A Blue Dress and Green Shoes

by MJ

  

Part II

  

Terri and Sue arrived home and hurried down to the laboratory. As yet there were no faxes in the inbox. Terri sighed, and sat down. "God, I wish I had a cigarette," she said. "But, I have to quit now." She thought for a moment, and said, "it's funny. As Terry I never smoked and never had the desire. I suppose now it's because I have a craving for nicotine, but you'd think my conscious brain wouldn't be interested. I guess it's one of those subconscious things, like how I don't have to think about putting on makeup or doing up my hair, or walking in heels, or all that stuff. Terri's subconscious is doing all of that for me, including wanting to smoke."

"This gets kind of confusing, figuring out whether you mean Terri with an 'i' or Terry with a 't'", laughed Sue. "I'd sure like a cigarette now too, but I won't smoke around you. That would be cruel!"

"I wonder who the father is?" Terri mused. "I wonder if it's someone I know back in my original universe?" As Terri spoke, the trans-universal fax machine chimed and a message dropped into the inbox. Terri picked it up and read aloud, "What do you mean, two weeks late, and I have to give up smoking?" Terri tapped out a response on the keyboard. It read, "Terry, you got some 'splainin' to do! I'm pregnant, that's why I/you have to quit smoking! Sue and I are on pins and needles, wondering who the father is!"

Terri placed the message in the outbox and sent it across the universal divide. For several minutes nothing happened, then a new message popped into existence.

"PREGNANT??!!??" it fairly shouted at Terri. "Are you sure?"

Terri sent back a message detailing the positive results from the home pregnancy test, and details about no period after being "here" for more than a month. Terry's response was quick in coming back.

"But I haven't been sexually active in months!" This message was followed almost immediately by another one. "Ooops," it said. "I may have to retract that. Remember Paul Abernathy? He came by for a visit just before we made the switch. We had a few drinks, got a bit drunk…and I guess we made love. I guess I had more to drink than I thought, if I didn't really remember that."

Terri read the message and looked confused. "Paul Abernathy? I don't know a Paul Abernathy. I know a Paula Abernathy, but Terri surely wouldn't have made love to her, let alone gotten pregnant!" Terri slapped her forehead. "What a dummy I am! What makes me think that everything about our common lives is the same except one of being male and the other female? Why couldn't Paula Abernathy be a man in this universe?"

"Who is Paul or Paula Abernathy, anyway?" asked Sue.

"Paula was a lab partner of mine in grad school. We were very…close, but ended up going our separate ways after getting our doctorates. I still see her now and then. Oh gawd," Terri said.

"What?"

"She visited ME just before the switch! And WE had a few drinks together, just for old time's sake…and I think WE made love too!" Terri wrote up a new message:

"Looks like we both got some 'splainin' to do! Paul Abernathy, I'm sure, is Paula Abernathy in my (now your) universe. And, now that I recollect it, she visited me at the same time her alter-self Paul visited you…and the same thing happened. Looks like I/you are going to be both a momma and maybe a poppa too!"

After several minutes a new fax popped into the inbox. "I've been upstairs browsing through your college yearbooks," it said. "I looked up Paula. Quite pretty…I approve of your taste in women! By the way, you aren't doing anything now in my body I wouldn't approve of, are you?"

Terri snorted. "I could ask the same thing of him!" she said.

"Have no fears," she wrote back. "Although I find myself just as attracted to pretty women as always, I've resisted all temptation, knowing that you in this body prefer men."

"Interesting," the return fax said. "I find myself, in this body, trying hard not to flirt with women. I never had that tendency before….your sex drive must be strong indeed to override my subconscious! Well now. Your pregnancy puts a whole new wrinkle on things. Even if we could figure out how to switch our minds back into the original bodies, we might not be able to. We have to think of the baby, and if the switch would cause any harm."

"My thoughts exactly," wrote back Terri. "I am here for the duration, it seems. Well, I guess I have to give Paul Abernathy a call. I expect you'll be hearing from Paula soon. We may have to bring another one into the secret, too, but let's hold off on that for now."

With that, Terri and Terry closed off communication for the time being. "God, I wish I had a cigarette!" said Terri.

 

Terri slowly began to grow until her pregnancy was obvious even to Mrs. Johnson across the street. Surprisingly, nobody seemed particularly surprised or even upset, including Terri's parents. There was a bit of disappointment on their part, perhaps, but also an acknowledgement that the world had changed and a pregnant adult female, well past the age of consent, was liable to have sex when she wanted to and was also old enough to take responsibility for her actions. They both wholeheartedly approved of her decision to keep the baby and were looking forward to being (finally!) grandparents. Paul Abernathy was another thing entirely. When Terri called him to explain the mind transfer, his scientific mind immediately grasped the implications and he was quite excited. When Terri told him of the results of their slightly drunken interlude, he was less enthusiastic. "My God!" he said. "I, I…I made love to a man?"

"No, you idiot, you made love to a woman. Not even a woman with a man's mind trapped in the body. You made love to Terri long before Terry's mind switched places. But things are different now, and we have to decide what we are going to do about it. I have to be honest—I am quite attracted to your alter ego in my universe, and would seriously consider exploring the possibility of a familial relationship. Alas, in this universe I am STILL attracted to women, even if I'm in a woman's body. We could get married, for appearance's sake, but I have to tell you that lovemaking will be quite out of the question, unless at some point hormones overcome male thought patterns."

"I'm sorry, Terri. As attractive as you still are (even with that little pregnant tummy) to my eyes, I can't help realizing that you are a man inside. Even a marriage for appearances would be hard for me to handle. I will, of course, support you in any way I can, but I won't marry you."

And with that, Paul Abernathy was essentially out of Terri's life. In the other universe, Terry wasn't having the same problems. Paula Abernathy, it turned out, was NOT pregnant. She too found the mind transfer quite interesting, and also found herself strangely affected, as she had quite an attraction for Terry but had a hard time reconciling a female mind in the male body, even if that male body was quite interested in Paula's female body. The relationship remained friendly, and Paula and Terry did much theorizing together about the causes of the mind transfer, possible uses, and possible means of switching back. No real progress was made, however, on the reverse transfer, and at any rate all concerned were worried about the effect on the baby.

During the next eight months, Terri and Sue grew ever closer as twin sisters. Sue helped Terri shop for maternity clothes, helped her research natural childbirth and breast feeding, and offered to be there at the big event for moral and spiritual support. Mrs. Johnson was ecstatic at the thought of a little child in the neighborhood and offered endless, well-meant advice on parenting. She, of course, was totally clueless on the mind transfer. Sue and Terri had only told Paul Abernathy. They were planning to tell their parents but had not yet worked up the courage or figured out just how to say it.

Terri found pregnancy to be an exhilarating experience. The daily changes in her body were fascinating, and not just from a scientific perspective. The mood changes caused by the hormonal changes were mostly positive, and she had that certain glow that some pregnant women get that made her positively beautiful. In a departure from what she ever would have thought she could do, she posed for a series of tasteful nude photographs throughout the pregnancy. She wanted every beautiful moment documented.

Finally the blessed day arrived. Terri had arranged for a home delivery, so that she could keep in touch with the alternate universe's Terry, Sue, and Paula. By this time they had figured out a way to send video messages as well as fax messages, and Terry, Sue, and Paula were able to watch, although not hear, what was going on. This was all discretely hidden from the doctor, who probably wondered why the birth was taking place in a laboratory and not a bedroom, but wisely kept her peace.

The labor, like the rest of the pregnancy, went very smoothly. Terri experienced a fair amount of pain, but the experience was very intense, the most intense she had ever felt. It was exhausting and exhilarating and above all beautiful and deeply satisfying. When it was over, she held a beautiful baby girl to her breast, and experienced more joy as little Danielle suckled her. And with that burst of joy, Terry felt that peculiar tingle, and suddenly found himself standing beside Sue and Paula, looking on through the trans-universal viewing screen, as Terri nursed her beautiful baby girl.

  

  

  

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