Nineteen trying to come home

©Copyright to Beverly Guinevere Taff.

List of Characters.

Terry Harrington. Fugitive boy marked for compulsory transitioning.

Samantha, (Sam) First transitioned kid Terry meets on the streets.

Theodora (Dora) leader of the transitioned kid gang.

Jessica. (Jessie) The only natal girl in Dora’s gang.

Charlie Member of the transitioned gang.

Jan Another member of the transitioned gang.

Ron Café owner who lost his daughter to egg-snatchers.

Doctor McTavish. Female paediatrician

Doctor Cummins Consultant Paediatrician - runs the fertility clinic

Sarah. Senior Midwife at the maternity unit

Dawn Very young trainee nurse.

Eleanor Jessica’s mother.

Diana Terri’s mother.

Part 8

After leaving the Sage fertility meeting, Ron ferried the four grandparents back to their hotel. Naturally, the grandmothers were both excited about their grand-daughters and finding Jessica safe whilst simultaneously worried about Terry. Inevitably, Diana, Terry’s mother, was the most worried and tended to monopolise the conversation.

“I just don’t understand it. Why won’t he come home, or at least come out of hiding.”

“The truth is Diana; he still doesn’t trust them.” Ron replied.

“But he trusts you!”

“Yes; seemingly.”

“Oh definitely,” Diana declared, “and so much so he’s prepared to trust you to deliver his sperm to the authorities.”

“We had to earn each other’s trust,” Ron explained. “Some street gangs are quite desperate and quite prepared to steal and burgle houses just to survive.”

“How did you each learn to trust each other?” Jessica’s dad asked as he forensically tried to determine the relationship and more importantly, the circumstances surrounding Ron and Terry’s relationship.

“I was up early one morning struggling with the trash and this kid appeared out of the early morning darkness.”

“Trash?” Trash from what?”

“Uuuhm, I’d rather not say, just like I don’t reveal where I live, I don’t reveal where I work or what I do.”

“Is it legal?”

“Of course it’s legal, it’s just that I don’t much like the authorities! They killed my Lucy by doing what they were going to do to your Jessica. It’s not much revealed by those bastards that the egg removal process is an extremely traumatic experience. Many girls never properly recover. My Lucy suffered that trauma so they detained her too long in the hospital for psychiatric therapy where she contracted the Covid 21 virus.

If they’d let me bring her home immediately after they’d robbed her of her eggs, she wouldn’t have caught the virus. The bastards wouldn’t even let me bury her beside her mother. They just incinerated her body like so much rubbish!”

For long moments silence reflected the mood in Ron’s car before Eleanor found the courage to ask.

“Would you not even tell us where you live Ron?”

“No, it’s too dangerous for Terry. When next I meet him, I’ll try and sort things out with him, see if he’s even prepared to meet you. I’m NOT going to pressurise him though. He’s under pressure enough.”

“Does he hate us?” Diana begged an answer that Ron couldn’t answer.

“To tell the truth, I honestly don’t know. I’ve never discussed you with him. He never offered to talk about you because to tell the truth, the less I knew; the less mistakes could be made. I promise you I’ll try to chat with him when next we meet, but there’s so much other stuff like him coning in from the cold and coming under the protection of the authorities.”

“Will you be seeing him again in the morning to collect his sperm sample before you pick us up?”

“Yes, but I don’t get much chance to speak with him. He just leaves his sperm in a prearranged spot and I collect it. I daren’t do it any other way, otherwise he’ll likely stop doing it all together. I have to tippy-toe around his paranoia.”

Diana started to shed tears and Eleanor immediately hugged her while both fathers remained in their frustrated contemplative silence. It remained thus until Ron pulled up at the hotel that the authorities were now paying for.

“Well, I’ll bid you goodbye until tomorrow morning.”

“Try and get him to meet us,” Terry’s dad asked as he and Eleanor helped his distraught wife into the hotel, “only good can come from a reunion.” He opined.

“I would like to think so and I will try.” Were Ron’s parting words.

ooo000ooo

It was quite dark when Ron finally returned to his café. He had decided to pop into his local pub and have a single pint of beer before returning home. His local pub was a good way to shake off anybody who might be trying to follow him. The regulars and the landlord knew him well for he stopped by several times a week to share a game of darts and his singular pint of his favourite beer. These were the only pleasures that appealed to him after losing his precious daughter Lucy.

“Evening Ron. Usual?”

“Please Jack.”

There was the general murmur of friendly greetings as Ron took his familiar place and slapped his pound coin in the queue of coins for takers. It was a quaint custom in the pub akin to lining up coins on a poole table and it reflected the nature of the neighbourhood. Everybody lived locally and knew each other well. In fact many of them ate their early morning breakfasts at Ron’s café. The general friendly banter served to comfort Ron in his loneliness. There were rarely any strangers in the pub and for Ron it was a comfortable bower of companionable security. After savouring the friendship for an hour he made his usual excuses and plodded the few remaining yards to his Café.

In the back lane he entered his garage and checked his car and van before determining that Terry had come home. The connecting door from Garage to yard was locked which confirmed that Terry was upstairs in his little flat. Ron unlocked the connecting door and crossed the yard to the rear of his café and made his way upstairs. As he crossed the lining a soft voice called out.

“Cup of tea Ron?”

“That’d be nice love, can I have a chat?”

“The girl emerged from the room and smiled as she stepped across the landing to prepare the tea.”

Ron invited her into his flat and she followed him in while the kettle boiled.

“Much news?” the girl asked as she settled into the other armchair and made sure her nightie and dressing gown covered her knees.

“They’re all pressuring me to persuade you to come out of the woodwork.”

“Not yet Ron, I’m not ready.”

“I didn’t tell you this yesterday, but your and Jessica’s parents have arrived. They’ve seen the babies and naturally they’re besotted.”

Terri frowned uncertainly as she asked.

“So they know you and I are in touch.”

“Yes but they don’t know about Terri, they’re expecting to finally meet Terry.”

“Well that’s a non-starter now isn’t it.”

Ron grinned as he nodded.

“You said it girl! Oh there’s the Kettle.”

Terri slipped into the kitchen and made the tea as Ron switched on the Television news. On hearing yet another bulletin about the ‘female baby’ Ron sighed and reached up to receive his tea.

“It’s been on about my girls all bloody day,” Terri chuckled slightly “if only they knew.”

“I wouldn’t be too confident darling,” Ron replied. “If we don’t perfect a way of getting your sperm to the hospital that circumvents me, they’re eventually going to connect me to the girl who helps me in the café, to Terry Harrington and his sperm. Dora’s going to have to come on board at some stage.”

“We’re working on it Ron; she’ll be around tomorrow to clean the yard.”

“You’ve persuaded her to take the job then have you?”

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Jessica replied. “she needs the money. Since I got promotion to the girl behind your counter, the yard’s become too much what with carrying trash and everything. Besides I can’t be handling trash then serving food.”

“Of course not. I’ll have to get a trolley lift for her though, those bins are heavy.”

Terri slapped his shoulder affectionately

“Don’t be such a meany Ronald Dickerson! Besides, I'll pay for a flippin' trolley. I’ll eventually be getting paid for this sperm; once we sort out a bank thingy.”

“The more you talk about this business love, the more you’re going to have to meet them halfway. You’re still only fourteen so somebody will have to sort your banking thingy as you call it.” Ron cautioned.

“I’m looking at him.”

“Steady on Ter’ the whole idea is to distance me from you.”

“Who’s going to connect the bird with the gorgeous legs in the café with the sperm donor?”

“They’re not daft Ter’. If they’re foreign agents, they’ll be smart bastards. If Dora gets involved as a fake courier she could be at risk. You’ve seen the way the Chinese tried to deny Covid 19 and Covid 21. They’ll stop at nothing.”

“The Chinese might not be guilty for Covid 21 even if they were guilty for Covid 19.”

“That’s as maybe but they’re still not very nice people. If they got hold of you, there’s no knowing what they might do to blackmail other countries. They’re already doing it with the ‘Belt and Road’ debt trap.”

“Flippin ‘eck Ron, you keep yourself well informed.”

“Yeah. Well I’m not just a pretty face. Lucy was on course for Uni until the bastards did for her. There were brains in our family.”

They sat quietly nursing their teas for a while as Terri mulled her thoughts. Finally she spoke.

“D’ you think I should come clean Ron?”

“You are clean Terri. It’s their hands that are dirty.”

“You know what I mean. I’m being serious now.”

Ron took a long slow deep breath.

“We’ll have to work this through. If you’re going to continue to disguise as Terri, there are still going to be problems.”

“I was thinking, if I continue to live as Terri and live with Jessica at the hospital clinic, I would just be - ‘That lesbian girl who helps the mother of the twins’ –

“Conversely, you could just as safely remain as the –‘leggy waitress at Ron’s’ -.. You’d be free-er to come and go from the café; but more secure and safer in the hospital grounds.”

“If we made my sperm available to all, nobody would be able to accuse the government of blackmailing their country. They’d have no excuses to kidnap me.”

“The Chinese Communist Party don’t need excuses babes,” Ron warned, “ they’ll kidnap you to gain leverage. Look at those Islands in the China sea and look at what they did to Tibet.”

“I still want to be free to come and go! I can’t stay a prisoner all my bloody life. I get cabin fever even when I’m free to walk the streets of Bristol.”

“Well I can’t advise you babes. Shall we chat in the morning, Dora will be here then to start her new job. She might have some ideas.”

Terri sighed, nodded, then collected their mugs before dumping them in the dish-washer.

Ron turned and watched her walking down the landing, wagged his head regretfully.

In Lucy’s nightgown, Terri reminded him so much of his Lucy.”
ooo000ooo

Terri was in the yard moving the bins for the last time she hoped, as Dora knocked loudly on the gate to the lane.

“Oh hello! I was expecting Ron.” Dora declared.

“He’s in the café. I’m going to scrub up after the bins so if you go through there, he’ll speak to you.”

Terri set out the last bin and made her way upstairs to her shower. Dora boldly knocked on the dividing fire door to the kitchen.

“Wait there love,” Ron requested as he explained. “You need to be in clean clothes to come where the food is prepared. Go upstairs and chat to Terri, third door down the landing on the right.”

Dora did as asked and soon found herself knocking on Terri’s bathroom door.

“Who’s that?”

“It’s me, Dora. Terri told me to wait with you.”

“I’m in the shower give me five mins. The Red door’s my flat, wait there.”

Dora found herself in a modest one bedroom flat and settled in one of the two armchairs.

“Is this where you and Jessica live?”

“Lived babe’s. Jessica’s living in a protected house in the grounds of the clinic now.”

“That figures. So you live here alone.”

“Yes. Ron lives in the front flat over the café, I live here.”

“What’s he like to live with. Did he ever, you know – try it on with Jessica?”

“No. - Nor with me.”

“Why! Is he gay or something.”

The door from the ;landing to the flat opened and Terri stood there with her towel wrapped around her upper body just as any other girl would her hair was turbaned up and she was standing in a pair of fluffy turquoise mules..

“Dora stopped momentarily before recovering from the shock.”

“I, - Bloody hell! D’ you always bath like a girl?”

Terri grinned as she stepped past Dora into her bedroom and invited Dora to follow.

“I live as a girl Dora! It’s my disguise and it’s my nature.”

The dawning light in Dora’s eyes finally found focus.

“What, you mean that long hair and your, - your girly ways, they’re for real!”

“Yes,” Terri smiled in the mirror as she studied Dora’s confusion in the mirror.”

“But, - but, - the sperm.”

“I’m transvestite, Dora not trans-gender. I like living as a girl but I don’t want to be one as such. I like girls, not boys.”

So saying, Dora reached for her top knickers drawer and pulled out a plain pair of functional cotton panties. She stepped into them without revealing her boy bits, then casually unwrapped the towel from her upper body. Dora stared unashamedly at Terri’s nascent breasts.

“Are they yours? They’re not, - you know. Hormone induced.”

“No, I’ve always been a bit feminine, that’s why the cutters wanted to make me a womb-boy - a transitioner. They nearly caught me as well, but I can run - like the bloody wind. They were waiting for me coming home from school but the games master sort of warned me. Just a subtle sentence but as I was running home from the last class, I had my soccer togs on with my trainers. When I saw the strange van outside ours, the games-master’s message clicked. I dropped my school bag, kept hold of my shirt and trousers then scarpered. No more Terence Harrington.”

So you went on the streets and that’s when Sam found you.”

“Yeah, how is Sam by the way?”

“In one of those fucking breeding dormitories, you know swollen belly for the second time already. Looks like a wreck and no future short of babies. Babies. Babies.”

“Bastards!” Terri cursed as she fastened her push-up bra with ease and Dora stared mesmerised at the induced cleavage.

Words escaped Dora as she continued staring until the beautiful Terri slipped into her waitressing heels and commenced her slap. Ten minutes later Dora was gob-smacked. She wagged her head and giggled.

“No wonder Ron’s takings are up. I bet every cock in the neighbourhood comes around for breakfast.”

Terri smiled coquettishly as she nodded slightly and replied in a soft effeminate contralto.

“Yeah. It works, - silly bloody dick-heads. That’s what they are; their dicks rule their heads. My tips bounce my wages up something massive.”

“Have you ever been tempted?” Dora asked curiously.

“Heck no darling. I’m as straight as a laser and more cutting. I like my partners to have real girly bits. Partners like Jessica!”

“Well you’ve proved that,” Dora giggled. “Let’s see you strut your stuff.”

“You’ll have to peep through the fire-door panel. Ron’s a stickler for hygiene.”

Dora followed Terri down to the kitchen fire door, opened the door and Terri sashayed into the restaurant. The clatter of cutlery on crockery suddenly fell silent and Dora simply fell apart with silent laughter as she saw Ron’s head turn knowingly towards the fire-door while he grinned. Within seconds, Terri was busy leaning over the tables collecting dirty dishes while taking extra orders simultaneously. Within ten minutes, Terri was busy cooking, serving and clearing away dirty dishes as Ron prepared to pick up the grandparents and run them to the clinic again. As he emerged from the restaurant he approached Dora.

“Listen darling. I can give you a bit of work in the café if you can scrub up a bit in twenty minutes.”

Ever alert to opportunity, Dora immediately asked what sort of work.

“Just collecting dirty dishes, feeding the dishwasher and wiping down tables while Terri cooks and waits on tables. Can you do that?”

“I think so. Where do I scrub up?”

“In the same bathroom as Terri did. There’s a laundry room at the very end of the landing and there’s overalls and kitchen safety shoes. I think you’ll find some clean underwear there as well. Lucy was a stickler for things when she worked with me.”

Dora agreed provisionally and followed Ron upstairs. He showed her the laundry room then left to scrub himself up to take Terri’s parents and Jessie’s parents to meet Jessie in the clinic for a third day in a row. When Dora re-emerged to join Terri in the restaurant he found Ron and Terri deep in conversation. She caught the last few words as Ron quickly slipped an overall on while Terri slipped into the downstairs staff lavatory.

“Where do I start?” Dora asked Terri.

“That’s good love; you look tidy. Please start with that pile of dirty dishes into the dishwasher. I’ll show you how to start it, then go around collecting dirty dishes and wiping the tables as you go. If you feel you’re up to serving meals, I’ll give you a couple of simple orders like a mug of tea or coffee or toast. I’ll handle the bigger orders until Terri gets back.”

After completing several orders Dora realised Terri had been gone over twenty minutes.

“What’s she doing, she’s a long time?” She asked as she started emptying the dish-washer.

Ron gave her a jaundiced look and frowned.

“Now you’re embarrassing me love.”

Dora suddenly realised and gasped out a shocked apology.

“Oh! Shit! Sorry Ron, of course. I’d completely forgotten. So you won’t be needing me as a courier yet.”

“Ron frowned and looked around to check every seat in the café. To his relief, everybody was a regular customer, there were no strangers looking in their direction.”

“Not so loud Dora. We never know who’s listening, - or why.”

Having realised the risks, it was a more sober Dora who resumed her work until her friend reappeared and resumed work. After another earnest chat with Terri, Ron slipped away through the yard into the lane while Terri and Dora fell into a routine as the morning breakfast rush eased off. By ten o’clock, they had time to relax as the café was briefly empty. Terri made two mugs of tea as Dora pulled out two chairs.
“Has he uuuhm, gone to the hospital then?” Dora asked politely.

“Well he’s collecting our parents first, Terri revealed. Sorry you got dumped in the deep end.”

“Well it’s not rocket science is it.” Dora replied as she glanced around to make sure the café was empty. “Now that the café’s empty, how will we organise the sperm deliveries in the future?”

“I think the plan is that you appear to arrive here for work early each morning then Ron hands the Café over to you and me while he goes to the hospital to deliver the sperm. It will seem as if you’re delivering the sperm to him after collecting it off an invisible Terri living somewhere rough in the city. If there are any foreign agents out there, they will probably waste time tailing you to find Terry, - little realising that Terry is supplying the sperm each day, here in the café whilst masquerading as Terri.”

“That’ll work.”

“Provided this stupid bunch of government twats don’t start trying to find me and provided we can get the sperm to them in under an hour. They like it fresh.”

“But Rob’s picking up your and Jessie’s parents first, so he’s wasting time going to the hotel first.”

“That’s only temporary until Jessie sorts out her permanent living arrangements and sorts her grand-parental visits. Hopefully, things will settle down once the government agrees to my terms.”

“Which are?” Dora asked.

“Universal access to my sperm without governmental interference.”

“Ha! You’ve gorra’ hope! And how ‘r you gonna’ organise that?”

“The principle is easy, the devil’s in the detail. Frankly, at the moment, I'm not sure.” Terri admitted as she turned to the sound of the shaking bell on the door.

“Hey-up, customers.” Terri observed as both she and Dora finished up their teas and prepared to serve them.

Three young regular customers entered and settled at a table close to the counter. Terri knew they usually chose that particular seat simply to ogle her legs as she attended to the cooking. They were nice enough young tradesmen who did contract work in the area.

“Hi Terri, where’s Ron?”

“He’s gone up to the hospital to see Jessica.”

“Oh dear, what’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing serious, girly troubles so she’s there for a couple of tests.”

“Who’s the new girl?”

“This is Dora she’s started here since the business expanded.”

The three young male heads turned to study the new help and appreciated the view as Dora approached with notepad in hand.

“Hello darling. What-choo doin’ tonight?”

“Sleeping with my friend.” Dora replied dismissively.

This expression had become a cultural shorthand to declare that she was a ‘transitioner’ and not interested in sex with boys. Just one more cruel consequence of the ‘fertility wars’ as the kidnapping and enforced transitioning had become known. The three young males were every bit as disadvantaged as Dora because men were now short of female company as Natal girls became scarcer and scarcer. Their mood turned to disappointment as their first mugs of tea arrived. Terri decided to cheer them up a bit.

“You’re a bit late this morning boys.”

“Yeah we’ve been for materials, there’s a new job across the street.”

“What the old ironmongers that got burned down?”

“That’s it.”

“I suppose you’ll be in here breakfast, lunch and tea then.”

They grinned and nodded as their leader observed.

“Don’t know of a café with better scenery.”

“Behave boys!” Terri giggled as Dora was forced to smile.

Transitioners may not be attracted to boys because forced feminisation did not change their sexualities but it was still nice to get compliments.

Sometimes a functioning relationship ensued if satisfactory sexual conjugations and orgasms were shared

The banter continued because Terri knew the boys well and they had never tried anything on. Eventually, the boys paid and left to start on the burned out shell across the street. Through the café windows the ‘girls’ watched the trio first erecting scaffolding then safety boarding as work went apace.

The three hungry lads were eating their huge pre-ordered lunches as Ron returned from the hospital with four adults. As three of Ron’s regular customers, the boys greeted Ron as he sat the four visitors down and Dora came over. Ron introduced Dora then pointed to the very attractive girl working behind the range.

“That’s Terri, she’s been here a long time, before Jessica worked here even.”

Both mothers Eleanor and Diana smiled at the girl behind the range and of course Terri smiled back. Eleanor spoke to her,

“So you would have known Terence if you knew Jessica?”

“Yes, he was sometimes around here. Jessica was very fond of him.” Terri replied.

“Do you know where he tends to hang out?” Diana asked then added, “I’m his mother.”

Dora had to bite her lip to stop from bursting out laughing. Ron, ever alert suggested that now he was back, would Dora go and start the laundry in the back utility room. Grateful for release, Dora hustled away through the fire door and simply collapsed laughing in the laundry room.

Back in the café, Ron had taken over cooking at the range while Terri had resumed her regular job serving meals and waitressing from the counter.

After loading the washing machines, Dora scuttled back to peep through the fire-door safety panel and saw Terri actually leaning over her mother Diana, serving her food and chatting to both women. Stunned by the extent of Terri’s confidence and panache she was forced to return to the café just to witness the events. As she re-entered the café Terri was coming behind the counter to attend to condiments and she winked at Dora.

“I’ll explain later.” She whispered then added; “Not a word, right!”

Dora was too gobsmacked to say anything as Ron caught her eye and nodded to the three builder-boys table. Seeing the plates empty, Dora hustled over with three large refills of tea and cleared their table. Inevitably the same lad asked again if she was free that night.

Again Dora repeated loud enough for the whole café to hear.

“I told you this morning darling. I’m already sleeping with a friend. Now quit it!”

That was enough to stop the lad’s advances. Dora’s censure had been light-hearted and delivered with a smile but the lad realised he had crossed the new cultural line. And the whole restaurant knew it. The new conventions surrounding the treatment of transitioners may have been only a couple of years old but their newness meant they were strongly enforced.

ooo000ooo