The Wish Shift
Part Two
The Blossoming of Her Spring
Wish Shift: Chapter Twelve
Revelations
Year 1 A.S. Day 65
Sam looked around the outside dining area at Java Jolts. "You know I
don't usually go to places like this," she said. The outside area was
pretty simple, just some small white painted metal tables with some
white wicker chairs around them. The tables were pulled up close to the
plate glass of the front window and on the edge of the sidewalk there
were some planters with greenery spilling over the concrete sides. "I
know," Jenny said, "but you've been getting your coffee here half the
time you've been down to see me already. So what's the problem?"
"No problem," she said, "if you had let me finish before jumping in, I
was gonna say that it's better place than I thought it would be...and
the coffee's good too."
Derek had been just bringing them their order when she said that.
"Thanks ma'am," he said, "it's good to hear when we do something right."
Sam nodded her head at him. "I still haven't gotten quite used to people
calling me that," she said to Jenny.
Derek told them that if they needed anything, just wave. He turned and
went back inside.
"Does he always do that?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Do what dad?" she asked.
"Bring you your order," she said.
"I don't know, usually I get mine to go," Jenny said. "And he only has
two other people here most of the time so, I really can't tell you."
Sam didn't say anything. If Jenny hadn't noticed the counter guy with
the red hair duck into the back just before this Derek guy brought their
coffee to them, than she wasn't going to bring it up.
"So anyway, back to what I was saying. This guy comes into the reception
room at the shop and before I could even talk to him, he reaches for the
coffeepot, empties it out in a cup, hands me the pot and says to me
'fill that up again would you?' and walks into the office. He comes out
a half a tic later and asks 'where's Sam?', so I looked right back at
him and said 'She's filling up the damned coffeepot. What do you want?"
Jenny chuckled. "So what did you do to him?"
"Fixed his car, what did you think I did," she said, then she looked
around. "I did charge him an office fee for making assumptions though."
"So how long did they say you had to wear that thing?" she said,
pointing her coffee cup at Jenny's empathy belly.
"About another ten days," she said.
"I still don't quite get the point," she said. "You're already pregnant
and you'll look like that soon enough."
"Think of it as training wheels dad," she said in response.
"Speaking of wheels, how are you with that on and driving the truck?"
"I can't," she said. "I have to take it off to drive. I can let the seat
back far enough, but when I do my feet barely touch the pedals." She
looked sourly under the table. "Damned short legs."
"So what are you going to do when you can't take it off?" she asked.
"I was going to ask you to see if you could lay your hands on a good
runaround car for a grand or so at the auction for me."
"I don't know about that just now, the auto auction has been closed
since the Shift, but if it opens up before then. I'll keep my eyes open
and let you know if I see anything," she said.
"You sure I can't talk you into staying the night dad?" she asked.
"I'd like to, but I got to get your grandma back up in time for her to
get some sleep before her morning shift."
They talked a little longer about some other things and then got up to
head back. Sam noticed Jenny paid no attention to that Derek guy
checking on them as many times as he did. But if Jenny couldn't see it
and it didn't bother her, it wasn't Sam's business to mention it right
now.
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Year 1 A.S. Day 70
Jenny walked down the hallway the next day looking for Dr. Min. She
wasn't in her office and they hadn't seen her in the behavioral lab. She
thought she might have gone down to speak with Dr. Nakamura or one of
the other researchers. She sighed and thought of just going to the
lounge for a few minutes. Maybe she could catch up with her later. She
was about to give up when she saw her going into her office. Jenny
hurried in after the tall black woman.
"Ah, Jenny," she said. "I have some news for you."
"I have been looking for you, but didn't find you until now," Jenny
said.
"My apologies for that. I've been quite busy today. But I'm glad you're
here. I'd like to make an adjustment to the program with you. Do you
think you would be willing to do this?" she asked.
"I won't know until I know what you want to do," she answered.
"Of course," she said. "What we have in mind is to accelerate the pace
of your language learning exercises. One of the other team members has
suggested that we are not fully using your capabilities with our current
methods. Until now we have been relying on some simple straightforward
methods to aid your language acquisition. We would like to change this
to a more rapid method," she said.
"And how would that help?" she said.
"Well we have always operated under the idea that there is a physical
part of speech," she said, "but now we think that it will be able to be
re-activated much more quickly than we thought before."
"Some of the team, and I agree with them, think that part of the reason
for your rapid improvement isn't just you learning and connecting along
pathways, but it is being used as a means of repair by the brain
itself."
"Now when the Shift came, it in effect scooped almost everyone out of
their shells, wiped the slate clean and re-deposited everyone somewhere
else. But it may be more like emptying an puzzle board. You put the tray
back in place but the spaces reserved for that information are still
waiting. That is what we think you are having happen to you. The words
that you have been exposed to are re-settling into place. Already the
small bit of Chinese that you knew for certain has grown quite a bit and
you have already become much more fluid in the way you use it."
"We think that by increasing the flow of information and moving into
more conversation based methods, that it would help you to gain a near
fluency within three or four months, if we are correct," she finished.
"Dr. Min if you want to do this and you think it will do what you say,
then I'm fine with trying it. Just don't erase my knowledge of English
while you're doing what you're talking about doing," she said.
"I don't think we could, but we'll try not to," she said. "But if we are
successful with this I'd like to move to seeing if you could make
similar progress with writing in Chinese as well, it is language
related, but it would be a more complex and challenging test of what you
and others could be capable of."
"If you can do that I promise that it will be all you. I never even
tried to learn that. I think I know at best what a couple dozen of those
characters mean and half of those I can't match the sound to."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Dr. Min said.
Jenny talked with Dr. Min for a little while longer, but after she had
laid out what she wanted to do with the project changes, she didn't
really have much else to add to it. Jenny asked her, half out of
curiosity what she did when she was not immersed in her work here. She
admitted that most of the time she did little, but stay close to home
and maybe go out to spend time in some of the small public parks. Even
though life was slowly starting to return to a semblance of what was
there before, it was still only a limited return. Jenny told her that
she hoped that she found some things that she liked to do since she knew
that doing things like that here and doing them in China were really not
the same thing.
As an afterthought, she suggested that Dr. Min and she should cook some
dumplings sometime with her when they could find the time to do so. Dr.
Min seemed to brighten up at the thought and while she didn't say yes,
she did thank Jenny for the offer. She did mention that there were a
couple of other Chinese expats and some Chinese-American families that
she was spending some time with and even though they had been as mixed
by the Shift as others, she was grateful for something that was at least
vaguely familiar. Jenny understood all too well what she meant and asked
her to think about it.
Leaving Dr. Min, Jenny made her way down to the part of the building
that Dr. Nakamura tended to haunt. The behavioral sciences lab. What it
really was, was a cross between a giant nursery and a convalescence
home. There was a large open section that had been partitioned off into
small sleeping areas and several larger open exercise areas where people
of all ages spent their time when they were not in the hospital beds
they spent so much of the majority of their time in.
To tell the truth, coming down here gave Jenny the creeps. Just seeing
all of those people with eyes that were attentive and at the same time
unaware was unnerving. They were for the most part dressed in adult
versions of baby clothes, with some wearing only diapers.
Some, who were possibly switched with newborns were already crawling and
could be seen scooting across the slick floors wearing knee pads to
protect them from abrasions. It was unnerving, but it was also sad to
her. One woman in her eighties kept trying to get out of her crib and
frequently was making weak crying sounds when her frail body was not up
to the task. The nine year old girl who was racing around the last few
weeks was easier for her to take seeing than that poor woman.
Although Dr. Nakamura wanted her to start having greater involvement
with J.L. as his development was progressing, she was having a hard time
doing it. There may be too much there for her to deal with right now.
And seeing her former body in this fashion was much harder on her than
she was willing to admit. Dr. Nakamura saw her come into the big open
exercise area and waved her over.
The message that Jenny had gotten said that there was something
important that she wanted to talk over with her. She finished signing
off some reports and waved Jenny into the little cubicle that she used
for an office when she was on the floor.
"I need to ask you some things about what your intentions are for J.L.
when you leave here," she said.
"To be honest, I don't even know what my intentions should even be right
now. Dr. Nakamura," she said. "I know I should have him with me and he
should be part of his family, but other than that I don't know what it
is that I should even look at as a first step. If I had to decide today,
I'd have to move back in with my parents. I don't hardly have enough
room in my little place for myself," she said.
Dr. Nakamura nodded to her. "I thought as much Jenny," she said. "One of
the things that we're having a particular problem sorting out is what to
do with so many adult infants. They require all the care and attention
that infants do, with all of the complications that come with caring for
people who are in a nursing home. And that is just the immediate
problem."
"Some of them are facing the situation where their parents, if we could
even locate them, are in no condition to care for them. We have several
here whose parents whose parents we can identify but they are in the
bodies of elderly people themselves, or invalids with medical problems
or are just switched into the bodies of children and are completely
unable to physically do the job of caring for them," she said.
"I know a woman like that," Jenny said. "My sister helped her with her
son in a grocery store. She is fifteen and her son is fourteen, but he
is still three inside and she is constantly on edge."
"And she may be one of the lucky ones," Dr. Nakamura said.
"Then we have the ones who just can't accept these adult children as
theirs, even when we could identify them. There are entire maternity
wards just across this city alone, where we have no idea who they are.
Infants that swapped with other infants are not as big a concern, adults
into infants are also not our biggest problem, it's what to do with the
people like these in the institute. What we need to know so we can
figure out what to do with them is the issue. We know that there are
many people of all kinds of ages that just dropped like stones when
their minds were replaced with the minds of infants. How many of them
died in car crashes or other accidents we may never know."
"But we are finding it easier for people to accept taking care of the
ones switched into newborns than these poor people. I can understand the
inclination but it still doesn't change things here. I'm afraid that for
a lot of them they're going to end up in some sort of institution for
all of their lives. That's one reason for the urgency of what we are
doing here. For some of them that may end up being the best thing we can
do for them," she looked over at another of the elderly infants when she
said that and shook her small head sadly.
"If you can't decide what your plans are or what to do, you may have to
leave J.L. in something like that for a while until you can take
whatever steps you decide," she said.
"Now what I really wanted to talk to you about was instead of doing
something like that I would like to suggest keeping J.L. here for the
time being. I know that it may be possible for him to have the mental
development of a one to two year old soon, and that is still something
that we are fascinated by. We are fairly well equipped and outfitted for
taking care of him. But for you it will be like taking care of an
extremely retarded adult for quite some time and that has a level of
stress that I don't know if you may be prepared for right now,
especially in light of your condition," she continued eyeing Jenny's
empathy belly.
"What I'd like to suggest that you strongly consider keeping him here,
at least until he has reached a level of cognitive development that you
will be able to use some degree of reason to direct and exercise some
control with him. You can interact with him daily of course and
establish what your roles are as he develops and later begin taking him
home for short visits to accustom him to living outside of the structure
supporting him here."
"The most important thing you can do when that happens is remember he is
a child and treat him that way. People like J.L. may resemble adults
with severe mental retardation for a time. But unlike someone who has
development issues, many of these kids will be able to make something
with what life that they have once they are able to progress past their
present limitations," she said.
"I don't know how I feel about that right now, Dr. Nakamura," she said
very quietly. "He's my son, but at the same time I have no way to know
what I'm going to do with him right now."
"Jenny," she said reaching up to pat her one the elbow. "You don't have
to make a decision for some time. I was bringing it up now so that you
and I could start seeing what could be done and what couldn't be done.
You're one of the very few parents that we can speak with and what is
decided by most of you will probably have a huge impact on what we will
have to do with these others who we can't find any connections for. It's
a big decision. Take your time."
Jenny said that she would do that. She excused herself and said she had
something else she needed to take care of. She didn't really, but she
couldn't stay there in this part of the lab just then.
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Year 1 A.S. Day 74
Danny got a call from Sam a few days later. He didn't get into the
details of what it was about, but whatever it was had upset him more
than a bit. He asked Jenny if she would be all right for a while and she
said she'd be fine. She asked what was happening, but all Mom would say
was that there was something that needed his attention right away and
that he would be away for a few days before he could come back down here
to be with her.
Jenny assured him that she was fine and that she was plenty capable of
tending to her own needs. But she was more worried about what it was
that was enough to get mom to leave immediately. All she could get out
of Danny was that it had something to do with Jake and it was not
pretty, but he didn't want to share any more until he knew the details.
Mom didn't have much at Jenny's place with him so it didn't take him
long to get his things together to go. They decided to get some dinner
together first and afterward Jenny watched Danny pull out of the parking
lot and head to the interstate. She looked around at the nearly empty
parking lot and realized that for the first time since she had come back
from China, that she was by herself. It was actually a little lonely
after having family rotating in and out of her life the last few weeks.
She got into the truck and drove home listening to some radio station,
but not really paying attention to what was playing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. Day 76
After another day or two Jenny cornered Dr. Min before she headed off
after their session.
"I need to ask you something," she said when she had gotten the tall
woman to slow down. "I want to ask you about what you have thought may
happen when my twins are born."
"In what way?" asked Dr. Min.
"I need to know what you think as a doctor and a researcher. I'm
interested in what you think that may come after a person who was
switched into a developing infant is finally born."
Dr. Min stopped walking as quickly as she had been and suggested that
they go to her office to talk. It was only a couple of floors away so
they were stepping inside the Spartan room she used within a few
minutes. Dr. Min didn't really have any personal touches to her office.
There were two photos on her desk and little else. One of a woman and
himself as she had been, and another with them later and their children.
Jenny knew not to ask her about them now. About the time that Dr. Min
had been facing a mirror looking at the face of the Congolese woman he
had become, his family was dying in the wreckage of the bus they had
been riding, waiting for an ambulance that would not come. Jenny hoped
for her sake that one of them had been found since then, but Dr. Min had
given no hint of it to anyone.
She sat down and asked Jenny to take the seat across from her.
Jenny chose to speak first. She told her about what she had been
thinking especially since they had begun their memory experiments
together. She said she had been waiting for, among other reasons, Dr.
Min and Dr. Nakamura to have some time to see if they would be able to
give her a better answer once they had some time to work through these
early stages.
"This is about Ms. Feng then?" she said to Jenny.
"Yes," she said.
"Jenny," she said slowly, "I was delaying this particular conversation
because in truth I don't have anything certain that I can tell you. I'm
sorry, but the only thing I can to tell you that all I or anyone else
can offer you, is speculation. Maybe that would be all we could ever
have offered you."
"I need to know anyway," she said. "Dr. Waverly told me during my last
visit that the other baby is a boy. I need to know what I may have
facing me when Sonya comes. What happens when she finds herself with me
as a baby boy or girl."
"Jenny there are so many possibilities that could come to someone in her
situation," she began.
"But you know what some of them are, even if it's just speculation.
Right?" Jenny pressed further.
"We have some ideas, yes," she said, plainly reluctant to tell her.
"Tell me then. I need to know, even if it's just speculation," Jenny
said.
Dr. Min exhaled. "All right," she said.
"The most likely possibility is that whether Ms. Feng is in the boy or
the girl infant, she will in all probability be wiped clean mentally.
There was literally nothing physically there for her soul, as they say,
to be imprinted on. There was simply not enough physical development
there that she could use. Now she did survive, but the cost was probably
everything that she was as the individual she had been. She will start
her new life with a blank slate mentally, just as her sibling will,
regardless of whether she is your son or your daughter."
"I see," Jenny said.
"The next most likely possibility is that she may survive as a set of
impulses and abilities that will manifest as whichever baby she
transferred into grows and develops. You may notice this baby making
more rapid progress in certain milestones. She would know what to do,
but be limited by her body's development. As she gets older you could
see her have an affinity for things from her previous life. She could
have a particular talent for basic things like language or certain likes
and dislikes. She would probably seem to be gifted when it comes to
speaking and learning both English and Chinese. When she starts school
you may see her making rapid progress in her schoolwork, since, even
though she may not remember the specific details, she would already be
familiar in a deep unconscious way with many of the concepts being shown
to her. It would be like she is born with a psychic roadmap to what she
needs to do in these areas."
"She may have a close affinity for your former body. A lingering
association from your romantic relationship. Or she could exhibit
resentment and some feelings of jealousy toward yourself, especially if
you are romantically involved with another when she develops to a level
where she can recognize you and express her feelings to you. Or she may
not be able to explain at all why she has the feelings she does, all she
will know is that they are present but not be aware of the root causes
of them."
"She may demonstrate that she has retained her knowledge, but not her
memories or her sense of self. She may be able to recall all of the
various incidents in her previous life, but there may be no emotional
attachments. For her it could be like reading about someone else in a
book. There would just be no frame of reference for her to connect
herself as she is now to how she was before the Shift.
"And there is the very strong likelihood that she could have complete
recall and her sense of self is preserved intact. The only way this
would happen would be if she keeps herself together as a spiritual being
until her physical form is ready to accept that knowledge. The last one
I really can't say for sure. I only mention it as a strong candidate
because it is not possible to ignore the presence of a soul even if we
have little understanding of how such a thing functions."
"The truth is that while this is what we think is likely to happen, we
really don't know. It could turn out just as I think it might and all
that will remain of Ms. Feng is her inclinations, aptitudes and vague
feelings she wouldn't be able to express because she doesn't know where
they come from. She may start fresh as any other infant. Or she could be
intact and reveal herself when she is able to do so. The latter is all
dependant on what the nature of the soul as many are thinking of it
today is and how it comes into this picture. If she is able to preserve
who she is though gestation and birth I'm sure that you would know it
before very long. So as much as I would like to tell you for sure, all I
can honestly tell you is the only thing we can do is to wait and see."
Jenny left the office complex. There was no place to go afterward. She
had no desire to go back to her small home. She spent a good bit of time
driving aimlessly about, the unstrapped empathy belly beside her on the
seat. She did park the truck at City Park near the center of town for a
while. She sat there with the windows down and watched the people that
were there for a while. She left and found herself parking again just in
front of Java Jolts.
She sat outside for a few minutes before Derek came out to check on her.
He asked her what she wanted and she ordered the spiced tea that she
tended to favor still. He brought it to her a few minutes later. "Are
you ok?" he asked her setting the big white mug down. "You look like
something is bothering you."
Jenny looked at the steaming drink. "I think I've lost Sonya," she said
to him.
======================================================
Wish Shift: Chapter Thirteen
Confessions
Year 1 A.S. Day 76
"I'm sorry to hear that," Derek said. "Is she one of your friends? I've
heard you and your family mention the name from time to time, but I
don't think I've met her."
Derek was trying to be polite she realized. She realized also that she
needed to tell someone about it now, so she asked him if he had time to
sit down for a bit. When he asked her why she told him that if he really
wanted to know that then he should sit, because this was going to take a
few minutes to go through. Derek looked around. The place was still
pretty quiet at this time of day, so he said if someone came in he would
just take care of them and come back and she could pick up where she
left off at.
She told him that she appreciated it and that she needed to talk with
someone. She told him that she didn't want to go over this with family
just yet. She felt that she knew Derek and the others here well enough
now, that she thought she could share at least this much.
She started telling him about how she had switched, but she kept it
brief, not mentioning those details he didn't really need to know. She
told him about how the Switch had given her; not only a new body with
its own complications, but also a new son, J.L. She talked about how
daunting it was for her to suddenly be, not only a woman, but also the
mother of a thirty-seven year old man, even if he was her infant son
inside. Lastly she told him about the twins that she didn't know had
come with her change of body and how one of them might be Sonya; the
woman she had loved and whose body she would now wear the rest of her
life.
Eventually she got to what had brought her to Java Jolts and this
conversation today. She told him that up until now she really didn't
know what to expect, but she had been hoping that no matter what had
happened she would have Sonya as she was back with her eventually. That
was most of what had mattered to her as the days had stretched into
weeks and now months. She told him how she had started doing what she
was doing as a woman as a way of keeping Sonya alive until she was re-
born or until someone figured out how to reverse the Switch. She didn't
tell him about any of the things that Mom and Dr. Warren had discussed
with her about this though. He didn't need to know and going through it
once had been bad enough.
She said that she didn't really know what to expect, but even then she
had hoped and she had kept on hoping. But today, after what Dr. Min told
her that about what she suspected would probably happen, Jenny finally
had to face that all that might be left of Sonya would be a really
gifted little boy or girl and now she had no idea about what she should
do without that hope being there anymore. After she told him the last of
it he told her that he was really sorry to hear about all of this.
Derek mostly sat quiet through Jenny's long subdued explanation. He
already knew quite a bit of what she told him from pieces of
conversation that he had picked up when bringing Jenny and her family
their orders. He usually overheard quite a bit whenever any regulars
came here, but it was not like he was listening in, even if he was
paying attention to her when she came in.
"But she did say that it was all a possibility? Right?" Derek said.
"She did say that she really didn't know and that all options are still
on the table. Right?" he asked her.
"Yeah, but the way she said it to me I just think she was going down the
list and she didn't really think that Sonya will come back as she was
inside. And the bad thing is that I realized that I had already started
to feel that myself."
She stopped talking then and didn't say anything more for a little
while, then Jenny thanked him for listening to her even though he really
didn't have to. He told her not to worry and asked her if he could get
her anything. She asked if she could get the spiced tea she usually got
and he said he'd get one for her and asked her to wait a few minutes
while he got it ready. When he brought it back to her she started
reaching into her murse to get some money, but he waved her off.
"On the house," he said. "I think you need a little something for
yourself after hearing news like that," she tried to pay him still, but
he still refused. She just thanked him again and put her murse away. She
slowly sipped her tea and tried to sort out her feelings a little more.
There was no one home right now so there was no overwhelming reason to
go there just yet. She didn't want to break this news to the family by a
text and if she was going to talk to them she really wanted to do it
face to face and not over a phone. Talking with Derek had taken a little
of its weight off of her, but the burden was still there.
She sat outside and watched what cars there were pass by and drank her
tea. Derek brought her another and again told her to put her money away.
Jenny tried to pay him anyway and told him she didn't want him to get in
trouble with his boss. Derek told her not to worry about that, then he
turned to the big window and looked at his reflection in the plate
glass.
"Hey boss, is it ok if I do this?" he said to himself.
"Sure," he said back to himself. "I don't have a problem with it."
He looked back at Jenny. "I own this place so you really don't need to
worry about a couple of free drinks. If I can't do a good turn for
someone when they really need it, I might as well be working for someone
else."
She thanked him again. He said if she needed some company just ask and
she said she didn't want to bother him. He said it was wasn't and sat
down with her for a while just keeping her company until she finally had
to leave.
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Year 1 A.S. Day 81
The next two sessions with Dr. Warren were mostly one long session
spread out over a couple of days. This was a big issue for Jenny to go
over and he didn't want her to try to power through it. When she came in
on Friday it was still something that he could see was haunting her
thoughts. But surprisingly for him it was not all that she had on her
mind. He asked her if she felt up to going over what else was troubling
her and she said that she was.
"I guess one of the things that keeps coming back to me is what Dr. Min
said about Sonya possibly feeling jealousy when I am romantically
involved with someone else," she said.
"And should you be concerned over that?" he asked. "Is there someone who
could be taking that kind of position in your life?"
"No, there isn't," she said. "And there isn't anyone who is even
remotely near that chance either," she said. "What I think bothered me
about that is that it is a complication that I really wasn't wanting to
think about."
"There are a great many people who have had the same views now just as
they had before the Switch, so you should understand that you are in no
way unusual in your feelings. They are reasonable and perfectly normal
for anyone in your situation," Dr. Warren said taking notes.
"I think I can understand that. It's not that I'm questioning that I
don't feel any room inside myself for anything more from someone else
right now. It really isn't that. I think I'd have been fine with being
who I need to be for now and it wasn't an issue for me until this week.
I've not even had the possibility of being with anyone as a
consideration. This whole time I've been dealing with everything else
and literally the last thing that is on my list of things is being
involved with a man at all," she said to him.
"You said it wasn't an issue until this week. Has something changed to
bring this to your attention recently?" Dr. Warren asked.
"You bet there has," she said in a hesitant, embarrassed way.
"I woke up a couple of days ago from an intense sexual dream. I couldn't
stop gasping for a few minutes after I woke up and I had to change the
sheets on the bed because I had saturated them. And I couldn't get back
to sleep for over an hour after that as well."
"Can you remember any specifics from this dream that stand out to you?"
"Only that I was definitely female and very enthusiastic. I was fucking
like a porn star if you really want to get specific and I wasn't
questioning any of it. I was just being there in the moment and all I
was doing was letting the feelings wash over me."
"Tell me about it then," he said. "Just the details you're comfortable
sharing. There is no need for you lay yourself bare so to speak."
Jenny took a slow breath. She had thought that this might be something
that she would have to go over since the night it had happened. When she
knew that the feelings that she had were not going away and would likely
come again, she faced the thought that she may have to tell at least Dr.
Warren about it.
"I don't know when it started," she said. "One moment there was just
nothing and the next moment I was immersed in it."
"Well it was a dream, they usually have their own rules for us when we
have them."
Jenny nodded and started to tell him what she remembered.
"I don't know when it started, but I was here in my travel trailer and I
was who I am now. The first thing I realized was that I was on my back.
My legs were spread so wide that I could feel the sides of my knees
lying flat against the bed. Whoever he was, he was already deeply inside
of me. He was moving slowly and I could feel him sliding inside against
the ridges inside of my pussy. He was stretching and filling me and I
was mewling and moaning in pleasure because I was so happy that my cunt
was full again and when I felt him cum in me all I could do was just
scream at how good it felt."
"But it wasn't over. Somehow suddenly, no sooner than I had felt that
happen when everything changed and I felt myself getting fucked again in
a different way. How I was getting fucked completely changed. I wasn't
on the bed anymore. He was deep inside of me and my legs were wrapped
around him. I was leaning against the wall and using my legs to ride up
and down his shaft while he held me up with it. I felt his hands cupping
my ass against the wall and my arms were around his shoulders. Every
time I came down hard and I felt myself sliding around him and crushing
him against my clit, all I wanted was for him to ram into me even harder
than he was doing."
"While he held me against the wall and fucked me he had my breasts in
his mouth, first licking one then the other then over and over teasing
my nipples with his teeth while I ground against him and began screaming
to him to give me even a little bit more. I know my nails were tearing
at his back and I felt him cum inside of me again I just wrapped myself
around him and I didn't want him to stop. I just couldn't get enough of
feeling him fill me up with his cum. I needed more of it even though I
already had it inside of me."
"He carried me over to the bed and just put me down on it. I was on my
hands and knees and he was inside of me again just behind me. He kept
telling me how he was going to keep fucking me like this until neither
of us could stand and all I could do was demand that he stop talking
about it and do it. The last thing I remember before I orgasmed was my
voice shouting fuck me, fuck me, fuck me. I think I was actually
shouting that and that was what woke me up as much as the orgasm
itself."
"And what do you think brought this on?" he asked trying to gauge her
thoughts. She was also pretty sure that the reason that he had moved his
notebook the way he had was to conceal how her graphic description had
affected him.
"I really don't know," she said. "I have had zero sexual desire since
the Shift. I still remember what I did and how it felt, but between then
and now it's like it has been switched off and somehow it got switched
back on this week and I don't know why."
"Do you think it may have something to do with what Dr. Min told you
about what may be happening with Sonya? Is it possible that sub-
consciously now that you know that you may no longer have the potential
of that relationship hanging over you that you may have given yourself
permission to have feelings like this for yourself?"
"I hope not," she said. "I would hate to think that even with what I
know, that all it took was that to make me change. Even with Dr. Min
telling me that, I still hope that she is wrong and that when she can,
Sonya will look up at me and let me know that she's there even if we
can't be together the way we were again."
"You know," he said, "you may be overlooking a simpler reason for this
recent change. You have not been sexually active nor have you felt the
desire to do so in almost two and a half months. Times of crisis often
shut down the sexual drive in many people but underneath that you still
are a young woman with all of the innate desires that your body
possessed before the Shift."
"And in addition to those normal and natural desires you would be
feeling in the normal course of events you also have the fact that your
body is still undergoing dramatic changes in its hormonal chemistry
every moment as well. This could be nothing more than a normal reaction,
in your case to pregnancy. Some women do have a heightened libido during
some portions of their pregnancy. Perhaps in your case it is as simple
as that?"
"Maybe," she said in an unconvinced sounding voice. "Maybe it's
something more and I haven't figured out what it is yet."
"Jenny have you considered that aspect of your life. Really considered
it?" Dr. Warren said to her.
"No, like I said. It's something that I've been ignoring. There has been
so much going on in other areas that I've kind of been grateful that I
haven't had any demands of that kind."
"Was Sonya a woman with little interest or inclination for sexual
contact?" he asked.
"No, I mean. I thought that her interest was normal. It's not like she
was some kind of nymphomaniac or anything, but she did enjoy that part
of our lives as much as anyone would I think," she said thoughtfully.
"Jenny," he said. "It may very well be that your recent increased
arousal is related to your pregnancy. Or it could simply be a matter of
what is now your natural desire for sexual contact re-asserting itself,
now that many of the things that have caused you so much stress have
receded. Whatever the reason, you will have to eventually come to terms
with this aspect of yourself now. That you are a healthy young woman who
does have the desire for sexual intimacy and that desire will only grow
in the days ahead."
"I'm really not sure I'm ready for that," she said. "I'm just starting
to get a little bit settled with everything. So much of what has been
hanging over me doesn't feel so final. I just don't think I should or
even if I can really."
"From what you have told me, I don't think that it is a matter of you
being able to, but possibly you needing to adjust to this change and
accept the permission that you may be extending to yourself in this
manner. Did you intend to remain alone the rest of your life after you
have had these two children?" he asked.
"No, like I said. I haven't considered it. And the idea that I could be
with someone else still makes me feel like I'm cheating on her," Jenny
said turning her face away from him.
"But are your possible actions really doing that?" he asked her.
"I guess not, not in the situation that I am in. But it still feels like
that when I consider anything of the sort," she said in a less convinced
voice.
"Jenny you need to understand that these feelings are not going to go
away. Sexual dreams and their physical effects are common in both men
and women. They are a natural expression and shouldn't be seen as a
means of shaming yourself for having the natural urges that you have
felt and will continue to feel," he leaned forward a bit.
"You don't have to make a decision now, but eventually you will have to
make a choice that will involve what you are going to allow yourself to
do to fit this part of yourself into the whole. Perhaps that will mean
nothing more than masturbation, perhaps you may find yourself taking a
lover sometime when that is not sufficient. Or perhaps it will lead you
to establishing yourself as the woman in a permanent relationship with a
man. I don't think it would be healthy for you to dismiss these outcomes
from your consideration."
"I don't think I want to be any man's wife," she said. "But I also know
I'm not gay. I know that I just don't see random men and want them
either. And the idea that I would be someone's girlfriend and maybe
later their wife anytime soon is just so hard for me to take in. I was
just getting uncomfortable with the idea that I have these desires and
now I have to consider that sometime in the future I may find myself
considering spending the rest of my life sharing my bed with a man. That
I would want to be giving myself to him and doing the things a wife is
supposed to do for him? I just can't see it. I look at it when you say
that and I just don't see myself fitting into that role anytime soon."
"Jenny," Dr. Warren said. "As with so many other things that you have
facing you, this is not a decision that you have to make now. And in the
end it will be something that you will either choose to do or not choose
to do. Just as other women have had to come to terms with their choices
in this matter, you eventually will as well."
"At least you do not have the added complication of dealing with being a
homosexual woman. Regardless of how easy it may seem that it could be.
It would mean for you an entirely different experience of learning not
only the old rules for that life, but whatever is coming in how society
adjusts to this change," he said.
"Sometimes, especially since I have started feeling this ... arousal, I
think that might have been easier. I mean I wouldn't have had any
changes in what I looked at as desirable and it isn't like it was before
with people having such strong feelings against being gay," she said
almost wistfully.
"That is true, if for nothing else we can thank the Shift for settling
the idea that homosexual orientation was a choice. It did take having
countless male and female homosexuals finding that their new bodies came
with new straight desires and former straight men and women finding that
they now had no choice either in desiring partners of the same sex, but
at least that idea is firmly cast aside," he said.
"But for you that is not something that you have facing you. Your
choices, thankfully for your situation, are a little more or less what
we used to consider conventional. But eventually you will have this
choice to make," he finished.
"A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Waverly gave me some suggestions on what I
should do if I wanted to have sex during the pregnancy," she said. "I
thanked her for bringing it up, but I also told her that I really wasn't
interested in that. Now I think that I may have been too hasty. Or maybe
not." She shook her head. "I just don't know. I thought I was starting
to adjust and then this."
"Then perhaps, like the pregnancy this is something that you would find
yourself in need of a little assistance in getting your bearings you
might say," Dr. Warren leaned back. "You might find that you could
benefit from exploring this new side of yourself, but do it on your
terms and at your pace. Whatever you choose to do the only choice that
would be definitely negative would be to ignore its presence in your
life."
They talked about it for the rest of the session. Jenny didn't feel like
embracing any part of this bit of herself in the sense of a relationship
with others, but she also still was feeling the aftereffects of the
dream even now and she found wanting to explore that aspect of herself a
more tempting prospect now than it had been before.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. Day 84
She was more than a little hot and bothered a few days later when she
woke from an even raunchier version of her last dream. As she lay there
feeling the aftereffects of waking up that way she knew she had to do
something this time. In the darkness over the next hour she allowed her
hands to wander where they would and allowed herself to feel the
pleasure she could bring herself from her own hands.
While that exploration of herself did tamp down the need it didn't
really stop her new sexual awakening. She had actually shaded what she
said to Dr. Warren a bit. Sonya had been as randy a woman as she had
been a man. Looking back on their vanished sex life she was more
surprised that Sonya had not gotten pregnant by her earlier. Jenny had
used condoms when she needed to then, but there had also been other
times when they just didn't bother.
Maybe Sonya had just missed something that she normally did regularly
when she had gotten pregnant, maybe she had known it was likely and just
didn't care because she knew that they would both be happy with it.
Either way Jenny thought that Dr. Warren was more right than he knew and
that she couldn't ignore her physical desires like this. It was too
distracting for her that she was feeling that ache more often when she
woke in the morning.
She fell into a regular pattern of masturbation in the evening most
nights in an effort to curb her gradually increasing desires. But after
the last one woke her with heart pumping, muscle clenching fervor deep
in the night and left her trembling with unsatisfied lust she finally
decided that she needed more than her hands and that she would visit
Kirby's in the morning.
=====================================================
Wish Shift: Chapter Fourteen
Pebble
Year 1 A.S. Day 85
Kirby's little shop sat off to the side of an old drive-in that had been
built here when this was the edge of town some fifty years before.
Surprisingly to Jenny the sign out in front of the old drive-in said
that they were still in business on the weekends. She looked at it
casually out of the truck window as she drove past and considered going
there sometime, if it was really still in business. The posts holding
the speakers were still in place and it looked like there was some
regular traffic through there. Or at least enough to hold down the weeds
from growing too much.
When she was a boy she remembered how mom and dad had taken them to the
old drive-in back home before it was torn down in favor of the new
Cineplex. The Cineplex was ok she thought, but even with the scratchy
sound from the old tinny sounding speaker and having to run the wipers
when it rained there was still something about the old place that she
missed.
It probably was feeling the way she did when they did things like that
together. Dad had an old station wagon that they would use to go there
in. Sometimes he would have them lay on the cargo floor of the back
section and cover them up with a blanket. He told them to stay quiet and
they could get in free. It wasn't until she was much older that Jenny
realized that the drive-in had stopped charging by the person several
years before. But it was still fun when they did it.
Kirby's was by the edge of the main road so as soon as she passed by the
old drive-in she had to make an immediate left into the cleared field
that served as a parking lot. The windows were tinted a dark shade.
Probably a relic from the time when places like this had to stay as
innocuous as possible to avoid attracting the attention of the
loudmouths who condemned it, except for when they were sneaking in to
scratch their particular itch.
She parked the big truck, opened the door and slung herself down. She
reached onto the seat and retrieved her empathy belly. She winced a
little as she strapped it back on. Her sides had been aching for the
last couple of days. She hoped it was something that would go away
before she met with Dr. Waverly next time. As she flipped the fabric of
her light top over the belly she found herself really looking forward to
that next visit when it should be coming off of her for good. She slung
her murse over her shoulder and closed the truck door.
The field wasn't paved, but Kirby's had poured gravel over the parking
area before running over it to pack it down. There was still the odd
strand of grass peeking up through the crushed stone and the sound of it
crunching beneath her shoes was loud in the quiet afternoon. The door
chimed when she came in and she could feel from the cold interior that
Kirby already had his a/c on for the summer. She felt a slight shiver
and felt her nipples harden after a few minutes from the chill.
A woman in her mid forties was leaning back in a swivel chair behind the
counter. She was smoking a fat black cigar and drawing something in a
notebook. She was a bit overweight, but to Jenny that was kind of a
loaded description. After living in China for the last few years she had
a tendency to view a lot of people that she saw as a little overweight.
It was all in what you were used to she thought to herself. She walked
up to the woman. She was going to ask her about what she was coming here
for when she got a good look at the open page in the notebook.
It was a detailed drawing of a black swan flanked by two white ones with
reeds and cattails rising from the water beneath them. Jenny asked the
woman if she was a painter or if she was just going to keep it as a
drawing. The woman shook her head and told Jenny neither. She said that
it was the tattoo she was going to have put on her back when she got it
just the way she wanted it.
She put the pencil down and reached across the counter and introduced
herself as Ann Kirby. Ann it turned out had switched into the body of
the local president of some minor morality group that had been trying
unsuccessfully to shut him down for several years. That was just amusing
to Kirby, what really bothered her was that, when she switched, she had
lost all of the tattoos that she had as a man. Jenny asked her if she
was doing it for some level of payback on the woman by doing that and
Ann shook her head no.
"I really didn't care about that woman most of the time. I think it's
ironic as hell that, if she was still around, she'd probably have a
coronary seeing herself running this place now and when I finish the
tat's I'm working on she'd probably blow a gasket over that," Ann said
putting the notebook under the counter.
"But it's my body now and I'll decorate it any damned way I choose," she
said. "Besides if she does come back and start a fuss over what I do
with my body now, I can always whip up a little porno for her to watch
once I get decorated enough. I am petty enough to do that. But I really
hope the bitch ended up in the backwoods of Timbuktu, somewhere where
she can't bother me," she said and took another big pull on the cigar.
"So what can I get for ya' hon?" she asked blowing the smoke away from
them.
Jenny looked around, probably out of habit more than any feeling of
embarrassment and asked the woman where the vibrators were.
"Display case over there. Around the corner and to the right just after
the anal plugs," The woman waved off to the side and turned back to her
cigar. "Just call me over when you find what you want and I'll come open
up the case," she said, slipping the notebook out from under the counter
and opened it back up to her drawing.
Jenny walked past the various displays and shelving. Kirby's was
actually really organized. It was nicer than a lot of sex shops that she
had been in before. Fairly good sized too. She walked up to the case
mounted on the wall that held Kirby's assortment of vibrators. It wasn't
the first time she had bought one of these either. Before she left for
China she had a small collection of different toys that she had used
with her girlfriends. But the ones she had in the drawer here in the
travel trailer weren't working anymore when she went looking for them
after a particularly lecherous dream. She figured that after being in
storage for this long they gotten corroded inside from the humidity and
just stopped working.
She did feel the difference this time though. Before she was always
getting something like this to use to pleasure a partner. This time what
she would buy was for herself. She looked over the assortment and tried
to imagine which one would be right for her. She looked at a knobby
fourteen incher for a moment and shuddered at the thought of using such
a monster and quickly rejected that one. She kept trying to match one to
what had been her penis size back when she had been James. But when she
looked the ones that she knew should be right she realized that she had
forgotten what it even looked like specifically or what it felt like to
have that as part of herself. And more disturbing to her was that they
looked bigger to her than she thought they should.
She remembered the features that had driven her girlfriends wild and she
was definitely going to be getting one with those options, but she
didn't really want to get too hung up on the aesthetics of them. She
decided that she would go a bit conservative this time and maybe later
she would be a little more daring. She called Kirby over and indicated
the one that she wanted. Kirby retrieved it from the case and walked
back to the register to ring her up. As Jenny was fishing the money out
of her murse she asked her if the Shift had much of a change on her
business.
Ann laughed a bit. Then she said that there had been a lot more change
than she would have expected. Not the least of which was she had been
road testing a lot of different merchandise herself.
"Sometimes it seems to me that everyone drifts in here at one time or
another and they all are looking for something to try out now that they
don't know what it is they like as much. Some of them are pretty much
the same, but the regulars have been branching out in some ways even I
didn't expect," she said.
"I have this one lady, real quiet type. Didn't look like she would be
into anything wild, but every time she came in, what she made a beeline
for was anything that had two big black guys in a threesome. She
switched with a black woman a few years older than her and now she has
got way into the lesbian bondage stuff. She told me that before she
couldn't stand to have her partner even use a light paddle on her and
last time she came in she dropped a pretty big amount for stuff she
wouldn't look at before."
"Yesterday a guy came in, built like a damned truck. I swear he could
probably have a good shot at bench pressing a Buick. Turns out he used
to be this shy little guy about nineteen who was really into furries.
Now, not so much, even if he does still favor that stuff and his big
problem is he just doesn't know what it is he likes and he spent a lot
of time just browsing around when he was here."
She handed Jenny the bag and her receipt. "That one's a good one. I
tried out that model myself for a while. I think you'll like it. If you
want to try something else next time I'll let you in on my new list of
favorites," she said with a wink.
Jenny didn't really know how to answer that so she said thanks and that
she'd keep it in mind for next time. She picked up the bag and left Ann,
who had picked up her notebook and gone back to her drawing. She already
had some fresh batteries at home so there was no need to stop for more.
She walked into the travel trailer and slowly maneuvered her way to the
back. She fished the vibrator out of the bag and looked at it for a few
minutes after she had loaded it with fresh D-cells.
It was white and just generally realistic. She'd seen some ones made
with more details than this, but she still wasn't sure about having one
like that right now. The plastic was smooth and when she flicked it on
she could see how it bent around a rotating joint so that it moved in a
shallow circle. She flicked through the speeds and found herself
becoming just a little wet from thinking about how the clitoral
stimulator was moving against the palm of her hand. Not right now she
told herself and forced herself to put it back in the box and then in
the drawer. She took a deep breath and shook herself before heading back
down the narrow hallway to the main room.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. Day 87
Mom and grandma called a couple of days later to tell Jenny that they
still hadn't settled things up there yet and that they couldn't come
down this weekend like they wanted too. They must have been having one
of their regular get-togethers when they called. They had asked Kira and
Dianne if they could come down instead, but they wouldn't be able to
either. Mom sounded pretty concerned about leaving Jenny without any
family around her for the last few days, but Jenny reassured him that
she was all right and that when they could come down she'd be just as
glad to see them.
Mom didn't sound totally mollified, but he accepted it. He asked her if
she had heard anything new from the doctor's and she told him a little
about what she and Dr. Min had been working on the last few days. She
carefully omitted mentioning what Dr. Min had told her about Sonya and
figured that the next time they were here would be good enough to clue
them in then. After they got off the phone she looked around the trailer
and realized that she didn't really want to stay here right now.
She went out to the truck and after removing the belly, fired it up and
went over to Bob's. She wasn't really that hungry right now, but a piece
of his pecan pie with some ice cream melting over it and hearing people
around her sounded pretty good anyway. After the pie came she let it sit
for a few minutes so that the vanilla could melt a little into it. She
was leaning her cheek on her fist with her elbow on the table and
looking out the window. She wasn't really thinking of anything. She was
more just listening to the sounds of the restaurant around her as she
watched out the window.
She felt someone coming up behind her. For a moment she thought it was
Bob come to check on her like he sometimes did. She looked up and
instead found Derek standing by her table.
"You looked like you were kind of thinking about something," he said. "I
just wanted to check to see if you were feeling any better after the
other day."
"I'm dealing with it a little better now," she said and motioned for him
to sit down.
"I'm not bothering you am I?" he asked.
"No, and I wasn't thinking of anything really, just kind of zoning out."
Derek had seen her come in when he was finishing up his lunch. Even
though he had already had something he had them bring him a piece of the
pie as well and slowly ate it while he and Jenny talked. They talked
about nothing important really for the next hour or so and took their
time eating the pie. It was really good. Bob had his staff make it in
the kitchen rather than get it from a supplier and she could really
taste the difference.
After they finished Derek got up and told her that he really had to be
getting back and that he had really liked talking with her. She watched
him walk back to Java Jolts and for a brief moment caught herself
admiring him before she pushed the feeling away and tried to pretend
that she hadn't had it. It wasn't until she was getting ready for bed
later on that she realized that somehow, in the course of her
conversation with him, she had invited him over to the cookout at her
place next Saturday.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 1 A.S. Day 91
The rest of the week passed fairly quickly for her. She was kept pretty
busy by Dr. Min and Dr. Nakamura. Even though she still felt
uncomfortable doing it, she made sure she spent a lot of time with J.L.
in between the rest of what she needed to do. Since there was no one
waiting for her back at the trailer she started spending every evening
sitting outside of Java Jolts, usually reading a book and drinking the
spiced tea that they made there. She had been reading her way through
Agatha Christie lately. The day after she spent talking with Derek at
Bob's, he had surprised her by bringing 'Murder on the Orient Express'
to her with her tea. He told her that he thought she would like it since
they had spent a little time discussing books last time.
Jenny had been intending to read it before and never had gotten around
to it. She was a little surprised that he remembered her mentioning that
and thanked him for it and promised to bring it back when she finished.
Derek told her to take her time. It was one of the books he kept on the
shelves there for decoration and for customers to read if they wanted
to. She knew it was good, but it was much better than she expected and
she found herself halfway through it in just a couple of days.
On Friday night mom called her and said that things had settled down and
he and Amelia would be able to come down in the morning after all. Jenny
said that was great and she found herself feeling better after hearing
it. She hadn't realized it, but she had been missing her family much
more than she thought she would. Maybe it was because they could come
and see her so much more easily than they could before.
She asked mom if he would be there in time for the cookout that
afternoon and he assured her that they would be there in plenty of time
and asked her if she wanted them to bring anything. Jenny gave him a
short list and thanked him. Her little kitchen was limiting in more ways
than just its size and she appreciated mom's offer.
About seven the next morning she was just getting up and around when she
heard the sound of mom's car pulling into her lot. She put down the mug
she was holding on the counter and dropped a tea bag into it before
quickly pouring some hot water over it. She left it to steep and went
out the door to meet them.
Amelia was just getting out of the passenger side when she stepped out.
She looked at Jenny and her face seemed to relax a little and brighten
seeing her. "I thought you'd have that thing off of you by now, or did
you just get that big while you were wearing it?" she teased.
"And good morning to you too, xiao waipo," she said. Amelia just shook
her head and reached back into the car for one of the bags. Mom came
around and gave her a hug. For a moment Jenny felt like she was small
again and she just let him hug her and feel safe.
"I'm with your grandma," he said. "I thought you were supposed to have
this thing off by now."
"Later today," she said. "I have to meet Dr. Waverly at nine and I was
going to go and pick up the stuff for the grill on the way home."
"So has she been able to find anything out about the other baby yet?"
Amelia asked over her shoulder, starting to take the bags into the
trailer.
Jenny looked at her mom. "She said I'm like Kim, I'm having a boy and a
girl."
Mom reached for her to hug her again. "I'm glad you know," he said. "Is
it ok if we go with you for your appointment?"
"If you're not too tired of course I want you to come," she said. Just
let me get something inside of me and we can head out."
Jenny made sure to wear a shirt that had drawstrings on it today. With
the belly coming off she needed something that she would be able to snug
in once it was gone. She looked herself over in the mirror. She had
gotten used to seeing herself like this the last few weeks. She didn't
know just when it was, but she didn't see Sonya in the mirror anymore.
She knew she should have expected that when she had decided to accept
the image as herself the night she told her goodbye, but even after
that, occasionally she had caught herself thinking that Sonya would have
looked so beautiful in what she was wearing.
But more often when she looked now it was just seeing herself. She
looked herself over again and noticed that she may have to make another
appointment soon to have her hair done. She thought she'd ask mo