Chapters 12 and 13: Did what I think just happen really happen? Well, we have two chapters to straighten this mess out; however, there is much more going on than will ever be revealed in Parts 1 and 2 of Cindy’s high school years. You can read a lot between the lines. There are many others working in the shadow of The Wizard. The question is going to be asked again and again: why is The Wizard going to all this trouble?

---

 

If you haven’t read the previous stories about Cindy and how she arrived where she is now, you should probably read them. Start with “An Incremental Journey”, “Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend”, “Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver”, and “Cynthia and the Moment of Truth.” “Cynthia and the Christmas Gift” is looked at from a slightly different perspective in this story.

Well, we have come to the conclusion of Part 1. Cynthia and the High School Years, Part 2 is being researched. I hope you find it interesting.

I have researched the Spell’s—R-Us Universe diligently and cannot find anything that violates it, other than that The Wizard is a bit kinder and gentler than sometimes reported. Don’t get me wrong. Given an opening, The Wizard could resort to some of his more ironic and nasty transformations.

Once again, Holly has taken time out of her busy and hectic schedule to correct my many and grievous errors. Thank you so much!

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

---

 

Cynthia and the High School Years, Part 1 — Chapters 12 and 13
 

Chapter 12

“Okay everyone, I’m a doctor. Stand back, let’s let some air in here.

“Young, lady, are you alright? Here, drink this. You will feel better in a minute.”

A cup of something was place at her lips and she took a sip. It didn’t take long, and soon everything came back into focus. Bobbie was standing there with a wide grin on her face. There was Donna — no, it wasn’t, but it was. ‘What’s going on?’

“You should be fine in a moment. I think you stood up too fast. Your knees were probably restricting your circulation, and when you stood up, your blood pressure dropped, and you fainted. It happens sometimes, especially when it’s as warm as it is. Just take it easy for a few minutes.

“Let’s help her sit down. Now, young lady, why don’t you come by my office in the mall later today, and I will check you out. There won’t be any charge.

“It’s a good thing my dog and I were taking a walk through here when we were. I think we will go now. We’ll see you later.”

The Wizard was wearing a light warm up suit, and he had the wolf on a short leash. He also had several plastic bags and a pooper scooper. He headed for the parking lot, but disappeared before he got there. No one noticed.

“Are you feeling better, Cindy? You look great. You’re even more beautiful than I remember.”

“These are my parents, Robert and Hilda Brewer. Dad’s a colonel in the Air Force, but he’s retiring. I think I told you about them. This trouble maker, Jorge, is my brother, and Lucy is my sister.

“Cindy, it’s so nice to meet you,” his mother said with a slight German accent. “Ever since Don came back from camp, he couldn’t stop talking about you and your friend there,” she said indicating Bobbie. That was really strange, because Bobbie hadn’t gone to camp. It had been Donna.

“He was so excited when we found out that Bob had been accepted for a job up here. Bob decided to ‘punch out’ as he puts it, and retire, and there was this job offer. We’re staying in a Residence Inn right now until the house closes.

“I can certainly see why Don was attracted to you. You and your friend are very pretty.”

“Mom, you are embarrassing her.” Then he turned. “Cindy, do you feel well enough to take a little walk? It’s so nice to see you again, and I would like to catch up.”

Cindy didn’t know what to say. She felt she should be hysterical with joy; however, the potion The Wizard had given her must have been very powerful. “Sure, I would love to. It’s great seeing you again.” ‘That has to be the greatest understatement I have ever made,’ she thought.

“Mom, Dad, I’ll see you back at the motel. It’s only a couple of blocks. I can jog back.”

Bobbie sat on the bench seat as the two lovers walked hand in hand toward a path that wandered through part of the park that was along the river. Bobbie was having a difficult time holding back her tears, and not succeeding very well.

Don and Cindy said nothing for the longest time. Cindy was soaking in the feeling of Don’s grasp. He held her hand the same way Donna had. They kept looking at each other. Cindy was smiling the entire time, but couldn’t keep the tears from flowing. They finally stopped at a fallen sycamore near the edge of the river.

“It’s still me, Cindy. I’m still Donna inside. Nothing has changed about how I feel about you. It’s just that there’s a bit more of me than there was before.

“I’m sorry I had to do this to you. There was no other way. It was the only way to avoid a serious paradox. To you, I may have been gone a week, but to me it’s been more than seventeen years. Thank God, I didn’t remember you until a bit more than a month ago. I would have gone crazy knowing you were out there and we couldn’t be together.

“Cindy, I love you more than ever, and knowing I was going to see you again some day made all this worth while. Are you mad that I came back this way?”

Cindy looked at him, trying to make sense of everything. There was a tremendous feeling of peace taking over what had been so much distress. “There’s so much going on in my mind right now that I can’t explain. I should be in shock, but I’m not. The woman I loved was taken away from me, and this last week has been hell, and nothing anyone said or tried to do has made any difference. I kept getting these reassurances, but they seemed so hollow.

“Then, there you were. Bobbie talked me into coming down here to see the kids and get some sun. She knew, dammit, she knew! I saw you, and there was something about you. You have the same grace, that same beautiful body. Well, not quite the same. God, the hair, the color of your skin, your smile: you came over to me, all the while talking to your parents as if you knew me. There were tingles going up and down my spine, and I didn’t understand it. Then you looked at me and I saw your eyes, Donna’s eyes. Suddenly, I knew. Suddenly, everything was alright.

“My God, you’re back! My beautiful Don or Donna, I don’t give a shit, you’re back, and I am whole again.” She turned and wrapped her arms around him. He smelled of perspiration and maleness, but there was Donna’s smell, too. She planted a kiss on his lips while feeling the slight stubble on his cheeks. She had seen and could feel his arousal. There would be time for that later. It certainly did put a different perspective on things, though. The kiss lingered for quite a while, and was being lovingly reciprocated.

She slowly broke away, as tears of happiness trickled down her cheeks. “No, I’m not mad. I guess I’m going to have to shutoff the egg factory, because I have no intention waiting very long before taking you to bed.”

He pulled her close, again. “The Wizard wants us to meet at the mall. I think he can explain things far better than I can.”

“Does it bother you being in a male body?” Cindy had given his body a very appreciative appraisal.

“Not at all, I could be just as happy being Donna again, if it had to be. Being raped didn’t help, but being a woman with you was a wonderful, wonderful thing. I don’t think this is going to be any less wonderful. In a way we are starting over, but I think that is only a physical starting over. I remember everything about you, every little nook and cranny, and frankly, you turn me on more than ever.

“Over the last few years I’ve had all these fantasies that most boys have. Some day I was going to find a gorgeous, stacked blonde. The thing was, now I know it was you all along.”

“You say you’ve known for about a month. What happened?”

“I was in the Tyson Corners Mall #2 looking for some games for the computer; except, the game store wasn’t there.”

“Let me guess. It couldn’t have been a quaint little shop called ‘Spells-R-Us’, and filled with all sorts of magic stuff and a great big wolf.”

“That would be the one. Well, someone in the back called out my name and said he would be with me in a moment. He came out in that ratty outfit of his and offered me a Coke. I took it, and suddenly, I knew who he was, who you were, and everything else. It knocked me on my ass, literally. The wolf licked up the spilled Coke.

“Have a seat. I’ve closed the shop, and no one will bother us. So how are your folks, and brother and sister?”

“They’re fine. Oh, my gosh! I have a mother and father. They’re not dead. My brother is alive, and I have a little sister.”

“And …?”

“And, I’m a guy!”

“Are you okay with that?”

“Well, yes, but you knew that didn’t you?”

“Yes, I’m a Wizard, and I know these things. Besides, I already told you.”

“Wow, I’ve got to call Cindy. I hope she won’t be too disappointed in the change.”

“She won’t be, but there’s a little problem up there. See, your Donna self is still there. It will be three weeks before you come to me and we start to fix everything from that end. You’ll get your chance to see her in about a month. Right now, you have to get ready for your move. Your dad has a job offer up there to go to work for Cindy’s dad. Your dad’s eclectic background is going to be just what that company needs to take another step forward.”

“I seem to have all my other memories from those other seventeen years. Will that be any problem?”

“Not at all, but they will just be memories. They won’t affect your life like they did before. I think we took care of all the bad things that happened to you and your family. This time, your brother and father never made that trip to the store, and your mother never had that breakdown.

“By the way, the fellow who raped you and killed your mother in that other reality was instead killed by the sniper who killed your father and brother. His behavior had been set many years before, and he had raped and abused several others.

“You are going to a sports camp next week. This is where it will take some good acting on your part. This camp will be the place where you allegedly meet Cindy for the first time, as far as your family is concerned. You need to tell your family that you met her there, and you need to tell them how enamored you are of her. That shouldn’t be too difficult, because that is the truth. There would just too many problems if you actually went to the same camp with your other self. It could be disastrous.

“Things are going according to the plan. Right now you don’t have to worry about anything else.”

“Will Cindy know me? Will she recognize me?” he said, still unsure.

“You have nothing to worry about. Cindy has always loved you, and although your change in sex will be a surprise, it won’t matter.

“Oh, to be young again.”

“He told me that we need to meet him at his shop this afternoon. Bobbie and Andy need to be there. I think he has already told your sister what’s going on. I missed that little imp.”

“Why has all this happened? Why couldn’t we have just stayed together the way we were. I don’t mean that I am upset with this change, but why is the system going to all this trouble?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think this is about you and me. Cindy, I wasn’t unhappy about being Donna. I was pretty, and a good athlete. I was never strongly attracted to men; however, there wasn’t much attraction to women, either. It took you to really make me love anyone sexually.

“Deep inside, I think I knew I would have been happier if I had been born a boy. Then The Wizard contacted me. We talked about many things, especially you and me. He made me realize that I should have been a boy, but that there had been a mistake at my conception. He asked me if I wanted to fix that mistake. I said I would if it meant I could be with you as your lover and husband. He told me it wouldn’t be easy; however, if I wished to fix the things that had happened to my family, I would essentially have to go back to square one.

“I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. I finally broke down and called your home, but you weren’t there. Randi answered, and I told her that I had to stop a paradox.”

Cindy started laughing hysterically, “She said you were going to take care of some ducks. So that’s what it was, a paradox, a pair of ducks.”

“What I realized was that if I had already gone back, and The Wizard confirmed this, there would be two of me, and that couldn’t happen. I had a feeling that I was somewhere else even as I went to the mall. The whole process had actually been going on for a long time, and that I was the last of the previous reality that had to be corrected. I think the two realities have finally become one.

“Don’t get mad at me for saying this; however, I think our love is just part of what’s going on.”

Cindy kissed Don again and again lingered quite a while. “You know something? You really are kinda cute.”

They walked back to the soccer field. There was a touch football game in progress, but Bobbie was waiting for them. “So, have you two made up?” She hugged Don. “It’s so good to have you back where you belong.”

“Guess what? Don’s dad is going to work for the company. That’s why they’re up here. This is so great and it keeps getting better.”

“Kids, I’m in the back. I have some refreshments.”

“He’s always in the back. That’s part of the rules,” Cindy muttered.

The wolf greeted everyone with some slurpy kisses, before he retired to his place in front of the counter. Don parted the beaded curtain so Cindy and Bobbie could pass through without messing up their hair. Then he and Andy followed.

Andy had been shocked when Bobbie told him that Donna was back, except that ‘she’ was now a very handsome ‘he’. Knowing what he knew about his special group of friends, he had little trouble accepting Don. Andy had loved Donna as a sister, and although Don could never be an adopted sibling, Andy realized he had a great deal of fraternal love for Don.

The Wizard had placed some comfortable chairs around a coffee table that was loaded with sandwiches and cold cuts.

“I know you have many questions, and I will try to answer as many as I am allowed to. I just checked things, and as far as I can tell, all potential paradoxes have been nullified. This was a good piece of work, if I say so myself. It’s not easy to stitch two realities, but we pulled it off without too many disturbances.

“First we had the line where Donna was a foundling, where her parents and brother were killed and she was sent to the home in Fallsville. Then we have the line where Don was a foundling. The thing is, Don and Donna are one and the same. We created a little breach in the line, a diverticulum, a weak point, and let the line with Don develop there.

“Yes, Bobbie, you have a question?”

“Yes, Your Wisdom, how did you turn Donna into Don?”

“That was fun. Our people are very good at what they do. If I remember correctly, we searched 97 parallel universes before we found the mother who had an embryo that was virtually identical to Donna, except for the Y chromosome. Where the genes are parallel in the X and Y chromosome we again matched to about 99.9999 percent. You may think that is pretty close; however, when orangutan, chimpanzee, and bonobo DNA is about 95 to 97 percent the same as human’s, you can see there is little room for error.

“Anyway, we switched embryos. The female one went to a universe where Cindy doesn’t exist. She has had a beautiful life with her adoptive family.

“The line with Don was virtually identical to the line with Donna. We kept narrowing events down so that other than Don’s family surviving, and Donna’s not surviving, there were no differences. In reality, the two lines were superimposed. We started stitching the two lines back together after the murder of Donna’s mother. We gradually eliminated the differences until the only anomaly was Donna.

“So what do we do with Donna? Donna already knew that she wanted to be with Cindy for the rest of her life; however, she knew that as Donna, she couldn’t give Cindy the family she wanted. The thing was that the plan had been for Don and Cindy to get together from the beginning, but as Cindy and Bobbie will tell you, what was intended doesn’t always happen. My job was to tell Donna what we could do to make things right. I don’t think it took any convincing on my part.

“Donna knew that magic existed because we let her find out, but we still had to convince her that we could do a one hundred percent perfect sex change, so that she could come back and be a husband for Cindy. That’s still up to you two, though.

“Bobbie, Cindy, please forgive me, but Donna had to know about you. I had to tell her about you, and Randi, too. That was our trump card. I think she may have had an idea that something was different about the three of you, besides your magical talents.”

“I was beginning to wonder,” Don interjected, “because they were so matter of fact about things. There many comments that could be interpreted several ways. There was something else: Cindy and Randi were too smart, too worldly. They knew things and talked about things that were way beyond what their experience should have been, especially for a six year old. The last thing was that they enjoyed being females almost too much. It’s difficult to explain, but when His Wisdom told me, it all made sense.

“Because I had been a bit conflicted about my gender, it was an easy decision. I had nothing to lose. I went to the mall that afternoon with one goal in mind. I was going to return, sweep Cindy off her feet, and be the best damn husband I could possibly be. I wasn’t going to lose her to anyone else.”

“I don’t think you had to worry about that,” Cindy responded while giving Don another kiss. “What was it like? I floated around for ages with a spirit until I got this body.

“Omigosh, the spirit, the spirit came to me in a dream and told me that things were going to be alright. I had forgotten all about that. I was so miserable when you disappeared.”

The Wizard continued with his narration, “We initiated the Temporal Discontinuity, 3712 at that point, at the point your physical existence as Donna ceased. We did allow the memory residue to remain for just a few of you. When that happened, the two lines were joined. Cindy’s spirit, the one she just mentioned, took your spirit back in time and inserted you into the male embryo. We’re getting better at these early insertions. We learned a lot when we did Randi.

“So, what are your memories of your second childhood?” The Wizard probably knew all the answers; however, he wanted Don to explain things in his own words.

“I don’t remember anything about going back. The Wizard put me in a trance and that was the last thing I remembered until he woke me up last month. It’s amazing how parallel my second life was to my first one. Other than being treated like a boy, I didn’t sense much difference until that night Dad didn’t go to the store. Some other unfortunate person was shot instead.”

“That was your mother’s murderer.”

“Things continued to be great. I got a new sister, Mom was well, and Dad was promoted to colonel. Until I met The Wizard in Tyson Corner, I had no idea about this other life. I think things are going to be just wonderful. We’re going to be seniors in high school, and then there’s college. There’s going to be a lot going on.

“You look puzzled, Cindy. Is something bothering you?” The Wizard asked.

“Yes there is, and I imagine as I learn more, much of this will make more sense. I have magical abilities that I am just beginning to learn how to use. I suspect that this body always had these abilities, and when I was inserted into it, the abilities became mine. I think my little sister is in basically the same situation. Her spirit was inserted into a body that would have magical talent.”

“That’s true,” The Wizard said with a smile.

“But what about Bobbie?” she said then hesitated. “Oh dear ….”

“It’s okay, Cindy, Andy knows. I told him a while ago. He’s cool about it,” she said while smiling at Andy and squeezing his hand.

“Boy, I thought I screwed up big time there, but come to think of it, Andy hasn’t said a thing about all these changes we’ve been talking about. Of course he knew.”

The Wizard continued. “Bobbie’s transformation was a bit more difficult. Once the gift certificate was created, it was just a matter of execution. Then we realized something. There was a chance to continue the line. I’ve known Bobbie’s grandmother for years, but I hadn’t been aware of what happened. Naomi was very upset with herself about what happened to Sally, and cast a little obscuring spell. When you gifted Bobbie, some of my associates realized we had an excellent opportunity. We basically did a little gene splicing.

“For a lot of these transformations, we just insert some generic templates we have on hand to change the Y chromosome to an X chromosome. As you are well aware, I favor certain templates. When it comes to magic, there are no templates. We have to use what the individual has. In other words, we can’t take an ordinary mortal and turn her into a witch. Two things were in Bobbies favor. One was she was always a woman at heart.” Andy nodded his head in agreement. “The other thing was she was carrying the magic trait inherited from her mother. We duplicated the missing portion of the Y chromosome from her X chromosome and attached it. It worked perfectly, as you can see. We are very proud of how well it worked out.

“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. There are all sorts of little loops in the time continuum to make these transformations appear to happen as fast as they do. There are many special affects, and sometimes some serious mind control. When I disguise myself, it’s all an optical illusion. I know Cindy can usually see through the disguises.”

“Your Wisdom, there has been something else that has been bothering Cindy and me for quite a while. Cindy was sensing, for want of a better word, wrongness, and I was sensing distress. It was intermittent. Sometimes we were bathed in it; then it would go away for a while.”

“So, do either of you sense anything right now?”

“No, I don’t. Do you Cindy?” Cindy shook her head.

“That’s because nothing is wrong anymore. If you think back to an earlier part of this discussion, you should already know. The problem is that both of you are a bit biased in favor of the female. Your abilities in gender issues have always been focused on the female in the male body, not the other way around. I’ll fix that with a little training. You knew something was wrong, you just couldn’t recognize what it was and focus in on it.”

It hit both girls at the same time. “Oh my gosh, it was Donna!” exclaimed Bobbie.

“Now Don,” said The Wizard. “The problem has been fixed. What was difficult for you was that Donna was a beautiful young woman. Either of you would have been very happy if you had turned out to be like Donna, and the thought never entered your minds that she might have been happier as Don. Well, it’s a moot point now.”

“Why didn’t you just change Donna into Don?” Cindy asked, already knowing what the answer was.

“Because, doing it this way fixed many more problems. Don would have had to live with the trauma that happened to Donna. This way, the knowledge is there, but the trauma is gone. Don’s parents are living, as are his brother and sister. We have eliminated an unfortunate portion of the time line. There are other reasons, too, but we will go into those later.

“I’ve sent a zip file to Bobbie and Cindy’s computers. There’re two spells in it that you need to learn. The first will help you overcome your bias to FTM individuals. You will do a lot of good there. The second one will be obvious to you when you read it.

“Bobbie, just a little advice, when you get to the 12th at Augusta, use your nine iron. Forget the wedge.”
”ƒ

“Andy and I need to do some shopping,” Bobbie said. Her intention was obviously to let the two reunited lovers have some more time alone. “Why don’t you let Don take you home? I know you have a lot more to discuss.”

“Bobbie, I do have a question before you go. How much of this were you aware of? It doesn’t bother me if you were. I just have a feeling that there was much more awareness on your part than you are letting on. I saw you and Donna talking several times, and it was obvious you didn’t want me in on it.

“There’s another thing, now I finally understand why Donna was so up tight those last few weeks.”

Don didn’t give Bobbie a chance to answer. “I went to Bobbie for several reasons. I still had trouble understanding why you didn’t have a boyfriend. I think I was a bit insecure about our relationship. I loved you so much, and feared I would lose you. Bobbie told me you had a very liberal opinion about interpersonal relationships, and that your feelings wouldn’t change whether I was male or female. That just supported what you had told me.

By this time they were walking back to the parking lot. “Then The Wizard contacted me on my computer. I was a bit surprised, but by then I had pretty much accepted this whole magic thing. That was when he told me about your origins. I was surprised, but he was very convincing. I realized, too, that it didn’t really matter. I knew about transgendered individuals, although before then I don’t think I considered myself transgendered, and I realized how fortunate Cindy and Bobbie were.

“The Wizard revealed his plan to me, and said there wasn’t much time. I couldn’t tell Cindy, but I could ask Bobbie. I imagine it was one of those discussions you came upon. She explained about what happened to her and how wonderful it was. Even though I knew my situation was more complicated, it was Bobbie’s assurances that made my decision to go forward easy. I was scared, though. I was so afraid I would lose Cindy, but Bobbie assured me again that Cindy loved me. It didn’t matter what body I was in, Cindy would always love me. I know Cindy felt something wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t tell her.”

“I couldn’t tell her either,” Bobbie added, “however; The Wizard contacted me this morning and told me to take Cindy to the park. I knew then, everything was going to be alright.

“This is so wonderful!” Bobbie joyfully exclaimed.

They parked next to Marissa Lewis’s car and walked, hands tightly clasped, through the service entrance into the large country kitchen. Marissa was working on some culinary project.

“Mom, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

They had stopped just a couple of feet behind her. Marissa turned, wiping her hands on the apron. She hardly hesitated before grabbing Don in a loving embrace and smothering him in kisses. “I am so glad you are here. Cindy has been an absolute mess since you took off on that journey of yours. Thank God everything worked out. Now we can get back to normal around here.” There were some tears in her eyes.

“MOM, YOU KNEW!”

“Of course I knew. When I realized that magic was involved, I contacted that wizard of yours and gave him a piece of my mind. The nerve of him: making my daughter so miserable. He assured me that everything was going to work out just fine. I was about to try to go over his head, I was so mad. He promised me that all these temporal shenanigans were over as far as you two were concerned.

“How did you contact him?”

“Well, I do have a computer in my office, and I am your mother, young lady, and until you are of age, I have a responsibility to look out for your welfare. I am not going to go snooping in your computer or Randi’s, or Tom’s for that matter, but I do have a right to know what’s going on. I made that very clear to His Wisdom a long time ago. I think he’s very understanding, in spite of his not having a child of his own.

“I have a lot of power, you know, since all my daughters will be witches.

“Don, your family is coming over for dinner. Of course they have no idea what’s been going on between you two, and I imagine it will be a long time before they do, if ever. We know what to say and not say, and so do the Schmedlaps. They will eventually learn about the magic, but now is not the time.

“Now, about you two: obviously things have taken on a bit of a different perspective. I know what you have between you is not an infatuation. Mothers know these things, and your mother, Don, will find out soon enough how strong the bond is between you and Cindy. You have been making love for a long time, and it would be foolish of me to expect you to stop now; however, I am not ready to be a grandmother, and I don’t want grandchildren who are older than any children I may have in the future.

“Could you use a little restraint for a while? And, above all, use protection. Young lady, you are going on the pill immediately, and as you know, it takes a while for them to take effect.”

“Mom, I am still a virgin; however, I do intend to take care of that in a while.” Cindy looked back over her shoulder at Don who was standing behind her and hugging her to him. “Our first time together before was very special, and I intend our first time together again to be just as special. The one thing for sure will be that it will be planned. I will let you know. You are going to have a lot of grandbabies, and we will contribute to that number. Don’t worry; it’s going to be a while. I don’t intend to be a teenage mother.”

Randi took that moment to come bounding in from wherever she had been playing, three cats right on her heels. “Mom, I’m thirsty.

“Hi Cindy, Hi Don. Don, you sure are handsome. We’re sure glad you’re back. Cindy was real unhappy.”

Maddy and the kittens began winding around Cindy and Don’s ankles; they jumped onto the counter and received some strokes and chin scratches. “Well, if you had to be a boy, you’ve done pretty well. I guess it’s okay. [Just kidding.]”

“I heard that Maddy,” Don picked her up, turned her over, and scratched her tummy.

“[You did! Well this certainly puts a different light on things. Come on girls. Don’t forget to kill those fleas. We have some lessons to go over].”

Dinner was a very enjoyable affair. The younger children were being feted with pizza at the Schmedlaps, while the adults and older children were seated at the Lewis’s house. Both of Bobbie’s brothers were at college on the west coast, and did not attend.

The Brewers were very pleasant dinner companions. Bob Brewer was not eaten up by having spent 22 years in the Air Force. He had two early promotions and was being groomed for a flag (general’s) position. He knew he was in line for a star, but had decided he needed a better grounded life. “I bought my soul back when I put in for retirement,” he said as Hilda held his hand. “This is going to allow us to do a lot of family things that we haven’t been able to do before. My blood pressure dropped 20 points the day I handed in those papers in.

“Don really got our attention a few weeks ago when he told us about a certain young lady he had met at camp. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be this beautiful young lady, and that she was the daughter of my new boss. I think there were other reasons he was happy to come here. He says they have an excellent soccer program and a very good cross country program at the high school. He’s already getting a lot of attention from several universities that are offering athletic scholarships. However, I think the biggest reason he’s happy we’re coming here is Cindy.

“There was a time I had hoped he would try to get into one of the academies. Now I’m glad he didn’t. Hilda and I talked about this for a long time. We want to stop moving around, and the kids have said the same thing. When I came up here to talk to Stan, Amos, and the rest, I was sure this was the place. Now I know there are many reasons to be glad we are here.”

Cindy, Bobbie, and Don excused themselves from the table. Andy was coming over, and the four were going to hang out somewhere. Andy was going to be going to College at Wake Forest on a Golf Scholarship. His game had improved considerably over the last year, and he was the best male golfer on the team, just not the best golfer. Bobbie had never given up that honor.

There were many more important things than golf going on in the minds of the four young lovers that night: four young lovers who had not yet taken that last step in consummating a relationship. Cindy and Donna had made love many times, but it wasn’t that ultimate man and woman thing. Now they had been given that chance. It would probably work to Don’s advantage that he knew every little spot on Cindy’s body that elicited the responses they so enjoyed; however, there was that one special thing that they could never have done before now. Truthfully, there would be no rush. It would happen in the not too distant future. Right now they just had each other and that was enough.

Andy parked the car on the bluff overlooking the river. They talked about their future, some of their hopes and dreams, but mostly the two couples just held on to each other.

It was an out of the way bed and breakfast in the Berkshires about 75 miles from their home town. They had arrived late in the afternoon, and taken their single piece of luggage to the remote cottage. They freshened up, and then went to a nice little out of the way restaurant. The waiter never batted an eye when the young man ordered two glasses of white wine with dinner. Neither of them finished the glass.

The couple talked quietly, and frequently held hands over the table. There was no doubt in the minds of several of the other customers that the two were newlyweds. They were a bit premature in that guess.

The couple made their way back to the inn. He locked the door and secured the curtains. They met in the center of the room and while kissing, slowly undressed each other. He gently cradled her breasts in his hands and then lowered his lips, gently caressing her nipples. Then he led her to the bath, and they joined each other in the shower. They finally were able to join the jigsaw puzzle images they had of each other’s bodies into one image. After gently drying each other, they returned to the bedroom.

“I was going to invoke the El Paso Rules; however, I don’t think I will be able to because of a technicality. It doesn’t seem to be hanging. I would have been worried if it was. Now come here and make love to me. I think we have waited long enough.”

They didn’t get much sleep.

Next: Part 2 will be coming along in a month or two. We will start with Cindy’s senior year in high school. We’ll just have to see how far we can get. There are many mysteries that we have barely scratched the surface of. There is the overriding concern about The Wizard’s interest in all this. Why is he so involved? We may not find out for a while yet. We may not even find out before the end of Part 2 of the high school years.

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear from you.

Portia