Chapter 1.

Crystal Hren opened the door after she heard the knock.

"My mother said you wanted to see me," Jerry Powell stated.

"Yeah, you're still looking for a job?"

"Yeah, it's been tough out there. With the COVID and all."

"I know. It's tough for all of us. But I think I have a job for you. You won't really have to do much. You might even learn something."

"Really, what type of job?"

"Well, you will be helping me out."

"Doing what?"

"All you have to do is sit in front of the computer and take an online course for me."

"Take your course?"

"Yeah, it's really just a lot of busywork."

"Why don't you take it?"

"Because I have so much more to do. I can't take the time."

"Then take it later."

"All I need is this one last course and I'll get a huge bump in salary for completing my degree. I really know all the stuff already. But because of the COVID thing, it is done much differently than before. You have to sit in front of the computer and watch and participate. It's not like the old days when you could just take a test. They watch you on Zoom. You have to sit in front of the computer for hours on end until it's done.".

"So?"

"So, I don't have time to do that. I have real work to do. That's where you come in."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Watch the course. All you have to do is sit there and be seen."

"What's the course?"

"It's call Fashion in the late Twentieth Century. I already know it all, but I still have to 'take the course'."

Crystal indeed already knew the course. She was in her early sixties, she had lived through most of the fashion of the late twentieth century/ She had been into fashion for decades, ever since she was a little girl. She knew the subject inside and out. When she signed up the for course, no one had heard of COVID, but that changed dramatically.

She couldn't breeze through the course anymore, since everyone was remote, the college was making sure that their students were actually watching the material. They put in safeguards. Each student had to be seen on the monitor. They had to occasionally press their thumb on a fingerprinting device. The teacher would ask the students questions. If you missed a certain amount of the class, you would get an incomplete and have to take it again. It was foolproof. Whether a student learned or not was up to the student, but one thing was sure, they had to sit through the material.

"I don't know anything about that," Jerry complained.

"So, you will learn. I'll pay you two thousand dollars a month. The course will take six weeks to complete. All you really have to do is sit there and be me." The course would last longer than six weeks, but Crystal didn't see a reason to scare Jerry off by telling him. Regardless, she would pay him $2000 a month.

"When they see me, they'll know I'm not a woman."

"I know. I'll make up your face so it looks like mine."

"Come on."

"We'll also cover the camera with plastic wrap, so the image will be a bit distorted. It'll be fine."

"What about my voice when they ask questions?"

"I have software. Here sit down."

Jerry sat in front of the computer. He put on the earphones that Crystal offered.

"Let me boot this up." Crystal continued, "OK say 'My name is Crystal Hren'."

Jerry repeated the sentence. He heard a feminized version of what he said back to him through the earphones.

"Wow!" he exclaimed and heard that back to him again in newly feminized tones. The voice was feminine, but the inflection in the voice was his. It wasn't just repeating what he said in a mono-tonal manner. It contained, his way of speaking (accent) and the emotional inflections in his voice.

"That is what they'll hear on the other end."

"And my face?"

"I've been in makeup and fashion for decades. I know how to make your face look like a woman my age. Believe me, it's would be harder to make you look like a girl your age than a woman my age. Plus it doesn't have to be perfect. The camera image will be a little distorted. You'll tell them it's a hardware problem."

"Hmm, that is all I have to do?"

"Yes."

"What if I fail the final?"

"Don't worry about the final, it's easy. All they care about is that you see all the material."

"And for this, you'll pay me $3000 in total?"

"Yes, $2000 a month for six weeks is $3000."

"Even if I fail the final?"

"I'll pay you the day before the final. But you won't fail it."

"What if they see me through the monitor and know I'm not a woman?"