Workman: Chapter Five - Part Five

I drove up onto the drive of my house in my new van with a big grin on my face. This was what I was talking about!

It had a big throaty diesel engine and loads of space front and back. It had driven a lot of miles but it was still running fine and I figured I could give it a good tune up anyway. It was blue and just about the opposite of my old girly car in every single way. This was a proper man’s vehicle, this was – just my kind of thing. And it had more than enough space to get me started in my new business enterprise. In six months or a year, when my income was stable, I could upgrade it to a newer model but for now it was perfect.

I enjoyed the rattling vibration when I turned off the ignition then climbed out.

John came out his front door and called across. “I thought that was you. Not bad.”

I gave him the tour.

“This is more your style.”

I laughed. “Tell me about it. I felt like a right prat tootling around in that other dinky thing.”

“You going down the Hunter’s Moon later?”

I thought of Sangeeta and toyed with it then said, “Nah. I’m behind on things in the house and some bastard keeps setting me up with other jobs to do.”

John chuckled. “Now who could that be?”

“Some tosser. I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.”

“Right, well I’ll see you around.” John turned to go. “Good luck with the house; and nice choice on the van. People were starting to talk. Not me, you understand; but people.”

I shook my head to myself with a smile then went inside. I hadn’t known him for long but he was a good mate. I liked him.

I checked the post and then gave myself a quick look in the mirror, feeling my goatee. It looked good: really suited me. I was glad Sangeeta had done it. It actually looked bushier than it probably should have done, as though the magic of the ring had accelerated the growth a little, making it fill in a bit faster than normal. I didn’t mind. I liked the way it made me look.

Then I paused, frowning. I looked into my eyes then down the length of my body. I raised my hands to look at them; turned them over. I glanced in the direction of the van on the drive.

This was going too far.

It was going far too far and far too fast.

It was taking over my life!

I wasn’t meant to be a man. I was a woman! It was all becoming too comfortable and easy. I wasn’t meant to stay a man for anything other than doing my parents’ house up. I shouldn’t be out socialising as a bloke and snogging girls. I shouldn’t be accepting work and planning an ongoing business that would necessitate me staying this way! Now that the momentum had died I couldn’t believe I’d traded in my car of all things – made a permanent decision that affected something so big and expensive as that. What was I going to do with a van like that as a woman?

This was totally messed up and it had to end now!

I snatched at the ring and pulled.

There was that initial resistance like always then it shifted. I looked at myself in the mirror. The man’s body and face looking back at me didn’t jar in the least. I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Was there really a sense of urgency? Did it matter if I stayed this way?

If I remained Geoff for another night then I could meet up with Sangeeta again, maybe have a repeat of the night before. I got a charge of sexual tension just to think about it.

I knew I ought to take the ring off, at least for a while, to get some perspective, but I equally felt the urge to resist that. What did it matter what sex I was as long as I was having a good time and keeping afloat? Maybe I should keep the ring on for now. Just for one more night...

I pulled it off in one hard yank. Before I really did change my mind.

Immediately I felt a thump in my stomach like being hit with a basketball. I groaned, instantly regretting taking the thing off; wanting to put it right back on. Instead I smacked it down on the hall table.

The first flash came at that moment along with a nauseating wave of weakness in all my limbs and an unpleasant sense of contraction. There was an awful wrench in my crotch, a vacuum accompanied by a pitch in my spirits at the loss of something down there I’d got so used to I’d forgotten about it. Its sudden absence was alarming and unpleasant.

The second flash dazzled me but when my eyes cleared I realised I’d shrunk almost a foot in height. It was weird and unpleasant. I didn’t like it at all. I staggered against the wall, reaching for support, then the third and final flash flickered over me and there were suddenly these two big fleshy orbs hanging off my chest that felt totally out of place.

I was a woman again, but it only felt wrong.