Tug of War 72.1

Six months later...

The woman crossed the station with confident steps, stopping right in front of the large clock close to the departure area. She saw that it was almost noon. Her train would arrive in fifteen minutes. Opening her compact powder case, she checked her reflection in the small mirror, and what she saw must have pleased her... the woman smiled, showing her very white teeth. As she closed the case, her attention was caught by a middle-aged man and a teenage girl who were standing in front of her.

"How can you be so damn stupid, young lady?" the man yelled, waving his arms wildly. Her plump cheeks, just like his bald head, was very flushed, and his tiny eyes were so squinted that were almost unnoticeable. "I'm your father, for God's sake! You have to do as I say!"

The woman behind them didn't like what she was seeing... Oh, she didn't like it at all! Whatever the young woman had done, assuming she had actually done something reprehensible, she didn't deserve to be humiliated in public like that. No one – or almost no one – deserved it.

"Oh, now what?" the man mocked his daughter. "Are you really going to start crying? You're just like that dumb woman, your mother, used to be. That's your problem! When are you going to stop being such a useless girl?"

The girl then rushed away towards the bathroom, covering her face bathed in tears with her hands. This was the cue for the woman to enter the scene...

"Excuse me" she said, approaching the man, who turned around clearly ready to start screaming again. When he saw the attractive woman who was addressing him, though, his fury deflated like a balloon, and an ugly, twisted smile came over his face.

"Umm... hello, Mrs...?"

"Oh, I'm not a Mrs., darling. I'm Susan; Susan Morris."

"N-nice to meet you, Ms. Morris" the man greeted her, smoothing his oversized mustache with his sausage-like fingers. "I'm Alfred Collins."

"Please, call me Susan" the woman told him, stroking the man's arm with her long nails. "Nice to meet you, too... Alfred. I can call you Alfred, right?"

"Sure, of course you can!"

"Now Alfred, dear, I don't mean to sound nosy or anything but I couldn't help but overhear the argument you were having with your daughter a little ago. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Oh, that was nothing important, Susan."

"You don't have to lie to me, darling. I know very well how impertinent and obnoxious young people these days can be. Tell me everything. We're trying to get intimate, remember?"

"A-are we? Y-yeah, of course we are! Alright, I just didn't want to bother you with such a stupid matter, but here it goes. The point is that Sarah just doesn't listen to me. I can't understand how she can be so ungrateful. I did everything for that girl after her mother passed away!"

"Oh, so are you a widower? I'm so sorry to hear that!" Susan exclaimed, giving him her best look of compassion. "You are so young!"

"Not so young, not so young..." Alfred chuckled, barely able to hide his satisfaction. "This happened about five years ago, you know... But to be honest, marrying Denise was a mistake in the first place."

"Why so?"

"Because she was stubborn and disobedient, exactly like her daughter. That woman didn't know her place. I was raised at a time when women knew their job was to take care of their husbands and children. That's what my mother did, just like my grandmother, great grandmother and so on. Society has always worked this way. Why reinvent the wheel?" Alfred ended his speech, staring at Susan as if daring her to say he was saying nonsense. To his grateful surprise, though, she broke out into a wide smile.

"Oh, I understand you perfectly well, Alfred!" the woman stated, caressing the man's arm once again. "You're absolutely right. The woman's role is to take care of her husband and children. It has always been like this. Those liberals want to destroy our families!"

"I know, right?" Alfred cried out, exultant. "I bet the Chinese are behind all this" he added, in a conspiratorial tone. "They want to make our men weak in order to make it easier to dominate us!"

"I don't doubt that!" Susan said, trying hard not to roll her eyes. "In any case, I have to say that I was never lucky enough to find a real manto take care of me. I'm a widow, too, but my deceased husband was... I don't like to criticize those who are no longer here to defend themselves, but the truth is that he was a failure, to say the very least."

"Oh, that's awful! A woman like you... you need a man who treats you the way you deserve" Alfred stated, trying to pull in his big belly and puffing out his chest.

"I wish, Alfred, honey" Susan smiled seductively. "I truly wish so. And about Sarah…what's wrong with her exactly?"

"It's like I was saying... she is identical to her mother. Long story short, there is a great man, member of a respected and influential family, who proposed to her. One chance in a million, you see... and the wedding would also be great for my business, by the way... but the stupid girl is reluctant to accept it because she wants to go to college in another state! College!" Alfred repeated the word with such disgust and anger that some droplets of saliva flew from his mouth. "As if college were going to teach her something useful! The stupid girl won the lottery but is too dumb to realize that!"

"Ah, now I understand your problem!" Susan said, doing her best to sound sympathetic. "Yeah, the whole situation must be so hard for a father as caring and concerned about his daughter's future as you..."

"You have no idea!"

"Have you ever thought that Sarah might need a mother figure in her life? To help her understand what's best for her?"

"Now that you mention it..." Alfred grinned. "I think that... umm... someone like you could be a wonderful influence on her."

"You flatter me, Alfred, dear" Susan giggled. "You really know how to treat a lady, don't you? How sweet! Oh, and now that I'm thinking about it, an idea to make Sarah understand that you are just trying to think about her future crossed my mind."

"What idea?"

"I don't know if you'll like this, Alfred. Maybe..."

"Just tell me, Susan. Coming from you, I'm sure it will be a wonderful idea!"

"Oh, I just can't resist your charm, darling. Very well. So here goes..."

Susan felt absolutely ecstatic. After so many months of searching, she had finally found a new man to work on. Alfred was just perfect, and she felt a thrill as she imagined all the possibilities. The memory of what she'd done to Richard was still fresh in her mind, and she couldn't wait to do something like that again. One thing she knew for sure, she would never forget Tiffany's graduation day, when everything happened...

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"What are you waiting for to go get changed, Richard, dear? You don't want to be late for our baby girl's big day, do you?"

"I already told you I'm not going, woman!" Richard yelled, furious. He was wearing one of his old flannel shirts and jeans, which at that point looked ridiculously big for him, but Susan knew it wouldn't last – that was probably the last day Richard would wear menswear.

"Now, now don't be like that now, dear. It's her graduation day. you can't miss something like this. You are her father."

"Stop referring to that abomination as if he were a real girl, Susan!" Richard growled. "None of this should be happening. I... I just want my son back."

"It's too late for that, Richard. You don't have a son but a beautiful daughter. And you worked hard to feminize him, didn't you?"

"Yes, but deep down, I always had hopes that he would come back to be a boy. The son I always dream of having... Or, at worst, I expected him to spend his life suffering... hating every minute of being treated like a sissy. But he's having fun, Susan. The degenerate freak is enjoying all this!"

"Oh, Richard, honey, Tiffany's not the one who's going to spend her life suffering..."

"What you mean?"

"Nothing. I'm just... thinking out loud. Here, have some tea, darling. You need to relax..."