CHAPTER 36
It was cold enough to bring half s shout from my lips, and without any conscious thought my arms were already flailing around for something to hang onto. That brought my mind back, but I was arguing with myself, in panic looking for a handhold to keep my face above the water as my shoes and clothes dragged me down into the murk of the Ouse, and at the same time cursing my lack of forethought in not stepping off a bridge away from the bank, where my cowardice could be ignored and the water take me where I belonged.

Introduction: What is discovery? Perhaps it’s finding something that you didn’t know existed. Maybe it’s finding a hidden treasure. Maybe it’s finding out something about yourself that many were aware of but you just didn’t know it.

Maria tells Manny it’s time to go forward, that going nowhere is not the right solution. She gives him the name of a psychologist in Fort Smith.

My week as a mermaid continues: My young human friend and I surfaced and sat on a rock, where we could talk without having to use her underwater message pad. I was hoping she might start making sense now, but Valerie's strange stories were growing progressively stranger: Reagan and Kennedy on Mount Rushmore... A transsexual woman giving birth... Peace in Iraq but a war in Antarctica...

I might have decided that she just had a wild imagination, except she also had all this impossible hardware---like the artificial gill she'd been breathing underwater with---which had me wondering if I'd somehow wandered into an alternate universe. Given the kind of week I'd been having this didn't seem like such a crazy notion, but these mysteries had a different explanation that I would eventually discover. It was just a matter of time...

"Miss Thomas?" I hear a voice call as my brain struggles against the darkness in which it's found itself. "Miss Thomas? Can you hear me?"

"Nikki?" Another voice- a familiar voice- asks.

"Mmph," I groan as sensation begins to return to my body, bringing with it a feeling of tiredness in my joints, fatigue in my muscles... And pain. Lots and lots of pain, centred mainly on my groin...

"Nikki?" Another voice asks, making my heart beat faster as I instantly identify the owner of the voice.

"Sarah?" I croak.

Introduction: What is discovery? Perhaps it’s finding something that you didn’t know existed. Maybe it’s finding a hidden treasure. Maybe it’s finding out something about yourself that many were aware of but you just didn’t know it.

Manfred Argerich grew up with a single mother. They had a great life, and as it would turn out his uncle helped his mother out quite a bit. There was a lot that Manfred didn’t really pick up on for quite a while. They never wanted for anything. Steve Chavez was Manny’s roommate at Humboldt State University for four years. Now the adventure was about to begin. Each was about to venture out into the cold, cruel world to conquer the unconquerable. Steve was joining Greenpeace to conquer the environmentally evil industrial world. Manny had a little less adventurous goal. He was going to work at a winery in central Arkansas. Each had something to discover.

The journey home was very quiet. There really wasn’t much to say once we’d updated Eric on the situation.

As we approached Lincoln, Eric’s phone beeped.

“Can you see what that is please?” said Eric as he passed Sandra the phone.

‘It’s from John,” she said as she looked at the screen.

“He says that the Jeff’s have probably done a runner. He wants us to drive past Jeff seniors home in Lincoln to see if there are any signs of activity.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Eric.

Somewhere, past the edge of nightmare lies a land called...

Bian
(Bee-Onn)

by Erin Halfelven

Me - Christian

Somewhere, past the edge of dreams lies a land called...

“FEMAIL”
by Layne Smyth

CHAPTER TWO

Colton Hughes has just signed up for the Beta Test of a lifetime. Over the next week he will begin to see changes that take him from being an overweight man in his mid forties to a hot, young college woman with her whole life in front of her. Will the changes bring him the happiness he seeks, or will he lose sight of what he really wanted?

Author's Note:
This story is told by email, but I promise you that it is going to be a wild ride! Each chapter will cover one day of Colton's change, with the plan taking this story up to Chapter Eight. I really hope you enjoy it!

“You know, you look familiar,” the cashier says to me as she rings up my items. “Did you used to be on TV?”

“Umm… You must have me mistaken for someone else,” I reply in my soft, androgynous voice.

“Huh,” the cashier says. “I could’ve sworn I’ve seen your face somewhere before.”

“…Just got one of those faces, I guess!” I giggle as I bag my purchases and head out of the store, sighing as I examine the items in my bag- foundation, mascara, two colours of eye shadow and a tube of dark red lipstick.

Milsy learns more about the person she is supposed to be, discovering that a whole new world awaits her beyond the castle. There are near misses, changes of plan and much waiting around until the time comes to begin the deception. She is introduced to the guardsmen who will be escorting her and then she secretly leaves the castle to prepare for the substitution.

What Milsy Did

A Tale of Anmar by Penny Lane

2 - Under Cover