To the Top

Lina felt a little uneasy about the costume rehearsal, but part of being an actress was putting on a new pair of shoes for every performance, as her teacher back in college liked to repeat to her ad infinitum. That’s what being an actress is all about being someone different…

As she closed the door behind her and walked into the changing room she grinned as she spotted a sheathed outfit hanging from a nearby rack on wheels. “Ah, so there’s my outfit.” She thought to herself as she grasped the zipper tab with her index finger and thumb to open up her outfit. Within the black plastic sheath a bright orange glow made Lina squint her eyes. She reached in and pulled out what looked like a rubber bodysuit. She raised her eyebrow in alarm as she analyzed the limp and jiggly reddish-orange mass in her arms.

“Okay, what the hell is this?” Lina thought as she studied the strange garment. She let out a sigh and again thought of what her teacher back in college said. “Well I’ll just slip into this and look for Mr. Robertson. Maybe he can fill me in on what this thing is for.” Tina shrugged her shoulders and walked towards one of the cloistered and dark changing kiosks. After she had shut the latch shut and locked herself in she unzipped her jeans and pulled off her blue tank-top.

After a few minutes of grunting and tugging Lina unlatched the door and swung it open. The skin-tight rubber suit clung to every curve and crevice on her body, no skin was exposed anywhere save for her head. Behind her bouncy and smooth locks of red hair hung a hood molded onto the suit itself.

“Geez, they could have at least given this suit a zipper.” Lina growled as she spotted a large body-length mirror in front of her. Lina blushed and looked curiously at her strange new outfit. “Huh, I sort of look like a Power Ranger in this.” Lina remarked as she swiveled her backside towards the mirror and admired her well-rounded and firm buttocks. She admired the tailoring skills the suit displayed. The seams, as few as they were, barely even stood out at all and were virtually invisible. “I don’t see what this costume has to do with a fat jolly Church Lady.” She smirked while she pressed her palms into the undersides of her breasts. “Well, maybe Robertson will explain all this.”

Lina then grabbed the hood hanging from the back of her neck and pulled it over her head. She tucked a few tufts of red hair up behind the hood’s rim and effectively sealed herself up. “Now to the stage!” posed Lina as she pushed the dressing room door open and marched on out.

Alone and confused, Lina looked out towards the empty auditorium of seats and saw nobody. “Okay, I thought Mr. Robertson said he was going to be here at 4:30 PM SHARP.” Thinking back on the memo, Lina found it strange that Mr. Robertson would ask her to come on a Sunday afternoon. She began to pace back and forth on the stage as the clock on the wall to her right began tick-tock to 4:45.

“I’m giving him FIVE more minutes, then I’m leaving.” The increasingly irate young actress snarled to herself. “I’m going to give him a piece of my mind if he thinks he can make me come here for nothing and wear this weird-ass suit!” As she hissed in anger, Lina swept some sweat off of her forehead. “Geez this thing gets hot quick. I’m not going to wear this damn thing for an entire performance if it’s going to turn into a steam bath!”

“Oh, but shouldn’t you get used to it?” A sly and chiding female voice called out from the dark aisles of seats in the theater.

“Who’s there!?” Lina yelped. She stepped back, startled a bit by the phantom voice that just echoed out of the dark. After a few more paces backwards the overhead lights lit up automatically and illuminated the entire stage in bright white light. Blinded by the burst of brightness Lina squinted her eyes shut and then opened them slowly allowing them to adjust to the light.

After a few moments she could see a lone girl sitting in a seat in the front aisle. She was a tall brunette wearing khaki cargo pants and a red sweatshirt. Lina knew her.

“Well don’t you look all ready for action.” mocked the mystery girl. “Aren’t you going to rehearse for me?”

Lina studied the girl a bit more closely. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized who she was dealing with. “Wait, you’re… You’re Jessie!”

“Nice to see your memory is still working Lina. Now how about giving me some attention for a bit?” Jessie stood up and walked over to the stage steps. She approached the flustered and sweaty Tina.

“What the hell do you want!? Don’t tell me this is one of your little jealous fits!” Tina clenched both her hands into fists and growled as Jessie approached her.

“Jealous? Me? Oh ho ho!” Jessie playfully laughed. “No, I’m just setting things straight. You could say I’m just bringing back a sense of equilibrium to this production.”

“Hmph, sounds more like you’re jealous to me, I won the part for that audition fair and square. I don’t care about your damn Shakespearian credentials, if Mr. Robertson knows talent when he sees it…”

“He definitely saw it in bed, that’s what!” Jessie snapped before Lina could finish speaking. “I saw those cute little photos you decided to snap during that little party you two had that night!”

“Errrr, photos? Jessie, don’t even think of trying to…”

“Oh it’s that easy huh? He’s a stud and a slut like you thinks you squirm your way into any part you want just by getting into his pants!” Jessie now stood almost nose-to-nose with Lina. The envious brunette glared with rage right into Lina’s wide green eyes. Jessie quickly extinguished her anger as she reminded herself of the next part of her plan. “But you do know what I’m going to help you do, Lina.” Jessie grinned.

Lina just gulped with uncertainty and fear, her naked body slipped and writhed underneath the tight rubbery membrane of her suit.

“I’m going to make you aim for the top.” Jessie grinned with malice as she took a remote out of one of the large pocket on the right thigh on her pair of cargo pants. She grinned and winked as she held the remote up to Tina’s sweaty face and clicked the solitary red button on it.

Immediately the theater echoed with a high-pitched hissing noise right after Jessie pressed the remote’s button. Lina’s eyes grew as wide as dinner plates as she quickly realized the hissing nose was coming from her.

She pressed both palms of her hands down into her abdomen and noticed that her suit felt firm and squishy.

“What that HELL?” Lina screamed as the suit began to expand at an exponential rate. Her lithe athletic form began to turn into a puffy parody of itself. The orange rubber skin of her outfit squeaked as it stretched to accommodate the growing mass of gas underneath it.

“This is the inflatable suit you need to wear in order to make yourself look jolly and fat like that mousy church lady from the play. However with the little modifications I’ve made, you’re going to be a lot more fat and jolly than you expected.” Jessie grinned as she watched Lina expand and squeal with shock. Her arms flailed about looking for a valve anywhere on the suit to release the increasing amount of gas inflating her suit but to no avail. As the arms and legs of the suit grew puffier and more rotund by the second, Lina struggled to move her limbs about.

Her midsection was now approaching the size and shape of one of a weather balloon. All Lina could do now was shriek with embarrassment and fright as she ballooned up.

Jessie grinned with pride and satisfaction as she saw her rival’s expansion slow down. Lina now looked like a large orange blimp with dome-like legs and arms. Her puffy little hands and feet wriggled back and forth in futility, unable to do anything but make her look even more ridiculous than she already did. To complicate her predicament even further Lina noticed that her feet were not even touching the ground anymore, she was slowly floating up into the air. “Oh dear God, this is HELIUM!?”

“Hmmm, it’s amazing how simple the modifications were, my dear Lina.” Jessie walked up to the bloated floating Lina and tightly grasped her hand around her right foot as it floated up to her eye-level. Lina was now just a helpless oversized party balloon at the mercy of Jessie.

“Please! Let me down! I’ll let you have the part! Just deflate me and let me go!” Lina shrieked with fear as she struggled to look beyond the curved horizon of her suit and spot Jessie.

Jessie just hummed as she strolled on over to an ‘X’ taped onto the stage floor. Lina’s body within the suit was completely drenched with sweat. She could even hear the pit pat of little droplets of sweat hitting the inside of the suit. The heat emitted from the bright lights not only made her hotter, but made the cavernous interior of her suit feel like a sauna.

“Lina, we all need to step into new roles as actresses and transform ourselves into something new.” Jessie lectured as she stopped on the ‘X’ and took another remote from her pocket. She pressed it and up above a large skylight in the ceiling opened up, exposing the bright blue sky above.

“Now you’re going to play a role that’ll bring you all the way to the top.”

Right at that moment Jessie released her grasp around Lina’s ankle and let her float up towards the opening in the ceiling. The ballooned actress’ heart began to beat like a machine gun as she floated closer and closer to the skylight.

“NOOOOOOOOooooooooo…” Lina screamed as she floated out into the open skylight and up past the roof of the theater. As she floated higher and higher she heard a whirr from below and the sound of two doors closing shut.

A green sedan honked twice in the parking lot as the doors unlocked automatically. Jessie walked towards it, holding her keys in her right hand. As she opened the driver side door and climbed in she looked up into the pale blue sky, her eyes caught glimpse of a tiny orange dot that grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared from view.

“That girl’s going places.” Jessie grinned as she buckled her seatbelt, closed the door, turned on the ignition, and drove away.