"Suspended animation?" Samantha asked it again to make sure she had heard him correctly. "Did you just say suspended animation?" She knew she was in the Art Department, not Physics. Looking at the middle-aged professor, she frowned a little in puzzlement.

"Yes I did," replied Mitch. He thought – hoped – at first glance she would have what it took for this little volunteer assignment but now he was beginning to have his doubts. This is going to take a little bit more salesmanship, he thought. Her lithe figure certainly has what it takes!

"What exactly do you mean by that?" she said. Samantha had answered a simple ad posted on the art message board, asking for paid volunteers to model for the sculpting class, expecting there would be some nudity involved. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined anything so absurdly far-fetched as suspended animation. Yet he tossed the phrase out there like it was the most natural thing in the world. She waited curiously for Mitch’s explanation while he gathered his thoughts.

"Well, Sam – ah – may I call you Sam?" She nodded her approval. "It’s like this: Art Colleges like ours have been getting their students to model for figure studies in various classes for years now. There’s nothing new there. But, you see, by odd luck we got a greater number of students enrolled in ‘Advanced Figure Sculpting 412’ this semester than was planned. In fact, it’s one of the highest enrollments for any course in the history of this department. So it has to be offered in three separate sessions to accommodate the enrollment, since this course is also a graduation requirement. To be fair, we want to give each of the classes the chance to work with the exact same model in the exact same pose. But that was never really practical before, at least for the figure models. You see, anyone would normally get extremely fatigued and, I dare say, quite bored having to repeat her position over and over for different sessions across several days or weeks." Here comes the salesmanship, he thought.

Mitch took a deep breath and dived in. "We – actually Professor Steinmacher perfected it – have found a way that allows a model to maintain her precise position and expression, effectively and safely, across any span of time. All classes can thus sculpt from the identical archetype. That’s what, for want of a better term, I call suspended animation. It’s a perfectly safe technique, really, no reason to worry about it." He had been making this pitch, in slightly different forms, for years now and he felt no skepticism when talking about it. Usually this confidence inspired trust in those who came to model for him. Samantha sounded more contrary.

"I don’t know," she said slowly. "That’s not really what I expected at all when I saw the ad on the board." Samantha had only hoped to earn a little quick cash for a day or two’s effort, and remained a bit nervous anyway about the prospect of showing her naked body to a room full of art students. Somehow it seemed different than going topless at the beach, which never bothered her in the least; in that setting she liked to show off her lean physique and get an all-over even tan. Now this professor, Mitch, had sprung this outlandish notion, saying he wanted to put her in suspended animation! The vision that came into her mind, mostly from the movies, was people encased in coffin-like chambers with frosty windows; she shivered involuntarily at the thought. Still, something about the idea intrigued her. "What sort of method do you use to bring about this, uhh, state? I mean, how exactly does this suspended animation of yours work?"

"We have an electronic device that we call– don’t be nervous – an ‘Immobilizer.’ The science behind it is quite intricate and most remarkable but, briefly and simply, it sets up a hard ‘force field’ around the intended subject in addition to sending minute electrical impulses to their voluntary muscle centers which renders them absolutely motionless. For any length of time one chooses; with no side effects of any kind. It’s really a truly amazing invention."

"Wow! I’ve never heard of anything like that," the prospective model replied. Sam’s head was spinning. It had finally sunk in that she was going to become ‘the subject’… Could this all be true? Her curiosity about the device and its effects grew. "What does it feel like? Does it hurt? Will I stay awake? How long does it take?" All of a sudden she had a million questions.

Mitch chuckled a bit. He thought he might have a lock on this girl. Boy, she would look good. "Slow down, Sam. One question at a time. First off, when the device activates there’s no pain involved at all. It’s an unusual sensation but kind of fun. Imagine . . ." He tried to think of a good analogy. "…Imagine your leg has fallen asleep. You can see it clearly but not have any sense of feeling or be able to move it. That’s almost the way your whole body feels for a few seconds when the Immobilizer is turned on. After that, you don’t sense anything and remain quite motionless from then on. No effort at all required to stay that way. It can feel strange the first time it happens, take it from me, but you quickly get used to the peculiar sensation of not moving. A rather unique experience, actually. Think about how much a person squirms around normally. Legs fidgeting, eyes blinking, fingers twitching. Even when you’re ‘resting’. There’s none of that aimless activity once you have been suspended. You just continue to remain stationary – frozen – in position for as long as the device is activated."

"Wow," Sam said once more, thinking about some of the recent TV ads she had seen where it seemed time had stopped. She remembered telling someone at a party how cool that would be…

"As for falling asleep, that all depends," Mitch continued. "There are many different power levels that the Immobilizer can be set at. At its highest, strongest, setting you become fully unconscious. On a slightly lower level, you can remain awake while suspended. Even lower, there are settings which don’t hold you rigid and allow your pose to be slightly movable; although your voluntary muscles continue to be immobilized and you can’t move on your own. At the very lowest setting, you are able to move by yourself but only very slowly. When you reach that point I’ve had people tell me it’s like swimming through Jell-O." I think she’s going to go for this, he thought. Now comes the other tough part. "You asked how long it can last; that’s totally adjustable at any time. It’s been tested for up to a few months of full suspension..."

Samantha’s eyes went wide again. Suspended animation… for several months? That was not anything like she had imagined when she walked in here. A twinge of dread – mixed with a curious excitement – passed through her slim body.

Mitch pressed on, seeing her alarm, "... but in this case all we’re asking for is a commitment of only three weeks. Plus, you will be fully compensated for your modeling time at standard rates to make up for any inconvenience to you. Considering what it is you will be doing for that whole interval, which is absolutely nothing, it’s quite a bonanza."

"Three weeks, huh? I have to stay suspended – frozen – for the whole time for this big payoff?" Mitch nodded, patiently. Several seconds passed before she continued. "It sounds kind of weird but I think this – ah – suspension gig might be something I could do. Can I think about it?" There is no way I’m going to go into this without some thought, she thought, but in truth she had already made a choice. Now it was up to her emotions to convince her rational mind

"Absolutely! I wouldn’t dream of asking you to decide on the spot," Mitch agreed, hoping that she had committed herself already. He realized he needed a ‘kicker’, some way to sway Sam’s desire to his proposal. "But let me see if I can convince you a little more..."

Mitch hit the intercom line for the outer office and asked for Beth to come in. He explained that she was not only his assistant in the department, but also his wife. They had been married for some time, and it had been at her urging that he went back to work, this time for the university instead of on his own. He’d agreed but only under the condition that she would come a well. A lovely, dark-haired, petite woman in her upper thirties entered and stood by Mitch. She wore a gray pantsuit that fitted her beautifully; her appearance was a lot less frumpy than the usual admin looked.

He turned to his wife, saying "Beth, this is Samantha Anderson, one of our outstanding students, and she is considering helping us out for the sculpture class. She’s heard all about how we put our models in suspended animation and wants to think it over before deciding." Sam nodded self-consciously while Mitch continued, "but I thought that maybe you could give her a quick little… demonstration… to show her how truly easy it is to be suspended?"

Beth blushed slightly. She and Mitch had used the Immobilizer on countless occasions in private and had turned each other into living statues more times than she could count. But there was always a certain erotic thrill to being frozen in front of someone new. A good figure for a statue, she thought. With a knowing smile she responded, "Anything to help out, Mitch." Walking across the office, Beth opened up a cabinet and removed the Immobilizer receiver that was already set for her.

Samantha looked on intently as Beth turned the hearing-aid-sized silvery lozenge over in her fingers, letting it warm up to body temperature. Beth displayed the featureless device to her and said, "What you do is have it adjusted to match your particular body type and then just clip it behind your ear. This one has already been set for me." With a practiced motion she slipped the Immobilizer in place; it was almost invisible when hidden by her hair. She looked over at him. "How long, Mitch?" She wanted to know how long she was going to be immobilized.

"Hmm, we’d better go full power." He wasn’t sure how long Samantha was going to take to decide, so he decided on the spur of the moment to leave his wife unconscious. Some of his past subjects had gone almost two weeks frozen but still awake, but they really didn’t care for it too much. The monotony was just too dulling. Just to be on the safe side he wanted to put her to sleep for the whole time. "And we’ll go storage mode, too."

Samantha watched, carefully. Without further discussion Beth went over to an uncluttered corner of the smallish office and stood up straight, ‘at attention’; feet together, arms by her sides and staring ahead blankly. As Beth waited patiently for the device to turn her into a living statue, Mitch continued to expound as he walked over to the activation terminal for the Immobilizers. "Beth here will remain like that, totally paralyzed and asleep, until you tell me your decision." His hand reached for the knob that would freeze her effortlessly.

Beth heard the last sentence and was slightly shocked. She had only foreseen being immobile for something along the lines of 20 or 30 minutes, not a couple of days. Or longer. So that’s why he wanted to go to full power! She had barely enough time to turn her head slightly and start to say "Wait a minute" before she felt the telltale numbing tingle that meant she was frozen into place. All that came out of her mouth was "W. . ." before she fell silent and stiff, her mouth still agape.

Samantha watched in awe as Mitch rotated the largest knob on the machine and she heard a slight electric hum, followed by silence as the sound of Beth’s interrupted objection faded away. Sam could see that the suspended woman remained still at attention but nothing else seemed to have changed about her. That was the whole point, the girl realized.

In Beth’s peripheral vision she saw Mitch move towards her, followed by that young model. Then her world faded into black and Beth began her peaceful suspended sleep. Mitch stood in front of her rigid gaze, swept his hands theatrically, and said, "That’s all there is to it. See how easy that was?"

"So. . .she can’t move right now, or hear us?" Samantha asked, hesitant to approach too closely.

"Not in the slightest bit, she’s frozen." Mitch replied. "By now, she’s probably fast asleep and will remain that way until I release her. I wonder what she was trying to say... Hmm…."

"This is so spooky…" she quavered.

"Come on now, Beth won’t bite you!" Mitch chided his model, "She’s just immobilized."

Sam slowly walked over to the unmoving form of Beth and waved her hand in front of the blank cornflower-blue eyes. Nothing. A sharp finger-snap had similar negative results. Beth remained absolutely inert. "Let me get this straight, now. She’s totally unable to move, she’s unconscious, and she can’t hear or see anything." Mitch nodded. Summoning her courage, the girl touched Beth’s cheek; it felt stiff, hard, and seemed somehow colder, amost like stone. "She’s basically nothing more than a statue now." Mitch nodded again; Samantha had finally figured out what suspended animation really meant. "And this is what will be done to me – for three weeks?" Sam remained a little disturbed by the eerie stolid stillness of Beth’s frozen figure but her curiosity was growing by the minute.

"Basically, yes," Mitch conceded. Except..." if she didn’t like the sound of this next part then she would be lost on the proposition for sure. "...that you would be posed nude. You do know that this is a figure studies class, right? And that nudity is required?" Sam nodded without taking her wide eyes off the unmoving Beth. She seemed to take that rather well, Mitch thought.

Sam was trying to suppress a smile of her own, saying only "How, uhh, would that work? Would I need to remove my clothes before you did this to me, or would my clothes be removed after I was frozen?" She found it equally exciting no matter which way he said. A nude statue!

Mitch liked the ardent tone in her voice. She’s going to do it, he was sure of it. "That would be entirely up to you. It would of course be easier for everybody if you changed into a robe first and so if you feel shy we could take it off you only after you are suspended. At night, we can put a sheet over your figure or put your robe back on and move you into a storage room where you can stay secure and undisturbed until the next day. Consider it kind of like a three week nap."

"Nobody would see me that way except the students, right? I mean, being nude in front of the art class is one thing, but you need to promise me you aren’t going to just let anybody else in here to gawk at me as a statue or anything, right? Promise me that!"

"Absolutely! Nobody but the art students and professors will ever see you, besides of course Beth and myself. Not even the cleaning guys at night would see you because you’ll be locked inside the storage room."

"Locked?!? You’d lock me up inside that closet? Like a piece of furniture?" She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.

"Sure, why not? You won’t ever know the difference. Remember, you can’t sense anything while the device is on full power and you’re unconscious. Say, if somebody locks the door while you’re asleep, would you really know about it? Not at all… See what I mean? And it’s really for your own protection. If we didn’t lock you up at night, people could come in and disturb your privacy. Besides, think of yourself as having become a valuable work of art, if that helps."

It did. "Yeah, I guess. Well, I suppose I’ll go off now and think about it." She glanced back at the rigid figure of Mitch’s wife, standing as stiff as a board. "For Beth’s sake, I’ll try to decide quickly. Thanks, Professor."

"Bye, Sam. No pressure, but remember – the longer you do take, the longer Beth will remain immobilized like this…" He motioned over to where Beth stood motionless in the corner of the office." He shook Samantha’s hand and she walked out. Mitch sat back down and just stared at the lovely living statue that was his wife.

A month and a half later. . .

The time was fast approaching for Sam to accept the posing offer. It had taken her about two and a half days to finally decide to do it; however Beth held no grudge for having to stay frozen that whole time. It was shorter than some of their private adventures, but she did not tell the girl this. Let Sam find out that part for herself, she mused.

In the meantime, Mitch and an electrically-minded friend had completed (and tested, on the uncomplaining Beth) a new device that would make Sam’s experience as an art figure even easier to realize. On the top of the Immobilizer controls, they had installed another device which they were both very eager about. The box contained a big button labeled "MEM" and Mitch was impatient to tell Sam all about it.

Just a few days before Sam’s three weeks as a figure statue was to begin, Mitch called her in to his office, asking her to bring along a swimsuit and clear her schedule for the rest of the day. Samantha arrived in Mitch’s office an hour later with a small bag slung over her shoulder, looking as pert and pretty as ever.

Mitch smiled when he saw her. "Sam! Hello! Thanks for coming in today on such short notice."

"No sweat, Prof. Almost ‘posing time’ and I’m ready for it." Her voice barely concealed how anxiously eager she really was. "What’s going on today?"

"We have added an exciting new feature to the Immobilizer device. It’s already been tested out and we, especially Beth, can guarantee your safety and comfort. Have you thought about how exactly we would be posing you?" Mitch asked.

"No, not really." she fibbed, rolling her eyes and trying to act nonchalant. "Can’t say I really thought about that particular exercise. I guess I just thought that, oh, you would take care of it somehow." She, in fact, had thought about it. Almost constantly; the vision had fueled her fantasies for the past several weeks.

"Well, here’s how this going to proceed." Mitch leaned back and began to explain. "We’re going to try a little rehearsal with you today. There’s a new feature now that can ‘memorize’ your exact pose. We can pick out the perfect pose for you today and save it; then this coming Thursday when your longer suspension starts you’ll be all ready to go. We’ll start by freezing you today at a setting that will leave you poseable. A couple of other art professors and myself will decide how to arrange your stance to make you a good sculpture model; then we’ll simply push the button and let the machine retain your exact position. Down to the millimeter."

Sam was overwhelmed again by all the technical-sounding babble but once she had made her decision she was going through with it, regardless. She simply nodded quietly.

Mitch was walking around, excited at his new toy. "We can then release you for a while and as a test refreeze you at medium power to make sure the memory feature works properly. Then we’d like to leave you immobilized for about two or three hours and let you experience the full effect. OK with you?"

She was a bit nervous, but earnest to actually try the suspended animation after dreaming about how it would feel. She remembered how Beth had looked when ‘frozen’ and imagined herself standing there, stiff as a statue, instead. "And I guess you want me in the swimsuit, right?" Mitch nodded. "OK, I’m ready. Let’s do it!"

Samantha got up and they went silently into one of the studios that served as a classroom for the sculpture classes. Waiting for them were Beth and two art teachers, a man and an older woman. She recognized them from some of her earlier classes and felt more at ease as they made their introductions. Mitch showed her into a small side room where she quickly changed into her swimsuit - a simple dark blue one-piece cut high on her legs. Sam was nervous, but she looked into the mirror and told her reflection that this was going to be fun. She pulled a white terrycloth robe over her suit and came out barefoot into the studio where the others were waiting.

Mitch did the honors, and handed her the silvery device that was going to turn her into a statue. "Here is your Immobilizer, Sam. It clips behind your ear, like you saw before." Beth walked over and helped her. It fitted perfectly, and had already been set for her body mass and height. "Once you are in position, we’ll activate the device and you will not be able to move, but we can compose your stance into the correct attitude. We’ll spend anywhere from ten minutes to an hour doing that, then we’ll save the pose and release you. You’ll have a little break, then we’ll activate the device again, and you’ll stay frozen until oh, about. . ." He looked up at the clock. "…about 7 tonight." It read slightly after 3:30 now. "Everything all right with you?"

Sam nodded nervously, torn between suppressed apprehension and erotic anticipation.

"If you would be so kind as to ascend the stage, please, young lady," one of the other professors urged her. Sam stepped up onto a small wooden platform about eight inches high. She smiled and nodded. The gray-painted surface was cool against her feet. "Ready…"

"OK, Sam," Mitch directed, "just stand up straight and look straight ahead for now. Kind of like Beth did before. There will be a slight tingle and then your work is done." And ours begins. "Get set; here goes..." Mitch activated the device and Sam became immediately quiet and still.

Sam felt the tingle, just like he said she would, and wanted to gasp ‘Oh!’ but could not move any longer. She was a bit unnerved by the sudden stiffness and only sensed a little of the falling-asleep feeling. She tried to move her fingers, blink her eyes, flex her knees, anything. She was totally unable to move a muscle. It was as if someone had switched her ‘off’. Samantha knew that from now until she was released she could do nothing but allow herself to be positioned by Mitch and the art teachers.

Mitch and Beth were old hands at the immobilizer and its petrifying effects but the two art professors were rather new to the concept of instant living statues. Mitch came over to where the stiff figure stood that just a moment ago had been a vibrant Samantha Anderson. Admiring his handiwork, he concluded: She’s going to be an excellent subject, I can still pick them!

Sam simply stared ahead at the wall, because she could do nothing else, and listened to the group of instructors begin to talk about her body and pose as if she were already a sculpture. Slowly it dawned on her that she could no longer feel the chilly air in the room or the tautness in the frozen muscles that held her arms aloft. It was novel to gaze for minutes without blinking, to remain as still as a statue without thinking about it, to simply, peacefully, be.

"Mitch, you’ve outdone yourself!" the male teacher said. "This device of yours is fantastic! This can revolutionize art classes!" Mitch shot him a sly glance. If that’s all he could think of for a device like this, he’s certainly a very unimaginative fellow, he mused. The female teacher slowly circled Sam’s frozen form, simply taking it all in. Mitch carefully removed Sam’s robe without upsetting the immobilized girl, leaving her clad only in her one-piece swimsuit and a slightly surprised expression. "Shall we begin?" Mitch asked.

For the next 45 minutes or so, Sam felt many hands grasping her body as she was continuously repositioned into several different poses and then finely adjusted. Mitch and the art teachers eventually decided on what would both look good esthetically and be a challenge to the high-level art students that would be sculpting her nude form. She found being a living maquette highly stimulating as the professors, and occasionally Beth, touched her motionless body. She was amazed at how easy the suspended animation device had made the whole thing. All she had to do was stand there and the Immobilizer and the teachers did the rest. If they extended her arms out, they simply stayed there without any effort on her part. If they angled her head down, she would stare at the floor until they decided otherwise. If they decided she should look pensive, then pensive she was.

Sam was positioned in various distinctive ways, most of which the professors then decided were ‘not quite right.’ She had her arms curved stiffly out in front of her torso that made her look like a mannequin, complete with bent wrists and slightly cocked head. Then her arms were placed out to her sides and back, as if she was some swimmer caught in mid-stroke. Another attempt had her feet were spread apart to shoulder-width with her hands clasped behind her, resting on her well-proportioned ass. They tsk’ed and hmm’ed, all while continuing to shift her body every which way like a living piece of clay. Occasionally Sam worried they would leave her figure unbalanced when she could fall over and not be able to catch herself, but that never happened. Eventually a consensus was reached. She was intrigued by what they finally came up with as the pose she would be holding for three solid weeks.. They stood back and admired the composition of grace and beauty they had found for her.

Sam was positioned in mid-step with her arms up in the air, reaching skyward in a flowing curve. Her head was tilted back to follow their line and her eyes gazed up at the rafters. Her weight was mostly on her right leg while her left leg was displaced backwards, her left foot arched so she was up on her toes. Inside her rigid body she thought about how difficult it would have been to hold a pose like this for any length of time normally. But frozen this way, it was going to be a piece of cake.

Mitch at last came up and spoke to her. "Sam, you’ve been great. This is what we’re going to stay with, so it will be just a couple of seconds." Mitch walked over to the Immobilizer machine and hit the "MEM" button, saving her pose as she felt a different kind of tingle pass rapidly through her motionless form. "I’m going to release you now, Sam. Be careful so you don’t lose your balance when you soften up." He spun the dial.

Samantha felt the ability to move instantly wash over her and she relaxed, shifting cautiously down from the position she had been left in. Whether by accident or design, she had not been covered again. She sort of blushed as she stepped down from the small pedestal and took her robe back from Beth. Everybody was staring at her and smiling. She decided she liked being the center of attention and knew that she had made the right choice in doing this statue thing.

Mitch handed her a glass of water and Sam sipped to wet her dry lips and mouth. He looked at the clock, saying, "Why don’t you take a couple of minutes to relax, stretch, and come back here at about 4:30, roughly 10 minutes from now." She nodded and headed down the hall toward the bathrooms and soda machines. At this time of day, the halls of the building were nearly deserted and she felt no anxiety walking around a campus building in her swimsuit and robe. Besides, she thought, I need to get used to wearing even less pretty soon!

At 4:35, she came back into the studio/classroom. She had taken time to remove her ponytail and smooth out her straight blonde locks. Mitch was explaining the controls to the two teachers and pointing out what various buttons and switches did. They all noticed her walk back in and smiled again. She knew it wasn’t just the swimsuit, it was what she was going to become.

"Glad to have you back, Sam," Mitch began. "Here’s what we’re going to do now. You’ll get back up on the platform and then we’re going to activate your immobilizer. Once you’ve been frozen we’ll let the machine guide you back into the position you were in a few minutes ago and then we’ll remove your robe from that pose, just to see how easy it will be to get it off when we do this for real on Thursday. You’ll remain motionless in your position until 7:00, then you’re finished for today. I’m going to set a timer to automatically release you if for some reason I am not here to do it myself. Sound OK?"

Sam nodded happily and stepped up to her platform. She could not wait for it to happen.

"Ready," she called out. She stood up straight and looked ahead blankly. Mitch nodded and reactivated her Immobilizer, holding her in place. "Here comes the repositioning, Sam..." He hit the button to recall her pose. Sam felt weird as her limbs began to move by themselves like an automaton into the precise position they had held before. A few seconds later, she duplicated the original stance exactly, with her arms thrust skyward, her head tilted back towards the ceiling and her left leg slightly out behind her up on the ball of her foot. Sam tried to shift her position but could not budge. In that frozen stance she would remain for the next two and a half hours.

Mitch turned up the power to a middle level that would leave her awake but completely rigid. "Beth, her robe, please."

Mitch’s wife walked over to where Sam stood stiffly and untied the belt around her firm waist. She lifted the loose robe up over Sam’s rigidly outstretched arms and slung it over her shoulder. The cloth had disturbed the immobilized model’s hair slightly and Beth smoothed it back into place. Leaning over, she whispered in the frozen girl’s ear. "Sam, I know you can still hear me. You’re doing great, and you look gorgeous. We’re going to go now. But don’t worry, we’ll lock up the door so nobody else can get in. See you at seven!"

Sam heard the footsteps as the four of them walked out and she heard the door lock. Suddenly it was very quiet. Fortunately, they had left the lights on. The living statue that was Samantha continued to stare up at the ceiling and her hands, poised above her head. She began to think about her voluntary predicament. ‘Here I am, left all alone in the middle of the art department, wearing only a swimsuit. I’m totally paralyzed and cannot even blink an eye. Something I can’t begin to comprehend is now totally in control of my being... How DO I get myself into these bizarre situations!!?’

Long minutes passed, and Sam began to feel more at ease with her immobilized state. No effort was needed to maintain her fixed position; she began to forget about her unresponsive body and then simply let her mind drift as she gazed blankly at the ceiling. There was an insect, a moth perhaps, fluttering up high by the concrete beams. The bug seemed to have no worries now either, but in a few days she realized it would be dead. Time seemed to be standing still for her, Sam felt the whirl of normal reality, normal animation, passing around her and she did not care.

‘In a couple of days, I’ll be frozen in this same position, naked as a jaybird, without this swimsuit or any other clothing. Then, over the next three weeks, nearly 75 students - Holy shit, some of whom might know me! - will make replicas, sculptures, of my nude body. All for a little bit of extra cash.’ Once more she thought, ‘How in the heck did I let myself be talked into this?’

Then she remembered the touch of the professors’ hands on her frozen body, the way her senses thrilled when the first tingle of stiffness came, how it felt to give herself up to be crafted, to be illuminated, by the skills of another. Mitch had once called it being ‘turned into art’ itself, and the elegant truth of that made her glow inside. Sam relaxed and thought about why exactly it was she agreed to become a living statue. It went far, far, beyond the salary which first attracted her to the opportunity. Posing was a way of stepping outside her everyday life, of becoming in some small way, eternal. This hope of achieving just this enlightenment, this immortality, was the reason she had not even dared tell her inner self. It was a fond hope now fulfilled. Wow!!

"Samantha? Sam? …. Sam!" A voice intruded on her thoughts; Mitch’s voice. "Snap out of it – you can move again!"

Slowly, Sam blinked and realized that all of a sudden four people were back standing around her posed, unmoving, body. Awareness returned as she felt the weight on her left foot and how both her arms were extended. Slowly, she let herself slip out of the stance and relax. Her thoughts seemed hazy, then she looked up at the clock (after reminding herself she could now look at the clock) and saw it was some minutes after seven. "It’s OK, I’m fine…" She said at last, then stepped down from the platform. Beth held out the robe to her but she shook her head ‘no’.

"You sure you’re alright?" Mitch again, holding out that glass of water again.

"Yes, perfectly!" Sam said, a bit sharply. "I… I just was kind of daydreaming…" About being a motionless statue, and having the class looking at me, and, something else she didn’t recall.

"The poor girl is probably just tired; let her get home and rest." This was the first thing the female art professor had said all night directly to Sam. The lady sounded like her grandma.

Samantha shot back a "Thanks, I’m going there right now," as she strode into the changing room and stripped the swimsuit off. Running her hands lightly across her naked skin, she recalled how much better that had felt when she could not lift a finger and someone else’s hands were doing the touching. Stuffing the lycra sheath into her bag along with her undergarments, which suddenly seemed too constricting to her, she put on her street clothes without them. The feeling of the rough fabric against her bare skin was a very pleasant sensation.

Mitch watched her emerge, after taking what seemed like a long time. He was worried she was going to freak out or be embarrassed, but she was beaming happily as she walked to the door.

"Goodnight, everybody," she said with a smile. "See you on Thursday, and thanks!" The door clicked shut behind her. Mitch puttered around the pedestal and with the control console. After a few moments, the other professors also took their leave. Only Mitch and Beth remained.

He suddenly remembered something, ran out into the hall and called out "Samantha!" but she was nowhere in hearing range. Beth had turned out the lights and was locking up behind him.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"Oh, Sam kept her Immobilizer, that’s all. I forgot to get it from her. I hope she remembers it on Thursday…"

Beth let out a chuckle. "I don’t think wild horses or flaming asteroids will keep that one from coming back. She’s hooked, big time!" Beth hugged him. "Almost as much as I was."

"You think?" Mitch recalled some of his earlier subjects, and how they had practically begged to be frozen into quaint or erotic poses. A lady named Cindy, in particular. But that was long ago.

"Bet on it. She’s getting into the mindset too, letting herself fancy being a statue. Did you notice she wasn’t wearing any bra when she left here tonight?"

"Ah. . . I guess there was something changed about her appearance, afterward, but didn’t know for sure." In truth he had seen every well-defined curve of her unfettered but firm breasts as she pranced along, but he was not about to let Beth know it.

"Well, it’s been a time since you ‘sculpted’ me, hasn’t it? Might’ve lost your keen artist’s eye, methinks!" Beth teased, "Then again, it’s only 7:30 and the night is still young. I know where my Immobilizer is; always." She turned with a seductive smile. "Wait, I’ll go get it, and you can try a few of those alternate poses – on my body instead of hers."

Mitch knew he was not going to get much nourishment for dinner, but Beth would find a way to satisfy a different hunger. They locked the door behind them and soon afterward the silhouette of another naked female body could be seen, reclining elegantly on a pedestal and then magically freezing into place like she had been turned into stone.

Days pass…
 
 

Thursday arrived before Mitch realized it, but when he returned to the art building that morning and found Samantha pacing outside of his door at eight a.m. he figured it out.

Any past hesitancy had faded, as she greeted him with a wide enthusiastic grin. Sam looked different, somehow, and it took a minute before Mitch noticed she had cut her hair into a short pageboy ‘bob’ that framed her lovely face nicely. At one point he had thought about suggesting just such a style to her, but it had slipped his mind. Or did she read it?, he mused.

"Morning, perfessor! Are you ready to pose me for real today? I sure am."

"Hello, Sam. You know the posing is already done and stored in memory. All you have to do today is undress, take your position, and let the Immobilizer do the rest."

"I can hardly wait!" She giggled, "I mean, that’s not the same as I can’t wait to get hard, is it?" She seemed to have forgotten her underwear again as she walked around idly, enjoying her last few minutes of mobility. Instead of her usual torn jeans she wore skintight cycling leggings and a T-shirt several sizes too small which showed her nipples clearly.

"Not exactly," Mitch demurred, while thinking, Gods in Heaven, I’m already hard!

"Where is everyone?" Sam asked while glancing around the empty room. "I thought the Profs would be here for my suspension and then to check my pose one last time..." She had kind of been looking forward to their watching as she became a statue, an artwork, once again.

"Well, this is the start of the semester; they’re probably off getting schedules sorted out. Speaking of, your first appearance in the class is at ten so we should get you ready soon.

Her traipse through the studio brought her to another, quite familiar, sculpture. "I see you’ve been practicing!" Sam exclaimed in surprise, "she looks groovy – for an older lady," at seeing the immobile figure of Beth stretched out on one of the table-height platforms. Her physique had been enhanced by a dark leather corselet and fishnet stockings. She seemed to be quite happy at the instant she had been turned into a statue. "Can she hear us?"

"No, she’s been hard-frozen for the last couple of days. I wanted to revive her this morning, but that will have to wait now. Beth was very patient when suspended, and there was unfinished business to attend to. Later, he thought to himself.

"Now, Sam, go get yourself prepared. Use the same room as before." Mitch was fussing with the control console and had his back to both women, the living statue and the soon-to-be statue.

"I am ready; already!" She bubbled. He turned to see that she had simply discarded her clothes in a pile and stood stark naked in front of him. Very naked. "See," she said, pointing out the place he had already noticed, "I even shaved down there for you – ah, for the class…"

"What happened to starting out in a robe? That was going to be less unsettling for you." He said, and less of a shock to me, he thought.

"Isn’t that the silliest thing?" she taunted, "Once I thought about it, everyone will see me nude sooner or later, so why should I worry about being shy?" She seemed to be flirting with him, all misgivings long past, though it might have been concealed agitation at really being frozen into a sculpture for three weeks. Sam was almost at the point of no return.

"Um, makes perfect sense to me, now that you mention it. Did you remember to bring your Immobilizer?"

"Of course; I’d hate to pose there all on my own!" Sam looked thoughtful for a second. "That does remind me of something though: How do you plan on suspending my animation?"

"Well, the memory in the device will do that. You’ll take the same pose you practiced before, just hold it longer."

"No, not that. How – strong – are you going to set it.? I liked it the way my test was…"

"I’m planning on full power since you’ll be staying frozen for so long. You can sleep it away. Sometimes the subjects get kind of bored if they stay awake. Beth usually does."

"That makes sense, mostly. Can you do me a special favor though?" Sam came up very close to Mitch and he was painfully aware of how beautiful and how naked she was and how soon she was going to become a lovely living statue for him. He was glad Beth’s gaze did not see them.

"Uhhh, if I can. What are you asking?"

She pranced around the pedestal, clearly flirting now, swaying her curvy hips and finding it very effective persuasion. "Sometimes, when you know I’m going to be in a class, thaw me out a little, enough so’s I can wake up and hear what the students say about me. OK?" A demure smile punctuated her request.

"Sure. But, it can’t be every time, you know. Only some days…"

"OK. Thanks, Professor, you’re a dream!" Sam closed the gap between their bodies and kissed him lightly. It took all his effort to not pull her closer to him or intensify the kiss beyond a peck.

"It’s time, Sam, otherwise they’ll have to skip the ten."

"You don’t have to ask me twice," she said, hopping up onto the platform that was about to become her perch for the next twenty-some-odd days. She took her stance and paused, eager, waiting for Mitch to activate the Immobilizer. His hand rested on the large circular knob while his thoughts raced.

"Sam, did you ever think about doing this professionally?"

"Huh?"

"Being a living statue. Not just for art classes. You can, you know, long term. Think about it." He turned the knob.

"Don’t have to, I…." Sam felt the erotic numbing tingle that drained all movement from her naked body, followed soon afterward by the strange feeling of being moved into position as the memory of her pose was replicated once more. Her legs, torso, neck, and head all flowed into the aesthetically pleasing arrangement chosen before, then she simply stopped. Frozen in place. Sam gazed up at the ceiling, arms outstretched. The moth was nowhere to be seen. Her last words, ‘would love to’ remained still upon her rigid lips as she savored the experience.

"Take your time, Samantha, you have plenty of it now…." Mitch turned the knob all the way and heard the intense humming from the machine, knowing full well the effect it would create. Orgasmic passion would grip Sam’s already motionless body as the energy field engulfed her. She would want to respond in some way, to cry out or even gasp in ecstasy but then realize she could not move at all. Then her helplessness would only accentuate and focus the potency of the sustained climax, echoing it endlessly in her mind as she slipped into the deep unconsciousness of fully suspended animation.

Only one task remained. Mitch lowered a silky white drape over the statuesque Samantha, using an overhead pulley and cord. The fabric flowed over her figure like fog, hiding for the most part, but also hinting at what lay underneath by the way in which it touched her in certain places, especially the smooth flowing curves of her derriere and thigh. The sweep of her arms looked like the outstretched wings of some lovely avian about to take flight.

Mitch looked up at the unmoving model and knew she was not just simply immobilized, it was as if she had been transformed – that she had become a true statue now, as hard and stiff as any figure crafted from mere stone. And as enduringly beautiful.

He envied the students, in a way, for being able to capture her beauty even more permanently. They had her in the light of day; he could visit her at night, when she rested safely in the workroom. And, who knew, maybe later on she would join his gallery too…