A Gift in Disguise

After my weekend back-to-back sessions with Bethany on Saturday and Karen on Sunday, I would have expected to be dragging badly on Monday morning. Why would any graduate student in his right mind sign up for an 8 a.m. class on any day, let alone Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?

To my great surprise, however, I awakened Monday morning about 5:30 a.m. feeling remarkably refreshed, even eager, to get up and get going.

I lay there for only a few minutes, then started to get up. My feet had no sooner hit the floor than my cell phone rang.

My first reaction was concern. No one would call me this early unless it was an emergency, so my mind flashed the thought that something might be wrong with one of my parents. I grabbed the phone from the night stand and hit the send button without even looking at the screen.

"Hello!" I practically shouted into the phone.

Apparently my voice reflected my urgency and concern.

"Tom, this is Karen Matsumoto. Are you all right?"

I took a deep breath, confident I could calm down.

"Oh, good morning, Karen. Yes, I'm fine now." I explained why I had answered so abruptly.

"Oh, Tom, I'm terribly sorry. I should have thought first before calling this early. I hope you'll forgive me."

Her voice was sincere. She continued.

"I wanted to catch you before you left your apartment, and I just assumed your cellphone would either be off or would go to voicemail."

"It's all right, Karen. Actually, I was already awake and lying here. I was just getting up when you called. Don't worry. Everything's fine. But, why are you calling this early?"

"Remember, yesterday I explained how when responses to your material started coming in, I would get an automated message on my phone?"

"Yes, but you also said you didn't expect to start getting responses for a week or so."

"Well, I was wrong. I got a message a little after three this morning our time. It was from Japan, but not from one of the members I thought would have the most info and respond the quickest. It came from a small and rather remote museum, not one of the biggies."

"And ...?" I prompted.

"They sent images of some material for comparison to yours. It's a little complicated to explain on the phone. That's why I wanted to catch you before you headed out to the campus. If you'd be willing to loan the original of the authentication letter to us for a few days, I'd like to have our forensic document examiner look at it. Is there any way you could come by my office sometime today and bring the original of the authentication letter with you? "

"Sure. My last class ends at two today. I could be at your office at the airport by two-thirty probably. Would that be soon enough?"

"That would be perfect, Tom. Thank you. When you get here, come to the loading dock door rather than parking in the lot out front. There's an intercom by that door just like the one out front. I'll buzz you in. Just park inside in any open employee parking space."

"And you want me to bring only the authentication letter and not everything else?"

"Yes. You'll understand much better when you get here.

Also, I have another favor to ask of you. If you'll permit it, I'd like to call Bethany and see if she could be there, too. Since it was her keen eye that brought you and your material to my attention, I know she'd be very interested in what the Japan museum has found."

"Yes, of course you can contact her. Even if she can't be there today, I'd like for you to put her on some kind of access list so that you can discuss my material with her any time you think it would be appropriate."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Tom. I'll print up a standard release form for you to sign this afternoon. That will get your permission into the record. By the way, my forensic document examiner, Margaret Gibson, will be there, too. So, I'll see you this afternoon at two-thirty, then.

And Tom, thank you very much for yesterday afternoon. I haven't felt so desired and been so satisfied by a man in years." Karen's very direct remarks left me surprisingly hard.

I took a quick cold shower, then dressed, retrieved the authentication letter from the archival storage box, and headed off for campus.

At my university a student parking permit is nothing more than a hunting license. Still, I was fortunate to find a parking spot in the student lot closest to Hertz Hall. So, after my class ended at 2 p.m., I was able to jump in my car and head toward Karen Matsumoto's office on the north side of the airport.

I arrived about five minutes early and pulled up to the smaller of the two rollup doors.

Karen answered the intercom, and a moment later the door started to slowly raise. The door closed behind me immediately after I drove in and parked. By the time I was out of the car, Karen was at the loading dock. She walked to my car to greet me and escort me in. While we walked, Karen explained that Bethany was already here and waiting inside with the document examiner.

We walked to the small conference room. I greeted Bethany, then Karen introduced me to Margaret Gibson, a certified forensic document examiner and one of the three full-time employees of the library's Special Collection Division.

"Tom, as I said on the phone this morning, I received an unexpectedly quick and detailed reply to the information we put on the network only yesterday.

The responding museum in Japan believes that the elderly couple who bound your book of photos for Misako and Risa Sato are likely the last survivors of several generations of bookbinders. That family, and only that family, were the bookbinders to the Chrysanthemum Throne going back at least to the reign of Emperor Ninko in about 1817. They're still looking, though, to see if their history may be traceable back further.

If Misako's neighbors are that couple, they are not husband and wife but rather brother and sister. They migrated to the United States in 1947, sent here by their parents at age 14 and 11 to stay with their father's brother and his wife in California. Their parents had intended to join them, but both parents died in the 1948 Fukui earthquake. The brother and sister remained legally here and became naturalized citizens of the United States seven years later."

"Short of contacting them personally, is there any way to establish their identity now?" Bethany asked.

"Maybe," Karen answered. "That's why I asked Tom to bring the original authentication letter. Along with Misako, both the man and woman supposedly signed it.

When the Japan museum saw the copy of the letter we sent out, they searched their collection and found letters supposedly sent from the man and woman as children to their parents. The letters had been found in the rubble of the Fukui earthquake and preserved.

The names of the children who signed the letters to their parents match the names on Tom's authentication letter."

"And you hope Margaret will be able to determine if the signatures of the elderly people on Tom's letter match the signatures on the letters sent in '47 or '48? That seems like a long shot. Won't their signatures have changed after almost seventy years?" Bethany asked.

"It is a long shot," Margaret said. "You're right, Bethany. People's handwriting does change over decades with age, infirmity, injury, and so on. On top of that, the late '40s letters were written and signed in Kanji script. Tom's letter has been signed in beautiful Palmer cursive.

That's why Karen and I hoped you'd be able to help us, Bethany. Karen said you write in Kanji script far better than she does. I don't. I hope you'll show me exactly what strokes and in what order each of the Kanji characters in the earlier signatures were made.

Even though the elderly couple wrote in two different languages and script styles, their signatures likely retained some of the common features such as pressure, flow, linearity, and other things that forensic document examiners look for."

I was skeptical, but Karen reassured me. "Because we have to deal with material in languages from all over the world, Tom, Margaret has specialized in making interlingual handwriting comparisons. Handwriting is a line segment with a beginning, an end, and often recurring and repeating variations in between. To way oversimplify Margaret's skill, she will be looking for similarities or differences in the way each line is made on its medium."

"Wouldn't it be simpler to just contact the couple and ask them if they were the writers of the earlier letters?" I asked.

Karen responded patiently. "Yes, Tom, but for their own reasons, they may not want their personal histories known. Regardless of any historical interest by the public, they are absolutely entitled to their privacy.

Any actions we take to confirm or exclude them need to be done as discreetly as possible out of respect for them."

"Did the Japan museum's collection happen to include any full-length body and facial photos of them as children?" I asked.

Karen and Margaret simultaneously broke into wide smiles.

"You could be the first electrical engineer we ever recruited for Special Collections!" Karen said enthusiastically. "You've got the mind of physical anthropologist.

Yes, they did. The photos aren't in great shape, but since we know the children's ages when the photos were taken and there are some physical objects in the photos with them, we can have a photogrammetrist calculate their approximate body dimensions. We can have one of our contacts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children do an age progression to give us some ideas of what they may look like today.

Tom, if you'll give the letter to Margaret, she'll log it in and then begin her examination and comparison. Margaret, will you please log the letter and also print out a receipt for Tom? You can hold onto the receipt. We'll come through the lab on the way out and pick it up there."

Margaret nodded agreeably, took the authentication letter, and left the meeting.

"Are you considering discussing everything you find with Misako and his sister?" I asked. "To see if the age progressed images look like their neighbors who bound my photo book?"

"I am," Karen replied. "But this is where I also need Bethany's help.

Bethany, you told me you are going to meet with Misako Sato to discuss displaying some of her photographs in your clubs."

"Yes, we've already had one meeting with her, and we're trying to set up another one up here with her and her sister Risa."

"I'd be very interested in your assessment of both Misako and Risa," Karen said. "Your uncanny ability to read people's intentions will help me decide how to approach them about their neighbors — or whether to talk with them at all about it."

"Sure, I'd be glad to. It's almost always in my very first meeting with someone that they give off deception signals. In my initial meeting with Misako I had absolutely no bad vibes about her at all. If that changes, I'll be very surprised, but I'll let you know."

"Any idea when Misako and her sister will be meeting with you?" I asked Bethany.

"Actually, I'm trying to push them a little to do it this coming weekend. My hope is that they'll fly in Friday morning and meet me at The Club. There are no events scheduled until the 'family night' on Saturday, so they'd have plenty of time to look at the facility and work with us to figure out how to best display his work there. It would also give them a feel for how The Club facilitates its sexual events."

Given Sharon Madison's admonition to me about not discussing The Club's sexual events like 'family night' outside The Club, I was surprised at Bethany's answer in Karen's presence. Bethany immediately picked up on my look of surprise.

"Karen's been my guest occasionally at The Club, Tom," she said with no further explanation.

"I'm guessing it will be toward the middle of this week before Margaret completes her comparison of the authentication letter with the hi-res scan copies we got from Japan this morning. Hopefully she will be able to offer an opinion about authorship, but it will come with the qualification that she was only able to examine the original of the authentication letter. If this were a legal proceeding, it would be highly improper for an FDE to offer an unqualified opinion of authorship when the only other exemplar was a copy.

As for a response from the NCMEC, we'll get it when we get it. Even though the public would be surprised to learn how much our Special Collections people worldwide help NCMEC find and identify missing and exploited children, my request will be a lower priority than their routine daily activity. That's exactly as it should be.

And of course, other Spec C members may uncover and send along more information that expands, confirms, or refutes information we received already.

Unless there's something else, let's go by my office. I'll print the release for Tom to sign so you can be fully included, Bethany. I'll make a copy for both of you, then we'll venture into Margaret's domain and pick up the receipt for Tom."

After rejoining Margaret in the lab, Bethany arranged a mutually convenient time to return and recreate the elderly couple's signatures one stroke at a time. Then Karen escorted both Bethany and me back to our cars in the loading dock.

Bethany headed for her job, and I drove back to my apartment to fix dinner and study.

Shortly after finishing the dinner dishes, my phone rang. It was Sharon Madison.

After going through our almost ritualistic and cryptic greetings to establish we could talk openly, Sharon said, "So how was your date with Bethany Saturday night?"

"Not too bad," I teased, knowing she wanted all the juicy details.

She laughed loudly. "Bethany was on a break a few minutes ago, so she called me. Based on what she said and how she sounded when she said it, both of you had a very good time. Especially after the concert back at her place.

She was very circumspect, but she suggested I should force you to tell me the details at The Club on Saturday night. You're still planning on meeting me there for family night, aren't you?"

"Gee, Sharon, I had almost forgotten about Saturday night," I kidded her again.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to find another date, then," she gave it right back to me. "Maybe Linda from the office will go as my daughter."

"Hmmm," I countered, "Joining in a little mother-daughter action might be fun."

"Not going to happen," she came back. "I want you all to myself. Seriously, Tom, you hadn't forgot, had you?"

"Of course not. I would like to bring the photo book so you can see it, though. Would that be all right?"

"You better bring it. I'm hoping it will have the same effect on me that it sounded like it had on Bethany," Sharon answered.

"Oh? And what did she say the effect was on her?" I asked.

"Don't worry, Tom, she's as discreet as you are. But I know her well enough to gauge the tone of her voice when she told me the G-rated version of your date. And when she said she really wants to go out with you again, I heard multiple orgasms in her voice. She's not the only one who can hear certain things, you know.

She also told me about your showing the book to the Library's Special Collections Director."

"Do you think I should tell Misako about that? Showing it to the librarian, I mean," I asked.

"Certainly you should! Misako will be thrilled that you're so happy with her work that you're showing her photos around. She'd like her photos to bring in more income. That's why she's negotiating with Bethany and her family to display it in their restaurants and The Club.

Since we're talking about Misako, I get the feeling that you might be a little bit interested in exploring the mysteries of newhalf with her? So tell me, Tom, did she look as good in her swimsuit in the pool with you as she does in a tight blouse and miniskirt?"

"Sharon, you're not trying to set me up with her, are you?"

"Hell yes!" she replied. "I'd pay good money to see you and her getting each other off. You know how watching you and Teddy wrestle in your underwear when you were kids got me hot.

Honestly though, Tom, Misako has a killer body. She was born male but except for her cock, she's completely female. It's really her, not an act. She's a newhalf lesbian, Tom. She prefers women, but I guaran-fucking-tee you that in your case, she'd make an exception. She really likes you a lot — and not just for what's between your legs either."

"So have you and she ... " I started to ask the obvious question.

"Nope. Not that I wouldn't like to, but the chemistry just isn't right between her and me," Sharon answered with a hint of regret. "Believe me, Tom, from what I've seen and heard, the chemistry is right between you and her."

"Heard from whom?" I asked.

"Corinne," she answered simply. "Apparently in some pillow talk between Corinne and Risa, Risa said Misako couldn't stop talking about how good a model you were and how you were so nice to her. She also said Misako was more turned on by your photos than any she'd ever seen before.

If there's some sexual chemistry between you and Misako, Tom, you'd be an idiot not to go for it. Speaking from my own personal experience, same sex can be just as satisfying if the chemistry is right."

Sharon continued, speaking authoritatively. "Are you getting the message, Tom? Not all women are turned off by guys who like some guys the way some women like some women. A lot of women would get sopping wet at the thought of you and Misako together. I'm one of them."

"Thank you, Sharon," I said sincerely. "I'll do my best to show my appreciation on Saturday at The Club.

Should I wear my business suit again on Saturday night?"

"A man in a well-tailored dark business suit is never wrong, Tom. Unless you're at the beach, of course. So yes, please wear a suit. And don't forget the photo book, please."

We talked a bit more then ended our conversation.

Since I would be going to Lorraine's to meet Emily and from there on to Emily's to help her edit the pussy cam images, I took my photo book and put it in my car trunk before heading for my Tuesday classes. My original plan had been to show the book to both Lorraine and Emily at Lorraine's office, but that plan got scratched when Emily explained the sex restrictions Amanda had put on Lorraine. Today it would have to be a private showing just for Emily. When Lorraine was sufficiently recovered for sex again, I'd give her a similar private showing.

When I parked in front of Lorraine's office, Emily's car was already there. Lorraine greeted me at the front door with a hug and led me into the exam room. Emily was there, seated and waiting. She had already retrieved her camera equipment and was storing it back in its cases.

"Anything I need to pass along to Jamie?" I asked Lorraine.

She thought for a moment, then said, "No, nothing major that she and I haven't already discussed. Amanda suggested that because of my relatively minor but uncomfortable reaction to the expedited regrowth formula I should avoid any vaginal penetration for a week. That's more to let her accurately check my body chemistry again this coming Saturday.

She had expected me to experience some discomfort from the new formula, so she wasn't surprised. She also suggested that I wait another week after this one before depilating and using the phallus again. She wants to let everything return to normal."

"If I heard you correctly, you've already trimmed your pubic hair to what you would like the phallus overlay to look like. And you included that as the very last image on the pussy cam chip?" Emily asked.

"Exactly right," Lorraine confirmed.

Emily nodded and said, "Well, then I don't have anything else. Tom? How about you?"

"Nope, nothing for me either."