Back to Eveline - Chapter 16
Chapter 17 - The Face of Scandal
Just minutes after Eveline's very stressful encounter with Jenny in the
locker-room, Lance passed by to pick her up and take her to Coach
Strickland's place. Eveline's stressful day got even more stressful when
he showed her the following article about the auction from Mega-News:
Section E - Arts & Culture
TSU Out-Foxed!
- The Niger Heart-Pot sold to African leader at auction
- Tri-State Admin claims antiquity was not on auction list
- Sale for a fraction of real value, but completely legal
Today Comandante Foxtrot, Supreme President of the West African
Confederation, issued a press release announcing he had purchased the
priceless Niger Heart-Pot from Tri-State University for $ 9.2 million
dollars at auction.
"This is a great day for both the Confederation and for Tri-State
University," according to the Supreme President. "An important part of
our heritage is returning home, to where it belongs, and the university
is receiving a generous endowment of 9.2 million dollars. It's a win-win
for everyone, and I am so proud to have made it happen. It shows what a
man-of-action like myself can do for the people he serves."
Comandante Foxtrot added that representatives from his nation's Ministry
of Culture had already prepared the Niger Heart-Pot for shipment, and
that it was en route on a special flight to the Confederation's National
Museum, where it will be placed on permanent display.
Archeologists around America expressed dismay that the priceless
antiquity was sold at auction.
"It was supposed to go into the Smithsonian," according to Dr. Freddy
Gauss, a noted expert in the archeology of the Niger River Valley. "Who
let that crazy dictator walk off with it?"
The Niger Heart-Pot dates back more than 3,500 years and has been
mentioned in many historical texts. Its origin is a mystery, but it was
a prized possession of Egyptian and later Babylonian kings over hundreds
of years. The legend surrounding the Heart-Pot is that, with the
appropriate sacrifices, it has the magical ability to grant unlimited
charisma to the ruler who owns it. The Heart-Pot became known as the
Niger Heart-Pot in 1153 AD when it mysteriously showed up in the local
king's palace. The Niger Heart-Pot was hidden in a tomb in 1883, to
prevent French soldiers from capturing it. It was unearthed in 1936 by
archeologists from Tri-State University and smuggled out of French West
Africa. The Niger Heart-Pot has been kept at Tri-State University since
early 1937.
Prior to yesterday's sale, Tri-State University had been under pressure
to send the Niger Heart-Pot to the Smithsonian for safe-keeping. As Dr.
Gauss noted: "a university museum is no place to keep something like
that. It's a wonder it wasn't stolen years ago."
Next page - Scandal! TSU museum curator and Art Department Chairman
missing
And, accompanying the text was the soon-to-be infamous trophy-shot with
the caption:
Comandante Foxtrot posing with his prize and the lovely auction hostess
Eveline Rogers
Great. It wasn't enough that she was known as the naked girl around the
school, or around the city, or even the Tri-State region. No... now she
had to be naked in front of the entire world.
Oh, boy... A quick check of the headlines made it clear the Niger
Heart-Pot sale had become the art scandal of the decade. Across the US,
arts and antiquities fans were closely following the story of how
Tri-State University lost possession of one of the world's most valuable
artifacts.
No one could blame either Nancy or Eveline for what had happened. Their
job was to auction whatever was on the list and try to get the highest
bid for the seller. It was not their place to question the legality or
morality of any particular sale. Still, Eveline would become the face of
the scandal. Her picture showed up in every single story covering the
sale of the Niger Heart-Pot. Many of the pictures were censored or
cropped from her shoulders up, but in a lot of publications they
weren't. So, that was how the US and the international art community got
introduced to the auction presenter Eveline Rogers.
Lance, as always, was fascinated by the new strange twist in his
girlfriend's life and pressed her for details. As irritating as
answering all those questions was for Eveline, it did take her mind off
Jenny. The conversation concluded with Lance giving Eveline a quick
history lesson about Comandante Foxtrot and making her realize how
powerful and important he really was.
When the couple got back to Coach Strickland's place, Eveline could tell
that Lance was hoping for a round of sex. At first she was not really in
the mood, nor did she want Lance in her bedroom messing up sheets she
had just washed the previous day. Still, she knew that sex with her
boyfriend was the one thing in her life that could relax her.
Not wanting him in her room, and not wanting to risk messing up Coach
Strickland's furniture, she managed to get Lance to lie on his back on
the floor. It turned out he was so fascinated by her and so desperate
for sex that he went along with what she wanted. She straddled him and
forced him to make love to her in a position that was much more
comfortable for her than it was for him.
It was at that moment Eveline realized something extremely important.
Because of her weird situation of always being forced to be naked,
people were fascinated by her. Her boyfriend, her coach, her team
captain, her classmates, the auction customers... all of them.
With her clothes, she was nobody, just an ordinary, shy, nondescript,
somewhat attractive blond girl. Without her clothes, she was an object
of desire and fascination.
As she straddled her boyfriend and they both climaxed, she realized that
if she managed things right, she could use her nakedness to get people
to do what she wanted. Not just Jenny, but everyone.
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After Lance left the house, Eveline got on-line and read about the
scandal over the Niger Heart-Pot. Sure enough, that infamous trophy-shot
of Comandante Foxtrot with her and Nancy seemed to be posted everywhere,
in every article. She was mortified seeing herself all over the
Internet. Undoubtedly people would be crowding around her the next day,
wanting to know the details. What was Comandante Foxtrot like? What was
so important about the Niger Heart-Pot? What's it like, auctioning art
in the nude? What's so great about art and antiques, anyway?
She realized that she needed to avoid looking like an idiot when she was
barraged with all those requests for details. The questions were coming,
and she'd better get ready to answer them. She needed to inform herself
about what happened Wednesday night, which meant researching the
biography of Comandante Foxtrot, the history of the West African
Confederation, and the story of the infamous Niger Heart-Pot.
Over the next hour, Eveline experienced a profound change in her
personality. At first she just wanted to be able to answer a bunch of
intrusive questions and not look stupid to her classmates and teammates.
However, as her research progressed, she actually became interested in
the topics she was investigating.
Her desire to learn about the Niger Heart-Pot forced her to become
familiar with the histories of ancient Egypt and ancient Babylonia,
about the history of the Niger River Valley, about French West Africa,
and about archeology in the 1930's. And she found out that no,
early-20th Century archeology had nothing to do with Indiana Jones.
The next morning Eveline returned to her school the moment the building
opened. She went to the library with her laptop and with a purpose. She
now had the research topics she needed for term papers required for
several classes, including World History, Appreciation of Art, and
Introduction to Economics. Just 24 hours ago, she didn't have a clue
what she was going to write about for any of those courses. Now she
knew, and she was going to write the best damn term papers she could.
No. She would not be the one looking like an idiot when people started
asking her stuff.
Chapter 18
