Secret Society

by Robin Roseau

  "I didn't mean all at one time."

  "Invite us in."

  I held the door open then followed the lot of them to my parlor.

  "I'll make tea."

  "Sit," said Mary Ellen, pointing.

  "Am I in trouble."

  "No. Sit."

  I took the indicated seat.

  "We are all withdrawing our agreements for your hazing," she said.

  "But-"

  "As are the other three women who couldn't make this meeting."

  "But-"

  "You don't need them, Blythe."

  "But-"

  "Stop interrupting me."

  "I'm sorry."

  "You don't need them. It is possible there are people who you haven't called who wish you would, but if they've made no move to get to know you, that's their own fault."

  "I haven't had a single conversation with the mayor," I said. "I haven't even met Senator Adams."

  "And a few others don't give you time, either," she said. "Don't worry about it."

  "But-"

  "Blythe, do you believe we're going to let this stop after three months?"

  "I can't do 200 hours a month any longer," I said. "And certainly not indefinitely. It's already deeply affecting my job. I'm not spending any time marketing. None. You know what's going to happen. If I don't market now, I won't have business three months from now."

  "Blythe, no one completes her initiation period in only three months. I promise you're going to receive at least five red marbles."

  "Five is 105 hours, or thereabouts. And I bet it's really hard to coordinate to exactly five unless you all get together ahead of time. And you said you don't do that." I looked around. "I haven't finished my hours for half of you. That's four right there, and you don't even have a choice. They have to be red."

  Mary Ellen sighed. "We've grown since the rules were established."

  I looked at Liah. "I don't mind helping, but I haven't even met the senator, and I've spent nearly twenty hours in her office, helping with this or that. She hasn't done so much as stopped by to thank me for my time."

  I sighed. "Shit. I'm turning whiny. I'm sorry."

  "It's a fair complaint," Mary Ellen said. "Frankly, Marsha isn't my favorite person."

  "Every red marble is about 21 hours," I said. "And one of those is owed to someone who doesn't even want me in the order, but is too chicken shit to tell me to my face."

  "That's the worst part of this, isn't it?" Mary Ellen asked. "That you're giving her time, and she neither appreciates you or wants you around."

  "And is too cowardly to tell me to my face. Yes."

  "I think someone is messing with you, and you're letting her get to you."

  I sighed. "Probably."

  "How much sleep are you getting."

  "What's that?"

  "That's what I thought."

  "She was already working every waking hour," Claudine said. "75 to 100 hour work weeks, plus the volunteer work she was already doing for us. I don't now how you found the time."

  "Four hours of sleep most nights," I said, "but every few days I get some extra to help recover. That was before. Now it's four hours but no recovery."

  "That isn't sustainable," Mary Ellen observed.

  "Which is why I need everyone who is still owed time to do a hazing between now and the next vote!" I looked around. "Aren't all of you my friends?"

  "Blythe," Mary Ellen said gently. "We are. You're turning desperate."

  "I don't know what else to do. If I had two months, I could handle it. But I think it's going to be every month now. White marble is going to keep asking for votes, so I'm going to get dinged with more and more hours until I couldn't possibly catch up."

  I looked at my hands, wringing in my lap. "Is she trying to drive me away?"

  "We don't know this vote was requested by whomever gave you the marble."

  "It might have been one of us," Hope said. "Thinking you'd only get four red marbles this month."

  "Mary Ellen said that's not going to happen," I replied. "And I don't think it was one of you."

  "It was me."

  "What?" We all turned to Sylvia.

  "I'm sorry, Blythe. It was me. I'm so sorry."

  "It wasn't Sylvia," said Mary Ellen.

  "I'm sure it was," Sylvia said.

  "Vote requests from junior members tend to be ignored," Mary Ellen added.

  "Oh."

  "Sylvia, why did you want the vote so soon? Did you think I'd win?"

  "No. You give the full members an hour for every marble, but we only get fifteen minutes. There were seven marbles, so I got two hours."

  "Weren't you happy with the editing I did for you?"

  "I didn't want you to help edit my book. I wanted us to spend time together. And I tried asking, but you're always busy. I'm sorry. I'm a selfish bitch."

  "No you're not," Claudine said. "Sometimes you're a little clueless. It's not the same thing."

  I nodded. "Well, someone else also asked for the vote, and so there's a vote. And I'm going to get another 10 marbles because I haven't guaranteed enough blue ones yet." I turned to Mary Ellen. "I can't do this much longer. You're asking me to pick between the order and my business, and you know which one I'm going to pick. I don't have any more sleep to sacrifice."

  Mary Ellen looked around for a moment. "Who here is still owed time?" She and Claudine both raised their hands, as did the very quiet Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Everest.

  "But she only owes me an hour," Claudine added.

  "And about that to me," added Mrs. Everest.

  "I don't want to haze you, Blythe," Claudine added. "It was fun when you were fresh, but you're fried. I want my hour this evening at ten."

  I sighed and nodded.

  "An hour conversation," she said. "I need to talk to someone. And I want a slumber party afterwards."

  I started to cry, and a moment later I had Kiki on one side of me and Claudine on the other.

  "I'd like an hour of reading," Wilba said. "Whenever it fits your schedule."

  "She'll come tonight at 8:30," Kiki said. "We'll both come, if you don't mind. I'll have her back here by 10:00, Claudine."

  "Renee, do you think we can come up with an appropriate hazing for our tired initiate?"

  "I believe we can."

  I looked over at Mary Ellen. "You can't cheat. It has to be real."

  "It will be," she said. "But there's nothing that says it must be protracted."

  "I'm still going to get too many red marbles," I said. "But this helps. Thank you."

  "You let me worry about that part," Mary Ellen said. "The rules were defined when we were much smaller, and I'm not sure we had very many small business owners back then."

  "Everyone is very powerful," I said.

  "I could put in the time you are, and it wouldn't be so hard," Claudine said. "I work hard for Mary Ellen, but not like you do. Oh, it wasn't easy, but I could absorb the time."

  "I set my own hours," Sylvia said. "I can go months without writing a word, then I can go two months and no one sees me. They're never going to let me chair any committees, because they can't count on me. No one knows when I'm going to disappear behind my computer, but once I do, I don't come out. I help when I can, and I'm good at public relations events, it seems."

  I laughed. Weakly, but I laughed.

  "We were a lot smaller in my day," Wilba Everest said. "There were only eight full members and four junior members. I could get a red marble from everyone and it wasn't that hard."

  "So, you let me worry about this," Mary Ellen said. "Claudine and Kiki are going to take care of you tonight. All right?"

  * * * *

  That evening, Kiki and I went to Mrs. Everest's together. I read for an hour, both of them listening, Mrs. Everest already in bed. After an hour, Mrs. Everest said gently, "You're a sweet girl, Blythe Todd." She held out her hand, and I held it for a minute or two.

  "You've paid your time to me."

  "I ha
ve-"

  "You've paid your time to me this month," she repeated. "I'm going to go to sleep now. Please lock up on the way out. Kiki, I believe you know the gate combination."

  "I do, Mrs. Everest."

  We turned out the lights and left her in peace. Once we were outside, I told Kiki, "She's the sweet one."

  "She's the best," Kiki agreed. "Do you remember her from when we were kids?"

  "I don't know. I think so."

  "She was the dickens, always doing something to shock people."

  "I think I remember. You were around more than I was, I think."

  "Maybe I was," she said.

  She drove me home, and she had me in my own pajamas when Claudine arrived at nine.

  "I'll leave you two alone," Kiki said.

  "I wish you'd stay," Claudine said. "Unless you have to be somewhere." She smiled. "I bet Blythe can loan you some pajamas, and it's a big bed."

  "I'm invited?" she said. "Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure. Blythe?"

  "I'm sure, too."

  "All right. We're going to get ready for bed, then we're talking in there."

  Ten minutes later, we were all snuggled in bed together, with me in the middle. I lay on my back, and each of them cuddled against me, her head on my shoulder. I'd never been in bed with two women before, and I wasn't having sex with either of them besides.

  It was nice.

  We lay quietly for a minute before I said, "Claudine, you said you wanted to talk about something."

  "I know I did. But this is what I really wanted." She hugged me a little. "You feel good."

  "Yeah, she does," Kiki said from the other side.

  "This isn't your service hour, Claudine," I said quietly. "If you want to haze me instead."

  "My service hour is whatever I want it to be, and I want cuddling. I don't get cuddling from anyone. I never have. I never even had a dog. This is what I want."

  "What about your boyfriends?"

  "Well, I haven't had that many, but boys want sex, and then they want to roll over and go to sleep. That's what sex does to them."

  "I like to talk after sex, and I hate it," said Kiki. "They might let you talk for a few minutes, but their entire body language is, 'shut up and let me sleep' or 'are you going to go home now?'"

  I laughed. "You two really need to switch to women."

  They both chuckled.

  "I'm still thinking about it," Kiki said.

  "I saw her first," Claudine added. "And you got to fondle her bottom. I haven't fondled her bottom yet."

  "Maybe not, but your hand is amazingly close to fondling something else."

  She snatched her hand away. Kiki and I both laughed.

  "I wouldn't have stopped you, you know."

  "Maybe later, when Kiki isn't watching."

  "Spoilsport," Kiki complained.

  "Kiki can watch," I said. "Or fondle. Whichever she prefers."

  "You're feeling better," Kiki said.

  "A little. I'm trying to ignore my troubles tonight."

  "Well, for what it's worth," Claudine said, "this is how I want my time next month, too."

  "Me, too," Kiki said. "I'm not sure if I want to share the same nights though."

  "Why not?" Claudine asked. "I don't snore."

  "Because there's only one of her, and that means only one of us gets to spoon her. The other gets spooned."

  "We could rotate, and then one of you could spoon the other, and that one could spoon me."

  "No way," Kiki said. "I'm not letting the straight girl spoon me."

  "I might not be straight," Claudine said. "But I don't want to spoon the straight girl, either."

  "Well, for the record, I can't sleep on my back, so once we're ready to sleep, I'll be on my side."

  "Kiki, you can decide if you want to spoon or be spooned. I'm happy with either."

  "Very generous, Claudine."

  "You realize I'm going to roll over once or twice during the night. There's going to be a lot of spooning going on."

  "Then everyone wins," Kiki said. "Perfect. I'll spoon first, and we'll see after that."

  "That works for me."

  "You two are silly."

  "Your point?" Kiki asked.

  "No point," I admitted. "No point at all."

  * * * *

  Other than a bathroom break, they kept me in bed all night. As they got dressed in the morning, I felt down, and I wasn't very good at hiding it. They finished dressing then pulled me to the bed, one on either side.

  "What's wrong?"

  "One night stand."

  "I want to move in," Claudine said.

  "What?"

  "Would that be terrible? I'm living with my grandmother, who I love with all my heart, but we get on each other's nerves. That's what I wanted to talk about last night, but I decided we just needed to relax."

  "What will your grandmother say?"

  "I get on her nerves as much as she gets on mine. If I'm close, and I spend time with her, she'd be happy. She can't stand the idea of me moving out of even West Hollow though. So this would be perfect."

  "I wish you'd talked to me about this first," Kiki said.

  "Why? You were going to move in?"

  "No. She's an initiate member. The hazing isn't over. You shouldn't be living with her yet."

  "Damn it," Claudine said. "She's right. Well, will you think about it, Blythe?"

  "It's a big house. I only have one concern."

  "What's that?"

  "I don't do a lot of dating..."

  "Oh," she said. "I wasn't asking to move into your bed."

  "Is this about her asking you to seduce her?" Kiki asked.

  "I don't know what you're talking about," I replied.

  Kiki laughed. "She told me about it, so don't be coy. This is what we're going to do. A few nights a week, one or the other is coming over. Some nights both of us. No one is moving in yet. That conversation is tabled as long as Blythe is an initiate member, and it remains tabled until you two work out that whole seduction / non-seduction thing."

  "And what about your bi-curious tendencies?" Claudine asked. "What are you going to do about those?"

  "I'm getting what I want. Blythe lets me fondle her ass whenever I want, and she shares her bed with me when I want, too. That's enough for me."

  "This is just a big game of pass around the Blythe," I observed.

  "Complaining?"

  "No. Just unaccustomed."

  "What's going on here is intense. It's supposed to be. It brings us closer. This is the result."

  "Then it's worth it." I turned and gave each a peck. "Thank you."

  "I get her tonight," Claudine said. "We can alternate after that, except those nights something else is going on."

  "If we just don't show up, she's going to see a hazing coming," Kiki said. "And neither of us is coming over until Ms. Hankins and Mrs. Cooper have had their way with her."

  "Well, I'm going to tell Mary Ellen to hurry up, then."

  * * * *

  It turned out they didn't have to wait. Mary Ellen and Renee got me while the three of us were asleep. They managed to penny my bedroom door closed, which I thought was funny because Claudine and Kiki were both locked in with me.

  "Didn't either of you notice?"

  "I was sound asleep," Kiki said.

  "I thought I heard something, but I was tired, too."

  We struggled with the door for a while. Eventually Kiki put her head down to the floor and looked under the door.

  "There's a note. I think." It took a few minutes, but we managed to fish the note through the gap between the door and the floor. It was addressed to all three of us.

  Freedom has a price. What do you three each offer to pay?

  There was a phone number.

  "Oh, this is not fair!" Claudine said. "I'm not an initiate anymore."

  "Neither am I," Kiki said. "And we better think fast, because we both have jobs."

  "Yeah, but my boss is the one w
ho locked us in. I can stay in bed all day while blaming her."

  "I can't," Kiki replied. "What do you think she wants?"

  "Something easy," I said.

  "Something terribly embarrassing," Claudine added.

  "Something we all have to do," Kiki agreed.

  "We could call and ask what they want."

  "Who has a phone?" Claudine asked. "I think mine is downstairs."

  "I have mine," Kiki said. "So we're going to call and ask what they want?"

  "No," I said. I smiled. "We're going to make an offer. A secret."

  "What?"

  "We're going to offer her a secret," I said. "You two must have a secret to tell them."

  "They'll share with everyone!" Kiki complained.

  "I don't think so. They either want a promise of something we'll do later, or they want pictures of us doing something in here, but anything they'd ask for would be tacky. They're going to love this. Well, Mary Ellen will. I think Mrs. Cooper would be amused if we did something embarrassing. But I don't think she wants us to sext her, and I don't have any other ideas."

  "Fine," Kiki said. "A secret."

  "Fine," Claudine said. "Which do we call?"

  "Mary Ellen is the ringleader."

  And so we called Claudine's boss, putting her on speakerphone.

  "Claudine," Mary Ellen said. "You are in risk of being late for work."

  "My boss appears to have given me an assignment out of the office," Claudine replied.

  "That answer won't work for you, Kiki. What do you three offer?"

  "Secrets," I said. "One from each of us."

  "Let me check with Mrs. Cooper. I'll call you back."

  Two minutes later, the phone rang.

  "We want to know if you are picking the secrets, or if we are allowed to ask you each a question."

  "Your choice," Kiki said. "But you have two minutes to decide."

  "Do not give me any ultimatums, Ms. Furman. I can stop taking calls from this number."

  "Then your employee won't be able to work for you today, and it won't be her fault."

  "All right," Mary Ellen said. "We accept your offer, but all three of you get to hear each other's secrets."

  "Fine," we agreed after nodding to each other.