I have a mind control gift. At least, I think it's a gift. Originally I thought it was a curse. The mind control is very limited in target and duration but it does have some long-term effects. Also, I'm not really in control. In fact, no one is in control. So is it really mind control? Confused? I'll try to explain.

My name is Charles, but just about everyone calls me Chuckie after a character in the 'Rugrats' cartoons. I hate that show. Everything was normal for me as a child. My parents are both lead researchers working together at a university-sponsored medical center. It's very lucrative so we're well off.

My sister is three years older than I am and we both lead a pretty comfortable existence.

Her name is Abigail. Things started to change when I entered puberty. I gradually became aware of a subtle yet distinct odor emitted by women and older girls. I waited for someone to mention the smell but no one did. At first, I thought it was menstrual blood that I smelled but that didn't correlate with anything I knew. Because of my parents' backgrounds, I was aware of sex and reproduction. Health class was old news for me.

I knew when my sister started her period because I overheard her mention it to my mom. I began to observe Abigail in the hope of solving the mystery. The odor lasted three days with it building up and trailing off around the middle of her cycle. This may be obvious but it took me a while to figure out my sister was sending out scent signals announcing to the world that she was ovulating. Just like a bitch dog in heat! I couldn't believe it. I searched the medical research sites on the computer for scent signals in human females. There is a lot of pheromone research going on but not any that's been scientifically accepted. This in itself would have been interesting but then I was distracted by something else.

I started getting horny. Not just a young and healthy pubescent male horniness. A lot hornier than that. My erections just would not go down when I was around that scent. It was okay at home. I could just retreat to my room. But at school? Impossible! There wasn't a day that went by that a group of coeds or female teachers weren't ovulating. Physical education was uncomfortable, especially during coed activities. I have an average sized erection but it soon became obvious to everyone the cause of my distress. The guys teased me and most of the girls just giggled. Masturbation was a temporary relief but gosh, how could I do that at school?

I started isolating myself as much as possible. I considered going to my parents but I was too embarrassed.

One evening I was home with Mom and Abigail. Both of them were in heat. The odor was really strong as, it seemed, both of their cycle coincided. I was heading upstairs when I began to detect another scent. It was thick and musky. It was coming from me! Oh no! I thought. Now I'm going to start smelling like an old man. A lump started forming in my throat and I thought I was going to start crying. I continued upstairs and passed Abigail in the hall. I know she smelled me because she gave me a really weird look. I ignored her, went into my room and closed the door. I flopped back on my bed. What next, I thought.

The door opened and Abigail walked in. The fact that she didn't knock or ask to come in pissed me off. Hell, I was already pissed off.

"Don't come in," I shouted. "Get out!"

Abigail ignored me. "I-I just want... " she seemed confused and continued toward me. When Abigail was about a meter away something made critical mass and exploded in our minds. We both knew what we had to do.

I can't honestly say our fuck was anything more than the most basic of animal couplings. Certainly no romance, passion or technique. My only desire was to come inside Abigail and fertilize her egg. I didn't know if Abigail had her come and frankly I didn't care. We came to our senses about the same time. Abigail jumped up, grabbed her clothes and hurried out of the room. I heard the bathroom door slam and the shower start.

I must have dozed for a bit because when I awoke I heard "... is in her room crying and won't say a word. Do you... ?"

I looked at my mom and I saw her eyes glaze over. I screamed in rage and reached out to push her away. Instead I found myself pulling my mother onto the bed with me. Far from resisting, Mom actually assisted me. In a matter of minutes I deposited a dose of sperm into my own mother's womb.

Instead of jumping up and leaving Mom slowly dressed as if in shock over what happened. She then started pacing up and down the room, obviously trying to reason things out in her mind. I continued to lie on the bed, resigned to my doom.

Finally I said, "I'm sorry Mom."

"Sorry? I'm the one who's sorry. I just can't understand what happened." She started wringing her hands. "I must be having a nervous breakdown."

"It wasn't your fault Mom."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm the adult here. Or at least I'm supposed to be."

"Please! Let me explain." Once I knew that my mom wasn't going to kill me right off, I had to get it off my chest.

My mom's puzzled look turned to interest soon after I started my story. Heck! She actually smiled a couple of times. About half way through my narrative she grabbed paper, pen and a tape recorder and had me start over. I obviously had piqued her scientific curiosity. Mom started asking me questions and scribbling notes madly. When Dad got home I had to start the story a third time. I didn't mind. I actually was getting a sympathetic hearing. I can't say my dad was happy when he heard about the incest, but even he got excited when he realized the scientific and research possibilities.

Mom finally remembered to go assure Abigail she wasn't crazy and to give her a capsule version of my story. I went to bed that night knowing that my life had changed but at least it hadn't ended.

Abigail and I stayed home from school that day. My dad went to the office and brought back a kit to take various samples from me; blood, urine, sweat, hair, saliva, anything they could think of. Mom took samples from herself and Abigail for a sensitive pregnancy test.

The next day was Saturday. We all sat down for a family conference. Dad announced that the pregnancy tests came back positive. Abigail and Mom didn't react at all. They'd already been through their angst. I think they both instinctively knew impregnation had occurred very soon after intercourse. Dad suggested a morning-after pill. That's when something else happened. Abigail started to go into a panic attack and Mom started getting dizzy. Dad and I jumped out of our chairs to help, but both Mom and Abigail already seemed to be recovering.

"I think," Mom said, "these babies have announced they want to be born."

Abigail nodded her agreement.

"Well, we won't discuss this anymore," said Dad. "Okay?"

This time, we all nodded agreement.

Mom and Dad spent the rest of the day in private arguing theories about what happened and, I think, discussing my future.

"We're pulling you out of school," Mom announced.

Wow! They were moving fast. It was only Sunday morning. Dad and Abigail had taken off so that Mom and I could talk in private.

"You're a walking time bomb," Mom added.

I nodded. I was glad the other night's incident hadn't occurred in public. That thought made me shudder.

"What about my education?"

"You'll be taught by a private teacher. A male teacher, I think. Also, I'll be staying home with you for a while."

"What about your work?"

"Oh, it'll continue. You've handed us a project that any number of researchers would sell their souls for. Your father will continue with his research to provide us with an income and facilities for our personal project. You and I are going to be working together to find out what happened."

"What did happen?"

"We don't know yet. Maybe we'll never know. Your father and I discussed many possibilities yesterday."

"What's your best guess?"

"Well, let's go back to early Man, not too long after he branched off from the ape line. He probably had the ability to smell the scent of fertile females, just like you can. Over the millennia, he eventually lost that ability. This was not necessarily a bad thing. When Man developed agriculture, family units were forming and with that, the concept of property. If a man could be reasonably assured that his female's child was the result of his own seed, he could pass the property to his heir without worrying whether the child was the product of a rival or even a stranger who caught his woman's scent when he wasn't around. From such simple beginnings civilizations developed.

Somehow, this long-dormant gene has been activated inside your DNA, allowing you to smell the scent of an ovulating female. This in turn activated another gene allowing you emit your own scent, attracting the ovulating female." I shook my head, not in disbelief, but in amazement.

"What about the other thing when you and Abigail got sick?"

Mom smiled. "I can only speak for myself right now. When I walked into your room and got near you, the reasoning processes in my brain short-circuited, so to speak, and everything else became instinct. My reasoning didn't return until insemination was completed. My hunch is that the episode imprinted itself on a non-reasoning, more primitive part of my brain. That part of my brain equates the survival of the child growing inside me with its own survival. Any other possible explanation borders on the supernatural which scientists reject out of hand since it's something that can't be reproduced under laboratory conditions. So there you are. You're the walking, talking Holy Grail of pheromone research. No woman of child-bearing age can resist you."

I grinned at the thought. "I guess there must be some downside."

"Oh, sure." Mom was sober now. "Because of the uncontrollable nature of the phenomenon, I can see you in jail for sexual assault, dead or severely injured from an outraged husband, suffering from a sexually transmitted disease or merely kidnapped and used as a guinea pig for government or corporate interests. I'm sure I can think of other possibilities but none of them good."

Shit! I thought. I was scared again.

"What happens when I'm an adult?"

"Well, you can become a hermit, join a monastery or continue to work with us to isolate the gene and understand the phenomenon."

"The first two choices don't sound like me," I said. "How long to isolate the gene?"

"There's no telling. Usually we'd compare your DNA with others of the same condition. Since you're the only person in the world with this condition that we know of, there's no one to compare you with."

"You can't clone me, can you?"

"Well, technically we can but all that we'd be getting is a copy of the DNA we already have."

"Then how?"

"We'll need to examine the DNA of your children."

"Will two samples be enough?" I began to get hopeful.

"No. We'll need hundreds. Perhaps thousands."

"What?" I was stunned. This was impossible. "How are we going to have a thousand children. There's only you and Abigail."

"No, there are a thousand potential mothers just in this city alone."

"There are? How do we get them to volunteer?"

I could tell my mom was getting annoyed with my failure to comprehend. Slowly and precisely she said, "We don't ask for volunteers. You use your little gift to assure proper mating behavior."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?"

"Of course!" Mom responded. "It's also illegal, unethical and immoral. This is why we have to keep this a secret from everybody. Your father and I believe the experiment is worth the risk for the data we need. Don't worry. We'll take care of everything. You'll have to trust us. You'll be making a great contribution to science and perhaps have a lot of fun in the bargain."

"I trust you both, Mom. I just can't say it's been fun yet."

"Of course, it hasn't. It was stupid of me to say that. I'll try to make it up to you."

"How's that?" I asked.

Mom started blushing and acting shy before answering. "There's another side effect I must mention. I get sexually aroused just being around you."

"What!" Another bombshell!

"Let me finish, please." I knew this was difficult for Mom so I tried to keep my mouth shut even though I was bursting with even more questions to ask.

"I believe this must be a side effect because your sister is being affected the same way. I meant to keep this part away from you. We're sending Abigail to a private school to complete her education and have her baby in private. She's having a difficult time trying to deal with her feelings for you. I thought I could work with you and keep you at arm's length at the same time. I guess I'm no stronger than your sister.

"You now know the power you have over women in general and me in particular. Perhaps this isn't even the full extent of your powers. You're young and still maturing. By the way, your father is aware of the situation. We don't keep anything from each other. I love your father and I still want to share his bed but it's you I want sexually. I'll always be available. I know the arguments against it, the incest and our age difference. I'll understand if you feel repelled by my throwing myself at you."