Mollies' Revenge 4

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I laughed, “If only it were that simple......do you believe in magic?”

Phil spluttered and coughed as my question obviously took him by surprise and a little of his whisky went down the wrong way

 

Mollies' Revenge 4
by Alys

 


 

I turned round to see a tall, well built man standing behind me with his hand firmly on my shoulder. I noticed his store security badge and felt the authority in his voice as he spoke again, "If you could follow me now Miss I'm sure we can sort this out quickly."

He picked up the packet of bras from the counter and turned to walk away. I felt the pressure of his hand pushing me away from the queue. I looked round in the vain hope of rescue from my predicament. The eyes of the customers standing behind me were rapidly averted as I scanned their faces, hoping for a sympathetic glance.

How was I going to explain the situation, how was I going to account for my lack of an identity. The euphoria of the morning, already dented by the visit of my Mother and her bigoted Pastor, had by now completely evaporated. The only thing I could think about was the probability of being carted off to a police cell and maybe a secure psychiatric ward when I tried to explain what had happened.

With my head down I took a step in the direction indicated by the store detective. My dejection somehow reminded me of meeting the old woman in the street outside the Way Out Club the previous night. I remembered her words I'd heard which had come to my aid when I was attacked.

‘If you need help tonight ask the Mollies'

"If only you could help me now Mollies" I whispered to myself.

Suddenly I felt a zephyr like breeze brush my face and hair. At the same time a warm feeling suffused my body. I felt imbued with a new resolve. I stood up straight and turned round to face the shop employee trying to move me towards the manager's office. I lifted his hand off my shoulder with a strength I didn't know I possessed.

He looked at me in astonishment, apparently powerless to resist.

"If you would excuse me I would like to complete this purchase," I said firmly.

He looked at me for a few seconds, taken aback by my new confidence before replying in a placatory tone, "Of course Miss, we will be happy to assist you as soon as possible. We just need to confirm your identity, since it is clearly not your own credit card."

"I suppose it hasn't crossed your mind that I might have a boyfriend?" I countered sarcastically, "who might have given me his card to use."

"Of course Miss, as I said, we just need to confirm your identity, we are not implying you have done anything wrong. I'd be grateful if you could follow me to Mr Raptor's office he will sort you...this out to everyone's satisfaction."

I hesitated, torn between cutting my losses and making a quick escape from what could be a difficult interview or trying to bluff my way out of the situation.

Before I could decide what to do I felt an arm around my shoulder and heard a familiar, attractive voice, "Ah there you are darling, sorry I'm late."

I turned around to see the smiling face of Phil. He winked at me. I returned the smile and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "No problem darling, I just seem to have a little bother here."

His eyes widened in response to my gesture of affection, "What's the problem, Mollie?"

"The shop doesn't want to let me use your credit card, Michael," I replied, speaking louder than necessary, emphasising the name on the card and winking.

Phil turned to the security guard, "Why is this a problem?"

The poor store official looked completely nonplussed by our little piece of theatre. He blinked a few times as he tried to come to terms with the completely unexpected turn of events.

"Um..um.. well it seems we have made a mistake here. I'm so sorry Miss," he said while he handed the card and the packet of bras to Phil.

"Was this what you wanted, darling?"

I nodded and Phil quickly handed the packet to the assistant along with two twenty pound notes. Within seconds she had rung up the sale, bagged the bras with the invoice and we were walking confidently away while she served the next customer.

"Thank you so much," I whispered.

Phil put his arm around my shoulder, "Keep smiling and don't say anything else until we're out of the shop, that security guard is still suspicious."

Every step through the busy store was filled with anxiety as I kept expecting a shop employee to stop us.

Finally after what seemed like minutes, but was in reality less than thirty seconds, we reached the pavement outside.

Phil removed his arm from my shoulder and turned to me, “Are you OK Mollie?”

I looked at him and nodded, too shocked speak. I began to shiver.

“Come on,” he said, touching my forearm gently, “let me buy you a drink and you can tell me what that was all about.”

I followed him towards the Dog and Duck. It was, not surprisingly given the time of day, crowded with a mixture of tourists and central London office workers. We were in luck as a elderly Japanese couple were leaving a small nearby table as we walked in. Phil went to get some drinks while I sat down and tried to make sense of the latest craziness in my day.

My phone buzzed. It was Liz! I’d forgotten about our meeting. I took out my phone and read her message.

‘In cafe, where are you?’

I considered my response. Would Liz’s presence make everything more complicated. I hesitated before deciding that whatever I told Phil as an explanation would be more believable with Liz there to corroborate.

‘In the Dog and Duck, problem in shop, come join us’

Her reply was almost instant.

‘Who’s us?’

‘A very fit guy :-)’

I smiled as I switched my phone to silent. I knew my last text would motivate Liz to join me.

“Nice to see you smiling. You feeling better now?”

I looked up to see Phil setting two small spirit glasses down on our table.

“Yes, thanks, what’s this?” I asked, not being a regular alcohol drinker.

“Double whisky, sip it slowly, it’ll help you relax.”

I raised the glass to my lips and let a little of the amber liquid to enter my mouth. The initial burning sensation was brief and then I felt the soothing effects as the alcohol entered my system. I sat back in my chair feeling the tension in my body evaporating. There was silence between us for a few seconds and then I became aware of Phil staring at me with a smile on his face.

I smiled back, "I suppose I owe you an explanation."

"I think you may do, although I must admit I enjoyed my role in that little drama."

I stared at him blankly, "What role?"

Phil smiled broadly at me before replying, "Well as your boyfriend of course.”

“Um..yes..I suppose...you..,” I spluttered, feeling my face colouring in my embarrassment.

“Don’t worry Mollie, I’m not presuming anything, it was a bit of fun, but maybe I can take you out later for that dinner I promised earlier?”

I hesitated to answer. On the one hand I couldn’t hide my obvious attraction to him while I was so confused at the strangeness of everything. The idea of going out with a man was so out of my comfort zone but it was a beguiling prospect.

I looked at him, his warm handsome face, tender concern in his eyes. My mind was in a turmoil.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

“I’d love to,” I said, quietly.

“You’d love to...?”

“Go out....with you, but I can’t today, sorry, but tomorrow?”

A broad smile spread across his face, “That’s great, and maybe we could go to a club later, you like clubbing?”

“Love it, what sort of clubs do you go to?”

We chatted for a few minutes about our interests in music and clubs we’d visited in London. I relaxed in Phil’s easy company and enjoyed being with someone who found me attractive for once rather than showing the usual looks of distaste. I felt my resolve weakening as I looked at the handsome man sitting next to me. Did I really want to lose my new friendship and maybe something more so quickly?

“Penny for them?”

“What?”

“You seemed a million miles away there?” Phil explained.

I smiled and took a deep breath. I had no choice, I had to find out what had happened to me and I couldn’t create even more complications in my life by creating a whole false female upbringing.

“Sorry I was thinking how to explain today to you,” I said, before pausing to consider how to start the story.

“Don’t worry I’ve already guessed it’s your boyfriend’s card, or maybe your ex’s?” Phil suggested, hopefully.

I laughed, “If only it were that simple......do you believe in magic?”

Phil spluttered and coughed as my question obviously took him by surprise and a little of his whisky went down the wrong way. I gave him a few gentle taps on his back to ease his coughing.

He took out his handkerchief to wipe his mouth, “Sorry but excuse me for saying, that’s an unexpected question. Didn’t you say you’re doing a PhD in physics? Is magic some new particle? Sorry my science is GCSE only.”

“Magic, as in witches, body transformations and stuff like that.”

There was a pause as he obviously began to wonder whether he’d made a mistake in assuming my complete sanity. He hesitated for a few seconds while he considered his response.

“OK, well as I said before I work for the Department of Culture and, as it happens in the folklore department, so I’ve read and collated a lot of the old stories,”

He paused.

I leant forward and lightly put my hand on his arm, “But do you think there’s anything in it. Is there such a thing as real magic, you know like transforming someone into a different shape?”

“I don’t really think it’s possible, but who knows, I’m open minded and it would be arrogant to think we understand everything about nature,” he responded.

I relaxed a little but was immediately tense again as he continued, “Why do you ask?”

I moved my hand away, sat back in my chair and considered how to explain what had happened to me.

“Is something wrong Mollie?”

“Listen Phil I need to tell you something but you’re going to find it very strange so I’d like to wait for my best friend to come, OK?”

“OK”

There was silence between us a for a couple of minutes as we sipped our drinks.

Phil looked at his watch, “Will she be long, I need to get back to work soon.”

“Hey Mollie,” said Liz as she walked towards our table.

I pulled up a chair and made the introductions. Liz was looking particularly glamorous and I could see that Phil was attracted.

He graciously offered to fetch her a drink and went to the bar for her Campari and soda.

After he’d left I moved my chair close to Liz’s and spoke quietly to her, “Listen, I need to tell Phil what happened, I think he might be able to help and I......”

Liz smiled, held my hands and looked me in the eye, “You fancy him, don’t you?”

“I think I do but........”

“But what? Why do you have to tell him. You’re a woman now in all possible ways, what’s wrong with being attracted to a fit man.”

“But, Liz what if I’m not tomorrow?”

“Ohmigod....”

“What’s happening tomorrow, Mollie?” asked Phil.

We turned around to see him standing at our table with Liz’s drink.

I gestured to Phil to sit down, “I wish I know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I can tell you about yesterday and Liz will back me up.”

“OK, I’m listening,” he said, after he’d sat down.

I hesitated trying to think of the best way to start explain my fantastic tale, in the end I just plunged straight in, “I looked very different yesterday.”

“This is starting to feel like Jerry Springer, I suppose you’re going to say you used to be a man,” Phil commented a little sarcastically as he took another swig of his whisky.

“Yes.”

He swallowed the wrong way and started to cough again.


To Be Continued

 

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Comments

I had to-

go back and refresh my memory, but even still I'm very happy to see another chapter of Mollies! The mix of history and folklore is very cool. Phil seems nice, but the next chapter will tell for sure. :) Very nice Alys!
hugs

Grover

Refresh

Hi Grover

Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully Molllie and Liz can convince Phil.

Hugs

Alys

timing

well she does time her responses to cause maximum effect. whiskey down the wrong pipe twice in a few minutes.
glad to see this back, looking forward to more.
thanks

timing

Hi LoneWolf

Thanks for your comment. Yes poor Phil will have a very sore throat after this drink in the pub :-)

Hugs

Alys

Tough Sell

laika's picture

Phil seems to be finding their story hard to swallow, and it seems like it's only going to get harder, no matter how sincere ("No ..... really!") they can manage to sound. He just met them, and Molly was having trouble trying to use credit cards she had no ID for, the whole situation seems to spell a scam of some sort. It would to me, and I'm totally naive and would love to believe this sort of magic exists. Seems to me about the best they could do is to convince him that THEY believed this crazy story, that they're not getting some weird kick out of trying to fool him with these preposterous claims, and to refrain from asking any kind of favors or anything that could be taken as an overture to a con job. I hope he doesn't storm out of there. Because if he sticks around he might sooner or later see something unexplicable, the Mollies in action, that'll make the transformed-by-tg-ghosties story start to seem believable. Maybe something involving Momma and the nasty old preacher man and anvils dropped from a great height, because you just know they're not done causing our heroine trouble. Eagarly awaiting Part 5, hope you can get to it soon...
~~hugs, veronica

Tough Sell

Hi Veronica

Thanks for your comment and for raising some really important problems for Liz and Mollie to overcome in trying to get Phil on their side.

Hugs

Alys

Mollies' Revenge 4

Glad Phil showed up, hope he can accept what Molly says.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Mollies' Revenge 4

Hi Stanman

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated :-)

Hugs

Alys

Back

Hi John

Thanks for your kind comment, I'm glad you enjoy my stories.

I hope I can get back into writing and revive my other stories, here's crossing fingers and toes :-)

Hugs

Alys

Obviously she hasn't changed back Alys.

It's been 12 months from CHPT 1 to 4!

LoL
Rita

Have a safe and happy New Year Everybody!
Thanks for all your great stories.

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Time Dilation?

Hi Rita

Thanks for the comment :-)

It may seem like a year to you but's only a few hours for me and my stories, lol.

Hugs

Alys

I Remember Chapters 1 & 2

joannebarbarella's picture

But I had to go back and read Chapter 3, which was exactly a year ago (doesn't time fly when you're having fun) and didn't remember it and hadn't commented on. I was away on my usual Christmas jaunt and must have missed it because I ALWAYS comment on an Alys story.

I've just returned from this year's sojourn and I'm being more methodical and using the Recent 100 feature to catch up. That proves its usefulness insofar as I haven't missed again.

Alys, you have a great touch and I'm waiting for Michael's reaction with bated breath when he stops choking on his Scotch. At least he hasn't sprayed it out of his nose.

Please don't make us wait another year,

Joanne

Molly's Revenge

rlarueh007's picture

Well it's been over three years since you this would continue were all waiting? Thanks! Richard