The Greener Mile
By Goldie Hunter

Please note: This story is very loosely based on the movie the Green Mile. It uses suppositions that somewhat requires the suspension of belief in that the things used here just might work with the right sort of influence: Supernatural or mutation. As such, Steven King is the original author of The Green Mile in print form and I am not writing this with his permission. All characters depicted here are in no means representative of any person living or dead. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. All rights are reserved to the current author.

Chapter 1

I met the young black man on the street, well, met really wasn’t the word for what I did. I actually ran into him, literally. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going but then again, no one actually pays attention to around a building corner that you are going to turn, unless you are rounding said corner.

Needless to say, I was knocked on my backside without any foreknowledge that I had run into a brick wall. Dazed, I looked up to see what I had hit. And up. And up. And up. I looked upwards into the face of a young black man around 25 years of age. He seemed to be beside himself that he had knocked someone down.

“Ah’m so sorreh ma’am. Ah jus din’t see you there. Let meh hep ya up.” He spoke with a very deep bass voice but yet he seemed to have the demeanor of a saint. A huge hand reached down from the heavens and gently took hold of my not-so-small hand.

The aforementioned hand was one of my greatest shames. It was so reminiscent of my father’s, God rest his weary soul. You see, I had been born a man and had had sex reassignment surgery many years ago but long after I had passed my youth. I was now nearly 50 years old and I hated how I looked after all these years. Hair going grey, skin starting to sag heavily. Regardless of how big I felt my hands were, they were the most petite, feminine things in the comparison to this massive man’s hands.

As he took hold of my hand and started to bring me back up to my feet, he gave a slight twitch that seemed to nearly be a well controlled spasm. An onslaught of twitches coursed through his body as he stood above me. He finally got me to my feet and gently let go. I was 6’ tall but this man towered over me by nearly two feet. I had never seen a human being so big before and I was daunted by his size.

I could tell there was some sort of war going on in his head about something because his eyes had a far-away look to them. I quickly thanked him for his efforts and left him standing there, not saying a word.

I gave the matter little thought over the course of the next several hours. He had knocked me down or rather I had bounced off of him. I could live with either version of it, but I felt it was my own fault since I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Besides, I had too much going on in my head that prevented me from thinking any further about it.

You see, I was seriously contemplating suicide at that time. I was trying to figure out how to kill myself without it hurting me too much. The reason I was thinking about killing myself was that I had just got done with an appointment with my doctor. I had just received the news that I had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. They said they could operate on me but that would mean that I would lose one of the two breasts that I had worked so hard to grow years ago. I may even lose both if the cancer has spread to the other one.

If I let it go, I would die within 6 months. It showed signs of spreading to the lymph nodes under my arms and surgery could more than likely destroy the muscles under my arm. I had a lot of thinking to do and I really didn’t want to think about it. My father had died of colon cancer twelve years ago so I had always feared that I would go his route to death. I wasn’t ready to die, I had only been a woman for fourteen years and I couldn’t resign myself to dying right then.

But then again, I couldn’t see myself living with a severely scarred body like I could possibly have soon if I had the surgery that could rid me of the cancer. I had little time to think about anything else. I had to make a decision in the next twenty-four hours or it might be too late. As it was, I would be looking forward to months of chemo-therapy and radiation treatments to try to kill the cancer growing in my body.

I got home after a long bus ride. Normally, I would drive myself but I felt that I needed a break from driving, not to mention that the price of gasoline was outrageous these days, going for $5.50 a gallon. I was still young enough that I had to work but getting old enough that I had problems getting around like I used to.

Once I entered my house, I locked the door behind me and went and sat down in my favorite chair. It was at this point that I lost the iron clad control I had on my emotions. I broke down and cried for the possibility of a lost life or a scarred life. I didn’t know what to do. Both my parents were gone and my siblings were spread across the country. I had no close friends that I could call and talk to. I was all alone in the world. No one had time for an aging transsexual, not that they would really care anyway. Like most of my friends who had had surgery, I had lost the support of my family and had been disowned for being a freak. I still loved my family but it was still hard not being able to have someone to talk to.

I decided I wasn’t hungry and went to bed early. I cried myself to sleep that night.

Chapter 2

Since it was a Saturday, I didn’t have to get up and go to work. I still woke up early but I stayed in bed vegging out. I finally got up out of bed when my stomach wouldn’t quit growling at me. It was highly displeased with me since I skipped my evening meal. I picked at a breakfast that I couldn’t really taste, not that I wanted to. I seemed to have lost the feeling of importance of food. I ate mechanically and ignored anything else I was feeling. I still had to call my doctor by 1:00 and let her know what my decision was on getting surgery or not.

As I was putting the remains of my morning repast away, a loud banging sounded on the front door. It started me resoundingly since it rattled the house. It almost sounded as if someone was using a wrecking ball to knock on the door. I went to open it and find out who was pounding on my house.

Before I opened the door, I peeked to see who was there. Lo and behold, it was the young man from prior day. I opened the door for him.

“Yes, what can I do for you, young man?” I asked him.

“Please, ma’am, Ah has ta talk to ya. Ah ca’t let ya hurt yasef.” He said to me.

Startled that he would have any idea about my plans, I could only stand there with a shocked look on my face. I couldn’t believe what he had just said. How in the world did he know I was contemplating doing something to myself, let alone how in the world he found me!

“Please ma’am, can Ah come in? Ah promises ya that Ah’s not here ta harm ya. Ah wants ta hep ya. Lawd knows, ya really needs it.” The dark giant rumbled in his deep voice.

I quickly backed away from the door with a brief signal to him to enter. I did keep my distance from him, since I really was leery of him. I know, the first thing that a person shouldn’t do in an instance like this is shut the door quickly and keep the person out, but I have to admit, he had me slightly curious about what he was meaning about ‘heping’ me.

I really should have had my head examined for letting him into the house, I could have been raped, killed, assaulted or any number of things. But somehow, I don’t know why, but I felt a gentleness in him that spoke up and overrode my caution. I went and sat in a single seat chair and gestured to him to take a seat someplace.

He glided over to the sofa and lightly sat down. He acted if he was afraid the sofa would collapse under his weight. I was halfway afraid of the same thing. This man must have weighed in at 350-400 pounds and none of it was fat. I could see the muscles rippling under his clothes as he moved. He moved with the grace of a male lion walking across the African savannah. As I mentioned, he glided easily across the floor. I would have figured a man of that size would be a lumbering behemoth that hadn’t a graceful bone in his body, but I was proven wrong with his ease of movement.

Once he was seated, I waited for a moment before I said anything, mostly to collect my distracted thoughts back together.

I cleared my throat in preparation to speak.

“Since I have no idea as to who you are and why you felt you needed to barge into my life, why don’t you introduce yourself to me.” I asked of him.

“Yes’m. Ya see, mah name is John Coffee. That’s like the drink, as my pappy useta say. And Ah’s sorry Ah had ta do dis to you lahk dis but afta yestadey, Ah had ta. Ma’am, Ah sawed yer heart and yer mind when Ah held yer hand. Yewere very sad ten when Ah’s was holdin’ yer hand. De pain in yer heart was mighty big. But ya were plannin’ on killin’ yersef dat catched me ‘tension. Ah cain’t letcha do dat.” Was his bass reply.

“Now how in the world would you even know that I was planning on killing myself. That is, if I was planning such a heinous thing. I don’t believe in suicide, nor do I condone it.” I told him.

“Mebbe not ma’am, but ya tinkin’ awful haad abouts it. Yas fambly don’t cares about ya none as ya were tinkin’ awsa. But Ah can hep ya. Tat cansa ya has will kill ya buts Ah’s got tahm to stops it. Ah don’ts lahk using mah great granpappy’s gift but ya’re a good parson, Ah can sees it in ya heart. Ah tinks ah ken hep ya utter problem too.” He rumbled his reply to me.

One thing I had to admit was the man was kind of hard to understand when he was talking. He had a nearly uneducated deep southern drawl that seemed to be real bastardized English. But from the gist of what he said, he could some how cure me of my cancer. I didn’t believe him when he said he could cure me.

“Now, let me get this straight. You say you can cure my cancer? And that it is a gift from your great grand-father? Now how can that be?” I demanded of him.

He looked down at his feet for a moment before answering me.

“Mah great granpappy was excuted in da ‘lectric chair in Loushiana back in nahnteen turdy fife but fer a murdah he din’t do. Dey fownd out latah dat it twas somewan ess. But befowah he dahed he shayed his gift wit his gahds. He hepped wan who hayd a bahd prabem peeyen. Den he hepped a lahdy who hayd a tumah in ha heyad. But befowah he was arrestad he met mah great gran mammy and she showd hem mowah love den anneh parson befowah dat pint. He nevah knew dat she hayd a baby whahle he was inta prison. He nevah knew his sahn. But he passt his gift on to his sahn. Who laytah passt it ta his sahn who den passt it ta me. Ah hast hepped a few people but Ah’s afrayd ta uses it unlays ah has ta or da parson desarvs it. Ya desarvs it. Ah wants ta hep ya, if’n ya’ll’ll let meh.” He said at length to me.

I had to think about things for a minute. Heaven forbid, I wasn’t ready to die by any means as yet. I still had a lot I would like to do with my life but I really didn’t have the time to be particular about how I received my treatment for the cancer. If this young man wanted to try to ‘hep’ me, as he called it, I wouldn’t lose anything by letting him try. Besides, the whole thing was rather scary in how he laid things out in exacting detail. I decided that I would let him try.

“OK, Mr. Coffee (I just realized what I had said, oh my GOD, what a name!), I don’t have anything to lose. I still don’t believe that you can cure me but I can’t get any worse than I am at the moment. Do your magic or whatever it is you do.” I told him.

“Awright ma’am. Ah’ll hep ya. But please, don’cha worry, Ah’ll have ta toucha in some private places but it’s ta hep only.” He said.

He stood up from where he was sitting and lightly walked towards me. I couldn’t help but feel overly intimidated by the sheer size of the man. I couldn’t help but sink further into the couch I was sitting on, in an effort to shy away from him.

“Please ma’am, coods ya lay down on da couch? It would be betta for ya and meh if’n ya was layin’ down.”

Still not sure about all this, but sort of curious as to what he was going to do, I did as he bid me to do. Once I was lying down, he knelt beside the couch and slowly reached out his hands towards me. One hand moved quickly to my crotch while the other went to my left breast. Pressure from his hands warmed my skin quickly. He bent over my head and moved his mouth over mine and then made contact with my lips.

I was suddenly filled with pure hell as well as pure heaven as the sensations quickly climbed into unbearable agony and pleasure. I saw through my closed eyelids a bright light emanating from somewhere in the room. Separate but dimmer lights flared briefly and then blinked out with a popping sound. The sensations quickly overpowered my senses and then all sensations fled my conscious thoughts as I blacked out.

Chapter 3

I’m not sure how long I was passed out but as I came to, I could hear a weird sound coming from across the room where the stranger had been sitting a bit ago. As I opened my eyes and sought out the sound, I came to the sight of the young man sitting back on the chair again. He was acting like he was choking on something. I quickly rose to my feet to see if there was something I could do for him. I didn’t really pay any attention to myself at that time, I was focusing mainly on the plight of the young man.

As I touched his arm to get his attention, he paused briefly in his coughing to say, “Ah’s ok. Just hasta gives it a sec ta seddle.”

He continued to cough for another moment. Just when things quieted down a bit, he tipped his head back and opened his mouth. I thought he was going to scream out in some sort of agony but instead, out of his mouth came a huge hoard of black spots. There had to have been thousands of them. The stream continued for several moments before abating. I was so startled that I fell onto my bottom and stared up at the black spots as each and every one of them rose towards the ceiling and then as if they were fireworks, there was a brief spark and puff of smoke that signified the end of the show. I feared the smoke was going to permeate the room and linger for days until I could get the house aired out but there was no smell or anything to them.

In awe of the moment, I could only stare at the wonder I had beheld. I looked back down at Mr. Coffee’s face. His choking had subsided and he had a look of exhaustion on his face.

“Ah allas hates dat part,” he said. “It barns so, insida meh.”

“What was that, that came out of your mouth? It was really frightening” I asked him.

“Tat was yer sickness. Ah hepped ya ta live by takin’ it out of ya. But Ah awsa gived ya a gift dat Ah hopes ya likes. Ah t’inks ya needs mebbeh go ta lay down. Ya’re gonna feel awfa tarred whiles yer body f’ishes de werk. But now Ah’s hasta sleep mahseff.”

To prove what he said was true, he got out of the chair he was sitting in and lay on the floor and was immediately asleep. Feeling horribly exhausted myself, I went to the hall closet where I kept the extra blankets, linen and pillows and grabbed a pillow and a blanket and brought it out and covered him with it. I may have been exhausted, but I was also strangely invigorated. Not really wanting to take a chance on hurting myself, I decided to take his advice. I secured the house again and went to my room. I no sooner got into my bed and I was out like a light.

*#*#*

I’m not really sure how long I slept but when I awoke, I was nearly instantly awake. Normally, waking was a long drawn out affair that took nearly two hours to come from a deep sleep to a point I might be able to stumble out of bed and do my morning ritual.

I felt as if I was bursting with energy and my body was buzzing with it. I sat up and swung my feet off the side of the bed and stood up to go to the bathroom. Instead of my feet immediately touching the floor, it took a split second longer to get my feet to touch than it normally did.

As I stood, I noticed things were off kilter dramatically. My center of balance had shifted lower and I felt as if my body was lighter. My joints, for some reason, felt looser and they no longer ached with the middle aged arthritis that I had been dealing with for a few years. My hands no longer hurt with the fire. I brought both hands up and clenched my fists in awe of not having pain in them.

To my utmost shock, neither hand was like I remembered them. These hands were small, and very dainty looking hands. My fingers were slim and seemed longer than they had before. The nails were delicate in size and extended off the tips of my fingers about an eighth of an inch. That part was elating to me since I had never been able to grow a nail more than a tiny distance from the pink part of the nail because they were paper thin and broke too easily. Now, though, the nails had a look of hardness to them that gave it a stoutness that I had never had before.

I turned the hands over several times and looked at them closely. My hands had been loosing tone and the skin had been getting very wrinkled from the loss of flesh under the skin but now, they were the picture of health. The skin was elastic and well fleshed out but yet not overly so. They were perfect for a woman’s hands.

A WOMAN’S HANDS!!!

It dawned on me at that time what John had meant when he said he had given me a gift that he thought I would like. I stripped off my semi-ill-fitting clothes and proceeded to look at my body. I went to the mirror on the door to my closet and studied myself.

The first thing I noticed was the picture of feminine perfection that reflected back at me. She was tall but not overly so. I had been 6’ tall but this woman was about 5’10”. Her body was slender for her size but yet, oh-so-female. Looking closely at her face, I could still see traces of myself in the reflection but it was a face that screamed out ‘I AM WOMAN!’ The prominent ridge above my eyes was gone and in its place was pleasingly smooth forehead. Riding across the forehead was a pair of slender eyebrows that were perfectly arched and thin without being too thin.

My eyes were a strange brown color though. I had always had blues eyes or at least grey eyes as I grew older. The nose was smaller than it had been in my life. High cheekbones were prominent below the eyes and guided the line of sight to the corners of a mouth surrounded but large puffy lips. A delicate chin with a tiny little dimple at the point was below the mouth. My eyes were drawn upwards at that point to the hair on the top of my head. For some reason, it looked fuller than it had ever been in my life. The grey in my hair was no longer visible and it was all an even colored dark brunette. My hair had always been a mousey brown color and it was immensely darker than it had ever been before nor as silky feeling as it was now.

I looked hard at the fine details of my face and realized that I had no aging signs at all. My face had the look of an eighteen year old. I looked like I had just barely got out of High School. That excited me, a lot.

Other things were starting to come into focus more for me. I noticed my shoulders were not even as wide as my hips were and my ribcage was narrower than before. I was nearly barrel-chested before. I was starting to have flashes of before and after running though my head. The comparisons were flying so fast that I was starting to get dizzy from it.

My waist was so thin that I was having a hard time trying to figure out how the upper part of my body stayed attached to the bottom part where it joined together the two halves. Below the waist, my hips were the widest thing on my body. I never really had hips before since they were fairly shapeless male hips. The butt that trailed the hips was impressive, to say the least. Where it looked like my waist was around 24” or so, my hips looked to 38”. My butt cheeks could only be described as perfect bubbles. They were very well rounded and expansive.

I looked back up my body into the breast area. I had been purposely focusing away from them even though they were standing out proudly a large distance from the ribs. Bringing my hands up to them, I lifted them and ran my fingers over the puffy nipples. Before, instead of standing out from the breast flesh, the nipples had sort of contracted. Now, though, standing out from the breast was just the beginning of what they did. The sensations I got from them nearly brought me to my knees. I realized that the breast implants I had gotten in my old life had completely ruined the feelings I received prior. I was suddenly curious. Did I still have the implants in my chest?

I knew where the implants were supposed to be located and I felt for them. After several minutes of poking and prodding my chest, I realized that the implants were still there. They were probably what was giving me the DD chest I had now. Oh well, I would live with it, especially if they felt like they did.

I continued my touchy-feelie way down the rest of my body. My legs were long and smooth. Not an ounce of cellulite at all in them. Again, prior to this, they were bumpy and course due to my advancing age. These legs were very well turned and were probably the most awesome legs I had ever seen.

I noticed that my humongous, size 12 man’s feet had become a small, dainty version of what I had prior. They looked to be about a size 8 women’s. I knew I was going to have to do some shopping for the correct clothes and shoes now.

I noticed also that my skin tone had changed from the ghastly white of skin that didn’t see daylight to an even darkness that was almost like I had been tanning all my life. I guess I wouldn’t have to lay out in the sun to get the well cooked version of such actions.

My attention turned back upwards to my crotch. I spread my legs a little bit to see my nether region. I had always hated how the area looked after the surgery. It was mostly bone dry in my vagina and I always had to lubricate with KY jelly to keep it open and prevent it from sealing itself closed. Now, the labia were glistening with the obvious signs of female arousal. As my fingers explored the area, I couldn’t help but become more aroused. I brushed the edge of my clitoris and swooned. That was a very highly sensitive area now. I took a deep breath and sent a lightly touching finger into the vagina. I feared that anything heavier would send me through the roof. I was wrong! The light touch was what sent me through the roof. I couldn’t help myself, it felt so good that I kept stroking myself.

After several moments, I felt skyrockets exploding in my mind. Somehow, I had achieved an orgasm, at least that’s what I thought happened. The more I thought about it later, after I recovered, I realized that I indeed did have an orgasm. But it was like nothing I had ever felt in my prior existence. It was an explosion of epic proportions and somewhere deep inside my mind, a slut was born. I had to get more of that feeling and I knew how to get more.

Chapter 4

I finally came clear in my mind and I shook my head to clear away the last remnants of my orgasm. I realized that I was lying on the floor from when my legs collapsed on me. That could have been part of the skyrockets I felt; the back of my head hurt a bit, almost as if I hit it when my legs gave out underneath me. I resolved to stay on the bed when I explored myself in the future.

I slowly got up to my feet again and decided that it was time to get dressed. I went to my dresser and pulled out a pair of panties. Not really thinking, I started to pull them up my legs. When they finally settled on my hips, I realized that the fat woman’s panties really didn’t look all that good on me now. They hung loosely everywhere and just didn’t do my beautiful hips any justice. I was going to have to go do some shopping later to get some clothes that would fit me better.

I was excited to be able to get something that would fit me like a glove. I knew I was going to have to thank Mr. Coffee for giving me back my youth again. I grabbed my bathrobe and put it around me. Again, I resolved to find one that was a bit sexier than this one was.

I went to find my benefactor.

When I arrived into the living room, there was no person present anywhere. I went around the house looking for him. I couldn’t find him anywhere. He had left without me knowing it. I had no idea where to find him since he didn’t leave a note or anything to let me know where I might be able to find him.

I went out onto the porch of my house and looked up and down the street to see if he was walking close by. I didn’t see anyone around except for a few neighbors working in their yards. I went towards one woman I knew well to ask her if she had seen John walking anywhere.

“Hi Lacy, how are you doing?” I asked her. Before I realized what I was doing, my hand immediately jumped up to cover my mouth. In the time I had been awake, I hadn’t said a word. My voice had changed and was now a lovely soprano tone. I had assumed that the damages done years ago by a careless doctor who took too much of the adams apple cartilage away.

My neighbor looked at me quizzically. “I’m sorry, do I know you? You look familiar but I can’t remember actually meeting you before.”

“I’m Michelle Parsons from next door. I’ve been having some work done to help my self esteem.” I told here, lying to cover exactly what actually happened.

“I don’t think so young lady. There is no way that any doctor could give Michelle the looks you have and change the body shape she had. No man regardless of what he had done could look so naturally female as you do. Nope, I don’t think I believe you. Care to try again?” She responded.

“I’m sorry, I meant to say I’m Michelle Parson from next door’s niece. My aunt is away for a while on a trip and she asked me to watch her house while she was away.” I was secretly elated about her comment about body shape and naturally female.

“OK, I can see the family resemblance in your face. Why would you try to fool me into believing you were your aunt? Oh, never mind. I can see you have something else on your mind. What’s up?”

I had to see if she had seen John at any time before I came out of the house. “I had a friend over a while ago, but we fell asleep watching a movie and I didn’t get a chance to tell him something important before he left because I was still asleep when he left. I have no idea when he left and was wondering if you seen him leave the house.”

“Hmm, are you talking about that absolutely huge black man I seen come from the area of the house?” was the response.

“Oh yes, that’s him. He’s a big teddy bear and wouldn’t harm a fly, but a lot of people are afraid of him because of his size. He really is a sweet man but his size intimidates a lot of people.”

“I hate to tell you this honey, but he was picked up by the police that was cruising the neighborhood on patrol. I heard them say something about vagrancy and possible breaking and entering charges for some place that was burglarized during the night.” She told me.

Oh no! I had to get dressed and get to the police station quickly and get him out. I had the feeling he wouldn’t last in jail very long. He seemed like an overly sensitive fellow and with his gift he could have some serious problems. I thanked the neighbor and rushed back to the house.

I looked for any clothes that I could find that would come close to fitting me. I discovered a pair of jeans in the back of the closet that I hadn’t worn in years because they didn’t fit me anymore and put them on. I found a top that was a bit larger than my now slender frame was and put it on. I knew better than to try to put a bra on that would not fit me without causing me some major pain in my breasts. I knew no pair of shoes in the closet would fit me so I just grabbed a pair of flip-flops and slid my feet into them.

A quick brush of my hair and I was on my way out of the house. I grabbed my purse and keys to the vehicle on the way out and locked the house behind me.

Knowing that I didn’t match the picture on my driver’s license, I took things very carefully to the police station. I was very nervous because of the fact that he could be in big trouble. The area of the city I live in really didn’t tolerate strangers very well and a gigantic black man would have raised a lot of flags if he was walking around my neighborhood alone.

I pulled into the parking lot of the police station and went to the police’s office. As I approached the counter, the middle aged man behind the desk gave me the creeps with his leering stares and my chest. He didn’t say anything to me for several moments before I started getting upset with him.

“Hey, creep! I didn’t come in here to have you stare at me. I have a friend in trouble here and I need to get him out.” I yelled at him.

His face went bright red and he finally looked me in the eyes. I could tell he was reluctant to stop looking at my breasts. I knew it had been a bad thing to be without a bra but I hadn’t really had any problems before this point but that is a different story that I won’t go into now. My outburst brought the attention of what was obviously his supervisor, who came out of his office to see what was going on.

“Sergeant Tanner, you’re excused from the desk. Go compose yourself.” The man said, guiding the wayward sergeant away from the post he had manned so rudely. “I’m sorry ma’am, what can I do for you?”

“A friend of mine was picked up in my neighborhood a bit ago for vagrancy and I assumed he was brought in here and booked. I came in to pick him up since he was vagrant, he was visiting me,” I said.

“Hmm, ok. Who was this person?” He asked.

“His name is John Coffee. His is a very large black man, probably about 7’8” or so, probably around 350 pounds, maybe a bit more than that. He’s is a quiet man even though he talks with a soft but very deep voice. He didn’t deserve to be hassled like that when he was running an errand for me.” Ok, so I stretched the truth a bit.

“Alright, we did pick someone up that matches that description but we weren’t able to get any decent information from him as to why he was in the neighborhood. Someone had reported seeing him yesterday in the area but had lost track of him until he was spotted this morning. Do you have any ID to verify yourself? If it turns out that we wrongly arrested him, we will gladly release him.”

I knew this part had been coming up. I was a bit nervous about showing any identification, since it wouldn’t be as I now was but how I had been before. ‘Oh well,’ I thought. I pulled out my driver’s license and slowly handed it to him. “Before you look at this, I have to tell you that my picture doesn’t match how I look right now. I have had some very extensive work done on my face and I am only now getting completely healed up. I haven’t had a chance to go get my license updated, so it is not going to look very good.”

“That’s ok. I just need to verify your identity and address as being in the area where we picked him up.” He replied.

I handed the license over to him. He looked at it, looked up at me and back and forth several times before he said anything.

“I see what you mean about not looking the same. Whoever worked on you did a fantastic job. It must have cost you a bundle to have the work done. I can see the faint resemblance to the picture to you, so I have to assume this is you and you’re not pulling a scam. Just a second while I pull up something on the computer.”

He turned towards the desk computer and typed away for a moment. He seemed to be reading something that was interesting. I could only imagine what was in the computers about me. He was distracted for several moments.

When he finally turned his attention back to me, he said, “Ok, just a few simple questions I need to ask to verify your identity.” He proceeded to ask me a string of questions that were sort of stupid but I could see the reasoning behind them. They were the sort of questions I would ask if I was trying to make sure I was talking to the actual person they were concerned with. I must have answered them correctly because I could see him visible relax.

“You really need to get into the Department of Motor Vehicles to get your license updated. This picture doesn’t do you any justice at all. Ok, let’s see here. What is the name of your friend again?” He asked me.

“His name is John Coffee, sir.” I told him.

“Ok, that checks out. He was booked into the jail under vagrancy charges as well as a possible burglary that occurred last night a couple of blocks from where you live.” I was told.

“I will vouch for him on the burglary charges. He was with me all last night and had stepped out this morning to run to the store for me. When he didn’t return, I got worried. When I went outside to see if I could find him, my neighbor told me that he had been picked up by the police, hence I came here. He didn’t steal anything from me, nor would he from anyone else. He is a good man, one that could easily be run rough shod over.”

“If you’ll vouch for him on his whereabouts last night at around midnight, then we won’t press the burglary charges. Since he was at your place, the vagrancy charge will be dropped. I’ll get him through central processing and have him out to you as quickly as I can. Would you like to wait in my office while I have him brought out? It would save you from the problems like you had with my sergeant.”

“Certainly, if it’s not a problem with you. I was in such a hurry, I didn’t even have a chance to dress decently this morning. I’m really embarrassed about all this, but I was really concerned about John. I hope you understand.”

“Yes, ma’am. I completely understand. Most women are like that, thinking with their emotions and hearts instead of the brains. Have a seat and I’ll be back out with him shortly.” He said and walked away to a different area of the station.

I think I waited for nearly an hour before they brought a humble giant out to a point where I could see him from the office I sat in. I stood up and walked towards him. I could see his eyes light up when he spotted me. A slight grin tilted his lips at the corner but it was quickly wiped from his face.

The Lieutenant approached me as soon as John was in the room. “Ma’am, I need to speak with you for a moment. Please come with me into my office again.”

I followed him back into the office I had sat for quite some time.

“I need to pass along some information that might be enough to save your life. If I were you, I would try to stay away from this man or get away from him as quickly as possible. He has a family history of murderers and it could very easily run to him if you aren’t careful. I don’t want to see you hurt. Please take my advice and keep away from him.” He said to me.

I knew better than that as to what John was capable of. “I’m sorry you think that low of him, Lieutenant. He really is a good man and if there was any way that I could prove it to you, you probably would still not believe it. I hear what you say but I know his family history and I will keep my opinion to myself, seeing as to how you would think I have been brainwashed by him. So, for now, I will just say thank you for your help. If I have any problems, I’m sure you’ll be the first to say ‘I told you so’. But I know there won’t be any problems.” I told him with finality.

I left the office and went up to John. He was just standing there looking forlorn.

“Come on, John. Let’s go home. I owe you a great home cooked meal.” I told him, before taking his hand and guiding him out of the police station.

Before I got to the door, I heard the Lieutenant’s voice holler out, “Remember what I told you, Michelle. Remember what I told you.” After that, all I heard was the door closing behind me. I didn’t look back at him.

I guided John to my car and unlocked the doors and motioned for him to get in. He seemed to be very hesitant to do so for some reason. I looked up at him and asked, “What’s the matter John?”

“Ah’s sorry ma’am, but yoah cah taint big ‘nuff fer meh to get in. Ah’d break it lahk Ah did ta da cawp’s cah. Dey was rally mad dat Ah did dat. Even dow Ah tole dem dat t’wood break.”

“Well, would you be willing to trust me? I know for a fact that the police are cheap on the repairs of their vehicles and they probably scrimped on the support system in the car. Mine isn’t as bad as theirs are. I’ve had bigger things in it that you are. I’ve even put five people in it that weigh more than what I think you do. You may have to lay over on your side in the back seat in order to fit but it won’t be a very long ride home.”

I suited my words to actions and opened the back door for him. As he sat in the car, I noticed that the tires seemed to grow thinner and the carriage sit a bit closer to the ground. I could hear the springs groan pretty loudly from the abuse they were taking but everything held up and he was soon completely in the car. I shut the door, went around to the driver side and got in.

As I drove home, I noticed that the car was acting more sluggish than it has ever done in the past but I knew that it was because of the big man in the back seat. I had to be careful as I drove into the driveway of my house. The front end scrapped the bottom wind screen on the front of the vehicle. Unfortunately, when I got the back end to the drain pan on the side of the street, I grounded out and couldn’t go any further.

John reached over to the door, opened it and got out. The car rose enough to let me get into the garage. John casually walked into the garage after I was in.

I didn’t really say anything more about the bottoming out of the car but he had a sheepish look on his face about it. I just shrugged my shoulders and opened the door into the house while hitting the button to lower the garage door.

“John, if you need to use the bathroom or anything, please feel free. I’m going to start fixing dinner. Is there anything that you would like to eat? Heaven knows, I owe you a lot for what you’ve done for me.”

He just nodded his head and left the kitchen and me so that I could fix a meal. He never said if there was anything that he wanted to eat. So I just started fixing whatever I happened to find. I knew that a man that big would have an appetite that would be quite large, so I prepared myself to make a meal large enough to satisfy ten people. Even if it would take every bit of food I had in my cupboards to do it.

Chapter 5

Later in the evening, John was sitting on my couch with a contented look on his face. “Ma’am, dat was de best meal Ah’ve had in a lawng tahm. Ah tank ya fer it.”

“You’re very welcome, kind sir. It was most definitely my pleasure to do so for you. John, please don’t think unkindly of me but I have some questions to ask and I really need some straight answers about it. I’m not trying to seem ungrateful for the wonderful gift you gave me but I need to find out what it is that you did to me.”

Over the next few hours, I questioned him about how he does it, what it is and where it came from. I asked him about the extent of my changes and what I would be able to do now.

He told me all about what happened to his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, how they came to be accused of crimes that inevitably caused them all to be executed for murders that they didn’t really commit. All they were trying to do was heal the injuries that caused the deaths of the people they were accused of killing. Somehow, I knew that he was telling the truth about that.

When he told me about the changes he caused in me, he assured me that I was 100% female and any genetics test would see that. He said he was able to repair all the damages in my body caused by the surgeries I had had in the past and he took away the part of my ‘body code thing’ as he called it, and fixed it so that it would be female. He said that he was able to somehow see the aging poisons that were accumulating in my body and was able to get all of them out and make me younger again. He said that he was able to strengthen my system up so that I would be able to live longer but he couldn’t say for sure how long I would live. It was up to my body to make the decision for itself.

He then told me something that I was a bit surprised about and he was really embarrassed about. He said he accidentally changed my skin color to be a black person’s and that it would quickly darken to nearly his coloration. When he told me that, I had to look at my hands and remember my earlier thoughts about my skin looking like it had a permanent tan on it. I accepted it with grace. So I would be an African-American, big deal. I have lived with greater problems before and this would me nothing in comparison. So I would have to learn to live with racial discrimination. Again, it was nothing to worry that much about.

While I spent all the time talking to him, I had been doing some thinking about myself and my future. I also thought a lot about John. He was a lonely man. He had been doing a lot of wandering around the country by himself. His mother died when he was ten and he had been passed around to various foster homes until he became too big and ate too much for them to be able to support him. He had been kicked out of his last home when he was 16 and he hasn’t had a steady place to live since then.

I offered him a place to stay for as long as he wanted to stay there. I wasn’t concerned about his abilities and his chances of getting a job to help support the place. With his size and strength, he could easily find work that made the best of his abilities.

When it was getting late, I started getting restless and made up my mind that I would offer my body to him. It was sort of a gift return. I took his hand and lead him into the bedroom where I proceeded to undress in front of him. Once I was nearly done, I started to undress him. I had problems reaching high enough to unbutton the top of his shirt.

When I finally had his pants off, I noticed that the old adage was true: If a man had big feet and big hands, he would also have a big dick. At first glance, I was afraid of allowing that monster to enter my body.

When it finally came down to it, I hadn’t anything to fear about it killing me. My body accepted his very large size with ease. It was almost as if I was made for him specifically. I went to sleep that night with a very big smile on my face and I made sure that he had one too. As much as the bed groaned and creaked when he moved, it held up to his weight without any major problem. I fell asleep in his warm, strong arms and felt secure for the very first time in my life.

#*#

When morning finally arrived, I awoke to a feeling of being slightly off-balance. My body had a tendency to lean towards my left and I wasn’t really sure why. When I looked to my left, I got a huge shock seeing a huge black man sleeping there. Then my brain did its morning reboot and I finally woke up to the memory of the previous day and night. The thought of the previous night brought a smile to my face in remembrance. My nipples tingled and my crotch gave a pulse. They definitely had liked what had happened to them.

My bladder was feeling some pressure and I tried to wiggle out of the bed trying not to wake John up. He was certainly a quiet sleeper. Most men I had had an opportunity to sleep with had been very noisy sleepers and practically drove me away from their beds. I hadn’t heard a sound out of him all night long.

I was able to squeeze my way out from under his arm and made my way to the bathroom. When I sat down, I noticed that the coloration of my skin had changed to a slightly darker tone. Not quite as dark as John but it certainly wasn’t the light color of the previous day.

My morning relief break over with, I cleaned myself off and washed my hands. I studied the beautiful face that reflected back at me from the mirror. I was still amazed that this woman was actually me. The seeming youth of the face belied the agedness of the eyes. She may have looked years older than her eighteen years by looking in the eyes but there was a twinkle there that showed a contentedness in her life. I was happy for the first time in years.

I made my way back to where John was lying. I eased back into the bed and skootched my way back into his arms. As I was doing so, he woke up. I took advantage of it and gave him a warm kiss. He returned it just as warmly.

“Good morning, lover.” I told him sincerely. “How are you today?”

He got a tilted grin on his face. “Ah don’ think Ah’ve been anneh betta den Ah am now. T’ank ya fo’ sharin’ yaseff lahk ya did. Ya din’t haff ta, ya know.”

“Honey, I have to ask you. How much darker will my skin get?” I asked him.

“Ah’m not shoer but Ah t’ink itta be a bit mowah. Ah see tat its dawka den it was yestadey. Ah’ve navah done dis befowah to a parson an’ Ah’m not shoer how much itta goin’ ta go.” He told me.

“I’m not complaining, honey. It certainly can’t be any worse than I had before. My biggest problem is that I’m not going to be recognized by anyone I know and I may have to disappear or something.” All at once, I realized what I was saying. I may to have to make it look like I was dead and leave the area I had called home for a long time. I was saddened by the prospect. So much so that I couldn’t control what I was feeling. I started crying.

John wrapped his huge, warm arms around me and made quiet shushing noises to me. I cried until I was used up. I felt better afterwards but I knew that I still had to uproot my life.

Since it was Monday, I couldn’t see going to work since they wouldn’t know me from Adam if I was to actually go. I finally got up out of bed. I had wanted to have another sex session with John but I knew I was going to have some serious problems shortly if I didn’t do something about my now-former life.

“John, I have to close out this chapter of my life. I can no longer stay here because I am no longer who I was. You can’t stay here for the same reasons. I think that for the better, I will be going with you where ever you go. I owe you my life, since you did save it. I haven’t felt better in a long time. It was only because I had been feeling so poorly that I even went to a doctor. If you will let me, I would like to be your woman. Or wife, if you wish it.” I told him with a finality I felt all the way to my heart. I could see the kind, considerate man he was inside.

People could only see the fierce looking giant and could only be afraid of him.

“Ya don’ hafta do dat. Ah wood ratta goes it alone. If’n Ah do goes ennehwhare.” He told me in return.

“John, I really like you a lot. You are a kind and gentle soul. You are the kind of person I would like to get to know better and to do that I would like to be with you. I can feel something inside that is more than likely a growing love for you. I know it will grow deeper if you are willing to let it. Please say you’ll let me come with you. Please?” I pleaded with him.

I could see the emotions warring within his mind, reflected on his face. He was a man without guile and I could also see that he might have been hurt by someone previously. He was silent for several minutes before his face relaxed.

“If’n ya wants ta come, ya cayen. Ah can’ts stops ya from doin’ whatcha wants ta do. Ya’re free ta lives as ya wants ta.” He said.

“Thank you, John. You don’t know how much this means to me. I have some affairs I need to get straightened out before we can leave. But we have to be gone tomorrow.”

#*#

I immediately got up and put on some clothes. Before I left the room, I went over to where John was still laying and gave him a big kiss. Just the touch of his lips to mine gave my body a wonderful tingle and my crotch again gave a pulse that said it was ready for some more action. I had to ignore it as much as I could, even if I didn’t want to.

I spent the rest of the day working with a real estate agent on the sale of my house. Since I had been in it for fifteen years and had never refinanced it, I had a tidy chunk of equity built up in it. Since I told them I was moving away, I wouldn’t be able to sign any closing documents unless they had something that I could sign then to give them authorization to sell it for me.

The agent made the arrangements for her company to buy the house and sell it themselves. I did lose a small part of the equity but I was able to walk away from the house without losing too much money. They would sell all the possessions I had that I was leaving there and forward the money into the account I set up for that purpose. After it was all said and done with, I had made $50,000 on the sale of my house and furnishings.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to go anyplace without problems while carrying John in my little vehicle. We went and made arrangements for the purchase of a motor home that had a suspension system that was enough to handle John’s weight. It took up half of my house sales profit but I felt that things would be ok in the future. I got a tow bar for my little car so that we could pull it around and be able to use it if it was needed.

Once everything was done and settled, I started packing the things that I wanted to take with me. My absolute rock bottom necessities were packed into the car and the motor home. John, of course, had nothing to his name. He had been wandering around the country for so many years that he only got what was needed when he needed it. He had never had a steady job and never hung around very long in any one place. I had some things that I needed to talk to him about that would hopefully give him some peace with his gift and his life.

Chapter 6

That night after dinner, I went over to where John sat reading a book. I had to smile at the sight. Here sat this huge man with this little paperback book in one hand that made it look even smaller than it was. John surprised me when we were going through my possessions and I was thinking of throwing all my books away, with the exception of a few that were my favorites. He went through all the books and told me that he wanted to keep them. He said that he hadn’t been able to read a book in a long time and he really liked what I had on my shelves. He was so engrossed in the one he was reading that he didn’t hear me approach. He jumped as I sat down beside him.

“I’m sorry hon, I didn’t mean to startle you.” I told him.

“Dat’s awright ma’am. Ah’s so capshud by de book dat Ah din’t sees ya.” He said rather sheepishly.

“ Ma’am, that makes me feel so old John. Please, call me Michelle or even Shelly it you prefer. But please, don’t call me ma’am again?”

“Yes’m..., Ah mean M’Shell.” He at least tried, I couldn’t fault him for that.

“Good enough. John, I really needed to talk to you about something. I hope you don’t mind but I really feel it could benefit you in the future. It will also give people less to fear about you.”

“Awright, whatcha need ta tawk abou’?” He asked.

“John, you have a gift that could benefit humanity and you shouldn’t be afraid to use it. Why is it that you don’t like using it?” I asked.

“’Cause it hurts meh insahds when Ah do uses it. It barns badly and Ah’m weak and tarred aftawads. Ah cain’t use it offen or Ah cain’t move aroun’ annehmowah.” He told me.

I asked a lot of questions of him concerning his gift. He really didn’t know how it or why. He told me that if he was relaxed enough or unprepared, he could see into a person’s mind, such as happened with me, and could tell if they were a good person or not. I finally had enough information to ask him what I needed to.

“John, if there was anyone you could share your gift with, without any thought of doing it or not, who would it be?”

“De oneh peepo Ah woulds hep wit’ou’ tinkin’ ‘bout it woulds be a chahl. De sick uns aw de ones Ah woulds hep mowah den annehting. Ah fees sarrah fowah dem sins dey cain’t hep what’s wrong wit ‘em.” Was his reply.

I had sort of figured that much. Children were the world’s futures and so many of them were dying young because of the poor genetics of the parents. They were being handed down diseases that they couldn’t handle and it was killing them. The statistics of child mortality was increasing every year it was getting to be millions of children every year were dying younger and younger.

“John, if you could help out with the healing of children and make some money doing so by using your gift, would you?” I asked him.

“If’n ya means ta take ‘vantage of de p’rents b’cause dere chillen are sick, no Ah wooden do dat.” He responded quickly.

“Ok, what do you want out of life?” I had to ask him.

“Ah wants ta has a fambly, frens, a home of mah own an’ not has ta worreh dat Ah has dis gift Ah has. Ah don’ lahk hassin’ it. It has been a curse ta meh buts Ah has ta live wit’ it.”

“John, honey, what you describe is what every person wants in life. Each and every one of us has had to live with a curse. Mine was what I called my birth defect, which you cured so wonderfully. But the biggest thing about what we all want in our lives has its costs. A person can’t live without money. The thing about charging people for using your gift is that you are providing a service to the child as well as allowing the parent to have their child for much longer than they would have and at a cheaper price than the parent would have had to begin with. All the hospitalizations the child would have in the future would be taken away but a token fee from the parent for a service rendered is something that you should think about. I think its something that you should think about. Better yet, think of it as a potential job. A service for a paycheck.”

I could see that that sort of idea hadn’t occurred to him. His face took on the look of concentration again. I knew he was at war with himself and his ethics and also his way of life. But I knew this was going to be good for him and for some very sick children if he would agree to it.

The whole thought process must have been exhausting for him, for when his face finally relaxed, I saw a peace spread out from his eyes.

“De way ya puts it, Ah tink Ah ken do it dat way. Buts Ah raquars dat if’n de p’rents cain’t pay, dey don’ has ta. Is dat awrights wit’ ya?”

“John, I can guarantee you that each and every parent that has their child cured of whatever is making them sick, they would pay everything that they could in gratitude. But I think you’re right about the conditions. I’ll make an additional requirement too. We will deal only with the parents and the child. If they don’t want the service, then we won’t force it on them. But it may take a bit of time before people will accept that the children are cured. We also need to make sure that no one tries to take this away from you.” I thought for a moment more. “There will be some rather unscrupulous people who may try to prevent you from helping these children and they may make it very rough on you. I will do what I can to limit the problems but it may be rough at times.”

I thought for another moment. “John, would you marry me?” I asked in the spur of the moment. “I know that it should be you asking but I think that it would benefit both of us in the long run. Besides, I really think I love you. I have only known you a couple of days but yet I see how gentle you are as well as how caring you are. I had thought that I might love you before but I really know it now. When we leave tomorrow, lets go get married. Alright?”

A look of surprise struck his face. He didn’t know what to say. He remained silent but numbly nodded his head yes. Elated, I wrapped my arms around his neck and proceeded to give him a warm, all-encompassing kiss. The rest of the night was spent making passionate love. I was now an engaged woman and would be wed on the morrow. I let loose my inhibitions and treated the man as if I were a wanton whore. I loved every minute of it.

End Part 1

Chapter 7

I was up bright and early the next morning getting myself ready. Knowing that I was going to have to make a quick side trip to a clothing store, I dressed as lightly as I could. Needless to say, that was the easy part, since I didn’t really have any clothes that would fit me very well. I was probably going to have to do a lot more shopping later but I felt the need to get just a couple sets of clothes so that I could have something decent to wear to get married in and then something to change into afterwards.

I was also going to have to see what I could do to get John into some good clothes also, but he would be a rather difficult fit due to his size. I did know of some men’s big and tall stores that might, hopefully, have something that would fit him.

Once I was ready, I woke John up so that he could get himself ready. I knew he would have a hard time in the shower due to his size, I felt he could make due regardless. If anything, I could rig a hose up outside and run it in the window or the bathroom, which is sort of what he told me he did whenever he needed to take a shower. Or at least he said he would hang a hose up someplace and get an outdoor shower at least. He didn’t really like taking a cold one but most times, he had no choice in the matter. He did prefer hot ones though.

Once both of us were ready, we stopped at the local mall and went into the JC Penney store where I was able to get a couple sets of clothes, shoes, lingerie and other vital necessities. We then went to the big and tall store where we were able to get John a couple of sets of clothes too. He looked sharp in the suit I got him although he did look rather uncomfortable. I knew how he felt since as a man, I hated to wear a suit or as I heatedly called them: monkey suits. His situation was that he had never worn anything like it before, since he was rather difficult to fit, again because of his size.

One of the last things I purchased was two wedding rings so that we could seal the vows with. Since gold was a scarce commodity these days, I purchased two tungsten rings that would serve just as well. John’s wound up being almost large enough to be used as a bracelet on my now slenderer wrists.

A quick drive to the city hall, we purchased the marriage license, luckily we didn’t have to have a blood test since the state took away that necessity a couple years before. We went and made arrangements with the local Justice of the Peace to perform the wedding ceremony. While we waited for them to get the morning court session over with, I held John’s hand and cuddled up against him. I felt so warm and secure with him that I really didn’t want to leave his side.

The wedding itself was over rather quickly since the Judge wanted to get off to his lunch. It didn’t make it any less romantic to me since I was in heaven next to the man who I had quickly grown to love. We got our certificate and left. A bite to eat, or at least a bite for me, we packed ourselves into the motor home and left the city.

John enjoyed the ride, since he normally had to walk or ride in the back of a pickup because he was too big to fit in normal vehicles. Since the driver seat was barely big enough to fit me, I did all the driving. Of course, John had never learned how to drive but that was fine with me. We drove to the state capital where I knew there would be a large enough hospital that catered to sick children.

Once we arrived, I found a place to park the rig for the night that wouldn’t be too costly for us. Fortunately, the campground was only a couple of miles from the hospital and there was a mall nearby where I could get some more clothes to wear. I didn’t want to have to wear the same outfits all the time.

I managed to spend a mere $2500 on clothes and accessories but I still left out a lot of stuff that I would wind up getting in the coming weeks. But I felt that since summer was coming on, I could limit my wardrobe to things that I would be able to wear during the warm months ahead. I did get some cooler weather clothes but I limited them for the reasons as stated before.

John, I did manage to find him some clothes that would fit his gigantic frame that he was more comfortable in. At least he didn’t look like a down and out homeless man in his clothes. I knew that if we were going to have any sort of contact with hospitals or people inside them, he would have to look better than a bum. He wasn’t happy about it but I did get him a few nice outfits that made him look classy but not like he did at the wedding.

That night, after our wedding night nuptials, we lay in post orgasmic bliss. I had been thinking about another way of making money that I had to approach him about.

“John, honey, can I ask you something?”

“Ya jus’ did sweethawt.” He said with a smile on his face.

Knowing he was just teasing me, I gave him a light pat on his chest to chastise him. “Silly, you know what I mean.” I told him playfully.

“Ah knows what cha mean. But go ahayd an’ ask what ya wanted ta.”

“I have been thinking about another way to make more money but it will depend on what you think about it.” I told him.

He got a real serious look on his face when I brought up the ‘M’ word. “Ah hopes dat ya ain’t plannin’ on usin’ mah gift fowr yar own parpuses. Ah won’ be a party to it. Ah’ve had udders trah ta do dat ta meh befowar an’ Ah wooden’ let em. Dat goes fowar yew.”

It was my turn to go serious on him. “John, I really hope you don’t think that low of me. I don’t think of you as my own personal bank roll. If anything, I would like to help other people like myself who have had their sex changed by surgical means or are about to. Can you do what you did to me to others?”

The stern look on his face relaxed a bit as I said that. “Ah ken do dat but Ah wood has ta use de gift to mak shoer dat dey desarved ta use it on dem. Ah kent leyt someun’ get it fowar bad reasons. Ah wood has ta touch dem an’ Ah don’ts lahks ta touch peepul unlesses Ah has ta.”

“Hon, one thing I wouldn’t do is force you to do something you didn’t want to do. If you need to screen candidates, then that is your right. All I would like to do is help people like myself to live a better life. Already I’m happy with mine. It will be better being with you, my love.” I told him.

His demeanor melted when I called him ‘my love’ and I knew he would accede to my request. But I wasn’t going to push the matter with him. I cared too much for him to actually stress and already touchy situation with him. Nor would I ever make the demands of him to do so. It was his life to do as he saw fit and I just wanted to be there to share it with him, in the up and downs that it might bring. I wanted to share it as his partner as well as his wife.

I gave him a warm kiss and wrapped my body as well as I could around his and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 8

The next day, once we had both woken up sufficiently and eaten, we made our way to the hospital we had decided to start with the healing of the children. I had no idea how we would actually be able to get to the point we could heal them, but I figured that I could volunteer my services as an aid to help out the children that needed it the most. That way, I could gain the trust and confidence to approach the parents that were coming to visit their sick children.

Volunteering was the easy part since the hospital was understaffed and it was hectic around there. My first day there was hard and very emotional. I had to watch three children die who had been sick with cancer or leukemia or even AIDS. I had shed so many tears during the day that I was mentally and physically exhausted. I felt reluctant to even return the next day because of the emotional nature of being there.

Regardless of how I felt after the first day, I knew John was on the right track. These little innocents deserved to be able to live longer than they were. I had to help them out myself.

The second day started out somewhat like the first one in that I was assigned to help the older children again. These were the ages of 10 to 16. They were the ones that were the most heartbreaking, since they knew they were going to die and yet they still had a will to live that made my struggle to live seem feeble. I drew encouragement from them since they all had seen how I reacted to the ones who had died.

I was given hugs by several of the younger ones and welcomed back. It heartened me to know that I was welcome there. I did a running assessment all that day on who was the sickest and steeled myself to talk to their parents when they came in to visit. I made my choice and waited for the parents.

It wound up being nearly evening before the girl’s parents showed up. Both of them were haggard looking. It was hard to tell if it was because of the pressures of their daughter being sick or the struggle to keep a sanity factor with the knowledge that their daughter was going to die. I didn’t know which it was but I felt that it was the right decision to approach them.

When I did finally get the chance to talk to them, they were laughing it up with their daughter, telling her about the antics of her puppy that was at home. Though their lips were smiling, the sadness was highlighted in their eyes. Little Sarah was smiling bravely at the pictures they had brought of her puppy. I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye.

I caught the attention of her father and motioned for him to join me to talk. He nodded and made an excuse to leave his daughter and his wife alone for a moment. He followed me to a small waiting room and I asked him to sit down.

“Hi Mr. Stanton. My name is Michelle Coffee. I have been volunteering here in the hospital for the last few days and I couldn’t help but be taken by your wonderful daughter’s spirit. I have a proposal that I would like to put past you. I would also like you to discuss it with your wife and daughter but I would ask you not to talk to anyone else about it. It would be vital to the safety of someone dear to me that I ask this.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Mrs. Coffee. What would this be about?” he asked.

“It has a lot to do with healing your daughter of whatever the illness that is affecting her. I have a way for her…” I started to say.

“What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull on me? My daughter is dying and nothing can be done about that. The tumor in her head is taking up half her brain and it is a wonder she is still alive right now. Now you expect me to believe that you have some sort of ‘miracle cure’ that would take it away when the doctors here only give her at most a month before it kills her? Bullshit! I’ve had to live with this for several years now and all the crap that the doctors have tried have not done anything to solve the problems she has. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go spend some time with my daughter.” He rose from the chair and moved towards the door.

“Mr. Stanton, before you leave, let me tell you this: last week, I was given two months or less to live because I had stage 3 breast cancer. Today, I am cured and I don’t have any trace of the cancer in my body. That is what I would like for your daughter to get.” By this time, I had tears running down my cheeks. “Your daughter is a precious little girl and she is entirely too young to die. I had to sit and watch three children yesterday die when I knew that I could have helped them live. I don’t want that to happen to anyone anymore. I would hate myself if I wasn’t able to get you convinced that your daughter could live, if you would give me a chance to help her.” At this point, I completely lost it and was sobbing openly.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders. A softly spoken voice said, “I’m sorry I was so harsh to you. I hope you can see what sort of things my wife and I have been through ever since our daughter was diagnosed with the tumor. Somehow, I believe you about you having cancer but you look so healthy that it is hard to swallow that. Let me tell you this: if there was any way you could cure my daughter of the cancer, my reward for that would be unlimited.”

I was brought to sniffles by then. “If I can do as I said I could, I wouldn’t ask for an unlimited reward. My reward would be enough that my husband and I could survive for a while.”

“If you do as you say you can, all you would have to do is name your price and I would pay it gladly.” I was told. “The only thing you would have to do is get your daughter out of the hospital for a little while and I would take it from there.”

“When would you want to do this?” He asked.

“The sooner the better. If we could do it today, she would probably be able to go home tomorrow or the next day.”

“Where would we have to take her?” He asked.

“Not far. I have a motor home out in the parking lot of the hospital and that is all the further you would have to go.”

“I think we can do that. Since she isn’t being given any chemo, we can at least take her outside for walks in a wheelchair. Could you give us half an hour to get it arranged?” he replied.

“Sure. All you have to do is look for the only motor home with a brightly colored bird flag flying over the top of it. I will be there waiting for you three.” I told him.

Nothing else was said, but he quickly exited the waiting room to go rejoin his wife and daughter. I checked out with the nurse’s station and left the building to rejoin John at the motor home.

Chapter 9

By the time I got back into the motor home, I was ready to collapse. My mind was drained as well as my emotions being strung out. I reached out to John to be hugged and kissed.

Once I was more relaxed, I advised him on the upcoming meeting. I knew he was rather nervous about the whole thing. But I knew he would do as he said he would.

All too quickly for either of us, a knock sounded at the door. I had cleaned up the bedroom area of the home so that we could take Sarah into there for the healing. I opened the door and stepped out to greet them. I knew they were going to have to meet John before they would be taken inside.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, Sarah, I would like you to meet my husband. John, could you come out here please?” I called into the camper.

The weight of his massive body caused the camper to rock slightly as he came to the door. His massive frame bent down to come out the tiny door and he had to turn slightly sideways to get out. Mr. Stanton took a step backwards as John finally hit the ground and stood up to his full height.

“Oh my god!” was all he could say.

I had to calm him down. “Mr. Stanton, this is my husband, John Coffee. I think it’s a good idea to meet him out here instead of inside the camper. There’s more room out here, as you can see. He is sort of cramped inside because of his size. But don’t let how he looks scare you. He really is a big teddy bear and won’t harm a fly.”

John held out his hand towards Mr. Stanton. Gingerly, he slowly extended his arm, almost as if he was expecting John to take it right off his shoulder. John lightly grasped the man’s hand and shook it. He then delicately took Mrs. Stanton’s hand and shook it also. He murmured greetings to each of them. Then he turned his attention to the little girl in the wheelchair. He got down on one knee to lower himself to a more viewable level.

“How’re ya feeling little princess? Ah hopes Ah din’t scared ya.” He told her.

“Nah Mr. After all I’ve been through, I wouldn’t be scared of a big teddy bear like you. But I’m not really doing too good. I’m going to die soon, the doctors have told me. Daddy and mom didn’t tell me what I had to come out here for but I’m glad I was able to meet you though. I can tell all my friends that I met the world’s tallest giant.” She told him.

I could see John melt at her words. “Well, little princess, Ah rally hopes dat ya won’t die. Ya see, ya comes out here ta see meh. I hopes dat ya wood layt meh takes away yas sickness. Den ya wooden haf ta be sicks no mowah.”

“Mr. If you want to take away my sickness, you’re welcome to it. The doctors can’t seem to be able to get rid of it.”

“Den woods ya lahk to come wit’ meh so dat we ken get yas sickness gone?”

Sarah looked up at her mother and father for permission. Neither one of them felt too confident about the prospects but they both nodded yes to her.

“Sure Mr. What do we have to do?” She asked him.

“De fust ting we needs ta do is go isahd de campa. Aits too hawt out heyah ta do anyting.” He bent ove r and picked her up out of the wheelchair.

It was a strange sight seeing that huge man picking up this tiny slip of a girl. She looked like a baby doll in his arms. He went back in the door of the camper and made his way to the rear bedroom.

I signaled her parents to join me but to do it quietly. Once we were inside, I closed the door to the outside world.

John had laid Sarah on the bed and was in the process of getting her comfortable. He was very gentle with her as he did so. When it seemed like he was ready, he told her, “Nayow, Ah’m gonna has ta touch ya buts Ah’m not gonna harms ya. Do ya trust meh ta do dis?”

She didn’t say anything but just nodded her ok.

John gently took her head in his hands and lowered his face towards hers. He acted like he was going to kiss her and at that point her father made a move to stop John from doing so. I put a hand on his arm to hold him back. He glanced at me and when I made the head motions that it was going to be ok, he relaxed somewhat.

When John was a couple of inches from her mouth, a bright light emerged from his mouth and went into hers. Her body tensed up and her eyes closed out of fright. The light was blinding to the observers in the room and we made motions to cover our eyes from the brightest part of the glare. Then the light vanished and John moved away from Sarah. Sarah visibly relaxed as she moved from consciousness to sleep. John got up and left the bedroom and made his way to the area where he was able to sit comfortably.

As he passed me, I could hear the coughing that was the signs of the sickness that he removed from Sarah. It sounded just like when he removed my cancer.

Both Sarah’s parents stood by with puzzled looks on their faces. They had no clue as to what had just happened. They kept looking at their daughter and then back to John. John sat in his chair coughing and trying to get a hold on the preparations to release the sickness from within himself. I motioned to the girl’s parents and waved for them to watch John.

About that time, John gave one final cough and tilted his head backwards. The mass of dark spots buzzed out of his mouth and headed for the ceiling. As with what happened to me, they winked out in a burst of light and puff of smoke. Quickly, all the motes were gone.

Both of Sarah’s parents were dumbfounded as to what they had just witnessed happening. Neither one could say a word. All they could do was stare at John.

Fatigue washed over Johns face as he finally looked up into the faces of the parents of the child he had just cured of a deadly disease. He eased his chair back into a reclined position and was quickly asleep.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Stanton turned to me with looks of bewilderment written allover their faces. It was Mr. Stanton that was able to give voice to the questions that I knew were forthcoming.

“What in the hell was all that? I have never seen anything like that in my life.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, would you please join me in back with your daughter? I’ll explain what it is that you just saw.” I led them both into the bedroom. I sat down and motioned for them to join me.

Once they did, I filled them in on John’s abilities. I didn’t say where it came from or how it worked, since I really didn’t know how it worked myself. By the time I was through telling them everything I could, they were looking at their daughter, who continued to sleep. Her color was now a healthy pink coloration instead of the pale white she had been before. Mrs. Stanton had tears running down her cheeks while her husband sat in mute joy. I suggested to them that they take their daughter back into the hospital for the night but in the morning, have the doctors run some additional tests on her to see if her cancer was cured in reality.

As Mr. Stanton picked his daughter up carefully in his arms, I could tell he was afraid to wake her up. It was almost disconcerting seeing a normal looking ten year old in her father’s arms when she had looked like a doll in John’s. Mr. Stanton exited the camper and his wife followed behind him pushing the wheelchair. They made their way back to the hospital with their daughter no longer in the chair nor possibly ever needing it again.

I felt good about what had happened that day. I knew we had done the right thing and I knew there would be more like that to come, once the word got out. I went back inside and sat down at the table with a cold drink. I wanted to wait for John before I went into the bedroom. I would have to wait for a while.

Chapter 10

It took John around six hours to wake up. I was now able to see first hand the effects of the using of his gift. I felt bad about the whole thing but I could see the tenderness he showed to little Sarah when he was talking to her. With that, I knew he would be a great father to children someday.

Once he was awake, I drove back to the campground where we were able to get a bite to eat and afterwards, we talked for a bit. The more I knew about this deeply intellectual man, the more I loved him. There were depths to him that at a casual glance, he would seem rather shallow. He wasn’t uneducated, rather the opposite. He did graduate high school but being browbeat a lot because of his size caused him to affect the clipped speech he spoke with. I think with time, I could help his self esteem boost to the point where he wouldn’t feel so self conscious about himself.

We talked about numerous things that could affect our future together. We talked about the past for each of us. Some of the things he told me about himself brought tears to my eyes. How my heart ached from the pain the man had suffered at the hands of his so-called peers. Unmercifully teased at the age of 12 when he was already 6’-6” tall. Losing his father at the tender age of 6 and his mother at 14. The things he suffered were more than most people could deal with without breaking. This giant of a man had an inner strength that was shining more and more to me.

He talked animatedly about his feelings in healing Sarah. When he had shook her parents’ hands, he felt even better about doing this sort of thing. Both of them were saddened about the future loss of their daughter and were trying to put on a brave face. Both of them blamed themselves for her getting the cancer, even though neither one of them were the cause.

Finally at around 1AM, I was borderline comatose even though John was still alert. I told him that I had to get to bed or I wouldn’t be worthwhile in the morning. Even though he wasn’t really tired, he joined me in bed and we made love for a while longer before both of us fell asleep.

#*#*#*#

When I got into the hospital that morning, I was beset upon by the doctors who were all trying to find out what it was that I had done to cure Sarah Stanton of her cancer. It seemed that her parents had had more tests run on her, as we had requested, and all came up negative for her having anything wrong physically. It was such a drastic turnaround for her state of health that it had the hospital in an uproar.

True to their promise to John and I, Mr. and Mrs. Stanton never said anything about what had happened but the hospital had video feeds everywhere and many showed me going with Mr. Stanton into the waiting room and staying with him for a while talking. Nothing was audible to them on the video but they knew something was up with what happened to Sarah.

I was hounded all day long as I tried to do my volunteering work. I could only deny doing anything to Sarah, which was the truth. I tried as hard as I could to ignore all the hoopla but it finally got the best of me and I broke down sobbing while fleeing to the nearest restroom.

I had known that I would catch the brunt of the attention since I was the most visible of John and I. I resolved to harden myself to the attention. I had made arrangements for Mr. and Mrs. Stanton to talk to one of the other parents of a sick child and have those parents take their child out to the camper without me being there.

During the day, I received a page of the intercom to report to the information desk due to a package that needed to be signed for. I was curious, so I swiftly made my way to the desk. Waiting there was a FedEx courier. I had to present identification as to who I was (thankfully I had taken the police Lt.’s advise and had my DL updated, my skin was now what could be termed as African-American) and I signed for the package that was delivered to me.

When I was able to find some alone time, I opened the package. Inside was a cashier’s check to John for $25,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Stanton. It had a lovely letter of thanks from them for healing their daughter. I had to put the check away in my purse and make sure that the locker where it was placed was locked securely. I called John on the cell phone I had given him and let him know what they had paid. He sounded upset that they would pay so much, especially since he hadn’t once requested any money from them and I didn’t put a price tag on the service.

After a while all the hub-bub going on around me let up so that I could concentrate on the attention I should have been paying to the children I was working with. In the latter part of the afternoon, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Stanton with their daughter in a wheelchair going down the hall. Mr. Stanton saw me and gave me a big smile. A questioning eyebrow cocked upwards. I interpreted it as he was asking me if I had gotten the check. I gave a quick nod but indicated that it was too high. He shook his head no and pointed to his daughter and gave a sign that it wasn’t high enough. All I could do was shrug my shoulder as it being ok with me if it was ok with him. Another smile from him said so. All this took place in seconds and nothing seemed out of the ordinary to anyone else.

After I was done with my volunteering for the day, I went out to the camper in the parking lot. John was asleep in his chair and there were signs that someone had been there prior to me entering. Knowing what had happened, I busied myself tidying up a bit.

John didn’t take too long in waking up, about three hours after I came into the camper. He told me that the Stantons had sent someone else out earlier who had a very sick son. The boy had leukemia and they hadn’t given him very much longer to live. After it was done, the parents took their son back into the hospital but they promised to make sure he was paid for healing their child. All John could do was hem and haw but never outright refused. But I could tell he was still happy about what he had done for them.

That night, I worked with John on his diction so that he would be able to come across more intelligently. He still had a problem with his Southern drawl and the deep vocal range of his speaking voice. Eventually, I was able to get him to talk a bit clearer and more precisely. He still had a lot of work to do in the future but I praised for the effort he put out in his speech. That night as we made love, he was so gentle and tender that it made my reactions more intense.

Chapter 11

The next several weeks, we managed to get away with over 30 healings of sick children before the hospital officials caught on to the system we were using to heal the children. I knew they would catch on eventually but it took a bit longer than even I thought it would take.

We had taken to moving the camper to various locations in the hospital parking lot so that it wouldn’t be in the same place more than one day. The word of mouth from parent to parent worked quite well for the most part. The money the parents paid John was incredible. There were times where the parents couldn’t pay very much and one time the grateful parents paid out $250,000. John was so flabbergasted that they would pay so much but they always knew a way to placate him. Of course, John was happy to be doing it for the children more than anything else.

I think it had a lot to do with the child-like nature of his personality. He had a near innocence about him that was very endearing to me and it also set the parents at ease and made the children like him instantly.

It really didn’t take long for the terminal children’s wing of the hospital to empty out. Slowly but surely, there were no new cases being brought in and I was sent to other areas of the hospital to work.

One day, after I reported in to work, I was approached by the director of the hospital and told to go with him. I knew what was up so I went with him quietly.

When I got into the office, the first thing I noticed was John was in there also. They had had to find him a large steel framed chair to sit in. I had noticed a broken wooden chair in the outer office and I realized what had happened with it when I saw John in the metal one. His weight couldn’t be supported by a normal chair. I calmly sat down in the chair next to him and took his hand.

The director went behind the desk where he sat trying to intimidate us both with glares. I just smiled at him as if I didn’t have a care in the world as to why I was there. Through my clasped hand with John, I could tell he was very nervous, it was shaking a bit. I gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Finally after his attempts to intimidate us failed, the director spoke up. “I hope you two realize the trouble you are in because of your meddling in the affairs of the hospital. You have cost us millions of dollars and we are going to see that you are suitably punished by the law for everything we can do to you. What have you got to say for yourselves now?”

Since I was the one who got this started, I spoke up. “I’m not really sure what you mean. We haven’t done anything that could hurt your hospital like you say we have.”

That sort of made him angry. “What do you mean you haven’t done anything? You’ve been practicing medicine without a license, operating in a non-sterile environment, not to mention risking the health of the children that were under our care for terminal diseases. What if one of those children your treated were to have died while in your care? I’ll tell you what: the parents could have sued us for negligence for allowing their child outside the building where they were being treated.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, there was nothing you could have done, since the parents were the ones who brought their children outside the hospital. If anything, they were in HERE to die since you couldn’t do anything for them except extend their suffering. Now, they aren’t suffering, they’re at home enjoying their lives. What else would you like to try for?”

“You should watch your tongue and flippant remarks young lady. You want to know what else we can throw at you? Try fraud, since you were working here under fraudulent reasons.”

“Now, you’re really starting to grasp at straws. I wasn’t working here, I was volunteering my services to the children’s ward. I didn’t once receive a single penny for my services in the month that I’ve been serving. I haven’t earned any money at all since I left my job last month. Do you call it fraud when someone cares enough about children to volunteer their time in a terminal ward? Go ahead and try it. See what happens then. As for practicing medicine without a license, there is nothing we did that required one. We didn’t diagnose those children or treat them. They came with their parents to pay my husband a visit. Nothing more. He couldn’t come to visit them inside because a hospital makes him nervous and uncomfortable. His mother died from mistreatment by doctors. I just pointed the children’s parents the direction of where he was at so that he could meet and cheer the child up. Isn’t it good for a child to get out into fresh air once in a while?” I responded to the director.

“Well, young lady, be it as it may, you will have to answer to the charges in court. Officers, you may escort them out of here.” He said to the police officers that had come in behind us and stood there at ready.

Defiantly, I stood up and turned around to face them. To my shock, one of the officers was a parent to one of the children we had cured. I had kept track of all the parents and children we had healed and I had set up a hidden camera to take their pictures. The man looked very uncomfortable with the chore he was assigned. I hadn’t known he was a police officer but then I didn’t care what the parents did, there was a sick child that needed to be healed and THAT was all I concerned myself about. I told John to go quietly also.

I walked up to him, turned around and put my hands behind my back. He reluctantly put the hand cuffs on my wrists. I allowed him to lead me out to his squad car. As he put me in the back seat, he said, “None of the charges they are filing will stick. They are more pissed off about the loss of income they would have from the insurance companies who were covering our children’s medical bills. Both you and your husband will be out in less than an hour. That much I’ll guarantee you. You both have given me my child’s future back and I will be eternally grateful for that.”

“I know what you are going through and I know it won’t be easy to deal with this. All I can say is just do your job but know that things will come out alright in the end. I’m not worried about any of this, nor what they could throw at us.” I told him.

He gave me a warm hug in return.

I watched John being led out of the building with an escort of security guards. They seemed ready to take him down to the ground if he made a wrong move. He didn’t do anything other than smile as they tried to load him into the police car. I watched as the rear end of the car sank to nearly ground level as he climbed in. Since it didn’t explode the tires or bust the shocks, I felt he would be ok, although the car might have a problem going through the speed bumps or speed dips that were around the area.

True to the officer’s predictions, we were out of the jail in less than an hour. The city attorney declined to press any charges since not once did we use any medical knowledge or do anything fraudulent that would be considered criminal activities. We knew we would be watched so our police officer friend (who’s name I never even knew) advised us to stay away from the hospital in the future. He did say that he would be passing the word around to any parent who’s child was sick as to where they would be able to find us. He knew that we couldn’t have more than one per day visit us and he assured us that no one would know otherwise. I felt confident that he would see to that exactly.

John and I picked up the camper from the impound yard where it had been towed, but we didn’t even have to pay an impound fee. I was dismayed at the major disaster that the inside was left in. It was obvious that someone had torn it apart looking for illicit drugs or whatever it was that we used to ‘heal’ the children with. They would never know just how it was done.

That night at the campground, I made John and I some supper and we ate in relative silence. I could tell John was not happy about having to spend more time in jail, no matter how short it had been. I suggested to him that we take a walk around the campground to get a breath of fresh air. He just nodded quietly.

I had multiple reasons for wanting to take a walk. The primary one was to see if I could spot the observers that were more than likely on our tails. We were going to be watched for quite some time to make sure that we didn’t violate the law or anything. What else could they do? We were doing something that they had no idea what it was and that bothered them greatly. They would try their best to get their hands on it and twist it to their way of thinking, but I knew they wouldn’t have a chance to actually get anything valid. We still had to watch ourselves or we could wind up being kidnapped or something and made to tell what we knew about whatever it was we did to heal the children. There were some very unscrupulous people in the world that would give anything to be able to control people however way they could.

In the course of our walk, I was able to see three separate vehicles that didn’t belong there. Fortunately, they weren’t in the campground proper, since that would be cause for alarm from the campground people. I made a silent vow to set up other cameras to show an external view and setup the proximity alert to anyone moving around close to the camper.

Once we were back at the camper, I made the necessary changes to the security of our home. Then we went to bed and settled ourselves in for our nightly session of love making. I really looked forward to this part of the day.

Chapter 12

The next morning, I knew that it would be worthless to try to go to the hospital, since I knew that I wouldn’t be permitted to enter the place again. Therefore, I spent the day doing research into the transgendered community for possible candidates for transformation. It was rather hard to do since it was obvious to me that the community was keeping a low profile and that they might not want to be found otherwise.

I did eventually manage to find a bar where they allowed TG people to frequent, but the biggest problem was that it was in a rather seedy area of the city. That was probably because the TG’s weren’t really wanted anywhere else. I discussed this with John but I could tell he wasn’t too comfortable about being in a bar. I knew he was a complete teetotaler and he never drank anything harder than a soda. I didn’t blame him since it was one thing that could get a person in trouble for quicker than anything else besides drugs, which he also abstained from. He preferred to keep total control of his life and not let anyone take his freedoms from him. I certainly didn’t blame him either.

We went to the bar that night and after the experience we had there, I had to admit to John that he was certainly right about avoiding a bar. We had driven in my car there and found a parking spot as close to the bar as we could. The short walk we had was through a gauntlet of rowdies who seemed to prey on the unsuspecting people walking up the sidewalk to the bar. They seemed to be leery of John since he was so big but they looked at me with a hunger in their eyes. Every one of the men that lined the sidewalks were black men and since I could be called a black woman, I was fair game to them. I clung to John’s arm the whole time we walked past them.

Once we were in the sanctity of the bar, I was finally able to relax somewhat. John and I found a booth near the back of the bar to where were able to watch the comings and goings of the patrons. We had several rounds of soda that night but we never did see any TGs that I could identify. I knew what sort of signs to look for since I went through that stage myself. I saw nothing out of the ordinary that night.

At one point, I had to make my way to the restroom since all the sodas I had been drinking had gone straight through me. I could barely hold control of my bladder before I made it to the back area where the restrooms were located. My concentration was so deep in getting into the toilet, I missed the signs of predators nearby.

My relief break over, I washed my hands and prepared to exit the room. I had gone in alone and there were no other women nearby as I exited. Just outside the door, I felt an arm wrap itself around my throat, cutting off my air supply. A hand covered my mouth, preventing me from making a sound. I could feel myself quickly losing consciousness from the lack of oxygen and blood flow to my brain. I could feel myself being dragged someplace but I couldn’t tell where since my sight was fading also. I feebly struggled to stay conscious and put up a fight to stay out of the clutches of whoever had hold of me. I had a huge disadvantage since I had been unprepared for anything happening. I lost the fight as I blacked out.

#*#*#*#*#

The very next thing I knew, I was in extreme agony. My throat hurt, as well as my ribs and I had a horrible burning in my stomach. My crotch also hurt with a sensation I couldn’t quite identify. I struggled back from the blackness I had been in to the sounds of flesh striking flesh. I opened my eyes to see John throwing a body against a wall before turning towards me. I could once again see the grayness creeping back into my vision and I could hear a rattling in my throat while I breathed.

John knelt down beside me, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs for help. I remotely felt his arms pick me up before I again lost consciousness.

#*#*#*#*#

John continued to yell for help all the while holding his wife’s heavily damaged body. The attackers had raped her and then stabbed her several times in the abdomen before slitting her throat. He knew time was of the essence and he reached out with his gift and prepared to heal her broken and nearly lifeless body. He could see the blood flowing out of her slashed throat slow to a mere trickle before ceasing completely.

He pushed with the gift harder than he had ever done in his life. This wonderful person who had taken him into her house, into her bed and then into her life had ceased to live but he knew it was in him to bring back that life.

The light that flowed out of his mouth and into her body was brighter than any other one he had sent forth. He kept at it for nearly fifteen minutes before he heard the sound of a gasp for air above his sobs of anguish over the attack on his wife. He could feel the movement of her chest in his arms and then he felt the movements of her arms and they weakly tried to re-establish the linkage with her brain.

Before he realized that anyone was around him, he heard a gasp as someone nearby that wasn’t his wife noticed the life movements that was emanating from the body of the woman who was wrapped up in the man’s arms. A body that they could have sworn was completely dead moments before.

None of the people standing around John had known where the lights that had been shining so brightly in the darkness had come from but they knew they were looking at a true miracle to see the dead woman moving again. As John slowly lowered her away from his chest, they noticed that her body no longer had any wounds visible. As one, each of them gasped in shock at the sight. They could see that there had been a massive amount of blood shed in the spot. Her clothes were still drenched in it and John was covered in it himself. They couldn’t take their eyes of the sight.

Everyone’s attention was removed from the sight of the man and woman on the ground when the wail of sirens blasted them out of their shock. As one, the group of people started backing away from the two in front of them so that the police could take charge of the scene. John continued to hold his wife as her movements became stronger. He felt immensely tired. He could feel the sparklies beginning to build up in his system in preparation for escaping.

Once he knew that his wife was stable, he gently set her back down on the ground and stood up. He looked over at the five men that he had beaten when he had discovered them knifing Michelle. The sparklies were starting to demand release as he walked over to the ring leader. He could hardly contain his anger at what the five of them did to her. He could see the leader struggling to get up but the broken leg he had was preventing that from happening.

John bent down and took hold of the man’s shirt collar and lifted him up to face him. At that moment, the other man’s eyes flew open in shock. As he was about to scream, John released the sparklies from inside him. Only knowing that the men needed to be punished, he directed the sparklies into the man’s mouth. It seemed like an eternity before they finally ran out. Weariness flooded his system and he fought to get back to his feet.

He forgot about the gang bangers that were laying on the ground behind him. His attention returned back to his lovely wife. The police had surrounded her where she lay in repose on the ground. From the movement of her chest, he could tell that she was in the healing sleep that was the result of the use of his gift to repair a damaged body. He had never had to try to bring someone back from the dead before and he was glad that it had worked. He had grown to love her with all his heart in the weeks since they had been married. At first, he wasn’t sure about her reasons as to why she wanted to get married but as time passed, he fell in love with her because of her warm and giving heart. He was relieved that she was still alive.

He approached the group of police and paramedics where they were surrounding his wife. The police took offensive positions around her as if to protect her from him. Many had their hand on the guns holstered at their waists. He knew better than to let them have reason to draw them.

“Ah’m not ahmed, offasuh. Dat’s mah wahf dere on de grownd. Dose men ova der ‘tacked huh an’ hut huh relly bahd. Ah just wants ta mayk shoer she’s awright.” He told them with his hands out from his body in an open handed manner, to show he had no weapons.

The policemen all relaxed somewhat but never really took their eyes off the large man. The paramedics continued to work on the woman on the ground. Finally, one looked up at the policeman in charge and said, “As far as I can tell, she isn’t injured in any way. She looks just like she is sleeping and nothing more. I would suggest transporting her to one of the local hospitals for observation but I really don’t think she’s seriously hurt, unlike her husband just said she was.”

“Well, package her up and ship her off. We need to find out what happened here.” The police officers all turned as one towards John.

“What can you tell me about what happened here? I need to find out what you were doing over there when we first got here. It didn’t…”

Before the officer could say anything else, a gun shot rang out near them. John hit the ground and the officers dove for cover themselves. A dozen guns were pointed up the alley. Several more shots were fired but the officers couldn’t determine if they were the ones being fired upon.

The paramedics surrounding Michelle quickly loaded her onto a gurney and fled the scene of the gunfire. No sense in an innocent being shot. John watched them load her into the ambulance and within seconds they sped off to whatever hospital they were taking her to.

Now John started to panic. He didn’t even know what hospital they were taking her to nor did he have any way of getting there. Her purse was lying on the table in the bar. Now there was something else to panic about. All her documentation, bank account information and other vital bits of matter were still in the purse. John quickly got to his feet and left the scene of violence behind him.

Once he was back inside the bar, he made his way to the table that Michelle and him had been sitting. The table had been cleaned off and nothing was on the seat. He went to the bar and motioned the bartender to him.

When the man finally was in front of him he said very carefully, “Mah wife’s purse was at the table we was sittin’ at a bit ago but now it’s gone. Is there anneh chance dat it was brought up here?”

“Hmm, no one brought a purse up here in the last little bit. Let me check with the waitress who was serving your table. I’ll be right back.” He said and turned away from John.

Several minutes passed and John started to become a bit nervous. The bartender did not come back with the waitress or anything. He decided to go find them himself.

He found them in a back room with a stack of purses in front of them. At the front of the pile was his wife’s purse! Angrily, he pushed them aside and grabbed it. It felt strangely light. He opened it and looked in. There was nothing it in besides a few bits of scrap paper. Michelle’s life had been in there and it was now gone!

He grabbed the bartender’s shirt and pulled him to his feet. “Where is my wife’s stuff?” He demanded.

“I’m sorry sir but that is all there is. It was found in the trash by someone a short time ago with nothing in it. We didn’t know it was hers and brought it back here with the rest of these. We just didn’t know whose it was or we would have brought it out to you.” The man said nearly shrilly, scared out of his wits.

John was really worried now. All of the important information she kept in her purse was gone. Her car keys were gone, the keys to the camper was gone, check book, money, credit cards, driver’s license… all gone. A cold chill crept down his back.

Only Michelle would know what to do and she was going to a hospital that he had no idea where it was or what hospital. He knew he had to go back and talk to the police officers to find out where she was going. Maybe he could make a report about the purse while he was at it. He took it and went outside.

In the short time he had been back inside the bar, everyone had left. No police, no bystanders, no one. What in the world was going on? He knew that the man he had released the sparklies into would be having problems soon but he didn’t really care. He had to find Michelle and quickly.

He didn’t even know where to start…

Chapter 13

I awoke with a yawn. I was comfortable and warmly covered. John must have taken good care of me last night.

LAST NIGHT!

Oh God! I remember not being able to breathe or move. I opened my eyes and was startled to see that I was in a hospital room. Why was I here? I looked for the call button that should be around the bed someplace.

That’s when I started noticing other things. I had straps around my wrists, chest and waist. Shaken up by these discoveries, I used the only tool I had available to me: I screamed at the top of my lungs.

That got a quick response for me.

Nurses as well as a couple of doctors and orderlies came running into the room. I continued to struggle with the bonds holding me in a place that I didn’t want to be. I could tell it was broad daylight outside and I needed to find John.

“Hold still, Michelle. You’ll hurt yourself.” One of the doctors told me.

“Where’s my husband? I want him here!” I demanded of them.

“I’m sorry, Michelle, you were brought in by an ambulance and there was no one with you. If you could calm down, I have some things you need to know.” He told me.

I tried as hard as I could to calm myself down but I was like a highly wound clock. I may have been in a hospital bed, but I was worried about my husband more than anything else. I managed to calm down a bit and nodded to the doctor.

“Since you didn’t see fit to actually check with us before you and your husband decided to start taking away our bread and butter by curing those children, we decided to take away your bread and butter. You see, the whole thing last night was set up by some of our more enterprising members of the profession. Unfortunately for you, we just can’t find good hired help these days. They were just supposed to take you to a pickup location and we would have taken over from there. But no, they just had to get their fun in before they did anything else.” He told me quite gloatingly. “I can’t say that it is a good thing for them though. I have no idea what your husband did to them but they will never be the same again. Every one of them has somehow been completely castrated and their dicks removed. All that remains of their organs is a pee hole and nothing more. Not that it matters to them anyway; every one of them is a living vegetable. It would have been more merciful to have killed them outright but at least they can’t turn against us now.” He seemed to care little for the ‘hired help’.

I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen to me. They had me tied up so that I couldn’t escape, that was obvious. I hope John was able to remember my emergency plans that I had made for instances like this. I knew he was like a fish out of water in a city this size but I had underestimated the possibilities for things like this happening so quickly. My attention was distracted from my inner thoughts by a quick slap on the face.

“Now, if you would be so kind as to PAY ATTENTION TO ME while I’m talking to you. Thank-you-very-much… Now where was I? Oh yes, that’s right.” He seemed pleased with himself that he remembered what he was going to say. “You’ll be happy to know that your husband won’t be able to find you so quickly. He’s going to have a difficult enough time getting the police to even believe that there was even a call to the bar you were at, let alone that anyone even showed up. We had to stop you from continuing to ruin the racket we had going on. The trouble you caused us was nearly insurmountable but I think we can overcome it. Without you in the picture, your husband is just the simpleton that he has always been. Ah, I see you begin to get the picture! You were the brains behind the whole scheme to steal the money away from us. Therefore, that makes you most dangerous to us and it would be best to put you out our hair. If you aren’t alive, then you can’t say anything about us, nor can you do anything to us. So, I bid you adieu.”

He walked over to a cart near the door, picked up a syringe and filled it with a liquid. Once he had cleared the air out to it, he turned back towards me. He came back to me and swabbed my arm with an alcohol wipe. Cockily he said, “We must always be sanitary, you know.” Then he found a vein and slid the needle into my arm and pressed the plunger.

A burning coursed up my vein and was quickly spread through my body. My mind started going numb before I heard one last thing the doctor said to me. “Take care Michelle. It hasn’t been a pleasure doing business with you.”

Then blackness claimed me and I heard no more.

Chapter 14

John was very surprised that he remembered all of Michelle’s emergency plans in case she had been abducted, which he immediately suspected when there had been no police, attackers or witnesses after he came out of the bar. At her insistence, he had kept a supply of cash in his wallet (that he had taken to carrying, again at her insistence) as well as a list of phone numbers that he should call if something happened to her.

The very first call he made on his now-welcome cell phone was to Frank Tarkington, the officer whose child he had healed not so long ago. If there was anyone he could trust it was this man.

Even though it was past midnight, Frank answered the phone on the second ring. “Yo, talk to me Johhny,” was the instant response from Frank.

John had to be careful with how quickly he tried to talk. He needed to be understood completely. “Michelle’s been taken by unknown parties. They actually killed her before I was able to stop them. I healed her and then they took her away in an ambulance. I went to get her purse so that I could go with the police to meet up with her at the hospital but someone had taken it and stole everything inside of it and dumped the purse in the trash. By the time I got back outside, there was no one around. I looked for her car but it was gone too. I need some help, if you can give it.”

In typical police fashion, Frank got the location where John was and was quickly on his way to pick him up. Within half an hour, John was safely ensconced in Frank’s pickup and on his way back to his residence.

Once the two men were inside the house, Frank was rapid firing questions at John and writing down the answers. He also told John to start making the additional calls that were needed to follow Michelle’s instructions.

John proceeded to make the necessary calls. Fraud alert/protection was called in about her cards, bank accounts, driver’s license. John made one last call, which was the most vital one he made. He had Michelle’s GPS pinger activated. During the war on terror, too many soldiers were being abducted and killed because they were unable to find them in time. Someone had the brilliant idea of creating a device that when activated, would send out a signal that could be picked up with the right equipment and could guide rescuers to the precise location and recover them before they were killed. It saved countless lives in the war and it helped to shut down many of the insurgent cells that were doing the damage. Michelle had thought far enough ahead to have each of them implanted with a pinger. It was just a matter of waiting now.

While John was making his important calls, Frank was in contact with his department head to inform him of the abduction. Before the night was out, there was an APB on Michelle Coffee.

#*#*#*#*#

After all the calls were made, Frank set John up with a sleeping location and both of them went to bed.

It was shortly after 8:30 AM that Frank got the call they had been waiting for. Michelle’s pinger was found fifteen miles outside the city in an abandoned field. Frank got very quiet for a moment and hung his head. A brief exchange further and he hung up.

Frank walked over to where John was just sitting up and knelt down beside the man. Tenderly, he placed a hand on John’s shoulder, silently trying to put his thoughts together. “John, my friend, I have some bad news for you. They found Michelle fifteen minutes ago. She was dead when they found her. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

John held his head down and Frank heard a deep intermittent coughing sound coming from John. He thought John was crying. At least until he heard the most unusual sound from someone who had just been told their spouse was dead. John lifted his head in laughter…

He laughed for several minutes before he was able to stop himself from his own internal glee. He looked at Frank with a smile on his face. Frank was puzzled by John’s reaction. He thought the grief was too much and John possibly thought Frank was joking about it.

John’s smile was still on his face when he explained, “I’m sorry Frank but it’ll take more than you could imagine to kill Michelle. You see, last night when I healed her, she was already dead, but I fixed her so that she couldn’t be hurt with anything. Her body will repair any damage caused to it with in a short time. Normally, if she is killed quickly, her body will repair itself and restart living again within half an hour. She should wake up here in just a few minutes if she hasn’t already. Whoever took her couldn’t have know about it since I just barely did it. I just couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt so badly like she was last night. That’s why I was laughing. I was relieved that she was found and was away from the people who could hurt her. I hope you understand.”

Before Frank could say another word, his phone rang again. He answered it and talked for a moment. By the time he hung it up, he was shaking his head in disbelief. “John, you’ll never cease to amaze me. You were right on the button. Michelle woke up a couple of minutes ago and she has been telling a pretty amazing story. They are in the process of collecting arrest warrants for the people involved. That is one very smart, as well as lucky, lady you’re married to. Keep a hold of her, you’ll never find another one like her.”

“You don’ know the half of it, Frank. But you’re right, she is one in a billion.” John smiled secretly to himself, though it was interpreted differently by Frank.

Chapter 15

I woke with a gasp for breath. My body ached and my head was throbbing with pain. I moaned in agony. I could feel that I was in a vehicle and that we were moving. I opened my eyes and I couldn’t see anything. I tried moving and found I was tied down to whatever it was I was on. I was getting really tired of some asshole tying me down.

I decided to go for broke and see what happened. It was possible that whoever kidnapped me wasn’t expecting me to wake up so soon after being sedated or whatever it was they did to me.

“God dammit you assholes, will you just let me go? I’m not out to destroy your livelihood. I just want to make the lives of some very sick children longer than they had.” I hollered out at the top of my lungs.

That got a reaction. Although not one I was expecting. The vehicle screeched to a halt, nearly rolling me forward from the momentum. I heard two doors open and close quickly. Another door opened up and whatever it was I was strapped to was yanked out that door.

I heard a zipping sound and sunlight poured onto my face. I looked up into the faces of two men wearing a coroner's uniform, who were white as a sheet. “Hi guys, would you care to unstrap me? I’m kind of uncomfortable here.”

All they could do was stand there gaping at me. Neither one said a word. One looked like he was about ready to vomit.

“Shit, Joel, I thought they said she was dead!” the younger man said to the older one.

“Whoa guys, I’m not dead. The creeps who kidnapped me just had me drugged with a pretty good sedative. Now could you let me up?” I asked them.

Neither of them paid any attention to me. “Bob, get on the radio and get those idiot cops here. They have a lot of explaining to do. We’re supposed to be transporting a dead body, not a live woman.”

Gee, how wonderful to be noticed for what I was! Needless to say, I had to wait in the body bag, strapped to a gurney for 10 minutes! I was fit to be tied. The police officers that showed up turned ghastly white when they seen me moving around. What is it with these people? You’d think they had never seen a person who had been sedated before.

Moments later, there was a massive flurry of activity when there were several more policemen as well as what looked like homicide detectives rushing to my aid. I doubt that I had ever had so much attention in my life. Everyone asked he how I was doing, how I was feeling, that sort of thing. I kept telling them I felt fine and nothing was wrong with me. Why wouldn’t they believe me?

One of the detectives brought a camera to where I was sitting now and showed me some of the digital pictures that had been taken a while ago. It showed what looked to be a dead body lying face down on the ground. There were several others he showed me that were clearly evidence pictures and finally one that showed the body face up.

It was me lying on the ground, dead!

Needless to say, I got nauseous and promptly threw up all over myself. How could I have been dead and now I’m alive? I’m not sure I’ll like the answers when I finally learn them.

After a few minutes, I decided that if whoever the doctors were that had given me the shot of whatever drug it was, he should hang for my murder. I started telling the detectives everything I could think of to help get the people arrested and booked for murder. I pulled a name out of the dregs of my memory. Palmer was the name of the doctor that actually gave me the shot. He had hidden his hospital ID under his shirt but a small potion of it had been sticking out and had shown his last name. I told the detective that I would recognize him if I ever seen him again but that he more than likely worked at the Trower Medical Center (where John and I had healed the children).

During the course of the day, I was told that John had been notified of me dying and that I was actually alive. I was going to be taken to another hospital for some tests and if everything was ok, I would be released into police custody for further questioning. I was going to sing like a bird for what they put me through.

#*#*#*#*#

After several extensive and exhausting hour of tests, the private hospital the police had taken me to cleared me of anything wrong. All blood tests failed to show any sign of poison or any other drug in my system. The police were baffled as well as the medical technician who ran the tests. Personally, I had no clue as to what was going on myself. The pictures that showed me dead sat heavily on my mind. I was starting to have some ideas as to how we could nail the bastards who did this to me so callously.

The questioning the police gave me afterwards was grueling to my mind. I had seen videos of police interrogating criminals but the victims were never shown giving their statements nor what was never shown was the literal hell fest that one went through emotionally trying to remember everything that happened to them. I couldn’t be much help due to the fact that I was unconscious for the most part. I was able to give great descriptions of the doctors and their cohorts from the hospital. Arrest warrants were forthcoming for as many people as they could get names for.

As a witness to my own murder, they were going to require that I go into a safe house to protect my identity as well as my life. Since I was supposed to be dead, I was going to be given a new identity so that I could be able to move around freely. Or at least as freely as I could under witness protection. Since I had no identification, I was going to be given a new birth certificate and a new name.

Because my skin could be termed as African-American and my name was as white as could be, I was loathe to change it at all. But knowing that I had to remain outside the clutches of the people who were out to terminate my life, I knew I had to change. In the long run, I decided upon the name of LaShara Mason since it sounded like a person of color’s name. I had been given the choices of at least a dozen names and I hated all of them. This was the lesser of two evils. My new birth certificate showed that my age was now 19 and that I had been born on April 1st. Only a fool would choose that date but it came with the birth certificate. I hoped John liked the new me.

I couldn’t help but wonder how he was doing. I hadn’t seen him at all since the night before and I was starting to miss him. I hated to admit it, but I was feeling really horny right at the moment and needed his attentions. I would have to wait until I saw him again.

By late afternoon, I was becoming physically tired and edgy. I was starving and needed something to eat. If anything, I was the police’s star witness and they were treating me as someone who didn’t eat, drink, sleep, pee, etc. In other words, I was being completely neglected. I raised a stink about not having anything to eat since the previous night and what I had had was thrown up a while before. The lieutenant in charge was rather sheepish about that and sent out for a meal for me.

By the time I had completely devoured the meal, I was still hungry. I didn’t know why that was, because ever since my complete transformation into a woman, I had had a very light appetite. I didn’t need to eat much to maintain my wonderful figure but what I wound up eating then was five times more than I had eaten since I was a growing young boy so many years ago.

Once I was finally sated, I then became sleepy. I was packed up into an unmarked police car that had darkened windows so that no one could see into the car and I was driven away from the police station.

The house I was taken to was on the complete opposite side of the city than I had ever been to before. If anything, it was more upscale than I had ever been in before. There were at least four bedrooms and three bathrooms in it. A large family room with a 70” plasma TV and surround sound theater system. The kitchen was huge in comparison to the size of my small camper, all of the camper size. I felt I could get lost in the house easily.

I was guided to what was termed the master bedroom. Master didn’t come close to a decent description. The King's bedroom was a better fit. I felt you had to be royalty to be in this room, let alone sleep in it. I explored around the room for a moment. I was checking out the huge walk-in closet that held a decent amount of clothes of all sorts, when I heard a thump on the floor of someone taking a step onto the hard wood surface inside the door.

I panicked, thinking that some how the group that had taken me and killed me had found me and were back to finish the job. I started to hide but I wound up peeking out the door to see who was there. I got the biggest surprise of my life when I did.

It was John!

Chapter 16

I flew out of the closet with a squeal and launched myself at him. As I collided with him, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as if my life depended on being near him. His huge arms gently wrapped around me and as lightly as a butterfly’s kiss, he picked me up and hugged me to his body and *KISSED* me like I had never been kissed before. My nipples went *BOING* and my pussy started dripping heavily.

I started ripping his clothes off as quickly as I could, and as well as I could. It was rather difficult to do, seeing as to how I was still suspended off the floor by nearly two feet. I didn’t care. All I wanted was to wrap my hot box around that wonderfully hard shaft of man-meat.

What seemed like hours later, I was sweltering in a post orgasmic bliss unlike anything I had ever felt before. I had had so many orgasms that my whole being was one massive tingling sensation. I was in heaven. I fell asleep in my man’s arms, at peace with the world.

#*#*#*#

I awoke well before the sun was up with a gurgling in my stomach. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong but I knew I had to make it to the bathroom really quick.

Since I hadn’t really had anything to eat for dinner last night, I had mostly dry heaves. This was the second morning in a row that I had been sick. I wondered if it was some remnant of being killed that was causing me to throw up. I was feeling better now so I just shrugged it off.

I went back to bed to share the rest of the morning with my wonderful husband. I still couldn’t believe how much different my life was now since John came into my life. I didn’t want for anything, nor cared for anything except to be close to the man that I loved with my whole being. My life was centered around being with him, sharing my experiences with him, and sharing my body with him. I was content for the first time in my somewhat long life.

When John finally started to rouse out of his sleep, I decided to help him into the land of the living with the type of kiss that most men would die for. I went in search of the one-eyed snake and gave it the kiss of life. It wasn’t too much longer before it had risen from its slumber and was on it’s way to devouring me. Or for that matter, me devouring it...

More fun ensued for us.

Once John was fully awake and smiling, I escorted him to the kitchen where I made him a breakfast unlike any he had had before. What the heck, I had a larder available to me that put to shame a 5 star restaurant’s food storage.

John was a big eater so I had to make a meal that could have fed half a dozen people. I ate a little but I wasn’t really hungry so I didn’t eat as much as I normally did. What was left went into the gullet of my husband. It seemed that if I let him eat, he could demolish a whole turkey by himself.

Once breakfast was done, I cleaned up our mess, humming in contentment the whole time. When had my life become so domesticated? I was acting like Suzie Homemaker and I was happy about it. I didn’t ponder it too long since I knew I had better things to worry about.

I sat down with John and told him about the witness protection issues I was going to have to deal with. I told him about the new name I had been given so that I wouldn’t have to worry about being sought out. He wasn’t too happy about the new name because it meant that I was no longer married to him, since I was officially dead. After all, the police were going to arrest the people responsible for my death.

I had to remain out of sight for a while. I had told John about the police showing me the pictures that had been taken at the ‘crime scene’ and about my recovery a short time later. I don’t know why he had that little smirk on his face. I got a bit upset that he was making light of my supposed death, when I *knew* that I had just been sedated with something that made it look like I was dead. He comforted me because he felt he had made me angry.

It felt so good being wrapped up in his comforting arms that I finally released the pent up emotions that I had been repressing for the last day. I sobbed and cried for some time. I was refreshed once I was done. I finally looked up at John’s face and saw the concern written all over it. He really didn’t know what to do when a woman cried in his arms. He would learn though that it was a vent that women had to have to release the stress they felt in their lives.

I kissed the concern off his face.

I knew he had an erection because I could feel its hardness through his pants. I let my hand wander down to stroke its length with a loving caress. How had my life come to this stage where I had to cling to a man to find comfort when I had never done it before in my life? I didn’t really care, it was just the old me voicing a concern. I quashed it with an errant flip of my mind.

I was feeling rather cooped up, so I went in search of the current guardian of my life. He was sitting in what might have been the den in a normal house, but had been converted to a security center so that he could keep an eye on the outside monitors as well as the internal ones. I hadn’t seen anyone around the house at all since John had joined me. The strangest thing was that I hadn’t really said all that much since John had arrived. I think it was the enjoyment of being around him that didn’t require words or sounds to convey what I was meaning to say.

I told the guard that I was restless and needed to go out for a breath of air. He tensed up at that. He signaled to me to wait and he put a finger to his ear for some odd reason. I belatedly realized that he had triggered the talk button his radio and was subvocalizing what he needed. A very brief conversation later and I was told that I was granted the permission to go out but that I would have to go with a disguise since I was still recognizable as I was. There was a disguise expert on the way to take care of that issue.

#*#*#*#*#*#

I hated the look I had been given. If anything, I looked more African-American than I had ever looked before. My hair was coal black and shiny with tight corn row braids through it. They had cut off nearly half the length of my hair to make the rows and at the end of each braid were multi-colored beads. I clacked if I moved my head too much. I had hoop earrings that were about three inches in diameter, each earring feeling like it weighed an ounce a piece. They were heavier than I had ever worn before.

I was given clothes that were semi-whorish but they said it was in line with the young black woman I appeared to be. Looking in the mirror at myself, I felt disgusted at the sight. My large bust stood out as the primary focus of my body. They figured that if there was anyone looking for me, they would notice it before they did my face. The corn rows were an added factor that served to render me invisible to people who might be looking for me.

John came up behind me as I was inspecting/hating my reflection. His reaction was one that I wouldn’t have expected.

“Ya look absolutely beautiful, Shara” He told me. “The look they gave you brings out everything that I love about you.”

A quick click in my mind and I looked at my reflection again with relish. I no longer saw anything to hate about the way I looked. If John liked it, I was happy to look this way for him. I gave him a hug and kiss at his wonderful compliment.

Once I did a quick primp and touch up of my makeup, I told the guard that we were ready to go. I wanted to do some shopping but I was vetoed from that plan. John thought it would be nice to go to a park and just walk around and enjoy the sunshine. The guard was reluctant but it seemed like that was in line with his superiors.

Off we went.

Chapter 17

The trip to the park was in a van that was big enough to hold John without having any problems. After we got out, the driver told John that he would be back in an hour or so to pick us up. We were also told that there were agents all over the park who would keep an eye on us in case of any trouble.

We proceeded to make our way into the park where we walked hand in hand for a while. A short time later, I needed a trip to a restroom and it took us a while to find one. I had to pee so badly that I was in there for several minutes. After cleaning up, I went back to join back up with John.

He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I searched for several minutes before I heard a horrible gut wrenching cry of anguish. I sought the sound out since it was John’s voice that was creating it.

Several other people had heard the sound also and were making their way to a wooded area of the park. The wailing continued to get louder as I drew near the area.

A few feet into the woods and I stopped cold in my tracks. In front of me was a sight I wished I had never seen. John was sitting on the ground with a very young girl, about 8 or 9, on his lap. Both John and the girl were covered in blood. The area around them was splattered with the blood also. John continued to wail horribly in anguish.

Behind me, I heard other people come up and I heard a high pitched scream. I turned around to see a woman in her mid to late 20’s with her hands over her mouth. She was screaming into her hands. Her husband, or who I assumed was her husband appeared, out of breath, beside her. His eyes opened wide at the sight in front of him.

With a primordial yell, he ran forward, fists balled, and proceeded to strike John in the face. Several blows fell before he was pulled away from further assaulting of John. I could hear people talking on cell phones, some calling the police, some calling news stations. But I also heard the sobbing of the mother to the child John still held. I was sobbing too, not really understanding how my husband could resort to such heinous actions when he was so loving to me and to the children he had been healing.

Then I remembered the words that the police lieutenant had told me those months before: “I would try to stay away from this man or get away from him as quickly as possible. He has a family history of murderers and it could very easily run to him if you aren’t careful. I don’t want to see you hurt. Please take my advice and keep away from him.” Those words came so prophetically true. John had hurt or killed a little girl. How could I have ever loved a man who had such a beast residing inside him, waiting to get out?

I sobbed out my anguish over the lost love I had in me. My love had killed a child, one he had sworn to protect with his life. Suddenly, I stopped crying and looked closer at the scene. The parents of the little girl suddenly became known to me. It was Mr. and Mrs. Stanton. John was holding little Sarah on his lap!

Oh God! How could he do that? Wait, he couldn’t do that at all. He was too kind and gentle to harm a child, especially one he had saved the life of not too long ago. There had to be some other person around that had done the deed and placed it so that John would get the blame. Like what happened to his great-grandfather so long ago.

The police showed up quickly and proceeded to haul John to his feet after pulling Sarah off his lap. He was thrown to the ground by several officers and handcuffed as best as they could. I had had enough of the treatment to him.

I stepped forward. “Stop!” I yelled to them. “He didn’t do anything. He was trying to help her! Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, tell them he wouldn’t harm your daughter. Not after what he did for her. Tell them!”

I could see the puzzlement on the parent’s faces when I mentioned their names. They both looked closer at John’s face and realization dawned across their features. Then both turned to masks of hatred as they looked back at their daughter, lying on the blood covered ground.

“How could you do this you monster? Save her life just to end it yourself? What sort of monster are you? Why would you do this? Why??” Mr. Stanton yelled at John.

The police held him away from attacking John again. In grief, I knew that he would harm John as severely as he could. Retribution on the loss of a child in a horrible crime such as this was enough to push a parent over the edge of sanity and rationality.

My thoughts earlier about how John could do this came back to me. I knew in my heart that he couldn’t do so. It had to have been someone else who had done it but I had no idea who. If anything, John was trying to heal the grievous wounds that Sarah had suffered and it had been entirely too long since it had happened to here to be able to heal her. His gift was good but it wasn’t omnipotent.

The police hauled him off to a waiting squad car. I could see the car settle lower to the ground as he sat in it. An inward smile wondered as to how long the car would last before it gave out under his weight.

Everyone else was shooed away from the area so that the police could start their investigation into this brutal killing of a child.

Prophetically, I knew John was going to be held accountable for the murder, even though he didn’t do it. The worst part, I didn’t have any evidence that he didn’t do it. I only had my feelings and they wouldn’t stand up in a court of law. I had to find out the truth and who actually did the crime. I had so much to do and so little time to do it.

I didn’t even know where to begin…

Chapter 18

I met back up with the driver of the van within minutes of leaving the park. He had a deeply grim look on his face as he held the door open for me. I sat in the seat and held myself stoically silent. I was in a whirl of thoughts surrounding what it was that I needed to do.

I knew I was going to have to find a good lawyer do defend him in court. I knew that I would have to pay a lot of money to get him free. It was a good thing that I still had access to the money that John had made in healing the children. A sickening wrench of my tummy said I shouldn’t count on that being available to me, since I was no longer the person that I had been when I opened the accounts for the money. John’s name was on the accounts but my new name wasn’t. I would have to talk to the detective who was in charge of my witness protection case to see what I could do about getting access to the money.

For all I knew, it would be confiscated by the court pending the outcome of the case now against John.

I paid no attention to the trip back to the safe house. I was startled out of my reverie by the door opening next to me. He never said a word to me before shutting the door. He just went back around the other side, got in and took off, leaving me standing in front of the house by myself.

Depressed, I went into the house and found a quiet corner in which to cry away my hurt. Once I was done, I galvanized myself into action. I called Frank Tarkington for some information.

Frank was aghast at the charges that were being leveled against John. One of his co-workers had contacted him because of his friendship with John. Frank felt that something was amiss, also, when I told him about my feelings towards the possibility that someone else did the deed.

We had no where to go with this at the time. Frank came and picked me up to go talk to the witness protection people about the funds I no longer had access to. John needed representation and there was no way that he could get it himself. Because it was so late in the day, I was not able to talk to the WP people. I couldn’t even get in to see John because he hadn’t been completely processed yet. He was supposed to be arraigned in the morning. I could tell I was going to go through hell that night. Not to mention what poor John was going to go through…

#*#*#*#*#

I was up early the next morning getting ready to go with Frank to John’s arraignment hearing. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and finished getting ready to go when I got the weird gurgling in my tummy again. I barely made it to the bathroom before my breakfast came back up. I vomited until I had nothing except the dry heaves again. I think the whole thing that was going on in my life was causing me to have a sour stomach all the time. I was going to have to see a doctor once things settled down in my life. Hopefully things will take care of themselves.

Frank picked me up and I had a body guard with me from the house. He would just shadow me and keep an eye out for any trouble that might be brewing around, then he would step in to protect me. I hated all the trouble the city was going through to ensure my safety.

On the way to the court house, Frank tried to engage me in conversation of current events. He was talking about a hit and run on the far side of the city that left a nine year old child dead. The parent were grieving because their child had come up cured for leukemia recently and had been looking to having a long life and then some senseless tragedy had ended his life before it was time to end.

I really didn’t listen to what Frank was say, except with a polite nod or two every once in a while. I was too busy thinking about John and his predicament. I had missed him so much last night and I really wanted him back in my bed. My body had gotten used to having sex with him so much that it had become addicted to having sex. Or I should say, *I* had become addicted to having sex with him.

It took a while to get into the court house due to the high number of people attending. I was scanned for weapons, as per usual procedures. Of course, Frank had to check his weapon with the city police before he would be permitted into the courtroom. We entered and sat down closest to the defendant’s table. I wanted to be as close to John as I could get.

We had to sit and wait for several hours before his arraignment started. He was brought out with ankle chains, waist cuffs as well as elbow cuffs. They wanted him hog-tied and unable to move. I could tell the guards were terrified of him because he was so big. No matter how many times I have tried to tell people, he is a teddy bear at heart and wouldn’t hurt a fly. It doesn’t sink in and he is treated harshly out of fear. Was I the only person it the world that could actually see what he was? The answer to that is no, the children can see it when they talk to him. His size does intimidate them at first but once they know that he is a gentle man, they latch onto him with pleasure.

He was brought up to the table to be sat down. He saw me immediately and smiled at me. It was a tired looking smile as well as one that showed a tremendous amount of pair at what was going on. My heart went out to him. I blew him a kiss to show I supported him. I started weeping for him.

Once he was seated, the judge banged his gavel to bring the court into order.

“What are the charges for this prisoner, bailiff?” He asked.

“The charges against John Coffee, the Fourth, are as follows:
1 count of Murder in the first degree
1 count of Felony Rape of a child
1 count of Desecration of a corpse
3 counts of Assault on an Officer of the Law
1 count of Resisting Arrest
There may be other charges, Your Honor, depending on the District Attorney,” the bailiff responded.

My heart sank. They were going to throw the book at John. I just wished there was something I could do to help him out right now. I just wished that I had never wanted to go out to that park or anywhere else. I felt so guilty over this; I just wanted to die… I couldn’t help it at all; I started to cry out my guilt.

John heard me crying and I couldn’t even face him. His life was now in shambles and I was the cause of it.

“Defendant, how do you plead?” I heard the judge ask John.

“Guilty, Your Honor.” Was the reply.

I couldn’t believe my ears. I stood up and screamed, “What? You aren’t guilty of ANYTHING, John! Your Honor, he doesn’t understand what he’s saying!” I blurted out.

“Order in the court! Madam, I won’t tolerate any outbursts like that in my court. If you have anything to say about this matter, bring it up with the district attorney.” He said. He turned back to John. “Son, I hope you know what you’re doing. Do you need an attorney before you make any rash decisions like this?”

“Your honor, sir, all I can say is that someone has to pay for what happened to dat precious child. I’ll take full responsibility for the actions.” John said bravely.

“Were you offered any incentives for this plea, or were you pressed into making this plea by anyone?”

“No, Your honor.”

“Very well. A guilty plea has been entered into the court records. The plea was given freely and without duress. The plea has been accepted by the court. Sentencing will be in 30 days pending the results of the pre-sentencing investigation. Any mitigating factors need to be turned over to the court before sentencing so as to weigh in to the sentence to be passed. Case dismissed until 30 days from now.” A bang of the gavel and the court rose for the judge’s departure.

Before John was lead out of the court, he bent over and whispered to his guard. The guard looked over at me quickly and nodded. John came over to where I sat with tears in my eyes.

I couldn’t look at him, so entrenched in my guilt over what had just happened. I couldn’t meet his eyes. He knelt down on the floor in front of me. “Michelle, I know how much this is going to hurt you. Believe me when I say, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for the kids. Remember that from now on. I don’t have much time here, since they need to take me back to my cell. Before I go, I have to tell you that you need to read the letter that is in your night stand next to the bed at the house. It will explain everything. I have to go now.” He stood back up and shuffled his way back to the guard. He was lead out of my life again.

I just sat there and cried.

The whole time I was there, Frank sat next to me trying to comfort me. I was practically inconsolable. Frank finally lead me out of the court and to his car. The ride back to the safe house was done in utter silence. I don’t remember the trip, I was wallowing in my self-guilt. I was lead into the house and sat down on the couch in the living room. I sat as a zombie for so many hours that I had completely lost count.

When I finally took notice of my surroundings, the first thing I thought about was the letter John said was in my night stand. When had he put it there? I know he hadn’t had time to do it since I was so busy jumping his bones after I saw him again. I ran upstairs and opened the drawer he had said. Inside was an envelope that had a substantial thickness to it. With trembling hands, I reached out and pulled it to me. They shook even harder as I ripped open the flap and pulled the letter out. It seemed to be several pages thick. I started reading the first page.

“My dearest, darling Michelle,”

End Part 3

I have to admit, this part was fairly easy to write and it flowed quickly from the mind. But I hope you all enjoy.

From the previous part:

“My dearest, darling Michelle,”

And Now:

Chapter 19

“I have been in a quandary as to whether or not to write this letter but over the past couple of months I have grown to love you more every day. The time has come for me to put my affairs in order because my time on this world is nearing its end. You see, when we met, I had been following my instincts because of the visions I had been having. You met me that day because you and I were destined to meet. We had all these wonderful experiences together because it was meant to happen. Please don’t ask how, because I don’t know how I knew. I just did.

“I knew we were going to get married and that we were going to have two children together. I am happy knowing they are on their way.”

I threw the letter down on the bed. What’s that? He knew about us having two children? But I couldn’t have any kids! Oh shit!

Something clicked in my mind. Morning sickness! That is the reason I have been throwing up every morning. In a panic, I grabbed a phone and called Frank. I asked him to pick me up a pregnancy test kit. Since he didn’t have to work that day, he promised me that he would get it immediately and bring it over.

For the next hour, I paced the floor by the front door waiting for him to arrive. I was out the door before he was fully at a stop. I grabbed the sack he had in his hand as he was getting out of the car. I ran back into the house and into the bathroom. I quickly read the directions in the kit and followed them to the letter.

Within minutes I had the results. I was pregnant! I promptly folded to the floor unconscious.

#*#*#*#*#

As I came to again, I noticed that I had a bed underneath me. I opened my eyes and saw Frank sitting on the chair pulled up next to me by the bed. He saw me looking at him and smiled.

“Its about time you realized that you were pregnant. John told me about it a few days ago but he knew you would find out in your own time. Congratulations.” He told me.

“But Frank, I can’t have any kids! I mean I *can’t* have kids at all. Oh god, this can’t be happening to me.” I wailed.

“Regardless of whether or not you think you can’t have kids, your husband knew otherwise. Believe me, he was quite convincing and I have seen the signs that I have experienced with my wife, with you. You are pregnant. We are going to an appointment with a doctor to verify this and start you on prenatal care. I told John I would take good care of you. My wife has even agreed to help you since you both were so good to our son and we are happy to be able to have him with us longer than we had been told.” He paused for a moment. “I will be having my wife go with you to the doctor’s office tomorrow. We took the liberty of making an appointment for you because of what John had said. For now, I need to have you get a good night’s rest after you have a good dinner. You have to remember, you’re eating for three now.” He said the last with a smirk.

My stomach fell into a bottomless pit. It finally dawned on me that I’m going to have a baby. No, correct that, two babies. This was going to be one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.

#*#*#*#*#*#

Knowing I was pregnant, I ate a decent meal that night, though I knew it was going to come back up in the morning.

I went back to my bedroom and picked up the letter from John again.

“The one thing that I never told you about my gift is that I have always been able to see the circumstances behind my death. I’ve also known that my father knew his, his father knew his and his father knew his. We were all destined to die young and of circumstances that were of no cause of our own, but of someone else’s. I no longer have much time before I’m gone and you will have to carry on my legacy.

“You see, my children will carry my gift within themselves but they will get to deal with things better than I did. I altered them the other night when you were laying on the ground, dead, after being raped and murdered by those men I punished. I used the last of my gift to change them and to change you.

“I’m sorry I did so to you but I had to make sure you lived long enough to raise my children the right way. But I didn’t control my gift very well and it burnt out doing everything. As a result, I won’t be able to heal anyone again. I know who it will be that is the cause of my death and that her family will hate me, even though they had praised me a short time ago.

“As to the changes I made in you, you won’t be able to die for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t know how long that it will last, but you should live long enough for my children to grow into adults. The boy will have his own issues to deal with and his sister will have a better time at it than he will. But in the end, both of them will become the best healer that has ever existed.

“But, you will have the greater task. I require of you to find the killer of little Sarah Stanton plus several of the others that will die that are part of the ones we healed. I can’t see who did it or will do it but I can see that they will die. That is why I wanted to go to the specific park we did. I tried to beat the killer there and save her life but I was just too late. I blame myself for that. I tried my best.

“One thing that I also need for you to do is learn about my family history. Starting with my great-grandfather and what lead him to being executed. Find out who he talked to; find out if there are any records of him. I would like my children to know about their family history from my side. Create a family tree to show them about their lineage.

“Do not let anyone know of this. You will not be able to stop anything that will happen to me, no matter how hard you try. This is my destiny. I love you very much. You have made me so proud to have met you and that you allowed me into your life. I hope that I was able to fulfill your life’s dreams. I’m just sorry that I won’t be able to be there to help you with our children.

“Oh, one last thing before I close this letter. I know you worry about finances and such. I had Frank go with me the day we were waiting for you to get done with your medical and questioning by the police, to have the account that you had set up for our expenses changed into the name they were going to give you. We had to wait for the word of what name you were going to use before we could put it on the account. You just have to go sign a card to put your signature on it so that you can access the money. If things are done right, it should last you a while.

“Please be good to our babies. Tell them as they grow up that their father loved them very much and he wished he had been able to be there to see them grow up. Promise me also that you won’t always be alone. Find a good man to help you raise the children. But let them know that he may be the adoptive father, their real father will miss them into eternity. I know there will be someone very special for you to pick up the pieces with, one who will need your help himself.

“When my great-grandfather went to the electric chair, they called that last walk, the Green Mile. Be assured, my last walk has been the Greener Mile.

“Goodbye my love. I will miss you.
“With all my heart, John”

I was bawling horribly by the time I was finished with his letter. I didn’t know how long I would have before he was gone but I had to see him in the morning. If anything, to tell him that I loved him and I would miss him. I would promise him that I would find another man to help raise the children. I would promise him everything.

I finally fell asleep but it was a restless sleep all night long. I really missed his companionship.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

The next morning, I woke to the now familiar gurgling of my tummy and I made it to the bathroom just in time to lose what was left of my supper. I hoped I didn’t have to deal with the morning sickness for very long. It could get tiring.

I got ready for my morning business and was almost ready to call Frank for a ride to the jail where John was, when the doorbell rang. My guard answered it before I was able to.

Frank walked into the kitchen where I was just cleaning things up.

I was about to greet him when I noticed the look on his face. I could tell something was wrong. Then it dawned on me in an instant.

I fell to my knees screaming “NOOOOOOOOOO!”

Frank was instantly beside me and had me in his arms, holding me closely to his chest. I cried out my anguish, for I knew at that moment that John was gone. It was just a matter of finding out what happened to him. More than anything else, I was now alone again. What a nasty word! Alone. I hated the sound of the word. Not only was I alone, but I was a widow also. I could get used to one but not the other.

Chapter 20

Once I had finally shed all the tears I had in me, I was able to calmly collect my thoughts. I wiped my eyes and smiled at Frank for his comfort. He helped me to my feet and we went into the living room and sat down on the couch.

I gathered my thoughts for a moment before saying, “I need to know the details Frank. What exactly happened to John and why.”

“After the court hearing was over, they took John back to the county jail. Later when it was time for the evening meal, they let him out of the cell where he joined the rest of the inmates. None of the guards saw exactly what happened but before they knew what was going on, someone had a shank and slit his throat. He would have bled out in a minute if someone else hadn’t knocked him off his feet and then smashed his head into one of the benches at a table, which broke his neck just below his skull. He was dead instantly. With so many inmates crowded around the area, the guards were unable to see who did what. It was pure negligence on the guards for allowing him to join the general population for the meal.” He told me.

Before Frank could continue to say anything else, his cell phone rang. He answered it and then listened for a moment. His face turned pure white as he did so. He thanked the caller and hung up. Then he was the one who broke down and cried.

It wasn’t as long as I had cried but the emotions he poured out were intense, to say the least. All I could do was hold onto him and comfort him as he had done for me a bit ago.

When he was done, he looked at me and said, “My wife and son were both just killed in an automobile accident when she was taking him to school. A vehicle in front of them stopped suddenly, causing her to slam on her brakes and in turn, caused the semi that was following her to run into her vehicle and smashed it into the vehicle in front. Because of the force of the impact on her little car, both of them were crushed to death instantly. That was my supervisor calling to tell me and also that I am now on bereavement leave because of it.” There was an audible sob in his voice as he said it.

All I could do was hold him tightly as he continued to sob. Now there were two children dead who had been healed by John. Had they been destined to die of the illness and John interfered with their destinies? Something just dawned on me at that point.

“Frank, I hate to say this but something just hit me about what you said yesterday on the way to the courthouse. What were you saying about a child being killed in an accident?”

He broke off his grief for a moment before saying, “All I was saying was that a little boy had been killed in a hit and run accident. Why?”

“I’m not sure yet. Something seems fishy about what is going on. Was there any extenuating circumstances behind it or anything unusual that you remember?”

He was thoughtful for a moment. “All I remember was that no one saw the accident, just that he was found along the street with tire tracks from a car around him. That’s all I remember, since it wasn’t in my jurisdiction.”

“No, that’s not it. There was something else you said yesterday that I didn’t quite catch. I can’t remember what it was you said either.”

“Oh, I know now. I heard that he had just been cured of having leukemia. Is that what you were meaning?” He said.

“Yes, that’s it. Did you happen to catch his name or anything?” I asked him.

“Not really but I think I can find out if needs be. Do you think it could be important?” He asked of me.

“If my hunch is correct, it could play a big factor in finding out what happened to your wife and son as well as Sarah Stanton. I think they are all related issues.”

“If what you’re saying is true, that may mean that there is a conspiracy going on to kill children that…” He paused for a moment. “Oh, my god! John was right. It was someone else that killed Sarah. How many children did John cure?”

“I know it was around thirty children before the hospital caught on to what we were doing.”

He looked troubled. “If that’s the case, we could have more deaths on our hands if we don’t do something about it. We need to save those other children. So far, all we know is that someone is killing children. We don’t know who it is or what their motive is…”

“I can tell you what their motive is. It is because they are no longer earning mega bucks from insurance experimenting on your children while they get research grants from the government to find the ‘cure’ for all these diseases. They intimated something like that to me before I was injected with whatever substance they gave me. I think it is retribution to all of you that used John to cure the children.” I told him.

“I think I need to go upwards with this information. Do you have a list of the children’s names that were cured?” I was asked.

“I kept very good records as to what was going on. Unfortunately, the names and information is on my laptop in the camper. I don’t have access to the camper anymore since my keys were stolen the other night.”

He got a slight smile on his face. “You don’t have to worry about that. I have ways of getting into a vehicle that will beat all other possibilities of access. Then we can see what we can do.”

“Once we are able to get the list of names, is there any chance of being able to put a shadow on the kids to help protect them?” I asked.

“Unless there is vital proof of any wrong doings directed at the children, it might be too expensive for any police force to stake out a child on the suspicion that something might happen to them. We need proof positive to be able to do so.”

“Then let’s work on getting the names so that we can put a stop to this insanity.”

Since we had both lost our life partners that day, we went to this task with an urgency that bordered on desperation. My camper had been impounded because of my supposed death and John hadn’t been able to get it out. Frank took me to the bank where I filled out the signature card and received all the necessary documents and cards to access the account funds. I felt a moment of melancholy over the whole thing. Instead of breaking out crying again, I just gave a deep sigh. I think Frank knew what was going on in my head.

Once at the impound yard, I paid off the fees plus the interest that had accrued in storage and I was shown to where the camper sat. Frank, with an ingenuity that was impressive to me, opened the camper locks within seconds and had the ignition going almost as fast. He drove it out of the spot and then we took the camper to his house, me driving it and him in his car.

I pulled my laptop out of it’s hidden location, I had learned all sort of places to hide things that made it hard to steal anything from me. Frank and I went inside his house and connected it to his printer so that I could print out the list. I read off the list of names and felt a chill.

Sarah Stanton
Charlie Jones
Jason Tarkington
Camille Carlson
Heather Graham
Stevie Michales
Jennifer Smithfield
Melinda Willis

There were other names but I could almost be sure that they were going to go in order that they were healed and checked out of the hospital.

“Frank, do you remember what the name of the child was that was killed by the hit and run?”

“Hmm, I think it was a Charles Johnson or something like that.” He replies.

“How about a Charlie Jones?” I asked him.

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Why is it that you ask?”

“Well, Charlie Jones was the second child to be healed. Jason was the third one done. Sarah Stanton was the very first one. Do you see the pattern forming?”

#*#*#*#*#*#

Needless to say, we were off like a flash to see his supervisor with our list of names and our suspicions. Frank’s supervisor was a bit miffed that Frank had come into the office but understood when it came to police work that Frank was honestly trying to do his job regardless of the circumstances.

The higher-ups were called in to consult in the possible investigation on the suspected child homicides. All of them listened to the facts Frank laid out in front of them. He didn’t hide anything, even the fact that John Coffee died for no reason and what is was that John had done for these children. They agreed to send someone to warn the Carlson parents about the possible danger to their child. Since they lived in a different district, they had to bring the various districts in on the loop for cross checking of the individual stories.

It took several hours of conferences before all of the police districts in the city were made aware of the situation. Since the greatest danger at the moment was to Camille, she was to be the one who was going to be watched first. Since that required minimal effort, one pair of officers were assigned to watch her from the time she got out of school for the day, for a 24 hour period of time. If nothing happened to her, then it would be deemed that the other three deaths were exactly as they appeared to be, accidents or outright murder.

#*#*#*#*#*#

At 2:00 in the afternoon, a call was received from the district that the Carlsons lived in. It seemed that someone who was high on drugs and on a rampage had entered the school and took several children hostage. Camille Carlson was one of them. The police had been called in because of the hostage situation but it was fruitless. He killed Camille before turning the gun on himself.

For all the police departments to suddenly see the light for the situation, it was an epiphany to them that Frank and I had been telling the truth. It also pointed out that John was a patsy in the murder of Sarah Stanton.

A background check was ordered on the driver of the vehicle that caused Frank’s wife to be killed. It turned out that he worked for Trower Medical Center in the terminal children’s ward. As it turned out, he was an orderly whose in-charge doctor was named Amos Palmer. That name rang a lot of bells through the police department.

Frank had a smug, self-assured look on his face. An arrest warrant was immediately sent out for the driver

The shooter responsible for the death of Camille Carlson was found to have no identification on him but he did have a picture of Camille on his person. Which lead the police to the conclusion that it was a setup. He was supposed to kill her and her alone. His fingerprints were taken and ran in the National Database but came up with no hits.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, there was another child murdered and at that moment, no one knew where Dr. Palmer was. An APB was put out on Dr. Palmer but no one was sure when he or his associates would strike the next child. They had to make sure that the killers wouldn’t know they had the police on to them.

Chapter 21

Frank and I went back to the safe house late in the evening. We stopped on the way back and ordered some Chinese take-out and ate together in the kitchen. After the day’s activities, we were both worn out and didn’t think too much about the grief that had consumed us earlier in the day. We were both exhausted.

I let Frank crash in one of the spare bedrooms. I went off to bed myself. I may have been able to put aside the pain I was feeling for the loss of John while I was busy trying to help save the children but I couldn’t put it aside as I lay in bed. I cried myself to sleep.

During the middle of the night, I was awakened by a strange sound coming from the house. It was a choking type of sound that I had never heard from the house. Curious, I got up and went in search of the source. It didn’t take long to find it. It was coming from the room Frank was in.

Feeling that I was betraying John but hurting from the pain another human being was in, I went into the room and lay down beside him and wrapped him in my arms. He sobbed even harder, he obviously knew I was awake because of him. The pain inside the man’s heart was immense, he had lost in one day the two people he loved the most. I may have lost one person, but his pain was doubled.

I held on to him for as long as he let loose his grief. Eventually, he began to settle down and fell into an uneasy sleep. I eventually fell asleep myself, wrapped up in his warm, comfortable arms.

#*#*#*#*#

While we slept, the search went on for a murderer. Unbeknownst to me, the world of crime solving had evolved to fine points. Most of the world didn’t know it but they had in their hands the ultimate tool to locate them in case of a problem.

Private records were accessed and eventually information on Dr. Palmer lead them to his hide-out. Oh, the information that lead to him? It was his cell phone. All they had to do was find out his phone number and track it down using the services cell site records and they had him. They were even able to tap in to his phone and monitor his conversations with his cohorts in planning the death of the next child. The police made sure that they had the conversation recorded for adding to the case against him. The best thing that happened was that they even obtained the names of all the conspirators that had joined him. They had been using blackmail against their employees to make them do their bidding in killing the children. Those employees were the ultimate patsies.

Early morning raids were staged after court orders were obtained for search and seizure. All the principals were arrested in the pre-dawn hours while the majority of the city slept. The biggest problem wound up being that Dr. Palmer had been prepared for the possibility and he committed suicide as the police rushed his hide out. He wouldn’t be standing trial for anything.

#*#*#*#*#*#

Frank and I had both been exhausted the night before from the emotions of the day. We didn’t wake up until nearly mid-afternoon. Even then we were still groggy. When we both realized that we were sharing the same bed, we both turned bright shades of red. I excused myself fro his presence and went back to my room. My emotional state from the previous day had depleted itself and my body. I hadn’t felt the need to throw up at all, which was the main reason I had managed to sleep as long as I had. I felt a tiny bit nauseous but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle.

I realized that I hadn’t made it to the doctor the previous day for my exam for the pregnancy. I would have to see what I could do to get it rescheduled for after the funerals for Nancy, Jason and John. Frank and I had a lot of work to do that day in order to prepare our loved ones for their eternal rest. The thing that bothered me the most was that I didn’t have a single picture of John in my possession. I hadn’t thought about taking any pictures of him or myself because I was too focused on the goals we had set.

A pang of regret coursed through me. I thought about the goals we had set for helping the TG community that wouldn’t ever come to fruition now that John was dead. I was saddened by the thought but I could bear it. No one would really know what they missed out on anyway.

Since Frank and I shared tragedies, we decided that we would purchase burial plots next to each other so that our families could spend eternity together and wait for our arrivals later. The biggest problem was the fact that John’s size would cause a greater issue. He would have had to have a plot that was normally half again larger than a normal one. I decided to solve that issue and I set it up for him to be cremated. Frank followed my example and had the same done for his wife and son. Not that it would have mattered anyway, both the bodies were crushed beyond any mortician’s ability to make them recognizable as human beings.

All the trips we made together kept us occupied with our common goals. We shared our pain together and eased said pain from the other by the companionship we shared.

#*#*#*#*#*#

The funerals were held together a week later. It was easier to do since we now shared our lives together. Frank and I had become attracted to each other during our common plight. We didn’t share our bodies with each other but that was common agreement. We each felt that we were betraying the love we had for our deceased spouses, so we decided that it would wait until our grieving periods were over.

I was able to come out of hiding because of the death of Dr. Palmer. Everyone had pointed to him as the main driving force in the deaths of the children. It turned out the person that had killed Camille Carlson had been the one who had killed Sarah Stanton. He had driven into the area of the school with his car and had left a very detailed note about what he had been forced to do with her. He felt sick and guilty about it all but the blackmail he had been put through was so bad, that he killed himself instead of doing anything more for Palmer. The worst thing, according to the letter, was that Dr. Palmer had injected a delayed reaction poison into him and that if he didn’t do as he was directed to do, that he would slowly and agonizingly be killed. Palmer had stated that he and only he had the counter agent for the poison. Rather than be blackmailed again and again by Palmer, he carried out his order and then killed himself.

It turned out in his autopsy that he had never been injected with any poison. He had been given a mild hypnotic that made him act like he was high on drugs. He was never in any danger but it showed how callous Dr. Palmer was. He had no regard for human life and each person was just a cash cow that he could milk.

In time, Dr. Palmer’s assets were seized by the law and turned over to the courts for disbursement. The primary victims wound up being the Stantons, the Jones’, Frank, the Carlsons and myself. The hospital employees that had been blackmailed were eventually given probation and community service for their parts in the killings but the other people involved in the planning of the killings were indicted and convicted of murder, conspiracy and theft by deception. That part is getting ahead of myself.

Dr. Palmer’s assets wound up totaling over $50,000,000.00. It was split between the five families that were the victims on the plot. I wound up getting an additional settlement from the city due to the fact that John was falsely arrested and jailed and then killed while in custody of the county. I was given $5,000,000.00 as a settlement and I had to sign a paper saying that I wouldn’t sue them in the future. I took the money and signed their papers. I just wanted the hubbub to go away.

The media had a heyday with the news of the healings and the subsequent killings. The hospital where this all happened became suspect by all the residents of the city and the county and their business started going down. I really didn’t care about what happened to the hospital at all. I felt that everyone employed there helped Dr. Palmer and his evil plans.

Chapter 22

Once all the hullabaloo settled down, I was able to get to see a obstetrician for my pregnancy. As John had predicted, I was pregnant with twins: a boy and a girl. My morning sickness wound up lasting a month, of which I was getting tired of throwing up every day. Once that settle down, I was able to finally relax somewhat.

It had been a grand total of three months since I had been completely transformed into a biological woman. If my life continued at the rate it was going, I was going to be a haggard old biddy by the time I had these two babies. It seemed like it had been a lot longer than three months but the reality of the situation was that by this point, I was only 10 weeks pregnant.

I can only shake my head at the surreal nature of the past three months. I was transformed, never even experienced a period and wound up pregnant before I knew that I could have a baby. And then wind up a widow before I could actually fully settle into married life. As the old commercials used to say, ‘Life comes at you fast.’ That is certainly true in my case.

Frank and I were spending a lot of time together these days. I had been evicted out of the safe house because my case was no longer the volatile one it had been. Frank opened his house to me and I accepted. I told him that it was going to be temporary until I could find something better.

By that point, I was flush with enough money that I didn’t have to worry about working or doing anything if I even felt like it. I took part of the money and started playing at being a day trader on the stock market. I lost more than I made but that wasn’t the point of it for me.

I even started doing research on John’s forefathers on the internet. I managed to read a lot about his great-grandfather’s history based on the crimes he was accused of. I was saddened by the fact that no one would believe him when he tried to tell them all he wanted to do was help the little girls he was accused of killing. He had sat there crying because he hadn’t been in time to help them. Actually it didn’t say that but I realized how like his great-grandson he was.

The descriptions of the man sounded so like John that I wept for his missing presence. I truly missed him with all my heart. I placed my hand over my belly where our children were growing inside of me and wished fervently that he had been able to see his children be born and grow up. I also wished that they could have known who their father was and what a wonderful man he had been. I felt like I wanted to cry but I managed to hold back.

Frank had been an absolute dear to me ever since I moved into his house. He hadn’t made any sort of move towards me, nor I to him. We pretty much shared our existences together but I hoped something would turn out for the better in the future. I had grown to like Frank very much. Ever since the death of his wife and son, he had become a silent and solemn man. Not that he was that way around me, but it was what I could see inside him and what people had told me about him.

I returned back to studying the life of John Coffee the first, again. I was fascinated about the written tale of his life behind bars, as written by the man who had been in charge of the Green Mile, as it was called in the prison. The name had connotations of something more pleasant than it actually was. Paul Edgecomb was the man’s name.

From everything that had been written about John Coffee the first, I could almost tell that there was something missing from the narrative. Almost as if it was a deliberate omission. I further searched the name of Edgecomb in the online phone directory to see if I could find a relative of his for further personal information. I couldn’t find anything listed for him so I went one step further to see if I could find out his birth date and death date, wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. Amazingly enough I was able to find his records by using, of all things, the LDS Genealogical library. It showed him as being born in 1895 and then showed no death records.

I found all the records of his wife, who died in 1963 and the records of his son who was born in 1936 and passed away in 1998. The odd coincidence of having no record of Paul’s death was very strange.

One a hunch, I looked up the Department of Records and Statistics for the state of Louisiana and searched for his name again. Again, no records existed showing he had passed away at anytime. I again found his wife and son. I went looking into tax records for the name and had a hit. There was a listing for a Paul Edgecomb in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It even listed a phone number for him there.

I figured that it was Paul’s grandson or maybe even his great grandson’s phone number but I felt it was worth a shot. I picked up the phone and dialed the listed number. The person that answered the phone when it rang gave the greeting of “Porter’s Retirement Home”.

I asked to possibly speak to Paul Edgecomb and was curtly told that residents were not permitted to tie up the house lines. She did give me a private number for him and I thanked her, then hung up.

I dialed the number I was given and it rang several times before a tired, worn out man’s voice picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hi, I’m looking for Paul Edgecomb.” I politely asked.

“Speaking. Who’s calling please?” He responded back.

“Hi, my name is LaShara Mason and I’m calling to see if there is any chance you might be able to give me some information that your grandfather might have had at one time.”

“I’m sorry, miss, but my grandfather has been dead for over 90 years. Who are you really trying to reach?” He asked me.

“I am trying to reach the Paul Edgecomb who ran the Green Mile at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary in 1935. I have some questions about an inmate by the name of John Coffee, who was executed that year.” I told him.

The sound of silence was returned back to me from the other end of the line. I waited for a moment before I asked, “Hello? Are you still there?”

He finally said, “Yes, I’m still here. Who are you really? Why are you asking these questions?”

“Sir, my name is really LaShara Coffee and I am calling about my late husband’s great-grandfather, John Coffee.”

A gasp came over the phone. “I’m sorry, but there is no way that I’m going to talk about John over the phone. Good day miss.” A click on the other end was responded by dial tone reverting on my end. I hung up the phone and contemplated the very short conversation I had just had.

Strange was the term for it. Not really sure about what to do at that point, I thought it would be a good thing to go visit the man. I started to make the arrangements for plane tickets, a car rental and motel while I was there. I thought about asking Frank to come with me but I felt that I needed to do this one by myself.

Packing myself a suitcase, I wrote a quick note to Frank and let him know what I was doing and where I was going. I let him know that I would be back in a few days and that I would be fine. I had a taxi pick me up and take me to the airport.

Chapter 23

My flight to Baton Rouge was uneventful. I did enjoy being able to fly again since it had been years since I had flown. I picked up my rental car and headed down I-10 towards Lake Charles. I had a three trip to get there and I was tired by the time I arrived.

I found my motel and checked in for the night. I had a temptingly spicy dinner that night of blacked shrimp. I had never really had New Orleans style food before and I found the meal quite pleasant as well as flavorful. I settled in for the night and prepared my self for the morning meeting with Mr. Edgecomb.

#*#*#*#*#*#

Since I knew that he was in a retirement home, I made sure that I didn’t arrive until mid-morning. As I walked in the door, I was assaulted by the smell of disinfectant, urine, feces and other smells that were nearly enough to gag me. I was glad that my morning sickness stage had passed or I would have lost it right then.

I went up to the desk just inside the front door and greeted the person at the desk.

“Hi, I’m here to visit Mr. Paul Edgecomb, please.”

The woman was in her mid-fifties and she looked like she could be a real hard nose. “Is Mr. Edgecomb expecting you this morning?”

“No, he isn’t. I talked with him on the phone yesterday and he wasn’t able to give me the information that I was looking for over the phone. I felt that I needed to come and see him in person and get the information that way.” I told her.

“Well, there are rules for the residents that no one outside of family members can visit anyone here. You’ll have to talk to one of his family members and have them bring you to see him.” She told me, rather officiously.

“I think you know this as well as I do: Mr. Edgecomb’s wife and son are both dead and he has no other relatives living. Therefore, I could be a long lost relative of his for all you know. But let me put it this way, I am not with the press, nor am I here to harm him in any way. He is an old man but he has information that I need to get to help solve a little puzzle about someone he knew a long time ago. Would you help me in this manner?” I demanded/asked her.

“Well, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my supervisor if it is permitted.” She turned her attention away from me and made a call on the phone. She talked quietly for a moment before hanging up.

“I’m sorry miss but our rules are quite explicit. No one is allowed to see any resident without family approval first. Especially not our extreme elderly patients, er, I mean residents. You if you would just go back to whatever rock, um, place you came from, I have a business to run.”

“Then I hope for your sake that you know what your doing. Because one way or another, I will be seeing Mr. Edgecomb.” I told her with a hard finality. I turned away from the desk and took a step away.

Then in my loudest voice I yelled out, “Paul Edgecomb! Someone is here to see you and is not permitted to visit. Are you available? Paul Edgecomb! I need to see you!”

By the time I had the last word out of my mouth, I was grabbed by a couple of burley orderlies and hustled towards the door. The facilities manager was right there scolding at me like an angry squirrel. Something to do about disturbing the sanctity of peace that they worked to establish and maintain there. Not to mention disturbing the residents with my obnoxious voice.

They were about to shove me out the door when a man’s voice called out, “Wait. I’ll talk to her.”

Everyone turned around, me by proxy since I was still gripped in the orderly’s beefy hands. I saw a very elderly man standing about thirty feet from where I was.

The manager, the biddy she was, said, “Mr. Edgecomb, this woman is not welcome here. She has disturbed our peace and must be evicted.”

“Well, Ms. Mason has come a long way to see me since she made an appointment with me yesterday on the phone but the old man I am forgot to let you all know I had an appointment with her. Now if you’ll release my guest, I have business to attend to with her.” He was a kindly old man; his soft southern voice was pleasing to hear. Not like the screeching of the manager’s voice.

“Mr. Edgecomb, we have rules about visitors and needing family members approval to see a resident. You know that as well as I do.” She said huffily.

“Yes, I know the rules as well as you do but for your information, I have no family living that can give the approval for visitors. As you so well know, also.”

‘Go Paul! Give her hell.’ I thought to myself.

“Well, I hope you know what you’re getting in to,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right for one of her... type... to be disturbing one of our oldest citizens.”

“I’ll vouch for her personally. You don’t have to worry about anything further.” He responded in a no nonsense tone.

The manager stuck her nose up into the air and motioned for the orderlies to release me. I made insulted motions to my arms and brushed of the supposed dirt they had left on me. I smiled at Mr. Edgecomb.

He gave a tired smile in return to me. Then he motioned for me to join him. I walked over to where he stood and waited for him. A pure southern gentleman, he offered me his arm. I took it gently and walked slowly with him to wherever he was intending on going.

He took me into what could only be called a meeting room for family. He shut the door and locked it behind us. Then he did something that amazed me even further. He pulled out a small plastic box and sat it on the table in the center of the room and flipped a small switch on it. Then he visibly relaxed. “One can’t be too cautious these days. That box is a bug jammer, since I know they have listening devices in here.”

He motioned for me to sit, which I did. He slowly sat next to me. He seemed lost in his thoughts for a time before he spoke to me.

“You’re a very persistent young woman, Ms. Mason. Or should I call you Mrs. Coffee?”

“If you please, sir, please just call me LaShara or Shara or even Shari. I’ll answer to any of them.” I told him.

“Shari sounds ok to me. It’s a little bit easier for my old mouth to form. But I’ll only call you that if you’ll call me Paul.” He said with graceful ease.

“Certainly, Paul.” I replied.

“Now, what was it that you wanted to ask me about John Coffee? Wait a second before you answer. I wasn’t aware that He even had any descendents, let alone a grandson, son or whatever. How did that occur?” He inquired of me.

“Well, from what my late husband told me, his great-grandfather had been taken in by a woman who saw the person he was inside…” I went on to tell Paul the story that my John had told me those months ago. He was silent until I finished telling it.

“Amazing. No one knew anything about that at all. John walked the Green Mile not even knowing that he had a son to carry on his name. Now here I am talking to his great-granddaughter-in-law. What small world it really is.” He choked back a sob. He wiped a tear that was running down his cheek. “I’m the only person still alive who remembers John. I wish I could have known your husband. He sounds so much like the John I knew. Why are you searching out his roots with him being dead?”

“I made a vow upon his death to find out everything I could about his ancestors starting with his great-grandfather, so that I could pass the information on to his children.” I told Paul.

“How many children does he have?” He asked me.

“None at present, but in about six months or so, there’ll be two arriving.” I said with a slight blush.

“Again, amazing. Somehow, the line goes on despite the world trying to remove it from existence. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that God and Satan are in the battle for the world and it has been being played on the Coffee lineage.” He said with awe in his voice. “Ok, you told me about your John, now I’ll tell you about mine.”

Over the next several hours, he regaled me with the anecdotes of his meeting John the first back in 1935. By the time he was finished, I was sobbing for the inhumanity that had befallen the Coffee line. It was so sad how badly John was treated.

Paul continued on, “The main thing that happened when John was holding Mr. Jingles when Eduard was executed was that Mr. Jingles somehow had his life extended. And John somehow gave me the same thing. You see, I was 40 years old when John walked the Mile. I am now 121 years old. My body wants to live on but my mind is so tired. Mr. Jingles passed away a year ago and who knows how old he was when Eduard was executed. But I do know he lived 80 years longer than he would have if it hadn’t been for John. Now, I have no idea how much longer I have to live. I have outlived every one of my family and I no longer have anyone who cares about me. I have been in this god forsaken place longer than I care to remember. I sometimes wish that John had never come into my life but at the same time, I praise God that he did. I just didn’t want to live this long.” The years of life weighed heavily on him and he finally broke down.

I comforted him as best as I could, though I felt out of place. My own father was only 63 when he passed away and my mother was 73. I never knew either of my grandfathers. I felt a kinship with this kind old man. As I was hugging him, I wished deeply that I could help him out one way or another.

Without knowing what I did, I felt a lurch within myself and a bright light flashed between us and through the connection with him that I had with my arms. I felt something pouring into me from him and I took every bit of it.

Chapter 24

I was unable to break the contact I had with Paul. Whatever it was that was happening, it knew what to do. Eventually, it slowed down and stopped. I felt a fullness within me that I couldn’t explain but I knew I needed to release the bloated feeling. I felt a belch rising within myself and before I knew what happened, a force rose from the depths of my being and came out.

BUUUURRRRRRPPPPPPPP!

Relief was instantaneous. I no longer felt bloated and I was actually quite energized. I gave a little giggle and said, “Excuse me Paul. That was really rude of me.”

He just smiled at me for a moment and then with a gusto, he let out the most heart felt peal of laughter. I couldn’t help but laugh with him. It had been rather embarrassing to have belched so long and loudly when I had never done so before in my life. We laughed together for several more moments.

Once we had finally calmed down, Paul looked at me and asked, “What in the world did you do? The only time I have ever saw such a light was when John was doing his thing. Did you somehow pick it up from your John?”

“I don’t know, Paul. I’ve never done anything like that before. For all I know, it is my body’s sympathetic reaction to being pregnant with John’s children. He did say that he had altered them somehow but he didn’t say how they were altered. There are so many things that it could be, I just don’t know where I would have to begin to find out. For now, I’ll just let it be and not question it.” I told him.

I also had a bad feeling about the whole thing but I didn’t want to tell him anything that might upset him.

“Well, Paul, I guess I’ve taken up too much of your time and I really should be going back to the motel. If you need me, here is the place I will be staying and their number.” I handed him a card that gave the motel and their address with the phone number on it. “I’ll probably be leaving in a day or so, I wanted to check things out a bit more around here and see if I could dig up some more information on John the first. Do you need me to walk you to your room before I leave?” I asked him.

“No, I’ll be fine for now. I just want to sit here for a bit and reflect. Thank you for your visit Shari. I really enjoyed talking with you.” He told me, with melancholy in his voice.

I gave him another hug and left the room. I hated to leave the poor man alone but I really did have other things to do.

#*#*#*#*#*#

I had spent nearly nine hours with Paul, talking. I hadn’t had anything to eat since early morning and I was starved. I grabbed a bite in the restaurant that was next door to the motel. Deep Southern cooking seemed to had a lot to do with catfish, crawdads, shrimp and spices. I found out that I really enjoyed crawdad. It looked like shrimp but tasted less salty than shrimp did. I had their crawdad gumbo which did a lot to enhance the flavor of the 'dads but without the spices that would give me indigestion. I had enjoyed the food the previous night but the spices wound up being a bit too much for me to handle a while later. I didn’t know if it was because I was pregnant or what but I didn’t want to take a chance on it not being that.

Once I had been able to settle down for the night, I gave Frank a call to let him know what I was doing. I felt that he at least deserved to be kept abreast of what I had found out. We talked for a while and then said our good nights. I turned off the light and went to sleep.

#*#*#*#*#

I was awakened by a sharp pounding on my door. I looked at the clock beside my bed and saw it was almost 2 in the morning. Thinking that there was something wrong in the building, I got up and answered the door. Standing in front of it was a young white girl, probably around 10 or 11 years old. She was wearing some very ill-fitting pajamas that looked like they belonged to an old man. She didn’t even have any shoes on.

“Yes, honey, what can I do for you?” I asked her.

“What do you mean, what can you do for me? Don’t you think you’ve done enough for me?” She yelled at me.

That one stumped me. My only reply was “Huh?”

“It’s me, Paul Edgecomb! You somehow changed me into this, this child. I went to sleep as you left me and then all of a sudden I was woke up by the nurse yelling at me about not belonging where I was at. She yanked me out of bed and rushed me out the door just like I am now. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had put the card in the pocket of the shirt, I wouldn’t have remembered where you said you were staying. At the moment, I’m no longer who I was and I have no place to go. You made me like this and ultimately, I think you are responsible for me.” She told me. “I’m tired, my feet hurt from walking the three miles from the rest home to here and yet I feel like I have an endless supply of energy. More than anything else, may I come in?”

I had never been so dumbfounded in my life. If this was really Paul standing in front of me, I wished I knew what I had done to make him, her this way. I stood aside and let her in the room. She went and sat in one of the chairs next to the window. I sat down opposite her and just stared at her.

It was amazing to see her like this. Her hair had been short and almost pure white, at least however much there was of it. Now though, it had an overall length of about six inches and was a dark brown color. Her features were very delicately feminine and showed great promise of being very beautiful when she grew older. But then there was the other part of the equation: she was really over 120 years old but looked like she was 10. That part was going to be the one that would be the worst for her. The plus side was that she was young again. She mentioned that she had noticed a high level of energy. That was typical for a child.

Because of all that, I felt a strong responsibility for her. Now if I could figure out what to do about it…

End Part 4

I apologize that this isn't the full part 5 as I would like it to be. It has been more than a month since I posted part 4 and work has been causing me massive losses of writing time as well as my broken arm causing me problems. I had to have surgery last week in order to repair the massive break in my wrist. It is healing well and I will get a cast put on it Thursday to replace the splint and the ace bandage they put on afterwards. They said something about keeping the cast on for a couple of weeks to stabilize a broken bone in the palm of my hand and after it heals better they will be giving me a brace to wear so that I can start working on getting the mobility back. I will be trying to get the full complement of part 5 finished as quickly as I can. In the mean time, I present to you: Part 4.5

Goldie

The Greener Mile - Part 4.5

Paul looked like she was about ready to fall asleep sitting in the chair. I only had one bed in my room so I made the decision to share the bed with her for the rest of the night. I would make a full decision in the morning when we woke up and had a chance to talk as well as get something to eat.

I helped Paul to her feet and set her down at the edge of the bed. I had her take off the torn pajama bottoms and tried as best as I could to get the top to fit better. I gave up and went and got one of my sleep shirts, which were better fitting than the man’s pajamas were. Once she lay down, she was out like a light. I got in on the other side of the bed and turned off the light again. I still couldn’t believe what I had done. It took me a while to get back to sleep again.

Again, I was woken up by a pounding on my door. I looked at the clock and it said that it was 8:12. I hoped that the pounding wasn’t going to become a habit with everyone. I wondered who it was this time. I got, grabbed my robe and went to the door.

I looked through the peep hole and saw that it was two uniformed police officers. Rather than keep them waiting any longer, I opened the door to them.

“Good morning, officers. What can I do for you?” I greeted them.

“Morning, ma’am. We need to ask you a few questions about a person you saw yesterday that came up missing during the night. May we come in?” The one who was the senior officer asked me.

I stood to the side and ushered them in. I saw the look of typical police officers as each of them did the quick survey of the room. One noticed the sleeping form on the bed still asleep. I made the ‘quiet please’ gesture to them to indicate that the form on the bed was still sleeping.

A quick nod from them acknowledged the fact.

In a quieter voice, the leader asked, “What was your business with Mr. Edgecomb yesterday?”

“I was visiting him to find out information about my late husband’s great grandfather who Mr. Edgecomb executed in the electric chair when Mr. Edgecomb was working at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He had come to know the man very well before he died and I am trying to build a family history for my children.” I moved a hand down to rest on my tummy where there were two children sleeping. “I had a great conversation with him during the time I spent there.”

“After you left, did you have any further contact with him?”

“No, I went and picked up my orphaned niece from a third cousin who had been taking care of her until I could come and pick her up. We came back here after eating and went to bed. We have a flight back home to catch in Baton Rouge in a few hours.” I told them. “When did Mr. Edgecomb turn up missing?”

“The night duty nurse found he was missing at around 12:30. The weirdest part was that she said there was a 10 year old girl in Mr. Edgecomb’s bed. Do you know anything about her?”

I felt this was going to be the tricky part getting out of. I tried to show surprise in my face in an attempt to cover up what I knew. “No, I don’t. Was she a neighborhood child that snuck into the home?”

“No one has come forth with any information and there aren’t any 10 year olds living in the area. How old is your niece?” I was asked

“She’s 12 in another month.” I decided to stretch her apparent age a bit. “She is already looking forward to being a teenager, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do,” the older one said. “My 14 year old was the same way when she was that age. Well, if there are any other bits of information that you think might help, here’s my card. Call it if you think of anything that might help out the investigation. Thank you for your help.”

I was handed the card and they quickly left the room. I let out a sigh of relief.

I heard a little giggle come from under the covers of the bed. “You did well with that. I don’t think they even have a clue as to where I am.”

“You heard every thing then?” I asked her.

“Sure, you don’t get to be my age and not be awakened by a pounding on the door. I just felt it better to act like I was asleep.” She said.

“You must have had a lot of practice at it since you certainly had me fooled. The cops didn’t think anything about it either.” I told her.

“Were you serious about taking me with you? I mean, what you told the police about me going with you to where you live?” She inquired of me.

“Well, seeing as to how you have no place to go since you are no longer who you were, I figured that it is due to me that it happened anyway, so why not. I really don’t look like your aunt or anything even closely related to you but I do feel a responsibility towards you. So yes, I was planning on taking you with me, if you were willing to go with me.” I honestly told her.

“For exactly those reasons, I would say yes. For other reasons, I would still say yes. Most importantly, I would like a new start. I mean, I am a little girl now and if you can figure out how to change me back to what I was or even near to what I was, where else would be the better place to be?” She didn’t seem too put out about the entire possibilities.

“I was going to talk to you about that in a little while but I think that if you are up for the idea, we would be happy to have you around our house.” I told her.

“Our house? Who else is there?” She asked me, with concern on her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you about the person I’ve been living with since John died.” I proceeded to tell her about Frank, his family and what had been going on between Frank my myself. “So you see, Frank has been really kind to me and has made no demands of me. He has enough money now that he could retire from his job and live well for the rest of his life but he loves his job. Because of what happened after his family died, he has put in a transfer to be a detective instead of a beat cop.”

“Is there something between you that might be more than what you’re telling me?” she asked.

This was one smart person. Of course, he had lived for a long time and he had retained all his wits about him instead of sliding off into senility as a lot of elderly people did. It has carried over into the person I was talking to. I kept forgetting that she wasn’t just another little girl, but a lot older and wiser than myself.

“To be honest, I really like Frank. Not as just a friend, even though he has been becoming my best friend. I do love him but right at the moment, that is about as far as it goes. With the future, well, that is yet to be seen. Personally, I would like to see it go further than it is right now. I could stand to be married again. After being with John, no matter how short it was, I find myself missing the close, loving companionship we had. No one can replace John but someone could fill in the missing pieces. I really hope it will be Frank.” I told her.

“I’ll bet just having sex again would make up the difference…” She said, a wry smile on her face.

“Hey now! You’re supposed to be a little girl, not some jaded old man! Besides, I… aw heck! Yeah, it would be great to be able to have sex with someone again. John was wonderful when he was alive. Better than I ever had in all 50 years of my li…” I stopped, suddenly realizing what I was starting to say. I had never told her that I had been age regressed also.

“What? You’re older than you look? How did that happen?” She demanded of me. “What else are you holding back from me?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve been holding off information from you. I felt that since I wouldn’t have been around long if things had been different, I wouldn’t have to worry about telling you my true origins.” I told her, rather sheepishly.

“If I’m going to be going to live with you, we need to be on a basis of no secrets between us. Outside of the two of us, we can keep them secret between us. Now what is it you have to tell me. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” She held up three fingers, side by side and said, “Scouts honor.”

“Hmmph, I doubt that they had scouts when you were a child. But, ok, I get the idea. As I mentioned accidentally, I am 50 years old. When I met John Coffee, I was…” I spent quite a while telling her the ‘TRUE’ story of my life. I didn’t leave anything out. I told her I had been born a man and I saw an eyebrow move ever so slightly at that disclosure.

She had the patience of an angel since she didn’t say anything until I sagged, exhausted from talking so much. “Man, I thought my life was full of drama. You make mine sound like a kiddie movie. Poor kid, you had a touch life and John made it even tougher for you, didn’t he?”

“That is where you’re wrong. I would have given my eye teeth to have been born this way but what John did was give me the greatest gift I had ever received from anyone. I don’t care that I’m pregnant right now and that I’ll give birth in a few months. I really am content with my life except for one small thing: I really want John in it and I can no longer do so. I had tried so hard to prevent what happened to him from happening but in the long run, called it his family curse, got to him regardless. I just hope that I don’t have to try to fight for my children the same way I fought for John. I *HAVE* to protect my children harder than I did John. It’s instinctual to me now. It’s like I have this built in instruction manual in my head or something. I can’t let anything happen to them. If someone hurts one of them or something I won’t be able to control the actions that I will have happen. I hope you understand that part. It sounds crazy to me.” I told her.

She gave a wry giggle (I’m sure she was trying to chuckle but with her high childish girl’s voice, it came out a giggle), “That sounds like any woman I’ve ever known. Kipling said it very well in his poem, the female of the species is the deadliest of all. It just goes to show that you are 100% female regardless of your beginnings.”

“Um, thank you, I think…” I told her, rather puzzled by the comment. I had thought I was well read but I was unfamiliar with the statement she made. I was going to have to look it up.

“Kids these days, I swear. You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? Oh well, you’re a smart woman so I figure you’ll work it out for yourself.” Before she could make another comment, her little tummy gave a growl that would have silenced a lion in mid roar. She giggled again. “I think something spoke out about needing some food.”

I had to laugh with her. “I agree. Let’s get ready to go, so we can stop and get something to eat.”

“Um, I think there might be a problem with that idea, Shari.” She said with trepidation.

Puzzled, I couldn’t figure out what she meant.

“Gads, I can still see you sort of think like a man does. I don’t have any clothes to wear silly.” She told me, a bit exasperated.

If my skin hadn’t been so dark, I would have turned bright red. As it was, I felt the flush clear to the roots of my hair. I cursed myself inwardly. We were going to have to do something about that part rather quickly. Nothing I had would fit her and it would look rather silly for her to wear a sleep shirt to go to breakfast in. Or for that matter, anywhere.

I went over to the window and looked out at the row of stores across the street from the motel. I spotted what looked like a second hand clothing store. As I watched, a hand reached to the closed sign and turned it to read ‘open’.

“Ok, problem solved. There’s a clothing store right across the street that just opened. I’m going to get dressed and go get something that you can wear until we can get you some decent clothes.” I told her.

“Ok, just as long as you don’t get me anything too girlie. I’m not sure that I could handle something like that at the moment. Just don’t forget about shoes either.”

I threw some clothes on and high tailed it over to the clothing store. The clerk was very helpful to me when I told her that I needed to get some clothes for a niece that had lost everything she owned in a fire that had occurred in the middle of the night. Again, I stretched the truth when she asked me if it had been local. Especially since she hadn’t heard of one in town that happened during the night. I lied and told her that it had happened in another town and we were traveling to my home now. She shrugged at that and proceeded to take me to the girl’s selections area.

Now I was really lost. I didn’t know much about children’s clothes and I knew I was going to have to learn about them real quick. I described her height and estimated her weight to the clerk who went and picked out a cute little dress that looked like it might fit her. I remembered what she said about the girlie type of clothes and such. I knew I couldn’t help myself, the dress was what I called a little too frilly or dressy, so I nixed it and started looking at others. I found a cute little sun dress that was in a bluish coloration that had the correct sizing for Paul’s size.

In the end, I wound up getting a couple pairs of pants, blouses, socks, underwear, a nightie, the sun dress and a pair of sandals for Paul. As I was thinking about Paul, I realized that if she was going to stay this way for a while, she was going to have to think about a different name. Paul was not a good name for a little girl, regardless of who she really was. I would have to bring it up to her when I got back.

I made the final sales purchase and went back across the street to the motel. I went into the room and saw Paul sitting on the bed watching cartoons and totally enraptured by them. I smiled to myself at the sight. She roused herself out of her trance and smiled at me.

“You know, if I have to be young again, being a girl isn’t so bad. I mean, I sure wouldn’t have to worry about striving to be the best at everything I did and the competitive level wouldn’t be as bad. But the biggest problem I have right at the moment is that being with you is going to cause a lot of questions here. I don’t know where you live but around here, a white girl just isn’t seen with a black woman and vice versa. If I’m seen with you, you could conceivably be arrested for kidnapping and put in jail. I would wind up in a foster home without any way to get back to normal. If you had to change me into a girl, why couldn’t have been a black one where there wouldn’t be any questions about us being seen together. You know what I mean?”

At once it dawned on me what she was saying. We were in the south where, regardless of what most northern people though, segregation was still practiced even though the majority of people ignored what was going on.

If I left the motel with her in plain view, like she said, I could be in some serious trouble with the law. If Frank was here, there wouldn’t be any problems, but for once, I regretted my rash decision to come down here so quickly. I could be in real deep doo-doo…

Chapter 26

I had always hated feeling weak in the emotions department. Ever since I had started hormones all those years ago, I had noticed my emotions becoming so much looser and difficult to control. This was one of those times where I felt my grip starting to come loose on me.

Paul looked at me and she could tell that I was starting to lose it. She stepped over to me and reached out and hugged me. Regardless of her actual body, she hugged like a man: strong and warm.

My immediate reaction was to break down and sob my heart out. I cried and wailed about ruining her life and if I was to try to take her out of the room, I could be arrested. Where her arms were touching my neck, bare skin to bare skin, I suddenly felt a charge of static electricity surge through me, into her. She gave a yelp of pain, then let go of me.

“I’m going to have to be more careful when I walk,” she said. “I forgot how much static electricity can build up when you move fast enough. I hope you’re ok, that felt like a pretty strong shock.”

“I’m fine. It felt like it was from me, not you. I was trying to figure out where I got the build up from.” I told her. “Paul, I think…. What the hell?” I blurted out, shocked at what I was seeing.

“What? What’s wrong?” She asked me.

“Look at your arm…” I told her.

She glanced down at her arm. Where her arm had touched me when she had given me the hug, it was turning dark. It was like time-lapse photography but a lot quicker. The color of her arms as well as the rest of her body was darkening rapidly into what looked like African-American coloration. I was seriously going to have to get whatever was going on in control. I couldn’t keep haphazardly changing people’s sex, age and race like I was doing.

In a matter of moments, the color change had completely stopped and her coloration was very near the same skin tones as what I had. It looked like our problems had been solved. Not in a way I thought it would have been, but one that would prevent me from being arrested for kidnapping of a white girl. Heck, even her features took on a slight change to look more African-American.

“Well, Shari, it seems whatever you’re doing seems to know how to make things right. I’ll really have to stick with you now. I look like your niece with my skin like this.” She remarked.

“But I didn’t intend on you looking like this!” I told her very emphatically.

“Well, it seems you have some work to do in controlling whatever it is that you do. As it…” She was interrupted as a knocking sounded on the door.

We looked at each other in apprehension. She shrugged her shoulders to indicate she didn’t know who it might have been.

Cautiously, I went to the door and peeked through the spy hole. It was the two police officers again but there was an older woman with them. I mouthed ‘police again’ to Paul. I opened the door for them.

“Hello again, Officers. What can I do for you?” I asked them in greeting.

“I’m sorry to bother you again, but the retirement home sent over the person who said she found the little girl in Mr. Edgecomb’s bed to see if she recognized your niece. They have the idea that you are harboring a fugitive. Do you mind if she takes a look at your ‘niece’?” He asked.

“Sure, go ahead.” I told them.

The woman stepped into the room. Took one look at Paul, turned to the officers and said, “Nope, not her. The girl I saw was white. There’s no way this girl could be her. Sorry.” Then she turned away and went back out of the room.

“Sorry to disturb you ma’am. If you do remember anything Mr. Edgecomb said that might be of help, please call us at the number I gave you.” He said and then left.

I closed the door and turned back to Paul. “Whew! That was close.” I told her.

“You got that right. One of the officers was suspicious about something. I could see him looking around the room and at one point, his eyes locked on something over by the bathr…” She trailed off.

We both looked over that direction. There on the counter by the sink was the pajamas Paul had been wearing when she showed up last night. I felt a cold flush run through my veins. They obviously know that Paul had visited me. But they couldn’t know that they had just saw Paul. They could be back any time now with a search warrant. I couldn’t panic or it would seem suspicious even more.

I glimpsed out the curtain as narrowly as I could. Across the street was what looked like an unmarked police car. I could tell by the array of antennas on the trunk. The driver was the younger officer. I had to do something with the pajamas since they had physical evidence of Paul on them, even though they weren’t attached to him. If they could show proof that Paul came to some sort of harm, they could arrest me for his murder.

A fat lot of good it would do them though. There would be nothing other than circumstantial evidence on the clothing since there was no blood or anything on them that would say he met with foul play. Not really caring about the consequences, I just threw the pajamas in the garbage under the sink.

Then we proceeded to pack up everything so that we could leave.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

I had the feeling we wouldn’t make it out of town. I just acted like nothing was wrong and Paul and I went out to the car, put things in the trunk, got in and left the motel.

I watched as the officer pulled his vehicle in behind me while another vehicle pulled into the motel after we left. I knew they were going to search the room for evidence that Paul had been there. I kept my eye on the cop car as I neared the edge of town. Sure enough, as I neared the city limit, I saw him turn his lights on to pull me over.

Obediently, I pulled over to the side of the road.

He approached with his hand on his gun. “Will you step out of the car, ma’am?”

I calmly got out of the car and stepped off the roadway. No sense in getting hit by someone who was pulling a lookie-lou to see what was going on.

“Yes, officer? What did I do wrong?” I asked him.

“You’re going to have to come down to the station with me. You are wanted for questioning in the disappearance and possible death of Paul Edgecomb, who vanished from a locked facility last night. You were the last visitor he had and you have some explaining to do. Now turn around with your hands on your vehicle.” He demanded of me.

Going easy, I placed my hands where he could see them. He did the quick search to make sure I didn’t have any weapons on me. Then he grabbed one hand, clicked one side of the handcuffs on me and then brought my other hand around and fastened it into the cuffs. I was read my rights and then I was then taken to his car and placed into the back seat.

He got in and pulled out and swung around back to town. I watched as another car pulled behind my rental and a male officer and a female officer got out. Paul was lead out of the car and into theirs. I knew she was going to be ok. It was just a matter of time before we were released due to lack of evidence.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

I was taken into the station where I was booked in and given a complete body cavity search. They wanted to utilize some sort of drug grabber to see if they could pull drugs out of my womb. I had to advise them that I was pregnant and if they put that thing inside me, I would more than likely lose my babies. If I lost my babies, the only children of my late husband, I would sue them for so much money that it would take their great-great-great-great grandkids to pay off the debt. After that, they handled me with a bit more care, although they seemed a bit unsure whether I was telling the truth or not, but they weren’t taking a chance.

I was garbed in a standard jail house jumpsuit and then taken into an interrogation room and left handcuffed to a table.

They made me sit there in that uncomfortable, hard plastic chair for four hours. Knowing that I didn’t do anything wrong, I made the best of it: I went to sleep right there. Years ago, I was always on the go, doing things with little or no sleep and I formed a habit of being able to sleep and get refreshed in a short period of time. The four hours I slept made me feel better in the times that were to come afterward.

I was abruptly awakened by the slamming of the door. I was awake instantly. The lead detective from this morning was there. With him was another person I had never met before. Obviously, he was the supervisor of the detective.

“Ms. Mason, when I talked to you this morning, you stated that you had not had any contact with Mr. Paul Edgecomb since your visit to him yesterday. You know we found the pajamas he had worn to bed last night in the garbage of your motel room, don’t you?” He opened up on me.

“Who they belonged to, I had no idea. I found them outside my room this morning when I went across the street to get my niece some clothes that would fit her. She had been left with nothing to wear after her parents were killed in a fire. I just brought them in because I wasn’t sure what to do with them.” I told him.

That set the man off. He berated me, castigated me to no end. I think that if his supervisor hadn’t been in the room, he probably would have done a lot more than he did. I had a sudden fear for the man. He could be a real loose cannon if he was permitted to be.

I tried to calmly answer any an all questions that was put to me. I didn’t know if there was some sort of remote lie detector connected to me or not but I kept seeing him tilt his head a bit every once in a while as if he was listening to something. The next time he straightened his head up I noticed that he had a small hidden earpiece. I knew then he was getting information about something from someone.

“Look here, Mason or perhaps you prefer the name of Coffee, or maybe even your other alias of Parson, you have been one slick bitch. Fraud, accessory to felony child molestation and murder as well as who knows how many other crimes you’ve committed, but you’re going down. As soon as we can find Edgecomb’s body, you’re going to be charged with his murder. It’s only a matter of time before you join that piece of shit husband of yours. He deserved what he got…” He trailed off as he finally took notice of the look of sheer anger on my face.

I stood up and looked him straight in the eye. “Look you piece of shit. Where I’m from, no one can talk to someone like you just did to me. You are out of line mister. Not only are you as far off as you can be, you are just taking stabs in the dark. My husband was murdered in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Believe what you wish to believe but he was found innocent post-humusly. Someone else committed those crimes and if you had looked close enough at the files you so carelessly glanced at, you would have seen that. So if you’re going to charge me with a crime, do so, but I’m through playing your tiring little game. As for Paul Edgecomb, he isn’t dead. He is right under your nose and you wouldn’t be able to see it. Now, if you will bring me my niece, I’m out of here.” I sat down and folded my arms in contempt of this… this, oh I’m not going to even think it.

His face grew deeply red. It almost looked like he was about to burst a vessel in his head. ”Now listen here you bitch…”

About this time, his supervisor interrupted. “That’s enough Fred. I’ve listened to this farce long enough. She obviously knows where Paul Edgecomb is and that he’s still alive. As far as we know, he doesn’t want to be found and when he’s ready to come forward, he will. She hasn’t committed any crime here and we were only supposed to question her. If you can’t tell when a person is telling the truth, maybe you shouldn’t be doing this.” He then turned to me. “I’m sorry you had to go through this Ms. Mason. Be honest with me. Do you know where Paul Edgecomb is?”

I nodded yes at that question.

“Is he alive and well?” I was asked.

I also nodded yes.

“Does he want to be found?”

I shook my head no.

“That’s good enough for me. Detective Riordan, release her from custody. She is free to go without any charges files against her. Ms. Mason, please make sure we have a contact number and address in case we have any further questions for you. As soon as we can get you your clothes, you can meet your niece at the front desk and we’ll see to it you are taken to your car. You have a good day and a safe trip.”

It took an hour to get checked out of custody, get my stuff gathered up and for me to get dressed again. I was taken to the front desk where Paul was sitting with a lady police officer. She had a look on her face that was pure boredom. The lady officer was chatting gaily with her but Paul seemed to have no interest in the conversation. She spotted me and a smile flew across her face. She jumped up and ran to me where she gave me a hug. I returned it warmly.

“How are you holding up?” She asked me.

“I’m tired of the BS I was dealt in there but not too bad otherwise.” I replied.

“Good, let’s get out of here. The less I see of this place, the happier I’ll be.” She said.

I could have agreed with her more.

The lady officer was our escort back to the car where it was impounded. The police wanted to keep it longer but they had not found any prints in it that were Paul’s, or so they said. We got in it and left.

I had been in the interrogation room for nearly ten hours and I was tired. But, I needed to get away from this town as quickly as I could. I drove to the next town I could find and stopped to find a room for Paul and I. We were too late to get anything to eat at a restaurant so we picked up a quick but fattening bite at a convenience store.

Once we settled down for the night, it didn’t take long before I was fast asleep.

Chapter 27

The next morning, we slept in until nearly 10AM and then left the motel for Baton Rouge. A few hours later, we were back at the airport, returned the car, and booked into the flight. We had a couple of hours to wait before the flight left so we sat and talked.

“Paul, I know this is the wrong time to bring this up, but until we are able to fix the situation with your body, we need to come up with a new name for you. I mean, I can’t keep calling you Paul around everyone even though that’s your name. It just doesn’t seem right to call a little girl Paul regardless of what she was before. Do you understand where I’m coming from?” I asked her.

“I know what you’re trying to say. I don’t like it but what choice do I have? I was having a difficult with the people that took me into custody. They kept asking me my name but I acted like I was shy and I didn’t talk to them. I finally acted like I was a bit braver and said my name was JaNeece. My wife’s name was Janice but everyone called her Jan and it was the only name I could think of that they could call me. Let’s go with that for now, can we?” She told me.

“If you’re comfortable with it, then I don’t see why not. There are going to be several issues that we run up against in legalizing you. We don’t have a birth certificate or social security number for you. Then there is the matter of closing out your former life. I seriously doubt that you will ever go back to what you were before but no matter what, I will take full responsibility for your expenses until we can figure out what to do with you. Is this alright with you?” I returned.

“It’s as best as we can do at the moment. I don’t really care to think too much about my former life right at the moment, so let’s not talk about it right now, OK?”

“That’s fine with me. If we can ignore the fact that you did have another life, at least for now, then we can make it better for all.” I told her.

Finally, our flight was called to board. When I would fly before, I would have reading material with me, just in case I got tired of looking down at the ground. I had always had a fascination with what the planet looked like from 35,000 feet. It always looks so different from the air. I can see the tiny specks of automobiles moving along the surface and I try to imagine what the occupant was doing at that specific moment in time. I know I can never actually know what they are doing but it gives my mind something to do to occupy the time as I fly.

I made sure that Paul, now JaNeece had the window seat. No matter how long she had lived, she had never flown in an airplane before and was finding it terrifying as well as highly fascinating. As we taxied for take-off, I watched the child-like wonder in her face. When the pilot hit the acceleration for take-off and we launched into the air, I could hear little girl giggles coming from her mouth. She was trying to be quiet about it but still to hear the laugh was pleasing to my ears. I giggled to myself at the happy sounds of a child sitting next to me.

I started my e-reader and buried myself into the newest Dirk Cussler novel. I had loved to read the novels by his father until his passing a couple of years back and now I found that Dirk had the same flair for writing that his father did. For some reason, I had a better time reading about the exploits of his main character, Dirk Pitt, Jr. I could envision myself in the place of the heroine of the story and making love to the dashing hero. I loved how my nipples got hard at the descriptions of the protagonist. Now though, my crotch got really wet in anticipation to the sexual action that I knew would be forthcoming. I really needed to get laid. Badly!

The flight went well even though we had a few rough spots that had JaNeece cackling with glee at the ride. I could see the people sitting around us looking at her with smiles, knowing that the trip was her first in the air.

Unfortunately, the flight had to end sometime and she had just as much fun with the landing as she had with the take-off. Only she wasn’t trying to be quiet about it. She had started to get into the role of a young girl and she seemed to be relaxed with it enough that it no longer bothered her being so young again.

After what seemed like and eternity, we debarked from the plane, picked up the suitcase we had and met Frank at the passenger load/unload area. I was so happy to see him that I gave him a huge hug and a passionate kiss. My nipples got hard again when I kissed him.

I introduced him to JaNeece and she got the shy front back up when she was introduced. If I didn’t know better, I would have said she really was the age that she looked. Frank looked her over critically, as if he was trying to find fault with her. I could see that JaNeece was cringing away from him.

All of a sudden, Frank got a big smile on his face and held out his arms in welcome. She shied away a bit at that but finally gave a shy smile and moved into the hug and returned it. Frank told her, “You are welcome here. My home is your home as long as you wish it to be.” That got him hugged even harder.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

Once we were back at Frank’s house, I had to sit down and relax a bit. It seemed like I had been gone for a year when it had only been four days. Too much had happened for me to be fully able to relax. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have done what I had.

Feeling like I was forgetting something, I realized that I needed to see to it that JaNeece was settled into a room. She and Frank had had been talking in the kitchen while I had sat down in the living room.

“Frank, I think we need to get JaNeece settled into a bedroom. I’m pretty sure that she’s tired. It has been a long day and I’m ready to settle down myself. Which one would be the best one for her?” I asked him.

“Well, once you told me about her coming to live here, I got to thinking about that. I decided that instead of trying to make room in this small house, we would find her a good sized room in a new one. I closed on it this morning and we can move in this weekend. Does that sound ok to both of you?”

Stunned into silence at the disclosure, I could only numbly nod my head yes.

End part 4.5

The Greener Mile - Part 5 Conclusion

Chapter 28

The next few days were spent going around to stores and picking out new furniture for the new house. I was getting exhausted by the time the week was over. My stomach was starting to grow exponentially and it was starting to inhibit my movements. Fortunately, Frank had everything delivered to the new house after each purchase. At least I wouldn’t have that much to do other than organize the house for my future husband.

That’s right, I am going to be getting married again. After Frank announced the purchase of the new house, he got down on his knee and proposed to me. I was left speechless for the second time in a matter of moments. With tears streaming down my face, I accepted reluctantly. I say reluctant because I was still feeling John’s loss strongly.

JaNeece cheered loudly the whole time. I blushed at her cheering.

Frank made sure that we had enough bedrooms in the house to provide personal areas for as many as seven people. The babies would be sharing the same room for a while after they are born. They would have rooms next to each other as they grow older so that they wouldn’t be far apart. I refused to segregate my children just because they may be a boy and a girl.

I worked on setting up an office so that I could have a location that I could have some sort of privacy. I took a moment to check up on the stocks I had been playing with. I hadn’t had a chance to look at them for a while and I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my long shot penny stocks had shot through the roof. I had bought 15,000,000 shares of the stock for 50 shares for a penny or 0.0002 per share. The company was one that was designing motors that would revolutionize life away from fossil fuels.

This stock was meant as a high risk stock and I had only invested $3000 into the purchase. I was absolutely shocked to see that the stock had gone up to $2.50 a share. My stock was now worth over $37,000,000. I immediately sold half of the stock and put the rest into holding position with stop limits so that if it went down that I wouldn’t lose too much money. Even if it dropped down twenty-five cents, I would still make millions off of it. If the stock continued upwards, then I would make more money.

Then I wondered what I was going to do with the extra money. I had never had so much money in my life and now, I was rolling in the dough. I had some thinking to do about it.

I knew one thing that I was going to do was set up two separate accounts, one for each of my children for the future. Education and living expenses were first and foremost on my mind for them. I knew that the more money they had for later in life, the better off they would be. I felt that 2/3 of what I just made was going to be put into their accounts with half going into each. By the time they needed the money, the funds would have been built up even more. John’s children would never have a need for anything in their lives. As I was thinking, there was another person in my life who should benefit from this windfall: JaNeece. I don’t know how long she would be with me, but she deserves everything that I have to give to her. I cannot begrudge anything like it for her.

As I was sitting in my chair, I felt a twinge in my stomach. I reached up and placed a hand over the area where my children were growing. I was rewarded with another kick, followed by several others. I now knew my children would live and that they were real. I smiled to myself a smile of contentment. I had always wanted to have a child or children and now, I would do so.

My previous life had been so bereft of any familial support that this whole situation seemed to be so bizarre to me. I was settling down to a life that I could have only in my best dreams. I had been married as a man but only because of peer pressure. After my SRS, I never married. But now, I will be married again but as a genetic woman. Frank and I have to set a date as yet but it is hard to tell as when that might be. I know that I would like to be married before the babies are born so that they would have a person who will be able to be a father to them. Not that Frank would turn away from them.

I was so content with my musings and so relaxed that I fell asleep sitting in my office recliner.

#*#*#*#*#*#

Next thing I knew, I was lying in a warm soft bed with arms wrapped around me. It was a position that I could luxuriate in forever but I was feeling a bit of pressure in my bladder. I wriggled as best as I could without waking Frank up. I was a failure at that task since he opened his eyes and told me good morning.

I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and excused myself to do an urgent task. Once finished, I went back to his warm arms and lost myself in them again. Before I could whistle “Yankee Doodle’, we were deeply in the throes of built-up passions. It had been so long since either of us had sex with our partners that we were starved for loving. I think we were at it for at least a couple of hours.

Once both of us were sated to the point of near exhaustion, Frank asked me, “When we get married, would you like a big wedding or a little one?”

“Heavens, Frank! Why on earth would I want a big wedding? I have no family, well, except JaNeece anyway, and what family I did have before would think of me as being dead anyway. A small one would be fine with me. We certainly don’t have to go out and rent the Taj Majal for us to get married in.” I told him.

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought about that. Great idea! I’ll call the Prime Minister of India to make the arrangements to rent the Taj. Better yet, I think I’ll just buy it… Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked as he saw the look of disgust on my face. Before I could say another word, he burst out laughing. “I’m sorry honey, but the whole thing is rather ludicrous but I just had to respond appropriately to that one.” He continued to laugh for a moment.

Finally, I joined in with him. It was rather funny how I had said it and the way he replied. Once we wound down, we just lay there and snuggled for a bit longer.

In my mind, I couldn’t help but compare the two men that I had shared my body with. John had been a very big man and his cock had been huge. I had gotten a lot of satisfaction out of our sessions. Frank on the other hand, is quite a bit smaller than John was. But what he lacked in size, he made up for in technique. Either way, I had been sexually satisfied with both of my men.

Chapter 29

Time seemed to drag for me as the months passed towards the birth of my children. I had started gaining weight exponentially by the time I hit five months of being pregnant. By the time I was eight months, I was as big as a house, or at least the house Frank used to own. I could hardly move around, I was so big.

My ass and hips had been getting absolutely huge and my boobs were gigantic. I looked and felt like a beached whale at times. JaNeece sometimes made fun of me but I knew it was in light of the fact that I had once been a man. She was always happy and had a gay twinkle in her eyes no matter the time of day.

I sometimes felt that I should make my bedroom sitting on the toilet. I felt like I had to pee every three minutes and it was hard on me. Ever since Frank and I got married a month ago, things couldn’t have been better. Well, except for the rapid ballooning of my body because of the babies growing inside of me.

Frank has been a real angel to me. He watches out to make sure that I need nothing. If I need to go to the doctor, he is there with me the whole time. I know he was a good father to his son and I know he will be a great substitute for John when these babies decide to show their faces to the world. I know that he knows they aren’t his by blood but they will be his by marriage. He doesn’t even seem to care that they aren’t his either. I am so happy that I met him and that I married him. (I’m sorry, I can’t help myself. As time grows closer to the birth, I have been getting really emotional and I don’t know why.)

One thing that I have been doing in addition to seeing a regular doctor for the babies, I have been going to see a psychiatrist because of the problems I had after I was kidnapped and killed. I have had many sleepless nights because of the dreams I had about that time. Dr. Strout hasn't been kind to me but he doesn’t really believe that I was a man not so long ago. I had laid it on the line during the first few visits to him but he really had a hard time with trying to understand how this all came about. Frank even came to one of my sessions with him and let him know about the name change and stuff that was associated during that time. Although Frank didn’t know me before that time, he was able to verify the fact that I had been involved with the murderer of the children and that I had had to have a name change to hide me.

Dr. Strout had done his research thoroughly. He finally got to the point where he had used his credentials to talk to the psychiatrist who had given me my letter years ago to have my SRS. He followed up with other research and came to the conclusion that I might be slightly delusional since no one regresses in age nearly thirty years because someone does something to them. He tried tripping me up by using the information he had obtained from my previous shrink but I was able to answer or refute everything that he put me to task over.

He did prove to be one of the most bull headed men that I had ever met. I had been rather bull headed myself when I was trying to get my letter for the surgery but he was out bulling me. I had found the calming effects of estrogen long ago gave me an inner peace that made my former male self look like a raving maniac. And to boot, I wasn’t that bad.

But the testosterone level in Dr. Strout was higher than any man I had ever met. He refused outright to even accept that I had ever been anything but a woman. He accused me of falsifying records, forging documents, bribing a medical professional into lying on my behalf. For the most part, I sat there and took his tirades with a smile. That set him off even more.

I had heard one time that most psychiatrists and psychologists needed therapy themselves and this man proved the point perfectly. I finally couldn’t take it any more and walked out of his office while he was still screaming at me. For this, I paid over $200 an hour to see him. I waddled my way out of the office reception area as quickly as I could.

“Hold it right there, bitch!” was called out behind me.

My blood ran cold. I had been spoken to like that by several different people before and the same tones and vehemence had been used before. Dr. Strout was standing over me with all the veins in his face standing out and his face red with anger.

His voice was deeper than I had ever heard it before. “If you think you’re going to live to have those bastards, you have another think coming. John Coffee was nothing. Those monsters inside you are nothing. Why won’t you die so that they won’t live?”

I was now officially scared out of my wits. What the Hell was going on… Oh my God! It finally dawned on me. The good doctor was demonically possessed!

Fearing for my safety and my children’s, I started backing up out of his reach. He reached out for my throat before I cleared his range of reach. His hand tightened over my windpipe with the pressure of an alligator’s jaws. I could hear the cartilage creaking and the fireworks were starting to go off behind my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes started to go grey on me as I flailed helplessly at the hand the clenched my throat.

As I could no longer get a breath, I made one last ditch effort to get the hand off of me. I kicked out to try to hit him in the crotch. I missed horribly and only caught his thigh. I knew no more.

#*#*#*#*#*#

Waking again was quite a pleasure since I knew I should have been dead. I was once again in a septic smelling place that could have only been a hospital. I opened my eyes to a sun lit room. As I glanced round, nothing was familiar to me.

No one was around me as expected. I was alone in the room. I looked and saw the call button next to my head. I reached for it and pushed the button.

I didn’t have long to wait.

Within seconds, I had doctors, nurses and orderlies surrounding me. Trauma carts were wheeled in and positioned next to the bed. I was being pummeled by questions that I couldn’t understand because there were so many of them coming at me.

They finally stopped asking me the questions all at once and relied on one person to ask them.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

I tried to answer but nothing came out of my throat. Not even a squeak. I put my hand to my throat to feel if there was any damage that I could feel. Nothing felt abnormal to me but I couldn’t make a sound.

The doctor realized that something was wrong with my voice and he called for some sort of scope. I didn’t know what he was talking about until he was brought a case that had what looked somewhat like a gun but instead of a barrel, it had a long tube.

He talked carefully to me, trying to explain what it was he was going to do. He took some sort of spray bottle and gave a squirt up my nose. I choked on the horrible taste and tried to cough it up. No sound came out that would have been normal. I was coughing with just a passing of air out of my mouth.

The doctor tipped my head back and inserted the tube up my nose. I could feel it entering my sinus cavity and moving its way slowly to my throat. I was trying to watch the doctor as he maneuvered the scope deeper into my throat.

As I felt the scope at the back of my mouth, I watched the doctor’s eyes grow wide. He move the scope a bit deeper and moved it around for a few more moments. Finally, he backed the scope slowly from inside me. His face had gone pale and I wondered what he had seen in my throat.

Once he had the scope out and put up, he excused himself, supposedly for a moment. He wound up being gone for more than an hour.

#*#*#*#*#*#

By the time the doctor came back, I was starting to fidget from the need to go to the bathroom. I don’t know how I had managed to stay away, since the advanced stage of my pregnancy had been causing me to need to use the bathroom nearly every ten minutes.

I guess from the look on my face, he knew what was going on. He had a nurse take me to the bathroom, where I was able to release a lot of pressure from my bladder. Once done, I went back to join with the doctor and find out what was wrong with me.

I raised one slim eyebrow in a questioning manner.

“Sharry, I think you know that something is wrong with your voice. Don’t you?” At my nod, he continued. “Somehow, this attack on you has removed all traces of your vocal cords. All there is in your throat is a clear passage into your lungs without any sign of you ever having had vocal cords.”

I was aghast at what he told me. How is it that I didn’t have vocal cords? I’m sure someone was going to find out.

“I hate being the bearer of bad news but there is no way to avoid it. No one can ever restore your vocal cords once they're gone. Unless you can come up with a direct line to God, it would take a miracle to get them back. There is nothing that can be done for you otherwise.” He finished and left me to my thoughts.

All I could do was cry, silently.

Chapter 30

I was later visited by Frank and JaNeece. Frank was apologetic for not being there for me and JaNeece was sad-faced. She didn’t really say a word to me. I think she was terrified about what might be able to be done to anyone without a moments notice. One thing that I did notice that she was trying very hard to disguise was the tears that threatened to overflow her eyes.

I had so many questions that I needed to ask but I had no way to do so without resorting to writing things down and having to wait until they were read before they were answered. I resolved that I wasn’t going to let the whole issue handicap me for the rest of my life.

I made a sign to Frank that I wanted something to write on. I waited until he was able to round up some paper and a pen for me. When he finally came back, I wrote the first note of many to come.

‘Would you get me some books on American Sign Language? I have to communicate one way or another or I’ll go crazy trying to write things down.’

He read the note and then said, “Yes, I can do that. If you would like, I’ll hire an instructor to teach you, which might be a better idea.”

I heard a small “Eh, hem!” to get my attention. Frank and I both looked at JaNeece.

She had a small amused look on her face. “Neither of you know everything about me. One thing that I haven’t said anything about is that I had to learn ASL years ago because one of my best friends went deaf because of an explosion that happened near him. He could only converse by sign language after that. I felt that in order to be a friend who didn’t walk away from someone because they got a handicap such as hearing loss, I went the extra route and learned how to converse with him as he learned also. We spent more time together and became even better friends because of it. I would be willing to teach you if you are willing to learn.”

I was beginning to realize that there were depths to this young girl who was so much more than she seemed to be. She was so quiet for the most part and when she did talk, her voice was so high and yet soft. I loved listening to her talk when she had her rare moments of verbal effervescence.

I hurriedly wrote out another note and handed it to her.

‘I would love it if you would teach me. I can think of no one better that I would want to learn from. But, if you are going to play the part of a teacher of something as complex as ASL, then you will need to be paid for your efforts. You name your price and I will gladly pay it.’

After she read it, she grew thoughtful. She shook her head briefly as if she was reading something that didn’t agree with her.

“No, I won’t accept payment for teaching you. But, I think that one of the better things to do is donate the money to an organization that would benefit from it more than I could. There are local schools for the deaf and blind as well as the mute who could use money for their schools. Most are privately funded and are underfunded. It would help them immensely. Does that sound ok with you?” She told/asked me.

I scribbled out a message to her. It read, ‘For something like that, I would give them money regardless. I never knew about them. What is the name so that I can make the arrangements for payment to them?’

I was told to hang on for a moment. She left the room and was gone for a few minutes. When she came back, she was holding a piece of paper in her hand. With out a word, she handed it to me.

It read: Jean Massieu School of the Deaf.

I nodded my head and made out another note with the agreement. Little did she know that I planned on bequeathing them a million dollars. It would be worth it in the long run. I think I would also set up a repeating donation every year based on the need and my income. I also planned on doing a will that would give them a generous inheritance in the case I was actually killed and didn’t recover from it. I gave an inward shudder at the thought. I had been very lucky so far.

#*#*#*#*#*#

My lessons in ASL began immediately. JaNeece had an enraptured student in me. She was able to tell me the actual signs as well as demonstrating them to me. I excelled when it came to the simple letter signs but when it came to actual word signs, I flubbed up more often that I succeeded. I grew frustrated at the complexity of the words I was being taught. It began to become repetitive and boring to me. I would get words and phrases that meant little to me other than a flashing of the hands.

JaNeece started talking to me only in ASL and refused to say a word. She was a perpetual slave driver, no pun intended. She pushed me hard, gave me tests, praised me on the right things, scolded me on the wrongs.

Then, one day, a month after I started learning the sign language, I was wracked with a very sharp pain in my abdomen.

I was in labor!

End Part 5
Part 6 still to come as soon as I can get it finished. Hold On folks, things are starting to get weird for our Heroine! Er, weirder than they have been.

Goldie

I do apologize for how long it has taken to get this part finished. There will be one final part before this story is ended and I hope it turns out as well as the others have. So for now, I give you:

The Greener Mile - Part 6

Chapter 31

“Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out,” was the repetitive mantra I kept hearing from the masculine voice next to my right ear. Frank was doing his part to be an active partner in the birth of my children. JaNeece was on my other side, holding my hand. She wasn’t saying a word, just holding my hand.

I wanted to scream out with the pain I was feeling, but I couldn’t. I could only give out a ‘whooshing’ of air from my lungs. My contractions were coming fast and furious. I felt as if my crotch had grown wide enough to allow a 747 to land and at times I was afraid one was going to come out instead. I felt as if I had a bowling ball trying to make its way out from inside of me.

“OK, Sharry, you need to push. Hold it! Frank, count to ten.”

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 10.”

“Let it out, Sharry. Breathe.”

“Push again Sharry. Good Girl.”

After what seemed like an eternity, the bowling ball turned into a screaming, wailing baby. The other side of the room converged on the bed and vanished back to the other side and became a flurry of activity.

“Congratulations, Sharry, your daughter has been delivered. Now let’s see if we can get your reluctant son to make his appearance.”

Another eternity that seemed to run nearly a million years, my son finally entered the world. I flopped back in the bed, exhausted from the work I had done. I tried to see across the room where there were two screaming babies voicing their mistreatment at the hands of the world.

I squeezed Frank’s hand to get his attention. As he looked at me, I pulled on his arm to bring him closer to me. Once he was close enough, I gave him a kiss on the lips and mouthed, ‘Thank you for being here’. He just smiled.

I turned my attention to JaNeece.

I had freedom of my hands again and I signed to her, ‘Thank you for being here. I couldn’t have done it without you.’

She got a sheepish look on her face and signed back, ‘Want to bet? You’re a woman, you would have done it regardless.’

I then signed, ‘Tell the Dr. I want to see my babies.’

She forwarded the message to the doctor. He got an ugly look on his face as he listened to her.

His words chilled me to the bone, “No one gets those bastards! They are mine! Their father is mine, his father is mine, his father is mine and his father is mine. They are all mine! That Bitch is mine. You are not mine but I will make you mine!”

All the nurses and attendees in the room suddenly grew silent. It was as if they had never heard such words before and were shocked.

JaNeece stood there with a puzzled look on her face. Then she started to realize that something was different about the gentle, caring doctor that had shortly before delivered two healthy babies. She took a step backwards, hesitantly.

The doctor continued to rave for several minutes before winding down. He made no move towards the babies but by then, there were some big, burly men with their arms crossed over their chests between the babies and the doctor. I was trying hard not to scream out in panic let alone pain. My insides were still aching from giving birth two times. I still had to pass the placentas, I knew.

As I was watching the facedown between the doctor and the seeming 10 year-old, I noticed a change come over JaNeece’s pretty face. She took on a glow that seemed to over-power the seemingly dark room. She smiled a beatific smile.

Out of her mouth came a beautiful voice, “Luke, you know that our differences shouldn’t be taken out on innocents. There are two small ones in this room who I am bestowing my protection over. You cannot touch them, ever.”

“Then I’ll make sure that they don’t grow up regardless, just by making sure that their surroundings cause them the harm and not by me. You can deny me one way but not all ways. Just give me time and I’ll see to it that they are part of my realm. Do you hear me, Joe?” Was the deep, forbidding reply.

“Luke, you were always so predictable. You can’t touch them in any way. They are needed on this world in the future. They will be the last hope humanity has to survive long enough to fulfill my hopes for them. Why can’t you leave well enough alone?”

“Because with you it has always been your hopes and your dreams for these worthless beings. You may have created them in your own image but they have always had a mind of their own. Their minds bring them to me. You barely get enough of the good ones to maintain your superiority over me but I am getting the upper hand finally.”

“Don’t you realize that by getting the upper hand, you are destroying the lives that will be needed in the future? You can’t keep going on like this or you will lose it all in the end. The good must survive as well as the bad must survive. By taking these babies as you have their good father, you will solidify your own loss. By leaving them as they are and leaving those around them alone, you will ensure a stalemate for quite some time to come. Which will it be?” JaNeece cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Bah, you argue as if times haven’t changed. The world is a loss to you and you just don’t see it. The evil in the world festers with a repugnant odor. To show you just how bad it is, I can take what I want and no one can stop me.” With that, he reached out a hand and lightly touched JaNeece on the forehead with a single finger.

JaNeece’s body collapsed like a marionette who had just had its strings cut.

“Do you all see what I can do? Can you?? The person inhabiting that body was an anathema to the living. She has lived for longer than a human being is supposed to. Now she’s gone and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I’ll be back again for what is mine.”

With that, the overlaying presence in the doctor was gone and the doctor sagged to the ground, unconscious.

No one in the room moved, they were too stunned about what had transpired before them. Finally, one of the nurses close to JaNeece quickly moved to where she lay on the floor. A light touch to the neck and she stood up again.

“She’s dead. I don’t know how but she is dead.” She said, quietly.

Chapter 32

“Noooooooo!” I tried to scream out. “Someone help her. She can’t be dead. You’re the medical professionals. Treat her!!”

The nurse who had bent over JaNeece to check her, suddenly took on a different aspect, much like JaNeece had moments before.

“The one known as JaNeece has departed this life. She cannot be restored since her life force has been removed from her body forcibly. Her body can be restored to life but her mind and experiences are gone. Luke has seen to it that she will never be able to come back as he has stolen her soul as punishment to me. I can restore her body to life but the only way that I can make it live is to place a soul that is ready for a new life, in the body. The only way that I can do that is if you, La Shara, accept the onus of her new life. She won’t remember who she was prior and you will have to raise her as your own child. Do you accept this onus?” She looked deeply into my eyes as she asked this of me.

What else could I do? I had accepted the responsibility of JaNeece back in Louisiana when she had become the little girl, now I would have the responsibility of raising her as my own daughter all the way. My mind was made up. “Yes, I accept the onus of raising her as my own. Regardless of who she was in a past life and future lives, I accept her as my own blood. To this I promise my life over.”

Without realizing that I had spoke aloud until I uttered the last word, I clapped a hand to my throat in surprise. I had actually spoken again!

A delighted laugh issued forth from the nurse’s lips. “Yes, I know about the horrible move made on you by Luke. Your voice has been restored to you. Your children will need to be able to hear you speak as they grow up. You have much to teach them. You are an intelligent woman and they need for you to be whole. This is my gift to you. Raise them well and teach them all you know and above all else, love them as best as you can. They will need it later in life. JaNeece is now your older daughter and she will help you in the care of the little ones. Live in peace. Oh, before I go, you will need to know that your body will not grow old nor will it be able to die for a long time. Methuselah will have nothing on you by the time you are ready to leave this life. Your first husband really didn’t know what he was doing but like his great grandfather before him did with Paul Edgecomb, he either cursed you to life or he gifted you with life. How you decide how it is will be up to you. Make the most of it.”

As the last words were spoken, the presence was gone and the nurse blinked in surprise. Everyone was looking at her funny and she was reddening in embarrassment.

A movement on the floor drew everyone’s attention. Where JaNeece had been lying dead, there was a child of about three years old. She seemed to be just waking up as if from a nap as she was stretching her arms and yawning.

Her big brown eyes looked up at me and a smile broke out on her face. “Hi momma, is the babies here? I’s wants ta see them now. Can I?” She spoke with the sweetness of a child just learning to talk better.

I was startled about the abrupt change that happened to JaNeece. One moment she was a near woman-child and now she was a very young child. I guess that if she had to have a new soul or whatever, the age was the best to be so that she could grow into her own self and experiences. My God, the whole implications were incredible.

Then it dawned on me. I had been watching a confrontation between God and Satan. God came out on top this time but there was a casualty in the battle. JaNeece was lost but restored. I felt tears running down my cheeks for the loss of Paul Edgecomb. I wouldn’t be able to have the wonderful conversations I had had with that wonderfully sharp mind in that young body.

“Yes, honey, the babies are here. Your little brother and sister are being taken care of right now but they will be ready for a visit in a little while. Would you like to come up and sit next to momma?” I asked her.

“Uh huh. Where’s daddy, momma?” She asked.

“Daddy’s with us honey. He’s just wearing a mask to keep from getting the babies sick.” I told her.

With that, Frank removed the surgical mask and smiled at her.

Her eyes sparkled with glee. “Hi Daddy! Momma had the babies. Want ta see them wif me?”

“Sure, sweetie. But we have to let the doctors and nurses take care of them first. Can you wait a while?”

“Sure. But not too long. I’s really wants ta see them.” She said with that innocent little voice.

In the meantime, the placentas were delivered from me and the babies were finished being attended to. I was taken from the delivery room and into a room that was to be mine until I left the hospital. The three of us, Frank, JaNeece and I waited for the twins to be brought in to us so that we could start getting to know each other.

Probably about an hour after being taken into the room, the babies were brought in. Frank took our daughter and I took our son. I exposed a swollen breast and brought him up for his first feeding. A pain shot through my breast as the milk was forced to come out by the voracious vacuum given off by the baby suckling at it. As quickly as it came, the pain went away. He sucked until he had his fill and released the nipple with a *pop* sound.

I brought my son to my shoulder and lightly patted him on the back until he gave a small burp. He put his little hand to his mouth and sucked on it in contentment.

Frank and I swapped babies and I put my daughter to the other breast and nursed her until she was content. The whole time, JaNeece stared at the entire process with wide eyed wonder.

“Momma, did you do the boobie thing wit’ me when I’s was a baby?” she asked me with innocence.

I shot Frank a startled look. He got a sly kind of grin on his face and gave a slight nod. I looked back at her. “Yes, honey, I did. You liked it just as much as these two do.”

“Oh, otay. Can I’s holds the baby now? Can I, pwease?” she asked prettily.

“Oh, yes honey. Climb up on momma’s lap and she will help you with the baby.” I waited until her little body was situated on my lap and I eased my newest daughter into her arms. I watched as she tried mightily to hold the baby, who was now her little sister, in her small arms. I could tell that it was a struggle to do so since neither one of the twins were small babies.

When they were brought into the room, the nursery nurses told us that both babies had checked out healthy and had each weighed in at nearly nine pounds apiece. It was no wonder that I had felt like a beached whale the last couple of months. I had known that the chances of them being big were good because of the size of their father, but I hadn’t expected them to be that big!

Because of the excitement of the delivery room, we had not had the official naming of the babies yet. Frank and I had decided that we would call them similar names to their father. The boy was going to be called John Frances Coffee-Tarkington and the girl was going to be called JoAnne Sharee Coffee-Tarkington.

The hospital staff were appraised of the names and they were registered as such.

Finally, JaNeece tired of holding her little sister and started to fuss a little bit. I took the baby back from her and she climbed down off the bed and went to sit in the chair next to the bed. Her eyes were drooping heavily and she finally curled into a little ball and went to sleep.

The twins were both asleep in their separate cribs and Frank and I were alone. He sat down next to me and put his arms around me. I was exhausted from the busy day but I snuggled into his arms and leaned my head on to his chest. As I was leaning there, I closed my eyes in contentment. I was asleep before I knew it.

Chapter 33

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I would be the mother of three young children. After I was released from the hospital, my real work began. JaNeece was trying hard to be a big girl and help her mommy with the new babies but her attention span was that of a young child: not very long. She would always hang around during bath time and kept the second baby occupied while I bathed the first one. It was very precious to see her ‘helping’ mommy with the bath by playing with the second one.

Most of the time, my hands were full with all three. JaNeece one day seemed perturbed by something I had said but I couldn’t get her to tell me what was wrong. One time, I needed her to get me a fresh diaper for little John and I called out, “JaNeece, could you bring mommy a new diaper. Johnnie has messed his up again.”

To my surprise, she answered me back, “My name’s not JaNeece, it’s Neecie. JaNeece is gone and now there’s only me, Neecie.” Then she said, “Otay mommy. I’s gets ya a didie.” She proceeded to do exactly that and brought me one of the diapers from John’s kit.

I tried to puzzle out what it was that she had said to me about her name. The way she said it had seemed to be an older tone than what she was mentally at the moment. I took it upon myself to start calling her Neecie instead of JaNeece.

It had been a complete shock to me to find that I had records all over the house that showed that the new JaNeece had been born to me three years prior. I had birth certificates, baby items that were bronzed, the sort of things that a proud parent would have from their baby’s first years. The birth certificate had listed me as the mother but the father’s name was listed as unknown.

I had an episode of brief mental dizziness as I read the entry on the father’s side of the birth certificate. Once my mind cleared, I had a mental image of being raped underneath the bleachers of the high school football field nearly four years ago. Back when I had been a sophomore in high school.

I didn’t know where the memory came from but it had been the first of many that started to grow in my mind. JaNeece had been an unwelcome addition to my life at the time but John had accepted her as his child when he had married me. She had loved him as her father until the day he died in jail.

I shook my head to try to clear it. I was trying to deal with doubled memories of my life. I didn’t know why I was seeing the images of JaNeece being born to me three years ago when I knew that I hadn’t had the ability to give birth at that point in my life.

I started having flashes of a life that I had never known before. The birth of JaNeece, my parents (not my original ones) being the doting grandparents to a child who hadn’t had the choice of being born of such a violent occurrence such as rape. The death of my parents in a car crash with a drunk driver a year after she was born. My meeting up with John when she was two. Our marriage with her as my maid of honor. Her beaming up at her step-father. Her crying her eyes out when her Big Daddy went away and never came back.

Then there came the memories of meeting up with Frank after his wife and son were killed in a car crash shortly after John died. Me finding out I was pregnant with John’s babies. Frank and I getting together. Getting married. JaNeece calling Frank her little daddy. And now the birth of the new babies.

My memories shifted and sorted themselves into a new appearance of order. The memories of my old life sort of drifted into the sort of hazy recollection of that life having been in a book I read a long time ago and had happened to someone else.

I was still a multi-millionaire and I still day-traded, when I had a chance to do so while trying to deal with three small children and babies. I felt that I wasn’t getting enough time to do my stock trading and I needed to clear out my portfolio and liquidate what I had. It had been becoming boring anyway. My mind was focused mainly on my children and I needed to focus on them completely.

By the time I had divested my stocks, I had made an additional $25,000,000.00. I thought about all the things I could buy to help make my children’s lives better and happier but only when they were older and could appreciate it more. Money doesn’t buy happiness but it doesn’t hurt to have it. I remembered a time in my life when I didn’t have any money and it was a struggle to just survive. My parents had had a hard time during the great recession of 2009-2010 and I vowed to myself that I would never be that desperate again, now that I had money to spare.

Once I was able to focus my attention exclusively on the children, I became a better parent to them. Neecie was always helping her mommy with the babies. Her favorite was her little sister JoAnne. Johnnie was her second favorite because he was a boy, she said.

I started going for long walks with the children in strollers. We went to the park where Neecie would go play on the playground equipment, swing on the swings, swirl on the merry-go-round, all the while squealing with delight at the fun.

I met other young mothers with their children and we would have long talks about our babies and our lives. None of them could believe that I had three children at the young age of nineteen. They were even more startled to find out that I was married to a white man when I was a black woman. Especially when they found out that none of the children were his. They just couldn’t fathom the whole thing.

I just told them that race didn’t matter, age didn’t matter and parental blood didn’t matter to him. He loved the children as if they were his own. Enough so that he adopted them all after the birth of the twins. I told them it was his respect for their father after his death that he felt honored enough to marry me and support them as his own.

By this time, it had been nine months since the babies had been born and they were both getting so big. Both of them had been teething for three months and they were miserable from the growing pains in their mouths. They delighted causing their mommy pain by nipping her boobies while she nursed them. I didn’t care that they tried to cut new teeth on my nipples, since I loved them both so much.

I had grown to love my children so much that they were my life 24 hours a day. Frank was a secondary item in the picture but he understood completely that the babies took first priority in my life at the moment. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I loved Frank with all my heart and I showed it to him every night, at least when I wasn’t on my period. Ever since the birth of the babies, I was horny as all get out. Frank certainly wasn’t one to complain, since he was the one getting the benefit of me being so horny.

Frank was still working as a police detective but he had put in a transfer to a position that wasn’t as stressful to our home life. He had started training to become a crime scene investigator/evidence collector. Since that was out of his normal training range, he was having to go to school to study it full time. CSI wasn’t as glamorous as it had been depicted on TV years ago. It was long tedious work but he loved learning about it. In mid-training, he decided to switch from the field work to go into the lab to do the testing of evidence. That wound up being the best move he ever made. Although he would have to continue the courses in the best possible time frame he could, he was able to get on the job training from the lab techs he worked with.

He was able to work part days and go to class the rest of the time. We had the evenings to ourselves and the children. Once the kids were put to bed for the night, it then became our time together. We would make love for a long time each night. The passion between us was incredible and I always seemed to be a wanton wench in bed. I didn’t care about anything else during that time except sharing myself and my love with my husband.

Then came the day that I hadn’t expected and didn’t really care that it had happened. I was pregnant again.

Chapter 34

I have always hated it when writers would gloss over inconsequential events and I’m afraid that I have to do that.

A significant amount of time has passed for me now. I have given birth to ten children since I had the twins. It has been fifteen years since that fateful day that Paul/JaNeece left my life. I could only hope that his/her soul has found peace but I’m afraid that it has met with Hell. I miss her conversations but I have had little time to dwell on her loss since her body still lives with someone else at the control.

JaNeece has since outgrown the nickname she called herself so many years ago. She has preferred to be called JaNeece or even Janice since she turned fifteen three years ago. She has grown into a very beautiful young woman and has grown independent in her own right.

The twins took after both of their parents. John has started growing exponentially and has been getting into sports. He has earned a starting position on the high school football team as an offensive lineman as well as a defensive tackle. He excelled at the sport as well as loving it. At the age of 15, he was 6’8” tall and still growing. He weighed in at 260 pounds. He was growing into his father’s size and I expected him to top 7’ by the time he reached 17 years old.

JoAnne has also grown into a very attractive young lady. She had a grace about her that was eerie. A serene aura surrounded her as if she were at peace with the world. She was popular at school and had the attention of the boys even though she thought all of them were rather immature in their actions. She didn’t want to date anyone at the moment because of her school studies. Since elementary school, she had been a hard worker and had been achieving grades that were the highest in her class. Ever since she entered high school, she has carried a 4.0 GPA. I expected her to graduate as class valedictorian, even though it was too early to tell. She was the most intelligent teenager I have ever met. An IQ test was run on her in junior high and at that point she had an IQ of 180. I expected it to be much higher by the time she got out of high school.

John was also very intelligent but he was too active to put it to use in the school system. I practically have to ride him constantly to put forth the effort with his school work. He only maintained a 3.5 GPA but he did it without effort, it seemed like. I practically pulled my hair out at his nonchalant efforts. He had this sly little smile that reminded me so much of his father. If I ever missed John, all I had to do was look at his son and I saw him in his glory.

The one thing that I hadn’t noticed yet was the ability that John had said both would inherit from him. I had never asked John when his ability had shown up but I never got the chance to do so before he died. I felt it was only a matter of time before they developed it. I was worried about that day.

My other children ranged from the ages of 13 to 2. I was a very busy mom. My youngest was the one that kept me busy. Frank had seemed to be slowing down on me. He was now 44 years old and I still looked like I was 19. I was always asked by my friends how I kept myself so young looking. All I could do was tell them I had really good genetics. They had to believe me since they could see something different about me.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

It was a beautiful early fall day in late September that changed the sedate pace of life for me. I had been playing with my two year old daughter out on the back patio of the house when my phone rang. I was one of the biggest supporters of the sub-dermal phone headsets. The mouth piece was implanted along my jaw bone to the interior front of my mouth with the connection to the ear piece located just behind the ear but with an internal channel into the ear canal.

The audible signal to me was a beep in the ear and a ringing throughout the house. I answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Mrs. Tarkington?” A male voice on the other end asked.

“Yes, who may I ask is calling please?”

“This is Doug Englewright, John’s football coach.” Was the reply.

“Oh, yes, Coach Englewright. What can I do for you?” Was my reply.

“Well, I’m not sure how to put it but John was involved in an incident at practice today and he has sort of retreated into a shell and is refusing all attempts to get him out of it.”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “What happened?”

“We were doing off-tackle scrimmages and he was given the assignment on the defensive line to lead the charge through the offensive line and take out the ball carrier. As big as he is, he is harder to stop than most people would think. The offensive line’s job is to stop John from getting to the ball carrier. John bulled his way through the line and managed to grab the full back that had the ball. But when he made the tackle, the runner fell onto one of his linemen and John went with him. The impact on the runner on the man on the ground and John above him broke his back. We are uncertain if he will be paralyzed or not right now.” I was told.

“Oh, God! John is such a harmless young man even though he gets a bit overzealous at times. He has times where he can be a bit clumsy for his size but to hurt someone like that? Where is John now? I need to get to him.” I cried.

“He is here at the high school in medical clinic. We had to take him there since no one knew what else to do with him. The school physician’s assistant is working on trying to get him out of his funk. You can see him there.”

“Coach, I have ask this: will there be any charges against him for this? I need to know this since there are things in my past as well as his family history that he is terrified of.” I asked.

“At this time, there are no charges against him. As far as anyone is concerned, football is a rough spot and people have been hurt playing the game since it was invented. As for the future, I seriously doubt that there will be any charges filed, unless it was found that he deliberately hurt the kid, which I doubt, knowing what I do about him.” He said.

“Thank you, Coach. That helps out a lot. I’ll let you go so that I can get to him. Good bye for now.” I hung up immediately then.

I was frantic. Frank was home from his golf outing and he must have realized that something was wrong by the way I was fluttering about the house. He finally cornered me and asked what was wrong.

I explained to him about the call from the coach and I saw his face pale in shock. His face grew ashen as he sat down on a chair. As he sat there, he started acting really as if he were going to faint. His breath started coming is short gasps and he let out a moan as if he were in pain. Before I could react to anything, Frank collapsed onto the floor with a resounding thud.

Knowing JaNeece was gone for the day, I screamed out for JoAnne to help me. She came running to where I was kneeling on the floor next to Frank. She knelt next to him opposite me.

By this time, Frank was completely unconscious and was unresponsive. I couldn’t get him to react to any sort of stimulus. I was verging on hysteria and panic seemed to rule my mind.

My daughter was more level headed than I was during this. She said, “Mom, it looks like Daddy is having a heart attack. Could you go call for an ambulance, please?” She was so calm and collected as she said it that I didn’t question her words and did exactly that.

I made the call and went back to join JoAnne next to Frank. I could see her face deeply etched in concentration. She looked like she was fighting a mental battle about what to do to her adoptive father.

A serene calmness spread across her face and I watched as she placed her hands over Frank’s heart and spread her fingers to cover more area. As I observed this action, a blinding light shown out from under her hands and stayed in place for several moments before fading.

The serenity on her face remained for some time before fading into nothingness. A smile crept over her lips before she spoke again. “It’s ok, Mom. Daddy will be fine. He’s been fixed now.”

I looked at her and then looked again at Frank. Color was returning to his face and he looked like he was sleeping. When I looked at JoAnne again, she looked slightly wobbly on her feet. Exhaustion had crossed her pretty features and was causing her eyes to droop slightly.

As she stood there weaving on her feet, she tipped her head back and a loud belch came out of her mouth. I watched as little black sparkly things came out of her mouth for a moment before trailing of into nothingness. My jaw dropped.

JoAnne had finally come into her gift from her father.

Chapter 35

As much as I really wanted to talk to JoAnne about what she had done, I couldn’t. I had a son to go take care of. I left Frank in JoAnne’s more than capable hands.

I warned her about the ambulance that was on its way to the house. I advised her to let them go ahead and take him in for a check-up regardless of what he said to refuse any treatment. I gave a glare to Frank that shut the protest he was about to exhale, down. I grabbed my purse and ran out the door as if the Devil were on my tail.

I could almost feel him there, too. I had this eerily creepy feeling down my back that I couldn’t shake. I tried to ignore it while I drove to the high school where John was.

As I approached the school, I could see that there were police vehicles parked in the back where the athletics facilities were located. I made my way to that location.

As I hurried to the gym door, I was stopped by two police officers who had been placed to keep out uninvited people. After I told them it had been my son who was involved with the incident and was nearly catatonic, I was let through.

After I was through the door, I heard one officer tell the other, “Man, I never knew that they had such good stuff to make women look so young these days. I’m going to have to find out what she uses or takes to look so young. I mean, if her son is in high school, that would make her in her early to mid thirties but she looks like she’s still a teenager herself…”

I heard no more after I went to another door and went through it. I didn’t really care what they said about me.

I went towards the boy’s locker room, where I could hear voices talking rather loudly from within. As I entered the room, it grew tomb quiet. Everyone saw that a woman had walked into the room and didn’t know what to do.

I called out, “Where’s John Coffey?”

Several of the boys pointed towards an area but gave no detail as to where it was exactly. I went in that direction.

I soon was able to hear the coach’s voice talking to John. It wasn’t loud by any means but I could hear it regardless. I guess the clicking of my heels on the hard tile floor alerted the coach to my approach. He looked my way, went silent then stood up and backed away.

I went up to John and knelt beside him. “John, honey, talk to me. No matter how badly you feel about this matter, things can be worked out. Talk to me, please?” I cajoled him.

My son was a very large young man and could easily hurt someone without even really trying but I knew better than that. He had always been a gentle giant no matter what his outside showed, just like his blood father. I stroked his head in a loving, motherly fashion. I could feel his body trembling hard through that touch.

“John, honey, Mom’s here. Everything will be fine now. Let’s get you cleaned up so that we can get out of here and go home so that we can talk, OK?” I told him.

He let out a wail that was filled with pain and agony from the depth of his soul. “But MOM, I hurt him! I wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone. Coach even said I wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt anyone playing football. Now I have and I can’t live with myself because of it.”

I felt a strong concern for my son. I looked over and the coach with a slender, questioning eyebrow. He gave a shrug of a broad shoulder.

“John, one thing you have to be aware of in this world, there is no such thing as a promise of no one being hurt in anything. I’ve been hurt, a lot, your father has been hurt, your older sister has been hurt, the coach has been hurt. Everyone gets hurt one way or another. But there are things that can be done to help the one you’ve hurt. We just need to talk about it at home. Can you trust me on this? Please?”

He looked up at me with pleading, tear blurry eyes, hope filled them as he looked at me. “OK, Mom, if you say so. I’ll trust you, for now.” With that, he collected himself together and stood up to his full height.

I still couldn’t get over how much like his real father he looked. Although John IV had a coarseness showing, John V had a calmer demeanor. But below the surface of that calmness, I could see a torrent of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him again.

“Take a quick shower, John, and then get dressed. I’ll wait in the Coach’s office for you. Come and get me when you’re ready.” I told him before turning, reluctantly, and leaving.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#

The coach and I chatted about things that had to do with the incident that caused the boy to be hurt. He hadn’t heard back from the parents of the other boy as yet to know what the actual damages were. He wasn’t certain how long it would take to hear anything back, either.

Finally, after what seemed like it had taken forever, John came sulkily into the office. He had the look of a little boy who had been told that his favorite pet puppy had been run over in the street after being chased out there by the neighborhood bully. I could see the mental war raging inside his mind over the incident. It was going to take a long time to get him over it.

We went home in dead silence. John wasn’t in any mood to talk to me and I respected it by not asking any questions of him. That would wait until we got home. I also had another concern there with Frank.

Chapter 36

Upon our arrival back to the house, JoAnne came flying out the door to assist her twin brother. She pulled/cajoled him out of the car. As I entered the house, she had him reluctantly moving towards the door. I turned my attention to where Frank sat.

I went over to him and knelt beside the chair where he sat. I gently put my hand on his and looked up to his face with concern written over my features. His other hand came up to stroke my cheek lovingly.

“I’m fine, love. Jo-Jo did a fantastic job in healing me. In fact, I haven’t felt so good in years. I think she needs to take up being a doctor so that she can help others who need it that don’t get it.” He told me.

I was relieved to hear that he was alright. I picked myself up off the floor and gingerly sat down on his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. Words wouldn’t suffice to cover my feelings at that moment. Before I knew it, I was bodily picked up and carried into our bedroom where we spent the next several hours making love.

#*#*#*#*#*

By the time we emerged from our cave of love, All the children were home from school and yet been fed, cleaned up and put to bed. It was nearly 9:30 at night, a school night to boot. I was starved from the hours of exercise Frank and I had engaged in. I went to see what JaNeece had fixed for dinner.

Much to my surprise, I didn’t find JaNeece anywhere in the house. JoAnne had made dinner that night and she was still in the kitchen. She had seen to it that there was plenty of food left over for Frank and I. She was just finishing up cleaning the kitchen from the mess that all the other children had left when they were finished.

I gave JoAnne a hug and thanked her for taking care of everything, with a promise of a reward come the weekend.

I went to say good night to all the rest of the kids. The youngest, Jamie, was the first one I visited. She was the apple of my eye. I felt guilty about not being there for her all evening long but it didn’t matter to her. She was asleep like an angel in her crib. Of course, being two, she really didn’t have much for wants in the world, as yet. She hasn’t started the really horrible stage called the ‘terrible twos’ yet, but I figured that it would start soon enough. She was starting to become a little bit more independent of me and didn’t need me as much as she had before. I gave her a little kiss on the cheek, covered her up a bit more and then left her to her sleep.

James was three and was a little fireball. His personality was one that I had dreaded from all of my babies. He was the one that got into the most trouble and everything he did was one more gray hair in my head. I didn’t have any, really, but the figurative ones were enough for me to have been caused by him. He was waiting for me to tuck him in for the night. I tried to give him a kiss good night but he obstinately turned his head away from my lips.

He told me, “No kiss, mommy, I’s a big boy now.”

I wondered where he had gotten that from but I didn’t push him with it. He demanded his bedtime story, even though I cut it as short as I could without him catching on. I feared that one day when he learned to read that he would be the one getting the most attention just so that he could read along with me. Once he was satisfied that he got his story, he scootched lower into his bed and closed his eyes.

Each in their turns, my older kids were all visited. Jason, Jennifer, Jacqueline or Jackie for short, Jasmine, Jamal, Jeanine, Joseph and Julie. The oldest ones just rolled their eyes at me when I went in to tell them good night. They were feeling like I should just leave them alone so they could do their own thing. Julie especially since she was the fourth baby in the household and her being thirteen. All ten of the later kids had the same lighter toned skin they got from their father. The three older ones had my dark skin. Regardless who their father was, they were all borne in my body and I loved them with all my heart. After visiting Julie, I went to see John.

When I went into his room, I could see that he had been crying, although he tried hard to cover it up when I entered.

“John, honey, you needn’t feel bad about the accident. There are things that can be done to help him. The Coach even said you weren’t to blame. I’ll tell you what, I would like you to talk with your sister. Ask her about your father and what happened with him today. I’m sure she could help you out with this situation.” I told him.

He looked at me quizzically. “What do you mean by that, Mom? Can’t you tell me?”

“No, honey. I think it needs to come directly from JoAnne. You know she doesn’t lie about things and I’m your mother. I have the desire to protect my children and you are just one of them. I’m sure she can help you better than I could in this matter.” I told him evasively. “Just talk with her, you’ll understand her better than I could ever explain.”

With that, I got up and left his room. I then went and talked to JoAnne. I explained to her what was needed to be done. I felt that John needed to make amends to the poor boy that was injured and to do so, he needed to have his healing powers engaged. JoAnne could tell him what had happened with their father earlier in the day. I left her alone to deal with her brother. I knew she was do well.

I went back down to the kitchen and sat with Frank while our dinner warmed up. We just sat and cuddled the whole time. We ate in silence, then went to bed where we just held each other until we fell asleep.