Introduction: Charli lucks out when she finds a large quantity of discarded birth control pills. After six months of use, she is not pleased with her lack of feminine development; however, things finally start to happen. She finds also that she is able to talk with another dog. Then, someone new shows up.

This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.

Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.

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.

Chapter 5

Charli had problems with her new appearance. She couldn't stop checking herself out. Her appearance was so different that she had trouble believing it at first. One thing she realized was that her makeup was not right. She had to back off a bit. As an afterthought she had dyed her eyebrows at the same time she had done her hair, and the effect was quite satisfactory. She knew she had to have a lighter look.

She started venturing out a bit earlier in the evening to take care of some necessary things. One was laundering her soiled clothes. She had found a laundromat about a block from the other side of the highway. It wasn't difficult at the moment to follow the ledge, walk down the steep concrete, cross a dry ditch and climb up the other side. There was a barrier about three feet high designed to keep vehicles from driving into the ditch, and that was easy enough to get around. A number of willows and other woody plants obscured the ditch and the area beyond. At one time, the streets on the far side of the freeway joined the streets on the side where Charli had spent most of her life. Freeways had a way of destroying neighborhoods, making two neighborhoods out of one. Invariably, one neighborhood would profit, and the other would suffer. Sometimes, but rarely, both would suffer or both would profit. In Charli's case, the neighborhoods had remained relatively unaltered; however, they were now two separate neighborhoods, and there was little crossover between them.

The laundromat where she was going was in the 'other' neighborhood and was currently being used by several young women and a couple of college age men. She had no idea who they were, and decided the best thing was to ignore them. She had a pillow case full of dirty underwear, socks, bras, panties, and girls' tee shirts slung over her shoulder.

She got some detergent from the vending machine, and realized she would have to go to one of the grocery stores soon, not later, to get some items she needed. She couldn't afford to buy vending machine detergent every time she did her laundry. The machines were expensive enough as it was.

'Who are you, who are you, who are you! You don't belong here. You are a stranger. You don't belong here. This is my master's place. You should leave now, little girl. Leave! Leave! Leave!

The non-verbal assault overlaid with the sharp barking of a little dog caught Charli completely off guard. She turned to see a small dog, a Chihuahua, with a bristling ridge of fur on his back. He was wearing a small leather harness.

'Go back to your master, and leave me alone.'

'That's my job. Besides, I am just a wolf in Chihuahua clothing. I can't help it that I'm so small. Man has screwed up my DNA.'

"Brutus, come back here this instant, and stop bothering that girl.

"I'm sorry, Miss," a blond girl said as she picked Brutus up. Brutus turned and vigorously licked the girl's cheek.

'This is my master. She carries me everywhere. I love her.'

"That's okay, Brutus didn't know me, and he's just protecting you. He did a very good job." 'You really did, Brutus. I was very afraid for a moment.'

'I won't bark at you the next time you come.'

A convenience store next door to the laundromat gave Charli a chance to get some fresh supplies while her clothes were drying. She couldn't get too much in the way of perishables; however, she hoped she might be able to rectify that situation with a small portable refrigerator. It would have to be a small one, but all she wanted was something that could keep some milk and eggs cold. It was cool enough in the cave to keep the prosciutto in good condition. She just hoped that the rats would stay away; however, knowing how rats operated, that was going to be an ongoing problem.

By the time she returned to fold her laundry, it was quite dark. The weather was also starting to turn cooler, and she was glad that she had found some warmer clothes. The trip back to her cave was uncomplicated. Making sure no one was watching, the streets weren't highly traveled in that area as it was, she made her way around the end of the barrier at the edge of the road, and made her way home. Padrona was waiting for her.

'Padrona, the strangest thing happened. A small dog didn't like me being in the laundry, and he told me so. I understood everything he was saying. I thought that maybe it was just you and me, but I understood everything, and he understood me. I thought it was just us. This is really strange.'

'Well, there are stories about a doctor from a land across the sea who could talk to the animals. An old bulldog used to tell us pups about him. It may have been just a bedtime story. Do you have anything planned for tonight?'

Charli knew that her food supplies were going to last for a month at the most, and she was going to have to find some sources beyond what her soon to be dwindling supply of cash would buy. Then she realized that the best place for her to look for food was the place she was very familiar with - grocery stores. They were always discarding food that had passed its 'sell by' date. Not only that, if packaging was damaged, some stores would throw those items out, too. Foraging for usable food was going to become an almost nightly affair. However, she knew she wouldn't be alone in this endeavor. There were many homeless that survived by searching through the dumpsters behind grocery stores and restaurants.

Charli had a good night searching. One store had thrown away several dozen eggs because one or two eggs in a carton were broken. She managed to salvage a dozen and a half unbroken eggs. She would hard-boil them, and they should keep that way for a while. She had to clean up a couple of the cartons so she didn't have sticky, raw egg dripping into her bag. A bag of spoiled potatoes had three that were in good condition.

It was behind the chain drugstore where Charli's life took a turn that she had hoped for, but hadn't expected. The store sold all sorts of things including, of course, pharmaceuticals. She was just hoping to find something useful: maybe some aspirin whose expiration date had been reached; however, what she found was far beyond that. There were six boxes, each containing twelve cartons of one month's supply of birth control pills. A flood of emotion warmed her face. She didn't care about the bad things the pills could do for her. She knew that this might be her only chance to start the feminization process in lieu of her impending masculinization. She didn't realize it at the time, but someone had really screwed up. The pills should never have been discarded in the dumpster.

Once back in her cave, she examined her treasures. Without hesitation, she opened one of the small boxes, removed two of the pills from the bubble pack, and swallowed them. That was one small step for a journey she hoped would never end. Then she sat back and read the warnings. "May cause tenderness and swelling of the breasts." 'I certainly hope so,' she giggled to herself.

Living like she was, in spite of the good luck wasn't easy. It was boredom interspersed with a lot more boredom. The only thing that saved her was her laptop. She had absolutely no internet reception, and she knew she would have to remedy that. That was done with a bus trip to the nearest electronics superstore.

"What can I do for you young lady?" The young sales person was definitely checking her out. She had padded her bra a bit. If she had any growth, she wasn't aware of it.

"Yes sir, I want to get a present for my brother. He likes to play online games on his computer when he's out in the summer house, and the signal keeps fading. It really pisses, ... er upsets him when the signal drops him off line.

"It sounds like he needs a Wi-Fi signal booster. They can be pretty expensive. We have several over here." He led her down an aisle to one of the locked showcases. "This one is regularly $129.95; however, it is on sale this week for $89.95. I think it is being discontinued, but I have had several customers who have been very pleased with it."

"I think that's exactly what I, er, he needs."

"Is there anything else you would like?"

"I think I'll see what they have in games. I have to get something for my other brother and sister, too."

Charlie wandered around the store for a while, and saw only one thing she wanted to get, and that was a small microwave oven. It wasn't very expensive, and actually cost less than the antenna she was going to purchase. The problem was that she would never be able to get it back to her cave without help. There was no way she could risk that. That might be something for the future. No, the antenna would have to do. Her six hundred dollars and change was now down to about $400.

The antenna worked perfectly. She set it up just outside the door to her home, and aimed it at the office that was about 200 yards away. The signal strength was good, and with the password, she was able to get in immediately. Now, she was able to get where she hadn't been able to for the last several months. It was back to some of her favorite sites. A nice thing was that there were no significant firewalls to overcome.

She loved some of the TG fiction sites; however, many of the stories didn't appeal to her at all. She loved the stories where someone was able to transition with the aid of magic, and have their sex truly match their gender. That, of course, wasn't possible, but it was nice to think about it. She loved the sisterhood of witches who worked to make a person's gender and sex match.

The stories she couldn't stand were where there were forced sex changes, and the person's soul never matched his or her body. She never saw the point of brainwashing a boy, and turning him into a mindless bimbo. She felt the only people who got anything out of those types of stories were the authors and a small contingency of readers.

She pawed through a huge number of stories that described a wizard and his shop of magic that traveled from shopping center to shopping center, dispensing ironic changes of gender and sex to the unsuspecting. Sometimes the wizard was depicted as a breast obsessed madman who turned the unwitting into brainless bimbos. Other times, but not that often, he was depicted as a rather compassionate, but flawed wizard who tried to dispense his magical changes for the betterment of all involved. If he were real, that was the wizard she wanted to meet.

During her explorations of the internet, she discovered that she could have easily made a Wi-Fi antenna from scrap materials that probably would have worked just as well as the one she paid ninety bucks for. The problem was that when she didn't need one, she had the internet, but when she didn't have one, she couldn't get on the internet to find out how to make one.

Well, that was moot. She had the internet now, and her education, such as it was would continue.

Charli knew patience was a virtue, and she was willing to wait for changes to happen to her body; however, after six months, she hadn't seen any appreciable changes. If she had been under a doctor's care, he probably would have told her that she was only thirteen years old. She'd had a birthday and hadn't thought about it too much. Nor had she considered that these changes might take a while to start. The doctor would have pointed out that there were changes taking place. Her fat distribution was slowly changing, and there were subtle differences in her skeletal development. The one thing she was somewhat aware of was that she was not becoming more boy-like.

Examining her supply of pills, Charli determined that at her current rate of usage, she'd had three years worth of pills when she started taking them. She decided to start taking three pills a day, and that would leave her with about a year and a half's worth of pills. She knew she would have to find another hormone source, something that she had been thinking about it for quite a while.

Maybe it was the third pill, or maybe it was just the right time. Her body started changing almost immediately. If she had bothered to take measurements from the beginning, she would have seen that the changes had started a month or two before that. Her nipples were considerably larger, and her areolae were expanding. But now there was the physical sensation of changes taking place. Her breast area started itching, and the nipple area was a bit sore. Suddenly, she had pointy little breasts, and she was ecstatic.

Padrona notice the changes, too. It was pretty much routine, and unless the weather prevented it Charli would make a nightly trip to the junkyard washroom and toilets. She had touched up her roots several times, and her hair looked about as good as could be expected; however, she was becoming more and more aware of the changes in her body. A thin layer of fat was building up under her skin, and that gave her an overall softer feeling. By now she was shaving her legs and armpits regularly. It seemed her pubic hair had appeared overnight. It was darker than the hair on her head, so she dyed it right along with her roots.

By this time, the weather had turned much colder, with periods of even more frigid weather. When the nor'easters blew through, the wind came through the space under the highway. The fetid water in the ditch had frozen solid, and Charli found herself staying behind the closed door for days at a time. She had gotten used to taking advantage of the shower/change room in the salvage yard. However, it was times like these that she had to use her portable toilet more than she liked. She had some chemical deodorant for the toilet; however, that just made it smell like a chemical toilet. When she could get out she would drop the sealed bags into a neighborhood dumpster. The bags were expensive, but necessary. She was fortunate that other homeless hadn't discovered her cave. She was already aware that hidden spots like hers became latrines, and would rapidly become unlivable.

The rats were back, too, and she had to buy some more poison to keep them at bay. It was obvious that the rats couldn't detect the poison in the grain bait, as she could hear them talking about their good fortune when they found it. Thankfully, the rats went elsewhere to die.

Chapter 6

'Charli, open the door, hurry. Charli, are you in there?'

Charli had been sleeping rather soundly. It had been too cold to forage, and at the moment the food situation was good. At least, it was good enough.

'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, hungry, hungry, hungry, cold, cold, cold, danger, danger, danger.' Charli picked up the distress call before she opened the door.

Padrona entered and briefly shook the powdery snow off her fur. There was something in her soft mouth, and it was making little panicky mewling noises.

'Help, help, help, it is going to eat me.'

Padrona dropped the little bundle on Charli's bed. 'A pack of dogs got its mother and littermates. I heard the commotion outside the fence. I couldn't get there in time. She was coming back with a rabbit when they got her. Then they just waited for the babies to come out. I heard them killing the babies. This one had hidden under a hubcap.

'I killed one of them, and hurt two others. They won't be back. Do you think you can do anything for this one? I don't think it's hurt.'

By this time, Charli had the little, struggling kitten, and she was trying to dry it off. Padrona had a tendency to slobber every once in a while.

'Let me go; let me go. I will scratch your eyes out.'

'What's tuna?'

Charli had some pouches of tuna, and opened one up and placed a portion on a small paper plate. Five minutes later, the kitten was washing his face, and sporting a round little belly. 'That was good. I think I would like more later.'

Charli turned to Padrona who was taking the whole thing in. 'We may have a problem. I can't afford to feed him tuna. Besides, it's probably not that good for him. We're going to need a box for him, too.'

'They probably use it to clean up grease and oil. Padrona, how do you know it's kitty litter?' Charli paused for a moment. This was getting very strange. She and Padrona had been conversing for quite a while like two best girl friends or sisters, and Padrona was probably the older sister. Charli regularly carried on a conversation with the Chihuahua at the laundry when he was there. She could hear rats talking with each other. And now, she had just been carrying on a conversation with a little cat that couldn't be more than eight or ten weeks old.

'What do you mean, how do I know it's kitty litter. It says so right on the bag.'

'I guess you should; it's just that as far as I know, there's never been another dog that could read. This is just really crazy.'

Their conversation was interrupted by the little kitten pushing its way between them. 'Are you my mommy now? I need to tinkle, and there's no good place around here to do it. Should I do it on that pile of stuff over there,' he said indicating the pile of dirty clothes that had been accumulating against the wall.

'No, that wouldn't do at all. We'll get you a spot to do that tomorrow. Right now, you're going to have to do it in the snow.'

They opened the door, and the little kitten made for a drift of snow at the abutment at far end of the ledge. He scraped a spot in the snow, and did his thing. He did his best to cover up the yellow snow and retreated to the door where his new protectors were waiting, and began to shake the snow from his feet. Charli couldn't help giggling at his antics.

The little cat settled down once inside to clean the remaining snow and water from between his toes. Padrona had to return to the yard, as the first workers would be showing up before long.

'So, what do I call you, little one?'

'What are you doing?' Padrona asked.

On a warm Sunday spring afternoon, Padrona and Willie had just returned from a walk around the junk yard, and Willie had unsuccessfully attempted to catch a rat. He was five months old, and growing like a weed. At the moment, he was devouring some of the dry cat food that was his main source of food. Charlie was sitting at her open door with a mirror in one hand, and tweezers in the other. She had experienced more changes over the last few months, and some of them were very welcome, and others were not. She was now a full A-cup, if the tag on the bra she was wearing was accurate. She felt her figure was definitely leaning toward the more feminine as besides her breasts, her waist was still narrow, and her hips seemed to be wider. The girl's panties which she wore exclusively seemed to fit rather nicely; however, there were still indications of her male origin besides the obvious.

'I'm getting rid of some of these hairs that insist on growing on my face.'

'Not now! I don't want to leave you and Willie. Besides, Pilonetti and Luca are still out there. I saw them the other night. They saw me, but I know they didn't recognize me.'

With the proper makeup, and a little help from padding, Charli, in the right light, could pass for almost eighteen. Her hair was well below her shoulders, and quite full. In spite of the shifts caused by her mixed up puberty, her voice remained pleasantly high. She made occasional trips to laundromats in the area, and had no trouble carrying on limited conversations with other patrons. There were a dozen or more convenience stores within easy walking distance, and she would spread her trips among them. Sometimes, if she had the money, she would take the MTA to one of the malls in the area.

Her forays into the dumpsters and trash containers continued to provide the essentials for food. She had also become adept at shoplifting on a very limited basis when it was necessary. Her original supply of money had long been depleted; however, she was able to get several dollars a week by raiding newspaper vending boxes and other vending machines. Some of the newspaper boxes coin returns would jam, and she discovered how to dislodge the change. The vendors were none the wiser because they received their money regardless of the change not given. Other vending machines proved to be profitable, too.

She had been dying for a Cokeâ„¢ one day, an extravagance that she seldom allowed herself. She fed the quarters into a machine at a Wal-Mart, and received nothing. There was no satisfying click. She banged the machine several times to no avail before she peered into the coin slot to discover many quarters wedged inside. Using the tweezers from her Swiss Army Knife, she was able to retrieve several dollars in quarters. Not only that, several quarters were no longer wedged in the slot, and fell into the machine. She got her coke and several dollars. She lived as best she could off the found change after that.

Years later, Charli would say how fortunate she had been to have gotten along as well as she had. Things were going to take a decided turn. Charli was going to have to address survival at a level she had never thought of before. The trouble was that she had become a fairly attractive teenager, and that was not lost on many of the people she came across over the next few years.

Charli had another problem, and that was with her sexuality: it seemed to be increasing rapidly along with her increasingly physical femininity. She had not had any social contact with anyone her age for more than two years, and other than her short trips on the outside, her only contact with the world was through the internet. That was probably not the best source of instruction for her, as much of her time was spent on sexually oriented sites. Without a doubt, these sites gave her an unrealistic view of the world of sexual relationships.

As she crossed the line of entering puberty, she became increasingly aroused by stories of sexual encounters, especially those where her imagination allowed her to take the female role with a virile male lover or a willing female partner. She knew that in her present state, her options were somewhat limited; however, she was becoming more and more interested in trying something out with someone. The fact that her dreams were becoming more and more vivid, frequently ending in sleep ending orgasms, just increased her desire for physical contact with someone.