With newfound confidence, potentially caused by lack of self-concern from tiredness, possibly from her annoyance at Des saying, ‘Just change things,’ Allison walked the main promenade of floor C36. It was an old floor with stores, bars and restaurants, businesses, everything. Businesses that could have been around for decades. It was quieter than one of the more youthful floors, floors Allison would be used to, and she was getting glances from the elderly patrons on their Saturday night.

Allison didn’t know if the glances were due to what she knew was her still rather masculine build and face, her looks the medication from Doctor Grace would slowly change, or due to her age, or that she was wearing white stockings. White stockings an entitlement and marker she couldn’t imagine any visitor to this floor was permitted to wear in a long, long time. She didn’t particularly care, though.

She cared so little she actually approached a member of security and asked the woman where Jenny’s was, the place, a bar she assumed, Des sent her to. It wasn’t on the floor-map.

The security worker didn’t seem bothered by this at all, even though Allison had rarely seen someone approach anyone in security, certainly not sober.

She directed Allison to where Jenny’s was, hidden away, and as Allison began her walk there, feeling more and more weighed down by the bags and beers she carried, the security worker called out, “And you’ll have to knock!”

Following the woman’s instructions Allison eventually found Jenny’s. There was the usual sign, although not illuminated, and barely even visible. No view inside was offered from the outside, and the door was closed. It was an antique style door, one with physical hinges that swung the door in or possibly out.

Allison rearranged the six packs of beer she was carrying so she could knock. After a minute the door opened back, showing a heavy, black curtain behind it, and a strongly built man in his mid forties stood looking at her. “Can I help?” he eventually asked, not moving out of the way.

“Are my friends here?” Allison asked, getting tongue tied, or brain tangled, seeing the man’s inexpressive visage.

“Same age as you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Allison said, fiddling with her grip on the six pack handles, getting flustered.

“Absolutely not,” the man said, but he didn’t slam the door in her face or say anything else. He just stood, waiting.

“When they arrive, if they can find the place, the same man sent us all here, sort of.”

The man at the door’s face changed a little for the first time. He seemed mildly amused. “And what was this man’s name?”

“I’m not sure I should say,” Allison said. “He did say to give one of these six packs to Jenny, and she’d be able to help me. If I wanted to talk about... I can’t really say.”

The man did actually laugh this time. “Do you mind?” he asked, reaching for one of the bottles in the six pack holder. Allison shook her head. The man lifted a bottle a little to get a look at the label. “And what’s your name, if you can share that?”

“Allison,” Allison said.

“My name’s Yes. Y-E-S. There are not a lot of people with my name. It’s a very low ID number and it’s never cycled. What are your friends’ names?”

“Angie and Adam,” Allison said, feeling the conversation relaxing.

“Triple-A... Please come in Allison. Welcome! We’re quiet tonight, as it happens. Sit at the bar and tell Sue you have a gift for Jenny; Sue will get her. I’ll try to keep an eye out for your friends. I assume they’ll stand out almost as much as you.”

Allison walked into the bar. It was quiet! A few people turned to look at her but quickly looked away again, seemingly not caring about her arrival.

There was actual wooden flooring, worn, and around low, mostly square tables were soft corduroy covered armchairs. Aged brass chandeliers were hanging from the low ceiling and there was a polished wooden bar counter with a few beer taps — certainly an amount of taps not necessary for a bar this size — along with a selection of bottles of even the same type of spirits on tiered shelving against the wall at the back. Multiple different styles of whiskeys, vodkas, gins, rums, and more.

Allison placed the six packs on the counter, put her tobacco-tin-holding, rainbow backpack on the ground, sat up on the cushioned, tall stool and hung her purse off a hook in the bar counter.

“Hello, little princess. What can I get you?” a woman asked, picking one of the bottles out of the six pack holder and then placing it back.

“They’re a present—”

“For Jenny, I’ll get her. I’m Sue, and I could guess at who you are but I’ll let you introduce yourself,” the woman, Sue, said.

“Allison. And thank you,” Allison said.

Sue nodded and was soon walking back in behind the bar after leaving through a door a few moments before that. “She’ll be here in a minute,” Sue said. Then she went back to reading her conn.

Allison saw the woman, Sue, wore leggings. That was extremely rare, verging on illegal. That was sportswear, for exercise and health. You were supposed to keep those for specialist activities if you were a citizen, or for a work need if you were over forty. Allison just had to accept Sue was working the bar, and willing to argue her bar-work needed her to not wear a skirt or dress.

After a couple of minutes an old woman, fully grey, but with a pace to her step and a severe look to her face that was betrayed by a kindly and casual posture was walking to Allison. “A present for me?” she asked.

“They’re from—”

“Let me see if I can figure it out,” the woman, obviously Jenny, said. She looked at the cap on the bottle and said straight away. “Des... How is he? How did your conversation go, Allison? I’m Jenny.”

“He seemed in fine spirits. Me, less so. I’m not too sure what to make of it. It’s a lot to take in,” Allison said.

“You got straight to serious stuff then, and he sent you to me. Comfortable smokes?” Jenny asked.

Des told Allison that few citizens had even seen tobacco but that certainly didn’t mean it was none. And he did send her to Jenny, telling Allison to talk to her. “I thought they were like sitting in front of a fire, in a cold climate. Drinking mulled wine.”

Jenny smiled and her kindly demeanour spread to the look on her face. “Let me message Des my thanks. You two did have a tough conversation.” She took a smaller than usual conn, but still in rainbow, female colours out of a pocket in her dress and began to type a message, looking up at one point to say, “Old thumbs, very slow.” Eventually she looked up, again, from her conn before stuffing it back in her pocket. “So like sitting in front of a fire... One of your friends coming is female?”

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“Yeah, Angie. And Adam is my other friend.”

“Do you think they’re ready to smoke what you smoked with Des?” Jenny asked.

Allison considered it for a few seconds. One did tell her she could, probably that she should, smoke what she’d smoked with Angie and Adam. It shouldn’t be a risk, but it seemed as though Jenny had some experience of this and was asking Allison for her own opinion. “I don’t see why—”

Allison’s conn beeped. Jenny indicated for Allison to look at it. It was a message from One. “If Jenny and I ever disagree over something I would suggest giving more weight to her opinion than mine.” Allison laughed.

“One?” Jenny asked.

“Yeah, he said to give more weight to your opinion than his if you two disagreed.”

Jenny made a soft ‘Hmmm,’ looking weary but satisfied. “He’s still deferring to me then. Although thankfully it was only to give my opinion more ‘weight.’”

Allison was confused by this, and it obviously showed. Jenny quickly said, “What One is to you, I was to One. Now retired. We go back to just getting old. I don’t think One is there yet, but there’s a few approaching it. One will have been pleased with you. It’ll encourage him. He’s a lifer, I think.”

Allison thought about the implications of what Jenny had said. “There’s more Ones than One?” she asked.

“It’s a rare job, not the rarest but quite rare. And very necessary, more than most. At least we think so.”

“Does that mean I’ll someday..?”

“No, you might find something else you want to do. You might get bored. Or tired. Maybe you’ll want to run a business. A family? That’s fine. Are you a citizen or voter?”

Allison had been surprised by a lot of things so far that day but that question surprised her the most. “A citizen, of course.”

“Not necessarily,” Jenny said. “It doesn’t always work that way. I presume if you’re here Des told you the story with laws.”

“That they’re not as strict as is made out? I kind of figured that out myself.”

Jenny laughed. It was a youthful laugh. “How?”

“Well, partly it was the smoke I had with Des. I lit it up in his apartment without checking if it was allowed. It just made sense. Then I thought — which I’m sure was partly the effect of the tobacco — if I’m allowed to do this there’s a lot more going on than there appears to be.”

Jenny’s smile grew wide. “You’re on the accelerated path. I can understand why, given the ruling today. How did One find you?”

“I slept in a workshop of his. I guess it’s a workshop; the equipment... I'd left a party because I don’t like sleeping near them but was too far from where I was staying at the time. Which was last night, I suppose. Today seems like... I don’t know... Anyway... I guess I knew I was breaking some laws, and it seems everyone is, and no-one really gets in trouble. Not if they don’t talk about it all over the place. Which is why people don’t know how flexible they are, I guess?”

Jenny rubbed at her hands like they were hurting. “The random bed, and I assume it was a single bed, in a lab, is a tough route to work, but if it pays off it pays off big. I’m happy for him. Now these friends of yours, they’re OK to smoke what you smoked with Des?”

“I think so,” Allison said.

“Good! They can have their first smoke here, which I think is a first for this place, and you can smoke something of mine,” Jenny said, as she was pulling a number of ashtrays out from beneath the bar. “And I’ll put these behind here.” She took the six packs of beer off the counter and rested them on the shelf behind her. “Did One tell you you could share your smokes with them?”

Allison nodded. “What he gave me, yeah. And what’d I’d smoked with clients.” Although she felt there was something strange to this, from the simple fact Jenny had asked her the question, yet another question about smoking with Angie and Adam.

“Extremely accelerated path... Anyway, this looks like them,” Jenny said, nodding towards Allison’s friends, who were walking in, looking confused until they spotted Allison.

They approached her cautiously.

“Sit up on the seats, Angie, Adam. I’m Jenny. You’re going to have your first smoke.”

“You’re in safe hands, really. I promise,” Allison said, feeling fairly sure that was correct.

Angie and Adam sat themselves up on the seats at either side of Allison and leant up against the counter. “Am I going to turn into a plant?” Adam asked. Allison could smell alcohol on his breath.

“You two have been drinking?” Allison said. “Not too much?”

“He’s been worrying his pants off, I even offered him a handjob if it’d calm him down,” Angie said.

“I can give you a handjob if you’d prefer, Adam,” Allison said. At this point she genuinely didn’t care. She was too tired to care, and it’d be just like what she did to herself anyway. What did it matter if it was someone else’s penis? Then she thought of Robert, very quickly, for the briefest of moments.

Adam sat straight back in his seat. “It’s highly unlikely you’ll turn into a plant. Don’t worry,” Jenny said.

“Allison turned into a woman!” Adam said. “Handjobs? Fucking hell...” He shook his head.

“What she had was so much more powerful than what you’ll be having. It’s not a concern. You don’t have to be a woman unless you want to be,” Jenny said.

“What!?” Adam said. “It’s possible I—” but he was cut off by Allison patting him on his thigh. For some reason he put his hand down on top of hers, then she turned hers over and held his. He seemed to begin to breathe a little easier.

Jenny took two of the beer bottles Allison had brought and put them in the quick chiller, dialling in a temperature, then readied four glasses, putting one out in front of each of them. After that it was just a case of dividing one of the chilled bottles up between the four of them, and topping up the glasses a little, but not to full, with the second. The liquid was black, with a thin, brownish-tinged, white foam head. Not a thick, very creamed head like on the beer Allison had earlier with Des. There were thin, beer-head bubbles of various sizes in it.

Adam squeezed Allison’s hand. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Beer,” Jenny said. “You’ve never had one like this. And not one this strong. You’ll probably enjoy it.”

“Isn’t this—”

“Who cares?” Allison said, knowing he was about to say ‘illegal for women.’

Angie bumped her shoulder against Allison’s. “Good woman,” she said.

“Go on,” Allison said to Adam. He glared at her but reached out and picked up the glass, then took a small taste. “Are you a plant now?”

“It’s not bad,” Adam said.

“It’s really good for women, too. Almost medicine for us. Helps our bodies be, well... To grow properly.” Jenny said, and she smiled at Allison and Angie.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?!” Adam’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Well, the weaker version, typically. I think Allison probably had some. A little bit of it anyway, in its regular form. It has some nutritional value to it that can be of benefit to a lot of women. When I was your age men used to offer it to us on that basis. It’s true as far as I know, according to some doctors and the chefs I’ve talked to. But none of the men I knew who drank it turned into women. So you’re fine. It’s not as trendy any more, I rarely have people order it...” Jenny said, sighing.

Allison and Angie both picked up their glasses, and took a taste, while Jenny followed them.

“This is really nice. Thick. Like syrup, but not sickly. There’s a bite, really good coffee-like, and some sweetness,” Angie said. Allison nodded.

“You ready for our smoke, Allison? Show these two not to be worried.” Jenny held out a rollie to Allison, that she took from a tin with a reddish label on it on the counter, along with a lighter. Taking it Allison lit the rollie and inhaled.

“How do you feel? What’s that rollie like?” Jenny asked.

Allison gave it a few seconds to come into its own, then said, “Relaxed. Like before. There’s some of what’s in Angie and Adam’s smokes, or what they will smoke, I assume, I think, in there...” Jenny nodded. “And something else, I’m not sure.”

“Taste your beer again,” Jenny said.

Allison picked her beer up and tasted. It was amazing, so deep. “Oh wow! That’s... A lot! I don’t have words for the tastes I’m getting. There’s so many of them... No... A few, but they’re moving.”

Jenny had pulled another tin from beneath the counter. She handed a rollie each to Angie and Adam along with lighters. “Your turn. Just like in the movies,” she said.

Both Angie and Adam held the rollies to their lips, with the element lighters before them. Allison didn’t know which one of them to look at but her decision was made when she saw the smoke rise from Angie’s rollie first.

Angie slowly exhaled a plume of smoke as she closed her eyes and held them shut, and after a few moments said, “Yeah...”

“What’s it like, Angie?” Adam asked.

Angie took another drag, eyes still closed, and repeated the process all over along with the same slow exhale. Then she took a deep breath through her nose. “It’s nice... I feel... Nice.” She opened her eyes and laid the rollie in the ashtray, then closed her eyes and took a deep inhale through her nose again.

“OK, wow,” Adam said, and, with an exaggerated certainty in his movement — an exaggeration that betrayed the real concern beneath his bravado — lit his rollie.

Except Adam didn’t exhale after a few seconds. He did close his eyes, and the hand that was just before his mouth fell and bounced off the bar. His chin dropped to his chest.

Allison also held her breath until he finally exhaled, with no smoke coming out. Allison took the rollie that was about to fall from his fingers into her grip as Jenny laughed.

“That’s sweet,” Jenny said. And she laughed again.

Adam looked almost passed out, and Allison readied to catch him if he dropped.