CHAPTER 85
Agreement to our proposals was surprisingly quick, given the allegations about ‘Wily Orientals’ I had grown up with, and within two weeks we were already at the stage of drafting a training roster, splitting Maz and I so that we could work twice as fast while still leaving time for our childcare responsibilities.

The first lot were the ‘matrix’ people, including Audrey, who turned up in one of my classes. They were all frighteningly intense in their approach to the work, and I began to suspect that the local working culture might be just a little competitive, maybe with a touch of canine cannibalism.

Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

CHAPTER 84
Bobby was down at our place two hours before the start time we had suggested, ostensibly to check on the barbie but very clearly as an opportunity to answer a very simple question from Maz as he slumped on our sofa, Ish out in the pool.

“What on Earth was all that about?”

“Snirgeing, Maz”

A week after the incident there were still repercussions popping up in the executive level of management at where I work. My immediate boss had written a memo and sent it to all of his fellow male executives. What was said in the memo you never say in public, much less put it in an email and send it out, even if it was only sent to a few fellow male employees. He addressed the coming secretaries day in his email, an unofficial event that our company had honored and participated in for several years.

“Some members of the family, maybe, might be sad to see me go. But the family as a unit? As some sort of community?” I shook my head. “It’s like I’ve knocked over a beehive or something.”

Her dark eyes were thoughtful, weighing my words. “Maybe it needed to be knocked over.”

CHAPTER 83
The settling-in period went far too quickly, as did our boy’s enrolment in the International School. That second part was actually eased by my wife’s presentation of some old photos of the place, because it had actually been her former father-in-law’s school in the ‘East of Suez’ days.

I had to force myself away from worry, because the school were offering a minibus service for pupils, recognising how those needing an ‘international’ school were rather likely to be ‘international’ in their own right, and possibly rather busy. So we made his packed lunch each evening, left it with a cold drink in the fridge for him, and one of us walked him down to that familiar bus stop, as Maz and I worked swap shifts until we were sure he could handle coming home to an empty house.

He was a Big Boy, but always our baby.

I left Earth in 2437, and it has been a long time, but I have no idea how long. Tens of thousands of the days here, but I don’t know how long the days are. However long ago that was, I arrived as a blob of slime.

“It’s so nice to meet you. Jeff and Greg have been talking all about you.”

The first email I received was a shock. It was addressed to Christy. I looked at what email account I had signed on to, then took a deep breath. Someone knew about Christy and had sent an email to my male email account.

Christy,
Don’t you just love the new spring fashions? The sundresses are to just die for! Hope to see you in one soon.

I re-read it five times, trying to believe that it was just a mistake. Someone getting the wrong email address… yeah, that was what had happened. I quickly deleted it and made sure my cache was empty.

Alex Preswick-Walcutt and his journey to Whateley Academy

Unable to find a job after flunking out of high school, my Mom had given me several accounts in her cleaning business. All three were nightclubs, the cleaning had to be done in the early morning hours since the club was open late afternoon and evening till 2 A.M.

The job was not hard, me being eighteen allowed me to work at the club because they sold alcohol. Most of Mom’s other employees either too old to work early in the morning or too young to be in the club.