Chapter 11

That was an invitation not to be ignored, so we retired through the back and I checked my facts, standing behind her and reaching round to feel her mammaries. They were still wonderful, but I got a better feel for them; in fact I got a better feel of them. If she was wearing a bra, it had to be a soft one, for her nipples felt hard.

She swung back round, leaving my grasping hands behind, and launched herself at my lips, crushing them to her own.

“God! I missed you this past week, Bob. So has Sandy.”

“I was the same. All I could think in my spare time was of kissing you and Sandy ... and also feeling your breasts. You don’t mind me saying that, Georgie?”

“Good God, no. It is nice to have a man admiring me and my body, despite my age.”

I was thrilled to be again viewed as a man and not just as a boy. My body and mind were now looking forward to getting to grips with Sandy but that reference to age had to be countered.

“What has age got to do with your body shape, Georgina? Once, as a growing teenager, you have become a woman, after all the feminine attributes have developed to the full, you retain that same shape for a couple of decades at least, so stop worrying about your supposed great age. You are designed by God to be a woman of childbearing age for about twenty years or thereabouts, so don’t concern yourself about being less than desirable until you are middle-aged, and even then you don’t have to lose your attractive shape unless you neglect your health. Looking after children is plenty of exercise, I think you will agree. Do you fancy that sort of exercise? Do you want to start having children after we get married? By we, I mean when Sandy and I get married officially and you and I unofficially. Sandy and I have already decided you will come with us on our honeymoon, so it will be a honeymoon for three.”

“Oh, my God. That could be fun ... or something.”

She granted me the facts, and we heard no more discussion of her age.

Georgina reminded me the shop was open and she had to get to the counter, despite wanting to spend more time with me. I relented and we walked out into the main shop area. It was empty, so I gave Georgina a final kiss and walked to the door. I opened it and stepped outside so that I could be on the lookout for Sandy.

Nothing, then a minute later I observed her stepping out of the chemist’s down the street. She glanced towards the agency, saw me, and she waved. I waved back, and she began walking fast, a shopping bag hanging down in her right hand.

I started walking towards her, and when we at last met, I reached for the heavy bag, but she insisted on a kiss first. After our kiss of greeting, she allowed me to carry her shopping and we made our way back to the agency. Getting there, we entered and Sandy told me to put the shopping in the back office. I did that, and by the time I came back, they were talking ten to the dozen, apparently about me.

Sandy took one look at me, twirled a forefinger to tell me to turn round, then pushed me back to the office. As soon as the door closed behind us, she told me: “Stand there, facing me.”

I did as she said, and she stepped close, turned round and backed up to me.

“Now check my breasts for size, to compare with Georgina.”

I happily did as she directed. Sandy wriggled a bit as I fondled her, and I noted her nipples hardening as well. Was this a regular reaction with women? She was without a bra, I concluded, and commented on it.

“Doing without a bra, to help me enjoy myself?”

“To help me enjoy it too,” she agreed. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“What is the difference between us?”

“Actually, not a lot. I think your breasts are slightly larger than your sister’s, but both pairs feel wonderful to me. Of course, my experience in that line is very limited, much the same as with kissing.”

“Did you like kissing Georgina a little while ago?”

“Of course I did! What is it with this interrogation? I thought I was supposed to enjoy being nice to both of you?”

“Umm ... yes, that was what we agreed.”

“Jealous? Is that it?”

“A bit, I admit. She has much more experience than me, so I thought I might not match up.”

“Then accept that you do match up, in my eyes, for I can’t tell if there is any difference in how you treat me, or in how I treat you and Georgina. But just remember, you are the one who caused me to fall in love with you. Everything is your fault, arising from making me fall for you. I had no control over what happened after that.”

“True,” she was willing to accept this thesis.

“And you want me to fall in love with Georgina as well, don’t you?”

“Yes, but only in second place to me.”

“You already have that assurance, my love. You will always have first place in my heart.”

That settled, Sandy turned round and kissed me as my beloved; kissing as she meant it. I gave as good as she gave, and we were soon back to our normal loving selves and ready to leave the office.

Once we were out beside her sister, Sandy declared, “I am going with Bob to his house to check on documents, Georgie.”

Georgina gave her a sly look, but Sandy responded, “We are not going there to fuck, you cheeky woman. There are certificates and such that we need to know about, so we can deal with them properly. The fucking comes when we are married.”

She looked at me, so I shrugged and murmured, “If you insist on waiting so long.”

She came back with, “Men!”

I replied meekly, “I admit it; I am a man.”

Sandy giggled and said, “Then let us be on our way, my man. Georgina, I left the shopping in the back office.”

“Got you.”

With that, Sandy and I left and headed up to the house. I double checked that I had the house keys in my pocket. They were there.

When we arrived, I led the way to the house door, at the back, then unlocked it. Once we were in, I took Sandy to the technical room where we had left the folder of documents. Once we had retrieved them, we moved to the comfy seating in the lounge and started going through them.

Many of them appeared to be share certificates for US companies, mostly car manufacturers and oil producers, and General Electric, plus some chemical companies such as 3M. I wondered what 3M made. Rolls-Royce was the most prominent UK company in the file of shareholdings.

Sandy exclaimed, “Look at these numbers! The amount of shares represented here must be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, possibly into the millions. And they are all in the name of James Clyde. Who the hell is James Clyde?”

“Uh, I think that is probably the name of the inventor of the machine in this house. I never got to know his name, for I never met him, but as he used a local lawyer to deal with his house according to Georgina, that same lawyer may be able to transfer the certificates into our names.”

“Why should he want to?” she asked, quite reasonably.

“I wonder. We tell him James Clyde appears to be dead; some time and somewhere. Then what if we told him that if he helped us, there would be no chance that his name would be found in 2026, and so no-one would come back to his time and dispose of him in revenge. He will probably angle for a cut of the proceeds, but if we offered him five per cent, that might keep him happy. Five per cent of a huge amount is a lot of dosh.”

“Bob, you have a devious mind: and I love it. If we can wangle that deal, we will be secure for the rest of our lives.”

She paused to ponder.

“Thinking of the machine, device, or whatever you want to call it, can it transfer both of us to another location, or is it only a one-person transporter?”

“You know, that never came to mind when I was on my own. He must have been on his own as well, so the answer to that is a simple ‘I don’t know’. Trying it with two of us might prove fatal, or possibly not work at all. There may be a fail-safe mechanism. By being able to bring gold ingots back with me, I know that items attached to you come with you.”

“Oh. That makes some sense when you think about it. There may be a limitation due to the amount of mass, or total dimensions, or whatever. It would take some effort to explore the limits, I am afraid. We had better leave off trying anything of that nature for now. That suggests that it will be you doing any exploring on our behalf.”

“Where do you want me to explore? Have you some ideas in mind?”

“Nothing specific; my mind is not on it for possibilities. Where did you go first time?”

“I selected School, as that was one of the options and it was rather generic, so I decided to check it out. It transpired that it was a girls school in Kilmacolm. I found myself in the shower room.”

“The shower room? Naked girls; voyeurism?”

“Him, not me, Sandy. I was moved to where he had been before; that was what transpired. The controls are set up that once you have been to a spot, repeating the choice takes you to the same spot.”

“But not the same time; at least not exactly, or you would bang into each other. Two things can’t occupy the same space at the one time. There must be a time lag built in, to avoid a clash.”

“Yes, that’s the conclusion I came to as well. It is a sensible precaution. Two bodies trying to occupy the one space would most likely cause an explosion as the atoms smashed into each other. Possibly even cause a nuclear blast, if that fits with the laws of physics. Either the machine was set up to avoid that calamity, or the controls make the decision automatically. That would take some advanced reasoning by the machine, and machines can’t think, so I believe it was a precaution built in by the inventor: if this is tried, do that.”

Sandy moved her mind back to the shower room referred to.

“So, were there any naked girls for you to see?”

I huffed a little as a delaying tactic, but at last admitted, “One, with her back to me; bit on the skinny side, I thought. I spoke, to ask her where I was, so she turned and saw me; and fainted in shock at a man being there with her. Seeing her on the floor, I went over and moved her onto her side to help secure her breathing, according to the procedure for an epileptic fit we were told about at school. There was no-one else about, so as I had no time – I was set for a very short trip – I walked back to be on my arrival spot, and was back at the house almost immediately. I don’t think you have to be back at the same spot, but that was then.”

Sandy went, “Uh-huh. Describe the girl, Bob.”

“I didn’t notice much, it was so quick: naked and skinny.”

“A naked girl? You must have noticed some facts about her body.”

“Well, she had breasts, a fair bit smaller than yours at a guess, and she had a furry patch of hair at her crotch. I was surprised that girls had hair there as well as boys; I didn’t know that was the case, until then.”

Sandy gave me a superior smile. “Limited experience indeed. You didn’t see her hair or face, just her naked body?”

“Oh. She had brown or black hair; I could not be sure as it was wet and matted. Dark at least. Her face: let me see, she put her hands to her face with shock, then after a moment of deliberation put one hand over her crotch and the other hand and arm over her breasts. Then she collapsed. Why she didn’t just collapse right away, I can’t fathom. Satisfied, now that you have all the details?”

“Once she had collapsed, her crotch and breasts would be exposed again, right?”

“Yes, but I was so concerned with turning her to ensure she could breathe, that everything else slipped my mind.”

“With you, Bob, I can believe that. You wanted to help the girl more than feast your eyes on her. Good man.”

I ventured, “Do you have hair down there, or do you do something to keep it neat?”

“Cheeky question. I shave it, more as a protection from unwanted diseases or lice. No man has seen me there up til now.”

“Is that an invitation?”

“It will be, at some point, but not for now, greedy.”

“What about Georgina?”

“You mean, hair at her crotch? I have no idea, as I have never asked her, and she has never volunteered to shower with me. You will have to find that out for yourself.”

“Another bit of fun exploring for me,” I suggested.

“Yes, but again, not for now. Don’t push yourself on Georgina or you might scare her. Let her make the pace, Bob.”

I took on this admonition as good advice, and leaned forward to give Sandy a small kiss before saying, “Your wish is my command, mistress.”

“Yes, except I am not your mistress, but your fiancee. Oh, God, I suppose that after we are married, Georgie will be your mistress, effectively.”

“Not in my mind, Sandy. To me, she will be my second wife, and be treated by me that way. I have an honour to uphold, and you do as well.”

“True. You so often remind me that you are more mature than your physical age says. Sometimes you appear more mature than me. Good grief!”

I told her, “As you were talking about the share certificates, it occurred to me that he must have known about how these shares would perform over the long run, so we should hang on to them and not cash them in unless we are in need of money. Is it all share certificates?”

“Yes, that is all of them, except...” she went back to the papers in the folder and rummaged through them, finding a clear, cellophane-type A4 envelope with more papers. My mind told me, ISO 216 is the official size.

“Let me see...” she went back to reading for a few minutes, then stared up at me with a startled look on her face.

“These papers are ownership records for several UK companies. He had bought these businesses in 1955, so he must have known they would do well in the future; but I can’t see why. I have never heard of them, though they sound technical.”

“Possibly years afterwards, the business will be bought out by a larger company in a share swap, so that he ends up with more valuable shares later. I have heard my Dad talk of such share swaps being used to cut down the cash needed to buy out a company.”

I suddenly realised I had absorbed useful information from my father’s dabbling in the stock market; astounding! I had never expected that result, but all information is useful, at the right time.

Sandy was looking at me with a thoughtful expression.

“Bob, I think the law says that when you buy a house you might also get title to anything left in the premises, if the contract says so. What if it also applies to documents of all kinds?”

I smiled as I took that in.

“So these documents might legally be mine now, and all we have to do is get the lawyer to transfer the ownership details?”

“Georgina will have the contact details of the lawyer who was selling the house, so we can go speak with him about all the contents now being legally yours, or not, as the case may be. Only a lawyer will be certain about the full facts.”

“This is a Saturday, so I doubt he will be available today. If he is based in Gourock, would you be able to get to see him and ask about the contents of the house?”

“I’ll speak to Dad first. He may be able to clarify the ownership question, then all we need do is get the inventor’s lawyer to do the transfer of documents. How do we get over the absence of the inventor guy? He has just disappeared, as far as we know.”

Sandy now offered, “If the solicitor was given power of attorney: the ability to act on behalf of the client, he may be able to proceed on his own, as long as he keeps a proper record of all the transactions. If the inventor has been missing for seven years, I think he can be presumed dead by a court.”

“Would Georgina be able to help?” I asked.

Sandy grunted, “Why didn’t I think of that? We should go back and ask her about the conditions attached to that house sale. She should still have them on file.”

“Good suggestion. Is there anything else we need to have a look at before we leave?”

“One thing: I wanted to see what size of sheets we need for that bed. Do you have cash for buying a few things like that?”

“Give me a moment,” I answered, and headed to the sofa. Reaching it, I plunged my had down the back of the seat cushion and retrieved a handful of notes.

“How much do you need, Sandy?”

“Good grief! How much do you have in your hand?”

“I don’t know. A lot, anyway. These are ten pound and five pound notes. How much do you want to keep you going for a while?”

“You keep surprising me, Bob. You had them stuffed down the back of the sofa! This is your private safe?”

I told her, “Who is going to expect a pile of banknotes down the back of the furniture? A few coins, perhaps, but banknotes would a be a crazy thought, so I went with crazy.”