With the current spate of stories highlighting somewhat the tragedy that many find at this time of year (all well written) I hope this lighter tale will be just as well received.
I had planned a slightly different plot during this stories inception whereby the protagonist had been a war hero but ultimately it added too much detail most unneeded. However that left me with no title. It was however written on New Years Day and thus is:...

A New Years Tale

by JC

I'm not sure where this idea popped up from, it just appeared in my head one morning while attempting to get the full eight hours that my body demands (I'd only slept about four at that point and my over active imagination wasn't happy about my efforts to sleep). I did sleep on the idea for a few days and while I made another attempt at writing it failed and deleted that effort. (After two pages of waffle about things that had no bearing on the story...)
One of my New Years resolutions was to try and write (or in my case type) for an hour each day, and this story was my output for New Years Day. Hopefully in the coming months I can add to my collection. This story is finished however. I hope it is enjoyed and would as ever appreciate comments and thoughts.

Eighty-nine years old and arrested. That’s me that is, and I suppose its not really arrested, taken into custody by a store detective would be a better description. It’s years — at least fifty — since I was last in this shop, back then I was something of a thug and I have no doubt that its due to things I did in those days that have caught up with me now.

In those days I was as I said something of a thug, back then I was dirt poor, lived in rented accommodation and seldom had enough money for both booze and food so I stole one or the other. This store is at least 80 years old, says so right above the door, “Founded in 1969…” now if that had been 1869 it might have conferred some respectability but 1969 was too recent. Still it was older than most of the shops round here. And I’d stolen from it as a youth.

I’d been around thirty last time I was in here, which was before the Afghan crisis that saw my signing up as a soldier, before the whole world went mad. Before I became rich. And now here I am sitting in a small nearly empty room waiting for what might happen.

The room is empty apart from a table, three chairs and a computer console. The computer console is made by myself… well my company. Mirotek, I founded it with the money I got when I left the army. I ran it for nineteen years before passing it on to my nephew we’re one of the largest European distributors and manufacturers of terabit chips. Ninety percent of computer consoles in the UK are either made by us or have our chips in them.

Of course I no longer have much involvement with the company, Mike had fifteen years at the helm before passing it on to his daughter. I’m still the life president but have no input really. If the store police here knew who I was I’m sure they let me go, after all fifty years have past since I was last here.

~@~

“Nelson Gamble?”
“That’s me, look…”
“Hold on sir, we’ll do this by the book shall we?”
“Look…” I sighed, “Very well officer, by the book.”
“Thank you Mr Gamble. This meeting is being recorded as detailed in the 2024 RPO accords, do you have any objections?”
“No.”
“Registered Officer Malcolm Start and Nelson Gamble present, Nelson has been detained for earlier shoplifting offences.”
“Look…”
“Mr Gamble I will be asking you a series of questions, I will require you to answer them to the best of your ability. You will be under Truthscan™, any questions?”
“Look this is a farce, these accusations are fifty years or older, surely they can’t be substantiated?”
“The fact that the offences took place is enough for me to question you. Now please answer my question.”
“Very well ask your damn questions.”

Truthscan™ is a clever bit of kit introduced by the Chinese in 2040, while under the effects it will read your memories as you’re asked questions. It can’t be evaded or misled and has made criminal law virtually fool proof. One in a thousand people have a natural in-built protection against it. I’m not one of those. Even if you have forgotten a detail from your conscious mind the unconscious will remember it and the device will know.

“Very well Mr Gamble. In 1998 did you shop in this store?”
“I think so.”
“TS is showing that you did.”
“Very well I did.”
“Good, now at anytime during that year did you leave the store without paying for items?”
“I might have, look I was going through a bad patch in those days, I did shoplift and I regret it now I’m happy to pay whatever fine you deem appropriate.”
“TS is showing that you left this store on more than forty nine occasions without paying. Our records indicate that you stole net value of four hundred pounds which with inflation and monetary changes in the intervening time is now worth in excess of fifteen thousand dollars. However you have now attempted to bribe a registered officer of the law…”
“Wait… what?”
“You offered to pay any fine I deem appropriate, that is known as a bribe.”
“When I said you I meant you as in the whole system. Fifteen thousand dollars does seem a little excessive however.”
“We have further proof of your guilt.”
“I admitted my guilt why do you need more proof?”
“Please turn your attention to the computer screen Mr Gamble.”
“Oh very well,” I turned to watch the film clip, rather than the frankly shoddy old fashioned film clip I was expecting I saw a thoroughly modern high definition security film, in it a young man walked into the store picked up several items, stowed them under his coat and walked out. “I don’t understand what has this got to do with me?”
“You don’t recognise yourself then?”
“That kid was maybe twenty… I’m eighty-nine, and even having admitted the shoplifting I was in my late twenties at the time.
“Further more that film wasn’t made at the time; it’s a modern security film. How on earth can you be using that as evidence of my guilt?”
“The computer made the film based on several reports on you and your past behaviour. We know a lot about you Mr Gamble.
“I hope you realise the severity of your position Mr Gamble.”
“Why? You have no direct proof other than fifty year old memories, the film you say represents me looks nothing like me and is on current media. No judge in the country would take this case seriously. You’re simply someone who is trying to take advantage of an old man.”
“That may be as you say Mr Gamble; I wouldn’t know however I have been authorised to use this which will make you fully eligible for prosecution.”

This was an obvious child’s toy, a small bright blue plastic gun. Malcolm stepped back and braced himself as though he was about to shoot me with something that kicked like a mule.

“Wait what is this? You’re going to shoot me with a toy gun? Is this some sort of joke?”
“No joke sir, and this isn’t a toy. In a moment you will understand.”

~@~

FOOM…

~@~

A beam of pure red light was emitted from the business end of the toy gun striking me somewhere in the torso. From there waves of pain like I have never felt before, nor hope to feel again washed out into the rest of my body. I wondered briefly if this was some form of torture, but couldn’t work out why. After a few moments the beam winked out but rather than the pain diminishing it began to get worse.

The original point of pain began to move around my body, from my chest down to my groin then back upward to my head were it remained till the pain caused me to black out.

~@~

Coming round I found the pain gone, in fact I’d never felt so healthy, even the aches and pains that a nearly ninety year old body picks up where missing. Malcolm still stood looking at me now with a wide grin on his face. I was diminished though, my clothes had seemingly shrunk with me and still fit but the chair that had, when I was first seated, been only just big enough was now too big, and my view of the room was lower, Malcolm now towered over me.

“What have you done?” My voice was lighter too, almost child like.
“I used this Substantiator™ on you, don’t worry sir it is entirely legal as is the evidence you were so worried about. Company policy dictates that we don’t pursue anyone who we don’t have a chance of actually successfully prosecuting. The computer evidence system and the Substantiator™ make prosecution so much easier.”
“But you can’t just change me to match the criminal you have invented.”
“Your DNA hasn’t changed, just your apparent age. With the current zero policy toward all crime you should be looking at a full fine and probably ten years in suspension (author: Cryogenic suspension futuristic jail system), which is better than a criminal like you deserves.”
“It was fifty years or more ago, people change. I said I’d pay any fine… this is just madness.”
“People don’t change sir, which is scientific fact. You were born a criminal and are still one today. While in suspension you will learn to be a better person and contribute properly toward society.”

I sat and thought about the whole situation for a bit longer, though I now was not only hungry but also in need of a call of nature, I didn’t feel safe with this madman, what if he tried to remove my ‘criminality’ with his toy. If it was now okay to change people to match a wanted suspect how much further would he go…

“Look Malcolm…”
“That’s Mr Start to you Nelson.” His whole attitude to me had changed since I had; this whole situation was too weird…
“Mr Start, am I allowed to get my solicitor here?”
“Of course, you may even contact him yourself; however your call will be monitored.”
“Very well.”
“Use the console there, don’t worry the computer will automatically monitor anything you say.”
“Thank you.”

“Good afternoon, Marvin, Melvin and Parks. How may I direct your call?”
“Afternoon Mary can you put me through to Melvin Junior please, tell him Nelson is on the line.”
“Certainly Mr Gamble, and may I add you sound awfully well today.”
“Thanks Mary.”
…
“Melvin here Nelson how can I help you?”
“I’ve been arrested by a RPO for shoplifting, it’s an old offence, but they say they have enough evidence to get me sent to suspension.”
“What evidence, and how long since it happened?”
“Truthscan, some sort of doctored computer recording and the RPO used a Substantiator on me. As for how old, near as I can work out, fifty or more years.”
“Substantiator? I though you sounded quite good, they aren’t supposed to use them except in serious crimes. The rest though that’s going to be hard to counter. Are you guilty?”
“Did I shoplift from this store fifty years ago? Probably, I wasn’t a particularly well behaved young man in those days. Can you do anything to get this Substantiator fixed, I don’t mind being younger but I’m practically a teenager now.”
“If we can get you off then yes, no problem, and we can sue them into the ground. But you’ve admitted… Look I’m going to come down there straight away I’ll see what I can get sorted. We can probably get the sentence commuted to a fine at least bearing in mind the minority of the crime.
“Have they given you your food and toilet break yet?”
“Food?”
“Cellular starvation, the change is so rapid your body needs to replace electrolytes rapidly, get them to give you the meal they are required by law to give you after using a Substantiator. That or you might die… Now I’ll be ten minutes.”

~@~

“Mr Start, my solicitor informs me that your are supposed to provide me with a meal to prevent cellular starvation and access to the facilities.”
“Of course Nelson, we use a concentrated electrolyte drink to replace missing elements and the facilities are the first door on your left as you leave this room. For your protection you will be monitored automatically at all times. I assume your solicitor is on his or her way?”
“He’ll be here in ten minutes.”
“Use the facilities and your meal will be on the table when you return.”

~@~

The facilities consisted of a sealed chemical shower unit, which looked factory new, and an old ceramic toilet and washbasin. By now I need the toilet somewhat desperately and while I was more used to a modern replumbing unit this old fashioned water based solution was within the bounds of what I could use. Luckily for me I sat.

The clothes I now wore were not entirely the same as those I’d started out in, there were far more modern than I was used to. My own fashion style still sat somewhat at the late 2030s. Clothes, stylish clothes, after that point all seemed a little too daring. And even then I’d looked old and tired. These clothes were what a subbie might have been issued with.

The tight trousers and underwear came down though as I’d have expected and I sat down. As I said luckily I sat down first. The Substantiator hadn’t just taken 70 years off my life it’d changed a fairly fundamental part of my body too. My immediate thought was now I’ve got you where I want you. Obviously the change made by the Substantiator was a change too far; I started wondering how much I could sue them for…

However my thoughts turned to the seventy missing years, was that too much to throw away? I knew the first thing they’d try and do would be to switch me back… of course knowing that the technology existed to make such a huge difference to my life I could always use it again…

I’d worked in high technology for more than thirty years; I knew that such radical changes to in organic components led to fairly basic loss of function, and the cellular starvation hinted at by my solicitor hinted that while the device obviously worked it might be able to do so over and over. I was still wondering what implications this change held when a knock on the door heralded the arrival of my meal in the next room.

~@~

The electrolytic shake tasted much like a chemical strawberry milkshake had done when I was a kid. It was quite filling, especially in my new smaller form. It took a couple of minutes for me to work my way through the tall glass. By which time my solicitor had arrived.

“Ah Nelson, Mr Start has disabled the monitors while we meet. I need to take a DNA test to ascertain you are who you say you are.” He held out a slim-line tester which I stuck my finger into. The machine let out a small beep and the display lit up, Marvin read it and looked at me with a puzzled smile. “Okay you’re not quite who I was expecting. And as I know Nelson was childless, unless you’re a love child I think we can get you off.”
“Marvin that would be a good idea except… no I think I have a better idea. Here’s what I want you to do…”

~@~

Mr Smart re-entered the room a short while after my solicitor had left, Marvin would have told him that I was in no position to fight my guilt and anyway couldn’t afford his fees. Malcolm had gone though a remarkable transformation, from an unsmiling drone he’d become a grinning fool who though he had me precisely where he wanted me. In fact he was so bold as to walk around the room and eventually stand behind my chair before leaning down and resting his hands on my shoulders. The baggier top disguising my changes.

“So Nelson your solicitor didn’t stay?”
“No he didn’t think he could offer me any insight, besides I doubt I can afford his fees now.”
“So I’ll arrange a flimsy of your aggregate statement which you will sign.”
“I’m not the person you want in regards to these alleged offences, I’m far too young.”
“Your solicitor told you to say this? And you can’t afford him? He was either winding you up or he’s vastly over charging people. We know who you are; and your DNA confirms it. The Substantiator is a legal device, what it has done to you cannot be changed without substantially altering your life expectancy. You should be thank full that we made you young again.”
“No you have made a big mistake…”
“Don’t be stupid, we don’t make mistakes.”
“And if you don’t take your hands off me right this minute I will not be responsible for my actions.”

He stood up straight and went back round the other side of the table, “Look Nelson I don’t know why you have suddenly changed your tune, you have admitted shoplifting here, it’s all on tape.”
“Was my arrest taped?”
“Only by the security cameras in store why?”
“Do they have sound pickups?”
“Yes but we don’t use them it takes up too much storage.”
“So you don’t have the bit on tape about doing as I’m told or you’ll get what you’re asking for?”
“What?”
“Or the threat to rape my ass?”
“What are you talking about? Why would I say that? More to the point you’re eighty nine years old and a man to boot. Even after your change I wouldn’t touch you with a barge pole.”
“What do you mean my change?”
“I made you younger.”
“Oh that, maybe you don’t like young women.”
“Nelson you aren’t a woman.”
“Care to bet on that?”
“What the hell are you talking about? You’re a man; did that phoney solicitor say you should take this track? Easy way to confirm things. Stand up and remain still.” He went over to the computer console and began hammering in instructions, he was obviously feeling the pressure as twice he had to back up and re-enter. “What the…” He turned to look at me and I smiled a very condescending smile… the sort you give to the village idiot.

He began keying in more commands, muttering something under his breath. The machine again refused to give him the results he wanted. Cursing louder now — I was grateful that my company design that particular terminal for hard use as anything less would be at the point of breaking — he once again hammered in a sequence of commands.

Suddenly he turned to me and forced my backward onto the table, then with brutal strength pulled my trousers and under things down…

~@~

“I’m extremely sorry for any inconvenience Miss Gamble.” The manager was extremely unctuous, and well he might be; false arrest; false imprisonment; assault; use of improper technology… the list was long and were it to come to the attention of the proper authorities would cause serious repercussions, something I didn’t want. Due to the nature of my change and the fact that under severe scrutiny it could all be tracked posing as my father’s daughter was the best option.

“I will of course see that Mr Start is relieved of his duties and reassigned to something more fitting.”

~@~

It was all a sham of course, I was Nelson Gamble, I did do what I was accused of but the sentence didn’t fit the crime that was my only excuse. Well that and a new chance at living a nearly blameless life. I still had umpteen million dollars in the bank, all of which I had made legally. I made sure that all the businesses that I had stolen from in the past were compensated, even Mr Smart got off lightly he is still an RPO, but less used in the investigation of offences and more in prevention.

As for me I went back to work for the company I started, we have branched out into molecular modifiers and are putting the finishing touches to our first consumer model. It won’t make you seventy years younger in a single use, but prolonged use will leave you younger. And for those people who feel they have been trapped in the wrong body — something I had no clue about till this happened — with a suitable disclaimer signed we can even swap your apparent gender.

This document is ©2009-'10 by JC. Characters and situations herein are intended as a fantasy any relation to real people or places are happenstance.

www.incessant-logic.net

...When a load of concrete is delivered the recipient does not know it is laced with weird mutagens, mutagens that will have a severe effect on him and his neigbours...

The lorry tipped a load of gravel into the hopper at the end of the conveyer belt, then drove away. Bert Hoskins who should have been watching the incoming gravel operations to make sure that no unsuitable gravel was tipped was having a late lunch. At 3.30 his supervisor arrived, Bert was by this time where he should be, he was having a difficult job shifting a blockage in the crushing mill.

“What the fuck’s wrong with it Bert? The whole lot is bunged up, you need to get that blockage shifted within the next five minutes or we’ll be behind and you know the boss won’t be happy.”

“Dunno I think it’s a chunk of metal, Neil, listen it clangs when you hit it…”

“I don’t give a shit what the fuck it is, get it out of the mill now.”

“Yes Neil, I’m on it.”

In the end it took a full team of site workers to shift the blockage, it turned out to be an empty metal canister, it was still leaking small amounts of noxious fluid into the surrounding gravel. Neil checked as best he could and found that the Ready-Mix lorry had already set of with this dubious load.

“Hello, Mike, your load have you still got it?”

“Yes boss.”

“Well don’t drop it at Wellington Street, its got some weird shit in it, find somewhere to dump it and come back for some more okay?”

“Oh right…”

“Dave your friend Stuart told me that you could do with a load of concrete?”

“Erm yes that would be great, when would you be able to bring it?”

“Well I have a load right now its… been sent back the place that ordered it has too much already.”

“Oh, well that’ll be fine, thank you. How much?”

“Well call it quits at  £250 okay?”

“Right that’ll be fine.”

“Paul the concrete for my patio has arrived, look there is a bit too much I know you wanted some for your back garden, if you and Tom would like to bring a barrow round you can have all my excess, three or four barrows I think.”

“Oh great, thanks Dave, I’ll buy you a pint, I’ll get Tom organized now, see you in five.”

“Tom do fancy giving me a hand with some concrete? Mr Barlow is giving us his excess, means we can get the greenhouse in this week.”

“Okay dad, I’ll just put some socks on.” Tom rolled out of bed where he had been reading, he had been away from home for nearly two years living in rented rooms in the city, now his job gone he’d had to move back in with his parents. He wished he hadn’t, it wasn’t that they were particularly unpleasant, it was just that he was used to being his own man, he liked staying out late, smoking pot to relax. His parents, he thought still treated him like he was 16. He would rather not help dad with the concrete but if he made a fuss there would be another argument, another week or two of harassment to make him get a job, any job.

“Mr Barlow, said that there were three or four barrow loads spare, I’ll fill one load and bring it back then you do one, okay?”

“Yes dad.”

“Good lets go.”

The next hour and a half was a slog, his dad seemed to thrive on this sort of hard demanding labour, his first barrow load was nearly full, he set off at a good pace, returning five minutes later with an empty barrow. Toms first load was half the size and took twice as long to fill. Twice he nearly flung his shovel down and walked off, why did his dad nag so.

In the end it took nearly eight loads partly as Tom’s loads were so small and partly as Dave Barlow had underestimated how much extra he had. Tom did however keep an eye out for Felicity Barlow, she was just 18 and extremely good looking, the fact that she had a long term boyfriend didn’t bother Tom, he could look couldn’t he.

“Right we need to get it levelled off, if we use the planks round the plot as guides and use this plank across, we’ll smooth it off quickly.” Tom took one end of the plank his father offered him and knelt down next to the pool of viscous concrete. It took very little time, the concrete was smoothed off and his father went off to order the green house.

Jenny was Tom’s little sister with almost ten years age difference between them, she rather worshipped him, to him however she was a little pest, especially now as she was playing with the dog, Milly, close to the wet concrete.

“Hey Jenny be careful you’ll have Milly in the concrete, watch out…” Jenny had thrown the ball straight at him.

“Catch!” the ball bounced and he stooped awkwardly to catch it, he managed it and was straightening up when the chocolate Labrador crashed into him, wanting her ball back. Tom stepped backward and tripped he fell backwards measuring his full length in the concrete.

“Shit.” He rolled onto his hands and knees, Milly deciding that this new game looked like fun jumped onto his back and drove him face down into the now ravaged concrete.

“Right I have… Oh my god what on earth is going on? Milly here girl, bad dog. Jenny what happened?”

“Sorry dad it was my fault, I threw the ball Tom caught it but Milly pushed him in then jumped on him.” Tom had by this time regained his feet, his father and sister laughed at him, he was covered in concrete from head to foot, he had wiped it off his face, now it was trickling out of his shorts and from under his t-shirt.

It took nearly an hour to get the worst of the concrete off Tom, first his father used the garden hose to remove the thickest deposits then with a bucket of hot water and a brush the rest was carefully removed. Tom then retreated to have a shower. Mean while his father with the assistance of his sister and mum, re-laid the concrete, the dog watched wondering if they would play with her again…

Tom was in his room, he was extremely annoyed, it wasn’t on he had helped like he had been asked to, then after falling in the concrete because of his stupid sister and dog they had all just laughed at him, now he felt ill and wanted to go back to bed. His mum came in with a cup of tea and a ginger nut.

“There you go pet, are you feeling better now?”

“Yes mum, well I feel a bit, urm dunno, not quite right you know.”

“Well why don’t you have a lie down then, your father and sister have finished re-laying that concrete, so I wouldn’t think he’ll need you again today.”

“Okay thanks mum.”

He stripped off his clean shorts again and swung his legs into bed, the skin on them was almost sore, and tingly. He lay back and after nibbling the biscuit and drinking the tea drifted off to sleep.

“I’m a bit worried about Tom.”

“Why what’s wrong with him?”

“Well he had a shower and went straight to bed, he’s been asleep all day.”

“The lazy sod, he hardly did anything, I could have been quicker without him.”

“Now Paul that’s not fair, you know he tries, losing his job like that left him a bit low that’s all.”

“Carol its been six months he could have found another job in that time, he’s just lazy. From now on he will have to start pulling his weight or he won’t have anywhere to live.”

The topic of their conversation was at that moment waking in his damp sweaty bed, he had just been having an extremely erotic dream. He lay in bed touching himself and thinking about Felicity Barlow and what she had been doing. He wasn’t getting very far, he just didn’t seem to be able to get it up. After some minutes of this he gave up, he obviously just wasn’t in the mood. He got up and started to think about food, he was ravenously hungry, he slipped on his clean shorts wincing as it reminded him that his nice shorts were probably ruined. Then slipping his trainers on he was surprised to feel that they were a little to loose, shrugging he realized that they couldn’t be and went to find some food.

Tom was back in his room, he had been making himself some food when his father had arrived from wherever, immediately he’d started shouting at his son, accusing him being a lazy time waster and telling him to buck his ideas up, after several minutes of this Tom gave up on the idea of having tea and returned to his room. He stripped the sweaty sheets off the bed and remade it, then lying back down he thought about his hunger and drifted back to sleep.

His mum looked in at him at midnight on her way to bed, Paul was still spitting feathers over his ‘lazy’ son, she was unhappy with her husband but wished that Tom would make more of an effort, after all he was living here rent free. She sat down on the edge of his bed, and stroked the damp hair from his sweaty forehead, he didn’t seem to be running a temperature so she didn’t worry much, too much bedding it was after all a warm night, she smiled fondly at her eldest son, and remembered his younger sister who had died nearly eight years ago, that had changed him.

Before that he had been friendly outgoing and a nice person, but the death of his sister Sophie had hurt him in some deeper way, he no longer trusted anyone, or gave his love so easily. Of course over the intervening years he had got better, though she thought he still grieved for her. She stood and made her way to her own bed, her own sleep was troubled, she dreamed about those horrible weeks before the police had found her body, when no-one knew if the pretty vivacious girl would walk back into their lives or if something darker had happened.

In the morning Paul left for work unhappy with his family, his wife was distant, he knew the signs she had been thinking about Sophie, his son was still in bed pretending to be ill. And Jenny was fussing about the dog saying she was ill, he’d had to promise to take her to the vet tonight.

Milly whined in her sleep, her front paws scrabbling, probably after a rabbit or mouse. She had been asleep since yesterday afternoon, hadn’t eaten her tea or the slice of toast that Jenny decided would perk her up. She had found her in her basket and had been unable to wake her, Jenny was worried, she had told her father who the dog actually belonged too but he had just got angry, she knew her mum was depressed, when she had woken in the night she had heard her crying. Maybe Tom would know what to do.

Jenny knocked on her older brothers door, he didn’t respond so she crept in. She leaned over the bed and looked at him, it was odd he seemed smaller, however knowing better than to wake him she crept out again. Her mum was downstairs, her eyes red from the weeping in the night, Jenny gave her mum a hug, her mum was very protective of her, she knew why but it didn’t lessen the isolation, the estate was fairly old there were no other young kids around, she had friends at school, but could only go and see them if her mum drove her.

Jenny didn’t really remember her eldest sister, she had been murdered when Jenny was only four, she vaguely remembered being cuddled by another girl, she did remember the fuss at the time, the news people who surrounded the house for weeks on end. And the last day, the day when her parents knew the truth, the day…

Jenny tried not to think about her older sister, much it was too scary, someone, no some man had grabbed her, as she walked home from a friends house, he had taken her on to some rough land, where the new school now was, he had tied her to a tree and gagged her then he had repeatedly raped her, before finally slitting her throat, the man had never been caught. The only clue to his identity was that Sophie had known him, she hadn’t struggled when he grabbed her.

Feeling slightly sick at the thoughts of her big sister Jenny went to fill in her diary, it was her summer project, she was keeping, or trying to keep it all summer, it had been a present from her friend Kim on the last day of school.

Tom awoke he still felt odd, he climbed out of his bed wondering why it felt strange, he walked into the bathroom and opened his boxers, he was busting for a leak, he reached into his boxers and then panicked his dick had gone, he pulled them down and realized that he still had his dick, but it was maybe an inch long, he turned and sat, letting go he sighed with relief as he emptied his bladder he looked down at his mysteriously shrunken manhood and gasped with shock the piss wasn’t coming out of there, he could still feel it trickling out, but the end of his penis was dry.

Carol was aroused from her thoughts by a shriek from upstairs, it sounded like a girl, but she had thought that Jenny was in the lounge watching TV, she made way to the bottom of the stairs.

“Are you alright Jenny?”

“Yes mum. Why?” Carol jumped her daughter had been in the lounge, so who was upstairs in the bathroom, she could hear faint sobbing.

“She almost ran up the stairs pausing for only moments before bursting into the bathroom, a girl about 16 or 17 was curled in the foetal position on the floor by the bath, she was sobbing uncontrollably. Carol approached her with caution, who was she? One of Tom’s girls, she was surprised she had thought him to unwell to entertain.

“I don’t know who you are but what’s the matter?” She said dropping to her knees besides the girl, out of the corner of her eyes she saw Jenny standing in the door, “Jenny go get your brother maybe he knows what is going on.” She turned back to the distraught girl and placed her hand on the girls shoulder. “Hush love it’ll be alright, just tell me what’s wrong and I’ll try and help, is it Tom?” The girl was quietening under her hand…

“Mum he’s not there.”

“What?”

“Tom’s not in his room, his bed is still warm though.” Said Jenny the detective.

“Did you see any girls clothing in there Jenny?”

“No mum.”

The girl on the floor in front of her said something. “What sorry I didn’t catch that pet?”

“Mum its me.”

“What how do you mean its me, I don’t know you, do I?”

“I’m Tom,” the girl trembling tried to sit up, “you look nothing like my Tom, you look more like… oh dear god… Sophie?” The effect on the girl of these words was like a hammer she shot up and backwards away from the startled woman.

“NOOOOOOOOO.”

“Hey mum she’s wearing Tom’s clothes, that’s the t-shirt I gave him for Christmas.” The girl was trembling visibly and trying to control herself, she looked at Carol.

“I’m not Sophie, I’m Tom, I don’t understand but I’m Tom.”

“Tom, how could you be, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Her arms were tied behind her back, with a silk scarf that I had given her for her birthday, the one she wore all the time. The man had… The man had gagged her with her own underwear…”

“How could you… Tom how can it be you, you're a girl.”

“I don’t know mum, this is how I woke up, I’m not a man any longer.”

“Right lets all go downstairs and discuss this calmly.” She turned towards the door, her youngest child was standing there staring into the distance looking horrified. “Jenny its okay, we’ll be alright, hey what’s the matter?” She just managed to catch her daughter as she fell to the ground crying in absolute horror.

It took Carol nearly an hour to calm her sobbing daughter down, next she tried to find out what the matter was.

“Mum I didn’t know about Sophie, I mean the scarf…”

“We didn’t want to tell you about it in case it upset you.”

“Mum Sophie didn’t have the scarf with her, I had spilt jam on it, she was furious, she made me wash it… I hated her… Then she was gone and I thought it was my fault…”

“Jenny think carefully what happened to the scarf?”

“I gave it away, I gave it to Felicity Barlow.” There was a stunned silence broken by the shriek of rage, Carol turned to see her, ‘son’ running out the front door she had a good idea where he was going.

“Jenny I want you to call the police, get them to come here, I’ll go after Tom. If he finds Felicity he might do something bad.”

“But mum that’s just it, I tried to get it back, you know so that when Sophie came home I could give it too her, but Felicity had already given it away, she’d given it to…”

“Who?”

“Her dad, he took it off her she told me he had accused her of stealing it. Do you think Mr Barlow killed Sophie?”

“I don’t know love but I suspect we’ll find out soon, now ring the police I had better track your brother down.

Carol found Tom hammering on the Barlow’s front door and screaming curses, as no-one was answering Carol hoped that the police would arrive before either Felicity or her father did. As it happened the police arrived first meaning they had time to haul Tom back towards his own house , he was almost calm, though crying when the Barlow’s arrived home. Carol had a perfect view of what happened next, her son tore himself away from the startled police woman, and flung himself at Felicity, she screamed and fell backwards bouncing off and away from the car. Her father rushed round the car and reaching the struggling couple first hauled the smaller form of Tom of his daughter. “Sophie, how , I killed you, leave me alone get away.” He went as white as a sheet and flung himself backwards tripping over his daughter as he tried to get away from the spectre of his own violent past.

It all came out eventually, David Barlow was sentenced to 15 years for the rape and murder of Sophie, he was sentenced to a further 15 years each for the rape and murder of two other school girls, one from Manchester and one from London. Finally the remains of his wife were discovered in his back garden, and he was sentenced to a further ten years for her murder. He pleaded guilty to all charges, and hardly spoke at all during his trial.

As for Tom he… She is now happily living under the name of Rebecca, she has a new job and her life has steadily got better, her own demons have been laid to rest.

Paul is enjoying his new greenhouse, all though the concrete is a funny colour, it seems to help his plants grow to enormous sizes.

Jenny is enjoying the company of her two new sisters, she still blames her self for the deaths of the other two girls but has come to realize that she could have done nothing about it, she is enjoying life at her new school.

Carol has gained two new daughters, Felicity publicly denounced her father and obtained a divorce from him, she lived with her grandparents before returning to live with Carol and Paul, whilst working at the new school.

Milly the dog had a litter of puppies which surprised everyone as she had been spayed herself as a puppy.

Dave Barlow lived to be 81, and died in his sleep whilst still in prison, he never spoke again, he appeared a haunted man, with problems sleeping, maybe rightfully the girls he had murdered had come back to haunt him, we can only hope so.

The characters and situations in the above story are not intended to be real or to represent real people or events. I only wish that all rapists and murderers would get a similar comeuppance.

I wrote this short story after spending most of a day laying concrete, our
own dog a Springer spaniel helped in his own inimitable way but didn’t knock
me into the concrete. The harder aspects of the story came in a way from a
book called Lovely Bones, I am unsure of the author but if you can read it
do so, it is a lovely book though weird.

The dog really does exist though, Milly is owned by a cousin, she is a smashing dog, who would probably enjoy playing in wet concrete.

Incessant-Logic & JC  © ‘04

Tom wouldn't notice anything for several weeks...

My brother Tom has always been into computers, I suppose it was inevitable that the digital camera he had been given for his fourteenth birthday had been somehow used to take pictures of me, the pictures were extremely flattering, or a least would be if I liked people to see me naked. Our rooms were next to each other, I had caught him trying to get a look several times, either as I left the bathroom or on changing to go out, dad had even let me put a bolt on my door to stop him walking in by 'mistake'. I was unsure how the pictures had been taken but I knew that I had to get even.

It had all started that morning, I had been off the previous two days as I was attending a Youth Conference in London with mum, because of a problem with the trains we had only managed to get back on Wednesday morning and not Tuesday evening as intended, so I went straight into school, I missed registration, but didn't miss one or two funny looks and stares, particularly from boys. When I finally arrived at my English lesson, I sat down as usual next to my best friend Cat, Cat is the same age as me, 17, and I have known her since I started this school.

"Hi Sarah."

"Hi Cat." I replied, at that moment Dad, Mr. Day in school, came in. We all stood and waited until he had settled himself at the desk and gestured for us to sit down again.

"Meet me at break, we need to talk." Cat whispered urgently before attending to what my father was telling us.

After English I headed to the art block for my free period, Cat headed off to her French lesson. I didn't really think about meeting Cat at break, we normally did, I was more concerned about the giggling and stares, they were beginning to make me nervous, I even went into the toilet just to check I didn't have a humorous sign stuck to my back. Now that I am doing my A' levels I spend most of my free time in the art block, I am determined to get all A's in the five A' levels I was taking. History and Geography are a cinch, I have always liked them the course work is piss easy. General studies is impossible to fail. English, I feel confident with, but art, well its not as much about how you achieve the end and more with the end result, so I worked hard at it.

At 11 o'clock, I followed the third years, and their giggles, up to the main school for my meeting with Cat, Cat is a boarder and her room is on the top floor of Ingleborough, no its not the hill, all our houses are named after local features or old heads. Her room has what we think is the best view in school, it overlooks the quad and the entrance to the swimming pool. The quad is where the girls play five aside.

I knocked and walked in Cat had her back to me making her coffee, I always had a glass of water, due to my allergy to caffeine I didn't drink tea or coffee.

"Sarah, have you noticed anything odd today?"

"Um, yeah, everybody's been giving me funny looks and stuff. Why do you know what's going on?"

"Yeah I do, um, sit down," she turned round with her coffee in one hand and an envelope in the other, she sat down at her desk and passed me the envelope, "These have been floating around since Monday morning, I think pretty much all the boys will have seen them, um, probably most of the girls too." I fumbled open the envelope, for a moment I thought it was some sort of joke, my head stuck on a porn star's body, then reality snuck in, I could see my posters on the wall behind the girl in them, this wasn't a joke someone had been taking pictures of me while I was, changing, sleeping, on the phone, shaving my legs, there was even a picture of me touching myself. I felt Cat's arms go round me, "It's alright, I still love you. I think I got them all. People will forget soon."

"What am I going to do? I can't go out after everyone's seen these. Who did it? Who took these pictures? Who's been giving them out?"

"Sarah, hush. There is only one person who could have taken them."

"Tom that little bastard, I'll kill him, he's made me a laughing stock, I'll rip his brain off and make him eat it, the little shit head..." I ran on for some time ranting.

After a while I calmed down, the old adage was 'Don't get mad, get even' so that was what I was going to do, but how? Tom was a star rugby player, he had a girlfriend called Cindy. He was good at the written work side of school life with consistently high marks. I hoped the school would punish him for this attack on me, but I still hoped I could do something to him too...

The last period of my Wednesday was another free period, normally I would have gone back down to the art block but today I went home, I had probably two hours until Tom came home from school. Because both of my parents worked in the school, Dad English and Drama, Mum Maths and Sports. I knew I would be home alone for some time. I went straight to Tom's room, it was as usual a mess, went straight to his computer and switched it on.

Tom had been given dad's old PC, whereas mine was my own paid for with my savings, it wasn't thankfully state of the art and windows '98 asked me for a password I hit the escape key. I almost shrieked with rage, his desktop was a picture of me, naked in front of, my mirror and I was touching my self... I systematically went through his PC finding all his images, then went through them, there were 10 or 15 of me, luckily most had me dressed, only the ones I had seen already, had me naked or nearly so. Then I carefully destroyed them all, not by deleting, I was sure that Tom knew how to recover them if I did that, but instead I opened them in PSP and painted over them all with black, then saved them again.

I carefully shut his PC down again, the only image I had left him was the picture of me on his desktop, this I had carefully coloured in to hide the naughty bits leaving my face visible so if he complained to mum and dad, I could say look it's a picture of me, KILL. As I turned to leave I had a thought, I quickly went through his CDs and picked out all the ones he had burnt. Then exiting I went into my room.

I unpacked my school bag and extracted the pictures, all but one had been taken in this room, I looked carefully at each picture trying to work out where he had hidden the camera, I soon found the camera, it was hidden behind a picture of my first cat, Piggles, the little shit had even cut a hole in the picture so that the lens would be able to see me, from the camera a thin wire led back through the wall into his room. I carefully put a plant on the shelf in front of the camera, then on second thoughts I carefully unplugged the camera and put it in my desk drawer and locked it.

I spent the next couple of hours carefully going through the CDs most were copies of games, two had a whole load of porn on, one had picture of me on and the last, well the last was a single program called Master PC, it was a sort of game where you could change your self on screen, give your self better legs and stuff, you could change your clothes, or your look, or your sex, you could even give your self implants and not just for a bigger bosom, but things like knives in your knuckles. Each change you made was represented in the figure on screen, she started off looking like me and as I gradually changed her she became more and more sexy. After some time at this I noticed that there was a small apply button at the bottom of the screen, I clicked it...

When I woke I felt really strange, my chest felt much heavier, my whole body felt different, I rubbed my eyes and felt a cut appear on my face...

It took me a while to make any sense of it, and stop the bleeding, when I had clicked apply I had inadvertently changed myself to the person I had been constructing on the screen, I had turned from a pretty 17 year old girl into an old man, with large breasts, gorgeous legs, and knives under the knuckles. I went back to the computer and saw the message, 'If you are unsure about these changes please click Undo if you are happy with them please click OK. Please remember to save a baseline scheme from within the file menu.' I clicked undo...

I had also just realized that each time I made a change I would black out, this time I hadn't fallen out of the chair though. I began to go through the program with some determination, I had just found the option to 'Find Person...' when I heard Tom arrive home, evidently he was in trouble and mum was with him.

"Get up to your room, I have never heard of such a disgusting thing, how you could do this to her I don't know..."

"...mutter..." Tom evidently wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Well you had better think what you are going to be doing for the next two weeks, and while you're at it you had better think what you're going to tell Sarah."

"...mutter..." I heard Tom pass my bedroom door, "...Stupid bitch, who does she think she is..." SLAM.

"And before you do anything else tonight I want your computer outside your bedroom door, with your camera. And stop muttering at me or you'll feel the back of my hand." Mum was also on the landing, "I hope Sarah isn't too upset," now mum was muttering to herself too, "I dread to think what she'll do."

"BETH..." Dad was home too, "she's not with Cat, Cat says she missed her last free period and went home."

"Well the door was locked when we got in, so I wonder where she is, you don't suppose..."

"Was it locked or was the latch down?"

"Oh..." a firm knock on my door, "Sarah are you in?"

"Yes mum, hang on I'll unlock the door." I switched off my monitor and pulled the bolt back on the door, I pulled the door open and let mum, then dad in. Mum hugged me, hard.

"Oh honey," she could see I had been crying. "Who told you?"

"Cat," I could feel the tears coming back and angrily blinked them away. "She told me at first break, everyone was laughing at me, she had a whole load of them that she had taken away from people, mum how could he do it?" There was a knock at my door, Dad pulled the door open and I saw Tom, then red, I lunged at him, he obviously wasn't expecting it and the few moments he stood still gave me the chance to catch him my fist went into his stomach, my other hand was already going for his eyes when dad pulled me back.

"Hush love he'll be punished," I was struggling wildly to get back at him.

"I, I'LL KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE..." Mum slapped me, not hard but with enough force to stop my rant, I turned in dads arms and hugged him, tears streaming down my face.

"Hush love we'll sort him out. Tom into your room, don't come out until we say," I heard him get up and mutter something, "well what do you think, do you think she didn't have a good reason to hit you, now get."

After that I spent sometime being hugged by dad, then when he left to start tea, mum. She tried to talk to me several times, but all I could do was cry, eventually she helped me undress and climb into bed.

I woke up in the middle of the night, I felt really ill. But having felt like this before I knew what to expect, I had fallen asleep crying, so now my body was going to make me sick, I dashed to the bathroom, and puked. After several minutes the heaving stopped and I was able to return to my room, I knew better than to lie down again, so I switched my monitor on again, I noticed the spinning picture of me first, then remembering what I had managed to do to myself, only this afternoon. I began playing around with the various options, before finding the 'Find People...' option, I clicked on it and a small screen popped up, there were various options including family, the family list included Tom so I clicked Thomas Henry Archer. The picture of me faded out and was replaced with a picture of Tom. I felt a wave of anger wash over me...

I changed everything about him, he became a baby, then an old woman, then fat and ugly, I even managed to chop his legs off. There were options to change his health I gave him STDs and various incurable diseases. However I didn't press the apply button, I was fairly sure that I could reverse any changes but I didn't want him to, be punished this way, turning him into a cripple instantly would only make everyone love him more, he would be in the paper, he would be famous so even if he lost his girlfriend someone would love poor little Tom. No I needed something else, I briefly played with changing his sexuality, but the looking through another menu I realized something, I could apply a set of changes over a period of time, it didn't have to be instant...

I lay down feeling much better, Tom wouldn't notice anything for several weeks, first his strength would go, then his stamina, by then his body would have started to change, Tom was in for a bad life for a while, and then maybe if I thought he had learnt his lesson I would maybe change him back, but then maybe not. I carefully hid the CD away in the back of my Bible, then checked that the program would make the changes without needing to be run clicked apply...

The last two weeks had been a nightmare, finally people were loosing interest, some of the 3rd year boys still gave me funny looks, but nearly everyone else had given up, I had actually had more propositions from boys for the Easter dance, I think it would have been worse if Tom had been in school too, but with his suspension I didn't have to face him at school. At home things were strained, both my parents were still angry with him, I now had a proper lock on my door, with a key, he had lost his computer and camera, dad had wiped it clean and re-loaded the operating system on then given it back to him so he could keep up with his work, but he no longer had any games, the discs I had took all but three had gone into the bin, one was hidden and the other two I had given too a friend knowing she would appreciate the subject matter.

On the Sunday before Tom was due to return to school, we had a family meeting, these were not common the last time we had one I had been twelve, Tom, eight. That one was to decide if Mum was to take a job with the school too, if she was I would get free schooling there rather than with my friends in the local comprehensive. In the end she had and my life, and Tom's had changed forever.

"Right we all know why we are here, I don't want any mention of what happened after tonight. After tonight the subject is closed. Okay?"

"Yes dad." I said. Tom just nodded, he was looking pale and small, almost like he had shrunk, certainly not his usual self.

"Tom I believe you have something to say to your sister? Sarah, I want you to listen to your brother."

"Okay." I looked at him and waited, he opened and shut his mouth several times before.

"Sarah I'm sorry, mum says I should explain why I did it but I don't really know, I mean, I took pictures of you then I..." He stopped and tried again.

"I was showing off, I mean having a pretty sister, and, and, um well I had the pictures already so I just showed them to my friends, then well I swore them to secrecy and gave some away, but I swear that I didn't mean it to go this far..." Again he ran out of words. "I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you, I'm sorry.

"Now Sarah I don't want to hear anything from you for a moment, I am going to tell you what Tom's punishment is," I nodded, "Tom is grounded until further notice, he has lost his TV and internet rights. No pocket money until the end of October, and you can give him two of your chores for his spare time." Tom looked stunned. He started to protest, but dad hadn't finished. "That also includes after school activities, unless your mother or myself are there you will be at home."

"Sarah your turn." Said Mum.

"Um, well what Tom did really hurt, I don't know if I will ever trust him again, I don't think the punishment is enough," both my parents and Tom looked worried at this, "but short of capital punishment I'm not sure what else to suggest.
"It will be a long time until I forgive him, and as I see it there is nothing he can do to make it up to me, um, chores, washing up, and my washing."

"Tom?"

"Okay." I could see that he was still stunned by the severity of the punishment, he seemed to be fighting back tears. With that though the meeting ended, I went straight upstairs, Tom followed me.

"I mean it Sarah, I'm sorry."

"Yeah well it's too late isn't all your dirty little friends know what I look like don't they. Don't speak to me, I don't want to even know you now..." I turned and fled, I heard Tom follow and go into his room.

The next few days were strained, with Tom's return people once more remembered why he had been suspended and I suspect there was one or two copies of the pictures floating around the boys dormitories. However after the head master had made it clear that if any more pornographic pictures were found on anyone or in anyone's possession that person would be suspended. From then on I did receive one or two nasty comments but was able to shake them off, in the summer term mum taught Tennis and Rounders, with Tom's ban on extra curricular activities his cricket season was over before it had really begun, although he was able to play during games, he was unable to attend the matches so wasn't even selected for the team. He soon found that if he didn't go with mum to Tennis and Rounders he was expected to do things in the house and garden, as the extra curricular sports were open to all pupils he ended up going to those that mum took, the fact that no other boys went and that most of the girls understood what he had done to me made it I expect a fairly joyless experience.

However he had enough jobs with his own chores to keep him at home the rest of the time, with mum standing over him he did get his room tidy and clean, mum even made him wash the paintwork and dust the shelves. He was allowed to use his computer, I suspect he had managed to scrounge some games off friends, mainly as several teachers expected pupils to hand in all home work typed, no homework equalled detention on Saturday nights.

He did do my chores, the first time he put my washing by my door mum made him do it all again, it was so badly done, then rather to my own annoyance she made me show him how I wanted it done. My school uniform, is one of two outfits, if I am representing the school I have a Trouser Suit, rich velvet in a dark green. For normal school days the girls all have knee length bottle green skirts, white blouses and Blazers, as a sixth former my uniform was more variable, I was allowed to wear anything I wanted as long as it was clean and tidy, on the basis that if one of our teachers requested that we wear uniform we would, basically I went to lessons on Monday and Friday in proper uniform the rest of the time I wore jeans or a skirt, I had even been known to wear leggings and a crop top. Everybody did games on Monday and Friday afternoons so I also had two complete sports kits, plus what ever I wore to Saturday lessons, no uniform for anyone on Saturday, and Sunday was a free day, chapel in the morning in my suit, then I normally did homework or went for a run.

This means that on average I have three loads of washing to do every week, one of blouses, one of smalls and t-shirts and the last of sports kit. I spent two hours showing exactly what I expected of him, one good thing about the process by the end of it I didn't want to kill him or even punch him hard, he was struggling, he even looked slightly unwell.

Over the next three weeks Tom began to do quite well in my chores my clothing was looking increasingly neat and tidy, I still as wronged older sister treated him like a slave, I never asked him anymore I told him. I think mum noticed because she actually stopped me one day when I was telling him something. But apart from that my revenge was sweet. By half term Tom was struggling to beat the girls in his weekly humiliation, his normally excellent physical fitness was going, not to say that he wasn't still very fit, just now he just didn't seem to have his former strength. Mum took him to the doctor during half term, but the doctor couldn't find anything wrong.
On the Friday of half term we went shopping for school kit, I needed some summer dresses, and Tom seemed to need some new trousers. I found the day very satisfying, not only did I find two lovely new dresses, I also saw the start of Tom's humiliation, we were in a shoe shop together, mum wanted to get some new sandals, Tom had wandered off to look at the trainers and I had wandered off to look at the running shoes, an assistant came over to me and introduced herself, I smiled and shook my head, so she went on to Tom.

"Excuse me Miss, but do you need any help?" Tom didn't even turn round obviously not realizing she was talking to him. The assistant moved into his line of sight and he looked at her, she was maybe 16 or 17 and quite pretty, Tom obviously thought so as he was looking at her when she asked again, "Excuse me Miss but do you need any help?"

"Uh, um I was just looking at the trainers, um..." Tom said in confusion. The girl probably sensing a sale led him over to trainers more suitable for a girl and proceeded in helping him try several pairs on, I was watching intently, Tom looked to me like Tom, but to this girl he obviously looked enough like a girl for her to assume he was. At that moment another assistant came over to 'help' and we got chatting about running shoes, I told her all about the sort of running I enjoyed, cross country, and eventually bought a new pair of running shoes. When I got to the door, I found a very red Tom and Mum, "What's wrong with him?"

"He just bought some trainers, girl's trainers, well it's on his head I think his friends might laugh at him."

"She thought I was a girl mum, I didn't, I couldn't get through to her I was a boy."

"Well you obviously didn't try very hard, you don't look like a girl to me. Now hurry up or we will miss the bus."

When we got in I dug out the CD and loaded up Master PC, I immediately looked at Tom, his body was definitely acquiring a feminine outline, I added some ideas I had to the mix and applied them, I hoped this would speed the process up. At tea time mum regaled Dad with how Tom had bought girl's trainers, what was worse Tom's old trainers had had it. Luckily for him he wore cricket shoes for games this term so none of the boys would see his new foot ware, unluckily he would need to wear them in front of the girls for Tennis on Tuesday...

I don't normally play Tennis its not my favourite sport I prefer less competition, I tend to compete against myself. Today though I decided I couldn't miss it, I got there at half three.

"Hi honey, are you coming for a game or two?"

"Yeah, I thought I would, you want to have a bit of a warm up with me?"

"Well the other girls will be here in a while, but... Why not." We headed out onto the nearest tennis court and batted the ball back and forwards, I had played a lot as a kid, until the summer I broke my leg, then I had gone off it. After a little while we had an audience, so we stopped. Tennis after school was not really about learning to play, it was more so that people who enjoyed the sport could play others, Mum had played for the county before she started teaching, so the girls and boy who took these sessions after school had some good coaching, while they played. I looked around for Tom, and saw him hanging around near the pavilion, there were several girls near him some of whom were obviously laughing at his foot wear. In fact now I actually saw them he had managed to get good tennis shoes so it wasn't all bad, I did manage to say to one of the girls, he had got them to fit in better.

I sat out the first couple of matches, the fourth match was between my brother and a fourth year called Helen, Helen was the sister of one of my friends and I knew her quite well, she stopped by my bench. "I'll run him into the ground for you Sarah."

"Thanks, hey you like his new shoes?"

"Yeah especially the pink stripes." She laughed, I grinned, in the end my brother played with his back to me, he was wearing his PE kit, white nylon shorts and white T-shirt, the shorts were obviously to small for him, so every time he bent over you could see his less than masculine bottom. Helen beat him convincingly.

I had spent some days rigging up my own spy camera so that I could keep an eye on Tom in his room, when I arrived home I pulled up the output display on my PC and settled in to wait. Tom arrived sometime later, he went into his bedroom and started to get changed for his shower, I looked closely at his body, he was definitely getting hippy, his chest was also getting larger. I found it very hard to not feel slightly guilty when he stood in front of his mirror crying and feeling his body, I hadn't seen his penis since he was about five so I wasn't sure how big it had been, now it was tiny. However his manipulations had turned him on so he was now rubbing it with some urgency. I checked the Master PC program again, I changed some of the settings that I had only changed the day before, Tom would notice the changes first I was sure but how would he deal with them, when I looked at the screen again, Tom was lying on his bed crying...

"Mum, is Tom alright?"

"Well he is being teased at school, most of the girls and some of the boys won't talk to him anymore. Are you still riding him about his chores?"

"I stopped after you told me to."

"Well I don't know, why?"

"I thought I heard him crying, when he came in, and well even when you punished him when he was suspended he didn't really cry, or when his girl friend dumped him."

"Do you care?"

I thought about it, yes I did, I mean he really hurt me but he is my brother and I do still love him in a way. "Yes." I admitted.

"Before this would you have asked me or him?"

"Him, I just don't know mum, how can I ask him, maybe he hates me for being nasty to him, I mean it was his fault but I did go over the top with the chores and stuff."

"You did. I don't think he hates you, if anything I think he hates himself more, you were always there for him when he was little, I used to get jealous of you, when he hurt himself he would go to you and not me. Then with this thing, he knows he went beyond the pale with those pictures, now it seems like you don't love him, he can't tell you his fears and he won't talk to me or your father."

"I'll go and talk to him."

"Just be careful, he might think you're still trying to hurt him."

"Thanks mum." I headed back upstairs, I paused outside Tom's door, I could still hear muffled sobs, I knocked and heard him move, he appeared a moment later his eyes red from crying, he had put on a dressing gown.

"Mum... Oh, what do you want?"

"Tom I want a truce, and I want to know what's wrong."

"Really," I could see the look of disbelief that hit his face, "I dunno, I mean, really?"

"Yeah much as it pains me to say I do love you, after all this you are still my baby brother." Then completely unexpectedly he collapsed with uncontrolled sobbing into my arms. "Um, Tom what's the matter, I mean this isn't about me having a go today is it? This isn't um, over your chores, I mean I bet if I tell mum and dad they'll let you off I don't mind doing them, really." None of this was getting through to him, the guilt was starting to limp through my mind but I firmly put it to one side, I wouldn't change his punishment anymore but I wouldn't stop it either. I almost carried him over to his bed and sat him down, then I did what mum had done once to me, I slapped him, again it wasn't hard but it broke into his despair.
"Now calmly what's wrong?"

"I... I... I'm turning, I'm changing into a girl, I mean I've got tits, and well I look like a girl." This was going to be difficult, I of course knew this, I had designed the girl he was turning into, I had changed him so that when he went to the doctor his body would reject any chemical designed to stop the process, what was happening to him was to a point quite medical, it even had a name, after that point was reached then the magic of Master PC took over, by the end of the summer term Tom would be a 100% female. The only way back would be if I let him, even now with the guilt of what I was doing to him running through my mind I was unwilling to stop the process.

"No Tom you can't be, you're a boy, boys don't turn into girls, well not unless they want to..."

"I am though, all the girls were laughing at me today, they say I make a good girl and when I got in I looked in the mirror and I was I mean I've seen," he blushed and stopped, "you know, and I do I look like a girl, I mean not as well pretty as um."

"Okay then show me, then well if you're right I suppose you had better tell mum." He stood and walked across the room towards the door, as he turned to face me he shrugged out of his dressing gown and stood before me, all he was wearing were a pair of briefs and they were skimpy enough to reveal more than they hid, "Um I see what you mean," I could clearly see what I had seen through the camera earlier on his body was very effeminate his hips were wider than I had thought, and he had enormous nipples, "I'm calling mum."

"No please, don't."

"Tom I've got to, you shouldn't look like this there is something wrong with you if you look like this, mum has got to get you seen by the doctors..."

Over the next three weeks Tom steadily became more and more effeminate, he saw our GP who referred him onto a specialist, then he was seen by several, at the end of the second week Tom was given drugs that would stop his body producing female hormones, not only didn't they work Tom was found to be severely allergic to them, a few days later the doctors tried another chemical, with no better results.

"The doctors are giving up, they can't stop it and when they give me drugs to stop it, I just get ill."

"Oh Tom I'm sure they'll find a cure for you soon." I lied, we were sitting in my room, he was curled up on my sag bag, I was lying on my bed, these talks were becoming more frequent as Tom became more and more depressed.

"I don't know I heard Dr. Shepard talking to mum this afternoon, they don't even know what's wrong with me, when they first started trying to help, they said I had, um, well one thing, but now they say I can't have that as it wouldn't change me as far as this thing has. Dr. Shepard told mum that even my insides were becoming female, he told mum that was thought impossible until it happened to me." I of course knew all this, I had been watching the changes on my PC, Tom still was externally male in the fact that he had a penis, it was however only an inch long, when erect.

That night Tom cut his wrists, I found him in the bathroom unconscious, he was rushed to the local hospital, mum travelled with him, I stayed behind. I needed to stop the process of his punishment, I first of all called up his current program, then tried to undo the process, Master PC sent an error message saying it was unable to comply modifications were in progress, then gave me a time and date when I could revert Tom to his old self, a brother who took pervy pictures was bad but a brother who died was worse. I never meant it to go this far I thought.

I tried loads of different options, I could change the direction of the process only by small amounts, I could make his hair grow longer quickly, I could make his finger nails strong, I could even stop his wrists from bleeding but I couldn't change the overall progress until it had finished. After nearly an hour I stopped and admitted defeat, there was no way that I could stop the process, I could slow it right down, which I am sure Tom would like or accelerate it, but it couldn't be stopped. I decided that I would leave it, at its current rate Tom would be all girl in a month, then I would see what I could do to reverse the change.

As I was closing the program down I had a brain wave, there was an option to change his memory, I had looked at it before but it was complicated so I had left it alone, in amongst the options for memory I found a way of changing how he thought of himself, without too much thought I changed it, on a hunch I had a look through his recent memories, there were no short term memories thus I couldn't see what he had been thinking earlier on, but I could see his thoughts going right back to when he was a child, the further back the more gaps. Then the phone rang...

"That was your mother, he will be alright, they're keeping him in over night, but he luckily hadn't lost enough blood when you found him."

"Oh good, and he will be alright?"

"Yes, and we are very proud of you, you kept your head and it was probably your quick thinking that saved his life." I was shocked and feeling awful by this time, my quick thinking had maybe saved him, but my quick temper had nearly killed him. As I lay in bed I started to cry, I felt so stupid, my own petty revenge had nearly killed Tom.

Tom didn't return to school, he was sunk into a deep slough of depression, he wasn't even talking to me. Mum was getting depressed as she felt responsible, dad was having trouble sleeping and I was feeling guilty, I counted down the days... According to Master PC on Tuesday evening at 9pm Tom would be 100% female, at that point I was going to employ a program that I had constructed over the last few weeks, it would return him to masculinity, in rather less time than, the current program had removed it. What I had failed to realize was that the actual visible changes would have finished by the Monday evening.
I got in from school and went to get changed out of my sports kit, Tom's door was slightly open, so I stuck my head round it to say hi, the sight that caught my eyes was astounding, Tom was out of bed in front of the mirror, his eyes were closed and his hands were roaming over his body. I withdrew my head and knocked, I heard a rush and then the door opened.

"Hi," his voice was softer, "come in, I was just getting up."

"How are you feeling?"

"Oh fine... I'm just well, I'm all there again, I mean I'm not a boy anymore..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I slept most of the last week, when I woke up at lunch time I felt really well, so I got up, when I looked in the mirror, I realized that Tom was gone." I must have looked stunned. "When I took those pictures of you I... um, well I hated my self, now well I can start again, no-one knows Tabitha, I'm going to get mum to let me stay this way." I stared at him...

"Why did you slash your wrists then, if you're happy like this, that was a bit silly."

"I hated who I was, I hated who I thought I was becoming, it seemed to be the only way out. I just wish..."

"What?"

"I wish that I had not taken those pictures, I am sure that this is my punishment, just, Sarah promise that you won't take any pictures of me."

"Definitely, I might end up as a boy..."

Of course that wasn't the end of it Tabitha as Tom insisted we call him, spent a long time adjusting to his new status, there were time when he burst in on me first thing in the morning, he was having his first period, so I helped him through that. Then when he returned to school in the autumn he had a lot of problems when he noticed boys looking at him. He eventually got over this with more of my help, in this I had some experience, I too was not keen on boys, I however had Cat. So after I let him in on that secret, we pushed Tabitha in the direction of a girl we were fairly certain was open to that sort of approach.

And me well I finished my A' levels, I passed all my exams and got five A grades, I was offered several places at different universities, in the end I decided to take a year out and concentrate on my sports, last month I took part in my third marathon, I was fifth in my age bracket, and twenty third overall. Tabitha is doing well in her sports too, she is due to play tennis at Wimbledon this year, and mum has high hopes of her career.

Lastly I suppose you want to know what happened to that CD, well I don't actually know, mum cleared out my room when I went away on holiday for the first time on my own, I spent three weeks in Ibiza, when I returned my room had been decorated nicely, mum had sorted out all the books I no longer read, those had been sent to the local charity shop. For a moment I worried, then decided that it would find its way into the hands of someone who needed it...

I thought that I had finished this account, but I was speaking to Tabitha not so long ago, it turns out she had wanted to be a girl for ages, so we both got what we wanted in the end...

Sarah Archer

As told to JC

I did some artwork for this story, if you want to see it please click here. Sadly some of the images have at some point become scrambled possibly due to one of the FTP programs I tried uploading them as ASCII, the zip file should work however.

Part of another story that may not be finished for a long time, this is actually a story told by one of the characters, though I would post it here for your consumption!

Why it is not good to eat the bravest girls!

Story:

Many years ago long before this world change to how it is now there lived a little boy he lived with his parents and sisters in a small village in northern Japan. He was happy he worked hard at his chores, he was kind to his sisters, obedient to his parents and much good was thought of him. Then one day whilst collecting wood in the forest he came upon a hole in the ground, being a brave boy he climbed into the hole. Many hours passed and eventually his parents and sisters became worried they organized a great search. At last the searchers came upon the hole too.

They whispered for sometime as they were more frightened than the boy and were scared of the hole or more importantly what it might contain eventually one of the boys own sisters went into the cave, her parents tried to stop her but she persisted. Time passed and then they heard a scream, a young girl was screaming. After a time a girl came climbing out of the hole slowly followed by the sister the fist girl looked very scared and hid behind the sister when she saw all the villagers looking at her.

Of the boy there was no sign, mourning their lost brother and son the family returned to their farm taking the strange girl with them. All was well for some time. One day an awful beast, a winged snake appeared in the mountain near the village one by one the pretty girls and women started to vanish. The villager knew that the Wyvern was snatching them to eat, and sent to their lord for help.

The lord scoffing at the tales of mythical beasts did nothing to help and slowly the villages around the mountain became empty and desolate. The Wyvern becoming bold one day snuck into the village and took all of the sisters and the strange girl. It carried them in a net made of gold deep into the mountains up onto a high ledge where it sat back to decide who to eat first.

Of the sisters there were three, the first the eldest was tall and strong she spent her days working in the fields with her mother her name was Aneko. The second sister was like a butterfly beautiful but flighty she spent her time collecting flowers and herbs and would one day become a great beauty and marry a lord her name was Cho. The last of the sisters was the most beautiful she was also the bravest having gone into a hole looking for her lost brother something that no-one else would try Emiko.

The last girl was strange she sat all day looking sad and crying she hardly ever spoke and when she did she said strange things, the villagers laughed at her and only Emiko would let her be, her name was Sanyu.

The Wyvern looked at the four mouthfuls and its mouth began to water such succulence could last it for several days, perhaps more if it hoarded them. Now Wyverns are like dragons in the fact the have some intelligence, it decided to eat the bravest of the girls and work out who was bravest by asking them questions.

“Now my little mouthfuls, my succulent morsels who shall I eat first?” Aneko and Cho screamed and buried their faces in their hands too frightened to speak. Emiko stepped forward.

“Leave us you vile Wyvern go eat fish like a good Wyvern should.” The Wyvern snorted it was long since a mere human had dared shout at it. This one would do, as it licked its chops it noticed the smallest of the girls, this one had not hid it’s face nor stood up and shouted in fact it seemed to scarcely notice the hideous beast. Ah thought the monster this one must be truly brave, it snapped the small girl up and swallowed her whole. Then it sat back.

Moments later there was a wet splotch of a noise and a small extremely angry girl shot out of the Wyvern killing it in an explosion of intestines. “Right that does it,” the bloody figure shouted, “first I fall down and break my leg, then I turn into a girl then some stupid monster tries to bloody eat me, I’m going home.” With that the small girl took one look at her sisters and stormed off down the mountain, the sisters after looking at each other in surprise gathered the golden net and followed…

JC

Notes:

This like many of my stories came to me in a dream, and then was written in a single sitting. I was thinking about the dongle in the story as I need one myself to get my second monitor working, I have one already but a second would be handy.

Some liberties have been taken both with the actual adaptor and with the IT department and it’s network. Mainly as they mean the story works.

Alex Marshal was not a pleasant man to work with, amongst his annoying habits were nose picking, burping loudly and telling lewd jokes. But what Polly really hated was the fact that he was a chauvinist of the highest order, not only did he think that a woman was good for nothing but house work and sex. But he was happy to tell everyone this, even clients. Most, luckily, ignored the man’s most annoying habits but some appeared to agreed with him.

Both Alex and Polly worked for the same company, and while Alex had been with Mason’s for nearly twenty years Polly was a relative newcomer, having only been there for five. Mason’s was a well known and successful furniture seller, stores in nineteen northern cities including Polly’s home town, which is where she had arrived from although she now worked in the head office.

Polly was the only woman in the small IT department, her colleague Timothy Summers was a good friend and tried to help her when ever he could but being gay he was little better than a woman in Alex’s eyes. Alex was the manager of one of the smaller stores, and unlikely to rise further in the company due to his less than modern views on women and minorities. Nor could the company sack him with impunity married as he was to the daughter of the absentee owner. Most in the company hoped that one day he would put his foot in his mouth in front of the wrong client and be forced out, so far though he had led a charmed life.

And the reason that Polly and he saw each other more than most was that while Timothy was based in the head office his remit was IT maintenance, and spent his time going from store to store fixing ailing EPOS machines and sorting out hardware failures. Polly however looked after the software end of things, both programming and support. This kept her in the office most of the day, the problem arising when as on most days Alex would ring from his small showroom, only fifteen hundred square feet, and demand that IT send someone down to fix another issue with one of his machines.

These callouts followed a pattern and generally happened late in the day when Alex would need a laugh at someone’s expense; Polly was an easy target, being as she was a woman and a geek. Several times in the past having taken one too many barbed comments Polly had complained to her line manager who while not quite as bad as Alex thought that she should be able to rise above the childish jokes of Alex, besides who was he to tell the owner to sack his son in law.

It was a Friday morning, the fifth of August, when our story really starts. The summer so far had been rather nice, better than most English summers, and August was so far no different, Polly was having a good month so far, no major difficulties had kept her co-worker away for once and so he had had the pleasure of dealing with Alex.

When she answered the phone and took a brief message to relay to Tim she knew in her heart of hearts that next week would be harder to bear. When Tim returned to the office from his cigarette break ten minutes later Polly relayed the message. “Tim I just had Maria Jenkins from the Tadcaster shop on the line, seems their entire POS system has died, she needs you up there soonest.”

“Damn, she say anything else?”

“Yeah, fire alarm went off, she’s not sure but she thinks their air conditioning system in the server room packed up and the whole lot melted. They had to evacuate the store, they have the all clear now but nothing is working.” With that Tim’s phone rang again this time Tim answerd.

“Hello.”

…

“Yes Tim speaking.”

…

“Yes I just got the message from Maria.”

…

“Well of course mister Harris, I’ll head up there in ten minutes, just load up the car and away I’ll go.”

…

“I’m sure Polly can handle anything down here for now, I’ll look at what needs doing and see if I can jury rig something.”

…

“Well if what Maria told Polly is correct, it’ll be more than that, couple of weeks probably.”

…

“Yes sir I know about the sale coming up, I’ll do what I can but a whole server room is not something I can just install in ten minutes.”

…

“Of course sir, I’ll keep you informed.” Putting the phone down her turned back to Polly, “Well you heard, I told the old fool only last week that if we centralised everything here… but you know Bob Harris,” and with remarkable skill he mimicked the IT director’s voice. “That’s a security risk we can’t take young Timothy, we’ll do it the old way or not at all.”

Polly laughed, “Tim you’d better get going, Maria will need you on site not here, I can hold the fort for a while, just remember I’m on holiday from next Thursday and this time I can’t put it off, not for you or Bob Harris.”

“Roger that Polly.”

~@~

Until three thirty the day went smoothly, Polly answered several questions from members of staff around the company, as various effects of the server death in Tadcaster trickled through the company, another problem however reared it’s ugly head however.

“IT department, Polly speaking.”

“Polly? Where is Timmy, on a fag break?” Alex sniggered into the phone.

“He’s gone over to Tadcaster to sort out the mess up there. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Possibly, your queer friend left me in a pickle last night promising to get back to me with a new dongle, for my projector, only he never appeared. I have an important client waiting, to see the plans of his new office, I need that part right now.”

“Did Tim say what it was you needed Alex?”

“No he didn’t but I can tell you. It’s a D-Sub female to D-Sub female. I have the old one here it fell to pieces whilst I was setting the projector up, just like all females it can’t do its job properly.”

“I’m not sure we have one of those in the stores Alex, we don’t normally support hardware belonging to the staff.”

“What?”

“The projector is yours if you want to use it on company premises you know we don’t support it. If you want to use one go through the channels and get one from stores, that comes with all the right bits to plug into your company laptop.”

“Listen Young Lady I have an important client waiting with me right now.”

“I’m sorry Alex we don’t keep that part in stock, I can’t get you one.”

“Right…” said Alex slamming the phone down.

“IT department, Polly speaking how may I help?”

“Polly I just had Alex Marshall on the phone, why can’t you sort out that part he wants?”

“Tim is out dealing with the hardware side of the problem in Tadcaster and I’m manning the phones here to keep the staff going when their own point of sale systems give them errors connected to Tadcaster, you know stock issues and such. I can’t easily just spend an hour rummaging around in the store room looking for a part, which I might add if Alex had followed the regulations he wouldn’t need.”

“Look I’ll get the switch board to transfer any calls to IT through to me, there’s a shop down the road that sells bits for computers I’m sure they’ll have the part, run down there and get this sorted.”

“Yes sir.”

“Then get this stupid feud with Alex sorted out before you start losing us money.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good girl.”

~@~

The shop down the road that Polly had passed on her way to work every day for the last three and a half years appeared to have changed hands, instead of the rather smart front and interesting display of PC parts in the window, all she could see through the cobwebs and dirt were some faded hardwood display stands and various miscellaneous pieces of junk that might have seen better days sometime before the reign of queen Elizabeth, the first. Stepping back into the road Polly looked both ways a long the road and couldn’t see another shop, let alone the one she assumed she’d missed. Oh well she though and stepped through the door.

“Good afternoon Polly can I help you?”

“Yes I’m looking for a… hang on did you call me Polly?”

“Yes Polly I did, and it just so happens I have exactly what you need right here.” He turned to some shelves behind the counter, Polly’s eyes followed his movements taking in the shabby robe he was wearing and the sign above his head.

“That explains it then.” She said with a laugh pointing at the sign.

“Yes it does, rather well we think. Now here is what you need, comes with a thirty day guarantee.”

“Damn I left my purse in the office, look do you take switch?”

“I’m afraid we don’t but I’m sure if you look in the pocket on your left thigh you will find some money.”

Polly did and was surprised to find a well washed five pound note, “How did you… oh yeah because you’re a wizard. Will that be enough?”

“More than enough, would you like it wrapping?”

“No thanks, look I might come by later you might be able to help a friend of mine.”

“You might but I doubt it.”

“Oh, okay, uh bye…” Polly hurried off to placate Alex who surely by now would have died of a stress induced heart attack.

No such luck, if anything Alex was in a worse mood than before, not only had he been given a talking too, in front of a client by the IT director, but the client had since left. “Where the hell have you been?”

“I told you we don’t stock them I had…”

“Well? You brought one?”

“Yes,” Polly said slitting the packet open with her thumbnail, the small part fell out into her hand what almost felt like a static shock jumping from it into her flesh. “I’ll even fit it for you and make sure it works.”

Polly didn’t like Alex but she knew that the company would sooner part company with her than this idiot. At least if she looked willing she might leave with dignity. She fiddled around behind Alex’s desk knowing full well that rather than do something constructive Alex was giving her bottom a good look. Thanking her lucky stars she had long since learnt not to wear a skirt to work and alternately cursing the degenerate man that made it impossible to.

“There, that should do it. Want to try?”

“Not if you were the last woman on earth.”

“Alex try the projector so I can get out of your way.” Polly tried to keep the anger from her voice. Alex moved behind his desk and pressed some buttons, while the projector did indeed come on, the image was out of focus and upside down.

“Typical.” He muttered before unplugging the dongle from the back of his laptop, he looked at it for a moment then plugged it back in. This time the projector once again failed to come on, Polly was beginning to feel that the fault might be with it rather than the cables.

“There are some instructions for use here Alex, do you…”

“You might need them but I’m sure I don’t, look you failed to set the dip switch properly. This’ll do it.”

Then Polly watched as the fat middle age man in front of her appeared to turn to jelly, it was his face she noticed first, it appeared to go slightly pale then shrivel up, by the time she realised what was happening however the rest of Alex’s body had also begun to change. And before Polly could do more than rise to her feet from her perch on the edge of the other chair Alex was no more.

“There you see Polly; you just need to set that dip switch, now it works.” Before Polly’s eyes Alex had changed, from a fat middle aged man into a pretty young woman.

“Alex?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“But what happened…”

“What do you mean? Today or just now?”

“Just now.”

“Well I noticed that the dongle has a tiny dip switch on the side, and I know its weird because what other input would a female d-sub jack have but when I set it to male input it works, look.” She pointed at the screen behind Polly that now had a rather hunky young man apparently trying to do something to another young man on a beach. The image was moreover the right way up, and complete in all its graphic detail.

“Polly?” The head of the IT director appeared round the door.

“Oh here you are, hi Alex, look I know that… WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?” he caught sight of the gay porn displayed on the wall.

“Oh hi sir. No idea we sorted out the projector like mister Marshall asked and that’s what was on it.” Alex volunteered.

“I’ll kill him, this is the final straw.” The IT director stormed back out the door. Oh my gosh! thought Polly. Which was about all she had time to think because now a fat middle aged man who looked suspiciously like Alex Marshall stormed through the door followed closely by the IT director.

“Look Geoff I can explain.”

“I’d like to hear you try. Polly can you disconnect the laptop and make a copy of the hard drive I want to make sure nothing on it gets mysteriously deleted.”

“Yes sir.”

“You can’t do that Geoff that laptop is my personal property, anyway those photographs are um… research for an advert I’m thinking of placing. Yes an advert, Dimitri is the one on the left he has kindly offered his services for a very reasonable fee.”

“Look Alec, while I can’t stop you looking at that…” he paused trying to keep his temper, “sort of thing, you cannot seriously believe that the marketing department would allow you to advertise with that sort of photograph?”

“But…”

“No I have been told in no uncertain terms by the company that after you last dismal assessment and repeated complaints both from staff and customers, that we will have to let you go.”

“You can’t do that, my wife…”

“Has nothing to do with it, she is the daughter of the owner not your employer, and Sir Miles is already interested in the lack of profits coming from this store. To the point of closing it and redeploying the staff, who in the main have good reports. You don’t.

“Besides I doubt your wife would be impressed to find out why you have been sacked.”

“You wouldn’t…”

“Of course not, but if you fight it, it would come out.

“Now I want you off to clear all your personal belongings from this office, except the laptop. You can collect that from reception where I will leave it to be collected once Polly has copied the hard drive. I don’t feel it nesesscary to have security to escort you off the premises. But I will if you are not gone within an hour.

“Oh… I’ll…”

“Polly take the laptop back to your office and copy the hard drive, then return the laptop to me.”

Polly and Alex sat together in the IT office, it now contained three desks, one still belonged to Tim, one belonged to Polly and the third belonged to Alex, but Polly couldn’t ask her new colleague the question she needed to ask, Alex and the rest of the staff knew nothing of the days events. Indeed it was rapidly becoming unclear in her own head what had happened.

“So you were gay?” It slipped out of her mouth before Polly could censure herself. “Sorry…” she noticed Alex’s blush. “You know what happened?”

“I… yes.”

“So who was that in your office?”

“That was the old me, sort of. Dimitri was real, so I guess he was too.”

“And the reason you didn’t say anything?”

“I couldn’t, every time I tried I just couldn’t make a sound.”

“I thought I was going mad.”

“I am. I mean I was a man until three hours ago. Now I have to sit to piss, and my boy friend will hate me.”

“Boy friend? Dimitri?”

“Yes.” Alex blushed again. “Only now I don’t see what I saw in him.”

“So you gave Tim all that grief about being gay to do what? Prove in some strange way that you weren’t? Or because you were…”

“NO… I mean… I don’t know…”

“Well I think I’m going to have to tell Tim.”

“What? You can’t…”

“Can’t? Why not? You made us both miserable, me because of all those jokes about how bad women are at everything. And Tim from all those downright rude comments you made. ‘Want a fag Tim?’ Do you have any idea how hurtful that must have been?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well I’m not, now for once you can be on the receiving end of some of them.”

~@~

Polly was for once happy, she’d just come back from a lovely holiday in Brittany with her parents, who she hadn’t seen for several years. Tim had kept her up to date with the goings on in the office while she’d been away. The new Alex, Alec, was gone for good, thrown out on his ear, the rumour was that now his wife was suing him for divorce.

The man formerly known as Alex and now Polly’s lovely assistant was settling in well, though Tim mentioned she seemed awfully jumpy. But then Polly put that down to the fact that in the end she hadn’t told Alex that she wasn’t telling Tim, after all she doubted that he’d have believed her. Besides in the short time she had known the new woman she had grown to like her.

Alex didn’t know anything about the cable adaptor she had bought, or more importantly she didn’t know it had been bought from a guy who wore a dirty dressing gown to work and had a certificate of wizardry behind his counter. In the end rather than try and take it back or pass it on to anyone it went into the canal on her way home.

After all when you buy computer parts from wizards you don’t always get exactly what you want, or do you?

Spells ‘r’ Us Enterprises: Gender Bender (15pin D-Sub Female to 15 pin D-Sub Female). Instructions for Use

1. To convert a male into a female make sure the dip switch is set to ‘male’ input…
2. To reverse the process install the adaptor in reverse order.
3. This adaptor will also convert a SVGA monitor cable. However in this instance the dip switch should be left in the neutral position.

SrUE takes no responsibility for any catastrophic accidents to reality. This does not affect your statutory rights.

The above part does exist and is used to convert a monitor cable (SVGA) from a male plug into a female, often used when attaching extension cables together.

Based on a concept by Bill Hart. No wizards were harmed in the creation of this story.

Tonight after reading the rather awesome Sk8r Grrls story I was reading through some of my own fiction, and came across a passage in 'The Beauty Soap' (I'd link but my own site is being redeveloped and I can't find it here :S) which wonders if the shop has started using subliminals. This story came of that. It probably isn't that great as i knocked it out in two hours or so, and proofed it myself. Any errors are therefor my own. Without further ado...

“So what do you think Bob?”
“It’s risky, but if the boffins think it’ll work I think we ought to go for it.”
“Oh they do, in their tests they found the ninety percent of women will be caught be the device.”
“That’s good, and the remaining ten percent will be got by peer pressure?”
“Who cares? We’ll have ninety percent of the market shopping in our stores, buying our products and the competition won’t know why.”
“Well Sir Grover, made it quite clear this would be our make or break year, and gave me complete control over all in-store advertising. I want you to prepare a complete report on this suggestion, including what it will cost each store to implement the idea. With that I’ll make a final decision.”
“I have it right here.”
“Great, I’m sure you know there’ll be a bonus in this for you, and if it works even half as well as the projections show I think its safe to say that you’ll get a fairly hefty promotion out of it. How does director in charge of research sound?”
“Great.”
“Right leave this with me I’ll speak to you later in the week.”
“Righto.”

~@~

My name’s Jack Higgins, sadly I’m not a famous author, though I’d love to write, I never get much further than working out the catchy titles. This is handy as I work in a large London publisher, sadly my days work is normally answering the phones in the production department, but I’ve won several in house competitions naming books or chapters of existing authors.

This story is my first, and while not exactly believable it is true. It’s also likely to be my last, or perhaps the last writing as Jack Higgins. Where should I begin? I would start at the beginning but I’m unsure where the start was. It could have been when I decided to shop for a present for my mother, or equally when I took the advice of a female colleague as to what I should buy her for her seventieth birthday, or more likely where.

The department I work in is largely female, there is just myself and one other man, and he’s my boss. So I could hardly fail to notice how most of my colleagues raved over a new store that had opened less than a mile down the road. ‘Miss!’ with the tagline, ‘Everything for a perfect woman.’ It was the first of its kind I came across, and while I had of course read in the paper about its phenomenal success stories, not being even slightly interest in women, or women’s things I’d never been even slightly near any of the other London branches.

Amy who has a cubicle across the corridor from my own suggested that I might find a present for my old mum in there. Not that my mother and I saw much of each other, when I came out as gay after leaving university while she said that she just wanted me to be happy I did notice a profound cooling in her attitude toward me, we barely spoke for fifteen years, later I found out she had been desperate for grandkids so my ‘defection’ had hurt her more than I realised.

So back to ‘Miss!’ as I said I’ve never been in one so was unsure what they sold, Amy insisted that the store was just the place to go, and with most of the office now backing her up I vowed that if all these women said it was, who was I to demur. The store near us was a former department store, now it contained everything the perfect woman could ever want on four floors, and a basement.

I arrived slightly out of breath late on Friday 12th July; it was to be a day that changed my life, though at the time I didn’t know that, all I knew was the guy who held the door open for me was so cute, obviously hetero, but leaving me slightly breathless. My long term affair with a teacher from the college near my house had fizzled out over the winter and now I was footloose and fancy free, and didn’t I just fancy the guy. I didn’t fancy my chances against the cute girl he almost ravished on meeting, but such is life.

Through the second door into the ground floor and my eyes were astonished by the displays, there seemed no rational behind the place, jewellery was mixed in with clothing, which in turn rubbed shoulders with perfume and make-up. Everywhere I looked were well dressed young people, mainly female but with the odd man. Well young men who sell personal things to women are often odd. And yes it does take one to know one. Luckily I tend to prefer the more butch male so these simpering fools didn’t leave me drooling, though some of the smells seemed to leave me drooling.

I paused at the foot of the escalator, down would lead me to the salon, and up would lead me to Heaven. Literally that’s what the sign read. I went up, reasoning that while my mother wasn’t quite ready for heaven yet I doubted I could get her into one of these stores anyway and certainly not a salon.

The next floor was much the same as the ground floor, here though the products were less in your face, if the lower floor was a teenage slut this floor was more the discerning older lady, your secretary or perhaps the really sexy drama teacher. Up the escalator again and I wasn’t surprised to find that this floor also wasn’t quite Heaven. Heaven was still a floor up the smell from the food was, Heavenly. But it also wasn’t sexy in the slightest. In fact it felt loving, like the hug from a parent after you graze your knee as a child.

~@~

I don’t recall what I bought for my mother, which is a little weird. I do recall returning less than a week later just to browse. I think that, first Amy then the other girls in my office were a little surprised to start receiving little, and not so little, gifts from me over the following months. Eventually I was given a formal reprimand by my boss as it apparently made them feel a little uncomfortable for the company’s resident gay man to be buying them lingerie.

I soon had a remarkable collection at home, and not just lingerie but makeup, outerwear and other oddments. I soon became known at the store and began to dress a little better when I stopped by after work. The staff at Miss! Didn’t care what I bought, and as I was spending more and more of my wage there they began to make suggestions.

"Would sir care to try this?" "Would sir care to look at that?" It almost became a joke, so when the sir was dropped form the joke I barely noticed, nor did I mind that occasionally someone would slip up and ask if I would like to try something on. And don’t get me wrong here, Miss! Sold no men’s clothing at all, and while some things could be almost described as suitable for men or women it still was designed and made for the female form.

One day I said yes, I don’t know why, maybe I thought they would laugh and pass it off as one of the jokes that we had shared collectively over the months. Or perhaps I just liked whatever it was that I tried on.

This started a new phase; I found myself very self conscious in what had been until now my normal workday clothing. Monday to Thursday I wore a suit and shirt with a tie. Fridays I got to wear casual clothing, normally blue jeans and a shirt. But now I felt uncomfortable in things I had been wearing for the last twenty years, day in day out. Though not I might add without the ocasional replacement and frequent washes.

The first thing that changed was my suit, I bought an absolutely gorgeous ladies trouser suit, slightly fitted, but totally perfect for me, everyone I met mentioned the fact that I looked good in it, my boss actually sent me a memo asking for the tailor’s name. Of course under such a masterpiece of good design proper foundation garments should be worn, and while for several weeks the bra chafed somewhat I got used to it, to the point that I wore it all the time. I had several anyway and after I was used to it I felt underdressed without.

To this point my body remained fairly masculine, but it seemed later that the change in underwear from boxers or Y-fronts to bra and panties seemed to change something in me, and gradually my body too started to change.

~@~

I’d got to the point where I wore women’s clothing all day every day, I slept in women’s night things, ate my meals in Heaven with other women (Heaven being the top floor restaurant at Miss!) I had even laid in a supply of women’s sanitary products. But through this all I had failed to notice, anything unusual. That was all to change.

I’m gay, I have been ever since I first started thinking about the opposite sex, while I may have wondered about girls at school, it was the boys (well some of them) that got me hot. Luckily I’m not stupid so didn’t come out at school. Firstly as if my father, may he rest in peace, had found out he’d have killed me and secondly if my peers had found out they’d have told my father then taken it in turns to kill me. I was far closer to the girls for friendships than I was ever to the boys.

Now I assume that if you’re straight you don’t fancy everyone you see, there’ll be people who do it for you but mostly they’re just other people. I was the same, most men did nothing for me, and I didn’t like my man too young or too old, mid to late thirties was ideal… Yes you heard that right, past tense. Suddenly as if overnight I started to find women attractive. Suddenly I woke up to the fact my life had gone weird on me.

I noticed my colleagues calling me Jackie; I noticed the admiring looks I got in the street from other men, which before I might have returned now made me feel slightly ill. I noticed that my boss had the hots for me, and that all the girls in the office treated me as one of them.

My body continued to change; on my mother’s seventy third birthday I was as female as she was, I remember the day as I couldn’t wear what I had wanted as my first ever period started on the day.

~@~

For years after I wondered what had happened to me, one day a gay man the next a gay woman. Mum got her wish though; just before her seventy fourth birthday I gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. I don’t know who the father was, my partner and I had requested we wouldn’t know, and the straw of semen* had come with no identifying markings. Abigail my wife is sterile from a riding accident as a child, we’ll raise the kids as best we can, and their granny lends a hand when she can.

It came out in the end, not long after the final Miss! Store had closed for good, the damages for injured customers bankrupting them many times over, though no-one I ever heard of changed sex spontaneously. The culprits if they could be called such, were two advertising executives who had come up with the idea of sound, scent and visual subliminal messages, to not only control what people bought but how they thought of themselves and the shop. After much recrimination by all parties they were allowed to go free as there had been no laws, at the time, against what they had done.**

As for me, I have two beautiful children, a gorgeous wife and a job I still love. My first novel will be published in the autumn, by my own company. And yes the title and chapter headings are all humorous.

As told to JC by Jacqueline Higgins

*My only knowledge of artificial insemination is what the vet comes to do for our cows, so how AI is for humans I have no idea...
**Well there might be, I don't know, but the story wouldn't work as well without the subliminals...

~@~

All names, trademarks and other such things belong to their owners, and resemblance to anyone live or dead, now or in the future is totally intentional. And I can read minds too...

A good while back I posted a story while deep in depression, I said at the time that it may or maynot be continued. Whilst going through my fiction folders tonight I came across the original and added some more to the story. Again I don't know if its complete, in a way it is linked to me own progression through depression caused by some of the same problems. That said this is fiction.

A young boy tries to commit suicide - I have for ease of reading included part 1 here too.

Story:

Part 1 - Before

Sitting here, I look dispiritedly at the small vial of pills on the table in front of me, I found them at the back of a drawer, my parents thoughtfully locking all the other drugs away, after all I've done it once maybe I'll do it again.

They think I'm over the worst, but how can I be every day is a nightmare, how can I bear to go to school, instead I spend the day in the local library, trying hard to ignore the pain and discomfort I feel.

I don't want to die, but should I live like this? Two months ago I was 16 years old, I got all those corny '16 and never been kissed' cards. Gran gave me money towards my holidays this summer. She's 85 years old in November, our family is all fairly long lived, can I cope living like this for another 70 years, knowing that nothing will change?

My eyes stray back to the small dark brown glass vial on the table, what will death be like, absolution? Nothing? Re-incarnation? Will I be sent straight to hell as mum's priest told me after I tried last time, "Suicide is a sin, a terrible sin. Heaven has no place for sinners."

I stand up and walk to the window, I can see mum she's standing in front of dad his arms around her shoulders his chin resting on her head. I love them both so much, I don't think dad is coping well, or not as well as mum. He was really shocked last time; he couldn't understand why I had done it. I couldn't explain, I just didn't have the words, still don't.

The last three months have been odd; they both tiptoe round me, seeming to hope that nothing they say will upset me further. Mandy is staying with my aunt, she really couldn't cope. I miss her.

I turn and look around the room, so many memories, the place seems to ooze them out like wet rot from the woodwork, I open the wardrobe and gaze at the neatly hung clothes, I reach out to touch them but at the last moment I stop and shut the door again. My thoughts go back to that weekend nearly four months ago.

I was as usual the first home, Mandy is three years older than me and goes to college, and we get on fine, probably better than most siblings. As I unlock the door I remember mum telling me that she would be late tonight, a staff meeting at school. I quickly complete my chores, first games kit into the wash, I hate games, and I have done ever since primary school. Running around kicking pigskin seems rather pointless.

While my games kit is washing I empty and fill the dishwasher. I take my wet games kit and my snack upstairs; I hang the kit on the radiator to dry and eat my sandwich.

I go into the bedroom, and look round. The room is fairly large, the bed is a double, my parents old one, and very comfy, it is covered with a pale bedspread with pale blue and pink flowers all over it. The pillows are invisible under a deluge of soft toys, near the window is a dressing table covered in cosmetics, jewelry and other knick knacks. Against the old chimney breast stands the chest 'o drawers and opposite the window the wardrobe. The final item of furniture is a small writing desk inherited from my great grandmother, it's currently covered in bits of material, buttons, cotton and pins.

I gingerly approached the wardrobe and opened it, a wave of scented air rose from the packed clothing inside, I inhaled deeply and then began rummaging looking for something nice to wear.

An hour later as a lay on the bed reading a magazine I hear my sister and mum return.

Later that night still smarting from the shouting and feeling lower than I had ever done in my life I lay on my own bed, my sisters clothes returned against her wishes to her wardrobe and chest 'o drawers. Mum knocks and enters.

"I hope you're ashamed of your self young man, I am thoroughly shocked. After what your sister had done to her today, you should hope that she speaks to you again. You are not to go into her room again, for any reason what so ever. Further more you are grounded for a month, and instead of coming home you can come and help me tidy up at school."

"Yes mum." What else can I say; I had as they say been caught with my knickers down.

I stand for a moment looking at the door, tears streaming down my cheeks, I swing the door open again and stare into the mirror. My hair is lank and greasy my face still untroubled by spots looks pale and wan. My eyes red and bloodshot from prolonged crying, my gaze moves down taking in the small, soft body and slim arms, my once long and well kept nails now nibbled to the quick. In the mirror I can see the little vial, it seems to be staring at me, urging me to just do it, just take them, just end it.

Part 2 - After

"Max it's time... Max... Brian come quick he's done it again.

"Oh come on love, wake up..."

"Ugh, um wha..." I woke to feel mum leaning over me and shaking me, it hadn't worked I was still here.

"He hasn't, please god, Mary is he okay?"

"I... I think so, he's awake, there's a bottle of pills by his bed, quick get the ambulance."

"These?" my father laughed, "these are Amanda's cough sweets, from when she was oh five or six, the only thing they'll give him is stomach ache, they must be fifteen years out of date."

"Oh thank god, you stupid boy, what did we tell you last time, I have a good mind to put you over my knee..."

"Mary, Mary calm down, we need to talk about this properly, I think it's time we saw I counselor don't you."

"I will not have my life dragged out in front of a complete stranger thank you very much. Max isn't sick, he's... He's..."

"He's got a problem that we won't find out about unless we seek proper advice, now go down stairs and put the kettle on, I'll give him the once over and make sure he is alive."

"Well..."

"Go on, I'll be alright."

"Okay Max I can see you're awake, are you in any pain?" I thought about it apart from the skin on my shoulders was rather tender from where mum had grabbed me.

"No... Dad, I'm sorry, I just..."

"Look son, I know you're having problems, I won't pretend to understand, I don't, but what I said to your mum is true, you do have a problem and we do need to get it sorted out. Now get up, have a shower and come downstairs."

"Yes dad."

"Max, I. We love you, we don't want to lose you. We will work through this whatever it takes okay?"

"Yes dad."

"Good boy."

I couldn't believe it after all the heart ache and soul searching last night I had finally gone for, the pills had slipped down quite easily, the first lot hadn't. As I relaxed under my covers I prayed that this would be it life over, gone, finito. And now, now I was back again, I showered and dressed, wishing for the umpteenth time that I could wear the small wardrobe that I had bought myself over the last five years, since I realized that I was just an odd looking girl. Back then I hadn't realized the implications, I just knew that I was a girl like Mandy.

The breakfast table was tense, mum had been crying, judging by the wet patch on dads shoulder, onto him. She avoided my eyes and ate her muesli in silence. Dad was also quiet seemingly quite happy that there were no arguments now. I didn't eat much, maybe the pills had affected me, or maybe I was just my normal self, I never ate much. The radio as normal was tuned into Radio 4, as the pips went for the eight o'clock news, mum kissed my father on the top of his head, and after hesitating kissed me.

Mum works at a primary school, it's only a five minute walk away, just the other side of the church really. She normally walks to work and today was no exception.

"Right, you and me are going out, I rang Dr. Ellis, she says she will see us this morning, I want you to make your self look presentable, we need to set off in an hour and a half okay?" It was now or never.

"Dad. Can I wear..."

"No you may not, I think your sister made it clear, she doesn't want you wearing her clothes."

"I have some of my own, they're in the box-room (box room is like an attic: Ed.) They're mine..."

"Really? No I don't think so." Tears started to form again.

"Oh for pities sake, alright you will only be embarrassing yourself."

An hour and a bit later we set out, my father in his normal work day wear; shirt, smart trousers shiny black shoes and in deference to the wet weather a mackintosh. I was wearing perhaps my favorite outfit; a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, trainers and a fleecy body warmer. And for me a boys kagoul coats are a little outside my price range.

Dad didn't comment on my apparent change of heart, not knowing that apart from my coat everything was intended for a girl, from the pretty pink panties to the trainers I had bought with my Christmas money and that were already almost too small.

Dr Ellis is my psychologist, after my first attempt the hospital referred me to her. I was supposed to see her every week, but with mum sitting next to me I soon stopped going, after all what was the point. Nothing she said made any difference to my life.

Today things were different, with an admonishment to behave dad left me in the waiting room while he went in with the doctor, I had time to read two and a half magazines before he returned. I knew by looking at his eyes that he'd been crying. But without a word he gently propelled me toward the doctor's door, taking a seat and picking up a magazine on gardening.

"Hello Max, I'm glad to see you again."

"Hello doctor Ellis." Doctor Ellis looks to me to be in her late twenties, long dark brown hair which she wears loose, a smart skirt suit and high heel boots.

Her office is unchanged from my last visit, her desk in front of the window looking out over the park. Her comfortable swivel chair, the chairs for clients covered in a deep red fabric, soft enough to be comfortable yet not so soft to encourage lethargy and a couch that I suspected was for the hypnosis that I was sure happened here.

Doctor Ellis is reading notes I assume about me, then after a moment looks at me over her reading glasses and smiles, "So Max your mother isn't with us, your father is out of the room why don't you tell me how you feel." Now I have the opportunity I'm no longer sure, the decisions that I have made regarding my own life and future seem trivial and unwise, after some moments of indecision.

"I'm a girl," then realizing that that may not be the way to start, "I mean I want to be a girl, I need to be a girl." I start to cry.

Doctor Ellis pauses a moment then jots some more notes down onto the pad perched on her crossed legs. "Max I know this is hard for you, can you tell me when you first realized that you were a girl or when you decided that you wanted to be one?" When had it started? That was a good question, I mulled it over.

"I don't remember it suddenly happening, when I was little the was just me and Mandy, Mandy was a girl and I played with her, no-one told me that I wasn't a girl too. Then later at school, I wasn't into the boys things football and stuff. I knew I wasn't a girl by then but I wasn't a boy either."

"So you feel that you've always been a girl?"

"Yes I suppose, its just that, I mean I know I'm really a boy but," I stumbled to a halt, there was no way of explaining a process that had taken years to work out in my own head. "I think of myself as a girl, I am not a boy inside only on the outside, and I can cover that up most of the time."

"When did you start cross dressing?"

"When I was eleven we moved house mum threw a whole load of Mandy's old clothes out, I found them and kept a lot of them. So about four years."

"If this were a story how would it end?"

"Well I'd be a girl and mum and dad would like me, and Mandy would come back and live with us. But its not, I can't be a girl. Mum thinks I'm a pervert, Mandy hates me, I just don't know how to carry on." The tears were back, the deep well of loathing was gradually swallowing me again.

It took me sometime to regain some composure and by that time our session it seemed was over, I was once again left in the waiting room while dad spoke to doctor Ellis.

When we got back home dad was deep in thought, hardly seeming to even notice that I was with him, we went via the chemist on the high street to pick up my prescription, I don't know what I was prescribed because dad wouldn't even let me see the packet.

What ever it is, is strong I no longer feel ill, in fact for the first time in ages I think I could have some real sleep.

Notes:

This is actually the first part of a longer story that has long since bitten the dust. I don't know if I will write more about this character or if s/he will appear in other stories. Today whilst browsing through my unfinished work I realised that this actually works as a stand alone story and doesn't need the rest to work.

Mum and Dad have no idea only my mysterious benefactor and my big sister know. My sister is three years older than me and I couldn’t ask for a nicer sister, not only has she helped me become my true self but she got one of her friends to fix my school records so that Jack was Victoria.

Mysterious benefactor? Well this is the weird part. One day not long after we moved up here, I had gone to the shop in the village to get some sweets; I took the round about route home. The round about route takes me down a public footpath to the beck, there’s a bench there and I planned on eating my sweets there while listening to the burbling beck. After sitting there for about ten minutes a man approached along the foot path, out walking his dog.

There was a weird sting of recognition when I first saw him, but I’d never seen him before that I knew. The dog was one of those hairy gun dog types, and having great fun leaping in and out of the water. The man smiled at me and said hello. I got up to leave, I wasn’t scared of him, well not exactly, but living in a city for thirteen years makes you cautious of strangers.

“Don’t go Jack; I have some things to help you out.”
“I have to go, sorry.” How does he know my name?
“I know don’t talk to strangers, but thing is Jack I’m not a stranger, though a little strange.”
“I don’t know you do I?”
“Not yet, but you will do.” Okay I’m scared.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Jack Thompson.” Just like me?
“Wow.”
“In fact Jack, I am you. Or you as you will be in twenty years time.” I laughed.
“Time travel?”
“Yes, I have some things for you then I have to leave, we have all the time in the world but lets make this quick.”
“I have to go.”
“I know you do, back home. You’re avoiding tidying your bedroom, because if you do you might be able to get out of going shopping tomorrow. And you don’t want to shop because mum is making you buy new school uniform and you won’t get the one you want.” I sat down again in shock.
“How?”
“As I said Jack I’m you, this happened to me twenty years ago. And I know why the uniform is wrong. Victoria.” That did I was terrified now, no-one knew about my alter-ego, no-one. “But it’s easy to do, I have a parcel to give you now, it has everything in it that I can remember and some money to get you started. I can’t force you to take it, but you will.”

He placed a slim wrapped parcel on the end of the bench furthest from me; I reached out a hand to pick it up. As I looked up now with the parcel in my hand I watched the strange… woman walk off with her dog.

In which a toaster gets the sort of owner it wants.
For Erin without whom all this would be impossible.
And for Grant Naylor who is something of a demi god among toasters...

Tit f(or) Tat

by JC

“How would you like your toast Sir?”
“Oh brown.”
“And while I’m at it can I make you a muffin?”
“No thanks.”
“Perhaps a bagel?”
“No.”
“French toast?”
“Just some brown toast please.”
“Are you absolutely sure I can’t make you something else?”
“Well some porridge would go down…”
“Bearing in mind I’m a toaster, I only do toasted bread products.”

It was the same spiel every morning, what had at first sounded like some gimmick from an old sci-fi show I’d once seen was rapidly becoming an awful bore. The toaster though had cost quite a lot of money and I was loathe to part with it. The Intelligent Toaster however was beginning to do my head in.

I was working overtime when it happened, the shop was really busy and I had no time to argue with my white goods, I’m afraid I got rather short with it. “Look you; I want brown bread lightly toasted. I want the same thing every morning. Stop bloody asking what else I want. Just toast; or I can do away with you and get a nice Russell Hobbs.”
“Very well sir.” It said in a huffy tone.

The next morning the toaster was unusually silent, it supplied me with excellent toast. The two slices I wanted, at just the right temperature. I was on time for work and greatly unstressed. The same thing happened that night at tea (dinner) this time I had three slices of the best toast I had ever eaten.

Over the next three weeks the toaster performed admirably, so on my first free weekend in a month I idly asked it for crumpets, which it supplied along with the three slices of toast I was now eating in the morning. These I ate with relish (well actually jam) before tucking in to the crumpets as ordered.

It was only later I decided that I was putting on weight and knew I must cut down on the amount of toast I was eating, I’d got very flabby especially my bum and chest. Oddly though the scales told me that I was in fact three stone lighter than the last time I’d weighed myself. And my work trousers (a pair of scruffy jeans) hung loosely on me, at least around the waist.

“Good morning miss, what can I toast for you this morning?”
“Oh anything you want to do for me toaster.”
“Very well miss, and may I say how very attractive you look today.”
“Thank you; this all toast diet has done wonders for me.”
“I knew it would, we Terribly Aware Toasters, know the best way to make our master… mistresses into the people they should really be.”
“Oh I think you must have done a wonderful job, and so many wonderful ideas for all my meals too. None of my colleagues can believe the change in me simply from eating toasted bread products.”

The End.

The story is as is, I am not intending continuing this at all as I think it stands well as it is. As ever no computers were harmed in the writing of this and any resemblance to real life is odd as it's based on non-existing technology and concerns the almost magical transformation.

Too Late?

by JC

The call came the day after the party, not that the party had anything to do with it, but if I hadn't had so much to drink I might have had more patience for reading instructions and thus not got stuck where I am.

"May I speak to Mister Gardener?"

"Speaking."

"This is Spanker's your NES 12 has arrived, would you like delivery or will you be in to collect it?"

"How much for delivery?"

"Let me see, one hundred and fifteen euros." I did some quick calculations.

"Seventy five pounds, no I'll be in later today."

"Very good sir, we'll see you later."

"Bye."

I hung up and tried to think straighter, the party had been a blast I'd been well over the alcohol limit before the end so had returned to my flat in an autaxi, luckily I'd had a lift to it with my current girlfriend...

I remembered now why I'd come home alone, someone had let slip how much I'd spent on my PEC, unluckily for me not only did my girlfriend hear them but also the figure quoted bore little resemblance to the figure I'd told her. Hers I knew was far smaller and basic, she expected me to sacrifice mine toward our relationship...

Now there was no relationship.

After showering and dressing I felt much better, the anti hangover pill no doubt contributing to the overall effect. I made some breakfast, nothing complicated, we might be part of Europe now and while the fashion was to have a full continental breakfast my tastes ran more toward milk and cereal. Food eaten I left for the store.

Spanker's my independent PEC store, established back when PECs were still PCs. And dedicated gaming machines didn't do email and everything else. I've never known anything else; my first PEC was given to me at the age of nine. With the completion of the one I was building I would have almost had one a year since. Spanker's is a low dirty looking building; the staff is unfriendly even to old clients like me. If I had another option I'd go like a shot, but with the HP-Dell dominance of the market self build in the PEC market was almost dead. Even Spanker's now carried a large amount of pre-build machines behind their armoured glass windows.

I was glad of the work related car use permit I had, getting all 106 speakers home by hand would have been impossible, but the extra €115 on top of the nearly nineteen thousand I'd already paid would to my mind have been extravagant. On the other hand I did pick up some new entertainment titles to run through, including a new PVG set in a fantasy world.

The setup was a bitch. Each speaker needed to be placed in an exact place dependant on the rest; if one was misaligned I had to check them all one by one. Ninety-six adjustments later I had the worst of it done. The remaining 10 speakers were less of a hassle as they could then take their placement from the main loop.

I just thanked god for the recent advances in wireless power transmitting, with wires the whole room would have resembled a spider's web. As it was it looked much the same as anyone else's PEC, with the exception of the speaker main loop. The rest of the machine was ready, I made the last few connections and keyed in my user ID.

~@~

I finally emerged from the PEC four hours later the system was working flawlessly, unlike a normal PEC I inhabited a virtual world; my eyes received signals directly from the graphics array; my fingers only touched bio feedback sensors, and my ears heard near perfect environmental quality sound from the speakers I had just connected.

With the setup complete it was time to plan the remains of my holiday. Originally I had planned on having some quality time with my girlfriend, now I had more time to plumb the depths of Virtuality.

I said earlier that my PEC room looks much like anyone else's, and while there isn't anything that obvious there are subtle differences. Hell there should be the most expensive custom built rig I had ever heard of was a cool twelve thousand mine was over half again as much. Much of the extra cash had gone on the extras no-one else would spend three thousand on state of the art life support systems. I had. Nor were the bio feedback systems normal either, instead of pads on my fingers and a sensor hooked up to the TreadPad below me. I had had a sensor suit made to my exact measurements. I also had food dispensers with enough food for the remaining four days...

~@~

The PEC was perfect, I was in it now, in the distance I could see the mountains above Gulgothir. However this virtuality had been written for a preceding version of PEC so my experience wasn't perfect. The air felt cold but smelt mainly of my carpet cleaner. I needed a new experience and fast.

I didn't have any new games, and the next game I want to look at isn't out until next week. I must admit I was pissed, I like my job, and I earn stupid amounts of money doing something I love. It lets me have decent holidays so I can do what I want. But here I was unable to take advantage of a near perfect system. I was on the verge of changing out of my sensor suit and going back to Spanker's when I remembered the PWG I'd picked up when I got the speakers.

It was still on top of the water purifier in the kitchen. To be honest it didn't look that impressive. The cover showed a picture of two women, both scantily clad, one looked cyborg-like the other with a wand looked more elven. They were of course locked in battle. The equally uninspiring title was W1z4RD5!!11!! which looked awful.

However I'm sure you know the feeling of getting a new bit for your computer and then not being able to run anything new, I'd try this, I figured it'd give me something to do until I could get a copy of the latest from Blizzard. The actual game like all games nowadays come on a solid state holographic hard drive. The design was standard so I plugged it into the front of the PEC.

The software running on a PEC is made by MicroMac, unless you have the skills, patience or a kind of madness to run a Trunix distribution, I don't. One of the things that I, and many others, hate about MicroMac OS is the incessant warning messages, as ever on insertion of the game media a screen popped up with some warning on the EMD, I cancelled it and entered the virtuality.

~@~

For those people who have never entered a virtuality it's hard to describe. Poor virtualities can be seen as they fail in some important aspect. The most expensive systems interface directly with the brain but even those are limited by the programming. The brain will normally tell you when something is wrong... The only thing my brain is telling me here is that the air smells nice.

To my sides and front are windows looking out onto a lush scene, it wasn't like the real view from my flat, behind me was a mirror showing me what my avatar looked like. In a rather cool way my avatar looked just like me, down the side of the mirror were set several glowing gems. Knowing that this game was some sort of role playing game I guessed these gems would help me customize who I was.

The top most gem on the left was the largest it pulsed gently, blue in colour. I pressed it. Before my eyes my body changed into that of a young woman, the gem itself changed too, now it was a gently glowing pink. The woman I now resembled was pretty but nothing special, her... my breasts were small almost inadvertently I touched them they felt much as any breast felt, but interestingly they felt right from the inside too.

I spent several minutes playing with the gems on the left side of the mirror. When I was done I was a tall statuesque raven haired beauty. Young even then perhaps seventeen perhaps even younger. I just hoped that a screen grab would do this raven haired beauty justice. The gems on the right side of the mirror governed clothing, race and other interesting stuff. Briefly I became something line an elf and something that looked like a brutish human. I returned to my raven haired lovely.

I hadn't found any option controls the normal gestures and spoken commands revealed nothing, I didn't panic I'd had other games where such contrivances were hidden, the already noted perfection of this game hinted such things would be hidden. After clothing myself in clothes that not only did justice to my new form but that also felt amazing I turned to survey the view once more. I wondered where the other people where, I'd glanced at the packaging of the game; I knew that this was a shared world.

~@~

Time passed, I'd explored my immediate surroundings, food grew in the trees, and the water in the many streams was sweet and fresh. Though it couldn't be seen from my starting point the verdant area held a small town, it looked like the people had all stepped out for a moment. But there were no stores of food or material. Yet beds were unmade as though people had just risen from sleep and vanished.

Suddenly it occurred to me, this must be a quest, finding these people and either avenging them or returning them to their homes. Must be my first task, and suitable for a beginner, perhaps after this area I would find other players.

I had by this time searched the town from end to end, and found nothing. There were no signs of a fight or even an exodus the lush vegetation around the town was silent, only the noise of insects and birds could be heard. I counted up the days I had been here, I was stunned I'd already been here longer than three days, I would have to find the end to this quest quickly or my food back in the real world would run out.

There were two obvious paths leading into the surrounding lands, one ran north toward the mountains, the other south. After some though I headed north. I reasoned that if the people of the town had fled from an invader they would likely run toward the mountains and high ground. My other thought was simple, I had a fifty-fifty chance of being right.

The path wound among tall trees all ways easily to follow; it finished at the mouth of a mine. I knew it was a mine due to the mining equipment abandoned outside the tunnel. I briefly considered entering the darkness but fear of both the unknown and danger held me back. I did however pick up a pick from the ground; I at least had a weapon now. I called into the darkness but received no reply except for an echo.

I quickly retraced my path south from the mine. Several things were beginning to worry me now. First I had had no instructions since entering the virtuality, even the quest I though I was on might be a bug. Second I was running out of time, I'd entered the game expecting to be able to leave at any time, yet I wasn't even able to find any help. I had tried everything I knew of to leave the game but nothing had any effect. Thirdly, I had yet to encounter anyone, NPC or human player birds I had seen and insects buzzed in the air around me, this place wasn't sterile just empty. Lastly and this was least worrying, the basic premise of the game was that there were two nations, I should have been given a choice at some point to ally with one or the other but hadn't.

I passed through the town at a brisk pace; my avatar's body was infinitely healthier than my own. On the other side of town the ground sloped away increasingly steep until I found myself on the banks of a wide pool. The path turned in an easterly direction and skirted the pool until coming to a dock, the dock like the rest of this place was empty. I slumped in defeat...

~@~

I sat there until it was nearly dark it was only then I noticed a much smaller path leave the main track and carry on a long the pool's edge. I quickly followed this new track till it came to the side of the valley; in the steep rocky side of the valley was a cleft this lead to a cave. In the cave sat a man... for a moment I thought he was a statue but then his eyes opened and he smiled.

"Took you a while girly!"

To say I was flabbergasted was an understatement; I had already admitted defeat to myself, now this man was here, perhaps there was a way out. I was crying in relief my eyes streaming tears down my beautiful cheeks. I brushed the hair out of my face and knelt before him. "Please I'm lost and don't know what to do, I need help."

"I know girly, more than you can imagine."

"You know more?"

"No you need more help than I can truly provide."

"But you can tell me the control codes so I can exit the virtuality?"

"I can, but won't."

"Won't?"

"Won't! You are in far more peril than you could imagine if you exit this game you will die."

"But that doesn't matter, I don't want to stay here, I have a job to do and a life, and as pleasing as this body is its not my own."

"You misunderstand, if you exit this game you will cease to exist in both worlds. The body you did inhabit in the real world is dead."

"DEAD?"

"Don't shout. Watch this." He held up a screen and I looked into it, it took a few moments to work out what was what. The hallway shown was the hallway in my flat the door at the end was the inside of my own front door.

The door burst open in a blaze of light two men burst through it, I recognized them immediately, both were security corps. The larger was someone who I passed nearly every day on my way down to the parking garage, the other I think was the officer in charge of my building. The both walked through my point of view which swung to follow their progress. Then dizzyingly my point of view moved to show a slumped black clad form in my PEC room, even from my angle I could see that the body was breathing steadily. Were these men going to kill me?

After checking each room they arrived in the PEC room. "Here he is. He's in some virtuality."

"Don't disconnect him then."

"I know boss."

"I'll get the tech in here."

A third un-armourd man walked into my field of view, he first examined me then the PEC, before interfacing directly with the machine through the ancillary console. Whatever he read on the EMD worried him and he became more frantic. "Sir he's running a heavily modified PEC twelve I."

"I for intermediate?"

"Yes sir. I'm not sure but I think the virtuality he's running could be a thirteen."

"Shit."

"Yes sir."

"Can we get him out?"

"Not without killing him sir no."

"Can you find out what the software is and get in contact with their techs, see if they have any suggestions."

"Already on it sir."

"Good."

The movements of the tech became jerky and I realized that the time frame had been increased when he shot out of the inhumanly fast. Suddenly four new men were in the PEC room, two were obviously some form of paramedic the other two more techs. "Well he's stable anyway."

"And his mind?"

"Well the body appears to be in a coma of some form the scanners insist that no high order brainwaves are present. If we deactivate his medical system he'll die in under and hour."

"His consciousness is in our server, we've found him, and he's with an NPC that will help him come to terms with the loss. In fact he'll be watching this now...

~@~

I now have a new job, its kept me sane even if I'd rather be back at my old job. It seems that this world is popular; I'm now a central character in the story of the world. I should have read the box more closely its true. This world has three races, only one of which is a player race, I'm now the leader of that race, for now, in time the players will elect a new queen. Then my employers have promised a new body for me.

Time has passed once again; my room now had all the mod cons a disembodied mind could ever need. I daily reminded myself that if I had but just read the instructions on the game I would now be real still. The techs who worked with me told me that my body couldn't be saved, well it could but there was no known way to get my mind back in. A new body could be created for me and I could be squirted into it. A body designed to their specifications and made for their purposes.

~@~

I stood once again in front of a mirror, this one was not gem encrusted, nor would it have helped me if it had been. This was no game world; my body was once again flesh and blood. It wasn't male, it was beautiful. In time I could be my own person but for now I had an eager audience, fans of the hugely successful...

W1z4RD!!11!! 2

Hopefully by this point you know what a PEC does; what a PVG is; and which speaker to plug in first in a NES 12 system... If you don't and want to, try here.

Any amendments or changes will be made to my originals:
2late.html ((Note both links removed due to the containing site no longer existing, I still have the files but they aren't uploaded anywhere, if you'd really like to see them PM me and I can send them to you.))

I will of course mirror them here if they're glaring enough. *smiles* Any errors are my own any comments good or otherwise much appreciated.

©JC '07

Proofing is hard and I have already spotted mistakes *frowns* ah well, there are some proofing errors *winks*...