By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Nothing is simple. Charlie Donizetti has the misfortune to find his parents, aunt and uncle murdered by two small time hoodlums. He is discovered, but manages to get away. So begins a life hiding underground, and surviving by his wiles. It is not an easy or pleasant life; however, it does have some high points.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 1
Charles Donizetti had been cutting down the back alleys of East Boston to avoid the gangs of bullies that seemed to gather outside school like shoals of piranhas waiting for a crippled fish or beast to feed on. Now he just wanted to get to his parents store so he could help out, and do his homework if business was slow. Business usually picked up around four in the afternoon when some of the housewives and early commuters in the Italian-Portuguese neighborhood would do their last minute shopping before dinner. Another busy time was in the morning; however, Charles was most often in school at that time.
For some reason, his parents had named him Charles much to the consternation of his grandmother who much preferred to call him Carlo, the Italian version of Charles. Some of his classmates called him Chuck, but he hated that nickname. He preferred Charlie, which he secretly spelled Charli, and pronounced Shar-lee, which was short for Charlene. No one knew about that, though. The bullies didn't pester him because he appeared 'gay' or 'fem'. They just did it because he was available, and couldn't fight back very well.
Charlie made his way down the back alley. This was the quickest way for him to get to his parents' store, and it probably saved him a bit more than a block to go the way he did. He immediately sensed something was wrong as he approached the back door of the store. First of all, there was a car parked at the back door, and the door was unlocked. That door was never unlocked except when trash and recyclables were being taken to the row of dumpsters across the alley. That was partly Charlie's job. Either his mom or dad would unlock the door for him after making sure the alley was clear by peering through the peephole. The door would be locked behind him, but he had his own key for re-entering. The deliveries were always made through the front door, except for very rare occasions. It was just a lot safer that way.
The Donizetti's little store did well, at least well enough. They sold canned goods, fresh vegetables, cold drinks, and a few sundries. They also had a small meat business. It was difficult to compete against the big chain stores; however, a portion of one row was given to necessaries. That part of the store wasn't a money maker. A series of glass cases lined one wall. That was for the beer and soft drinks. Across that aisle was a small selection of wine. They didn't sell hard liquor. A small meat counter lined the other wall. Charlie's father, Giuseppe, was an excellent butcher, and had connections that allowed him to sell some of the finest fresh meats, prosciutto, and cold cuts in the area. Their small selection of olives and cheeses never remained very long.
Matteo Donizetti, Giuseppe's brother would help out behind the counter on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Sundays were for church. Charlie's Aunt Zerlina also came in during the busy days when her children were in school. All in all, it was a good little mom and pop operation.
One other thing helped bring the money in. There wasn't a sign advertizing the fact; however, the Donizettis cashed payroll checks. They would charge $3.00 for cashing a check, but would drop the cashing charge if the customer made a purchase. There were two safes: a large safe with an electronic combination in the small office, and a smaller safe between the two cash registers at the front of the store. There was a slot in the top of the safe where cash could be dropped when the amounts in the registers reached a certain point. After closing, Giuseppe would remove the cash, and transfer it to the larger safe. They never left the store at night with deposits for the bank. Those were made at varying times of day either by Giuseppe or Floria Donizetti. The routine would change slightly mid-month, at month's end, and on Fridays for the people who were paid weekly. They would hold back on cash deposits during those periods so that there would be enough cash on hand for the check cashers. Many of the people in the area lived on a cash basis as banks were not to be trusted.
Charlie pushed the slightly ajar door open, and peered into the back storage area where some of the extra canned goods and non-perishables were kept. The lights were off. They were seldom on during the day. The bar that secured the door was on the floor to one side. That wasn't right. It should be leaning up against the wall out of the way. He brought the door back to its previous position.
The floor was a concrete slab, so his footsteps weren't easily heard. He could hear some muffled conversation coming from the area of the small office.
"Shit, Pilonetti, why'd you have to waste them?"
"Because they knew who we are, that's why, asshole."
By this time, Charlie's eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light. He could make out the bodies of a man and a woman near the restroom. He didn't have to look any closer. They were his parents, and the spreading pool of blood confirmed what he already knew. They were dead. He recognized the voices, too. They belonged to Ottorino Pilonetti and his wart, Sandrino Luca. Pilonetti had worked briefly at the store as a bag boy and helper. His father had fired him for theft. He probably should have turned him in to the police, but he hadn't. Things might have turned out differently had he done it, but most likely, they wouldn't have.
His attention was diverted by the sound of somebody pounding on the front door. The murderers had obviously locked the front door and turned off the lights. It was only a matter of time before someone would realize that the store shouldn't be closed.
"It's about fucking time," Pilonetti exclaimed. "Get that cash, and let's get the fuck out of here." Obviously, they had just opened the safe.
Charlie knew he had to get away, and get away quickly. He turned to run and tripped over the door bar, falling flat on his face. Then he caught a glimpse of two more bodies in the passage leading to the front of the store. They had killed his aunt and uncle, too.
"What the fuck was that? Shit, it's the kid. Kill him."
Charlie was not about to let that happen. Scrambling to his feet, he raced for the rear door and the alley beyond. There were a couple of muffled pops, but he felt nothing. He cut through a hole in the rear fence of the Silva's yard. A bullet pinged off the chain link fence post by his head. Having had to use various routes in the past to escape the gangs, Charlie knew a number of 'secret' paths that would allow him to get many blocks away from the murderers. Maybe he could get to his 'special' place before they saw him. He knew this: the word would get out in the criminal underground, and there would be a price on his head. His cousins were now orphans, as he was. There was nothing they could do anyway. His house and his uncle's would probably be staked out. He would be dead meat if he showed up there.
He could hear the murderers' car speeding away, and it sounded as if they weren't looking for him. They were heading for the Interstate if he interpreted the sounds correctly. He was going to have to survive somehow. He knew who the killers were. Maybe he could do something about it someday, but right now didn't seem to be the right time. He, no, she was 12 years old. She would take care of herself for as long as it took. She had only one place to go: her special place.
She realized she had her book bag, and for a while she would just fit in as a student on his way home from school. When she got to her special place, she would take the steps she could to become Charli. After that Charlie would be no more; at least, not if she could help it.
Many boys and girls have their secret little spots, their places of refuge. Sometimes, it's a corner in a park, hidden away from the other visitors. Sometimes, the spot isn't so hidden or secret; just behind a closed bedroom door. Many times this is just a quiet spot where a child's imagination can flourish before the onslaught of adulthood is thrust upon them.
Charli's private refuge was something else. His parents had respected his privacy - his bedroom was his own; however, he could never have the privacy there that he really desired and needed. The discovery of his refuge had been one of those little accidents that just happens every once in a while. He had been returning home from visiting a friend, when he noticed some of his feared adversaries were playing stick ball right where he wanted to pass through. Trying to figure an alternative route home, he decided to circle the large automobile salvage and wrecking yard that blighted the area between the Interstate and their neighborhood. Under other circumstances, it probably hadn't been the best decision; however, it turned out to be a wonderful decision.
He thought about scaling the concrete wall alongside the highway; however, the wall proved to be too steep. A chain link fence with three strands of razor wire circled the salvage yard, but Charlie found that there was a narrow space between the fence and the concrete wall. The space was partially filled with litter thrown from the highway above, and weeds and shrubs that had somehow found a roothold in the meager soil at the base of the wall. It wasn't easy going, but he was able to gradually work his way around the perimeter of the yard.
Then he hit, at least in his imaginative mind, a figurative jackpot. The space between the fence and the concrete had widened a bit, where shallow concrete lined ditches collected water from the highway, and directed it to a larger drainage ditch that passed under the highway, eventually leading to the channel and the harbor. There was also a large concrete pipe that drained water collected from several large drains located in the salvage yard. There was a steady stream of water pouring from the concrete pipe into a pool that ran under most of the width of the highway. The drainage ditch didn't catch Charlie's attention as much as the narrow ledge above it and the metal door that led to who knows what.
The space below the highway was perhaps seventy-five feet wide, and thirty-five feet from the bridge deck to the pool below. A number of large steel beams supported the elevated highway, and these connected to steel members imbedded in the concrete abutments on either side. The doors, one on either side of the ditch had to lead to some place interesting.
Charlie's escape from the adversaries who hadn't seen him became far less important. This deserved further exploration. Shallow steps in the concrete led to the ledge and the door beyond. The door, much to Charlie's delight, opened easily with a little assistance from his Swiss Army Knife. The space beyond the door amazed him. It was difficult to see very far, but as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he could see an extensive passageway that crossed under the highway above. This was going to require further exploration; however, due to the lateness of the day, he needed to get home.
”ƒ
Chapter 2
Children have wonderful imaginations, and Charlie was no exception. The latch on the door to his cave had a fairly simple lock that could easily be removed from the inside. Over the next few days, he did just that. He took the lock to Federico Capio's hardware store.
"That's an interesting lock you have there, Charlie. What're you going to do with it?"
"It belongs on an old storage building that Uncle Vicenzo has. He was going throw it away and get a new one. I told him that you might be able to fix it. If you couldn't fix it, he gave me some money for a new one."
"Let me take a look at it." It took only a few seconds for a verdict. "Nah, this lock is beyond repair. Someone forced it. It isn't worth the trouble. Lemme see if I got anything in the back like this. Come on, let's take a look."
Hardware stores had always fascinated Charlie. Some would say that indicated the boyish side of his gender; however, Charlie, if asked, would have argued that gender had nothing to do with it. There was no reason that girls shouldn't understand the finer things about using tools, hardware, and carpentry. That was an artificial bias. The areas behind the counter and in the depths of small hardware store were a treasure trove.
"Okay, I know I got some old locks like this one around here somewhere. Most people nowadays would rather just use a good padlock and hasp. These old locks kept breaking. Crap, where did I put them?"
He started pulling long boxes out of shelves. Inside the boxes were smaller boxes and objects wrapped in old crinkly paper. "Ah, here they are," Federico said triumphantly. He retrieved several locks. "This one's not exactly the same, but it should work. See, the machine screws match. This one was made in Mexico, but that shouldn't matter."
"How much is it? Uncle Vicenzo only gave me twenty dollars."
"Crap, I've had this one for twenty years; how about five bucks?"
Charlie had the lock in place the next week. The key was on a leather thong around his neck. A duplicate key was hidden in his bedroom closet.
Over the next year, the space below the highway became Charlie's private sanctuary. He often spent hours there under the guise of visiting friends. Gradually, his stockpile of items began to grow. He found some girl's clothing left out for Goodwill. Some of the things fitted him. Others were too large, but they wouldn't always be that way. He couldn't do very much as it was quite dark inside, and he didn't want to leave the door open as it might draw attention to his special spot. Then some strange things began to happen.
The salvage yard was an interesting place. It probably covered fifty to sixty acres. Wrecked cars and trucks were brought into one area where they were stripped of usable parts. The remaining carcasses were eventually moved to the far side of the lot where they were literally ground into small chunks and separated into the various metallic components by a large machine. It was a noisy process, and a profitable one for the salvage yard owners. In addition to the salvaged autos, the yard also took in old appliances and machinery. Copper and aluminum had particularly high salvage value, and when the price of copper reached the point that thieves were willing to take all sorts of chances to steal copper and try to sell it elsewhere, the owners of the yard decided that they needed to take extra security precautions.
A chain link fence wasn't much of an obstacle for a thief with a pair of good bolt cutters. After losing a few hundred pounds of copper, the owners decided that the next step was to get a good 'junk yard dog'. They found the ideal dog in Bruno, a Rottweiler Bull Mastiff cross. Bruno was as mean as they came, and the dog had the run of the yard after closing and on Sundays.
Charlie's first contact with Bruno nearly scared Charlie to death. He was working his way along the fence, when out of nowhere a huge dog was threatening to come through the fence and separate his arms and legs from his body. The barking, growling, and snarling was almost enough to make Charlie climb the nearly vertical concrete wall.
'Go away, go away, this is my territory. I will rip you to shreds if you come through the fence. I must protect my master's property.'
Charlie quickly realized that the dog couldn't get to him, and that he didn't have anything to worry about; however, he didn't need the dog calling attention to his presence.
"Nice doggie. If you stop barking I'll bring you a snack next time."
'I don't want a snack. You must not come in here. I will protect my master's property.'
"Nice doggie."
'I am not a nice doggie. I will kill you.'
'Why would you kill me? I haven't done anything to you.'
'It's my job to kill trespassers'
'I'm not trespassing.'
'But you might.'
'I assure you that I'm not going to trespass. Why don't you stop barking? It won't do any good as far as I'm concerned.'
'Alright, I was getting a bit tired of it, anyway. Besides, I didn't really mean it. Would you bring me a snack? They give me the same old stuff every day.'
That was when Charlie realized he was carrying on a non-verbal conversation with the massive dog.
'Are we talking, or is this just my imagination?'
'I don't know. What do you think?'
'Sit.'
'Okay.'
The massive dog sat on its haunches, its tail wagging the entire times.
'Roll over.'
'This is so demeaning, but I'll do it for you.' It did.
"So what do they call you?" Charlie said reverting back to the verbal.
'Bruno, but Momma called me her 'Little Pudgy-Wudgy'. I miss Momma.
'You don't have to talk out loud to me. I can hear you just fine.'
'Wow! I can actually talk to a dog. That's neat. Can anyone else do that?'
'You're the only one so far. Sometimes I think I can hear someone passing by on the highway, but no one has actually talked to me before like you're doing. What's your name, by the way?'
'Er, Charles - Charlie is Okay.'
'But you prefer Charli. I can sense that. One of my litter mates is like you. She got fixed right away and found a nice family in the country. She gets to watch over her masters' children. She loves doing that.'
'How do you know that?'
'I don't know. I just do. Say, why are you down here, anyway?'
'I found a neat place under the highway. I like to go there and pretend I am someone else.'
'I don't think you are pretending at all. I can see who you are. You are a girl through and through. It's just that the package isn't quite right. Maybe that can be fixed.'
'Well, I like you, Bruno. You're a good guy.'
'Excuse me! Apparently you haven't noticed, but I'm not a guy. I'm a girl.'
'Oh my, but your name is a boy's name.'
'I didn't give that name to me. I would prefer Protector of the Home; however, no one has given me that name.'
'How about Padrona di Casa, would that do? I will call you Padrona for short.'
'I like that.'
So began a wonderful friendship.
Charlie's girl cave wasn't much more than a shelter at first; however, things gradually changed. Even when it rained or snowed days on end the cave stayed dry. Charlie found a few old quilts and blankets, and they helped make things a bit more comfortable. The biggest problem though was the darkness inside. He wanted to do things like experiment with makeup and hair styles. He couldn't do that sort of thing at home. He was sure his parents wouldn't approve. They weren't gay friendly, and he knew they would classify him as gay, although he was very sure what he wasn't.
Sitting on the little ledge in front of the door to the cave he spotted Padrona making her rounds. She worked her way between the flattened car bodies. The route from one of the aisles that ran between the piles of rusting metal wasn't visible to the workers in the yard. Charlie met her at the fence.
'What's the problem, Charli?'
'I'm bored. It's starting to get dark earlier, and with the change in sun angle, there's hardly enough light for me to see anything.'
'Why don't you put a light in there?'
'There's no electricity'
'There's plenty of electricity over here.'
'I don't have an extension cord long enough. Besides, someone would see the cord, and then they would find my cave.'
'See that light pole,' Padrona indicated one of perhaps fifty or more light poles that dotted the yard. 'When the men are working out in the yard, they connect to a box at the base. That pole is surrounded by car bodies. You could easily run an extension cord from that pole to your cave. All you have to do is get some lights and anything else you want in there.'
'Padrona, how do you know all this stuff about electricity and extension cords? I thought you were just a dog.'
'If you say so, but ever since you and I started talking to each other I've found that I can understand what the men are saying. I try not to let them know that.
'I'm going to bring you something. Wait there.'
Padrona worked her way through the circuitous path before heading off to the shop in the distance. Five minutes later, she returned with a large coiled extension cord.
'The men said this one was no good. The insulation is supposed to be damaged, and they threw it out. Do you know anything about electricity?'
'Gwen Capio told me a few things. She's a licensed electrician. She says that's why Federico married her. They have seven children. I think there may have been other reasons. I wish I could have babies.'
'I don't think you need to worry about that right now. You know, it would be a lot nicer if you could get on this side of the fence. Why don't you cut through the fence right here?'
'Give me the end of that cord so I can see what you're talking about.
'This is easy to fix. I'll get a replacement plug from Capio's hardware. I think I can find something that will cut through this stuff,' Charlie said indicating the fence.
A week later, Charlie and Padrona were sitting next to each other on the ledge in front of the door to the cave. The cave was now well lighted.
Over the weeks and months, more things were added to the space. Floria Donizetti loved bargains, and she frequently took advantage of the sales at various department stores' cosmetic counters. One of the enticements offered for the purchase exceeding a certain amount was a package of a rainbow of various eye shadows. At another sale there might be free mascara or other beauty products. Floria would carefully stack all the extra beauty products at the rear of a shelf in the linen closet. Some would eventually end up with a less fortunate relative, others might be donated to the 'garage sale' their parish church would have every year. Charlie found it very easy to remove several of the packages, and relocate them to the cave. One of the nice things about several of the kits was that along with the various brushes and applicators, they had mirrors. Charlie was now able to practice applying makeup.
Of course, the makeup had to be removed before he could venture out or return home. Padrona would point out the places where the makeup had not been properly removed. She even assisted every once in a while with a well placed tip of her tongue.
Continued in Part 2. It was certainly something that Charli didn't expect; however, her parents' deaths have propelled her in a direction that will probably be filled with many trials. This talking dog thing is certainly interesting. Charli's greatest weakness is that she lacks experience. Well, she's going to get it now.
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Charli learns about life under the horizon. She has a lot of time on her hands, and she wants to maintain the fiction that she is dead. Her major effort continues to be survival.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 3
Now, the time for fun and games was past. Charlie was fleeing for his life. The two murderers might have fled the scene, but Charlie knew they would be back. They had seen Charlie, and tried to kill him. That only made Charles determination to become Charli stronger. He was sure that the word had probably already gone out and that many of those who operated on the dark side would be looking for him.
He worked his way to his sanctuary around the small trees and shrubs that had grown considerably over the last two years between the fence and highway. It was still light, and Padrona had not yet been released from her pen. Charlie hastily unlocked the metal door, and settled into the pile of blankets, quilts, and one sleeping bag. Sobbing himself to sleep, he was oblivious to the noise of the traffic above. He awakened only slightly as the massive bulk of Padrona snuggled up to him.
The rumbling of his tummy woke him up rather early, as he had not had dinner the previous night. He remembered the comfort Padrona had given him during the night; however, she had returned to the yard. He would talk to her in a while. Right now, he had to assess where he stood, and determine where he was going to go. First of all, Charli determined that his transition began at that moment. At least for Charlie, there were some obvious reasons. The murderers knew who he was, and if he could pull off looking like a girl, they might ignore him. Charli was going to have to look as much not like Charlie as possible. This was going to take some doing.
By this time, several luggage bags, and plastic boxes lined the side of the cave. In them, Charli had carefully placed the garments she had gleaned from the bins and bags in the area. Most of the garments were too big for her twelve year old frame; however, a few fit nicely. She was especially pleased with a couple of the 'training' bras she'd found in one sack left out for a charity pick up. Another case held several pairs of shoes. Her feet had been growing over the years, as had the rest of her, and the shoes she had outgrown had been placed back in the charity bins where she had found them.
Her inventory taking was interrupted by Padrona entering the cave. 'What happened last night? All I could tell was that you were very upset. Did you run away?'
Charli explained the previous day's events through several bouts of tears.
'What are you going to do now?' a concerned Padrona asked. You should go to the police. They will help you. I imagine they are looking for you right now.'
'I can't do that. The only relatives I have are my cousins and my grandmother, and my grandmother is in a nursing home up in Salem. My cousins are younger than I am. I have nowhere to go. If I go to the police, they'll put me in some orphanage, and Pilonetti and Luca will find me for sure. They probably have connections in the police department, anyway. I think I'll live right here. I have electricity and there's water from the faucet in the yard. I'll find a way to get food.'
'I don't know, Charli. You're just a pup, figuratively speaking.'
'I have to do something, Padrona. I need to get things, and I'll need your help. I need to go back to the store, and I need to get into my house.'
'What do you need from there?'
'I can get food from the store if they haven't put the bar back up, and I need to get my computer. I don't think there's too much else at the house. I have a feeling Pilonetti or someone from his gang will be watching.'
'What are you going to do about bathing and the other things you humans do?' Padrona asked, probably testing Charli about how well she had thought things out.
'I hadn't thought of that.'
'I didn't think so.'
Charli did realize several things. One was that she was going to have to remain hidden during the day, and do any foraging she had to do at night. Another was that she didn't have any money. Well, she did, and she didn't. She had been saving money for a new computer, and had nearly $200 hidden away in her bedroom. If the police hadn't sealed the house, it wasn't a crime scene, she might be able to get the money and some other items she needed from there. She would have to be careful, though, as she didn't want anyone to realize that someone had been in the house before she got what she needed. There was another problem. The only thing she had to carry anything in was here book bag, and it couldn't hold very much. She did have some old suitcases and plastic bins, but they would be far too heavy for her once they were loaded. She was going to have to be satisfied carrying smaller loads, and making more trips. There was a possible solution, and she was, at the moment sitting next to Charli.
'I think that will work just fine. What do you think?'
'How much are you going to put in these things?' Padrona asked as she looked over her shoulder at the two book bags that Charli had hung across her back.
'Just a few things from here, it can't look as if anybody's been here.' Charli had found her money right away, and it was obvious that no one had been at the house other than the police. They had probably been looking for him. She noticed that a couple of the family pictures were missing from the mantle. She had a feeling they might be in the newspaper the next day or so, if not already.
She balanced her laptop and accessories with a small electric two element hot plate, a pot and pan, and some utensils. Additionally, she packed in some food items; enough to tide her over for a few days. They were able to make two more trips that night while sticking to the back alleys and 'secret' shortcuts.
They would have made additional food runs the next night; however, when they approached the house, Charli's mind changed rather quickly.
"Shit, it's them," she said as much to herself as it was to Padrona.
'Who?'
'That's Pilonetti and Luca. I recognize the car. They're the ones who killed my parents and aunt and uncle.'
'I will kill them.'
'Don't try it, they have guns. They tried to shoot me before. They must have taken a key to the house. We've got to get out of here.'
Padrona started a low pitched, throaty growl.
'Padrona, you have to be quiet.'
'I want to kill them.'
'Not tonight, maybe some other time.'
Their conversation was interrupted by the two lowlifes exiting the house. Charli and Padrona crouched as low as they could behind a bank of empty trash cans. Fortunately, the car was facing the opposite direction.
"Crap Otto, I thought you said they would have all sorts of stuff in there."
"We should get some good bucks for the silver. Besides, we needed to make sure that brat wasn't there. I wonder where they stashed him? The newspaper said he was missing, but I'll bet they said that just to keep us off guard."
"Shit, sometimes I think you're as stupid as Donatello says you are. If the kid had spilled his guts, they would have our names plastered all over the place. Naw, the kid's hiding somewhere. He knows we'll kill him if we find him.
"Come on, the place is going to blow in just a few minutes. We'll find the kid. If we don't, one of the others will. We have his photo, and we'll pass out copies to all of them. We'll find him. What is he, twelve years old? He's got nowhere to go."
'I will kill them!'
The house erupted in flame when they were about halfway back to the cave. As Padrona made her way through the hole in the fence and Charli unlocked her front door, the sky to the east was tinted orange as the remnants of the only home Charli had known collapsed into the basement.
'Tomorrow night, we have to go to the store. I hope they haven't changed the locks,' she thought as she snuggled into her nest. The sound of the early morning commuter traffic was a lullaby that sang her to sleep.
Chapter 4
'You need a bath,' Padrona said rather indelicately the next evening.
'I know, I thought I could use the ditch. The water is still warm enough.'
'I don't think that would be a good idea. I won't drink that water, and I have a cast iron stomach. There's a lot of bad stuff that drains into there from the wrecked cars, not to mention the road kills.
'I think you could do better than that portable toilet you have there, too.'
'What am I going to do? I can't use any of the convenience stores or service stations around here. Someone is sure to recognize me.'
'I have some ideas, but I want to check things out. Are you still thinking about going to your parents store tonight?'
'Yes, we can get more food and stuff if they didn't change the locks. All we can do is to try.'
Waiting until after midnight the two friends made their way to the rear of the grocery store. It didn't take long to realize that their plans had been somewhat thwarted. Charli was able to unlock the rear door; however, the bar had been replaced.
'What do we do now?' Padrona asked.
'Since the key worked on the back door I'm pretty sure they didn't change the locks. I'll go around to the front door, and go in that way. Wait here.'
Fortunately, it was late, and there was little traffic. The trouble was, there was a bar across the street, and there was considerable activity.
"Aren't you out a bit late?"
Charli turned to see a policeman towering over her.
"Yes sir, my mother needed me to pick up some stuff for her at the drug store. She's not well, and couldn't drive."
"Well, don't dawdle around here. It's not safe for a young girl to be out this late at night. Where are you heading?"
"The Walgreens down the way; they have a prescription ready for her."
"Be careful. I'd take you except we've had a little trouble here tonight. You might want to go home on a different street."
"Thank you, sir, I'll be careful."
Charli walked deliberately to the next block before looking back. There was a second police car parked in front of the bar, and they were loading some people into the back seat. She turned the corner, and raced back to the rear of the store.
'Shit, there're a bunch of cops there. I forgot all about the bar. That's the bad news. The good news is that one of the cops thought I was a girl.'
'Well you are.
'So, what are we going to do?'
'I think we need to wait. The bar will close in a little while, and with the cops being around, most of the people will probably leave. Darn, I wanted to make three trips tonight. We'll be lucky to get two.'
They were able to get two trips in. They got a lot of relatively non-perishable foods like rice and mashed potatoes, although the latter would be a problem without having milk available. She'd have to make some grocery runs to one or more of the convenience stores in the area. They were also able to get some canned meats. The real prize was three prosciutto hams. If she could keep the bugs out of them, they might last quite a while.
They were more successful the next night. Charli had taken a chance the night before, and left the bar off the back door, so they were able to get in without delay.
'What are you getting that stuff for? You can't eat it.'
'This is hair dye. I think I was lucky that I wasn't recognized last night. I need to change my appearance even more than what just the makeup does.' Charli had spent several minutes checking out the colors in the small selection available, and selected several shades of blonde that were considerably lighter than her light brown hair. 'This should last me at least six months. After that, I can think about other colors and styles. I'll have to read up on how to do some other things later on.
'Okay, we're going to have to go out the front door. If we leave the bar off the door, they're liable figure out someone has been here over the weekend. We're going to have to chance leaving by the front door.'
Charli hoisted the heavy bar over the brackets. She looked over the store room, noticing the place where the last view of her parents had been of their lifeless bodies. She looked at the office area as she returned to the front. The mostly empty safe hung open just as the police had left it. 'The safe, I wonder if they got to the drop safe!'
'Charli, we don't have time for that.'
'This'll only take a minute.'
If there had been anything in the registers, it was long gone. Pilonetti and Luca had probably taken the bills; however, the drop safe was a different matter.
'It's starting to get light. You'd better hurry.'
Of course, the combination was the same as the big safe; however, the two murders had not opened it, nor had the police. Charli found more than $400 plus many checks that were unusable. The checks were returned, safe locked, and they made their way to the front door.
The city was starting to stir, and they had to wait in the darkness of the entry way for the newspaper vendor to fill the boxes with the latest edition. It wasn't a quick process, as the vendor had to remove the large number of coins deposited from the previous day. By the time they returned to the cave and the salvage yard, the first workers were unlocking the front gate. Padrona quickly ducked through the opening in the fence, and raced to greet the first of the laborers to arrive.
Before Charli went to bed, she had a number of things to take care of. Over the years, she had accumulated several plastic ice chests, and these were important for storing things, especially some of the semi-perishable food items she had just accumulated.
Until the recent events, she had never spent a night in her cave. Suddenly a whole new world was opened to her the first few nights there. Her sadness over the loss of her parents and aunt and uncle, and just the fatigue of having escaped death and having to flee had enabled her to sleep through that first night; however, a night or two later, sleeping wasn't quite as easy.
'Food, food, food. Smell food. Human child there. Danger. Must find food.
Charli awakened to a cacophony of twittering conversation.
'Flee, it is awake!'
The sound of scurrying raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Her weak flashlight was able to illuminate the forms of several rats heading for the far reaches of the tunnel.
That had been a couple of days before. Among the packages of hair dye were several packages of rat poison, the systemic poison kind that contained an anticoagulant drug similar to Warfarin. She placed several trays of the poisoned bait outside her private area. It was several days before the results were noticeable.
'You need a bath. As much as I hate baths, I know you need one. It is different with humans. It's time you saw my side of the fence. Do you have any clean clothes - underwear?'
'Yes.'
Padrona led Charli through the maze of wrecked cars towards the office building and shop.
'The workers come in here. This is where they change clothes, and this is the shower area. I have seen them bathe here. I know what it's for.'
Charli looked around the locker room in awe. 'This is wonderful. We won't be caught?'
'I don't think so. They don't have any alarms. I've heard them say that the only thing that is secure is the old safe up front where they keep the cash to pay the metal recyclers. That's why I am here; to save them the cost of putting in an alarm system.'
'Look at this, they even have towels, and I can wash my hair, too.'
'There's a truck that brings clean towels and work clothes every week. I don't think they would notice if you used a few. As long as I've been here, I've never seen anyone come in at night. Sometimes the office people stay late, but once they've gone, there's nobody until the next morning. I think you're safe here, especially if you come in late.'
Charli took the longest shower of her young life while Padrona stood guard just in case. As she dried off, she appraised her body. Puberty hadn't started yet; at least any overt signs weren't there. The men in her family hadn't been particularly large, but they were generally strong bodied and well muscled. The women on her mother's side of the family were generally of average height and average build. They weren't particularly large in the bust, but having anything was better than what she had now. She was going to have to figure out what to do about things. She'd already done some research on the internet, and thought she knew quite a bit about hormones and what the effects of some of the main ones were. She had a serious problem with the hormone issue, though, and that was how she was going to get them. There was only one direction she wanted her future physical development to go.
Her main priority for the moment was to change her appearance as much as possible, and she began to formulate a plan that might work for at least a little while. Now that she knew she had access to the shower and bath facility, she would be able to start taking some steps that went past the makeup and plucking her eyebrows.
The next night she took the next step. She had read the instructions many times, and she felt she was ready. She didn't really want to be a blonde, but she felt it was the best way to distract any potential pursuers. She really wanted to have dark brown or nearly black hair, but that was too close to her natural color. She followed the instructions as best as she could. She sectioned her hair, and applied the dye from about a half inch out. Then she went back and did the roots. She put the plastic cap on and waited.
While the time was passing, she took a look around the building. There were three small office areas and a counter where most of the transactions probably took place. Each office had a computer, and there was another computer at the counter. Charli had no desire to take anything. The last thing she needed was to have anyone find out that anyone was using the office area at night, and she certainly didn't want anyone to think that Padrona wasn't doing her job. She checked things out as best as she could, and realized that the computers were on a wireless network. This was a great opportunity. Her computer had run off the network at home.
The router was plainly visible, and she copied the access code off the plate located on the back of the unit. She knew that the signal wasn't going to be very strong where she was hiding, but there were some options available to help things later on. She had been away from the net for only a week, and she missed it. Besides, she wanted to do more research. She needed to learn more. She couldn't go to school, at least for the near future, and it was already becoming very boring. Hopefully her change in appearance would enable her to get out during the day more often.
'How long do you need to keep that stuff on? It really hurts my nose and eyes,' Padrona said blinking her eyes.
'I think it's been long enough,' she said checking her watch. 'Actually it's been on about 15 minutes over the recommended time. I'd better wash it out.'
Padrona watched as Charli removed the clear plastic cap, the inside now covered with the viscous, smelly dye. The change in her hair color was immediately obvious. Even wet, it was many shades lighter than it had been before. She shampooed it twice, cleaning her skin where the dye had tinted it around her neck. She gently combed it to get the tangles out as she dried it under the electric hand dryer that was mounted on the wall. She had kept her hair long in spite of the admonitions from her father and mother, and now she was pretty sure that this was going to work to her advantage.
'What do you think?' she asked shaking her hair out a bit. It had been dirty and greasy before her shower the previous night, and she'd always kept it in a boyish pony tail before the tragedy of her parents' deaths. She had played with various styles a little bit when fantasizing in her cave; however, the fantasizing was over. Now she back combed it a bit, giving it a bit more body.
'Well, I'm not sure what to say. You definitely look different, quite different. But, we see things differently than you humans do. What do you think?'
'Oh my God, it's so different! I never thought it would be like this. I need to do something.' Charli did a quick look through one of the desks in the office, and found a pair of scissors. She returned to the mirror, parted her hair across the front of her forehead, and proceeded to cut off the locks that were hanging over her eyes, leaving bangs that extended to just above her eyebrows. The effect was amazing; at least it was as far as she was concerned. The old Charlie was gone. Before her was a pre-teen girl, a rather attractive one as far as she was concerned. She felt a degree of happiness and self satisfaction that she had never felt before. The only thing that could have possibly made it better was if her parents were still alive and they were welcoming her into girlhood.
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Charli lucks out when she finds a large quantity of discarded birth control pills. After six months of use, she is not pleased with her lack of feminine development; however, things finally start to happen. She finds also that she is able to talk with another dog. Then, someone new shows up.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 5
Charli had problems with her new appearance. She couldn't stop checking herself out. Her appearance was so different that she had trouble believing it at first. One thing she realized was that her makeup was not right. She had to back off a bit. As an afterthought she had dyed her eyebrows at the same time she had done her hair, and the effect was quite satisfactory. She knew she had to have a lighter look.
She started venturing out a bit earlier in the evening to take care of some necessary things. One was laundering her soiled clothes. She had found a laundromat about a block from the other side of the highway. It wasn't difficult at the moment to follow the ledge, walk down the steep concrete, cross a dry ditch and climb up the other side. There was a barrier about three feet high designed to keep vehicles from driving into the ditch, and that was easy enough to get around. A number of willows and other woody plants obscured the ditch and the area beyond. At one time, the streets on the far side of the freeway joined the streets on the side where Charli had spent most of her life. Freeways had a way of destroying neighborhoods, making two neighborhoods out of one. Invariably, one neighborhood would profit, and the other would suffer. Sometimes, but rarely, both would suffer or both would profit. In Charli's case, the neighborhoods had remained relatively unaltered; however, they were now two separate neighborhoods, and there was little crossover between them.
The laundromat where she was going was in the 'other' neighborhood and was currently being used by several young women and a couple of college age men. She had no idea who they were, and decided the best thing was to ignore them. She had a pillow case full of dirty underwear, socks, bras, panties, and girls' tee shirts slung over her shoulder.
She got some detergent from the vending machine, and realized she would have to go to one of the grocery stores soon, not later, to get some items she needed. She couldn't afford to buy vending machine detergent every time she did her laundry. The machines were expensive enough as it was.
'Who are you, who are you, who are you! You don't belong here. You are a stranger. You don't belong here. This is my master's place. You should leave now, little girl. Leave! Leave! Leave!
The non-verbal assault overlaid with the sharp barking of a little dog caught Charli completely off guard. She turned to see a small dog, a Chihuahua, with a bristling ridge of fur on his back. He was wearing a small leather harness.
'Go back to your master, and leave me alone.'
'You're not a dog. You mustn't talk to me that way.'
'Well, you're not being very polite. Besides, you're bothering everyone.'
'That's my job. Besides, I am just a wolf in Chihuahua clothing. I can't help it that I'm so small. Man has screwed up my DNA.'
"Brutus, come back here this instant, and stop bothering that girl.
"I'm sorry, Miss," a blond girl said as she picked Brutus up. Brutus turned and vigorously licked the girl's cheek.
'This is my master. She carries me everywhere. I love her.'
"That's okay, Brutus didn't know me, and he's just protecting you. He did a very good job." 'You really did, Brutus. I was very afraid for a moment.'
'Oh thank you, you make me feel very good. People don't tend to take us small dogs very seriously.
'I won't bark at you the next time you come.'
A convenience store next door to the laundromat gave Charli a chance to get some fresh supplies while her clothes were drying. She couldn't get too much in the way of perishables; however, she hoped she might be able to rectify that situation with a small portable refrigerator. It would have to be a small one, but all she wanted was something that could keep some milk and eggs cold. It was cool enough in the cave to keep the prosciutto in good condition. She just hoped that the rats would stay away; however, knowing how rats operated, that was going to be an ongoing problem.
By the time she returned to fold her laundry, it was quite dark. The weather was also starting to turn cooler, and she was glad that she had found some warmer clothes. The trip back to her cave was uncomplicated. Making sure no one was watching, the streets weren't highly traveled in that area as it was, she made her way around the end of the barrier at the edge of the road, and made her way home. Padrona was waiting for her.
'Padrona, the strangest thing happened. A small dog didn't like me being in the laundry, and he told me so. I understood everything he was saying. I thought that maybe it was just you and me, but I understood everything, and he understood me. I thought it was just us. This is really strange.'
'What about the rats? You understood them, too.'
'Gosh, I'd forgotten about that. I did understand them. I don't think I've ever heard about anyone who could understand or talk to other creatures.'
'Well, there are stories about a doctor from a land across the sea who could talk to the animals. An old bulldog used to tell us pups about him. It may have been just a bedtime story. Do you have anything planned for tonight?'
Charli knew that her food supplies were going to last for a month at the most, and she was going to have to find some sources beyond what her soon to be dwindling supply of cash would buy. Then she realized that the best place for her to look for food was the place she was very familiar with - grocery stores. They were always discarding food that had passed its 'sell by' date. Not only that, if packaging was damaged, some stores would throw those items out, too. Foraging for usable food was going to become an almost nightly affair. However, she knew she wouldn't be alone in this endeavor. There were many homeless that survived by searching through the dumpsters behind grocery stores and restaurants.
Charli had a good night searching. One store had thrown away several dozen eggs because one or two eggs in a carton were broken. She managed to salvage a dozen and a half unbroken eggs. She would hard-boil them, and they should keep that way for a while. She had to clean up a couple of the cartons so she didn't have sticky, raw egg dripping into her bag. A bag of spoiled potatoes had three that were in good condition.
It was behind the chain drugstore where Charli's life took a turn that she had hoped for, but hadn't expected. The store sold all sorts of things including, of course, pharmaceuticals. She was just hoping to find something useful: maybe some aspirin whose expiration date had been reached; however, what she found was far beyond that. There were six boxes, each containing twelve cartons of one month's supply of birth control pills. A flood of emotion warmed her face. She didn't care about the bad things the pills could do for her. She knew that this might be her only chance to start the feminization process in lieu of her impending masculinization. She didn't realize it at the time, but someone had really screwed up. The pills should never have been discarded in the dumpster.
Once back in her cave, she examined her treasures. Without hesitation, she opened one of the small boxes, removed two of the pills from the bubble pack, and swallowed them. That was one small step for a journey she hoped would never end. Then she sat back and read the warnings. "May cause tenderness and swelling of the breasts." 'I certainly hope so,' she giggled to herself.
Living like she was, in spite of the good luck wasn't easy. It was boredom interspersed with a lot more boredom. The only thing that saved her was her laptop. She had absolutely no internet reception, and she knew she would have to remedy that. That was done with a bus trip to the nearest electronics superstore.
"What can I do for you young lady?" The young sales person was definitely checking her out. She had padded her bra a bit. If she had any growth, she wasn't aware of it.
"Yes sir, I want to get a present for my brother. He likes to play online games on his computer when he's out in the summer house, and the signal keeps fading. It really pisses, ... er upsets him when the signal drops him off line.
"It sounds like he needs a Wi-Fi signal booster. They can be pretty expensive. We have several over here." He led her down an aisle to one of the locked showcases. "This one is regularly $129.95; however, it is on sale this week for $89.95. I think it is being discontinued, but I have had several customers who have been very pleased with it."
"I think that's exactly what I, er, he needs."
"Is there anything else you would like?"
"I think I'll see what they have in games. I have to get something for my other brother and sister, too."
Charlie wandered around the store for a while, and saw only one thing she wanted to get, and that was a small microwave oven. It wasn't very expensive, and actually cost less than the antenna she was going to purchase. The problem was that she would never be able to get it back to her cave without help. There was no way she could risk that. That might be something for the future. No, the antenna would have to do. Her six hundred dollars and change was now down to about $400.
The antenna worked perfectly. She set it up just outside the door to her home, and aimed it at the office that was about 200 yards away. The signal strength was good, and with the password, she was able to get in immediately. Now, she was able to get where she hadn't been able to for the last several months. It was back to some of her favorite sites. A nice thing was that there were no significant firewalls to overcome.
She loved some of the TG fiction sites; however, many of the stories didn't appeal to her at all. She loved the stories where someone was able to transition with the aid of magic, and have their sex truly match their gender. That, of course, wasn't possible, but it was nice to think about it. She loved the sisterhood of witches who worked to make a person's gender and sex match.
The stories she couldn't stand were where there were forced sex changes, and the person's soul never matched his or her body. She never saw the point of brainwashing a boy, and turning him into a mindless bimbo. She felt the only people who got anything out of those types of stories were the authors and a small contingency of readers.
She pawed through a huge number of stories that described a wizard and his shop of magic that traveled from shopping center to shopping center, dispensing ironic changes of gender and sex to the unsuspecting. Sometimes the wizard was depicted as a breast obsessed madman who turned the unwitting into brainless bimbos. Other times, but not that often, he was depicted as a rather compassionate, but flawed wizard who tried to dispense his magical changes for the betterment of all involved. If he were real, that was the wizard she wanted to meet.
During her explorations of the internet, she discovered that she could have easily made a Wi-Fi antenna from scrap materials that probably would have worked just as well as the one she paid ninety bucks for. The problem was that when she didn't need one, she had the internet, but when she didn't have one, she couldn't get on the internet to find out how to make one.
Well, that was moot. She had the internet now, and her education, such as it was would continue.
Charli knew patience was a virtue, and she was willing to wait for changes to happen to her body; however, after six months, she hadn't seen any appreciable changes. If she had been under a doctor's care, he probably would have told her that she was only thirteen years old. She'd had a birthday and hadn't thought about it too much. Nor had she considered that these changes might take a while to start. The doctor would have pointed out that there were changes taking place. Her fat distribution was slowly changing, and there were subtle differences in her skeletal development. The one thing she was somewhat aware of was that she was not becoming more boy-like.
Examining her supply of pills, Charli determined that at her current rate of usage, she'd had three years worth of pills when she started taking them. She decided to start taking three pills a day, and that would leave her with about a year and a half's worth of pills. She knew she would have to find another hormone source, something that she had been thinking about it for quite a while.
Maybe it was the third pill, or maybe it was just the right time. Her body started changing almost immediately. If she had bothered to take measurements from the beginning, she would have seen that the changes had started a month or two before that. Her nipples were considerably larger, and her areolae were expanding. But now there was the physical sensation of changes taking place. Her breast area started itching, and the nipple area was a bit sore. Suddenly, she had pointy little breasts, and she was ecstatic.
Padrona notice the changes, too. It was pretty much routine, and unless the weather prevented it Charli would make a nightly trip to the junkyard washroom and toilets. She had touched up her roots several times, and her hair looked about as good as could be expected; however, she was becoming more and more aware of the changes in her body. A thin layer of fat was building up under her skin, and that gave her an overall softer feeling. By now she was shaving her legs and armpits regularly. It seemed her pubic hair had appeared overnight. It was darker than the hair on her head, so she dyed it right along with her roots.
By this time, the weather had turned much colder, with periods of even more frigid weather. When the nor'easters blew through, the wind came through the space under the highway. The fetid water in the ditch had frozen solid, and Charli found herself staying behind the closed door for days at a time. She had gotten used to taking advantage of the shower/change room in the salvage yard. However, it was times like these that she had to use her portable toilet more than she liked. She had some chemical deodorant for the toilet; however, that just made it smell like a chemical toilet. When she could get out she would drop the sealed bags into a neighborhood dumpster. The bags were expensive, but necessary. She was fortunate that other homeless hadn't discovered her cave. She was already aware that hidden spots like hers became latrines, and would rapidly become unlivable.
The rats were back, too, and she had to buy some more poison to keep them at bay. It was obvious that the rats couldn't detect the poison in the grain bait, as she could hear them talking about their good fortune when they found it. Thankfully, the rats went elsewhere to die.
Chapter 6
'Charli, open the door, hurry. Charli, are you in there?'
Charli had been sleeping rather soundly. It had been too cold to forage, and at the moment the food situation was good. At least, it was good enough.
'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, hungry, hungry, hungry, cold, cold, cold, danger, danger, danger.' Charli picked up the distress call before she opened the door.
Padrona entered and briefly shook the powdery snow off her fur. There was something in her soft mouth, and it was making little panicky mewling noises.
'Help, help, help, it is going to eat me.'
Padrona dropped the little bundle on Charli's bed. 'A pack of dogs got its mother and littermates. I heard the commotion outside the fence. I couldn't get there in time. She was coming back with a rabbit when they got her. Then they just waited for the babies to come out. I heard them killing the babies. This one had hidden under a hubcap.
'I killed one of them, and hurt two others. They won't be back. Do you think you can do anything for this one? I don't think it's hurt.'
By this time, Charli had the little, struggling kitten, and she was trying to dry it off. Padrona had a tendency to slobber every once in a while.
'Let me go; let me go. I will scratch your eyes out.'
'If that's what you want to do, I certainly won't let you go. Are you hungry?'
'Yes, but you don't smell like my mother.'
'I'm afraid your mother's gone now. She died trying to protect you. I want to take care of you. I will keep you warm if you will let me.'
'I'm hungry. Do you have a rabbit? Momma was going to bring us a rabbit.'
'No, I don't have a rabbit, but I do have some tuna.'
'What's tuna?'
Charli had some pouches of tuna, and opened one up and placed a portion on a small paper plate. Five minutes later, the kitten was washing his face, and sporting a round little belly. 'That was good. I think I would like more later.'
Charli turned to Padrona who was taking the whole thing in. 'We may have a problem. I can't afford to feed him tuna. Besides, it's probably not that good for him. We're going to need a box for him, too.'
'Why do you want to put him in a box? I thought he'd sleep with you.'
'Not to sleep in. It's for a toilet. Cats will use a box filled with kitty litter for a toilet. They like to bury their poop and stuff.'
'Why do they do that? We don't find that necessary.'
'Cats are smaller and defenseless against big predators. They also hunt differently than you do. They can't have the smell giving them away. Your ancestors covered a lot of ground when they hunted. They ran their prey down. Stealth wasn't part of their nature, and they let the poop fall where it may.'
'If that's the case, why do they have bags of kitty litter in the workshop? There aren't any cats that they take care of.'
'They probably use it to clean up grease and oil. Padrona, how do you know it's kitty litter?' Charli paused for a moment. This was getting very strange. She and Padrona had been conversing for quite a while like two best girl friends or sisters, and Padrona was probably the older sister. Charli regularly carried on a conversation with the Chihuahua at the laundry when he was there. She could hear rats talking with each other. And now, she had just been carrying on a conversation with a little cat that couldn't be more than eight or ten weeks old.
'What do you mean, how do I know it's kitty litter. It says so right on the bag.'
'That's what I mean. Since when have you been able to read?'
'Oh - that's what I've been doing. I don't know; maybe a year or so. Those letters just started making sense. You're always reading things on that computer of yours. Shouldn't I be able to read?'
'I guess you should; it's just that as far as I know, there's never been another dog that could read. This is just really crazy.'
Their conversation was interrupted by the little kitten pushing its way between them. 'Are you my mommy now? I need to tinkle, and there's no good place around here to do it. Should I do it on that pile of stuff over there,' he said indicating the pile of dirty clothes that had been accumulating against the wall.
'No, that wouldn't do at all. We'll get you a spot to do that tomorrow. Right now, you're going to have to do it in the snow.'
They opened the door, and the little kitten made for a drift of snow at the abutment at far end of the ledge. He scraped a spot in the snow, and did his thing. He did his best to cover up the yellow snow and retreated to the door where his new protectors were waiting, and began to shake the snow from his feet. Charli couldn't help giggling at his antics.
The little cat settled down once inside to clean the remaining snow and water from between his toes. Padrona had to return to the yard, as the first workers would be showing up before long.
'So, what do I call you, little one?'
'Mamma called me Prince William. She said she had great hopes for me. Now, she'll never know.'
'You never know, Willie. She might be watching you right now.
'Come on, we both need to get some sleep. You're welcome to snuggle in with me.'
'Thank you, Mommy.'
'What are you doing?' Padrona asked.
On a warm Sunday spring afternoon, Padrona and Willie had just returned from a walk around the junk yard, and Willie had unsuccessfully attempted to catch a rat. He was five months old, and growing like a weed. At the moment, he was devouring some of the dry cat food that was his main source of food. Charlie was sitting at her open door with a mirror in one hand, and tweezers in the other. She had experienced more changes over the last few months, and some of them were very welcome, and others were not. She was now a full A-cup, if the tag on the bra she was wearing was accurate. She felt her figure was definitely leaning toward the more feminine as besides her breasts, her waist was still narrow, and her hips seemed to be wider. The girl's panties which she wore exclusively seemed to fit rather nicely; however, there were still indications of her male origin besides the obvious.
'I'm getting rid of some of these hairs that insist on growing on my face.'
'Isn't there something that you could do about that?'
'I can't afford to get electrolysis or laser treatments, and that's about the only way I can get rid of them permanently. I don't want to shave, because that would leave stubble. I tried bleaching them, but that irritated my skin, and the hairs were still there. I'll just have to keep doing it this way until my situation changes. I don't see that happening soon.
'Padrona, I have to figure out how to get more hormones, and maybe some blockers before it's too late. I'm going to run out next week. I've come so far, and I don't want to go back.'
'You could go to the police.'
'Not now! I don't want to leave you and Willie. Besides, Pilonetti and Luca are still out there. I saw them the other night. They saw me, but I know they didn't recognize me.'
With the proper makeup, and a little help from padding, Charli, in the right light, could pass for almost eighteen. Her hair was well below her shoulders, and quite full. In spite of the shifts caused by her mixed up puberty, her voice remained pleasantly high. She made occasional trips to laundromats in the area, and had no trouble carrying on limited conversations with other patrons. There were a dozen or more convenience stores within easy walking distance, and she would spread her trips among them. Sometimes, if she had the money, she would take the MTA to one of the malls in the area.
Her forays into the dumpsters and trash containers continued to provide the essentials for food. She had also become adept at shoplifting on a very limited basis when it was necessary. Her original supply of money had long been depleted; however, she was able to get several dollars a week by raiding newspaper vending boxes and other vending machines. Some of the newspaper boxes coin returns would jam, and she discovered how to dislodge the change. The vendors were none the wiser because they received their money regardless of the change not given. Other vending machines proved to be profitable, too.
She had been dying for a Cokeâ„¢ one day, an extravagance that she seldom allowed herself. She fed the quarters into a machine at a Wal-Mart, and received nothing. There was no satisfying click. She banged the machine several times to no avail before she peered into the coin slot to discover many quarters wedged inside. Using the tweezers from her Swiss Army Knife, she was able to retrieve several dollars in quarters. Not only that, several quarters were no longer wedged in the slot, and fell into the machine. She got her coke and several dollars. She lived as best she could off the found change after that.
Years later, Charli would say how fortunate she had been to have gotten along as well as she had. Things were going to take a decided turn. Charli was going to have to address survival at a level she had never thought of before. The trouble was that she had become a fairly attractive teenager, and that was not lost on many of the people she came across over the next few years.
Charli had another problem, and that was with her sexuality: it seemed to be increasing rapidly along with her increasingly physical femininity. She had not had any social contact with anyone her age for more than two years, and other than her short trips on the outside, her only contact with the world was through the internet. That was probably not the best source of instruction for her, as much of her time was spent on sexually oriented sites. Without a doubt, these sites gave her an unrealistic view of the world of sexual relationships.
As she crossed the line of entering puberty, she became increasingly aroused by stories of sexual encounters, especially those where her imagination allowed her to take the female role with a virile male lover or a willing female partner. She knew that in her present state, her options were somewhat limited; however, she was becoming more and more interested in trying something out with someone. The fact that her dreams were becoming more and more vivid, frequently ending in sleep ending orgasms, just increased her desire for physical contact with someone.
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Charli's physical development continues as does her sexuality. She meets a man at the laundromat who is willing to pay her for sex. The need for money pushes her into the next major step in her life. Unfortunately, the man figures out who she is.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 7
"Hi, do you come here often?"
Charli turned to see an older man addressing her. She was pretty certain she had seen him doing his laundry once or twice in the past. She guessed he was probably in his late twenties or early thirties. He was rather ordinary looking.
"Yeah, it's convenient." She didn't really want to start a conversation.
"Do you, uh, er, you know, party?"
"What do you mean party?"
"You know, go out with guys and do things."
"I don't think so."
"I was hoping you did. I can pay you."
Charli was pretty quick on picking up the gist of the conversation. This guy wanted to have sex with her, and there was money involved.
She had found that she could order hormones, real hormones, over the internet; however, she was lacking several essentials. She didn't have a credit card or bank account, she didn't have a mailing address, she didn't have any identification, and she didn't have any money. Several of the sites accepted money orders, but she still didn't have a place to mail them to if she could get them. She might be able to work some of those things out eventually; however, the most pressing issue was money. She needed money. Her supply of food for herself and Willie was getting low. There were several homeless in the area that seemed to be beating her to some of the better scrounging sites, and it was getting very frustrating. There was also another problem. Her computer was starting to act up, and it was long out of warranty, and getting it fixed was not a very practicable possibility. She wasn't sure how long it was going to last, and if she didn't have a computer, she wasn't sure what she would do.
"Er, what do you mean you have money?"
"I'll pay you twenty bucks if you will, er, um take care of something for me. I'm in a bad way. I thought you were kinda cute and would help me out a little."
"You do realize I'm under age, don't you?"
"Shit, I thought you were at least eighteen. How old are you?"
Charli had to think about it for a minute. Jesus, she was fifteen. Then she thought about it. Why lie about her age. From some of the things she had read, a lot of guys got off on young girls. Maybe she could make a few bucks without going too far.
"I'm fifteen."
"You are very pretty."
"Thank you."
"How come your mother lets you out this late?"
"Mom's an alky. She doesn't know what I'm doing. She comes home from work, gets drunk, and passes out. I go to school, come home, fix dinner, do my homework, and try to take care of the house work. It's not much of a life.
"I take it you're not talking about romance here. I'm not going to fuck you for any money. So you can forget that. And, I'm not going to do anything for twenty bucks. What do you want?"
"I thought maybe we could sit back in that hallway, and you could let me feel your tits, and you could use your hands to, you know, get me off."
Charli thought about it for a minute or two. She could see the guy was pretty nervous. "Look, I'm on the rag; so you can forget anything below the waist. I want fifty bucks."
"Forty."
"Done." She took his two twenties and put them in the front pocket of her tight Levis.
He wanted to kiss her, and she let him. His breath wasn't too bad. He pulled her blouse out and his hand quickly found its way under her bra. It found her hard little nipple and started pulling on it while at the same time squeezing her little breast. She was surprised at how good it felt. She could feel her penis straining against its confinement. She was getting turned on and didn't even know the guy's name.
"Say, since we seem to be getting pretty personal here, what's your name? Mine's Charli."
"Danny."
They had been sitting on two molded plastic chairs, but by this time she was straddling his lap, and she could feel him starting to push against her. Sliding back just a bit, she found the zipper and released what he had been pushing against her. In porn terms, he was tiny. Reality wise, he was probably about average. In spite of all her reading, she wasn't sure what to expect. His penis was hot, soft, and hard all at the same time.
"Give me your handkerchief. I don't want your stuff all over me." It was a struggle, but he got it out.
She started stroking him, and realized he was sucking on her breast. It was a very pleasant feeling. Her stroking became a bit firmer, and she could feel him getting with it. Her manipulations were also rubbing against her penis, unknown to him. She knew he was going to come pretty quickly, and wrapped the head of his penis in the hanky. He came in four strong contractions and several smaller ones. She had come right along with him.
Two weeks later, he showed up at the laundry again. It was close to midnight.
“Hi Charli, do we have a date?”
“That all depends on what you mean by a date. I have to be home soon. I have school in the morning.”
“I thought that we might be able to do what we did last time. That was very nice.”
“The price is the same, and I won’t do anything else. Give me the money now.”
It was pretty much a repeat of the previous meeting, and Charli loved how it felt when he played with her breasts and sucked on her nipples. There were all sorts of good feelings going on there and in her groin. She came before he did.
He was waiting for her a week later. They had to ignore each other for a while because there were two other people doing laundry.
“I’ll pay you fifty dollars if you will suck me.”
“I don’t think I want to do that.”
“I’m clean. I had a shower. I would really like it if you would do that for me.”
“One hundred bucks.”
“Seventy-five.”
She let him play with her nipples until she became sufficiently aroused to feel good about what she was doing. This was definitely new territory for her, and she found out very quickly that it was overrated as far as the physical pleasure a woman got out of it. There were some things about the act that did give her the satisfaction in that she knew she was in control. At least she was for a while. She gave him the lollypop treatment for quite a while, but as he came closer and closer to the inevitable end he took control. He was larger and much stronger than she was. His hands were gentle at first; however, they were firmly holding her head in such a way that she couldn’t avoid having his penis slowly being inserted deeper and deeper into her mouth.
She finally gave into him and gave him what she thought he wanted. It wasn’t very pleasant, but he gave her one hundred dollars.
He wasn’t there the next week, nor was he there the week after. In spite of some misgivings, Charli appreciated the money, and she was able to get food for Willie, and a rawhide bone for Padrona. It was quiet in the cave as Padrona and Willie were out hunting rats. Willie was becoming quite good, and Charli had not needed to get any rat poison for quite a while. They had a plan. Willie’s hearing was a bit more sensitive than Padrona’s, and Padrona’s sense of smell was a bit better than Willie’s. Between them, they were usually able to find out where the rats might be hiding or searching for food. Being a lot more experienced than Willie, Padrona would point out the rats’ most likely escape route, and she would have Willie hide, then sneak around to the other side of the rats’ hiding place. Padrona would then create a commotion and attempt to drive the rats toward Willie’s hiding place.
Willie was now close to his full adult size. He weighed about fifteen pounds. He still lacked the bulk of an adult male cat, but he was getting close. His head was large and round, and his teeth were formidable. There was a slight tear on the edge of his right ear where the first rat he had captured had turned and given him a nasty bite: lesson learned.
The workers at the yard were beginning to wonder about the two or three rat carcasses that would show up on the office entrance steps every day or so. Still, a dead rat was a good rat. They gave Padrona the credit for the kills, “Great job, Bruno.”
Charli was folding the last of her laundry. She was expecting Willie and Padrona to return after a while, and they would be giving her the details of their hunt when they did. It had been a pleasant evening, and she had left the door slightly ajar. During the summer, she relied on the long concrete tunnel to provide cool air for her living area. Now that fall was approaching, she had moved a number of bales of corrugated cardboard into place to prevent the cold air from flowing into her living space. It made it possible for her to heat the remaining space with the small space heater she had acquired the year before.
She was ‘listening’ for her two friends and to one of her favorite songs when a pair of strong hands grabbed her around the chest and mouth. There was a rag in the hand over her mouth, and it was filled with an evil smelling liquid. She didn’t lose consciousness; however, any strength she may have had to fight back with was quickly dissipated. She was aware of her mouth and wrists being taped, and being roughly thrown on her bedding.
“Well, Charli, or should I say Charles Donizetti; Pilonetti and Luca are going to be very pleased. They had just about given up on ever finding you. You have changed a lot; to the better, I might add. It’s a shame I’m going to have to kill you; however, I intend to enjoy you as much as possible before I do kill you.
"I didn't realize who you were at first, but I started putting things together. I got a copy of your picture, and if I ignored the hair color change, I was pretty sure it was you. The name just added to it, and the fact you have a dick just clinched things. You should have hidden out a lot further away. Well, no matter. I'll get ten grand for your body.”
Thankfully, she passed out as the assault began.
Chapter 8
‘Is she going to be okay?’
‘I don’t know, Willie. She’s not bleeding any more. Her breathing seems to be okay. Keep a watch on her. I’ve got to get rid of the body.’
‘What are you going to do with it?’
‘I thought I might drag it down to the ditch and let the water take it out to the bay. But that might make it too easy to find. I think I’ll drag it back into the yard, and hide it there. There’re a lot of places to hide it, and I think I know how to get rid of it.’
They had been across the yard when they heard Charli’s ‘cry’ for help. They knew immediately something was very wrong. Willie had arrived first. Danny was through sodomizing her, and was starting to strangle her. Charli was struggling a bit, but it was mostly an unconscious effort to gain a breath. Willie launched himself at Danny’s head, sinking five claws into the sides of his face, and his remaining eight started digging into his scalp. Danny’s focus changed from strangulation to trying to get whatever it was that was attacking him off his head. Blood was running from numerous cuts into his eyes. If anyone had been close, they might have heard Danny’s screams. Thankfully, no one did.
He was finally able to remove Willie and throw him up against the cardboard wall. That was one of the last few voluntary actions that Danny ever did. The force of Padrona’s attack knocked him to his hands and knees. He turned to see what hit him, and that probably hadn't been the best thing to do. He probably should have rolled into a ball; however, considering the circumstances, he didn’t stand a chance.
Padrona probably outweighed Danny by twenty pounds, and most of it was fighting weight. Danny’s struggle became a struggle for life, and fortunately he lost it rather quickly. Padrona crushed his windpipe with the skill hardwired by her ancestors’ thousands of years hunting in the north woods. Danny’s last few motions were the hangman’s dance.
Charli finally woke up the next morning aching in about a hundred places. Willie was gently licking some dried blood from her face.
‘What happened, Willie?’ I feel like I’ve been run over by a train.’
‘A man was trying to kill you, but Padrona and I took care of him for you.’
‘Oh no, he’ll come back and bring Pilonetti and Luca with him. They’ll kill me for sure. I’ve got to leave now.’
Charli tried to struggle to her feet without much success.
‘Just wait right there. He’s not going to do anything to you. Padrona killed him. It was easy. He died like a rat.’
‘Oh my God, where’s the body? Someone will look for him. Then they’ll find his body, and they’ll blame me.’
‘I don’t think so. The body’s hidden behind some cars. Padrona says they the cars aren’t scheduled to be ground up until January. She said she might need some help moving the body into the trunk of one of them, but that can wait for a little while. It’s pretty cold out there right now. It started getting cold this morning.’
Two nights later, in spite of her aches and pains, she helped Padrona drag Danny’s body to a stack of cars waiting to be fed into the grinder. They got the body into the trunk of an older model Edsel. By this time, his body had passed the rigor mortis stage, and was fairly flexible. The job took several hours, and Charli definitely didn’t feel very clean. She took a long shower. Before returning to her cave, she found a gallon of laundry bleach which she used to wash down the trail of blood left when Padrona had dragged the body down the concrete slope to the fence. Charli threw Danny’s wallet into a dumpster, but not before removing nearly four hundred dollars.
A few days later Charli decided a change was in order, and decided she was going to change her appearance again. She would go dark auburn. It was probably part of an effort to help her get over the trauma of being nearly killed. She would wait until her bruises were gone before attempting to change the color. There had been a break in the weather, and she decided to venture a bit to the north of the area where she had been living. Maybe she could learn a bit more how to get some hormones. There had to be a different way.
She brought some of the cash she had liberated from Danny’s wallet, and thought she might be able to make a purchase if she could just find the right people. She took the bus, and had probably gone two or three miles to the north of the airport before she decided to get off the bus and try her luck. She remembered the neighborhood from visiting there years before with her parents. She remembered that there was a lot more going on in that area than there had been in their neighborhood, and there were some things that had bothered her parents. She remembered her mother talking about the prostitutes on some of the street corners. She hadn’t known then what her mother was talking about; however, her age of innocence was now long gone.
She started walking down a fairly well traveled street; trying to take everything in. There seemed to be restaurants and bars everywhere, along with a number of other stores and shops, too. She stopped in front of a small beauty shop, taking in the posters with photographs of beautiful women with perfect hair.
“Do you see something you like honey?”
Charli turned to see a woman who had been standing to the side of the front door while smoking a cigarette. She decided to see what she could do in the way of getting the woman’s assistance. She knew she wasn’t doing the best job possible on her hair. Maybe she could play on the woman’s sympathy.
“My mother’s not happy with me. I’ve been dyeing my hair for a while, and she says it’s not right. She says I’m ruining it. I think she may be right, and I want to try something different. I was looking at those pictures to see if there was something that I might like to try.”
‘Honey, you need some help, and I’m just the lady to do it for you. We have some specials in effect at the moment. Were you thinking about going darker? Blonde is definitely not your shade. You need a trim, too.’
Two hours later, and seventy five dollars lighter, she was the dark auburn she had coveted for years. The woman had given her a light wave. She had also done some work on her makeup to make it more appropriate for her coloring. Her eyebrows were dark once again.
“I think Mama would, er, will like this,” she said will lifting the waves off her ear a bit, and letting them fall back. There was life in her hair that she hadn’t seen before. She definitely needed some lessons on hair care.
It was beginning to get dark, but she knew she had several hours before the last bus that would take her back in the direction of her home. It had been an expensive day; however, she decided to treat herself to a decent meal before checking out the nightlife in the area. She found a seafood restaurant that was promoting an early evening meal of boiled shrimp for an appetizer, and fillet of sole for the main course. She couldn’t resist the ice cream dessert. She turned down the wine menu, and thought the waiter was trying to flatter her. She'd never had anything alcoholic to drink in her life, and wasn’t about to start.
The night had definitely changed the scene. The bars were busier, and there was a different crowd wandering the sidewalks. She walked several blocks before she saw what she wanted, several women who were just standing around dressed in tight shorts or skirts. However, when a car would roll up and the window on the passenger side would lower, one of the girls would approach and carry on a conversation with someone in the car. As Charli watched the first time the conversation took place, the girl got in the car, and rode off. The second and third times a deal was not struck, and the girls remained on the sidewalk. One of the girls flipped the driver off the second time.
“Excuse me,” Charli asked rather timidly.
“Go away little girl. Does your mother know you’re out after dark?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I need to talk to someone about how to get hormones.”
“What the hell do you want hormones for?” the black girl of the pair responded.
“I guess so that I can keep developing as a woman,” Charli responded.
“Well, you seem to be to be doing okay so far. Does your mom know what you’re doing?”
“She doesn’t give a shit. I’ve been stealing her birth control pills for years. She’s drunk most of the time, and will screw anyone with two legs and a dick.”
“What’s her name? She doesn’t work around here does she?”
“No, she works out west by the ball park. I can’t get any help out there, and I thought I would try around here. I thought you might know someone.”
“I might. Say, how old are you anyway?”
“Fifteen, but I’ve done a little work. I’m not afraid to. It’s the only way I can get any money. Mom doesn’t give me shit.”
“See that gal with the big hair down on the next block. That’s Taneesha. At least that’s what she goes by at night. She’s working to get enough dough for her operation. Her pimp’s Tommy Morrison. He treats his girls pretty good. I’ve never heard anything bad about him. You might check with her.”
“Thank you.”
“Good luck, but I’m not going to have you horn in on any of my johns.”
Taneesha was a bit leery about saying anything, probably because she thought she was being set up, but after a while she warmed up to Charli, who was obviously being sincere in her quest.
“Why don’t you just work the streets and keep the money for yourself?” Charli asked.
“Honey, a girl can’t work the streets and expect to make it without help. There’s a natural order to things out here. A girl has to have protection. If she tries to free-lance, she’s likely to get robbed, beat up, or worse. This is a cash business. At least it is around here. The high class girls can work downtown by themselves, but there’s always that chance someone will want to get rough with them. So the easiest and safest thing to do is be proactive and find someone who will watch out for you. It’s expensive, but it’s like insurance.
“I don’t want to do this forever. I gotta get my education, and I gotta fix this body. I’m not looking for any Prince Charming to sweep me off my feet and take me away from all this. I’m trying to do this that only way I know how, and I’m very good at what I do. I don’t do drugs and I got no diseases. I put my money in the bank, and I pay my taxes. I’m an ‘entertainment consultant’. When I get old enough, I’m going to collect my Social Security, and live in a little cottage somewhere in Vermont. I got five or six years at the most left doing this type of work. By then I’ll be able to get my operation and finish college.
“You could probably make good money doing this stuff, kid, but if you got any choice, don’t get in this business.”
Charli was listening to what Taneesha said, and understood where she was coming from. “Taneesha, I am basically homeless. I don’t have a family or any relatives. I’ve come a long way, but I’m out of hormones. If I use my Social Security number for anything, they’re going to come looking for me, and there’s a price on my head. I know who murdered some people, and I think they have connections with the police. There’s already been one attempt on my life, and if anyone finds out who I am, I’m a goner. I’m going to need a new identity, and all that takes money. I don’t think I have any choice.”
“I don’t know if Tommy’ll want to take you on. He can get you hormones ... for that matter, I guess I could get ‘em for you, too. Since I got a credit card, I get them from overseas. They’re not nearly as expensive that way, and they’re good. At least they are from where I get them from.
“Where were you getting yours from? Is that all real?”
“Mostly,” Charli replied. “I lucked out, I guess. I found a bunch of discarded birth control pills, but I’ve run out. I’m real happy about what’s happened so far.”
“I can do a lot better than birth control pills for you. You need some blockers along with the estrogen. Have you been getting electrolysis? I didn’t think you could afford that.”
“No, I just tweeze them. I don’t have a lot.”
“You’re lucky. Electrolysis costs a fortune. But you’re going to have to have it done some day.
“Look, I’m going to have to go. One of my regulars is driving up, and he tips real well. Tommy lets me keep all the tips, too. Meet me here next Friday. I got night classes the next couple of nights. I’ll tell Tommy about you. I think he can use a young one like you.
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: The continuing need for money drives Charli to make some serious, potentially disastrous choices. She makes some significant changes in her appearance, but that's not the problem. She's going to work as an underage prostitute. She's found a pimp who seems to be pretty decent. At least the money's good.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 9
Charli did not feel very well the next morning. She had cramps and a slight fever, or at least she thought she had a fever. She'd have to go to Walgreens and get one of those inexpensive electronic fever thermometers. It was probably due to all that rich food she'd had the night before.
Padrona had not been pleased about her being away as late as she'd been. 'Do you think it's necessary for you to do that sort of thing? Why can't you just stay here? We'll take care of you.'
'Padrona, who do you see when you look at me?'
'I see a pretty human girl with dark hair. That was a surprise, by the way. Willie tells me that it is actually red; however, I don't know what he means by that color.'
'That's what I mean. I'm a girl in a boy's body, just like your litter mate. I want to keep looking like a girl. I don't ever want to start looking like a boy, but I will if I can't get the hormones that will keep me looking and growing in the direction I want to go. The only way I can get the hormones is to make money. Hormones are expensive. I've been lucky enough to find enough money to stay fairly comfortable here, but I can't keep going without additional money. I am going to get someone to look out for me while I make money. He'll make sure I don't get hurt. I also met someone who will help me get the hormones. It just takes money. It won't always be like this, but right now, I don't have much choice.'
Padrona countered, 'I still don't understand why you just don't go to the police. They'll protect you,'
'They might, but Pilonetti and Luca are still out there. And we know for sure now that there's a price on my head. The other thing is that the authorities will put me in a home, and I won't be able to be a girl. They'll try to force me to be a boy. I think I might kill myself if they do.'
Padrona decided not to try to argue with Charli about the direction her life was taking. The whole culture was alien to her. She just knew that Charli was a young pup who probably didn't have enough life experience to capably cope in the world where she was trying to live. She would look out for Charli as best she could.
The following Friday, Charli was back at Taneesha's corner. Tommy Morrison was with her. Tommy was a rather ordinary looking black man with an air of extreme self confidence about him. Charli had no trouble convincing Tommy that she was genuine, especially after ducking into a dimly lit alley.
She didn't hate her appendage, after all, it was part of her, and she knew that she would need the skin it supplied for her surgery. The biggest problem she had with it was that it just didn't fit her mental image of herself. 'All in good time,' she thought.
Because of the uniqueness of her situation, Tommy thought that it might be best to work 'special assignments': ones where his clientele would contact him concerning their needs. He would then notify Charli where to meet the client. There was one problem. Charli didn't have a telephone. That was remedied quickly by Tommy giving her a cell phone. Charli would have to get a charger on her own.
Then there were the financial arrangements. Tommy quoted a flat rate for each date, a number that made Charli's eyes pop. Had she known what Tommy would be getting for this underage girly boy, she might not have been quite so impressed. Tommy was being paid by credit card, and he would pay her in cash. This was probably not the wisest thing; however, Charli wasn't making all the wisest decisions as it was.
"Are you a virgin?" he asked. "Although I can't imagine that you are, having gotten to this point."
"No, I am not a virgin." She decided to leave out the part about her being raped.
"Just checking; make sure they use condoms. The best way to do this is to put the condom on your client. Make it as sexy as possible. They enjoy that. Always be clean and smell nice.
"You don't live around here, do you?"
"I live several miles from here, and I don't need anyone to know where I live," Charli replied.
They made some additional arrangements, and Charli settled into life as a teenage business girl. Her routine involved: sleeping most of the day, eating breakfast, playing on the internet, and then getting ready for the evening's activities if there were any. She used the shower facility as she had before. It was just that she had to be clean inside and out. The nightly trip to the shower now involved carrying a satchel with everything she needed in it. Body and hair maintenance was becoming very expensive, and so were the hormones, but at least she was now able to get them through Taneesha She also had to get some sexy lingerie, but she passed so well at first, it wasn't a problem to visit the mall and get what she needed. Still, after the first two weeks, she found that she had more cash than she had ever had before.
She kept her money in a box hidden behind the cardboard wall. Not having any identification meant that she couldn't start a bank account.
She found that the best arrangement was to take a cab to a designated meeting point. She would have her date with the john, and then call Tommy to pick her up. Some of the johns were very good tippers, and she could often get as much in tips as Tommy would give her. Tommy would leave her at an all-night restaurant where she could get a cheap meal before taking a cab or public transportation back to the salvage yard. By this time, she had acquired a key to the employee gate. It was relatively easy to slip into the yard unnoticed by anyone other than Padrona and Willie. They were usually waiting for her as she came to the gate. She had to hide a couple of times from late night vehicles or the cops.
The johns were a strange bunch. She never knew what to expect. It could be bondage, S&M, water sports, blow jobs, whatever. She just knew that she would get paid the same, regardless. Tommy had done a good job screening his clients, and Charli never felt threatened. Maybe she should have.
She was sick again the next week. She had more stomach cramps, a fever, and diarrhea. The latter made it impossible to conduct business. She stayed warm in her cave, but her intestinal upset made it difficult.
There was another problem, one that terrified her. In spite of the hormones and the Finasteride, she seemed to be becoming more masculine. It wasn't a lot; however, there were tell tale signs. The growth of hair on her face was increasing. She felt her shoulders were broadening, and her feet had increased two sizes. Her breasts, she loved her breasts, were still satisfactory; however, her chest was becoming more and more masculine. She was starting to get the stocky body she'd inherited from her father. Another thing that scared her was that her voice broke. She had to be very careful to keep her register as high as possible. It was terrible. Her parents' killers were still out there, she was going to lose her source of income, she was sick, she couldn't go to the police, and she was becoming a man. This was not good at all.
Winter had changed to spring, and spring into summer. Her bouts of illness continued to come and go. Padrona and Willie kept after her to go to the doctor, as did Tommy. Finally, Tommy called an end to their arrangement. He couldn't rely on her, and besides, she was changing, and the customers wouldn't like that. Charli wasn't angry. It was a business, after all.
Charli's stash of money had become pretty substantial; however, it wouldn't grow if she didn't work. The days of getting change from vending machines were long past. She had purchased a new laptop, and that ate substantially into her stash. Finally, the inactivity was more than she could handle. She decided to see if she could find any business on her own.
She ventured into a neighborhood that she hadn't been in for more than a year. It was one of those trendy, eclectic neighborhoods with a little of something for everyone. Charli decided to see if she could find some activity in one of the bars in the area. She wasn't a stranger to alcohol by this time. Some of her clients wanted her to partake; however, she kept her intake to a minimum. Since her illness began, alcohol seemed to have a much stronger effect on her, and the effect seemed to linger.
She immediately got thrown out of a bar because she didn't have an ID.
"Look, we don't cater to your type here, anyway. Go on down to 'Three Sheets'. They serve your type there, and you can get in because they are a restaurant and bar."
'My type? That guy read me. No one has read me in three years. This is getting very bad. What am I going to do?'
She made her way to Three Sheets. It was next to a nice seafood restaurant, and there were some high class people around the area. Maybe she'd get lucky.
A drag queen met her at the door. "Just sit anywhere you want sweetie; things won't start jumping for a couple of hours."
Charli found a table for two against the wall across from the bar. She ordered a hamburger, fries and a coke. About ten minutes after she finished her hamburger, four rough looking guys came in and sat at the bar. She had them pegged as macho gays, but she wasn't sure. One of them looked her way, and smile at her. She smiled back. The men kept looking her way, and would talk quietly among themselves. Finally, they picked up their drinks and moved to a table next to hers. The guy who had smiled at her before, smiled again and nodded. She nodded and smiled again.
"Hey, why don't you join us? We'll buy you a drink. They won't say a thing." He turned to the bartender.
"Hey Mack, bring the lady another Cokeâ„¢. We'll have two more Rum and Cokesâ„¢, and two more tequila sunrises.
"What's a little girl like you doing in a place like this?" he said as he turned back to Charli.
"A girl likes to have a good time, and I was lookin' to see if there was anyone in the mood to party. What about you guys?"
"We're always in the mood to party. Do you think you would like partying with four big guys like us?"
"Four handsome guys," she added. They really weren't. She took a sip from her coke, and realized that her drink had been switched. There was a lot of rum in it.
"We have a nice suite at a hotel not far from here. Would you like to join us?"
"It's late, and I'll need money for cab fare."
"We'd be glad to take care of that. Would a couple of hundred do?"
"I think that will work just fine, in advance."
He slipped her three crisp one hundred dollar bills under the edge of the table.
They ordered more drinks, and somehow the one she had had quite a bit of alcohol and something else. She was getting very light headed and fuzzy. She was having trouble figuring out what was going on. Apparently they were going to a hotel. She was having trouble standing, and two of them grabbed her rather roughly by the arms. She could barely walk.
Things were happening very slowly. About a half block down the street they turned into an alley.
"Thish ijent the way to the h'tel," she slurred.
"No it ain't, but it's the end of the road for you, faggot."
The man who had caught her attention in the bar delivered a very powerful blow to her mid section. She felt something give, and the pain was excruciating. She fell over in a tight ball. Things were starting to fade very rapidly. She could see her attacker starting to get ready to kick her, but somehow the blow never came. There was some yelling, and she thought she heard sirens. She realized that someone was trying to help her. It was a beautiful redheaded woman. There was also a beautiful golden haired woman. She couldn't figure out why it was so bright. Then just before the world closed in on her she saw the headlights and the flashing lights of a police car.
Across town a large dog howled and howled. When they opened the gate in the morning, she almost made it through the opening.
"Frank, what's going on with Bruno?"
"I don't know. She's never been like this before. We finally got her into her pen. Al, it's the goddammest thing I ever seen. There was a huge cat sitting on her dog house. I mean this is one huge fucking cat. I figured it was a goner for sure, but Bruno just went into her house and curled up, and the cat curled up next to her. I never seen anything like it."
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Charli awakens to a surreal world. She realizes she's in a hospital, and there is the strangest doctor who seems to be attending to her. He seems to know a lot about her. In fact, he can read her mind. He reveals his true appearance to her and she is shocked to realize that he is the wizard from the mall. Then things really get weird.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 10
Things gradually started coming back into focus. She was on a bed. That she knew for sure. There was a partially drawn curtain on one side of the bed. The lights were on, but not too bright, and she could hear and see someone beyond the foot of the bed. He was wearing green scrubs, had a neatly trimmed beard, and his long gray hair was in a ponytail. He was humming some tuneless song, and was holding a small glass globe in one hand. There seemed to be light coming from the globe, and the man was studying it closely. Every once in a while he would say something in an unintelligible language. He looked up at her and she caught the reflection of light off the lenses of his wire rimmed glasses.
"How are you feeling Charli? That is your name isn't it?"
Charli didn't know what to say. How did he know her name was Charli, and not Charlie?
"I'm a Wizard, and I know those things." And, without breaking stride, added, "You gave me quite a scare. That guy did quite a number on you: ruptured spleen, lacerated liver, and you had hepatitis, too. Well, that's all fixed now. And in just a few minutes were going to fix some of the other things that are ailing you."
"Who are you? You said you were a wizard. I'm not sure I believe that. You're dressed like a doctor, but I'm not sure I believe that either."
"Would this help?" There was a slight shimmer, and the green scrubs became a robe that some would describe as a bathrobe. His hair was no longer in a neat ponytail, and his beard flowed nearly to his waist.
"You're him, the Wizard in the mall. I don't believe it. I must be dead, and this is my punishment."
"You're not dead, but I must say you've been living on the edge for a while. Your survival instincts are pretty good; however, I think it's time we found a family for you. What do you say?"
"I don't know. My family's dead. Well, I had two cousins, but I don't know where they are."
"They're fine. They're in an orphanage in Connecticut. We'll see to them after a while. The question is, what do we do about you? You have too much potential to be wasting your life like you have been. You haven't been to school in nearly four years, and you've missed out on learning all the things you need to know about being a girl and a young woman."
"But I'm a boy. I don't want to be, but I am."
"Not anymore, I took care of that a while ago. Feel free to check things out if you want to."
Charli's hand slid down and encountered nothing like she had ever felt before. She lingered for a few seconds; however, she realized this was not the time. She started to cry. "Thank you. Please don't turn me into a bimbo."
"I hardly ever do anything like that anymore, and you certainly haven't done anything to warrant anything like that.
"Now, about you, I think Charlene and Charli are very nice names; however, Charles Donizetti is dead. It's just that his body has not been discovered. I have several things to take care of in that regard. But this is about you and your future. Are you up to meeting some very nice people? They are going to be your family for the foreseeable future, and I'm able to see quite a ways in that direction.
"How about we make your body reflect what I know you have hoped for. We'll make sure that no one will ever recognize you, not that that's a problem. It's just that we have to create a bit of a biologic history for you.
"I'm going to bring in your extended family in just a minute. Some of the things we say won't make a lot of sense. The hospital staff doesn't know that you are now in perfect health. We'll be doing a little adjusting of local history, nothing too severe, just enough to make your 'history' fit in. This will take just a minute."
“He’s resting as comfortably as can be expected. It’s strange. At first we thought he had a ruptured spleen, but apparently, it’s just a severe bruise, as are what we thought were broken ribs. Dr. Bettencourt will tell you everything as soon as he comes out of the room. I think he’s making some final checks.”
The duty nurse was explaining things to the Brewers, Lewis's, Schmedlaps, and Myrna and Avery about what she thought had happened to the young child in the closed room. Of course, most of what she thought were artificial memories installed by The Wizard.
They turned to The Wizard leaving Charli's room. Bobbie stifled a giggle at his appearance.
“Mr. and Mrs. Brewer, your daughter is going to be fine,”
“What?” Hilda gasped. She and Bob had recognized The Wizard immediately.
“Just go along with him,” Cindy whispered. “Everything is going to be fine.”
The Wizard continued as if nothing had been said. “Thank heavens for seatbelts. In spite of the force of that impact, they and those side airbags saved her life. Now she would like to see everybody.”
Charli looked up to see a small crowd entering her room. There was the beautiful redhead she remembered from earlier. Next to her was the equally beautiful blonde. Next to the blonde was a tall, handsome man who was holding hands with the blonde. Behind them were three couples whom she guessed were probably their parents. There was also another young couple whom it would turn out were not related to the others, except that they were all great friends and part of something beyond Charli's imagination.
“Charles and I have been having quite a conversation. He has been hiding under the horizon for quite a while. As good as our system is, we didn’t know about him until we did some serious research after Bobbie called. I think I need to set up a shop around here. I really am spread too thin.
“Like many, Charles didn’t think I existed; however, he recognized me immediately.
“I must say you did an excellent job hiding your surprise, Charles. That made things easier. Thank you.”
Charli was having a bit of trouble with being called Charles. She wasn't comfortable with the name, and hadn't been for several years. Besides, she had already confirmed that she was Charli, for sure. “You’re welcome, sir. I am having trouble believing this is all happening.” She was thankful her voice didn't crack.
“Charles has been living under a bridge, actually a highway overpass, for the last three plus years since his parents were killed in a robbery. He found a maintenance access, and really made a very comfortable nest. He is an orphan, has no close relatives other than two young cousins who were orphaned at the same time, and we all are aware of this other thing. Because of this problem, and the continued harassment because of his slight body and small stature, he has not gone to school since his parents’ deaths, nor has he had any medical attention. As far as the police are concerned, they believe he was kidnapped and maybe murdered by the robbers.
“Why I have asked you here is because Charlene, we have already decided on that name, would like your inputs.
“Mr. and Mrs. Brewer, do you think you can take care of another daughter?”
'What is he talking about,' Charli thought. 'He's sounding like this was all his decision.'
“Yes,” Hilda replied, “We would love to. We have room for many more children.”
Charli looked at the attractive older woman who spoke with a slight accent.
“Fine, that’s done. The adoption papers, post dated are being drawn up. They should be on record shortly.
“Charlene has been doing some risky things in order to survive. Her choices weren’t always well thought out. We can attribute that to a lack of parental and professional guidance, and a desire for her physical changes. She is very intelligent, but has missed out in a lot of formal schooling, and for that matter, informal schooling as well. Charlene thought she should go back to first grade and get a better start all the way around. I totally agree. I think Lucy will be a great, big sister for her."
Charli thought about what The Wizard said. She hadn't agreed to anything like that; however, she thought it wasn't a bad idea. She wanted to be a girl, well she was pretty sure that she was already, and she wanted to have those special experiences she had missed out on.
“What do you think, Don?” Don was apparently the son of the woman with the accent. He was the one with the blonde girl.
“Well, I hadn’t really thought about it, but having two sisters would be great. Lucy and I get along great, and Jorge gets along with Lucy very well.”
“Bob, is this alright with you?” The Wizard asked the man who had to be Don's father.
“Absolutely, we were looking into another adoption as it was. We are very ready.”
Charli started feeling a number of changes taking place in her body. She was slowly shrinking. It was a weird but pleasant sensation. Her breasts were gone, but she knew that someday they would be back, hopefully nicer than the ones that had just disappeared.
“Charlene and I discussed this for some length. She needs to fit in with what the Brewers have done in the past. What I am implementing is strictly in accordance with her wishes.”
'We'll just have to see about that; however, he hasn't been wrong yet.'
Charli felt more changes in her body. She was much smaller now and her complexion had darkened considerably. Her dark hair lengthened a bit, and she was pretty certain that it was now a natural dark auburn. Suddenly, all the bad things that had happened to her didn't seem that bad. She was wrapped in a warm glow of happiness.
“What do you think?”
There were some gasps, and the young women were tearing up. The blonde girl handed Charli her pocket mirror. She looked at her reflection. She was a beautiful little girl. She couldn't be more than six years old. That was just the way she felt. She was just six years old. “Oh, Mommy, is that really me?" she said to the woman who was now her adoptive mother. "I am so pretty. How can I thank you, Mr. Wizard?”
“You can thank me by going to school, and always wearing your seat belt when you are big enough not to have to use the child seat. There are many other things too, but we will talk about those later. Why don’t you go to the bathroom while your parents, future in-laws, and I have a discussion?”
Charli slid out of the bed. It was a lot further to the floor than she expected. The trip to the bathroom was as much of a necessity as it was an opportunity for exploration. Yes, it was all there, and everything seemed to be working perfectly.
There was more discussion going on outside the bathroom. She knew about some of it. It would be a while before she learned some of the other important facts.
“We almost lost her. If Bobbie hadn’t called me when she did, Charlene may have bled to death. Her spleen was ruptured. I was in the ambulance, and fixed it while we were on the way to the hospital. Her liver was also lacerated. The hepatitis is gone now. By the way, she is a carrier of the witch gene. Under the circumstances, it was decided to duplicate that portion of her X-Chromosome. What we are doing is on a rather gross scale. Myrna, when you start working on your doctorate, would you see if you can pin down the location of those genes a bit more precisely? That might be very helpful in the future.
“I have no doubt that Randi will figure out things very quickly. Try to convince her to not push Charlene in the magical direction too soon. She’s going to have enough to deal with as it is. I’ll talk to Randi, too. She’s doing considerably better, but my goodness, she’s impulsive.”
When Charli returned to her bed, she was euphoric. It had really happened. She was a real girl. There was no question about it.
A knock on the door by the entering nurse distracted her for a moment. “There’s no reason she can’t be discharged right now. Everything looks just fine. I’m sure Dr. Bettencourt will agree.”
'Dr. Bettencourt,' she thought, 'is that what he goes by?'
“Absolutely, where do I sign?”
“Right here, I’ll get a wheel chair for her.”
“Could my daddy carry me? I think I would like that,” Charli piped in. 'Where did that come from?'
“Sure, Honey," the nurse replied. "I think we can allow that. We’re just so happy that you are okay.”
There's only one more part to go in this tale, and there are many loose ends to take care of. We're already getting a hint that The Wizard has done more than just physically change Charli. There are some serious questions to be answered. The one that is bothering me is what happened to Padrona and Willie? Not all the questions will be answered in the next part. There will be more tales in the future.
By Portia Bennett
Introduction: Once again Charli wakes up to a world she is not familiar with. Rather quickly, she remembers that she had been adopted the previous day by some very nice people. She had been banged up a bit in an auto accident, but she was okay. She arrives at her new home, and meets her new sister. She also meets the younger sister of Cindy whom she had met the day before. She walks out of a previously empty closet, as does her talking cat. That's when she realizes that some of her memories aren't right, and that she has left her two best friends in Boston to fend for themselves.
This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.
Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.
This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter 11
Charli woke up, and had no idea where she was. Then it gradually came together. She was in a hotel in Boston. She was with people she hardly knew, and she had two brothers and a sister; however, she had met only her oldest brother. He and the pretty blonde girl were boyfriend and girlfriend. She was certain of that.
It was like a dream. Some bad things had happened to her, but The Wizard had fixed things, and she was well now. She had been in a car wreck the previous night. She couldn't remember it, but they told her that was why she was in the hospital. She had bumped her head. They had told her that she was going to be in first grade in just a few weeks. That was only right as she was just six years old. She was very certain about that.
She had been officially adopted the day before by the Brewers. She thought there had been some paperwork that had been signed at the orphanage. Her new dad was Bob, and her mom was Hilda. She had a sister named Lucy and another brother Jorge. Her brothers and sisters had been adopted, too.
Now it was morning, and she felt really good. The hotel room was bright and sunny, not like that dark old room in the orphanage. She couldn't remember it very well. She wasn't even sure it had a window. She managed to dress herself without any problem. She brushed her teeth and washed her face like they had taught her at the orphanage.
The hotel suite was huge. Her parents had another bedroom. She thought she could hear them snoring. There were two other bedrooms that opened off the main room. The doors were open, but the rooms were unoccupied at the moment, but they had obviously been slept in.
The front door opened, and her brother, his girlfriend, and the other girl entered. They had been running, and were all sweaty.
"Good morning Charli," the blonde girl said with the most beautiful smile. "We didn't think you'd be up yet after your big day yesterday. Why don't you watch television for a little while? We're going to get cleaned up, and then we're going to have breakfast downstairs before we head for home."
Breakfast was great, and almost before she knew it, they were heading to her new home in Connecticut. The drive took about three hours, but Charli wasn't keeping track of time. Apparently, Myrna and Avery were staying in Boston. She didn't think they were married, but were boyfriend and girlfriend like her brother Don and Cindy were. Finally, they arrived in a nice neighborhood with large houses that had a lot of yard. There was a pond with ducks, and Cindy's mom and dad turned off at a house that overlooked the pond. Charli hadn't realized it at first, but Cindy's mother was very pregnant. The nice thing was that Charli realized that some day she would have babies, too. At the moment, she wasn't too sure why that was important. Of course she would have children someday. That always had been something she wanted.
Her sister Lucy was a year older than she was. Charli thought she was very pretty. They hit it off right away, and Lucy took her to her to the bedroom that they would be sharing. It was a wonderful place; so bright and sunshiny.
Lucy was showing her some of her dolls when a girl came out of the closet. That was a bit strange because Charli had been in the closet a minute before, and she was sure that no one had been in there.
"Hi, I'm Randi. I'm Cindy's little sister. As soon as I found out that you were a witch, I had to come over. We're going to have so much fun."
"I can't be a witch. Aren't witches bad? I'm not bad."
"Well, we're good witches. They're a bunch of us. The Wizard said I can't teach you any magic, but I can help you with your lessons.
"Wow, you're pretty. They said you were."
"How come you were in the closet? I didn't see you there a minute ago," Charli said, obviously a bit confused by everything that was going on.
"I wasn't. I came from down the street. I made some special doors so we can travel between houses without going outside.
"Isn't that right, Silky?" Randi said to a little black cat that had just followed her out of the closet.
"Yes, I remember when you made that first door for us. It was a lot of fun." Silky turned to Charli.
"Hi Charli, welcome to the family."
"Thank you, I think I'll like it here," Charli said without batting an eye.
"You don't seem to be too concerned about a talking cat," Randi said somewhat surprised.
"Oh no, I can talk with dogs and cats and other animals. I think I've been able to do that for quite a while." Charli stopped talking for a moment, and got a rather distant look in her eyes.
"I think he did something to me."
"Who did?"
"The Wizard: I'm remembering things that I don't think happened, and I think I forgot some things that I should remember. I don't think I was like this before yesterday. I mean, I wanted to be, but ...."
"Don't worry about it," Randi said while giving Charli a hug. "Sometimes he does things to people to make them forget things for a while. He says it makes the change easier. I didn't remember about before for more than four years."
"Before? There was a before wasn't there. There was a dog and a cat, and now they are alone. I miss them. They were the only friends that I had. We used to talk all the time. Well, we didn't actually. We talked in our heads, not out loud. I could understand rats, too. I never talked to them. I didn't like them very much. I used to talk to another dog at the laundry. He was a nice little fellow."
"I think we need to talk to His Wisdom," Randi said.
The Wizard came along to help out if anything went wrong. Wolf came along for the ride. Cindy, Bobbie, Randi, and Charli had gone from The Wizard's shop into an abandoned building not a block away from the salvage yard. No one paid any attention to them when they entered the salvage yard as Cindy had cast an obscuring spell around them.
Charli was in awe of what was going on. It had been a short drive to the mall where they entered The Wizard's shop. Then they went out the back door and in one step went from western Connecticut to Boston. They approached the pen that was Padrona's daytime abode.
Padrona heard them first. She had been napping with Willie at her side. There were often people around her pen, so she didn't pay much attention; at least, not for a few seconds.
"Padrona, Willie, wake up," Charli whispered.
Padrona raised her head, and peered at the small group standing at the gate to her pen. The fact that one member of the group was a rather large wolf didn't bother her.
"Willie, wake up," Padrona said out loud.
"Huh, what? I wish you wouldn't do that when I'm napping. I was just getting ready to attack a bunch of warthogs."
"Look who's here."
"Oh my gosh, the Goddess be praised, it's Charli." It was as if Charli hadn't changed at all.
The gate to the pen swung open, and the three best friends were reunited. If one could be licked to death, Charli might have been close. The rest stood back to watch the reunion. There were more than just a few tears. After things calmed down a bit, introductions were made all around. Bobbie noticed right away that there seemed to be an attraction between Wolf and Padrona. If anyone else had noticed, it wasn't mentioned.
Charli led the group through the maze of car bodies to the hole in the fence and her cave beyond. It had been her home for more than three years, and it took Padrona and Willie to really make it a home.
"It's locked, and I don't have my key."
"Here it is," The Wizard said, handing her the key still on the leather thong. "I took it from you in the ambulance."
She opened the door and turned on the light. The group looked in amazement at the little space that wasn't much more than 100 square feet in area.
"Is there anything here that you would like to keep?" The Wizard asked.
"I guess I don't need most of this. I would like to keep the computer. It's new. I think the clothes and most of the stuff could go to the Goodwill people." She went to the cardboard wall and retrieved her cash box. "This money should probably go to them, too. I would rather not think about how I got it."
"You weren't supposed to remember that, at least, not for a while," The Wizard said. "We were going to get Padrona and Willie after a while, too; however, your friendship was so strong that the spell didn't hold up."
"Can we keep Padrona and Willie? They can get someone else to take her place."
"Willie and you belong to each other, as does Padrona; however, Padrona has other things to do, but it will be quite a while before all that becomes clearer.
"You do realize that all of you have been talking, really talking with each other, don't you?" The Wizard said with a chuckle.
"Oh-my-gosh, we really have been talking," Charli said in amazement.
"Your powers to talk with other animals are the strongest I have ever seen. Myrna is going to have to pinpoint where this comes from. Obviously, it is not tied directly to a pair of magic genes, as you have been able to converse silently for a long time. Your ability goes far beyond just talking. You were able to enhance both Padrona and Willie's mental abilities, and you had only half the magic gene. The folks at headquarters are going to be very interested in your abilities.
"Now we have some other things to do."
Not far from the store where Charli's parents had been murdered was a small park frequented by some of the 'elder statesmen' of the neighborhood. With a subtle gesture by The Wizard, the group, including Padrona and Willie, found themselves under a pavilion.
"Let's sit down. No one will see us unless we want them to. Charli, some old friends of yours will be here in a couple of minutes. To them you will appear to be the sixteen year-old Charles Donizetti.
"Padrona, please let this just play out. I know what you want to do; however, this will be more fitting. I think you will understand."
It wasn't long before a car drove up and parked in the handicapped designated parking spot. Two figures very familiar to Charli exited the car. Ottorino Pilonetti and Sandrino Luca walked toward the pavilion area.
"I tell you the guy said that little shit, Charlie Donizetti was in town, and wanted to see us. Well, I want to see him, too. I want to see him dead," Pilonetti turned and spit on the grass, narrowly missing a toddler who was playing beside his mother.
"Shit, that's him all growed up. Look at the tits on those two broads. Jesus, I'd love to fuck them. I wonder who that old fart is with them."
"Have a seat boys, Charlie would like to talk with you," The Wizard said in a rather condescending tone.
"Fuck you, old man. You're going to be dead meat just like him in a couple of seconds."
"I seriously doubt that. I said sit down, and don't speak unless we tell you to.
"I think Charlie has a few questions for you. Go ahead, Charlie."
Charli was having trouble staying calm, and Padrona was growling quietly. Cindy reached down and gently stroked her head. "It's okay. I think this will be over very quickly." She was thinking back several years to when a murderer had become a newborn calf.
Charli took a deep breath, "Did you kill my parents and my aunt and uncle?"
"Yeah, they whimpered a bit. It was fun just like it's going to be fun to finally finish you off." Pilonetti reached under his jacket and pulled out a rather large snake. He shrieked, and dropped the snake which slithered off into the garden.
"We have already verified that they did it," The Wizard stated. "If anyone wants to read their memories, they may. I can assure you that what they did in the Donizettis' store is only the tip of the iceberg.
"Boys, I've been asked to not eliminate you, although I wouldn't feel any remorse if I did. So this is what was decided. You will have at least 500 years to contemplate things. Your final disposition will be decided by Charli at that time. Enough discussion, enjoy your life."
The two men seemed to melt into two puddles. The two puddles separated into four smaller puddles, and then quickly solidified into two sets of four balls. One set was green, and the other was red.
Charli knew what they were immediately. "Your Wisdom, something is missing."
"We'll fix that in just a second," The Wizard replied. He reached into a pocket that hadn't been there a few seconds before, and retrieved a small black glass bottle. The bottle was glowing slightly. He placed the bottle next to the balls, and everyone watched as it quickly changed into an ivory colored ball that was considerably smaller than the other eight balls.
"Charli, explain to everyone what we have here."
"This is a bocce ball set. The small ball is called a pallino. They play the game on that court." Indeed, there was a group of men playing the game as they spoke.
"Your Wisdom, where did the pallino come from?"
"First of all, let me assure you that Mr. Pilonetti and Mr. Luca are quite alive. The pallino contains the spirit of Danny Malpais, the man who attacked Charli, and infected her with hepatitis. The Powers gladly gave him to me when we discussed what to do. The three of them can hear us right now, and they also can feel everything as if they were a person. They can feel hot, cold, pressure, and especially pain. They will feel intense pain, like the pain Charli's parents felt, every time they hit the ground or are struck by another ball. The material they are now made of is virtually indestructible and the set will last for more than a thousand years. It can never be broken up. Their case is up for automatic review in 500 years. Depending on the outcome of that review, they might be allowed to start over.
"It's time to go home."
As they walked out of the park, they passed a brass plaque set in a granite monument. "THIS PARK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF GIUSEPPE, FLORIA, MATTEO, ZERLINA, AND CHARLES DONIZETTI."
"Taneesha, how are you doing tonight?"
"Alright, I guess. Things are a bit slow. Why?"
"I have a proposition for you and Tommy. I think he'll be here in a moment.
"Taneesha, if you had a 'do over', besides wanting to be a real girl, what would you want?"
"I guess I would wish that my father had never been killed, that he had been there for me and my brothers and sister, and Mom."
"What about Tommy?"
"Tommy and I have always been great friends. I just wish things could have been different. I like him a lot. I always have."
There was a moment of silence as Taneesha peered out into the street lights with their hundreds of bugs orbiting them.
A ten-year old Edsel pulled up, and Tommy jumped out. "Sorry I'm late, I had to get gas." He grabbed her in a firm hug and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips. There was a lot of passion in it.
"They just closed the library, and this gentleman was nice enough to stay with me until you came. I called Mom, and she said it would be alright if we stopped at the Sonic.
"Thank you, sir, for waiting with me. I appreciate it."
"It's quite alright, glad to do it. Don't forget you have College Board Exams next week."
He waved at them as they drove off. He knew it would be better this time.
That's it for now. There are more than fourteen years that take place between the epilogue of this story and Randi and the College Professor. I'm sure that there are many adventures to be written about. I was rather surprised about the very positive reception this little effort received. I've posted stories here before that I thought were at least equals to this one or better that haven't had half the kudos. This has really been a pleasant surprise. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I could talk to the animals, just imagine it,
Chattin' with a chimp in chimpanzee,
Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting with a cheetah,
What a neat achievement it would be!
If we could talk to the animals, learn all their languages,
Maybe take an animal degree,
I'd study elephant and eagle, buffalo and beagle,
Alligator, guinea pig, and flea!
I would converse in polar bear, python,
And I would curse in fluent kangaroo,
If people ask me "can you speak rhinocerous?"
I'd say "of courserous! Can't you?"
I conferred with our furry friends, man to animal,
Think of the amazing repartee
If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals,
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals,
And they could talk to me!
If I consulted with quadrupeds
Think what fun we'd have asking over crocodiles for tea!
Or maybe lunch with two or three lions, walruses and sea lions
What a lovely place the world would be!
If I spoke slang to orangutans
The advantages any fool on earth could plainly see!
Discussing Eastern art and dramas
With intellectual llamas
That's a big step forward you'll agree!
I'd learn to speak in antelope and turtle
My Pekinese would be extremely good
If I were asked to sing in hippopotamus
I'd say "whynotamous?" and I would!
If I could parlay with pachyderms
It's a fairy tale worthy of Hans Anderson and Grimm
A man who walks with the animals, talks with the animals
Grunts and squeaks and squawks with the animals
All an easy just think of it and they could talk to me
Words & Music by Leslie Bricusse