Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The following is probably a work of FICTION.  It was sent back in time in a
quantum bottle.  So who really knows for sure? ...

   Feel free to reprint or take credit for it (as if I could stop you), but
please don't make any changes, or I won't write the next chapter!

   If you haven't already, you really should read the first seven chapters
first.  At this point in the story, you're liable to be quite lost
otherwise ...  /~TooMuchTime/

   SAMMY'S HOT SUMMER Chapter 7: PERSONAL GROWTH (m F F cons busty)

   by TooMuchTime (TooMuchTime2002@hotmail.com)

   Copyright(c) 2002, 2003, TooMuchTime.  All rights reserved.

   The next morning, I woke up with a woody.  This, of course, wasn't
really unusual.  After all, I was 13 years old.  Any morning following any
night that I didn't have a wet dream -- and even some when I did -- I could
count on having a rager in my underwear as I rolled out of bed.  The usual
result of this was that I'd have to stand over the toilet for at least five
minutes, waiting for my erection to die down, so that I could take my first
leak of the day.  It was a ritual I was used to at this point, and not one
I put very much thought into any more.

   That particular morning, however, something caught my attention.  As
bleary as I might have been, I couldn't help but notice that the erection
in my hand ...  wasn't mine.  Or rather, it was, but not quite.  Because
unless I was mistaken, this one was an inch or two longer and slightly
thicker than the one I'd gone to bed with the night before.  It had the
same basic shape and color, the same basic feel, and even leaned a bit to
the left, just like it always had -- but it was definitely bigger.  Whereas
before, it might have measured somewhere in the ballpark of 4 inches, now
it looked to be closer to 5 or even 6.  And while not necessarily pornstar
proportions, it was a sizeable enough increase on my small frame that my
first instinct was to smile and say, "Cool."

   This feeling of well-being lasted only a few seconds, though.  Then a
sinking dread took over, as I realized that a penis simply isn't supposed
to grow one or two inches overnight.  So if mine had, then what did that
mean?  On the surface, it seemed like a good thing, of course.  But why
exactly had it happened, and whatever the reason, what if there was some
bad angle to it that I wasn't aware of?  Inescapably, as my mind ran
through possible reasons for the "blessing" I'd received while I sleeping,
the same name came up over and over again ...

   Bethany.  Or, more precisely, Bethany and Mr.  Brannon and whatever
scientific strangeness was going on next door.  They'd mentioned cloning.
Which as far as I knew, didn't have anything to do with making a person's
dick get bigger.  Still, it was the best lead I had at the moment, so I
decided to follow it.

   A few minutes later, my erection finally died down, and I took my
morning leak.  As I did, I noticed that the size of my unit was not only
noticeable when hard, but even moreso when soft.  Before, it had been ...
well, downright puny when not erect.  But now, it seemed to actually hang,
almost as long when flaccid as when hard, like a meaty pendulum.  Once
again, I couldn't help but smile.  This would certainly make me feel far
less inadequate the next time I stepped into the boys' communal shower
after gym class.

   For now, though, it was time to go next door and ask some questions.



   * * *

   It was Saturday morning.  My parents had warned me the day before that
they'd be getting up early to go to the big flea market an hour away, then
after that, to visit my grandmother who lived near the flea market.  My
father usually volunteered to Grandma's lawn for her, and she always
accepted.  Which meant they probably wouldn't be back until some time that
afternoon.

   So after changing into some clothes, I left the house and started across
the front lawn toward Bethany's house.  Before I'd even crossed the
property line, however, a slow-moving car passing by stopped, and honked
its horn.  "Hey kid," I heard a female voice yell.  I stopped, and turned,
and saw a white jeep.  I focused my eyes on the person in the passenger
seat, then went a bit pale when I realized it was Susie Darcetti.  Holy
shit, I thought.  Susie was a cheerleader at my high school who'd just
graduated that year.  She was a brunette with a killer naughty-girl smile
and big tits, and I'd masturbated thinking about her more times than I
could count.  And there she was, on my street.

   "Hello?" she said, leaning out of the window.

   "Um ...  hello," I replied.

   Susie turned to whoever was driving, then giggled.  "Well, come here,"
she said.

   "Oh.  Okay." Jeez, I thought, could I possibly BE more of a dork?  I
trotted quickly toward the jeep, and as I got closer, saw that Susie wasn't
wearing the cheerleading outfit that I so often fantasized her wearing, but
instead a red tanktop, which looked just as good, if not better.  Also, I
could now see that driving the jeep was her best friend, a girl with
glasses named Marcy, who wasn't a cheerleader and who most people called
"Mousy", for the obvious reason -- she was.  Or at least she was by
comparison to Susie, who tended to make most guys forget about such plain
girls the second she stepped into a room, even when Marcy was standing
right next to her.

   I stood there, and tried not to look as stupid as I felt.

   "Do you live in this neighborhood?" Susie asked.

   "Um, yeah, right there," I replied, pointing at my house.

   "Does Vic Bradford live on this street?" she asked.  I knew who Vic
Bradford was -- one of the football players who'd also graduated that year,
along with the two girls.

   "Vic?  No.  Not that I know of.  I've never seen him."

   Susie looked distressed at this.  "Shit."

   Marcy leaned in, "Is this Jefferson Street?" she asked.

   I shook my head.  "No, it's Jefferson Avenue."

   "Oh, good job," Susie said, smacking Marcy on the arm, then laughing.  I
got to watch her tits jiggle a bit as she did this.  Then she turned back
to me.  "Do you know where Jefferson Street is?"

   "No.  Not really.  Sorry."

   "Shit," she said again, turning to Marcy.  "Now what?"

   "Um," I said.  "I could go inside and look it up on MapQuest ...  if you
want."

   "Really?" Susie replied.  "That would be great."

   But Marcy was fumbling with a map in her hands.  "No, wait," she said.
"I found it." Dammit!

   "Are you sure?" Susie asked.

   "Positive," Marcy replied.  "It's just a few minutes away."

   "Sweet." Susie smiled over at me.  "Thanks anyway."

   I smiled weakly back.  "No problem."

   "Ta ta," she said, wiggling her fingers at me as the jeep pulled away.

   I felt a peculiar sense of loss.  As if there were anything I could have
done to change the way things had gone.  Like there were some magic words I
could have said to get Susie to leave the car and follow me into the house,
then make her live out with me all the fantasies I'd ever had about her.

   Several minutes later, I was still standing there at the curb, reliving
every stupid thing I'd said.  Then I remembered why I'd left my house in
the first place, and turned, and started toward Bethany's.  Before I'd gone
even a few steps, though, I saw the front door open.  Not all the way,
though, and nobody appeared.  I took it as an invitation to enter.  And
after crossing the lawn, I did just that.



   * * *



   Jilly was waiting in the foyer as I stepped into the house.  She wore a
sexy variation on a Catholic school girl uniform -- a very short red and
black plaid skirt, white knee-high socks, shiny black wide-heeled shoes,
and a crisp white short-sleeved blouse, tied rather than buttoned in front,
revealing not only her belly, but also a fair amount of cleavage.  Her
light brown hair was tied with red ribbons into two long pigtails, and both
her lips and nails were painted a simliar shade of bright red.  She wore
very prim glasses, but the eyes behind them revealed that she was anything
BUT proper.  She barely waited for me to shut the door before asking, "So
who was that?"

   "Who was who?" I asked, trying to keep my eyes in my head while looking
at her.

   "Don't play coy," she said, grinning.  "The girls in the jeep."

   "Just somebody wanting directions," I answered, more or less telling the
truth.

   "Are you sure?  You stayed out there an awful long time.  And now you're
blushing."

   "What's your point?" I replied.

   Jilly shrugged.  "I just think maybe you knew those girls."

   "Maybe I do.  From school.  I've seen them before.  But I don't really
know them."

   She stepped closer, pinning me to the door, just as Bethany had done a
few days ago.  "Well I think maybe you more than know them.  I think maybe
you have a crush on them.  Or at least one of them."

   "How could you possibly know that?" I asked.

   Her hunch having paid off, Jilly's eyes gleamed.  "You'd be surprised
how much a girl picks up just by watching a guy's body language.  So what's
her name?" She stood right in front of me now, fiddling with one pigtail.

   "It's Susie." I stared down into her cleavage.

   "Susie what?" she asked, beginning to stroke my arm lightly with her
nails.

   "Darcetti.  She just graduated."

   "I see," Jilly said, seemingly very interested.  "And was she a
cheerleader?"



   I nodded.



   Jilly rolled her eyes.  "Boys and their cheerleaders.  And besides that,
what else is so great about this Susie Darcetti?"

   "I ...  I don't know.  Everything, I guess."

   "Her EYES?" she asked playfully, staring into mine.

   I nodded, as my dick grew in my shorts.

   "Her hair maybe?" Jilly reached up, and ran her fingers through my short
hair.

   "Yes," I said.

   "Anything else?" she asked, taking a step back, reaching for the knot of
her shirt.

   "Um ...  you know ...  everything."

   Jilly pulled slowly at the knot, loosening it.  "Everything?  Like what
else?"

   "Like ...  her chest," I answered.

   "Ohhh," she replied, grinning, still teasing the knot.  "So you like
women's chests?"

   I nodded.  "Yeah.  Sort of."

   "Any particular kind of chest you like?  Big?  Small?"

   "Well ...  I like them big ...  usually."

   "Really?  I never would have guessed," she said, all too sarcastically,
her smile a sly one.  Absently, her eyes still intent on my face, my eyes
on her chest, she gave the knot a final tug, and the shirt fell open.  Not
enough to reveal her nipples or anything -- just enough to reveal the
insides of her generous mounds.  "And would I be correct in guessing that
Susie Darcetti is well-equipped in that area?"

   My throat started to go dry.  "Yeah.  Pretty much."

   Jilly peeled both halves of the white blouse aside, revealing her large
tits fully to me.  "And do you get all ...  hot and bothered when you see
them, Sammy?" She let the blouse fall back over her shoulders, to the
floor. "Do you look at Susie's tits, and wish you could see them the way
you're seeing mine now?"

   "Yes." I nodded stupidly.  "I do.  All the time."

   "And does your pretty little boy cock get all hard?"

   "Yes." At this point, it was at full mast inside my shorts.

   "And do you ever wish you could show it to her?" Jilly ran her nails
against her belly.

   Again, I answered yes, as the room grew hotter.

   "And would you like to show it to me, Sammy?"

   "Very much, yes," I answered.

   Jilly smiled.  "Well, go ahead then.  Show me how hot and bothered Susie
gets you."

   I didn't need any more invitation than this.  In less than two seconds,
my shorts and underwear were down around my ankles, and my cock was jutting
proudly toward the eager "Catholic schoolgirl" in front of me.

   "Oh my," she said, smirking.  "Am I wrong, or are you a little bigger
than you were yesterday?"

   Which suddenly reminded me of why I'd come here in the first place. 
"Actually, that's why --"

   But Jilly put a finger to her lips, shaking her head.  "Ssshhhhhh.  Not
now."

   "But I don't understand why --"

   Then she stepped forward, put a hand to my mouth, and closed my lips
between her fingers.  "I said, not now.  Really, Sammy, you need to just
relax and not ask so many questions.  I'm guessing that most young boys in
your situation would be happy to wake up one morning and find they have a
bigger cock than they did the day before." To emphasize her point, Jilly
used her free hand to grip my cock, and give it a hard squeeze.  A steamy
expression crossed her face.  "Mm.  And what a nice cock it is too. 
Especially for such a little boy.  Much bigger than Kevin's was."

   This of course raised a new set of questions for me.  But since very
little blood was rushing to the head on my shoulders at the moment, I
decided -- perhaps wisely, perhaps not -- to ignore them.  "Is it?" I
asked.

   Jilly grinned.  "Oh yes.  I bet Susie would love to be in my shoes right
now." Then she grinned more widely.  "But she's not.  Which means that
right now, your cock is all mine.  Isn't that right?"

   I nodded.  "Yes."

   A new voice from behind her contradicted this, however.  "All yours?" We
both turned to see Carmen, the tall latina woman I'd just briefly met
yesterday, standing in the hallway that led from the kitchen to the front
door.  Her dark hair was wet, she held a cup of coffee, and she wore only a
yellow towel wrapped around her, which revealed every inch of her long and
shapely legs.  "You mean," she said, "you're not going to share?"

   Jilly looked somewhat disappointed.  "Hi, Carmen."

   The attractive latina woman padded down the hall, carefully balancing
the cup in her hand.  "Good morning, Jilly.  And good morning, Sammy." When
she reached us, Carmen leaned down, as she had the day before, and gave me
an intimate kiss.  Then, somewhat to my surprise, she turned and did the
same with Jilly.  I watched on in sheer fascination as the kiss went on
first for a few seconds ...  then a few more ...  then a few more, Jilly
seeming to melt under the heat of it all the while, her hands clutching
weakly at the other woman's towel.

   When they separated, Carmen took a step back, and seemed to notice my
erection as if for the first time.  She smiled.  "Well now doesn't that
just give a new meaning to the expression 'rise and shine'?" She turned to
Jilly, who still seemed to be recovering from the kiss.  "Please tell me
you aren't planning on making young Sammy stand here with his back to the
door all day, when he's been nice enough to bring you a gift like that."

   "No," Jilly said, seeming annoyed at this suggestion.  "I was ...  we
were just going into the living room." At the mention of this, she grabbed
my hand, and led me somewhat roughly into the living room, nearly pushing
me down onto the couch.  I got the impression that she was more than a bit
intimidated by the older and clearly more worldly latina woman.  Because
before she'd arrived, Jilly had seemed very at ease with herself, and very
in control of the situation.  Now, it was like she was trying to prove to
Carmen that she could seduce me as well as anybody could.

   Carmen followed us into the room, and took a seat in the chair facing
the couch, but said nothing.

   After a pause, Jilly knelt down in front of me, between my legs, which
put her back to the other woman and put her face less than a foot from my
proud erection, her bare tits still within my line of sight.  She grinned,
but awkwardly.  "Now," she said, "where were we?"

   I shrugged, a bit confused by the tension in the room.  "I'm not sure."

   "You know," she said.  "I bet Susie Marcetti doesn't give a blowjob as
good as I do."

   "Darcetti," I corrected, then swallowed.  "And I ...  wouldn't know ...
actually."

   "Well, I tell you what," Jilly said, placing a hand on each of my
thighs. "I'll go ahead and give one now.  And then if you ever get one from
Susie, you can be sure and let me know.  Is it a deal?"

   I nodded vigorously, eager to have anybody do anything to my cock at
this point.

   "Say it's a deal," she added.

   "It's a deal," I said.

   "Say you want me to suck your cock," she added, making me work for it.

   "I do," I replied.  "I want you to."

   "Want me to what?"

   Carmen snickered.  "My god, Jilly," she said.  "If you're going to give
him head, give him head.  But don't make the poor boy beg for it.  Can't
you see he's ready to explode as it is?"

   Jilly's face went bright red, but she ignored the comment.  "Just say
it," she whispered up at me.

   "I want you to suck my cock," I replied, hoping to defuse the situation.

   And with that, Jilly lunged in.  Unlike Sasha, there was no gentle
playing or teasing to her approach.  She just took my cock into her mouth
and began to fuck me with it.  What she might have lacked in finesse,
though, she seemed to make up for with sheer suction power.  I'd never had
anything quite so tightly wrapped around my dick before.  Up and down she
moved, as fast as her back muscles would allow, each time taking every inch
of my new and improved unit into her mouth, right down to the base.  Every
few times, she would pull me out all the way, and when she did, it would
make a loud popping noise as the suction broke.  Then she'd smile up at me,
her eyes on fire, stroke me eagerly with her own saliva, then plunge
forward again, one hand on my balls, sucking me like there was no tomorrow.

   A minute or so into this, I happened to look up -- over Jilly's bobbing
back -- at Carmen sitting across from me.  Much to my delight, she'd put
her coffee cup down, and was watching in amusement.  She had one leg lifted
up to the leg of the chair, and she was slowly peeling the towel back to
reveal her pussy beneath.  Perhaps seeing the grin this brought to my face,
she peeled away more and more, until at last the towel was fully open. 
Then she pulled it out from behind her, let it drop to the floor, and sat
there with her legs spread, clearly pleased with herself.

   As a specimin of latina beauty, Carmen's body was nearly perfect.  Her
C-cup tits were perky, the nipples jutting almost upward, and they seemed
to suit her slim and darkly tanned body perfectly.  For my money, I still
preferred the curvy "abundance" of Bethany's figure, but I can't say I
hated looking at Carmen's.  Especially when she reached a hand down between
her long legs and began to finger herself.

   In fact, the sight of this aroused me so much that I wasn't able keep
myself from cumming for another second.  I could feel the tell-tale
pressure building inside my balls.  And apparently, so did Jilly.  Because
a split-second before I was about to explode, she pulled her face back,
aimed my cock at it, and began to stroke me.  I watched as my spunk sprayed
across her forehead and cheeks and eyes and mouth, as she caught it on her
tongue and lips, and as it rolled down to her neck.  She grinned naughtily
as it just kept spurting and spurting.  It was more than I'd ever seen
myself shoot before, but considering my new size, I wasn't as surprised as
I probably should have been.

   As my orgasm began to subside, Jilly broke into giggles and backed away
from me, as if she'd had enough fun.  She leaned back on her hands, and
fell to a sitting position on the floor.  She didn't see Carmen crawling up
behind her until she was already there, her face in Jilly's, staring down
at her with steam in her warm brown eyes.  The topless schoolgirl didn't
even try to resist as Carmen found her mouth with her own and began to kiss
her passionately for the second time that day (that I knew of).  The latina
woman made a point of licking away my cum wherever she found it, until
finally, when there was no more to be found on her face, she licked and
nibbled her way slowly down Jilly's neck.

   It wasn't until Carmen's mouth reached Jilly's tits a few minutes later
that I realized I was still hard.  Not a full hundred percent, but fairly
close to it.  That was certainly a new development.  In fact, the more I
thought about still being hard, and the more I watched Carmen sucking at
Jilly's nipple, the more hard I became, until in a matter of a few seconds,
I actually was at a hundred percent again, fully erect and hard as a rock.

   As if reading my mind, Carmen -- on all fours -- turned, and smiled up
at me.  "Are you ready now?" she asked.

   Now there was a loaded question.  "Ready for what?" I replied.

   "For me," she said, as her mouth left Jilly's tits and trailed down,
over her belly.  She paused there, and met my eyes again.  "Are you ready
to show me how well that thing works?" Her mouth had continued down, until
it was hovering over Jilly's skirt.  Moments later, the skirt had been
unclasped and pushed down and away, until she was hovering over the
schoolgirl's bald, glistening pussy.  Carmen spread the lips open with one
hand, effortlessly exposing her clit.

   "Um," I said.  "Sure.  Now?"

   "No time like the present, Sammy." She glanced back at her ass, sticking
up in the air, and wiggled it.

   "You mean ..."

   "Yes," Carmen said.  "Climb aboard." And she wiggled her ass again, for
emphasis.

   Not one to turn down such an attractive offer, I stepped around and
positioned myself behind her, just as she was bringing her tongue to bear
on Jilly's clit.  The schoolgirl moaned, and began to grope at her own
tits. I wished my arms were long enough to do it for her.  But I had
another worthwhile task on my hands.

   At first, I just admired the split, swollen mound of Carmen's pussy. 
But somewhere in the back of my mind, I was worried that either my dick
wouldn't continue to stay hard forever or that Carmen herself might lose
interest.  So without any more delay, I pushed forward ...  with some
clumsiness.  I'd had sex twice now, but so far, never in this particular
position, and I wasn't quite sure how to approach it.  I started by simply
pushing the head of my cock against her pussy, hoping it would just kind of
slip into place.  But that didn't work, even as she made a point of
spreading her legs wider for me.  Then I tried to come up underneath, but
couldn't quite get the angle right.  Finally, Carmen saw my dilemma, and
paused from eating Jilly out to reach up under herself, grab my unit, and
guide it into place.  That did the trick.  The sensation for me was beyond
words, and I guessed it wasn't half bad for Carmen either.

   By the time I began to thrust, slowly at first, both women were moaning
and groaning.  Even though I realized that Carmen was more responsible for
Jilly's noises than I was, I still took a kind of pride in knowing that I
was part of this chain of carnal delight that started with my cock sliding
into Carmen's pussy and ended with squeals oozing out of Jilly's mouth --
which just moments before had been sucking that same cock.  Not that I was
really putting this much thought into at the time.  I was just enjoying the
moment, and wondering how long I'd be able to hold off cumming.

   Much to my delight, ten minutes later, I was still going at it.  By this
point, Jilly had become so over-stimulated that she once again broke into
giggles, and abruptly rolled herself out from beneath Carmen.  "No more,"
she said.  But Carmen didn't seem to mind all that much, because by now,
she was becoming preoccupied with her own stimulation.

   Apparently, she could tell that my legs -- which had been in kind of a
half-crouch mode all this time -- were beginning to get tired.  My thrusts
were becoming increasingly erratic.  She made me stop, then repositioned
herself so that her face was buried in the seat of the couch, her legs
slightly splayed, and her ass jutted out at me again, but this time a bit
higher up ...  a perfect height.

   This time around, I had far less trouble finding the opening, slid my
cock into her now-soaked pussy as if I'd done it a million times, and
quickly established a steady rhythm.  "Yes," she moaned.  "That's it."
Deeper and harder and faster I pounded into her.  "Oh god, Sammy, yes. 
Fuck me.  Just like that."

   Jilly, meanwhile, unwilling to be a spectator, stepped up behind me and
pressed her front against my back.  Her tits pushing into me, her pussy
against my ass, her hands reaching around to run her nails up and down my
chest, biting my shoulder, she acted as if she were thrusting into me the
way I was thrusting into Carmen.  It was a distraction at first, but I
quickly grew to like it, the feeling of having so much skin contact with
one woman while actually fucking another.

   Even with my new dick, I knew I wouldn't last much longer.  There was
just too much going on all at once for me to concentrate on self-control.
Carmen moaned beneath me, then muttered a passionate string of words that I
didn't understand but which sounded like Spanish.  Then she switched back
to English again.  "Yes.  Like that.  Such a good boy." She clutched at the
seat cushions.  "Fuck me harder, Sammy.  Oh God ...  so close." Then she
fell back into Spanish again.

   Meanwhile, from behind me, Jilly began to whisper into my ear.  "It's
time to finish her off.  Faster now.  Pound that cock into her." With her
hands, she urged my hips into a new, faster rhythm, still whispering, her
breath hot in my ear.  "That's it.  Keep it up, boy.  You're breaking her.
Think about my big tits.  Fucking my tits.  Fucking Susie Darcetti's tits.
Cumming all over her the way you came all over me.  Shoving that big cock
into her face and making her suck it.  Susie begging you to let her suck
it, right it front of all her cheerleader friends."

   A high-pitched wail of sorts grew out of Carmen as she began to cum.  It
built, higher and higher, until it exploded into something like a roar as
her legs started to quiver.  Which was good, because not long after that,
Jilly's creative assistance finally pushed me over the edge as well.  The
orgasm grew from my toes, up my legs, through my balls, and if Jilly hadn't
been there to help steady me as I began to cum, I think I might have fallen
over.  She pulled me back, so that my cock slipped out of Carmen, and
reaching around me, jacked it off.  As it had before, the jizz this time
also flowed plentifully, out onto Carmen's ass and back, until there was a
small pool of it there at the base of her spine.  Jilly used my own fluids
to lube me as she continued to run her small hand up and down my shaft,
urging more and more out of me, her other hand digging into one of my ass
cheeks.

   As the deluge subsided, I found that my legs really were rather weak,
and realized that needed to sit down.  I half-stumbled into the chair
behind me.  I watched as Jilly scooped my cum off of Carmen's back.  She
spread it onto her tits, then invited Carmen -- sweating and out of breath
-- to lick them clean.  Faced with this show, it took a few minutes for my
erection to begin to dwindle, but it eventually did.  Still, just before it
did, I couldn't help but feel some pride in my new size ...  and once again
wondered where it had come from.

   Then something caught my eye to the left.  A tiny red light.  I turned,
and saw the video camera I'd been using with Bethany and Veronica earlier
that week.  It was on, and facing the couch area.  Feeling less weak, I
stood and walked around behind it.  Sure enough, the framing couldn't have
been more perfect -- everything that Jilly and Carmen and I had done on the
floor and couch would have been picked up.  I made a quick examination of
the wiring, and found one cable that extended over to the baseboard, then
seemed to disappear into the floor.

   So either we were recorded or we had a live audience, I thought.  This
didn't surprise me as much as I would have liked it to.  Still, I was
curious to know who'd been watching.  With one last glance at Jilly and
Carmen on the floor -- who didn't seem interested in stopping me -- I made
my way back to the foyer, grabbed my shorts, slid them on, then pushed on
down the hall to the basement door.  I expected it to be closed, and maybe
locked.  This time, however, it was wide open, seemingly inviting me ... 
and I didn't know what to make of that.

   Only one way to find out, I thought, and started down the stairs.


   (TO BE CONTINUED)