Thanks for clicking through to this story, I hop you enjoy reading it. I would love to hear your comments - e-mail me at david@guyzonline.com. I have many more stories which I am gradually bringing here to Nifty. if you would like to know more about them do get in contact.
I had seen him in the supermarket several times before but always at a distance. His resemblance to my old friend was there sure enough and I did wonder if he was related. This young man wore his hair shorter than Karl but fashions have moved on since the 1970's. I guessed he was part of the management team, he was always on the shop floor, always doing something different - a jack of all trades. His presence made me wonder what had ever happened to Karl, I had not seen him for decades. Perhaps this was his son, I figured the years in my head and calculated he could even be his grandson.
This time it was different. I had to collect the coat I had left at the supermarket's dry cleaning department. As I approached the customer desk I could see it was Karl who was on duty. Save for his shorter hair it was him, he had to be related to my former friend. His name appeared to have been passed down to him, the store name badge announced him as Karl.
I was nervous as I handed over the ticket to collect my coat. Would I summons up the courage to ask him if he was indeed related to the Karl I knew ? I doubted it.
"There you are Nigel," he said handing over the cellophane parcel.
"Thank you," I said quietly. How did he know my name ?
"You don't recognise me do you ?" He smiled. "I recognise you."
"Do you ?"
How could the son of my former friend recognise me from four decades past ?
Another customer approached from behind bringing the encounter to an end.
"I can find someone to take over here in half an hour, any chance you could come back ?"
"Of course."
I went to sit in the car and wait. It would be good to speak with my friend's son and perhaps get to know him but I did not want him to know what his father and I had within our friendship. I wondered what ever happened to Karl, this young man's father. I would perhaps soon know. Did I want to see my old friend again ? If his son and I were to become acquainted I presumed a reunion was likely.
I turned the key in the ignition and started the engine. This needed to stop before it started. A woman pushing a child in a buggy approached, I waved her past - I would wait until she was clear before making my escape. The child threw a teddy bear from the buggy, its mother did not notice. I switched off the engine, stepped out and called after her. Had that small circumstance not happened I would have been gone and the story I am about to tell would never have happened.
"Thanks for waiting," Karl said as we met by the supermarket entrance. "The pub across the car park does a good morning coffee, we can sit and chat."
"If you like."
We found a quiet corner and sat down.
"I've seen you in the store a lot," Karl said. "I knew sooner or later we would get to speak."
"You have the same name as your father," I said pointing to his store badge.
"I never knew my father," he replied.
"But your name is Karl, my friend was Karl, you look the spitting image of him. Was he not your father then ? Was he your grandfather ?"
Karl laughed. "Nigel I am Karl," he said. "I am the same person."
"No," I said instinctively. "That was forty years ago. You can't be Karl."
"I am."
"Nice joke but no."
"Let me prove it to you. Ask me some questions about the time when we were friends, see if I answer correctly."
I thought in part to come up with a question and also to consider the reality of the situation. This Karl was not my Karl, he could not be, but I would go along with the game.
"What kind of cigarettes did you used to smoke ?" I said.
"I smoked roll-ups," Karl replied, "although there was often a bit of wacky in with the baccy." he grinned then added "I don't smoke these days."
"What was your favourite drink ?"
"I'd drink anything, you know that but as I recall yours was Tartan Bitter."
"Tartan Bitter, do they still make Tartan Bitter ?" I wondered aloud.
"Things change," Karl said. "Do you remember when we went camping in Cornwall ? Do you remember what we did on the midnight hike to Trevose Head ? I bet the lighthouse is still there."
How ever did he know that ? I blushed as I remembered then quickly fired another question. "What was my dream car ?"
"A Triumph TR7," Karl replied without any hesitation. "Did you ever get to own one ?"
"No."
I thought for a defining question, one that this Karl could only answer if he were my Karl and not someone who had learned of those times in our youth from someone else. this was weird. I had to prove or disprove him. He could not be my old friend. Impossible.
"Show me your birthmark."
"What here ? I'll gladly show you but in here ? We'd be thrown out and possibly be arrested."
My friend Karl had a birthmark in his left groin. If this Karl could show me that I would know he was the same person.
"Do you remember when you gave me a love bite on the other side to match it ?"
Did I remember !
"You think this is a joke don't you ?" Karl said softly bringing his face closer to my own. "Look at me, it is me."
"What have you done to yourself ? Botox or plastic surgery or something ? Your hair is short but other than that you have not changed."
"I have changed Nigel but not in my looks."
"But -"
"Don't worry Nigel."
"I'm not worried."
But I was.
"What are you doing for a living these days ?" Karl asked. "Are you still a college lecturer ?"
"No, I gave that up ages ago, I'm retired now. I'm a writer, I publish stories on a website. It's a hobby but I do make a bit of money from it. What do you do ?"
"I work in a supermarket," Karl smiled, "Remember ?"
"I mean what do you do there ?"
"I'm what they call Task Force, I trouble shoot my way round the store sorting problems and filling in where needed."
That was different to the Karl I knew who was a builder's labourer.
"I have seen you around the store when I have been there shopping."
"And I have seen you, it is good to be speaking at last."
"But you can't be Karl."
"I am. I've lots to tell you then you'll understand. Perhaps when I show you my birthmark you will be convinced !"
I smiled.
"Let's go and find somewhere to do that."
"Don't you have to get back to work ?"
"I've finished for the day. Do you know The Greenhouse ?"
The Greenhouse is a sauna, I have been there but not for ages. Karl and I used to enjoy a hot, naked sauna at our local leisure centre. That was a totally straight area attached to the swimming pool. The Greenhouse is an all gay establishment.
"I know it."
"Let's go there. I'll show you my birthmark and explain everything. It is good to see you again."
"It's good to see you as well," I said.
"This is a nice car, not a TR7 though. I never learned to drive myself."
"I don't think I would fit into a Triumph TR7 sports car these days, I've put on weight. You may not have changed but I have."
"All will be revealed soon enough," Karl said with a giggle in his voice.
I wanted to see Karl, of course I did, but it was a desire for an academic exercise more than anything else. How sensual it would be, I was far from sure. Age had dampened once explosive desires. What would this young Karl make of an aging naked Nigel ?
Karl picked up a CD from the centre console. "Bob Marley ? I thought you didn't like Bob Marley ?"
"That was then, I quite like his music now."
"You used to say that Bob Marley was trying to infiltrate British pop music and force West Indian culture on it."
Only the real Karl could have known that. "And what was it you used to call the music I liked ?"
"Ring-a-dong-a-bing-on-a-string !" Karl smiled without hesitation.
Either I was dreaming, and I was not, or this young man was indeed the real Karl.
"People liked he Eurovision Song Contest back then," I defended.
"But who is the biggest legend today, Bob Marley or Puppet On A String ?"
I had been twenty-five years old and a junior lecturer at a further education college. With a masters degree in English Literature I was ready to take on the world. Karl was five years younger than me, he had wasted his time at school, failed to realise his potential and left school with no significant qualifications. Working on a building site may have given him good pay but it was not a career.
Now sixty-five years of age and officially old I do not think I have achieved very much with my life. Karl, no matter how young he looked, was sixty. I wondered what he and achieved in his life.
I paid the admission for us both, the attendant at the Greenhouse reception desk handed us wristbands with locker keys then pressed a button to electronically unlock the door to the changing room and beyond that the sauna complex.
Karl was still wearing his supermarket uniform which he quickly began to remove and stuff into his locker. He took out he towel and placed it on the bench beside him. Slowly I began to undress. Karl reduced his own progress to match my own until the two of us were left standing there only in our pants. I recognised Karl's pants, the sight made my hear beat heavily. Green briefs which Karl used to call his British Racing Green Pants. Inside my own underwear something began to stir, not a sensation I am these days familiar with. I was, I hoped, about to be transplanted back to my youth. Would I be able to perform today as well as I did before ?
"Come along," Karl said. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours ! On the count of three. One - two - three !"
My eyes focused attention to just one place. The room was excluded and all else including every part of my friend's naked body save for one small all-important square inch. Yes it was there. The birthmark. This was Karl.
The best way to describe the relationship Karl and I had would be to call us wank buddies. We played together, had some simple fun but never took our activities to higher levels. We were not lovers, I did not love Karl and doubt he loved me. I did care about him but when things came to an end all those years ago I was not troubled. Yes, I missed him and in the years that followed I wondered about him but............. But what ? But what would my life have been like had we not brought the friendship to an end ? But what about now ?
I took a step closer to him, lowered my head, bent lower then touched his groin with a hand.
"It is you isn't it ? You are Karl.!
He nodded.
"But how ?"
"Let's go and work up a sweat in the sauna then I will explain everything to you."
We left the locker room with towels about our necks, not round our waists. Others in The Greenhouse Club looked with envy at the older man with his boy. Inside the dimly lit pine cabin we began to reminisce about the times we had during our sauna visits in the local leisure centre. That was a straight council run place, long since demolished to build flats. We did not play in the sauna there but I guessed we would soon be playing here.
"Let's have a shower," Karl said standing up, "then go to one of the private rooms. I'll explain everything to you then. When I have finished you can suck me off. Do you remember the first time you did that ?"
I did. I nodded.
The Greenhouse has a small number of private rooms. A guy looking to play, looking to find someone to play with, will leave the door open as an invitation to those cruising the corridor to come in. Karl closed the door and turned the lock.
"How old are you ?" he asked.
"Sixty-five," I replied.
"And as you must be aware I am sixty but do I look it ?"
"No."
"No, I am still twenty years old. Do you want to step back and return to our age difference ? You twenty-five and me twenty ? I'd like it if you did."
"Of course I would like it but I do not have the kind of money that much plastic surgery would involve."
Karl laughed. "We drove here in a BMW, you can't be that short of money !"
"Plastic surgery to cut forty years off my body, that would cost millions. Wouldn't it ?"
"I have no idea. The way I look did not cost me a penny. There was no surgery."
"Then how ? I know you are Karl," I pointed to his groin. "You can't be anyone else. At first I thought you were your own son or even a grandson but you are you so how come you have not aged like me ?"
"Quantum Physics. The Multiverse. You know what that is ?"
"I have heard of it."
"Everyone in the twenty-first century has heard of it but when we were young it was only a theory debated within a tight circle of scientists."
"Did you become a scientists then ?"
"With my school results ? No of course not." Karl stood up, held out his arms then slowly turned his naked body through three hundred and sixty degrees. "But I do know how to make the theory work in practice. Look at my cock," he turned round again. "Look at my arse," another one hundred and eighty degree turn. "These belong to a guy one third my age."
"How ?"
"Quantum Physics proves that an object can exist in more then one place and at any given time. You have heard of that ?"
I nodded.
"It also allows for an object to exist in more than one universe. Look at my body, it is existing here and now naked with you. It is also existing with you forty years back into history. Likewise it is existing forty years into the future."
"Forty years into the future and this body," I pointed to myself, "will be dead !"
"Perhaps you are right if you constrain everything in a single universe but in the multiverse anything and everything is possible. In the multiverse you can move yourself back to when you were in your twenties, when we used to play together."
"That's impossible."
"Am I not the proof that it IS possible ? Look at me. Touch me. Of course it is possible. Go on touch me, feel that I am real."
I did indeed touch my friend. I moved my hands about his hest, stroked down his flat stomach then with the index finger of both hands drew a line down each groin before moving my hands to place one on each of his firm buttocks.
"You always did have a nice bottom."
Karl took my balls in his hand. "You can take yourself back in time if you want."
I could feel him, my balls tightened and my spine tingled. This was real. It was not a dream.
"The multiverse," Karl said denies the existence of a single universe where a man is born, grows up and dies. There is an infinite number of universes meaning an infinite number of possibilities exist side by side. There is a universe where you are sixty-five years old and I am twenty. We are in it now. In this universe I have cut my hair short and work in a supermarket. There is a universe where I have my hair long like it used to be."
"And there is a universe where I have a cock that is three inches longer that this !" I pointed down between my legs."
"Let's move, you and me together, out of this universe. Let's go to one where I am twenty and you are twenty-five years old. Let's go to a universe where my hair is long and you have a super cock. We could have lot of fun there."
"We could," I agreed.
As Karl spoke I found myself accepting everything he was saying, such a place - such a universe did exist but surely to move into it would be impossible. Was not Karl proof of all he was explaining ? But how to move from one universe to another ? "If you want we can go there together but right now it is time for me to suck you off," I said.
The first time Karl had invited me to partake of this pleasure I had flatly refused. To take his cock into my mouth, the way by which my body took in food and drink, did not appeal. There were aspects of a man's cock which I did not consider should be in my mouth. But Karl had persisted. When I did agree to sample oral sex I insisted he first take a long shower and wash that area of his body with extra care. Now there was no hesitation in repeating the experience.
I have a theory, one personal to myself - this is the first time I have shared it with anyone. It is not on the scale of the ideas Karl had put forward but it is, I would suggest, something a PhD student may like to make the subject of his thesis.
Every individual has his own unique DNA, no two people share the same fingerprints, in these respect we are all unique.. It is my theory that there are no two male sexual organs which are alike. The world population is somewhere in excess of seven billion - 7,379,934,618 and rising. That's about three quarters of a billion males. Each one has a cock and each one is unique. If a researcher wanted to prove the theory I guess a survey of sample groups could be worked through. But my theory goes further. A lot further. I believe that every cock has its own unique taste, no two are alike.
The evidence was showing this Karl was indeed my Karl. The explanation he had put forward was logical if ever so slightly fantastic but when I took his cock into my mouth I was taken back through the decades and the taste confirmed, if there was any doubt remaining, that this was indeed my Karl. In a perfectly co-ordinated movement we turned back the years. Time was playing games. Time had stood still for Karl, I was so much older now than my friend but was determined to enjoy the full pleasure of our renewed friendship.
As fantastic as Karl's explanation for his youth may have been I knew he was real. As we showered before leaving the sauna I asked, "So what now ?"
"We need to move to that new multiverse," he smiled, "the one where my hair is long again, where you are twenty-five and one where you are the proud owner of a cock two inches longer." He pointed between my legs then splashed a jet from the shower to my face.
"Your place or mine ?" I asked.
"Better be yours," Karl replied, "I still live with my mother."
I was not aware of a change in my facial expression but Karl noticed. "Don't look at me like that, I am still twenty years of age !"
"Won't we need some form of equipment ? Surely there's a machine to transport us between the dimensions."
"Who do you think I am ? Doctor Who ?"
"So how ?"
"It's all very easy," Karl smiled, "as you will soon see."
"If it's that easy then how come people are not jumping from one universe and time zone to another several times each day ?"
"Who says they're not !"
"You still live in the same house," Karl said as I pulled the car on to the driveway."
"Never felt the need to move."
"So we can use this as the location for our new universe."
I nodded.
"It is possible to change appearance, I'll have my hair long again the way you like it and you can have a monster cock - I will like that ! You can take with you possessions, those in your immediate surroundings. You can take with you your bank balance but not any sources of income, they belong to the dimension you leave behind."
"You sound knowledgeable."
"That is why I have to work in a supermarket," Karl continued, "we will have to earn a living."
"I'll still have my writing," I said, "I will have my royalties."
"You can write but you will have to start again, royalties belong to this universe not to the one where we are going."
"I see. I have often thought about writing man-erotic fiction and selling stories on-line."
"How about writing man-erotic fact ? I could help you, at least with ideas and material."
"Yes. I don't fancy working in a supermarket - no offence," I said, "and I do not want to go back to being a college lecturer. I actually don't want to have to work at all."
"I do have an idea," Karl said, "but let's wait until we get there."
"So how is this going to happen ?"
"Yoga and the power of meditation."
"Yoga !" I scoffed. "Sticking your legs behind your neck and thinking beautiful things !"
"The highest practitioners of the art develop abilities such as levitation, being able to see through solid objects, moving their bodies from one place to another. Just like in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar."
"The wonderful story of who ?"
"Henry Sugar, you know."
"Never heard of it."
"By Roald Dahl, you are the professor of English Literature !"
"I am not sure I would class Roald Dahl as part of English Literature."
"Never mind if you don't know the story, I think Roald Dahl probably moved about the multiverse. Anyway mind power if focussed can be used to move from one multiverse to another."
"But I have never done yoga in my life."
"Neither had I until I made my fist multiverse transfer but there is something to help us."
"What ?"
"Something to relax and concentrate the mind."
"Drugs you mean ?"
"No !"
"What ever, come on let's do this." Yoga ? This wasn't going to work after all but what the heck !
We went into the bedroom where Karl drew the curtains and switched off the light. It was not dark outside but the room was in a half-light.
"We need to get undressed," Karl said. "We need to be naked."
I had no objection to that so for the second time in the day my aging body revealed all to a youthful Karl. I found myself becoming aroused, firstly internal but as Karl's arousal manifested itself physically I reciprocated. It had been a long time since I experienced such a solid erection.
Karl stood next to me then took in a firm and close embrace. Our bodies contoured together. I could feel my own heart and his beating firmly. We remained silently in that position for some time before Karl indicated it was time to go. Taking me by the hand my friend indicated for me to slide under the bed covers. He left me to take something out of a pocket in his discarded trousers.
"Here, eat this," he said producing what looked like a piece of dark chocolate.
I ate it but there was no taste. Karl ate similarly then got into bed beside me.
It began as a greyness then changing to black, so black it was impossible to be aware of anything at all. I knew Karl was there beside me but it felt our closeness, our bodies pressing together were set apart from where we were. I was in the deepest sleep I have ever had yet my conscious mind remained. I knew Karl was experiencing the same. We remained in that state for many hours. Eventually the darkness began to move. First grey, then blue and finally a brilliant white. That light inside my head was so bright I instinctively opened my eyes to get away from it.
We had slept all the way through the night, the morning sunshine was playing through the curtains. Karl was still asleep, I left him and went to look outside. Nothing looked any different. I turned to wake my friend but paused as I looked at his long black hair. My stomach knotted. I flung open the wardrobe door knowing there was a mirror on its rear.
"Oh god !" I said. "Oh god !"
Karl stirred. "Good morning Nigel, you look very sexy."
I turned to face him.
"And that," he said, "is what I all a handsome cock. We are going to have some fun with that."
"It worked," I said. "The time transfer I mean."
"Of course it worked," Karl smiled.
"So what year are we in ? What is the date ?"
"The same year as it was before and now one day later than when we went to sleep."
"Do you like my hair ?" Karl ran his fingers through his dark hair."
"It's more the way I remember you ?"
"And you look now more the way I remember you," he smiled then added, "save for that new cock. It's a bit special. Do you think we should try it out ?"
In the old days Karl and I had not been sexually adventurous, what we had done had been great but was confined to wanking and sucking. As the years passed I had experimented and done things with a lot of people but had only ever gone the whole way once. That had been good but something I have never gone out of my way to repeat. As I stood naked with Karl it became something I most certainly wanted to do again.
Our eyes met and it was as if my thoughts, my building desires were passed to my friend.
Karl returned to the bed and lay face down. I looked at his beautiful naked form and thanked who ever it was who organised our meeting again.
I caressed his hair, that lovely dark hair now long and down to his shoulders. I bent down to kiss his head. Karl sighed. Then I kissed his buttocks, one kiss on each cheek. He rolled over to show his cock now like an iron bar. My own was the same pulsing. That was a sensation I had not experienced for so long. I kissed the birthmark in his groin then kissed where I had once given the love bite, where I would do so again. That would be soon but not now, there was something else on the agenda.
Karl returned to his original face down position. Standing behind him, with one hand under each hip I moved him to kneel on all fours. Again I kissed both buttocks, one kiss on each cheek. I then slid a finger from my right hand between the cheeks. I moved that finger up and down between his cheeks before starting to explore the way my manhood would soon steer. His body tensed and Karl sighed again. It was tension of anticipation and of wanting.
That wanting increased within both of us to the point where I knelt between Karl's legs and caressed that special place with my new and special cock.
"Show me no mercy," Karl said, "I want to take it all."
I had done this only once before and that had been with a cock half this size.
A silly thought entered my head, I wondered if it would all fit inside. Of course it was fine. I slowly moved inside my friend until the convex contours of his buttocks fitted perfectly into the concave of my groin.
When Karl and I had played together all those years ago, with all the things I have done with many different casual acquaintance the acts were always physical. Acts which of course generated some wonderful body experiences but all were purely physical. There was no emotions and certainly none of love. However, I did sense with Karl that I was on the edge of a new experience.
When it was all over we showered and I set about preparing breakfast. Everything in the house was as I had left it, the fridge and cupboards were stocked. Money was still in my pocket, if Karl was right about the bank then I had enough on deposit to see us through for some time. I explained this to Karl.
"I am afraid I do not have a lot in my bank account," he said. "The supermarket did not pay well."
"We will be fine for now."
"But I have to pay my way."
"I have an idea," I said.
"So have I," Karl replied.
"Webcams !" we both said together.
"Have you ever played on cam ?" Karl asked.
Slightly embarrassed I said, "Yes." Then added, "but few wanted to chat with a naked pensioner."
"Good job you are not old any more."
True I had logged in to the video chat on different social networking sites, it was always an erotic experience at the outset but more often than not ended in an anti-climax. I was, of course, aware of websites where voyeurs would pay to watch private cam shows. I had never paid myself but dreamed of being young so I could perform and make my fortune. One website claimed top models could earn $10,000 in a week. An American website so translated into real money that would be about six thousand pounds. I did the mental arithmetic, three hundred and twelve thousand pounds a year ! I was convinced if I were the age of those logging in to broadcast I could make money like that. Now I was of the age.
I figured it was not just the looks of a performer, although being a pretty boy helped, but personality that ensured success. I had the personality and now I had the youth.
"I've broadcast on Flirt43Free," Karl said, "and made myself some money."
"Not enough to give up working in a supermarket," I observed.
Karl smiled. "Let me tell you a funny story. I was on the customer service desk one day when this guy comes up to complain about something or other. I dealt with him, gave him his money back and then he says *I saw you on-line last night. Well done ! * I nearly died and that was the last time I went on the site !"
"But you are up for doing it again now ? Doing duo with me ?"
"Definitely ! The supermarket belongs for me in a different universe."
"There would make more money as a duo than two solos," I suggested.
"Have you anyone in mind ?" Karl said.
It took me a money to catch on then I feigned a punch to his arm. Karl caught my fist and pulled me close to him. First our eyes met and then our lips. Before either of us knew what was happening we were ripping clothes off.
"This way."
Back in the bedroom we fell on to the bed and intertwined our naked bodies. In the past I had never kissed Karl but now our lips met again, locking together and beginning a deep interchange of passion. Yes this was a passionate time, ardour not just playing as we did before.
How long we continued I can not tell you but as we brought things to an end Karl whispered in my ear, "Was that the sealing of our contract as webcam performers ?"
I smiled but then thought of a problem. I began to explain. "A webcam performer needs to have ID to register."
"Yes."
"Well we do not have any."
"Of course we do. Where do you keep your driving licence ?"
I did not use a traditional leather wallet but had a small silver coloured box, a bit like an old fashioned cigarette box, where I kept my various cards.
"Go and look," Karl said. "Go on."
I was astonished. "How come ? How did this happen ?"
My pink DVLA licence had no longer the image of an old man but just the way I was. Dates, names and so forth were for the new me. "How did this change ?"
Karl shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but my ID will be updated as well."
"You don't drive, you don't have a driving licence.."
"No but I do have a passport."
"So we can register now then ? Straight away."
"Let's go back to what we were doing," Karl giggled, "get in some practice for our first show."
I did not take much convincing !
When we later took pictures for our webcam broadcast profile I found myself thinking back to when we were in that former universe when we were younger. No camera phones then of course, the very idea of taking a photograph with a telephone would have been absurd. It would have been impossible for us to have taken such images without having our own dark room to develop them. Naked pictures of two young men were hardly the kind of thing you would take to your local branch of Boots for processing.
In the 1970' we all knew what a computer was but few had ever seen one, let alone used one. the idea of almost every human being having their own personal computer and for these computers to be able to speak with one another via the Internet would be the stuff of advanced science fiction.
I wondered if Karl and I could perhaps move to another part of the multiverse, a part where neither Twitter nor Facebook are known. We could then set them up ahead of their founders in our present existence and become multi-billionaires. I then wondered what had yet to happen, what would be the next Microsoft, Google, e-bay or what ever. Could we perhaps anticipate them ? How about Nigel and Karl Live on Webcam ? Combine that with the following of Nigel Dean as an on-line author.... who knows ?
"Are you going to help me set up this profile ? You look as if you are miles away."
"Sorry Karl."
What he had done looked good and would certainly draw lots of people into our chatroom.
"What's left to be done ? How can I help ?"
"This bit - services - what do you think we should put there ?"
I thought for a moment. "How about something to say that while we are duo performers the broadcast is really a trio: you, me and the voyeur in the show."
"Sounds good."
"How do you think we could word it ?"
"You're the writer not me," Karl grinned.
I came up with a short but punchy sentence.
"So which of us is the top and who is the bottom ?"
Our play sessions had not progressed to an area where top or bottom came into anything.
"Profit comes from versatility," I jested.
"How about," Karl suggested: "Two vers guys confused as to who should do what. Seeking advice. Can you help ?"
"That would work."
"Spanking, of course, is a best seller." Karl said. "Should we include something about that ?"
"You would know all about that," I replied, "You were always getting the cane at school."
"That was not spanking, it bloody hurt !"
"Shouldn't have been such a naughty boy then should you ?"
In the previous universe corporal was a common occurrence in schools up and down the country. Although Carl had long since left school when we met he several times told me of the canings he had received. I am not sure that he enjoyed them, if enjoy is the right word to use, but he certainly enjoyed telling me about them.
I was caned once at school myself and slippered twice, all three events I prefer to forget.
My career had been in education. Although corporal punishment, of course, did not exist in higher education where I worked had I been a schoolmaster I assume I would have made use of it alongside my colleagues. Now poised to begin a career as an international porn star the very last area of employment I would seek to engage in would be education. Governments of all political persuasions have over the years completely destroyed the English education system.
As I had pondered then with now in considering technology, computers and the Internet so my mind drifted on to wider social values. Looking at Karl he was busy working on the profile so I indulged my mind and allowed it to wander.
Karl would have been a small child at the time but I was a teenager when capital punishment, the death penalty, was abolished. I remember it being reported on the TV news. If there was a referendum to restore capital punishment would I vote in favour ? Probably.
If there was a referendum to reintroduce corporal punishment in schools would I vote in favour ? Definitely ! Not because it was a good form of punishment and not because I am some form of perverted sadist but because it did have a role to play in character building. Education today, I mean today in my former universe and probably it will be the same in this universe, is all about examinations and nothing about character building. Being caned a few times did not appear to have done Karl any harm.
"Finished," Karl announced, "all set to go."
"Excellent."
"I say we log in straight away, test the system."
"Sounds good to me."
"One moment," Karl held up a finger. "Underpants."
"What about them ?"
"Let's start off wearing only underpants."
"OK."
"Do you have two pairs that match, two the same. One you can wear and one I can wear ?"
How did I know ? This was a different multiverse. The house was the same, the bedroom the same but what the contents of my pants draw was I had no idea. the size of my waist was smaller now. In the old world I did indeed have matching pants but they would now be several sizes too big. Just as my driving licence had adapted to a new time and space dimension so the forty-two inch elastic waist bands in my pants draw had changed. Donning the chosen garments for the show I thought Karl and looked very sexy.
"Ready ?"
"Ready."
In preview mode we adjusted the camera, moved a table lamp to brighten the view then all was set. Karl clicked the option to * Broadcast Your Cam* and all was under way.
Within moments we had voyeurs in the room. We tried to welcome each as the names appeared on the laptop screen but there were too many. I was sitting on a chair, Karl moved to stand behind me. Moving his arms over my shoulders he began to run his fingers through the hairs on my chest.
"Do you like this," Karl asked.
"Mmmmmmmm," a voyeur typed.
Karl and I could speak to those in our room but they had to type words to say anything to us.
"How long have you had a hairy chest ?" One asked.
"Since I was seventeen."
"Karl," the words started to appear on the screen as another voyeur entered the conversation, "are you naturally smooth or do you shave ?"
"That's for me to know and you to guess or perhaps try to find out," Karl said with a note of challenge in his voice.
"So do you both have hairy cocks ?"
"Find out in a private show," I said.
"Or give us a tip," Karl added, "and we'll give you a quick flash.
"How big a tip ?" The words appeared on the screen.
"What ever you think our two cocks are worth," Karl explained.
He had barely finished speaking when someone tipped $50. I was amazed, fifty dollars for a quick flash of our cocks. Karl nudged me, "On the count of three. One - Two -"
I stood up as we simultaneously pulled down our pants to our knees. So many complimentary comments raced into the room it was impossible to read them all. However, there was one we read.
Turn round, show us your arses and I'll drop you another fifty dollars.
We did as we were instructed.
With our backs to the webcam we were unable to see the audience reaction. We did hear the bell chime to indicate we were in a private show. For every minute the show ran we would make money. Turning round and stepping out of our matching underpants we stood naked before the cam and our voyeur customer.
"Those arses of yours, he typed, "very cute but they both look naughty to me. What I am wondering is which is the naughtiest."
"His," we both said together pointing at the other.
Perhaps I should spank you both myself.
"We'd like that," Karl said, "wouldn't we Nigel ?"
Sadly your profile says you are in England, I am here in San Francisco, California.
"Oh dear.
I tell you what, he typed, I've a dime here - I'll flip it up in the air. Heads Nigel spanks Karl. tails Karl spanks Nigel. Agreed ?
"Agreed."
I'm flipping it now. Tails ! Nigel you'd better get that cute little arse over Karl's knee.
Positioning myself was in itself an erotic experience. We were both erect and had to place our cocks not only into a comfortable positions but one which would enable the spanking.
Was I nervous about being spanked ? No, I don't think so. What ever the meter was running, Karl and I were earning money every minute our voyeur customer remained connected. Karl placed his hands one on each buttock, squeezed and said, "Yes I can see just how naughty you have been."
"Please Karl", I replied, "I will try to be a good boy in future."
Karl delivered a slap to each of my cheeks.
"Is that a promise ?"
Two more slaps, one on each cheek.
"Yes Karl it is."
"Then this spanking has two purposes."
This time my friend delivered two smacks to each cheek.
"What are they Karl ? I will be a good boy I promise ?"
Slap - slap. Slap - slap.
"Firstly to punish you for being a naughty boy."
Slap - slap. Slap - slap.
"Then as a reminder so you will not be naughty again in the future."
Slap - slap. Slap - slap.
"Isn't that the same thing ?"
Slap - slap. Slap - slap.
The role play was basic and to call the spanking stinging would be to exaggerate but I was enjoying the fun. I hoped our voyeur would keep the webcam going for a long time so the enjoyment could be prolonged. Amazingly our cyber buddy, our voyeur customer kept the webcam switched into a private show for an hour and a half. Ninety minutes.
Well done guys, he typed, that was fun. Then as he left he left in another tip, this time for fife hundred dollars !
"Amazing !" Karl and I exclaimed together.
We logged out of the webcam site to take a break, work out our earnings and celebrate how things had gone.
"Ninety minutes at one dollar twenty-five cents a minute is..... ?" Karl said.
I did the calculation. "One hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents."
"Plus the tips."
"Eight hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents !"
"How much is that in our money ?"
"About five hundred and forty and fifty pounds," I said. "Can you believe that ?"
"Even with overtime I never made that in a whole week at the supermarket."
"We were lucky," I said.
"Or just damn hot," Karl smiled.
"One way to find out," I was excited. "Let's go back on and see what happens."
"I'm up for that."
"Only this time I get to spank your arse !"
We stayed on-line for another two hours, the time went quickly. We had no shortage of private shows but no big tips like those from our first voyeur customer. He was no longer in our video chat room. I wondered who he was, he said he was from California but how old was he ? He had to be relatively well off to spend money so easily. Why did he spend so much money on us ?
"We are in first place for the Fresh Faces bonus," Karl said.
"The what ?"
"Each day the site gives one hundred dollars as a bonus to the highest earning model in their first week on-line."
"We've won that ?"
"No, not yet but we are currently in fist place. It's not likely anyone will overtake us."
"Great."
"There is another bonus of one hundred dollars for model of the day, I reckon we'll win that as well."
We did win it. And the fresh faces thing. In all we made twelve hundred and fifty-seven dollars from that first broadcast. In proper money that would be eight hundred and thirty-eight pounds - four hundred and nineteen pounds each. Never mind that being many times the rate of pay Karl had working in a supermarket, it made my salary as a senior lecturer small.
"Good night porn star." I kissed Karl as we settled down to sleep, our first night as webcam models in our new universe.
I did sleep well, I slept deeply but it was a troubled time if that makes any sense. I was happy but it worried me everything was a dream and when I awoke I would be old again and in the wrong universe. I wanted to wake up and confirm where I was, what kind of a person I was but slumber was too deep. I knew Karl was next to me, that was not a dream, and it did offer me some reassurance.
It was in a different part of the night that I had an idea, I often have my best ideas while sleeping. They form in my mind, I awake then think them through to go forward. I have had many an idea for a story while sleeping. This idea formed and excited me. The time of deep sleeping had gone, it was morning and light outside. I got up and began to scribble down a brainstorm of ideas.
"What are you doing ?" Karl said sleepily. "Come back to bed."
"Let me finish and then I'll show you."
My idea was to have a small collection of shows which we could add to our webcam profile. Voyeur customers could then book in advance and select a show. That first performance would be SPANKATHON, that was a brilliant name and one certain to draw interest. We could put the shows out for multi voyeurs and charge just one dollar a minute. If we aimed for each show to last for twenty minutes and to attract ten voyeurs we would make two hundred dollars. At the end of the show we would offer a purely private show for a single customer, still at the low price of one dollar a minute but first they had to tip us fifty dollars. Assuming the second part of the broadcast lasted another twenty minutes we would make at least two hundred and seventy dollars.
Spankathon was a great name but what else could we offer ?
SUCKAHOLIC, that would be good.
BOYZ TOYS, possible.
Would three shows be enough ?
"Karl come and look at this will you ?"
"What time is it ?"
"Half past six."
"Oh go away !"
I would let him sleep for a little longer. I opened my laptop to check e-mails, it is something I do first thing every morning but as the page started to load I realised how silly this act was. In my present universe there would not be anyone there to send me an e-mail.
I was wrong, there were two messages. One appeared to be an automated message giving our broadcast stats and earnings for the previous day. Very nice indeed. The second was a personal e-mail from the head of the webcam network congratulating Karl and I on our success. He said we were potentially the biggest cam stars he had seen in a long time. Of course we were but it was good to have it confirmed.
Karl probably had the same e-mails but I insisted he wake so I could tell him the news. I shared my ideas for the shows. He supported the thinking.
"Any ideas for anything else ?"
"We need some fetish content," he suggested.
"Feet ?"
"People are into feet, some at least, but I am not sure how you will make that into a twenty minute show."
"Feet are not my thing either," I said. "I know - bondage !"
"So you want to tie me up do you ?"
"I saw a video once," I explained, "where a guy tied up another in such a way that when you pulled a rope his cock jerked."
"Well you're the one with the big cock so perhaps it should be me who ties you up !"
"You'd like that would you ?"
"Oh yes I would," Karl giggled, "we could build in some CBT as well."
"We'll have to buy proper ropes, you're not tying me up with something from B and Q but we'll do bondage then shall we ?"
"Yeh !"
"We'll need to find a play on words," I explained. "Suckaholic, Boyz Toyz, Spankathon they all work as show titles but Bondage doesn't."
"Do we forget feet then ? Kick it into touch ?"
"OK."
"Feet, kick it into touch - feet - kick - joke - funny ?"
"Hilarious," I scoffed. "Come on get out of bed and dressed then you can update our broadcast profile with these ideas."
"Can we share the shower ?"
"I'd like that," I said then before either of us could move towards the shower I jumped up and clapped my hands. "Got it," I shouted. "Shower scenes. We could broadcast from the shower."
Later that morning Karl spent time working on our broadcast profile, adding a new series of shows which voyeur customers could book. We the waited to be inundated with enthusiasm. There was interest but nothing like that I had hoped for. That day our webcam earned us only two hundred dollars, the day after two hundred and fifty. There was no sign of our first and incredibly generous customer. I was disappointed. Disappointed that my idea had not really achieved anywhere near that I had looked for and sad that our customer has vanished. His log-in handle, his nick-name, was Trans Atlantic Gamer and was nowhere to be seen.
"Don't be upset," Karl comforted, "we are still earning better than when I worked in the supermarket."
Perhaps but not as good as when I was a college lecturer. Perhaps we would not become wealthy webcam porn stars but we would be making a living, as Karl said more than he had earned at the supermarket and then even had we been existing on the bread line I was in my prime and not a pensioner.
"Look," Karl yelled, jerking me out of my despondency, "look - look - look !"
I opened my mouth to speak but Karl's effervescence did not allow me to say anything.
"He's back, he's back, he's back !"
"Trans Atlantic Gamer ?"
"The one and only and he has booked all of our shows, one a day. Spankathon - Suckaholic - Boyz Toys - Bondage Bonanza - Bathroom Frolics."
My heart pumped with anticipation and excitement.
Good old Trans Atlantic Gamer, with his taking the lead many other customers followed in his wake. We averaged twelve hundred and fifty dollars a day. I was becoming an expert at currency conversion, twelve hundred and fifty dollars is eight hundred and thirty three pounds. We were making eight hundred and thirty three pounds a day. If we could keep it going for the year we would make considerably more than quarter of million pounds a year !
The webcam site had set us up with a prepaid MasterCard into which they would pay our earnings on a weekly basis. We could then use the card in shops, on-line or draw cash from an ATM. The card was issued by an American bank so probably the UK tax authorities would not know about the money. Dare we keep it a secret ? Paying income tax at the higher rate would destroy our income. I am an honest person but why should we fund government excess ? I would think about the problem later, much later. It was not something likely to occur to Karl.
Trans Atlantic Gamer was all over the customer forum on the webcam site building up our fan base. Who was this guy, the webcam voyeur who was responsible for our success ? How old was he ? What did he look like ? Why did he pick us out from the hundreds on the webcam site ? Where did his money come from that he could afford to spend at such a high rate ? Why did he select the nick-name he used - Trans Atlantic Gamer ? We would soon find out.
The day after we had invited webcam voyeurs into our shower Cute Atlantic Gamer issued his own invitation. He sent us a message via the cam site's internal mail system:
Nigel - Karl - I want to put a business proposition to you.
I am at my home in England for a week before returning to San Francisco. Could you meet me and let me explain something top you ? I think I can promise you money many times greater than anything you have dreamed about as webcam performers. I live in Cornwall, on the North Coast at Constantine Bay, I can arrange a taxi to bring you down for the meeting and I will be happy to pay you for your time so you do not lose money from your webcam shows.
Can you call me ?
He went on to give a number, not a mobile number but a landline. It began with five digits 01841.
"What do you make of that ?" I said to Karl.
"Bad news," he replied. "Very bad news."
"Why ?"
"If a moderator at the webcam site finds that message he will be banned as a customer, customers are not supposed to solicit meetings with performers, so we'll lose his money."
"Oh."
"Do you remember when we went camping in Cornwall, that was near Constantine Bay wasn't it ?"
In 1977 the country was going crazy with celebrations for the queen being on the throne for twenty-five years. It did not mean a lot to we two young guys who escaped to Cornwall in an attempt to get away from it. With a tent, provisions and clothing in rucksacks on our backs we made the long journey South-west. Firstly by National Express coach, I did not drive in those days, to Bristol. Then another coach to Exeter before a local bus to Newquay We then walked twenty miles along the coast path to a camp site at Constantine Bay.
"He must be worth a few quid if he is suggesting sending a taxi to take us down ?"
"We'll drive," I said.
"So we're going ?"
"Google the dialling code - 01841, see where it is."
Karl turned the laptop towards himself and typed in the numbers. "It's a Padstow code," he said, "Constantine Bay would fall within the area."
"Try the whole number," I suggested.
"If it's a business number it'll show but privacy laws prevent Google giving details for private numbers."
"I didn't think privacy was in Google's vocabulary !"
Karl typed in the number 01841 334 6677.
"Oh my god ! Look at this."
The number was indeed a business but one based in a large private house, Pen Roche House overlooking Constantine Bay in North Cornwall. It was the UK headquarters of Atlantic Gamer International designers of computer games. I am not into playing such games but Karl knew of the organisation. The CEO was a Richard Platt said to be worth an estimated half a billion pounds.
"If he is Trans Atlantic Gamer then it explains how he can afford to spend crazy money on our webcam shows. Does it say how old he is ?"
"Twenty-nine."
"Blimey !"
"I hope," Karl said with a note of mock caution in his voice, "that does not mean you are going to fancy him over me."
"Of course not."
"So when are we doing down to Cornwall ?"
"It's not easy," I explained, "we have broadcasting commitments s people have booked shows all week."
"If we were to stay over in a hotel we could broadcast from there."
"We could but it'll take at least six hours to drive down to Cornwall."
"Better call him then."
"You call him Karl."
I don't know why I said that, usually as the older I would take charge but Karl saying - *I hope that does not mean you are going to fancy him over me - * hit home and was making me think.
In the previous universe we were playmates. Did I fancy him then ? Did I fancy him now ? Our play sessions were brilliant but I didn't love Karl, at least not before in that now distant universe. We had only existed in this dimension for a short time and as we entered it feelings from the past were the same. Much of our physical play was now on webcam, intimacy beyond that was mainly our cuddling up naked at night to sleep.
Did I fancy Karl ? NO. To fancy something this has to be a feeling for something which you do not have, something slightly out of reach. I had Karl, I did not need to fancy him. Did I love him ? I was not sure but feelings towards this were developing.
Call it full sex, call it anal, call it fucking - I hate all of those terms - Karl and I had not moved from playing to that area of activity. Making love is a far better way to express the act, perhaps when we were in love we would take the emotional to the physical.
"Could we leave now ?" Karl asked breaking away from his telephone conversation. "Drive down to Cornwall now ? Richard says we can stay over at his place, we have thirteen hours to the next booked webcam show which we can do there."
"You'll need to put something in the profile to say we are not available right now in case someone wants to book a show before we get there."
"So we could leave straight away ?"
"If you like. Ask him for the satellite navigation details."
And so we were off.
"This is a bit different from the time we went to Cornwall on the 'bus," Karl observed.
"Yeh a BMW is a bit more comfortable but it would be nice to be in my dream car."
"A Triumph TR 7."
"Absolutely."
"Complete with an eight track stereo."
"State of the aft back then," I laughed softly to myself.
I thought of a car without sat nav, without parking sensors, without night vision, without ABS. How ever did anyone manage to drive back then ? A car with a choke you had to carefully position in order to start the engine. Yes I would love a Triumph TR7 sports car but just to play with, I needed the BMW to make a three hundred mile journey to Cornwall.
"This is where I got my first speeding ticket," I said to Karl. "I was doing one hundred and eight miles an hour at the time."
"Blimey, what were you driving ?"
"A Ford Granada. I had it on hire."
"You got a driving ban then ?"
"Nope, would get one today of course. They just gave me three penalty points and fined me sixty-eight pounds, one pound for every mile over the limit plus the standard thirty pound speeding fine."
"Lucky you ! Small change these days for an international webcam porn star."
"Karl can I ask you something ?"
"Of course. What about ?"
"About us. We have become friends again after decades apart, we have picked off from where we left off. We are having fun and making money." I hesitated.
"Great isn't it ?"
"But where are we heading, you and me ? When you joked about me fancying Richard." Again I hesitated. "Well a joke is half the truth isn't it ?"
This time Karl hesitated, it felt like an age before he spoke. "What we are doing together on webcam is great and the sex is fun but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else."
"Neither would I, no way."
We both hesitated. The car sped silently down the fast lane of the M4. My left eye caught sight of the marker posts way off on the hard shoulder. I began to subconsciously started to count them. Eventually I spoke. "So what does that mean ?"
"Nigel," Karl began, "this is your first change of universe, for me this is my second."
I nodded.
"I was on my own that first time, I knew nobody. When you found me in the supermarket I was different from when I first arrived. Now we are in this universe together, that is so much easier for me than before but we are alone. Meeting Richard will be the start of our building a new circle of friends. We have to do that, of course, but I do not want to have to share you with anyone."
"Oh Karl." There was a tear in my eye, a tear formed from his words. "I love you, I really do."
"And Nigel I love you."
Karl reached across the centre console of the car and placed a hand on my leg. He kept it there as we passed Bristol, moved from the M4 to the M5, all the way through the county of Devon as we approached Exeter and the end of the motorway.
"Perhaps we should stop and take a break," I suggested.
"I wouldn't mind a pee," Karl said.
"The sat nav says it's still eighty-four miles from the next services and two hours driving."
"Can't argue with the sat nav."
Fortunately the car was full with petrol when we left, the last thing in any universe I would want to do is to encourage the rip off prices charged by motorway filling stations. Eager to get to Constantine Bay after visiting the loo we grabbed a drink and a sandwich before continuing the journey. I was in high spirits, I was happy. The earlier conversation with Karl bubbled through my brain. Our conversation, though trivial in content, was non-stop for the remaining journey. We moved from one topic to another, we talked about the weather, our memories of Constantine Bay, a midnight hike to Trevose Head Lighthouse then skinny dipping on the way back to the camp site. We spoke about music, Karl was a fan of Bob Marley, at least he had been in that other universe, while in my youth I did not like his style. as I grew older I changed my attitude and took this with me to the present dimension. We laughed about the canings Karl had received as a schoolboy. I quizzed him as to what it was like to work in a supermarket. As Constantine Bay drew nearer we speculated what this Richard would be like and what his proposal to us would be.
*"In three hundred and fifty yards, turn left....................... turn left. Take the second right. In one hundred yards you will have reached your destination." * Satellite navigation had changed little from one dimension to another.
"Blimey !"
"You like that word don't you Karl ?" He didn't know what I meant - blimey was an expression I had heard Karl use many times as a way to show astonishment.
It was not an over statement. A lengthy driveway took us to a large white house, perhaps not a mansion but not far off, sitting above the dunes. As I swung the car across the gravel to park in front of the door it opened and someone came out. He moved to my car door but I had it open before he reached me.
"Welcome to Cornwall Nigel." Then turning to Karl he said, "Fantastic to see you. Come on in. Nice car by the way."
It was a vast house, as Richard welcomed us inside he explained he had a resident cook housekeeper to look after himself and his three game designers who lived and worked in the house. "Technically," he explained the company is based in The British Virgin Islands for tax purposes and eventually I would like to locate everything there. Richard Branson owns an island there, Necker Island, once this new project is underway I will buy my own little part of Paradise. For now this is mission control here in Pen Roche House while the studio is in San Francisco, Palo Alto to be precise but nobody's ever hear of it so I always say San Francisco."
"Trans Atlantic Gamer," Karl said.
"Yes that's me."
Richard left us to settle into our room. "What time is your cam show booked for ?"
"Not until ten," I explained.
"Well come down when you are ready, I'll arrange dinner for seven-thirty. Is there anything you particularly do not like eating ?"
We both shrugged our shoulders.
"Place and a half this," Karl said, "I wonder what his new project and proposal is."
"He's obviously made his money from computer games," I said, "and a lot of money so I guess it must have something to do with that."
"How can you put webcams into a computer game ?"
I have never been into computer games, I may have my youth again but in that former reality computers and all associated with them were not part of every day life. Yes I understood webcam broadcasting but success was nothing to do with the technology behind it. Earlier in this story I pondered what the future would be, a time beyond Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook, we were about to find out.
At twenty-nine years of age Richard was a multi-millionaire but would soon be one of the richest men on the planet.
"Games," Richard are explained, "using a joy stick. Do you know why it is called a joy stick ?"
"Something to do with having fun playing the game ? Joy ?"
Richard laughed. "In World War One fighter pilots controlled their aircraft using a stick which came up between their legs like a giant solid cock ! Holding it firmly in their right hand, moving it about as they did when jerking off it was nick naked the JOY STICK. The name stuck and is used today in a less than rude way to describe a game control unit.
"I never knew that."
"With a joy stick you can control visual and to a certain extent audio action," Richard continued, "but we have five senses not just two. I am throwing out the joy stick and replacing it with something via which you can control all five senses in a game. Here put these on."
Richard handed us what looked like a flying helmet save the area of the face was also covered save for a small breathing aperture. "Comfortable ?" I could hear his voice distant outside my dark world.
"Yes."
I heard Karl confirm his readiness.
"Then experience this."
Immediately I was on a beach, it was somewhere hot - I could feel the heat. I was wearing swimming trunks and wet from having just left the water. I could hear the waves crashing, I could smell cooking. Turning round there was a barbecue with sausages sizzling. One was taken from the grill, placed in a roll and handed to me. "Go on eat, enjoy." I lifted it to my mouth and took a bite. It tasted good. Everything went dark.
"Take the caps off," I heard Richard say.
"What was that ?" Karl said. "Was that real ?"
"Sure was."
I have to say I was lost for words, not something I am used to.
Richard smiled. "I call is a CYBER CAP. It removes you from your surroundings and places you in virtual reality. You can see and hear, that's nothing new but various people have been experimenting for some time sending micro electric pulses to the brain in order to stimulate the senses of taste and small there's nothing particularly new about that. What I have done is to develop something which makes you feel as well. You saw the hot-dog, you smelt it, you tasted it, you heard someone speak to you."
I nodded.
"I have world patents on the cyber cap, nobody else has it and nobody else can use the technology for its use. I'll licence it to anyone who wants it but at a cost, a significant cost. Bill Gates is worth an estimated eighty billing dollars, Mark Zuckerberg about thirty-eight billion, nothing compared to the money I will have."
"You will be able to buy your very own Caribbean island then ?" I smiled.
"I propose licensing the system to any games designers who can afford it, if they can't afford it they'll go out of business."
"Where do we fit in ?" I asked. "A couple of webcam boys ?"
"I could sit back, do nothing and let the money roll in but intend to keep one area of the cyber cap's use exclusively to myself."
"I see."
"I am going to develop a series of adult entertainment games for the cyber cap. Webcam broadcasting, videos, websites will all fall away and be nothing compared to the cyber cap. I want you to be in my first cyber cap games. How soon can you fly to San Francisco ?"
The rest of course is history. The cyber cap is as everyday as the Internet was when Richard first met with us. If you are living in the same universe as Karl and I we will be familiar names to you. Richard Platt you may not have heard of. You know who Bill Gates was but do you know who actually invented the world wide web ? It was a person by the name of Tim Berners-Lee, no I didn't think you would have heard of him. Richard Platt died in a scuba diving accident two years after we first met him. He did get to own is portion of Paradise, a rocky outcrop of just 48 acres by the name of Buck Island. Richard left his business, the island and his personal fortune to Karl and I. Like I say the rest is history.
Perhaps you are not of this universe, perhaps you live in a different dimension. It is for you that I have written this story. I began writing with the intention it would be one of the stories within my cyber library. That library still exists and I have been writing all the years. I rather hope the stories, the library and just a little bit of me will find heir way into other areas of the multiverse.
Life in this universe has been good to Karl and I, the years have gone by and there are probably not that many more left for us now. I have just had my sixty-fifth birthday. Karl, of course, is younger than I am but he is the one whose hair has gone silver. Yes, he still wears it shoulder length but gone is that lovely deep black colour. He says it has been bleached by the sun but the truth is age related. This is the second time I have reached pension age and I can tell you having money does nothing to stop all that comes with advancing years.
Time to move on. This universe has been good to us but I have to say the early days of being reunited with Karl were the best. Yes, yes living on Buck Island with more money at our disposal than it is possible to comprehend has its advantages but being together, sharing our lives is beyond any financial wealth. In our next universe we both are looking for a slightly more modest lifestyle. It has been good to bring the cyber cap to the world but next time I rather fancy working in a supermarket. Karl is thinking about becoming a college lecturer but he has not fully decided yet.