Chapter 1.8

Freeman wasn't sure what had happened either. There were still two women standing on the other side of the room, cowering in fear. He wanted to go to them and see what was wrong, but he felt fear of them as well. It was strange as he had never had a fear of women before.

As he watched several of the men present started slipping out the door to the conference room. They were obviously afraid of the women as well.

Freeman tried to stay so that he could comfort the women, but he found that he couldn't. He left the room as well. He went to the end of the corridor and turned to look if they had left. He saw them running down to the other end of the corridor.

The president was sitting at his, or rather her desk. She was incredibly confused to have suddenly become a woman. How in the world had that happened? She stood and went to her private restroom. There, she saw what she looked like now. She was quite pretty. Her face looked very much the same, but it had become feminine in appearance.

She was wearing makeup, but her clothes had not changed. That was very strange. In fact, she was still wearing the suit and tie that she had been in, but the suit hung off her body. Except up top, where her breasts tried to make their appearance known, and her hips. She turned to where she could see and found that she had an ample behind, but nothing really to write home about.

Curiously, she removed her jacket and shirt. She was rather surprised at the size of her breasts. She saw why her hips didn’t really show in her pants. She had a very narrow waist. Quite petite actually. She felt no shame at suddenly being a woman, which for her was shocking, as she had never been unhappy being a man. She was curious about what she would find when she removed her pants, and so she did. For her petite size, she had a nice derriere, which pleased her.

She looked at the men’s suit on the floor where she had left it and picked it up, folding it neatly. There was a bit of nausea when she looked at it all, and she decided that she would have to get some women’s clothes. Picking up the underwear that she had put on that morning made her even more sick. She used just her thumb and index finger to lift it. It went straight onto the back of the toilet, then she decided a shower would be best, so that she could wash off the last vestiges of her masculinity.

Stepping into the shower, she reflected that she didn’t really know how to wash her hair, but she had seen enough women come out of this very room, their hair in a towel. Then she remembered that under the sink was shampoo and conditioner that would be suitable. She stepped out of the tub and grabbed it. The shampoo directions really didn’t tell her anything she didn’t know, but the conditioner did.

She washed her whole body, finding that she had more sensitive areas on her anatomy, then grabbed a towel and quickly learned why women patted themselves dry rather than rubbed. She grabbed her robe, which was terry cloth, put it on, and looked at herself in the mirror. She needed makeup, but none of the women had left any. Oh well, she remembered her mother telling her sister not to share makeup with her friends. She did anyway, but she was a teenager at the time.

Paul – now Paula she figured, went out to her computer. What to do. She knew that she needed to call someone, but her government workers were mostly males. Finally, she decided to call Fredrik. She knew Fred would scare her; just thinking about him scared her, but he was one person that she trusted, no matter how frightened she was. She started to reach out to her computer to call, but then decided against it.

She walked over to her liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle. It was Tennessee whiskey, from a company that had been around for several millennia. She poured about a shot’s worth into a glass and drank it in one gulp.

She coughed and couldn’t get her breath for a minute. Wow! She would definitely have to watch her alcohol intake. She decided she needed another bit of courage, so poured another shot, but drank it slow. She started to the desk again, but grabbed her glass and bottle.

At the desk, she sat down and poured one more drink. Her vision was starting to blur, but she reached out and plugged in Fred’s call number. At least she hoped it was his. Her mind was starting to get a bit fuzzy.

Thankfully, Fred answered. When his face came on the screen, even with the alcohol, she had to hold herself back from getting up and running. She poured another shot.

For his part, Fredrik pulled away from his screen. He saw what she was doing with the whiskey, but figured he should keep a clear head, so didn’t get any for himself.

“Yes, Paul?”

“I guess it should be Paula,” she told him.

“Okay Paula. Are you as scared of me as I am of you?”

“I’m terrified,” she responded. “Just seeing you there is hard to take.”

“Agreed. What happened to you?”

“I’m guessing I turned into a woman. What do you think happened?” The question seemed ridiculous, but in retrospect, she realized what he meant. “I’ve no idea how, Fred.”

Just then, her comm panel beeped. “I’m going to merge this call with us.”

“Why?” he asked, but her chief of staff was already on a split screen.

Fred saw her quite afraid now, so he told the other man, “Make this quick, Reg.”

For his part, the other man stuttered as he said, “I’m really sorry S… Ma’am but we’ve had a death. Ronda Briggs was killed.”

“No!” Paula was shocked. “How?”

“It looks like someone used something very sharp to slice her in half from shoulder to hip.”

“Thank you, Reg.” She pushed the button to release the call, then said to Fred. “I need to get over there. Please would you come too? You’re the only male I find I can trust. I still am afraid of you, but I know you won’t hurt me.”

“I’ll be there,” He said. He understood very well. She was the only woman he could trust right now.

She hurried to where Reg called from, but when she got there, there were two women kneeling over the body of her daughter. She looked at them, and didn’t recognize one, but the other was Ronda’s twin sister, Rhoda. The other woman had her arms around Rhoda, hugging her.

A moment later, Fred rushed up. “Oh God!” he exclaimed. “What...” he suddenly saw the two women’s faces. “Reg?” he asked the one holding Rhoda.

Suddenly, he realized that he wasn’t the least bit afraid of Paula, so he pulled her into a hug. She was weeping at the loss of one of her daughters and he felt her tears touch his cheek. He reached up and brushed her hair back over her ear with his hand, allowing his cheek to touch hers.

Finally her crying slowed and she looked at Rhoda and her comforter. She saw what Fred had seen. “Reg? What happened?” Stupid question, she thought. She could see what happened.

“I was kneeling over Ronda, and Rhoda came out of nowhere, bowling me over. She pushed me out of the way, then my vision blurred. When I could see again, I was a woman.”

Reg still had her arm around Rhoda’s shoulder and she sheepishly moved away. “We need to tell Phineas about Ronda,” she said.

“Oh God!” Rhoda cried. Hesitantly, like she expected the president to yell at her, Reg put her arm around Rhoda and pulled her in.

Several people showed up, and they moved the parts of the body onto a gurney, and wheeled it away.

Fred reached for his comm unit, and realized he and Paula were holding hands. He let go, and immediately felt shame for doing it as he had. To cover his action, he said, “I’ll call Phineas.” He dialed the number he knew by heart. He and Paul were like brothers, so they each knew the other’s family, and call numbers.

The comm unit took a long time to connect. “Yeah?”

“Phineas, this is Fred,”

“What do you want?” He sounded strange.

“Rhonda has been killed.”

“No shit! Is that all you had to say? That bitch has been cheating on me for a long time, and with a woman too!”

“Are you saying you killed her?” Fred asked asked.

“I sure as hell am. Got the sword in my hand right now.”

“You’re going to have to be arrested,”

“So what? I’ve got what I needed. She’s gone.”

“You bastard!” Paula screamed into the comm unit. “You killed my daughter!”

“Who the hell is that?”

“I’m the president!”

“Sure you are. And I’m Shakespeare.” There was a small click and the unit went dead.

“That…!” Rhoda couldn’t finish her sentence.

Gently, Fred started to lead the three women out of the corridor, but Paula stopped him. “I need something to wear,” she said. “So does Reg.”

Strangely, Rhoda had perked up without Ronda’s body in front of her. She looked into Reg’s eyes, which were still above her. “I guess it’s Regina instead of Reginald?”

The four eventually got to the situation room after Paula and Reg borrowed some clothes from Rhoda. They didn’t fit Reg properly, but at least they were better than the men’s clothes she had been wearing.

Paula called on her chief of security and the chief doctor of the capitol. The doctor hurried to the situation room, but the security chief would not. He was too afraid.

Once the doctor entered, Fred watched the women. None of the them seemed afraid of him, nor did he seem afraid of them. “What is going on here?” he asked no one in particular. He turned to the doctor. “Jack? Are you afraid of the women?”

“Why should I be?”

“Because every other man in the capitol seems to be. The chief of security won’t even get near the President.”

“So it happened to you too?” he asked Paula. “Me ‘n Sylvia were working on a case, when she suddenly seemed afraid. I reached out to steady her, and she screamed. She backed up, but I grabbed her hand. Her eyes seemed to lose focus, then I was holding the hand of a man!”

“She seemed afraid of you? Were you afraid of her?

“Why should I be, Madam president? She’s my wife!”

“You didn’t have any fear about your wife at all?”

“No. The only feeling I had was what I always have when she’s around. Butterflies in my stomach.”

“Could that have been fear?” asked Rhoda.

“Miss, why would I marry someone that I was afraid of?”

None of us had an answer to that.

“She looked down at her body, and told me she was sorry she wasn’t a woman anymore for my sake. I told her not to sweat it, and we kissed. Wasn’t a problem for me.”

“Have you looked at my daughter’s body?” Paula asked.

“She had just come in when you called me. Sylvia is doing an autopsy now, but it’s pretty apparent what killed her.”

“Yes,” Paula agreed. She looked at Fred. “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. Jack wasn’t afraid of Sylvia, but she was of him, but when she became a man, there was no fear anymore.”

She started to pace, and Fred saw how beautiful she was. Her hair was dark, and came to her shoulders. She was very petite and probably five foot one or two. He had never gone for a woman that small, as he was six foot six. Even when she was a man, and five foot ten, he had still towered over her, or him.

She had a dark complexion as well, as if she was Mediterranean. He glanced at her daughter and saw that they both very beautiful, and could be sisters, although Rhoda’s hair was a slightly lighter shade, almost a deep chocolate brown, sort of like dutch chocolate. Ronda’s was more Paula’s shade.

Paula continued musing. “I was scared of you. Terrified, but I knew I could trust you. When we arrived at Ronda’s body, it was like that fear just washed away.”

“I was afraid of every man too, Dad; uh…. Mom,” Rhoda told her. When I got to Ronda, I wasn’t. I just pushed Reg out of the way.” She turned to Reg, “Sorry if I hurt you, Reg.”

“No problem,” the chief of staff responded, giving Rhoda a smile. Freeman was certain that if they had been side by side they would have kissed.

“Was Ronda fooling around on Phineas? And with another woman?”

“No, Mom! She wasn’t a lesbian. She wasn’t even bi! That’s me!”

Paula nodded, as did Fred.

They discussed things for awhile, then went to their own rooms to ponder things.

Fred was certain that he had missed something. Something vital.