Part 8 - Wright the Wrongs

Dee cracked his knuckles behind his head. “You’re not to blame. We all know store policy. They attached it to a giant stick.”

Korri cupped her ears and pressed her fingers against the back of her head. “I know…” She could see the words. She knew she wasn’t liable. And she knew that wasn’t the point.

Dee leaned back and held his black book up. “You know how I got this compilation of answers to regular problems? Trial and error.”

Korri blinked slowly. She let her arms fall away from her ears. Dee continued, ”I have had so many failures. I did my best but I couldn’t prevent some. But I learn…so I don’t suck so much the next time.” He plopped the book back down on the desk and sighed.

Straightening, Korri asked, “Why stay here…in this job and at this store?”

With a shrug, Dee answered, “A lot of reasons. I feel good when I take care of a problem just right. I have full dental coverage. And there are people here who I consider my friends. And other reasons.” He gave Korri a look.

She asked, “Other reasons?”

Dee gave another shrug. “That’s personal. I’d rather not talk about it.”

Korri nodded and moved aside a stack of memos, conceding, “Gotcha…”

After scratching at his forehead, Dee asked, “So, same question, why do you stay in this job?”

Korri clutched an arm around her stomach under her breasts. She sighed. “About the same. There’s not a lot of places hiring part-time and a lot of places are closing. I figure I should take work where I can find it. And, in the mornings, I take classes towards an Associate of Fine Arts degree in Theater.”

[https://i.imgur.com/JWyjDHt.png]

This earned a raised eyebrow from Dee and a “hmm”. Korri smiled and noted, “I want to be an actor someday.” Dee hid his mouth with his hand and nodded. Korri gave him a narrowed look and said, “Are you thinking about how I hammed it up earlier?”

Casting one last dirty glance at the carcass of the vacuum, half-buried by packing peanuts and boxes, Dee said, “Now I am. But I was wondering if you wanted to split the candy bar in my drawer.” Dee slid open the drawer and presented a candy bar in a moss-green wrapper. It had funny writing that Korri couldn’t make out. She kept a suspicious eye on it as she remarked, “It doesn’t really look like anything I’ve eaten.”

Dee set the bar down and said, “You don’t have to have it. It’s just a brand my aunt buys for herself. A lot. It’s New-Age-y stuff.”

“How does it taste?” Korri carefully leaned closer.

“Not bad.”

Korri nodded.

With a quick motion, Dee snapped the bar in half while it was still inside its wrapper. He unfurled it and held a chocolate piece out for Korri. She accepted it and set it on the table in front of her. Dee leaned back and took a deep bite of his piece.

Korri’s stomach gurgled like it was issuing a primal command. With a sigh, she took a bite.

She found the texture to be gritty but not unpleasant. It had more spices than she was used to in a candy. But all that paled next to the flavor of the chocolate in her mouth. She couldn’t tell if it was her different taste buds or just a good chocolate bar.

It was gone after a few bites but enough to still the gurgles inside her. As the taste faded, she found herself missing it. But instead of dwelling on the candy, she tidied up the area in front of her, poked the vacuum’s corpse over to the returns bin, and then wasted her time leaning back and tracing the lines in the ceiling tiles with her eyes.

As the minutes passed, she blinked longer and slower. She coughed and asked Dee, “You mind if I rest my eyes for a minute?”

She could hear Dee writing something with a pen. He answered only, “Go ahead. But I reserve the right to randomly poke you.”

Korri chuckled and let her eyes relax. She used to be really good at making sleep look like she was sitting and analyzing thoughtfully.

An unknown amount of time passed in her head. She suddenly found herself, in another place, sitting on a bench in a long room. There were lockers as far as she could see in either direction. For some reason, she figured it was a changing room down by the beach. She noticed the ceiling seemed high and she especially noticed that she was a man again.

Jeff could see his narrow, flat chest. He felt a rush of relief but couldn’t figure out what he was doing at the beach.

He walked over to a conveniently-placed full-length mirror. His relief soon turned to shock as he realized he was wearing a neon-pink two-piece triangle bikini with floral patterns. His hands darted about his body in embarrassment.

He could feel phantom sensations at his chest. He could feel a mass and weight that he couldn’t see. He checked under the fabric of the bikini top but his chest seemed normal.

However, when he looked in the mirror something seemed wrong. His legs were shaded by hair, as were his arms. He looked about the same, average height. His facial hair was there. It took him a moment to realize that his hair had become a bright shade of blond.

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As he watched, his hair spread down his neck like curling, yellow vines. They kept spreading until they reached his lower back. He tried to tell himself this was wrong. He wanted to feel horrified but, instead, he felt excited.

He kept glancing at the bikini bottom, which poorly obscured his male outline. While looking, he noticed that all the shadowy hairs on his legs had cleared to smooth, bare skin. The same was true for everywhere else about his body.

Suddenly, someone clutched at his shoulders and whirled him around. It was Dee. He stood there in small, blue trunks. Jeff’s gaze kept drifting down to Dee’s trunks, despite the fact he didn’t want to look there. Even when he was able to divert his gaze, his eyes found another part of Dee’s body. His mind’s eye flashed with an image of Dee’s firm behind.

As the thoughts filled him, he could sense his own body as though Dee was a human mirror before him. He could feel himself getting smaller next to Dee as Dee loomed ever greater. He could feel his very bones retreating in Dee’s presence. He could feel them shifting. He could almost see his face’s feminized features.

He knew his vocal tone had altered. He could feel the manly energy being sucked from him and he knew where it was going. Dee’s muscles strained under his skin. His features toughened and his hands swelled.

At the same time, Jeff could feel his body softening all over. With it, his entire mood softened too. He was calm, safe, and serene. He knew his chest showed, full and soft. He knew his bikini bottom fit over the curve of his shape. He knew a warmth inside which yearned for the man…she saw before her.

She released herself into his strong arms. She was Korri, a woman, and she loved it with every fiber of her being and, even more than that, she loved Dee.

In the span of a breath, Korri felt an overwhelming exposure in Dee’s embrace.

It was a moment that was just too much. Alarms sounded and Korri’s head shot up and launched her out of her seat with a “GAH!” and her arms flailing to the floor. A slow pant of relief burst into another “GAH!” as she looked down at herself. She then quietly muttered, “Oh…right…”

Dee looked down at her with a curious gaze. Korri pushed herself into a sitting position. Dee asked simply, “Dream?”

Korri nodded. “Nightmare…”

“Ah. You were kinda moaning.”

“Well, it was…really scary.”

“It wasn’t fearful moaning…”

Korri could feel her cheeks getting warm. Unconvincingly, she offered, “I like scary movies…I guess.”

Dee smirked and nodded. “Must’ve been a doozy.”

[https://i.imgur.com/LykXCIO.png]

Korri nodded too. “Sure was…” Then, she quietly added, “…Romance novel pulp that just scarred me for life…”

“Hmm?” Dee turned to ask.

“Nothing!” Korri swiftly answered.

As she positioned herself to get up, she heard Dee standing. She turned. Dee stood above her with his hand outstretched. The fluorescent lights even gave a bit of a halo to his features. Korri narrowed her eyes and hesitated, but she took his hand and stood. She quickly let go as soon as she was standing.

She mumbled, “Thanks.”

Dee answered, “Think nothing of it.”

Before they could get back to their seats or Korri could think something of it, a torrent of footsteps echoed from around the corner.

Three people made their way through the extended opening into the main area of the room. The one at the lead of the pack brandished a box which displayed a tall, white blender. He wore a black suit and a gray tie. He led with his wrinkled, bald head like a charging bull. A spider-webbing of black hair traced around the edge of his head. His nose protruded like a saber as he smacked the blender down on the counter and said roughly, “I am very angry with this establishment and its products. I may very well take legal action. And that’s no bluff.” He twitched a finger out at Dee, who didn’t waver.

The man at the back cradled a small cellphone in his hands. He moved the chair Olivia had used back to the wall and sat there. He wore slacks and a checker-pattern shirt. Carefully, he set the phone in the chair next to him and massaged his thick, gray mustache.

The man just behind the customer with the blender sidled over to Korri. He was dressed in an outfit that color-matched her uniform. His blue top was a mostly-buttoned Hawaiian shirt and his khaki pants were cut-offs. His face looked perfectly-smooth and so did his arms and legs. He had a small air purifier unit with the cord tucked under one arm.

Then, he opened his mouth and said, “Hola, babelini. Okay, check it. I am here to return this...what was…a most excellent product for my respiratory and...biological-like systems. But I’m so torn because it worked just like it said…but…you know?” He gestured to his face.

Korri wore a dazed expression as she tried to put together the surfer guy visage with the melodic, airy girl’s voice that came from his lips. At that moment, she could only answer, “Um…yeah.”