A Learning Experience Ch. 10

"Hmm," I said casually, looking at Mel, "I think Mel and I could become twins for a night. After all, we've already been twin 'Infinites', why not the real deal?"

"In that case," Sara replied as her deep brown eyes twinkled with mischief, "meet me here next Saturday night!"

"Yes Mistress!"

Sara was once again in command and getting everyone's attention...

"Alright now, we have to transform these two lovers into their alter egos, along with you Denise... okay? Then here we go, lemme get all the rest of the crew, and you three can shower and clean up in my bathroom here."

***

Once again Sara's technical folks helped us transform into the 'Infinites', and I was able to believe myself to be Queenie, the Infinite White Fox. And Melissa could become my double, Xandrax. As we had to bring more characters to the show this time, Denise asked to become one the other Infinites, although we didn't have time to name all of the other 14 people that were being dressed in various costumes, both here and back at the college's music club office. Denise wanted to be a Doe, and she had a brown costume, with a white mottled back. She also was sporting some small antlers or horns and long nose prosthesis that allowed her to become a fairly realistic deer.

I was still wearing my 'special' shoes, but I had used up most of the flash-bang cartridges last week. Still, I thought I might as well reload what was left just in case we might need them again tonight. I was now packing up all of my street-clothes into my overnight bag. Mel and Denise were doing the same. Sara walked up behind me and softly hugged me and kissed the back of my neck.

I returned her hug tenderly, then kissed her softly on her lips. When I released her, Rene' could no longer control himself and gave me an absolute bear hug, nearly taking my breath away, and fracturing all of my ribs!

"My wonderful Madam Josie!" He exclaimed, "I am so very glad you are feeling better... please accept this small gift... you can open it later... it is some of my chocolates you like, oui"?

Melissa quickly came up next to me and laughed, "Careful Rene', she's taken!"

Which made us all start laughing, Mel always seemed to know what to say, even though she really didn't talk all that much. She had her overnight bag and seemed ready to go. Now from behind her, came a fully dressed Denise, and again the techs had done their jobs well, she was a most lovely looking Doe, and she looked so happy under that costume!

"Okay... I guess it's time," I announced, "I'll be looking for you in the audience Mistress, and I hope you enjoy the show! Let's go kids!"

The three of us, Mel, Denise, and I, walked quickly out to my car. I had driven the old Chrysler and popped open its trunk to let us pile all of our overnight bags and other stuff into it, then slammed it shut and brought its monstrous engine to life with a roar. And we were off to the concert... on a cool, clear, night with the most spectacular full moon keeping everything nearly bright as day.

We didn't talk much, but even though I should have felt emotionally drained. Instead, I found myself exhilarated, with a new found feeling of hope that a real change had happened in my life. I was drawing so much energy from that! And it was making me completely giddy at this point!

As I eased the big sedan into a parking space, I suddenly changed my mind, and moved it up to a spot where it would be in front of the parking lot's chain-link fence. Both of my companions complained about having to walk farther to the gym entrance, but I explained that for some reason, I just thought we might want to be closer to an exit after the concert, when we came out. They just gave me funny looks and we all bailed out and walked quickly into the gym. Everyone in costume had been told to meet up in the gym's VIP suite. Most of them were already there and fully in costume, a few still needed make-up help and a couple were still dressing down in the music club office.

Phil was there, and seemed somewhat stressed, but relieved now that I had arrived. Barb came in a few minutes later with the last of the 'Infinites' and now that everyone was assembled Phil visibly seemed to relax.

"Ya know," Phil said, "I just couldn't believe you'd be able to pull off getting all of these actors together, and in costume, on such short notice. I owe you an apology."

"Not at all Phil," I replied, "but it was the combined efforts of many people that I am privileged to call friends that allowed this to happen. Please believe me, I had only a minimal part in all of this. So do we have an ETA on when Bowie will arrive?"

"Concert is shed-ualled (as the English pronounce scheduled) to start at 9pm, his limo should arrive at 8:30pm exactly."

I nodded my head and smiled at his English precision. Then looked out over the gym, to see the hustle and bustle going on to get the sound system built, along with the various pieces of the stage that still needed to be completed, and I asked...

"Let's see, its 6:45 now, have all the security personnel shown up that we need?"

"Yes. And with the sheriff's department, as well as the state police controlling the traffic outside, we should have a small army on-hand. We should be able to deal with pretty much anything short of a nuclear war!", he quipped.

"Alright 'general' Phil," I laughed, "It looks like you have everything in hand, and I really needed that, being a part of the show itself, I knew I wouldn't be able to do much to help you. So thanks... I really appreciate all your hard work!"

"Well," He explained, "You're welcome, but without your wonderful staff to back me up, I would have been lost... you have quite a well oiled machine here. For instance, the drummer showed up without cymbals in his kit, and Barb didn't even blink. She was instantly on the phone to someone that had a full set of new Zildjian cymbals delivered in 30 minutes... amazing!"

I was happy to hear such praise, and said, "I would have to agree 100%, they all love doing this stuff, but I've been lucky enough to find excellent people as well."

Soon all of the Ziggy Stardust stage pieces were assembled. The lighting had been set and adjusted, the sound system installed and integrated with the band's instruments.

Thousands of fans were filing into the gym's seats, and all of the 'Infinites' were fully dressed in their costumes. However, the clock had ticked its way over to 8:45... and still no sign of the man himself. Panic. It's the only word that applied to every face in the VIP suite, or anywhere back-stage... without Bowie, this concert was going nowhere.

Phil was wildly dialing the phones, trying to find out when his boss had left the hotel, and when he might be able to expect him to arrive. English precision was taking a hard hit it seemed. But suddenly a radio crackled to life, Bowie's limo had just pulled into the parking lot gates... now we had a concert!

A part of the 'stage' that had been built for the Ziggy concerts was actually Bowie's dressing room, and his security people now were hustling him and his entourage quickly back there so he could prepare for the show. While technically part of the 'Diamond Dogs' concert series, like most of these concerts it would end up being an amalgam of songs from all of his albums over the past 4 years. However, it always would begin with Mott The Hoople's All The Young Dudes and end with Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be some problems getting things ready, and by 9:50pm, there was nothing happening. Not a happy thing when you have over three thousand fans going nuts pounding on a gym floor because they've been waiting for an hour to see a concert begin. The stairs to the VIP suite exited right in back of the stage's dressing rooms, including Bowie's. I went down with Phil and Barb just in case there might be something we could do, at least I could send Barb out for help. But only Phil was allowed by Bowie's security, specifically two very well dressed young black men that, if I didn't know better (and I didn't) appeared to be twins! They were very gracious to both Barb and I, and quite willing to apologize for keeping us out, but at 6'5" and around 250 pounds each, it was unlikely anyone would be anything but gracious with these two.

Finally, Phil emerged and came up to us rather sheepishly to explain...

"It seems he's been over-indulging his penchant for... well, for stimulants shall we say... he's better now, and they're getting him dressed, we'll start in a few minutes."

Barb and I smirked to each other and followed Phil back upstairs. In 1975 such things were common, to the point that I actually had artist's contracts specify such things as part of their pre-concert 'kit', along with sodas or snacks, they added cocaine and marijuana. I would simply cross these out before sending the contract to our teacher/adviser for her signature... but they always tried to sneak it in!

Just as we got back to the VIP suite, the house lights were coming down, spotlights were coming up and the Spiders were cranking out the first few bars of All the Young Dudes. The lights in the suite went out and all of the Infinites were treated to a fabulous overhead view of a David Bowie concert.

Since we wouldn't appear until the last number and any encores, we could sit back and enjoy some incredible music. At that time, he'd recorded Space Oddity, Changes, Suffragette City, Panic in Detroit, The Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, and Young Americans. All of which he played over the course of the 2+ hour concert. As things wound down, we got our queue from Phil and I let all the Infinites know they needed to follow me down to the stage.

For this event, Mel and I were dressed just slightly more conservatively than last time, with a little longer skirts and tops that covered our breasts completely. They were an off-white leather that looked great, without drawing undue attention. As we went up onto the blacked out stage I helped each of the 'characters' find his/her position on stage. Each of us would appear on queue at different times of the number, my own appearance being last as that was the queue for Bowie to die on stage, at which point we all move together over him and then, according to the play, the world ends. This triggers a number of pyrotechnics and is our final queue to exit the stage.

As Rock 'n' Roll Suicide progressed, everything seemed to be going to plan, but David seemed even more pasty-white than I had ever seen him before. He also seemed to be slurring words from time to time and would miss some of his queues, which he hadn't done all night. Finally, the world came to an end, and we all left the stage, returning to the VIP suite.

"Fantastic!" Phil gushed as soon as I got in the door, "Best damn Ziggy concert we've ever done, and all those costumed actors you put together MADE that song... listen!"

The audience was going crazy, stomping and lighting matches... they obviously wanted an encore... whether that would happen was up to the star, and we hadn't heard yet if he wanted to do one or not. Given how he looked, I wasn't sure if that was going to happen at all.

"Hmm," Phil was looking at his headset microphone, "wonder why's its taking so long for him to come back out... WHAT!?"

Phil's whole demeanor changed as he pulled off his headset and whispered to me that his boss had fallen over unconscious and no one could wake him. I signaled to Mel and Barb to follow us, and we all managed to run down those steep stairs as fast as we could. As we got to his dressing room, his bodyguards told us they had called for an ambulance and asked us to make sure it could get through to the gym without any problems. I told Barb and Phil to take care of notifying the police on traffic duty outside that an ambulance was coming in. With such a large concert, an ambulance had been on duty and would be there in seconds.

What we inside were not aware of, was a severe accident had just occurred at the main entrance gate of the school's gym. A truck had run into a large pole and it had fallen in front of the gate, basically stopping anyone from getting into or out of the gym's parking lot. The bodyguards told me they could get their boss into his limo and asked if there wasn't some way to get out of the chain link fence that surrounded the gym.

I thought for a minute or two, then told them to get him into the limo and wait for my signal, that I'd send either Mel or myself to tell them what to do next. I started running for the exit door we had come in with, Mel hanging on behind me. As we exited the door, we were standing on the loading dock looking out over a sea of cars. I could see the limo, parked just below us. Since it had arrived so late, it wasn't blocked in like everything else. It had an almost open lane up to the back of my Chrysler, other than one sub-compact, parked in a space directly behind me.

At this point Phil came outside looking for me after being told of my plan by the bodyguards. I said, "Gonna need your help Phil,"

We all ran for my car and I unlocked the trunk and grabbed Denise's bags and gave them to Mel, telling her to run them up to Denise, then come right back. Under her bags was my spare tire, I yanked it out and gave it to Phil, telling him to place it between my back bumper and the front bumper of the sub-compact that was in the way. He looked at me and had no idea where I was going with this, but there was no time to explain.

"PHIL! Please... just do what I asked, we're going to need to move that car!"

To his credit, he turned and went back to the little car behind us. I got in and started up the Chrysler, putting it in reverse and backing right up the sub-compact's bumper. With Phil's placement of the spare tire between, I gradually powered the smaller car back enough that the limo could get through the space where it had been. By this time, my car was about a hundred feet away from the chain link fence that separated the parking lot from the small access road that led to the highway.

Mel was running back up to me, having given Denise her things. I told Phil to go get the bodyguards and bring them here. Now I explained to Mel what I had in mind. Her eyes were as big as saucers as I finished and I don't think she could speak, before the bodyguards came running over. I asked if they had a radio link with the limo driver, to which they said 'of course', so I quickly told them I intended to ram the fence, run it over, and then I wanted the limo to follow me to the hospital. I explained I would need one of them to come with me so we could stay in touch with the limo. After I had finished, there was a long pause, as everyone stared at me.

"Look," I yelled, "my car weighs 5400 pounds and has a 600 horsepower engine... believe me, that fence is going down. All I need is for you to follow me, okay?!"

The two huge muscular guys looked at this little costumed 5'10" 150-pound girl, then looked at each other, then glanced at Phil, who simply said, "Do as she says!"

I jumped into the driver's seat, Mel let the two bodyguards into the backseat and then got in herself. I told them all to put on their seatbelts and brace themselves. Braking as hard as I could, I brought the engine up to high revs and released the brake. We flew at the fence like a battering ram and as I predicted, the pole I'd targeted went over like a matchstick, taking enough of the chain link fence with it that we could drive over it.

We ended up a few dozen feet into the field on the other side of the access road. I unbuckled and got out to see if any major damage had occurred, but all the tires were up, and I couldn't see any real damage underneath. I got back in and drove back onto the access road, telling the bodyguards to radio the limo to follow us through the hole in the fence we'd made, but it was too late, the limo was coming through the fence and already turning in behind us.

So I hit the gas and we were on our way to the closest local hospital. For the most part, other than the high speeds we were going, it was an unremarkable ride there, and since we had some time, Mel and I got to know the two hunks in my backseat a little better, and by the time we got to the hospital, had set up a date for the next Saturday night as they had to do something tomorrow night. It must have looked pretty wild to anyone watching us come screeching into the hospital's emergency area, and see two white costumed foxes get out that looked exactly alike, then have the two bodyguards, who turned out to BE twins, all of us getting out of this old pace car... I'm sure the nurses and doctors that were there are still talking about that night!

As it turned out, their boss was treated for a burst appendix, and his collapse had little or nothing to do with any drugs he may have been taking. But it was a good thing we got him there as quickly as we did. Most critics thought it was one of the best Ziggy Stardust concerts he'd ever performed and a wonderful finish to the series. Mel and I went to the after concert party, and had a blast getting all the Infinites toasted and letting them have the time of their lives. As usual, the guys had drug all of our instruments out of the Music Club closet. My old Hammond B3 and Leslie speaker system were still functioning, so we cranked up jams until about four, when everyone gave up and started slipping out for home... and sleep.

***

We had slept in of course, but by three o'clock, we found ourselves back at Sara's Supperclub.

"I thought as long as my professional make-up and costume designers were here to help you dress for the concert yesterday, why not make use of them to help us create a set of perfect twin Mistresses as well?" Sara was saying as we wandered in looking a little shot after being out so late.

Mel and I got up and followed Sara across the hall to a guest bedroom where her costume designers, Mickey and Greta were working away on a spectacular pair of white kidskin leather gowns. They were off-the-shoulder designs, one having the bared shoulder on the right, the other on the left. They would be the only way of telling us apart once we were dressed.

"Ladies?" Sara was on the move again, as we followed along.

We went back into the master suite bathroom where her make-up specialists had placed large make-up chairs in front of the bathroom's sink counter. Kim would be handling my preparations, and Yvette would be working on Mel's.

"Alright Ladies," Sara said, "I believe you are in the very best of hands, so I will be back to brief you when you've finished dressing... have fun!"

First things first, we were both stripped and took showers, making sure all of the basics were covered, all hair waxed or shaven below our eyebrows, and our skin rubbed with some vitamin enriched moisturizers, we were given terry cloth robes and our transformation into perfect twins begun. Kim took pictures of us, side by side. These were blown up and used to adjust for any differences in bone structure in our faces. Yvette got to work with foundation to make those differences disappear.

The biggest help towards making us look alike had been done 2 months earlier with my trachea shave and a 'light' nose job. It wasn't planned, but these two procedures had us looking more like genetic sisters than just about anything else. Now, with some minor make-up tweaks, Mel and I looked like we must have only been seconds apart from the same mother's womb! Kim finished our face make-up with a light blush, dark blue eye highlights and dark pink lip color. Another side-by-side picture was taken and the result made us both start giggling! I was sure I was looking into a mirror after that.

Sara's hair stylist came in, along with her nail techs, and they began transforming our individual hair colors and styles into one, with the nail techs making sure our French manicures matched EXACTLY. We were each given a Greek goddess style, where our hair was styled in an 'up' position with long curling tendrils falling along each side and back of our heads. The results of all of this work was finally revealed to both Mel and I along with Sara, and simply made my jaw drop. All heads were shaking back and forth, as the similarities were just stunning. They had two pairs of blue contact lenses, but once everything else was complete, they were deemed unnecessary. Many twins have slightly different lens color even between left and right eyes!