Tails

by Lhynn Cooper
Chapte 23

..........

"Better?" I asked. It felt strange sitting like this, in a position that I never could have comfortably assumed as a man, but, with nothing hanging between my thighs to get in the way, it was not only comfortable, but kind of a pleasant way to sit.

"Much better." Sam said, nodding her head in approval. "Now please hurry up and get dressed, I've got a busy day at work."

"Okay, okay." I said. "What's the matter this morning, Sam? You act like something's wrong."

"I'm sorry." She answered. "I just feel a little out of sorts this morning, like I'm getting........., Hmmmm." She stopped and looked at me strangely. "How do you feel this morning, honey? Feel any cramping, maybe down below your tummy, any queasiness?"

"Cramps?" I was puzzled. "No, I'm fine. Why, what's wrong?" As soon as I said that, I realized what she was talking about. "Your period?" I said more as a statement than a question.

"Yeah, it feels like I getting it." She said. "It's actually a bit late, I guess everything that's happened the last few days has gotten me off schedule, but emotional upsets can do that to a woman. I was beginning to get a little worried though, when it didn't come on time. The last thing we need now is for me to turn up pregnant."

"Well, if that does happen now, you can't blame it on me." I said, trying to cheer her up. "I sure don't have anything, now, that'll do that little trick." I uncrossed my legs and looked down at my empty crotch.

Shaking her head and smiling, Sam could only agree, "You can say that again, girl." Then she laughed a little. "I just figured that since Kathy managed to make you into my twin sister, and if I'm getting my period, well..., you just might be, too."

"God, I hope not!" I said. "I don't think I'm ready for that yet." Then, in a more serious tone, I asked, "You can feel it coming? I know you've probably told me that before, but I've never paid that much attention. What's it feel like, so I'll know when it comes?"

"Oh, you'll know." Sam said. "I usually feel a little bloated, and I get like stomach cramps, but down lower. Then within a day, the flow starts." She started walking towards the bathroom. "When I feel the cramps, I usually put on a light pad and start carrying the regular ones in my purse."

Sam went into the bathroom and I heard the cabinet below the sink open and close, then she returned, carrying two small boxes.

"These are the light pads and these are the regulars, for when the heavy flow comes. Directions are on the box, but you've seen me put them in my panties enough times so that you should be able to handle it."

"I'm not ready for this." I repeated.

"Well, you won't have a lot of choice when it starts." Sam said, handing me the two boxes. "You either use these, or spend a few days messing up your clothes."

"Such compassion." I tried to sound sarcastic, but without much success because I realized we were now, literally, both in the same boat, or body, actually. "What about those other things, what do they call them, tampons? Are those easier?"

"I don't like them, I prefer the pads." Sam said with a shrug. "But it's up to you, use whichever one you want. You'll have to buy some tampons, though, I don't have any here." She took a few pads from each box and put them in her purse. "If you're going to use the pads, you should stop at the store today and get more. If both of us are going to be using them, we'll need more than this." She disappeared back into the walk-in closet.

I got up and began to dress. As I was putting on my underwear, I had a thought. "You know Sam, how am I going to use those when I, uh...., well, when I've got my mermaid tail? I can't wear shorts, I mean panties, then."

Sam came out of the closet wearing a dress and carrying her shoes, looking thoughtful. "Hmmm......, that'll be a problem, won't it?" She paused a moment then said, "Well then, get some tampons at the store, too. They should work with your tail." She set the shoes on the bed and came over to me and turned around. "Zip me up, would you, Terri?" I pulled her zipper up, again conscious of the fact that we were now the exact same height.

I finished dressing and then looked at the result in the mirror. The sweatpants were a little more snug than the ones I used to wear as a man, and the way they hugged my butt and legs, and the smooth fit in the crotch left little doubt as to my sex. The matching top was not quite so close-fitting, but the outline of my breasts was obvious under the thick fabric and, even though I was wearing a bra, I could just make out the faint impression of my nipples.

Sam looked me over and pronounced my appearance as acceptable. "Just go run a brush through your hair, Terri, and I'll get you some shoes." She disappeared into the closet.

In front of the bathroom mirror, I tried to brush my hair into some kind of order. Compared to my long, silvery-blond mermaid hair, I thought Sam's short hair-cut would be a snap to take care of, but no matter what I did it just didn't look the same as hers. She came in to see what I was doing and with a few expert passes of the brush, had everything under control. Before I knew what she was doing, she picked up a can and applied a little hair spray to my head. "Just a touch to keep it this way." She said, spraying some on her own blond hair. "You just need a little practice, honey." She assured me, checking her makeup in the mirror, asking if I wanted to try a little lipstick or anything.

"No thanks." I said, emphatically. "I'll go just like this."

I put on my shoes, or rather, Sam's shoes, a pair of white running ones. "You want any breakfast, Sam?" I asked.

"No thanks." She replied, entering the bedroom. "I'm not really hungry this morning, I'll get something at work later, maybe." She was carrying her purse and a second one as well. "Here, honey. You'll need something to carry your license, credit cards and money in, uh....., and your sanitary pads too, when you need them."

"Oh, yeah, right." I took the purse. "I guess I can't get away with just a wallet in my back pocket, can I?" I ran my hand over the seat of my sweatpants, emphasizing the lack of pockets.

Sam was in a hurry to get to work, so I placed my new license and a few other things I thought I might need into the purse. Sam came up behind me carrying her briefcase and purse, obviously ready to go. "If you go to the store today, stop somewhere and get yourself a wallet, so you won't have to carry everything loose in there, it keeps it all organized."

"I'll back the car out." I said, and headed off to the garage, self consciously holding the purse. Sitting in the driveway, waiting for Sam to get in, I noticed how much lower I sat in the car now. Always before, when I drove Sam's car I had to adjust the mirrors to accommodate my greater height, but now since I was her twin, that was no longer necessary.

On the way to Sam's company, she asked if I was comfortable driving, what with not having done so in a couple of weeks and now doing it in a different body. I told her I was all right except for not being used to sitting so low, and that the next car we bought would have electric seats that I could adjust up and down. "Hopefully, before then," Sam replied, "You'll have your old body back and we won't have to worry about it."

"I hope so too." I said, wondering in the back of my mind, why that thought and wish hadn't come to me first.

When we arrived at Samantha's office, out of habit, I leaned over to kiss her goodbye. She started to lean towards me, and then, at the same time, we both seemed to realized that, at least for a while, we shouldn't display that kind of affection in public anymore. Two women, even twin sisters didn't usually kiss each other on the lips. "Call and tell me what time to pick you up." I said to her, as she got out with her briefcase and purse.

"Okay." She replied, and then with a little grin, "Try not to embarrass Bob too much with the perverted details of our sex life."

"I won't." I said, grinning back at her.

On the way home, I was stopped at a traffic light, and while waiting for the light to turn green, I looked to my left and noticed that the man driving the car sitting next to me was looking at me. As we made eye contact, he smiled at me, I quickly turned my head back and looked down into my lap. I felt embarrassed and I didn't know why. So somebody was looking at me, so what? OK, I knew why he was looking, he saw a good looking woman and he smiled at her, I had done the same thing myself.

As a man, even though I was happily married and had no intention of doing anything, sometimes a pretty girl was just pleasant to look at. But, did all women react to being looked at the way I just had? Was it just that I was new to this game and didn't know the rules yet? I tried to remember how many women I had smiled at in my life and how many had ever returned that smile. Some had, so it couldn't be the worst thing in the world to be looked at. I knew Sam was a very attractive woman, and I was sure that she must have been given the eye many times in her life, but she never complained about it.

I also knew for sure, that women sometimes looked at attractive men with more than just casual interest and I wondered if any had ever done so to me, when I had been male. I hadn't been exactly a movie star, but I didn't think I was all that bad looking as a man, so some woman, somewhere, must have glanced in my direction and had, perhaps, wondered what it would be like to make love to me. The thought of a woman pondering that about me not only didn't bother me, it was kind of flattering. So why, since I had become a woman, did I feel embarrassed to have a man obviously evaluating my appearance?

Looking down, I saw my breasts pushing out the front of my sweatshirt, and farther down, I could see the pale yellow of my pants and the way the seam down the front of them went straight down into my crotch, emphasizing the lack of any protruding organs. The evidence of my new sex was there for all to see, I couldn't really hide it if I was to go out in public, and I shouldn't be embarrassed about it.

I looked back to my left, intending to at least return the mans gaze, if not a smile, but the car was gone. Just then I heard a car horn, and looking up, I realized the light had changed and cars were moving. As I drove away from the light, the car that had been behind me, and honking at me, pulled out and around. As the driver, a large man with a cigar in his mouth, went by, I could see his look of disgust and through the open windows of our respective cars, I could just barely hear, and saw his lips mouth the epithet, 'Goddamn woman driver'!

When I had been a man, such a display of anger towards me would have brought a like response. I probably would have blown the horn on my car and yelled back at him to at least let him know that I was just as annoyed. But now, I didn't feel that at all. In fact, I found my self exclaiming, "I'm sorry!", to his disappearing back bumper, as though he could actually hear me, and slowing my rate of acceleration to let him pull away from me. Sam was right, I had become more passive, and the surprising thing was, I didn't feel bad about it at all. It just seemed the right thing to do.

Arriving at home, I left the car in the driveway and had a little bowl of cereal for some breakfast. Not being sure of when Bob would call, I pulled off my sweat pants and underwear, and sat on the couch in the living room. I changed back to mermaid form, not only because it would allow me more time with legs later in the day, but also because I just felt more normal that way. I spent a little time worrying about that and then rationalized that it probably had something to do with the magic spell that had given me my tail. Kathy had mentioned that being a mermaid was now normal for me and that being human was just a modification forced upon that normal form.

I sat and watched television, idly flipping through the channels, unable to become interested in any of the programs and wishing that I had bought a newspaper to read. After a while, I took off my bra in order to feel even more comfortable, and sat there wearing only the pale yellow sweatshirt. I eventually found myself watching some nature show on an educational channel, about life around a coral reef somewhere in the South Pacific ocean. I normally didn't watch shows like that, but I became more and more engrossed, wishing that I had some way to get to that place so I could swim free, in my mermaid body, among the all the beautifully colored fish and coral. That magical body of mine, half-fish and half-woman, felt good on land, but in the water, as I had found at the lake with Linda, it was not only better, it felt much better.

I was suddenly startled by the sound of the doorbell. I quickly reacquired my legs and pulled on the sweatpants. Before I opened the door, I looked out the window to see Linda standing there. I let her in, wondering why she was up and out so early.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Just thought I'd come over and give you some company." She answered. "And, remember yesterday, I told you I'd come over and help you out with a quickie course, 'Being Female 101'."

"Oh yeah, I forgot." I wasn't sure I was going to need any lessons, but I was glad for the company.

We sat on the couch and talked. She commented on how well I seemed to have mastered taking care of my hair, and I admitted that Sam had more to do with how it looked than I did. I showed her the television show I was watching and told her how much I would like to be able to swim in a place like that sometime. I then mentioned how my mermaid form seemed to feel more normal to me than human legs.

"Well, be my guest." Linda said, pointing to my legs. "I sure don't mind the sight of your tail, and if it's more comfortable for you, I'm sure not going to complain."

Feeling a little bit self-conscious, I slipped off my pants, noticing Linda's raised eyebrow as she saw I wasn't wearing any underwear. "Sorry about that." I said to her. "When you rang the bell, I was sitting here, with my tail, and I was in such a hurry to answer the door, I just didn't bother with underpants."

"You don't have to be sorry." She said. "Remember, I told you that I don't always wear underwear, sometimes it's just more comfortable to go without." Then, with a sly smile she added, "And, every so often, I like the way it feels to wear a skirt and know that I'm naked underneath, it makes me feel just a little bit wicked."

"Jeez, don't say stuff like that, Linda. You make me nervous." I sat back down on the couch, concentrated, and in only a moment, there was the familiar feel of scales under my fingers where they rested on my tail. "Anyway, I don't want to feel wicked, I'm embarrassed enough as it is, having to wear women's clothes." I said in my slightly different mermaid voice.

"Okay, okay." She said. "I'm just having a little fun with you, and you shouldn't feel embarrassed, you look perfectly normal, well......, at least you look normal when you've got Sam's body. To be honest, though, I prefer you as you are now."

"I know you do." I said. "But you don't have to live like this, always worrying that somebody's going to see you, dragging yourself along the floor to go to the bathroom......."

Linda broke in, "You don't have to do that anymore, do you? Kathy's spell modification took care of that didn't it?"

"Yeah, for the most part." I replied. "But, you know what my biggest worry is now, though? I'm afraid I'm starting to actually like this, at least a little." I tried to explain to her my feelings, about how good these bodies, both of them, were starting to feel, how good the sex was, even how comfortable it felt to wear a skirt. "Sam's not worried." I told her. "She thinks everything will be fine, as soon as I get my old body back. I don't know, maybe she's right, maybe it's just the hormones, but I feel like I'm losing the real me and I just can't help thinking that I'll never be the same again. As good as some of this feels, I also remember liking the way I was, and that's who Sam wants back, not this." I ran my hands up and down my tail, on what used to be my thighs, and moved my tail fin up and down.

I shook my head, aware of my long hair hanging down my back. "God, why did this have to happen to me? That little girl, and that sister of Kathy, why couldn't they have picked somebody in their own family to practice witchcraft on?" I paused for a second. "The only good thing is, I'm sure glad that she didn't do it to Sam, I wouldn't wish this on anybody else."

"She could have done it to any of us in the van that day. It could have happened to Bob." Linda said, quietly. I looked and saw kind of a dreamy expression on her face. "I don't think he would have been happy with it, but........, I wouldn't have minded too much. Or...., it might have been me, with a mermaid tail." She didn't say anything then, she just sat and looked very thoughtful.

"Uh...., yeah, sure." I answered, not quite knowing how to respond to that. "You just might not be so enthusiastic about it if you were in my shoes." I looked at my tail. "Or, rather, if you or Bob were in my fins."

She didn't answer, she just kept staring at my tail fin, which I was nervously tapping on the floor. Wanting to change the subject, I said, "Speaking of Bob, I'm waiting for him to call. He said something yesterday about going out to lunch, said he wants to talk about something."

Linda suddenly looked up and said, "What......, what was that ? Sorry, I was daydreaming."

"Bob said he wanted to talk to me today, at lunch. Didn't he mention it to you?"

"Uh....., no he didn't. Did he say what he wanted to talk about?" She looked a little flustered, which was unusual for Linda, she usually seemed to be so in control of herself.