The nylon strap of the car seatbelt drags across my chest every time I brake. A week ago it was background friction, nothing. By Thursday the fabric bites into flesh that's gone tender and strange just below my collarbone, and I drive the whole way from the firm holding the strap an inch off my shirt with my left hand, steering with my right. My shoulder aches from the angle.

Thursday arrived, and there had been no message from Mr Pruitt. To both Dido and Trish, this was a sign that Dido’s father didn’t care about getting out of jail the next day.

Part 17 The Dead Penny!

The following week in the studio we worked hard to get the ‘Thursday’ and ‘Friday’ episodes sorted out. Andrew had us do a couple of linking scenes in last weeks’ outfits to tidy up the ‘Wednesday’ show and then we all changed to start the ‘Thursday’ one.

I was given some time off this time as the big sex scene for the ‘Thursday’ show was Susan telling Tanya to join her in the ladies’ room where she pulls out the dildo that they had spent Saturday night with.

A sister and a family support a curious twelve-year-old in a newfound exploration of gender.

“How can that woman be so hot?” Marcus asked the world at large as he drank from his tumbler.

“Who?” His friend, Paul, asked.

“Over there. With the long straight platinum blond hair and eyes so green we can see their color across the haze of the dance floor.”

“You’re really into this girl? Oh, her. Wow. That hourglass figure must have been work.”

“You think?”

“Maybe. Why is no one near her?”

“She’s in a league all her own. Deservedly.” He drank again.

“Or they all know she has chlamydia.”

As I sat in the boarding area of my flight I had a chance to reflect on the past week or so. It has left me with a few answers but also with many questions. Am I really ready to transition and go all the way to be the woman that my mind portrays to me? There are a lot of variables that I have to consider if I go that route.

Mark Lansing never wanted to stand out. He was perfectly happy disappearing into a football huddle with the rest of the team until one play made him the talk of the town. Thrust into a spotlight he never wanted, every choice can reshape his future, and every decision could transform him in ways he never believed possible. Mark’s destiny will be determined on the field … assuming he can figure out how to dress the part.

I opened my eyes and saw darkness.

“Okay, it’s not funny, whoever turned off the lights. You can stop it now!”

I shuffled my feet in the dark and felt carpet.

“The hallway doesn’t have carpet,” I said to myself, “where am I now?”

Chapter One

Calibration

"Motor response is still three milliseconds, too slow."

It quickly became routine, as she more than pulled her weight around the house. Two of us would go to work, One would go to school, another to college, and the last would wander around Perth, gradually getting to know the layout. She seemed particularly attached to King’s Park, often borrowing a pair of binoculars and a bird guide for the day.

Chapter Two: The Wish

James was up at six forty-five.

Not a decision — just what happened when you stopped setting an alarm and let four years of early calls do what they’d been trained to do. He lay still for a moment in the grey morning light of the front bedroom, listening to the house. Window open. Curtain moving. Gull somewhere busy already.

“You look nice,” said Cyndy. “All crisp and spiffy.”

Another Country -25-
by Erin Halfelven

The rain had stopped sometime after midnight, but by late afternoon the city was still wet. Water clung to the black iron railings along the sidewalk and gathered in the shallow cracks between the paving stones, while cars moved slowly through the intersection, their tires whispering over the pavement and sending thin fans of dirty water toward the curb. Inside the coffee shop, the smell of fresh coffee hung beneath the warm air from the heating vents, and the hiss of steamed milk came and went behind the counter as people moved through the late afternoon rush.

Another one brought to mind by comments on a story, this time prompted by the Home Office man in In the Green chapter 34.

Chapter Nine: Dressing the Part

The River and the Stone
Chapter 1: Session One — The Gathering of Currents
The waiting room of Dr. Vance’s office was quiet, save for the low, continuous hum of a white-noise machine near the baseboards. On the deep leather couch, eighteen-year-old Leo sat with his ankles locked in a wide, rigid figure-four stance—his right ankle resting square over his left knee. His right thumb came up automatically, the edge of his thumbnail digging into the dry cuticle as his left heel tapped a rapid, impatient beat against the carpet.

This story is set in Ireland during the War of Independence, 1919-1921.

The Players.

An Cailleach, approximately Old Hag in English, is a term found in both Irish and and Scots Gaelic. It carries connotations of divinity or magic.

Volunteers, the name used by Irish national insurrectionists engaged in the War of Independence. After independence, these formed part of the basis for the new National Army which still has the letters IV (Irish Volunteers) on formal uniform buttons.

RIC, Royal Irish Constabulary, an armed police force responsible for crime and internal security. Recruited locally, it was heavily infiltrated by the Volunteers and many members left the organization during the war.

Black & Tans and Auxiliaries. These were paramilitary police recruited in England to support the RIC, notorious for indiscipline, terrorism and extra-judicial killings.