“I’m sorry. I just It seems slow.”

“It is. But it’s worth the effort. I’m just being able to use my muscles and learning how to make it happen and it is fantastic how much it helps.”

“It is so stiff. I’m to move it as much as possible.”

“If you rolled on your stomach I could help you do lifts. Wouldn’t just flexing the knee loosen the muscles?  Would that help?”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Why not?  Am I not good enough to do it?”

“It’s not your job.”

“Forget that. We need to take care of each other no matter what. I need you and the better you are the better it is for me. Roll over. Just tell me what to do so I don’t hurt you.” Carol rolled on her stomach. Denise slowly lifted her pylon then lowered it. “Did that hurt?”

“No.” Denise helped her to ten more reps.

“Lay it down and stop for a minute.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“No. I want to try it myself, see if I can.” She did two reps. “That was a little better. It does seem to help.  It isn’t quite as stiff.”

“Let me do ten more and then you see how it is tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Debbie was watching. When she finished with Carol Denise turned to Debbie. “Do you want to try?” Debbie was also getting only two to three reps.

“Well. If you like.  I couldn’t ask.”

Denise looked at her with the stern look they had not seen since her worst days.  “If I can’t help you, if you can’t ask me to help, then I am something special and that is what got me in trouble.  People treated me different because I was Denise Shore, I liked it, I fed on it and I screwed up because I believed it.  Please don’t do that to me again.”

Carol looked over as Debbie.  “Debbie, we both screwed up on this.  And we are to be the smart ones.  Denise, thank you for the help and the insight.”

“What did I say?”

“Something really important we needed to hear.  Thanks.”

Susan tried to exercise her own foot. Sandra was next to her. “Turn so I can reach your foot.” She exercised Susan’s muscles.

At eleven Carol called a halt to the girl chatter.

“Lights out at eleven fifteen. We have a one o’clock show tomorrow and over a hundred fifty miles to drive. As old Burt said on Smokey and the Bandit, “We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.” That means we have to be ready to pull out early tomorrow, let’s say eight thirty. Since this is the first day of a new mode we start early and assume the worst. To get out at eight thirty we need to be up at six to get ready. Everyone must get through the bathroom before bedtime. Tomorrow morning we will use the bathhouse as much as possible. It gives us our own sinks and mirrors.”

Denise Chapter 01: Success in Hollywood

Denise Chapter 50: Ellen and Liz Davis – The Starner Carnage Continues

Denise Chapter 52 – the Investigation Continues