The Casting Couch

Chapter 1
The Board Of Directors

Chapter Description: Sammy is a genuine celebrity who knows her worth and it’s time for her to negotiate a new contract.

Sammy preened on her mirror. She checked to see that her blush complimented her face and its base evenly blended with no blotches. Satisfied with her reflection, she stood up and posed with her hands on her hips, which she lifted sexily in front of a full-length mirror next to her wardrobe.

“They don’t deserve you, darling, but we must make hay while the sun still shines. That second Lamborghini isn’t going to purchase itself, after all!”

Sammy blew a kiss to the other Sammy in the mirror. She truly loved herself and wasn’t afraid to let anyone else know just how much. She slipped on a pair of 6-inch stiletto-heeled shoes and checked the fit of her La Femme strapped-back satin ballgown.

She posed again in front of the mirror by placing her silk-covered knee in a forward position while practicing her power of persuasion. She counted her blessings while adjusting her sheer bra that gave the impression that she “wasn’t wearing nothin’” underneath.

“Never hurts to hedge one’s bets,” she said with her trademark saintly smile; the one that caused that trouble with the boy scout troop a few years back. She wondered if any of them were old enough to date yet before picking up a Chanel handbag and walking out to her chauffeur-driven limousine.

Arriving on time at the “Big Productions” Studio, she walked into the board of directors' chambers and announced herself to their principal secretary.

“Have a seat, Ms. Sommers. I’m certain they’ll call for you shortly,” said the secretary.

Sammy almost felt sorry for her. While entirely competent, the secretary didn’t have the most shapely figure or flattering features.

“They can’t all be me! A pity!” she reassured herself as she sat on a large overstuffed couch.

After a brief wait, the head secretary signaled her over. Sammy couldn’t help but notice once again her mousy brown hair and coke bottle horn-rimmed glasses as she came up to her.

“The board will see you now! Right this way, please,” she said as she opened the large oak door and held it for her to enter. Sammy noticed liver spots on the secretary’s hand as she walked by.

“Wow! She’s older than I thought!” she muttered before putting all external distractions out of her mind. All her thoughts now were on the board and what they needed from her to renegotiate her contract.

A spare wooden step stool stood in front of the directors. The light that hit it seemed bright enough to light up the darkest corners. She knew that with every nuance of movement, the board of directors could observe every thought that flitted across her face and body.

She mentally squared her shoulders and sat down on the stool with grace and elegance. She smiled and greeted each board member by their first name and suddenly stopped upon reaching the last one.

“Excuse me, miss, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Sammy Sommers and you are?”

The woman’s face, handsome and not without a few age lines, started for just a moment before regaining composure. She put on a charitable smile and addressed Sammy.

“Ah, Sammy! Good to meet you finally! Merle, would you formally introduce us, please?” she ordered an overweight sweaty man who wiped his face with a damp handkerchief.

“Certainly. I don’t know what happened to my manners. Excuse me! Sammy Sommers, I want you to meet Clarice Winters. Clarice Winters, this is Sammy Sommers. Clarice comes from a long line of investors and bought out Big Production Studios just yesterday.”

Sammy lost her composure for a few scant seconds. By the time she’d recovered, the board members had filed away several mental notes.

“She bought out the studio? Well, congratulations, Ms. Winters! I’m certain that with the current crop of talent and management, you’ll do fabulously!”

Clarice cleared her throat, took a long, noisy sip of Naïve™ Mineral water from a glass bottle, and replied with cold, fingers on a blackboard-sounding voice that had very little life in it, “Yes, that’s my intention, thank you, Ms. Sommers.”

“Oh, please, call me Sammy! Ms. Sommers is my fictional mother.” teased Sammy.

A hint of warmth crept into Clarice’s face and voice. “Certainly Sammy, and you can call me Ms. Winters.”

At that point, a deep chill went down Sammy’s spine. She looked at the board members to find them not returning her gaze. The easy contract negotiation she looked forward to now turned into something that she dreaded.

-----

After several hours of negotiation. Sammy walked out of the boardroom, visibly shaken. The board held her without a break of any kind, while Clarice Winters slowly and methodically tortured her mentally. Sammy regretted not bringing in her agent for the negotiation, but what they did was done. She made a beeline for the powder room while reeling from mental exhaustion.

The head secretary noticed the troubled actress as she approached her desk. She got up to help Sammy steady herself before she fell over. Sammy shrugged off the attempt and pulled off her deadly stiletto heels before running into the bathroom with the secretary following her.

Sammy sat down on the toilet and would have cried had she not had such a strong need to empty her bladder. She sighed in pure satisfaction as her urine escaped and hit the toilet.

After several moments of relieving herself, the secretary piped up, “Are you okay in there, Ms. Sommers?”

As she had thought herself alone and now caught in an unguarded moment, Sammy angrily snapped back, “I’m fine! Why are you in here?”

“Sammy, I’m here to see if you signed the contract. After that, we’ll just wait and take it from there, okay?”

“Hey! What business is it of yours whether I signed a contract? I don’t think my private bus—UGGGHH!” Sammy felt another powerful urge hit her. Her bowls contracted violently, causing her to defecate with total abandon.

Sammy then realized that the evening gown she wore wasn’t safe from the rapidly filling contents of the toilet. She pulled it over her head and called out to the secretary.

“Hey! If you’re still out there, I need some help with my dress. Would you be so kind?”

The Secretary, name of Lilith, opened the stall door and took the dress away from Sammy roughly. Anyone can rub a saint the wrong way, no matter how selfless they might be.

“Take it easy with that! It’s a La Femme limited edition designed especially for my body measurements!” griped Sammy as another wave of cramping hit her body. The only thing she could do for the next few moments was to endure the pain that her insides were dishing out.

“That board meeting took it out of me!” she gasped between painful bowel and bladder movements. “I might need to go to a doctor after this!”

Lilith looked at her hands, then stepped over to a mirror above the sink. She took a glance at her features as if to verify herself of something and turned back to Sammy.

She hung the dress on a hook on the inside of the stall door that they were in. Despite the horrid smell coming from Sammy, she moved in closer to stand beside her and soothe her by lightly massaging her shoulders.

“It’s okay. It’ll be over soon enough. Just bear with it a little longer, Sammy,” she whispered and reached over to unhook Sammy’s bra strap.

“What are you doing? UNNNGH!” said Sammy as she felt the bra lifted over her head and shoulders.

“I’m just trying to make you more comfortable, dear,” said Lilith, as she gave the toilet a courtesy flush. “There, now, that’s better, isn’t it? After the ceiling fans pull away the rest of the stench, it’ll be like it never happened!”

A knock sounded on the bathroom door. Lilith murmured she would get it and moved to answer it.

Sammy, coming down with another painful cramp, wondered aloud, “Is the door locked?”

“Yes, dear, I thought you might like some privacy,” said Lilith, as she accepted a gym bag from a delivery person on the other side of the door.

Taking it to a nearby baby changing station, she pulled out several objects from the bag to place on the counter next to it. Sammy couldn’t see her, but she heard the contents of the bag touch down on the counter as Lilith handled them.

“Who was it at the door, um? What’s your name again?”

Lilith frowned at that momentarily and replied, “My name is Lilith, Sammy. Thank you for asking. The person at the door gave me some new clothes for you to wear per your contract. I’ll help you into them after you’re done on the toilet.”

A final round of cramping hit Sammy then. She felt as if extreme gravity pressed on her whole body as she rode it out by breathing slowly. Lilith came back to rub her shoulders again.

After a few moments, Sammy felt the pain lifting and remarked on it.

“Of course, it is, silly!” said Lilith, with the same tone a mother gives to her daughter upon her finding out some minor fact of life or another. Sammy hated that tone immediately.

“Now, stand up, and let’s get your bottom wiped, young lady!” Instructed Lilith. Her tone brooked no argument and caused Sammy to stand up immediately with no thought of resistance.

Stunned, Sammy felt her bottom wiped with copious amounts of toilet paper. The crap she’d taken had gone everywhere! After Lilith cleaned up a large portion of it, she grabbed Sammy’s hand and guided her to the sink.

Sammy didn’t object as Lilith lifted her to lay her down on the changing station. A small voice in the back of her head noted that Lilith must be very strong to lift her so effortlessly.

A large, wet towelette broke into her shocked reverie as Lilith wiped her bottom and then used another to wipe her other privates. Satisfied with her work, she dug into the gym bag and pulled out a large, bulky pull-up. The only difference between the pull-up and a baby's diaper was the pull-up not having plastic tabs and a landing zone. Otherwise, for bulk, heft, and size, it might as well have been a baby diaper.

Sammy did a double-take at the pull-up before it registered in her mind. She asked, “What are you going to do with that, Lilith?”

“Put it on you, you silly goose!” said Lilith, as she playfully grabbed one of Sammy’s ankles with a grip that felt like an iron vise.

Sammy attempted to pull her leg away and said, “Are you serious? What the <HONK!> do I need with a diaper?”

“Oh, you haven’t realized it yet? Look at my face and body, Sammy. Don’t they look more like a woman in her twenties instead of the woman in her forties that greeted you this morning?”

Sammy verified and acknowledged that. She remembered feeling her ego trip earlier that day as she measured up Lilith’s dowdiness and compared it to her superior beauty.

“Okay, so you look a little better than this morning. What has that to do with me?”

Lilith laughed at Sammy with genuine affection in her voice. She picked her up by the waist with very little effort to toss her in the air and catch her so that Sammy was face forward. She held up Sammy to the mirror to see for herself.

Sammy’s first glance was of Lilith’s sober yet amused reflection. “That’s not me!” she thought to herself and then saw what could only be her reflection.

A small naked girl, no older than 4 or 5, stared back from the mirror. She had a plump little belly and a round, almost featureless face with a little pug nose. Tight blond curls that ringed her head complimented her chubby cheeks. She gasped as she realized that somehow someone or something transformed her formerly dynamite body into this sexless, childlike one.

Lilith’s smile of amusement became one of contented authority as she put the little girl back down on the changing table.

“So, are we ready to get dressed? We meet for a casting call in one hour. That’s enough time to grab a bite to eat if you’re dressed quickly and stop fussing, little miss!”

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In the cafeteria, Sammy, dressed in a short, cream-colored dress with sailor lapels and blue piping that barely covered her Sesame Street™ pull-up, sat on a booster seat. On her feet were frilly ankle socks and a black pair of Mary Janes. She looked at the ham and cheese sandwich on wholewheat bread in front of her while grousing at the lousy fair.

“You could’ve at least given me a chocolate milk, you know!”

“That’s not healthy, dear. Eat your sandwich and apple slices, drink your milk, and someday you’ll grow up to be a beautiful actress again!” Lilith couldn’t help but smile as she teased the little girl. While not a petty person normally, she felt that picking on Sammy gave her a sense of satisfaction.

She glanced at her iPad and hurried Sammy along for the casting call.

“But I’m not finished with my sandwich!” said a saddened Sammy. “People are starving somewhere, you know!”

“We’ll get something more filling after the casting call, Sammy. It won’t take long, I promise!”

-------

Sammy wowed the director and director’s assistant at the casting call with her gymnastic abilities. They insisted she do her flawless handstand several times before she grew tired of it and a suspicious Lilith called the audition done.

Having secured the part, the pair walked off to further acquaint Sammy with her new life as a child star. The director nudged the assistant, as they both ogled the pair leaving the stage.

“Pervs!” muttered Lilith under her breath. Sammy caught it and thought about it for a while before answering with conviction, “So, kids have their version of the ‘acting couch’ too, huh?”

Lilith said nothing.

(End Chapter One)