Julie Crenshaw sat at the kitchen table. Dim lights. Blurry faces. Blurry voices droning out the song.

All that was in focus was a big birthday cake, candles burning merrily on the top, sliding in place in front of her.

In slow motion a deep voice called out, as if from far away, “Mmmmmaaaakeee aaaaa wwwwwiiiiiissssshhhhhhh...”

The candles grew brighter. And brighter.

And even brighter...

Julie startled, fully awake. There was no cake. No candles. The bright light was the sun.

And the sun felt good.

No, it felt really good.

*REALLY GOOD*

Her breath caught as the view turned. The sun was now way off to her left, where she could no longer feel its rays. Except ... she still felt really good.

She struggled to focus. But she’d never felt anything like this before. And the ‘good’ feeling was ... WOW!

It was ... it was ... it was between her legs?

She forced her eyes to actually see what was in front of her. She could see a little of her nose and cheeks and chin ... wearing rather more makeup than she normally used. Huh...

Ignore the WOW and keep looking, she chided herself. A little farther, and she could see the white button-up blouse she was wearing. Fancy. But ... wait ... she must have been wearing a padded bra, because it looked like she was at least two cup sizes bigger than she actually was.

No, focus. Fo! Cus!

She looked past the strangely larger chest, and saw a knee-length skirt. Dark blue. Quite modest. The sort of thing she’d seen teachers wear before.

The strange part was that the top of it was down a couple inches below her actual knees, leaving her thighs completely bare.

Smooth pale skin, except for a swatch of darker and hairy-er skin that crossed it.

Skin that was moving...?

Wait! That was an arm!

An arm reaching over from her left, and crossing her naked thighs!

Why was...? Oh.

Oh no.

She followed the path, and saw the hand buried in the middle of where the WOW was coming from. As her church youth group put it, touching her ‘sacred garden’.

Julie tried to tell whoever was doing this, “No. I am saving myself for that special someone, on my wedding night.” Just like the youth pastor had taught.

But all that emerged from her mouth was, “Nnnnn ... Ohhhhhhh...” And even to her innocent brain, that sounded more like ‘keep going’ than ‘stop please’.

“Ooh, sounds like you’re ready for another one!” came an unfamiliar voice to her left. Julie tried to figure out if she had the energy or ability to look that way. But a more pressing matter caught her limited attention.

Namely the matter of this stranger pressing his fingers inside of her crease. In between... plowing her sacred garden. It felt ... Beyond WOW!

Maybe it was just the fact that someone other than her was touching it, but everything felt thicker. And more full. Or ... ripe ... or...

She gasped! His fingers had rubbed over her most sensitive spot. The ‘heart’ of the sacred garden. One of the two places she’d been told to protect the hardest.

And then he did it again. And again. And— and— oooOOOoOOOoo...

What little grasp of intelligent thought flickered, as he caught into a rhythm that was just ... PERFECT!

And then his thumb was flicking the spot, as his other fingers slid lower. To ... OOOOHHHHHH ... the other spot to protect. Her ‘godly cave’ that...

Oh wow! OH WOW!! *OOHHH WWWOOOWWW!!!!*

He’d ... slid his fingers inside her: One. Two. Three! Easy peasy. Like her body had done this before.

Like it knew all the steps to the song, and was just humming along until it could remember the words. Or something ... it felt too good to really think right now.

And the WOW kept building and building and building ... She could feel an edge in front of it, one that she was rapidly approaching, but one she had no idea what was beyond.

She could hear herself now. Little gasps and tiny moans, slipping from her lips without any effort at all. Her hips were twitching, flexing faster and faster, keeping time with the stranger’s movements. As if trying to make him move even faster, even harder, even deeper inside of her.

And then that cliff was there. No warning, no notice. Just one second there was buildup, and the next?”

“Yuh ... yuh ... yuh ... y-y-y-*YYYEESSSSSS!!!!!!*” she was screaming, and wave after wave of pure ecstasy flooded her body.

For a second she thought she saw the bright light of candles again, but it turned out to just be the sun again. They’d turned, and were now sitting still while she caught her breath.

In a ... car. Yes, a car. The words came back to her ... although the reason why she’d gone from her birthday party to sitting in a car with a stranger who had been touching her? That was still eluding her.

“Right on time, Jules,” said the stranger’s voice. And this time Julie felt like she had enough energy to turn and look at him.

She felt herself pale. He was ... old. Like, maybe ... almost ... forty!!!!

She felt herself get a little sick at the thought of some old creep touching herself that way ... but another part of her was cataloguing how attractive the old man was.

Tall, broad shoulders, a distinguished speckle of grey across his temples...

Wait. ‘Distinguished’? Where did that word come from?

He reached over and rested his hand on her leg; something both comforting and mortifying (as she was still completely exposed from knees to navel). “Jules? You there? Or did that last orgasm erase your memories again?”

“W-w-what?” Julie finally gasped out.

The man squinted a bit, as if searching for something in her expression. Something he didn’t find. “Well, shit,” he cursed. “A fucking third time?”

“L-language,” Julie stammered out.

He rolled his eyes at her chiding. “Listen, whatever you think is going on? Look in the mirror and guess again.” He waved at the car’s sun visor, and then sat back and ignored her.

With a trembling hand, she reached up and flipped down the little makeup mirror. Then boldly stared at the person in it.

Staring back at her was ... her. Distinctly Julie in every way. A bit more made up than the ‘natural’ look her mother allowed her to have. With a professional looking shorter hairstyle that wasn’t something she’d ever thought of doing, but didn’t look half bad on her.

And, the biggest thing.

The Julie in the mirror was at least twice her age. Maybe more.

Which was ... impossible.

She started to pat her cheeks. Maybe the heavy make up was actually some movie stuff that made her look older...

“You’re thirty-four,” the stranger chimed in.

“What?” Julie asked, unable to turn away from the mirror to look at him.

He drawled out, almost sounding bored, “Thirty-four. On your last birthday, a few months ago, that’s how old you turned. So you’re aware.”

She finally stopped examining herself and turned to look at him. “No,” she scoffed, shaking her head. “That’s impossible.”

“Well ... it’s unexpected, I’ll give it that.” He unbuckled himself, and leaned over so he was looking Julie right in the eyes. “Long story short? You accidentally took the wrong medicine. It had an interaction with the right medicine. And one of the side effects? For the next few hours, your mind could’t ... find ... the connections to recent memories. Like, the past umpty-odd years recent.”

He tapped Julie in the middle of her forehead. “They’re still there, just ... inaccessible. Like they’re in a 7-11 vault with a time lock. When the medicine runs its course, or something manages to jog some loose, they’ll come back.”

Though it felt impossible, Julie’s eyes flicked over to glance back at her reflection in the mirror, and swallowed down her instinct to actually say that out loud.

“Anyways,” he said, after he saw Julie wasn’t going to respond, “we may want to head on inside. Driving down the freeway is one thing, since there’s not many options out there. But I don’t think you want to take care of the other side effects out here.”