I apologize that this isn't the full part 5 as I would like it to be. It has been more than a month since I posted part 4 and work has been causing me massive losses of writing time as well as my broken arm causing me problems. I had to have surgery last week in order to repair the massive break in my wrist. It is healing well and I will get a cast put on it Thursday to replace the splint and the ace bandage they put on afterwards. They said something about keeping the cast on for a couple of weeks to stabilize a broken bone in the palm of my hand and after it heals better they will be giving me a brace to wear so that I can start working on getting the mobility back. I will be trying to get the full complement of part 5 finished as quickly as I can. In the mean time, I present to you: Part 4.5

Goldie

The Greener Mile - Part 4.5

Paul looked like she was about ready to fall asleep sitting in the chair. I only had one bed in my room so I made the decision to share the bed with her for the rest of the night. I would make a full decision in the morning when we woke up and had a chance to talk as well as get something to eat.

I helped Paul to her feet and set her down at the edge of the bed. I had her take off the torn pajama bottoms and tried as best as I could to get the top to fit better. I gave up and went and got one of my sleep shirts, which were better fitting than the man’s pajamas were. Once she lay down, she was out like a light. I got in on the other side of the bed and turned off the light again. I still couldn’t believe what I had done. It took me a while to get back to sleep again.

Again, I was woken up by a pounding on my door. I looked at the clock and it said that it was 8:12. I hoped that the pounding wasn’t going to become a habit with everyone. I wondered who it was this time. I got, grabbed my robe and went to the door.

I looked through the peep hole and saw that it was two uniformed police officers. Rather than keep them waiting any longer, I opened the door to them.

“Good morning, officers. What can I do for you?” I greeted them.

“Morning, ma’am. We need to ask you a few questions about a person you saw yesterday that came up missing during the night. May we come in?” The one who was the senior officer asked me.

I stood to the side and ushered them in. I saw the look of typical police officers as each of them did the quick survey of the room. One noticed the sleeping form on the bed still asleep. I made the ‘quiet please’ gesture to them to indicate that the form on the bed was still sleeping.

A quick nod from them acknowledged the fact.

In a quieter voice, the leader asked, “What was your business with Mr. Edgecomb yesterday?”

“I was visiting him to find out information about my late husband’s great grandfather who Mr. Edgecomb executed in the electric chair when Mr. Edgecomb was working at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He had come to know the man very well before he died and I am trying to build a family history for my children.” I moved a hand down to rest on my tummy where there were two children sleeping. “I had a great conversation with him during the time I spent there.”

“After you left, did you have any further contact with him?”

“No, I went and picked up my orphaned niece from a third cousin who had been taking care of her until I could come and pick her up. We came back here after eating and went to bed. We have a flight back home to catch in Baton Rouge in a few hours.” I told them. “When did Mr. Edgecomb turn up missing?”

“The night duty nurse found he was missing at around 12:30. The weirdest part was that she said there was a 10 year old girl in Mr. Edgecomb’s bed. Do you know anything about her?”

I felt this was going to be the tricky part getting out of. I tried to show surprise in my face in an attempt to cover up what I knew. “No, I don’t. Was she a neighborhood child that snuck into the home?”

“No one has come forth with any information and there aren’t any 10 year olds living in the area. How old is your niece?” I was asked

“She’s 12 in another month.” I decided to stretch her apparent age a bit. “She is already looking forward to being a teenager, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do,” the older one said. “My 14 year old was the same way when she was that age. Well, if there are any other bits of information that you think might help, here’s my card. Call it if you think of anything that might help out the investigation. Thank you for your help.”

I was handed the card and they quickly left the room. I let out a sigh of relief.

I heard a little giggle come from under the covers of the bed. “You did well with that. I don’t think they even have a clue as to where I am.”

“You heard every thing then?” I asked her.

“Sure, you don’t get to be my age and not be awakened by a pounding on the door. I just felt it better to act like I was asleep.” She said.

“You must have had a lot of practice at it since you certainly had me fooled. The cops didn’t think anything about it either.” I told her.

“Were you serious about taking me with you? I mean, what you told the police about me going with you to where you live?” She inquired of me.

“Well, seeing as to how you have no place to go since you are no longer who you were, I figured that it is due to me that it happened anyway, so why not. I really don’t look like your aunt or anything even closely related to you but I do feel a responsibility towards you. So yes, I was planning on taking you with me, if you were willing to go with me.” I honestly told her.

“For exactly those reasons, I would say yes. For other reasons, I would still say yes. Most importantly, I would like a new start. I mean, I am a little girl now and if you can figure out how to change me back to what I was or even near to what I was, where else would be the better place to be?” She didn’t seem too put out about the entire possibilities.

“I was going to talk to you about that in a little while but I think that if you are up for the idea, we would be happy to have you around our house.” I told her.

“Our house? Who else is there?” She asked me, with concern on her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you about the person I’ve been living with since John died.” I proceeded to tell her about Frank, his family and what had been going on between Frank my myself. “So you see, Frank has been really kind to me and has made no demands of me. He has enough money now that he could retire from his job and live well for the rest of his life but he loves his job. Because of what happened after his family died, he has put in a transfer to be a detective instead of a beat cop.”

“Is there something between you that might be more than what you’re telling me?” she asked.

This was one smart person. Of course, he had lived for a long time and he had retained all his wits about him instead of sliding off into senility as a lot of elderly people did. It has carried over into the person I was talking to. I kept forgetting that she wasn’t just another little girl, but a lot older and wiser than myself.

“To be honest, I really like Frank. Not as just a friend, even though he has been becoming my best friend. I do love him but right at the moment, that is about as far as it goes. With the future, well, that is yet to be seen. Personally, I would like to see it go further than it is right now. I could stand to be married again. After being with John, no matter how short it was, I find myself missing the close, loving companionship we had. No one can replace John but someone could fill in the missing pieces. I really hope it will be Frank.” I told her.

“I’ll bet just having sex again would make up the difference…” She said, a wry smile on her face.

“Hey now! You’re supposed to be a little girl, not some jaded old man! Besides, I… aw heck! Yeah, it would be great to be able to have sex with someone again. John was wonderful when he was alive. Better than I ever had in all 50 years of my li…” I stopped, suddenly realizing what I was starting to say. I had never told her that I had been age regressed also.

“What? You’re older than you look? How did that happen?” She demanded of me. “What else are you holding back from me?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve been holding off information from you. I felt that since I wouldn’t have been around long if things had been different, I wouldn’t have to worry about telling you my true origins.” I told her, rather sheepishly.

“If I’m going to be going to live with you, we need to be on a basis of no secrets between us. Outside of the two of us, we can keep them secret between us. Now what is it you have to tell me. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” She held up three fingers, side by side and said, “Scouts honor.”

“Hmmph, I doubt that they had scouts when you were a child. But, ok, I get the idea. As I mentioned accidentally, I am 50 years old. When I met John Coffee, I was…” I spent quite a while telling her the ‘TRUE’ story of my life. I didn’t leave anything out. I told her I had been born a man and I saw an eyebrow move ever so slightly at that disclosure.

She had the patience of an angel since she didn’t say anything until I sagged, exhausted from talking so much. “Man, I thought my life was full of drama. You make mine sound like a kiddie movie. Poor kid, you had a touch life and John made it even tougher for you, didn’t he?”

“That is where you’re wrong. I would have given my eye teeth to have been born this way but what John did was give me the greatest gift I had ever received from anyone. I don’t care that I’m pregnant right now and that I’ll give birth in a few months. I really am content with my life except for one small thing: I really want John in it and I can no longer do so. I had tried so hard to prevent what happened to him from happening but in the long run, called it his family curse, got to him regardless. I just hope that I don’t have to try to fight for my children the same way I fought for John. I *HAVE* to protect my children harder than I did John. It’s instinctual to me now. It’s like I have this built in instruction manual in my head or something. I can’t let anything happen to them. If someone hurts one of them or something I won’t be able to control the actions that I will have happen. I hope you understand that part. It sounds crazy to me.” I told her.

She gave a wry giggle (I’m sure she was trying to chuckle but with her high childish girl’s voice, it came out a giggle), “That sounds like any woman I’ve ever known. Kipling said it very well in his poem, the female of the species is the deadliest of all. It just goes to show that you are 100% female regardless of your beginnings.”

“Um, thank you, I think…” I told her, rather puzzled by the comment. I had thought I was well read but I was unfamiliar with the statement she made. I was going to have to look it up.

“Kids these days, I swear. You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? Oh well, you’re a smart woman so I figure you’ll work it out for yourself.” Before she could make another comment, her little tummy gave a growl that would have silenced a lion in mid roar. She giggled again. “I think something spoke out about needing some food.”

I had to laugh with her. “I agree. Let’s get ready to go, so we can stop and get something to eat.”

“Um, I think there might be a problem with that idea, Shari.” She said with trepidation.

Puzzled, I couldn’t figure out what she meant.

“Gads, I can still see you sort of think like a man does. I don’t have any clothes to wear silly.” She told me, a bit exasperated.

If my skin hadn’t been so dark, I would have turned bright red. As it was, I felt the flush clear to the roots of my hair. I cursed myself inwardly. We were going to have to do something about that part rather quickly. Nothing I had would fit her and it would look rather silly for her to wear a sleep shirt to go to breakfast in. Or for that matter, anywhere.

I went over to the window and looked out at the row of stores across the street from the motel. I spotted what looked like a second hand clothing store. As I watched, a hand reached to the closed sign and turned it to read ‘open’.

“Ok, problem solved. There’s a clothing store right across the street that just opened. I’m going to get dressed and go get something that you can wear until we can get you some decent clothes.” I told her.

“Ok, just as long as you don’t get me anything too girlie. I’m not sure that I could handle something like that at the moment. Just don’t forget about shoes either.”

I threw some clothes on and high tailed it over to the clothing store. The clerk was very helpful to me when I told her that I needed to get some clothes for a niece that had lost everything she owned in a fire that had occurred in the middle of the night. Again, I stretched the truth when she asked me if it had been local. Especially since she hadn’t heard of one in town that happened during the night. I lied and told her that it had happened in another town and we were traveling to my home now. She shrugged at that and proceeded to take me to the girl’s selections area.

Now I was really lost. I didn’t know much about children’s clothes and I knew I was going to have to learn about them real quick. I described her height and estimated her weight to the clerk who went and picked out a cute little dress that looked like it might fit her. I remembered what she said about the girlie type of clothes and such. I knew I couldn’t help myself, the dress was what I called a little too frilly or dressy, so I nixed it and started looking at others. I found a cute little sun dress that was in a bluish coloration that had the correct sizing for Paul’s size.

In the end, I wound up getting a couple pairs of pants, blouses, socks, underwear, a nightie, the sun dress and a pair of sandals for Paul. As I was thinking about Paul, I realized that if she was going to stay this way for a while, she was going to have to think about a different name. Paul was not a good name for a little girl, regardless of who she really was. I would have to bring it up to her when I got back.

I made the final sales purchase and went back across the street to the motel. I went into the room and saw Paul sitting on the bed watching cartoons and totally enraptured by them. I smiled to myself at the sight. She roused herself out of her trance and smiled at me.

“You know, if I have to be young again, being a girl isn’t so bad. I mean, I sure wouldn’t have to worry about striving to be the best at everything I did and the competitive level wouldn’t be as bad. But the biggest problem I have right at the moment is that being with you is going to cause a lot of questions here. I don’t know where you live but around here, a white girl just isn’t seen with a black woman and vice versa. If I’m seen with you, you could conceivably be arrested for kidnapping and put in jail. I would wind up in a foster home without any way to get back to normal. If you had to change me into a girl, why couldn’t have been a black one where there wouldn’t be any questions about us being seen together. You know what I mean?”

At once it dawned on me what she was saying. We were in the south where, regardless of what most northern people though, segregation was still practiced even though the majority of people ignored what was going on.

If I left the motel with her in plain view, like she said, I could be in some serious trouble with the law. If Frank was here, there wouldn’t be any problems, but for once, I regretted my rash decision to come down here so quickly. I could be in real deep doo-doo…

Chapter 26

I had always hated feeling weak in the emotions department. Ever since I had started hormones all those years ago, I had noticed my emotions becoming so much looser and difficult to control. This was one of those times where I felt my grip starting to come loose on me.

Paul looked at me and she could tell that I was starting to lose it. She stepped over to me and reached out and hugged me. Regardless of her actual body, she hugged like a man: strong and warm.

My immediate reaction was to break down and sob my heart out. I cried and wailed about ruining her life and if I was to try to take her out of the room, I could be arrested. Where her arms were touching my neck, bare skin to bare skin, I suddenly felt a charge of static electricity surge through me, into her. She gave a yelp of pain, then let go of me.

“I’m going to have to be more careful when I walk,” she said. “I forgot how much static electricity can build up when you move fast enough. I hope you’re ok, that felt like a pretty strong shock.”

“I’m fine. It felt like it was from me, not you. I was trying to figure out where I got the build up from.” I told her. “Paul, I think…. What the hell?” I blurted out, shocked at what I was seeing.

“What? What’s wrong?” She asked me.

“Look at your arm…” I told her.

She glanced down at her arm. Where her arm had touched me when she had given me the hug, it was turning dark. It was like time-lapse photography but a lot quicker. The color of her arms as well as the rest of her body was darkening rapidly into what looked like African-American coloration. I was seriously going to have to get whatever was going on in control. I couldn’t keep haphazardly changing people’s sex, age and race like I was doing.

In a matter of moments, the color change had completely stopped and her coloration was very near the same skin tones as what I had. It looked like our problems had been solved. Not in a way I thought it would have been, but one that would prevent me from being arrested for kidnapping of a white girl. Heck, even her features took on a slight change to look more African-American.

“Well, Shari, it seems whatever you’re doing seems to know how to make things right. I’ll really have to stick with you now. I look like your niece with my skin like this.” She remarked.

“But I didn’t intend on you looking like this!” I told her very emphatically.

“Well, it seems you have some work to do in controlling whatever it is that you do. As it…” She was interrupted as a knocking sounded on the door.

We looked at each other in apprehension. She shrugged her shoulders to indicate she didn’t know who it might have been.

Cautiously, I went to the door and peeked through the spy hole. It was the two police officers again but there was an older woman with them. I mouthed ‘police again’ to Paul. I opened the door for them.

“Hello again, Officers. What can I do for you?” I asked them in greeting.

“I’m sorry to bother you again, but the retirement home sent over the person who said she found the little girl in Mr. Edgecomb’s bed to see if she recognized your niece. They have the idea that you are harboring a fugitive. Do you mind if she takes a look at your ‘niece’?” He asked.

“Sure, go ahead.” I told them.

The woman stepped into the room. Took one look at Paul, turned to the officers and said, “Nope, not her. The girl I saw was white. There’s no way this girl could be her. Sorry.” Then she turned away and went back out of the room.

“Sorry to disturb you ma’am. If you do remember anything Mr. Edgecomb said that might be of help, please call us at the number I gave you.” He said and then left.

I closed the door and turned back to Paul. “Whew! That was close.” I told her.

“You got that right. One of the officers was suspicious about something. I could see him looking around the room and at one point, his eyes locked on something over by the bathr…” She trailed off.

We both looked over that direction. There on the counter by the sink was the pajamas Paul had been wearing when she showed up last night. I felt a cold flush run through my veins. They obviously know that Paul had visited me. But they couldn’t know that they had just saw Paul. They could be back any time now with a search warrant. I couldn’t panic or it would seem suspicious even more.

I glimpsed out the curtain as narrowly as I could. Across the street was what looked like an unmarked police car. I could tell by the array of antennas on the trunk. The driver was the younger officer. I had to do something with the pajamas since they had physical evidence of Paul on them, even though they weren’t attached to him. If they could show proof that Paul came to some sort of harm, they could arrest me for his murder.

A fat lot of good it would do them though. There would be nothing other than circumstantial evidence on the clothing since there was no blood or anything on them that would say he met with foul play. Not really caring about the consequences, I just threw the pajamas in the garbage under the sink.

Then we proceeded to pack up everything so that we could leave.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

I had the feeling we wouldn’t make it out of town. I just acted like nothing was wrong and Paul and I went out to the car, put things in the trunk, got in and left the motel.

I watched as the officer pulled his vehicle in behind me while another vehicle pulled into the motel after we left. I knew they were going to search the room for evidence that Paul had been there. I kept my eye on the cop car as I neared the edge of town. Sure enough, as I neared the city limit, I saw him turn his lights on to pull me over.

Obediently, I pulled over to the side of the road.

He approached with his hand on his gun. “Will you step out of the car, ma’am?”

I calmly got out of the car and stepped off the roadway. No sense in getting hit by someone who was pulling a lookie-lou to see what was going on.

“Yes, officer? What did I do wrong?” I asked him.

“You’re going to have to come down to the station with me. You are wanted for questioning in the disappearance and possible death of Paul Edgecomb, who vanished from a locked facility last night. You were the last visitor he had and you have some explaining to do. Now turn around with your hands on your vehicle.” He demanded of me.

Going easy, I placed my hands where he could see them. He did the quick search to make sure I didn’t have any weapons on me. Then he grabbed one hand, clicked one side of the handcuffs on me and then brought my other hand around and fastened it into the cuffs. I was read my rights and then I was then taken to his car and placed into the back seat.

He got in and pulled out and swung around back to town. I watched as another car pulled behind my rental and a male officer and a female officer got out. Paul was lead out of the car and into theirs. I knew she was going to be ok. It was just a matter of time before we were released due to lack of evidence.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

I was taken into the station where I was booked in and given a complete body cavity search. They wanted to utilize some sort of drug grabber to see if they could pull drugs out of my womb. I had to advise them that I was pregnant and if they put that thing inside me, I would more than likely lose my babies. If I lost my babies, the only children of my late husband, I would sue them for so much money that it would take their great-great-great-great grandkids to pay off the debt. After that, they handled me with a bit more care, although they seemed a bit unsure whether I was telling the truth or not, but they weren’t taking a chance.

I was garbed in a standard jail house jumpsuit and then taken into an interrogation room and left handcuffed to a table.

They made me sit there in that uncomfortable, hard plastic chair for four hours. Knowing that I didn’t do anything wrong, I made the best of it: I went to sleep right there. Years ago, I was always on the go, doing things with little or no sleep and I formed a habit of being able to sleep and get refreshed in a short period of time. The four hours I slept made me feel better in the times that were to come afterward.

I was abruptly awakened by the slamming of the door. I was awake instantly. The lead detective from this morning was there. With him was another person I had never met before. Obviously, he was the supervisor of the detective.

“Ms. Mason, when I talked to you this morning, you stated that you had not had any contact with Mr. Paul Edgecomb since your visit to him yesterday. You know we found the pajamas he had worn to bed last night in the garbage of your motel room, don’t you?” He opened up on me.

“Who they belonged to, I had no idea. I found them outside my room this morning when I went across the street to get my niece some clothes that would fit her. She had been left with nothing to wear after her parents were killed in a fire. I just brought them in because I wasn’t sure what to do with them.” I told him.

That set the man off. He berated me, castigated me to no end. I think that if his supervisor hadn’t been in the room, he probably would have done a lot more than he did. I had a sudden fear for the man. He could be a real loose cannon if he was permitted to be.

I tried to calmly answer any an all questions that was put to me. I didn’t know if there was some sort of remote lie detector connected to me or not but I kept seeing him tilt his head a bit every once in a while as if he was listening to something. The next time he straightened his head up I noticed that he had a small hidden earpiece. I knew then he was getting information about something from someone.

“Look here, Mason or perhaps you prefer the name of Coffee, or maybe even your other alias of Parson, you have been one slick bitch. Fraud, accessory to felony child molestation and murder as well as who knows how many other crimes you’ve committed, but you’re going down. As soon as we can find Edgecomb’s body, you’re going to be charged with his murder. It’s only a matter of time before you join that piece of shit husband of yours. He deserved what he got…” He trailed off as he finally took notice of the look of sheer anger on my face.

I stood up and looked him straight in the eye. “Look you piece of shit. Where I’m from, no one can talk to someone like you just did to me. You are out of line mister. Not only are you as far off as you can be, you are just taking stabs in the dark. My husband was murdered in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Believe what you wish to believe but he was found innocent post-humusly. Someone else committed those crimes and if you had looked close enough at the files you so carelessly glanced at, you would have seen that. So if you’re going to charge me with a crime, do so, but I’m through playing your tiring little game. As for Paul Edgecomb, he isn’t dead. He is right under your nose and you wouldn’t be able to see it. Now, if you will bring me my niece, I’m out of here.” I sat down and folded my arms in contempt of this… this, oh I’m not going to even think it.

His face grew deeply red. It almost looked like he was about to burst a vessel in his head. ”Now listen here you bitch…”

About this time, his supervisor interrupted. “That’s enough Fred. I’ve listened to this farce long enough. She obviously knows where Paul Edgecomb is and that he’s still alive. As far as we know, he doesn’t want to be found and when he’s ready to come forward, he will. She hasn’t committed any crime here and we were only supposed to question her. If you can’t tell when a person is telling the truth, maybe you shouldn’t be doing this.” He then turned to me. “I’m sorry you had to go through this Ms. Mason. Be honest with me. Do you know where Paul Edgecomb is?”

I nodded yes at that question.

“Is he alive and well?” I was asked.

I also nodded yes.

“Does he want to be found?”

I shook my head no.

“That’s good enough for me. Detective Riordan, release her from custody. She is free to go without any charges files against her. Ms. Mason, please make sure we have a contact number and address in case we have any further questions for you. As soon as we can get you your clothes, you can meet your niece at the front desk and we’ll see to it you are taken to your car. You have a good day and a safe trip.”

It took an hour to get checked out of custody, get my stuff gathered up and for me to get dressed again. I was taken to the front desk where Paul was sitting with a lady police officer. She had a look on her face that was pure boredom. The lady officer was chatting gaily with her but Paul seemed to have no interest in the conversation. She spotted me and a smile flew across her face. She jumped up and ran to me where she gave me a hug. I returned it warmly.

“How are you holding up?” She asked me.

“I’m tired of the BS I was dealt in there but not too bad otherwise.” I replied.

“Good, let’s get out of here. The less I see of this place, the happier I’ll be.” She said.

I could have agreed with her more.

The lady officer was our escort back to the car where it was impounded. The police wanted to keep it longer but they had not found any prints in it that were Paul’s, or so they said. We got in it and left.

I had been in the interrogation room for nearly ten hours and I was tired. But, I needed to get away from this town as quickly as I could. I drove to the next town I could find and stopped to find a room for Paul and I. We were too late to get anything to eat at a restaurant so we picked up a quick but fattening bite at a convenience store.

Once we settled down for the night, it didn’t take long before I was fast asleep.

Chapter 27

The next morning, we slept in until nearly 10AM and then left the motel for Baton Rouge. A few hours later, we were back at the airport, returned the car, and booked into the flight. We had a couple of hours to wait before the flight left so we sat and talked.

“Paul, I know this is the wrong time to bring this up, but until we are able to fix the situation with your body, we need to come up with a new name for you. I mean, I can’t keep calling you Paul around everyone even though that’s your name. It just doesn’t seem right to call a little girl Paul regardless of what she was before. Do you understand where I’m coming from?” I asked her.

“I know what you’re trying to say. I don’t like it but what choice do I have? I was having a difficult with the people that took me into custody. They kept asking me my name but I acted like I was shy and I didn’t talk to them. I finally acted like I was a bit braver and said my name was JaNeece. My wife’s name was Janice but everyone called her Jan and it was the only name I could think of that they could call me. Let’s go with that for now, can we?” She told me.

“If you’re comfortable with it, then I don’t see why not. There are going to be several issues that we run up against in legalizing you. We don’t have a birth certificate or social security number for you. Then there is the matter of closing out your former life. I seriously doubt that you will ever go back to what you were before but no matter what, I will take full responsibility for your expenses until we can figure out what to do with you. Is this alright with you?” I returned.

“It’s as best as we can do at the moment. I don’t really care to think too much about my former life right at the moment, so let’s not talk about it right now, OK?”

“That’s fine with me. If we can ignore the fact that you did have another life, at least for now, then we can make it better for all.” I told her.

Finally, our flight was called to board. When I would fly before, I would have reading material with me, just in case I got tired of looking down at the ground. I had always had a fascination with what the planet looked like from 35,000 feet. It always looks so different from the air. I can see the tiny specks of automobiles moving along the surface and I try to imagine what the occupant was doing at that specific moment in time. I know I can never actually know what they are doing but it gives my mind something to do to occupy the time as I fly.

I made sure that Paul, now JaNeece had the window seat. No matter how long she had lived, she had never flown in an airplane before and was finding it terrifying as well as highly fascinating. As we taxied for take-off, I watched the child-like wonder in her face. When the pilot hit the acceleration for take-off and we launched into the air, I could hear little girl giggles coming from her mouth. She was trying to be quiet about it but still to hear the laugh was pleasing to my ears. I giggled to myself at the happy sounds of a child sitting next to me.

I started my e-reader and buried myself into the newest Dirk Cussler novel. I had loved to read the novels by his father until his passing a couple of years back and now I found that Dirk had the same flair for writing that his father did. For some reason, I had a better time reading about the exploits of his main character, Dirk Pitt, Jr. I could envision myself in the place of the heroine of the story and making love to the dashing hero. I loved how my nipples got hard at the descriptions of the protagonist. Now though, my crotch got really wet in anticipation to the sexual action that I knew would be forthcoming. I really needed to get laid. Badly!

The flight went well even though we had a few rough spots that had JaNeece cackling with glee at the ride. I could see the people sitting around us looking at her with smiles, knowing that the trip was her first in the air.

Unfortunately, the flight had to end sometime and she had just as much fun with the landing as she had with the take-off. Only she wasn’t trying to be quiet about it. She had started to get into the role of a young girl and she seemed to be relaxed with it enough that it no longer bothered her being so young again.

After what seemed like and eternity, we debarked from the plane, picked up the suitcase we had and met Frank at the passenger load/unload area. I was so happy to see him that I gave him a huge hug and a passionate kiss. My nipples got hard again when I kissed him.

I introduced him to JaNeece and she got the shy front back up when she was introduced. If I didn’t know better, I would have said she really was the age that she looked. Frank looked her over critically, as if he was trying to find fault with her. I could see that JaNeece was cringing away from him.

All of a sudden, Frank got a big smile on his face and held out his arms in welcome. She shied away a bit at that but finally gave a shy smile and moved into the hug and returned it. Frank told her, “You are welcome here. My home is your home as long as you wish it to be.” That got him hugged even harder.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

Once we were back at Frank’s house, I had to sit down and relax a bit. It seemed like I had been gone for a year when it had only been four days. Too much had happened for me to be fully able to relax. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have done what I had.

Feeling like I was forgetting something, I realized that I needed to see to it that JaNeece was settled into a room. She and Frank had had been talking in the kitchen while I had sat down in the living room.

“Frank, I think we need to get JaNeece settled into a bedroom. I’m pretty sure that she’s tired. It has been a long day and I’m ready to settle down myself. Which one would be the best one for her?” I asked him.

“Well, once you told me about her coming to live here, I got to thinking about that. I decided that instead of trying to make room in this small house, we would find her a good sized room in a new one. I closed on it this morning and we can move in this weekend. Does that sound ok to both of you?”

Stunned into silence at the disclosure, I could only numbly nod my head yes.

End part 4.5