Bikini Beach - Teaching Sally
By Ellie Dauber
Copyright 2000
Author's Note: When I wrote "Swim Date", I got several comments about how
rotten I was to Sally, the young transformee that Paula met briefly on
Sunday. It wasn't right, the comments said, for the Old Woman to take her
memories away. Here's the whole story of Sally's transformation. Judge
again, now that you have all the facts.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"There's some cops out here to see you, Mitch, honey."
Mitch Hammond looked up from his desk and scowled. "Dammit, Angie, I've
told you more than once to call me Mr. Hammond when we're here at the
office. If old man Giselle ever finds out that we're - wait a minute - did
you say 'Cops'?"
Hammond's anger at his secretary turned to fear. Did they know? "Ask - ask
them to come in."
She left with a wink, and two grim looking men in dark suits came in. The
taller of the two, a heavyset men in his late thirties flashed his badge.
"My name is Sergeant Warrick, Mr. Hammond. This is Officer Fisk. May we
ask you a few questions?"
"Certainly, Sergeant. Always happy to cooperate with the police."
"Do you own a 1998 dark blue Alero, specialty license plate 'G-U-Y-S
T-O-Y'?"
"Yes, why?" He decided to try and fake them out. "It hasn't been stolen or
anything?"
"No, sir, at least not as far as we know. When did you drive it last?"
"A couple of days ago; actually, yesterday morning. I noticed that it was
handling a little funny Monday night, so I took it in to the garage
yesterday on my way in to work."
"And where, exactly, were you driving Monday evening?"
"Over on the west side. My secretary - we had to work late - so I drove her
home. We talked for a bit, then I drove back to my house. I got home about
10. You can check it with my wife."
"We have, sir. You got home about 11."
"Hey, 10, 11. It was late, and I was tired."
"We've also looked at your car, sir. There's nothing wrong with the motor
or transmission. The main problem is a dent in the fender - and a little
blood."
"Blood!" They knew.
"Yes, Mr. Hammond. Your car has been identified as having been involved in
an accident at 7th and Woodlawn last Monday night about 10:30. The girl who
was hit died this morning." He paused, frowning at Mitch, then continued.
"Mitchell Hammond, I'm arresting you for the hit-and-run murder of Yaffa
Detweiler."
Mitch lowered his head onto his hands as he was read his rights. He allowed
himself to be handcuffed, but, as he was lead out of the office, he yelled
for Angie to call his lawyer.
* * * * *
Four hours later, he was home, released on $250,000 bail. His wife, Kathy,
was waiting for him at the door. "You bastard!" She looked ready to skin
him alive.
"Kathy? What - I --"
"It was bad enough you were sleeping with that little slut from your office.
You had to kill some poor kid coming home from her bed."
"But - but it was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt her. She just ran out
into the road."
"And you, my big brave husband, were too busy trying to hide your affair
that you didn't even stop to see what happened."
"But then the police would have gotten involved. There was no way to keep
Ang - to keep our names out of it. I had to leave - to get home."
Kathy had a look of disgust on her face. 'He doesn't even have the sense
not to mention _her_ name,' she thought. She masked her feelings and said
aloud, "Well, I suppose you were trying to protect me."
"I was. Honest, I was."
"I don't like it, but you're my husband. I'll go along with whatever you
say. I _will_ expect you to get rid of that secretary, though."
His body all but sagged in relief. "She's gone, gone tomorrow. There's an
opening for an executive assistant in Jim Mercer's office. He asked me to
recommend somebody, and it would actually be a promotion for her." He
didn't mention how he was planning to have her thank him. Besides, Mercer
was a newlywed, totally devoted to his wife. Mitch wouldn't be losing a
secretary; he'd be gaining a spy in the offices of one of his chief rivals
in the company."
Kathy could almost see the wheels turning in her husband's head. All he was
concerned about was his own neck. She doubted if he even cared that a child
had died. Well, that would change soon.
"Mitch, I don't want to think about what's happened any more today. Could
we go out someplace, someplace where we can just relax and enjoy ourselves
for a while?"
"Sure, Kathy, honey." He smiled. Kathy wasn't as pretty as Angie, but she
was still a damned attractive woman. He might be able to have some fun
today after all, in spite the trouble that damned kid had caused him. "What
did you have in mind?"
"Well, there's this place I've heard about, a water park. You remember, we
met at a water park back when we were in college. Anyway, it's called
'Bikini Beach'. I saw one of there billboards just the other day."
"Sure, I've seen them." He'd fantasized about them, too. He thought of all
that nubile female flesh on display for him to see. Then home and bed with
Kathy. This would be a good day after all. "Okay, if you really want to
go."
Kathy smiled. She knew he wouldn't be able to resist the thought of all
those girls. "I'll go get our suits."
* * * * *
It was late afternoon, almost 5, by the time they got to the water park. A
few women were leaving the park, some of them with children in tow. A
couple of them jumped back as Mitch sped into the lot.
"Watch it, Mitch," Kathy said. "You almost hit one of those kids."
"Damn, rugrats. There's too damn many of them in the world anyway."
"That's a terrible thing to say."
"Maybe so, but it's true." He pulled into a newly vacant spot. "C'mon,
let's just go in. We came here to enjoy ourselves, not to argue."
Kathy was strangely quiet as they walked to the gate. An attractive young
brunette was on duty behind the counter.
"Hi," Mitch said. "How much are two tickets?"
"This is a private park," the brunette said. "We don't sell tickets. We do
have a limited number of passes available, though. Since it's so late in
the day, I'll sell you two one-day passes for the price of one." The price
she quoted was a bit high, but Mitch was anxious to get into the park. He
paid, and they walked through the gate.
"Please make sure to shower after you put your swimsuit on," the girl said
as they walked by her. "It's a health department regulation."
"See you in a few minutes," Mitch said as they separated to go into the
locker rooms. "As soon as I change."
"As soon as you change...," Kathy said mysteriously.
* * * * *
The locker room was like any other, rows of lockers against the walls with
benches in front of them. Mitch found an empty locker and put his swim bag
down next to it. In a few minutes, he was wriggling into his suit, a green
loose-fitting pair of trunks. He put on a pair of matching sandals, tossed
his bag in the locker, and walked towards the showers. He could see himself
in a mirror near the door. He looked to be in pretty good shape for a man
of 36. He could still wear clothes that he'd worn in college thanks to an
hour on the exercise bike in his bedroom three or four times a week, not to
mention some more "passionate" exercises as often as the opportunity
presented itself.
He used some of the body soap from a dispenser next to the shower. He
recognized the brand, an expensive one that he sometimes used himself. The
shower had a variable head. He set it at pulse and closed his eyes, letting
the water relax his body. Lord, he was tense. That stupid kid - and those
cops. They had no damn business taking him through his office in handcuffs.
Once he beat this thing, well, he had a friend or two downtown.
With his eyes closed, he never noticed the pink mist that rose from the
shower.
Mitch didn't want to keep Kathy - or any of the other women out there -
waiting, so he cut the shower short. He turned off the shower and headed
for the door. The shower must have relaxed him a little too much. His
whole body felt funny. His hair seemed to be sliding down towards his neck
like it was getting longer. His muscles hurt as if they were stretching or
shrinking, and he seemed to be walking oddly. Then he saw that the door
seemed to be getting bigger. It was an old fun house illusion, but why was
it happening here in a locker room?
He reached for the door, then stopped as he saw his arm. It was thin,
hairless, and his hand, his fingers - they looked smaller in comparison to
the doorknob, finer and more delicate. And why was there - no, it couldn't
be - polish on his nails? He stopped and turned to look in a nearby mirror.
There was no sign of Mitch Hammond in the mirror. Instead, the image that
Mitch saw was a young girl, maybe 12. A skinny little blonde with straight
hair down past her shoulders stood there in nothing but a dark green bikini
bottom and a pair of pink beach sandals. She had just the beginnings of a
female figure, a roundness to the hips and butt, big brown nipples with just
the tiniest swelling beneath them on her chest. Her bikini bottom lay flat
at her groin; no male genitals beneath that, certainly.
The little girl did look like him, though; the same thin nose, the same
green eyes. She reminded him of the way his cousin, Lynn, had looked like
when she was that age. Damn, she was a pest, he remembered.
"Young lady," Mitch heard a voice behind him. He turned to see a rather
matronly Old Woman standing behind him, her hands on her hips. "Young lady,
I don't allow topless bathing here."
"What did you do to me?" Gad, was that his voice? It sounded so -
so...girlish.
"I think that would be rather obvious." She handed Mitch a bikini top that
had appeared that instant in her hand. It was a perfect match for the
bottom that he was wearing. "Now, please put this on. There's someone
waiting for you outside."
Mitch took the top and put it on, surprised at how easily he had done it.
The Old Woman took him by the hand. He tried to pull free, but her grip was
strong. She firmly led him out of the locker room.
Kathy was waiting. The Old Woman pushed Mitch to her. "Here's your
daughter, Ms. Hammond."
"Daughter? What do you mean, daughter," Mitch said. "Kathy, what's going
on? Tell this woman - this witch -- that I'm your husband."
Kathy had a sad look on her face. "Husband? Now, _Sally_, you know that
I'm your mother. My husband, Mitch, your _father_, died three years ago in
a car accident."
"That's ridiculous. I'm your husband, and you know it. Why won't you admit
it and get me changed back?"
"Because, _Sally_, I don't want you changed back. Do you think I want to go
through the humiliation of a trial? To have the world know that my husband,
my lecherous husband, hit a little girl with his car on his way home from an
evening with his mistress, and then he didn't even care enough about her to
stop and see if she was all right? The police told me that if you'd stopped
and tried to help her, if you'd even bothered just to call '9-1-1' on your
damned cell phone, she might have lived."
"Yeah, but why this?"
"You said you had no use for kids, so what better punishment than for you to
become one. Besides, if Mitch Hammond died three years ago, then he wasn't
alive to kill that Yaffa Detweiler two _days_ ago. She's alive now, Sally,
but she only stays alive as long as you stay a little girl."
"And how long will that be?"
Kathy handed Mitch - handed Sally - the two passes that Mitch had bought.
She looked at them closely. He hadn't before, just taken them and handed
them to Kathy to keep in her purse. In neat letters, the passes read
"Lifetime Passes; Not Returnable or Transferable".
"That's right, _Sally_, Kathy said. 'Lifetime Pass', your lifetime _and_
Yaffa's. I came over while you were still in jail and made all the
arrangements."
"No!" she screamed. "It can't be - _I_ can't be." Sally threw the passes
down as tears filled her eyes. She panicked and ran past the two women into
the park.
She saw children, little children, in a play area off to her left as she
ran. Mitch had never had much use for kids. Now, as Sally, he was scarcely
older than they were. She had a crazy thought about stopping, about going
in to join them. 'It looks like fun,' she thought, and a part of her really
wanted to do it. No! That would be giving up, giving in to what had
happened; giving up on ever being a man again. She kept running, looking
back to see if anyone was chasing after her.
She wasn't watching where she was going and suddenly bumped into something
-- no, into someone. Whoever it was had braced herself and just stood
there, while Sally fell to the ground from the impact.
"Are you okay, missie?" Sally looked up to see a tall, slender woman about
twenty, her dark blonde hair tied into a ponytail behind her. She wore a
red sleeveless T-shirt over her swimsuit, with the Bikini Beach logo and the
word "Lifeguard" printed on the shirt. She bent over and offered a hand to
help Sally up.
"I -- I guess so. I'm sorry." Sally took the woman's hand and was pulled
back onto her feet. The woman was cute, very cute, in a down home sort of
way, with a nice figure that the damp T-shirt only served to emphasize.
Mitch would have enjoyed the view, especially when she bent over. For some
reason, Sally found herself feeling a little inadequate.
"I'm Elizabeth Nelson, Liz to my friends. Are you a new member? I don't
recall seeing you here before."
"I'm S-Sally Hammond. I'm new -- I'm new everywhere." Sally began to cry
again.
Liz nodded as if from experience and put a hand on Sally's shoulder. "It's
okay, Sally. It's okay." Without realizing what she was doing, Sally let
herself be gathered into Liz's arms and held while she cried for a short
time.
She felt, well, safe in Liz's arms, protected.
After a while, Sally wasn't sure how long, she stopped and wiped her eyes
with her hands. "I feel -- better, I guess." She reluctantly let go of
Liz. "I'm sorry if I kept you from anything."
"That's okay, Sally. I sort of needed a hug, too." Liz straightened up.
"You're a little old for the kiddy rides over there." She pointed back the
way Sally had come. How about I show you where the Junior Lifeguard Academy
is? That's the part of the park for, umm, kids your age. There may not be
many around now. It's almost supper time, but maybe a little swim will help
get your mind off your troubles."
"As if anything could." But Sally found that she _was_ interested. Mitch
loved to swim. He'd been on teams in both high school and college, and
still swam laps at the Y every so often. Sally let Liz lead her to this
"Academy", whatever it was.
The academy turned out to be a long pool off ahead to the left. When they
came close enough, Sally could see a bunch of dumb kids playing on different
things, walking across holding on to some kind of overhead netting, sliding
down cables, there were even a couple on one of those artificial climbing
wall. As she and Liz walked towards the pool, Sally saw one kid fall from
about two-thirds of the way up the wall into the deep water of the pool.
Much as she hated to admit it, the place looked like fun.
Liz pointed to a girl about her own age sitting in a low lifeguard tower
near the pool. "That's Vicki, she's on duty here. I have to talk to her
for a bit. Why don't you go over and swim till I'm done?" She gave Sally a
little push in the direction of the pool.
Sally wandered over to the edge of the pool and sat down. She stared down
at her toes dangling down into the water. Damn, they even had nail polish
on them.
This was crazy. She was Mitch Hammond, a man in his thirties. How could
she be sitting here in the body of a - a what - a twelve year old that
everyone thought was Mitch's daughter? She felt her eyes beginning to fill
with tears again.
Splash! A wave of water seemed to shoot out to the pool and hit Sally in
the face. "Hey," she said. "Who did that?"
"I guess I did." The voice came from near the center of the pool.
Sally wiped the water out of her eyes and looked in the direction of the
voice. A freckle-faced redhead grinned back at her. "I made it almost to
the top of the mountain climb, and, when I started to fall, I decided to see
how big a cannonball I could do." The redhead started paddling over towards
Sally. "I'm Shayne. Sorry if I got you wet."
"It - it's okay, I guess," Sally said. "I'm, uh, Sally." She was suddenly
embarrassed. Would this kid realize that she was really talking to some
weirdly transformed man? "If I'm going to sit by a pool, I guess I should
expect to get wet." She stared across at the climbing wall. It was a good
thirty feet to the top. "How high did you get, anyway?"
"I was looking at the twenty-eight foot line when my hand slipped. Pretty
good, huhn?"
"I suppose..."
"And you can do better?"
Sally was relieved to have the subject change, and she - or he - never
_could_
Resist a challenge. "Yeah, I think, I can."
"Okay, then. Let's go over and see what you can do." The girl paddled her
arms and moved back towards the center of the pool, giving Sally room to
dive in.
"Here I come." Sally stood and tried to dive. Her mind remembered how to
dive, but her body wasn't up to the level of those memories. She did a
rather clumsy belly-flop and came back up to the surface sputtering and
spitting water.
Shayne was laughing at her. "I hope you can climb better than you can
dive." She turned and began swimming towards the wall.
"I slipped, that's all," Sally said starting after her. She had the same
problem swimming as she had with the dive. Mitch knew how to swim, but this
wasn't Mitch's body anymore. If nothing else, her arms were a lot weaker
than they had been. She got to the wall, but it took a lot longer than
she'd expected.
Shayne was waiting for her, treading water and trying not to giggle.
"Finally," she said. "Still want to try it?"
Sally looked at the wall. It was cement - or something that looked like
cement, with a rubberized coating over the roughness; a slab about fifteen
feet wide that rose some thirty feet out of the water. There were irregular
hand- and footholds starting below the water level and going up the entire
length of the slab. The slab was painted with foot wide bands in different
colors. Big black numbers at every fifth band showed how far a climber had
gotten.
"Just put your hands and feet in the holes and start climbing," Shayne said.
"If you feel yourself falling, just push away from the wall. The water
here's nice and deep. Just in case you _do_ make it to the top, there are
little gold rings up there. Bring one down, and you can trade it for a soda
or an ice cream."
"I'll bring down one for each of us," Sally said, partly trying to convince
herself. Whatever the magic had done to her, she was still Mitch Hammond,
and no wall built for a bunch of lousy kids was going to get the best of
her. She repeated the thought to herself several times, never realizing
that she was thinking of herself as a girl now.
Sally made it up to the thirteen-foot line before her hand slipped and she
fell backwards, hitting the water butt first. "So where's the ring," Shayne
said when Sally surfaced.
"Very funny. Just wait here. I'll get you one."
"I'll believe it when I see it."
In each of her next five tries, Sally managed to get up a bit higher. She
was past the twenty-foot mark, now, but that seemed to be her limit. She
was straining to reach up for a handhold at the twenty-five foot level, when
she heard a voice above her to the right.
"I got the rings. Let's go get that ice cream." It was Shayne, looking
down from the top of the slab. She was smiling, two rings on her index
finger.
Sally felt her face redden. "I don't need help from some damn kid." She
pushed herself away from the wall, hitting the water a moment later. She
was swimming away before she surfaced. As she reached the other side, she
could hear the other girl shouting for her to come back.
Liz was waiting for her as Sally climbed out of the pool. "Don't you think
that you were a little rough on her? Shayne was just trying to be your
friend."
"I - I don't care. She didn't have to rub my nose in - in what I've
become."
"Oh, my poor Sally. All she was trying to do was to be your friend. You
need one - you really do."
"Yeah, but I - I just can't cope with what's happened to me. I need to be
alone with this."
"I think I understand," Liz said. "Don't look so surprised; you're not the
only one who's been changed by those showers."
"Are you..."
Liz smiled. "_That_ would be telling. Look, I'll explain to her that your
pride was hurt. She's a good kid, and I think she'll understand. But
_you're_ going to have to come back here and apologize to her in person on
Saturday. Okay?"
"I guess. Tell her - tell her I'll be back tomorrow like you said, and,
well, that she - tell her she owes me an ice cream." Sally ran back towards
the main gate to look for Kathy. She looked back after a moment and saw Liz
talking to the redhead. The girl looked in her direction and waved.
Despite herself, Sally waved back.
* * * * *
Kathy was waiting for her by the entrance, sitting in a folding chair and
drinking a soda. "I thought you'd be coming back soon? Did you have a good
time, Sally? Make any new little friends?"
"You're crazy, Kathy. Magic or not, you can't get away with this. People
are going to know that I'm missing."
"No they won't, Sally. You'll be here where you always were, a
twelve-year-old girl being raised by her poor, widowed mother." She glared
at Sally for a moment. "Get used to it, _Sally_. Mitch is gone, and he
isn't coming back. Now go get dressed."
"In what? My clothes will never fit me now."
"Think so? Go in and check."
Sally sighed and went into the Locker Room. She stripped, tossing her wet
suit onto the bench. She opened the door to the locker where Mitch had put
his clothes and pulled out her towel, now changed from green to a pretty
pink pastel. When she began drying her body, as Mitch always had, by
rubbing the towel briskly against her skin, the roughness of the towel
almost hurt her. She stopped rubbing and began patting herself dry as she
had seen Kathy do in the past.
She tried not to look at herself as she dried her body.
When she looked closely into the locker again, Sally saw that Mitch's male
underwear was gone, replaced by "Panties!" she said in amazement holding up
a pair of girl's cotton briefs covered with lots of tiny pink roses. A
matching tee was next to them, with a small knotted pink fabric rose at the
base of each of the two spaghetti straps.
She stepped into the panties and pulled them up around her hips. The cotton
didn't feel that different from a pair of men's briefs, although she was
conscious of the lack of anything like Mitch's comfortable "bulge" in the
front. The tee wasn't that different, either. Then Sally felt the
roughness of the material against her chest. "Now what," she said aloud.
Then came horrible realization. "Titties! Her new body was entering
puberty. She lifted the shirt and saw again that her nipples were darker
and much larger than Mitch's had been. She knew that were tender because
she was beginning to "blossom", as they used to say, into womanhood. The
slight puffiness under each nipples even suggested that she might already be
needing a training bra. "Darn! It just gets weirder and weirder."
She saw what looked like Mitch's shirt and slacks were still on the hooks
where he had left them. "Aha, so she's _not_ infallible." Sally reached
for the blouse only to find that the man's white dress shirt was now a
girl's off-white blouse with a ruffled collar. She put it on slowly,
struggling just a little with buttons that were on the wrong side. The
pants were no better. "Darn!" she said on finding that the male navy slacks
were now a pair of light blue capri pants with lace trim on the pockets.
She slipped into the pants pulling them over her hips to fasten snuggly at
her narrowed waist.
When Sally looked in the bottom of the locker, she found that Mitch's dark
oxfords and black socks had been replaced somehow by white sneakers with
pastel blue laces and a pair short pale blue socks with a white lace trim on
the sides. "Even the socks," she giggled and sat down to put them on.
* * * * *
"I'm ready to get out of here," Sally said as she came out of the locker
room.
Kathy was talking to the woman who had sold them the passes. "I'm talking
to this lady, right now, Sally. Why don't you go sit over there, and I'll
be with you in a minute."
"Uh - okay, Kathy," Sally said automatically, surprising herself. She
desperately wanted to get out of there. Why didn't she argue? She walked
over to where Kathy had pointed and sat down to try and figure things out.
Kathy watched her with an upraised eyebrow, then turned back to Anya and
said quietly, "Is he...she going to act like a girl from now on?"
"Not yet. You kind of caught her by surprise, and she reacted
automatically. Keep treating her like the child she's become, though, and
she'll fit more and more into the role."
"But, like you said, it will take time."
"Yes, but I also said that there _are_ ways to speed up the transition."
"I know, and I'll keep them in mind. Thanks for doing this."
"No problem. Don't forget to bring her back tomorrow and Sunday. She's
still got a lot to learn."
"I won't. See you tomorrow." Kathy turned and walked over to where Sally
was waiting. She was sitting quietly in a beach chair, her hands on her
lap, her legs crossed at the ankles and tucked under the chair. 'Just like
any other young girl,' Kathy thought.
"Okay, I'm ready now," Kathy said, motioning towards the entrance. Sally
stood up and joined her.
They walked together into the parking lot, but, when they approached the
car, Sally broke away and began to walk towards the driver's side. "Where
do you think you're going?" Kathy asked.
"To drive us home. I always drive, you know that."
"No, _Sally_, I drive home. After all, how many twelve year olds even know
how to drive?"
"Yeah, but..."
"But nothing." Her eyebrows narrowed. "Get in the car, young lady."
"Y - Yes, ma'am," Sally said automatically. She wanted to protest, to argue
that she could still drive the car, but she felt a fear, now. More than
that, she felt a compulsion to obey. She lowered her head and walked over
to the passenger side of the car. The door was unlocked, so she just
climbed in and fastened the seatbelt.
Kathy got in behind the wheel and started the car. She glanced over to see
Sally sitting quietly, looking down at her hands on her lap. 'Better and
better,' she thought.
"Listen," she said to Sally as they were heading home. "I really don't feel
like cooking tonight. How about we stop for burgers?"
"Burgers sound okay, I guess," Sally said. "But could we take them home to
eat? I really don't think I'm up to being with any more people today."
"Fair enough." She saw a Wendy's up ahead and pulled into the
drive-through. "What do you want to eat?"
"Double beef, biggie fries, and a biggie coke." Mitch had always had a
fairly good appetite.
"That's a bit much for a little thing like you, don't you think?"
"But I'm hungry." Her voice had a feminine whine to it, now.
"You're not that hungry. You don't expect me to buy you food that you can't
eat, do you?"
"I guess not, Kathy."
"I think you're entirely too familiar in your speech, young lady. I want
the respect that a child should show to an adult." She stared directly at
Sally, an angry glint in her eyes. "From now on, Sally, you will address me
as...'Ma'am', like you did at the park. Yes, I think, from now on, you'll
end every sentence you speak to me that way."
"What! I know what I look like, but I'm still your husband."
"No, you're not, and you _never_ will be again."
"But, Kathy..."
"Who?" She raised her hand as if she were about to slap the young girl.
"Who am I?"
"Please...Ma'am, please don't hurt me." Sally blurted out the word without
thinking. Her eyes opened wide in surprise as she realized what she'd just
said. She lowered her head and began to sob.
Kathy smiled as she pulled up to the outdoor menu to order. "Chicken salad,
low fat French dressing, and a medium diet coke for me, and a cheeseburger
'kid's meal' with a coke for my _daughter_." She turned to look hard at
Sally. "Is that all right with you, dear?"
"Yes...yes, ma'am." Sally had tears in her eyes as she said it.
Kathy smiled as she drove on to the window to pay and to pick up the food.
Another piece of Mitch's male arrogance was gone, hopefully for good.
* * * * *
They ate as soon as they got to the house. Kathy had been right. Sally
just barely finished the smaller meal that she had been given. She drank
the last of her coke and leaned back in her chair. "I think I'm full."
"What? What did you say?"
Sally looked a little surprised. "Oh, umm, I think I'm full, Ma'am."
"That's better. Here, throw out the trash, then head upstairs and hang up
your wet suit and towel."
Sally's response was more automatic, although she didn't seem to notice.
"Yes, Ma'am." She collected the wrappers, napkins, and paper cups, and
threw them all in the garbage can near the sink. Then she picked up her wet
things and headed up stairs.
Kathy sat back in her chair enjoying a little piece of leftover pie from the
night before. "This is working out perfectly," she said thinking aloud.
"Mitch is turning more and more into a little girl inside."
"Kathy!" The shout came from upstairs. Kathy had an idea what to expect,
so she walked unhurriedly up to the master bedroom.
Sally was standing just inside the room, still staring in amazement. "My
clothes, the exercise bike, they're all gone."
"Of course, they are, dear. This isn't your room any more." She took
Sally's hand and led her to the guest bedroom just down the hall. "This is
your room."
"What -- but." Sally opened the door. The room now longer had the
comfortable brown tones that it had had before. The walls were a pale blue
with a couple of large Back Street Boys posters where the landscape
paintings had been. The windows had matching dark blue ruffled curtains.
The bedspread was white now with patterns of roses quilted into it. A large
white piece of fabric stretched from the wall about three feet above the top
of the bed to touch the ceiling just above the foot of it. The effect made
it look as if it were a canopy bed.
There were some stuffed animals, a cat, a blue mouse, and a dragon near the
pillows. The dresser was white, too, and there was a small tray of
cosmetics on the top. Next to the tray was a small wooden jewelry box with
several necklaces visible in the top drawer. A large wooden framed mirror,
also painted white, hung on the wall above the dresser. In the corner,
where a small table had been, was a child's desk, also white. There were
papers and a couple of magazines on the desk. A bookshelf on the wall above
the desk was almost filled with books. There was a row of dolls on the top
shelf, though.
The closet door was partially opened. Sally could see dresses and blouses
hanging most of the way across. The bottom of the closet was filled with
shoes, some of them with low heels. Sally saw a girl's nightgown and robe
hanging on hooks on the closet door.
"Isn't it sweet, Sally? This is the sort of room that any girl your age
would just love."
"But I sleep with you in the other bedroom -- Ma'am."
"Sally, you're much too old to be sleeping with me. You have this nice room
of your own." She smiled and looked at the confused girl. "Now you go hang
up your suit and towel in the bathroom. Then I want you to stay up here and
read quietly for a while. If you're a good girl, you can come down and
watch some TV later on."
"I -- but -- yes, Ma'am." Sally walked slowly to the bathroom next to her
bedroom, her head bowed in defeat and confusion.
Kathy followed her in and watched her hang up the wet things on the shower
rod. Mitch had been just over six feet tall and could have reached the rod
easily. Sally was about four foot ten and had to stretch to reach it. When
she stretched, Kathy noticed the curve of her hips and the narrowness of her
waist, something she hadn't really noticed before. The overall
transformation had distracted her from these details. 'My little girl is
growing up,' she thought.
Kathy looked around the bathroom to see if there had been any other changes.
She saw some conditioners and lotions in a tray on the edge of the
bathtub. None of them had been there before. There was also a new blue
toothbrush in the holder by the sink. And one more thing.
"Here, Sally," Kathy said walking over to Sally who was just finishing
getting her swimsuit over the shower rod. "You probably didn't have any of
this at the park, and I know how girls just _love_ it."
"What?" Sally turned around just in time for something to spray into her
face. She coughed and spat out the foul tasting liquid.
"Love's Baby Soft, honey. It's such a pretty perfume." Kathy put down the
atomizer and smiled at her daughter. 'Yes,' she thought, 'her daughter.
The child Mitch hadn't wanted and, so, had become.' Aloud, she said,
"there, now you smell so pretty. You just stay up here and read for a
while, okay."
Kathy turned and walked out of the bathroom and back downstairs. She was
afraid that, if she'd stayed there any longer, she would have started to
laugh. Mitch - no, she corrected herself - Sally looked so surprised when
Kathy had spayed the perfume on her. Now she was going to sit up there in
her little girl's room, wearing her little girl's clothes and her little
girl's perfume, reading a little girl's book. It was brainwashing of the
highest order.
* * * * *
Sally watched Kathy leave. She still couldn't believe everything that
happened. She'd left the house this morning, a grown man in a suit smelling
of Old Spice. Now she was a twelve-year old girl in a blouse and capri
pants wearing Love's Baby Soft perfume.
She began to cry. She wanted to run downstairs and confront Kathy, to force
her to take her back to that place and get her changed back to her real
self. She wiped her eyes and began to walk purposefully towards the steps,
but she suddenly stopped. She - she couldn't bring herself to go
downstairs, not when she'd been specifically told not to.
The realization of her need to obey that order scared her even more than she
already was. She began to cry again. She turned, ran back to her room, and
threw herself across the bed. She cried for several minutes, clutching the
large stuffed cat as if for moral support.
Sally finally cried herself out. She sat up on the bed and wiped her hands
on her sleeve. "Good old, Sly Boots," she said looking down at the stuffed
cat that she was still holding. "You always did make me..." Sally froze.
What was she saying?
Somehow she remembered getting the cat as a ninth birthday present. Yes, she
looked at the back and saw the names of six girls, all done in the precise
handwriting of young children. The names seemed familiar somehow, though
she didn't remember knowing any of them. Yes, they were all at the party
that day.
No! She jumped up and threw the cat onto the bed. Three years ago, she'd
been Mitch Hammond. This was crazy. She seemed to have two sets of
memories, Mitch's and Sally's. Sally's were very vague, just bits and
pieces, but she could feel them getting stronger.
Sally felt her stomach churn. She sat down and took deep breaths. It
seemed to work, and she felt calmer. She thought about going down stairs
again, this time pleading to be returned to normal. No! The compulsion to
stay upstairs was still too strong.
She walked over to the desk and took a look at the books in the shelves
above it. There were a couple of books of poetry, some series called
Sweetwater High, a couple of creepy looking books about vampires or witches
or something, and two Nancy Drew paperbacks - was she still around? She
took one of the Nancy Drews and lay back down on the bed.
Kathy came up a couple of hours later and found her daughter - her
_daughter_, she loved the sound of that - and found her daughter asleep.
The book was open, but Sally was using it for a pillow.
Kathy gently pulled the book away and put it back on the desk, using a
folded scrap of paper for a bookmark. She tried to wake Sally, but the
young girl was just too sleepy from all that had happened. Kathy managed to
get her blouse and pants, shoes and socks off. It was a warm night, so she
just put Sally to bed in her undies. She tucked the girl in, kissed her
gently on the forehead, and left. Once she was downstairs, she poured
herself a scotch to celebrate the apparent success of her plan.
* * * * *
"Where the heck am I," Sally said as she woke up. "This is some kid's
room."
Then she remembered what had happened the day before. A hand shot down to
her groin. Nothing. At least nothing that she had wanted to find. Instead
of Mitch's male equipment, preferably hard with one of those early morning
erections, all that was under her - her panty was a feminine slit covered by
a few soft tufts of hair. "It - it wasn't a dream. I'm a girl."
Even getting out of bed was different. Sally's shorter legs didn't reach
the ground when she put them over the side of the bed. Mitch's had. She
climbed out of bed and walked over to get the bathrobe hanging on the closet
door. From force of long habit, she rubbed her chin and cheeks, checking to
see how badly she needed a shave. Her face was soft, smooth, and totally
hairless. "First good thing to come from this," she said with a smile.
"Not much, though."
Kathy was already having breakfast when Sally came down. She looked up from
her paper. "Morning, Sally. How did you sleep?"
"Okay, I guess...Ma'am, considering what's happened to me."
"You'll get used to it. Help yourself to some breakfast."
"Is there any coffee left, Ma'am?"
"Yes, but none for you. You're a growing girl."
"Give me a break, Ma'am. Just a little coffee. You know how much I need
that first cup...Ma'am."
Kathy had a full cup next to her plate. She handed it to Sally. "Before I
make you a cup, try some of mine."
"Thank you, Ma'am." Sally took it reluctantly. Mitch liked his coffee
black with just one sugar. Kathy drank hers with milk and two diet
sweeteners. Still, it was better than no coffee at all. She took a long
sip - and almost gagged. "Eeyeww! That's so bitter."
"I thought so. You're not used to coffee anymore, honey. Have some milk to
wash out the taste." Kathy took back the cup and took a drink. 'Not bitter
at all,' she thought. 'Except to a twelve year old whose body was no longer
familiar with the taste of coffee.'
Sally poured herself a glass of milk. She took a couple of swallows to try
and get rid of the lingering coffee taste. How could she have ever liked
that stuff? She looked around to see what else to have. Bread - no, she
didn't feel like toast. She saw a box of something called Apple Jacks on
the table. She sliced a banana into a bowl, added the cereal, and poured in
some more milk. She took a taste - not bad, not bad at all - and settled in
to eat.
After breakfast, Sally rinsed her dirty dishes and put them in the
dishwasher. Then she walked into the living room and turned on the TV. The
commentators on ESPN were going over the action of last night's baseball
games. Mitch was a diehard Twins fan, but even their sweep of a
doubleheader just bored Sally. She started channel surfing, stopping
eventually on the Pokomon show. Those little things were soo cute. She
curled up in the chair and watched the action.
She was still watching TV, a show called Pinky and the Brain, almost an hour
later when Kathy came in. "Turn off the set and get your swim stuff, honey.
We're heading back to Bikini Beach."
Sally jumped out of the chair. "Does this mean that you've changed your
mind. You're going to make them turn me back? Umm, Ma'am."
"Nothing of the kind, _Sally_. It means that it's a lovely day, and, since
we have _lifetime_ passes, I thought we'd put them to use." She put a nasty
emphasis on the word "lifetime", grinning at Sally as she said it. "Now,
scoot. I want to leave in twenty minutes, and you still have to dress."
"But..." After what had happened to her yesterday, Bikini Beach was the last
place Sally wanted to be - unless it was to change back, and Kathy had
already refused to consider that idea."
"Go, and be quick about it." Kathy was determined not to let any of Mitch's
masculine arrogance resurface. Sally was coming along nicely, acting more
and more like the young girl she was.
"Yes...Ma'am." Sally turned and headed upstairs. She stopped at the
bathroom. Her suit was dry, so she pulled the two pieces down from the
towel bar and wrapped them in a fresh towel. Her towel from yesterday was
dry, but used, and went into a hamper in a corner.
Back in her room, she stripped down. Her dirty underwear went into another
hamper near the closer. Sally tried not think about her new body as she
walked over to the dresser, but the sensation of cool air on her skin,
especially on her nipples, was _very_ distracting. She reached into a
drawer and pulled out a pair of yellow panties and a matching girl's
undershirt. She put the shirt on first to try to stop the tingling at her
nipples, then wriggled into the panties.
Sally pulled a kelly green tee out of another drawer. (She never noticed
that she seemed to know what was in each drawer.) Now for pants. No, she
had a pair of shorts - there they were - that would look really cute with
this top, baby blue with green lace shamrocks embroidered on the back
pockets and at the bottom of each leg. She stepped into the shorts and
pulled them up past her waist and fastened them at her narrow waist.
The shorts were tight, accentuating the nubile roundness of her hips and
butt. They also showed off the curve of her leg. She turned this way and
that, admiring herself in the mirror. "I am definitely cute," she said.
Then she realized what she was saying - what she was thinking. She shivered
and took off the slacks, throwing on a loose pair of jeans instead.
She pulled on the sandals from the day before, grabbed her swimsuit and
towel, and headed downstairs. Kathy was waiting at the bottom of the steps
looking at her watch. "Thirty seconds to spare, honey. Okay, let's go."
They rode to the park in silence. Kathy was enjoying driving, something she
seldom did when Mitch was in the car. Sally was trying to understand what
was going on inside her. It was so - so darn hard. Darn it, she couldn't
even curse any more. A lot of her was still Mitch, and she was wanted to
act the way he would. But there was something - someone else in there, too.
Sally. And she wanted to act the way _she_ wanted to act.
As long as Mitch kept watch, there wasn't much Sally could do, but Mitch
couldn't keep watch all the time. When he was tired or not paying
attention, Sally was quick to act. She sighed and resolved to just pay more
attention. It wouldn't be easy, but she was determined to try.
"We're here," Kathy said. Sally looked up. They were just pulling into the
lot at Bikini Beach. Kathy parked the car, and they headed for the gate.
Another woman was on duty. Kathy showed the two passes, and they headed in.
Sally started towards the Men's Locker Room, but Kathy took her hand firmly.
"No, honey. _Girl's_ go this way." Still holding Sally by the wrist, she
walked into the Women's Locker Room.
They found a pair of empty lockers near one another and began changing.
Sally watched Kathy undress. Mitch might have enjoyed watching her baring
herself, seeing it as a possible prelude to sex. Sally just looked at
Kathy's pretty outfit, especially her underclothes and found herself
wondering when she might be able to wear such things. She shook her head.
'Get out of there, Sally.' She turned away and began changing her own
clothes.
When they were both changed, they headed for the showers. Sally shuddered
the instant the water touched her. "Relax, honey," Kathy said. "It's
already done all it's going to."
"Yes, Ma'am. It's just..." She turned around, making sure that she had
gotten wet all over. She put her hands under the stream of water and
splashed a little on her face. She turned the water off and walked back to
get her towel. As she walked, she concentrated on her body. It didn't feel
any different. She didn't look any different either. Sally didn't know if
she should be happy or sad about that.
Liz was passing by as Kathy and Sally came out of the Locker Room. "Hi,
Sally. Glad to see that you came back."
Kathy looked at the young woman. "You know my daughter?"
"Sure, we met yesterday over by the Junior Lifeguard Academy. It's the area
for kids around her age." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Liz, by the way,
Liz Nelson. I'm head lifeguard, and I teach the swimming classes."
"Pleased to meet you, Liz." Kathy shook her hand. "I'm Kathy Hammond,
Sally's mother. We just bought lifetime passes yesterday."
"Lifetime." Liz looked closely at both Kathy and Sally. "Well, welcome to
the family. As a matter of fact, I'm on my way over to teach a swim class.
You're welcome to join in, Sally. You might enjoy it; swimming is a great
way to get to know what your body can do."
"Okay." Sally felt happy for the excuse to be with this friendly woman
again.
"Have a good time, honey," Kathy said. "I'll be over in one of the hammocks
by the Tiki Hut, if you need me for anything."
"Thanks, Ma'am," Sally said, following Liz towards the class.
About a dozen kids, aged nine to twelve, were standing or sitting along the
edge of the pool across from the climbing wall. When they saw them coming,
a few started yelling for others to join them. Liz blew a whistle hanging
from a string around her neck, and two kids from the climbing wall and
several others Sally hadn't noticed before swam over to the group.
"All right, all right," Liz said, raising her hands. "Before we start, I
want to introduce you to a new member of the class, Sally Hammond."
A few of the kids shouted "Hello" to Sally. She was uncertain how to
answer, so she just smiled and made a slight wave of her hand. She looked
around but didn't see the redheaded girl from the day before - what _was_
her name - oh, yeah, Shayne. Mitch had always felt uncomfortable around
kids, having no interest in whatever they were doing. Now as Sally, she was
even more uncertain. Would they recognize her as a transformed man? Would
they laugh at her? Would they like her? Like her? Where had _that_ come
from?
"Okay," Liz said, blowing the whistle again. "Let's get started. Line up
along the side here and ease yourselves into the pool with the ones already
in."
The girls formed a single line along the side of the pool and sat down.
Sally walked over and sat down at the end. She felt a tap on her shoulder
and turned to see Shayne sitting down next to her. "Hi," Sally said. "I'm
sorry about yesterday."
"Shhh! We'll talk later. Liz likes quiet in her class."
Liz blew her whistle. "Okay, girls. Everybody into the pool."
The girls all eased themselves over the edge and down into the water. The
pool was shallow enough that they could stand. For most of them, the water
was somewhere between their waists and their shoulders. For Sally, it came
to the middle of her chest. She had a strange sensation that she suddenly
realized was the cooler water against her nipples.
She didn't have time to think about it, though, as Liz had the girls all
lean into the water and blow bubbles. It was a step, Sally remembered, in
teaching them the proper breathing technique for the crawl stroke. She
leaned forward with the rest, trying not to giggle when the bubbles tickled
her nose.
For the next two hours, Liz put the girls through their paces: breathing,
the crawl stroke, kicking. Sally used it as a way of getting used to her
new body. By the end of the class, she was doing an almost passable crawl.
It was a long way from the form that had gotten Mitch fourth place in the
All-State championships his junior year of college, but it was a start.
"Okay," Liz said, clapping her hands. "That was pretty good. You guys
practice during the week, and we'll see how well you do next Saturday. Same
Bat - same time, same place. Next week, we'll split you into teams and have
some races."
She left, as did some of the other girls in the class. "How about some
lunch," Shayne said. She held up the two rings. "Dessert is on me."
"I don't have any money," Sally said.
"Where's your mom - or whatever adult you came with?"
"She's over at the Tiki Hut, but I don't know where it is."
"I do, and we can have lunch right there. C'mon." She took Sally by the
hand and led her down the path towards the Hut.
The Tiki Hut was a large, grass thatched structure set among coconut palms.
It was open on three sides with tables and chairs. The fourth side was the
restaurant, a grill selling burgers, franks, and a range of sandwiches and
salads. It looked very "Gilligan's Islandish", but the smells had both
girls' mouths watering as they came close.
Sally looked around. Kathy was nowhere to be seen. On a hunch, Sally went
over to the cashier, a pretty black woman in her twenties, wearing a wrap
around skirt and a staff tee and sitting at a table near the entrance.
"Excuse me, Ma'am. I'm looking for my, umm, mother. She's --"
"Are you Sally Hammond?" the woman said.
"Yes, Ma'am. Why?"
"Your mother said you'd probably be coming by. She said to tell you that
she decided to go look around the park. She'll meet you back at the Locker
Room at six. She _also_ said to tell you that she paid for your lunch.
Just go back and order whatever you like."
"Thank you, Ma'am. I will." She turned to Shayne. "Let's go see what
smells so good back there."
They headed back to the grill. Between the smells and the exercise of the
swimming class, they were both starved. Burgers, french fried sweet
potatoes, and cokes took care of most of it. They traded the two rings for
two dishes of ice cream that took care of the rest. Afterwards, they found
a couple of hammocks between two pairs of palm trees near the volleyball
court. They lay back talking about nothing in particular until they both
dozed off.
The sound of a volleyball game woke them sometime later. Sally glanced at
one of the clocks at the Tiki Hut. It was almost 3. "Want to go back to
the Academy?" she asked Shayne.
"Nah. We're here. Let's see what sort of rides they have over this way.
The girls headed for the Tahiti twister. Sally screamed as loudly as Shayne
as they slid through the darkened tubes. And giggled as loudly when they
splashed into the pool at the bottom. After the first time, they tried
several variations, racing down with one of them in each tube, sliding down
so close together that Sally felt Shayne's feet on her shoulders, and going
down head first.
After that they played in the Tropical Waves pool. They swam into some of
the larger waves, trying to "body surf" them for as long as they could.
When they tired of that, they sat for a while in the narrow end, letting the
smaller waves break over them and giggling at the reactions of the younger
children.
They moved on. They tried the Wild Luau Raft Ride, holding tightly as it
bounced and turned against the rocks on the long slide into the waiting
pool. A mother and her six-year old daughter were on the ride with them.
As they were getting off, Sally asked the woman for the time. It was about
5:30.
"I've got to go," Sally said. "The lady at the Tiki Hut said my mother
expected me back by six."
"Aw, I wanted to go again."
"So go. There's no reason we both have to suffer because I have to leave."
"Will you be here tomorrow?"
"I think so. At least, I don't know that we have anything else planned.
I'll try to meet you by the Locker Room at noon, okay?"
"Umm, make it the Academy. That way, I won't have to hang around the Locker
Room waiting for you. I can get some swim practice in."
"Sounds good. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, bye, Sally."
Sally waved and hurried back towards the Locker Room. As she walked, she
thought about the day she'd had. Shayne was a great kid who seemed to
totally accept who she was now. Was now? Sally recalled her actions during
the day. Most of the time, she and Shayne had been acting in pretty much
the same way, like the two twelve year olds that they were. "I was
distracted," she said to herself. "I didn't pay attention, so I acted like
a kid." Then she giggled. "Still it _was_ a lot of fun."
She resolved to watch herself more closely, especially now that she would be
home with Kathy. Kathy seemed to be enjoying treating her like a kid.
Well, she knew what was going on, now, and Kathy would have a harder time of
it.
Kathy was nowhere in sight when Sally reached the Locker Rooms. She decided
to change, rather than wait. She started to walk towards the Men's Locker
Room, then caught herself. "At least, I still have _that_ right," she said.
She smiled and headed to the Women's Locker Room.
There were a number of females inside, everything from twins about four with
their mother to one elderly woman. One or two looked up when Sally walked
in, but everyone ignored her as just another girl. What annoyed Sally was
that she found herself thinking the same way.
There were two stunning girls in their early twenties not too far from
Sally. They were giggling about something as they peeled themselves out of
two very skimpy bikinis. They put on a wonderful show, their naked bodies
on display for several minutes, while they seemed to be deciding what -- if
anything -- to wear. Mitch would have been hard as -- what was that
expression -- Chinese algebra, and he'd have gone over to see if these two
babes were willing to help him do something about it. Sally's only reaction
was to look down at her as yet undeveloped body and sigh. 'Someday,' a
voice seemed to say in her mind. 'Someday, _I'll_ look that good.'
It was not a thought that she wanted to have.
She forced herself to look away and hurried into her clothes. She left the
Locker Room and had just taken a seat in one of the nearby beach chairs when
Kathy came over to her. "Very good, honey. You're not only here, but
you've changed clothes already." She looked at her watch. "And it's still
almost ten minutes to six. Are you ready to leave?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Once they were on the way home, Sally asked, "Um, Ma'am, are we going back
to the park tomorrow?"
"I suppose so. Why?"
"Well, Shayne, she's this girl that I met yesterday, we spent the whole day
together today. I had a lot of fun, and we sort of agreed to meet tomorrow
at noon over at the Junior Lifeguard Academy, that's the area for kids, and
well, spend the afternoon together. So, is it okay if we go back to the
park tomorrow? Is it, Ma'am?"
Kathy almost laughed. The words just seemed to spill out of Sally, and
there wasn't even the slightest trace of Mitch in them. For all intents and
purposes, there was only an excited twelve-year old in the car with her.
"All right, dear, all right. Unless the weather's bad, we'll go back to the
park tomorrow. I wouldn't want to disappoint you and your new little
friend."
"Great," Sally said. "Thanks, Mom, umm, ah, Ma'am." Oh, Lord. What was
she saying? It was bad enough gushing about Shayne the way she had. That
had just been a minor mistake, but calling Kathy "Mom". What was happening
to her? And had Kathy noticed?
Sally's response caught Kathy by surprise. This was too good to be true.
She decided to pretend not to notice. "You're welcome, dear." There, that
should keep her off balance.
They were home a few minutes later. Sally went upstairs to hang up her wet
suit and towel, while Kathy started supper. She filled a pot with water and
put it on the stove to boil. While she waited she took a cooked chicken
breast from the fridge and began slicing it into long thin strips. When the
water boiled, she added a small box of spaghetti.
Sally was down again almost at once. "Can I help with dinner? Ma'am?" She
paused to make sure that she didn't slip and say "Mom" again. That was all
she needed, to start thinking of Kathy as her mother instead of her wife.
It was a good thing that Kathy hadn't noticed the slip in the car. Or had
she?
"Certainly, dear. Get a bowl and shred some lettuce into it. I'm making a
cold chicken salad with pasta. Once that's done, cut up three carrots, a
red onion, and a green pepper into slices about the same size as I'm cutting
this chicken - do you see?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Mitch hated salads; "rabbit food", he called it. Sally found
that she didn't share his opinion. It sounded good. Besides, it was fun to
help in the kitchen. Useful, too, for when she had her own home - aww, why
was she going and thinking like that again? She resolved to be even more
alert for mental slips like that around the kitchen.
By the time she had the vegetables ready, Sally was actually smiling, proud
of her contribution to the meal.
Kathy had her set the table and get out the iced tea and the salad dressing,
while she mixed the now cooked spaghetti with the vegetables and chicken.
With a "Taa Dah!" she brought the salad to the table and motioned for Sally
to sit down.
* * * * *
After dinner, they went in to relax and watch TV. One of the cable channels
was showing SOMEWHERE IN TIME. Kathy had been a fan of it for years, but
Mitch had always thought of it as a "chick flick". Now Sally discovered the
film. She oohed and aahed over the beautiful old style clothing everyone
wore after Christopher Reeve went into the past, especially the women's
dresses. As Reeve slowly won Jane Seymour's heart, she sighed and snuggled
up next to Kathy. Kathy smiled maternally and put her arm over Sally's
shoulders.
Sally realized what she was doing, but it seemed so natural to be reacting
to the movie the way she was. The story was just so romantic. She felt a
tingling below her stomach and her titties felt a little warm. When Reeves
accidentally was drawn back to the present, she felt a tear running down her
cheek.
The movie ended with Reeve trying to find his way back to his love in the
past. "Does he make it, Mo - Ma'am? Does he get back to her?" Sally knew
it was just a movie, but for some reason, it seemed important to her.
Kathy reached down and stroked her hair. "They never made a sequel, honey.
A lot of people who like the movie would also like to think that he did.
What do you think?"
"I - I hope he did. He - he loved her so much, and she loved him, too."
"People who love somebody don't always get to be with that person. Maybe
they should, but it doesn't always work out. Sometimes, the other person
really doesn't love them back."
"You're talking about me - about the way I was - aren't you, Ma'am?"
"Yes, honey, I guess I am. You certainly didn't seem to love me the way
Chris Reeve loved Jane Seymour in that movie."
"I - I know, Ma'am. It didn't seem wrong at the time, but I'm - I'm not
sure now. Everything - everything seems so different now. It really
confuses me."
"You're a smart girl. I'm sure that you'll figure everything out
eventually." She looked at her watch. "Right now, it's almost 10:30. Why
don't you go upstairs and get ready for bed. You can read for a while, just
put on a nightgown first. Don't fall asleep over the book like you did last
night, either, okay?"
"Okay, Mo-ma'am." Sally kissed Kathy on the cheek and headed up to bed.
"Good night."
As she walked up the steps, she thought about what she'd just done. Mitch
had kissed Kathy like that more than once. It was a simple sign of
affection. Heck, sometimes he even did it as a salve to his conscience when
he'd been out with Angie.
That kiss just now hadn't been the same thing at all. The last time she'd
felt the way she did kissing Kathy a moment ago was three months before.
Mitch had flown to Chicago on a business trip and had taken a couple of
extra days to visit his mother at the family home downstate.
Darn! Now she was starting to think of Kathy as her mother. She closed her
eyes and thought of Mitch's mother. 'Grandma,' said a voice in his head.
Sally shivered and ran the rest of the way to her room. Maybe Nancy Drew
could distract her from this crazy situation that seemed to be getting worse
and worse by the minute.
Up in her room, Sally took off the tee and her jeans. Her nipples felt as
sensitive as they had this morning. She looked down. Two tiny bulges were
apparent under her undershirt. She touched them gently and found herself
smiling. 'I'm growing up," she thought. 'I finally need a training bra.'
Her eyes widened in horror. "What am I thinking? Am I actually glad to be
getting titties?" She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "I'm a man.
Underneath all this, I - am - still - a - man." She spoke the words slowly,
deliberately, trying to convince herself that it was true.
She tossed the dirty clothes into the hamper and took the nightie down from
the hook on the door. She put it over her head and wriggled into it. The
sensations as it slid down her body were surprisingly pleasant, but she
tried not to get distracted. She picked up the Nancy Drew. "At least I
still like mysteries," she said. She climbed up onto the bed and began
reading.
After a time, Sally began to yawn. She looked down and realized that she
was reading the same page for the second time. "Bedtime," she said. She
stuck the bookmark into the book and put it on the table next to the bed.
She turned out the light, then climbed under the covers. When Kathy checked
on her, Sally was sound asleep, but she was clutching the stuffed cat, Sly
Boots, to her, using it as an extra pillow.
* * * * *
"Wake up, honey. It's after 9."
Sally stirred at the sound of Kathy's voice. She sat up in bed and rubbed
her eyes with her fists. "Good morning, Mama, umm ah, Ma'am." Darn, darn,
darn! She's slipped again. It was getting natural to call Kathy "Mom".
"Did you sleep well?"
"I guess, so." She vaguely remembered some sort of dream. She was running
through a field in a flowered dress, a very pretty dress, chasing something.
A butterfly. Yes, she was chasing a butterfly. But even as she tried to
remember the dream, it faded from her mind until there was nothing left but
the memory of having had a pleasant dream.
"Well, get up, sleepy head. After we have breakfast and read the paper,
I've got some work that you can help me with."
Sally remembered her agreement to meet Shayne. "Aren't we going to go to
Bikini Beach? You promised we'd go. I told Shayne that I'd meet her at
noon. You promised."
Kathy smiled at the little girl whine in Sally's voice. "I know. I know.
We have plenty of time to get some housework done and still