Apart of Me Together
by Cleo Kraft

Part One: Island of Fun and Wonder

Chapter One

I woke up on my side with my head all a daze from last night's
activities. I felt a man's arm wrapped over my narrow waist and
I heard him softly breathing as he slept contentedly beside me.
One of his legs was tucked in between mine, his other leg pressed
down on top of the other. My eyes gazed at the mass
of my long auburn hair splayed out across my pillow.

I vaguely remembered stepping into the mind transferrance booth
just after dinner last night and seeing a bright flash of white
light. A moment later I found myself in the body of a beautiful
young woman. A clone, as I was told by the mad scientist who did
this to me. A cloned woman without a consciousness of her own
until my own mind was placed in hers.

My old male body was left with a copy of my mind and in this way
I was swept off my feet and carried off to a guest room here and
made love to multiple times.

We were the perfect couple, Dr. Hallins assured us. A matched
set designed for ultimate love. Indeed my old male body informed
me many times after sex that he truly loved me and would love and care for me always and forever after.

When he held me in his arms I looked up to him like a contented
little kitten, grateful to be held and loved and handled by her
master.

I felt a moment of panic set in, realizing at last the terrible
mixup that I'd gotten myself into. It was an interesting
experiment but having to spend the rest of my life in the
body of the opposite sex was a frightening proposition. I
wondered if this switch up could somehow be undone.

Tom was waking up now. I heard him yawn and felt his hand feel
up my bare side and cup my left breast. I chuckled nervously
and turned my head towards him. "Come on, now, you. Let's not
start that again. I think I've created a monster," I said trying
my best to stop him from getting excited all over again for me.

I reached up and gently pushed his arm aside but his legs were
still entwined in mine and I felt him rubbing them up and down.

He kissed me on the neck and I felt him breathing heavily in
my ear.

"We need to change back to normal," I informed him.

"The Doctor made you for me, my dear," he reminded me gently
stroking the side of my cheek with the back of his hand. "Let
us not forget this was a most special gift. Oh, if only I were
in your place, the things I would do right now."

"This is too weird," I complained. "Fun is fun but we can't
stay like this. I was game to try the Doctor's little
experiment last night but I never intended it to be for more
than a day."

He pulled his legs off me and rolled me onto my back. He climbed
over me and gazed down on his hands and knees. I laughed
nervously and felt myself blush all over again as I had the
first time we made love.

"You love this, remember? You told me you did. You said it with
your own lips last night over and over again to me," he said
grinning.

He leaned in for a kiss and I giggled myself out of it in a
hurry.

"You're going to get me pregnant if you keep doing this," I
cautioned him.

"That's more or less the idea, though, isn't it?" he stated
with a telling smirk.

I swung my legs close together, determined to stop the mad
man from taking advantage of me again. Last night I was willing
but this morning I was having my doubts.

He glanced at my closed legs and raised a brow. "You're just
playing hard to get, now, aren't you?" he noted.

I bit my lower lip a little and stifled back a giggle.

"Come on, now, Tom," I said. "This isn't funny anymore. I'm no
longer amused by it."

"Just once more," he promised. "Just to work off the morning
wood. Don't be such a tease. We both share the same mind so
you must know what I'm going through right now. Imagine waking
up beside a beautiful woman. Wouldn't you be doing the same
as I?"

He clamped his hands down over my wrists, pinning them above
my head. I laughed nervous as ever. "Stop that, you. I never
agreed to be your love slave."

"You're my girlfriend now," he reminded me.

"That was for last night though. Come on, now, I'm serious
here, Tom. It isn't funny anymore. You're scaring me," I
said feeling helpless and at his mercy.

He angrily threw my pink bathrobe at me. "Get dressed then.
If you won't have me then I think we need to inform Dr. Hallins."

He climbed off me and got out of bed and began getting
dressed.

"Please don't be mad at me," I said sitting up and pulling
the bathrobe on. "We both know this is more than kind of
silly."

"Silly? You didn't seem to think so last night," he reminded
me.

"Well it's weird, okay? That's all I'm saying. It's just
weird."

"You've been given a gift. We both have. It's wonderful what's
happened. You may not see that but I do. I appreciate what
the Doctor's done for us - to us."

"Don't be ridiculous. I can't go on being my own girlfriend.
It's unnatural," I complained swinging my legs over the side
of the bed and sliding down to the floor on my feet.

I tied up my bathrobe and walked over to the door and opened
it.

Tom finished getting dressed and followed after me as we both
headed downstairs to breakfast.

The others were already there seated at the table waiting to
be served.

There was Jack and his newly made girlfriend beside him, then
there was Robert and his girl too and finally there was
Alex and his. The women here were all bright eyed and smiling,
looking around the room with interest and amazement.

I could certainly empathize with them for the kitchen as I
remembered it the night before didn't seem as big as it did
to me now. My shorter body seemed lost in a new world, shrunk
down and placed in the land of giants. The men were all a good
foot or so taller than me and I felt quite intimidated in
their presence.

The cook brought over plates of food for us and Dr. Hallins
sat at the head of the table and greeted us with a little
speech. "I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed yourselves last
night, my friends. I've been meaning to share with you my
invention for quite some time now. I am so glad you all
agreed to undertake the procedure.

"It has long been my desire to create the perfect woman for
every man. With my invention I hope to continue to do so for
quite some time and bring joy and happiness into the world on
a scale that truly cannot be measured.

"Gentlemen, I have given you each your future brides and
ladies, your future husbands. In the blink of an eye I have
provided each of you with your soul mate. The perfect match.
Each of you and your companions have identical interests, likes and dislikes. The same identity residing happily in your
partner's body.

"Ladies, you have been given new bodies to explore and a truly
remarkable new insight into the life of the opposite sex. I
urge you to be good to your life mates. Enjoy a more...
submissive role, if you will.

"Gentlemen, you must always be conscious of what your new
girlfriends are going through. Their minds are a copy of yours
after all. They were the original occupants of your bodies and
as such require the love and care and attention that they so
well deserve. Treat them right and they will treat you right
but... take charge of them. Romance them and serve as their
provider, guardian and keeper. Care for your better half and
may your love last forever.

"I have welcomed you each to my little island here in special
invitation to test out my invention for the first time on
humans. Your boat will be sailing away first thing tomorrow
morning. In the meanwhile I urge you each to explore my island
paradise and be my guests here another night."

He raised his glass in a toast and all the men around the
table raised theirs and clinked them together. The women and
I sat mesmerized by the entire affair. None of us had been
prepared to remain this way in female bodies.

"You're not changing us back?" Jack's brunette girlfriend
asked, her mouth agasp in shock.

Dr. Hallins smiled at her and said,"It is too delicate a
procedure, my dear. The mind can only be transferred into
the blank mind of a cloned body at present. There simply
isn't enough room for you back in the head of your boyfriend's
body. It was always ever a one way trip but do not be alarmed.
You have been given a new life to live in a wonderful new
female body.

"In time your female hormones will mold in you each a unique
female persona. Your minds, though having once been male,
will take on more feminine qualities. It will be an exciting,
new interesting journey for you ladies, I'm sure. Do not be
afraid. Things will all work out for the better, you'll see."

Jack's girlfriend's eyes watered up as she gazed up at him
sad and confused at her loss.

Robert's girlfriend had had enough of this fiasco and stood
up and threw her napkin down. "You can't keep us stuck like
this!" she hollared in contempt.

"It's unnatural!" Alex's girlfriend added shoving her plate
of food away.

"What right do you have to do this to us?" I asked but one
by one the men covered up our mouths with their hands to
keep us quiet and smiled at our host in embarrassment.

"Girls, girls," Dr. Hallins said with a chuckle. "Ladies,
please. You have been given a most wonderful gift, each of
you. I haven't intented for this to be a stressful experience
nor have I ever intended for you each to feel as though I've
trapped you in an unpleasant situation."

The men slowly withdrew their hands away from our mouths now
and the Doctor continued,"You have each moved over to the
other side of the gender fence to accompany your former male
bodies as future brides to be. I'm sorry if I didn't make that
perfectly clear last night to you each but this was always my
intention right from the start.

"You may not appreciate it now but you are each perfect matches
to your former half. Four men arrived on my island yesterday
and four will return home again, each with a lovely new girl
at their side. You girls can no more return to ever being a
man again, now, than I could coax a kitten into barking like
a dog."

"Why don't you clone up some male bodies for us to transfer
into then?" Jack's girlfriend suggested hopefully.

Hallins laughed a hearty laugh at that. "Oh no, my dear, I
can not easily clone up a male body for you overnight. It takes
time and patience to build a clone and without always any
guarantee of absolute success. It would take many long years for me to prepare such a thing as that.

"I suggest you each determine what your female names will be.
Perhaps your boyfriends can help you in this matter. In the
meanwhile feel free to select whatever outfits you wish from
my store rooms. My servants will be more than happy to assist
you in the matter. Afterwards perhaps a breath of fresh air
would do you all some good. There are plenty of trails on my
island for you to stretch out your legs and enjoy the comforts
of nature.

"While you new love birds are busy doing that I will be busy
working in my lab downstairs and tending personally to my
rose garden. In a way, ladies, you are each a treasure to
me as certainly as one of my flowers. More than that, you are
like daughters to me. I only want what's best for my sweet
little angels."

"See? Listen to your father," Jack said to his girlfriend who
elbowed him roughly in the ribs for it.

We finished our breakfast and the other girls and I were pretty
bitter about what had been decided for our fate. The butler and
maid showed us to the store rooms where plenty of skirts,
dresses and other outfits had been gathered ahead of time for our benefit.

In the end we all decided to wear one piece women's swimsuits
and sandals. Then we gathered out front on the lawn where our
boyfriends lathered up our exposed skin with suntan lotion
before our planned hike through the jungle.

I could see the look of humiliation on the other girl's
faces as their former bodies rubbed suntan lotion over their
legs. I felt pretty humiliated myself but there wasn't anything
I could do about it. I was stuck this way with no way to undo
this awful mixup.

Each girl had a different look. Jack's girlfriend was a pretty
brunette in a light pink one-piece swimsuit with her hair done up in a ponytail. Robert's girl was a redhead with shy little
green eyes and wore an aquamarine number with her straight
long hair dangling down her back. Alex's girl had light brown
hair and pretty blue eyes and she wore a pink swimsuit with
her hair done up in a pigtail.

I was the blue eyed, auburn haired girl. I wore a white
swimsuit and hadn't yet figured out how to do my hair in
a pigtail or ponytail so it just dangled over my shoulders.

Tom looked like he was certainly enjoying himself as he rubbed
more lotion on my legs and feet. My nipples seemed to have a
mind all their own and were all stiff and tingly in my bathing
suit.

"Jessica?" he suggested for a name for me.

"No," I sharply replied with a frown.

"Amy?"

"No."

"Gretchen?"

"No way."

"Well what then? I can't just keep saying 'hey you' to you," he
said annoyed at my refusal to accept this.

"I'm not letting you give me a girl's name. I'll do it myself,
okay? I don't need your help," I insisted.

"Catherine," Dr. Hallins said poking his head out the open
window to check up on us. "Or Kate for short."

I scowled up at him and shook my head no.

"Oh come on," Tom said. "Kate's a nice name for you. You look
like a Kate, don't you think?"

"Fine," I grumped crossing my arms beneith my breasts in
a huff. "I guess I'm Kate then."

"Splendid!" Hallins agreed with a hearty wave.

I watched him vanish back into the mansion to go do whatever
it is mad scientists must do after screwing up people's lives
forever.

So I was Kate now, a name given to me by my so-called father.

"That's enough with the legs already," I said growing even more
short tempered than before. "Do my arms or something."

"It's not as much fun," Tom countered and I frowned at him.

"Do my arms, you pervert," I snapped. "Or let me do them
myself."

He reluctantly switched over to rubbing suntan lotion on my
hands and arms instead.

After about ten minutes the men stopped lotioning up their
girls and began quickly lotioning up themselves.

All the men wore swimming trunks and were barefoot and topless.
Tom suggested I could go topless myself but I stomped on his
foot good to show him he wasn't being funny.

I stood up to start on the hike. The other couples had already
gone off ahead of us by now and left us alone.

Tom's eyes widened in amusement and he pointed at my
crotch and exclaimed,"Camel toe!"

I glanced down to have a look for myself and blushed as I tugged my bathing suit downward to correct the matter in a
hurry.

"That isn't funny, Tom," I said and he grabbed hold of my hand
in his. I just looked at it and gazed up at him with an open
mouthed expression.

"Oh come on," he said. "We're boyfriend and girlfriend, remember? Let's at least try to behave like it."

"Standing next to you I feel like a little kid," I complained.

"You are a bit short, aren't you? Oh but I like it. Short and
sweet, pretty and petite," he offered.

I glanced down at my one-piece white bathing suit and flopped
my free arm loosely at my side. "Wearing this I feel like I'm
one of those gymnast girls."

"No you're not," he said trying to comfort me. "You've got
bigger breasts than any of them."

Maybe by a cup size at best, I thought shrugging off the awful
illusion running through my head.

He suddenly lifted me up and set me down on his shoulders for
a piggyback ride. It was so ridiculous I burst out laughing.

"Come on," I pleaded as he walked up the little sandy trail
into the jungle. "Stop it already. I'm not a little kid."

He ignored my pleas and kept right on hiking. His hands held
firmly onto my smooth soft calves and I felt every little
bounce in his step as he walked along.

"You'd better not drop me," I warned feeling his hands slip
a little from time to time on my lotioned skin.

He made a sudden left turn and headed down another path away
from where I'd seen the others going.

"Okay, mister, just where do you think you're taking me?" I
asked.

"You'll see," he said and pretty soon it became obvious he
was taking me down to the beach for a swim or something.

Chapter Two

Tom carried me into the ocean until he was waist high in the
surf. Waves crashed around us and then suddenly he lifted me
up off his shoulders and tossed me in like a rag doll. I was
pissed!

I came up gasping for air and he quickly scooped me up in his
arms and held me there, laughing down at me from above.

I spit out salt water and rubbed the sea from my eyes. My sopping wet hair hung heavily on my head, the ends clumped together in little soaking wet ropes here and there. "You moron, you got my hair wet," I complained wondering how long it would take to dry it all off again.

He lifted me up and planted a loving kiss on my lips to shut
me up. Then he tickled my ribs until I was laughing hysterically and begging him to let me go.

Finally he released me and I swam a few yards away from him
to get away.

He followed me of course and grabbed my left foot and pulled
me back to him until I was floating on my back with both legs
straddling his sides. Our crotches were pressed together and
I could feel his manly lump in his swimming trunks nestled
against my pussy. I felt it through the slick wet material
of my one-piece swimsuit. That had been my cock before of
course, a thing I was still having trouble fathoming.

He playfully gave my forehead a shove, dunking my head
underwater. I came back up spitting out water and gasping
for air. He could have easily drowned me if he wanted but
I knew he was only playing.

"Come on, Tom. Cut it out already," I begged but he splashed
water in my face and laughed at how helpless I was to stop
him. "Pick on somebody your own size why don't you?"

I splashed him back and then we were suddenly engaged in
a nasty splash fight. He tickled my ribs again until I begged
him to stop. "Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! Stop that! Stop it
already," I cried laughing to tears.

"Okay then," he said reaching behind my back and lifting me
up until our bodies pressed together.

I glanced up at him smiling as he carried me out of the water
and gently laid me down on dry sand. I felt it all cake up
beneith my sopping wet body.

He laid down beside me resting on his elbow with his chin
propped up on his hand. He eyed me with amused consideration
and I wondered what he was going to do to torment me next.

"I like that you're a girl," he informed me. "I like this.
I think we're going to have all kinds of fun together, you
and I."

I glanced down at my breasts which he'd been looking at with
interest. "I... I can't help it that I'm a girl now," I said
trying to get him off my case already.

"Exactly," he said. "You don't know how much that turns me
on. If I asked you sometime, would you marry me?"

"Hold on there a sec, buddy-boy," I said propping myself up
on my elbows beneith me. "If I have to be stuck like this I'm
not so sure it's a good idea you and I hook up like that."

"Why not? It'd be perfect."

"Why?" I asked thinking about it for a moment before
continuing. "Well for one thing it's a little weird, me having
my old male body leering at me all the time."

"Oh you liked the sex last night and you know it," he
reminded me.

How could I forget it? It was about the best thing I'd ever
experienced in my life.

"Yeah," I said letting a smile escape my lips. "Okay so you've
got a point there but it's still weird, okay?"

He reached over and pulled my shoulder straps down and yanked
my bathing suit down to my waist exposing my breasts.

Before I could do anything about it he stuck his face over
my left breast and began sucking away at my nipple.

I laughed and pushed him away. "Cut that out, it tickles."

"It tickles?" he asked surprised to hear it. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

He reached over and began playing with my nipple with his
fingers. "Does this tickle too?"

"Not exactly," I said watching my nipples stiffen up in
excitement as wonderful little tingles shot from there to
somewhere in my crotch. "Only when you're rough so just stop
being rough around there, okay? And let's, umm..., let's save
this for later, okay?"

I pulled my swimsuit back on all the way and saw the hurt look
in his eyes. "I thought maybe we could do it right here."

"Here? Are you kidding me? With all this sand?" I asked
and laughed at the notion. "Maybe you don't get the physics of
it yet but I imagine it's pretty painful getting sand in certain places."

I glanced at my bare feet and muttered a curse. I'd lost my
sandals in the water somehow when Tom tossed me in.

"Sorry about your shoes," he said with a shrug. "I think you
look cuter barefoot anyhow."

"We're wasting too much time," I complained. "We should be
trying to figure out a way to switch me back again."

"Hallins said it's not possible," Tom reminded me.

"Yeah? Well I think he knows he can swap me back. He just
doesn't want to, that's all."

Tom rubbed his chin a little as he thought about that.

"It is possible he's lying," he agreed.

"Well DUH! Of course he's lying. If he can transfer a human
mind at all don't you think he could transfer it back?"

"He said that you'd need a clone body with a blank mind to
do that though."

"That's what he wants us to believe," I said insistant on
figuring out a way out of this mess. "But we've got the same
mind, you and I. He says there's no room for me back in your
head - my head, but what difference would it make? We're the
same guy."

"Maybe he could wipe my mind out first and then transfer you
back," Tom suggested. "Hmmm... I don't know though. That would
be like dying, wouldn't it? I mean, I wouldn't be around
anymore."

"Not around? What in the world are you talking about, you're
ME, remember?"

"We'll look into it, okay?" Tom assured me. "But you have to
have sex with me again..."

He counted it up on his fingers and said,"Three times."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Oh brother."

We walked back to the mansion hand in hand together. Tom still
wanted to go swimming and since there was a large pool in the
backyard he suggested we go there.

We hosed off all the sand from our bodies with a garden hose
and dove in the deep end.

Tom swam with me to the shallow end and he sat me down in
his lap facing away from him. He wrapped his arms about my
narrow waist. My smooth little legs rested atop his large hairy
ones and I was once again reminded just how much smaller
I was compared to Tom.

He ocassionally gave me gentle kisses behind the ear as he
hugged me close.

"This is really, really weird, you know," I said wondering when
he'd ever let me go. It seemed like he was happy as can be with
me sitting there in his lap with his arms protectively wrapped
about my waist.

"I don't know why you keep saying that," he said annoyed
a little by it. "The way you were moaning in pleasure last
night you'd think you'd want to stay that way."

"Yeah well at least you don't have to get weirded out by your
old body making love to you," I pointed out.

He chuckled. "Are you trying to tell me you don't find me
attractive?"

I sighed. "Look, Tom, I don't know. My body certainly knows
what it likes in the sack. My mind on the other hand's trying
to cope with the idea of having a man make love to me and in
my own body."

"Not your body anymore," he reminded me and began wrapping
his finger round and round my hair and unravelling it again
only to start anew. "You should stay as a woman."

"To be your girlfriend so you can have sex with me whenever
you want?"

"That's part of it, sure," he agreed. "But think of the
opportunity you have. You get to know what it's like having
been a man and now a woman. You know the secrets of both
sexes."

"Really, Tom, it's no big deal."

"No? Then why not stay that way?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

He kissed me on the neck and whispered,"I love you."

I hadn't been able to say it back to him even once so far
though he continued to wear my patience thin with his
I-love-you's.

I squirmed away from the kiss. "Come off it, Tom. You're
starting to worry me."

"But I do," he insisted. "I do love you very much. I don't
know what it is. Maybe the fact that a part of me is trapped
in that pretty little body of yours. Maybe it's just that I
think you're hot. Either way it really, really turns me on."

I craned my neck around to try and look up at him but I
couldn't quite get a clear view of his face. I only saw it
out of the corner of my eye. "I thought so too at first, you
know, but last night was last night. Let's just leave it at
that. We both were trying out something new - well I was
anyway. How long can we keep up this charade?"

"As long as you like."

"Are you serious? I don't know the first thing about how I'm
supposed to act like a girl."

"You'll learn."

"Okay and supposing I do learn? What then? Should I just give
up and go along with this because that mad scientist wants us
together like this? Together and apart."

He laughed at that. "That's a good one. 'Together apart.'
I like that. That's what we are, aren't we? Two minds of the
same body now seperated by gender. You as a woman and me as
a man. Girlfriend and boyfriend, together apart. You know,
I think that's pretty special. You and I and the other guests
have got really unique relationships compared to anyone else
on the planet."

"Yeah but it's not natural."

"No but it's fun and you know it."

Maybe it was a little fun being in this situation. I certainly
enjoyed the sex last night but I never thought this was going
to be a permanent transference.

We stayed together like that in the pool for a long while and
afterwards we got out and dried off in the warm morning sun.

The servants seemed to know exactly what had happened to the
guests last night. The maid excused herself from her duties
and hurried to find Tom and I sitting on a bench in the
garden. She had a little camera with her and asked for us
to stand and pose a kiss.

"No, no. Not like that," the maid said. "Up on your tiptoes.
That's right. Oh my but how cute you look."

Tom kissed me on the lips and I gazed at the maid out of the
corner of my eye as she took our picture.

"Just one more with you sitting on his lap," the maid
suggested. "No, no. Facing him for another kiss."

Tom sat on the bench and I swiveled around on his lap with
my legs straddling his. Tom kissed me as she took our picture,
then she walked around to the side of us and quickly snapped
up another.

She walked up to me and playfully wriggled my cheek and gave
it a pat as though I were just a little child. "Impossible,"
she muttered to herself with a grin. "Just plain impossible
but I like it. You two have fun now, okay?"

Tom was absolutely enthralled over it. "See?" he asked lifting
my chin up to make me look into his deep blue eyes. "Even the maid likes you this way, Kate. You're a pretty good little
play actor there."

I couldn't help but try to suppress a grin. "Well... it is fun
to play."

"It is. It is," Tom agreed kissing me on the lips once more.
"Think of it as a fun little game we're playing together. You
get to be my girlfriend and I'm your loving boyfriend. Now you
don't really want to change back into a man, do you? Come on.
You can't honestlly tell me you're not enjoying every little
minute of this."

I bashfully let another grin escape my lips as I shyly glanced
down at my curvacious body still encased in my one-piece
swimsuit. "Well... it is a little fun."

"Of course it is. Of course it is," he said lifting up my
chin again for another quick little kiss on the lips. "You
have a nice body that I know you like. I like it too. You wear
it well, now, don't you? You're just too ashamed to admit it,
my little honey bunny. Being a girl suits you, doesn't it?
It's the best, right?"

I let out a shrug and felt myself grinning in response but I
was too speechless to say a word. He was trying to get me to
admit I liked being a woman now and I was starting to realize
he was right.

Of course I still felt like my old life had been stolen from
me but only one of us could be Tom Venton after all. If the
only way for me to change back to normal was to have his mind
wiped for another mind transfer from my head to his he'd be
pretty much killed. Even if he was only a copy of me I'd feel
kind of guilty about having him erased. It was all too
confusing and frustrating. There had to be a better way for
me to get back to normal without hurting poor Tom.

"If you say so," I finally agreed though a bit under my voice.

"That's right," he said satisfied at having gotten me to
go along with this. "You just leave things to me. I'll be in
charge from now on, all right? Katey are you listening to me?
I'm the one in charge now, okay?"

I shrugged. "If that makes you happy," I said feeling my head
drop only to have it raised back up again by the chin.

He made me look deep into his eyes for a few long moments.

"It makes me very happy," he said rubbing his hands up and down
my smooth thighs. "You and I have a special connection, don't
we? We know each other's way of thinking. I've known for years
that I was always curious what it would be like to be a woman.
You know that. You've wanted this too, for a long, long time.
We both have but only one of us got to have that wish come
true and that's you, Kate."

"I know but-"

He placed his finger over my lips to hush me. "Shhh... It's
what you wanted. You can't tell me you didn't. You don't know
how much I envy you for what you're going through right now
but I'm perfectly happy to be here for you - to be here with
you as your boyfriend."

"Tom, please. I-"

"Hush now," he urged giving me a quick hug and pat on the
back. "I know it must be tough for you to accept things the
way they are now. It must be torture knowing you may never
be a man again. I feel deeply sorry for that but at the same
time I think you and I both know the truth about the way you
feel. The way we both feel.

"The Doctor gave us a gift and set things up so we could have
the most wonderful relationship together. We're the perfect
match, you and I. You know every square inch of my body. You
know what makes me tick and I know you and I'd like to get to
know you even better - the new you that is.

"From the moment you got placed in that wonderful sexy
woman's body last night I knew we'd be the perfect couple
together. You just need time to adjust, that's all. Time
to adjust and accept things the way they are. I wouldn't
ask you to stay a girl if I didn't love you. You know that."

"But Tom..."

He waited for me to say what I had to say but I was too
overcome by my jumble of new female emotions to respond
fully to him right now.

"It'll be fun and you know it," he assured me. "Fun little you.
Fun for both of us. You'll be the greatest girlfriend a guy
like me could ever have. Think about it. We like the same
movies, the same kind of music. We like going to the same
places. We both like long hikes in the mountains. We both
like going fishing and camping and swimming... The list goes
on and on but you know what I'm saying here and you bet your
buttons we both like sex."

"But Tom, I like women," I protested.

"Not anymore you don't," he laughed. "Not after last night
with me you don't. You're the woman now, my sweet. I have it
on pretty good authority that you're attracted to men now -
well... at least to me anyway. You'd spread your legs for me
anytime, now, wouldn't you?"

He tickled my ribs again and made me laugh just like he did
at the beach. "Well... you know..."

"Yes?" he asked waiting.

"Okay so I enjoy sex this way. I admit it. I enjoy having sex
with you, okay? It's a little weird, I know, but I like it."

"Better than as a man?"

I shrugged blushing out a slight grin.

"I knew it," he said triumphantly. "I just knew it. All along
I knew it. What do you like best about it?"

"It's not just one thing, okay? It's lots of things all put
together. I can't tell you what it's like. I'm sorry. It's
just nice, okay?"

"Will you do it with me again? Right now?"

"We could do that I guess," I agreed and he hugged me tightly
about the waist. "Just don't go too crazy this time and maybe
we'd better use protection, just in case."

He shook his head no. "You heard what Hallins said last night.
You can't possibly get pregnant until after your first monthly
period kicks in. Your body's been in stasis for quite awhile
and those nummy, yummy little eggs of yours aren't ready yet to
make you a mommy."

I'd forgotten all about that. My clone body wasn't ready for
ovulation yet. It would take a month or more for all that stuff to finally kick in.

"Okay," I agreed. "Just one thing though..."

"What's that?"

"I know we tried it last night but... I'm not comfortable having your you-know-what in my mouth."

He enjoyed a good laugh about that. "Well okay then. We don't
have to if you don't want to - that's fine. I'll just eat you
out instead."

I grimmaced at the memory of that. It felt weird having myself
penetrated like that, especially by his tongue. I had phantom
memories last night of what my old equipment was like and it
was extremely unnerving having my new personal space invaded in
such a way.

I let him carry me back into the house. The butler grinned as
we passed him by. Tom carried me upstairs to the bedroom and
made no waste of time undressing us both.

Chapter Three

Precisely twenty three minutes later as timed by Tom's
stopwatch he brought me to climax together with him. I didn't
know why he had to go and be so scientific about it this time.

He scribbled something down in his brown leather journal.

"I do believe I think that makes it twelve," he bragged
underlining his entry several times before closing his journal
and setting it back on the nightstand. "Assuming an average of
two-hundred and fifty million sperm per session I'd say I
pumped in at least three billion of the little buggers in you
since last night."

I tried to ignore his remarks. My face felt flush still from
my recent orgasms and my heart was only just now beginning
to slow its rapid beat.

Tom seemed rather proud of his achievement and turned his
attention to other things now as he rolled off me and onto
his back.

"I am wondering about our trip back on the boat tomorrow
morning," he said. "I mean, I've got an identity and passport
and all that but what about you? Maybe we'll have to smuggle
you in the country. Then again maybe the Doctor's got some
I.D. cards for you girls - at least I hope so. It would
certainly make things considerably simpler."

I felt out of place as I glanced down at my nakedness and was
met with the same strangeness I'd seen before. I had a young woman's body which had just been used for pleasuring a man. The slickness in my crotch was something weird like out of a
dream.

My perky breasts just stayed there on me with big achy
nipples. Further reminder that I was a girl. I spied the
empty gap between my legs and let out a puzzled sigh.

After the sex what was there? What was I now? I'd served my
purpose but now what? I was stuck in a world that was strange
and alien to me. If my boyfriend had his way I'd have to
dress up in sexy skirts and pretty dresses for him and be
toted around hand in hand. There would be dating and maybe
even kissing in public for all to see.

He really seemed to like having me sit in his lap. I used
to like it when my girlfriends sat in mine so it was no wonder
he liked the same.

He was really touchy-feelie with me as often as it pleased
him. It was difficult to cope with him feeling up my legs
and groping my breasts all the time. Of course I knew I was
letting him do so for his own benefit. If our situation were
reversed I'd certainly expect the same.

Nevertheless I felt used. He'd used my body and I'd let him.

God help me I'd let him use me and as creepy as it was trying
to get used to having sex with a man I'd thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. Especially the multiple orgasms afterwards.

I felt like I was his toy or plaything when we had sex. He'd
position me however he liked as though I were just a sex doll
for him to play with. I laid helplessly on my back and let him spread my legs wide and mount me without a word of protest or
complaint.

He'd felt up my body even more so than I had since my
transformation. He could scarcely keep his hands off me and
I was letting him do whatever he wanted because I knew I'd
want that too if I were still a man and had a pretty girlfriend like this.

I felt empty and withdrawn now that we were finished with
our latest round of sex.

My mind was a tangle of confusion. The man in me wanted to
deny what I was letting myself become. My body's favorable
reactions to his gentle touches and caresses puzzled me. I
wondered how much longer I could handle being his girlfriend
before I went crazy.

There was a certain element of fun in what we were doing. Also
a good measure of guilt afterwards.

Tom Alexander Venton had been turned into a woman and was
set to the task of being his own girlfriend while a copy
of himself leisurely masqueraded around in his own body
without a care in the world.

Times were certainly looking up for the new Tom Venton,
that's for sure. A new girlfriend with the ideal mind. Someone
to share life with and identical interests. I was his little
sex bunny to have romps with in bed whenever he wanted.

Oh how I'd enjoyed sex before as a man. I felt a little
envious of Tom as I knew how satisfying the release was
when he climaxed. My own orgasms didn't have the luxury
of total release but instead sent my body spasming out
of control in tumultuous wave after wave of pleasure.
Always afterwards leaving me feel empty and alone and
wanting my personal space given back to me again even for
just a few moments to collect my thoughts.

Then there was the guilt. The nagging guilt which I now
felt overwhelm my mind. I'd just done a disgusting thing.
I'd let a man, my old male body no less, cream in me.

He laughed joyously afterwards of course in pride at what
he'd done and what he made me do with him. That laugh was
ever so embarrassing each and every time I heard it. It was
like he was saying "oh, ho, ho! Look at what I did! Look
at what I did to you!"

I felt myself pouting now as I rolled over on my side and
curled up away from him, not wanting to be touched or held
or handled but at the same time feeling a strange yearning
for a good old fashioned cuddle.

My girl body was beautiful but what was beauty without
appreciation? I wanted to feel wanted, not so desperately
alone and unappreciated. Was a cuddle too much to ask?

I heard him peacefully snoring now beside me.

My breasts got in the way now as I reached an arm across my
chest to brush my long auburn hair out of my eyes.

We had sex twice more before lunch time. Then Tom took a shower and cleaned up. When it was my turn we almost had sex again when he giddily snuck in the shower but I laughed and
shooed him away.

I could always tell when a woman had had sex recently by the
telling glow radiating outward from her smiling face. All the
new women had that glow as we seated ourselves around the
table beside our boyfriends.

Though this morning we'd all protested in being stuck this
way all the women were singing life to a different tune. It
was apparent the repeated sex and attention from their new
boyfriends had turned their minds to mush. Each girl either
held hands with her man or leaned into him lovingly now.

Maybe I was the hold out of the bunch. Tom's hand rested on
my knee but at least I wasn't holding hands with him at the
table or leaning into him like a love sick love bird.

Dr. Hallins made a point to give another little speech as
lunch was served. He was a slime ball of a man if I ever saw
one. His paunchy belly lifted up his red and white checkered
napkin tucked into his collar. His brown hair was greased
back and he had annoying beady little blue eyes.

The kitchen seemed just as remarkably huge and alien to me
as it had when I'd first set eyes on it this morning. All
us tiny little women sitting beside our giant men. Stuck in
a topsy turvy world where furniture and door knobs were ever
strangely taller and the tops of door jams were now out of
reach.

I'd prided myself on my former six foot two inch height
before. Being able to easily reach up and touch most average
ceilings. Now I'd need a good sized ladder to even reach that
high. The top two or three bookshelves I'd seen in the living
room earlier were now woefully out of reach and the tall cupboards here in the kitchen were far out of my grasp.

The flats on my feet barely touched the floor as I sat in
my high backed wooden chair. I felt the coolness of the
air conditioned room send shivers up and down my spine as
the chilly air danced around my legs which now peeked out
from beneith a skimpy little black skirt.

Short little women were obviously Dr. Hallins' thing. Though I
was told we were all twenty-three year olds it seemed like
most fourteen year old girls would be taller than us.

Maybe it was easier to grow the clones short like this. I
didn't know. Whatever the reason I was now stuck in a much
larger world.

Hallins began his speech now. "Ladies, you've all done remarkably well this morning. I can tell you're all well
on your way to adapting to your new female bodies.

"Gentlemen, I'm proud of you for handling the situation with
the utmost delicacy. I would have a word with each of you men
in private after lunch. There is much still to discuss about
the future of your hopefully soon to be wives.

"To you all, I thank you for allowing me to demonstrate my
invention on my first human subjects. Some might call what
I've done evil and that's all right. This procedure isn't
for everyone and not everyone's entitled to understand my
reasonings behind it."

He stood up and slowly paced about the room, pausing once
in awhile to give one of the new women a gentle squeeze on
the shoulder. When he squeezed mine I was so furious it took
all my willpower to avoid slapping his hand away.

"Ladies," he said then chuckled. "Girls... daughters, my
daughters... You are embarking on new ground and I'm proud
of you for taking it so well. There is much still for you
to learn about being a woman but in time you'll aquire the
proper skills and knowledge.

"When I first tested my mind transferrance theory some many
years ago I considered the option of a simple body swap. Then
it occurred to me that finding willing participants to engage
in a permanent swap might be difficult to obtain. So I decided
to try my hand at human cloning and with some measure of trial
and error I finally managed to clone adult women of my
choosing. More so than that I was able to do so without
allowing them to grow a consciousness or identity of their
own. In this way my mind transferrance could pair up old mind
with new body to complete my creation.

"That is what you are, my dears - the final product of my
latest creations."

He again walked around behind me and clasped his hand over
my shoulder and gave it a loving squeeze and let go.

"Then I asked myself, what would it be like to be one's own
girlfriend? This idea interested me greatly. Ethical aspects
aside, the preponderance of what this could mean for the
happiness of man seemed to outweigh the negative aspects.
So much so that I concluded that I must test my new invention
out on some unsuspecting guests and for that I profusely
apologize. Nevertheless, my friends, I think my idea has
finally measured out.

"Ask yourselves, am I not happier this way? I think you each
know the answer to that. Of course you're happier. This is a
perfect pairing. Not a one of you new ladies can ever be your
old selves again," he said and now his hand found its way
to my left thigh momentarily and I frowned up at him. "The
world of men is yours no more and a thing of the past. You
are now experiencing life in the world of women. You will
never grace the halls of a gentleman's only club with your
presence again."

That last one riled me up good. How dare he rub this in?

He chuckled as I glared at him from across the table.

"Well it's true," he said to me in particular. "Men's restrooms and locker rooms are now off limits to you as well
but of course I'm sure you're each already aware of that
fact. Yes there is much to consider, many things that will
be strange and new to you which you'll each have to deal
with and adjust to in due course.

"Tomorrow morning you will all leave here by boat. I have
some things to give you ladies, including your new identification cards and passports which you'll need.

"Ladies, do not so hastily abandon your boyfriends here for
someone else once you reach the mainland. You need each
other now. You'll need someone to confide in who understands
what you've been through. Someone who knows. Someone you can
trust. Someone who will protect you, provide for you and
be there for you when times get rough.

"Gentlemen, I am counting on you to do a good job and take
care of my daughters."

"We will," Tom and the other men said at once.

I glanced up at Tom and he smiled down at me and gave my
knee a gentle loving squeeze.

What had I gotten myself into here?

I could stand it no longer. I had to ask. "Is there no way
of switching us back again?"

Hallins chuckled at that and some of the other girls gave
nervous giggles. "Oh, my, no," Hallins replied firmly. "I have
already explained that the procedure is a one way process."

"What if you blank out his mind?" I asked pointing to Tom now
who narrowed his eyes on me suspiciously.

Hallins laughed once more. "The clones are made carefully and
in a special way to ensure their minds are empty and ready to
receive a host. I can not simply erase a person's mind who
already exists with an identity intact. Besides which, erasure
of a person's identity would be considered as murder and I
won't condone it."

"But isn't placing me in a woman's body with no way back
the same as that?" I asked.

"Your identity hasn't been erased, Kate. It may develop
differently than you'd planned but it's not been erased,
I assure you," Hallins said sitting back down in his seat
at the head of the table now. "Of course you were probably
referring to the ethical nature of what I've done to you.
This is understandable. I'm sorry if you feel cheated out
of your old life. I promise I won't engage in this sort of
experiment again without fully informing future test
subjects. It's a pity I had to resort to trickery to
carry out my experiment. I simply had to know if it was
possible for it to work on humans and thankfully it has."

"Well you didn't have to do this to all four of us," I
pointed out still angry at him for this.

"Perhaps you're correct in that assessment," he said
stroking his chin. "However since I've grown four female
clones it was time to give them minds of their own. I did
what I had to do in order to make my daughters complete."

After lunch I was still so upset at the Doctor's speech that
I refused to have anything to do with poor Tom.

I snuck out into the garden while Tom and the other men had
a private meeting with Dr. Hallins.

Afterward Tom somehow found me and still followed me around in the garden like a loyal puppy while I moodily paced and sulked.

"There's got to be another way," I said to him at last as
I sat down on a bench.

"We've been through this already," Tom said sitting down
beside me and putting an arm around my back. "You heard what
he said. It's just not possible to switch you back."

"What about a mutual switch? You could take my place and I
could take yours and be a man again," I suggested.

Tom shook his head no. "You need a blank mind to transfer into, remember? It just won't work. His machine doesn't work
like you're thinking."

"Well I tell you he's lying. He's lying to us just so we'll
all agree with it."

"There's something you should know," he said. "The Doctor
didn't tell you girls but he told us guys in private. He's
got a fifth clone."

"He does?"

"Yes but I'm not sure who he's planning on using her for.
I think maybe the butler. I don't know. The reason I'm telling
you this is he's worried one or all of you girls will find
out and try and take revenge on him. You know, make him go
through the machine himself. He entrusted us to help protect
him from any tretchery."

I smiled at Tom, thankful he told me. "And you told me
anyway. Thanks."

"Hey, I'm you, remember?" he said with a smile. "Anyway, I'll
help you get him back if you want."

"When?"

"Right now if you really want to. The others are off on
another hike or something. There's only the servants, the
Doctor and us."

Chapter Four

Tom grabbed a rifle from the gun rack in the parlor and
I followed him downstairs to the basement lab.

Dr. Hallins had his back to us as we entered and Tom was quick
to quietly shut and lock the door behind us.

Hallins hadn't heard us as several of his inventions were
noisily churning away in the background. He was busy measuring
out chemicals from one beaker to another at his big wooden workbench.

Tom tapped him on the shoulder and Hallins spun quickly
around. His eyes shot down to the barrel of the rifle which
was currently aimed at his heart. Then he looked at me, then
at Tom and I saw the fear in the Doctor's eyes now as he
knew what was up.

"No, please," he begged. "You musn't... She's too young. Too
young. The clone body's not ready yet."

I spied the blonde little girl floating vertically in a large
glass tube filled with bluish fluid. She was clothed only in
a little pink one-piece swimsuit and couldn't be any older than four or five.

"Shut up and get in the chamber," Tom ordered him.

The Doctor backed himself slowly into the mind transferrance
booth and Tom swung the door shut and pulled down a restraining bar to keep him sealed securely inside.

"You musn't do this," Dr. Hallins pleaded. "Her mind's too
small. The transfer might lose part of me in transit."

Tom curiously looked around the room for the controls and
saw a series of five levers. Four of which had been pulled
downward. The last remaining one he pulled with all his
might and it clicked down into place.

The little girl's suspended animation chamber drained quickly
of fluid and her unconscious body slumped lifelessly to the
ground on her side.

Dr. Hallins screamed for us to stop but it was already too
late. Little indicator lights were already blinking above
the transferrance chamber and above the little girl's tube.

The girl's body convulsed a few times as the Doctor's mind
was transported electronically somehow into hers. Then she
opened up her eyes and gazed around the room in confusion.

Then she sat up and screamed, kicking her little legs up
and down in a tantrum.

"What have you done, you fools?" the Doctor's old body hollared at us from inside the booth. "God in heaven... what
have you DONE?"

The glass wall around the little girl lowered slowly into the
floor and Tom opened up the door of the transferrance booth.

Dr. Hallins' old male body hurriedly rushed over to the
little girl and knelt there beside her.

"Daddy?" the little girl asked recognizing her old body now
and addressing him properly, for like myself and the others
she was now Dr. Hallins' daughter. "Look at what they did
to me, daddy."

"It serves you right," I said to the girl. "You got what you
deserved. Serves you right."

Grownup Dr. Hallins turned to us both with a scornful
expression as he grit his teeth. "You're not supposed to
transfer an adult mind into a child's head. The repercussions
can be disasterous."

"Daddy?" the new little girl asked. "Why did they turn me into
a little girl, daddy?"

Hallins glared at Tom and I and said,"Well I hope you're both
happy. Her mind's been reduced to that of a five year old."

"Not enough space, right daddy?" the girl guessed.

Hallins rested his hand upon her shoulder and nodded yes.

"That's right, sweetheart, not enough space," he agreed sadly.

He helped her to her feet and she clumsily took a few steps
toward us, nearly misjudging her step on her new wobbly little
legs and almost tripped.

She walked up to Tom and I and made a fist and wriggled it up
at us with a pouty lip. "You turned me into a little girl when
the body wasn't ready yet, you big fat meanies," she angrily
said. "You was 'posed to let it growed up more."

"Ironic," Tom said lowering the rifle now. "How ironic that
your twisted mind intended this machine to create the perfect
girlfriend. You created it so a man could become his own
girlfriend and have sex that way. Looks like you won't be
having sex for quite awhile. Guess you'll have to just wait
until you grow up."

The little girl frowned and turned to Dr. Hallins.

"Daddy? I don't know dat word," she said. "What's six for?"

"Not six, sweetie," Hallins corrected her and shook his head
in frustration. "Never you mind. You'll find out all about
that when you grow up to be a big girl, okay?"

"Well now that that's settled," Tom started and looked down
at me. "Think we should go take a walk."

"Don't you think I'll forget what you've done here," Hallins
said threateningly.

"Don't give me that. You had this coming to you and you know
it," Tom snapped back. "And if you know what's good for you
you'll both keep your big mouths shut about it until we're
all safely on that boat tomorrow and on our way."

"Daddy, they turned me into a girl," the little girl announced
once more.

"Shut up!" Hallins shouted harshly at her, enough to make her
jump back a little in surprise. "I KNOW you're a little girl,
okay? That's not important now. You've got to listen up and
behave yourself like these nice people said. They turned you
into a girl but it's a secret, okay?"

"A secret, daddy?"

"Yes, sweetheart. A secret. You know how to play pretends,
right?"

"I think so, daddy."

"Good. Then let's play pretends that you were always a girl,
all right?"

"Always one?"

"That's right and what's more let's also play pretends that
you didn't get turned into a girl by these two, okay?"

"Okay. Pretends is fun, daddy."

Tom seemed satisfied with Dr. Hallins' solution. "Good. That's
just how it's going to be then. Don't try anything stupid. I'm
keeping your rifle until we're on that boat tomorrow."

Dr. Hallins walked over to his workbench and opened up a
drawer. He held a little pistol between two fingers and offered it up to Tom. "You can have this instead. It'll be
easier to conceal from my servants. I am not interested in
violence, Mr. Venton. Only in protecting my work here. I can
assure you there's nothing more that I want than to see you
and your girlfriend and the others off my island in the morning.

"I will conceal the facts from the others and we'll pretend
as though nothing ever happened here. As I do not currently
posess the proper schools and facilities with which to raise
a five year old girl I will probably have one of my servants
escort her to the mainland and have her put in a private
school or something.

"It pains me to have to have to do so to the little tyke but
the situation warrents it, I'm afraid."

"No!" the little girl hollared stomping down a foot in
protest. "I won't let you do it, daddy. I don't wanna go
away. I'm not going to school. You can't make me, so there."

"It may only be for a little while, sweetheart," Hallins
assured her but the child just rolled her eyes and stormed
around in a circle taking great big steps and stomping her feet in a tantrum.

"I feel kind of sorry for her now," I whispered to Tom as
we headed back upstairs.

"The guy had it coming to him," Tom reminded me. "At least
you got your revenge."

"Then why don't I feel so happy about it?"

"That would be the bitter sweet part of the deal I'd guess."

With Dr. Hallins now trapped in the body of a five year old
little girl and his old male body occupying a simple copy
of his old persona I felt a mixture of content and remorse
for what Tom and I did. The real madman still lived on in
a way while the old one remained trapped in a girl's life
for ever after.

I could picture his humiliation right now at the proposition
of being made to wear a cute little girl's dress, panties,
tights and flats and paraded around the house as her former
self's adorable little daughter. Part of me wished he'd fight
his new role as a girl and attempt to be a tomboy instead.
The thought of Hallins running around a future schoolyard
exhibiting boyish qualities in such a body as that seemed
rather comical. Still a part of me felt deep sympathy for
the child. She would have to grow up all over again and
experience life from the other side of the fence as a girl
this time.

Tom had betrayed the trust Hallins had given him almost right
away and had done the one thing that Hallins had feared the
most - entrap him in his own little game.

As I walked holding hands with Tom I could almost feel the
new Dr. Hallins looking at us, plotting and scheming his next
move. I felt deeply uneasy about what he might do to us if
he decided to continue this game of revenge.

"Tom," I said as we walked along the sandy little trail. "I don't know if I want to go back there."

"I know. I know... but we can't just camp out on the beach.
If he wants to get even with us he could just as easily have
us hunted down by a handful of his servants. We might as well
make the best of it and stay the extra night," Tom suggested.
"As it stands right now he knows we're on even grounds. He
tricked us and we made him pay for it. There's no more clone
bodies to mind transfer anyone into right now so the game's
pretty much over. In the morning we sail back to the
mainland and each couple goes their seperate ways. Hallins
the girl goes to boarding school or whatever and that's that."

I heard laughter coming from behind some bushes and imagined
one of the other couples making out back there. It reminded
me once more of my changed sex and I glanced down at myself
in that little black skirt, matching short sleeved top and
flats. My breasts, though not too big, stood out proudly on
my chest. Perky little things I was now stuck with having to
deal with being there.

My creamy white skin, smooth and hairless all over radiated
a certain girlish glow. My narrow little feet walked naturally
now with one foot before the other, hips swaying in my light
feminine gait, curves in all the right places now. A man's
mind entrapped forever in a woman's body. My old male body
here beside me to help, love, protect and lead the way.

I wondered how fate had chosen me for this impossible, crazy match up. My old body, Tom there, deeply in love with a mad
scientist's sexy creation. I wondered if this indeed was the
way it was going to be from now on, with me opening up my
legs and welcoming deep inside my new sex my former cock.
To be loved to the limit by my old self to some day have
his babies and suckle them at my breast.

There was no question about it that I was more than a little
turned on by the idea of all this. It was fun to enjoy sex in
a new and different way but part of me still hated what had
been taken away from me. I only ever thought it was going to
be for just one day, not for the rest of my life.

The other women were certainly enjoying it, it seemed - once
we'd all been told outright at breakfast that there was no
way of changing us back again. They'd become angry then, sure,
but by lunch time they all seemed more accepting of the
situation.

I caught Tom glancing at my butt as I walked. I could feel
a definate pride in my strut now as I began to realize I had
more self confidence.

Tom detoured us in through a small grove of trees and sat me
down in his lap sideways in the tall grass. He began giving
me little kisses and enjoying the feel of his hands slowly
rubbing up and down my smooth soft legs.

"Come on now, Tom. There's got to be more to this than
sexual attraction," I said. "I'm not a toy you know."

He fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out a little
ring box and showed me. "Dr. Hallins told us men we should
get engaged," he revealed opening the ring box and showing
me the ring. It had a few diamonds on it which sparkled in
the sunlight. "We should get engaged to our girlfriends so
that we could plan for a wedding as soon as possible."

"He gave you that to give me?" I asked.

Tom nodded yes. "He wants his new daughters to be happy."

"Come on now, Tom. That's sweet and all but this is hardly
the time or place-"

"Why not?" he asked interrupting me. "We could get married
on the boat tomorrow if you want. Besides, why put off the inevitable? You know we're going to get married sooner or later and I'd really like to settle down with you and have some children."

"You're asking me to marry myself. Come on now, Tom. Don't
you realize how silly that is? Now I like you and all and
it's really been fun doing what we've been doing together
but this is a mad scientist's twisted fantasy we're living.
This was never meant to be," I said.

"But you're the perfect girl," Tom insisted.

"For you maybe but what about me? What do you think I want
in the long run? To be hooked up with my former male body
for the rest of my life? Come on now, Tom. Fun is fun but
this is going too far."

He put his ring box away now. "Okay. Maybe I was offering this
to you too soon. You're a really great girl, you know and I
do love you very, very much. If you can't change back to
normal then why not consider what I'm asking? We need each
other, you and I."

He reached out and lifted up my chin to make me look in his
eyes. "Oh Tom... What am I supposed to do? It's all so
confusing to me."

"Marry me," he said. "Be my wife and have my children. We
can live happily ever after together, you and I. I'll take
care of you and you can be my wife. We'll go places together
and think of all the fun we can have."

I chuckled. "Come on now, Tom. You seem to be enjoying this
way too much. Sex with you's been fun but I only ever did it
to make you happy. Remember, we're of the same mind, you and
I. Remember all the girls we've dated? Remember what we both
really want of life? Remember Patricia? The girl we dated
last year. The woman we both loved and wanted to marry? What
about her? Now I can't marry her stuck like this of course
but you can."

"Stop talking crazy talk, Kate," Tom said. "Patricia's nothing
compared to you and you know it. Stop comparing yourself to
her. You're way better than she is. What does she even have
in common to us, huh? She's more interested in guys her own
age. She's eight years older than I am and who care's if
sometimes she's a little flirt? Doesn't mean she's hot for
me. So what if I dated her for awhile. It was more of a
friendship thing back then than anything, really. What I need
is a woman like you, Kate."

"Augg!" I growled. "You're making me crazy. If I marry you
then that's as good as admitting to myself that I'm stuck
this way. I don't want to be stuck this way, Tom. I don't
mind having a little fun with this but what you're asking
is too much. Can't we just be friends or something? Why do
you have to want to OWN me?"

His hands moved up to my breasts and cupped them. He started
massaging them a little with his fingers.

"I'm not asking for you to be my slave," he said. "I just
want us to always be together, that's all."

His fingertips tickled my nipples unintentionally and I
laughed, squirming to get away but I couldn't. "Hee-hee-hee. Cut that out. It tickles. I told you it tickles. Why don't you ever listen to me?"

"Sorry," he said massaging my nipples more carefully now
until they got nice and stiff for him. "Is this better?"

"Yes," I replied. "But Tom... you're just not getting the
point. It's unnatural for us to be together like this. Dr.
Hallins made this happen. You and I were never meant to be.
Can't you see that? Don't you understand that if we get
married, that's what he wants? He wants us to accept this
situation. He wants you to be attracted to me. That was
always the point of all this."

"I don't see what's so wrong with it," Tom said. "You're a
very pretty woman. Our minds are alike. There's nothing wrong with me falling in love with you."

"That's what Dr. Hallins would say," I pointed out gently
pushing his hands away from my breasts now. "We've got to do
something, Tom. We can't let him do this to anybody else."

"You want to destroy his machine then?" he asked.

"Well, we've got to do something. If we allow him to keep
that machine he'll use it on somebody else sooner or later.
We've got to make him stop. There's no telling what he'll
do if we just leave this island tomorrow and let him keep
making monkeys out of people."

Tom chuckled at that. "You're not a monkey, little darling."

"You know what I mean," I said grumpily.

"Fine," Tom agreed. "First thing tomorrow morning I'll go down
in the lab and set the place on fire if that's what you want.
I'll set the whole house on fire if that makes you happy.
Problem with that is if I do then you're as good as stuck
that way my hunny bunny."

"I already am," I pointed out.

He kissed me behind the ear. "Then you've accepted that you
can't change back?"

I shrugged. "I guess so..."

"Then will you marry me?"

I craned my neck around to look up at him. "Don't let's start
that again, Tom."

"Will you consider it at least?"

"I'll think about it, okay? That's all I'm saying. Yeah, I'll
consider it but not right now. Don't rush me into this, all
right? It's weird enough having to be my own girlfriend for
Pete's sake. Give me some time and I'll think about it."

"Kate?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"I know you agreed to only three more times," he started and
added,"but would you like to have sex again with me tonight?"

It seems I've created a monster.

Since I changed into a woman my need for sex had dropped
considerably but my body's response was amped up for it, so
I accepted it.

I didn't know how much more I could handle it being this man's
deposit center for his seed.

"If that's what makes you happy," I said shrugging.

"What would make you happy, my darling?"

"Changing back to normal, all right? But we both know that's
not going to happen."

He kissed me on the neck and began rubbing his hands slowly
up and down my legs again. His fingers were getting dangerously close to my crotch as he felt his way up my
skirt.

"You've got what I need," he said.

Boy that was a news flash and a half. Of course as a guy I
liked pussy but this guy was crazy for it. I would have to
slow him down somehow if I was going to keep my sanity much
longer.

"Please, Tom," I urged. "You know what they say about too
much of a good thing..."

"I don't care about that, now, honey. I only care for you."

His finger movements were starting to tickle and I laughed,
squirming to get away. "Hee-hee-hee! Cut that out. Stop
man handling me so."

He gently pat my thighs and left them alone for now.

"Whatever you say, my darling," he said kissing me again
on the neck.

"I didn't want to have to do this but I need boundaries,
okay? I don't want you feeling me up whenever you feel
like it. It's unnatural and you're really starting to
creep me out," I said.

"Whatever makes you happy," he agreed.

"Good," I said. "Then from now on you ask before trying to
do that stuff to me. No more feeling me up all over or giving
me kisses on the neck or anywhere until I agree, all right?
And for crying out loud, what am I doing sitting in your lap
for?"

He let go of me and allowed me to shift position and slide
off his lap to sit beside him instead.

"I don't see what's so wrong with it," he said.

"Well I do and for one thing I don't need to feel your
stiffy while sitting in your lap. It's just plain gross.
Put yourself in my shoes for a change," I said.

He chuckled looking down at the bulge in his shorts.

"I thought you were attracted to it," he said in defense.

"I don't even know WHAT I'm attracted to anymore, your cock
or having this body or what," I said. "There's a lot of
crazy thoughts going through my mind right now, Tom. Thoughts
and ideas I don't understand and don't know if I want. My
body's got these strange new attractions that I never had
before. Guys weren't something I was ever supposed to be
attracted to and sometimes I get really creeped out by what's
going on here. My body and mind aren't exactly on the same
page yet, all right?"

"Okay then," he agreed. "What do you want to do this afternoon?"

Now we were getting somewhere.

"Let's get some fishing poles and go fishing," I suggested.

"In the ocean or at the lake?" he asked.

"There's a lake?"

"Dr. Hallins mentioned one, yeah. We could go fishing at the
lake. It'll probably be easier to catch fish there than off
the dock."

"Good and what about a row boat or something and some beers?"

"Think I can round that stuff up no problem," Tom assured
me.

"Now we're talking, partner," I said giving him a love punch
in the chest.

I had always loved going fishing when I was a man. That love
hadn't dissipated one bit from my becomming a woman.

Tom and I went back to the mansion and fetched up a few
fishing poles, a tackle box and keys to the lakeside boat
house and hiked our way over there with a twelve pack of
beer.

We arrived at the boathouse around two o'clock in the afternoon and Tom put everything in a little row boat
there and I climbed in after him. He rowed us out onto
the lake and we cast our baited lines.

"It's a little weird chumming around with myself," I said
after awhile. "But I like it."

"So do I," he agreed.

A fish tugged on my line and I started to reel it in.

"Careful now, don't let it get away," Tom said standing up
and walking over to help me. He put his arms on mine to
steady the pole and with his help we reeled in the fish.

It was a nice looking trout. Just over eleven inches long.
I watched it flap helplessly at my feet in the boat as Tom
unhooked it and rebaited my line.

"You're a pretty good fisherman," Tom said then corrected
himself. "I mean woman."

I smiled and blushed. "Thanks. At least I've still got it,
right?"

"See? That's what makes you so special. You and I've got
the same skills and interests."

"You've said that already," I reminded him.

He didn't care though and continued on talking. "It's what
makes us the perfect couple. The Doctor was right. The
perfect woman for a man's got to be of the same thinking.
I love what you love and you love what I love. Isn't it
great?"

"I love women, Tom," I said. "Or at least yesterday I did."

He laughed at that. "And today?"

"Today I don't know what I love. My mind's all a filthy
mess of naughty ideas about what I like anymore. I didn't
ask for this. It just happened. I didn't think this was
going to be permanent. I just agreed to it because it tickled
my fancy and, like the others, I wanted to try it.

"It drives me out of my mind knowing that I could have strong feelings for a man, for my original male body even. I didn't think cocks would ever enter the picture for me at all but apparently they have. I don't know how the silly things have
wormed their way into my mind but they have and it creeps me
out. It really does."

He clutched his crotch now and boasted,"So, you like the
package."

"Well, duh!" I said rolling my eyes. "What girl wouldn't?
Grrr! I'm calling myself a girl already. Look, Tom, I'm going
through a lot of crazy changes in my head. Yes I find you
attractive and yes I find your equipment appealing to me but
I don't know why, okay? I don't know why and it scares me that
I should feel this way. I'm supposed to like pussy, not cock,
and it really weirds me out that although all the other
women are really attractive I don't find myself seeing them
that way anymore. All I see that's attractive is men. I don't
understand that, Tom. I really don't. I like how my new body
looks but... grrr! I'm more attracted to yours and it's just
not fair."

Tom stifled back a laugh and shook his head no for it.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I wish I knew how you feel.
I really do. It amazes me how much you've changed since
you got put in that body. We both started of the same mind
but you're on a different path than I am now."

"Yeah," I said and huffed. "Welcome to a woman's world
already, I know. Don't remind me."

"I'm really glad you've been sharing yourself with me," he
said. "That's really sweet of you, Kate."

"It's no joke I want to make myself - yourself, happy," I
said with a slight grin.

"That's what makes this so special," he agreed. "You and I
come from the same mind. The same body. The same life. You
may be the original and I'm only a copy but it's really been
nice having a girl like you around to love."

He sat beside me now and wrapped his arm around my back and
gave me a good long kiss on the lips until I blushed from
embarrassment and shrugged him away.

"Okay," I said having had enough of this already. "New rule.
When fishing out on a lake we're fishing buddies, not lovers,
okay? Leave that mushy stuff for the bedroom."

"You don't know how bad I want you right now."

"Yeah? Well keep it in your shorts, mister, because I'm starting to really get sick and tired of being your little
plaything twenty-four seven. You stay on your side of the
boat and I'll stay on mine. Let's just keep fishing and stop
this crazy nonsense for a little while, okay?"

Ignoring my plea he pulled off my flats and began massaging my left foot.

I'd always been a leg and foot man so I guess I didn't
blame him.

The fish in the small puddle in the boat finally stopped
moving about and gazed up at us.

"I love every square inch of you," Tom claimed and I knew he
wasn't lying. I'd love me too if I were him. "From your
delicate little ankles to your cute little nose, I love
every little bit of you."

"Tom," I said growing annoyed. "Remember the rules. You're
touching me again when we should be fishing."

He placed my left foot in his lap and continued his massage.
My right foot felt a little cold in the puddle as the boat
sloshed around in the middle of the lake.

A light breeze blew my long auburn hair a little as our
fishing poles dangled over the sides of the rowboat.

"I like your skin," he said gently stroking his hand up
my leg. "Girl skin is so soft."

I nervously laughed and said,"It's supposed to be, silly."

He seemed to ignore that and kept on feeling my leg.

"What it must be like for you," he said. "Trapped in a pretty
little body like that. Having smooth soft hairless girl skin
all over. Long, lovely hair on your head and pretty little
eyelashes, luschious kissable lips, wider hips and a yummy
little pussy between the legs. Breasts - what it must feel
like for you. Nice squeezable fun little breasts with nice
big nipples to play with."

"Hey buster," I said,"Nature designed those mainly for babies
you know."

He ignored that and released my leg. His hands cupped themselves over my breasts and hefted them up and down a
little. "Fun little breasts to play with. Fun little breasts
to have and enjoy. A neat little flat tummy and narrow waist,
sexy curves all over, everything in just the right place. What
it must be like to have all that now."

He put his hands on my hips and kissed me until my eyes went
wide from the sudden surprise.

When he broke off the kiss finally I had to take a few moments
to catch my breath. "Believe me, I'd trade places with you in
an instant if you wanted to feel what I'm feeling," I said.

He chuckled at that. "Never in a million years, Kate. I'd
much rather be with you than BE you."

"Okay, stop it, now," I said having had enough. "Stop trying
to get me all excited for you. We'll have sex again later
tonight, okay? Later tonight after dinner. Let's just try and
enjoy the simple pleasure of fishing, all right?"

He kissed me again and his kiss told me he was having other
plans than what I wanted.

His hands roved freely all up and down my body now and I could
sense his passion by all his heavy breathing.

"Okay, okay," I finally relented. "But not here, all right?
Row us to shore. I'm not going to have you mount me in the
middle of the lake."

He stood up and sat across from me, grabbed the oars and rowed in all earnesty. "Oh the things I'm going to do to you
when we get to shore," he promised with a wicked smile.

"Tom, you're starting to frighten me again," I said but he
laughed that away.

"I'm going to put your knees up on your shoulders on your
back and take you with your legs up in the air," he said
describing one of his favorite positions.

I used to love doing that to all my former girlfriends. Now
it was Tom's favorite thing as well.

I laughed nervously to try and get his mind off it but he
continued rowing furiously to get us to shore so he could
once again have his way with me.

I put my flats back on but knew that Tom would only take
them off again once we got to the beach.

"Tom," I said. "Maybe we should clean this fish first and
take it back to the mansion."

He shook his head no to the idea. "Oh, ho-ho!" he laughed. "Fishing. All you can think of right now is fishing when we
could be doing so much more. The fun we could already be
having just like all the others... and you wanted to go
fishing. Ha!"

"I don't really see how this relationship is going to work
if you don't calm down once in awhile and just be my pal for
a second. Sex isn't everything in life you know."

"To you it isn't but I'm the man now, remember? Sex is all
we ever think about or have you forgotten so easily?" he asked
pumping the oars faster and faster.

It was true. So far sex with him was always at his urging, not
mine. He was like a wild animal out of control.

The oars splashed again and again in the water as he rowed
us closer and closer to shore. I craned my neck to watch a
seagull fly overhead towards the rocky beach and thick
green jungle.

I had absolutely no inkling of a desire for sex with this man
but I guess it didn't matter to him now because I was here for
the using. Like it or not I was here for the using and he was
going to use me whenever he wanted to fulfil his crazy desire.

I'd gone along with it always of course. Always there for him
whenever he needed me. Always the perfect little girlfriend
for him to make love to on the spur of the moment.

I understood fully the needs of a man because I'd been one
before. Seeing it from a woman's eyes, though, was more than
a little frightening. This was a man out of control and if I
didn't want to wind up going insane from it I had to learn how
to stop him sooner or later.

"Tom," I pleaded. "We should save it for tonight and make it
special."

"Tonight? I need you right now," he replied.

"Please, Tom," I urged him. "You don't know how awkward it is
for me having to be made loved to and manhandled by my own
body."

"It's not your body anymore, sweetheart," he reminded me
harshly. "It's mine. I'm the man now and you're the woman."

I laughed nervously at that. "Uh, well... Maybe you should have better feelings for me then. Maybe you should want to
try and make me happy instead of just yourself."

"Don't try and tell me you're going to be one of those hard
to get women who never put out for a guy," he said. "You and
I know the type well. You want sex with me just as much as I
want it with you and you know it."

"Yes but there's so much more to do during the day than just-"

"You know it," he said interrupting me. "Admit it. It's what's
fun for both of us now. Nothing could be better, in fact."

"Yes, Tom, but you're acting like a kid in a candy store right
now and it's creeping me out."

"Oh, ho? How so? You've enjoyed every minute of it every time
I've made love to you," he boasted. "Every single minute of
it and you know it."

"But you're abusing your privileges," I pointed out. "If we're
to be girlfriend and boyfriend together then you need to slow
it down a little and stop trying to stick your cock in my
panties. You don't know how invasive it is when I let you do
that to me. I need personal space just like you do, just like
everyone does. If you keep this up I think I'm going to go
out of my mind."

The boat shook as it reached shore and hit gravel and sand.

"You want to do this just as much as I do," he insisted
stepping out of the boat and offering me a hand to get out
myself.

I climbed out and he took my hand in his now and led me up
the beach and behind some trees and bushes to find a nice
spot.

"Tom, I really think you're wrong about this," I said as he
laid me down on my back and began removing my clothes.

"Do you want me to or don't you?" he asked angrily. "Why'd
you make me row us all the way to shore if you didn't want
to? You're really ticking me off, now, Kate. You're sending
me signals that you want this and now you're telling me you
don't. So which is it already?"

"I want what makes you happy," I said. "If that's having sex
right here on the jungle floor beside a lake then whatever.
I don't care. Just get it over with."

He finished undressing me and lifted my legs up so my knees
rested on my shoulders and my feet stuck straight up in the
air.

Foreplay was out of the question right now I guessed. He
obviously wanted me pretty bad.

He gazed down at me lost deep in thought about what he was
about to do, then he suddenly grew angry and let me go. He
stood up and walked a few paces away with his back to me now
as he ran his hands through his short brown hair.

I lowered my legs to the ground and propped myself up on
my elbows. I began gathering up my things.

"So you want to go fishing," he stated.

"I'd like to do something other than have sex all the time,
yes," I replied slipping back into my panties and pulling on
my skirt.

"So right now you just want to be my pal, is that it?"

"Now you're getting the picture, Tom."

I put on my bra and top and slipped back into my flats.

"But you WOULD have sex with me right now if you knew that
I wanted it, right?"

"I would."

"But you don't really want that right now."

"No."

"But for me you'd do it."

"Yes."

"I don't get it," he said turning around to face me again. "I
guess I just don't understand women. We've got the same mind
and yet yours is so much different now. What gives?"

"I'm learning things from a different perspective I guess," I
offered.

"What is it about me that creeps you out so much?"

"Plenty," I replied. "For one thing that's my body you're in.
You don't know what it's like being handled by the body you
grew up in. What's more until last night I'd never even
considered the idea of sleeping with a man."

"But you're a woman now."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," I agreed. "But until last night
I was a man, okay? And now I'm supposed to let you feel me up
and kiss me and make love to me whenever you want, just because we share the same mind? Come on now, Tom, you know
better than that."

"So you're saying that sex with me is like masturbation?"

"No, Tom. Well... almost. It's just weird, that's all. At first it was exciting and fun, something neat and interesting
to experience but now I feel as if you're just using me. You're using me, Tom. I don't want to feel like I'm being
used by you."

He pounded his fist into a tree trunk. "Damn it, I need you!
If you were still a man you'd know this need runs strong.
You don't know how bad I need you right now, Kate. Do you
realize how pretty you are? How sexy you look in that skirt?
Do you know what that wonderful woman's body of yours is doing
to me right now? I just can't stop thinking about it. About
how much I want to do it with you."

I felt myself pouting a little. "I don't have that need
anymore, Tom. My new body's not out of control like yours is.
All I'm saying is you need to give me some more space, okay?
I can't constantly have sex with you all day long just because
of your silly needs and wants. I like sex like this, okay? I
really do but not every half hour all day long."

"Will you at least stroke me off?" he asked hopefully. "You
don't have to suck it, just stroke it off so I can have some
relief here."

I grimmaced at the thought of that but I understood fully his
desperate need right now.

"If that'll make you happy, then I guess so," I agreed at
last, darting my eyes quickly away to try and not think
about it.

Within a minute I found myself doing the impossible. Jacking
off my old male body from on the outside of it.

It didn't take him long to cum and when he did it shot all
over my face. I wiped it off with the back of my hand and
spat at the salty taste of it on my lips.

He chuckled at my sourpuss expression. "Sorry about that," he
aplogized.

Yeah, right he was sorry. He deliberately aimed it at me at
the last moment.

I let go of his cock now and looked up at him as I sat there
on my knees. "Maybe it would have been better if you did that
in me than on me," I said regretting what I'd just done with
him.

I finished wiping the stuff from my face and got up on my
feet again.

"Thank you," he said.

"Yeah well I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the others
about it."

He laughed. "Embarrassed?"

"Humiliated is a better word for it but yes. Are you happy
now?"

"Very."

"Good. So we can go back out on the lake and you won't
manhandle me anymore?"

"I'll try. That's all I'm saying."

Chapter Five

I caught three more fish and Tom caught two that afternoon
before he rowed us back to the boat house and we hiked back
to the mansion.

I spotted Hallins, the little girl, in the living room as
we entered the house. She wore a little pink dress, white
tights and shiny black flats and sat there on the carpet
playing with a red headed dolly.

She was certainly lost in her own little world when she
suddenly snapped out of it and glanced up at Tom and I
in recognition.

"You!" she hollared pointing at us accusingly. "You did this
to me."

"Calm down now," Tom said to her. "There's no need to be
upset about something that can't be undone. You got what
you deserved, now, and that's that."

"Daddy named me Heather," she informed us with a pout. "And
he made me wear this and carry a dolly around. I'm 'posed to
be a size-un-tist, nots a little girl."

"Shhh," Tom warned her. "Not so loud. Do you want the others
to find out?"

"No," she agreed with a shrug.

"Remember what your daddy said. You've got to play pretends
like you were always a little girl, okay?"

"Okay.... but you tell him I don't wanna go to boarding
school tomorrow with you guys on the boat."

I held my hand up to my mouth to cover up my amusement.

Tom freely grinned and said,"Well, we'll see, okay?"

We went in the kitchen and the cook took our fish away,
cleaned them, wrapped them up and put them in the freezer for
later.

When we returned to the living room the maid was playing
patty cake with poor little Heather who was lost to the
giggles in the midst of it.

Tom and I went upstairs and changed into our bathing suits
for a quick swim in the pool out back.

I put a bikini on for the first time at Tom's insistance and
followed him barefoot out to the pool.

This time I at least had the common sense to put on a pink
swim cap to keep my hair from getting all wet.

We dove in the pool together and swam from the deep end to
the shallow end just like before. Tom had a quick little
splash fight with me before engulfing me up in his arms and
giving me a kiss. Then I was sitting there on his lap just
like before with his arms wrapped around my waist.

It was crazy sitting there like that and feeling his manhood
rise to the occasion beneith me, nestling itself up against
my bikini bottom in just the right spot. It was as if his thing had radar and knew just where it wanted to be.

I rolled my eyes around twice, trying not to think of what
was going on right now and there he was with his arms around
me, invading my space just like I warned him not to all the
time.

"I don't know what keeps you going," I said amazed. Was I always that horny around my girlfriends? It didn't seem so.
Then again I was no ordinary girlfriend either.

I think it turned him on that my male mind was trapped in a
female body for him. There didn't seem to be any other
explanation for why he was so constantly turned on by my
presence.

I was no prettier than any other girl I ever dated. If anything Patricia, my last girlfriend, had a taller and more
beautiful body than mine. So then why was Tom going so crazy
over me all the time? Why wasn't he thinking about getting
back with her?

His lump in his lap throbbed beneith me as if reading my
mind.

It was because I was here and not her. That's why.

Oh how convenient.

"I think you need to calm down some, there, Tom," I suggested.

"I told you I can't help it," he said in excuse.

"Let's just stop thinking about sex all the time for awhile.
Think you can do that?"

"I'll give it a try but, then, you know me."

I craned my neck and looked up at him smiling down at me.

"Stop trying to be funny about it. I'm being serious, here,
Tom. Let's talk about something else."

"Okay. Like what?"

"Well... I'm twenty-three again," I replied. "You're twenty-eight and have already got a college degree. I think I should
go back to college and get one myself."

"In what?"

"Well... maybe I could be a teacher or something or a nurse."

"A nurse?" he asked laughing.

"What's so funny about that?" I asked elbowing him hard in
the side for it. "I could be a nurse if I wanted to."

"Yeah right. Mister computer programmer's going to become
a nurse," he laughed.

"So what if I don't want to be a programmer anymore? So what?
That's your job, now, remember? I've got to start all over
again and the way I figure it why should I go down the same
path all over again? How boring is that?"

"Okay," he said stifling back his laughter now. "So you want
me to support you in this and help you go back to college or
medical school or whatever and become a nurse. I'm fine with
that if that's what you want, Kate."

"That IS what I want," I said. "And what's wrong with that?"

"It seems so stereotypical, that's all."

"Oh? Just because I'm a woman now you think I'd choose that
to follow a stereotype?"

"Well what else would you choose? Heck, if I was a girl like
you I guess I'd become a nurse as well."

"See? So we DO still think alike then. So give it a rest
already. Don't pick on me for what you know you'd pick as
well if you were in my shoes."

"Well why not an astronaut or a news reporter or something?"

"I could do that but that's not what I'm interested in right
now. Hmmm... I wonder how long it takes to become a nurse."

"Longer than just college, that's for sure."

"Okay, then if you're so smart, what do you suggest?"

"I think you were right the first time. You should become
a teacher."

"Really?"

"Why not? Besides which you know what I really want for you."

"Yeah, to be your house wife and raise your children. Don't
remind me. I already know your old fashioned sense of
reality when it comes to marriage. So you'd have me cooped
up at home with the kids, then, is that it?"

"Well... I'd give you your own car and we'd have a joint
bank account you could use whenever you like," he offered.

"How very astute of you, putting me under your little finger
and giving me some so-called freedoms while having me couped
up in your little cage until the day I die."

Tom laughed at me and said,"I'm not saying I'm going to be
a bossy or controlling husband."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Bossy? Controlling? For your
own good, Tom, you'd BETTER be controlling otherwise I'm
going to be the one wearing the pants around the house, you
can better believe that."

"You want me to control you?"

"If I have to be a woman I want you to take charge, okay?
That's all I'm saying. I can't even believe I'm saying it
but if one of us has to be submissive to the other then I guess it'll have to be me."

"So what do you want me to do with you if you get out of
line? Spank you?"

I glared up at him. "You'd like that wouldn't you? Maybe I
would too, who knows. All I know is that you've got to get
yourself a pair of balls, Tom. Out by the lake you let me
talk you out of having sex with me."

"Okay, hold up here. You're starting to confuse me again.
You're saying I should have tried to coax you into it more?"

"Yes Tom. That's exactly what I'm saying. You know how much
sex always meant to me. It still does. So for you to have me
jack you off while I got nothing, well, mostly nothing, is
a pretty selfish thing for you to go and do."

"So... let me get this straight. If I did and said the right
things back there you'd have had sex with me?"

"Bingo."

"What did I do wrong?"

"For one thing you're in too much of a hurry. Slow down, all
right? Just slow down your act a little. Give a girl some
space, too, while you're at it. You don't have to always have
me sitting in your lap. Maybe we could just hold hands a
little instead."

At that he hefted me up and off his lap and sat me down
beside him.

I was so short though that the water came up to my nose and
I stood up and spat out a mouthful.

"Very funny," I said punching him lightly on the shoulder
while he laughed at my expense.

He pointed and laughed at me. "Your boob came out."

I glanced down and saw the he was right. My left tit had
somehow slipped out of my black bikini top. I corrected it
in a hurry and smoothed my hands gently over my breasts and
toyed with the tiny little black bow in the middle for a bit.

"Augg!" I cursed. "You don't know how difficult it is being
a girl."

"Trade with you."

"Anytime, you name it."

"Yeah, I wish."

I smiled and walked over to him. I rested my hands on his
shoulders as he sat there looking up at me.

"Sorry, Tom, only one of us gets to be a woman in this
lifetime and I guess that's me," I said grinning.

He grabbed my arm and yanked me down into a kiss then
dunked my head underwater real quick and laughed as I
came up for air and splashed him one in the face.

"Stop acting like a little boy," I snapped, having had
enough of his antics lately.

"If anyone's little now it's you," he teased.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny, very funny, so I'm short now.
Big deal. You'd be too if this happened to you."

"You're forgetting something, sweetheart, it couldn't
have ever happened to me. I'm just a copy of your original
mind, remember? A copy of your mind left in your old body
while you transferred to that cute little body over there.
In truth I didn't exist before last night. I'm a phantom of
your old identity."

"Okay so this couldn't have happened to you, so what? So
what if I'm a woman now and you're not? Big deal. Just stop
acting so childish sometimes, that's all, and I didn't appreciate it you throwing me in the ocean this morning
either by the way."

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm only just playing. Come on. It's fun.
Admit it. You like it too. I know you do. It's fun playing
with you. You're like my new best friend, only better."

He gave me a splash to prove his point and I splashed back
at him until we were in a huge splash fight. It lasted for
over ten minutes before he picked me up and carried me to
the diving board and cannon balled us both in the deep end
together.

He relased me underwater and I swam up to the surface gasping
for air and hollared at him for what he did.

"That's not funny, now," I said. "Just because you're bigger
than me doesn't give you the right to- hey! Put me down."

He carried me out of the pool again, my legs kicking and
flailing all the way, and once more jumped off the diving
board with me in tow.

I swam to the surface and over to the pool's edge. "Cut it
out, Tom."

"Only if you'll say you're sorry," he insisted.

"ME say I'm sorry?" I shot back.

"For not having sex with me by the lake."

"Right. Like that was ever MY fault you big lummox. No! Put
me down! Put me down again! Okay, okay... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just put me down already."

He set me down in a streched out lounge chair on the
concrete deck.

"Boobie alert," he said.

I glanced down and saw my left tit had slipped free of my
bikini top again. I righted it and glared up at him while
he laughed.

He stared at my crotch now and I quickly put my legs close
together before he said something clever like "camel toe"
to me.

"Oh come on," he begged. "I think it's cute that little
pussy of yours trying to show herself off when you least
expect it."

I tugged at my bikini bottom to fix the situation a little
and wondered how often this sort of thing happened to a girl
and how in the world I'd ever deal with knowing it could
even happen.

"That's not very nice, Tom, laughing at a woman's little
problems."

"Oh it's no problem to me, believe you me. In fact I'm kind
of sorry I pointed out the obvious. I should have enjoyed it
a little more first."

Just then a little blonde girl in a pink dress came running
out of the house on wobbly little legs. Her arms were up in
the air and she hurriedly talked to herself. "Not gonna put
ME in no boarding school. I'm donna run away an' hide in a
cave. Can't send ME away from my island..."

I realized it was Heather, formerly Dr. Hallins and tried to
conceal my growing amusement at the little girl's antics.

The maid hurried out of the house after the girl and scooped
her up in her arms. "Bad little girl. Bad, naughty little
girl, Heather. Bad. Bad. Don't you ever threaten to run away
from home ever, ever again. Do you hear me?"

Heather struggled to escape, pushing down on the maid's arms
around her and straining to break free but to no avail.

"You don't un'nah stand," Heather cried, gritting her teeth
as she tried and tried to pry her way free. "It's not what
you think. It's all a mish'take. I'm weely da doc'toh."

"Oh don't be ridiculous, now. You're not the Doctor. You're
just a little girl. How could you ever be the Doctor when
he's right downstairs in his lab right now?"

Tom walked over to them now and lifted the little girl's
chin up and said,"What a cute imagination she has, right?"

"Very cute," the maid agreed. "But it's dangerous for her to
think such things, even if it is all just made up in her
pretty little head."

"But I'm not the-," Heather started but Tom interrupted her.

"Careful now. Remember what we were told," Tom said reminding
her she was supposed to keep her mind transferance a secret.

She frowned, confused, then her eyes got big and bright and
she nodded yes. "Dat's right. I'm sorry. I'm a girl. I'm a
little girl. I was only foolin' you guys."

Tom whispered something into the little girl's ear that only
she could hear. Heather looked up at him, smiled and nodded
yes.

"Good," Tom said. "Now you be a good little girl from now on,
all right?"

"I will," Heather promised giggling happily at the reminder
he'd given her that this was a fun little game of playing
pretends. "I like having fun. I'm gonna have ALL the fun.
Tee-hee!"

The maid carried her back into the house now as Tom walked
back over to stand beside me.

He swirled a finger around the side of his head to indicate
the poor child was crazy. "So easy to fool her into fooling
herself, I guess. It'll be interesting having her along for
the cruise back to the mainland. I wonder what crazy antics
she'll be up to then."

"She may look innocent enough, Tom, but remember who she
really is. She's mad at the both of us for putting her in
that body. There's no telling what she'd do to try and get
us back for that," I said shifting slightly in my seat. I
felt my bikini bottom riding up my pussy crack again and
tugged at the soft material to correct it.

"Oh what are you even worried about? She's as helpless now
as a little kitten. The real one to worry about's downstairs
in the basement. I'll bet right now he's already plotting
some little scheme to get back at us."

Tom knelt down beside me and ran his hand up and down my
leg then kissed my left knee affectionately.

"I'm in the mood again, sweetheart," he said with a hungry
look in his eyes.

"After supper," I insisted.

"Are you testing me again or are you being serious this
time?" he wondered aloud.

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

He reached under my legs with one arm and behind my back with
the other and lifted me up out of my seat.

"Tom," I warned. "Okay, this time I mean it. After supper,
all right."

"If we can't have sex then at least make out with me," he
offered as a compromise.

"Kissing and petting only leads to sex, now, you know it."

"I'll behave myself. I promise. Come on. It'll be fun for
both of us."

"The point of it is I don't want you always invading my
space. Can't you relax already and just cool yourself down?
Look, Tom, if you want me to go on being your girlfriend
then you're going to have to learn to give a girl some
space. The way you're carrying on you'd think we were
a couple of newlyweds on our honeymoon. Well, we're not.
Not yet anyway. So just cool it, okay? Put me down now."

"I'm not invading your space. I'm sharing it with you," he
said carring me out the back gate and walking down a sandy
little path into the jungle.

I kicked my legs up and down to show him I wanted to have
him let me go but he just ignored my efforts.

"Tom!" I hollared.

"I'm taking charge, just like you told me so."

He had me there and I found myself regretting having said
it.

I shook my head no at him. "You silly fool, you. You're
thinking with your penis again, aren't you? Don't tell me
you've been eating clams or something."

"I don't need anything of the kind," he said but I suspected
he and maybe the other men had all been given some kind of
aphrodisiac. I'd never in my entire life before as a man had
the kind of stamina Tom had been displaying lately. He had
to be lying to me. There was just no way he could want sex
again so quickly.

"You're taking something," I realized and by the slight smile
he gave me and that knowing look in his eyes his expression
finally revealed the truth. "You ARE! You ARE taking something. No wonder you're all over me the way you are.
No wonder. Okay, okay. What did the Doctor give you guys?"

"I'm sorry but I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, Tom. I saw it in your face. You gave me
a look just then."

"Okay, so the Doctor gave us men some pills, okay? It's no
big deal. So I'm a sex starved lunatic now over you. So what?
At least it's fun."

"What kind of pills?" I asked as he carried me off the trail
and back over to the spot where he'd taken me this morning.

"Sex enhancers of some kind. I don't know. Never took 'em
before," he admitted laying me down on my back in the tall
grass.

"How many have you taken today?" I asked.

"To tell you the truth I've lost count," he said grinning
down at me as he climbed on top of me, propping himself above
with his big strong arms. "The Doctor said you could eat as
many as you wanted so I've been eating them like candy."

"Oh, so THAT'S what you've been snacking on all day," I
realized at last.

"Stuff's driving me crazy for you," he said. "I mean... even
without them I'd think you're hot but..."

"Just stop it Tom. Don't dig yourself deeper into the grave
you've dug already. By the way, where are the pills now?"

"Left them back at the room."

"Could I have one?"

He laughed at that and shook his head no. "Afraid not,
sweetheart. They're for men. They don't work on women."

"Oh," I said pouting a little. "Well... maybe the Doctor could
give us ladies something that works for us."

"Don't count on it, Kate. He's on unspeaking terms with us
after what we did to him, remember? The only thing besides
revenge that he wants is to throw us off this island."

He smothered his face in between my legs and smoothed his
hands up and down on them greedily. "Mmmm... Your legs are
so freaking sexy I could lick them up all over."

I just laid there on my back and let him roam his hands all
over my body. Some of it felt pretty darn good actually but
other stuff just wasn't turning me on at all. Like his kisses
on my neck for example or with him staring at me inches away
from my face eye to eye. Just looking at my old male face
staring at me there from this perspective was enough to
creep me out.

The sex was good and all but I was still a man inside this
woman's body and until last night I didn't have these kind
of problems to deal with.

He seemed to really be enjoying himself though and I felt almost obligated to let him do so. After all, I'd have wanted
him to let me do that to him if things were turned around and
he was a woman instead.

I just laid there on my back sometimes looking up at him,
sometimes feeling rather bored and looking over at the trees
or the tall grass around us.

He got himself down in a good position on top of me and we
began kissing. I found myself for the first time offering him
kisses back in return as our make out session continued.

"Mmmm," he moaned happily rubbing the palm of his hand up
and down my crotch, feeling my smooth sex through my bikini bottoms.

I couldn't believe this was happening to me. Happening to me
again like all the other times only this time with our clothes
on. This time holding off from having sex. It was just one
big forplay session going on and on and on and it never seemed
like it would ever end.

"Tom?" I asked interrupting him as he rubbed my nipples through the thin fabric of my bikinni top.

"Huh? Wha-?"

"Isn't that enough, Tom?"

"Huh? Oh no. I figure we still got a couple hours until
dinner. We can do it until then."

"You're having most of the fun, though," I complained.

"You don't like what I'm doing?"

"I didn't say that. Of course I like that. It feels really
wonderful what you're doing there. I just don't feel like
I'm playing an active role."

"You can feel my body too if you'd like," he offered.

"Ungh! Please, Tom, give me a break. I'm still a man in
here, remember?" I said pointing to my temple. "All my life
I've loved women, not men. My body seems to like this, yeah,
but I'm all confused inside about these feelings."

"Put your hands on my chest and rub them around," he said
lifting one hand then the other up to him for me.

My hands quickly retreated to my sides and I balled them up
into little fists and pounded the ground repeatedly as I
shook my head no. "Ungh! No, no, no! I can't do it. I can't.
It's weirding me out."

"Well you like the sex, right?"

"Yes but-"

"Then what's the big deal? We've done it lots of times since
last night. You should just go with it. Let yourself go and
get over it already. I don't bite."

"Well it's different for you. You don't have to switch your
sexual preferences around for me because you're still a man.
I'm not. For me it's different. For me it's... difficult."

"Is that why you were playing hard to get out by the lake
today?"

"It's part of it, yes. That and I think I'm going to go crazy
with you having your hands on me all the time."

"Fine. I'll stop taking the pills if you want."

He stopped playing with my nipples and rolled over and sat
beside me.

I sat up to join him.

"It's only my first day as a woman," I said. "I'm sure I'll
figure myself out sooner or later but not with you rushing
me."

"But you're so... beautiful... so... touchable and kissable.
You've got to share that with me, Kate. Share it with me."

"I am sharing it. I am. I'm trying to but if you don't stop
it soon and give me a break I think I'm going to scream and
lose my head."

He was quiet for a few moments then chuckled to a thought
he'd got in his head.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"What I wouldn't do to be in your place and have your so-called problems," he said. "I envy you. I really do. If it
were possible I'd trade places with you in an instant just
to see what it's like. It must be pretty darn fun for you."

I let lose a grin. "Sometimes it is. Sure. Sometimes but not
all the time. Do you know the confusion that runs through my
head after every time we have sex? As much as I want and enjoy
my personal space back when you roll over and take a nap I
also feel the urge to be held and cuddled."

"You never told me that."

"Well it's true. I'm getting these strange feelings. These
weird... needs. The guy part of me is loathe to admit it but
my girl side's screaming in my head right now to just shut
up and listen already and fulfil those hungry needs."

"Are you feeling one of those needs right now?"

"Yes."

"Like what?"

"Hold my hand."

"Really? That's it."

"Yes. I WANT to hold hands with you, Tom."

He reached over and took my hand in his now and we interlocked
our fingers together. I felt a warm feeling inside wash over
me. There was pleasure in this but it wasn't exactly sexual
or anything. It was just pure unfettered bliss.

My male ego was in my head screaming no, begging me to stop
this silly nonsense at once. How dare I have feelings for
a man? How dare I want to feel his closeness by the simple
act of holding hands?

The woman in me enjoyed it though so I let it continue for
a few minutes before finally letting go again. The man in my
head was screaming fits for me to stop so I had to finally
let go.

I glanced down at my lonesome hand now feeling strangely
guilty and oddly creeped out.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked picking up a twig and snapping it
in half.

"I don't know if I can ever get used to this," I replied
shrugging. "I don't know if I can ever accept that this is
me and that you're my.... my replacement."

He smiled and said,"I wouldn't say that. I'm more to you now
than just someone to take your place and live your old life
for you. I'm here to help you and protect you. Oh, but much
more than that. There's other things too. You're short now
but I'm still tall so I can help you fetch things off the
shelves or from the cupboards that are out of reach. I can-"

"Don't patronize me, Tom. I'm not helpless you know."

"I didn't mean to put it like that. I was only saying that
as a team we go hand in hand, right? We complete one another.
That's all I'm saying here."

"What's even the point? We're of the same mind. Who cares if
we have things in common or share similar interests. Don't you
want to marry a girl who's got differences in her head? Someone with a slightly different education that you? Don't
you want to meet someone like that who doesn't always feel like she has to say yes to sex, just because she doesn't want
to hurt your... her... old feelings?"

"Is that what you think?" Tom asked. "That you feel pressured
into having sex with me for my benefit, not yours?"

"Yes, Tom," I replied. "Well... sometimes yes. We don't have
to have a full on marathon in bed. You don't have to try and
impress me by taking those pills. I still like sex, even the
way I am now, but it's just too much of a good thing. I don't
want it to ever get boring. Can you understand what I'm saying
here?"

"I think so," he said shrugging and scratching the back of
his neck a little. "You must feel pretty cheap, huh? Well I'm
sorry. I guess maybe all along I was only thinking of myself
by taking those pills."

I offered him my hand again and he took it. I felt chills of
bliss coursing through my body even though the little man in
my head was throwing fits.

"I'm trying to like this, Tom," I assured him. "It's difficult
but I'm trying to do my best. I do like my new female body.
It's really, really nice but it's still a bit too early for
me to make a final call and admit I want to stay like this
for the rest of my life."

"Well, there's always a sex change operation."

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Don't try and be funny with me,
Tom. What kind of a shrimp of a man do you think I'd make if
I went and did a thing like that? How many women would I ever
attract even if a doctor could make my face more boyish with
plastic surgery? I'm not saying that I'm against people doing
that stuff. That's their business if they want to but it's
not for me. No, the only way I'd be happy is if I could go
back through that machine and switch back to normal. A man's
life is really where I belong but I guess I don't really have
a choice in the matter, do I?"

"Maybe not. I'm willing to try and swap you back if you'd
like."

"And make you go through what I'm going through? No sir. I
wouldn't wish this on you, Tom. Even if you WOULD like to
fondle these breasts from inside a body like this to see
what that's like. Believe me, the novelty wears off pretty
quickly, honey."

"By the way, that reminds me, I haven't seen you fondle your
own breasts at all since the mind transfer last night."

"I always did it while you weren't looking. Believe me, I'm
not stupid enough to give up on a good thing and throw it
out the window."

"Play with them now."

"Huh? What?"

"Your breasts. Play with them now if you want to."

"I can't. I'll get embarrassed with you watching me."

"We're the same mind so it should be no big deal to either of
us. Go on. I know you want to."

I gave my breasts a few little squeezes then blushingly
turned away giving up.

"I can't," I said in near whisper. "Not with your watching."

"I've been a big headed selfish old fool today, haven't I?
I haven't given you an inch of space all day. I bet you've
wanted to play with your new body all day long but you couldn't because I was always with you," he said and wrapped
an arm comfortingly around my back. "Isn't that right?"

I nodded yes and found tears welling up in my eyes. They just
came out of nowhere and started trickling down my cheeks. The
man in my head stood there puzzled and absolutely flabbergasted by this sudden rush of female emotion.

Tom stood up to leave. "I'll go back to the mansion and leave
you be until dinner, I promise. You need a little alone time.
I didn't see that before but I know now I was in the wrong.
You need some time to get used to your body in private."

"Thanks," I weakly said.

He waved goodbye down to me and I waved back and watched him
turn and leave.

I sat there and hugged my knees up beneith my chin just enjoying the feel of my hands resting on my smooth, soft
hairfree girl flesh. After a good while of this I felt
comfortable that I was indeed alone and Tom had kept to his
word and went back to the mansion to leave me alone in
private.

I began fondling my breasts now and enjoying the weight and
feel of them in my hands. I could play with them all day if
that sex crazed Tom would ever allow it.

I played and played and played with myself for I don't know
how long but it must have been close to dinner time because
Tom poked his head in through the bushes, saw me playing with
my breasts still and covered up his eyes. "Sorry," he said
apologetically. "I just wanted you to know that it's about
dinner time."

"Already?" I asked letting go of my wonderful fun little
breasts now with a disapointed sigh.

"Afraid so. You've been here almost two full hours," he claimed but to me it seemed a whole lot less than that.

Chapter Six

Poor little Heather had to sit at the dinner table in a
high chair for babies. She grumped and complained about it
the entire time but her "daddy" tired of her ownry behavior
and scolded her several times.

Dr. Hallins didn't give his usual speech which was of no
surprise because he seemed pretty upset still at what Tom
and I had done to him.

The other women sat beside their former male bodies absolutely
enthralled and deeply in love with them. I could tell right
away by the way most of them were holding hands and leaning
into their boyfriend's shoulders but by the middle of the
meal there was a little hanky panky going on beneith the
table.

I deliberately dropped my spoon for an excuse to see what
all the sudden eye movements from the women were all about.

Below the table almost all their boyfriends had slipped off
one shoe or another and were rubbing their feet slowly up
and down the legs of their dates.

I picked up the spoon and sat back down in my chair and let
go a funny smirk at what I'd seen. Tom looked down at me
but didn't get the joke.

"Heather, eat your peas or you'll get no dessert," Dr. Hallins
sternly warned.

"They taste yucky. I don't like 'em," Heather complained
crossing her tiny arms over her chest in protest.

Dr. Hallins took a bite of peas himself and made an "mmmm"
sound to show her even HE liked peas and why not her?

"I don't care if YOU like 'em. I don't like 'em no more,"
Heather whined.

Dr. Hallins rapped his fork loudly on the girl's high chair tray. "Remember what we already discussed, young lady. I'll
have no more outbursts of this kind here at my table."

"Okay," Heather reluctantly agreed. "I guess so... but I
still don't like them peas. I don't like ANYTHING green."

"Not even cute little frogs?" one of the women interjected.

"Ewww! Frogs are yucky," Heather said squinting her eyes
and puckering her lips all up into a sourpuss expression.

Suddenly Robert stood up and clinked his spoon on his wine
glass to make an announcement. "I'm sure many of you will
soon come to the same conclusion as Roberta and I have. At
least it's my hope you do so. Anyway, I'd like to announce
that Roberta and I are now engaged to be married. The wedding
will hopefully take place two weeks from now in Las Vegas and
you are all invited to join us if you'd like."

There was much clapping and congradulations from all around
the table.

I could sense the jealousy in Tom, Jack and Alex's eyes at
how lucky Robert was that he'd completely won over Roberta
in less than a single day already.

I could only sit there and feel myself blushing at how awkward
THAT would be - to get married to your own self like that and
be your own bride.

Dr. Hallins stood up as Robert sat down again. "It will be
my honor to attend the wedding and give my daughter away."

He sat back down to more clapping and shot a menacing look
towards Tom and I.

Hallins finally decided it was about time to finally introduce
the spoiled little brat daughter of his in the high chair.

"I'm sure some of you have already met her," he said,"But this
is my five year old daughter Heather."

"Hi Heather!" the women all chimed together. The men simply
sat there and gave a casual wave.

Dr. Hallins continued,"Unfortunately she couldn't be with us
until this afternoon as she was visiting her mother on a
nearby isle. The divorce has put an unfortuante rift in the
family and though I have full custody, I have thus far freely
allowed Heather every opportunity to visit her dear mother."

I saw the lie for what it was. A cheap excuse to explain
Heather's sudden appearance here and nothing more.

Heather's eyes wandered around the table and she smiled in
amusement at her little secret but Tom and I knew who she
was before and so did her "daddy."

"Well I think she's absolutely adorable," one of the women
said and Heather's face gushed and blushed happy to hear it.

It was funny how the child displayed two completely seperate
attitudes. One of denial, hatred, betrayal and anger, the
other of giddy little fits of happiness and loyal innocence
that crept up on her without her ever really realizing it.

The maid had thus far sort of took up the role of nanny for
the child and picked up a spoon full of peas and offered it
to her. "Now, now. Open up wide. The airplane's coming
inside."

Heather's eyes seemed as if they were about to pop out of her
head as she tasted the first spoonful of peas. She shook her
head no but the maid forced her to chew down every drop and
then handed her her glass of milk. Heather gulped down the
milk greedily to wash away the aftertaste only to be confronted by another silly little airplane coming in for
another landing in her mouth.

"Oooo! No! Nasty, icky, icky, no," Heather complained.

"Two more bites now, almost done sweetheart," the maid assured
her. "And then you get some nice chocolate pudding for dessert."

The last mouthful was too much for the poor child. She spit
out the peas and one of them landed in her daddy's glass of
milk. Another bounced off his forhead and landed on the floor.
A third went rolling across the table and landed in one of
the women's laps.

Dr. Hallins stood up and threw his napkin down angrily on
the table. He walked over and scooped up his five year old
daughter out of her high chair and carried her kicking and
screaming down the hall and into the library.

I looked at Tom and he looked at me and neither of us could
believe what we were hearing. Poor little Heather was now
getting a spanking from her former male body and couldn't
do a thing about it.

Tom whispered to me,"That's got to be a little awkward for
her."

I smiled weakly back and shrugged unkowingly. I couldn't
imagine what the poor little girl must actually be thinking right now but betrayal once more popped into mind.

After awhile the two returned and Heather was rubbing her
sore little bottom through the fabric of her pink puffy
dress. Her daddy lifted her up and set her back down in
her high chair and said,"I'm sorry but I must excuse myself
from the rest of this little... gathering. I will see you off
on your voyage first thing in the morning. Good night."

Heather's eyes were all watery and she sniffled sobbing from
the spanking.

"Oh come now, sweetie, it's all right. You must learn to better behave yourself. It's not nice to spit out our food
all over the place," the maid said trying to calm the girl
down. "Here, now, here's your pudding. See? You still get
your pudding for at least trying to be a good girl and eat
all your peas... well... most of them."

Heather moved her lips mocking the maid's words as she said
them. She was clearly angry and upset at the whole mess. I felt a little sorry for her again at what Tom and I did. It
really was a shame to have to turn Hallins into a five year
old girl and leave her under the supervision of her old male
body.

After dinner and dessert all the couples retired to their
rooms and Tom and I to ours.

I sat down in bed expecting Tom to be all over me once more
like he'd been all day long but he surprised me and stepped
into the bathroom and took a shower.

Awhile later he came out whistling a happy little tune to
himself with a large white bath towel wrapped about his waist.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked watching him get
dressed in only a pair of white boxer shorts.

"Why wouldn't I be happy? It's been a heck of a little
vaction so far, wouldn't you say? I'll bet you never expected
anything like this when you accepted the Doctor's invitation."

"Well I didn't expect he'd turn all us men into our own
girlfriends."

Tom chuckled at that and climbed into bed with me. He put an
arm around my shoulder and pulled me close, kissing me atop
the head. "You know you're having fun and wouldn't have missed
out on a thing like this for anything in the world."

"Well... maybe..."

"I've decided to start listening to you," Tom said. "From now
on I'm going to put your interests first. Yours above mine. I
won't be selfish any longer. I promise. I'll give you the
space and freedom you deserve. In fact, tonight's your call
completely. You want to just snuggle? Then let's snuggle."

He pulled me in close to him and the little man in my head
went screaming into a fit but my body reacted approvingly
and filled my heart with true warmth and comfort.

I sighed and thanked him for this. He reached over and turned
off the light and I fell asleep like that in his arms.

Tom gently shook me awake early the following morning. He'd
already gotten up and had dressed himself in some dark blue Bermuda shorts and a bright flowering Hawiian shirt and
boat dockers.

"It's time to get packed and ready to sail, my sweet," he said and I sat up yawning and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

He gave me a quick hug and a kiss good morning on the lips
and I frowned as the little man in my head didn't seem to be
anywhere around now to complain. It seemed I'd frightened him
completely away last night by our snuggling.

"Wait a minute," I said afterward. "Do that again."

Tom hugged and kissed me once more and I felt genuine pleasure
from it for the first time without feeling the slightest bit
guilty or weirded out afterwards.

"What?" Tom asked looking deeply into my surprised eyes.

"Nothing," I said dismissing the notion of telling him about
it right now. "It was wonderful. That's all."

He scratched his head in confusion and went about the business
of packing now.

I went in the bathroom and relieved my bladder on the toilet then got undressed and hopped in the shower afterwards.

It was a true luxury having a nice body like this to wash. Every curve and ounce of flesh was amazing to the touch and
for a good ten minutes I was in absolute heaven. I retained
self control somehow avoiding masturbation in such a sexy,
wonderful woman's body and just enjoyed the simple pleasure
of washing myself all over with a washcloth.

So smooth and silky soft and slippery wet all over. I couldn't
believe this was actually me now. Not a hint of stubble on
my legs or under my armpits or pussy. I imagined perhaps Dr. Hallins had engineered my body to avoid growing body hair in those places.

I finished up my shower and toweled myself dry, then walked
back in the bedroom with a towel around my waist.

Tom pointed at my mistake. "I don't mind the free peep show,
my dear, but shouldn't you be wearing that towel like a woman
now instead of a man?"

I gasped in embarrassment as I looked down. I quickly covered
up my breasts with both hands even though Tom had seen them
well enough already the past day and a half.

"Oops," I said turning to face the dresser now.

I pulled out some panties and a bra, both white and made of
smooth soft thin cotton. I wore these and only fumbled a little bit with the clasps in the back of the bra before
Tom came to the rescue and locked it in place.

"Thanks," I said blushingly. "Guess I'll have to learn how
to do that myself."

"No hurry. I like helping you get dressed," he admitted with
a sly grin.

I walked over to the closet and selected a white summer dress
and slipped into that. Tom did the zipper up in back for me
and I thanked him once again.

I slipped into a pair of white leather sandals and buckled
them up.

Tom helped me pack my suitcase. There was my old black one
sitting already packed there on the bed. I'd been given a
pink one by Dr. Hallins as had all the other new women.

After packing we headed down for a quick bite to eat.

After that Tom went up and got our suitcases and walked me
to the dock. Dr. Hallins was there and watched Tom and I
board.

Tom took the suitcases down below deck to our cabin and
returned shortly after. He winked at me and annouced for
all to hear, including the Doctor,"Well it seems as though
I've forgotten my watch. I'll just pop back in the house
and get it. Won't be but a minute. Please don't sail away
without me."

He jogged down the boarding ramp and along the dock vanishing
into the jungle beyond.

Dr. Hallins didn't suspect a thing and seemed ever anxious
to see us off his island.

Heather was aboard and so was the maid here to escort her
off to boarding school. The maid held tightly to the girl's
shoulders but Heather didn't want to go and kept struggling
to get away. "No! I don't wanna go to boarding school!" she
cried squirming to break free. "I don't wanna go. You can't
make me! You're all making a mistake. I don't need to go.
Daddy, what are you doing? Why are you sending me away like
this?"

Her father smiled and waved. "I'm sorry sweetie but you need
to go to school now. You're a big girl, remember? Big girls
like you have to go off to school."

"But daddy," she pleaded rolling her eyes a bit, trying to
remind him of the secret of who she really was. "Daddy...
you know... Come on now, daddy, you know you shouldn't treat
me this way. Daddy... remember? Remember what happened?"

"Oh I remember all right, my sweet little darling daffodil," Hallins said with a content smile. "That's part of why you
have to go away for awhile. I don't need you tinkering around in my lab anymore. That's for daddy to worry about, now, my
dear little angel. Don't worry though. I promise to
come visit you from time to time. Things will all work out.
You'll see."

"But daddy...," Heather said then her eyes nearly crossed
as she danced in place and shot a hand to her crotch. "Ooo!
Rats! Now I gotta go tinkles..."

The maid escorted her below deck to the ladies room and
one of the other women commented on the girl's behavior,"She's
worked herself all up over nothing, I'm sure. Poor little
angel. Don't worry, Doctor, we'll take good care of your
daughter."

Tom returned several minutes later and boarded the ship.

Dr. Hallins bid us all a fond farewell and untied the ropes
securing the ship to the dock as anchor chains clattered and rose.

The captain blew the fog horn a few times signalling the
start of our voyage. Dr. Hallins watched us sail away with
his back to the island. Off in the distance over the thick
green jungle I saw a black billow of smoke rising high into
the clear blue sky.

"Tom, what did you do?" I whispered.

"Oh, I gave the good Doctor something to keep himself busy for
a little while, that's all," Tom replied with a smile.

"You set the whole place on fire?"

"No. Just the lab. I'm sure the Doctor and his servants will
get the fire under control and put out before it spreads to
the rest of the house. If not then I suppose they'll just have
to rebuild."

Tom kissed me on the forhead and we waved to the Doctor and
he waved back, blissfully unaware still of the dreadful fire burning away in his lab.

I suppose he must have watched us until we'd sailed over the
horizon before he realized his house was aflame.

Though the small cruise liner had an engine to propel us
faster home she also had sails which were currently flapping
about in a westerly moving tradewind.

Jack, Robert and Alex wasted no time in taking their love struck girlfriends below deck to their cabins. I could only
imagine all the fun they were having already.

Tom Alexander Venton gave me a big hug and a kiss. The little
man in my head was nowhere around to protest. Maybe I'd gotten
rid of him for good and I guess that's all right because at
least I was finally starting to fall in love with the man
that was myself.

Heather was always ever the little mischief maker on our
voyage home but other than that her nanny the maid kept her pretty well in line.

Tom Venton had some pretty big shoes to fill for me if he was
ever going to prove himself husband material and I, well, I
had some new shoes of my own to fill and a great big new
world to view through a woman's eyes.

That's how I left behind the world of men on Dr. Hallins'
island and ventured forth into the world of women.

Every now and then I could see a glimpse of the world I'd
left behind but now that I was a girl I knew I would always
be treated a little differently by members of my former sex.

I guess that's all right though because I've got Tom and
he's got me and no matter what anyone else says we both
know who the real Tom Venton is right now. He's his own
girlfriend.

What a trip. A girl now and with a know-it-all boyfriend
in my old male body to shower love and kisses on me for
the rest of my life.

And who's Kate now, you wonder? She's a lucky little lady. In fact she's the one this adventure's all about but don't you worry. This is only the beginning.

Apart of Me Together: Romance on the Run

PART II

Chapter One

As soon as we got back home from our recent trip to Dr. Hallins' island Tom bought me tons of new clothes,
especially sexy lingerie to wear for him in the bedroom.
Along with the new clothes came the shoes, makeup, perfumes
and other accessories. The only thing even remotely boyish
of my entire new wardrobe were some cutoff shorts but even
those were cut too small for a guy. It looked like from now
on skirts and dresses would be my thing.

The cruise back home had taken us just over a week and by
now I was almost like putty in Tom's hands, willing to do
just about anything he wanted.

Sex from now on meant sex with my boyfriend. I'd made him
stop taking those aphrodesiac pills the first day of our
voyage home but by now Tom was taking them again, insistant
that we have sex as often as possible before my first
monthly period kicked in, signalling my eggs were ready
and that I could then get pregnant. After that we'd have
to take precautions unless we both wanted a baby on our
hands.

It was a Friday night, our first Friday in my old house.
Tom had worked hard all week at my old computer programming
job down at the office and was looking forward to spending
lots of time with me in bed over the weekend.

It was our third time tonight having sex toghether and
we'd just climaxed together moments ago. He was still in
me, my knees resting on my shoulders, feet high in the air
above my head, his hands still gently caressing my smooth
soft calves. At my insistance he kept his cock there in my
pussy so I could further enjoy the wonderful sensation of
fullness.

I gazed down past my little breasts a big puffy brown and
pink nipples, down past my smooth, flat little tummy to
where our bodies joined together at the crotch. It fascinated
me that that was my former cock there shoved all the way deep
inside my pussy. "Oh god," I moaned straining my neck for
another look at it.

He saw me looking at it and reached over to the nightstand
table and got out a pink plastic framed mirror. He positioned
it down there for me to get a good look at my pussy with his
cock still in it. The mirror had been Tom's idea and it blew
my mind every single time. So did getting screwed with my
legs up in the air over my head.

There it was, my little football shaped venus mons with a
simple slit running down the middle of it. There it was, the
base of his cock shaft peeking out a little, the rest of it
all snug and warm inside a mass of slippery wetness.

He set the mirror back down and gave my pussy a few gentle
pats of appreciation, then smoothed his hands luxuriously
all around my little smooth hairless mound. "Mmmm," he
nearly moaned then chuckled softly to himself at having
victoriously mounted me and done the deed.

I let my head fall back upon the pillow then craned my neck
again for just one more look.

"Oh god," I whispered in disbelief at what I saw.

We'd had sex over fifty times since I'd changed into a woman
and I still couldn't believe a sight like this.

Just how deep in his cock went I couldn't tell. Even with
his cock now going limp after sex it was still pretty huge
in there. My pussy had clamped down on it after we climaxed
and I wouldn't let it go. He could easily slip out of me now,
though, if he wanted. It was too slippery inside for me to
really do anything about it but he was there now and I was
absolutely amazed.

I let my head flop back down on the pillow.

Maybe just one more look.

I craned my head once more. "Oh wow, Tom..."

He grinned down at the sight and seemed to read my thoughts.

"I'm in you," he whispered proudly.

I balled up my hands into little fists and reached up and
gently pounded on his chest all giddy now with laughter.

"Oh wow, Tom..."

His body tensed up and he somehow summoned up one last little
spurt as he injected his seed in me again. My pussy muscles
clenched and tugged his cock inward, trying to sap out every
last little drop.

"All done now," he said pulling out of me and I watched as
the tip of his cock emerged leaving a long slick trail of
cum behind which broke off and smacked against my tummy.

I reached down with one finger and swirled up a little of the
stuff on my finger tip and brought it up to my face for
closer inspection. "Oh wow..."

It had been my cum I was staring at, now his. It seemed odd
and alien and somehow mysterious to me.

He gave my pussy a few gentle pats. "All filled up for now,"
he informed me as he climbed off of me and rolled over on
his back beside me.

I swung my legs down to the mattress. My knees remained bent,
legs a little wide still. I reached down and cupped both
hands over my crotch, feeling the smoothness and wetness
there. I bit my lower lip and brought my legs down flat
against the mattress and close together. "Nnnnnnn... wow,
wow, wow..."

(and their girls) - other guests
Tom Alexander Venton - former main char. 28

------------------------------
from dream: It shook so hard "I think the earthquake had an earthquake."

runners on a beach.... dusk or just after nightfall.
running to a point and back again, getting lost on the way n a maze of buildings, a mechanic's shop, etc.

riding down a hill quickly on a bicicle, fearing death is
just around the corner on a busy street as a car
could pull out at any moment.

doughnut shop - they all went out for them on bikes but
somehow I always got left behind. Then I stored my bike in
a little crate by or in the pizza parlor.

crazy "secret" door in plain sight in there - leads to another
side of the pizza parlor where everything's so much more fancy.

Earthquake happens and bnuilding seems to groan from above
like it's ready to collapse. I make a run for it but too late -
the roof caves in but not all the way. thanks to the odd
-design where there are crossbeams on the walls, the ceiling is "caught" at about
three feet from the floor. Three feet from being flattened
completely.

Crawl into the pizza kitchen, the roof there is made of
plastic and fiber glass and is easier tobreak through to make an
escape but it's a two to three storie drop to the ground
below.

Ther's a tree and in its branches for decoration makeshift
skeletal art.

I go crashing down as I lose my footing....

my body slams into the ground, my head landing on a girl's
back there (people all around were lying on the ground now, some dead perhaps, others alive but weakened or injured.

+++++++

Jack, Robert and Alex (and their girls) - other guests
Tom Alexander Venton - former main char. 28
Kate - main char. 23
Dr. Hallins - mad scientist
Heather - age 5, the "new" Dr. Hallins

An old story of mine. I wonder if I should have entitled it "Dashed" instead. A good friend of mine read it and said it read like a Twilight Zone story or an Outer Limits tale. I don't know but I kind of like the dystopic feel.

Dash
by Cleo Kraft
-------------
"Hi."

Crackle-crack-crackle.

"Hello there."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Hello."

Crackle.

"Hold on a sec. Warming up."

Crackle-Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

"Come closer. Yes, that's it, my friend. I am truly glad you have taken the
time to visit me today . . ."

"Greetings! Hey there! Well, look at me now, will you? Ha! What more can
I say? Just look at me now . . ."

"Hi mom!"

"Hello again. Flowers? For me? How sweet my dear."

There I stood, all alone and beside a row of statues in the Old Blue River
Graveyard and the memory boxes were running off their little gedsols at
me quite bedaggledly.

"Lo there visitor! Stand forward and speak."

"Hello from the great beyond. How are you?"

"Hello there stranger."

"Howdy pawwwwwwwwrd-ner. Stay awhile, wone-shuh?"

I stood there in the graveyard like I always did every night at just before
midnight. My friends - well, they're blingoed, you know, expired, only
it's not like you'd think. They'd already blingoed before I even met a
single one of them.

You see, I'm an old sentimental. A lonefre kadigor, you know, a loner,
and Sedge is the name I go by. I pay visits to the little memory boxes
each night in my favorite graveyard, the Blue River. I'm sort of like
their protector now. I try and keep the Grims and yonlemen from harming
my friends but sometimes I'm not much of a protector and my enemies gang
up on me and in comes the painful and familiar beatings.

"Good evening Sedge," Dolly, one of the smart-graves, said.

"Good evening Dolly. Circuits keeping you warm enough tonight?"

"Yes, thank you. I was wondering, Sedge, if you might free me tonight."

"I'm sorry, Dolly, but I still don't have enough on me to buy you out
of there."

She cried a bit but there really wasn't a thing I could do to help her
right now. I wanted to help her real bad because I knew how much it meant
for her to be a lonefre like myself. Bodies aren't exactly cheap though,
and I doubt if I'd ever be able to help the poor girl out on the little
money I manage to scrape up to keep me going from day to day.

"Tomorrow? Will you free me tomorrow, Sedge?"

"Perhaps, Dolly. Yes, perhaps tomorrow."

I wanted her to keep positive about things and always keep hope alive but
the reality of the situation is that I simply won't ever be able to afford
to free poor old Dolly.

"I hope it's tomorrow. I really do, Sedge. Please help me, Sedge. I'll do
anything to be free again. To see the sky with real eyes, to smell the
flowers, to dance and sing and live and love. I'd do anything to be free,
Sedge. Please help me, won't you?"

"I'll do my best, Dolly. You know it won't be easy to come up with the
money, but I'll do my best, my friend. For now, I can only promise to
come here every night and do my best to protect you from the Grims and
yonlemen."

"You look different tonight, Sedge. Did you do something with your hair?"

"It's the hormones," I replied. "I've been taking female hormones again
recently. The govdocs are giving them away for free again because crime
went up again in the male population, and you know how it pays to be a
woman these days, so I'm decided to give it a try. Maybe once I'm a woman,
I'll be able to keep a steady job. Who knows."

"I like you the way you are, Sedge."

"Thank you, Dolly, but this is something I feel I need to do."

"Will you have babies, Sedge?"

"No, Dolly. The govdocs won't pay for artiwomb implants, so I'm afraid
I won't be able to have any children."

"That's really sad, Sedge. I want you to be able to have children."

"Me too, Dolly. Me too."

Just then someone hit me in the back with a small rock. I turned around
and there was Lee. He was a mean old Grim who usually brought his whole
gang with him, but tonight he came alone and surprisingly he wasn't
carrying his baseball bat with him.

"I told you before - those boxes belong to the Zells," he said clenching
his fists as he approached me.

"I won't let you take them," I said standing my ground.

It was nearly midnight now. If he took the boxes at midnight, it was
bad news for the blingoed.

"How many times do I got to teach you a lesson, Sedge? Now if you don't
vammyscray out of here right now, I'm gonna beat the kunk out of you
with my bare hands."

"Run, Sedge!" Dolly cried. "I can't bear to watch you get hurt again.
Run!"

"Not tonight, Dolly," I said. "Not tonight or any night - ever. I'm not
going to let a stupid Grim tell me what to do."

Lee ran at me and I expected him to punch me but instead he ran right
past me and up to Dolly's box and yanked it from the base of her statue
and all the wires came dangling out.

"Sedge? I don't want it to end like this . . . Sedge? Can you hear me?"

I grabbed Lee's arm and tried to pull him away but he slugged me one
in the side and I fell down on Dolly's grave.

"Sedge? Good-bye Sedge . . . Good-bye . . ."

Lee finally ripped the wires all apart and tossed the box aside and looked
at his watch.

"Just midnight," he said with a satisfied grin. "Perfect. How's your little
friend now, huh? Gone and gone forever, that's how. Gone at the stroke of
the haunting hour. Perfect. Now get the kunk off my turf."

Grims loved to cheat those that in some little way cheated death, and
to cheat them at midnight was especially their favorite time to do their
cheating.

He wouldn't harm the other memory boxes tonight. No, he'd be back tomorrow
night to try and pull the plug on one of my other friends and I'd be right
here to try and stop him.

I got up off the ground and dusted myself off with my hands, then I turned
and walked down the little cobblestone path.

I really will miss poor old Dolly I think the most. She was like the
closest thing I ever had to a girlfriend.

I wandered off the graveyard and down a lonely street that took me
down to the docks where I lived with some other lonefre kadigors.

It wasn't really living in the true sense of the word, but at least it
couldn't get much worse. It was just a bunch of tents and cardboard boxes
in a back alley between two warehouses. The lonefres I hung out with there
were all men like myself but in various stages of feminization from the
free hormones the govdocs have been passing out. We referred to each other
as girls would refer to other girls for that's what we each would become
when the hormones were through with us.

Charlie was the most feminine one of us all. She had even gotten a steady
job recently at the fish market and was in the process of moving out of
our little alley and into her new boyfriend's house deep in North City
where all the great transgendered clubs are, like Dixy's and Smokin'
Sally's and The Girl Zone (which was the best or so I heard).

Charlie was brown eyed and dark skinned and she had long, straight, black
hair. If I didn't know she was a man I'd swear she was all woman. She
was twenty-three, but looked like an eighteen year old girl.

Nan was a grave saver like myself until last week when the grims broke
both her arms and she decided to retire. She was probably forty-something,
but with all the knife scars on her face, and the worry lines on her
forehead, and her gray old frazzled hair, she looked more like she was
in her sixties. The hormones gave her breasts and softer skin, but that
was about it. She still sadly looked like an old man for the most part.

Ogo was a young eighteener like myself. She exercises quite a bit and
her big, muscular body has been quite handy in keeping the grims from
bothering us in our little alley. She has blue eyes and dirty-blond hair,
like myself, and had only recently started on female hormones. She's going
to turn out to be one mean looking amazon lady, that's for sure.

I climbed in Nan's tent and saw her sitting there with her two broken
arms in frecasts and she and Ogo were staring at Charlie who was sitting
on the floor with her red dress pulled up and both legs spread wide so
everyone could see her new simvag.

"Hey Sedge, looks real, don't it?" Ogo asked me.

"It feels real too," Nan added. "Go on. Touch it. Charlie let us see how
good a job the docs did on her."

Ogo pushed me a few steps forward and I got down on my knee and
Charlie took my right hand and brought it up and between her legs.

"No stitches or nothin," Charlie bragged. "Got it a few hours ago. Got an
artiwomb too."

"How did you ever get the money?" I asked as she guided my hand along
the surface of her smooth simvag.

She guided two of my fingers in through the slit and into warm wetness
and said,"Boyfriend's a mugger and bank robber by trade, so he had
plenty of money and just gave it to me but he still doesn't know I
started out as a man, and now he'll never know."

"He just . . . gave you the money?" I asked as she pulled my hand deeper
into her simvag and let go, letting her simvag muscles push my hand back
out again.

"Yeah," Charlie said shrugging. "I guess he really loves me. I lied and
told him I needed the money for my sick and dying mother. Isn't that
naughty of me?"

She laughed.

"How come there's no stitches?" I asked.

"Seamless lasers," she said. "Seamless lasers cut out all the boy-stuff
and they put in the artiwomb and simvag and made sure to connect my
pee-hole and then they just sealed it all up. Took less than ten minutes
too."

"Charlie let us screw her," Nan bragged.

Charlie looked up at me and shrugged and said,"Had to test it out to
see if it works."

She laughed.

"Charlie, why don't you let Sedge help you test it out some more?" Ogo
suggested.

"No thanks," I said. "I'm not in the mood. I lost Dolly tonight to
the grims."

"That's awful, Sedge," Ogo said patting me on the back. "You'll get over
it though. She was already blingoed anyway. You did your best, I'm sure."

"Hey, Charlie," Nan said. "Tell Sedge what you're going to do for us.
That'll cheer her up."

"Artiwombs and simvags," Charlie said. "Artiwombs and simvags for all of
you. You won't need any more female hormone pills that way. You'll have
all the natural female hormones built right in, and I hear it speeds up
the feminization of the rest of your body pretty fast too. Also girlvocs
for each of you so you'll sound like real girls without having to worry
about retraining your voices."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "First thing in the morning if you'd like."

___-----___

I woke up later that morning and Charlie led us all to the govdocs
office just up the street from us.

They could only work on one of us at a time and we decided to let Nan
go first. When she came back to the waiting room, she was just stunned
at how fast and easy it was, and her voice was all high pitched like
a teenage girl's. The docs also did something to her face to get rid
of her scars and make her nose smaller and her chin more like a girl.

"It was easy," Nan said sitting down on the chair beside me. "In fact
it was kind of fun. Go on, Sedge. Your turn. You go next."

"Next lady please," a nurse said from the doorway.

I stood up and followed the nurse down the hall and into the operating
room.

"Undress," she said and I undressed as she got all the surgical equipment
ready for me.

"Are you comfortable with that height?" the nurse asked as she strapped
me down to a table. "We can make you shorter you know. Your friend said
you could have anything done that you want. She's paying."

"A foot shorter would be nice," I said. That would make me five feet
tall.

"Okay, I'll begin on that now then," she said taking a laser of some
sort and quickly swiping it across my shins, cutting my legs all the
way through.

She cut again a few inches lower and quickly removed the unwanted bit
of material and reattached my legs with another type of laser that
amazingly reattached and healed muscle fiber, veins, arteries and
nerves as it sealed up the cut seamlessly.

She repeated this process with my thighs, then my upper and lower arms.

She also worked on my hands, making my fingers slightly smaller as
well as the rest of the bones in my hands. Then she repeated the process
on my feet.

All this took less than two minutes to complete.

"There you go," she said. "Five feet tall now."

Then the govdoc came in and quickly cut me open in between my legs
and removed what needed removing and placed in an artiwomb and simvag
and sealed it all up real quick.

"Nose and chin?" the govdoc asked.

"Yes please," I said.

"Want to see the options?" the nurse asked.

"No," I said. "Anything that looks pretty is fine."

"Okay," the govdoc said and began work on my face.

A few minutes later they were done changing my nose and rounding my
chin and were working on my girlvoc.

"Do you know `Mary had a little lamb'?" the nurse asked me and I
nodded. "Then go ahead and sing it for us."

"M-Marrrrrrry," I started, unsure of my voice which sounded really weird
now. "M-Mary haaaaaad a-"

"Adjust it up a bit more, would you nurse?"

"Yes doctor."

"....little lamb.... little la-"

"More please, that's it."

"....little lamb..... Mary had a-"

"Hold it right there. I think we've got it."

"....little lamb her fleece was white-"

"Perfect. All done. Send in the next one, nurse. I'll be in my office."

"....as snow."

"Good. Good girl," the nurse said patting me on the shoulder as the
doctor left the room. She then unstrapped me. "Now sit up, my dear. Good.
Now wasn't this easy? Now go over there and look in the mirror and get
yourself dressed. If your clothes won't fit, we can provide you with
a robe if you'd like."

I got up off the table and walked over to the mirror. There looking
back at me was someone not quite a man, but not entirely a woman either,
but I had a simvag and I girlvoc and I was shorter now, so I was well
on my way to becoming a real woman.

Certainly I was a woman where it counted now, but I still had a kind of
mannish body, which was oddly disturbing considering the changes that
had taken place a few moments ago.

"I think I need a robe," I said and the nurse handed me a white bathrobe.

"Now why don't you go back to the waiting room, now, okay?"

"Okay."

I walked down the hall, feeling weird being shorter now and with a simvag
between my legs.

"Look what they did to Sedge!" Nan exclaimed as I entered the waiting room.

"Sedge, you look pretty," Ogo said as I sat down beside her.

"Yes, Sedge," Charlie agreed. "You really got the works, didn't you? Well
I'm happy for you. Now you'll be able to get out of that alley. We'll get
you a boyfriend tonight at one of the clubs and you'll see. He'll take
care of you. You'll see. That's how it works now. You'll see. We'll go
dancing at The Girl Zone tonight. I'll see about setting you and Ogo and
Nan up with some blind dates. My boyfriend's got lots of buddies that need
girlfriends. I'll fix you up with them."

___-----___

That morning we all went out to get some clothes. It was the most fun I
think I'd ever had in my life.

I tried on dress after dress after dress and Charlie saw I couldn't make
up my mind, so she bought them all for me. Ten dresses in all, and lots
of panties, slips, stockings, shoes, make-up and other girl things.

"Why are you doing this for us, Charlie?" I asked.

"Because, you're my friends," she replied. "I can't go live the high life
with my boyfriend and leave my friends back in the gutter. It wouldn't be
right, so I'm helping all of you out of the gutter and into better lives."

"Thank you Charlie," Ogo said.

"Yeah, thanks Charlie," I added.

"You're a real friend Charlie," Nan said.

"It's nothing, really," Charlie said. "Now why don't you all try out some
wigs. Okay?"

I picked out a blonde wig. It was shoulder length wavy hair and it looked
pretty good on me so Charlie bought it for me.

Nan got a curly red wig and Ogo a long haired black one that hung down to
the middle of her back.

We went out into the mall all dressed up in some of our new clothes
and carried around huge bags full of the rest.

Ogo, Nan and myself sat down in a little coffee shop while Charlie made
a few phonecalls to arrange for our dates tonight.

"I can't wait to go dancing," Ogo said. "I mean, to go dancing as a real
live girl. I hope I get lucky tonight."

"I hope I don't break my neck," Nan said nodding to indicate the casts
on her arms. "These things are awkward enough, but with high heels, I'm
going to tip right over, I'm sure of it."

Charlie came back and sat down beside me. "I've got dates for everyone.
We'll all meet there at eight, okay?"

"Ogo and I are leaving at six, to get there early," Nan said.

"I'm not going that early," I said.

"Then you can go at seven, with me," said Charlie. "We'll walk. It's a
nice little walk."

___-----___

Five o'clock came and all of us were in Ogo's tent getting ready for
the big night out.

Charlie was helping me with my make-up and Nan helped Ogo with hers.

"I can't believe we're all really girls now," I said.

"Neither can I," Ogo said. "Isn't it great? I never thought it would feel
so nice."

"Yes," Nan said. "Thanks again Charlie. This was really nice of you."

"Don't mention it, Nan."

___-----___

Six o'clock came and Ogo and Nan headed on foot towards The Girl Zone
nightclub, leaving me alone with Charlie.

"You going back to the graveyard tonight?" Charlie asked.

"It's my duty as a lonefre kadigor. Besides, maybe this time the grims
will listen to me because I'm so pretty now."

"You be careful, Sedge. You know the grims can rape you now that you're
a girl. Just be careful whatever you do."

___-----___

Seven o'clock came and Charlie in her red dress, and me in mine, walked
out of the little alley and up the street.

We passed by the Blue River graveyard and I shuddered at the memory of
losing Dolly last night.

We walked up past the factories and into Old Town where some guys whistled
at us from their cars as they drove by.

"This is going to be fun, Sedge," Charlie said. "You'll have a blast tonight,
I just know it."

"I know. I can't wait to see who my date is."

"You'll like him, I'm sure. My boyfriend's buddies are all really nice guys,
aside from the dirty work they do to make a living."

It was dark now as we entered North City and passed by Dixy's club.

The thump-thumping of the music could be felt under our feet as we walked
by on the sidewalk.

We rounded a corner and passed by Smokin' Sally's club and turned left,
crossing the street now and walking down a small alleyway past rows and
rows of garbadge cans and old rusty junk.

"Ow!" I said tripping over something and falling to my hands and knees,
skinning my hands up a bit and bruising my knees and tearing my stockings.

My wig fell in a puddle of oil and my dress was now spotted with dirt
and grease.

"Are you okay Sedge?"

"Darn it," I said as Charlie helped me up to my feet. "I can't go in there
like this now, and my wig is totally ruined."

"Too bad you can't use that iron to get those wrinkles out of your dress
now," Charlie said and I looked at what I tripped over.

It was a rusty old iron.

"Yeah. Ironic isn't it?"

We headed out of the alley and turned right, walking under a small
building that hung over between two buildings like a bridge.

We continued down the sidewalk and Charlie and I both paused as the
whole street up ahead was darkened and littered with broken glass from
all the street lights and storefront windows that had been smashed.

There were a few burglar alarms ringing but apparently no police had
arrived yet.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"I don't know. This is awful."

We cautiously walked into the darkened street which was lit now only
by a sliver of moon that hung in the sky above.

I could just make out the shadowy forms of two bodies lying silently
in the street, and as we approached I could just make out the faces
on those bodies to be none other than Ogo and Nan.

At this point I really didn't know what to think about what happened
to them or what I was going to do. I think I was mostly filled with
fear and terror and my heart beat faster and faster as I turned and
looked around to see if anyone was near.

Then a pink neon sign flickered on and off and on like it couldn't
decide if it was really broken or not and what letters there were
read "he IR Zo e."

I walked up to the door and heard music coming from within, only it
sounded like music coming from a crackly old radio rather than from
any fancy nightclub sound system.

I peeked in the door and saw five guys sitting at a table playing
cards and listening to some grim-like music on the radio.

Most of the lights in the room were busted up and nearly all the
other tables and chairs were toppled over and body after body after
body lay there on the floor, either unconscious or dead and who knows
for how long either.

The five guys were smoking cigarettes and drinking hard liquer and
they all turned to face me as I stood there in the doorway.

One of them stood up and he walked a few paces towards me and I saw
him under the crackle and glow of one of the pink ceiling lights
that still worked. His face was shrouded with pink light and I couldn't
believe who it was.

"How many times do I got to teach you a lesson, Sedge? Now if you don't
vammyscray out of here right now, I'm gonna beat the kunk out of you
with my bare hands."

It was Lee!

I was completely speechless and terrified with shock now.

"Have you gone fag on us, Sedge? And here I thought you were pretty
tough, standing up to me and my gang night after night. Well, looks
like I get to beat the kunk out of you after all."

He ran for me with fists flying and before I knew it he punched me a
dozen times or more and knocked me clean out of my high heels and onto
the sidewalk.

"If there's one thing I don't like, it's faggies like you, Sedge," he
said kicking me in the side again and again. "Get up and fight like a
man if you've still got any balls."

He stood back for a moment and let me get up to my feet, but then he
socked me real hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me for
a moment.

"Won't it be nice," Lee said kicking me in the shin and punching
me in the side. "To have the whole graveyard all to myself from
now on."

I'd taken beatings from him before, but none like this, and none with
such hate. All because I wanted to be a girl, he put extra effort into
his punches and kicks. This was the worst beating I'd ever gotten in
my life and I was too struck with fear, pain, and terror to do anything
about it.

I stumbled back and fell over Ogo's body in the street.

"Get up and fight," Lee said kicking me in the leg. "Get up and fight."

I got up and he paused, waiting for me to swing a punch at him.

"Come on, faggie, punch me. Go on. Here's your chance. Punch me good," he
said.

Instead I was filled with adrenaline suddenly and it gave me the needed
energy to attempt and run away.

I ran, ripping up my stockings and cutting up my feet on broken glass
as I headed for the ally.

"You won't get off that easily," he said walking casually towards me
while slowly clasping his right fist into his left hand over and over
again.

I stumbled in the alley, tripping again over that same damned iron
and landing in a puddle of oil.

I saw Charlie on the other side of the alley looking back at me with
a puzzled look on her face as Lee came walking into the alley kicking
over garbage cans to his left and right as he approached me.

"Get up, Sedge," he said. "Get up or I'll finish you where you are."

I got up and he started punching me again and again in the ribs and I
heard some of them snap.

He socked me once more real hard in the side of my jaw, breaking it and
sending me spinning about and falling down to my hands and knees.

There before me lay the rusty old iron and without thinking I knew just
what to do.

"Get up faggie," he said kicking me in the butt as I had my back to him.

I picked up the iron and from this angle he couldn't see what I had now
in my hands.

I trembled with fear, closed my eyes, got up and swung my arms about
blindly at the spot where I thought his head should have been.

Klunk! Thud!

I opened my eyes and looked and there he was sprawled out over a pile
of garbage with blood oozing out from the side of his head.

I almost dropped the iron I was so shook up, but I didn't. Instead I
thought about what Lee had done to me and my friends and all the poor
other girls back at the club and I thought about all the hate he had
displayed towards me just because I wanted to be a girl . . .

. . . and I hit him, and I hit him, and I hit him again and again and
again with that rusty old iron until it was soaked with blood and then
I dropped the iron right there beside him in a puddle of oil and heard
the splash echo in the otherwise quiet alleyway.

"You killed him," a woman said. "You killed my boyfriend."

I turned and saw who it was speaking to me now.

It was Charlie.

"You killed him," she said and screamed for the police.

I didn't try to run or hide. I just stayed there and stared at Charlie
and trembled in shock at what had happened this evening. I couldn't
believe that Charlie's boyfriend who unwittingly paid for my sex change
was in fact Lee.

Lee didn't know Charlie was a man before, and that's what really got me
because he knew I had been a man before and look how he treated me.

. . . And now the police arrive at long last, but too late for Ogo and Nan
and too late now for Lee.

They took me away and I was accused of outright murder. Though my lawyer
did his best to get me a lesser sentence, the jury convicted me of first
degree murder and I was given lethal injection ten years later.

Dashed off into oblivion.

___-----___

"Hi."

Crackle-crack-crackle.

"Hello there."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Hello."

Crackle.

"Hold on a sec. Warming up."

Crackle-Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

"Come closer. Yes, that's it, my friend. I am truly glad you have taken the
time to visit me today . . ."

THE END

Rodger watched another leg mold get dipped into the vat of wax.

Working at the wax museum was an interesting job but somehow Rodger
expected more out of life than living in loneliness and working at
a dead end job like the one he had.

The leg mold came up out of the vat and Rodger swung the manipulator
arm around and grabbed the mold with the metal claw.

He let the wax dry while he walked over to attend to a finished leg.

He opened the other mold, revealing the sexy resemblance of a womans
leg.

The room vibrated and shook.

A loud noise coming from the roof told Rodger that the vibrations
were from a helicopter landing.

"What the heck is a chopper doing up there?" he asked setting the
leg down and heading for the stairs.

A little man in a white suit was sitting in the upstairs office

with a glass of champagne.

"What the hell are you doing in my office?" Rodger asked furiously.

"Hubert Crouwly," the old man said offering a handshake. "I'm here
to offer you a little trip to my island."

"What? What are you talking about?" Rodger asked taking a glass
and accepting some champagne from the stranger.

"You are Rodger Thornton, right? The statue and wax artist so well
known for your female replicas?" Mr. Crouwly asked.

"Yes, why?" Rodger asked.

"I'm here to offer you a trip to the ultimate little island retreat.
There's something I really have to show you. It's right in your line
of business. You'll love it," Mr. Crouwly boasted.

"Why should I go?" Rodger asked.

"Because, my friend, I need you. I'll buy this little museum and
give it to you as a gift if you'll come with me to see my island,"
Mr. Crouwly said and sipped some champagne.

Rodger was speechless for a moment and then said,"W-why sure! I guess
I'm going then."

"Fantastic!" Mr. Crouwly said standing up,"Then let's get going."

"Now?" Rodger asked.

"Yes, Rodger," the old man said walking up the stairs to the waiting
helicopter. "Now. There's no time like the present."

___-----___

The ride there was uneventful and when they landed a jeep was waiting
for them.

They rode through the woods along a little dirt road.

"Nice little place you have here," Rodger commented.

"Yes indeed," Mr. Crouwly agreed as they approached a huge gate and
fence.

"Why the big wall?" Rodger asked as some guardsmen opened the gate.

"Ah, don't want to spoil the surprise, my friend," the old man said
and drove on through the gate. "Don't want to at all."

They drove up to a little hilltop and parked.

Across the wide meadows were hundreds, perhaps even thousands of
beautiful young women in various forms of dress and undress.

"Wowie!" Rodger exclaimed. "Where did all these girls come from?"

"Like them?" Mr. Crouwly asked.

"Like 'em? I LOVE 'em!" Rodger said with wide eyes.

"I made them myself," Mr. Crouwly bragged with crossed arms and a
grin. "Got a whole lab and everything. Isn't it great? A woman custom
designed to suit your every need and fantasy. Welcome to Girlastic
Park."

Rodger whistled and a few girls giggled and waved back.

"This is awesome!" Rodger said. "You've got to show me this lab of
yours."

The old man smiled and drove on,"Rodger, my friend, I thought you'd
never ask."

___-----___

They arrived at the main complex and parked the jeep at the foot
of the stone steps.

"Right this way," the old man urged and they walked up and through
the open doorway.

Inside were many statues of nude women striking various poses.

"Wow," Rodger said looking around.

"The entire place is dedicated to the beauty of the female body,"
Mr. Crouwly explained. "It took hundreds of men to build such a place
but I think it's worth it. We're really going to do some great business
here, my friend."

"Business?" Rodger asked.

"Yes, both tourism and custom designed wives for sale," the old man
said with a wink. "We'll make a fortune. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Isn't that like slavery?" Rodger asked.

"Oh no, not slavery," Mr. Crouwly corrected. "I don't approve of
that. What we have here is just a fee for a service. I create the
women, and men will pay me for this service and get to take home
a custom designed girl. Wonderful, wonderful technology exists on
this island, Rodger. You will see. It makes your wax girls look primitive
compared to what I can do here. Come, you must see the rest."

A hunchbacked man walked into the room to greet them.

"Ah, just in time," Mr. Crouwly said. "Rodger, meet my assistant
and good friend, Igor."

"Hello," Rodger said shaking hands with the big man.

"Good to meet ya Rodger," Igore said.

"Igor here will escort you on the remainder of the tour," Mr. Crouwly
said. "Take care of him, will you Igor?"

"Yes master," Igor said and turned to open a door. "This way please,
Rodger."

They walked inside a room filled with theater seats.

A glass panel stood out on the far wall as a viewport to what lay
behind.

"Be seated," Igor said and sat.

Roger sat down and the room moved slowly to the left.

A narrator spoke out as they proceeded past various observation points.

"Welcome to Girlastic Park," the female voice said. "The place where
girls come true."

"Neat," Rodger said as the ride proceeded.

A slide show came on and displayed the making of the park.

Then they saw a room where some machines were hard at work.

"This is the girl factory," the narrator said. "Please notice how
every girl is designed with the utmost care during her creation.
The machine you see before you is a biological conversion unit. We
can take virtually anything living and make it into a custom designed
woman. Gorillas have been successfully converted in such manner during
testing. For our purposes, the gorilla is the perfect animal for conversion.
After conversion, we modify the brain patterns slightly to correct for
remnants of animal behavior. Indeed, our girls are perfect. See for
yourself."

"You turn gorillas into women?" Rodger asked. "Isn't that a bit
sick and demented?"

Igor shrugged,"I just work here. I don't pretend to understand what
goes on. All I know is this stuff brings me a nice paycheck each month.
I could care less how demented it is as long as I get my money."

The ride ended shortly after that.

"Wow," Rodger said in the lobby. "It sure was an interesting ride."

"Thanks," Igor said and handed Rodger a key. "Here's your room key.
It's located upstairs. Please get settled and meet down here for breakfast
in the morning."

___-----___

That morning, after a large breakfast, Rodger and Mr. Crouwly went
inside one of the larger labs.

Conveyer belts rolled along around the room noisily.

"This is the beauty parlor," Mr. Crouwly said gesturing to a few
young blondes who were lying on their backs, nude, while the conveyer
belts took them through several machines. "We make the girls in the
next room, then the conveyers take them here where the ladies get
full make overs. We also use this room for a general purpose beauty
parlor and plan on using it a lot for some of the guests in the future."

Rodger stood beside an oval shaped machine.

"This one is the leg waxer," Mr. Crouwly explained. "Takes all the
hair off the rest of the body as well. This other machine does the
hair styles and this one over here does facials."

"Neat stuff," Rodger said loudly over the humm of the machinery.

They walked through an archway and into another room.

There were several metallic suits hanging from racks on the walls.

"These are the exoskeletons we use to train our new women on posture
and etiquette," Mr. Crouwly said patting the steel cylinders on one
suit. "Our ladies must walk and move like ladies. These suits provide
thorough training."

"What are these plugs for?" Rodger asked looking at some wires protruding
from a helmet.

Mr. Crouwly looked and said,"Ah, you have found the behavioral interface
ports that we use to record the posture data directly into the subjects
mind. Enough wear of one of these suits and walking like a woman becomes
second nature. Would you care to try one out, Rodger?"

"No thanks," Rodger said looking away from the suits nervously. "I'm
fine the way I am. Thank you."

"So you think," Mr. Crouwly said with a grin. "So you think. Well,
then, let us continue on with this tour. Follow me, then, into our
other mental conditioning rooms. Once our ladies walk and move like
ladies, we bring them here."

The room had several machines with helmets attached.

"What do these machines do?" Rodger asked examining a helmet.

"Selective memory enhancement," Crouwly said. "We can make our new
women have entirely new memories. Give them full lives. Make them
remember growing up from childhood and round out their knowledge base
so they become true women and not mere constructs."

They walked in through some doors and Crouwly quickly escorted Rodger
through a room full of little girls and into another room.

"What was back there?" Rodger asked curiously.

"Nothing, never mind," Crouwly said blushing.

"You had little girls in there," Rodger stated. "Whats really going
on here? I though this was a facility for making wives for men. What
is this?"

"We make girls of all ages," Crouwly explained. "Please forget what
you saw back there. You will be more interested in this room."

They stood in a room full of womens clothing.

"And why should I especially be interested in dresses?" Rodger asked.

Mr. Crouwly looked around absent-mindedly and said,"You know what?
I took you to the wrong room after all. My mistake. We need to go
to the theater for a quick movie before the tour continues. What do
you say? Does a movie and some popcorn sound nice? Let's go then."

Rodger followed his host down some corridors and felt unsure about
the entire operation. There was something wrong going on about this
island, Rodger was sure of it. He had to find out what it was and
to do that he needed to get away from the tour and do some exploring
on his own.

___-----___

The next morning, Igor escorted Rodger out to a waiting jeep.

"Come on, my boy, or we'll miss the festivities," Mr. Crouwly said from
behind the wheel.

"Festivities?" Rodger asked getting in the back seat.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Mr. Crouwly said. "We share this isle with
some natives whom simply refused to move out. They have quite an interesting
culture, and I must say, quite a fatal bit of disease going about. Pray you
keep away from those infected, Mr. Thornton, or you may never leave this
isle alive."

"I am sorry master," Igor said weeping.

"Nevermind that now, Igor, we have a guest," Crouwly said.

"What disease?" Rodger asked.

"Igor can answer that for you," Crouwly said gesturing to his assistant
in the passenger seat.

"It is far worse than ebola," Igor explained. "Nobody survives who gets it.
Yet there is a legend tied in to all this that-"

"Nevermind," Mr. Crouwly interrupted. "Nevermind all that. The legend is
mere superstition. The important part is the natives expect to meet all
visitors to this island. It is part of our little arrangement. I'm sure
you'll understand when you see the festival this morning. There are
simply some things you must be prepared to see. Simple formalities, nothing
more."

"What is the name of this fatal disease?" Rodger asked looking at the
jungle as they rode through a windy dirt path.

"Have you ever studied Egyptian culture?" Mr. Crouwly said, changing the
subject. "It is quite interesting how they prepared their leaders for the
afterlife."

Igor smiled and pointed off to a stretch of graveyard nestled within the
misty trees.

"You aren't saying there's any of that mummification going on in this
place?" Rodger asked.

"They believe it frees the tormented soul," Mr. Crouwly explained. "Those
who are afflicted with this disease have but one recourse to save their
souls."

"Mummification?" Rodger guessed.

"Exactly Rodger," Crouwly agreed and pulled the jeep down a side road
into the graveyard.

"Where are you going now?" Rodger asked.

"To show you, lest you be unprepared if you catch the disease," Crouwly
said grinning and driving up the foggy road.

Rodger looked at his host with certain unease,"But we'll miss the
festival."

Crouwly turned around and smiled back,"You don't understand . . ."

"This IS the festival," Igor completed with a wicked smile.

"True, Igor," Crouwly said. "But more than that, this is to educate
our guest so that he doesn't fall prey to betrayal so easily."

"Betrayal?" Rodger asked.

"We'll talk of that later, when we meet the little mayor," Crouwly said
looking at Igor with anger. "For now, let's go see what is in store for
those who catch this illness."

The jeep stopped beside a wide meadow and they all got out.

The fog was just burning off and bits of mist still hung in low spots
along the grass.

Several gray figures sat in the middle of the meadow.

"Who are those people?" Rodger asked looking at how the strangers
meditated so quietly.

When they got up to the spot where the seven figures sat, Rodger realized
these were no meditators.

"Why that's an odd way to mummify a person."

"Exactly, Rodger." Mr. Crouwly agreed.

"Why would someone mummify a person into a sitting position?"

"Rodger, nobody did this to these poor souls," Crouwly clarified. "The
afflicted come out to places like this and mummify themselves."

"But that's impossible! Don't they remove some of the internal organs
first? What about the embalming?" Rodger asked in shock looking at the
gray bodies sitting there wrapped tightly in their bandages.

"The disease takes care of all that," Igor said.

"You see, that is the effect of the horrible disease. The body embalms
itself through a painfully slow process. The bandages are a mere
afterthought.
Mere superstition," Crouwly explained. "These people should be given a
proper
burial if I had any say in the matter but the natives simply insist on their
customs."

Off in a far corner of the meadow, some natives were escorting a few sickly
looking people to sit beside some other mummified bodies.

"We can only watch from afar," Crouwly said looking on. "The disease is
highly contagious but you will see that the natives do indeed complete the
process themselves by wrapping their dying bodies with rot moss."

Slow screams echoed across the meadow as the victims suffocated at their own
hands.

"You see, the Zugla priests simply see to it that the process is complete.
Then they bring the arms to rest away from the face. Otherwise you would see
these poor souls sitting here mummified with their hands frozen in a clawing
position at their faces for air," Crouwly said tapping his watch. "Well,
must
be getting along. Have to go meet the little mayor of this community. Quite
an interesting fellow."

"He's a vampire," Igor warned.

"Oh, nothing of the sort," Crouwly said with a fake slap towards his
assistants face. "Igor speaks of the legend. There is really nothing to
fear of these people save their disease. Well, that and their cooking.
They brew up the most horrid stews I've ever tasted in my life. Too much
seaweed or something. Just hideous."

"What legend?" Rodger asked walking back to the jeep with them.

A bird cried out from the jungle.

"It is the most ridiculous legend that I have ever heard," Crouwly said
entering the jeep. "We'll talk no more of it on this part of the island.
Come, we must greet the little mayor."

"You still haven't answered my first question," Rodger said.

"Which was?" Crouwly asked starting the engine.

"What is the name of this disease?"

"Kepakra," Crouwly answered. "The unliving nightmare. Pray you never catch
it, my friend."

They rode along down through the jungle through the cool morning air.

___-----___

Grass huts surrounded them as they drove through the village.

Enormous stone footpaths led upward into the hills to even more dwellings.

The people on the streets were clothed in red and white rags, looking
less like the Polynesian natives Rodger expected, than a people out of
some Egyptian land long ago.

"Keep away from the window shutters," Igor warned. "Blood drinkers hide
in there."

"Superstition," Crouwly spat. "Cut it out, Igor, or I shall leave you here
with your legendary friends."

They parked the jeep at the base of a bamboo stairway that led to a huge
grass hut with several stone towers protruding from the corners.

"The little mayor lives here," Crouwly said getting out of the jeep with
the others. "Come on. Follow me up to the lobby. I think you will enjoy
this visit."

___-----___

The room was spacious and decorated with bamboo furniture. Many animal
heads hung from the walls as token memories of hunts throughout the years.

A skinny fellow with matted brown hair sat in a small chair sipping his
tea. A shiny silver medallion hung from his neck and his fingers were
adorned with many gold rings.

"Hello there, my little mayor," Crouwly said with a bow. "I have brought
you my newest guest. This is Mr. Rodger Thornton."

"Pleased," the mayor said with a nod and setting his cup down.

"Mr. Thornton worked in a wax museum, you know," Crouwly said proudly.

"Indeed," the mayor said standing. "Have you shown him our little museum?"

"He has been to the ceremonial yard," Crouwly admitted. "We just came from
there. Your traditions never cease to fascinate me."

"So glad to meet you mayor," Rodger said at last.

"You may call me Runatet," the mayor smiled. "Mr. Crouwly often insists
upon calling me by my title but I am not the founder of this village. Just
a sort of groundskeeper until the return of Sigil. So you and I are sort
of in the same business then, are we?"

Rodger looked up at the dark open attic above and said,"Well, I wouldn't
compare ritual burial to making a wax figure exactly."

Runatet laughed and offered his guests to take a seat,"Do have some tea.
I think we have more in common than you might imagine, Rodger. I am keeper
of the undead while you craft lifelike figures out of unliving material.
Don't you find that an amusing coincidence?"

Rodger looked at Crouwly who sipped at his tea while Igor seemed to just
sit there looking bored.

"What do you mean?" Rodger asked.

"Your friend the waxman is quite ignorant," Runatet said to Crouwly. "Shall
we tell him?"

Igor coughed and stood up to leave.

"No, Igor, please stay," Crouwly said gesturing back to a chair. "You knew
this was going to happen when I brought him."

A few men in black robes entered into the room, carrying with them some
bowls and rags.

"I am sorry master," Igor said getting on his knees. "I didn't mean to
betray you."

The Zugla priests walked over to Igor, paused, then walked to stand beside
Mr. Crouwly.

"It is too late for being sorry, Igor," Mr. Crouwly said standing up and
following the priests out of the room. "From now on, Mr. Thornton shall be
your master."

"What is going on here?" Thornton asked. "Where are you going, Crouwly?"

"Igor will explain," Crouwly answered as the priests took him down a dark
hallway. "I was tricked into a bargain I never fully understood. For once,
Igor is smarter than his master."

Runatet poured some more tea for Rodger and said,"Looks like you're the
new owner of Girlastic Park."

"No paperwork or anything?" Rodger asked.

"It's in his will," Igor explained.

Rodger set his cup down,"His will?"

"He is already dead," Runatet said with a wave of his hand. "He caught a
strain of Kepakra, though you'd never know it to see him walking about as
if nothing were the matter. He'll be stiffer than a board tomorrow, I'm
afraid."

"I injected him with the virus," Igor said wiping a tear from his face.

"You what?!" Rodger said.

"He was an evil man. He made me do things - I went through the machines.
You don't understand," Igor cried. "I had to kill him, but don't worry,
he'll live on forever this way. The Legend allows it. He'll return. You'll
see. I didn't really kill him if he'll return."

"What legend?" Rodger queried.

Runatet smiled and displayed long, sharp fangs.

"Vampires," Igor pointed at the mayor. "Vampires."

"But that's ridiculous. Why, it's broad daylight outside!" Rodger pointed
out.

"Vampires do not always need fear the light of day," Runatet said patting
his medallion. "As long as the Goddess is with them."

"Girl machines, incurable diseases, mummys, and now VAMPIRES?" Rodger said
standing up and tossing his napkin down on the table. "I don't know what
kind of vacation resort you people are running but I for one don't want
to be a part of it. Just send me back to my museum and let's forget this
whole deal."

"You can never return to tell what you have seen here," Runatet said. "For
if you do, I will find you and make you a permanent part of your own
museum. You are going to run Girlastic Park and you are going to like it."

Igor smiled and raised his eyebrows,"Oh, how you will love this place.
Let me show you."

Igor extended his hand out and Rodger slapped it down.

"You people freak me out," Rodger said backing toward the door. "What - did
you expect to bring a curator of a wax museum out in the middle of
happyland and then show me death, mummy's, and vampires and expect me
to kiss your freaking hand in thanks?"

"Yes," Igor said with a wink. "I think he's got it now, mayor."

"Well you're BOTH wrong!" Rodger said running for the door.

"The keys are in the ignition!" Igor yelled as Rodger Thornton ran outside
and down the stairs to the jeep. "Run all you want, master, I won't stop
you!"

Runatet stood up and shook Igors hand,"He took it rather well, don't
you think?"

"Yes, mayor," Igor said rolling his eyes up to look at the darkness among
the rafters. "At least your children won't go thirsty tonight."

"Exactly," Runatet grinned, showing his fangs. "You think of everything,
Igor. I am glad you are not too upset about your former master."

Igor pulled out a silver medallion necklace and smiled with fangs of his
own,"Master will join us, will he not?"

Runatet laughed wickedly and pat Igor on the back.

"He will, he will, my friend."

Wings fluttered in the attic and the wind howled outside.

___-----___

Rodger drove like his life depended on it.

The jeep bumped along the dirt road past the graveyard and Rodger imagined
those mummy's sitting there in the meadow, glaring at him with empty eyes.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Rodger said pounding the dashboard. "Can't this thing
go any faster?"

His foot pressed the gas pedal hard to the floor.

Dangling tree limbs swooped by as the jeep sped forward through the jungle.
Birds scattered upwards into the canopy of vegetation, crying in fear as
the tiny vehicle sped past.

"God I got to get out-a heeeeeere!" Rodger yelled gripping the steering
wheel tightly.

The ground trembled as the jeep bumped over tree roots and rocks.

"Where the hell did the road go?!!" Rodger panicked coming to a halt at
the edge of a stream.

He threw the stick into reverse and backed up at full speed.

"Where's the road?!"

He finally found the turn he'd missed and spun the vehicle around and
headed at full speed towards the lab.

Shadows played across the top of the jeep and trickles of sunlight
peered down through the trees above.

He drove at a wild speed across the meadow, nearly running over several
young women, and he slammed the brakes right in front of the main lab.

"What's the hurry honey?" a blonde woman asked running her hands along his
left arm.

"Lemme go. I gotta get off this stupid island," he said opening the door.

"Oh, take me with you, pleeeeeeease!" she begged clutching onto his waist.

"Lemme go! Come on, this ain't no game, monkey lady! I gotta get outa here!
Where's the helicopter?" he asked.

She pointed to the roof,"That thing?"

"Great, now where's the stairs to the roof?" he asked pushing her away.

"In there," she said following him in through the lobby. "Wait for me,
darling! I'm coming too!"

He started up the stairs and noticed the woman was following after him.

"Come on. Leave me alone," he said.

"No! You're mine," she insisted lunging forward.

"Damn it! I don't have time for this."

"I neeeeeeed you," she pleaded, lunging forward and clawing at the banister.

Rodger hurried up the stairs and found himself on the second floor lobby.
The other staircase was a hundred yards across from where he stood.

"Stupid monkey bitch," he said running past lounge chairs and potted plants.

"Come back my prince!" the woman cried following after with a happy smile
of anticipation on her face.

He hurried over to the other side of the room and made it to the base of
the staircase.

A bellboy stepped out of the shadows and said,"What's the hurry master? The
helicopter is out of service."

"Igor!" Rodger yelled. "How the hell did you-?"

Igor tossed off the bellboy cap and threw a tangle of wires on the floor.

"When you gotta fly, you gotta fly, but not for you master," Igor said
drawing closer, revealing his fangs.

"My God, man! See a dentist!" Rodger said throwing a potted sapling into
Igors path.

"Sweeti-nookums?" the woman said stepping out from behind Rodger.

"Oh, great Lord! Now the monkey lady! What next?" Rodger said rolling
his eyes and running away through the lobby.

Rodger ran to the other staircase and headed back down the stairs.
There were some women in the main lobby now. Evidently they were looking
at what all the commotion was about.

"Darling!" they all said in unison.

"Oh, this isn't going to be pretty," Rodger said hopping over the banister
and landing in an ornamental pond.

He got out, soaked, and ran down the hall.

Machinery hummed noisily as Rodger ran past conveyer belts and into another
room.

He saw Igor on the other side of the room, grinning evilly.

"Master can run, but not hide," Igor said hissing.

Metal suits hung on the walls and Rodger unhooked one and lunged forward
with it into Igor.

"I'll bite you with less pain if you don't struggle, master," Igor suggested
from under the pile of metal.

A vase smashed over Igor's head just then, knocking him out.

"I won't let icky old Igor hurt you, my darling," the woman said hugging
Rodger from behind.

"Get off me," Rodger urged pushing her aside and lifting the exoskeleton
to one side. "No, wait. Help me get him in this thing. We have to restrain
him or something for when he comes to."

___-----___

A splash of water woke up Igor.

"Hi there, my little traitorous geek," Rodger said throwing another glass
of water at Igor. "Awake yet? Oh, I'm sorry. You're undead. You're always
awake, right?"

He splashed another glass of water on Igor.

"Give me more water," Rodger said to the woman. "And keep it coming."

"What are you doing?" Igor said struggling in the exoskeleton. "Let me go
master."

Splash!

"Ain't revenge a happy thing?" Rodger said handing the woman an empty cup
and taking another one full of water. "I'm going to drown you in cupfuls
of water for awhile. Just until I'm satisfied. Then I'll leave you to some
posture exercises."

"Huh?" Igor said struggling in the metal frame. "No, not that! No, master,
not that!"

Splash!

"Okay, I'm happy," Rodger said flipping a switch on the side of the
exoskeleton. "Now you'll be happy."

The machine came to life and Igor brought the back of his hand up to
his forehead.

A recorded womans voice came out of a little speaker,"Posture, sweetheart,
posture and etiquette please."

Igor started swaying about in the bulky suit.

"Ahhhh! Nooooo!" Igor pleaded.

"Well," Rodger said looking at the power cables running to the suit. "What
do you think? With unlimited power supply and one undead creature bound to
live forever. Which will happen? Will the machine wear out or the monster?"

"You! I'll get even with you, master," Igor said putting his hand on his
hip and walking back and forth in the little room.

"Posture, sweetheart. Let's have a little more etiquette please," the
recording continued on.

"You are so good," the woman said hugging Rodger.

"I know," he said kissing her. "That's why I'm the master. There's just
one litte thing I'm curious about that I'm dying to try."

"What?" the woman asked.

___-----___

Rodger got on his back, naked, and let the conveyer belt pull him along
towards the machine.

"Are you sure, my dear?" the woman asked crying.

"Positive," Rodger answered. "Now stand back."

A little auditorium slowly rolled by outside the glass window and
a narrators voice said,"This is the girl factory. Please notice how
every girl is designed with the utmost care during her creation...."

The conveyer pulled him into the first machine and Rodger was engulfed
in darkness, perfumed steam, and loud mechanical hums.

He emerged from the other side of the machine moaning. He was all wet
and pink in the flesh.

Some girls were sitting in the auditorium watching and clapping their
hands excitedly.

"....The machine you see before you is a biological conversion unit. We
can take virtually anything living and make it into a custom designed
woman," the narrator went on.

"Oh this feels strange," Rodger said weakly as the conveyer belt pulled
him into another bit of machinery.

He felt invisible hands run all over his flesh, shaping it into something
else.

The conveyer pulled him outside and he heard the narrator again.
". . . After conversion, we modify the brain patterns slightly to correct
for remnants of animal behavior."

The next machine welcomed Rodger inside with a charming womans voice.
He felt his mind seem to scramble all up into confused, frightened,
little knots. Then everything seemed wonderful.

"Congratulations, dear. You are now a woman," the machine told him.

The conveyer escorted him along and he heard the narrator continue,"Indeed,
our girls are perfect. See for yourself."

Rodger stood up off the machine, trembling slightly, and looked around
the room feeling better than he'd ever felt in his life.

"It worked," she said looking down at herself. "It really worked."

She walked out of the room, much to the protest of the workers who kept
insisting she go through the beauty parlor machine.

She stood before a mirror in the hall and examined her naked female body
fully.

She was a brown eyed brunette woman. Just about five feet tall, probably
just an eighteen year old, and as pretty as can be.

"Well, now that I got a new body. I wonder how to escape off this
island," she said walking down the hall to the clothing room.

___-----___

She pulled a dress off the rack and out stood the mayor.

"Runatet?" She asked startled.

The monster revealed its fangs,"Yes, my lovely lady."

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked.

"Immortalize you," he said moving to embrace her.

She cried briefly before fainting as he bit into her neck.

___-----___

She sat in the meadow looking at the jungle with sadness.

"My sweet, you will live forever this way," Runatet reminded her. "Now
please finish bandaging up yourself."

With slower and slower movement in her arms, she wrapped her body up with
the rot moss. Wet, slimy rot moss.

Her eyes gazed out upon the misty meadow as she finished covering her
face, leaving her to scream in muffled darkness.

___-----___

She heard voices throughout the centuries as she sat there in the meadow
living onward through time. She was too weak to scream for help anymore
yet people would always visit and leave her all alone once more.

Then one day someone removed the bandages from her eyes....

"My God! She's alive!" someone said.

More bandages were removed and she smiled a lovely smile, hardly revealing
her fangs at all.

"It's a miracle," someone said. "We've saved one. It's a miracle."

"Welcome to Girlastic Park," she said laughing madly in the wind. "Now,
where's the powder room? I'm just dying to see what this has all done
for my complexion."

---

Ju-Ju Box

by Cleo Kraft

On and Over (1st draft preview)
by Cleo Kraft

PROLOG

Small soft hands opened the door and a cute little blonde girl's head peeked in the room. She bit her lower lip as she looked around for any sign of people around. Her breathing was hurried and panting a bit as she had just ran from the park all the way up Forest Avenue to Dr. Jenning's place.

She stepped in the entryway and put the large skeleton key back around her neck on a string necklace. Careful not to make any unnecessary noise she quietly closed the door behind her and removed her shiny black flats and tiptoed in through the plush white carpeted living room floor and down a long red wallpapered hallway.

To anyone else she was just a cute little girl in a white play dress sneaking mischievously into other people's houses and if anyone cared to ask her name and age she'd tell them she was six years old and that her name was Kimberly Dodds. In reality she was only playing pretends but on a grander scale than most people would be comfortable knowing about.

The fact was this wasn't even her real body. It wasn't even her real age or real sex. Her real name was Henry Gusterson who was thirty-two years old, single and out of work living in a small trailer just down the street in an abandoned lot.

It's unimportant how Henry stumbled upon a way to turn himself into a girl and back again. The only thing that mattered was that he could transform back and forth with just a little bit of sneaking and a whole lot of care and patience.

Henry engaged in somewhat odd behavior connected with his twisted little secretive activities. He kept a little black book and in it were various details. Things of which would raise eyebrows. Things like how many times to the bathroom, how many hours in girl-form, how many strangers saw and recognized and treated him as a girl today. He transformed into a girl at seven in the morning and was planning on changing back at nine at night. That meant fourteen hours as a little girl today. A stat that went in the book along with all the other seemingly useless information.

The panties being worn right now were the fifth pair so far since he'd discovered how to change into a girl. White cotton ones, thin and soft with ruffly trim and pink teddy bears and unicorns all over. They were Dot Harling Ludimot's brand panties which were a little pricier than most others but were probably the most comfortable ones out there for girls and women of all ages.

She crept down the creaky wooden staircase to the basement and made her way past the little fish pond built into the center of the floor and over to the corner where a little brass idol sat cross legged in a tiny indoor garden.

All she had to do was rub the belly of the idol and recite "Oh mighty Buyumbada I plead your cause formal... change this little girl. Change her back normal."

She felt something pull against her ankle and she looked down to see the little trip wire snap as a large wooden box came falling down from the ceiling, trapping her within.

She tried pushing the walls but the box was simply too big and heavy for her tiny arms to manage. There were tiny air holes poked in the sides here and there. She looked in one and saw the idol sitting there just feet away smiling back at her.

There was no escape. All she could do was sit down on the floor and wait to be discovered. Her plan of changing back into a man had been foiled.

When the Doctor came home he'd find her and pretty much figure out what was going on. "He'll catch me," she said to herself as tears formed in the corner of her pretty little eyes. "Maybe I'll have to stay this way for good."

Tonight was Saturday night. Henry had to get back to normal to go meet up with some friends to go bowling. When they discovered he never turned up, what then? Would they think he ditched them or would they realize Henry was in some sort of trouble?

"Kim Dodds," she said to herself. "Boy you've really done it this time. I hope you like being a girl for good because that's just what's going to happen now."

She vowed to herself not to tell Dr. Jennings her true identity but the fact was he'd probably figure it all out on his own. Maybe he already knew. That's why he'd set the trap.

The key! The little skeleton key. If the Doctor found it he'd for sure take it away and then she wouldn't be able to get back in the house at all to get to the magic statue.

If only she could hide it. She stood up and put the key to one of the little poke holes in the wall. If she gave it a good push it would definitely go through to the other side. Maybe it would even fall into the garden nearby and go hidden but it was more likely the thing would fall down and lay there in plain sight.

She didn't even have a purse or anything to hide it in. Then an idea occurred to her but she didn't dare try it - to hide it in her naughty place. Even though it would work it just seemed so wrong.

She wondered what would happen if she was to become stuck a girl. Would she grow up normal and become a woman like other little girls would or would she remain a little girl forever. Was there a time limit to change back to normal? She had never remained in girl-form for longer than sixteen hours so she didn't know.

It seemed like forever before Dr. Jennings came home and found her there. He lifted up the big wooden crate and spotted the teary eyed little girl sitting there on the floor of his basement looking up at him.

He was an older man. Gray hair with white streaks running through at random, combed to one side, shortly cut and greased back. He wore thick black framed eyeglasses and his eyes, blue and abnormally big through the lenses, squinted down at the girl with calm and thoughtful concern. His face was a little chubby around the edges and bore five o'clock shadow heavy around the neck and chin. He had a bushy white moustache and wore a white lab coat, black slacks and brown leather shoes. He was a little short too. Standing just under five feet tall.

Kim/Henry looked up with fear and trepidation but the old man was calm and collected, even gentle appearing in demeanor and when he spoke he spoke with kindness and friendliness.

"What have we here?" he asked mostly to himself. "A girl in a box. Hello little one. How are we doing today? I must humbly apologize for having set my little trap. I mean you no harm. I only wanted to confront the intruder who's been sneaking in and out of my home at random while I've been away. My name is Dr. Jennings. What, may I ask, is yours?"

"Kimberly," she replied. "Kimberly Dodds."

"What a pretty name for a pretty girl," Jennings said walking over and giving the little brass idol a loving pat on the back. "Interesting coincidence to find a little girl down here so near to Buyumbada, the life stealer, keeper of souls and giver of second chances. More importantly he is the maker of little girls. Curious indeed that Buyumbada can also turn little girls into perfectly grown men. Is that what you were before, my little angel, and is that what you hoped to become again by sneaking back into my house tonight?"

Kim shook her head no.

She wasn't sure if Dr. Jennings believed her or not due to his kind demeanor and polite manner of speech. The lie was out there and now she had to live with the consequences whether he believed her or not.

"Ah, a natural born girl. My humblest apologies, little one," he said. "But one can never be too careful to assume things are right when one's house has just been broken into. And how old are you, my dear?"

"Six," Kim replied though she didn't really know herself what age the magic idol had actually left her at.

"Six! My, my, my. I'd have pegged you at four or five at most. And do you live around here, Kimberly?" Jennings asked.

Kim bit her lower lip a little and shook her head no but the way Jennings was looking at her she could tell he knew by the concerned look on her face that she was probably lying.

Dr. Jennings meanwhile walked over to grab a little chain and pulley dangling from the ceiling and wheeled it over along a guide rail above. He dragged it over to the brass idol and looped the chains through some hoops in the iron base plate and lifted it high into the air and secured it in place with a knot in the chain. Next he fastened a big iron padlock through the chain links to keep it all in place. Finally he pat the back of the idol once more, satisfied at having done his work.

"That ought to hold it," Jennings said and turned to his little visitor again. "This ought to keep it out of reach of curious little girls anyway from now on. Wouldn't want any accidents to happen, now would we? So you're six years old. That means you're in the first grade, then, right?"

She nodded her head yes but her blush gave away she was lying to him again. Jennings didn't seem to care one iota though. He'd already gathered from her panicked look at him while he'd been hoisting up the idol high in the air that the girl wasn't being entirely honest with her answers. Still, if she wanted him to believe she was actually a real little girl and not a transformed imposter then Jennings was more than happy enough to oblige her and play along. What did it matter to him? He wasn't the one currently stuck in the wrong age and gender.

"It's a little late for one of your age to be up and about snooping in other people's houses, don't you think?" the Doctor asked. "Do you know the number to your mother and father's house?"

She again shook her head no.

"You know," Jennings said turning his back to her as he slowly traced a finger around the neck of the brass idol while walking around it in a circle. "If I were a mind reader I'd swear one of us in this room was set upon telling fibs to the other. This might come as quite some surprise but I am not a cruel man, Kimberly. If I thought even for a moment that you were really a grown man stuck in the body of a little girl, I might be obliged to help rectify the situation. In which case I'd let you change back to normal and after a few more questions I'd be more than glad to let you go. I wouldn't even press charges for the trespassing. I already caught you. It makes no difference to me either way whether you're really who you say you are or not. The thing is, how can I possibly help you if you don't come forward and admit to me the truth?"

Kim bit her lower lip again and after thinking about it for a moment she said,"You're right. I'm really a man. I'm sorry."

"That's interesting, you know, because just a moment ago you would have me believe you were really always a girl. It would be irresponsible of me to let a real little girl turn into a fully grown man just because she suddenly fancied the notion and was curious to try it out. How am I to believe you if you lied to me already? How do I know this isn't also a lie? How am I to judge what is true or not?" Jennings asked and walked up to her and nodded down at something he noticed earlier but hadn't mentioned before. "Your hands and knees are all dirty."

"I went to the park," she explained.

"I see," he said and grabbed hold of his chin as he went into deep thought about it for a moment and then said,"Do you do this often?"

"What?" she asked.

"Turn yourself into a little girl and go to the park," he replied and she nodded yes. "Interesting. What else do you do? What else is on your agenda I wonder."

"I've made some friends. Went to a couple birthday parties already. That sort of thing," she explained.

"Why? What for?" Jennings asked.

"I don't know. I guess I think it's fun," she said shrugging.

"How often?" he asked.

"A bunch. Once a week usually," she replied. "Just for the day."

"So, let me get this straight. You change into a little girl and run around like that all day and change back... ... all because you think it's fun?" Jennings asked.

She shrugged and gave a weak smile, nodding yes.

"Any good at it?" he asked and when he saw her quizzical look he clarified. "Any good at convincing people you're really a little girl?"

She nodded yes and said,"All the time. No one can tell the difference and I never tell a soul who I really
am. You're the only one so far who even knows."

"Hmmmm... Interesting. What do you do for a living? Outside of this strange little hobby of yours?" Jennings asked.

"I used to be a writer. I wrote a couple of ocean documentaries," she replied.

"Hmmmm... Interesting. I wonder if there are any others like yourself who would be into this... kink you've discovered," the Doctor said.

"Transgender and age regression? Sure! There's guys who are into that. Of course. Why not? Why? What
are you thinking?" she asked.

"Oh, not of turning anyone into girls or anything like that," Jennings said. "But wouldn't it be interesting if you kept a little diary of your experiences as a little girl and then later on we made it into a documentary? Do you think people would buy it?"

Kimberly's eyes brightened. "You mean... you'd let me switch back and forth to do something like that?"

"I don't see why not," Jennings said. "Better than having you breaking and entering into my house again and again. As long as I get a fair percentage of the profits."

"Deal," she agreed.

"I'll pay you a fair salary for this. We'd have to improvise. Make it interesting enough for people to want to watch in the first place. Maybe add a little suspense into the mix for starters," Jennings said.

"What did you have in mind?" Kimberly asked.

(to be continued)

Ring of Love
by Cleo Kraft
-------
Kim sat across from me on the enclosed back porch. She sat on a white plastic
lawn chair and looked down at her fingers semi-folded in the gap between
her pretty knees which were about two feet apart at the moment. She was
quiet as was I, for she'd just revealed a secret she'd kept from me the
two years I'd known her. The same two years she'd been my girlfriend.
She wore a light blue almost sky blue one piece bathing suit that nicely
hugged her curves. She wore some white short shorts over it and as I stared
past her folded hands I easily saw the golden zipper in her crotch and the
dull brass button above it. She wore brown leather sandals and had pink
painted toenails and matching pink painted fingernails. She wore mascara
on her thick pretty eyelashes but otherwise no other makeup.

It was a warm summer morning, just before lunch time. We'd just gotten back
from a swim in the lake just a mile or so hike down a back woods trail that
ran past Kim's house. That's where we were now.

Her bathing suit had mostly dried off but her long blonde hair was still
a bit wet and tangly.

She was sixteen. Just a year younger than myself. Our relationship was mostly
platonic until the past few months. Until then we mostly went out on dates
where I'd take her to dinner and the movies or for a walk in the park or
perhaps we'd go camp out by the lake. Mostly she avoided kissing until a
couple months ago when she decided to make our relationship a little more
meaningful. That's when she opened the door to kissing and making out but
sex was still off limits. I think she wanted to wait until marriage, which
I guess is reasonable and I can respect that considering she was only
respecting her mother and father's wishes. Her dad used to be a preacher
but he set that aside when Kim was about three years old. At any rate the
man was very protective of his daughter and had talks with me on many
occasions in an effort to get me to promise him I wouldn't "go all the way"
with his daughter, as he put it.

I never actually used the word "promise" but I more or less agreed to
behave myself around Kim and would respect her father's wishes.

She had a kind of funny middle name, Amberly, and her father used it more
than once or twice when he was angry at her for coming home past her curfew,
which was eleven o'clock.

"Kimmy Amberly Bennerson!" I heard her father shout late one night as
she entered in the porch door while I hid in the bushes out back. Hewas pretty upset with her and very disappointed in me and wouldn't let
me see her again for almost a month.

I had to convince him I was sorry. Really, really sorry and wouldn't let
it ever happen again. It wasn't easy considering he was about ready to
cut me off completely and insist his daughter find a new boyfriend.

Kim had an older sister named Brooke who was normally away at college but
was back home for the summer. Even still, I rarely saw Brooke around as
she mostly hung out with a crowd of college friends and took long road
trips, mostly on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle but sometimes in
her little white Volkswagen bug. Other than Brooke, Kim had no other
siblings, so it was no wonder her father was so protective of her as she
was right now the only child he had left around home.

Though Kim had blonde hair, her older sister had dark brown, almost black
hair and deep brown eyes. Kim's mother was a red head and her father had
the same dark brown hair color as Brooke. I never really thought twice
about it that Kim might have been adopted. I simply had all along accepted
her for who she was and that was that but she just revealed the truth to
me just now along with another secret she'd been keeping.

Adoption I could handle. She said she was adopted when she was four years
old. I asked her if she remembered her real mother and that brought her
to tears and I really regretted bringing it up. I thought she wanted to
talk about it because prior to this she was talking about her mother's
birthday coming up and I think that's what triggered this whole awful
mess.

She wasn't crying now. Her tears had dried up. If anything she was getting
over embarrassment. Her face had turned beet red when she told me her other
secret. It was one of those deep dark secrets that you just don't want to
hear about. Like finding out your next door neighbor fucked a goat or
catching your dad masturbating out in the garage in front of a great big
poster of a black stallion humping a white mare. Weird shit like that and
if it had been something like that I guess I could deal with it somehow
and think that maybe this girl just had some problems she needed to get
out in the open and maybe she was asking for my help so she could deal with
it. You know, just deal with it and set it aside and let the past be the
past but this was too much. This was something that made me question her
very sanity because what she was claiming made no sense to me at all.

She said she was a boy before and more than that she said she'd been a grown
man but was regressed to childhood and also turned into a girl. She didn't
explain how this transformation took place. I think that part wasn't as
important to her as getting me to believe she'd been male before.

She was quietly thinking things through and I expected that at any given
moment she was going to ask me to leave and tell me she didn't want to ever
see me again. I had a feeling deep down in my gut, a feeling choking me
right in the throat that Kim was going to dump me.

I couldn't lie to her. I flat out told her I didn't believe it. I didn't
believe she was a guy before. I saw the hurt look in her face when I said
it. I felt so bad for saying it. It was like I actually punched her right
in the stomach. Like I actually punched a girl.

I felt so bad.

If she really felt the way she did then it was no wonder that despite our
raging teenage hormones she never let me go all the way with her. It wasn't
just because of her mom and dad's wishes. It wasn't just because of her
strict religious upbringing. It was because of this. This horrible secret
she had and had been living with most all of her life.

I didn't believe it. I couldn't. There was no way. What she was asking me
to believe was just too much. Grown men just don't turn into little girls.
It would take magic which I knew didn't exist - or else some kind of advanced
Star Trek like technology that I also knew for a fact didn't exist. It was
too far fetched an idea to lend any credit to. I didn't even believe in
flying saucers, which I guess would be about the only plausible explanation
if technology was the answer but aliens from outer space coming all this way
to our planet to perform sex changes and age regressions? Either that or some
backyard wizard performed some strange ritual that actually worked.

It was crazy.

No matter which way I looked at it, it was crazy, and the really only
plausible explanation was that this poor girl had some serious mental
health issues to deal with. Either that or she was pulling my leg in
an effort to change the conversation away from us talking about her
mom's upcoming birthday party to getting to the real point, which was
probably that I wasn't even invited to the party anymore because Kim
was going to dump me. Problem was, I ruined it, didn't I? I ruined it
by talking about the party when I should have just shut up and let
her tell me what was clearly on her mind all morning.

She was a bit gloomy and depressed at the lake now that I think back on it.
Gloomy and quiet-like but I think the swim cheered her up a little. I know
it did but now look at her. She's all sad and depressed again.

"I'm sorry,” I said and walked over and put an arm around her.

She glanced up at me but quickly turned away again and let her head droop
down as she looked back at her hands.

"Let's forget the whole thing,” I suggested, patting her gently on the
back and rubbing her back a little. "I'm sorry I upset you."

She snapped at me, “But that's the problem, Harold. You don't face up to
problems, do you? You just want to forget. All the time you just want to
forget."

She shrugged and flung her right arm away, forcing my hand off her shoulder
and I walked back to my chair and sat down, leaving her be for the time
being.

I didn't even dare stare at her in her current condition because I knew it
would only make her angrier at me. So I turned and looked out the porch
screen and kept my eyes on the backyard.

There were some tall bushes, the kind that you can shape into garden animals
and such. There were two of them on either side of the porch. Two lions with
big lion manes sitting there, their butts pressed up against the screen wall.

There were some bright red and yellow flowers planted beside the lions.

Outward from there was the back lawn and a twisty stone path leading around
a pond and to the back gate under a huge oak tree which shaded half the
yard.

There were plenty of bushes back along the fence and under the tree. That's
where I usually hid the few times I got Kim in trouble and led her home
late at night past her curfew.

There was a bird bath off to the left in the far corner of the yard and
a few feet from that stood a big stone fountain with four levels of water
catchers. The fountain was on and shooting water up a couple feet in the
air and I watched it trickle down the sides to the bottom and get recycled
back up to the top again. I listened to the little motor churning noisily
inside. I listened to a pair of blue songbirds chirping happily away in
the bird bath. Off in the distance I heard a power mower rattling away as
someone was mowing their lawn.

Up above the sky was mostly clear blue but with a few scattered clouds.

All in all it was a nice summer morning apart from my upsetting Kim like
I did.

I don't know how long I stared at the garden but it seemed like an eternity
before Kim's mom, Janice, came out and informed us lunch was ready.

I walked in the house through the back family room and down the hall to the
front of the house where the kitchen was. I sat at my usual spot at the
table with my back to the front window.

Kim sat across from me and Kim's mom served us soup and sandwiches and
poured us each a tall glass of milk.

Kim wasn't talkative at all, which was clearly understandable, so I did
most of the talking so her mom wouldn't press her on the issue of why she
was so gloomy and quiet today.

"We had a nice swim out at the lake today, Mrs. Bennerson,” I said.

"I imagine so,” Kim's mom said putting the carton of milk back in the
fridge. "It's certainly a nice day for it. Are you two going to go back
to the lake after lunch?"

"Ah.... probably not,” I said thinking it would be better if I let Kim sort
out her feelings for awhile without me around to worsen things. "I think I
have some chores to do back home. You know, yard work and stuff. I'll be
back later though."

Kim suddenly looked up at me with an open mouthed look of shock and worry
painted on her face. She clearly hadn't expected me to leave so soon. Though
I thought she was mad at me. Apparently she still wanted to talk.

"Or maybe not,” I added glancing down at my watch. "It's almost noon. Don't
want to get a sun stroke with the sun overhead. I guess I'll wait until
later."

Kim smiled at me and I think she blushed a little. If she did the redness
faded fast but I think I saw a hint of affection for me hidden in there
somewhere.

My heart about skipped a beat.

Kim wasn't going to hold any grudges against me for not believing her
story about having been a boy before. I was overjoyed but kept cautious
optimism for the time being. I didn't want to press my luck.

After lunch Kim grabbed my elbow and tugged me back towards the back porch
and held my hand as she led me out into the garden.

We walked down the path and out the back gate and stood on the dirt trail
under a row of pine trees and she looked up into my eyes with hers and
smiled as she put both her hands around my neck. She stood up on tiptoe
and kissed me on the lips. When she stopped I kissed her back and then
she led me through the woods to a fallen tree and we used it as a bench
and sat there side by side holding hands.

She said, “Harry, I don't expect you to believe in the impossible. What I'm
going through right now isn't easy to explain. I'm at the age right now
where they say a girl's finally fully matured, at least physically. That's
the reason I've let our relationship become more intimate. My hormones are
driving me crazy with lust for you, Harold. At the same time I feel
absolutely full of guilt for feeling this way and not letting you know the
truth about me. For most of my life all I ever wanted was to get changed
back to normal but now, Harold, I feel... I don't know how to explain it.
It's like my hormones finally triggered something in me. Like someone
flipped a switch and suddenly I'm flooded with all these new feelings
and desires. I think I felt a little like this since I was twelve or
thirteen but all this time I've been in denial and was too afraid to
explore these feelings. Too afraid and ashamed. I shouldn't even be here
right now, Harold. It's a miracle I lasted this long. Do you know how many
times I woke up and thought for sure I was going to kill myself? I couldn't
do it, Harold. I wanted to but I couldn't because then I'd get buried with
the name Kimberly Amberly Bennerson etched on my gravestone forever and
ever. Then the Bantens of this world win out."

"The Bantens?" I asked curious. She'd never mentioned anyone by that name
to me before. Though the name sounded oddly familiar. I knew it from
someplace but couldn't pinpoint it exactly.

She squeezed my hand in hers and said, “More specifically Mister Ian Banten.
Retired sheriff?"

"Oh THAT guy,” I said recalling seeing the snobby old recluse once or twice
in town. He was always surrounded by three or four body guards. He was quite
wealthy and had powerful political connections throughout the county. He
lived in a huge mansion on the other side of town and it was rumored that
although he was retired from a life of law enforcement he was now, believe
it or not, involved somehow in a mafia lifestyle as a gang leader. "Isn't
he a gangster now?"

Kim shook her head no and said, “That's just a rumor which stemmed from the
Brighton bank robberies back in the seventies. Several of Banten's
household staff, mostly the bodyguards, were suspected in a string of
bank robberies. Nobody could ever prove anything so no one was ever charged
with the crime. To this day the robberies remain a mystery. The thing is,Banten's always been rich but what got the rumor going was that someone
thought he'd gotten his wealth from those bank robberies. Banten's no
gangster, though I guess from what he did to me maybe he is a criminal
after all."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"Transform me,” she replied matter-of-factly with a sigh and a shrug. "I
already told you but you wouldn't believe. It's okay though. I just wanted
to be honest with you and give you a chance to decide if you still want to
go out with me or not. It's only fair and I wish I'd had the courage to tell
you sooner, Harold, but I just never thought my feelings for you would grow
to this. If you recall, you're the one who asked me out, remember? Before
we were just friends. I only went along with the idea of being your girlfriend
because I enjoyed our time together as friends and didn't want to lose that
by saying no. I went along for the ride thinking my feelings could never
possibly grow so big. Harold, I'm strongly attracted to you. I don't know
if it's the hormones or the kissing or all my time as a girl but the fact
of the matter is, looking at you now, Harold, I.... I think you're the one.
I think you're the one I'm going to get married to."

"I'm confused. Are you proposing or confessing?" I asked with a nervous
chuckle. She blushed and turned away. I hope I didn't hurt her feelings
again. "I'm sorry. I just think that maybe we should go over to Banten's
place and I'll ask him myself."

She turned back to face me and frowned with a worried look on her pretty
face, “Don't you dare even think such thoughts, Harold. That place is evil.
I don't want you going over there and bothering Mr. Banten about this. He's
not a well man. That mind of his is twisted in ways I can't even possibly
begin to explain, Harold. He's a man with an evil agenda. He takes lives
at random and absolutely ruins them."

"Tell me about the transformation,” I asked, wanting to know more even though
I still didn't believe a word of it. Part of me wanted it to be true because
that meant magic or what ever futuristic science actually existed and could
change one life into another.

She sat and thought about it for quite awhile. At least ten or fifteen
minutes without saying a word. She was absolutely lost in thought and
trying to figure out how to word it to me in a way my doubting mind could
comprehend.

Finally she said, “Before he changed me he showed me his collection. He's
got a bunch of magic rings only I think he said it's not magic but science.
Same as the rest of the stuff in his collection. He collects transformationdevices, Harold. He's not even the inventor of any of the stuff. He just...
obtains it. I think he's been stealing it from other people for all his
life. He's a man obsessed, Harold. He likes transforming people. He's got
machines that do it but at first he just had a handful of magic rings. The
rings, he explained, are his favorite because of how complicated they are.
I wasn't the only one he changed that day, Harold. He also changed my good
friend Danny. Dan got changed before I did and I had to watch the whole
awful thing and then it was my turn. We both got changed into little girls
and it was by those magic rings. The rings don't come off, Harold, not at
first anyway. They are stuck to your finger like glue and won't come off
until you've been a little girl long enough that the transformation reaches
what Mr. Banten called "full binding" which means basically you're bound
permanently to your new body and can't change back - not ever. You can
undo the transformation before that by saying a magic word or something
but only Mister Banten knows how to do that and he wouldn't let me or Danny
change back. Anyway after I think two months, I can't remember but it seemed
like a long time - anyhow after a long time Banten came and took my ring
away and that's when I knew I was stuck a girl for good. After that he
took me to the orphanage and I got adopted by my new mom and dad. I don't
know what ever happened to Danny. I think she got adopted by different
parents and they moved away. Anyhow as you can clearly see, I didn't
stay a little girl. I grew up and now I'm here with you, telling you
this crazy story that I know you'll never believe. I probably shouldn't
have told you. I shouldn't have bothered you with this. It's my problem
and I shouldn't have burdened you with it. I'm sorry."

"I see,” I said offering what little acceptance I could offer even if I still
didn't believe it all and I didn't.

"What he did to Danny and I was terrible but it could have been far worse,
Harold. Before he transformed me he showed me what he could have done. He
showed me a machine that he said could turn anyone into living lingerie.
He could have made me into a pair of panties or a bra and kept me that way
forever. He said I'd still be able to see, hear, smell and feel but that
I'd only be able to speak telepathically with whatever woman was wearing
me, and even then only if she initiated the conversation and allowed me
to talk, but she'd have to know a magic word or something. I forget but
Banten explained it all to me and it really scared me, Harry. I thought
for sure he was meaning to transform me into some pink silk panties because
of how much fun he was having describing the whole process. I remember him
excitedly wringing his hands about as he bore a wicked grin as he told me
about his "naughty panties" - that's what he called them, his naughty
panty collection. And I think, Harold, that Mister Banten might even be
a crossdresser. I don't know but the man seriously scares me, Harold,” she
said.

"So this Banten fellow is some kind of pervert,” I said.

"He's absolutely evil. Stay away from him,” Kim warned.

"Why don't we just go over there and I'll put a gun to his head and force
him to change you back to normal?" I suggested.

She laughed at that but shook her head no, “There's no way, Harold. He's got
all those bodyguards."

"Well then, we can wait until he goes away on vacation, then sneak in and
find some way to change you back to normal,” I suggested going along with
her claim just to humor her for now. I still didn't believe she used to be
a man though. It was just too crazy a notion. She didn't have any male
mannerisms at all. No hint or clue that what she said was really true. In
all the time I'd known her not once had she ever even shown an interest
in the kind of things boys generally have an interest in. For that matter
if she was a guy before then why was she with me? Why wasn't she with a
girl? You'd think she'd be a lesbian if she was formerly a guy.

She shook her head no and chuckled a bit. "No way, Harold. That place is
dangerous. Besides... I never said I wanted to change back to normal, did I?"

She squeezed my knee and gave me a hug and kiss.

I felt weirded out somehow despite my disbelief in her tale. Like even if it
wasn't true, in her mind she was a dude and that meant I'd just been kissed
by a guy.

I didn't wipe my mouth off with the back of my hand like I wanted. I didn't
want to hurt her feelings but this stuff was just too weird for words.

She saw my body stiffen up under her kiss and knew something was wrong.

She asked, “What's the matter, Harold?"

I scratched the back of my neck and replied, “Well... To be honest... It kind
of creeps me out. No offense or anything but I wish you hadn't told me any
of this. I wish we could go back to being just boyfriend and girlfriend and
leave it at that."

She tried peering into my eyes though I kept my head a bit downturned as
I was trying to figure out what was going to happen with our relationship
now that she opened up and told me all this.

She lowered her head a bit but peered up at me with her pretty blue eyes
and looked me in the eye and said, “Did that last kiss I gave you feel any
different than all the other times we've kissed? I didn't put any less love
and feeling into it you know, Harold."

I nodded and said, “I just find it hard to believe, that's all. If it's
true it's an incredible story. If it's not true then I can only think my
girlfriend has finally lost her mind and that worries me, hun."

She smiled and said, “And I appreciate that, I really do but look at me,
Harold. I'm still the same girl you met and fell in love with. Look at me."

I did.

She continued, “I've been a girl for over twelve years now, Harold. I grew
up from age four, I think, in this body. The magic ring conditioned me,
trained me, really helped me cope with my transformation. That's what
really made those magic rings so special, Harold. That's why Mr. Banten
is so especially proud of those pretty little rings in his collection.
My ring gave me a boost in my new life as a girl. It helped me not cry
so much about losing my manhood and having to start life all over again
as a little girl. Oh at first I did cry, lots and lots even but the ring
was like a helpful big sister to me or even like a mother, and she kept
reassuring me everything would be all right and that it's okay to be a
girl. The ring didn't force me to want to stay this way, Harold, but I
don't know how I could have ever coped with this forced transformation
upon me without it. If the ring forced me to want to like being a girl
then surely it would have also stolen the will to change back to normal
again but it didn't Harold. It never took that away from me. For years
that's almost all I ever wanted was to change back... until I met you."

She blushed and looked away and I felt oddly flattered by her strange
and revelation.

I was speechless to say anything back to her so I just let her compose
herself for a moment and waited for her to continue.

She turned back to me and I saw a few tears streaming from her eyes. She
said, “If you leave me, Harold, I don't know what I'll do because all I'll
have left is the haunting reminder every time I look in the mirror that I've
been living a lie. All I'll have left for is my aching desire to change back
to who I was before. I don't think I could ever develop feelings for any
other man the way I feel about you, Harold. Don't you see? With you I don't
want to change back. I feel so comfortable and warm and happy and so very
alive and full of joy and love and, oh Harold, I couldn't ever want to go
back to who I was before. Not if we could be together like this."

I nervously scratched the back of my head again and said, “Honestly, Kim, I
don't know how to deal with this and talking about it is just making me
more and more uneasy. I don't want to offend you by saying this but I think
you've got to hear it and I think you've got to hear it sooner rather than
later. Kim... you need help. You need to see a therapist or psychologist
or maybe even your hair dresser and talk this through with someone who's
more qualified to deal with these sort of things than I am. I'm just a
teenage boy. What do I know about sex change and... and all this crazy stuff
you've been going on and on about? For crying out loud, have you even told
your parents about any of this?"

She looked hurt but I had to say it. I had to because it was the only advice
I could give. I honestly couldn't deal with it. I didn't believe her story
and that meant as near as I could tell my girlfriend had absolutely lost
her mind.

The only proof I had of any of this was to go and ask Banten himself or
better yet, sneak in his mansion without his knowledge and find out once
and for all if any of this was true.

And what if it was? What then? Could I still continue seeing this girl or
would it creep me out knowing that she was really a guy inside?

I guess the real question was: was I really in love with Kim?

I felt terrible. Really, really terrible inside like I just ate a plate full
of worms and it was making my stomach really, really sick. I wanted to throw
up. I couldn't deal with it.

My feelings were telling me it was over between us. If she really were a man
then it was over - that meant I didn't really love her, didn't it? I couldn't
see past that one tiny little secret she revealed. That one little flaw in
the girl of my dreams, and was it really fair to call it a flaw? Something
that happened so long ago in this girl's life that it was barely even worth
mentioning. She'd grown up to be a beautiful girl. A beautiful young woman.
Whatever she was before was pointless to consider because she'd grown up to
be just what she appeared to be.

My girlfriend.

But I couldn't handle it. I couldn't deal with the thought of her even
thinking she was a man before, let alone hearing her openly admit something
like that to me.

I was devastated.

I didn't want to know this about her. True or not I didn't want to know this.

She got up and ran away in tears.

I watched her run back through the gate to her backyard. She didn't even
bother closing the gate, she was so upset. I watched her run up the crooked
little path leading through the garden. I saw her open the screen door on
the porch and I watched her go in the house.

I didn't even bother going after her and try to work this thing out like a
good boyfriend should. I just got up and shrugged it off, knowing it was
probably over between us and there just wasn't anything I could do about
that.

I felt bad though. Really bad about Kim. I wanted to help her. I really did
but I didn't know what I could do beyond accept her for who she was. I guess
I was a really horrible person because I couldn't even do that. I couldn't
accept being with a girl who had thoughts like that in her head. She'd
gone off the deep end, I was sure, but what could I do about it?

A girl who thought she was a guy before. How's a guy supposed to deal with
a shocking revelation like that? She may as well have told me she was really
a robot from Mars. At least that way I'd know for sure she was crazy and not
have any lingering guilty doubts.

I knew sex change was a possibility. People did that. It was surgically
possible and I could accept that and had no problems with it. It didn't
seem likely she was surgically changed from a grown man into a little
girl though. That seemed like too fantastic a claim for her to ever expect
me to believe. Of course I was going to disbelieve her claim. Who in their
right mind would believe in something like that? That implied magic existed
or some kind of super science that likely defied several laws of physics.

For example, body mass. A grown man weighs what? A good two hundred pounds
maybe? And a little girl weighs maybe forty or fifty pounds maybe more,
maybe less but certainly a lot less than a grown man weighs. So where does
all that weight and mass go? And you'd think converting it all off into
energy would require an enormous amount of power. Gobs and gobs of it. And
how on earth, if that's even technologically possible, are you going to
keep a person alive through the process? Alive and maintain memory and self
awareness and keep their identity?

Then there's going from a grown man's brain to a little girl's. How do you
do that and retain memory or map it out cell by cell when the new brain is
so much smaller than the old?

Okay then magic - but if magic existed you'd think it would be so commonplace
that everyone would be using it.

If I just went over to Mr. Banten's house I could simply ask him but if he
really did have a huge collection of transformation devices then it would
probably not be safe for me to visit him in person. Perhaps a simple phone
call then.

I walked along the trail thinking about these things along the way.

I wondered if such a device existed what it might be like being turned into
a girl.

I realized it was kind of a turn-on the more and more I thought about it
because if I could change into a beautiful young woman, just imagine all
the sexy fun things I could do.

I thought about it more and more and the more I did the more the curiosity
really started eating away at me.

If Kim really had been a man before then, well, I envied her. I really, really
envied her because she got to see life from both sides of the fence. She got
to see what it was like being both a guy and a girl.

I realized that if I had a chance I'd cast a magic spell on me or enter a
transformation machine and turn myself into a girl. Sure thing, what guy
wouldn't want to try that, even for just a little while to see how the
opposite sex lives? Maybe not for good but for a day or so. Sure. Why not?

I certainly didn't envy women for all the suffering they had to do for us
guys. Especially if they were expected to follow traditionalistic views and
be a good little housewife and do all the cooking and cleaning and all that
on top of trying to maintain one's own body. All the time women spend in
the bathroom in front of the mirror trying to look good. Was it worth it?

Then there was the thought of sucking cock. I know not all women do but
they probably get asked to by their husbands or boyfriends sooner or later.
The idea disgusted me but then again I wasn't a girl. Maybe through a girl's
eyes a cock's a wonderful thing. Wonderful enough to get aroused enough to
put in your mouth and suck and taste. Who knows? Anyway I shuddered at the
thought.

Even so, I think I'd genuinely like being a girl for a little while anyway.

It sounded like a lot of fun.

I didn't want to go home for fear I'd have to do a long list of chores so
instead I went to my friend Brett's house.

He lived in a bit of an upper-class neighborhood. He was certainly living
in a much bigger house than I was, and it had a swimming pool in the backyard
too, and a game room in the basement.

I went down to the basement and found him there playing video games as usual.

"What do you know about some guy named Ian Banten?" I asked him and he put
his video game on pause and turned to me to reply.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Are the rumors true?" I asked.

"That he's a gangster?" he asked back. "I don't know. I hear he's like a
mad scientist though."

"Oh really!" I said. "How come you never mentioned that to me before?"

He shrugged. "I dunno,” he said. "I guess I never really thought about it
much. He's supposed to have all kinds of machinery in his basement. If you
go over by his property late at night and listen long enough you'll hear
all kinds of weird noises coming from that mansion. He's supposed to be
some kind of playboy millionaire. They say he keeps lots and lots of
beautiful women locked away in another home he owns up on a mountain
top by some ski resort. I don't know if that's true but that's what they
say."

"Who's "they"?" I asked.

"Kids at school,” Brett replied with a shrug. "Surprised you never heard
the rumors. Banten sort of dropped out of the rumor mill for awhile I
guess."

"What about transformation machines?" I asked.

Brett laughed, “Wouldn't surprise me. This is the town of Browningsdale
after all. Legends of transformations are common here."

I scratched my chin and asked, “Oh really?"

"Yeah,” Brett said. "Just have to know who to ask. There's an old man named
Jones who lives in a battered up old place near the creek. He's got lots of
stories to tell. I heard some of them before because my dad knew this guy.Jones used to hang out at the fire house and play checkers and talk about
the craziest things."

"Like guys turning into girls?" I asked.

He looked at me in surprise, “Yeah, how did you know?"

"Just a hunch,” I said with a shrug.

I was feeling a bit bad about leaving Kim. If Brett had heard stories and
the stories were true...

Brett said, “Anyhow Jones is like almost the same age as Mr. Banten. I think
at one time they were good friends or something but now the two don't want
to even hear the other's name. It's like good and evil between them. Like
Jones is the good guy and Banten is the bad guy. I'll take you over to
Jones' house if you want to hear some stories."

"Sure,” I said.

"Just wait for me to finish this game, okay?" he asked and I agreed.

___-----___

Mr. Jones had a big bushy head of white hair and a goatee that made him
kind of resemble Uncle Sam. He wore a red and white checkered flannel shirt
and some white trousers and brown leather shoes.

I listened intently as the old man told several stories about some magic
transformation rings.

The stories were about rings that could turn boys into girls and each story
eerily sounded much like that one Kim told me about her own magic ring.

"Where do we find rings like that?" I asked.

Mr. Jones shook his head no and replied, “You don't. You don't want to pursue
that path, young man, believe me."

"Would Mr. Banten have some?" I asked.

Jones snapped, “Who have you been talking to? Who's been telling you these
things? Up with it, boy. Tell me. Who's been telling you these things?"

I pointed to Brett and Brett said, “Guys at school told me."

"I see,” Mr. Jones said. "Well don't go repeating rumors because you never
know what ears'll be listening to them when word gets around to the wrong
people."

I turned to Brett and asked, “Can you step outside for a few minutes. I want
to ask Mr. Jones something in private and I don't want you hearing this."

"Sure,” Brett said leaving.

"What is it, boy?" Mr. Jones asked.

"Well, sir... It's about my girlfriend,” I said. "She's... ah... how do I put
this. She told me a story just like the one you told only thing is she
claims it happened to HER."

"I see,” Mr. Jones said as a smile broadened on his weathered face. "So what
you really are wondering about and what you really came here for is to
confirm if her story is really actually true, is that it?"

"Something like that, yes,” I admitted.

"Anything's possible,” Jones said. "How old is this girl?"

"Sixteen,” I replied.

"And you are?" he asked.

"Seventeen,” I said.

He nodded and said, “She's about the right age group. You see, a number of
years ago Ian Banten had an arrangement with the Hathoway House for Runaway
Girls. It's sort of a halfway house and an orphanage all rolled up into one.
Anyway, at the time Banten was providing anywhere from a handful to a dozen
or so little orphan girls a week. That was before the investigation, which
I led at the time by the way, and discovered he was producing little girls
in a number of ways. Mainly through magic rings but sometimes through
transformation machines. At any rate the program was discovered and so
I put a stop to it by confiscating all the rings he had in circulation at
the time. I saved perhaps forty-eight young men that day from the
humiliation of being turned into little girls."

"Do you have the rings?" I asked hopeful.

He stared at me long and hard for a moment and said, “A few."

"Would you mind terribly much if I tried one on?" I asked. "It would really
help me accept my girlfriend's story."

"You'll have to come back,” he said. "Alone. And don't tell a soul about
it. Don't tell anyone that I have the rings. Not even your friend, Brett.
Not even your girlfriend. No one. Tell no one about this. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir,” I said.

"Good,” he said nodding. "Then we'll see what we can arrange. In the meantime
I urge you to think through and reconsider what you are asking me to do. It's
one thing to know magic exists but quite another to experience it firsthand.
Your life will never be the same again once you put that ring on your finger.
I urge you to go home and think it through. Be careful what you wish for.
You might actually get it."

"Thank you sir,” I said and left.

___-----___

I went home excited at the thought that I might actually get a chance to
put on a magic ring and feel myself transformed into a girl.

I thought about it more and more and the longer I let my mind dwell on
the thought the more certain I was that this was the right decision. This
would prove to me that Kim's story was true. At the same time I knew for
certain I was in for a lot of fun.

I went back to Mr. Jones' house later that afternoon, alone.

He already had set a ring box out on the coffee table in the living room.

There was a knock on the door and Mr. Jones opened it.

A teenage girl was there. She wore glasses and had braces. Her hair was
light brown and curled up on the sides and shoulder length. She had big
blue eyes and wore a white dress with blue flowers painted all over. She
also wore white ankle socks and some sky blue tennis shoes.

Mr. Jones let her in and said, “Please wait in the kitchen, my dear. I'll
introduce you to my grand daughter Holly, shortly."

"Yes sir,” the girl said walking down the hall like she was familiar with
the place and had been here many times before. She didn't even bat an eye
at me or acknowledge I was even there.

Mr. Jones shut the front door and came over to me and explained, “She's the
baby sitter. I have business to attend to this evening and won't be back
until late. That'll give you at least five or six hours to experience what
ever it is you're expecting out of all this."

He held the ring box before my face and said, “Holly's like family to me.
She's my nephew's project but he's out of town for the time being so I'm
entrusting her to you. She has a very well connected life here in this
household and has developed several ties to people who know her in this
neighborhood and in this community. If it were possible and if you could
clear it with your parents to be away from home for an extended period of
time, I would permit you to live as Holly for as long as you'd like. However
she does belong to my nephew so it would really be his decision on the
matter. I think he's lately been trying to find more and more excuses to
resume his old male life, so know that he would probably be more than
delighted to find a replacement. At any rate, I'm giving you the rest
of the afternoon and an entire evening as Holly. That should be more
than adequate to prove transformation is no myth around here. Put the
ring on."

Five or six hours? That seemed like an awful lot of time to me. I just wanted
to change for a little while and change right back again.

"I don't know...,” I said. "Five or six hours seems like-"

"Put it on!" he snapped, opening the ring box and forcing the ring upon
my finger before I could protest any further.

The transformation was rapid even though for a moment it felt like time
stood still.

Time did stand still. I felt it.

It felt like I was floating in the air. Like gravity had been simply
turned off and I suddenly lifted up off the floor like a balloon. Not
too high. Just an inch or so or else it was just the rush of dizziness
washing through me. I couldn't tell.

All sound stopped. I couldn't hear the birds chirping outside anymore or
the buzz of a table saw churning away noisily from some neighbor's garage.
I couldn't hear the sprinklers on out front either. All sound simply ceased
to exist.

Then suddenly I heard a creak and a clunk-clunk of a door shutting but I
saw no door shut.

Just a strange clunk-clunk and a light breeze against my face and then
silence once more as I slowly drifted down and down and down, shrinking
faster and faster, my body dwindling away all about me.

I felt tickles all in my belly as I slid down into the soft clutches of
my new female dimension.

I didn't feel my old clothes vanish away but instead felt myself float down
into some new ones. My feet slipped right into ankle socks which were somehow
propped open full and wide and accepting. Propped open like they'd been
over starched and waiting. In my feet went and then a dress came down over
me from above. My arms being pulled through the arm holes by some unseen
force I could not control.

I felt my dress zip up in the back and a ribbon slip through my hair and
I could only imagine it tying itself up into a bow, though I could not see
what was happening.

I floated down to the floor. My feet slipping easily into a pair of shiny
black flats just waiting there for me. I glanced down and saw the buckles
work themselves for me and then it was done and a rush of sound came back
and time suddenly resumed its normal pace.

"Be a good little girl,” I heard a soft sweet feminine voice in my head and
I glanced down at the ring upon my finger. It pulsed gently as I heard the
words in my mind. "That'a girl."

It was my magic ring somehow communicating telepathically with me, I knew.

Mr. Jones towered over me and said, “I hope you're satisfied. That particular
ring is very addictive. You're going to get some good conditioning while you
wear it. But don't worry. It's nothing too overly controlling. You're not
to mention any of this to your babysitter, is that understood?"

"The big man is asking us a question,” my ring told me. "We should answer
him."

"Yes sir,” I said and he took me by the hand and led me down the hall to the
play room.

"Sorry it took so long, Julie,” Mr. Jones said and waved goodbye to me. "Now
you be a good little girl for your baby sitter while I'm away, okay Holly?"

"Yes sir,” I said nodding.

He scruffed my hair a little and turned and left.

That Holly's life was well situated was an understatement. Not even ten
minutes went by since I heard Mr. Jones leave out the front door than I was
visited by one little girl after another from throughout the neighborhood.

Turned out that Holly had quite a few little playmates indeed. There was
Samantha, Nicky, Katey, Shelly and Porsha. They were all around age five
which I guess is the same age as me now. Though I seemed absolutely tiny
for a five year old. I guess it's all in the perception.

With some encouragement from my magic ring I found myself playing dolls with
these other girls.

"It's okay to play with dollies,” my ring told me. "You're a little girl now
and little girls play with dolly-wollies all the time."

Though I had free will to make up my own mind about things the suggestions
became quite hypnotic after awhile and I found myself almost automatically
going along with them, as though the thoughts being put in my head were my
own, and maybe they were, maybe they weren't. Who knows? At any rate the
ring was helping me quickly fit into my new role by coaching me along every
turn.

My playmates had to go home shortly before dinner. That's when I discovered
I could talk back to my ring and ask it questions and stuff.

"I have to change back to normal in four hours,” I thought to the ring as
I glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall.

"Not if we hide!" the ring chimed back mischievously.

"Can we do that?" I asked with thought, pondering the idea.

"Sure thing!" the ring decided. "And if you're a good little girl and do
JUST what I say I'll even help ya."

I looked down at myself. I'd taken off my shoes earlier when I was playing
with the other little girls. I was walking across the smooth hardwood
kitchen floor in my socks and dress.

I sat down at the kitchen table and had dinner.

Julie was mostly busy talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone but
sometimes she'd tell me stuff like "don't play with your food" which I
wasn't, or "hurry up and eat all your veggies", which I was. The thing
was, I was doing just what I was supposed to do and this mean babysitterwas telling me I wasn't. It just wasn't fair but there was nothing I could
do about it because she was so much bigger than me.

The transformation into a girl wasn't so bad, I thought. After all, I had
wanted this. I had asked for it and here I was. A little girl, just like I
hoped. Having a vagina instead of a penis wasn't so bad either, I thought,
but I guess I kind of sort of missed feeling aroused and having my penis go
all hard and stiff whenever I looked at a pretty girl. My babysitter was
kind of pretty, I decided, but I didn't have a penis to tell me if she was
pretty enough to arouse me. That gave me a kind of helpless feeling and I
didn't like it one single little bit.

"But maybe I should change back,” I thought to the ring. "Maybe I want my
penis back."

The ring wouldn't have it. "Holly! I'm ashamed at you! Watch your mouth!
Don't use words like that. Little girls shouldn't ever think such words
and besides, you don't want to go back to being a boy. We haven't even
started having the REAL fun yet."

"What fun?" I asked, curious to know because although playing dolls with the
other girls was mildly entertaining just because I hadn't ever done that
before, doing stuff like that on a full time basis would really tax my
patience to the limit. What fun was there really in being a little girl?

"We could play dress up!" the ring happily suggested.

I wasn't buying it. "What else?" I asked, this time out loud by mistake
and my baby sitter heard me.

"What else, what?" Julie asked, covering her hand over the phone as she
frowned at me. "You have barely touched your peas."

"Sorry,” I said and ate a spoon full.

"Hiding from Mr. Jones later on will be fun,” my ring said as though I'd
already agreed on the idea, which I hadn't exactly.

Stupid old ring, I thought. I didn't want to talk to her anymore. Not right
now. She was just planting stupid old suggestions in my head and was flat out
taking advantage of my young susceptible mind. I was prone to do just about
any old thing my ring asked of me, all she had to do was pester me long
enough about it and I would. I knew it. I'd just do it so she'd shut up
and leave me alone all ready.

I finished my dinner and went to the living room and watched some television.

Julie put on a stupid kids cartoon, which was okay I guess, but not what I
was really looking for. I wanted an action adventure movie but cartoons are
cool too, I guess.

"Let's check out hiding places now,” my ring suggested and I looked up at
the clock on the wall. It was seven o'clock.

"Maybe later,” I thought back to the ring. "After ice cream."

Julie had promised ice cream after awhile. She wanted me to wait for my
dinner to settle a bit first though, so I had to wait.

It definitely felt different being a girl. Just sitting there on the living
room chair I could feel the fabric of the cushion press up against my dress
and my dress into my panties and it got all scrunchy in between my legs and
that felt decidedly so very much different than being a boy. I could close
my legs all the way, touching knee to knee and ankle to ankle and feel this
funny little gap in my crotch where my boy parts should be. Just thinking
about it made me feel all tingly inside and I thought I was going to pee.
Instead I curled my toes up and wringed my hands into little fists and
pounded my fists at my sides, hitting the sofa cushion in frustration.

Was having less really all that fun?

I didn't know. Certainly it was only "less" from a strictly male based
perspective.

Julie was in the kitchen and left me to watch my cartoon alone. So I changed
the channel and found a show that had a lot of beautiful bikini clad women
in it. They were beside a swimming pool at a hotel somewhere and I watched
with growing concern because normally I'd be feeling quite attracted to
these women but now... nothing. I found them very pretty none the less but
arousal wouldn't click in with me. Not like this.

I looked down at my lap.

Nothing.

This time I did have a little accident.

I don't know why or how it happened but it did. I guess in all my frustration
and excitement I peed my little panties. It wasn't much. No I take that back,
it was enough to wet my little behind and leave a heart shaped wet spot on
the sofa.

"Binding strength increased!" the ring chimed in my ears.

"What?" I asked embarrassed, walking to the kitchen to tell the babysitter
what had happened.

"Binding strength,” my ring told me. "Each day I am allowed to grant you
binding points. The more points you get, the more difficult it is for you
to change back to normal."

"Oh,” I told the ring with a shrug.

"You had an embarrassing moment so I decided maybe some binding points
would cheer you up a bit,” the ring explained. "I just gave you a whole
bunch of wonderful, goody-goody, happy fun binding points."

"How many?" I asked.

"Forty-eight!" my ring proudly sang out to me.

"That seems like a lot,” I told the ring.

"It is!" she agreed. "You only have fifty-two more to go before you're
permanently stuck as a little girl. I felt like you needed lots and lots
of good binding points to make you feel all better."

"Thanks,” I said. "I think."

I walked in the kitchen and told Julie I had an accident.

"Aren't you a little too old for that?" she asked.

She had no idea but she was right.

She helped clean me up and put my clothes in the wash and put me in the
tub upstairs for a bath.

My ring said, “I think you're going to make a good Holly."

"Thanks,” I thought back as I sat there in the warm bubble bath.

"There were other Hollies,” the ring explained. "But I think I like you
the most-est. I think I might bind you to full right now. I like you SO
much."

"That's quite all right,” I declined. "I'm not sure about making this
permanent just yet."

"I can you know,” she said. "I can bind you to full, right now. You'd be
the first Holly I ever had who got bound to full on her first day as a girl.
Wouldn't that be fun if I did? Mister Jones couldn't change you back then
and you'd have to go on being his little grand daughter for the rest of
your life. The other Holly, she wanted out, so I let her take a vacation.
I think this would be best for everybody, don't you?"

I wasn't so sure. I was glad I got the chance to see what it was like to
be a girl though. The ring was not only magical, it was a comforting friend
and I liked that.

I owed Kim an apology for ever doubting her. She was right, I was wrong.

"I need to change back into a boy,” I told the ring. "My girlfriend Kim
needs me back as a boy."

"That's too bad,” my ring said disappointed. "You tell her you've got an
appointment with me. You tell her you're going to be the new Holly."

"I'll try,” I promised.

"Try nothing,” the ring said. "You're coming back here. You're going to be
the new Holly."

"Okay,” I told her. I wasn't so sure though this would work out but my ring
certainly thought she was picking the right person.

The tub water was warm and the soap bubbles made my skin all tingly and soft.
I knew my ring could bind me to full right here and now if she wanted but she
was being nice and giving me a chance to change back and tell Kim what I had
to do.

It felt funny. I never thought that I'd be so hooked on being a girl but
with my magic ring coaxing me into it I guess she was right all along.

It was strange that I was going to embark on a new life. A whole brand new
life as a girl and get to grow up and some day maybe have a fight with my
boyfriend like Kim did with me today. Have a fight and tell him the truth
about who I was before. Tell him I didn't start out a girl. Wouldn't that
be a trip!

It would, I decided, but I wasn't so sure I'd be as brave and up front and
open and honest about it. I think it would be best if I just kept all this
a big deep dark secret and pretended I was always a girl. That would be
best, wouldn't it? And who cares who I was before? What does that even
matter?

I felt bad though. Real bad.

Poor Kim. I let her down. She was my girlfriend and I let her down by
failing to be there for her. Be there for her by her side when she needed
me the most.

I doubted her and had to find out for myself if magic really existed and
now look at me. Now look at me.

I'm a girl.

My ring. My little magic ring. She's telling me how things are going to be
now and she's all convinced I'm going to be the new Holly. Like as if I don't
even have a choice.

She's right though. Maybe this way I'll be happier.

Even in the warm tingly tub water I can tell already that I've fallen in love
with my new sex. I don't need a stupid old ring to tell me being a girl's
a whole lot more fun than being a boy. My ring expects me to go and tell
Kim I'm going to come back and be the new Holly. I don't know how I'm going
to do that. I guess what has to be done has to be done though.

Boy will Mr. Jones be surprised when I break the news to him. Boy will he
ever!

This was supposed to be a short and simple experiment designed to teach me
that magic really existed. Nothing more. Now look at me. I'm already accepting
my fate as a girl and making plans and everything.

"Holly? Are you there?" my ring asked cautiously, trying ever so much not
to disturb my thought process as I worked things out in my head. She was a
nice ring and I liked her. I really, really did.

"Hi ringy,” I said to her. "What's up?"

"If you're going to change back to tell your girlfriend then I need to take
back some rebinding points,” she said. "It'll make changing back to normal
so much easier."

"Thanks,” I said.

"No problem, honey,” my ring said. "But we have an agreement, right? You're
gonna be the new Holly."

I nodded my head enthusiastically. "Yeah,” I agreed. "But I hope Mr. Jones
lets me."

My ring said, “Don't worry about that. If he gives you any trouble. Any
trouble at all you just find me and put me on. Any way you can. You got
that?"

I nodded my head in agreement. "Okay,” I said.

"I'm counting on you,” she said. "Now I'm gonna remove the binding points.
It's gonna hurt a little so bear with me. Here we go..."

I felt pain searing through my tummy. It hurt like the worst tummy ache I
ever had in my life. I thought I was going to be sick. I felt like I was
breaking out in a cold sweat. I got the shivers all over and felt nauseated
and dizzy and just plain old sick.

It was bad. The worst feeling I could ever imagine. Like I drank poison and
was choking. My eyes watered up and I clutched my tummy in pain and it was
agonizingly horrible!

"Please help me, ring!" I cried.

It hurt so bad.

Unbinding hurt really, really bad. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to
be unbinded ever, ever again.

I felt like a hundred bees stung me all over. My body shivered and quaked
and I thought I was going to die.

I cried.

I cried and cried and cried and it was horrible. I felt like my arms and
legs and my whole body was put in a bench press and I was having the life
squeezed out of me.

It was torture. Sheer agony. I wouldn't wish this kind of pain on even my
worst enemy.

I shouted out in pain and my baby sitter came rushing in the bathroom and
pulled me out of the tub.

"What's the matter?" she asked but she was too late. I'd endured the worst
of it. The pain was subsiding and all that was left was me standing there,trembling and dripping wet under a big old beach towel. "You look ill. Maybe
you'd best go lie down and rest."

She was right. I felt terrible and my ordeal drained all the energy right
out of me.

"I'm sorry about that, hun,” my ring said as I wobbled down the hall to my
bedroom. "But if I didn't remove those binding points then Mister Jones would
have had a terrible time figuring out how to change you back to normal again."

"Thanks,” I thought back to my pretty magic ring. I was glad she was at
least letting me change back to normal so that I could tell Kim about my
new plans. It was nice to at least know what my future was going to be.

My babysitter tucked me in bed and I slept the rest off the rest of my time
as a little girl.

I woke up, I don't know when but it was much later and Mr. Jones had already
gotten back home and removed my magic ring and I had changed back to normal,
probably in my sleep but when I woke I was a boy again.

A teenage boy. My normal seventeen year old self once more and lying in bed
gazing up at the ceiling.

I looked at my hand. There was no ring present. No ring in sight. Mr. Jones
had taken it away. I sat up and realized I had my old male clothes on again.

I wandered downstairs and slipped out the front door and found my way home
and went to bed.

In the morning I went over to Kim's house.

She was on the back porch when I found her. She didn't kiss me or greet me
or anything. She was just brooding there. Lost in thought. Depressed, I think.

"Hi Kim,” I said as I sat down on a chair beside her. "I've got lots to
talk about."

She didn't seem interested. I'd hurt her feeling bad yesterday I think.

Real bad.

I hated myself for it. I really, really did, and now I was coming here with
even worse news for her.

"I tried one of those magic rings,” I told her. "And I'm sorry, Kim. I'm
sorry I ever doubted your story. I know now that magic is real. That those
rings are real. That what you said was the truth. I'm sorry I was such a
jerk."

She looked up at me hopeful. I thought she was about to cry. It only made
the words I had to say to her choke up even more in my throat than I could
ever imagine.

"I... I have to go away,” I told her. "My magic ring wants me back. I have
to be a girl."

Tears trickled down her face now. I think I hurt her even worse than ever
by saying what I had to say but I had no choice. I wanted to go back. I had
to go back. I promised my ring I would.

I promised.

She stood up and grabbed me by both my arms and hugged me and kissed me and
smothered me in kisses and I cried. I cried with her and I felt her tremble
even as I trembled myself in her arms and it was awful and it was wonderful
and we cried and cried and cried together.

I glanced over her shoulder at the lion bush in the garden and I thought the
lion was going to have a heart attack and the one right next to him was going
to keel over dead on the spot because somehow I knew that even the plants and
the trees out there in the garden knew what was going on. They knew. They all
did. They could feel our tears.

I hugged Kim and never wanted to leave her. Ever.

"Don't do this,” she pleaded with me. "Don't."

I wanted to be there for her. I really did but also I fell in love with what
it felt like being a girl. I was in conflict. I couldn't decide.

"Kim!" I cried but the rest of my words didn't come out. They couldn't. I was
all choked up. Tears streaming down my cheeks now. I was a mess.

"Please, Harold,” she begged, hugging me close. Kissing me on the ear and
cheek and neck. I felt her arms all over. Hugging me close. She was
frantic. A poor woman in desperation. I felt sorry for her. I really did.
I wanted to be there for her. Always. But I made a promise to my magic
ring. "Don't do this Harold."

"Oh Kim!" I cried. It was awful. The birds in the garden, out there in the
bird bath, they stopped singing and I imagined they were looking right at
us now in disbelief and shock at what was happening. Even the wind outside
in the trees seemed to stop and take notice for us. Everything seemed to
pause. Time itself seemed to stand still for us.

And we kissed.

It was a long and meaningful kiss and through and through I felt her love
for me. Strong, strong love, and I returned it in earnest. I loved her.
I really, really loved this woman. She was going to be my wife. I knew that
all my mistakes I ever made before, all my doubts and problems, none of that
really mattered. Not even the magic ring could tear me apart from my girl.
There was just no way I was going to leave this poor beautiful woman in
tears and loneliness.

We kissed and I knew then and there that this woman was going to be my wife.
There was never any doubt anymore. It was automatic. Love found a way into
my heart and shoved aside my selfishness.

I longed for that magic ring. I really, really did but I had to make a
sacrifice. I had to sacrifice my desire to be a girl for my wife. It was
an enormous thing to ask of anybody but I had to do it. I just had to.

I cried as I kissed my beautiful Kimberly. I knew we would never part nor
ever until the end of time ever let our love cease for one another.

Mr. Jones had showed me that magic existed in this world and I was ever
grateful for that but all along all I had to do was look my future wife
in the eye and see that magic existed right here and now in the present.

We waited until we were both over eighteen until we married and by that time
Mr. Banten had moved away and Mr. Jones I think passed on. My wife and I
moved to Alaska shortly after our honeymoon but whatever the case I don't
think I'll ever forget what happened in Browningsdale.

If anything it made me appreciate women all the more for how truly special
they are. I know I'll always be envious of my wife for the wonderful things
she gets to experience but I'm glad to be there with her, grateful to be
by her side until the day I die. I'm grateful to be the one and only man
she could ever love and it's comforting to know too because she's the only
woman I know I could ever have feelings for. We share much in common, her
and I, and I know what she went through all those years ago with her own
magic ring. I almost went through it fully myself but I'm glad I never did.

I'm glad I picked her instead.

As for Holly. Well, from what I heard Mr. Jones' nephew finally got back
from vacation and put that crazy old ring back on and became Holly forever.

I think it's for the best though. I really do and some day I hope to go back
to the town of Browningsdale and check in on Holly and see how she's doing.

If nothing else maybe I'll send her a postcard from Alaska and send her my
love.

I know she'll appreciate the thought.

I know I would.

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-The End-

(P.S. Lost my old username & password so I created a new account with my new email addy. Hope this is not a problem). - Cleo

Transplanetary by Cleo Kraft: Gems of Ordon

Some treasures are hard to find, and harder to hold onto.