This work is inspired by "The Reward" by Azil.
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Now that I had had a night and morning of the wildest sex of my life, what should I do? I idly reached for my phone, then remembered I had left the smoking remains of it and my tablet in the garbage. "Can you restore those," I asked Power, knowing by this point that she would know what I meant. Suddenly, my phone, undamaged and fully charged, was back in my hand, and I could see my tablet on the coffee table, where it had been before this started. I woke it up, not seeing any messages, and began idly browsing the internet, as one does when thinking and not really looking.
As I ran through random things on the net, checking various sites, I rattled off a few basics to Power. No getting sick anymore, no shaving or haircuts (I could control my hair, instantly getting any style I wanted), always in shape (I had already improved it a bit and considered de-aging back to 22 or something, but I was fine with my age if I could be in shape with no effort, and again I was trying not to do anything too strange that I would have to involve my family in before I saw them again), phone always charged and with a crazy good connection, automatically showered and teeth brushed if I didn't feel like doing it myself, clothing always clean, bed (I changed the bedroom back to normal) always made, etc. I felt almost stupid using this for such mundane stuff; I was really just rattling off the first things that were coming to mind.
As I ran out of mundane things, I thought about my wife, Charlie. I could turn her into an 18 year old fuckbunny that would make Lisa look plain, but I decided to stick to my original plan for now and leave my family alone (mostly, I did throw in a 'safety' that would let me do things and have them not notice). While there's much to be said for fuckbunnies, the fact is that I love Charlie and my 18 year old twins (we had them late). I was torn about what to do about them.
'Who am I? What makes me me?' I could do anything now, but if I changed too much, would I still be me? If I made my wife's 45 year old body 18 and made her want to be my nonstop sex toy, then I'd be changing the things that make her a wonderful partner, friend, companion, and mother, if not the most active lover. My kids were perfectly normal teens, in terms of fighting, whining, selfishness, ingratitude, learning, and surprises, and all the other things that go with being a teen boy and girl about to graduate from highshool. I could take those negatives away, but then they wouldn't be my kids. (And, yes, I could admit to myself that my daughter was hot; the thought of sex with her did cross my mind before I firmly banished it.)
I wanted loads of sex with beautiful young women, but I didn't want to upset my lifestyle. it was a contradiction.
I decided to go out for another walk and see if any ideas came to mind. It had worked the last time. I didn't get far this time, though. I had just reached the sidewalk when Beth Ralston, our neighbor across the street, waved at me. Tools spread on the lawn indicated that she was getting ready to do some gardening; Beth was big on gardening. Although we weren't close friends with the Ralstons, gardening served as a connection between Beth and my wife.
Beth is 38 and works part time as a nurse (her husband Mike is a doctor, and a bit of a jerk, which is partly why I didn't hang out with Beth very much). They have an 18 year old daughter of there own, Melissa; she wasn't friends with either of my kids, though she was in the same class as Thomas. I took a good look at her: Beth is about 5'8", slender, with subtle curves. Her neck-length light brown hair, usually worn loose, was pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes while gardening. I had always thought her a very attractive woman, in that abstract sense where married men, knowing they already have their partner, notice these kinds of things.
"Is Charlie in? I wanted to ask her for tips on these roses. Yours have been doing much better than mine," she asked.
"Charlie and the kids are out of town this weekend, visiting family," I replied. "I was supposed to go too, but work got in the way," I added conversationally.
"Damn," she said, looking at our garden. "Hers are beautiful; my bushes grow and grow, but don't put out any buds."
"You're talking to the wrong guy, Beth," I replied, smiling. "I know nothing about plants, as you well know."
"You and Mike, a couple black thumbs," she laughed, giving me a double thumbs down for emphasis.
I laughed a little in response, then asked "Where is Mike?" trying to sound causal. I had been subtly eyeing her up. I already had half an idea, and was wondering why I hadn't thought of it earlier.
"He's at the hospital, doing rounds this weekend," she replied.
Perfect. Not that I couldn't have dealt with it had he been home, but one less thing to worry about. I had Power have her think it was perfectly reasonable and a great idea, then asked her if she'd like to join me for a swim (I had left the pool for now) before returning to her gardening. Of course, she agreed. I was worried for a second about Melissa, but as soon as I thought of that, she casually threw in that she was at her grandmother's house for the holiday. Beth went back into her house to get a swimsuit, while I headed back and changed into my trunks (I could find things again, now that my room was back to normal). I got a couple cans of soda for us, and then let Beth into the yard. I knew that she knew we didn't have pool, but at no point in this had she indicated this was strange.
I put the soda on the patio table (it came with the pool chairs) as she arrived. She was wearing a short terrycloth robe, open, over a fairly modest one piece suit, and flipflops. She sat down on one of the chairs, her robe opening in what might have been an interesting way in a less modest suit, and thanked me for the soda.
"Why hasn't she noticed I suddenly have a pool?" I asked Power, who appeared sitting on one of the empty pool chairs.
"Unless you tell me otherwise, I simply have people ignore any inconsistencies that are generated, as you requested earlier (I guess I had, indirectly, when I had been playing with Lisa's body on the way from the ice cream shop). If you would prefer, I could change it so you always had a pool, but you have expressed reluctance for such changes, as they will effect anyone who might have had cause to interact with the pool in the past," she explained. "For example, your family would now have had a pool and would have interacted with it all this time, which would change some of your specific history. Your son would be on the swim team instead of the soccer team, for example, as he would have spent much more time swimming as opposed to practicing soccer in the backyard."
I noticed during all of this that Beth was just sitting quietly on a pool chair, her arm extended, reaching for the soda but stopped midway, breathing but otherwise looking spaced out. I guess this was what happened when I talked to Power and nothing else was going on; other people would just 'pause' and not notice the passage of time.
"Just leave it like this. You're right, I don't want to change things in the past unless I mean to. Actually, just leave the pool; no harm in having it going forward if it won't change anything in the past," I added, making my first permanent change. I figured no one would mind.