Chapter 1

Timeline – 2059 June 9, Wednesday

After the “Accident of 2029”, most social, and some related moral, rules, or norms, changed dramatically. With the advent of the birth defects, or effects, as most would say, involving the alteration of sexual orientation, physically and emotionally, things pretty much had to change. If not, there would have been one hell of a lot of unhappy and very lonely people out in the world.

Over the years, people continued to mate, and have children. Once the kids reached the age of puberty the differences were more than obvious. Boys were still stronger and faster, becoming men as adults. Girls were still softer and prettier and became women as the world has always known. Hermies were softer and prettier and had a little extra downstairs, and Tirls were softer and cuter and incapable of doing much more than making other people happy.

Tirls were the hardest hit, the most put out, the most affected, by the genetic changes brought about by the accident. They were robbed of any capability of reproduction. They had no spermatozoa in their semen, no testicles to provide testosterone, and only the prostate to help provide them the ability achieve any sexual pleasure at all. Many in the genetic research science fields thought that after several hundred years, they would probably become extinct as the offspring of the women, and the Hermies capable of bearing children, would more and more produce children more similar to pre-accident human forms with the standard genetic chromosomal markers, namely pure men, XY, or pure women, XX.

Hermies were normally able to carry children to term, most of their offspring being normal males and females, occasionally being born Hermies, and even less often being born as Tirls. Traditional genetically constructed women, for the most part, gave birth to almost the same ratio, mostly traditional, some Hermies, and a few Tirls here and there.

Hermies were not true Hermaphrodites, in that they did not possess a normal, full-sized penis, but had a small penis capable of equally small erections and passing semen on ejaculation, but not sperm, much like the Tirls did. Average penis sizes ranged from one to two inches flaccid, and two to three inches erect, normally less than an inch in diameter. They did however have fully functioning female reproductive organs as mentioned previously.

Just like in the good old days, though, the only providers of the sperm able to create life were the men. There were men who had been altered, and men who had somehow been passed over and not been altered, or affected, by The Accident. Being one of those unaffected, and thirty-five years old, living through the accident at the age of five, and like about two hundred thousand other men, worldwide, protected somehow from the effects of the accident, I was able to provide XX and XY chromosome pairing only. My chances of successfully inseminating eggs in women or Hermies, either one, creating a traditional child, was about ninety-nine-point-nine percent. There was still the possibility, one that scientists could not ascertain or predict, that copulating with a Hermie could, or a better term would be ‘might’, create a Hermie or a Tirl. In this case, it was more often a Tirl, but the numbers were fairly minute, at less than tenth of a percentile.

Oh, as I was saying ... Being one of those normal men, I was, under the new rules, able to have more than one spouse, or mate, legally. It was even recommended. Only women or hermies were considered to be spousal material or counted as mates for those legal purposes. Tirls were treated more like pets, a fact that drove me nuts and made me ill at times, but I was only one man and couldn’t do much about the rest of the world’s failings. One could keep as many Tirls as they wished, with no moral or legal consequence, unless they were neglected or abused. See? Just like pets.

Thankfully, I could provide a good home for whoever I was with, and however many I chose to maintain, having been born into a very wealthy family. My great grandfather was on the ground floor of the solid-state electronics industry, my grandfather in computers, my father in advanced optics, and me, taking over from them, I was keeping all those genres together and working on some experimental matter transport methods. I’ve killed two rats and a rabbit so far, but I have also moved one rat and one rabbit across a relatively small distance without the use of physical transport. Think, ‘Beam me over there, Scotty’, and you’ll be close.

I hadn’t been looking to settle down anytime soon, but I did have a couple of girlfriends and thought that might change at some point. Amy, a woman of means, if you will, has been my girlfriend since we were in grammar school. Always off and on, we were friends with benefits, but she traveled a lot, and I was always working too much. We never parted on purpose, and never broke up. I’d spend the night at her place, or she’d spend a weekend at my house. It was convenient. We just spent a lot of time together and then a lot of time apart. That had been going on for about twelve years when I finally decided I might want to ask her to stop running around.

“Amy,” I said, holding her in my arms in the hot tub, “what would you do if I asked you to marry me and give up that sales job? You could come to work for me instead.” She looked at me with a doubtful smirk. “I’ll give you a raise. How much are you making now?”

“Well over two hundred, but I don’t try very hard, really, since I don’t have to. Charlie, I need to let you know something up front. There’s something I need to tell you.”

I must have gotten a terribly fearful look on my face.

“Stop. It’s not bad. I’ll never take another man, Charlie. I do love you. I think I always have, and I know I always will. We’ve just ... We’ve always moved around too much and have been too busy, or at least way too occupied, to settle down. I’m going to consider your offer.”

“What is it you need to tell me?”

“I met a Tirl in San Diego a few months ago. She’s a doll. You’d love her if you met her. I’m trying to arrange for her to come live with me, but you need to know that, just in case. Does that cause you a problem, Charlie?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think you could be completely monogamous anyway, could you?”

“Yes! Definitely, as far as men go, anyway. Like I said, you are it, but you’re right. I’m not a one girl girl. I be lovin’ me some cuddles and such when you’re not around. That one time out here with Wendy was pretty hot, though, and you WERE around. Do you think you can let me play around like that? Seriously?”

“Kind of depends. Wendy was here with both of us. Is that still OK with you? Us sharing? If that kind of thing happens with either or both of us?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m more than OK with it. Is that what you wanted to hear?” I nodded. “Wendy was a doll, too. Maybe you can get her out here again someday.” She giggled when I gave her one of those shit eating grins. “OK, then, we’ve set some ground rules. Are you going to ask?”

“Ask what?”

“Good God, Charlie, you just asked me what I’d do if you asked me to marry you? If you don’t ask me, you’ll never find out.” She started giggling and buried her head in my neck. When she started rubbing my chest, spending time with her fingers on my nipple, I got it.

“Amelia Canton, will you marry me?”

“Yes. I will most certainly marry you, Charles Carswell. I most certainly will.” She kissed me soundly and made sure we played tonsil hockey for several minutes, getting me going, and in a pretty hot state of mind, as well as body. “My mother is going to be so happy.”

“Your mother? Why’s that, Amy?”

“I keep talking about you and telling her I wish you’d ask me to marry you. I can stop bugging her now.”

I started laughing and hugged her to me as firmly as I could without breaking her. “What a mess! You’ve been wanting me to ask, and I was afraid you’d say ‘no’, so I kept putting it off.”

“I have another reason for accepting your proposal, Charlie.” I raised my chin in question. “If it’s you I marry, I don’t have to change my initials.” She started giggling, but I put paid to that when I turned her around, pulled her over my lap, and spanked her. We both laughed so loud the alarm went off in the back yard. Not a normal event if we kept our sessions in the hot tub area low keyed. She finally got me to quit spanking her by wiggling around and turning over, pulling my face down to kiss her. “I’ve been wanting to quit that job with Pfizer/Merck anyway. Too much travel, and they wanted me to do even more. I do better working part time than most of my counterparts do full time, and the managers know it. If I went full time, I might be first in outside sales, but I don’t care about that stuff. I just wanted to travel and make it on my own. Mom says I’m nuts. Just like her. You know Daddy left us enough money that we don’t have to work, yet I’m out selling drugs and she’s still counting beans.”

“You’d really give that job up and come to work for me, then?”

“Yes, I’ll quit, and I’ll marry you, and I’ll come to work for you, if you want, and I’ll do anything else you want, IF, and only IF...” I interrupted her.

“If I let you bring your little girlfriend with you, right?” She nodded. “What’s this girl’s name, anyway, hon?”

“Tiffany. She’s asked me to call her Tiffy, though. Supposedly I’m the only one that does.”

“I have no problems with that, Amy. I hope she likes me.”

“She will, Charlie. I know she will. She’s seen a picture. She thinks you’re a hunk.”

“Alrighty then. Let’s make this happen. When do you think...” She interrupted me this time.

“Let Mom and me, and probably Tiffy, take care of everything. Do you have any druthers?”

“No. I’m flexible.”

“I know, Charlie. Most of you, anyway. The part that isn’t is one of the many things I love so much about you!” Her giggle got her spanked again then we settled into a make out session that lasted until she started complaining about getting pruny. “Take me inside and make love to me, Charlie. Please love on me.”