Angels & Shadows

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Elizabeth dealt with the easement of her Aunt and Uncle so that they were oblivious to the carnage. They didn’t even question why the six man team were about their business in their house. The cleaners were under strict instruction to be finished and gone by Friday afternoon at the latest, so that the final preparations for Elizabeth’s eighteenth birthday party could be made.

Aunt Jillie was going through the guest list with Elizabeth, making sure that everybody was seated appropriately with the people that they would relate to.

“Oh and Corporal Warner has confirmed his attendance,” Elizabeth said nonchalantly. “He will be sitting between me and Ben,” she was taking no chances.

“Good, I have his place name already printed. Ah here it is and doesn’t it look grand?” Aunt Jillie handed the ornate seating card to Elizabeth.

She looked at the name on the printed card and her mouth opened in disbelief, it read:

‘Corporal Robert Meiklejohn Goldberg-Warner’.

“Oh my God,” she thought. “He must be Emanuel Goldberg’s son.”                                                                 

“Is there something the matter Lizzie?” Aunt Jillie was concerned about the sudden change that had come over her.

“No, no not at all, I was just thinking how strange and grand his name was too.”

Then Elizabeth remembered May’s comment and her knowing smile.

“I can’t even imagine what Emanuel Goldberg’s son, Robert will make of you when he sees you!”

Had May been spying on her future? She wondered, feeling a little cross at being manipulated. Elizabeth decided that she was going to give Corporal Warner a very hard time indeed and have it out with May.

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It was after four o’clock on Saturday afternoon and everything was in place ready for the guests to arrive at six. Elizabeth was in the bathroom making herself look beautiful and Ben was chilling in his room with his game console. He heard Elizabeth scream out in alarm.

“Ben, come here quickly!”

He threw the handset down and reached under the bed for his cutlass then ran down the corridor to her. Ben burst into the bathroom expecting the worst, only to be confronted with Elizabeth in her underwear on the scales with her head in her hands, she was horrified.

 “What kind of a girl, who dresses size ten, can weigh in at nearly twelve stone Ben?”

“Lizzie! You scared the crap outta me. Don’t you ever do something as stupid as that again,” Ben’s feelings were a mixture of relief and anger.

“But twelve stone Ben that’s as much as a man!”

“Let me try.” Ben eagerly stepped onto the scales and the digital display stopped at just over fifteen stone.

 “Wow, get a load of me. That’s some man you’re looking at Lizzie!” Ben was thrilled but Elizabeth was still not quite so sure about being that heavy.

Ben dropped his bathrobe. They both stood in their underwear in front of the full-length bathroom mirror examining their bodies. They were both fully mature with good muscle definition, man and woman, with not even the slightest hint of their childhood remaining. Ben concluded.

“It’s our genetic acceleration, just as May had told us would happen, giving us denser bones and muscles. You don’t really look that big, well except for your arse that is….”