What You See is Not What You Get

Dan took the initiative and carried Lynn to the bedroom where they fell onto her bed and made love for over an hour. It was as if time stood still for them both. After they were both spent from powerful orgasms they lay quiet, Dan holding Lynn in his arms and she nuzzling his chest contentedly.

Dan looked around Lynn's bedroom and saw that it was unremarkable, with basic pine furnishings and a couple of simple framed prints on the walls. Next to the bed was a night table with an ornate Tiffany lamp and a phone. There was also a photograph of a two young women standing barefoot on the front porch of a home. The girl on the left caught Dan's eye immediately. She was heavy, had long brunette hair and an angular face with almond-shaped eyes. She also had a broad smile that somehow looked familiar.

"Who are these girls?" asked Dan.

"Good friends. The one on the left is Sylvia. Nancy is the girl on the right. We have all been friends for a long time." Dan picked the picture up for a closer look. He looked at the smiling face of the girl on the left and then froze as he looked a "Sylvia's" feet. They were the same angled-brush toes he had just caressed and kissed. Dan's mind raced for an explanation but could find none. He was looking at Lynn's feet without doubt, and it was Lynn's smile. The only explanation was that this woman was not Sylvia, it was Lynn. Yet the face was different and so was everything else, including a much larger bust. What was going on here?

Lynn, baby, this is you, isn't it? Dan was firm in his question, more a statement than anything.

"Why would you say that?" asked Lynn, her voice betraying fear.

Dan sat up and lifted Lynn's feet by the ankles. "I recognize these toes," he said flatly.

Lynn didn't say anything for a moment. Why had she left that picture out? All the surgeries to change her face and physique, but nothing to modify her unusual feet. Why did she need a reminder of her old self anyway? She couldn't lie to Dan now: she loved him too much to do that.

"Yes, it is me. And it is Sylvia. See, Dan, I am Sylvia…or was. I am in the FBI's witness protection program. Some very bad people would like to know where I am so they can kill me."

"You have had a major overhaul. The doctors did a good job of re-making you. I'd say you are much more attractive now. But, who are the bad guys and why do they want you? Oh, and is the disability an act, or what?"

"No…I am definitely a card-carrying cripple…that part's for real. OK…I'm going to break all the rules and tell you the truth. But, you have to agree to protect me and keep what I tell you to yourself, always, no matter what. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"I am an accountant…a CPA, actually. I'm originally from Chicago and I got a job keeping the financial records at a local Ford dealership. It wasn't long before I figured out that lots and lots of money was coming into the service department…far beyond the actual repair volume they were doing. That money--and only that money--was then being wired to offshore banks. It was drug money, Dan. The guys running the dealership were working with the Columbians and they were using the car business to launder the money. I witnessed transfers of cash between these big gooney-looking guys and the service manager several times.

I grew up a Christian girl and I knew I had to do the right thing. I called the FBI and they set up a sting to take these guys down. It all went fine until it was time for my testimony in court. Two guys broke down the door of my apartment the night before and beat me with baseball bats until they thought I was dead. Then they stabbed me five times to make sure. Funny thing…I lived. They broke all my ribs and a bunch of other bones, but I lived. The court date was moved back six months while I healed up under federal guard. A lumbar disc in my back was injured and one of the stab wounds cut major nerves in my left leg. The spinal cord injury weakened my right let and the nerve damage really did my left leg in. The damage was permanent. I appeared in court in a wheelchair and the government lawyers made a big deal out of what had happened to me to get the jury to convict. They said I'd be in a wheelchair the rest of my life.

"So, did it work? What happened to the drug guys?" queried Dan.

"Yes, it worked. They got put away, but I got death threats and the FBI put me in the witness protection program. I've had three facial surgeries, liposuction to get rid of excess fat, a boob reduction, and a complete course in how to dress and look like Lynn Denman, not Sylvia Wilson. They even taught me to change my Chicago accent and my mannerisms. But they couldn't make me walk again…they're not miracle workers. I was able to recover enough use of my legs to use crutches, though. We decided that the bad guys would be looking for a woman in a wheelchair. A very different-looking girl on crutches with a leg brace would probably escape their notice. I have avoided wheelchairs everywhere…even in airports…for that reason. Originally the cover was going to be polio. But everybody felt that wasn't credible for someone my age. So we came up with the story about spinal meningitis."

"Holy shit," breathed Dan.

"Really," confirmed Lynn/Sylvia.

"How do you feel about telling me?"

"I'm OK with it. I'll have to let the FBI know you know…that's the deal. I have to inform them if my cover is blown for any reason. But, I think it'll be OK, as long as I continue to be Lynn. You have to forget Sylvia. I'm Lynn Denman, and my real past doesn't exist. I have a fabricated history that I will tell you, and you have to accept me as that person. Deal?"

"Deal. I…I think I love Lynn Denman. I don't really know Sylvia. By the way, who's the other girl in the picture?"

"My sister, Janet. We've always been very close."

Lynn was struck by Dan's facial expression and she knew instantaneously that he did, in fact, love her. And she felt the same. She sighed, took the picture of Sylvia from him and laid it face-down on the night table. She snuggled back into his arms and began kissing Dan's body all over again, quickly eliciting the physical reaction she wanted. They made love twice more before the morning sun peeked into Lynn's bedroom.

Dan and Lynn were inseparable the next seven days. He fell madly in love with this newly-created persona, Lynn, whose identity and life now included him as an integral part. Then, on Saturday, he called but did not find her at home. Nor was she around on Sunday. On Monday, Lynn was missing at work and after a couple of days of unexplained absence Jimmy called Dan to ask if he knew where she was. Days dragged on and Dan knew that the government had moved Lynn and he would not see her again.

This afternoon's mail had included a letter in a hand-written envelope with no return address and an Atlanta postmark. In the letter Lynn confirmed that she was going to be living in another state and working at another job. She insisted that the FBI had not moved her because of Dan, but rather because they had gotten indications that the Columbians might be on her trail. She still had not told the FBI about their conversation, and she begged Dan to never, never reveal her witness protection status to anyone. She noted that she was writing the letter on a plane while her escort snoozed. She would try to mail it when she changed planes in Atlanta. She loved Dan and hoped that they could one day be reunited. And, she promised to write again. It was signed with a smiley-face and a heart.

Dan continued to sob the tears of the broken-hearted for another hour before pouring his scotch-laden, tear-soaked body to bed.