unconscious and then he walked over to admire his newest tableaux.

Cindy’s legs were spread apart at close to 140 degrees like a pair of opened scissors.  Her even, all-over tan was flawless.  Her dark hair flowed down across her shoulders, obscuring the view of her bountiful breasts but not preventing the pair of brown nipples from poking through the darkness.  She stared forward, unblinking, unfeeling, and unconscious.  Her eyes were wide as her open mouth but any visible signs of surprise on her expression were minimal at best.  She had been that sure that she wouldn’t be frozen that she wouldn’t even allow herself the option that it could be true.  Cindy’s back was virtually parallel to the floor.  Her rounded ass, so firm and sensual, was lifted up, exposing her newly bared cunt.  Those awesome long legs were smooth as glass (and just as hard now).  Mitch brushed the hair around Cindy’s shoulder so that it all fell alongside her left profile, covering the immobilizer and exposing her tits.  “Well, well, well.  Looks like I’ve got a new acquisition.” Mitch looked behind Cindy and grimaced at the sight of topless, bearded Dan undoing his pants.  “But I’ve simply got to get rid of this!”  Mitch imitated a flamboyant fashion designer and threw up his hands in disgust. Mitch tipped Dan onto the 2-wheeled hand-truck and carted him away to the corner, far, far away from his awesome new statue. 

Cindy.  Alone and unbelievably sexy in that erotic pose. 

Mitch grabbed his cameras and documented every angle, every viewpoint, every square inch of Cindy’s frozen figure.  He laid in-between her legs, shooting explicit shots of her.  He touched her legs, running his fingers up and along ever well-sculpted muscle of her calves, her thighs, her…. Mitch’s fingers danced alongside the slit of Cindy’s crotch and he felt his penis screaming to be let out.  Mitch put the cameras aside and rolled out from under Cindy.  He undid his pants and started stroking himself in the same pose Dan had been in, right behind her.  Mitch rubbed his shaft back and forth as he polished Cindy’s smooth bum with his other hand.  Back and forth back and forth.  Mitch came.  (Oh shit!) He turned his dick away but the string of semen splattered across Cindy’s rump.  (Gotta be more careful.  Gotta stop this.  Gotta avoid temptation!)  He ran his hands along Cindy’s back and he couldn’t help but fondle her tits.  She looked at him blankly like a blow-up doll and he just stared at that open mouth.  (So inviting… so perfectly positioned…. so….) The next thing he knew his erect penis was in Cindy’s mouth and he was rocking her back and forth with his hand behind her head and thrusting himself into her oral cavity.  An explosion of cum shocked Mitch out of his orgasm.  (Gotta stop.  Gotta stop.  Gotta shower!)  Mitch danced away with his trousers around his ankles, dribbling his seed across the studio floor, to take a much-needed cold shower. 

Cindy stood as motionless and unflinching as before.  A sex statue.

***

The next day Mitch cleaned up the mess he made in the studio.  He used a damp rag to more or less give a sponge bath to Cindy, wiping down the streak of dried semen on her butt; the tiny trace that managed to hit her pussy gave him the most trouble.  All those nooks and crannies… He cleaned up her face as well as he could. At least the outside of her.  Mitch had earlier practice in cleaning up his living statues.  They often had to be dusted and polished up from time to time if he left them standing still for more than a week.  And this wasn’t the first time he had been tempted by the immobile nudity of his living sculptures.  Susan had gotten splattered at least a couple of times but he had never gone as far as he had with Cindy.  He had just been so taken by her beauty (and her body) that he couldn’t avoid it.  (Hey, I’m a guy but I didn’t actually stick my dick inside her.  No penetration.  At least not where it counted. Just some jacking off.  Like in front of a Playhouse magazine center spread… no harm done… no foul… She’ll never know)

With Cindy clean and sparkly Mitch turned his attention back to work.  He did have a deadline, after all.

That night, after finishing up with Natalie’s photo shoot, Mitch couldn’t avoid staring at Cindy’s luscious naked body.  She was like the centerpiece of his studio, everything revolved around her.  He figured maybe he could use Cindy as one of his models but her zealous pose pretty much eliminated any possibility of putting any clothes on her.  Her arms were more or less fused to her knees now so there would be no way of slipping on panties without cutting them first and sewing them on and sewing was something Mitch just couldn’t bother to do.  More importantly, re-sewing would make the manufacturer’s product look shitty.  Plus he didn’t want to ask one of his statues to help him.  He liked having Cindy all to himself.  Mitch’s crotch groaned and he let loose the beast, polishing it in front of Cindy’s face until a line of cum leapt forth and planted itself against the side of Cindy’s face all the way down to her boobs.  (At least I didn’t get it in her hair.  That would have been a bitch to clean up)

***

(Another day, another cleaning.  Face, clean.  Lips clean.  Shoulders clean. Tits, clean.  Mouth, eh…) Time for another photo shoot.  (Damn)  Taking pictures of almost-naked, frozen, statue girls would never be boring to him but with the presence of Cindy Mitch found himself hopelessly distracted.  He eventually threw a sheet over her like she was some sort of masterpiece sculpture waiting to be unveiled.  Cloaking her would only help for so long because he could continually see her naked body in his mind.  That night the tarp came off and she was revealed again in all her glory.  And Mitch rubbed his dick against the crack of her ass, succeeding only in avoiding making a mess on her because of the tip of his penis was angled away from her frozen body.  (Oh man, I can’t believe how hot she is.  How perfect she is to satisfy my urges…. At least I don’t have to clean off any cum but, man, I gotta get a girlfriend) Mitch rubbed that perfect ass and shook his head at how gorgeous Cindy was. (Shower again…. cold shower… that’ll take care of me…)

***

The next day Mitch knew he had to release Amy from her frozen state.  She had been motionless for over a week and a half and he tried to accommodate all of his models by giving them at least a few minutes of unrestricted movement before freezing them stiff again.  He made sure Cindy was spic and span (at least her exterior) and wheeled Dan back over to stand behind Cindy before turning off Amy’s immobilizer.  (Better to restore things to the way they were in case someone saw something they shouldn’t have).  She had been stored in what Mitch called the ‘storage’ pose, hands and arms at her side, staring as if standing at attention.  Amy stretched and smiled at Mitch as she slipped on a handy robe that had been lying on a model stand. 

“That’s new,” Amy looked Cindy and Dan over.  “Taking in guys now, huh Mitch?”

“It’s a long story,” Mitch sighed.  “There’s some food in the fridge.  Help yourself.” 

“I’m just going to check on my plants.  You have been watering them haven’t you?” Amy asked.

“Uh…. yes,” Mitch lied.  He could imagine Amy’s face when she saw the half-dead ferns.

Amy tsked Mitch.  “We may not have to be taken care of much but some things need to be done while we’re out of commission.” She seemed to take it in stride.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mitch sheepishly agreed as Amy left the room.  He walked over to Natalie and began undressing her.  Bra off.  Panty off.  Stockings off.  It was like a chore, more so because getting clothing off of stiffened models was sometimes difficult due to their poses.  Sliding things around the curvy parts.  Stretching things beyond the points they should be stretched.  It could take quite a while.  But when it was all done, Natalie stood naked again.  Mitch looked her over slowly, admiring her figure as he did from time to time and walked up to the control panel.  “That should be enough time,” he said to himself as he often caught himself talking to his statues despite the fact that they never spoke back.  He turned the dial that activated Amy’s immobilizer.  Mitch knew she would freeze solid in whatever position she was in.  It was a pleasant surprise to freeze his models unawares.  He would often let them run around the house to be frozen in whatever unusual or mundane poses when the mood struck him.  Amy understood, most times.  For now he looked at Cindy but with Dan standing nearby the temptation was gone.  Besides he had to run out and buy some more supplies for his darkroom.

***

The next day Mitch prepped his next photo shoot.  It took a lot of planning to figure out which statues he would use and which garments to use.  He tried not to use the same models too many times in a row.  Clients liked Mitch’s work but they liked some variety too and he had a definite limitation on statue models.  Susan was a natural; Natalie, and Amy were perfectly fine to work with, while Karen and Jennifer were a little more problematic due to their figures.  They couldn’t be used for a Victoria’s of Hollywood shoot, even by using photographic tricks and angles, so he was limited to the trio of Susan, Natalie and Amy.  He wished Cindy were available but her unusual pose, while appropriate for the type of catalog pics he was going to take, just was unworkable as far as getting lingerie on her.  And he had tried.  But it was just not going to work.  Mitch considered unfreezing Cindy briefly and then re-freezing her immediately so that he could reposition her into a more undressable-friendly pose but that would be breaking the rules of his contract, not to mention give her a few odd moments of consciousness that he would have to explain eventually. (Such a shame.  She would be incredible.)  With some wigs and creative makeup Mitch could alter the looks of the trio enough to fool the eye but that trick could only be used so many times before someone caught on.  (I need a new model)  The only way to get a new model was to go out and start searching for one.  They weren’t just going to call and volunteer themselves.

***

Mitch spent most of the next day searching for a new face.  (Someone fresh.  Someone exciting.  Someone who would look great in my statue gallery.)  Malls were a frequent hangout of pretty women but most of them were attached and the last thing Mitch needed was to be taken in for kidnapping.  The college campus was a great place to find willing, experimentative models but only for the short term.  He didn’t like revealing his secrets though to someone who wasn’t willing to stick around long term.  Not that he didn’t rely on some temps before when offers of quick cash and desperate times early on in his career necessitated a surreptitious way of using the immobilizer on models unaware, he simply needed someone who was willing to disappear for long periods of time without anyone worrying.  That was the most problematic aspect of his method.

Coming home after a fruitless, unsuccessful search Mitch toyed with unfreezing and freezing a couple of the models.  That always cheered him up.  But when he stepped into his studio the first thing he saw was Cindy and he just couldn’t resist, even with Dan standing beside her.  Mitch nudged Dan away so he looked at the wall instead and started rocking himself, getting as stiff as Cindy was.  His climax shot onto her bare back and he stroked her naked pussy with his fingers, satisfied. (You’re such a hottie.  If there was only some way of keeping you here.  Ohhh… Cold shower time….)

***

In the morning Mitch got up, ate breakfast (well breakfast for him anyway, it was more like lunch time for others) and got ready to clean up the mess he made the night before on Cindy.  Dress his statues.  Pose them.  Stage a photo shoot. In other words, a normal day.  He whistled as he walked to the studio when the phone rang.  (Hope it’s not that editor clown.  I know I need a new model but if he insists on that shoot being ready ASAP I’m just going to use Susan…) “Hello?”

"Mitch? It's Kristen..." the voice on the receiver answered.

(Kristen?  Hot Kristen?  The blonde he had always wanted to try and get for a shoot but never found a way of convincing himself it was the right time to make a move?  That Kristen?)

***

ONE HOUR LATER

Kristen looked over at the last two statues and gasped even before Mitch began his explanation. One was a rather tall girl, about the same height as Susan, 5'10", maybe 22 or 23 years old, with long black hair. She was totally nude. She was bent over at the waist at an almost 90 degree angle. Her arms were braced against her knees, to keep her body from tumbling forward. Her legs were spread wide, almost as wide as they could go and her shapely ass had a bit of an upward thrust to it.

She looked straight ahead, no expression on her face, and her mouth was wide open. Kristen glanced down and saw that her pubic hair had been completely shaved. Next to her was a man, about the same age, maybe a little older. His bearded face looked straight ahead, with just a hint of downward angle. He wore no shirt, and had been frozen in the act of beginning to remove his pants (his hands were undoing the belt when he froze). He wore no shoes or socks and Kristen noticed that he had really enormous feet. She wondered if what they said was true about guys with big feet. Now that Karen had left, he was the only statue that had any sort of clothes on.

"What's their story?" she asked Mitch, both curious and excited.

"Well, this is Cindy and her boyfriend Dan. Cindy thought that my statues were all clever fakes, just people standing really still, but awake and conscious. Some sort of joke I was playing on her. She didn't believe me at all. Well, I told her to clear up her schedule for a couple of weeks and then come back here and I'd prove that everything was like I said."

While Mitch spoke, Kristen walked around Cindy and Dan, admiring both the nudity and outrageousness of Cindy's pose and the mystery of what was underneath Dan's pants.

"I told her that I would show her that the immobilizer device was real by making her into one of my statues. If I was lying, then nothing would happen. But if I was telling her the truth, then she would voluntarily remain here motionless as one of my statues for 10 days. She agreed, then threw in the idea of having me give her a really sexually explicit pose. That's how sure she was that I was lying. She never thought for a second that she would really end up being frozen like that.

Well, I gave her an Immobilizer to put behind her ear and Dan and I came up with the pose she's in now. Remember that Natalie said that when you freeze, you are still awake for about a minute or so and can be, I like to call it 'fine-tuned'. I turned Cindy into a statue and while she could still hear me I told her that she should have believed me and that now she would have to pay the price for not believing.

I told her that as soon as she lost consciousness, I was going to take all of her clothes off and throw them away, which I did, and shave her crotch bald, which you'll notice I also did. And just to make her pose more explicit, before she really froze stiff I opened her mouth wide. I took lots of pictures and even videotaped me and Dan stripping and shaving her. Just a little something to give her when I revive her.

Dan had believed me and laughed at her when she froze. He even helped me take off her clothes and shave her pubic hair. But then he said that he wanted to nail her while she was out like that. I hatched a little plan and told him that he had better wear an Immobilizer just in case. I told him it was to protect him from becoming a statue himself and he believed me and went along with that!"

Mitch laughed. "He got real excited and started to take his clothes off to bang her. Just before he took his pants off, I turned him into a statue, then told him that that's what he got for being so gullible. I bet he's rock hard under his pants. I never had the desire to check. I froze the two of them, oh, six days ago so they've got another four days to go."

"So Dan never did get to do Cindy while she was frozen?" Kristen asked.

"No, I never gave him the chance."

"Well then how do you explain this?" She pointed to Cindy and the area where her back met her ass. It was dried up semen.

"Umm, well, I, uh, that would be mine. . ."

"Yours!?! You screwed Cindy while she was a statue?! That's almost rape!"

"Hey, I never actually stuck my dick in her! I just jerked off while looking at how exposed she was. She just looked too blatantly sexual. I'll clean her up - she'll never know." He didn't dare tell Kristen that he also came on Cindy's face a few times and shot his load into her open mouth.

To Mitch's surprise, Kristen backed down and seemed to come to the conclusion that since he hadn't actually penetrated her and since Cindy would never know, it was OK. It must have been the beer, he thought. He let out a sigh of relief at escaping this faux pas so easily.

FOUR DAYS LATER

While cleaning up his cum, his mind wandered back to another figure in his gallery that he had not been so careful with: Cindy. She and her boyfriend Dan had been frozen as part of a bet and, 'Geez, it's today,' were going to be released after ten days. Her pose was very explicit, a tails-up offering that just screamed "fuck me," and Mitch had gotten carried away while imagining her as a love doll. Her ass was just the right height for him to rub his crank on and once ('well, twice') he was slow in turning away. That was at least what he told himself, which did not explain the semen in Cindy's mouth as well. 'No one has to know about that', he rationalized.

'Hi, ho; hi ho; it's off to work we go,' Mitch hummed as he sponged the telltale marks from the motionless Cindy-statue's back, and front, and face. He was stumped for a few moments about cleansing her mouth until he hit on the idea of rinsing it with beer. She had a few drinks that night before she was frozen, and the taste of stale brew should mask any other, er, flavors there were.

A few minutes drying time (the fans from the earlier photo setup had helped) and Mitch was ready to bring Cindy and Dan out of it. At the last moment he shook some dust from a rag onto her rigid figure. 'Mustn't look too clean', he decided. Their statues were just about where they had been before; Kristen was now safely frozen art herself so she could not tell Cindy anything about what had happened.

Mitch was as ready as he was ever going to be. He stood by the control console, selected Cindy's immobilizer, and twisted the knob to reanimate her. The result was almost immediate.

Cindy blinked twice, then gasped (her open mouth amplified the sound) and stood up bolt-straight. Her eyes were wide with surprise. Instantly, her hands sought out her shaved crotch and patted the smooth mound. Her expression changed from wonder to anger as she realized that everything Mitch had said was true.

"You Son of a Bitch!" she exclaimed, striding towards him. "You BAS...." her words cut off in mid-curse as Mitch activated the Immobilizer again, freezing Cindy in her tracks, a living statue once more.

He walked quickly over to her. "Look, Cindy, I didn't do anything more than I said I would do if you lost the bet - remember?" he said, "And you have to admit my device does work now, right?" He waved his hand in front of her blank stare, then strolled back to the controls. "Now, I'm going to reanimate you once more, so please – calm down! If you continue to make a fuss, you can stand there as a statue for another week until you chill out. Okay?" He turned the knob once more.

"...turd." she finished, then was quiet. About half a minute passed in tense silence, then she ventured "Did you have to be so smug about it? You knew you set me up!" Cindy was casting glances about the studio, maybe looking for her missing clothes. Her body language seemed to be relaxing a little.

"Hey, you agreed to everything beforehand. Why did you doubt me?"

"You've got to admit it sounds so weird, turning people into statues just like that." Cindy was walking around now, stretching. She seemed to notice Dan for the first time. "How come he's frozen too?" She poked the statue with her finger, causing it to wobble slightly in place.

"Well, Dan helped to shave you – rather enthusiastically I might add – and then wanted to, ah, stick it to you while you were frozen into that dolly pose." Mitch shrugged, "I tricked him into wearing an Immobilizer, then froze him too before he could do anything more."

Cindy's attention shifted from Mitch as she faced the statue of Dan and started speaking directly to him, as if he could hear her, "So you were going to slip me the salami, huh?" She tugged at his belt, the dawn of a smile crossing her features. "Let's see what you're packing there, big boy!" Working the trousers down, she exposed Dan's engorged penis, which was well above average size- ten inches at least. Cindy continued to taunt him, "You kept it up for little old me all this time? You must be getting a bit blue in the balls by now!" Turning back to Mitch with a sly grin on her face, she asked, "Do you have any spray paint?"

"Look in the garage," he pointed. She started for the door. "But it's cold outside and you are a trifle, say, underdressed?"

"But you said you threw all of my clothes away."

"True, but there are some outfits left over from one of my catalog shoots in the back closet. You're welcome to anything that fits you..." He knew what those were, and chuckled inwardly.

"OK, thanks," Cindy conceded, moving towards the bedroom. She paused to hand him back the Immobilizer, then noticed the naked statue of Kristen standing rigidly posed. "New girl?"

"Yup, she just started a few days ago." He gazed at her too. Kristen was a wonder.

"She's really pretty," Cindy said, walking up to the frozen figure and touching her cheek lightly. Her hand continued downwards as if it had a mind of its own, tracing the line of Kristen's neck and across the globe of her left breast. "She agreed to become one of your 'Living Statues' willingly? No tricks??"

"Of course not. She decided her life was a bit much for her and that she needed some rest. As you know, there's not much to compare..."

"You're not kidding! Even so, I don't think it's for me." Cindy did not sound certain.

She continued back into the bedroom and came out a few minutes later in a very striking set of new clothes: A tight blue Angora sweater that barely reached the bottom of her breasts combined with a pair of shiny neon blue PVC hip-hugger slacks that looked to be painted on her form. Her midriff was bare. On her feet were a pair of crystal-clear high-heeled mules that Cinderella might have worn to the 'Exotic Erotic Ball'. She blurted out, tartly, "This is all you had in my size?"

It was Mitch's turn to shrug. "Fredericks was never very conservative, you know. If it helps, you wear that outfit well."

"Thanks a lot." Finally the absurdity of the situation got the better of her anger and she started to chuckle. "At least I don't have to show up for work this way – they'd think I've changed professions!"

She pranced toward the garage, hips swaying hypnotically, then changed her mind and went into the kitchen instead. A muttered "Cute." could be heard as she saw Karen and Amy's tableaux. Emerging a few minutes later, she advanced on Dan. "I couldn't really hurt him, you know. We go back and forth with this fantasy – sometimes he's on top, other times it's me holding the keys, er, so to speak." Mitch rolled his eyes as Cindy produced a bottle of food coloring and a basting brush and began painting his exposed cock and balls a brilliant shade of deep blue. "That should do it," she concluded. "Get ready to bring him back to life, but let me get in position first." Cindy took her love-doll pose once more so she would be the first person he saw.

"Ready," Mitch said from the control panel.

"OK, do it!" Cindy held her frozen expression for the next few seconds while Mitch turned to control knob to reanimate Dan.

He shook his head for a second, not believing what his eyes had told him; that Cindy became fully clothed in the time it took to blink. Then he noticed his pants were open, just as Cindy grinned at him and shouted "Surprise!" in his face.

"Wha – what happened?" He glanced around quickly, taking in the surroundings.

"You rat!" Cindy chided him, "You were going to take advantage of poor helpless me, weren't you?" she did not wait for an answer, "So Mitch figured that you could be part of the display too. You just spent the last ten days frozen stiff as a board. Looks like you held it up too long waiting for me." She pointed to his crotch.

Dan noticed his coloration there for the first time and gasped in surprise, thinking for a moment that the old wives' tales were true. Then he realized he had been 'had' just as Cindy could not contain her mirth any longer.

"Got-cha!" she blurted out. "You owe me one for this, big boy."

"OK; O-K, I got carried away," he countered, "but don't forget that you lost the bet." He took off the immobilizer and tossed it towards Mitch, who caught it.

"Until it grows back, how can I forget?" Cindy turned her attention back to Mitch, asking "Were we really frozen for a whole ten days? So this must be Sunday?"

"Yup. You two were living statues, just like the rest," he confirmed, "here's the video and some stills of your experiences." Mitch had made up a small package for them to take. "Say, you wouldn't want to stay on as models, would you?"

"Forget it," Dan said immediately. He had finished putting on his shirt and pants.

"You never know," put in Cindy.

"It was sure an interesting way to waste a couple of weeks," Dan concluded. "Come on Cindy, let's get you home." They moved towards the door, paused one last time at the threshold.

Mitch, the ever-optimistic salesman, said in parting "Stop back, anytime!" Neither of them responded to that. 'Hey, you never know,' he thought, closing the door.

***

“That was damn weird,” Cindy laughed as she got into her car.  “I can’t believe he was telling the truth!” 

“Get in my car,” Dan opened the door to Cindy’s car. 

“What?” Cindy was confused.

“That jerk tricked me,” Dan pouted.  “We had you all nice and frozen like you deserved….”

“Like I deserved?  Hey you were the one who tried to fuck me and Mitch just turned the tables on you to save me.”

“It’s not like you haven’t been fucked by me before!” Dan snapped.

“But you were going to take advantage of me!  I wouldn’t have even known!”  Cindy raised her voice as she reluctantly sat in the passenger seat of Dan’s car.

“You deserved not to know because you made that stupid bet!”  Dan pulled his car out of Mitch’s driveway.

“What about my car?” Cindy asked.

“I’ll get your fucking car later,” Dan steamed as he got onto the freeway.

“Geez Dan, get over it!  It was a good trick!  Who could have known he was telling the truth?  Admit it, it was kind of fun, in a goofy sort of way, wasn’t it?”

Dan didn’t say anything for the rest of the trip home.

***

“Fucking shit!” Dan cursed as Cindy started sorting ten days of mail that had accumulated at their apartment.

“What?” Cindy asked.

“It’s Sunday!” Dan snarled.

“Uhm, yeah it is,” Cindy replied calmly.

“I was supposed to get that fucking thing at work done on Tuesday!”

“Okay,” Cindy again replied nonchalant.

“I’m going to be in a shit fucking doghouse with the boss!”

“Well, it’s not like I’m looking forward to going in tomorrow and trying to explain why I haven’t been around for the last 10 days!” Cindy argued.  “Just tell them that you were laid out by some really bad cold.  That’s what I’m going to tell them.”  Cindy stroked Dan’s shoulders with her fingers.  “Hey, let’s watch the video Mitch gave us.  Get a few laughs out of it before we have to deal with the reality tomorrow?”

“I gotta get out…” Dan muttered.

“Where are you going?” Cindy asked, worried.

“OUT!” Dan roared as she slammed the door behind him.

THE NEXT DAY

The cab pulled up outside Mitch’s house/studio.  Cindy got out and paid the cabbie, who made a u-turn and drove back down the rustic road back to the highway.  Cindy could see her car still in Mitch’s driveway. It was storming and the cabbie asked her if she really wanted to be left off in this stormy weather.  She said yes and he shrugged his shoulders.  The lights weren’t on inside.  Cindy wanted to speak to Mitch about some of the difficulty she was having with Dan but it didn’t look like anyone was home.  At least anyone who wasn’t a statue, she thought.  She smiled and wondered what it would be like to just be left naked and frozen the way she was.  She of course had no memory of what happened after the intial immobilizing effect put her to sleep but she could imagine what it might have been like to have been on display like that.  A literal exhibit.  A statue…. A loud rumble of thunder shook her out of her memories and she suddenly became aware of how hard the rain coming down was.  She unlocked her car door and sat inside.  The pitter-patter of rain against the hood of the car reminded her of the lonely night passing just hours earlier.

It had been a tense night between her and Dan.  He hadn’t come back until 4 a.m. and she had spent most of the night up and worrying.  By the time he got back she wanted to talk to him but he said nothing to her when he got into bed.  She lay next to him for two hours in silence before getting up to go to work.  By the time she got back she saw that Dan had not, as he had promised, gotten her car back from Mitch’s so she decided to go up and get it herself.  Sometimes he could be so typical-guy, not paying any attention to her needs and wants.  It had been a bit of a storybook relationship up to this point.  Meeting in college.  He was the hot hunk, she was the hot babe.  They seemed like they were made for each other.  He was so great in bed too….

A flash of lightning illuminated the darkness and Cindy started up the motor and turned on her headlights.  Things will get better.  She drove away.  Just give it some time…

TWO DAYS LATER

“Damn it!” Dan slammed the apartment door shut.

Cindy flinched at the sound of Dan’s homecoming.  Things had been edgy ever since they had returned from being living statues at Mitch’s house.  Dan had disappeared from work for 10 days, as had she, but unlike her Dan’s boss had taken a dim view of Dan going awol and had moved to have Dan fired.  He had gone over to try and rescue his job.  “What did they say, babe?” She said hesitant.  Dan had developed a quick temper he had never evidenced before in the four years they had been together and Cindy had started to feel more than a little concerned for her safety the way Dan started throwing things around the apartment to satiate his rage.

“They fucking fired me!  Fucking FIRED me!” he snapped at her like a wild animal.

“D-didn’t you explain that you couldn’t call in becau-” Cindy flinched at the dining room table.

“Do you think anyone would believe that STUPID excuse you came up with?  DO YOU?” Dan turned on her.

“Well, it worked with my boss,” Cindy offered softly.  “Maybe if you told it–”

“That’s because you probably fuck him at lunchtime!” Dan slammed some stuff Cindy was working on off the table with an aggressive swipe.

“WHAT did you say?  I don’t fuck anybody except–” Cindy was aghast.

“Did you fuck that Mitch guy?” Dan pointed his finger accusingly right in front of Cindy’s face.

“What??”  Cindy couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You two were laughing at me when I was unfrozen!  How long were you running around in that outfit while I was out?  I bet you two were fucking every day and you just left me standing there!  Fucking WHORE!”

“I… can’t believe what you just called me,” Cindy started to tear up.  She slammed the door to the bathroom and locked it.

“FUCKING WHORE!  That’s what you are!  Fucking stupid SLUT!”  Dan slammed the door to the apartment. 

Cindy sobbed as Dan drove away.

THE NEXT DAY

Cindy lay in bed nervously.  An acre of bed space separated her and Dan.  She waited for Dan to get up and get dressed.  She knew Dan was going out to look for work today, based on the angry drunken ranting he had done the night before.  More harsh accusatory words were traded and at one point he even raised his hand like he was threatening to slap her and said she should just get out of his life because all she had ever caused him was trouble.  At that point Cindy knew she and Dan were over with but she was too frightened to just walk out on him at that point because of what he might do if she took him up on his threat.  Instead she spent a long scary night in bed with her now definite-ex and made mental plans throughout the night for her escape.

When the door slammed shut, Cindy listened for Dan’s car to pull away then she got out of bed, completely naked.  She normally slept in the nude but over the past few days she had seriously reconsidered that.  To not give Dan any suspicions that something was amiss she went to sleep nude as usual but he had wanted nothing to do with her ever since they had gotten back from Mitch’s, even with her sexy prodding that night.  Now she threw all of her clothes into a suitcase and took the few things she still felt an attachment to into a few empty boxes from the closet.  She threw on a coat and cracked the door of the apartment open slowly and peeked out.  She was afraid Dan might be lurking about spying on her.  He had somehow gotten into his head all sorts of crazy ideas and theories on what she did when he wasn’t around her.  There was no sign of Dan so she lugged the heavy luggage down the stairs with a loud thump-clunk-thunk and hefted it into the back seat of her car as best she could.  Returning quickly to the apartment she carried the boxes with her remaining belongings and placed it on the front passenger seat.  She thought about leaving him a note, then decided actions spoke louder than words ever would with that lunkhead.  Returning to the apartment she made a single phone call to work, explaining she was quitting and moving away immediately.  Without going into explanations she hung up abruptly and closed the door to the past four years of her life behind her.  Without looking behind Cindy drove away, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

Fifty minutes later, Cindy’s car pulled off the muddy dirt road and into the driveway of Mitch Kirkland’s home.  She sat in the car for a full fifteen minutes before getting out.  Was there really anywhere else she could turn?  All her other friends were Dan’s friends too and she didn’t want anyone else put in potential physical harm by covering up for her.  She had made her decision.  It wasn’t time to chicken out.  She walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.  She took a deep breath as the door swung open.

"Hi, Mitch. Can I come in?" Cindy tossed her long black hair to one side, away from her face. It was still cool and drizzling out, and she was bundled up in a long coat, tied tightly at her waist. Her eyes looked moist.

"Uhh, hi..." She was the last one he would have expected to see, after the way he had treated her before. "Sure! Can I get you something to drink?"

"Yeah, a beer would be great ...” She stopped in her tracks, gazing at the frozen mannequin of Kristen posed in her wine-colored satin teddy. "Sorry to barge in; you must be getting ready to do another of your photo shoots, or something. I don't want to interrupt."

Mitch's mind was swimming. He certainly hadn't expected Cindy to come over. He wouldn't have been surprised if she never saw him again, after her ten unexpected days as one of his living statues. He couldn't imagine why she had come, and why right now. He brought her an opened bottle of beer and a chilled glass. "No, it's no bother. Really."

Cindy poured some beer into the glass, stopped, and cocked her head to one side. "Your shower's running. I really am interrupting, aren't I?"

"Really, it's okay. Let me just go shut off the water."

Cindy stood up. "Hey, I can get it for you. I need to use the bathroom, anyway."

"Well, er, I really don't think..."

"It's no problem, Mitch. I'll just catch the water, and I'll be back in a minute."

Cindy set the beer on a table, and headed back to the bathroom. Inside, she unbuttoned her coat, swept it back, felt the warm damp air against her bare skin. She sat down, and looked at the shower curtain... I could swear there are people in there, she thought. There was no movement, no sound other than the rushing water. Two shadowy shapes were visible through the curtain. What is he up to now? she wondered. As soon as she finished and washed her hands, she pulled back the curtain. Within was an erotic tableaux.

Two of Mitch's statues were posed in the shower, both of whom she recognized from her previous tour of Mitch's studio before she lost her bet. The shorter, full-chested one – named Nat, she thought – was taking the full force of the water in her back, her head arched back, one hand soaping between her legs, the other poised just below her breasts. The taller one – was her name Sue? – was fondling the shorter one, her hands wrapped around the other's breasts, her crotch grinding against the other's thigh. Cindy's breath caught for a moment – she wasn't sure what to think. She put a hand over her mouth, not wanting to alarm Mitch. Then, she felt an urge to giggle, and she left her hand over her mouth to suppress that. She realized then she found the image disturbingly sensuous, and wasn't sure how to feel about that. It wasn't something she ever wanted to do or be part of, but it made her tingle a little just to see it. Cindy continued to gaze at their naked, glistening bodies for an unknown time; watching the way the water splashed over their motionless figures.

There was a light knock on the bathroom door. "Cindy? Are you okay? Cindy?"

She jumped as if shocked, then tried to keep from sounding startled, partially succeeded. "Uh, yeah! Yeah, Mitch, I'm fine! Just a second!" She reached in and turned off the water, trying hard not to brush against either of the bathing statues. Even so, she brushed against Sue's back and Cindy felt a tiny jolt, like static electricity, shoot up her arm. Pulling the curtain back into place, she tied up her coat, and opened the door.

Mitch was standing outside with a nervous look on his face. "Look, uh, I can ... I mean, what I'm trying to say is, well, there's an explanation, and, uh..."

Cindy walked past him, back out to the main room as if nothing had happened and took a sip of beer. Nonchalantly, "Explanation for what?"

"An explanation for... huh?"

"Explanation for what? Is there something to explain?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, there should... uh, just a second." Mitch dashed back to the bathroom for a moment, returned very puzzled. The statues were still there, frozen in their watery tryst.

Cindy broke up laughing. "The look on your face! It's priceless!"

Mitch took a deep slow breath – he'd obviously been had. "There really is an explanation for why they're in the shower like that."

"You mean like that or — like that?" She was fighting not to laugh.

"I mean why they're immobilized in there. I didn't know who was at the door, and I didn't want them traipsing out here, naked, ready to pose. As far as why they're like that, well..."

Cindy downed the rest of the glass of beer. "I think I can figure that question out for myself, thank you very much. They looked like they were enjoying it, anyway, or at least the tall one was enjoying it. Not my thing. Well, don't keep them on hold in there any longer on my account."

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Mitch went to the controls and released both of the girls, with Nat being first by a few seconds. There was a sudden shriek, then another, and then continuous laughter, followed by the sound of the bathroom door closing.

Mitch stepped over to the little conversation area near the front door, bounded by a couch, a couple chairs, and a love seat. "Have a seat?" He was trying to get her attention, and his, away from the scene.

"Thank you." Cindy left the glass behind, started working on the bottle. She sat down on the couch, keeping her coat on, and crossed her legs. She seemed to be waiting for him to start.

Mitch took the other chair - he didn't want to seem pushy. "So, what's going on?"

She sighed. "It's Dan. He's been way over the top since we were here. Let me tell you, he'd just as soon kill you as speak your name right now. He hasn't been very happy with me, either, and it's just gotten worse."

"Gotten worse? How's that?"

"Well ... Dan can be pretty obsessive. He's got it in his head that you and me had some kind of 'thing' while he was frozen, and he can... he can..." She was visibly upset and closing her eyes to try to control her emotions.

"He can what?"

Cindy was on the borderline between angry and downcast, her jaw clenched and eyes tearing up all at once. She paused for a few moments again, then cleared her throat. "All my stuff's in the car outside. He threw me out, and I was afraid he... I was afraid he might... I don't know what, Mitch."

She looked at him, and patted her hand on the couch cushion, beckoning him closer. He moved across cautiously, not sure what to think about what was going on now. He felt bad about her situation, partly responsible, but curious at the same time, and plotting a little. Cindy had been a great statue...

She continued on, "Despite all the nasty things I had to say to you the other day, you're a good guy, Mitch. A little weird sometimes, but a good guy."

"Uh, thank you. I think." She was sitting surprisingly close to him, he thought.

"Can I please crash here for a while? I've got nowhere else to go, and I just need to hide out for a while, in case Dan starts hunting for me."

"Sure, no sweat. But don't you think here is the first place he'd come, if he really thinks we're having a – what did you call it? – a thing?"

She hesitated for a moment. "Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. Well, I just won't stay long, then. Anyway, thanks for being there for me." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It was just a peck, really...

"Ahem!" Mitch and Cindy both whirled around to see Susan and Natalie standing over them, both with arms crossed and robes tied shut.

Susan's brow was wrinkled in a frown. "Aren't you going to introduce us, Mitch?"

Natalie smiled. "I know who she is, Susan. She's that girl that lost the bet, ended up as a statue because she thought Mitch was kidding. Didn't someone tell you about that little escapade? What was her name..."

Cindy smiled, extended a hand cordially. "Yes; I'm Cindy. And you're Susan, apparently, and you must be Nat, aren't you?"

"My name is Natalie." She pronounced each syllable, icily.

Mitch was a little nervous. "Uh, listen, ladies. How would you like to go out for the evening, have a little R&R before we start the job. I'm not ready yet, and..."

Susan's brow still hadn't unfurrowed. "You would be ready, if there weren't all of these distractions." She stared pointedly straight at Cindy. "Isn't there a tight deadline on this — a really tight deadline?"

Cindy sighed. "Look, Mitch, really, if I'm interfering with your work..."

Mitch forced a smile at Cindy. "Would you excuse us for just a minute, please?" He looked at Susan and Natalie, frowned, and pointed toward the kitchen. They followed him into the other room. As soon as Cindy was out of earshot, Mitch said in a low, strained voice, "What the fuck is going on here?"

Natalie said coyly, "Why, what are you talking about, Mitch? Do you know what he's getting at?" Susan shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm talking about the bullshit way you two are treating Cindy! She's having a really tough time right now, and it's partly my fault."

Natalie's voice was all steel. "I certainly hope you don't intend to add her to your collection right now. Kristen, I'll live with. She seems really nice. This one though, coming in here, playing kissy-face with you, what are you thinking?"

"Nat's right, Mitch. One new face is enough right now."

Mitch tried to ease the tension. "Look, this has nothing to do with you, or this catalog. I meant what I said. Things between Cindy and her boyfriend went south, and it's partly my fault because of that stupid damn bet. Now he's being pretty nasty to her, and she's got nowhere to go. That has nothing to do with the shoot."

"Prove it," said Natalie.

"Huh?"

"Prove it. Get rid of her."

Mitch snarled, "This jealousy stops right now! I haven't the time, or patience, for this kind of shit. I'm sure there's other work for a model with your impressive physique and portfolio, if you want to go find it."

Natalie took a half-step back, surprised. "No, Mitch. I didn't mean it that way. Look, I'm sorry. It's not my place to mess with your personal life, or whatever."

Susan cast her eyes downward. "Geez, Mitch. We didn't mean it like that. We want to stay – I mean, I want to stay, anyway. I like it here."

Natalie chimed in, "Oh, I want to stay, too! I ... really, I'm not interested in other modeling work. Really. You can just freeze us up like mummies and stand us in a corner, or whatever – get us out of your way."

Mitch said, "Look, you still don't understand. But I can see how you might have got the wrong impression. Why don't the two of you just go out for the evening. Catch dinner, a movie; live a little. Take the health club passes, if you want. Put this whole Cindy thing out of your minds. It's getting late anyway - we'll start the shoot tomorrow morning."

"Okay," Susan agreed. Natalie nodded, a bit sheepishly.

***

Cindy sat quietly by herself.  She could hear the faint sounds of arguing going on between Mitch and his models but could only get the gist of the argument, if not the words, based on the tone and loudness.  She looked through some of the photos spread across the table.  Some of Mitch’s lingerie shoots, from various clients. She had a flashback to the day she had dropped by and how Mitch showed her a series of photos to convince her to pose.  Pictures that Mitch used to convince his newest model no doubt.  Would I have made a good model?  Dan sort of decided for me that I wasn’t going to hang around.  It would have been fun, to be posed by Mitch and be under the immobilizer again, if only for a short time.  Dan would have seen to it that she wouldn’t be there for long though.  It always came down to Dan.  He just seemed to control all aspects of my life.  Even this, which I thought would have been a fun romp.  He ruined it.  Didn’t even ask me if I wanted to continue.  He just treats me so…

Cindy fumed and took another drink.  He really had made it seem like whatever she had decided was her decision but thinking back now it was obvious that it was really all his decision.  Anything she really wanted to do, like pose for Mitch, he somehow managed to convince her out of doing.  What was the harm, posing for a few pictures?  There wasn’t any hanky-panky going on here.  She looked up and saw Susan and Natalie left the other room, their satin robes just short enough to show a glimpse of butt-cheek as they walked away.

***

As soon as they headed back to the bedrooms to get dressed, Mitch went back to the front room, where Cindy sat quietly sipping her beer. "I'm sorry about all that. Sometimes they get a little possessive of me."

"I guess I can understand how they might feel." She was smiling at him again. That's an improvement, he thought. Rejection is a tough thing to take.

He sat back down on the couch. "You really think Dan will come after you?"

"Oh, I have no doubts about that. It could be weeks, maybe months, before he finds someone else to obsess about. Frankly, I'm glad this happened. I really needed to get away from him."

Mitch's mind was plotting, again. "So where do you go from here? Move back to stay with family until he gives up or goes away? I mean, you can't just hang around town. It's an awfully small place to avoid him in."

"My folks retired. They ditched the house, and they're doing the RV thing now. I don't have any brothers or sisters. I suppose I could scare up some old friends to stay with. I haven't been very good about keeping up any other friendships. Dan saw to that."

Mitch was soothing, sympathetic. "I'm sorry to hear that. I guess I didn't know Dan as well as I thought. I wouldn't have picked him as being abusive."

Cindy sat up angrily. "I never said he was abusive! He's not... he couldn't be..." She stopped, slouched, and was silent for a long time. After a while, she took a long, deep breath. "Maybe you're right, but I just can't put... that word together with him, you know? We were together a long time, most of the way through college and ever since. Obsessive? Yeah, I'll buy that. Demanding? Okay, that's probably fair. But that word, I just can't say it."

"You don't have to. The thing right now is how can we keep you away from him for a time? A long time. How are you going to go to work?" A leading question...

"Oh, I'm not. I can't. I already resigned. I meant what I said earlier. Everything I own is in the car outside." She stopped, hearing the back door open and close. After a few minutes, the sound of a car pulled away from the far side of the house.

Mitch said, "That's just Natalie and Susan, going into town. They'll cool down. Well, you can stay here for now, but I don't know how we can hide you for ever..." If she's going to bite, it's now, he thought.

She looked at him furtively. "I was sort of thinking, I mean, I don't want this to be an imposition, but I thought maybe you could use your widget again and turn me into a statue for a while, until he settles down. I mean, you could just stack me in a backroom or something, somewhere he wouldn't find me, even if he came looking. I'm ready to do it."

Game, set, and match, he thought. Mitch smiled. "I think you'd be a great addition to my gallery. We'd need to do a standard contract, of course, to cover all the Immobilizer issues and set up display rules, and so forth."

"Can you store my stuff? I figured maybe you could stash my car for me. It'd be easier to hide it than find the cash for a new one later."

"Whatever you want me to do. When you have everything settled, just come back later and..."

"There's nothing to settle. I've made up my mind. Do you have one of those contracts here?"

Jesus, she's moving fast, he thought, either she's really worried or maybe really anxious to be frozen again. Whatever works. He grabbed a clipboard with one of the standard modeling and display contracts, filled in her name and the date. Without asking, he checked the 'unlimited display' category and handed it to her.

She glanced at it for a few seconds. "Is there anything about some kind of maximum term in here or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like some point where you'll come back and wake me up, if the coast is clear. It would have to be quite a bit longer than just ten days, this time."

"Believe me, that's no problem. Oh, I wouldn't want to leave you immobilized too long, anyway. No more than a few months at a time, just for safety's sake."

"Okay, then, that's fine." She signed and initialed at all the appropriate Xs, nonchalant as if she was renting a car, handed Mitch the clipboard with a brief smile, and stood up. "Any ideas about where to stash me?"

"Well, I was thinking about that. You know, sometimes things in the open are the least... obvious..." Mitch searched around the Immobilizer unit, found the earclip already tuned for Cindy. He never thought it would be used again so soon.

He heard a thump behind him, like a sack of laundry dropping, and turned around. Cindy had tossed her coat on the back of the couch, and stood there waiting, completely naked. Her long black hair was draped down the front, camouflaging most of her firm, well-defined breasts. She was very well conditioned, the contours of her abdomen rigidly defined around just the slightest rise below her navel, her shoulders muscular, limbs slender but well toned. Her pubic hair was short and bristly, just beginning to come back from the recent close shave. Her legs were as long as he had remembered them.

Mitch was dumbstruck. "Did you come here planning this?"

She nodded wordlessly. He handed Cindy the earclip, and she put it into place. Now she could be frozen as a Living Statue at any time. "So, what do you mean by things in the open being least obvious?"

"Well, we could camouflage you." He stood back, gauged her with an artist's eye. "The first thing we need to do is change your appearance. There's a really quick way to do that."

"Go on."

"A haircut."

Cindy's eyes widened. "A haircut?" She looked apprehensive for the first time.

"Is that a problem?"

She brushed back some stray hairs from her face. "I've always had very long hair. Even when I was a kid. I had it cut once. Once. And I cried for a month."

Mitch said quietly. "That would make it even more of a disguise. No one would ever suspect you having short hair. You wouldn't even look like any of your old photos, not even the ones I took recently."

She took a deep, wavering breath. "Fine. How are we going to manage a decent haircut, without me going into town?"

"Hm. I think I can solve that." Mitch walked over the Immobilizer controls, chose the spot marked "Amy", and turned the dial to reanimate her. A few second later he heard a clatter in the kitchen, followed by a "Damn!"

Amy came strolling out in her white lingerie ensemble, the stockings and cream-colored high heeled shoes splattered with dark droplets. "There was still some coffee in that pot, Mitch. Sorry about the st... oh, hi." She strolled up to Cindy like there was nothing strange to see a naked woman standing in the living room – which it wasn't at Mitch's – and extended a hand. "I'm Amy. Are you new?"

Cindy nodded, hesitated a moment, then said, "I'm Cindy." She was trying to get accustomed to seeing scantily-clad models strutting around. Or frozen stiff.

Amy smiled, "Is Mitch stumped trying to decide how to pose you? Shouldn't be too difficult; you’re very photogenic."

Mitch replied, "Actually, I'm trying to decide how to hide her."

"Hide her?" Amy motioned for Cindy to sit down on the couch, sat beside her. "Tell me all about it."

Cindy went through the whole story again for her. Amy listened passively most of the time, punctuating with the occasional biting remark about men and pigs, and the usually close connection between the two.

When Cindy was done, Amy weighed the whole story. "So, you're going to hide out here as one of us statues for a while. Until that moron gives up and finds someone else to screw up?"

Cindy nodded her head slowly, expressionless. "That about covers it."

Amy looked at Mitch. "And so you activated me because?"

"Cindy needs a haircut."

Amy ran a hand through Cindy's hair. "That's a shame. Not many people with good hair like this. But, no one would ever recognize you with short hair, I'll bet."

Cindy nodded. "That's what Mitch said."

"Well, let me get the tools of the trade. Why don't you go in the kitchen, and I'll meet you in there? Mitch, my stuff?"

"All in the back room, with your duffel bag."

"Okay, I'll find a smock or something, and we can get to work."

***

ONE HOUR LATER

Cindy sat at the kitchen table, wrapped in a heavy cotton robe. She looked at the floor occasionally, where piles of long, dark hair had piled. Her hair; on the floor. She thought it was strange that the sight of the hair bothered her more than sitting next to the motionless figure of Karen, frozen in her French Maid outfit, coffee mug in hand or Amy, styling her hair while wearing a garter belt and lace bra.

"Almost done," said Amy. "Nervous?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, you shouldn't be. It's a little wild, since it's always been long for so long. As soon as I clean some of the hair off you, I'll mousse it, so it has some shape when you see it."

Cindy closed her eyes, tried to enjoy the feel of her hair being worked on. She felt a draft on the back of her neck, a very foreign sensation, and it reminded her of the piles of hair on the floor, which bothered her. "Aren't you done yet?"

"Yeah, I'm done. You're going to want to shower, to get the rest of the hair off, and then I'll style it again for you, okay?"

"Okay. Let's see it." She was nervous, but impatient. Amy gave her a large hand mirror, and she held up while looking away, waited a moment, then peered into it abruptly. Someone else looked back at her.

It wasn't as short as she had feared, still hanging down her neck, although Amy had thinned the back quite a bit. The top and sides were in sort of a boyish wedge, heavily moussed to give it extra body.

Amy stood back a bit, giving Cindy's hairstyle another once-over. "Well?"

Cindy kept looking in the mirror, moving it around to see the sides and the back. "It's sooooo different. I don't know really... I'll have to think about it awhile, get used to it, I guess."

Amy laughed. "Mitch won't leave you much time for that, I'll bet. Look, you go clean up, and I'll see if he needs any help getting ready for you."

Getting 'ready' for me, Cindy thought. It sounded ominous and exciting to her all at once. She thought back over her previous brief experience as a living statue.

***

Frozen….Stiff…Cindy recalled that terrifying moment of truth when Mitch called her on the carpet.  She remembered how impossible it had seemed that he could be telling the truth and the moment when she realized he was telling the truth it was too late.  And that outrageously sexy pose she insisted on, she was practically handing him his victory on a silver platter!  Cindy looked at herself in the mirror.  The little stubble of pubic hair around her crotch was now less shocking than the short boyish (well to her anyway) hairstyle that now framed her face.  She reached down and ran her fingers over the just-starting-to-come-back bristles around her pussy.  She recalled that being a statue wasn’t altogether a bad experience but the one time she watched the video Mitch had given to her when she was released from statue-duty she was a little taken-back by the abusive language Dan was using while she was helplessly frozen stiff.  The way he treated her.  Like she was an object.  A piece of meat.  Cindy smiled at the irony.  She WAS an object.  A work of art by that point.  She was completely paralyzed.  She was a statue.  She wouldn’t have ever known what Dan had done unless Mitch had supplied the video and pictures. 

Mitch at least treated her with respect.  His models all seemed to have no problems with him, so he must be okay.  He was, after all, an artist.  Seeing how unconcerned the statue models were with running around the place stark naked meant they had no qualms about being taken advantage of the way she was with Dan.  What Dan did…. She felt her crotch once more.  The shaving of her pussy would be the last reminder of what he had done to her, if she had her say about it.

Amy returned to the kitchen and saw Cindy staring at herself in the mirror.  “Hey it looks great, trust me.”

“I know, it just…” Cindy’s voice trailed off.

“Hey, you know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, right?”  Amy turned Cindy around so that they faced each other.  Cindy’s completely nude body and Amy’s bra and garter were as different as night and day, clothing notwithstanding.

“I know, I just don’t have anywhere else to turn,” Cindy could feel her tears welling up again.

“I know exactly how you feel, hon,” Amy hugged Cindy, her breasts squished underneath the lower circumference of Cindy’s supermodel physique.  “Trust me, Mitch knows how to take care of us. You’re perfectly safe here.”

Cindy wiped away her tears.  “No more tears,” she said bravely.  “I’m ready,” she walked to the kitchen door.

“Wait a sec,” Amy squirted a dollop of cream in her hand and followed Cindy out.

***

Amy ran a little more mousse through Cindy's hair. "That's enough. What do you think, Mitch?"

Mitch stopped fussing with his trunk full of equipment, took a long look. "I think you look simply fabulous, Cindy. Ready to be creative? I am."

"I guess so."

"Do you have any skin allergies?"

"Not that I know of. To what?"

"Have you ever used body paint before?"

She smiled and teared up a little at the same time. "Yeah... Dan and I ... we ... yeah, I have. It was fine." She blushed.

"Hm, let me see... I had a wild idea. Amy and I worked it through, actually."

Amy smiled. "It's pretty cool."

Mitch walked to the couch. "It's a little hard to visualize, but it'll work fine. You just have to go along with me on this. Come right here, in front of the couch." He moved the coffee table back several feet, out of the furniture grouping. "Now, sit down here on the floor, right in front of the couch. Let me see what I could... okay, might as well stretch out. You won't be moving again for a while."

Cindy tried to control her breathing. The Immobilizer scared her and thrilled her all at once. She remembered the feeling of stiffness from before; tried to ready herself for the sensations she knew would come, but she didn't know how.

"Amy, can you lift the edge of that up a little... no, the long, thin one. Thanks. Okay, here's what I want you to do, Cindy, so listen closely. Now close your eyes, or you're going to think I'm nuts. It'll only be difficult for a minute or so. I want you to stretch your legs out... now bring them back toward you by bending at the knees, to about... that angle. Okay, keep your legs like that." She was balancing her upper body with her elbows.

"What are you dragging? Or are those wheels? What are you up to?"

"Be careful with that, Amy. I'll make sure you have pictures to prove it later. Keep your eyes closed. Now, I want you to spread your legs open a little..."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to do anything to you like what you're thinking. You just have to trust me. I mean, if you're going to do this, it might as well be creative, right?"

She nodded, very hesitantly.

Amy chimed in. "It'll be all right. I'll watch after him."

He stopped, knelt down, and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Really, it'll be absolutely beautiful. Now just bring your legs out to the sides... a little more... a little... okay, hold them there. Here's the tricky part. I want you to take your hands, and rest them between your legs. You don't have to do anything, just rest them there, along the insides of your thighs."

"Okay." She laid down, and placed the sides of her hands on the insides of her thighs. "That was easy."

"It won't be. That's not how I want you to do it yet." The wheeling-dragging sound stopped right next to her. "Now, you'll only have to hold this pose for a few seconds, and after that, it'll be a piece of cake. I want you to keep your torso up, with your hands and legs where they are, using your stomach and back muscles."

"Lift my torso up with my arms out like that? How will I hold myself like that? I don't know if my abs are that strong!"

He looked her over. "I wouldn't worry about that, you'll only have to do it for a few seconds.. This'll really show off your torso. I want you to try and lean your head back a little. You don't want to look tense."

"That's a lot to keep straight. I'm not really ready to try it – it's too difficult!"

"Wait a minute. Suppose I get some support under your back until we're ready?"

"That'd be better. Much."

Amy dragged over one of the posing platforms and piled a few pillows on it. Cindy sat up, then leaned back onto the padding until she was about at the level position he was looking for.

"Okay, you'll feel some weight now, on your upper chest and knees. Just try to relax, don't worry. Amy, help me lift this up here." Amy and Mitch lifted a piece of oval tempered glass, about two and a half feet long and a foot and a half wide.

"Okay... mmpff! What was that? I hope you're hurrying, 'cause my back can't take this weight much longer."

Mitch adjusted some things, and got out a level. He eyeballed the glass tabletop, and set the level on top of it. "Okay, I'm going to support your back, and pull out the top pillow. Your stomach ready? Clench those abs."

"I guess so. I trust you, Mitch." Her face was tense.

"Okay. Amy, get ready with the controls, okay? Cindy, here we go."

"Mmpff!! I know that – relax, right?" She slowly, gingerly put her head back, letting her long neck arch back. She almost touched the floor. Mitch watched the level carefully. "Okay, deep breath. Push those tits out!" She got a slight grin on her face. He saw her hands shift out of the corner of his eye as he watched the level... and gave Amy the thumbs-up to flip the switch on the Immobilizer. Cindy's lips parted slightly, a barely visible shudder running through her torso.

She relaxed slightly just as the field hit, softening the lines of her stomach, but not affecting the slightly off-balance level. Then she became rigid as a statue.

He took his hand out, and the figure of Cindy, Mitch's new custom coffee table, stayed perfectly still and level. He moved rapidly now, kissing her on the cheek then rolling forward. "You won't believe the pictures when I'm done. Have a good sleep, and I'll make sure Dan can't find you." While Cindy's body was still slightly pliable, Mitch lifted the big glass slab off her knees and upper chest, shifting her breasts slightly to remove the marks from the glass and restore her erect nipples to their original hardness. Moments later, when her skin was hard as stone, he and Amy set the glass back down, and he checked the level again. Perfectly true. Do I have an eye or what, he thought. He looked her over, and smiled. He was right, he had seen her hands shift as she was being frozen, one massaging her clit, the other insistently prodding at the soft-looking lips below. That grin had meant something, he thought.

He marveled at her firm, chiseled physique – she was the only one of his statues strong enough to pull this off – he thought. The muscles of her shoulders and upper arms had rippled slightly, and only the barest strain showed in her neck. The definition in her body truly looked as if it had been carved from flawless pale marble.

Amy surveyed the new statue. "Wow, perfectly balanced. You were exactly right. What's next? Can I help?"

Mitch thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I could use some help. Some live company would be nice. Bring over that bucket of putty, would you?  Time to finish this little project, he thought, as he set to work...

***

“Give me a hand with her,” Mitch said as he lifted the oval glass off of Cindy’s naked, immobile form.  Resting the glass against the wall Mitch lifted Cindy’s shoulders up.  The rigid woman was raised to tippy-toes but did not budge at all from her frozen pose.  Mitch indicated to Amy to bring over the tablecloth and she laid it upside down on the floor.  Mitch pivoted Cindy, her naked breasts brushing against him as he held her tight against his body and with Amy’s help gently lowered Cindy back to her original orientation on the tablecloth. 

“What do you want me to start on?” Amy asked.

“Let’s get her hair puttied, that will be the trickiest part of it, I think,” Mitch took a large spatula and handed Amy a shorter one.  “I’m going to try and work it in-between what you did but you might have to fix it back to the way it was.”

“Don’t worry, I think I know how you want it to look,” Amy watched as Mitch slathered the grey goo onto Cindy’s head.  It plastered the moussed hair flat as Mitch worked around her head with the light brown goop.

“You know she doesn’t look half bad like that, sort of Liza Minelli-ish,” Amy observed.

“We want it to look like wood though and I don’t really want to obscure any more of her body than I have to.  Plus with it all slicked back like this it’ll be more obvious it isn’t carved if someone just half looks at her.”

“If you say so,” Amy got to work ‘correcting’ Mitch’s work.  She used her hands to bring up individual strands of hair again and worked more putty to fill in the space to Cindy’s scalp.  Moving the spatula back and forth like a saw, she carved out sections of puttied/moussed hair into caverns and crevasses, letting sections stay peaked here, flattening sections there with more putty. 

Meanwhile, Mitch was hard at work at Cindy’s toes.  Her legs were slightly parted but they tapered together at her feet and Mitch set about to obscure her feet under a liberal plastering of putty.  Scooping a huge chunk of putty onto Cindy’s feet, he worked it with the spatula, blending it into the curve of her ankles.  Mitch sculpted the putty around her heel so that it tapered out and around her feet as if hewn from a larger amount of materiel.  He eliminated all but the faintest trace of all her toes and filled in the small gaps between her feet so that it looked like she had sprouted out of one solid mass like a tree.  He couldn’t help but stare at Cindy’s exposed pussy, her crack so invitingly parted open by two fingers, as he worked on her feet.

Mitch took a look at Amy’s hair carving work.  “That’s pretty good,” he complimented.

“Thanks,” Amy smiled as she put the finishing touches around Cindy’s ear, disguising the immobilizer under a thick blob of putty.  There was still a little metallic gleam off one surface, but she’d get that later. “What’s next?”

“Why don’t you get the body paint from the studio.  Get the air compressor and the airbrush stuff too while you’re at it.  I’ll finish up here.  I think we need to disguise her a little more.  Her hands will look way too detailed if we just paint over them.  We’ll probably have to take her outside to paint after the putty sets up too but maybe we can speed things up with some hair dryers in the meantime.”

“Right, gotcha,” Amy got up out of her Indian-style squat and closed her robe.  Not that Mitch was paying attention to her with the amazing Cindy on display.

Mitch was on his knees and leaned over Cindy’s knees, raised in the air.  Positioning himself so that her knee supported his shoulder, Mitch scraped out another mass of putty and started spreading it over Cindy’s hands, eliminating any spaces between her fingers, and making the hand on her thigh look like it was one solid mass with a hint of thumb blended into her leg and down to the vaginal lip.  He used the spatula to carve a crack here, a vein there as he spread it like frosting onto her thigh.  Then he turned his attention to Cindy’s other hand, the one that was frozen while she pleasured herself in the moment right before total immobility set in. (I’ve got to preserve the details of that perfect pussy)  Mitch spread the putty generously over Cindy’s hand but he made certain not to cover any of her exposed snatch.  Cindy’s individual fingers disappeared in favor of a v-shaped approximation.  Mitch touched up around Cindy’s body with some modeling resin he had lying around,  adding a little mound of resin, just the barest hint, to simulate a knot on  the small of her back, a split along one calf.  It all looked rather haphazard with this grey gunk all over her body but once she was all painted up it was going to look fabulous.  He walked over to the bathroom and took out one of the many hairdryers lying around.  For however rare it was to have his statues up and about around the house they insisted on having enough hair care equipment for each one to work on herself at the same time.  For Mitch this turned out to be a blessing as he plugged two into one of the many extension cords he had lying about and worked on hardening the putty on Cindy’s body with two dryers on at once like he was wielding some weird ray guns.

“Mitch?” Amy called out from the studio. “I’ve got the tarp set up in the yard.  Mitch??” She yelled but the din of the dryers drowned out her voice.

“Can’t hear you!”  Mitch called out, equally unheard.  When Amy finally came in she saw Mitch hard at work at hardening Cindy.  “Hey give me a hand!”

Amy got another couple of dryers out and for the next twenty five minutes she and Mitch worked over Cindy’s putty.  “Hey her pubic hair is going to look like little splinters once we paint her up.”

“That’s the idea,” Mitch smiled as he blew hot air over Cindy’s crotch. (If she could enjoy the sensation she would)

“I think…” Amy pricked the wedge of puttied hair on Cindy’s head.  “She’s ready.  Putty looks like its going to hold up.”

“Good, let’s see if we can move her outside,” Mitch took care to hold Cindy’s shoulders and slowly started to lift her.  The putty trunk around Cindy’s feet seemed to hold up as Amy moved the hand truck in behind and Mitch gingerly leaned Cindy’s frozen form onto the back bars and tilted her 45 degrees.  With care he maneuvered Cindy outside and onto the tarp that Amy set up earlier.  The rain had let up a few minutes ago but they worked under the patio just in case.  Lowering Cindy back to horizontal with Amy’s help, Mitch then turned his attention onto the air compressor.  He flicked the switch on and off.  Nothing.  (Damn it!)  He flicked the switch up and down again and the compressor sprung to life with a loud hum.  “Whew, I don’t think I’ve used this thing since the garden party, remember?”

“The time you used the body paint to make Susan look like a garden statue?” Amy recollected.

“Yeah, that seemed like ages ago,” Mitch had fond memories of doing the paintjob, making sure every square inch of Susan’s body was covered head-to-toe.  “It was to celebrate that big sale I had with Mal-Wart.”  Mitch chuckled. “No one even knew, they just thought she was a statue, which she was, but a living statue? Not a clue!”

“What color do you want first?” Amy had spread the various cans of colored paint in a semi-circle.

“We need to apply a primer coat first, just to make sure the putty work we did will look okay, plus to conceal the grey putty and make it blend in better with her skin.  Give me that black.  It’ll make a good undercoat, make any grain work look deeper and thicker.”

Amy attached the bottle of black body paint to the airbrush and Mitch set the nozzle to wide spray.  He then began coating Cindy’s naked body with paint, moving the airbrush back and forth in wide yet even sweeps.  Cindy’s lovely tanned body disappeared under a coating of dark paint.  Mitch sprayed her face (thank goodness her eyes were closed, we couldn’t pull this off if they were wide open) and her features blended with the carved hairstyle nicely.  “Looking good,” Amy leaned in to check out how the putty and skin and hair all became one under a coating of paint.  “It’s really going to work,” she marveled.

“Oh ye of little faith,” Mitch smiled as he covered Cindy’s back and midsection.  The paint spray over Cindy’s pussy wasn’t thick enough to obscure any details of her folds and cracks and Mitch breathed a sigh of relief as he continued over her knees and down her legs and hips.  “We’re going to have to lift her up to spray her butt later,” Mitch observed.

“I’ll get the hairdryers, maybe we can dry the paint a little faster,” Amy glided into the house.

Mitch set the airbrush down and admired his onyx sculpture.  The putty was perfectly blended with Cindy’s body.  It was indistinguishable.  Amy brought out the hair dryers and extension cords and for the next half hour they quick-dried the base coat of paint all over her. Then they tipped Cindy completely upside down so that they could work on the parts of her body that were impossible to reach previously.  Amy steadied Cindy so that Mitch could get Cindy’s butt painted and after a few more minutes of drying time they got to work with the next coat of paint.

A coating of white paint followed, not enough to completely cover up the dark paint beneath but enough to lay down a good foundation for what followed.  Mitch didn’t worry about covering up Cindy’s butt this time, as he didn’t foresee any reason to give her ass any more camouflage than was necessary.  (And I won’t be moving her any time soon)  Then a coating of light brown paint before the white layer completely dried and another layer of brown after that.  Soon the wood grain streak effect began to take shape.  Amy used a thin brush to draw lines of brown up the length of Cindy’s body while Mitch continued streaking paint on her other side.  After a couple hours rough work the effect was stunning.  Cindy actually looked like she was carved out of a chunk of wood! 

“That looks awesome,” Amy shook her head.  She thought Mitch’s idea was good but she didn’t know it was THIS good.  “Once the glass goes down there’s no way anyone would be able to tell she wasn’t real,” Amy whistled as she put down the brush she was using on Cindy’s arm.

“That’s the plan,” Mitch was touching up veins of wood grain, along Cindy’s face.  “But for the finishing touch we’re going to have to make it look like she’s been varnished, you know, kind of shiny and polished.”

“You’re not going to use real shellac, are you?” Amy asked.  “I mean the body paint is non-toxic, but the putty…”

“Perfectly fine, it’s like modeling clay, completely harmless.  Didn’t you read the can?  You know I’d never do anything to harm any of you, right?” Mitch gave her his sad-eyes face.

“I know,” Amy relented.  “Sorry, it just seems like this is really extreme.  Like she isn’t going to be getting out of this for like, a long time.”

“It’s for her own safety,” Mitch said in his most convincing voice.  “If her boyfriend finds her here who knows what he’d do to her?”  Amy nodded in agreement.  “Now what could we use to shine her up with…. Get me some of that body paint sealer.”

Mitch sprayed the clear liquid all over Cindy’s body.  It wasn’t wet enough to mar the paint job he and Amy had worked long and hard at and as it dried it gave the paint a satiny highlight under the sun.  “I think that will do the trick,” Mitch grinned.  “Let’s move her back inside and we can hand touch her up with another coat of sealant.

In a few minutes Cindy was resting in front of Mitch’s couch once again, but this time in full disguise.  Mitch and Amy brushed on some more body varnish and then Mitch got out his camera to document his latest creation.  He would have loved to take pics in progress but Cindy’s situation necessitated speed and there was no time to stop.  “Okay,” he placed two felt pad circles; a mere quarter inch of green in diameter, on each of Cindy’s hardened nipples.  Then he placed two more on the top of each of Cindy’s knees.  With Amy’s help once again, he gently lowered the glass oval he had brought out earlier and let it rest against her hard points.  “That is perfect!” Mitch slapped his hands together.

“Unbelievable,” Amy patted Mitch on the shoulder.  “I can’t even tell and I helped you!”

Mitch got out his camera again, going through roll after roll.

***

He took a few last snapshots of his newest creation, just as he heard the back door open and a gust of wind rush in.

"Did you have a nice time?" he called out.

"Yeah," said Natalie. "I didn't realize how long it's been since I've seen a movie. Some of the movies I missed before have sequels now."

Susan looked around at the mess in the kitchen. "What happened in here. What were you up to?"

"Oh, a little home decorating."

They came into the front room. Natalie smiled. "Hi, Amy. I didn't know you were active."

"I wasn't, but Mitch needed some help with this project. So, what do you think of our new coffee table?"

Susan moved closer. "Nice woodwork." The tabletop was a sheet of tempered glass, resting on a highly polished wooden sculpture of a reclining nude woman. The glass rested only on four small felt pads, two on the sculpture's upper chest, and one on each knee. Some parts of the sculpture were very detailed, like the definition of the torso, the neck, and parts of the face. Other areas were much more roughly hewn, like the wedgy, bristly hair that looked as if carved with a chainsaw, or the hands and feet. The whole piece looked precariously balanced, but proved to be quite solid and stable.

Natalie said, "Looks like an expensive chunk of wood. What is it, walnut?"

"Take a closer look."

Susan and Natalie peered close at the table, looking at the wood grain, the light finish, the detailed bangs descending from the wedgy hair, the wry grin on the sculpture's face ...

"Wait a minute!" gasped Susan. "I've seen this woman... this is your friend from earlier! The hair fooled me, but I'm sure it's... how the hell did you ...?"

Natalie reached out to run a hand along the smooth lines of the sculpted figure.

Mitch grabbed her arm. "Not yet. I think the finish is dry, but I'm not sure."

"So that's why all your touchup stuff is out. Some pretty fancy airbrushing!"

Mitch smiled proudly. "It's a little more than that, but thank you, anyway. We used putty and resin to build up some spots, so she looks carved, then laid down a wood color, then the grain, then a finish that looks like varnish." He looked admiringly at Amy. "I never could have done it this well or this fast without Amy. So what do you think? If her ex-boyfriend Dan comes sneaking in here, he'll never suspect, will he?"

Susan shook her head. "No, if I hadn't looked really close... I can't figure out how she balanced that glass that way, without busting a gut. She's pretty strong."

Natalie squinted. "Yeah, look at her neck though. And down here. She's straining pretty good. That'll be fun, bringing her out of it. It'll take three of us!"

Mitch stood back, admiring his creation. "So, what do you think?"

Natalie stepped back. "Yeah, it's... really creative. All that work, you must be expecting she'll be there a while. Quite a while. Fine by me..."

Mitch gave her a look that said 'Don't go there', rubbed his hands together, and said, "Well, ready to get to work? Just let me go wash my hands, and you go get into your first wardrobes. I have everything laid out."

Amy sat down on the couch, admiring her collaboration with Mitch, still wearing the spattered lingerie and hose. The result was really striking, Amy thought. She let her eyes wander from one end of the coffee table to the other, and... her eyes widened, eyebrows arched up, and just as she was ready to jump up and say something important, she felt the telltale tingle of stiffness spread through her body as she too became a statue. I have to tell him, she thought, or else everything might... her face wouldn't budge. She was frozen solid in position.

Mitch said to her, "Sorry about that, but I wanted to catch that cute expression! Thanks again for all your help, and I'll bring you out after the shoot's finished."

TWO DAYS LATER

"Then that long-haired hussy barged in just when we were getting ready to start shooting a few days ago!" She prodded.

"Wait a darn minute now; I don’t want to get started talking about Cindy again." He had gotten into a major argument earlier with Susan and Nat when they had felt threatened by the sudden appearance and quick intimacy of that young woman. "That discussion’s over now; just table the issue."

"Yeah; like you tabled her?" Sue cast her eyes over to the den-like sitting area of the studio, where the thoroughly immobilized form of Cindy formed the base of his new coffee table. Her stiffened body had been partially covered in molding compound and then painted to look like a wood carving. It was an excellent disguise to hide the hapless girl from her estranged boyfriend and Mitch’s jealous models, but Susan didn’t like having Cindy around in any form, even as a statue.

"Cute," Mitch replied, picking up on her play on words.

Cindy sat motionless; her shellacked fingers probed the slit of her frozen pussy in a preserved moment of self-gratification that would last as long it took for Mitch to decide it was safe for her to go back into society.  The fact that he said she would be like this for a matter of three months before he would consider releasing her didn’t seem to faze her.  The fact that she signed the release with indefinite immobilization meant Mitch could actually keep her that way as long as he wanted, no matter what he told her.  Three months?  That was along the upper range of how long he had ever kept a model statued, but as far as he knew it was perfectly safe to keep someone a statue for years.  The immobilizer was designed to allow for a trip to Mars feasible, after all.  She would remain in his living room, a spectacular yet inconspicuous piece of sculpture, unchanging, unmoving, and unconcerned at all.

author’s notes:

A considerable amount of this piece was inspired by the amazing work of Dmuk, Dr Cuffs and Bill Shakespeare’s Living Statues story.  I can’t count the number of times I’d gone back over each chapter and been simply mesmerized by the situations and characterizations.  One of the standout sequences I had fallen in love with was Cindy, first with the awesome description of her pose in Chapter 2, the follow-up in Chapter 4 and the ingenious coffee-table situation that sealed the deal for me in Chapter 5.  Going back over those particular parts of the overall saga numerous times over the years I wondered if perhaps there was something more about Cindy that could be added to the storyline and it was the idea of weaving the unseen moments in-between other established scenes from the Living Statues sequences.  There were numerous scenes I had in mind (How did Cindy and Dan meet Mitch in the first place?  Why would Mitch show a guy his collection of naked statues in the first place?  How did Cindy and Dan’s breakup happen?) In researching I found the timeline and internal logical progression of events held together pretty well, no doubt because the authors of Living Statues were keeping notes, so I think I managed to fit my contribution as seamlessly as possible into what has been put forth before. What I did find was that Mitch took on a darker role than intended with his secret love sessions with the Cindy statue, and the irony of how Cindy didn’t know about that and came to ask Mitch for help made for a really strange series of events that I hope work themselves out.  I made sure not to change any wording from the excerpts from Living Statues Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6 and finessed my parts among events where I thought they could fit unnoticed.  For now this looks to be the end of Cindy’s story, but there are a few dangling threads, namely Dan, to be wrapped up.  Will Cindy ever be released from her object-d’art situation?  Will Dan ever come looking for Cindy at Mitch’s?  What would be the reaction from Kristen when she sees how permanent Cindy’s situation has become?  And what other artistic ideas does Mitch have for his other statues?