About a week after the encounter with Jenny at Marcus' party, Pam was still not over it. She had received the offer for the movie deal from Marcus, but she knew that the offer came from the fact that she had defeated her rival in their Indian wrestling match. She also knew that, had the match gone on three or four more minutes, she would have been the loser. She wasn't kidding when she had told Jenny that she was a childhood champion Indian wrestler in Canada. What she hadn't mentioned was that it had continued throughout her teenage years.

But she had never faced an opponent such as Jenny. It was an almost perfect match between them. The picture of Jenny's face, the agony there, and knowing her own agony as their duel had gone on, hand haunted her for the last week. The intensity of the struggle blew her away.

Jenny, for her part, was angry at herself for giving in. She, too had a picture in her mind of the anguish on Pam's face, as the long struggle continued. She had really needed that movie deal. That was water under the bridge, she knew. She had been the best Indian wrestler in her neighborhood, right through her seventeenth year.

She had a lot to settle with Pam, and she knew that it would all be difficult and intense.

Three days later, Pam received a telephone call from Jenny.

"Pam, this is Jenny."

Pam felt the excitement creeping into her. "Hi, what's up?"

"Would you say that, as Indian wrestlers, you and I are pretty equal?"

Pam laughed slightly. "You know that I would."

The tension in Jenny's voice grew and Pam felt a thrill shoot down her spine. "Would you say that we would be pretty even at almost any test of strength?"

"I think so. But there really is only one way to find out, isn't there?" Pam knew what was coming when she spoke the words.

Jenny invited Pam to come to the beach house of a mutual friend who was away in Europe on a film project. Pam agreed to the meeting, asking for about one hour to drive over. She quickly changed into a minidress and high heels, threw some workout clothes into a gym bag and left.

Jenny answered the door at Pam's knock, wearing a dress and shoes identical to Pam's, right down to the color. She raised her eyebrows slightly when she saw how her rival was dressed, but stood aside to let her enter.

Pam placed the gym bag on the floor next to the door as she walked in. As she had suspected, she wouldn't need the clothing. Yet. She stood upright and the two blondes locked eyes with fire, hatred, and respect. Each stood with her hands balled up on her hips, and the muscles of their entire bodies seemed to flex.

"Well," Pam said, "I'm here. Do we want a rematch, or what?"

Jenny smiled slightly. "I had something else in mind besides Indian wrestling. If you're up to it, that is." She gestured for Pam to follow her.

There was a patio in the middle of the house, open through the ceiling. No wind could blow there and the air was warm and unusually humid for Southern California. Two plastic knives, children's toys, and a three-foot length of rope was on one of the concrete benches.

"Maybe you would be interested in a duel to the death," Jenny suggested.

Pam had heard about Jenny's sometimes warped sense of humor, though she had to admit, given the animosity which had sprung up when they Indian wrestled, there was a certain Freudian logic to it. "Is this all there is, then? Are we through after this?"

Jenny smiled. "Do you really think so? I was an Indian wrestler back home, and you gave the hardest fight I've ever had. You even won. That was arms, legs, shoulders. We have too much to explore between us. I want to test each of your muscles against mine, until one of us says 'enough' and gives up. The way I see it, you won the last test. But our duel, woman against woman, power against power, still continues."

Pam nodded and held her right arm up. Jenny took the rope and held her right wrist up against Pam's. The two women pressed their wrists together hard to insure a tight bond, using the moment to study the bulging biceps of the other. They used their free hands to tie the rope around both wrists.

Once bound, Jenny reached down and picked up one of the knives, putting it in Pam's right hand. She then reached down and retrieved the other, putting it into her right hand. With her left hand, she grabbed Pam's right forearm. Pam followed suit. Slowly they built up strength, resisting each other until each was using all of her strength.

The effort showed on each woman's beautiful face as she tried to press her knife into the other's body. High heeled legs braced on the brick surface, and the thigh and calf muscles of both women stood out strongly below the minidresses as they fought. Sweat quickly formed all over each woman's body.

After ten minutes, neither woman could gain an advantage, though Jenny had forced Pam back two steps against a Doric column. There was a twin column three feet away and Jenny braced herself against that, so that the women were between the columns. Still, neither could press their knife forward.

Jenny let go with her left hand, wrapping her forearm around Pam's, then slipping her arm through the inverted "V" formed by their bound arms, bracing her wrist against her own right forearm. She used the added leverage to try and bend Pam's arms back, to force her to her knees. Pam cried out in pain, being forced down slightly, then quickly released Jenny's forearm and wrapped herself in identical fashion, bringing herself upright again.

The hazard in this was that each woman had to bring herself closer to the other in wrapping her arms up, so now each woman was barely more than three inches from the tip of her rival's knife, still straining. Their grunts filled the house as the duel continued. Neither woman could see any progress and each felt her strength beginning to wane. Each woman sank to her knees, leaning back away from the knives. Now thigh pressed strongly against thigh and backs were leaning against the columns.

Jenny began to make headway. Pam's grunts turned into sobs as the knife moved ever closer to her throat. She called out the last of her reserves and stopped the progress for two minutes, but Jenny would not be held back. Her rival's knife scraped her chest, just below the throat, and slid down, leaving an angry red welt. Jenny had won after nearly half an hour of combat.

Both women collapsed to their sides, unable to move. Knives slipped from nerveless fingers as each recovered from the ordeal.

Finally, they were able to sit up, then, after another rest, stand. Jenny began to push her right arm to the left against Pam, who fought back and the two were eye to eye once more. Suddenly, Jenny stopped. "Another time."

And both knew, there would be another time.