Device: Older Women

Finally, he pushes Sara Lynn into the big pile. He's happy with the results, after all Ginger is forty-seven and beautiful. It would be hard to imagine not being happy with her body.

Ginger adjusts the crutches then removes all but a few inches of the left leg. She finds jeans and a blouse to wear, puts on a comfortable shoe, and makes sure the correct driver's license is in the purse.

Before she makes it to the front door, the phone rings.

"Hi Donna."

"Hmmm, love the voice. Which one are you?"

"Ginger. Listen, I was on my way to Maxwell's Steaks. Company would be fun."

"Great. Let me dress and I'll meet you at the bar there."

Ginger sits on a barstool sipping a whiskey for five minutes before Donna arrives. She stands on the one foot and gives her a hug, then a peck on the lips. It didn't matter that in reality it was almost Devon kissing his Uncle Bob. Fortunately, since they were both in women's bodies it didn't seem that way at all.

"I loved that body," Donna says, taking the neighboring stool then ordering whatever Ginger is having.

"You seem to be staying in that one a lot."

"All but a few hours a week when I have to go to a meeting of some kind." She thanks the bartender then sips. "I'm thinking about staying in it fulltime."

"Really? What about dad and mom?"

"I haven't worked out all the details. How about you?"

"I erased all the cards I had before you gave me the eight. Oh, I still have 'Janet-64'." He chuckles. "I broke my cherry with her."

"And the eight?"

"I've been one a day while I'm not at work. I've been out, shopping for clothes and such. Now I have a good wardrobe for them all. I wanted to try them out to see how I feel in each. Lately I've been wrestling with how to select the best of eight." She groans. "Today I narrowed it down to four, then two, then this one." She sips.

"This is a good choice. As I said, she was one of my favorites of the eight. I don't know how you narrowed them down. I couldn't have." She sips.

"Lets get a table and order dinner," Ginger says.

Donna and Ginger follow the waitress to a table by the wall. Ginger leans the crutches there then takes a single hop before sitting.

"You look good with one leg. It suits you."

"Thanks. I owe you so much."

"Actually, it is I that owe you so much. If it weren't for you and that Sunday, I'd still be hiding out about my feelings. Hey, now I'm actually...."

The food arrives interrupting the sentence. It didn't matter. They both know the thought, it said several times already. They eat in silence, occasionally glancing at each other.

"Good. I was hungry," Donna says, pushing the empty plate away and folding the napkin.

"Uh-huh." Ginger finishes then sips the last of the whiskey. "What now?"

Donna reaches across and rests a hand on one of Ginger's. She smiles, keeping the touch.

"I like you," Ginger says.

"I need someone in my life. Talking to a clone is too much like talking to myself." Donna groans. "I, ah, Bob likes women and I don't see me dating men."

"I guess I've been busy trying to pick a body." Ginger laughs. "I have a feeling I'd be more comfortable with a woman too. Devon's never been with a man." She sucks on an ice cube. "I was thinking of going away for two weeks. I don't know where. Would you like to join me?"

"A friend owns a villa in the Bahamas. I'll see if we can rent it. My treat."

"Yeah. Maybe two weeks will help us clear our thoughts and find what we need to do."

"Yeah." Donna squeezes her hand again.

-

Ginger goes home with Donna after dinner at Maxwell's Steaks. Devon had liked Bob for all his life. Bob had been more of a parent than his real father had. His mother had been distant as well. It was easy to be close as women. For either it would have been out of the question if one remained a man.

Donna unfastens Ginger's belt, unzips the jeans, slips them down her leg. She pecks kisses over the panties, nibbling the fabric with her teeth. A hand fondles the stump.

"Ah-h, Ginger moans, a finger slipping inside - the panties now on the floor.

Donna shifts position, letting them have access to each other. She enjoys the taste of her new lover. She enjoys what her lover is doing to her.

-

The villa is marvelous, secluded. Large accordion doors fold open to let the trade winds cool the house. Ginger traveled with one leg. Now she walks about the house on crutches checking for accessibility and looking for views. A large vanishing edge pool faces the ocean. A soft breeze catches her short skirt, blowing it up over a hip on one side.

"Honey, you'll give me a heart attack," Donna teases in her soft drawl, unbuttoning her own blouse another button.

"We should get our swimsuits out."

"Or just get naked." Her hand moves though the air as if suggesting no one will see if they do.

"And here I spent so much time finding just the right thong." She laughs.

A woman appears introducing herself as Maria, the cook and housekeeper. She lives in town and is available each morning, if needed. She asks if they would like lunch. They say they would.

Ginger, an avid reader, takes her book and reclines on the lounge chair by the pool. A baseball cap keeps the sun from her eyes as she watches the surf more than the page. Sometimes she glances at the single foot stretch out beyond her, the empty place where the other would have been. Thrilling.

She doesn't hear Maria put the tall glass of rum punch on the small table beside her.

"Like heaven," Donna says. Ginger didn't realize she was there, so entranced with the day. "There's a great drink, if you want." She points at the glass.

Ginger sips. "Yum." She sips again. "I could get used to this life."

Maria brings sandwiches, says there is food in the fridge, ready for warming at dinner. She explains where several nice restaurants are nearby and she will be back at nine in the morning to cook breakfast. She leaves as quietly as she arrived.

"Heaven," Ginger says before sipping again.

"Mark mentioned he might want to sell this place."

"Hmmm. Tempting. Are you considering moving?"

"I don't know any other way, do you?"

Ginger shakes her head and drops the bookmark into the book. She sits and turns putting the barefoot on the pavement. The time as Ginger has left little doubt about being her or missing a leg. She studies Donna, feeling an attraction growing.

"No, and it's not because I haven't thought about it. I don't know what to do about 'them'."

"Your mother and father?" Donna sips. "I've never been all that close to him. He hates that I was successful. I don't think that she likes me much either." She sips. "I'm not sorry they live so far away. I am glad you decided to move near me after the university."

"Yeah." She sips. "You've been good to me all my life. Those summers up at the lake, you driving the boat and letting me ski all day. That was the best."

"Yup."

"Any ideas?"

"Nope. Not yet." Donna walks into the house.

Ginger returns to her book, flexing the ankle and wiggling the toes a few times. A summer at the lakes flashes through her mind. The kindly older woman with one leg at the burger stand, how she shared a picnic table with him. They had talked for hours after finishing the food. No one had done that before. It made him feel like an adult.

Her name was Brenda. He had not thought of her for years. That summer she was all he thought of. She became his ideal woman. Girls his age never rose to that level for him - not in beauty or conversation.

She had lost the leg in an accident a few years before, enough of the leg that she could not use a prosthetic leg well. She preferred crutches, said that she felt more functional that way. Her husband died in the same accident and she moved in with another woman. At the time, he did not understand why. Now it is clear.

He had met Brenda at the burger stand several more times and each she had treated him as though he was the only person she wanted to talk. He had been in love, truly in love, for the first time that summer and no one knew.

Donna returns, wearing a black bikini covering little. "I might as well go naked," the teases, sitting on the edge of the pool with her feet playfully splashing. A moment later, she slides into the water.

Ginger returns to the book, her attention mostly on the surf not far away.

Donna dangles from the edge, both elbows on the row of tiles around the pool. "Hey," she calls.

Ginger returns to the present, realizing she has been thinking about Brenda. "What?"

"Come in, the water is great."

"In a minute."

Thoughts of Brenda return quickly and even the sounds of the surf vanish. Her life changed because of the accident. If that had not happened, would she have found Gloria? Would she have been as happy with her husband? An accident, yeah, an accident, she thinks - almost aloud.

Ginger undresses and hops to the pool. She swims to the far end stopping behind Donna standing, watching a couple neck in the edge of the ocean. Little pecks on her neck and a gentle tug at the bowtie of the bikini top, then Donna turns.

"Hey sweetheart," Donna coos. "I like your choice in swimwear." She smiles, kissing her softly.

"I don't want this to end." Ginger returns the kiss, a hand lightly stroking the front of the bikini bottom.

"Me either. These past few days, nights, back home, here, convinced me of that."

"Now we just need a plan."

"Let me know when you have one. I keep drawing blanks."

Ginger's finger slips past the elastic, teasing all underneath. Soon the fabric floats away. Donna's leg rises, wraps Ginger lightly.

-

"Another day in paradise," Maria offers as the women emerge from the bedroom, following their noses towards the rich smell of fresh brewed coffee. They wear only long tee shirts and show no signs of embarrassment when Maria studies them for an extra minute.

"Smells good-d," Donna drawls in her southern accent.

"I could get used to this kind of life," Ginger says.

"Me too," Maria offers with a chuckle, cracking some eggs into a bowel. "I don't get to work enough days now. The economy is bad and people don't travel much."

"If I lived here, maybe I would need help," Ginger says, looking down at the single barefoot.

"Yes, I could," she offers in a thick Caribbean accent mixed with a dash of British.

English muffins pop up from the toaster just as she pours the eggs onto a plate. "I hope this will be okay."

"Perfect," Donna says.

Maria leaves the kitchen so they will have some privacy and goes to the bedroom to change the linens. The women sit at the kitchen island looking out the doors folded open. The sound of the surf occasionally fills the room.

"Wow-w," Ginger mumbles.

"Huh?"

"A full day in this body. You couldn't pay me enough to be Devon again."

Donna swallows the bite, sips some coffee. "Do you remember the first time you felt this way?"

"Missing a leg...." She finishes a bite. "Since one summer when I stayed with you up at the lake." She sips. "Being a woman, I don't know. I just know I'm happy now."

"In that body or 'any' woman's body?"

Ginger gives her a quick glance. "Yeah." She laughs. "I don't know the answer to that. How about you?"

"All my life I wanted to be this way. I used to wear friends dresses when I was little. They thought it was cute." She groans. "I knew I was in the wrong body. As an adult...." She sips. "Not all the money in the world would have given me a passable appearance. I knew I was fucked."

"Did dad ever know?"

"Hell no! He was always bigoted. Faggot this, faggot that. He hated gays, called them queers. There was a butch woman lived nearby for a while. Goddamn if he didn't go on and on about her. Dyke, bitch."

"But you were wearing dresses."

"He never knew. If he did, he didn't let on." Donna sips the last of the coffee in the cup then refills both cups. "I hated his ass for that."

"Is that why you never married?"

"I almost did, once. Sandy was a doll. I met her in graduate school. Things were hot and heavy for six months. I thought I was 'cured' until I met a transgendered woman. I didn't know at first, but it became clear. I talked for hours with June about it. Sandy found out and left me."

"Did June have surgery?"

"Nah. For lots of reasons, I guess. I think she liked being a guy down there and a woman up top. She was pretty, one of the lucky ones for sure. If you saw her on the street, you could not tell she'd started as a guy."

"What happened to June?"

"I don't know. She dropped out of school and I never heard from her again. She did take me to a few places where others hung out...bars and such. I dated one other like June. Jill was missing a leg, longer stump than yours. Sweet young thing."

"Really?"

"I never told anyone in the family. They wouldn't have understood. I stayed in touch with Jill for a few years after she found a 'natural' woman she liked a lot. Guess the chick was hot for amputees. I was too chicken back then to be with someone like Jill. The missing leg, the dick...." Donna chuckles. "Damn, that was hot."

"Thanks for sharing that. I understand."

Ginger kisses Donna for a moment. Maria returns, blushes, and takes the dirty linens and towels to the laundry room.

"Ready for a swim?" Donna says.

"Maybe this is a good time to try on the swimsuit." She chuckles.

"Don't mind me if you want to skinny dip," Maria says as she begins to wash the dishes.

Donna swims the length of the pool several times stopping beside Ginger. They hang from the edge of the pool, kicking feet idly near the surface.

"Look at that surf," Ginger says. "Can you believe we're here? I'm still...well this is all pretty wonderful."

"Uh-huh."

"Do you ever want to be missing a leg?"

"Sometimes, but watching you is almost enough."

"I understand."

"Listen," Donna begins, letting her feet drop to the bottom. "You mentioned an accident changing Brenda's life."

"Yeah."

"I've been thinking. If Bob writes a will leaving everything to me, he could die and I'd still have the money, the property...everything."

"Sure. You could go back and just resume life. What about me?"

"Hell, I'm sure you die in the same accident." Donna roars with laughter.

"But, what about work? How would I support myself?"

"Silly." Donna kisses Ginger passionately for a long moment. "We'll be together. I'll take care of you. Bob can leave Ginger money too."

"You might be onto something that could work. I'd hate to think about what it'd do to mom and dad."

"They don't give a rats ass about either of us. You know that. They live five hundred miles away. We'd never have to see them."

"I guess."

"Listen, let it roll around that fine mind of yours."

"Could we live here?"

They both laugh.

"In a heartbeat," Donna says. "In a heartbeat."