Old Time Religion: Chapter Two
“Come on, dear. What’s the worst that could happen?” Ethel asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied David, who suddenly felt a bit of nervousness about going out.
“I’m sure we’ll have a real nifty time,” Ethel replied. David, convinced that Ethel was only putting on that kind of vocabulary to get a rise out of him, rolled his eyes.
“I suppose so. Alright,” David reluctantly conceded. “But not tonight. It’s already quite late. Let’s meet after class is over at the mall tomorrow and go from there.”
~
The next day during class, David couldn’t concentrate. His thoughts kept drifting back to Ethel, and their impending date.
“What have I got myself into?” he wondered aloud. “If I had met Ethel without knowing who she really was, I wouldn’t have considered dating her.”
This thought, however, suddenly made him feel ashamed of himself. Ethel was attractive, in her way. He remembered his feelings for her clearly from last night. And that was who Michelle would eventually be. It was a disguise, but it let him see the truth. That truth – he would not have romantically pursued Ethel – now made little sense to him.
The entire process was still strange and confusing to David. Thinking more closely about Ethel, with her distinct attitude, her tight fitting cardigan, and her mature woman’s body made him aroused. But he couldn’t imagine going out with her, posing as her boyfriend…could he?
He decided he could do it, but he’d be uncomfortable about it. But was he uncomfortable with her, uncomfortable about being seen with her, or uncomfortable about his own conflicted nature? That remained to be seen.
With all of this emotional buildup and self reflection, David felt he was mentally prepared for anything. Which was why he was even more shocked when he sat down at the bench at the mall where he was supposed to meet Ethel.
“Hi,” Michelle said as she walked up to him. Her slender, young body and platinum gold mane of hair were a surprising sight to a man who had been expecting a matronly woman named Ethel to join him.
“Hello, Michelle,” David said, tersely. He had been expecting to feel relief, but instead, he only felt bit of hollow disappointment. “Do you mind if I ask why, I mean…why you are, you know, yourself?”
“David, I’m always myself when I’m with you,” Michelle reassured him as she sat down and placed one hand on his upper arm.
“Well I know that,” David replied quickly. “What I meant was…” He paused for a moment, and stared deeply into Michelle’s eyes. Blue and bright, though they were, as he stared deeply into her black oasis of pupils and thought he could almost see Ethel staring back at him. “Oh,” he said at last. “You meant that as a double meaning, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Michelle responded. “And I’m glad you understood it. It’s a very good portent for our evening tonight.”
“I still don’t understand,” protested David.
“But you’re making progress, and that’s what matters. David, I’ve got to know I can trust you completely. Like I said, people in my family in the past have paid for my secret with their lives. More recently, others have paid for it with their hearts. My mother, for example, never trusted my father with her secret. One day, he found out on his own. He left my mother and never looked back. When he found out I was the same, he cut off all contact with me as well,” Michelle said tearfully.
“Michelle, I’m so sorry. You told me that you never talk to your father because he had passed away. I never knew the truth…” David began.
“David, that is the truth,” Michelle interrupted. “He’s dead.”
“But, I thought you just said…” David began, and Michelle cut him off again.
“The day after he decided never to speak to me again, he had a heart attack,” Michelle explained.
Something about that explanation bothered David, though for a while he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. Then, the idea dawned on him with dread.
Michelle was a witch. Michelle’s mother was one as well. The day after Michelle’s father does something hurtful, severing his connection, he winds up dead. Was it an interesting coincidence, or perhaps something more? Was Michelle, or perhaps her mother, responsible for causing her father’s heart attack as revenge for how he had treated them? In effect, had Michelle’s father been murdered by witchcraft? Or, more realistically, had magic gone out of control during an emotionally trying time?
He thought about directly asking Michelle, but decided against it. That was exactly the sort of question that was likely to hurt her, to show he didn’t trust her and her powers. The kind of question that would lead to think he had a lot in common with her father. That was the last thing he wanted.
“So, Michelle, are there any other powers that you possess, other than the disguise?” David asked innocently.
“Why yes, David. I have the power of mind reading,” Michelle said with a giggle.
“You do?” David asked incredulously.
“Yes. You’re thinking! You’re hungry! You want to go out to eat with me,” Michelle said at last.
“Actually, I’m not really that hungry, though I’m sure by the time the food’s actually on the table…wait, you were joking, weren’t you?” David asked as Michelle collapsed into gales of laughter.
“Of course I was joking, David. Why would I bother studying for class if I had mind control powers? I could cheat without ever getting caught. Come to think of it, why would I even have a career? I could become the world’s best poker player or something,” Michelle answered playfully as she finally stopped laughing.
“That was…humorous, but it doesn’t really answer my question,” David said. “Any other powers?”
“For me, no, at least not at the moment,” Michelle said with a sigh. “No woman in my family has had any other power for at least 3 generations. But there are legends that there have been a few who have developed more powers later in life. Maybe when I’m Ethel’s age for real, I’ll be more powerful. But, probably not,” Michelle replied.
No women having any other powers for three generations. That seemed to exonerate both Michelle and her mom from her dad’s death...but suddenly, the entire idea seemed prosperous and offensive. How could he have even contemplated such a thing? For the second time today, David felt ashamed of his own thoughts.
“You seemed concerned about something,” Michelle said as she stared into David’s eyes. “Anything on your mind?”
“Well, I suppose I was wondering why you weren’t, you know, disguised,” David said. “I mean, that’s what you implied you wanted to do yesterday.”
“David, that’s nothing I want to force on you. I thought you might be nervous, so I just showed up as Michelle. We can have a night out, just like this, if that’s what you want. If that’s what makes you…comfortable,” Michelle said quietly.
He thought about this for a moment. Is that what he really wanted? He remembered his disappointment
“I would never use this disguise to hurt you,” Michelle added. “I thought you might enjoy it, that’s all.”
“I think I would enjoy it, too,” David said at last.
“Really?” Michelle’s eyes lit up.
“How would you like us to present us to people?” David asked delicately.
“We don’t have to be dating,” Michelle said quickly. “I could pose as your aunt or something.”
“I guess that would work,” David replied. “Did you want to back to the apartment to, um, change, or…?”
“No, there’s a place we can do it here. The lady that runs the candle store here in the mall is part of our coven. She has a room in the back that we can use safely,” Michelle said as she smiled.
What surprised David more than Michelle’s comfortableness in changing in a public place, more than the knowledge that the lady that ran the candle shop was in a coven, was a single word: “we.”
“We?” David repeated the word.
“Yes, I thought, well, if you wouldn’t mind, that is…if you wouldn’t mind helping me with the disguise?” Michelle asked as she batted her eyes.
“Of course! I mean, I would absolutely love to!” David said.
“It’s a trust thing. To show that you want me to do it,” Michelle added.
David did want her to do it, and increasingly, he wanted to trust Michelle as well. He had trusted her in the past, and she had not let him down. Putting his trust in her was extremely comforting, he though. She trusted him by revealing the secret, and now he was about to repay that trust by being involved in helping her in the most intimate way imaginable.
They walked hand in hand into the candle store, which was only a short distance from their bench. When they arrived, Michelle exchanged a knowing nod with the operator of the shop, who reciprocated with her own nod smiled.
For the first time, David really noticed this woman. Of course, he had been to this mall dozens of times, and entered the candle store often. He knew the woman – though he couldn’t remember her name – but before this moment, she was just another matronly crone, a shopkeeper.
Armed with new information from Michelle, however, he suddenly realized that there could be much more than meets the eye.
The woman was, physically, what you’d expect from a woman in her late 50s running a candle store. She had fraying, slightly gray hair that flowed down her back in a hippy hairstyle. She was plump, heavyset, with two rather large but significantly sagging breasts. She had a rounded and soft looking belly that pressed out against her clothes. He imagined her legs might be heavy, but imagine is all he could do, as her legs were hidden by billowy, large purple dress.
Her chubby cheeks helped hide the appearance of some wrinkles, but she did have fairly big bags under her eyes and large dimples when she smiled, which David noticed she did fairly often. She had friendly, sparkling green eyes that looked kind hearted and familiar. More than anything, the woman radiated that when she was younger, she had decided to enjoy her youth as a warm, free spirit and had not let her age cleave her from this notion.
All of this, of course, was accessible to David from the first time he saw this woman. What was different this time, of course, was the context. Now that he knew this woman was in a coven with Michelle, she presumably had her power of disguise. This woman, David hypothesized, might really be Michelle’s age. Possibly even younger, David thought to himself. There was no way to tell, David realized, which in a way made the situation even more mysterious and interesting.
Being too polite to pose the question directly, David managed a tight lipped smile and a small nod before he followed her and Michelle back into a secret room behind the register. The room was well lit with a variety of candles, each issuing forth from a skull or a small gargoyle statue. There were a variety of very ancient looking gothic artifacts and trinkets strewn about the room, creating the perfect ambience for witchcraft.
When the door was shut and locked, David finally broke down. “Ok, I’ve just got to ask…that woman,” David began.
“Her name is Moira,” Michelle said helpfully.
“Right, about Moira: that’s a disguise, isn’t it? She’s much younger,” David said quickly.
“Yes,” Michelle said. “Very good David, I’m impressed. Your instincts are very sharp. What else do you know?”
“Well…David hesitated. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing and sound foolish just after receiving a compliment.
“Trust your instincts, David. I want to see what else you can tell me,” she urged.
“Well, my first thought was that she’s very young, as in your age. Possibly even younger than you,” David suggested.
“Yes, you’re right again!” Michelle said excitedly. “What else?”
“Well, her eyes were what stood out, very friendly, very familiar…” David’s voice trailed off as ne noticed Michelle rapidly nodding again.
David realized this was a clue. Michelle had started nodding at the word “familiar.” That could only mean one thing: he had met this woman before, somewhere, undisguised…
The answer came to him all at once, but he rejected it immediately. That just couldn’t be it, but…it was the only thing that made sense. She was in the coven…how many witch families were there?
“She’s your younger sister, Jillian,” David said at last.
“Yes!” Michelle cried as she wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, David. How did you know? Logic, gut instinct?”
“A bit of both, to be honest,” David said. “But why didn’t you tell me at first?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to test you. To see if you’d figure it out for yourself,” Michelle said. “I’m very proud of you.”
“Is everything going to be a test?” David asked.
“Not everything,” Michelle said, “but a lot of things, yes.”
“You’re such a law student,” David teased. “But why tests?”
“I guess because I’m still a bit insecure about the whole thing. But I know that if the situations were reversed, I’d have mixed feelings. I just want to make sure you’re really clicking with this whole thing. If you’re growing to love it, growing to love me, all of me,” Michelle said.
“I already love you, Michelle. I don’t need to grow into that,” David said, feeling close to her.
“Then, would you like to help me ‘get changed?” Michelle asked.
“Of course,” David said excitedly. Michelle was right that his feelings were a bit mixed at first, but now all he wanted to do was help Michelle disguise herself as Ethel. He wanted to be part of the process, to help it happen and prove to her he could embrace every facet of her being.
Michelle pulled her “Ethel clothes” out of the shopping bag she had been carrying. He kneeled in front of her and helped her put on her “old lady clogs,” after Michelle changed out of her tight jeans and into her brown Paisley Ethel dress. Under the dress, of course, was granny girdle style underwear. The dress was big and billowy on Michelle, but he knew on Ethel it would fit much tighter.
“What did you think of my sister?” Michelle asked, as she had David help zip up her dress in the back.
“She comes from good stock,” David replied. “Good genes, from your mom, no doubt.”
“True, she’s lovely. But she doesn’t look much like me, does she?” Michelle asked.
“Well, there are some similarities. But overall, no, Moira and Ethel do look different. But then you and Jillian never looked quite like twin sisters, either,” David added.
“She likes to tell me that she got the looks and I got the brains,” Michelle said with a hurt tone as she finished up straightening the dress.
“That’s not true. I mean, you may have got the brains, but you are both beautiful, just in different ways,” David added diplomatically.
“That’s good to hear,” Michelle said, her voice starting to croak a little. David gazed upon his girlfriend and saw her starting to change.
The skin of her feet became more wrinkled and translucent, and the same went for her calves, which had merged with her ankles. Michelle’s legs thickened and became lined with cellulite. David, feeling exited, walked closer to Michelle, and put his hands up her dress. He wanted to feel those legs for himself as they changed. He could feel the skin that was rougher with age, but also softer to the touch with fat. He gently stroked his fingers up and down her thighs, as if to help welcome to new flesh and even encourage and usher in the change. It was as if every stroke of his fingers aged Michelle’s legs a little more, causing them to get a little softer, a little more flabby, a little more filled with cellulite, varicose veins, and rough, old lady skin.
His hands moved up and felt her hips gloriously widening. Michelle’s hips were tiny, smaller than David’s. They were boyish hips that showed off Michelle’s thin physique, but nothing more.
Now those hips were expanding in his arms, stretching the dress as they did so. They were growing wider and wider, as if to tell David “I’m a woman now, a mature woman. A woman’s who is capable of bearing children. Maybe already many kids. Perhaps, in the future, yours.” He knew Ethel was post menopause, but that didn’t matter: those hips were telling him that the potent, erotic spark of fertility had once flourished in this woman.
Michelle had a painfully flat stomach, curving slightly inwards. It always exposed her ribcage and gave her the look that women often did anything to achieve. To get a stomach that looked like Michelle’s David knew, women denied themselves the pleasures of their favorite foods. They starved themselves, or forced themselves to regurgitate, to get a stomach like that. In short, they denied and tortured their tummies to get it to look how they imagined others wanted it to look.
The thought suddenly stuck David as tragic. He stood next to Michelle, gently rubbing the flat absence of her tummy, as if to tell it “It’s ok, you don’t have to do that anymore. You can eat dessert. You can keep your food down. You can enjoy life. Even as your metabolism slows with age, you don’t have to deny yourself anymore. Embrace life.” With each gentle rub, the flesh in his hands expanded and grew. The tummy went from concave to flat, then slightly round. It grew in his hands into a warm, soft potbelly that stuck out and would have hanged over her if it wasn’t for the granny spanks. It was flanked with two love handles and a deeply set belly button. He greedily sunk his finders into the soft flesh and licked his lips.
He moved his hands up to Michelle’s breasts. They were small, pert, youthful, and rested high on her chest. As he gently cupped them, they grow larger, softer, and heavier. As they grew more and more, they sagged lower and lower on her chest, until she had a full, large, fallen, matronly bosom. It fit perfectly with her rounded belly, which was there to support it.
David paused to make sure he ran his hands up Michelle’s arms. She always had toothpick arms, but that was rapidly changing. He eagerly squeezed them, wanting to encourage them to change. They became softer, flabbier, fleshier. He could imagine the visible jiggle that would occur if she waved at him from a distance.
Michelle’s face was rapidly changing too. Ethel’s features were quickly taking hold. Her neck became wrinkled and craggy. Her forehead furrowed in wrinkle lines as her eyes became more sunken, cold, and stern. The youthful tan and glow faded from her skin, replaced with weathered hide with a few age spots. Crows feet decorated the eyes, and her lips became thinner as her cheeks gained jowls. Lastly, her hair changed, and David helped Ethel set her graying, thinning, and shortening locks into a conservative bob. He also helped her with a pearl necklace and some old fashioned earrings.
“David,” Ethel said in her signature low, stern, forbidding voice. “That was very pleasant. I felt like you were nurturing the changes along, as it were. I’ve never disguised myself quite like that before,” she said. “It was lovely.”
“Help me put on the cardigan,” Ethel said, and as he helped her into it, she stooped forwards a bit more than usual, so that he could appreciate her large breasts pressing against it. The rest of her clothes tightly clung to her plump form, and created the effect of clothing that was too big on Michelle looking too small on Ethel.
She continued to play with the costume, pulling David’s face down into the cardigan to feel the strain of her breasts. She twirled him around and showed off how the back of her dress was distorted by her protruding and new fattened rump.
David, excited from the transformation, had a momentary idea of kissing her and perhaps making love, right in the secret room.
“I know what you are thinking about, young man,” began Ethel, evidently reading his mind. “But let’s save that for dessert. First, give Auntie Ethel a kiss, and we go to dinner.” Ethel said teasingly.
~
Ethel chose the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant known for high calorie comfort food and rich desserts. David could hardly imagine Michelle choosing such an establishment; she had her petite figure to worry about. But Ethel, free from such concerns, had chosen it. Since he knew that Ethel was Michelle’s future, he realized that it was likely at some point she’d start making this choice as Michelle. He wondered when that would be, and how quickly he’d be able to start noticing the consequences on her waistline.
Walking into the restaurant with Ethel seemed odd, yet also thrilling. David’s earlier nervousness seemed to have melted away, and he had no troubling asking for the table to be for two.
“So do you like being out with your Auntie Ethel?” She asked in a teasing way as she re-adjusted her cardigan. She pulled the fabric needlessly back and forth, showing off how different parts of it became distorted by how her large, fallen bosom.
“Um, yes,” replied David at last, highly distracted by the show. Ethel’s feet, clad in their old lady shoes, gently played with his under the table.
“Welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, have you had a chance to pick out what you want from our menu?” asked the waitress as she approached the table. Megan, or so her nametag read, was cheerful looking woman with strawberry blonde hair and a light dash of freckles on her golden pale skin. She had puffy, apple cheeks and high riding, large breasts that slightly strained her uniform perfectly accompanied her just slightly chubby figure.
“Well, I have a few questions, young lady,” began Ethel, her voice sounding more stern and old than ever. “What’s in the Huevos Rancheros? Anything spicy? I’m not supposed to eat that spicy stuff,” Ethel added, really hamming it up. She rubbed David’s foot under the table again and David smiled.
“Well, it does have cilantro and comes with Salsa, but that’s on the side,” Megan said.
“Hmm…what’s that?” Ethel asked. “I’m sorry. I’m not as young as I used to be,” Ethel began, giving David another playful love kick. “You’re going to have to speak up a little bit more than that when you are addressing a woman of my age,” she finished as she smiled directly at David.
“I said that…” Megan began, then stopped. “How about you try the baked macaroni and cheese? Nothing spicy in that,” she suggested.
“Baked mac and cheese? Sounds nifty. Give it a go!” Ethel said, and David could barely contain his giggling.
“So, what will you have?” Megan asked, turning to David. His attention had been so distracted that he hadn’t even glanced at his menu.
“I…um…I’ll have what she’s having,” he said at last.
“You’re still a young whippersnapper, you go ahead and order that spicy thing. I’ll live through you,” Ethel said.
“I guess I’ll have the Huevos Rancheros,” replied David.
“He’ll have that extra spicy,” Ethel said as she smiled.
~
Megan brought the main course without asking any questions about the nature of David and Ethel’s relationship. David’s meal was spicy, but not overly so, while Ethel’s food was “lip smakin’ good eats,” in her campy, old lady parlance.
When Ethel got up to “powder her nose” in the ladies room, David gazed longingly at her large posterior as it wobbled with Ethel’s waddling gait. When she returned, she bore a grim, forbidding expression.
Modern contraptions these days! One of those motion activated faucets turned on when I wasn’t expecting and sprayed water on my nice cardigan sweater, David,” she said, pointing to the wet blotch on the front of the garment near her protruding breasts. “There’s a spare in the bag, can you get it for me and then help me put it on?”
David, fingers shaking from excitement, rummaged through the bag. It was odd, going through the “Ethel bag,” and finding only Michelle’s clothes, with the exception of one spare brown cardigan. He removed it and then helped Ethel spin into it.
“No, the fit on this doesn’t look right,” Ethel complained. “Tug at it a little more here,” she instructed.” David complied, and as he pulled at the cardigan, her large breasts and tummy became even more accentuated. “Tug harder,” she growled, and he pulled it as hard as he could. For a moment, the garment stretched and displayed Ethel’s figure in a way that was both magnificent and comical. It exaggerated her womanly curves, but in a way that he imagined only men like him could fully appreciate.
That moment was sadly ended by a heart rending noise: a small “rip.”
“Look what you’ve done,” Ethel said as she playfully slapped at his hand. “You’ve created a small tear in my cardigan. Well, there’s only one thing to do now,” she said. “You’re going to have to go cardigan shopping with me tomorrow and then buy me a new one, young man,” she said with a wink.
“Really?” asked David. This didn’t sound like a punishment at all.
“Yes, there’s a store downtown that specializes in cardigans for women of my shape and size. The ‘Matrognome,’ I think it’s called. You’ll have to take me there and watch me try on different ones for hours. I may have to buy a few in different sizes if you keep taking me out to restaurants like this, though. Not that I mind the consequences of eating well.”
They both took their seats just as Megan returned. “Would any of you like to try some dessert this evening?”
“Of course, I’ve got such a sweet tooth. I think I’ll try the chocolate mousse cheesecake,” Ethel said.
“And for yourself?” Megan asked David.
“For me, um…how about just a cappuccino?” David asked.
“Oh, come on David. We are at the Cheesecake Factory after all. You have to order something sweet,” Ethel encouraged.
“Well. I am a bit full…” David protested.
“If you are full, I’ll steal a couple of bites from yours. Or perhaps we’ll take it home and have cheesecake for breakfast tomorrow?” Ethel asked.
“I’ll have Dutch apple cobbler cheesecake,” David said quickly, and Megan silently nodded and left.
Ethel cackled. “Haha, sorry if that embarrassed you, sweetie. I forgot for a minute I was supposed to be your aunt, not your girlfriend.”
“What do you mean?” David asked.
“You didn’t even notice, did you? That’s so sweet,” Ethel said. “A good sign, that is. I said we’d have breakfast together tomorrow, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” David said. She was right: it didn’t even occur to him that there was anything at all odd about the sentence, when it was uttered at the time. And, at the time, he was imagining having that breakfast with Ethel, not Michelle. Of course, Michelle never had cheesecake, but it was more than that. He was comfortable with her now. All fear and embarrassment was gone, and what’s more, Ethel knew it.
When the desserts came, Ethel ate all of her cheesecake, and half of David’s as well. Michelle, of course, would not have ordered the item in the first place. Had David ordered one, she would have had a polite bite or two and then claimed she was full. David was sad for a moment that they wouldn’t be enjoying it for breakfast the next day after all, but as they were leaving the restaurant, Ethel asked him to pick up a cheesecake to go for the next day.
~
“Did you have a good time, David?” Ethel asked him as they returned to his apartment.
“Yes, it was wonderful,” David said. “I can’t imagine a better end to my day.”
“I can…” Ethel said seductively, as she pushed her hands against her cardigan, pressing her breasts together and making them appear larger. “Come over here, young man…have a seat on Auntie Ethel’s lap.”
David didn’t need to be told twice. “Sit,” she ordered, and as he did so she kissed the back of his ear and stroked his hair.
David started to lose his willpower. He turned around and gently groped Ethel’s large, matronly bosom through her cardigan, and Ethel reached around him, hugging him and pressing his face against her chest. After a few moments, she released him, and David planted his lips against her thin, old ones, and they shared a passionate kiss.
“You know, us older women always have had a thing for you younger studs,” Ethel said as David lovingly kissed at her face and neck, appreciating every wrinkle, fold, and age spot. He greedily tried to drink all of her in, lustfully wanting to experience her very essence.
“Lie down, honey,” Ethel said, and she positioned herself on top of him and started to remove David’s clothes. Still fully clothed herself, she gently grinded her body on top of his. Her pearl necklace danged down and brushed against David’s bare chest. Her cardigan rubbed against his entire upper torso, along with the weight of her large breasts and belly. Against his legs, he felt the rest of the paisley dress. The clothes touched, teased, and enveloped him, seducing him completely. The disguise had David completely transfixed and starry eyed. They kissed again, and Ethel started to remove her granny panties.
David moaned appreciatively as Ethel billowed the dress over him, then positioned herself directly over him and ground down. His hands roamed up and down her back, occasionally playing with her grey hair.
As he became closer and closer, his hands cupped the front of her as well. They pressed against her cardigan, squeezing and cupping it. Seeing how each new loving touch changed the shape of how her body protruded from it was thrilling. Every motion of his hands, every squeeze and circular stroke, produced new and beautiful results. As things became more heated, her tummy seemed to bounce up and down as well, straining against the dress with both its natural weight and its indulgence in cheesecake.
They both cried out, climaxing together. They held each other for a while, gasping with passion and love.
“Thank you, David,” Ethel said at last.
“Well, ahem, it was my pleasure,” David said jokingly.
“No, I meant, thank you for so greatly rewarding my trust in you. I took a big risk in telling you my secret and you’ve handled it better than I could have imagined. You’re really a treasure, David,” she said with emotion in her voice.
“You’re wonderful too, Ethel. You’ve made me happy in ways I never thought possible.”
And with that, they closed their eyes and slept together.
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied David, who suddenly felt a bit of nervousness about going out.
“I’m sure we’ll have a real nifty time,” Ethel replied. David, convinced that Ethel was only putting on that kind of vocabulary to get a rise out of him, rolled his eyes.
“I suppose so. Alright,” David reluctantly conceded. “But not tonight. It’s already quite late. Let’s meet after class is over at the mall tomorrow and go from there.”
~
The next day during class, David couldn’t concentrate. His thoughts kept drifting back to Ethel, and their impending date.
“What have I got myself into?” he wondered aloud. “If I had met Ethel without knowing who she really was, I wouldn’t have considered dating her.”
This thought, however, suddenly made him feel ashamed of himself. Ethel was attractive, in her way. He remembered his feelings for her clearly from last night. And that was who Michelle would eventually be. It was a disguise, but it let him see the truth. That truth – he would not have romantically pursued Ethel – now made little sense to him.
The entire process was still strange and confusing to David. Thinking more closely about Ethel, with her distinct attitude, her tight fitting cardigan, and her mature woman’s body made him aroused. But he couldn’t imagine going out with her, posing as her boyfriend…could he?
He decided he could do it, but he’d be uncomfortable about it. But was he uncomfortable with her, uncomfortable about being seen with her, or uncomfortable about his own conflicted nature? That remained to be seen.
With all of this emotional buildup and self reflection, David felt he was mentally prepared for anything. Which was why he was even more shocked when he sat down at the bench at the mall where he was supposed to meet Ethel.
“Hi,” Michelle said as she walked up to him. Her slender, young body and platinum gold mane of hair were a surprising sight to a man who had been expecting a matronly woman named Ethel to join him.
“Hello, Michelle,” David said, tersely. He had been expecting to feel relief, but instead, he only felt bit of hollow disappointment. “Do you mind if I ask why, I mean…why you are, you know, yourself?”
“David, I’m always myself when I’m with you,” Michelle reassured him as she sat down and placed one hand on his upper arm.
“Well I know that,” David replied quickly. “What I meant was…” He paused for a moment, and stared deeply into Michelle’s eyes. Blue and bright, though they were, as he stared deeply into her black oasis of pupils and thought he could almost see Ethel staring back at him. “Oh,” he said at last. “You meant that as a double meaning, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Michelle responded. “And I’m glad you understood it. It’s a very good portent for our evening tonight.”
“I still don’t understand,” protested David.
“But you’re making progress, and that’s what matters. David, I’ve got to know I can trust you completely. Like I said, people in my family in the past have paid for my secret with their lives. More recently, others have paid for it with their hearts. My mother, for example, never trusted my father with her secret. One day, he found out on his own. He left my mother and never looked back. When he found out I was the same, he cut off all contact with me as well,” Michelle said tearfully.
“Michelle, I’m so sorry. You told me that you never talk to your father because he had passed away. I never knew the truth…” David began.
“David, that is the truth,” Michelle interrupted. “He’s dead.”
“But, I thought you just said…” David began, and Michelle cut him off again.
“The day after he decided never to speak to me again, he had a heart attack,” Michelle explained.
Something about that explanation bothered David, though for a while he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. Then, the idea dawned on him with dread.
Michelle was a witch. Michelle’s mother was one as well. The day after Michelle’s father does something hurtful, severing his connection, he winds up dead. Was it an interesting coincidence, or perhaps something more? Was Michelle, or perhaps her mother, responsible for causing her father’s heart attack as revenge for how he had treated them? In effect, had Michelle’s father been murdered by witchcraft? Or, more realistically, had magic gone out of control during an emotionally trying time?
He thought about directly asking Michelle, but decided against it. That was exactly the sort of question that was likely to hurt her, to show he didn’t trust her and her powers. The kind of question that would lead to think he had a lot in common with her father. That was the last thing he wanted.
“So, Michelle, are there any other powers that you possess, other than the disguise?” David asked innocently.
“Why yes, David. I have the power of mind reading,” Michelle said with a giggle.
“You do?” David asked incredulously.
“Yes. You’re thinking! You’re hungry! You want to go out to eat with me,” Michelle said at last.
“Actually, I’m not really that hungry, though I’m sure by the time the food’s actually on the table…wait, you were joking, weren’t you?” David asked as Michelle collapsed into gales of laughter.
“Of course I was joking, David. Why would I bother studying for class if I had mind control powers? I could cheat without ever getting caught. Come to think of it, why would I even have a career? I could become the world’s best poker player or something,” Michelle answered playfully as she finally stopped laughing.
“That was…humorous, but it doesn’t really answer my question,” David said. “Any other powers?”
“For me, no, at least not at the moment,” Michelle said with a sigh. “No woman in my family has had any other power for at least 3 generations. But there are legends that there have been a few who have developed more powers later in life. Maybe when I’m Ethel’s age for real, I’ll be more powerful. But, probably not,” Michelle replied.
No women having any other powers for three generations. That seemed to exonerate both Michelle and her mom from her dad’s death...but suddenly, the entire idea seemed prosperous and offensive. How could he have even contemplated such a thing? For the second time today, David felt ashamed of his own thoughts.
“You seemed concerned about something,” Michelle said as she stared into David’s eyes. “Anything on your mind?”
“Well, I suppose I was wondering why you weren’t, you know, disguised,” David said. “I mean, that’s what you implied you wanted to do yesterday.”
“David, that’s nothing I want to force on you. I thought you might be nervous, so I just showed up as Michelle. We can have a night out, just like this, if that’s what you want. If that’s what makes you…comfortable,” Michelle said quietly.
He thought about this for a moment. Is that what he really wanted? He remembered his disappointment
“I would never use this disguise to hurt you,” Michelle added. “I thought you might enjoy it, that’s all.”
“I think I would enjoy it, too,” David said at last.
“Really?” Michelle’s eyes lit up.
“How would you like us to present us to people?” David asked delicately.
“We don’t have to be dating,” Michelle said quickly. “I could pose as your aunt or something.”
“I guess that would work,” David replied. “Did you want to back to the apartment to, um, change, or…?”
“No, there’s a place we can do it here. The lady that runs the candle store here in the mall is part of our coven. She has a room in the back that we can use safely,” Michelle said as she smiled.
What surprised David more than Michelle’s comfortableness in changing in a public place, more than the knowledge that the lady that ran the candle shop was in a coven, was a single word: “we.”
“We?” David repeated the word.
“Yes, I thought, well, if you wouldn’t mind, that is…if you wouldn’t mind helping me with the disguise?” Michelle asked as she batted her eyes.
“Of course! I mean, I would absolutely love to!” David said.
“It’s a trust thing. To show that you want me to do it,” Michelle added.
David did want her to do it, and increasingly, he wanted to trust Michelle as well. He had trusted her in the past, and she had not let him down. Putting his trust in her was extremely comforting, he though. She trusted him by revealing the secret, and now he was about to repay that trust by being involved in helping her in the most intimate way imaginable.
They walked hand in hand into the candle store, which was only a short distance from their bench. When they arrived, Michelle exchanged a knowing nod with the operator of the shop, who reciprocated with her own nod smiled.
For the first time, David really noticed this woman. Of course, he had been to this mall dozens of times, and entered the candle store often. He knew the woman – though he couldn’t remember her name – but before this moment, she was just another matronly crone, a shopkeeper.
Armed with new information from Michelle, however, he suddenly realized that there could be much more than meets the eye.
The woman was, physically, what you’d expect from a woman in her late 50s running a candle store. She had fraying, slightly gray hair that flowed down her back in a hippy hairstyle. She was plump, heavyset, with two rather large but significantly sagging breasts. She had a rounded and soft looking belly that pressed out against her clothes. He imagined her legs might be heavy, but imagine is all he could do, as her legs were hidden by billowy, large purple dress.
Her chubby cheeks helped hide the appearance of some wrinkles, but she did have fairly big bags under her eyes and large dimples when she smiled, which David noticed she did fairly often. She had friendly, sparkling green eyes that looked kind hearted and familiar. More than anything, the woman radiated that when she was younger, she had decided to enjoy her youth as a warm, free spirit and had not let her age cleave her from this notion.
All of this, of course, was accessible to David from the first time he saw this woman. What was different this time, of course, was the context. Now that he knew this woman was in a coven with Michelle, she presumably had her power of disguise. This woman, David hypothesized, might really be Michelle’s age. Possibly even younger, David thought to himself. There was no way to tell, David realized, which in a way made the situation even more mysterious and interesting.
Being too polite to pose the question directly, David managed a tight lipped smile and a small nod before he followed her and Michelle back into a secret room behind the register. The room was well lit with a variety of candles, each issuing forth from a skull or a small gargoyle statue. There were a variety of very ancient looking gothic artifacts and trinkets strewn about the room, creating the perfect ambience for witchcraft.
When the door was shut and locked, David finally broke down. “Ok, I’ve just got to ask…that woman,” David began.
“Her name is Moira,” Michelle said helpfully.
“Right, about Moira: that’s a disguise, isn’t it? She’s much younger,” David said quickly.
“Yes,” Michelle said. “Very good David, I’m impressed. Your instincts are very sharp. What else do you know?”
“Well…David hesitated. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing and sound foolish just after receiving a compliment.
“Trust your instincts, David. I want to see what else you can tell me,” she urged.
“Well, my first thought was that she’s very young, as in your age. Possibly even younger than you,” David suggested.
“Yes, you’re right again!” Michelle said excitedly. “What else?”
“Well, her eyes were what stood out, very friendly, very familiar…” David’s voice trailed off as ne noticed Michelle rapidly nodding again.
David realized this was a clue. Michelle had started nodding at the word “familiar.” That could only mean one thing: he had met this woman before, somewhere, undisguised…
The answer came to him all at once, but he rejected it immediately. That just couldn’t be it, but…it was the only thing that made sense. She was in the coven…how many witch families were there?
“She’s your younger sister, Jillian,” David said at last.
“Yes!” Michelle cried as she wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, David. How did you know? Logic, gut instinct?”
“A bit of both, to be honest,” David said. “But why didn’t you tell me at first?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to test you. To see if you’d figure it out for yourself,” Michelle said. “I’m very proud of you.”
“Is everything going to be a test?” David asked.
“Not everything,” Michelle said, “but a lot of things, yes.”
“You’re such a law student,” David teased. “But why tests?”
“I guess because I’m still a bit insecure about the whole thing. But I know that if the situations were reversed, I’d have mixed feelings. I just want to make sure you’re really clicking with this whole thing. If you’re growing to love it, growing to love me, all of me,” Michelle said.
“I already love you, Michelle. I don’t need to grow into that,” David said, feeling close to her.
“Then, would you like to help me ‘get changed?” Michelle asked.
“Of course,” David said excitedly. Michelle was right that his feelings were a bit mixed at first, but now all he wanted to do was help Michelle disguise herself as Ethel. He wanted to be part of the process, to help it happen and prove to her he could embrace every facet of her being.
Michelle pulled her “Ethel clothes” out of the shopping bag she had been carrying. He kneeled in front of her and helped her put on her “old lady clogs,” after Michelle changed out of her tight jeans and into her brown Paisley Ethel dress. Under the dress, of course, was granny girdle style underwear. The dress was big and billowy on Michelle, but he knew on Ethel it would fit much tighter.
“What did you think of my sister?” Michelle asked, as she had David help zip up her dress in the back.
“She comes from good stock,” David replied. “Good genes, from your mom, no doubt.”
“True, she’s lovely. But she doesn’t look much like me, does she?” Michelle asked.
“Well, there are some similarities. But overall, no, Moira and Ethel do look different. But then you and Jillian never looked quite like twin sisters, either,” David added.
“She likes to tell me that she got the looks and I got the brains,” Michelle said with a hurt tone as she finished up straightening the dress.
“That’s not true. I mean, you may have got the brains, but you are both beautiful, just in different ways,” David added diplomatically.
“That’s good to hear,” Michelle said, her voice starting to croak a little. David gazed upon his girlfriend and saw her starting to change.
The skin of her feet became more wrinkled and translucent, and the same went for her calves, which had merged with her ankles. Michelle’s legs thickened and became lined with cellulite. David, feeling exited, walked closer to Michelle, and put his hands up her dress. He wanted to feel those legs for himself as they changed. He could feel the skin that was rougher with age, but also softer to the touch with fat. He gently stroked his fingers up and down her thighs, as if to help welcome to new flesh and even encourage and usher in the change. It was as if every stroke of his fingers aged Michelle’s legs a little more, causing them to get a little softer, a little more flabby, a little more filled with cellulite, varicose veins, and rough, old lady skin.
His hands moved up and felt her hips gloriously widening. Michelle’s hips were tiny, smaller than David’s. They were boyish hips that showed off Michelle’s thin physique, but nothing more.
Now those hips were expanding in his arms, stretching the dress as they did so. They were growing wider and wider, as if to tell David “I’m a woman now, a mature woman. A woman’s who is capable of bearing children. Maybe already many kids. Perhaps, in the future, yours.” He knew Ethel was post menopause, but that didn’t matter: those hips were telling him that the potent, erotic spark of fertility had once flourished in this woman.
Michelle had a painfully flat stomach, curving slightly inwards. It always exposed her ribcage and gave her the look that women often did anything to achieve. To get a stomach that looked like Michelle’s David knew, women denied themselves the pleasures of their favorite foods. They starved themselves, or forced themselves to regurgitate, to get a stomach like that. In short, they denied and tortured their tummies to get it to look how they imagined others wanted it to look.
The thought suddenly stuck David as tragic. He stood next to Michelle, gently rubbing the flat absence of her tummy, as if to tell it “It’s ok, you don’t have to do that anymore. You can eat dessert. You can keep your food down. You can enjoy life. Even as your metabolism slows with age, you don’t have to deny yourself anymore. Embrace life.” With each gentle rub, the flesh in his hands expanded and grew. The tummy went from concave to flat, then slightly round. It grew in his hands into a warm, soft potbelly that stuck out and would have hanged over her if it wasn’t for the granny spanks. It was flanked with two love handles and a deeply set belly button. He greedily sunk his finders into the soft flesh and licked his lips.
He moved his hands up to Michelle’s breasts. They were small, pert, youthful, and rested high on her chest. As he gently cupped them, they grow larger, softer, and heavier. As they grew more and more, they sagged lower and lower on her chest, until she had a full, large, fallen, matronly bosom. It fit perfectly with her rounded belly, which was there to support it.
David paused to make sure he ran his hands up Michelle’s arms. She always had toothpick arms, but that was rapidly changing. He eagerly squeezed them, wanting to encourage them to change. They became softer, flabbier, fleshier. He could imagine the visible jiggle that would occur if she waved at him from a distance.
Michelle’s face was rapidly changing too. Ethel’s features were quickly taking hold. Her neck became wrinkled and craggy. Her forehead furrowed in wrinkle lines as her eyes became more sunken, cold, and stern. The youthful tan and glow faded from her skin, replaced with weathered hide with a few age spots. Crows feet decorated the eyes, and her lips became thinner as her cheeks gained jowls. Lastly, her hair changed, and David helped Ethel set her graying, thinning, and shortening locks into a conservative bob. He also helped her with a pearl necklace and some old fashioned earrings.
“David,” Ethel said in her signature low, stern, forbidding voice. “That was very pleasant. I felt like you were nurturing the changes along, as it were. I’ve never disguised myself quite like that before,” she said. “It was lovely.”
“Help me put on the cardigan,” Ethel said, and as he helped her into it, she stooped forwards a bit more than usual, so that he could appreciate her large breasts pressing against it. The rest of her clothes tightly clung to her plump form, and created the effect of clothing that was too big on Michelle looking too small on Ethel.
She continued to play with the costume, pulling David’s face down into the cardigan to feel the strain of her breasts. She twirled him around and showed off how the back of her dress was distorted by her protruding and new fattened rump.
David, excited from the transformation, had a momentary idea of kissing her and perhaps making love, right in the secret room.
“I know what you are thinking about, young man,” began Ethel, evidently reading his mind. “But let’s save that for dessert. First, give Auntie Ethel a kiss, and we go to dinner.” Ethel said teasingly.
~
Ethel chose the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant known for high calorie comfort food and rich desserts. David could hardly imagine Michelle choosing such an establishment; she had her petite figure to worry about. But Ethel, free from such concerns, had chosen it. Since he knew that Ethel was Michelle’s future, he realized that it was likely at some point she’d start making this choice as Michelle. He wondered when that would be, and how quickly he’d be able to start noticing the consequences on her waistline.
Walking into the restaurant with Ethel seemed odd, yet also thrilling. David’s earlier nervousness seemed to have melted away, and he had no troubling asking for the table to be for two.
“So do you like being out with your Auntie Ethel?” She asked in a teasing way as she re-adjusted her cardigan. She pulled the fabric needlessly back and forth, showing off how different parts of it became distorted by how her large, fallen bosom.
“Um, yes,” replied David at last, highly distracted by the show. Ethel’s feet, clad in their old lady shoes, gently played with his under the table.
“Welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, have you had a chance to pick out what you want from our menu?” asked the waitress as she approached the table. Megan, or so her nametag read, was cheerful looking woman with strawberry blonde hair and a light dash of freckles on her golden pale skin. She had puffy, apple cheeks and high riding, large breasts that slightly strained her uniform perfectly accompanied her just slightly chubby figure.
“Well, I have a few questions, young lady,” began Ethel, her voice sounding more stern and old than ever. “What’s in the Huevos Rancheros? Anything spicy? I’m not supposed to eat that spicy stuff,” Ethel added, really hamming it up. She rubbed David’s foot under the table again and David smiled.
“Well, it does have cilantro and comes with Salsa, but that’s on the side,” Megan said.
“Hmm…what’s that?” Ethel asked. “I’m sorry. I’m not as young as I used to be,” Ethel began, giving David another playful love kick. “You’re going to have to speak up a little bit more than that when you are addressing a woman of my age,” she finished as she smiled directly at David.
“I said that…” Megan began, then stopped. “How about you try the baked macaroni and cheese? Nothing spicy in that,” she suggested.
“Baked mac and cheese? Sounds nifty. Give it a go!” Ethel said, and David could barely contain his giggling.
“So, what will you have?” Megan asked, turning to David. His attention had been so distracted that he hadn’t even glanced at his menu.
“I…um…I’ll have what she’s having,” he said at last.
“You’re still a young whippersnapper, you go ahead and order that spicy thing. I’ll live through you,” Ethel said.
“I guess I’ll have the Huevos Rancheros,” replied David.
“He’ll have that extra spicy,” Ethel said as she smiled.
~
Megan brought the main course without asking any questions about the nature of David and Ethel’s relationship. David’s meal was spicy, but not overly so, while Ethel’s food was “lip smakin’ good eats,” in her campy, old lady parlance.
When Ethel got up to “powder her nose” in the ladies room, David gazed longingly at her large posterior as it wobbled with Ethel’s waddling gait. When she returned, she bore a grim, forbidding expression.
Modern contraptions these days! One of those motion activated faucets turned on when I wasn’t expecting and sprayed water on my nice cardigan sweater, David,” she said, pointing to the wet blotch on the front of the garment near her protruding breasts. “There’s a spare in the bag, can you get it for me and then help me put it on?”
David, fingers shaking from excitement, rummaged through the bag. It was odd, going through the “Ethel bag,” and finding only Michelle’s clothes, with the exception of one spare brown cardigan. He removed it and then helped Ethel spin into it.
“No, the fit on this doesn’t look right,” Ethel complained. “Tug at it a little more here,” she instructed.” David complied, and as he pulled at the cardigan, her large breasts and tummy became even more accentuated. “Tug harder,” she growled, and he pulled it as hard as he could. For a moment, the garment stretched and displayed Ethel’s figure in a way that was both magnificent and comical. It exaggerated her womanly curves, but in a way that he imagined only men like him could fully appreciate.
That moment was sadly ended by a heart rending noise: a small “rip.”
“Look what you’ve done,” Ethel said as she playfully slapped at his hand. “You’ve created a small tear in my cardigan. Well, there’s only one thing to do now,” she said. “You’re going to have to go cardigan shopping with me tomorrow and then buy me a new one, young man,” she said with a wink.
“Really?” asked David. This didn’t sound like a punishment at all.
“Yes, there’s a store downtown that specializes in cardigans for women of my shape and size. The ‘Matrognome,’ I think it’s called. You’ll have to take me there and watch me try on different ones for hours. I may have to buy a few in different sizes if you keep taking me out to restaurants like this, though. Not that I mind the consequences of eating well.”
They both took their seats just as Megan returned. “Would any of you like to try some dessert this evening?”
“Of course, I’ve got such a sweet tooth. I think I’ll try the chocolate mousse cheesecake,” Ethel said.
“And for yourself?” Megan asked David.
“For me, um…how about just a cappuccino?” David asked.
“Oh, come on David. We are at the Cheesecake Factory after all. You have to order something sweet,” Ethel encouraged.
“Well. I am a bit full…” David protested.
“If you are full, I’ll steal a couple of bites from yours. Or perhaps we’ll take it home and have cheesecake for breakfast tomorrow?” Ethel asked.
“I’ll have Dutch apple cobbler cheesecake,” David said quickly, and Megan silently nodded and left.
Ethel cackled. “Haha, sorry if that embarrassed you, sweetie. I forgot for a minute I was supposed to be your aunt, not your girlfriend.”
“What do you mean?” David asked.
“You didn’t even notice, did you? That’s so sweet,” Ethel said. “A good sign, that is. I said we’d have breakfast together tomorrow, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” David said. She was right: it didn’t even occur to him that there was anything at all odd about the sentence, when it was uttered at the time. And, at the time, he was imagining having that breakfast with Ethel, not Michelle. Of course, Michelle never had cheesecake, but it was more than that. He was comfortable with her now. All fear and embarrassment was gone, and what’s more, Ethel knew it.
When the desserts came, Ethel ate all of her cheesecake, and half of David’s as well. Michelle, of course, would not have ordered the item in the first place. Had David ordered one, she would have had a polite bite or two and then claimed she was full. David was sad for a moment that they wouldn’t be enjoying it for breakfast the next day after all, but as they were leaving the restaurant, Ethel asked him to pick up a cheesecake to go for the next day.
~
“Did you have a good time, David?” Ethel asked him as they returned to his apartment.
“Yes, it was wonderful,” David said. “I can’t imagine a better end to my day.”
“I can…” Ethel said seductively, as she pushed her hands against her cardigan, pressing her breasts together and making them appear larger. “Come over here, young man…have a seat on Auntie Ethel’s lap.”
David didn’t need to be told twice. “Sit,” she ordered, and as he did so she kissed the back of his ear and stroked his hair.
David started to lose his willpower. He turned around and gently groped Ethel’s large, matronly bosom through her cardigan, and Ethel reached around him, hugging him and pressing his face against her chest. After a few moments, she released him, and David planted his lips against her thin, old ones, and they shared a passionate kiss.
“You know, us older women always have had a thing for you younger studs,” Ethel said as David lovingly kissed at her face and neck, appreciating every wrinkle, fold, and age spot. He greedily tried to drink all of her in, lustfully wanting to experience her very essence.
“Lie down, honey,” Ethel said, and she positioned herself on top of him and started to remove David’s clothes. Still fully clothed herself, she gently grinded her body on top of his. Her pearl necklace danged down and brushed against David’s bare chest. Her cardigan rubbed against his entire upper torso, along with the weight of her large breasts and belly. Against his legs, he felt the rest of the paisley dress. The clothes touched, teased, and enveloped him, seducing him completely. The disguise had David completely transfixed and starry eyed. They kissed again, and Ethel started to remove her granny panties.
David moaned appreciatively as Ethel billowed the dress over him, then positioned herself directly over him and ground down. His hands roamed up and down her back, occasionally playing with her grey hair.
As he became closer and closer, his hands cupped the front of her as well. They pressed against her cardigan, squeezing and cupping it. Seeing how each new loving touch changed the shape of how her body protruded from it was thrilling. Every motion of his hands, every squeeze and circular stroke, produced new and beautiful results. As things became more heated, her tummy seemed to bounce up and down as well, straining against the dress with both its natural weight and its indulgence in cheesecake.
They both cried out, climaxing together. They held each other for a while, gasping with passion and love.
“Thank you, David,” Ethel said at last.
“Well, ahem, it was my pleasure,” David said jokingly.
“No, I meant, thank you for so greatly rewarding my trust in you. I took a big risk in telling you my secret and you’ve handled it better than I could have imagined. You’re really a treasure, David,” she said with emotion in her voice.
“You’re wonderful too, Ethel. You’ve made me happy in ways I never thought possible.”
And with that, they closed their eyes and slept together.