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Migrating Tuck -*- Copyright 2000 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Migrating Tuck


***
20:49 5 Jun

     As we came out of the boarding tunnel the first thing that caught
my eye was a big clock, so I spent a minute resetting my watch.  When I
looked up again, Debbie had fallen into a chair, and it looked like she
would go to sleep if I let her.  "Come on, Deb," I told her as I pulled
her up, "We need to go rent the car, remember?"
     She sighed, deeply, like it was some kind of horrible trauma or
something, but she came along, and she seemed to perk up a bit as we
walked.

***
21:03 5 Jun

     "Val," she said, turning to me, "why don't you go get the luggage
and stuff, and I'll wait here."  The line seemed kind of long to me for
a Friday evening, but I had no real idea.
     "You sure?" I asked, and she nodded.  "Well, okay, if you're sure
you'll be okay..."
     She smiled tiredly at me.  "I'll be fine, sweetie.  Go get all the
stuff, okay?  Here's my claim check," she said, digging in her purse
until she found it.  I stuck it in my purse.  "Remember what it looks
like?" she asked.
     "Yeah, I think so," I said.  I'd had to carry it far too many
places, so I had a pretty good idea.
     Come to think of it, like I was doing while I walked, with her
makeup stuff and my computer stuff I was gonna need a cart.  "Sheesh,
this travel stuff gets expensive," I complained to myself as I looked
for a cart rental.

***
21:20 5 Jun

     "Finally!" I complained as the luggage started appearing on the
carousel.  I was however quite aware that some piece of mine, or hers,
was going to be in the last 10% to show up.  It was practically
inevitable, given how much stuff we had with us.  I hoped Debbie wasn't
getting impatient.  Or hungry, like I was.

***
21:38 5 Jun

     I shook my head as the last case of makeup came sliding down and
hit the rotating belts of the carousel.  I waited until it lazily
swirled my way, then snagged it and stuck it on the cart.  "Five for her
and three for me.  Jeez."  I was SO glad I'd gotten a cart.

***
21:42 5 Jun

     Debbie had, apparently, made it out of the car rental line, 'cause
she wasn't there.  Unfortunately, I had no idea where she was now.
     I stood and thought about it for a minute.  I didn't really like
the idea of talking to anyone, like the desk clerk, to find out where
she went.  On the other hand, I had over a hundred pounds of gear, which
was too much to push around looking, and it was too valuable to just
leave someplace and hope it wouldn't be stolen.
     About the time I had decided that I had no real choice but to ask
someone where she went, someone whistled, and when I looked, it was
Debbie.  "Yes," I said to myself as I waved frantically and started
pushing the cart her way.

***
22:01 5 Jun

     "Want me to drive?" I asked.  Debbie looked like hell.  Older than
usual, but still hell.
     She sighed deeply, and looked at me for a long time without saying
anything.  I was about to apologize for suggesting it when she nodded,
her eyelids drooping when she did.

***
22:29 5 Jun

     I'd spent several minutes making mapping notes to myself, and it
paid off quickly, because I had some idea of where I was going, and I'd
missed several wrong turns already.
     On the other hand, the traffic was simply murderous.  I was
surprised Debbie could sleep through the driving.  The van was an
automatic transmission, which I could drive better than a manual, but
there was still a lot of jerking and stomping as I tried to avoid being
run over and killed.

***
22:38 5 Jun

     "Deb?  Wake up, Deb, we're at the hotel."
     She didn't move.
     I dared to shake her shoulder.  "Debbie?  Come on, wake up for a
little longer and you get to sleep in a bed.  Come on, Deb, please?"
     She whined, but her eyes opened, which was a positive sign.

***
22:39 5 Jun

     We got a bellhop to bring a cart out and I loaded it up while
Debbie went inside to check in.  By the time I got everything and we
came in, with the bellhop pushing, Debbie was signing something.  A few
moments later, she turned around and waved.  I walked over, keeping an
eye on the bellhop to make sure that thousands of dollars of equipment I
was personally responsible for didn't just disappear.  Which is why I
ran into Debbie at the counter.

***
22:41 5 Jun

     "We're in room 718," Debbie said, then glanced at the bellhop.
"How much do we have to tip him?" she asked in a whisper.
     "About, um, eight bucks would be good, I think.  That's what my dad
did.  Um.  That wasn't L.A., though.  Maybe ten or twelve."  We started
digging through purses to make sure we had enough cash.
     "Got it," Debbie said, and I grinned at her.
     Then someone grabbed me around my waist, lifted me up and started
swinging me around in the air.  Naturally, I screamed like a banshee.
Debbie was saying something on the second revolution, but I couldn't
catch what it was.  I tightened my abs as much as I could and jabbed a
thumbnail into one of the fingers, and whoever it was let go.
     After that, I flew for a split second as I realized that I might
have made the wrong move, far too late; then I had a bad landing on the
floor.  "D'uh" I mentioned as I pulled myself upright, and when I turned
around, Debbie had Jack's ear in one hand and was smacking him in the
head with the other one and cursing him.  "What the hell is he doing
here?"

***
22:43 5 Jun

     "This is Sheila," Jack introduced the tall mostly-woman who had
been looking horrified as Debbie whupped up on Jack.  "She said she was
coming to the convention, so I said I'd pay for part of the room if I
got to come."
     "Why?!"  It seemed like a reasonable question to me.
     "'Cause, it's weird."  He grinned at me, but I wasn't buying it
this time.

***
22:49 5 Jun

     "I gotta go to the ladies' room," Debbie said, and that reminded me
of how uncomfortably full my own bladder was, so we got Jack to watch
the cart, and then I followed Debbie into the bathroom. There was some
kind of sign on the door, but I decided almost instantly that I could
read it afterward.
     When I finally got done and reassembled, Debbie was checking her
makeup in the mirror.  I washed my hands, and then she couldn't stand it
any more, because she made me sit on the edge of the sinks and she did
her magic on my face again.  "I was going to do that," I told her, but
she basically ignored me.  Which is why I gave her a quick kiss on the
lips when she got done and was giving me that last appraisal.  I didn't
feel like being ignored.  She looked really surprised for an instant,
then smiled tiredly.  "Let's get upstairs, huh?"
     I nodded, and we started out of the bathroom.
     Which went all to hell when someone was RIGHT there in the doorway
and shrieked at me.

***
22:51 5 Jun

     My head hurt.
     "But, didn't your dad TELL you we were gonna be here?!" Debbie
asked Julia.
     "No!  He didn't say word one about it!"
     They sounded equally annoyed.  I was especially glad that it wasn't
me that they were going to go yell at next.

***
22:56 5 Jun

     "He's with a band?" Julia asked as we got on the elevator together.
     "Yeah," Debbie said.  "It's pretty good..."
     "But what is he doing HERE?"
     We both shrugged at Julia.  "He said," I said, "that he's here with
a transsssssexual," it took me a second to remember what to call Sheila.
"Friend of his," I finished.  The doors closed.
     "Are you serious?"
     I shrugged again.  "That's what HE said.  I don't have a clue if
he's lying or not.  She did seem to know him, and she, Sheila, sort of
looked in between, like not quite one or the other."
     "I am so tired," Debbie mentioned, which was not something I really
wanted to hear, especially, since my eyes were already trying to close.
     "You and me both," Julia griped, and then the elevator door opened,
and a bunch of people got on, all of them dressed up in big hair and
tall heels.  The perfume was almost like tear gas.
     I had to start blinking as my eyes started watering, and so when
I heard some familiar voice in the elevator, my first thought was that I
was hallucinating.  I blinked my eyes clear enough to see the look of
horror on Debbie's face, though.
     "Did-" she asked me in a panic, and then the voice spoke again, and
all three of us screamed at the same time, because it was Assistant Dean
Dobson right there in the elevator with us.
     I don't think it was me that hit the Emergency Stop button, though,
because I passed out about when the alarms started screaming.  I needed
the rest, I guess.

***
23:00 5 Jun

     Julia and I had both blown cerebral breakers at the same time, I
guess, but I woke up first.  Not by much, but enough to look over and
see her and watch her wake up.  "Oh God," she said as she looked at me.
"What happened?"
     "I dunno, and I don't want to think about it," I decided, and I lay
back down.  We weren't in the elevator any more... but I didn't want to
think about that either.  Debbie appeared above me, though, to tempt me
into thinking again.
     Julia apparently thought the same thing, because she groaned in
this theatrical voice full of woe and travail, "No, please Debbie, no
more, I can't take another revelation!  Else I swear I shall go MAD!"
     "Me too," I added, and Debbie tossed me a scornful look.  "Was that
really, um..."  I didn't want to say his name out loud, though.  I was
afraid it would summon him.
     Instead of snorting or telling me I was an idiot, or anything like
that, she just groaned and flopped down next to me, then bent down and
cuddled against me.  I said, "I'm sorry, Deb," before I could really
stop myself, because I felt like it was my fault for some reason.
     "Mnnsnt yr fault," she mumbled into my chest before she pushed
herself a few inches away.  "He didn't expect us here, and I know we
didn't..."  She trailed off into silence.
     I didn't want to think about it any more myself - not at all, not
in any way - so of course Julia announced, "So of course we run into the
dean of our school, crossdressed in an elevator."
     I don't know if Debbie whimpered, but I know I did as we both clung
tighter to each other.

***
23:19 5 Jun

     Debbie opened the door to our room, and I followed her in, her
pulling and me pushing the cart.  It felt like I was doing all the work,
but I didn't complain.  Finally the damn thing was clear of the door, so
I went back and shut it.
     "Oh, shit," Debbie gasped from the bed, and I turned around in a
bit of a panic, but she was just flinging her shoes off as she collapsed
on the bed.  "Oh, shit," she repeated, "I am so tired!"  Her eyes turned
up to me, and I swear they were almost glowing.  "Please, Val, just hold
me for a while?  No, wait, lock the door first."
     I locked the door AND wedged it shut.  I was tired of the outside
world.  Seriously tired.  And not the only one, apparently.

***
23:27 5 Jun

     As she started to move in my arms, I let go of her and asked,
"Better?"
     She nodded into my chest without saying anything before she got up
off the bed.  I smiled as I watched her move around the room for a
while, then as she opened up her clothing bag, I decided I'd get ready
for bed too.

***
23:41 5 Jun

     Showers for each of us had made us MUCH more alive.  As well as
much nicer-smelling, at least in my case. "You didn't bring a
nightgown?" she asked as she rubbed her hair with a towel.
     I sighed at her, then remembered what I HAD brought, and grinned.
"No, not quite," I said as I dug in my bag, "but I think I have
something anyway...."  When I finally had it, I pulled it out, 'it'
being her silk birthday present to me, and showed it to her.
     She smiled when she saw it.  It was a real smile, too, not 'I smell
a buck' or 'This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it will me' smiles
like she had a lot of the time.

***
23:42 5 Jun

     As I came out of the bathroom - for some reason, I still felt
really shy about being around her naked, even though we'd had sex and
everything before - she was wearing HER silk present too.
     She walked up to me and put her arms around my waist, so I wrapped
my fingers in her wonderful hair and kissed her for a while.

***
23:56 5 Jun

     There wasn't any music, but we'd been dancing, and kissing, anyway,
and it was making me slowly insane.  I think that's what Debbie wanted,
because after an agonizingly slow rub against my silk boxers, she waited
until my eyelids fluttered open again, then she pushed her hair in front
of her face and let it fall back against her shoulders, and asked in
this kittenish voice, "Are you going to ravish me?"
     "If you want me to," I told her, and she laughed.
     And then she kissed me, in that way that told me she did, and that
left me gasping for breath and needing to lie down.  

***
00:23 6 Jun

     "Is that what being ravished is like?" I asked Debbie as we took a
rest.
     "Nnnn," she said, and rubbed my shoulder.  "Sort of," she finally
said, "except this was sort of mutual.  Wasn't it?"
     "Ohyeah," I agreed without hesitation.
     We lay there together for what was one of the better times of my
life.
     Finally, she wriggled against me, and asked, "Want to ravish me
again?"
     "How about you ravish me this time?" I countered.
     And, she did.

***
01:18 6 Jun

     "Do my back?" she asked, for some reason.  As if I wouldn't.
     "Do mine after?" I said back, and she gave me the same look I was
giving her.

***
01:37 6 Jun

     Going to sleep, in my-slash-our birthday presents of silk, and
curled up around each other, without having to worry about someone
coming in, or finding us, or anything at all....  I didn't know I could
be this lucky.  And it was all because of Debbie.

***
06:32 6 Jun

     "Noooo, Deb!  You can't be serious!"  She kept pulling the covers
off, and I had to keep pulling them back on because I was freezing.
"Come back to bed like a sane person!"
     "Val," she said patiently, letting go of the covers and sitting
next to me, "we need to get up early so we can get ready, have
breakfast, and then go set up before things get started."
     "But, but, but, NOW?"  I wanted to cry.  Or convince her to abandon
this stupidity and come back to bed.  I wasn't that picky.

***
06:54 6 Jun

     It was really a trip to get ready with Debbie at the same time,
without worrying about her mother or someone coming in.  We didn't have
to worry about being naked, so she was wandering around half-dressed
like she almost never did, and so was I, and she kept kissing me or
stroking me or hugging me.
     It almost made me want to stay up.  Almost.

***
07:01 6 Jun

     "How come I have to look 'nice' and you get to wear scrubs?" I
complained.
     She gave me one of Lisa's looks.  "Because, Val," she sighed at me,
"I'm going to be working with facepaint all day long, and I don't want
to get my regular clothes all messed up."
     "You never did this at the demos," I pointed out.
     She pointed back, "I never did more than two makeovers at a demo,
either.  This is going to be all day, and..."  She pulled me close.
"See?" she said, pointing my head at the scrubs.  "See all the old
stains and everything on them?"
     "When did this happen?"
     Debbie gave me a Lisa look.  "When I was doing the makeovers,
instead of the demonstrations?"
     "Yeah, but...."  I sighed, but then I just gave up.  We both knew
I'd lost, so I figured I'd stop wasting time arguing.  "So what am I
wearing?"

***
07:19 6 Jun

     Which is why I ended up in a matching skirt (white pleated) and
sweater (sky blue) outfit, with hose (white) and nice shoes (white) and
everything (mostly white), and Debbie got to wear scrubs (purple) and
sneakers (dirty).
     Luckily, the hotel had a buffet breakfast in the restaurant, and it
was already loaded and open.  We got three plates between us - they had
a lot of fruit, which we both wanted to chow down upon - and found a
small table to sit at.
     She pulled her chair around so we were sitting corners instead of
across from each other.  "Whassup?" I asked her, and in response, she
slid her hand up my skirt.  "Deb!  Stop it, we're in public!"
     She giggled, and pulled her hand out.  "So, feel better about being
awake?"
     "Sort of, yeah," I admitted.
     She took her hand and cupped my chin in it.  I smiled at her, and
she leaned forward and pulled me into a kiss.

***
07:37 6 Jun

     Debbie had just put a piece of melon in my mouth when she dropped
her fork on her plate and waved at someone.  I looked over, and it was
Julia, looking a little less freaked than last night.  She had a full
plate already, and she waved back and came over.
     "Pull up a chair," Debbie offered, and Julia did, taking the
opposite corner from us.
     "You two look perky this morning," she grumbled.
     "It's Debbie's fault, she kept wandering around naked this
morning," I shot out.  "I couldn't go back t-"
     "Liar!" Debbie protested.  But she blew it by starting to giggle.
     Julia just rolled her eyes at both of us.  "Would you two stop
acting in love for JUST a little while?  I'd like to eat, and you two
are making me sick," she told us.
     "Fuck you," Debbie challenged, but she pulled back from me a
little.
     Julia rolled her eyes.  "I don't want a menage a trois either, but
thanks for asking," she quipped right back.  While Debbie and I were
both boggling, trying to come up with a retort, she smiled for an
instant in victory and began to eat her breakfast.

***
07:48 6 Jun

     "I have no idea," Debbie said.  "Last night...."  Julia and I both
nodded at the same time.  Last night was too confused for trying to
figure anything out, and I was just as glad we hadn't tried.
     "Well, maybe," Julia started to say, then she dug through her
purse.  "I think... yeah, the vendors area is supposed to be open at
nine.  So you should still have time to find it and everything."  She
looked up, biting her lip.  "You did register, right?  I mean as
vendors?"
     Debbie spoke up.  "I did, a couple of months ago, but I, I mean,
was I supposed to check in when I got here last night?"
     Julia shrugged.  "I don't have any idea.  I guess we can check when
we get done with breakfast, though."  They nodded at each other and
smiled.
     I was glad.  I was very glad that these two women in my life were
working together and getting along.

***
08:02 6 Jun

     Debbie talked with one of the crossdressers or whatever they were
that were running the convention.  Julia shrugged and tried not to look
at anyone in particular.  I looked at Julia, or Debbie, or the floor.
     I was really hoping that the perfume had caused some sort of mass
hallucination last night, and that it wasn't really Dobson in that
elevator.  It was possible, that we'd just all imagined it...

***
08:13 6 Jun

     "This is it," the really big crossdresser announced, pointing to a
table.  "You have both of them, those two."
     "Great!  We need a couple more chairs, though," Debbie mentioned,
and I didn't wait to be told to go get two of them.  There was a stack
of them at the back of the room, so I got two and came back.  Debbie and
Julia were moving the tables around, I guess to make a workspace for us,
and Debbie motioned me to put the chairs in the 'open' space adjacent to
the aisle.

***
08:49 6 Jun

     The other vendors had been filtering in and setting up, like we
were doing, and I was glad we'd gotten started early.  Naturally, Debbie
detected it, and made me admit that I was glad.
     It had taken some work to find a plug, and then make sure the
extension cord reached, not to mention taping it down on the carpet - I
had a feeling that, as bad as leaving a cable out was normally, in this
place with these people it would be disastrous.  Very few examples
looked at all steady in their shoes on flat unobstructed ground.
     "You brought all that with you?" Julia asked when she wandered
back, looking at the various things we were both setting up.
     "Yep," I answered, Debbie being busy taping some kind of sign to
the table front.
     "What're the CD's for?" she asked, pointing to the stack of them on
my side of the booth.
     "Oh, didn't we tell you?"

***
08:58 6 Jun

     "Wow, cool!" Debbie said, and Julia nodded, as I printed out a copy
of Julia's picture on the inkjet.  It was a pretty good shot.  "That'll
look really cool after your makeover," she added.  Debbie had asked
Julia if she wanted the first makeover, in order to 'prime the pump' for
the rest of the customers.
     "Can you do all that cool image manipulation stuff?" Julia asked
me.
     I shrugged.  "Sure.  Though I'm not as good at it as Dan is."
     "Dan?"
     "Dan the Man?" I countered.  "My bud?  He's great with graphics.  I
have to set everything up for him on his computer, but once it's loaded,
he's fantastic."  That was how we'd gotten a few things like spray
paint; Dan didn't limit himself to still lifes, if you know what I mean.
"I'm just okay."
     "Still," Julia said.  "Do you have some program with you?"
     "Sure," I admitted, turning back to the laptop.  GIMP was in here
somewhere...  Of course, if I took her question literally, I had dozens
of programs with me.  But, it was best not to take the non-geeks
literally when discussing geek things.  I'd avoided some amount of pain
and suffering when I figured that trick out.

***
09:02 6 Jun

     I was under the table on my hands and knees, trying to figure out
where the darn pile-of-worms had come unplugged when a far-too-familiar
voice said from the top of the table, "Good morning ladies."
     If there was anything after that for a while, I missed it, because
I tried to get up, instinctively, and rammed my head into the underside
of the table, and the pain sort of blocked anything else sensory for a
while.
     When I could hear again, and see again, I heard Debbie agree,
"Sure, that'd be okay," to someone.  I hoped it wasn't who I was afraid
it was.

***
09:05 6 Jun

     "But why did you AGREE?" I hissed at Debbie.
     "Because!" she snapped back, "he's the damned dean of our high
school!"
     "Assistant dean," I pointed out.
     "Shut UP!  What am I gonna do, tell him NO?"
     "Why NOT?!" I asked, my own temper starting to flare, and she was
about to scream at me or pull someone's hair out - not hers, I'd bet -
when Julia kicked out and got both of us in the legs at the same time.
     "Ow!" I think we both said at the same time.
     "Hey," she said, in a much calmer voice than she'd been using.  She
was still breathing fast, though.  "I just thought of something-"
     "What?" Debbie snarled.
     "Does he want pictures?" Julia asked, and grinned at me.
     We thought about it.  Debbie went back to powdering Julia as we
thought.
     "He couldn't... he couldn't possibly be that stupid," Debbie
finally voiced.
     "I'd believe anything at this point," I announced.  I think I
would, too.
     "We can ask in ten minutes," Julia mentioned, which I really REALLY
didn't need to remember right then.

***
09:18 6 Jun

     I was thankfully busy with my own customer, somebody going by the
name of 'Michelle,' when Dobson came back for his appointment with
Debbie.  The less I actually had to deal with him, I thought, the
happier I would be.
     "And would you like to have your pictures taken?" Debbie managed to
ask Dobson smoothly as she was setting him up in her seat.
     He laughed.  And laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and almost
choked, which would have solved some of our problems but made some more.
Finally, he looked me straight in the eye and announced, "No."
     I took that to mean, if I'd had any hope of remaining anonymous,
that it was gone.  Not that I had, really.
     "Why not?" asked Michelle, butting into the conversation, and I
almost bit myself trying to say many many lies all at one time.  I'm
glad I couldn't actually say anything; all of the lies were pathetic
ones.
     Dobson looked at me, eyed Debbie, and then pronounced, "I work with
these two, back home, in drab.  And I don't think I want them to have
pictures of me to show our mutual acquaintances."
     "Like I have the disk space!" I lied instantly in reply.  "Do you
know how big these image files are?"
     "They get quite a bit smaller if you fiddle with them, don't they,
MMmmmmiss Tucker," he got out, glaring at me.
     "Um," I said, before I realized he was having problems with the
titles and pronouns, too.  Good.  "Not that much smaller," I remembered
to counter.  "Besides, what good would that do?"
     "The school board would not approve," Dobson told 'Michelle,' who
nodded like it was obvious.  Which, I guess, it was.
     Not that I would have done anything with pictures like that, of
course.  They just would have been nice to have in reserve.  Just in
case.
     "So what do you do?" Michelle asked me.
     I opened my mouth to say something, but Debbie answered for me,
"We're teachers."  I shut my mouth and nodded.  Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw Dobson lurch, and then glare at her, as if Debbie had kicked
him.  Heh.  Better him than me.
     "Oh, what grades?" Michelle asked.
     "High school," I said, hoping Debbie would like that.  She nodded,
so I guess she did.

***
09:43 6 Jun

     Dobson slipped Debbie an obscene amount of cash - I wasn't doing
that badly, but I wasn't doing THAT well either - as he stood up.
Before he could stand up all the way, Debbie had riffled through the
cash and counted it, and she proceeded to stuff it into her cashbox as
he stretched.
     "Can I get you two a drink?" he asked, smiling at us.
     "Oh, a double screwdriver would be lovely," Debbie said as she
cleaned up for the next customer.  I nodded and smiled.
     Amazingly, he smiled back, and then he turned and left.

***
09:47 6 Jun

     "Complete mutual assured destruction," I said, vaguely.  I was
still stunned, though maybe that was from thinking so hard after so
little sleep.  "We can ruin his life as fast as he can ruin ours."  Or
maybe it was just the mental strain.
     Debbie sipped on her vodka-less 'screwdriver'.  I had one too.  The
OJ was nice, thought not as nice as it would have been with some alcohol
in it.  "Not that we would, of course," she smiled at me.  "He's much
better as a friend."
     Not to mention, you could only use MAD once, and then everyone's
life was over.  That was sort of the point.
     "Plus he tipped me," Debbie added.  "A lot."
     "So?" I almost said, before I realized what that meant.  Debbie and
I had always agreed on one ethical point: silence was golden.  So
instead, I just sighed.

***
10:41 6 Jun

     If I hadn't been at this convention and seen almost everything
already, I would not have believed the girl in front of me was anything
but 100% pure.  Or whatever.  I reflexively glanced at Debbie to make
sure that she wasn't looking at me before I smiled at the girl and
invited her, "Just sit down there, and we can get started.  I'm
Valerie," I said, introducing myself like Debbie had told me to, and
extended my hand.
     She took it and shook it gently.  "Francheska," she said softly, in
this husky voice that just SOUNDED like what Debbie and I had done in
the room last night.  She was smiling, too.
     Unfortunately, the voice got Debbie's attention, because her head
snapped over with that urgency that said her jealousy button had been
mashed.
     I pulled my hand away and sat down myself in front of the laptop.
"So, Francheska, what would you like?"
     "Well, um, can you do, um, portrait photos?" she asked.
     As if I wasn't already surrounded by samples of previous customers
who felt like advertising.  Or bragging.  "Um, sure," I replied,
concentrating on being customer serviceable.  "What would you like?"
     "I'd like something, like, um, soft focus?" she said hesitantly,
looking down.  "Um, 'cause it, I.... I have too much facial hair," she
explained, "and I don't want anyone to see it."
     "I can't see anything," I said honestly.
     She shocked backwards in the seat, like I'd just spit on her.

***
10:43 6 Jun

     As the printer finally ground loose the last half-inch of paper, I
pulled it out and turned to Fran.  "See?" I said, showing it to her.
"This is without any soft focus or anything, and you can't see a thing
like you're talking about."
     She looked up at me.  "You, you're not lying?" she asked, just
above a whisper.
     "Why would I LIE about this?" I almost yelled, because I'd wanted
to ask, or yell, this question since she showed up and sat down.
     Instead of answering, she started to cry.
     I looked up at Debbie, hoping she had a clue for me.  She just
shrugged at me, then pointed back at the girl, like I should do
something.  *I'd love to,* I thought nastily, *but what the hell am I
supposed to DO?!*

***
10:44 6 Jun

     I kind of hated taking a break, especially leaving Debbie still
there, but I wasn't going to get anything done until I got Fran back in
her right mind.  And, she was making me nervous, and Debbie nervous, and
the last thing Debbie needed was to get twitchy while playing with
liquid eyeliner.  At least I had an Undo command.
     So I'd taken Fran to the bar, which was already open and completely
full of 'clients.'  That wasn't gonna work, I figured out too late, so I
went for the next best thing, the bar's women's room.  She froze up as
she saw which door I was taking her through.  It would have been funny
if I hadn't almost gotten run over by giants on stilts several times
already.  "Oh come ON!" I snapped, yanking her arm.  I felt sorry for
doing it as she followed me in, but I was really tired.
     I guess I'd scared her a little bit, because when I pushed her
towards the sink, she was sniveling instead of crying out loud.

***
10:56 6 Jun

     As we left the bathroom, I realized I would never ever ever
understand these people.
     Fran had told me Her Story, in little hiccups and whimpers, in the
bathroom.  Apparently, this was her first time out in public.  I wanted
to laugh.  Actually, what I sort of wanted to do was shake her and
scream, 'RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!' but it wasn't like she had a Debbie
pushing her; this was all her idea.
     Which bothered me, somehow.
     Anyway, she'd been 'doing it' at home for years - I didn't want to
know what 'doing it' meant - but she'd saved up enough at her lame
highschool-type job to get to this convention and meet some of the
people she'd talked to online.  And of course, what she didn't say out
loud but was painfully obvious, was that she was having a crisis of
confidence about actually being outside and visible to others.
     In a convention of hundreds of people doing the EXACT SAME thing.
     I did laugh out loud when I confirmed that, and that shocked her.
I think she was going to yell at me, but I caught that and yelled first,
and longest and loudest, and at the end of it I think I'd managed to put
a chink in her disbelief.  Luckily I still had the printout in my hand;
that helped a lot, even though the ink was running a bit where I got
water on it.
     I walked her almost to the door of the bar, but Dobson waved to me
and held up a glass, and I instantly discerned that he was asking me if
I wanted another one.  And I did, immensely.

***
10:59 6 Jun

     I went back to the booths with two drinks - STILL non-alcoholic;
where was Kim's thermos when I needed it? - and an 'invitation' to have
lunch and discuss things with Dobson.  And when she heard about it,
Debbie absolutely forbade me to run and hide, or claim I was sick, or
something else to get out of it.  "We NEED the help.  YOU especially,"
she pointed out.
     "Why?!" I almost screamed at her, attracting more attention.
     "Because, stupid," she said, and lowered her voice.  "Do you want
to go to gym class next year with these?" she asked, cupping a hand
around one of my breasts.  It was mostly silicone gel, but not entirely,
which I think was her point.
     "No b-but-"
     "N- And it's a cute butt," she smiled at me, and gave me a kiss on
the cheek.  "Now, when did you want to go to lunch?  We can't go at the
same time unless we pack everything back up."

***
11:32 6 Jun

     Debbie had promised to keep feeding the CD recorder as necessary,
and then she almost threw me out of the booth.
     I thought for a moment about going up to our room instead, until I
remembered who had the room key.  Debbie, of course.
     So there was nothing for me to do but go to lunch.  Or hide-
     Too late.  Dobson spotted at me, and waved as he started walking
over towards me.  I sighed, inside, and waved back at him.

***
11:35 6 Jun

     'Strained' wasn't quite the word for the atmosphere at the table.
I don't think there is quite a word, at least in English.  Italian
family politics might have developed a word.... or Middle Eastern
religious debate-
     "You look very nice," he said out of the blue to me, which almost
scared me off my seat.
     "Um, thanks," I smiled reflexively.  "Um..."  I started to return
the compliment, which unfortunately led to me REALLY LOOKING at the
assistant dean of my high school and my homeroom teacher dressed and
made up as a woman.
     I'd seen worse women in real life.
     And I didn't want to think that.

***
11:46 6 Jun

     We'd both ordered, and I was a little surprised that the waitress
hadn't given Dobson a second glance.  Then again, I guess this had been
going on for a few days before, anyway.  She was probably used to it by
now.
     "So," Dobson started, with that tone of voice that said the Good
Cop had left the room and the rubber hoses were about to come out.
"What, pray tell me, are you doing HERE, dressed like THAT?"
     "Debbie's idea," I shot back instantly.  "And we could use the
money, of course."  I tried smiling, too.
     It didn't seem to work.  He shook his head at me.  "No, don't lie
to me, Miss Tucker.  You've been doing this a long time."
     "What, since that time at Halloween?" I asked, hoping that would
throw him off the scent.  "Yeah, it has been a long time..."
     "Just how stupid do you think I am?"
     "Huh?" I said, startled.  He was looking really hard at me, and I
started having this urge to go to the principal's office.  I HATED that.
     Eventually, he shook his head at me.  "I'd hoped," he said, "that
we could at least have a civilized lunch together, seeing as both of us
have overlapping hobbies, that-"
     "What?" I accidentally interrupted.  "What hobbies?"
     His eyebrows went up.  "You're not a genetic female, and neither am
I.  And we're both at this convention, so-"
     "You think I WANT to look like this?" I spat as I lost control of
my mouth again.
     Eyebrows went down.  "Then why are you here, wearing makeup and
Laura Ashley, heels and hose?"
     I sighed.  "It's a looong story."  Especially when I didn't know
whether to try lying or not-
     As the world suddenly went black, I heard a gravelly voice say,
"Gotcha!"
     I started to slide under the table, but I was too close to the edge
of the table, and managed to slam both abscess-like nipples into the
edge at high speed and with my full body weight behind them.
     I don't THINK I screamed, but my sight whited out.

***
11:47 6 Jun

     "If you EVER do that again," I informed Jack, and probably a lot of
other people at the same time, because I was so mad I couldn't help
yelling, "I am gonna make you PAY for it!"
     "Sorry!  Val, I am really sorry," he went on, but I wasn't
listening to him; my chest hurt too much.
     "Jack, that was NOT cool," Sheila added, sounding nasty.

***
11:49 6 Jun

     Jack had been silenced, but then Dobson AND Sheila wanted to talk
to me.  And, naturally, Dobson had offered the use of 'our' table to the
two of them, so we could all have lunch together.
     I should have known that any idea of Debbie's was going to be
something I'd end up regretting sooner or later.

***
11:54 6 Jun

     Jack and Dobson had talked for a while, explaining how each of them
had encountered me.  Dobson hadn't lied, which I thought was amazing; I
would have lied, if I'd had a chance of being believed at this point.
Then, Dobson had talked to Sheila, and they had used a lot of the lingo
that Jack had taught me, that I still just barely understood.  I think,
though, that if I read it right, that Dobson would not be coming to
school dressed as a woman any time soon.
     Which was more than fine with me, of course.
     I thought that perhaps, if I played it really quiet, that the three
of them would just go on and on and I'd fade into the background and be
forgotten.  I'd managed it a couple of times, at Thanksgiving and
Christmas with Mom's family.

***
12:11 6 Jun

     Everyone had gotten their food, and I was trying to be stealthy
about eating, but I messed up somehow because Dobson looked up and
said, "You never did answer my question, Valerie."
     "Mmmm," I swallowed, "what question?"
     The eyebrows went down again.  "Miss Tucker," he intoned, which
made me feel just as nervous as it always did, even though before he'd
always used 'mister'.  "Why ARE you at this convention, dressed like
that?"
     "Well, I'm with Deb, you know that, and..."  He was shaking his
head.
     "Oh, wait," Sheila gasped as she caught some kind of clue.  You
could almost hear it swish through her brain like a basketball.  "Is
this the girl you told me about?" she asked Jack, who nodded.  She
turned to me then. "Wow, I want to congratulate you," she said
sincerely, and patted me on the hand.  "I wish I had been as brave at
your age, but I was too scared of everyone to come out like you're
doing-"
     "Do what?" fell out of my mouth.  I was going to have to nail it
shut if I couldn't get control of it.
     Jack raised his hand, and Shelia glared at him for a moment before
nodding to him.  She'd been quite specific about him not talking for a
while, and I guess she had some kind of hold on him because he hadn't
said anything until now.  "Valerie.... she's not like any of you," he
explained.
     "Shut up Jack!" I insisted.
     "Well, then you tell us," Sheila said, looking at me.
     "Ah.  Um."  I couldn't even think where to start.  "I dunno... I
mean, I, it's not like I,..."  And then I stopped.  I mean, all of a
sudden it seemed kind of rude to say, 'I don't want to do what means so
much to all of you,' for some reason.  Like telling your host, 'No I
hate your stupid slides,' it just wasn't done.  Or so it seemed to me.
     On the other hand, I WASN'T interested in women's things, the same
way they were.
     At least, I don't think I was.
     None of Jack's terms had seemed to fit me, anyway.
     "Hey, Val?" Jack said, daring to open his mouth again, "How about
if I explain things, and you correct me where I'm wrong, okay?"
     "Um..."  *Shit!*  I couldn't think of anything better to get me off
the hook, except a sudden onset of epilepsy, and I didn't have epilepsy.
Based on experience, I wasn't going to get it just by wishing for it
either.  I couldn't help sighing as I said, "Yeah, I guess so."

***
12:16 6 Jun

     He'd covered my life in the rough for the last year or so, while
I'd eaten for a while, sort of.  I wasn't hungry any more, but it was
too late to change my order with the food already in front of me.  At
least I hadn't over-ordered earlier.  Then again, I was feeling kind of
not-hungry then, too.  It just wasn't as bad then as it was now.
     "And that's the last we talked about it," Jack wound up, "and she
still says she doesn't know what's happening, except she's just
exploring it for now."
     "Gender explorer," fell out.  I hated myself right then.
     Jack chuckled as the other two looked at me.  "Yeah, that was what
we'd figured out that night at my place."

***
12:17 6 Jun

     "You can't claim you're not doing it willingly," Sheila said,
pointing her fork at me, "if you took that babysitting job."
     "But, but-" I protested.
     "There are a lot of jobs out there that pay seven dollars an hour,
and will hire a teenager," Dobson added, not helpfully.  "Didn't you
work at your father's company last summer?"
     "Yeah but that was my dad, I mean..."  It wasn't the same; it was
sort of a phone version of mowing the lawn or something.

***
12:22 6 Jun

     "So how much of that," Sheila asked, "is real?"  It took me a while
to realize she was pointing at my bra.
     "Um.... maybe, a third?" I guessed.  "Nobody really measured it
except the endocrin-whatever-he-was, and that was two months ago.  Um.
They're pretty big, at least to me they are."
     "Miss Tucker?" Dobson asked, and I almost choked.  Every time he
said that, it was like one of my nightmares where I'd gone to school in
the wrong wardrobe.  "You... you weren't planning to go to gym class
with..."
     "I'd hoped not," I replied before he could figure out whatever word
he was looking for.  "I really don't want to get the shit beaten out of
me, pardonmyFrench!" as I realized I'd said 'shit' in front of him.
"But, but, anyway, I'm not that popular anyway, and this would just make
it worse."
     He nodded like he actually had a clue as to what I was talking
about.  "Make sure you have some kind of doctor's note when school
resumes, or before, and I'll make sure you don't have to go," he said,
smiling.
     "Oh jeez, thanks," I said sincerely, feeling the beatings almost
going in reverse as they didn't-wouldn't happen in my personal future
timestream.

***
12:29 6 Jun

     "Is that why you skipped school for that half week, back in April?"
Dobson asked me.  I just nodded.  He nodded back, slowly.  "I thought it
was something like that."  He looked seriously at me.  "Please accept my
apologies.  I tried... to keep you from getting punished further,
but..."  He shook his head.
     "It's okay," I told him, a little shocked that he'd actually tried
to do anything.  "Nickerson was an asshole anyway."
     Then I realized I'd just said 'asshole' in front of the assistant
dean of my high school.
     "That he was," Dobson agreed solemnly - scaring me worse - before
he looked up.  I must have been turning white or my hair was standing up
or something, because he chuckled for a long time.  "Valerie, if you'll
be an adult here, then I shall treat you like one, and not a child.
Deal?"
     "Um..."  I thought about it, for about a second.  Then the lure of
the privileges of adulthood were too much for me to resist.  "Okay."
     "So what did you do to him to get him to resign?" was Dobson's next
question.
     "Who me?  I don't know anything about it!" came out reflexively.
     The eyebrows came down again, but Sheila asked, "Who?"

***
12:33 6 Jun

     Sheila said, "So, I mean, you did all that stuff-"
     "Not me!" I protested.  "I just heard some kids did it."
     She gave me this look, and shook her head a little.  "Okay, so you
'heard' that 'someone' did all this stuff to Nickelson-"
     "Nickerson," Dobson and I corrected at the same time.
     "WhatEVER," Sheila snapped.  "So, I mean, what did he do to you?"
     That wasn't a hard question at all.  "One, he gave me detention
after I just got back from the brink of killing myself, and all he cared
about was whether I'd had prior permission for my absence.  Second, he
was getting INSANELY repressive.  He tried to ban everyone from being on
school property if it was a half hour before or after school, or he'd
call the cops!  And it happened, too!  I know a couple of guys that
really did end up in jail."  I didn't like them that much, but that
wasn't the point.  They'd been arrested for being there at the wrong
time, something that hadn't been a crime the week before, and that was
unfair.  "There were other incidents too, like Ellen..."  I got so mad,
thinking about Ellen and the way he'd been to her that I lost the
outside world for a while.
     When I came back, Dobson was explaining to them that she'd tried to
commit suicide, and failed, and she'd also been punished for being
hospitalized.  In her case, she had to go to summer school because
Nickerson had summarily flunked her in all her classes.  "At least I
managed to get that changed," Dobson said with a smile.
     "How'd you do that?" I asked.
     He turned his head to me, and I SAW him turn on a slow smile, like
the Cheshire Cat or something.  "Oh, didn't you know?"
     My mouth was suddenly so dry, I could barely croak, "Know what?"
     He was enjoying this.  His smile got bigger as he announced, "I was
selected by the school board to take the principal's position at McAllen
High School."
     At least nothing else fell out of my mouth for a long time.

***
12:44 6 Jun

     "So, I mean, you just sort of enjoy doing it every so often?" I
confirmed.  Dobson nodded.  "Like, like going to a salon or something,
or having a massage?"  He had to think about that one for a few seconds
before he nodded again.  "Why?"
     He shrugged at me.  "Why do any of us like anything?" he asked.  I
thought it was rhetorical, so I didn't answer.  He kept going, "I've
always enjoyed it, for some reason.  And since I started admitting to
myself that I DO like it, and that it's not wrong...."  He trailed off
into silence.
     Part of me went 'oh gross!' at the thought, but... I guess he was
right.  I mean, it wasn't anything evil, and it wasn't even as pointless
as watching football on television.  I didn't find it relaxing at all,
but that was probably because I was usually babysitting or shopping or
something while in girl's clothing.  Since I'd never done it 'for
myself' I'd never really just sat around to feel what it was like.
     Then again....  "But the girls I know, when they want to relax,
they take all the stuff like heels and hose and makeup OFF, not put it
ON."
     Dobson smiled and shrugged again.  "I never claimed I was the same
as an average female, in this.  Sheila?" he asked, turning to her.
"What do you dress like, when you want to relax?"
     "Um, me?  Um.... I dunno.  I still like girl's sleep shirts," she
said like she was admitting something sort of naughty.  "With flowers or
something on them.... and nightgowns, sometimes," she giggled.  "I
dunno," she said, getting more serious again.  "I like frilly stuff,
but, I dunno, sometimes it's TOO frilly.  And she's right, I mean I
don't wear heels or makeup when I just want to relax at home."
     "I suppose it's just me, then," Dobson said, and smiled.

***
12:48 6 Jun

     I glanced at my plate, and then I had to look again, because almost
all the food had disappeared off it.  It took me a few seconds to
realize that I'd eaten it all.  "Um," I said, looking back up, "so, so
you'll just do this for a few days, and then go back home, and then
that's it?"
     Dobson nodded.  "It's my summer vacation, to relax from the stress
of the school year," he admitted.
     "Um, so... so what do I call you?" fell out, and I swore I'd find
some superglue and fix the problem forever.
     He smiled at me again, in that way that said he was going to Teach
me something.
     "There's a real simple way to think of it," Jack skidded in, just
in time to cut Dobson off.  "If it's trying to look like a duck, call it
a duck and it'll love you forever."
     There was a pause.
     "WHAT?!" protested me and Dobson at the same time.

***


"In my society, we consider "taking the sausage" to mean something else
entirely." - one of Ellen's work comrades


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"Tallyho!"      \   /     @>--,--'--  ehayes@barkingduck.net + vicki
Ellen Hayes --=(*)=(*)=-- Renaissance Woman    ==[--------   + sig
                          http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes  + virus



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