Peter to Penelope

By Alison Mary Murdoch

Edited by Kelly Blake

A Twist of Fate…

Being the Duty Paramedic at a highway station 12 miles North of our regional hospital, I received an emergency call.

"A boy injured in a fall from a trail bike...”

Deniability
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The Oval Office seemed somehow smaller than she imagined. The curved corner-less walls gave it a surprisingly warm feel – it was after all, the shape of a womb. The color was apricot – warm and sweet. The trim was matt white – clean and tidy. There was a lounge area that looked softer than soft. But at the windows was the business end – the empty desk.

They remained standing as the President entered. He took his seat and did not invite them to sit, so they remained standing.

Consulting Ariana
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

When you first set forth on your career, you wonder whether what you can do is going to make a change in the world, or whether the world might change you.

I was a young man with a college degree, but with a major in the Race Relations which it turns out is not really that useful. But I did have a minor in Business Studies, and that was enough to get me an internship with a small consulting firm.

“…And that’s another week done, then!” Sade teased Ellie as they made their way out of their university campus. “Now the REAL hard work starts, heh!”

“Meh, I wouldn’t call it THAT hard,” Ellie replied with a sad smile. “Well, not PHYSICALLY hard, anyway…”

“Yeah, I get that,” Sade said softly. “But, you know, end of one era, beginning of another?”

“Yeah,” Ellie replied. “And I am looking forward to it, really, I just-“

“It’s okay, I understand,” Sade whispered, giving her friend’s hand a gentle squeeze as they headed to the nearest tube station.

Jealous
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

She used to be Pete. We were friends then. We practically grew up together. My brother was older than me, so he ignored me, and Pete had older sisters. We hung out together. We played ball – shot some hoops and I pitched him some balls. He didn’t have a strong throw. We climbed trees and played in the creek on hot days. He was always around at my place playing e-sports games.

Pete was as normal as any other guy. At least he seemed that way. That was before he started calling himself Petra.

Smile in the Photo
A Short Story for John (from a Cap by Becca?)
By Maryanne Peters

Can you fall in love with somebody you see in a photograph? Stranger yet, can you fall in love with a child in a photograph, imagining her to have grown into a creature with all the beauty and warmth in that image, but now with the body of a woman? It seems very odd, but it happened to me.

Twenty years ago, St. Elm Hospital, Santa Monica, California:
Agata and Ghalen Jefferson look at their first grandchild through the glass window in the nursery. Their second oldest daughter and her husband had just had their first child.

“She looks so much like her mother, Ghalen.” Agata looks at her granddaughter with a huge smile on her face.

“I know, wait until Brenda has her child.” Ghalen couldn’t believe both his girls were pregnant at the same time as each other.

The Scam
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“My guess is that you have done this before,” said Hayden Staples. “It all seems very rehearsed.”

“That shouldn’t concern you,” said the girl he knew as Roxanne, but now speaking with a voice that betrayed the harsh reality. “We only have to agree on a price to keep our little sexual encounter a secret.”

Allie - The teenage years of Alexander Horten

OCTOBER 18-24, 2015

By: Kokopo618

"Hey, what's up dude?" I ask, walking in to the kitchen, seeing my roommate make his protein shake that he makes every morning.

"Nothing much, just about to head for the gym," He says dumping protein powder into his flask.

"Cool, cool," I say still looking at him. He's got an amazing body, I mean, I'm a guy, but damn. I guess going to the gym all the time pays off.

"What's wrong, Ryan," Jack says, turning to me.

Batgirl: The Twinflower
By: Kokopo618

Batgirl: The Twinflower
By: Kokopo618

Looking out the window of the batmobile, Bella absentmindedly fiddles with her hair, twirling her finger around her long red locks.

"I just don't get it," Bella says.

"We will catch them," Bruce says, "it will just take time."

"And how many girls will die before then?" Bella says accusatorily, "sorry. It's not your fault. It's just so frustrating."

“See you tomorrow!” Melissa giggles as she gives me, Cameron, Petra and Lydia a hug each as we head out of school and into the car park. Cameron takes her goodbye hugs next, then Petra, and finally Lydia turns to me with a devilish grin and gives me a long, soft kiss on my lips, which attracts a lot of attention and good-natured jeering from nearby students and a lot of disapproving stares from nearby teachers!

Allie - The teenage years of Alexander Horten

October 4 - 10, 2015

“Cut! Kelly, put more expression into your character. Remember, you’re just learning that you are a mutant.”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright, ACTION!” Director Edges watches as Kelly plays her part.

Kelly plays her part and interacts with the actors in the scene without any problems. She keeps her mind on her acting, instead of the information she was given about the doctor that gave her the big breasts. She manages to get through the current scene and move on to the next four scenes.

Replacing Chloe
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

There was no doubt about what he was looking at. Live on Wade Ransby’s phone, a video call from Rachel, a video showing Chloe’s dead body, naked and only wrapped in a bathrobe, lying in a shallow grave. Rachel was holding a shovel, her face wild with fury.

“The bitch is dead, and everybody is going to think that you did it,” she shouted. “Because no crime is perfect you will be caught. I will make sure of it.”

Office Story
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

As a successful transwoman, I find the whole idea of forced feminization – shall I say – distasteful. For me the idea of being forced to appear as the opposite sex is a reality, or it was. For the first 22 years of my life I was forced to live as a man, when to my very core I knew that I was a woman.

AGD
The After-effects of Chemically Induced Acute Gonadal Dysfunction
A Scientific Paper (of a sort)
By Maryanne Peters NSD MN (Hons)

The above is an extract from a story that appeared in the Des Moines Register on April 1st 2018. The publication date made many readers consider the story a prank, but among medical researchers the presence of Acute Gonadal Dysfunction is well known, although research is limited by its rarity.

For Daddy
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

He called me “Daddy” in the emails and text messages I received from him. I guess I thought that it had been so long since we had been together as father and son that he would still think of me like that. But really, that made no sense. My son was over 18 at the time. He would have only been 11 or 12 when I left his mother.

Spinal Tap
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The device was a simple spinal implant. Something injected into the fluid of the spinal column, carrying the capacity to deliver tiny electrical impulses. These impulses were so small that the minute battery had sufficient capacity for one hundred single tiny surges. But directly in the spine those surges translated to bursts of incredible pain. Julie felt that one hundred such jolts would be all that was needed to adjust behavior. In the case of her own son Chris, she had used less than fifty.

Lara Croft 2.0

by MonicaS

How a role model can influence your life