Mare's Tales - Chapter 29

My older twins were now virtually twin sisters. We had spent some
important time shopping for Bernadette and she had passed her 'Rite of
Passage'. She now thought of herself as a girl and lived as one despite
having the all-important indicator of her dual sexuality. She mimicked
me in nearly everything and for all practical purposes was deemed to be
a girl. Her new passport had arrived so there would be no problems with
immigration or police.

I remembered the night she threw me out. I had worn her sexiest underwear. She hadn’t worn it for years, so one of us may as well use it. I was half way through clipping my stockings to my suspenders when she came in. I thought she would be out seeing her friend until 10.30 at least.

“I bloody knew it, you little queer. You couldn’t leave it alone could you. Well you can bugger off. I want a real man.”

They sat around eating and drinking champagne and discussing wedding plans. Sam asked Angus to be best man. He had not known him that long, but he knew it would mean so much to him.

As she ate her chocolate gateaux, Michelle smiled to herself. Everything was going well. There were no more monsters hiding ready to ruin things.

Just as she cleaned up the dinner things, the phone rang.

Happiness is a warm kitchen

“Boss, we have a problem.” Liam looks at the rearview monitor as a black military hummer came towards them.

He just noticed it a few miles back, when they left the safe house his boss had spent the night at. He hadn’t spotted it until they were heading towards the private airfield where a plane was waiting for them. His boss had gotten word that Mr. Bounty was back from wherever he had been and was looking for the people responsible for trying to kill his daughter.

I don’t know if I want this? I’m on my back in his large double bed. I taste my smeared lipstick and smell my Eternity perfume. He loves it which is why I wear it.

He looks down at me with an expression of lust and dominance.

“Baby, you’ve got me so dammed hard. You’re perfect.”

The feed cut off and the world watched in horror as there was a series of explosions on the surface of the asteroid. The ships were exploding as the power surged through them. They extra power had given the engines a massive boost. The exploding gravity field fields pushed the asteroid out of the atmosphere.

The earth was safe. Cheers erupted from the whole world. In the control room it took a few minutes for the screams to die down. In the control room.

Peter looked up from his coms screen. He was crying. Chloe stared and shook her head.

Later that year Charlie heard some worrying news from Peter. One of Britain’s mining ships spotted a potential “Planet Killer” asteroid on the way back to earth. The Woden, contacted earth and ask the Boudicca to confirm their findings on their way back to the asteroid belt.

“I’ve sent you the data Charlie. It does look like it’s on course to hit earth. The thing is nearly 70 miles’ diameter. It will kill all life if it hits.”

Charlie pauses to smell the flowers

All Characters © Beverly Taff

Six months later. David Rodgers was living with Charlie and his family. He was a big hit with the children, who were now old enough to play football on the beach.

The Australian security guards were telling him that he was playing soccer, not football. David knew better though.

Charlie has found his father, and rescued him from Wilson's assassins. The strain was too much for his father, who has suffered a heart attack.

Chloe worked quickly, while Charlie stood by feeling helpless. He usually had a solution for most things. His engineers brain analyzed situations and came up with ways around most problems, but medicine was Chloe’s field.

She took his pulse and put an oxygen mask over his face.

“I think he fainted due to blood loss and shock. His heart is weak. I suspect he needs coronary bypass surgery.”

“Can you save him Chloe.”

Equality has finally come to the UQ. Now Peter may get to meet his father.

The next few months we a frenzy of hard work for the new parliament. The first task was to make sure the mistake of the past could never happen again. A law was passed that was enshrined in the new constitution that made it impossible to disenfranchise anyone, no matter gender, race or religion from voting.

The Editor
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

It was my fourth Marion Potter book and at the end I found my eyes full of tears. It was unusual for me because while I can be as emotional as the next man, I was editing. I was looking for spelling and grammar and inconsistencies. When you are doing that, it is usually hard to get caught up in the story. It should be just words. But they were words that I did not realize had caught me in their web and were now winding me up in silk.

The election is looming. Will the men finally be free of feminist oppression or will the dark days’ return?

In the last week leading up to the election, the UFP ran adverts saying that the space ships that landed in London were fakes. They were all part of the propaganda trying to trick women into giving up their rights over men.

My small workshop was quiet for once. I’d just finished a large job and was cleaning up when I noticed someone standing in the doorway.

I looked up and saw silhouetted against the later afternoon sun, a very shapely young woman. As I looked at her, she flicked her long hair. For half a second, I wondered if I was going to have a heart attack.

Michelle took a while to heal. She spent the first two weeks at home with Suzi looking after her. Suzi and Angus were sharing Sam’s old room. They were becoming very close now. Michelle wondered if they would end up married.

December 2021 Christmas Holidays Story Contest Entry

Big thanks to MonicaS for their continuous and valuable help in the writing of this story.

Mantra (Malibu Comics) has called for outside help, but it hasn't arrived yet. That leaves her still on her own even while trying to protect her daughter from an enemy who, in some ways, is more powerful than she is.