Playing her way 2 - Chapter 3

© D.L.

Marilyn put the last of the shopping bags into the boot of the car. Shutting the hatchback, she pushed the trolley over to the trolley park before unlocking the car doors and getting into the driver's seat.

Fishing her phone out of her handbag, she checked for messages. There were several missed calls from Astrid. The phone had been on silent and deliberately ignored while in the supermarket. Scrolling through the texts, she saw the one that she was hoping to receive. The message from Emily that she was home safely without incident.

Putting the phone away, she pulled out of the parking space and headed for the exit.

It was half five when the silver Ford Focus reversed into the driveway at the front of the house. Marilyn looked towards the property. Several lamps were on timers so that the home was always somewhat lit up in the evenings. However, today the curtains were fully closed and more light was peaking around the edges than what would be provided by the lamps, indicating the main overhead lights were on.

Turning the key in the Yale lock, she opened the door to be greeted by the sound of Christmas music. Turning back to her car, she opened the boot and lifted the shopping bags out and into the hall.

On hearing the door open, a figure emerged from the front room. The smiling face of her only child was standing at the door. The mother examined her offspring. Worried what people might think, and given her husband's reluctance to address the issue, Marilyn had asked her daughter to return to be her son over the Christmas period. Emily had agreed, but only in so far as not to make changes that would prevent presentation as female in the new year, such as cutting her hair short.

The teenager stood in front of her was of indeterminate gender. The baggy boy cut jeans, and Christmas sweater, while masculine would not look out of place on a girl. Anybody who knew the child would easily recognise the face of Jason. No sign of makeup or earrings were present. Only the small holes in the bottom of the earlobes indicating that earnings would normally be worn.

Marilyn had wondered how long her child's hair had grown. Whenever she saw her on screen over Skype, Emily had her hair in a high ponytail, and it was no secret that in that style she added extensions so that it was much bulkier and longer than reality. However, virtually no hair was visible, due to being covered by a Santa hat. Unlike most of the cheap ones on sale, this appeared to be made out of quality fake fur in a dark red, with a white fur ball and trim.

"Hi Mum, need a hand?" Emily asked pointing at the bags.

Marilyn nodded and handed over the bags she was holding.

"Hello Mrs Bridges," Anna stated as she emerged into the hall, having heard Emily greet her mother. She had stayed out of sight initially in case it was Astrid at the door. The two had changed out of their school uniforms as soon as they got in, in case the nosey women had come calling. Even if out of uniform, there was a risk that she might recognise Anna as the girl she had seen at the station, and therefore correctly assume that Jason was the other girl.

Anna was dressed in a similar fashion to Emily, only her jeans were a tighter cut, and her jumper had two distinctly feminine bumps. It was only after seeing Anna that Marilyn realised why she felt something odd looking at Emily. It had taken her a while to get used to seeing her child wearing breast forms, and it hadn't immediately registered that her child's chest was much flatter than she had become accustomed too.

The three took the bags into the kitchen to unpack. Anna taking things out of the bags and mother and daughter putting stuff away.

"I take it you've removed your breast forms," Marilyn stated, glancing at her child.

"Yeah, for the moment. I am wearing a training bra, but I don't think it shows too much."

"Is that because it feels weird without one?"

"Yes, but I find my nipples get sore without protection. Plus it's itchy. I either need to wear a bra or a tight soft camisole."

"You're budding?" Marilyn stopped what she was doing in surprise. "I didn't think you had gone onto hormones."

She and her husband Arnold had signed guardian rights to one of her child's teachers and his wife. While the practice of having a designated guardian close to the school who can take responsibility for the child in boarding is not unusual, it is normally only done for foreign students so that they have somebody to look after them in the country in an emergency. Although they had signed the authorisation for any medical procedures, they were to be kept informed of their child's treatment.

"I haven't. I'm only on blockers. However, according to my endocrinologist, I have slightly above average levels of natural oestrogen for a male. I'm at the upper limit of what would be considered normal. The blockers actually worked too well, I've had to cut back the dosage. Instead of stabilising my testosterone at a low level, it's practically wiped it out. The net result is I now have the start of breast growth, not that I'm going to complain about that unless you count them not growing fast enough as being a valid issue, but that is something I think most girls can relate too."

"Her dosage is being closely monitored," Anna added, just in case there was any suggestion that the dosage was incorrect on purpose, "She has to get the tablets from the nurse after breakfast. We realised something wasn't quite right when she had a massive crying jag after being hit with a squash ball."

"It hurt; I had a bump on my head for three days," Emily countered.

"Only if you looked at it with a microscope, and you had received harder hits without worrying before. I know Svetlana is annoying, but raging that she was trying to kill you was slightly over the top."

"Okay, I had a bad reaction and I apologised," turning to her mother, "The glue for the forms was causing skin irritation, so we, that is the nurse and I, treated it with aloe vera. There is no medical evidence that it has any effect, but it does contain phytoestrogens, which can potentially mimic female hormones. Given that my balance was already out of whack, it may have pushed me slightly further to the feminine side than the doctors intended."

"I can tell from the smile on your face, that that doesn't bother you," Marilyn responded.

After finishing putting the groceries away, and putting a large Cumberland pie in the oven, the three women went into the front room to talk further, Emily explaining what had happened at the train station.

It was shortly after six o'clock, an hour earlier than expected, that Arnold unlocked the front door and stepped into the hall.

"Arnold, is that you?" Marilyn called out from the front room.

A sad weary figure stepped into the room to the shock of the onlookers. The left shirt sleeve was torn away at the shoulder, and the front covered in blood.

"It's not mine," Arnold stated, indicating his front. "Put the kettle on, I need a shower."

Not sure what to say, his wife silently went to the kitchen to make tea. The two teens glanced at each other in worry but waited patiently for an explanation.

Ten minutes later, Arnold settled down in his easy chair, now dressed in pyjamas and dressing gown.

"There was an accident at work. Thankfully not a fatal one, but a closer call than should have ever happened. Stanley got thrown across the room by that damn arm. Concussion and three cracked ribs. The blood was from him landing on edge of the conveyor. It took a large chunk out of his arm. I used my shirt to stem the bleeding."

"Not the robotic arm you shut down yesterday?" Marilyn gasped.

"Andy overrode my decision, said I was being paranoid. Claimed I was being obstructive and not acting as a team player. I may not be an engineer, but I can tell when something is malfunctioning. Bill has been moaning for weeks that the software keeps crashing. It is supposed to fail safe, but several times it continued moving after the control application stopped responding. I finally had enough yesterday when instead of placing the motor in the housing, it shoved it down so hard it bent the bench."

"I didn't know the factory was automated," Emily stated, "Is this something new, I know you said they were upgrading the shop floor."

"They were put in about three months ago. Five of them. Never have worked right. They were bought for practically nothing from a bankrupt factory in Scotland. Cobbled together with some cheap controllers from China, and programmed by a bunch of monkeys in India who work for a pittance. The claim was that it would double production speed and pay for itself in six months."

"I take it that estimate was over optimistic?" Anna inquired.

Arnold stroked his chin in thought, "If they worked properly, then they would have helped greatly. Perhaps not as much as double. I would say an increase of 50 percent max. In reality, due to them constantly needing to be rebooted, I would say about twenty percent. The truth of the matter is you don't need to pay a robot wages, and the company is struggling for cash, barely broke even last year, and rumour has it will publish a big loss this year."

"How did they afford to upgrade?" Anna asked.

"They had to take a big loan. They also let go a lot of the temporary workers. Basically, anybody they thought they could do without and who hadn't been there long. They would have to pay longer serving staff too much redundancy to be worth it. Several people have walked since then, we are at least ten people short of what we need. If I thought I could get a job elsewhere, I would be walking as well. I may yet have too. Andy, the current operations' director and my direct boss, is looking for a scapegoat to get him off the hook. I pissed him off by immediately calling the Health and Safety Executive. He tried to lay into me for that. I told him to fuck off. He appointed me a safety officer and any injuries involving broken bones or loss of consciousness from a head injury has to be reported by law."

"You think he is going to get you fired?" The worry evident in Marilyn's voice.

Arnold shook his head, "He can try, but I don't think it'll wash. Frank, the current owner and chief exec, won't let him. Trouble is, I happen to know that the business is being sold. Frank's retiring. He'll put in a good word for me, but I don't know who will take over, or what they may decide. We find out who the new owner is at tomorrow's Christmas party."

"Is that still going ahead?" Emily asked. "I've been asked to play the guitar again this year, and Anna was going to join me on Violin. I understand Tom has left."

To save money, for the past few years, Any staff who were musically inclined, or knew any volunteers who were, would provide music during the annual party. Traditionally, the factory would shut down over Christmas, as it was too expensive to keep it running and pay overtime. The last working day would finish early, and all the staff and their families would gather in one of the warehouses for music, dancing, and the consumption of cheap alcohol. The only time drink was allowed on the premises.

Jason, being a competent guitar player, had joined in for several years. Norman, one of the organisers, had emailed Jason asking if he would be available. Several of the other regulars in the makeshift band had left.

Arnold nodded, "Yeah, Frank didn't want to dampen spirits. A lot of the other senior managers are trying to downplay the seriousness of the incident, in an attempt to impress the new owners, not that it is going to work. It's a foreign company, Kabunsuri Industries, so they perhaps think they might not be familiar with British regulations. I tried googling them, but they don't seem to have much of a web presence. As far as I can tell, they are a holding company."

After taking a drink of his tea, he continued, "Don't mention anything at the party tomorrow, the official announcement of the sale hasn't been made, although most people know Frank is retiring. That is another reason for keeping the party going, as it doubles as his retirement do. I can drive you over tomorrow afternoon. I've sort of been given the day off. I'm to work from home until further notice. Basically, I have to write a report for management and be interviewed by the government inspectors. We don't think the police will get involved, but it's a possibility. What were your plans tomorrow?"

"Well, we were assuming we would need to catch the train, like I did last year," Emily replied. "I was going to spend the morning working. That is recording some more episodes for YouTube. Anna also has some business to attend to."

"I have some reports to read and write," Anna added. "I've been learning business from my father. I have a number of investments to review. While I can't officially control my trust fund or buy and sell shares, I can put my opinions forward and my investment manager usually does what I ask. He safeguards 75% of the portfolio, and lets me play with the other 25%."

"No offence, but is learning how to trade from someone who has just been declared bankrupt a good idea?" Arnold asked.

Anna laughed, "He may be bankrupt, but that wasn't unexpected. In fact, we have known for three years that this may happen and it was planned for. Putting money into a football club was never a good investment, and was mainly done for entertainment. Dad has a lot of skeletons in his closet, it was only a matter of time before some of his past caught up with him. Several women have claimed he fathered their children. So far, I'm the only love-child that has been proven by paternity tests."

Pausing to sip her tea, she continued, "In order to become rich in Russia in the late nineties, you needed to be in a privileged position, to begin with. He's never said, but I get the impression many backhanders were involved in the early days. Both to corrupt government officials, and the mafia. He may not be popular with the current high-ups, hence the recent trouble, but he still has connections. That is how he was able to get Svetlana back to this country."

What was going to be a simple business trip and skiing holiday during half term had turned into a nightmare for the Gurevich family. Some of Mr Gurevich's less reputable associates were not pleased with some of his recent business activities. This had led to his arrest and detainment by certain corrupt government officials, and the seizing of the assets held in Russian banks. His families passports had immediately been confiscated and they were placed under house arrest.

Realising that they may be in danger, he called in favours to have his wife and child smuggled out of the country. It had taken all the skill of some former KGB operatives, and a suitcase of dollar bills, to elude the authorities and drive over the border into Estonia.

Although their Russian passports had been revoked, Svetlana and her mother both had dual nationality. Svetlana being born in the UK held a British passport, and her mother was born in Estonia while it was still part of the Soviet block. Although she had spent most of her life in Russia, she was eligible for Estonian citizenship. This had become useful due to the relaxed border rules inside the European Union, allowing her to relocate to England.

Mr Gurevich, while not a European national, was initially able to live in Britain due to his wife's status. He had subsequently applied and obtained British citizenship after 5 years. Anna had been brought into the country five and a half years ago and had recently applied for citizenship after the required five years residence.

Anna had not gone with them on that trip, opting to stay behind and go on a school arranged trip for the week. While applying for residency, Miss Kwon was keeping time spent outside of the UK to a minimum. She joined twenty other students on a trip to York. Emily had opted to stay at the school and spent the time recording a series to be screened on her YouTube channel over the coming weeks.

Although her relationship was mostly secret, Anna's being a blood relative was known to some of Mr Gurevich's enemies. The plan had been to visit her mother in South Korea over Christmas, but it had been decided to cancel that trip for safety. Anna did not yet have a British passport, only a Korean one. The chances of her being prevented from travelling back were limited. However, it was deemed prudent not to try going over international borders unless absolutely necessary.

"My father had planned to wind up most of his business interests after five years. He has been transferring assets into a retirement fund for the last three years. He predicted the downturn in the markets but didn't quite judge the impact. It hit him harder than expected. Also, being sued for discrimination tipped the balance. He had plenty of money to pay the creditors at the football club but wasn't able to liquidise them quick enough. Hence, he filed bankruptcy for protection while he sorted things out.

"The business in Russia was nasty, but not entirely unexpected. His mistake was underestimating the resentment and resourcefulness of some of his opponents."

"I read in the paper that he was basically under house arrest and virtually penniless," Arnold stated.

"Not quite true," Anna replied, "He is still employed by several holding companies and receives a nice pay cheque to keep him comfortable. Most of which is going in bribes to keep out of prison.

"He is under house arrest, but it is one of the nicest houses in the region. He is quite happy with the arrangement, considering how much worse it could have gotten.

"Specifically, myself, my mother, Svetlana, and Svetlana's mother all own holding companies in our own names which have him as an employee. Svetlana and I are both wealthy in our own rights. Svetlana's only interest in money is spending it, so I actually have the bigger fortune, as I make my investments work for me, which is what I will be doing tomorrow."