Breakfast was good, normal, and great for just eggs and bacon. I decided I’d go for a walk by myself afterward—and I was in the middle of that right now with a big cup full of coffee in my hand.
I took a sip of it, perfect temperature for drinking, but they only had sweetened creamer—some sort of fufu flavor that ruins the taste of the actual coffee.
I looked around. Huge towering redwoods surrounded me on all sides, the sun's low rays beaming over the hill through them. This was one of a few roads that went around the properties here… when I spotted someone way up ahead, walking his dog.
I’ll just mind my own business, I guess. It’s not like it’s unusual for someone to be here or anything, this road makes a loop on public property after all.
When I saw the breed of dog, a brown lab.
Now, I just had to pet it…
“Hi,” I said as we crossed paths and stopped. It was a man, looking to be about 24 years old if I had to guess. So around my own age. He had red hair and blue eyes, total ginger complete with freckles.
“Is your dog friendly?” I asked.
“Yes. I’m Blake,” he said with a smile, showing his straight white teeth. I got on a knee and petted the dog. I have a soft spot in my heart for brown labs. I had one as a kid.
“I’m Morgan!” I said. “Nice to meet you, Blake. I’m visiting my Uncle, his name is James.”
“Ah, I’m visiting for the summer, myself. Which house is his?”
“No house, the property at the very end.”
“Oh, gotcha. Hey, Morgan, would you like to have some coffee with me?”
I blushed again today, and it wouldn’t be the last time either, I knew. Was he asking me on a date? At his house?
He scratched the back of his head—
“Actually, I’d love to,” I said, surprising myself.
“Do you want to go right now? Or I could get your phone number—”
“No service out here for me, unfortunately. Now sounds good, even though I already got coffee, haha.” I raise my cup.
He breathed a sigh of relief. It was kind of cute. “Follow me,” he said and turned around in the opposite direction, where I was facing. I stood up.
“Which house is yours, Blake?”
“The fancy one on the flat stretch, with the run down barn. It’s my parents, I’m just visiting from Oakland.”
“You’re from Oakland?”
“Yeah, from a good part of Oakland, specifically.” He chuckled. “Born and raised there, can you tell?”
“I had no idea there was a good part of Oakland!”
“Hahaha! Yeah, throws you for a trip. The rest of the city is like slums, nowadays.”
“I’m from Portland, born and raised in Oregon.”
“I’ve got family there in Portland, actually. Haven’t been there in years, but I like it.”
“I can barely stand it, what with all the rain… I get depressed by it.”
“I can imagine, it’s probably good to visit but not to live there.”
“Exactly!” I took a sip of coffee, praying he had half and half at his house so I wouldn’t have to drink anymore of this trash.
He turned to me, saying, “what are you doing here, by chance?”
“That’s a secret,” I winked.
“Ah—that’s no fun!”
“I got afflicted, so I wanted to lay low for a while.”
“Attacked by a vision, eh? What was it?”
“It happened in a dream—by a frog.”
He raised his eyebrow at me. Did he know? Oh shit! I felt my body tense up.
“Never heard of it,” he said.
“That’s probably for the best…” I sighed this time.
“What’s the deal with it?”
“I haven’t had the time to figure it out quite yet. It just happened a couple of days ago, and yesterday was my first day here.”
“You really didn’t waste any time coming here.”
“Well… truth is, it turned me into a woman.”
He whipped his head at me, making a small but audible gasp.
“Really? I would’ve never guessed!”
“Yeah, until three days ago I was a man…”
“Well, you're certainly a beautiful woman.”
I felt the blood rush to my face. “You don’t mind, really?”
“No, why would I? It’s out of your control, anyway.”
“Isn’t it kinda weird?”
“Sure, but afflictions are weird, aren’t they? Why do they do anything? I just didn’t know one could turn you into a woman!”
“It’s certainly a strange one to get, yeah. There’s a few others that can change your body like that, all of them in dreams.”
We came up to an electronic gate and he pressed a code into the gate. It swung open, and we walked into his driveway.
“Are your parents here, by chance?” I asked.
“No, they won’t be here all summer because they’re on vacation in Panama.”
“Cool. It really is a nice house to have all by yourself, huh?”
“It gets a bit lonely, to be sure, but it’s also nice to be so far away from society, while not really being all that far away at all,” Blake said.
“I know what you mean, yeah.”
I was starting to see this ginger’s appeal, he was handsome with a slick haircut and well spoken.
Wait—did I just look at a man that sort of way? I pinched my arm, metaphorically. I wasn’t dreaming, I really did.
We walked into his house and kicked off our shoes. He unleashes his dog who runs off somewhere, and we step into the kitchen with an antique look to its tiles and cabinets.
I sit down at the table in the dining room past the kitchen. I think it’s even made of redwood… a very nice finish to it. Blake comes over with a cup and coffee pot, filling up my cup and then his with steaming hot mud.
“Got any half and half?” I ask.
“Actually, I do. It’s what I put in my coffee.”
He goes to the fridge and pulls it out, pouring some in our cups, and finally he sits down with a grunt across from me.
I take a sip of the good stuff—it’s perfect. I exhale a sweet victory.
“What do you do, Blake?”
“I’m a pilot. Currently unemployed, however. That’s why I’m taking some time off in these hills.”
“Amazing… what do you pilot normally?”
“Just small planes, currently. I want to work at a big airline, and fly big planes. I’ve got my own airplane, just a two seater. It’s how I travel back and forth here.”
“That’s awesome! I mean, I love flying, that must be awesome, right?”
“It’s definitely a good job, I’m lucky to do what I love for a living.”
Blake and I talked for well over an hour like that until I decided I should probably get leaving and see what everyone was doing back at camp.
“Come by sometime and pay me a visit, you hear?” I said to him as I left.
He agreed, he would, and offered me a ride back home that I declined.
Another walk won’t kill me, I said.
“Just so you know, I have internet here by satellite. You can come over whenever,” he offered me.
“I’ll actually take you up on that.”
So I walked back, unabated this time.
= = =
I opened the green beat up gate to James’ property. I had taken the short way back and not the road that goes to the back of the property.
Yeah, another walk wouldn’t kill me, but I was feeling lazy today, and I had to use the bathroom. I had learned my lesson, don’t overestimate the strength of my new, smaller bladder.
I walked down the trail leading exactly there, but the door was closed. I knocked on it lightly, and Audrey's muffled voice came from behind.
“Occupied!”
“It’s me, Morgan!”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
There was a moment of pause. I could tell she was unlocking the door by looking at the handle wiggle slightly.
“Come in!”
I opened the door. The light coming in through the door shining brightly down on her smooth, shaved vagina with a landing strip of short hair.
Even her vagina is beautiful… I wonder if mine is that pretty, like a flower…
“That was a long walk,” she said softly, grabbing a bunch of toilet paper.
“I met someone named Blake and had coffee at his house. I didn’t realize anyone had power lines out here, but he does.”
“A few people do, yes. At first, I didn’t like running generators, but now I prefer being off the grid.”
“How long have you been here, Audrey?”
“Oh, just a month or so now… I lose track of the days here.” She sat up and pulled up her thong, lifting up her dress to do so. It was slightly erotic, and I could feel myself tingle as the image burned into my mind.
I sat down on the toilet in her place and started doing my business.
“Hey, Audrey, do I have a belle vagina, like you?”
She blushed and looked down as I spread my legs for her to look.
“Oui, tu as un beau vagin,” she said in French with a smile, laughing.
“Good, thank you. I’m still scared to look. Why did you come here, Audrey? Seems like a strange vacation spot for you.”
“It’s a long story…” She hung her head.
“I’ve got all day to listen.”
“Maybe another time.” There was a sadness in her voice, just a hint.
“Whenever you’re ready to tell me, or you don’t have to at all.”
I pulled my boxers up and tidied up the skirt I was wearing.. Peeing as a girl was a lot of extra effort if you’re wondering. It also took way longer, of course.
“You said you were scared?” Audrey asked.
“Yeah, this new body gives me a lot of dread. To be fair, it got a lot better after last night. You gave me a confidence boost, a big one!”
“I’m glad I could help… but why does it scare you?”
“I feel—a lot different. I surprise myself with the emotions I feel now. It’s all foreign to me, being in this body. So that scares me, I want to pretend I’m not any different, but I keep finding that I’m very different.”
“You should embrace it, think of it as a once in a lifetime chance to experience something new. While it lasts.”
I remembered my conversation with my supposed daughter last night… and her bluish hair. We walked out of the outhouse and, with Audrey leading, we went further down into perfectly aligned redwoods.
“That is a nice mindset, and I wish it were that easy… But I’ll do anything to become a man again,” I said, knowing it to be true.
Even if I have to give birth.
Audrey read my mind. “Even if you have to have a bébé?”
“That’s how uncomfortable it is for me in this new body… Even if I have to have a baby, I’ll find some way to do it. Even if it’s by myself.”
Audrey grabbed my hand in hers and gently squeezed. It was comforting, I felt comfortable around her, I realized.
She was becoming a lighthouse to me… if I were a ship lost at sea.
“Where are we going, Audrey?”
“I’m taking you to see something amazing, just don’t tell anyone I took you.”
“Alright,” I said.
We walked hand in hand with the warm spring sun filter through the trees. Walking through black oaks with no established path, we were making our own. Eventually, when you get down far enough, it becomes flat land, and this part of the property looked no different than when I last saw it.
It was essentially a junkyard of old vehicles, rusting away down here. In the wintertime, the sunlight never hits this far down, and with the morning mist from the pacific ocean only a stone's throw away, it just eats up these old cars and trucks.
I was told once that a previous generation of my family line used this place for exactly what it looked like now, a junkyard. How anyone could see this magnificent forest and think of littering on it… it was beyond me.
Leave no trace, that’s how I operate, and I’m even a city boy. I mean, look how I’m dressed! You wouldn’t catch any country girl dead in what I was wearing, not that I currently had much choice about the purple skirt.
Speaking of the skirt, it wasn’t actually so bad. It felt like you weren’t wearing anything on your bottom half, which is nice. I wasn’t just getting used to it, I was starting to like it.
No wonder the Celts wore skirts, they had the right idea!
We walked on an old, unused road through the labyrinth of rusted cars, both of us looking at the ground so we didn’t get tetanus stepping on something sharp.
Passing in between the graves of old, old motor vehicles, we finally came to a small river. The river was technically on our property. We stepped over a log that crossed the stream, and Audrey pointed to our right.
“See that swimming hole? We can go there when it gets hot, and in the spring it’s great for fishing. You can catch steelhead there, passing by to their spawning grounds way up the river. Do you want to go fishing with me after I show you this place?”
“Yes, but you’ll have to teach me how to fish.”
“There’s not much to it, and there’s plenty of fish.”
“How do you know so much about fishing?”
“James taught me. He loves to fish, it’s his thing.”
We walked in silence, no longer holding hands, making our way up a steep grade. It was killing my legs.
We reached the top, climbing over some short rocks where the top came into a dip in the ground, and I saw it. There was no missing it since there were few trees around up here.
It was a Mech, an old one with poison ivy growing on it and all around it. It stood about 12 feet tall, 7 feet wide. Its arms are in a defensive pose crossed together in an X.
I walked around it, stunned.
“How’d it get left here? It’s even an ARMS model, used for big wars… Why’d the military leave it?”
“I stumbled on it myself when I was exploring the property. James said that when California split from the U.S. that they had a battle out here, a minor one. This must be leftover from that, but nobody knows why it was left, even if it was no longer functioning… it makes no sense.”
No sense is right…
These things cost millions to build, they’re cutting edge tech. They lost a fortune leaving it here…
I found the ladder leading up to the cockpit and started climbing.
“Morgan, there’s poison ivy!”
“I’m not allergic, don’t worry…”
I climbed up and grabbed the hatch into it, ripping off poison ivy and throwing it to the ground until it was clear.
It surreptitiously opened with a creak from the hinges and hydraulics keeping it closed… I could smell a horrible smell coming from inside.
“Woah!”
I jumped back without meaning to, falling several feet down to land hard on my ass on the ground.
“Ouch…” I got up and wiped the dirt off my skirt.
“What’d you see?”
“There’s a skeleton in there… And it smelt like shit.” I climbed up enough to close the hatch and stepped back down. “You’re right, Audrey. This really is amazing.”
“It’s an oddity of this place, out of space and time,” she said.
“Alright, I won’t tell anyone about this. How about we go fishing?”
= = =
There were some fishing poles leaning against a nearby tree next to the swimming hole and sure as hell you could see fish in the clear, blue water.
They already had a sinker and lure on, so all she had to do was tell me how to cast and reel in. There really wasn’t all that much to fishing, I quickly realized.
We sat in a grassy spot above the swimming hole, where we could still see our sinker in case either of us got a bite. The swimming hole itself was pretty big, considering how small the actual river leading into it was, and had a steady current going through it.
Perfect conditions for fishing, I thought.
I cast out my line for the first time, hitting the sweet spot near Audrey’s own lure and I watched as they bobbed down the stream.
When the thought hits me: is this all there is to it?
I didn’t have the patience to do this for even half an hour! This is like watching paint dry, or grass grow, for fucks sake! Not unless I get a bite every five minutes, this was not gonna work as a relaxing event, not for me.
“It's boring, huh?” Audrey said.
“You have a strange way of reading my mind, that makes twice today.”
“Great minds think alike, as they say.”
“How about we get some beer instead?”
“I can do you one better,” she said as she reeled in her line. “How about we drink some booze? It has less calories than those beers.”
Ever conscientious of what she puts in her body, even when it comes to boozing at noon.
“We have liquor here? Hell yeah, that sounds good.”
“Not here, a friend I made on this road does. He’s a bit of a drunk, but a nice man. Come on, let’s go!”
I reeled in my line and put the pole back where I found it, next to the one Audrey had been using, against a tree. We started walking at a brisk pace up the slope, to the top of the property, and out the green gate.
“His house is the one next to us, the one with the goats!”
“You’re certainly excited…”
“I’m excited to actually get drunk!” She spun around in the road, her dress rising in the spin, and laughed with joy.
“Don’t get too excited… or too drunk, for that matter. I’m not sure if I have the strength to carry you back.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she pointed dramatically to herself, “I’m a heavyweight!”
“Now I’m really worried…” I sighed.
We came up to their double gate, a shiny silver affair, and walked right in. I closed the gate behind me so the goats couldn’t escape.
The goats were busy running away from us, and eating grass, as we walked up to the front door of a normal beige house, so normal looking that it seemed out of place… maybe because all the other houses didn’t look so new?
It surprised me when Audrey walked right into the house—exactly how well did she know this guy?
“William! It’s me, Audrey!” She yelled into the house, and I walked in behind her. “I brought a cute friend! Ouch!”
I pinched her upper arm. Only a dirty old man would come running for that…
“I’m in the kitchen!” Came an old man’s voice from further in the house.
Audrey turned a corner and stopped, I nearly ran into her.
“Hey, old man! Wanna drink with me and my friend, Morgan?” Audrey grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into view of him…
He was an older man, clean shaven and gray moppy hair, but he looked fit as a fiddle. I couldn’t quite pin his age, he was definitely over 50, but was he as old as 60?
“I’d love to,” he said, cooking something on the stove with an apron on. He had a clean smile, and looked youthful enough.
He came up to me and held out his hand, “I’m William.”
I shook his hand, I could feel his strong grip and callused hand. “And I’m Morgan, it’s nice to meet you.”
“What’re you making?” Audrey asked.
“Just some top ramen, you want some? I can still make some more, I’ve got beef and chicken flavor.”
“It is about time for lunch—Oui, I’ll take you up on that.”
“I’ll pass,” I said. I didn’t feel very comfortable with it, for some reason. Probably just my anxiety, having only met him a minute ago.
“I’ve got brandy today, does that sound good?”
Audrey laughed. “You always only have brandy!”
“Brandy is good, though… On the rocks, both of you?”
“Yes, please,” said Audrey, going into the front room. I looked around, and there was no dinner table. I’m guessing she’s been over more than a few times.
I sat down next to her on the bisectional couch. I felt awkward for some reason. Normally meeting new people doesn’t do this to me, not that it’s never happened before… I must want to make a good impression.
William came over and placed two glasses of orange colored brandy with ice onto the coffee table in front of us, then went back to the kitchen without a word.
I took a sip—it was definitely apple brandy, pretty strong stuff too.
I looked over at Audrey, she had drunk almost all of her’s, wiping her mouth.
“That’s not how you're supposed to drink that…”
“Oh? This is how I always do it,” she gave me a sweet smile.
She’s so fucking sexy… it’s downright criminal.
I took another sip, not that I was going to keep pace at this rate.
“He makes this himself, ya know?” Audrey said.
“Really, now? That’s impressive, this is good stuff.”
“There’s not all that much to it,” William said, holding two bowls in his hands. He placed one near Audrey and took his to the recliner across from us, sitting down.
“I’m sure you’re being humble… I wouldn’t have known this was moonshine if you didn’t tell me!” I said.
“You just mash some apples in a barrel, add water and yeast. I get the apples from my neighbor's orchard,” he pointed out his front door window. “The water from my well, and the yeast and barrels from a store. It’s dead simple, if I can do it anybody can.”
“What’s your profession?” I asked.
“I worked on enhancements, in a laboratory. The kind you weld on. I’m retired now, however.”
“Really… So you could work on, say, a Mech? Or do some custom work on a computer?”
Audrey elbowed me.
He laughed. It was a joyous, loud laugh. “It’s funny you mention that, I’ve worked on Mechs a lot in my time. Computers are too small for me to work on, though.”
“You must’ve retired early, then.”
“I did… at 45 years old. I figured, I contributed enough to the war economy enough already by that age. I threw in the towel. I’m 65 now, getting old.”
“That’s a lot of weight to carry, to be sure,” I said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dreg anything up…”
“I’m an open book, don’t worry about it!” He laughed.
= = =