Shipping Clerk Ch. 02

"Deal!" he smirked. Like that was going to happen. He was going to show this thing to his lawyer and, after they had a good laugh, he was just going to ignore it and let it expire.

"Fine," Lina said, "indecisive as always. It's a miracle you're still alive. I'll just see myself out. Keep the suitcase, it has some nice clothes in it. They were very expensive. Not that you care. You're welcome, by the way. I'm not lugging that thing up and down these stairs again, especially with that puddle of mystery ooze halfway down. You really did pick a disgusting place to live, you know? I can't believe you bring my daughter here. Anyway, you won't have to after this. You had better be wearing that outfit when I come pick you up on Wednesday."

With that, she stamped out the door in her very classy stilettos and Andy just watched her go.

Most of his mind was just numbed. It was a defense mechanism that he had learned over the years. If he tried to defend himself, the rant just went on longer and longer until he either gave in or simply stopped responding. He had discovered that if he didn't react to her provocations from the start, she would eventually either run out of steam, or inadvertently disclose the real reason behind the rant. And she had. She totally had.

But the tiny bit of his mind that was not numb, was looking at those gorgeous stilettoes that she wore so well and wondering how great they would look on girl-Andy.

Andy smiled and patted the letter in his pocket. She had surrendered it willingly, wielding it like a weapon. It truly was a weapon, but not the weapon she thought it was. It was now Andy's weapon. "Beware the double-edge sword," he chuckled to himself.

Andy picked up his cup of noodles, choked a quarter of it down, and tossed the rest. He was no longer hungry. The decrepit day-old peanut butter and jelly sandwich he put back in his backpack. "Lunch for tomorrow" he thought.

Then he got up and went to the front entryway and opened the small closet. He pulled out a two-by-four with a U-shaped notch cut in one end. Andy fitted the notch under the door handle and then stamped the base of the board into a notch that a previous tenant had cut into the floor. Key or no key, nobody was getting in here tonight without knocking the entire be-damned door down. Andy wasn't religious - few were these days - but he sent a prayer to that unknown predecessor anyway. It couldn't hurt. Maybe some of the gods were still paying attention.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Tape Measure

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"Beep-boop!"

Andy looked down at his phone. It was rebooting. "Good," he thought, "at least that part of the plan worked."

He looked around his empty apartment once more. "Might as well..." he started thinking... then he spotted the suitcase by the door. He scowled at it. It didn't magically vanish. He had zero interest in wearing anything Lina had purchased for girl-Andy. Soon, he would have his own income, his own money, and he could buy girl-Andy anything she wanted. He picked up the suitcase and stashed it behind the couch without bothering to open it.

Andy understood that, as someone now capable of getting pregnant and bearing a child, he was considered a "breeder". The post-pandemic paucity of fertile women had an enormous impact on society. Fertile women were valued, pampered, and precious. But they were expected to appreciate it. They were expected to express that appreciation. Oral sex was the most commonly-expected currency.

Andy smirked. Lina had probably expected to browbeat him into shifting into his female self, dress in the clothing she brought, and then reward her by providing lickies. It wasn't going to happen. Lina had a delicious vagina, and Andy was a cunt-licking pro after 6 years of marriage to her, but he would never willingly place himself between her lovely thighs ever again. He had escaped. She would have to deal with the loss. Or maybe Rochelle could handle that for her. It was none of his business.

Then he went and lay down on his bed. "Might as well call Mrs. Markowitz and beg off," he thought while dialing. He needed some rest and alone-time. Stress was building up. He could feel the tightness rising in his chest making it difficult to breathe. He would tell Mrs. Markowitz that they needed to reschedule, do some breathing exercises, calm down, and go to sleep. He could shower in the morning.

"Oh, hi Andy! I'm glad you called! Marilyn told me your phone had been shut off. Are you okay?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Uhh... had a run in with Lina a little bit ago. I had forgotten that she even had a key..." he petered out. "Can we do this tomorrow? I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. I had a big day."

"Wait, what? Lina was there?" suddenly Mrs. Markowitz's voice became very anxious. "Are you safe, are you harmed, are you okay?"

"Yeah, was fine. Most of it was boilerplate; 'you're mean, you're cruel, you're selfish and irresponsible, you made Abby cry,' and so on. You know the classic manipulator strategy; fear, obligation, and guilt? She's like a machine gun, hitting you with one after the other until you don't know which way is up."

Mrs. Markowitz paused on the line. It was a significant pause, and initially he wasn't sure if his phone had been cut off again or not.

Finally, she spoke again. There was a very slight change in tone, and he wasn't sure what it meant. Before, she had been worried, but now there was deep concern in her voice. "Honey, are you okay? Because if you're not, I'm about to call a car and head straight over there! Please tell me you're okay. But don't lie to me if you're not. Please don't do that"," she pleaded with him.

Andy was a bit taken aback. Maybe he told her too much? He had survived foster care hell by always avoiding attention to the best of his ability. And now he had the undivided attention of one of the most important executives at Stotts Trucking. He wasn't sure how much he could say if he wanted her to stop paying attention to him. No, that wasn't happening, he realized, thinking furiously. This was a brand-new situation and it required a brand-new approach. An authority figure wasn't threatening or manipulating him, she was genuinely concerned. That hadn't happened to him since his mother died.

In that moment of indecision, poised on the cliff of a new life, Andrew Lavois Grumman made a choice. He made a leap of faith. He decided to trust an authority figure. "Ma'am, here's what's happening right now. I'm in my room, the door to my room is locked. The door to the apartment is locked and propped. Nobody is getting in here. I am physically safe. But my chest is tight, I'm having difficulty breathing. I'm probably on the verge of a panic attack. I need to lie here, do my breathing exercises for an hour or so and then I'll fall asleep. In the morning I'll be fine. I can come to work. I can do my job. Nobody will know. Nobody will notice. That's why I'm asking you to let me go do that."

There was another pause on the line. Mrs. Markowitz was thinking. It didn't take long. She was a woman of mature years who had been managing employees and children for decades. "Andy," she said in a very, very soothing-but-not-patronizing voice, "I want you to try something for me. Something new. I want you to use a tool that you've never had before. I want you to shift. You can perform a zero-shift if you want, but you need to shift right now, do you understand?"

Andy didn't understand. "What's a zero-shift?"

"It's when you shift, but into the same gender you're in right now, can you do that? My understanding is that some people can, and some can't."

"Honestly, Ma'am, I have no idea." Andy replied. He would have to shift into girl-Andy. He knew he could do THAT... somehow.

Without responding further, Andy laid back on his shitty dumpster-find mattress and... thought of himself as a girl. It wasn't easy. He simply hadn't done it before. Shifters automatically shift into their base forms when they fall asleep. Like 90% of active shifters, Andy's base form was female. At this point, on Monday evening, Andy had been girl-Andy twice. Once when he fell asleep after an evening of mind-blowing sex with a woman who was apparently Harper, Harper & Ferry's secret agent. Secondly, when he fell asleep in his own bed on Sunday evening. Both times he had awakened in the morning, panicked, and immediately shifted back to "himself". Shifting into one's base form was natural and involuntary. It just happened, and it required zero conscious input because, duh, one had just lost consciousness.

This "zero-shift" thing was out of the question. Even if Andy knew how to do it, it was a terrible idea. Envisioning himself AS himself meant envisioning himself as he was right now; emotionally locked down, hardened, and bottled up. He had just absorbed yet another one of Lina's tirades. He hadn't responded to any of it, he just let it flow... into him, into his heart, where he kept it under lock and key so that he could respond to her as dispassionately as possible. The only other option - respond in kind - was a terrible idea. Andy had tried it a few times and hated IT and then hated himself afterwards. No, he had the best strategy; let Lina use him as her emotional punching bag, wait for her to run out of steam, and then find out what this was really all about.

It worked. It was effective. It was necessary. But there was a very, very high price. Right now, Andy's heart was full of poison and bile, he... HE... was packed with "concentrated evil" right now. But, he thought, maybe girl-Andy wasn't?

It was worth a shot. Andy thought about girl-Andy. He honestly and truly had no idea what she was like. He really didn't. He had never met her, he had never BEEN her, so how could he know? But you know who he did know? He knew his daughter Abby. Abby was a pure soul, unsullied by the slings and arrows of adult life. She was pure, she was honest, she was open and loving and precious and... Andy shifted.

Snaps, pops, and crackles like cooking bacon assaulted his ears as his flesh and bones rippled and shifted into a different form. He had never shifted intentionally before. It was a bit disorienting, and she lay on the bed confused for a bit as she came out of it.

"Andy, Andy, are you there? Are you alright? Do you feel better now? Shifting completely resets the body, so any built up stress should have dissipated when you shifted."

Slowly the words faded into her awareness as Andy recovered. "That was weird," she thought as she carefully sat up.

"I'm fine, Ma'am," she replied. "Oh my goodness! This is my voice now? How crazy is that?"

"Are you sure you're okay, honey?" she heard from the phone on the credenza. Andy reached for it and... realized that she had shorter arms than before. Plus, there was some massive boobage preventing her from reaching across her chest now.

"Wow," she said in her new, higher-pitched voice, "those are some serious boobies."

"You have big tits now?"

"Umm, yeah, seems so, or maybe I just have tyrannosaurus arms or something? I wonder how tall I am now?"

"Five foot two."

"How do you know that?"

"Because it's one of the constants. If you're in the 35th percentile in height as a male, you'll be in the 35th percentile in height as a female. Andy, in your male form you are 5'8" tall, therefore, you are now 5'2" tall... plus or minus half an inch or so. We can see later when I measure you in person. For now, let's take it for granted, okay?"

"Okay, whatever. I'm sure it's fine," Andy responded. This really DID feel better. All of the tension from her run-in with Lina was gone. Where had this ability been for her whole life?

"Anyway, I gotta let you measure me for, umm, measurements and stuff. Talk me through it, what do I do next?"

"I assume you're lying down?"

"Yeah, sorta. Had to sit up a bit to get my phone. It was all the way over there all of a sudden."

"Then stand up and try to walk around."

Andi did so, and nearly fell over, catching herself on the end table and nearly spilling the lamp on the floor. "Whoa!" she cried out.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, fine Ma'am, just finding my balance. Okay, got it, what next?"

"Can you turn the video on?"

"No Ma'am, not happening."

"That's fine, honey, I'm here to support you. You tell me what you're comfortable with, and that's how we'll do it."

Andi almost broke down crying. She tried, she really tried, but she wasn't able to stop a single sob from breaking out.

"Are you sure you're okay, honey? I'm really worried here."

"Yes, Ma'am, just a delayed reaction from Lina's visit," Andi lied unconvincingly. "By the way, I have the sexretary offer letter from HH&F, exactly as you predicted this afternoon."

"Oh really? Isn't that fascinating? Hold on to it and hand it directly to your lawyer tomorrow. Don't show it to anyone else, dear, not even to me. How did you get it?"

"I just took it and put it in my pocket. Lina's verbally abusive, not physically abusive. So if I put something out of reach it's usually safe. Anyway, she said it's a one-time offer, I have 48 hours to sign or it goes away. Can we do the measurement thing now? This is really weird, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to getting new outfits. Isn't that strange?"

"Not at all, dear. You've completely changed genders and you'll find that your personality and interests will change a bit, as well. We girls like shopping, and we're about to shop for some new clothes. Now, the first thing you need to do is take off all of your clothes."

Andi looked down at her blue polo shirt. She was about to see her own breasts for the first time. Deciding that it was like ripping off a band-aid, she pulled it over her head and tossed it on the bed. Then she looked down. "Wow!" she thought, "that really IS some serious boobage. I could feed twins with these. Heck, I could feed an ARMY of twins with these things!"

With her chin on her chest, she was getting an amazing view of two expansive, creamy globes capped with light pink nipples. Boy-Andy had always been fond of large breasts, so this was probably HIS fault. The first time a shifter changes gender, their body needs a template. For the most part, it just uses whatever genetic material is on hand. So that means that the new shifter will normally end up looking more-or-less like their own sibling. But the S-virus didn't differentiate between dominant and recessive traits. So, when Andy went to the concert on Saturday he was a green-eyed, brown-haired man, and now she was a blue-eyed strawberry blonde... with really big tits.

"Wo-o-ow," she repeated out loud as she gently cupped the two heavy mounds.

"Wow, what?"

"I've got boobs, really big ones!"

"You sound pretty excited."

"I know, this is old hat to you, but super new to me. I like 'em," Andi replied, still hefting her new breasts. They were really heavy. Somehow, they managed to be both massive and perky, a delightful combination. She heard that about shifter girls. They didn't really need bras for support. Since their bodies shifted each day, automatically renewing itself, their breasts were always firm and perky. Even extremely large breasts like the ones she was currently playing with.

"Good, body positivity is important. I'm glad we're doing this. I just want you to know that I've been really impressed with your bravery throughout this difficult situation. So, let's get you measured. Take the tape measure over to the mirror."

Andi shuffled over to the mirror. She was still wearing boy-Andy's pants, so she wiggled out of them. She was also still wearing boy-Andy's boxers. They looked wrong and they felt wrong, so she took them off, too. Now she was completely nude and looking at herself in the mirror, with her hands on her hips. "Wow," she said again for the umpteenth time. "I really do have some amazing headlights. And look at these babymakers! I've got some serious breeder hips here, Ma'am. I hope we can get something that fits."

Then she turned to one side, "Oh wow, and umm, I got the curves EVERY-where. I really did do a number on myself, didn't I? They say that when a guy becomes a shifter, he tries to turn himself into his own personal sex-fantasy girl. I'm not sure if that's right, because I really dig tall, athletic women like Lina, and I'm totally not that."

"I don't know, honey, you won't turn your phone on so I can get a good look at you," the voice on the phone responded, somewhat peevishly.

Andi looked at the phone on the credenza. There was a plastic action figure that she used to hold her phone up while watching videos. She couldn't afford a television, and the ones she found in the dumpster didn't work. If she turned the phone's video call feature on and propped it up, then that would work. She always worried that Lina could use her control over the phone to spy on her, so she kept that feature turned off. It even had a piece of electrical tape over it. One couldn't be too careful these days.

Once she considered it, though, the thought of a woman seeing her naked didn't bother Andi at all. Boy-Andy, like every other high school student, had started using the adult locker room at his high school after he turned eighteen. It was coed. Official government policy was that frequent sex by consenting adults was an important factor in rebuilding the population. And what better way to encourage reproduction? Just pack a group of naked teenagers into a room and let nature take its course! At this point in her life, Andi had seen literally hundreds of naked breasts, penises, and vaginas over the years. She wasn't going to walk down the street naked or anything like that - especially not in this neighborhood - but female nudity in appropriate venues was old hat to her. She just hadn't ever been the nude female that was... nude.

This was a special circumstance and Mrs. Markowitz needed to be able to see her in order to help her get the right outfit. For some reason, Andi felt that wearing the right clothing with the right fit was extremely important. Boy-Andy had never really cared about such things, but she did. She was going to do it!

"All right, I'll do it!" she said forcefully. "I'm going to do this. I want the right clothes and you need to see what you're doing. I mean, it's no different from the school locker room, right? I've seen literally hundreds of boobies, there's no reason why you shouldn't see mine."

"That's the spirit! Oh my, you ARE a short stack, aren't you? Omigoodness, you're absolutely lovely. I knew it!" Came the delighted voice from her speakerphone.

Andi preened for the camera, soaking up the positive attention. This was turning out far better than she expected. She turned to one side, "You don't think my butt is too big?"

"No, honey, that's just more cushion for the pushin'. You're going to make a lot of boys really happy someday. I have a pretty big bum myself and Mr. Markowitz loves pounding away at it. He even pulls my hair and makes me call him "Sir" while he's doing it."

Andi couldn't believe this was happening. She was talking about sex with Mrs. Markowitz, one of the senior executives at her company! Mrs. Markowitz was unfailingly kind, cheerful and helpful, and boy-Andy always liked her. It just never occurred to him that she was also a sexual being. One who apparently enjoyed being dominated by a man... kinky!

"Are women really like this with each other?" she asked herself. Boy-Andy had heard that was true but had obviously never experienced it. But now that Andi was a girl, a whole new world was opening up for her. It was disconcerting and a little bit exciting. What other secrets could she learn? She really wanted to ask Mrs. Markowitz about The Global Matriarchy's secret underwater island volcano headquarters base but decided that it was best to remain silent about that. Eventually, Agent Double-X would contact her. In the meantime, she just needed to play along.