Barrack Room Betty

By Michele Nylons

Chapter Nine – Pink Pussycats

All good things come to an end and the six-week Reduced Operations Period at HMS Chelmsford ended on 15th January 1974.

The Wrens and Leading Recruits were very busy as that day approached. The Depot needed to be de-winterised and preparations made for the return of the Ship’s Company, the other Recruits, and the Wrens from their leave. Even Petty Officer White sobered up for the last week to oversee things.

Knocker was wary around Leading Recruit Jones and the other lads and ran things from his cabin. The Wrens were very sad that they would once again have to become male grommets and the Leading Recruits were sad that they would be losing their lovers.

There was much discussion in the evenings at the wet canteen about where things should go once normality returned.

Michele and Jason maintained their relationship but things had cooled; there was no infatuation between them, it was just sex and Michele was quite relieved; she’d had enough of Jason’s jealousy.

The other three couples still behaved like lovebirds and were lamenting the day when their relationships would resolve.

As usual it was left to Michele to provide a solution. On the final evening before they would have to clean and return all of the uniforms and other female paraphernalia they had purloined from the Wrens block, the subject came up again. The six lovers were stymied as to where to go and what to do; they really wanted their commitment to each other to continue.

“They don’t have to end,” Michele interjected whilst drawing on her ciggie.

“What?” the others chimed in unison.

“Your relationships; they don’t have to end,” she sipped her gin and tonic.

The others looked at her expectantly.

“Of course your days of canoodling on board HMS Chelmsford are gone; but what happens ashore, stays ashore.”

“We all have a five day furlough coming our way as compensation for being the hook rope party while everyone else was on leave. You add in the weekend that’s seven days.”

The others nodded.

“I propose this. I’ll take my three protégés ashore and take them shopping for everything we need to crossdress.”

“I’ve taught you girls enough so that once you have what you need; you can do a decent job of femming up on your own.”

The three Wrens nodded and the three Leading Recruits listened eagerly.

“You get cheap lodgings ashore and you can carry on doing your thing for seven days and then every weekend after,” Michele explained.

“You’re fucking brilliant Michele,” Polly beamed and the others agreed.

“I want one thing in return,” Michele cracked an ice cube between her teeth and the girls and boys saw mischievousness in her eyes.

“What?” they chimed.

“I want a girl’s night out at Pink Pussycats,” Michele smiled at her three girlfriends.

“Oh god yes!” Polly came in first.

“Oh yes please!” Mary followed.

“Really?” as usual Doris was unsure of herself.

“Fuck me Doris I think you’ve lost a stone over the ROP and you know how stunning you looked on New Year’s Eve,” Michele reminded her.

The girls and guys all smiled as they recalled their New Year’s revelry; the party was wilder than their Christmas Party but Michele was disappointed that Lieutenant Winters hadn’t dropped by for a New Year’s shag. When Michele had jokingly bought the subject up on the night, Spike had gone into one of his usual jealous sulks and Michele had to bring him around by paying him undivided attention.

“Great idea!” the lads chimed in.

“Oh fucking no you don’t! It’s a girl’s night out! You can shag these three senseless on the other six nights but I’m having my girl’s only night!” Michele dictated.

“Sounds great!” the Wrens were excited about being out on the town as girls, even Doris was excited.

“Sounds shit!” the lads lamented.

“Oh fucking grow up you lot. It’s just sex! We’re four transvestites and you’re four men; what do you think you’re going to do; live happy ever after?” Michele snapped.

The others looked hurt but Michele was right; their days spent as full time lovers were past. The illusion of the four young men with their four young women would dissolve tomorrow when the Wrens went to cleaning stations on their kit and returned everything back to the Wrenery and the dry canteen.

And so it came to pass, on the morning of Monday 15th January 1974 PO White fell in his hook rope party of four Leading Recruits and four ‘grommet’ new intake recruits. He reported to the OIC of the Recruit Training School who was relieved that the rabble hadn’t burnt the place to the ground.

They were dismissed and allowed to proceed on leave until the following Monday.

The eight Recruits boarded the leave bus and the Leading Recruits made a show of haranguing the grommets, but their heart wasn’t in it. They sat at the back of the bus smoking; they didn’t really want to see their sweethearts in ‘male mode’. They didn’t want Mick, Doc, Brian and Ray; they wanted Michele, Doris, Polly and Mary.

When the bus hit Cheltenham High Street the grommets got off and Mick Nyland led his cohorts through a maze of backstreets to a nearby lodging house that was only a few doors down from Pink Pussycats. Michele had found the place advertised in the phone book and called ahead and the lady who answered professed that the place was ‘tranny friendly’.

“Oh we get em’ all ere’ luv.”

“Trannys, crossdressers, tranny chasers, homos, queers, sailors the lot!”

“I don’t care what they get up to as long as they keep the noise down and they pay for their lodgings up front,” she sniffed.

“Perfect,” Michele replied and booked four rooms.

They checked into their dodgy lodgings, stowed their kit bags and met in the lounge which sported an old black and white TV, two stained and ripped overstuffed couches with matching lounge chairs, a cigarette burned coffee table with out of date magazines on it, and a fly-specked window draped with greying net curtains. It smelt of stale cigarette smoke, stale beer, old farts and mould.

“What a fucking dump!” Polly lamented.

“It’s perfect! And it’s cheap,” Mick replied and they all grinned.

“Right let’s get cracking lads; we’ve some shopping to do,” Michele led them out the front door.

The first stop was an Oxfam shop where they bought cheap second hand jeans and shirts, they could get away with their navy issue black shoes but as Michele explained, they couldn’t go shopping for women’s clothes in their navy uniforms could they? They would stand out like the proverbial dogs balls.

They went back to their digs and changed into their cheap civvies and went back to Oxfam. Mick helped the self-conscious lads pick out some nice female attire and even went into the fitting rooms with them to help them try them on.

“I’m so nervous; those old biddies are watching us,” Doc Holliday whined.

“So long as we pay for everything they won’t care Doc. It’s Monday afternoon and no one’s out shopping so they’ve got nothing else to do,” Mick explained.

“I’m scared too,” Ray Maine whined.

Mick walked over to the counter and addressed a lady who looked to be in her sixties; she had a blue rinse in her hair.

“Excuse me. My friends and I are crossdressers and were looking for nice outfits to wear to Pink Pussycats.

The other three young sailors baulked; their faces crimson with embarrassment.

“Of course you are dear, I could tell. We get your type in here all the time. Now let me help you. Come on Velma lets help these young fellows choose some nice dresses.”

Velma went to the door and flicked the sign over to ‘closed’ and locked it.

“There, now have some privacy; let’s get you lot sorted,” she beamed.

The four ‘girls’ and the two old biddies had a great time trying on various dresses, blouses and skirts. They tried on shoes too. The good thing about the demographic that use Oxfam is that they are often larger sized ladies and the girls managed to get two pairs of high heels each. They also scored slips, brassieres, and nightwear. They even got a clutch-purse each.

For about twenty pounds they each had three outfits each and foundation garments. They had kept the wigs they’d purloined from hairdressers on board HMS Chelmsford, now they needed makeup and a few other purchases.

Having dropped off their bargains at their lodging they made their way to Debenhams on the High Street. Emboldened by their victory at Oxfam the four sailors did not hesitate and went straight to the lingerie section and purchased knickers, suspender belts and stockings; lots of stockings. Stockings seemed to get laddered and snagged quite easily during their canoodling sessions.

They allowed Mick to select their cosmetics because as ‘Michele’, he was the expert when it came to selecting and applying makeup. They stopped at the costume jewellery counter and bought accessories.

It helped that being Monday; Debenhams wasn’t particularly crowded so they breezed through, selecting their purchases and paying for them at the counters.

The four were very excited as they walked back to their digs.

“I’ll say one thing; it’s fucking expensive being a crossdresser,” Mary Maine was known to be a spendthrift.

“Maybe you can sell your arse at Pink Pussycats to make back some money,” Polly Perkins joked.

They stopped off at an off licence and bought lager, gin, and bottles of Brit Vic tonic water.

Back at their digs they crowded into Mick’s room, excited at the forthcoming evening’s entertainment.

“Ok you grommets. Someone pour me a G and T and light me a ciggy and sit down here one at a time so I can do your makeup,” Michele pulled her room’s only other chair in front of her; the makeup laid out on the side table.

Two hours later, Mick, Doc, Brian and Ray had transformed into Michele, Doris, Polly and Mary. The girls preened, giggled and nattered, drinking and smoked; waiting for day to become night and for Pink Pussycats to open.

At nine o’clock the four attractive transvestites sauntered into Pink Pussycats. There had been some trepidation about going out dressed but the four ‘girls’ had had plenty of practice walking in high-heels, developing a womanly gait. No one paid much attention to them except for a group of lads outside a pub on the corner who gave them a ‘wolf-whistle’.

The trannies all giggled.

“Show us yer knickers love!” one of the young revellers yelled.

Polly obliged and turned to face them and lifted the front of her dress and gave them a panty flash.

“Fuck me boys; she’s a stunner!” one of them gasped.

While the rest of the lads preened, joked and strutted, one of the group eyed the four girls intently.

“Four trannies off to Pick Pussycats,” the dark eyed, longhaired, brooding young man pronounced.

“You think?” one his cohorts challenged.

“I think,” he replied and finished his pint and licked his lips.

Pink Pussycats was a dive. The club was situated on the second floor over a dodgy souvlaki restaurant serviced by a rickety staircase. Shag carpet stained an indiscriminate colour after years of spilled beer, ground in cigarette ash, and god knows what else. It never really dried and sucked at the patron’s shoes like quicksand. The yellow nicotine stained walls were lit by sconces, every second bulb blown, the ceiling was supposed to be white but it had long ago turned yellow; the plastic chandeliers were cobweb riddled. Mirror balls hung from the ceiling, reflecting the coloured lights from various spotlights, the bar was long, dirty and had suffered thousands of cigarette burns. There was a line of booths along one wall and low tables attended by tatty couches and armchairs scattered around the room and a small dancefloor of polished wood with a discotheque booth at one end. It smelled of stale beer, cheap spirits, disinfectant and perfume.

“It’s perfect!” Michele beamed.

Michele’s Uncle Bill had taken her out a couple times to clubs just like this during their torrid one-year affair. Michele knew that these were the sort of clubs frequented by transvestites, lesbians, gays, and their admirers and other ‘perverts’ ostracised by society in the 1970s.

Nine o’clock was early for Pink Pussycats, most of the trannies and punters didn’t roll in until around eleven o’clock, but the small contingent gathered at the bar all swivelled around to watch the four stunning trannies strut to the bar.

Michele ordered gin and tonics for all of them and they clinked glasses.

“To our girl’s night out,” Michele toasted.

The others repeated the toast and beamed. They were very comfortable here and were glad that they had listened to Michele. Once again their mentor had been right.

The girls took a table with a couple of couches pulled up to it; they drank, smoked and chatted. As the evening progressed more crossdressers and admirers arrived. Some trannies and admirers paired off but most of the trannies stayed together in small groups and chatted and danced together, eyed off by the as yet timid admirers.

“The admirers are working up Dutch courage so they can talk to the girls,” Michele explained.

After a few drinks the girls danced as a group and then some of the other girls came over and they danced with them. It was exciting for Doris, Polly, and Mary whose only crossdressing experience had been during the ROP at HMS Chelmsford. Michele too was enjoying herself, particularly now that her charges were spreading their wings and confident enough to do their own thing without her needing to constantly guide them.

Most of the male admirers had drunk enough now so that they were able to leave their perches at the bar and approach the girls and dance or chat with them. Some had paired off already and were chatting or smooching in the dark corners of the club.

Michele’s girls were dancing with a small group of other transvestites and male admirers, taking a break now and then to get a drink and to chat. The night was getting late and the music had changed from the unce, unce, unce, of the disco beat to the ballads of Roxy Music and David Bowie.

Polly, Doris and Mary were dancing with three admirers, the girls were having fun but it was obvious from their body language that all the admirers were going to get was a dance. Every attempt at a bum squeeze or a kiss was gently rebuffed by the girls. They were having fun but still infatuated with their sailor beaus and intended to remain faithful.

Michele had retired to a booth where she sat on her own watching her charges.

“Grommets!” she giggled to herself.

She was more drunk than sober, but still had control of her faculties.

She lit a cigarette and drained the last of her gin and tonic and was about to get up and go to the bar when suddenly a fresh gin and tonic appeared before her.

A man slid into the booth and seated himself across from her. Michele recognised the longhaired broody young man from outside the pub.

“Cheers,” he raised his scotch and dry ginger to her and took a sip.

Michele looked at him warily. He dug in his pockets and produced a packet of menthol cigarettes and lit two; offering one to Michele.

She took it in her delicate fingers, nails painted blood red.

She drew on her cigarette and sipped her drink, eying him sceptically.

“Cocky bastard aren’t you,” she smiled at him.

His handsome face was framed by long blonde locks, stylishly unkempt; his lips were sensual and red, Mick Jagger lips, his eyes dark with long lashes. He was fashionably pale; his slim frame clad in a tight a denim jacket and jeans.

He oozed self-confidence.

He smiled back at her and her heart skipped a beat. This young man was extremely handsome and exuded a raw sexiness. He lifted himself out of his seat and sat down next to her.

“Yes?” Michele raised her eyebrows at him.

“Is that a question or an answer?” he responded and lowered his face to hers.

Michele melted when his luscious lips met hers. He kissed her softly and tenderly, brushing his lips on hers. He teased her and when Michele attempted to crush her lips on his he resisted and held her face still. Then he slipped just the tip of tongue inside her lips; Michele tried to make him kiss her harder but he resisted and gently caressed her lips with his, tentatively slipping the tip of tongue across her lips.

He broke the kiss and drew on his cigarette and took a sip of his drink.

Michele did the same.

She was dressed in a deep blue, skin-tight maxi-dress, split at the side, displaying her long elegant legs clad in fully-fashioned, flesh-toned stockings. Her makeup was heavy, but perfect for night-clubbing, dark smoky eyes, rouged cheeks and blood-red lips to match her nailpolish. Accessorised with silver jewellery and high-heels, her hair styled in a short black bob; she looked sumptuous and she knew it.

Michele scooted into the corner of the booth and laid her long legs along the bench seat. She sipped her drink glancing at the broody young man indifferently.

“Any chance of another drink,” she gave him her best sultry look.

“Sure, I just have to do one thing,” he replied.

“What’s that?” Michele asked.

“This!”

He leapt across the booth and pulled Michele to him, his lips crushed hers and finally he kissed her passionately and Michele responded, pulling him against her. His hand found the split in her skirt at the same time as she found the bulge in his tight jeans. She squeezed his erection through the denim while he explored her legs and buttocks, neither of them breaking the kiss.

After the initial burst of excitement they slowed things down and took their time, kissing and exploring each other in the dark corner of the booth.

“Look at the lovebirds!” Polly sniggered to her chums, pointing with her chin across the room to where Michele sat in her booth.

“Didn’t take her long to find someone else did it?” Doris huffed.

“What? Have you and Billy Marron got true love? Come on Doris, we all know things between Michele and Jason haven’t been going well since Christmas,” Mary replied.

“Well in that case, this could be interesting,” Polly grinned.

She pointed over to the top of the staircase where an unmistakably drunk Leading Recruit ‘Spike’ Jones had just staggered into the club.

Michele and her new beau were only interested in each other and were not paying attention to the passing parade in the dark noisy nightclub. They had sated their initial lust and were seated side by side kissing and fondling each other, happy with their own company until Jason stormed over to their booth.

His uniform was dishevelled; his lanyard askew and the silk around his neck had come adrift from the tapes that normally secured it tied in bow. His blue sailor’s collar was crooked and he reeked of rum.

“Hello slut!” he drawled drunkenly and uninvitedly plonking himself into the booth across from them.

He’d stopped at the bar for a double rum and slammed it on the table, spilling some of the dark liquor on the table top.

“Jason what are you doing here?” Michele asked.

Her voice was calming, deliberately non-confrontational.

“Well apparently my girlfriend was going to have a girls night out, but now I’ve found her with some hippy looking tosser who’s got every intention of fucking her!” he slurred.

The broody young man slid along the bench seat, his intention to eject the drunken sailor obvious, but Michele gripped his bicep to stop him.

“Jason I stopped being your girlfriend the day you called me a slut just before the Christmas party. I’m not your possession and never will be, so just get over it,” Michele said maintaining a calm tone.

“Well you obviously are a slut!”

“You’re here with this skinny fag tranny fucker!” he screeched.

Jason could be heard over the music and the sleepy bouncer at the top of the stairs awakened and looked in their direction, ready for trouble, but didn’t move.

“Jason, you’re making a scene. Go back to your digs and we’ll discuss this tomorrow,” Michele said trying to soothe him.

“Ah fuck you and fuck your longhaired, sissy faggot!” Spike roared and threw the remains of his drink over Michele.

The lithe young man sitting beside Michele leapt to his feet and hauled Spike out of his seat and dragged him over to the entrance door. He grabbed him by his tunic and tossed him down the stairs.

He looked at the bellicose bouncer.

“Isn’t this what you’re paid to do?” he quipped.

“Nah, why bother when you can do my job for me,” the bouncer replied.

The broody young longhair strode back to the booth.

“Come on!” he grabbed Michele by the arm and half dragged her from her seat.

“Where are we going?” Michele asked.

“Your place! I presume you have one?”

They burst through the door to Michele’s room at her cheap lodgings, kissing and groping at each other.

Michele dragged him over to the bed and they fell on it, the shabby bed groaning under their weight. They kissed and groped each other; Michele was underneath him, struggling to pull down his skin tight jeans as he clawed at her knickers.

“Fuck that!” Michele groaned wantonly.

She pulled him on top of her and her hand found him; hot, hard and ready. She pulled aside the gusset of her stain panties and guided him to her sphincter. She had pre-lubricated in anticipation of bringing home a beau or maybe Jason dropping around.

Michele gripped his hips and rose up off the bed, slowly impaled herself on his hard phallus. She bucked underneath him, moving her hands to his shoulders and bringing his face to hers so she could kiss him. They fucked and thrashed on the rickety bed.

Michele put a hand to his throat, forcing him to pause. She lifted her legs up high and put them over his shoulders and he thrust into her deeply, his scrotum resting in her buttocks.

Then Michele fucked him; she hung onto his shoulders and thrust herself up and down off the bed to meet his thrusts.

Her high-heels banged against the wall; the bed groaned and squeaked as their passion mounted. In the room next door Polly and Mary giggled as they listened to the banging on the wall.

“Fuck me!”

“Fuck me!”

“Fuck me hard you bastard!” Michele was irrevocable, lost in animal lust.

The young hipster gripped her tight and screamed obscenities as he orgasmed and spent himself deep inside her. Michele’s anal muscles contracted and gripped his throbbing penis as she spent into her panties.

An hour later the two lovers were sipping drinks and smoking a cigarette, still ensconced in the afterglow of their frenzied lovemaking.

Michele had slinked out of her dress and was left dressed in knickers, brassiere, suspenders and stockings, which were laddered and holed. She still wore her silver high heels.

Michele crushed out her cigarette and drained her drink.

“Bet you can’t go again,” she chided her lover.

“Oh for fuck sake am I going to get any sleep tonight?” Poly whinged in the room next door as the wall began to shake.

As the pale light of dawn crept through the window Michele snuggled up to her paramour.

“What’s your name by the way?” she asked.

“Does it matter?” he replied.

“Not really,” Michele yawned and fell asleep.

To be continued.