Hey all,
Today’s the day for The Weekly Fix. Every Thursday, I’ll add a new scene or chapter of a free story, until the whole thing is here on the blog – and then I’ll add it to its own page on the site. It’s a great way for you to test drive my writing, for free!
Here’s part three of the second story today – a four-part short story I wrote about a man who wakes up in s strange place. It’s called “Re-Life”. Hope you like it!
Part One | Part Two | Part Three
He lay down for a short nap, exhausted by the strangeness of the city, and was immediately asleep. He wasn’t sure it it was the remnants of the re-life process or just the overwhelming strangeness of the city. But he slept like a log.
When his eyes flickered open, he looked around at the virtual forest surrounding him. For just a minute, he forgot that it wasn’t real, and thought he was camping in woods, like he used to do with his father at Big Basin Redwoods state park, just south of San Francisco. He longed to talk with his father, to tell him how beautiful these woods were at night. To say many other things he’d never had a chance to say.
As he lay there listening to the solitary wind, looking up at the pinprick stars, a line of golden light split the firmament. “You have an appointment with Jozy in half an hour,” Simon said, destroying the illusion, as the line rotated and widened into a picture of the receptionist.
He sighed and got up out of bed. He wasn’t sure he was ready for modern society, but he had to dive in some time. Better to do it with a willing tour guide. The bed melted into the floor behind him.
He called up the shower, thanking the clinic for all the lessons they’d given him on Safris hygiene. He stripped off his used clothes. “Simon?” he said, looking around.
“Yes, Eric?”
“Where’s the hamper?”
There was a pause. “There is no ‘hamper’,” Simon said at last, pronouncing the word as if it were a brand new thing. “Just set your clothes here” and a spot in the corner lit up, “and they will be absorbed for recycling.”
He did as he was told, and then stepped into the ionic stream, feeling the tingle as his body was dry-washed clean. A moment later, he stepped away, and the shower head vanished up into the trees. Enough of this self-deception. “White walls, please.” The forest faded first to grey, then white. “Can I have a mirror, Simon?”
“Yes Sir, but if you’d like, I can provide a virtual Eric for you to look over.”
Eric laughed. “Had that request before, huh?”
“You re-lifes are nothing if not predictable.”
Eric smiled at the dry humor. A full-sized version of his naked body appeared in the middle of the room. He walked around it, admiring the work the re-life clinic had done. It was his face, reimagined to perfection.
They’d augmented his basic gene set, and his new body was a virtual work of art. It was strange, but he kind of missed his old, less-than-perfect body. The mole on his left arm that looked like a little Mickey Mouse. The occasional ache in his ankle where he’d broken it playing soccer as a child. Even his chipped front tooth.
Now he was perfect, or at least as perfect as the clinic had been able to make him.
The technology to bring him and others like him back had been in existence for some time, but the Clinic budget was limited. It was a historical, cultural project to bring those popr frozen souls like him into modern society. He was a walking museum piece, from his washboard abs and beautiful pecs to his perfect ass.
He took a much closer look at that beautifully rounded ass, a view he’d never enjoyed before. He would have been a God in his own time. And his cock…
He grinned. He was looking forward to trying out that part of his new anatomy.
“Simon, I need something to wear,” he told the room assistant. “Something that won’t break my budget.”
A rack of virtual clothing appeared in front of him in the middle of the room.
He laughed. “So that’s how it works.” He flipped through them until he found something suitable – a black tight-fitting top and slacks he never would have dared to wear with his old body.
While he waited, he ordered a snack. He was starving, but didn’t want to ruin his appetite, in case Jozy had something planned. From a niche in the wall, he pulled out his meal – Simon’s best approximation of a burger and fries. It left something to be desired.
In five minutes, his clothing selections appeared in the same niche, tailored to his size and neatly folded. He put them on, wondering how he would get Jozy to take him to the 26th century equivalent of the gay bar.
He pulled out the photo of David again, staring at that familiar face. He willed his partner to reappear, but nothing happened.
“Your guest is here,” Simon said. Why did he sound mischievous?
He slipped the photo into a pocket. “Let her in.” He’d break it to her gently that she wasn’t quite his type.
The wall opened to reveal a stunningly gorgeous man waiting there for him. He was tall, well proportioned, with black hair, strong cheekbones, and piercingly green eyes. “Can I come in?” His voice was deep and strong. He looked familiar. Which in itself was strange.
“And you are?” Who the hell was this? Had Jozy ordered him a hooker?
“You invited me,” the man said.
His beautiful face and natural charm were doing a number on Eric’s mental faculties, and he was having trouble thinking straight. “I did?” he said, stepping back, but the man caught the edge of his shirt and pulled him forward. His lips met Eric’s, and Eric’s body responded. Hard.
“Wait…” he said, his twenty first century fears kicking in. They didn’t even know each other.
Not that it had stopped him before.
The man let him go.
They stared at each other for a moment, something electric passing between them, and Eric‘s need rose inside him. They said you didn’t dream in suspension, but when he’d been re-lifed, he had felt the weight of all that time without release as if he had lived every year. It’s been so long…
He made up his mind and pulled in the stranger to kiss him back, hard. “Simon, bed,” he grunted, and it rose up out of the floor just in time for them to fall onto it.
The man followed him down, stripping off his clothes to reveal a stunning, hard body that was a match for his own. It was Eric’s twenty first century dream, come true.
He slipped off his shirt and used his hands and tongue to start to explore the man’s body. The stranger smelled beautifully male – just a hint of that musk that drove Eric wild, and the stubble on his chin as it rubbed against his cheek sent him into heaven. His cock swelled in appreciation, and he ground it against the man’s stomach. All reason dissolved, and he fell into a state of pure sexual being.
Soon the man was inside him, thrusting powerfully, grunting. A small part of Eric’s brain worried about STDs. But the counselor had told him that the diseases he’d worried about in his own time – herpes, HIV, the clap – had all been eradicated.
Those concerns were washed away on a wave of intensifying sexual pleasure. Eric loved how this man had taken charge of him and had made him his own. his body responded accordingly, low moans slipping out of his mouth as their friction carried him higher and higher, until at last the wave crashed.
Eric he sighed deeply, his body shivering in ecstatic spasms.
Too long. Too long without sex. Too long without affection. he closed his eyes and imagined for a moment that it was David in bed with him.
The man lay on top of him, and they stayed there together like that for a little while. It was quiet, safe, peaceful. For the first time since his re-lifing, he didn’t feel stressed and alone.
Finally the stranger rolled off of him, and they lay side by side, drinking in the sight of one another.
“Who are you?” he asked at last, in wonder, caressing the stranger’s cheek with his hand.
The man laughed. “I’m Jozy. We met this afternoon, remember?”
What the hell? Eric pushed himself away.“But you’re a… you were a…”
“What, a girl?” He laughed. “You don’t like girls. I read your file.”
Eric’s mouth dropped open. “But you’re not a girl anymore.”
Jozy nodded, grinning. “You’re quick. But I still like boys. That hasn’t changed.”
Eric sat up, turning his back to his visitor. “I’m not sure I’m ready for all of this. People can’t just change their sex whenever they feel like it.”
Jozy stuck her… his tongue out at him. “Actually, we can.”
Eric turned back to face him. “What I mean is, I’m not sure I can accept that. You were a girl this afternoon…”
“And now I’m a boy. So?”
He sighed. “Jozy, how old are you?”
“Let’s see – technically, I’m about seventy years old now.”
And yet you look like you’re twenty. I’m so out of my depth here. “I don’t think I’m ready for all this.”
Jozy put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry – I know you re-lifes are less flexible than the rest of us. But I knew you could handle it.” He laughed. “It was fun to see that look in your eyes… the one you didn’t give me when I was a girl.
“Not so fun for me.”
“I’ll get dressed now.” Jozy stood to gather his clothing, and Eric couldn’t help but admire his beautiful male form in spite of himself. “Unless you want to do that again?” He shot Eric a coy look.
Eric shook his head. “No, not right now.” Although it had been fucking amazing.
Jozy looked a little hurt.
“I mean, it was great. It really was,” he said, reassuringly. “It’s not you. It’s me.” he cringed inside for using such a clichéd line. “I just need to sort things out. Hey, is there somewhere we can go, away from the city?”
Jozy grinned. “I know just the place.”