Taffys Man

by Lani Aames

  wasn’t with her. She looked around the store.

  “Lose something?” Myrtha put another pretzel into her mouth and chewed noisily.

  “Manny came in with me, but I don’t see him.” Taffy’s gaze swept the room again. “He

  wouldn’t have left without me.”

  “He didn’t.” Myrtha tossed her head toward the basement door which stood ajar a few

  inches. “Otto said no body is to go in the basement. He didn’t say anything about a hand.”

  Just as Taffy reached the door and pushed it open wider, a crash from the direction of Otto’s office sounded and propelled her down the first few steps.

  “Oh. I’m supposed to say you can’t go down there. Better hurry,” Myrtha advised.

  Taffy flipped the light switch, but no light flared below. The cheapskate ogre still hadn’t put a new bulb in the basement socket. Myrtha once told her the bulb had been blown when she first came to work there over fifty years ago.

  “Manny? Can you hear me, Manny? ” Taffy whispered to prevent Otto from hearing her, but apparently, Manny couldn’t hear her either because she didn’t receive an answering tap.

  She went down a few more steps, holding her hand against the wall to keep her balance as

  her eyes adjusted to the gloom. The light through the open door didn’t reach far on the stairs and only a small amount of dim light came through the small, grimy windows near the ceiling. By the time she reached the bottom, she could see most of the basement, though shadows shrouded the corners in the crowded room.

  Untidy mounds of broken furniture and stacks of boxes, books, and magazines threatened to

  topple over. Near the far wall, the long box still lay on its horizontal stand, and Manny stood on the tips of two fingers in front of it. Taffy wound her way through the piles of junk, careful not to knock anything over, and stopped beside Manny.

  “Otto’s here. We need to leave now,” she said in a hushed tone of voice.

  Manny didn’t move or tap a sound. She would have sworn he was staring at the long

  box…if he had eyes to see with.

  As her sight became even more accustomed to the dimness, she shuddered. The long

  wooden box resembled a coffin, something she hadn’t had time to notice the day Otto cornered her.

  “Manny, please, let’s get out of here,” she whimpered.

  Taffy stepped forward, intending to scoop Manny up and make a run for it. When she

  moved, a dull reflection of light from the side of the wooden box caught her eye. She bent closer and squinted. Screws held a small brass plate in place, but she couldn’t tell what, if anything, was engraved on it. Manny’s fascination with the box had piqued her curiosity, too, so she

  rummaged in her purse until she found the small penlight attached to a key chain.

  With the tiny shaft of light aimed at the plate, she still couldn’t make anything out because of what looked like decades of tarnish and dirt build-up. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and scrubbed at the brass, revealing letters in a fancy script—I…m…m…a…

  Before she could uncover the rest, the basement door slammed back against the wall with a

  thundering crash.

  “Omikum, omakum, odinga odart, ” Otto roared in Ogrish as he stomped down the stairs.

  Then he switched to English. “I smell the blood of a Taffy Trueheart!”

  Taffy whirled around, terror making her heart pound inside her chest. She jumped when

  Manny landed on her shoulder.

  He pointed for her to go around the mounds of junk. =Close to the wall. Stay down,= he

  ordered in quick taps.

  Fear nearly paralyzed her because she didn’t know what Otto might do if he found her

  apparently alone in the basement once again. He’d never consider Manny a threat and would

  probably squash him like a bug under his gigantic foot. She’d do what Manny said since he

  seemed to have a plan.

  When she nodded, Manny jumped into the air and landed out of her sight. She hunkered

  down as low as possible behind the heaps of stuff and followed a narrow, winding pathway that ran more or less parallel to the wall as Otto clomped deeper into the basement after her.

  When she made the last turn at a corner near the stairs, she knocked over a shoulder-high

  stack of magazines. The old publications fell against a rickety étagère, which collapsed beneath their weight. Then the shelves smashed into a bunch of chairs which slid off the table, where they had been piled, and clattered to the floor.

  In the sudden silence that followed, Otto growled deep in his throat, a rumbling so intense it made the air vibrate and the hairs on Taffy’s arms stand on end. She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from making a sound and ducked behind a highboy missing all its drawers. Only a few more feet until she reached the foot of the stairs. When was Manny going to make his move?

  She heard Otto turn around and start back in her direction with booming steps. Maybe she

  should go now before he reached the stairs and blocked her way. Was Manny already at the top waiting for her?

  As she started to take a step, Otto snarled, “What th—?” just before he fell with an explosive boom. His outstretched arms caught the piles of furniture and boxes, breaking and scattering them. Splinters of wood and bits of paper rained down like confetti.

  Without a backward glance at Otto and the devastation he’d caused, she ran for the staircase.

  Manny joined her from the direction where Otto lay and, taking a flying leap, landed on her shoulder when she’d reached halfway up the stairs. Taffy barreled through the basement door at a dead run with Manny holding onto her shoulder in a tight grip.

  Myrtha sat at her desk. She popped a Plutonian Pretzel into her mouth with one hand and

  held out the other, an envelope stuck between her fingers.

  “Thanks!” Taffy called out and snatched her paycheck on her way out the front door. She

  didn’t stop running until she was several blocks away from the store and safely seated on the ghost trolley.

  Manny patted her shoulder, and she hugged him to her. What would she do without her left-

  hand man!

  Chapter 4

  “Oh, Manny…just a little lower…yes, that’s it… yes, oh, yes! ” Taffy cried out. She shivered and looked over her shoulder. “Manny, you are the best back scratcher in the world. If your counting business ever falls through, you’d make a mint scratching backs.”

  =I’ll keep that in mind,= Manny tapped on her skin then walked up her spine to her

  shoulder. =Shouldn’t you eat your ice cream? It’s melting.=

  Taffy sat up in the bed, Manny lightly gripping her shoulder so he wouldn’t slip off.

  “There’s something I should tell you about the ice cream,” she began, but she didn’t quite

  know how to explain.

  =I know ice cream makes you drunk. If you want to eat it, go ahead. I know how to make

  your hangover remedy.=

  “No, it’s not that.”

  =I’m sorry we didn’t win first place so you’d have a year’s supply. But third place is great considering we were handicapped. You should be able to get a nice buzz off a pint.=

  Taffy smiled. “It’s not that, either. I’m surprised we won anything, too, and I’m happy with third place.”

  =Then what is it, Taffy?=

  She reached for the bowl of ice cream on the nightstand. “Just after the contest was over, I asked Electra to make our prize something special for us—well, for you. She calls it Manifestival Mocha. It won’t last long. Less than an hour, she said.”

  =What won’t last?=

  Taffy sighed. “The effects of the spell she put on the ice cream.”

  =What spell?=

  She lifted Manny from her shoulder and set him in front of her, in the center of the big bed.

  “To give you a body.”


  Manny lay still for a moment, and Taffy was afraid she must have somehow insulted him.

  Perhaps he thought that she thought being a hand-thing wasn’t enough. Yes, she’d believed it in the beginning, but the past few days had completely changed her mind. Manny was the sweetest, gentlest, most considerate man she’d ever spent time with. How could she consider him anything less?

  Then Manny tapped on the comforter and she had to watch his forefinger closely to see what

  he had to say.

  =A body for me? Will it be my real body?=

  She nodded. “Electra said the spell works with your DNA. It will recreate your body exactly as it was, so we’ll know what you looked like. Maybe when you see yourself in a mirror, you’ll remember.”

  =Maybe…=

  “Hey, even if you don’t, it still might help us find out who you really are and what happened to you. I’ll take a picture of you, and we can show it to everyone we know. Surely, someone will recognize you.”

  =I don’t know. I’ve been here a very long time.=

  “Don’t worry about that. There are some very old people in Spellfire who might remember

  something.” Taffy tried to be encouraging, but she didn’t know if they’d ever find out anything about Manny’s past and what happened to him. One thing was sure, though, if they didn’t try, they’d never know. “Electra said some of the ingredients are rare and hard to find, so she won’t be able to make any more for a long time. But we have a whole pint of the stuff and it only takes a spoonful to manifest your body.”

  Manny remained still, as if thinking. Taffy didn’t say anything. She stirred the spoonful of ice cream in the bowl until it turned creamy and smooth.

  =A body… my body…= Manny suddenly tapped. =I didn’t think it would ever be possible.=

  “Electra said she didn’t either, but at the last Hextasy convention she attended, she picked up an ancient scroll that contained a spell for manifesting whole things from parts. She tweaked it a bit to work on living things, too. She didn’t have time to test it…so it might not happen. She can’t guarantee it’ll work.”

  Again, Manny remained still and silent. She didn’t say anything else. The decision was his

  to make, not hers. Finally, his forefinger moved.

  =What do we do?=

  Taffy took a deep breath. “Electra said to smear it on the top of your wrist. I’ll have to

  remove your bandana.”

  =All right.=

  She pulled off the knotted denim and dropped it on the bed. The top of Manny’s wrist was

  smooth and flat.

  =Go ahead, Taffy. Do it.=

  She dipped her fingers into the melted ice cream and spread the gooey brown stuff all over

  Manny’s wrist. When she had the entire surface covered, she set the bowl on the nightstand.

  They waited what seemed like an eternity, but could have been no more than a minute.

  =I guess Electra didn’t get it quite right,= Manny tapped. =Maybe it wasn’t meant to be for me to have a body.=

  Taffy nodded, but her heart had dropped to the pit of her stomach and the backs of her eyes burned. She blinked to keep the tears at bay. She didn’t care whether Manny had a body or not, but she felt bad for him. The sorceress and owner of Sins was renowned for her magical abilities with potions and spells, but Taffy never should have taken the enchanted ice cream unless

  Electra was sure the spell would work! “I’m sorry, Manny. I’ll ask Electra to keep at it. She’s the most powerful sorceress in Spellfire. She just needs more time, that’s all.”

  =Don’t be sorry, Taffy. I know you and Electra were only trying to help.=

  Suddenly, Manny jerked then all four fingers and thumb stuck straight out and stiffened.

  Taffy’s heart skipped a beat. “Manny! Are you all right?”

  He didn’t move, but a golden spark ignited in the center of his wrist. Then the spark flared into two rows of glowing gold ribbons that twisted and wound around each other. Taffy watched in fascination as the double helix moved up, rapidly creating his forearm, elbow, and upper arm.

  At his shoulder, it split in three directions. Twin rows of winding ribbons went out and up to form his shoulder, neck, and head. A second sped across to build his chest, right shoulder, and right arm. A third raced downward shaping the rest of his torso, genitals, legs, and feet.

  A soft, golden glow emitted from his entire body, except for his left hand. Taffy scooted

  toward him to have a closer look. Slightly curly dark brown hair touched the tops of his

  shoulders while shorter locks covered his forehead. A long nose with flaring nostrils softened the harsher lines of his angular cheekbones, square jaw, and thin lips. Sculpted muscles defined his long, lean arms, legs, and chest.

  His sac lay heavy at the juncture of his thighs, and his cock produced his first movement. It stirred and grew, lengthening and hardening, with a smooth arch. Taffy reached out her hand, but quickly withdrew it when his chest rose sharply as he took his first breath.

  His thick lashes blinked open, revealing deep blue eyes that stared at the ceiling. He raised his left hand to his face and spoke. “I-I feel strange.”

  The tears she’d held back now welled in her eyes. “You have a body, Manny.”

  * * * * *

  Manny stretched out his right arm and looked at it through his new eyes. Suddenly, he grinned.

  “Yeah, I do. And I can speak. Taffy…” He turned his head toward her and stared. He moved

  his right hand to touch her cheek and wipe the tears that had accumulated in her eyes. “Taffy, you’re even more beautiful than I sensed.”

  “Oh, Manny, you’re so sweet. And handsome, too. You need to look in a mirror. Seeing

  yourself might jolt your memory.”

  She grabbed his arm and pulled, but he resisted.

  “Later.” He sat up and his hand slid around her neck and into her hair. “I want to touch you and kiss you and make love to you while I can.”

  She nodded and her words came out in a breathless rush. “I want that, too. I want you,

  Manny.”

  He drew her closer and their lips met. Hers slid softly over his, causing his heart to beat faster and his balls to tighten. He wanted Taffy more than he ever wanted a body…but to make love to Taffy, he had to be in possession of a body.

  Her tongue darted against his again and again. His chased after hers while their lips worked to build up their sexual tension. Both hands roamed her back, tracing the curves of her shoulder blades and along her spine until blocked by her bra. His fingers fumbled with the closure, finally unfastening the hooks, and he withdrew his mouth from hers.

  He caught the hem of her shirt and pulled it up, revealing the smooth, round tops of her

  breasts nestled in the lacey cups of her bra. She lifted her arms, and he drew it over them and her head, then dropped the shirt off the edge of the bed. He couldn’t control himself anymore. He ran the fingertips of both hands along the scalloped edge of the cups before pulling them free.

  Although he couldn’t recall the details of whom, where, or when, he remembered how to

  love a woman. He bent his head, taking a nipple in his mouth. Her sensitive skin shriveled and hardened as he swirled his tongue around the bud. The sensations careening through his new

  body nearly overwhelmed him.

  The sights, smells, and sounds he’d sensed as a hand paled in comparison to the real deal.

  He was familiar with the tactile sense, but even that became different with the use of another hand, lips, tongue, and an entire body covered with skin. He’d forgotten how vibrant and strong the reactions could be, caused by real sensations.

  He unfastened her jeans, undoing the zipper, a device that hadn’t yet been invented when he first became a hand. He pushed the jeans down over her hips while Taffy rose to her knees.

  When he cupped the generous swells of her bottom and moved to lick a
nd suck her other nipple, she moaned and thrust her hips toward his cock.

  He laid her on the bed then sat back on his heels to finish pulling her jeans and panties free.

  Propping one of her ankles on his shoulder, he dropped the articles of clothing on the floor with the rest. He ran his hands along her satin smooth calf while he moved forward into position and angled her knee outward to spread her wet pussy. The plump pink lips and pale golden curls

  glistened with the juice of her arousal, inviting him inside.

  Placing a kiss on the inside of her knee, he leaned over and put his hand on the mattress at her side to catch his weight. He eased the tip of his cock into her hot, wet entrance then stopped.

  He’d dreamed about this for months, and even though his cock ached to plunge ahead and fuck her with frenzy, he wanted to savor every moment of making love to Taffy.

  Her other leg crooked around his thigh, and her hips started to move as if trying to take him inside. She moaned and made another soft sound, like that of a kitten. Her shuttered eyes blinked open to reveal her purple irises had darkened with her desire.

  “Manny, please,” she whispered and squirmed against him. “Now, Manny. I want you now.”

  The shameless plea broke his resolve to take his time. Almost without conscious effort on

  his part, he drove his cock deep into her center. Her hips rose to meet him as she cried out then gasped for air. He slid his arm around her as he lay with her, her soft breasts cushioning his chest, and laced the fingers of his other hand with hers, pressing them into the pillow beside her head. That destiny meant for him to be right here was confirmed with each hard stroke into his sweet, hot Taffy.

  Chapter 5

  Taffy carefully placed her injured arm around Manny’s shoulder and enjoyed the ride. Their fast, rhythmic undulations made the box springs squeak and the headboard rap against the wall.

  Manny’s sleek warm skin slid back and forth across hers with each thrust. Her legs wrapped

  around his waist and his cock went deep inside. She heard his short, harsh breaths and felt the thundering of his heart where her left hand rested on his back.

  Tears welled in her eyes when she thought how all of this would disappear in a short while.