The Wish Shift
Prologue
Year 1 A.S. Day 16
The office had very little decoration. A couple of framed prints on the
walls of mountains that could be from anywhere in the western U.S. but
existed only in the printmaker's imagination. There were no family
pictures on the desk's surface so the young Chinese woman who was
presently sitting in one of the two chairs facing the desk knew that
this was no one's actual office. It was just an interrogation room.
Small, windowless and furnished in early government Spartan. And she had
already been waiting for several hours with nothing to show for it. She
couldn't even use her cell to occupy the time because she had to give it
up when coming into the embassy.
"At least they could have left some old magazines," she mused in
boredom.
She sat in the room for the time being thinking about the past few days.
When she found herself like this she was just one more person lost in
the chaos of the Shift's aftermath. She had nothing to tell her anything
useful about what had happened. She had considered going out right away
for help, but her passport was suddenly worthless. And she realized as
well that the problem of identification that she had was suddenly
dwarfed by a much more dangerous prospect. Being in an unfamiliar body
in a chaotic foreign landscape. The only thing that she could do at that
time was hole up in her apartment until she knew the right thing to do.
So she pushed down her panic and did that. Eventually that decision
brought her here, sitting in a chair, in this empty room in the U.S.
embassy in Guangzhou.
Southern China was confusing for her even on ordinary days. Even after
living in Shenzhen for the last few years teaching English she still had
to mostly get by with a lot of guesswork and mainly keeping her head
down and out of the way. Her Chinese was lousy and she had never really
gotten over the level of 'taxi Chinese'. It usually hadn't mattered that
much because there were always people she knew that could be counted on
to take a bit of time to help her when she had to deal with something
that her smattering of Chinese was inadequate for. They had made it too
easy for her she had realized while she was holed up waiting for the
next thing to happen. Not that it was in any way easy the first few days
living in isolation after it had happened. The first thing the Chinese
government had done was shut down the internet and she was really
surprised that WeChat, QQ and regular cell phones didn't join the net in
silence. Not that it helped. Of all the people that she knew that were
on her phone list, it seemed that not one had remained in their original
body. She knew now that a few people had done that, just no one that she
knew. With everything that had happened she could not contact the
embassy right away and after she did, it took forever it seemed to get a
response from the embassy staff in Guangzhou.
She had thought for a moment of going there immediately once she got an
idea of how widespread of an effect the Shift had had. After all it only
took about forty-five minutes by fast train to get there. That thought
lasted only as long as it took to reach for her passport. Yeah, she
could get there in under an hour in normal circumstances, she'd made
that trip before and was a bit familiar with how to get there. But it
might as well have been on the other side of the universe she realized
looking at an ID that no longer matched her body. And with no ID to use
for a ticket she wouldn't be getting on any train even if the trains had
been running. There was Sonya's ID in her bag, but the moment she used
her horrible Chinese anyone would know she was not Sonya and there would
be trouble. And there had been other concerns not so easily left behind
as well. So she stayed put and mostly she watched the insanity from her
window the first couple of days. The net was on total lockdown for those
few days, even Chinese websites were offline, but it came up again and
eventually she was able to contact someone at the embassy staff. She was
still a little surprised that it hadn't taken longer considering what a
mess everything still was.
The whole time she had lived in China the police had kept a fairly low
profile, except during holidays when they made a more visible appearance
as a deterrent. She had noticed many times as she had visited different
cities, all of the things that could be used to lock down movement. The
gates everywhere, the street dividers. So many things that could be used
to slow large groups of people if necessary. She had rejected one
apartment from consideration last year because every door in the fifty
year old building was equipped with the ability to lock the residents
inside their apartments like prisoners. Even with the chaos of the
aftermath of the Shift the government had still locked down the country
pretty swiftly and she wasn't that surprised at it. Now when she looked
out the windows, the streets looked like what she thought she would see
when she first came to China. The streets filled with uniforms, people
being stopped randomly and questioned and some being hustled away into
waiting vehicles and driven somewhere. She couldn't take the chance of
that happening to her, so she stayed in her apartment with nothing but
the quiet of what had become, even more so a refuge with no idea of what
she should do just yet.
So when her phone finally rang with someone from the embassy and broke
the quiet she almost dropped it in shock. The person on the other end
asked her a few questions and arranged for someone to come and transport
her to the embassy. She had wanted to cry from relief from all of the
stress that had been weighing on her since it happened. The two embassy
reps had met her in her apartment soon after. They spoke with her for
over an hour and arranged for her to go with a group of other expats to
temporary facilities in Guangzhou.
The bus they put her on was full. Men, women and children of all ages,
mostly Chinese sat in silence for the most part during the length of the
trip. The bus stopped at checkpoints every few kilometers. That made the
trip much longer, but there was nothing that could be done. When they
assigned her to her quarters in Guangzhou she finally started to relax a
bit more, but that was just the beginning. During the last few days she
had been forced to sit through multiple interviews with different people
and tell the same story every possible different way as she tried to
prove who she was.
A door opened behind her and she turned to watch an Indian man in his
mid-thirties come into the room. He walked around to the chair on the
other side of the desk, sat down and begin rifling through his bag.
After a moment he pulled several files out and placed them and a tablet
on the desk. He looked up from them to her and said something to her in
Mandarin. He watched her for a moment. She looked back at him.
"The only thing I understood from all that was Ni hao and Mei guo," she
answered after a moment. "But if I was you I would probably have said
something really nasty to watch the response."
"I said you are a stupid, lying whore who thinks she can sneak herself
into the U.S. this way," he answered.
"I figured as much," she answered.
"I think that you are just a talented liar," he continued.
"And why does that not surprise me that you believe that? Typical INS
pigheadedness," she answered.
"And why's that?" he asked.
"Because three years ago I tried to take my girlfriend with me back to
the U.S. during Spring Festival to visit my family and INS shut it down
quick, fast and in a hurry," she answered.
"I called my senator to get an inquiry as to why and his staff told me
that INS automatically view anything like that as an attempt to use a
tourist visa to get to the U.S. and get married there for a green card."
"Like I would do something that stupid," she continued. "Anybody that
does that deserves all nine shades of hell they get from her and her
family," she said, glaring across the desk at him. "So of course you see
anyone like me as a liar."
"Your English is very good, I'll give you that," he said. He opened the
first folder.
"I'm Karen Wells," he said. "Yes, I have shifted as well. I was in Hong
Kong picking up some blouses from a tailor. And yes I have gone through
the same vetting process you currently are being processed through."
"My department has been tasked with weeding out the scum who would try
to take advantage of this emergency from the real citizens who need our
help. You claim that you are an American citizen named James Minton. An
English teacher residing in China on a work visa for the last five
years. Is that correct?" he said it as a statement, but she could still
see no trace of belief on his face. She leaned back a bit in the
uncomfortable chair.
"Again, why does that not surprise me," she said. "Yes, my name is James
Minton, I'm 37 years old. I've been teaching English for the Futian
Language School for the last five years. I've told your department this
over and over for the last week ever since you picked me up. I'm not
going to say anything different this time or the next thousand times if
you want to do that. And I really want to know what is happening with my
body. No one has said jack to me about it since I was brought here."
"Mr. Minton's body is in our hospital wing at the moment," he answered.
"He is still unresponsive for the most part, but our staff informs me
that he is not in a coma."
"That's just fucking great," she answered with a glare, "but I'm not in
that bed, I'm right here."
"According to the Chinese government your fingerprints match a twenty-
six year old woman named Feng Yuhua. English name Sonya. You come from a
small town in Hunan province. You studied business at the University of
Shanghai and you have worked for an import/export company in Shenzhen
since you graduated. You applied for a tourist visa to visit the U.S.
three years ago that was rejected. As was your student visa request
three years prior to that. Ms. Feng or whoever else you might be, you
won't be allowed to get in this way either," he said, watching her.
"Well you got that part right at least," she answered. "That is my
girlfriend's name, where she's from and what she did." What she's doing
now I have no idea. I've heard nothing from her from when it happened to
when your guys picked me up to bring me here. And since you took my
phone I have no idea if she has called while I've been here either. I
don't know if she's alive, dead or something in between. James cocked
her head to one side. "Another thing to make me crazy. Thanks a bunch
by the way."
"Mr. Minton's phone has been monitored since you got here," he answered.
"No calls, no texts or contacts on WeChat or QQ from anyone claiming to
be either yourself or Mr. Minton." Mr. Wells leaned back in his own
chair and rubbed his face for a moment. He looked at the young woman
across from him. She was about 5'4", very thin with long straight hair
that reached past her shoulders. It wasn't styled, nor had she been
wearing cosmetics when the transport team arrived to pick her up. Her
face was slightly oval with a small nose and cupid's bow lips. She wore
glasses that made her dark eyes stand out and she had a touch of acne on
one cheek. She had thin arms and legs. They were not noticeably muscled,
just very slender. Even for a Chinese woman she was extremely thin. She
did have a nice figure, but her breasts were barely an A cup. She was
not a ravishing beauty, but Karen thought she was a lovely enough young
woman.
He opened a thick heavy brown folder on top of the small pile.
"According to our records Mr. Minton is a veteran. What can you tell me
about that?"
She looked at the brown folder on the desk in front of him and
recognized the familiar shape of a military 201 file. "Anything you want
me to," she said.
"What branch of service?"
"Regular Army, then Inactive Reserve," she answered.
"MOS?"
"11B2P" she said immediately
"And your primary assignment was C co. 2nd Bn, 504th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 1st Brigade, 82nd ABN?"
"C co, 2/505, 3rd Brigade," she corrected him.
"How long did you serve?"
"8 years, six active and two inactive reserve"
"Why?"
"I was injured on a jump just before my ETS and took my last two years
in IRR."
"Have you served in combat?"
"Eight month tour in Iraq for Desert Shield and Storm. Some nasty
firefights on the way in, shelled a few times. We were lucky. Not like
it is there today."
"And what was your duty position?"
"Rifleman for the first couple of months, SAW gunner for three years,
then team leader until I got hurt and got out."
"And your rank and service number?"
"Sgt E-5, RA56250-7554." She rattled off the number without breaking the
tempo of her answers.
"And what kind of injury?"
"My chute collapsed in a crosswind as I was landing. It was my last jump
and it was a bad one. High winds, low visibility. I dropped fast and hit
hard. Injured some of the disks in my neck."
"Do you have a disability?"
"Not for that, I was lucky and recovered with only the odd ache in bad
weather, but I do have a 10% for hearing loss and tinnitus."
"Who were your squad leaders when you were on active duty?"
"SSgt. Ayers at first, then Sgt. Kreech and SSgt Sykes just before I got
out."
"Your C.O. in the Gulf?"
"Cpt. McAllister."
"What was your weapons qualification level?"
"Sharpshooter on the 16, later expert. Expert on the M-249."
He reached into the file and handed a photo to her. "Can you tell me
what this is?" he handed her a photo of a sand colored pouch with a
zipper running along the length of the heavy material and a black metal
latch mounted on the top of the frame.
She took the photo and looked at it a second.
"That's a pouch to hold a 100 round belt of linked 5.56 ammunition."
"And what weapon is it used for and why?"
"M-249. We were issued it in late 91'. You see this latch here?" she
said pointing to the photo. "The 200 round drums we were issued with the
SAW had a soft plastic dovetail, but the weight of the box was too much
for it. They kept falling off and you ended up trailing what was left of
your ammo in the dust behind you when you moved. Made the SAW more
likely to jam. So they issued us a pair of these to use in assaults. We
would break the 200 round belt into two 100 round belts, put them in
these pouches and use them instead."
Mr. Wells closed the file. He checked another one to his left. "What
university did you attend?"
"University of North Carolina."
"And your major?"
"The one I started with or the one I graduated with?" she asked.
"Both," he said in a flat tone of voice.
"Hospital Admin, but I switched to teaching ESL after the first two
semesters."
"Why?"
"Cause I hated the coursework and teaching just seemed to suit me
better. I was a good instructor in the army too. SFC Phipps, our platoon
sergeant, liked to tap me for that whenever we had company training in
garrison."
"Why don't you tell me about what happened during the Shift?"
The young woman's face flushed. "Do I have to?" she asked. "I mean, I've
already have done that a few times and it's still embarrassing as hell."
"Yes," he said firmly.
The young woman took a breath and started. "My girlfriend was giving me
a blow job. One moment I'm getting ready to cum and the next minute
there's a dick flooding into my mouth."
"Tell me every detail, you need to go into it as completely as possible.
We need more than just a simple statement like that," he said to her.
"Why? So you can get off some way?" she shot back at him with a glare.
"Ms. Feng, it's an extremely important part of the interview process,"
he said. "All data about what happened during the Shift has top priority
no matter how intimate."
She scowled at him. "My name is Minton. Sonya Feng is my girlfriend.
I'll tell you again, but don't treat me like some kind of freak like the
last asshole did."
"I really doubt that that word has much meaning nowadays," Mr. Wells
answered her.
"Tell that to that unshifted prick I talked to before. That bastard
looked at me the whole time like I was some piece of shit on his shoe,"
she spat.
"All the details if you please," Karen answered.
James took a deep breath and thought about the moment the Shift
happened. Then she began describing it in all its brutal detail.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. The day of the Great Shift
He was lying in bed. Sonya's mouth was starting to move up and down his
shaft more rapidly now. She still didn't do this very well and he knew
she only was doing it for him, but the last few times she was getting a
bit better, even if she was rushing a bit to get it over with. He
reached for her head and ran both hands through her hair to encourage
her to go a bit faster.
"God I wish you could know just how good this feels," he thought dilly.
"You would really get it then," he mused.
He could feel the pressure in his loins start to build. Another moment
and he would be there. He let out a low moan from the pleasure. Her
teeth scraped his glans lightly making his nerve endings there jolt.
This was it, he started to feel the rush as his orgasm began to rush out
of him. Then the dizziness and a feeling of disorientation filled him.
Then a new sensation. He wasn't laying down, he was crouched over
someone. There were a pair of hands on his head and his mouth was full.
Whatever it was that something was firm and tubular and deep in his
mouth. He started to choke a bit and then there then was a splash of
liquid that coated the back of his throat and flooded around the long
tube choking him. He felt a pair of hands that rested unmoving in his
hair and just over each of his ears. They held him lightly, but they
were not letting go.
Another splash and he began to sputter even more. The liquid was pouring
into his mouth. He started coughing and reared back just as the last
splash came and landed on his upper lip. He leaned back and coughed
several times. The salty liquid dripped from his mouth and coated his
lower lip and chin.
"What the fuck?" he thought.
After a couple minutes the coughing passed and he took a deep breath and
wiped the liquid off his mouth. He looked around but in the dim light
there was not too much to see. He felt someone's legs between his
thighs.
"This is wrong," he thought.
"What the fuck is going on," he shifted off of the person beneath him.
"Sonya?" he asked, but heard a woman's voice speaking his words instead.
"Oh shit," he said hearing the woman speak again.
Long hair brushed into his face. He pushed it away. Where the hell had
that come from? Why did his voice sound like a woman's? He rolled off of
the bed. The mussed bedding tangled around one of his feet. He kicked it
away. The person on the bed with him still didn't move, but as James did
he could feel the slight movement of small breasts on his chest. His
bare feet hit the cold floor and he became aware of other things as
well. His inner thighs were wet and he felt a deep empty throbbing
there.
Still nothing from the other person on the bed. He backed away in the
dark and fumbled for the light switch on the wall. Bright light flooded
the room and he blinked a few times from the sudden glare.
"Fuck!" he exclaimed after the sudden blindness faded and he could see
clearly.
It was his bedroom and on the bed was a naked man. His softening penis
lay to one side with a few drops of cum dangling from the cockhead onto
the thigh. The man didn't move at this latest noise from him. He just
lay there with his eyes slightly open, breathing regularly. He covered
his face and eyes. Everything was blurry. He rubbed his eyes, but
everything was still blurry. The man still was motionless. He looked
down at himself. Two large dark nipples atop small breasts were there
looking back at him. They were hard from the chill in the room and from
arousal. His feet gave way and he found himself sprawled on the cold
floor. He touched his nipples. They felt real with just a bit of give
from the small breasts behind them. He looked down between his legs, but
all that was there was dark pubic hair. He could feel his wet pussy lips
brushing the cold tile of the floor. He rolled back on his plump ass and
reflexively covered it to protect it from the cold and he shivered.
Gingerly he felt his wet pubic hair and in his cupped hand just beneath
the hair he felt his wet labia.
"Oh shit," he said again.
The mass of dark hair fell into his eyes again and he brushed it out of
the way. Through all of this the man on the bed lay motionless.
Slowly he got back to his feet and backed out of the room. He needed to
see himself. He made his way to the bathroom. Again the flash of light
after the darkness of the hall briefly blinded him. He blinked for a
moment as his eyes adjusted and stared into the mirror. Sonya's blurry
face stared back at him.
"This is not real," he said finally recognizing Sonya's voice as he
spoke.
The blurriness made sense as well. Sonya wore glasses and couldn't see
worth a damn without them and even then, she only wore them when she had
to, preferring to do without most of the time because she didn't like
how she looked wearing them. With the light on he realized just how much
bigger everything seemed to him. One of her hair ties was on the
bathroom counter. He picked it up and pulled the hair back out of his
eyes again. Panic fluttered in his chest.
"This is not real. It's a dream. I can't be in her body," he said to the
woman in the mirror.
He took a few deep breaths. He felt cold all over. He looked at his
naked body in the mirror. He knew that body very well. He had touched it
everywhere for the last few years.
"Sonya," he called out again, but still nothing but silence.
He reached for the fuzzy pink bathrobe he had bought her on the bathroom
wall hook and put it on. He heard the faint excited murmur of voices
from street level drifting up to him, but he couldn't understand any of
the Chinese being spoken below anyway so he ignored it as he usually did
at night.
He slowly walked back into the bedroom, found her glasses on the table
beside the bed and put them on. Everything jumped into sharp focus. He
looked at the silent naked man on the bed. Now he could see his own face
staring blankly up at him.
"Sonya, are you in there?" he asked his voice trembling.
Still no answer. He backed out of the room again and went into the
living room. He sat on one of the chairs and reached for his smokes. He
fished one out of the pack and lit it with his old Zippo. The smoke
filled his lungs and he started coughing for a moment. He got control of
himself and took another drag. Slower this time and not as much. This
was Sonya's body alright. She rarely smoked unless she had a drink.
He watched the bluish smoke twist up from the burning coal at the tip.
His mind was racing. What the fuck is going on? I'm in Sonya's body. Is
she in mine? Why hasn't she said anything? Why hasn't she started
freaking out? I know I want to, but I know she would. That woman goes
off like a firecracker. He finished the smoke and crushed out the butt.
"It's a damned weird dream, it has to be," he said in a low voice. "If
it was real, Sonya would be raising holy hell right now and not just
lying on the bed."
He got up and went into the bathroom again. There was still silence from
the bedroom. He felt so awkward walking, like his hips were going to
bump into anything remotely nearby at any moment. In the mirror he
looked at her face staring back at him.
"Sonya," he said, "I don't know what the fuck is going on."
The image in the glass mouthed his words back at him.
"I always wondered how you would sound without the accent," he said to
the mirror Sonya.
"It's got to be a dream, maybe I should just go back to bed and in the
morning maybe I will say something about this weird ass dream to her,"
he said flicking off the bathroom light.
He turned off the lights one by one until he got back to the bedroom. If
Sonya was in his body then she was still giving no sign of it. He
reached for the bedroom light switch and stopped short his fingers
barely touching the switch.
"Goddamn it, that WISH!" he said freezing in place.
"I wished she could know how it felt. Shit that's it!" he looked over at
the still form of the silent man.
The thought of what his idle wish meant for him now was lying waiting on
the bed. Oh, shit I've got to show her he realized. The thought didn't
bother him as much as he knew it should have. He wasn't gay. He'd never
entertained those thoughts before. That it didn't bother him, he half
put on the idea that this was a just a dream.
If I do that, maybe that's all it takes to go back? he thought. I don't
know why, but maybe that's what happened. I do this and we go back to
the way we're supposed to be.
He looked over at the still body. Is she in there? Is she trapped until
we switch back? Oh fuck. Can I even do this?
He looked down at his still body.
"I have to," he said in Sonya's voice.
"Baby I don't know if I caused this to happen, but I think I have to do
this to get us back. Please don't kill me when it's over."
Then he looked down at her expressionless face.
"But then again, you're really gonna know after this," he said.
He flicked off the switch. Darkness all around him. He moved to the edge
of the bed, let the robe slide from his shoulders to crumple on the
floor and slowly climbed onto it. Slowly navigating by touch he moved to
straddle Sonya's legs. He bent over. He could feel the tips of his
nipples brush against Sonya's thighs. They hardened as he did that. He
could smell the musky scent from what had been his penis less than an
hour ago as he drew closer.
I have to show her how it feels, he thought.
He closed his eyes and with one small hand moved the limp head to his
lips. The taste of the last few drops hit his tongue as he took just the
head into his mouth. His small hand held it upright and he began to
slowly run his tongue around the head. Gently he held it in his teeth
and stroking it with one hand popping it into and out of his mouth. He
felt it began to swell. The head began to plump against his darting
tongue. He felt the shaft thicken and lengthen in his hand. He pulled
his head back and pumped it softly. It stiffened more.
I show her just how good it can be, he thought. She learns that and then
we switch back.
Now Sonya's cock was fully erect. He stopped stroking it and took it
fully into his mouth. The familiar fullness in his mouth from just a
little while before was back. He slowly sank it completely into his
mouth. He felt the pubic hair tickle his nose and slowly slid back.
Down again letting his teeth scrape lightly against the shaft as he went
back up. He tried to take it a little deeper with each downward stroke,
but too deep and he could start to feel himself gag. He began to move a
little faster up and down the shaft. On one up thrust he stopped and
hung there cradling the swollen head between his lips just inside his
mouth. His small hand returned to lightly stroking the shaft. He popped
the head out of his mouth. His jaw was already getting sore. He tongued
just the underside of the head. All the way down the underside to the
base .
Gently he took first one ball then the other in his mouth rolling them
lightly in his mouth while his slender hands stroked above. He let the
balls fall free and stuck out his tongue and began to slowly caress that
sensitive spot behind Sonya's scrotum with his tongue tip. He felt
Sonya's body twitch as he did that.
"It's working," he thought.
A few moments, another twitch. He began to move from that spot below her
scrotum and took the balls one after another into his mouth. When he
moved below he let the balls fall from his lips one after the other. He
slowly took one in his mouth and caressed it before moving to the other
over and over for the next few minutes.
Then after a last tongue flick at that wonderful sensitive spot just
behind Sonya's balls he began slowly making his way sideways up the
shaft again like mouthing a harmonica. He turned his head slightly to
one side and moved up and down the shaft on first one side up to the
ever swollen head. Briefly he took the head in his mouth again and let
his teeth graze against the sensitive tip. Down the other side of the
shaft and back up to the swollen tip. He could tell it wouldn't be long
from the way it was pulsing against his tongue. He rose to the tip again
and took the head in his mouth. His nipples ached from how hard they
were. He could feel that wet ache between his legs again as well, his
upper thighs were slippery with his juices. His head slowly bobbed up
and down on her shaft.
The hand that he had been using to stroke the shaft before moved
unconsciously between his legs. He felt his fingers brush against his
swollen clit. The slippery pussy lips parted for them and he gasped. He
began moving his fingers on and around his clit. Instant pleasure
flooded him from between his legs. His mouth opened wider and he closed
his eyes and moaned around the turgid shaft. His finger passed between
his wet lips and he shuddered and moaned again. He began to rub his clit
and labial lips faster and faster keeping time with each thrust with his
mouth. His finger slipped into his pussy and he felt a new rush as he
felt it enter and touch inside him. His head arched back and he gave a
long pleasurable moan.
He hung his head over the stiff cock, the hair he had pulled back before
had worked free again and he felt his long hair fall free to drape
around Sonya's crotch hiding it. Her engorged penis rubbed against his
cheek for a moment as his fingers darted faster and faster inside his
aching pussy. The world shrank. All he was conscious of was the waves of
pleasure radiating out from the pussy he was suddenly, frantically,
enthusiastically finger fucking and Sonya's stiff cock against his
cheek.
Another wave of pleasure and he gasped. He turned his head against her
cock and sucked the base of the shaft deeply between his lips and moved
upward, feeling his lips run the length of the shaft until the head
touched the edge of his lips and then tilted his head over it and took
it deeply into his mouth. His head began bobbing furiously in time with
his hand thrusting into his pussy. He wasn't aware of anything else.
He felt a spurt against his throat.
"This is it Sonya, now you know what it feels like." He barely had time
to think as he stopped moving his head and sucked deeply on the cock
halfway in his mouth.
His fingers were furiously rubbing his clit and diving in and out of his
pussy. His tongue was moving constantly around the spurting cockhead in
his mouth as his lips gently sucked it in time with each spurt. Another
splash and another. He felt Sonya's hips slightly buck beneath his face
as more and more cum flooded into his mouth.
"Swallow," he thought.
You always told her swallow and she never did. He pulled up until just
the tip was in his mouth. It almost popped free of his mouth as he
reared up, but he dropped back down with just the head locked in his
lips. He let the cum slide down his throat, drinking each gush as it
filled his mouth and when it was done he rose up and threw his head
back.
His long hair tumbled airily against his back and shoulders. His other
hand had found its way to his aching breasts and was pinching his
nipples and rubbing his small breasts. He felt the residual cum coating
his mouth and his throat and as soon as he felt the last drop splash
against his slick belly he dropped onto the bed on his right side.
Moving his hand from breast to breast he pressed and fondled them as his
other hand plunged into his pussy over and over. As the orgasm built and
then broke around him all he knew was the waves that radiated out from
his body and the sound of a woman's pleasure ringing full throated from
his lips.
Afterward he lay feeling that tingling glow all over his body. He
realized that he was on his back now. His fingers of his left hand were
still deep inside his pussy and his legs were spread wide apart. His
right hand draped limp over his left breast. As his breath slowed he
waited for the dizziness to come again. The disorientation that would
follow.
But still there was nothing. Just the sound of his gradually slowing
breath. He felt the trickle of a pair of tears from his eyes. It had
been a while since he had felt that happen after sex. He turned his head
slowly to Sonya's silent form beside him. He could see the shadow of her
softening penis against the darker shadows of the room. His pussy
twinged with aftershocks.
"God I wish she would roll over and fuck me," he thought.
He waited for the switch back, but the minutes dragged on and still
nothing. As his mind began to clear from the orgasmic haze he suddenly
bolted upright on the bed.
"Shit!!" he shouted.
"I did it again goddamn it!" he blurted out to Sonya's shadowy form.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck how could I be so stupid!" he said looking down at
Sonya.
She was still motionless. He tried to calm down. She can't do that he
thought. She hasn't moved except a little this whole time. Oh I really
fucked up this time. She's going to kill me when she gets her body back.
His heart was racing and his rapid breathing was causing his small
breasts to bounce a little with each breath.
"Think asshole," he told himself.
"You made one wish and ended up this way, you made another and now
you're both still like this."
"Think."
"She can't move and I wanted her to know just what it felt like," he
said.
"Maybe I'm not done yet," he thought.
"Maybe we both have to know how all of it feels before we can go back.
Maybe that second wish didn't mean anything because we weren't done
yet."
"Shit, I don't know," he said in the gloom of the bedroom.
But the more he thought about it the more sense it made to him. She
needs to know how it feels to have sex as a man and I need to know how
it feels to have sex as a woman he thought. If we do that, then the wish
has come true and we can go back to where we belong. He looked at the
silent man lying beside him.
There's no way she cannot know how good it feels to have your cock
sucked now. She just needs to feel my pussy around her cock, she needs
to know just how incredible it feels to have a pussy surrounding you. To
feel your cum going inside, that absolute rush into a lover.
The thought that he should take that next step and have her cock inside
him made his nipples hard with anticipation. He needed to fuck Sonya.
She needed to be inside of him and he really needed her to be inside of
him.
"I so want him inside me so much right now," he whispered aloud.
"No... not him, I want her," he corrected himself in his mind.
He reached over with no hesitation and began stroking Sonya's penis
again while lightly rubbing his pussy in a lazy eight that began and
ended with his clit. Except for her slowly hardening cock Sonya showed
no movement. When it was almost fully hard he stopped stroking it and
rolled over and took it in his mouth again. He sucked in making a tight
seal and after a dozen deep bobs he felt it stiffen like velvet iron
filling his mouth and pressing against the back of his throat.
He slowly let it fall from his mouth and began to move up Sonya's body.
His breasts pulled down against Sonya's body and his legs spread wider
and wider as his pelvis approached hers. He felt the outline of the
stiff cock fully against his belly. The base of the shaft strained
against his aching clit and he could feel the head pressing against his
flat belly.
He reached one small hand between his legs and pulled the stiff cock
slightly upward as he leaned back and let her shaft length slide between
his slippery pussy lips like a bicycle bar. His back was arched slightly
and then more as he felt Sonya's cockhead pass horizontally through his
lips and hang just outside the base of his pussy lips. He began to grind
slowly moving the head slowly back and forth between his pussy lips. Up
to bump just below his clit and then down again. Slowly with each stroke
he felt it slide a little deeper until he felt the head nestle fully
inside him on its last pass.
He dropped his hand away from the captive shaft and crouched motionless
feeling the sensation of Sonya's cockhead alone barely inside his pussy.
He began to slowly rocking, moving it inside him a fraction of an inch
at a time. Each time he sank down it pierced him a little deeper. First
the head. Then a full inch inside him, then two and then halfway. Each
time he bore down, he felt Sonya's cock sinking a little deeper within
him. Each slow slide up it left him greedy for more and he plunged
downward again until she felt him completely inside her.
Her clit was pressed firmly against his pubis. She realized that she was
thinking of herself as a woman and she was doing it with no shame. She
was his woman now. He had made her a woman the moment he completely
filled her and took her virginity. She had made him a man with every
inch she drew into herself. She felt him stiff inside her. She was a
woman from now on. She was his woman. She felt a woman's satisfaction
each time she rose up, bore down and each time she claimed her lover
anew.
There was no denial in her as she rocked slowly up and down and felt his
cockhead mark her as a woman deep inside. Each time his head pressed
against her womb she felt her womanhood throb in satisfaction. She felt
the feeling of fullness he gave her as his cock stretching her depths
for the first time. She had no idea how empty she was until she had been
filled. She felt complete somehow.
There was no pain, but her virginity was gone. She was a woman now. Her
lover had filled her with his manhood and made her his woman. She felt
stunned and elated as she realized that. As she hovered there with her
man's cock completely engulfed by her womanhood. She needed to use her
gloriously full womanhood to pleasure him as his manhood pleasured her
over and over.
She began to move up and down sliding slowly up until he was nearly out
of her and then back down again just as slowly. She felt the grooves of
her pussy gripping Sonya's wonderful shaft and she began trying to
squeeze it with her pussy as it slid deeper inside her. She was going to
use everything she knew she could do to pleasure the man who revealed to
her a woman's pleasure.
She leaned back a little as she began to slowly ride her lovers cock and
felt it arc toward her belly from the inside. It hit her G spot and she
gasped at the intensity of it. She felt the tip brush against her cervix
from time to time as she slowly rode him. Each time it thumped against
her womb, she felt shivers as she sank ever deeper into her role as his
woman and without even being aware of it her hands had begun fingering
her clit and playing with her nipples.
Between her moans she heard her voice thanking Sonya for making her his
woman. She surrendered into her identity as a woman telling her man over
and over how wonderful his cock made her feel as she milked it within
her.
Her tempo began to quicken, her hands stopped touching herself and
braced against his chest. As it built inside her she began to bounce
faster. Her pussy gripped her man's shaft as often as she could and as
her pleasure built, her moans were no longer separate. Just a ragged
gasp that rose and fell with each thrust. When her orgasm finally came
she tensed, fiercely clenching the cock inside her with her pussy.
Both her hands moved back and were frantically rubbing her breasts and
as she felt it begin to peak a second time she felt it happen. The hot
liquid flooding within her. She felt the hot seed flooding into her
womb. She pressed down on him locking him as deep inside her as she
could. She had done it. She had satisfied her man as only his woman
could.
She felt him pumping inside her. Each spasm within reaffirming she had
pleased her man as only she can. She draped herself slowly down on
Sonya's chest feeling her woman's breasts crushing against his hard
chest, her legs and arms wrapping him as she pulled herself closer to
him. She desperately struggled to keep him inside her. She felt the head
fall away from her womb and she clenched her pussy tighter around him.
She needed his manhood inside her to stave off the emptiness she would
feel between her legs when he was gone. She stabbed herself with his
softening shaft over and over, Anything to keep him sheathed inside her
where he belonged, but it only lasted the last few thrusts more before
she had to become utterly still, so as to keep his sated manhood within
her as long as possible. She lay on top of him clutching him tightly to
her.
"I'm so happy I'm a woman right now," she whispered to him.
"I wish we could just stay like this," she said closing her eyes.
Her ragged breathing began to slow. She lay there unmoving feeling
Sonya's shrinking penis soften and slowly begin to slip out of her. She
felt it's slow withdrawal as it hung inside of her for long minutes
until it slowly flopped out and pointed down. She closed her eyes and
felt the emptiness between her legs that wasn't there before tonight.
She squeezed her eyes shut knowing that until he was inside her again
she would not be the same. She needed him inside her again and again.
She was his woman now and she didn't want to change.
She lay there her breasts pressed firmly against her lover feeling the
slow drip...drip...drip of his sperm when it began draining from her
pussy and waiting for the dizziness to claim her, to damn her to never
feeling like the woman she was right now ever again.
And without even being aware she remembered her wish to stay this way
and instead of making her frightened she relaxed, pulled him tighter
against her and slipped into sleep.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. Day 16
Mr. Wells had leaned forward as James was telling this to him.
"So you thought an idle sex wish had caused this?" he said.
"Yes, and after we were done that night I didn't care," James answered.
"And what happened then?" he asked.
"When I woke up the next morning, then I did freak out. I thought that
by feeling so much as a woman at that moment and wishing it would be
permanent that I had completely fucked it up. Then I waited until that
night and tried again. I thought that maybe it had to be done at the
same exact time to work. Sonya still hadn't moved all day. I got some
water into him and about the time I thought it happened I tried again."
"And?" he asked.
"It was worse. That time I was a woman from start to finish. I couldn't
think of myself as male no matter what. I fucked him until he was
completely dry that night and the next morning I just felt completely
beaten. I was blaming myself for it over and over. I alternated between
crying, telling him I was sorry and trying over and over to make it
happen again. It wasn't until I picked myself up and got online a couple
days later when the net started working again that I found out it was
happening all over the world."
"After that I contacted you here. I got everything I had together and
waited for your team to come get me. I kept putting as much water into
Sonya as I could get into him without drowning him. And then as more
information came out I thought that he could have ended up in someone
else. But there was nothing from him...her...whatever Sonya was."
"I didn't have to go out for food, since I had quite a bit there
already. That was a good thing, because I had basically depended on
Sonya to handle any translating. Your team came to my place, you guys
took him away, put me on a bus to the embassy and then all of these
damned interviews started. Look, I know you have to be sure who is who,
but by now you should be damn it."
"Actually we are," Mr. Wells said to her.
"What the fuck then?" she said to him, her eyes flashing at him.
"This was the last of the interviews we could reasonably perform, you
have already proven as completely as can be expected that you are James
Minton. But please, understand that this is a rather severe ad hoc
policy being developed and implemented on the fly as it were and what we
needed to know was the exact conditions and sequence of events of your
experiences during and after the Shift."
"The Shift?" she said, she had heard that term used before and had even
found herself using it from time to time.
"That's what it's being referred to as. The Great Shift," Karen said.
"I should...knock...the shit...out of you," she spat kicking the chair
back and glaring at him while she balled her petite fists.
"Do you have any idea how fucking humiliating it is to tell you that? To
admit exactly how easily I accepted it? I shouldn't have done that, but
I did it. And you made me go through it all over again you bastard!" she
howled at him.
She stood in stony silence for a few moment before speaking again. Mr.
Wells, from past encounters, thought it best to stay quiet.
"What happens to Sonya now?" she said in a low voice.
"Ms. Minton the hospital attendants are fairly sure that whoever is in
that body, it is not Ms. Feng. Please sit down," he asked her.
She stood for a moment longer and then pulled the chair back and sat
down.
"Ms. Minton, right, I guess I'll have to get used to that. Hey! What do
you mean you don't think it's her. What do you mean by that? Has she
been found somewhere else?" she demanded.
"Not that we're aware of, but as you may know there have been a great
many deaths worldwide because of the nature of the Shift and that may
also be a possibility in her case," he said sympathetically.
"And there is this," he said, gesturing toward the last folder.
"That is your medical report. According to our lab work you are a
perfectly healthy twenty-six year old woman. You are also, at this time,
eight weeks pregnant."
"I'M WHAT!!!" she exclaimed shooting to her feet again.
"Please sit down, Ms. Minton," he said.
After she sat down again, Mr. Wells passed the folder to her.
"It appears that at the time you changed, your girlfriend was about six
weeks pregnant. She probably was not even aware she was. From what we
know of the Shift at this point, it seems that those who are in closer
proximity tended to exchange more frequently, but that is not always the
case."
"From what we can figure out from what you have told us and from
observing your former body, is that this is what we think happened to
you. When the Shift occurred the three of you were in about as close a
proximity as could be."
"So, some have speculated that you shifted in each other. We believe
that Ms. Feng may currently be developing inside your womb now while the
consciousness of your child occupies your former body."
"Since these are severe mitigating factors in your case we have decided,
in agreement with the Chinese government, to return all three of you to
CONUS as soon as possible. You are set to board your flight next
Thursday."
"It has been difficult as you may imagine, but your family has been
alerted and it may interest you to know that you're younger brother is
now your older African-American sister, as well as several other family
changes. You may find that your situation is not as strange as you fear
when you get there."
"Should your child, after reaching an age to do so, prove to be Ms. Feng
and demonstrates that she has retained her memories, then she will have
appropriate safeguards in place to guarantee her security and repatriate
her to China, if she wishes to do so."
"She's a girl then?" she asked Mr. Wells.
"Ms. Minton at this stage of development all fetuses are female. So as
far as I'm concerned it just makes it easier to refer to them that way
right now. I will however, need for you to choose some female name if
you wish, for your travel documents. You don't have to, but most have
found it eases the transition somewhat."
"Why haven't you?" she asked him.
"I have, but for interviews like this I prefer to use my original name,"
he said.
"Makes sense I suppose," she answered after a moment's thought.
"Jenny...that's what mom said my name was going to be," she said after a
minute.
"And will you be using your former male name as a middle name? Quite a
few people are doing that as well," he said.
"No, Jenny Sonya Minton," she said after a moment.
Mr. Wells punched the change into his tablet.
"I can understand why. And for what it's worth, I want you to know I'm
sorry I had to be such an asshole to you during this interview. It's a
part of this job that makes it much harder on me personally, in addition
to interviewees such as yourself."
He gathered the files and replaced them in his bag.
"If you come with me, we'll get you settled for the time being, your new
ID and passport processed and have you on your way as soon as possible."
Jenny Sonya Minton stood up and looked down at herself and then at Mr.
Wells.
"I guess I finally get to take her home to my family now," she said
softly to herself as she followed him out the door.
=====================================================
Part One
The Winter of Her Heart
Wish Shift: Chapter One
Reunions
1 A.S. Day 32
She was still trying to sleep. It wasn't her first international trip.
The problem was, even with all of the shades down on the windows, you
could still see the outline of daylight around them. This made it
difficult for her to get relaxed even in ordinary circumstances. Her
only consolation this trip was that, for once, the seat was roomy
enough. But considering what made that extra room possible, she would
rather have been cramped like she was before.
There hadn't been any real difficulty ending her work contract. It was
already pretty much moot in the aftermath of the Shift, since schools
were closed for the rest of the term at minimum. There was still too
much confusion and until things were a little more settled, she expected
they would stay closed.
She actually had more of a hassle with her landlady than she had with
her employer. She had been one of the minority that had remained
unchanged and even with all of the official documents presented to her,
had made a petulant annoyance of herself. She at first would not believe
that her tenant was this Chinese woman she had seen before as James's
girlfriend.
Even after being forced to concede that, she refused to speak to her in
English and hung around making various comments to her in Chinese while
Jenny was closing up the apartment. Jenny had to eventually enlist Liu
Hong's assistance in dealing with her for the few days it took to pack
up and arrange for shipping her things home.
Liu Hong had been lucky in Jenny's opinion. He had shifted as well, but
he had ended up in the body of a man only a year or two older than he
was. They lived in the same apartment building and had often worked out
at the same gym, so for him at least the face in the mirror now was
familiar. Liu Hong had been his contact teacher at the school for the
last few years and right now he was going out his way to help Jenny get
what she needed done considering that he had just as many problems of
his own.
They ended up settling everything though. Bank accounts, refunds for
house expenses and accounts and all of the annoyances closing up a home
has to offer. As the last box was picked up by the service company the
embassy had arranged, if she hadn't known before, she now knew for
certain that he was one of many friends she would miss.
They promised to keep in touch when he saw her off at the Luo Hu port
border crossing into Hong Kong and Jenny knew that they both were not
just saying it. There was a chartered bus there that the consulate
arranged that took her group to the airport, so this time at least she
didn't have to ride the convoluted Hong Kong train network. Although in
ordinary times she rather enjoyed doing that.
The captain announcing that they would be landing soon put an end to any
further attempts at sleeping. She started putting the things she had
taken out for the trip back into her travel bag and waited for the
landing that would finally end this trip. When she felt the tires thump
on the runway pavement below them she felt her stomach knot a little
tighter as well. So far she had been lucky on the trip and hadn't had
any bouts of morning sickness. In her opinion, it wouldn't surprise her
for it to strike now. She held the open barf bag in her lap and waited.
When she was told of her pregnancy it seemed to her that the morning
sickness was laying in wait for her. Maybe it was just psychological,
but every day since she found out, it felt like all she had to do was
breathe wrong and she would be rushing to the toilet. The long trip had
been an exercise in dread waiting for it to strike, but she somehow had
gotten a pass.
The landing was uneventful. There was the usual mess getting off the
plane with everyone milling around, pulling luggage from the overhead
bins and in general waiting for the line to begin to move so that they
could all just get out.
She walked down the long halls in Hartsville International past the
signs boosting various Georgia destinations, advertisements and the wall
mounted displays. When she reached the immigration hall there were the
usual long lines weaving their way back and forth. She was quietly
waiting like everyone else.
It seemed to her that this was the most subdued passage she had ever
seen. It was also the first time she had ever seen the non-citizen line
practically empty. No one was really talking except for the customs
agents and even they were really quiet.
When it was her turn she handed over the documents that the embassy
staff had given her. Looking over her new passport after they had
processed it had been something that she had done right away. It had all
of the things she expected on it, her new name and face of course, but
what she had not expected was the other information.
Her birth information was included on a second page behind her current
one. There were two ages; her physical age with her previous age in
parenthesis. It was the same for other duplicate information. There was
an M, also in parenthesis, sitting next the F in the block indicating
her sex. Sonya's birth date next to his own and on one corner of the
heavy paper was a prominent chip containing the biometric data for the
new readers to scan.
The customs agent, a heavyset Hispanic woman named Doug didn't keep her
at the counter very long, but she did have to scan both of her hands and
have her retina's scanned by the heavy machine that had been installed
on the counter before Doug would wave her through.
She walked through the 'nothing to declare' passage after she picked up
her luggage and passed through to the entrance hall. She turned her
phone back on and sent her brother a text saying that she was through
customs and would be there in a few minutes.
Even though she knew that Greg was now a thirty-two year old black
woman, she still thought of her as her brother. She also was not
surprised in the least when Greg had decided that she wanted to be
called Kira. Greg always had been a major league trekker. Kira responded
with a smiley emoticon in a few minutes. Jenny shouldered her bag and
started pushing her trolley out onto the arrival hall.
The first thing she saw when she exited through the double doors was a
sea of signs with people's names. That was something that she thought
would be somewhat normal, since she always saw that in airports anyway,
but this time it seemed to her that there was nothing but signs and she
didn't know why that would surprise her, but it did.
She pushed through the opening at the end of the exit and started making
her way to their regular meeting place. She was glad they decided to not
change it, because there was absolutely no way she could have found the
sign with her name on it in that forest of names being held up to greet
the disembarking passengers.
She made her way to the Starbucks that she usually met them at. The
closer she got to it, the more it felt like she was moving slower, but
she knew that was not the case. The first people she saw that she
recognized were her mom and dad. They were standing off to the side with
a tall black woman holding a sign with her old name on it.
There was a white woman in her early twenties next to her with a large
set of implants looking uncomfortable, as well as a 4 year old boy and a
Hispanic man also in his mid twenties.
She released the brake handle on the trolley and felt the brakes dig in.
She paused for a moment and then walked the last few feet toward them.
They had been watching her since she started moving in their direction.
No one had said anything yet. Jenny stopped, looked at them and finally
spoke.
"I'm here guys," she said quietly.
The tall black woman was the first to speak.
"Damn bro, I didn't think you'd be Thumbelina." And then started
laughing.
Jenny mock glared at the tall black woman. "Get bent, Greg," she said.
Everyone else started laughing. Every time James had come back from
somewhere far away, Greg always had some smart assed comment to greet
him. James's answer was always, "Get bent."
It was one of those personal rituals that nobody could remember how they
started, but no reunion would be complete without. Her father looked
over at Greg and made a shushing gesture.
"Every time you two get together it's the same thing. Why can't you just
say 'hi' like normal people?"
It was dad's voice, but the words were mom through and through.
"That is normal for us mom," the tall black woman said to him.
"Do I need to paddle your bottom again?" he said. "Because I will, you
know."
"White man assaults African-American woman at the airport. Film at 11,"
Greg, or rather Kira quipped back.
She glance over at Jenny again.
"Would that be a hate crime?" she asked her.
"Only until they find out what's what you brat," mom shot back at him.
The other woman with the implants dug her elbow into Kira's ribs. "I'll
show you a hate crime later, if you don't knock it off, you idiot," she
said half jokingly.
"Would you paddle me please?" Kira said back to her. "I've been oh so
naughty and this time you should use the ping pong paddle. You know how
much I love that."
The woman rolled her eyes and dug her elbow into Kira's ribs again while
mom and dad ignored them both.
That was Dianne then, Jenny thought. The last time he had seen the two
of them was two years ago when he came back to be Greg's best man at
their wedding.
She looked to be about the same age and she was still blonde, but from
the faint dark roots Jenny could see now that color came out of a
bottle, rather than naturally.
She had easily a pair of E cups that were clearly implants and nothing
like her previous D cups. She remained about the same height and build
as well so except for a face that was different and not needing glasses
anymore she wasn't changed overly much considering.
The information packet that the embassy had been able to put together
for her along with her new I.D. and other paperwork hadn't had too much
in it, but they were able to put together a few details, even with all
the confusion.
Jenny knew that her mom Dani and dad Sam, had switched already, so
knowing she would be hearing mom speak with dad's voice wasn't new, but
actually hearing it was a different matter altogether. She also already
knew about Greg and that Dianne had also shifted, but had remained
female. As for anyone else they hadn't had any new information for her
when she boarded the flight in Hong Kong.
Her dad lifted her hand to her lips and coughed softly.
"We should be getting on back, you know how much I hate Atlanta
traffic," she said.
"And George is waiting for us back home as well."
Jenny looked at her dad. It was strange for her to see her mom's body
acting like dad did when they needed to get going. He started with a
quiet announcement just like when they were kids, next would be frequent
obvious checking of the watch, then he would just walk away and if you
weren't in the car when it started moving you were in for it.
"Now don't you start, Sam," Jenny's father's voice said.
"The traffic isn't nearly as bad as it was and we still have to get
things settled here first. Give your...daughter a few more minutes to
get reacquainted and get everything straight before you pack us all into
that car for the next few hours."
Jenny watched her mom's face turn half away the way dad did when mom
shut him down.
"You may have a point Danny," she said grudgingly, "but we do need to
get back to George as quick as we can...and you know why."
Jenny watched as everyone became rather somber.
"I know Sam," her mother said in his deep voice.
Jenny felt ice cold from the way everyone's mood changed. This was
definitely not going to be in any way good.
"What happened?" Jenny asked already dreading the answer.
Her father answered first, not surprising since his role, even when they
were small, was dispenser of bad news. Some people might have learned to
dread hearing him give them news growing up like that, but Jenny never
had. She had always took it as her dad shouldering an unpleasant burden
because he saw it as his responsibility. And he never walked away from
responsibility.
"George dropped by your grandmother's work to take her out for lunch
when it happened. He switched with Mr. Jacobs while he was waiting for
her to settle a few details before leaving."
"Oh shit," Jenny said quietly.
Jenny's grandmother was a registered nurse who had worked for the VA for
most of her career. She could have retired a few years ago, but she kept
at it out of a sense of devotion to the vets who passed through those
doors and a need to keep busy at her profession.
When she had announced that she would finally be retiring this fall for
real it was a minor shock, because no one really thought she ever would.
Mr. Jacobs was a semi-regular in her department. He had left both of his
legs in the Iron Triangle on a LRRP mission on his third tour. He was
sixty-six last year and he came in supposedly to get his prosthetics
adjusted, but he was really just using it as an excuse to flirt with
grandma.
"And what about grandma?" Jenny asked.
"Your grandma had a heart attack and died during the Switch," Jenny felt
the blood start to drain from her face.
"But the good news is that she won't need to retire after all," Danny
said.
"She apparently switched with a nineteen year old nursing intern. We
don't know who was in her body when she passed, but she got in touch
with us as soon as she could. She's taking care of George while we came
to get you."
Jenny gulped in half relief. "George has got to be going out of his
mind."
"He's not taking it well," Mom said in her deep voice.
"You and...Kira... should do something together when you get settled."
"Already covered mom," Kira piped up. "We're going for some striper as
soon as he can get into the boat without keeling over."
"I hope that helps him then," he said. He turned to the four year old
boy and the Hispanic man. "Mattie, Little Jake I guess you might want to
say hi to your unc...aunt."
Jenny waited for them to volunteer which was which. Mattie and Little
Jake had been his sister Kim's fraternal twins. They had been sixteen
and in class when the Shift came. Jenny already knew that Kim had, like
mom and dad, switched with her husband Jake Sr.
Since they both worked at home there was a better than good chance for
that. The four year old boy looked at Jenny and almost burst into tears.
After he took a couple of breaths to calm down, he said quietly that he
was Mattie.
The older Hispanic man followed saying he was Jake. He was also much
more quiet than Jenny expected her excitable nephew to be, but he was
handling the changes better than his former sister was.
When the Shift came he had switched with Mr. Emilio, the school
custodian who was in the building nearby, while Mattie had switched with