Clair’s Ranch House:
“Go ahead and contact everyone so we can see what they think. I’ll go ahead and start on the background search on each lady.” Gina had pulled out her cell phone and was making notes on it.

Nick was impressed with how Gina took charge. His oldest son, Robert could take lessons from her. He couldn’t believe how far she had come since Jack adopted her.

Cadmus looks up and starts growling. Gina looks down at her wolf and wonders what has him on alert.

“What’s wrong boy?” Gina has learned to listen to Cadmus.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m, uh — I’m fixing to turn into Jennifer, okay? So if you could not look this way while I’m changing clothes, that would be good.”

 

“Sure, man,” he said. “You got some chick threads at some point?”

Allison found some way of slowing things down at the start of her week; on Monday, the day women mostly had to themselves. Up until then her mind had been racing but a message from Des — delivered to Jenny’s — helped her put things in the correct place. It was right around the same time Dr. Grace said what Allison was going through was normal; the standard effects of the disruption Allison had been through.

Dr. Grace booked an appointment for Allison for the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, saying Allison could see her on any of those days, whenever she needed to, simply walk in. Just to talk, if she wanted. But no later than the Thursday. Whatever she ended up doing it would mean yet another round of fun with doctors on her journey to womanhood.

CHAPTER 30
I left the women with a suffering child and rode back to Bethesda in a partial daze, the transition from city to country only partially clearing my thoughts, until I realised I needed a much steadier head for the waiting bends.

I pulled the bike onto its centre stand on the patch of tarmac by a junction just before the woods started, and hauled out my mobile. It rang three times before being answered.

“I’m at work, Mike. This important?”

CHAPTER 29
I was caught, well and truly. It wasn’t solving a puzzle, it wasn’t confirming my guesses, but rather receiving the two-edged gift of the hand grenade of Dafi’s confidence. That phrase actually ran through my head, and as one part of my brain ran off arguing about whether grenades had edges, the rest of me simply sat and stared, trying to work out a much more important question: what the hell to do now?

I’ve always had great lashes – even for a girl.

‘Meeting Chloe’

A ‘fresh start’ contest story.

Allison and Angie were having lunch when Allison revealed she wanted her ears pierced. Angie knew the perfect place for it, and it was also the perfect place to fix Allison up with makeup, but neither counted on finding two women who treated Angie and Allison just like Angie and Allison treated everyone else; they were fun head-wreckers.

Now Allison needs quiet. And to rest. And more. But with the pace of the past few days, with all she’s discovering, all the secrets revealed on the deep space station, she doesn’t know how to achieve any of that. And she doesn’t know what she’ll do if she can’t find it.

The day that Ms Sondra King started work at Briggs and Co., Engineers would last a long time in the memory of most employees.

The Bar

Just another night at The Bar. The cities change. Copenhagen, London, San Francisco, Omaha, Tokyo. But somehow, The Bar stays the same. The same sights, smells, sounds. The same faces, or close enough. Different languages, but the same lines.

[At a village pub in mid-Wales]
The door to the bar opened, and a man walked in, followed by a young border collie dog. He was wearing a fairly clean set of overalls and a decidedly muddy pair of Wellington boots. He removed the boots and left them close to the door. The dog stayed at the side of his master. This scene had been played out hundreds of thousands of times at this and many other Public Houses all over Wales for decades.

A little bit of History

I've been thinking about where I am, and where I have come from.

But I don't know how to share it, other than to use metaphors, so I hope that's okay.

It start's, as it must, with the abuse I suffered when I was a child.

But I've talked about that, so lets move on to what happened next.

The abuse had created a lot of anger, anger that scared me, and I labeled it The Monster and tried to lock it away.

At long last she said, "I hope you can enjoy this time you have: to sit, to think, to watch."

"I am," I replied. "I do. A little. Some. When I'm not afraid."

Char knows going to a support group is what he needs as it can be hard to break the habits of a lifetime. We all need help from time to time. Sometimes, we could use a little magic too.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to prevent more giggles...

CHAPTER 28
He was back with Vic in under an hour, the smell of the chips strong in the kitchen. Vic dished them out as Keith poured mugs of tea, and I simply waited for what they felt they could tell me. Vic looked drained, so after a few minutes of his almost mechanical intake pf chips, I changed my mind and risked a question.

“You okay, Vic?”

He looked across to Keith for a moment before turning back to me.

“Not really, Mike. What’s Keith told you?”