The Boston Bubble: Lora's Story. Part Two free porn video

The Boston Bubble: Lora`s Story Chapter 3: Girl's Night Out I was introduced to one of the little pleasures of being a member of the fairer sex right in the middle of the Charles river. Downtown was a crowded mess, what with the road closures, news people from everywhere and the just plain curious. After ten minutes of inching across the Longfellow bridge, I couldn't deny nature any longer. I got up, walked the ten feet to the back of the bus and for the first time in my life, I waited in line for a bathroom. What a joy. When we finally got to the far end of the bridge, a police car opened up a hole for us and escorted us to the barricades. Inside the quarantine area, things moved a lot easier. There weren't many vehicles moving around; after all, who had anywhere to go? So within a few minutes, we were stepping off the bus into the confusion of city hall plaza. Normally in any large scale emergency, the first response would come from the local police, fire and medical systems, all being coordinated through the city government. But city hall was smack in the middle of the bubble. The mayor and everyone who worked for him couldn't even recognize each other any more. So it was a bit of a surprise to see any kind of organization at all. The plaza was a bee hive of teen girls milling about; some alone, others in small groups. Someone had put up a large hand-made sign beside the front door to city hall announcing "REGISTER HERE." I suppose they needed to start somewhere, and getting together a list of the people affected by this would be a bureaucrat's first instinct. At least two hundred girls were waiting in a long, snaking line, plus who-knew-how-many already inside. George and I walked half way there, saw the length of the line-up and stopped beside the entrance to a large Red Cross tent. George shook her head, looked at me and said, "Looks like this might take a while. Did you have any plans?" The sun was getting low in the sky, and it was already getting cold. I looked at the Red Cross tent, then back at George. "I haven't eaten anything since this morning. We could probably get a meal in here and find out about a place to spend the night." George gave me one of her big-eyed smiles. "I can do better than that. My sister has a place over on Province Street. She's been laid up in the hospital since she took a bad tumble a few days ago, so I've been coming down here to feed and water her cat. We could head over there, have a bite to eat and spend the night... That is, if you don't mind bunking down on the couch. It doesn't look like anyone here would miss us if we didn't show up until tomorrow." "George, you sure know how to sweet talk a girl." We left bedlam behind and headed off down Tremont, making small talk as we walked. "So tell me Lenny, how did you wind up out in Belmont this afternoon?" "Live there... I used to live down here until a couple of years ago. I was planning on going for a walk around the old neighborhood, but 'it' happened before I got out of the car. I just panicked and drove straight home." "Sounds like you must have been right on my bumper." George stopped walking and turned to face me, smiling. "Listen to this. I live with my daughter and her family out on Concord. When I pulled her father's car into the driveway looking like this, she came flying out the front door with her phone in one hand and a can of furniture polish in the other. She said she was going to spray me in the face if I didn't toss her the car keys and tell her what I did with her father. After half an hour of answering questions and two calls to 9-1-1, she still wouldn't let me in the house." "What finally convinced her?" "I asked her if she was still mad at me for wetting the bed last night." We both started giggling. Then she added, "Just one more reason why I'm not going to miss that useless dick." I don't know why that seemed so funny to the two of us, but we both started laughing so hard, we had to lean on each other to keep from falling down. Most of the businesses in the area were closed. I guess the people that worked in them either couldn't get here because of the road blocks, or if they were downtown, they had other things on their minds besides going in to work. But there were a few entrepreneurs who recognized an opportunity when they saw one. I noticed people inside a little hole-in-the-wall pub on Chapman, so I stopped and pulled the door open. It didn't take any effort at all to get George to follow me inside. There were about a dozen girls scattered around the place. Walking up to the bar, I asked for a couple of Buds. The thirteen year old girl behind the bar asked in a little pixie voice, "You two twenty-one?" George shot back, "Since before Viet Nam. And I want the seniors' discount, dammit." That got us a smile and two beers. Paying for the beers, I asked, "any chance of getting something to eat?" "Cook called in sick. I hear there's some sort of bug going around." Smirking, she put a bowl of pretzels on the bar and added, "I've got some buns and cold cuts in the back. You want me to slap together a couple of sandwiches for you?" "That sounds great." George smiled and tapped on her front teeth. "Been more than twenty years since I've had teeth in my mouth. Can't wait to try them out." As we sat down at a table, my phone started ringing. I checked to see who it was, then told George, "I've gotta take this." George got up. "I've gotta go powder my nose anyway." I answered the phone. "Hi Kelly." "Holy shit, it's true!" "What's true?" "On the news, they just said that everyone caught in the bubble this morning was turned into a girl, and no one has any idea how. I didn't believe it, who would? But they're not bull shitting, are they? It's not just your voice, is it?" I took a deep breath, thinking about how to say this, but I wasn't quick enough for Kelly. "Well, do I have a little sister?" "Yeah, the news was right." "Holy shit! Are you OK? Did it hurt?" Without letting me answer any of that, she popped out with, " Wait, what do you look like?" "Kelly, listen. I don't know how long I'm going to be down here, and I don't have any way to charge up my phone. So I'm gonna make this quick, OK? I'm fine, I'm safe, I think everything is going to be OK. I'm a little shorter, but I haven't spent a lot of time in front of a mirror... I guess I look like me." "So what the hell happened?" "I don't know much more than anybody else. There was a flash of white, then it was done. I didn't feel anything, OK. Now listen, can you take care of the restaurant without me until I get done down here. It might be a day or two." "Sure. Business was dead today anyway; I think everyone in town was staying home glued to their TV's." "Okay, thanks. Can you call Jess and let her know I'm OK?" "Will do. Oh, and Len, you sound... " She paused, as if thinking something over. "Len, this is gonna take some getting used to. You sound so damn... pretty." "Aw, Kelly, do you really think I needed to hear that right now? Just take care of stuff and I'll see you as soon as I can, OK? I gotta go before I kill this battery." We said our goodbyes just as George was sitting down. She looked at me and asked, "family?" "Yeah. One of my sisters. I didn't really explain this to them, but she just heard on the news what happened to us. She was babbling away so much, it was hard to get a word in. I'm glad she called though. At least I know she's taking care of the business until I can get back." "What business are you in?" "I own a restaurant out in Belmont." "Whereabouts... oh hey, you're that Lenny? Lenny's on Leonard?" "Yeah, you know it?" "Holy smoke yeah! I used to bring my grand daughters in there for a frappe every Thursday after school. Best damn frappes in Boston!" "I think I remember you. The old guy with the two cute kids. One black cherry and two strawberries, right?" "Yeah, that's us. Well ain't it a small world. I'm sitting here having a beer with 'the' Lenny." "So what happened? I haven't seen you around in a while." "Girls grew up. I guess going for ice cream with their Poppy wasn't at the top of their list of social occasions any more." The pixie bartender walked over with our sandwiches and another round of beers. George pulled out his wallet. "This is on me." Handing a few bills to her, he added, "Keep the change, Honey." The bartender looked down at George, pulled her lips tight and started nodding her head. "I guess I'm gonna have to get used to that. Enjoy." With that, she turned and left. Maybe it was because I was so hungry, but that simple meal was incredible. Every taste, every texture... even the bread was alive in my mouth. It was as if I was eating everything for the first time. And in a way, I guess I was. The amazing food and the smooth conversation just naturally led to the third, and then the fourth beers. Put that together with our suddenly smaller sizes, and I have to admit that George and I were quite drunk by the time we giggled our way through the door into her sister's place. As soon as we were in, the cat rushed over and started rubbing against my legs. I almost fell flat on my face trying to avoid stepping on it. George snickered. "Sorry about that. I guess he's been a little lonely the last few days." Locking the door behind me, she continued "Sorry, Lenny, but I'm done in. I'll see if I can find you a blanket, then I'm going to hit the hay." She wobbled her way down the hall, hands touching the walls with each step. I sat down on a bench beside the door and took off my shoes. Wiggling my toes, I just sat there fascinated by how tiny my feet were. George came back and tossed a blanket and pillow on the couch. "The bathroom's down the hall and the kitchen is in the kitchen. Sorry, but you're on your own Lenny. I have a date with the sandman." And with that, she was gone. I walked over to the couch and managed to pull off my hoodie and sweat pants before I plopped down and put my feet up on the coffee table. While I sat there contemplating those little feet at the end of my skinny legs, the cat jumped up on the couch and curled up in my lap. I started nodding off just sitting there like that, but the four beers had other ideas. Eventually, they ganged up on me and insisted that I get up and make my way down the hall. As the toilet flushed, I washed my hands and splashed some water on my face. For the first time, I took a long hard look at myself in the mirror. "What in the world could do something like this?" The face looking back at me was pretty. Very pretty. It was the kind of face that looked perfect framed by my three inches of dark brown hair. I looked like I was about eighteen years old. I didn't mind losing a few years, but I sure didn't want to be treated like a kid again. Then the cross dresser in me stepped up and took over. Yeah, the right make-up and accessories and this face could pass for someone in their early twenties. I reached behind me and gathered up the slack in my T-shirt. Flat stomach, nicely shaped breasts, tiny waist, well proportioned hips, shapely legs... the kind of body that would look good in anything. All that, plus this winning smile... I whispered to myself, " Shit, you're going to have to beat them off with a stick. Make that two sticks." I really let that sink in for a moment. "Well isn't this just perfect, Lenny boy. You spend all your spare time trying to be pretty, and now that you're a knock out, you're not sure if it's such a great thing?" I turned and sat back down on the toilet lid, resting my elbows on my knees. I let my mind wander over all of the things that I hadn't wanted to think about. How is everyone in my life going to react to this? Kelly and Jessie will probably try to act like it's no big deal. What about the girls? The most fulfilling thing in my life was my relationship with my nieces. How are they going to take it when I show up looking more like their sister than their uncle? After twenty minutes of letting things stew in my mind, the reality of it came to me. I realized that what ever had the ability to change people like this could have done a million different things to me. So I guess being a good looking, healthy, intelligent woman wasn't such a bad thing to be. "Just stay positive and get on with it, Lenny old boy." I stood up and glanced in the mirror again. "Or maybe I should say Lora." ----- I was lying naked on a beach. I wasn't worried about my nudity; I was the only person there. It was calm; no wind, no waves. A bird was circling silently in the blue sky, high above me. I was thirsty, but I wasn't thirsty enough to do anything about it. I was just enjoying the feeling of lying there with nowhere to go, nothing to do. The sun was shining on me, but it was pleasant. The heat of the sunlight started building a warmth in my belly, and then it slowly bled out into the rest of my torso. The air flowing in and out of my lungs was keeping me cool, so as I got warmer, I started taking deeper breaths. It helped, but the sunshine was becoming uncomfortable. My feet began to feel like they were burning, so I pulled my legs up and buried my feet in the sand. Face sweating, I threw my arms up over my eyes. My groin was becoming an oven now; pulses of heat rushing through my body. I had to open up and breathe through my mouth to keep from bursting into flames. I tried crying out for help, but words wouldn't come to me. I wanted the heat to stop; I didn't want the heat to stop. Heart pounding, I could hear the blood rushing through my veins. There wasn't enough air to keep me alive. With a deep moan and every ounce of strength I had, I forced my eyes to open. Daylight. The cobwebs began to clear. This couch. The sister's place. Yesterday. I looked at my hand; still tiny. I lifted my head to look down at the rest of me and came face to face with the cat. He was just sitting there, gently purring away on my stomach, tail whisking back and forth between my legs. With a shudder I pushed him off, rolled over onto my side and sat up. Shit, if a cat could do that to me... ======================== . Chapter 4: Girls Go Down . Glowing with sweat, I just managed to catch my breath before George stumbled into the room, bleary-eyed. "Are you OK? I thought I heard..." "Nightmare." I made sure I had a serious look on my face and after a short pause for dramatic effect, I went on. "I dreamed I was fighting someone. A real knock-down, drag-out battle. But it was one of those dreams where it feels like your swimming in marshmallow. You know what I mean?" George nodded. "Yeah." "And nothing really makes sense..." She nodded again. "In the beginning, I had no idea why I was fighting with this woman, but then somehow I did know. She was pissed at me because..." I put a confused look on my face and pulled the trigger. "... because I wet the bed." George's eyes went wide. A giggle followed by a tiny "oh no" squeaked out of her as she turned and ran down the hall. As she slammed the bathroom door, I called out, "It was awful. She was spraying me with furniture polish." Ignoring the commotion, the cat walked up and started rubbing his body on my leg. Leaning forward, I looked down at it. "I'll have you know I'm not that kind of girl." He looked up at me. "You have to understand, last night was a mistake. I drank too much." Unimpressed, the cat dismissed my misgivings and went back to rubbing himself against me. "I hope you'll at least have the decency to never mention last night again." Sitting back, I reached up and rubbed my temples. I could feel the makings of a head ache coming on. From experience, I knew that I needed two things: water and caffeine. Getting up, I shuffled into the kitchen, filled the kettle half way and plugged it in. Then I started hunting. Water was easy; I just pulled a glass off of a shelf and chugged a couple of glass-fulls straight out of the tap. The coffee hunt wasn't quite so successful. I was still looking for a jar of instant when George came into the room. "Lenny, I haven't felt like that since I was a little kid getting tickled. I'm going to need your word on something. Please don't do that to me unless I'm within five steps of a toilet." "OK, promise. You have any idea where your sister keeps the instant?" "You won't find any. She's a tea person." I turned and made a frown. George went on. "If we get ourselves in gear and head back over to city hall right now, there might not be a line up. And we can probably pick up a coffee and a bite at that Red Cross set-up." "Sounds like a plan to me." I looked over at my hoodie and track pants folded beside the couch. "And if it looks like we're going to be staying here another night, I'm going to need to see if I can buy me some clean clothes. And a tooth brush." ----- As we made our way back to city hall plaza, George was uncharacteristically quiet. "So what's on your mind?" "Huh? Oh. I was just thinking about actually trying to fit into this world looking like this." She made a sweeping motion down the sides of her body. "As a teen aged girl, I mean. There are so many cliche things that I just don't want to find myself doing." "I do think there's hope for us George." "What do you mean?" "Well, this morning when I mentioned that I need to buy some clothes, neither one of us got excited by the idea of going shopping." "Granted, but I"m still going to be watching for the symptoms of congenital girly-ness." I thought for a moment. "You mean things like dotting your i's with a little heart?" George smiled. "Exactly. In fact I hadn't thought of that one." "So what is on your list?" "Well, for starters, spending three hours a day sitting in front of a computer, updating my face-space page." I chuckled at that, then offered up, "or how about bitching about the cold in January while refusing to wear a warm coat." She nodded, then added, "or making one of those goddamn kissy faces every time someone points a camera at me." Tipping my head slightly, I nodded my agreement. After about ten paces of deep thought, it came to me. "George, I can top all of those. Promise me, if you ever, ever hear me inviting someone to join me just because I need to go take a piss, then PLEASE pull out a gun and shoot me where I stand." George stopped walking and turned to face me. Putting a hand on my shoulder, she said, "Sir, on that you have my word as a gentleman." ----- Arriving back at the plaza, we could see that we were early; no one had shown up to unlock the building yet. Without any discussion, we let the morning chill push us into the Red Cross tent for that coffee. There were about fifty girls seated around the place, but it didn't feel crowded. It was early yet, so there were no volunteers actually working. We made our way over to the far side of the tent where there was a table set up with hot coffee. A small sign announced HELP YOURSELF. I poured us two cups, looked at George and asked, "Cream and sugar?" A light bulb seemed to go off in her head. "You know, here's something I hadn't thought of yet. I don't know what the hell I like any more. I used to drink coffee black, but now I have a craving for something smoother. I think I'll try it with a splash of..." ----- The truly awful things in life rarely occur due to one particular thing going awry. Calamities usually don't happen unless several mistakes come together at the same time and place. When a nameless, faceless functionary contacted the local offices of the Red Cross to inform them of the state of emergency declared in downtown Boston, he was only following protocol. The person who received that call did what they were trained to do in an emergency; they organized a crew which was sent to erect and stock a mobile meal center in City Hall Plaza. When this crew arrived at the barricades on Congress Street, they were confronted by a young platoon of national guard troops with somewhat vague orders to stop anyone from passing. The Red Cross crew left the truck and its contents in the care of the troops, who moved it inside the barricades. An hour later, a seventeen-ish looking girl in a rather loose fitting police officer's uniform showed up and drove the truck to the Plaza. There, she organized an ad hoc group of girls who did their best to erect the tent. When they were done, they were happy with the results. To a trained eye, the potential catastrophic failure would have been obvious, but there were no trained eyes among them. The king pins holding the frame of the tent together required the use of cotter pins to hold them in place, but few of the city hall workers who helped erect the tent had ever heard of a cotter pin; hence few were used. When the tent was stocked by these same people, they thought they were being efficient by stacking the cardboard cartons of supplies immediately beside the cooking equipment, oblivious to the fire hazard they were creating. This string of well meant actions all came together at the same time and place to make it possible for something awful to happen. Mother nature set things in motion by rattling the tent frame with a light, gusty breeze. ----- Never having seen a king pin before, neither Lenny nor George recognized it for what it was when it bounced off of the table beside them and landed at their feet. They both looked down at the same time to see what had made the metallic ping on the concrete. George never had a chance. The aluminum frame member silently fell fifteen feet before it hit her on the top of her head. Lenny saw it dropping out of the corner of her eye and managed to protect her head by sacrificing her left arm. After bouncing off the two of them, the pole pushed a stack of boxes over, which in turn landed on the propane-powered hot plate. Two of the boxes immediately caught on fire; one containing emergency candles began burning quite vigorously. Everyone else in the tent turned to look when the pole knocked over the boxes, so contrary to what you would expect, no one had to yell out "fire". They all just stood and hurried out the door on the far side of the tent, the last of the group nervously looking over her shoulder at the rapidly growing flames. Neither she, nor any of the other people leaving the tent noticed Lenny lying flat on her back with George sprawled out across her legs. ----- For the second time that morning, I found myself waking up disoriented. I pushed my eyes open to see what was making all the noise. The sight of the flames licking at the side of the tent cleared my thoughts in a flash. I worked myself into a sitting position and found that I was looking down at an ugly gash on the top of George's head. So much blood... I was covered in it. "George." No response. "Shit. George, get up!" Nothing. Pieces of paper ash were floating around in the air. Sooty smoke was filling the dome of the tent. I swung my head around and saw where the door was. Good, nothing between us and there. "OK George, we gotta go." I pushed George up into a sitting position and held her there while I got on my haunches behind her. Wrapping my arms under hers and around her chest, I used the strength of panic-induced adrenaline to stand up. Then, glancing over my shoulder, I started dragging her the fifty feet to the exit. When we were about ten feet from the door, I heard the clang of another piece of the tent frame hitting the ground. The sagging roof pushed a gust of black, ash filled smoke past us just as I pulled George out through the door. I made it another ten feet before I fell on my butt, choking for breath, still hugging George. I remember sitting there, looking around at a crowd of surprised faces, thinking, "I wish they'd all look somewhere else, because I think I'm gonna puke." ----- Mike Riley was an odd combination of a man. His friends and family saw an amiable, hard working, honest person. And he was. But Mike had a private hobby that he kept to himself. Mike supported himself selling, installing and maintaining security systems. And he was very good at what he did. An impressive list of corporations in the Greater Boston area relied on his top-notch services. One of his specialties was installing hidden little cameras which could be remotely monitored by anyone having an internet connection and the correct password. What our Mr. Riley didn't tell his clients was that buried in the software of every one of these systems was a back door. A back door that only he had the key to. Mike could sit in his living room and watch the images fed from any one of the hundreds of cameras which he installed and maintained. In the beginning, it was all quite innocent. The back doors were there to make it easy for him to see which cameras needed service. But very quickly, Mike learned something about human nature. It was amazing what some people would do when they thought no one was watching. No one, that is, except Mike. A few of the locations were more interesting than most. They provided Mike with an endless stream of everything from pilfering security guards, all the way up to couples having sex while supposedly working late. And Mike recorded all of it. A few years ago, the owners of the building at Five Cambridge Street had hired Mike to install one of his security systems. During the installation process, Mike decided to give his client something that they hadn't asked for. Five Cambridge Street is located directly facing City Hall Plaza, so Mike placed a zooming, swivel based remote camera on the outside of the building. He now had a front row seat for every sports rally, concert and protest demonstration. At the moment when the bubble occurred, Mike wasn't expecting anything so he wasn't recording. He wouldn't make that mistake again. As soon as he heard that something big was happening downtown, he rushed home, set his camera for a wide view and began recording the plaza. Teen girls continuously milling about looking lost, the Red Cross tent being erected, night fall and then dawn... all digitally captured on one of his hard drives. Having his morning toast and coffee, Mike Riley watched as part of the huge expanse of the tent roof quickly sagged. When a stream of girls came pouring out of the tent, he moved his camera and zoomed in tight on the area around the door. Sixty seconds later, as a gust of thick black smoke spewed out of the door, a girl stumbled backwards out of the tent, dragging a limp body in her arms. A few yards from the tent, the girl fell to her butt, looked around and then passed out. Mike zoomed in closer. In spite of the smoke oozing out of their clothes, it was easy to see the bone sticking out of the heroine's left forearm. ============================ . Chapter 5: I Shaved My Legs For This? . I do have a vague memory of being in the back of an ambulance; of having my sweater cut off by a guy who looked like he was geared up for an asbestos removal operation. But it's all jumbled and fuzzy, the kind of memory that until something confirms it for you, you're not really sure about it. Did it happen or was it part of a dream? Now that I think about it, slowly becoming aware of my surroundings in a hospital emergency room was all the confirmation I really needed for a memory like that. The first people to deal with me at the hospital must have thought I was really out of it, because it was at least half an hour before I realized they were talking to me when they called me Miss Williams. In hind sight, I really believe it was all of them who were a bit loopy. They must have known that I was brought in from the fire at City Hall Plaza. And the only way they could have known my name was by looking at the identification in my wallet, which clearly showed a picture of a thirty-eight year old man named Leonard Williams. In their defence, I suppose I was the first bubble affectee that they had seen, and they just couldn't fathom that the girl in front of them had woken up as a man the day before. But I have to give them credit. Even though the suits they had on made it seem like they were worried that I was radio-active, not once did they ever make me feel like I was a specimen in a petri dish. Professionals with a human touch. Anyway, once they considered me coherent enough to understand them, they explained the situation. They told me that I needed surgery on my arm (shit did that hurt), but they had to wait until the next day to give my body a chance to recover from the smoke inhalation. Then they asked if I had any family members that I wanted them to contact. I told them calling Kelly at the restaurant would be best; no chance of an excitable niece taking the message. At first, all they would tell me about George was that she was in Mass General too. But once I explained that I was the one who had pulled her out of the fire, they opened up a bit. One of the nurses told me she had a pretty bad head injury, and they were keeping her unconscious for now. A little later, that same nurse came back and told me that they had contacted Kelly and told her where I was and why. She also said that because I was an affectee, I was under quarantine and couldn't have any visitors. I wasn't too upset by that... I really wasn't ready to deal with introducing the "new and improved me" to my family. ----- Once he saw the ambulances drive away with the girls, Mike Riley got busy. He uploaded eighteen hours worth of images from the Cambridge street camera in to a video editing program. There was so much data, it overwhelmed his editor on the first attempt. Through trial and error, he figured out that he had to break it down into six three-hour segments before he could begin working on it. An hour later, when he was done manipulating and combining all of it, he knew he had two minutes of video gold. Now, Mike had himself a dilemma to deal with. One of those should-I- or-shouldn't-I things. His quandary was this: if he posted his little gem on the internet for the world to see, there was a chance someone might recognize the camera angle and start asking embarrassing questions. But after watching his creation more than twenty times, Mike made up his mind. He just couldn't resist the lure of "anonymous" fame. A quick fifteen minutes after starting the upload process, people around the world began watching "Bubble Babe to the Rescue" in all of its high definition glory. ----- "Hi honey, is your mom there?" "Yup, just a sec." Like every teen who's ever answered the phone, getting up and going to find someone was not an option. "Mom, it's Aunt Kelly!" "Hey there." "Hi. Can you talk?" "Ya, what's up?" "I just got a call... Lenny's in the hospital..." "Oh no, what's..." "Lemme finish. There was an accident downtown this morning. He's got a broken arm." "Oh, thank god. I mean... you know... I thought it was something to do with... the thing." "Aw Jessie.. you haven't told the girls yet, have you?" "Not yet. They know what's going on, but they don't know Lenny was there. I figured I'd wait and see what's happening. You know, see if they can do something about it." "You gotta tell them sooner or later, Jess. The longer you leave it, the more they'll be pissed at you for not telling them. Shit, they'll probably deal with this better than us. They love him to death." "I know, I know... Ben gets back this afternoon. We'll sit down together and tell them then. Did they say how long Lenny's going to be in the hospital? Should we go see him?" "They said we can't visit him, he's still quarantined. Listen, some people just came in. I gotta go. I'll call you later, OK?" "All right, love ya." "Bye." ----- Under any other circumstances, I would have been embarrassed when she came in. I was sitting in the chair beside my bed watching the sun coming up, wearing nothing but one of those little hospital gowns. And it was impossible to miss the fact that my legs were shaved. When I had pulled back the sheets to get out of bed, it was the first thing I thought of. "Oh shit, how do I explain that? Shit!" But it only took a couple of heart beats worth of panic before it came to me... "Calm down, Lenny. For all they know, all your body hair fell out when the bubble went off." She came into the room with a smile on her face, pushing a wheel chair. "Well, it's nice to see you with your wits about you. You've been in and out of it all night." Considering what they have to see on a daily basis, it's amazing how cheerful most nurses are. Returning her smile, I responded with a simple "had a potty emergency." She nodded. Then, looking a little sheepish, she asked, "We're not quite sure what to call you. Do you prefer Mister or Miss Williams?" "Yeah, it is a bit awkward, isn't it. Why don't we keep it casual and just call me Lenny." "OK, Lenny, pleased to meet you. I'm Rasha." "Hello, Rasha. Can I ask a question?" "You just did." She smiled. "OK, one more. Do you know anything about the other girl that came in at the same time as me? George Garneau? She was knocked out." "I'm sorry, Lenny. I could ask and let you know later." I could tell from the look on her face that she really was sorry that she couldn't answer my question. "Thanks, I'd appreciate that." "OK. Now we need to start getting you prepped for surgery." She took my right arm and started timing my pulse. "Did everything work OK for you in the bathroom?" "Yup, the plumbing works just fine." She put a faux-serious expression on her face. "I'm talking about your internals, Lenny." I just kept grinning. "I know, so am I." "Oh." She chuckled. "OK." She removed a blood pressure cuff from a hook on the wall and put it around my arm. "Are you feeling any nausea or dizziness?" "No, no nausea, but I did feel a bit off balance as I was getting to the washroom." "That's to be expected. You're on a lot of pain medication. That's a pretty nasty break you've got there." "Tell me about it." I suddenly realized what was strange about her. "Can I ask you about something?" "Of course you can." "You're the first regular person I've seen since the bubble who isn't wearing some kind of breathing equipment. What's changed?" "The big brains in Atlanta gave us the word this morning. They can't find anything to indicate that whatever happened to you is contagious." My first reaction was that this sounded like good news. But I quickly read between the lines. "Does that also mean they don't think they'll find a way to reverse this?" Making a note, she took the blood pressure cuff off of my arm. Then she looked me in the eye. "No one is saying that." She lowered her voice and went on. "But between you, me and the wall, I wouldn't hold my breath. No one has a clue what could cause something like this, and you can't cure what you can't find. I'm sorry, Lenny." "It's OK, Rasha. I've had some time to think about this, and believe me, I've thought about it a lot. I'm sure that this kind of thing will probably ruin some people's lives. But this is what I see. I was a happy, single, successful thirty-eight year old man. Now I'm a happy, single, successful twenty year old woman. It looks to me like I've been given a couple of extra decades to live. Anyone who could complain about that is a fool." She looked mildly surprised. "Well, I didn't expect that." With a chuckle, she added, "Lenny, you are one of the most positive young ladies I've ever met." I smiled. I liked the way she said that. "I guess I'm more than just another pretty face." ----- Ken Donelly (with one 'n'; for some reason he liked to say that) was a born and bred son of Boston. During his short lifetime, he had seen three of his dreams come true. The Red Sox had won the World Series, the Patriots had won the Super Bowl, and he had become a reporter for the Boston Herald. He was enough of a realist to understand that no one gets anywhere without hard work, but getting to the top also required an occasional lucky break at the right moment. He knew this to be true about sports. He also knew that this was a fact in the news business. Ken was as blown away as anyone else when the bubble hit his home town. The caring person in him was terrified for all of the people who had been affected by it. But from the first moment he heard about it, he knew that this wasn't just any event, this was world-wide news. And it was happening right in his back yard. He was in the right place at the right time. The first reports to come in claimed that a bomb had exploded downtown. Television showed what looked like a huge explosion, yet there appeared to be no damage. Deciding to check it out himself, he button-holed a photographer, hopped in his car... and went nowhere. With I-93 and every major artery being closed downtown, he couldn't even make it up the ramp onto the expressway before he was stuck in traffic. He left his car with the photographer and started walking north toward City Hall. Milk Street was as far as Ken got. The cops blocking the road told him that the entire core was quarantined, but they couldn't tell him why. Frustrated, his only option was to call anyone he could think of who might be able to tell him something. Although he was a well-liked guy, everyone he managed to get on the phone had nothing but apologies and promises to call him back if they heard anything interesting. After a day and a half of turning over stones and finding nothing under them but common knowledge and rumors, a lead finally came to him from a very unlikely source. He received an E-mail from his nephew containing only two words: "Watch this!" He clicked on the link. A video titled "Bubble Babe to the Rescue" opened and started playing. It showed a time lapse of people moving around in City Hall Plaza. A small circus tent was erected comically fast, people came and went, the sun set and rose. So far, so what. But then the video slowed to normal speed when a section of the tent roof collapsed. Girls and then smoke came out of the tent. OK, interesting, but... oh, Oh, OH my GOD! Look at her arm! A quick scan of the video showed it had been posted less than two hours ago, and it already had more than two hundred thousand hits. ----- I think it was hunger that drove my eyes open. The sound of my own stomach growling woke me up. "Lenny?" "Yeah." "My god, Lenny, it's really you?" What a silly question. Who would I be? I rolled my head over to the right. Jess was sitting in my chair. I made a weak smile. "Hey." "Lenny, you... you're... I didn't believe them. I thought there's gotta be a mix-up. But it's really you." She was smiling with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Are you OK? Your arm, I mean. Does it hurt?" I lifted my head and looked down at myself. "Oh yeah, my arm." I looked back at Jessie. "Sling's rubbing on my tit. How do you put up with these things?" A short laugh burst out of her. "Yeah, you're Lenny." "Yup, I'm in here." My stomach picked that moment to growl. "Oww... Jess, do you think you could find me something to eat? I think it was the day before yesterday since I had anything." "Sure. I'll go down to the cafeteria. How about a sandwich?" "Great. Anything." "OK. Be right back." She started to leave, then stopped and looked at me. "And Lenny... you look... good. Really good. That surprised me." I wasn't really sure what to say to that, so I just gave her a crooked smile and sort of shrugged with my eye brows. She smiled back and then left. I thought I would have drifted off once she was gone, but the two-day hunger that I'd built up kept my eyes open. About ten minutes after she left, Rasha came into the room. "Oh, good, you're awake. How are you doing?" "Hey. I'm OK, but it's hard to get comfortable. I guess I shouldn't complain, though. I wasn't exactly ready to play the piano this morning, was I?" "Right." "Smiling, she pulled down the blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around my arm again. "I made a couple of calls for you. Your friend George is in the head trauma unit. In plain English, she has a cracked skull. They'll be keeping her asleep for a few more days to help keep her brain from swelling. It's a serious injury, but everything looks positive." "Is she in this building?" "Yes, but I know what you're thinking. It's an intensive care unit, Lenny... only family can visit her. She wouldn't know you were there anyway." Just then, Jessie came walking back into the room. Rasha nodded at her, looked back at me and said, "Oh, and I called your sister and told her that the quarantine has ended." Her face lit up with a grin at her own joke. Jessie smiled. "She was complaining about being hungry. Is it OK if I give her these?" She held up the sandwich and a bottle of milk. Rasha hung up the cuff. "Sure, just let me get out of your way." She made a couple of notes, then moved toward the door. "Oh, Rasha, wait." She turned back to me. "When are you going to be kicking me out of here?" "Normally, you'd be out of here this afternoon. But because of you're 'unusual' condition, they'll be wanting you to stay overnight." "Ok, thanks." She smiled, nodded at us and left. As Jessie was unwrapping the food, I looked up at her. "You called me she." "That's the pronoun that seems to fit." "Who knows about this?" She handed me half the sandwich. "Everyone. Ben got home yesterday, and when the twins got home from school, we sat them down and told them." "How did they take it?" "They'd heard about everything going on... shit, the world knows what happened. But they had no idea you were there. The word 'awesome' came up a few times." "Really?" "Well, at first they wanted to know if you were OK. We told them about you being here, but that it had nothing to do with the change." Her expression got serious. "Len, please don't be mad with them. They're still just kids. They think it's the coolest thing in the world that someone they're close to is involved in this. They're not really thinking about what you're going through." "No, Jess, wait. It's OK. Really. I was worried that they would look at me like a freak." "You bone head. You're their favorite person in the world." Jess opened the milk and handed it to me. "You should have seen their faces light up when they realized that you were going to need to buy clothes. They're already making plans about where they're going to take you shopping." A giddy feeling rose in my chest. "Really. Oh thank god. You know, out of everything going on, the only thing I was really worried about was how they would take it." She handed me the other half of the sandwich. "Ben's picking them up early from school. They should be here any minute." Although it was a relief to know they were fine with my situation, I still felt butterflies at that. All I could manage to say was, "Oh." Jessie picked up on my nervousness. "That's OK, isn't it? We thought you'd like to see them." "Oh, no, right, yeah, I mean, that's good. I... It's just that you caught me off guard with that. I'm just worried that it could be an awkward moment. But it's good, really. Let's just pull that band-aid off." Just as I was washing down the last bite, Ben came in followed closely by Brenda and Terry. Ben's smile flashed to surprise as he stopped at the foot of my bed. "Holy cow... Lenny?" I gave him an embarrassed smile and nodded. The girls ignored him and came right up to the side of the bed. They were a boquet of smiles and wide eyes. Terry managed to say something first. "This is so cool. I didn't expect you to be so pretty!" Jessie tried to put a stop to that. "Come on, I'm not so sure your Uncle Len really wants to hear that right now." Brenda came back with, "She's right though, Mom." She looked at me. "You don't look like a Len any more." Ben found his voice. "In the car on the way over here, the girls were talking about that. They were wondering what they should call you." I looked at him. "Let's just stay with Le..." Jessie interrupted me. "How about Lora?" Both girls squealed with a chorus of, "Oh, yeah. I like that!" Trying not to show that my heart had stopped beating, I turned and looked at Jess. "Where did that come from?" "Don't you remember, when you were little? Mom always said that if she had a third girl, she was going to call you Lora?" "Really? I don't remember that." And it was true, I honestly didn't remember. Terry made up her mind on the spot. "You look like a Lora. It's perfect." Brenda chimed in with, "Yeah, c'mon, please? I really want an Aunt Lora." Ben hammered the final nail in the coffin. "You know you've never said no to these two in your life. Why don't you just get it over with and admit defeat?" I looked at the girls. "You're not going to let it go until I say yes, are you?" Their smiles were saying it all. "All right. Just don't get mad at me when I forget to answer to it, OK? The brouhaha was interrupted by a boyish looking man coming into the room. "Hi, Leonard Williams?" "That's me." Smiling, Terry piped in with, "We just decided. She's Lora now." I cringed slightly at that. "OK, pleased to meet you Lora. My name's Ken Donelly, with one 'n'. I'm with the Boston Herald." ========================== To be continued...