"What is it?"
      "Just a little hormonal treatment. You drink it. Not all at once. You have to take one third of it each day after meals from the time your period starts."
      "It wouldn't work for me, then. I only have one meal a day."
      "I don't think it's the meals that matter so much as the timing. If you came on first thing in the morning, you'd take a dose then. Then another at lunchtime and the rest of it in the evening."
      "And then what? Tell everybody to stand clear?"
      "More or less! It's true! We've tested it, and it works. I'd have told you earlier, only we've been testing."
      Sue shook the container. The contents moved sludgily. "How do you test something like this? On rats?"
      "The real answer is we can't, of course. It would take years to get permission. That's why we've taken a short cut. We tested it on three volunteers. And would you believe it? One hundred per cent success! More or less, anyway."
      "What do you mean?" Despite herself, Sue was fascinated. "You've got three patients with instant boobies?"
      "More or less instant. It takes a week or so to start working. About a month before the results really show. And here are the results. Ta-da!" Marianne produced an envelope, one of those folders from a photo processor. She took out a small stack of pictures and thumbed through them. "Here you go, look. Vicki, Lyn and Diane. These are before..." She handed them over.
      Sue studied the pictures. There were two of each girl, a front view and one from the side. "You certainly chose three different types."
      "We had no choice, really. These were the only ones who volunteered. Now it works, we've got more volunteers than we can handle. You're lucky I saved a dose for you."
      "Hey, wait a minute! Who said I wanted any?"
      "Of course you do! You want to look like this, don't you? This is Vicki. After!"
      It was impressive enough. Vicki was tall and slim and had been almost completely flat-chested. In the two pictures taken after the event, her shirt was comfortably filled with a pair of what looked like grapefruit. "So she's got grapefruit up her shirt!"
      "Susan, you wound me!"
      "Why couldn't you take nude pictures? These don't prove anything."
      "You can't get nude pictures developed at Boots. They confiscate anything obscene. And they think nude women are obscene. Here's Lyn. She's wearing a D-cup now."
      "How big's that?" Sue squinted at the pictures. They weren't very clear.
      "They're not very clear, those. I wear a D-cup. Lyn's as big as me now."
      "She is?" She'd been almost undeveloped before. Sue peered closer. "What about the other one? Diane?"
      "That's why I saved hers until last." There was triumph in Marianne's voice. "You ready for this?"
      Sue gasped. The side view showed an extremely top-heavy young woman. Right enough: Diane could have had balloons in her shirt. What confused the issue was that she was wearing a low-cut tank-top. There was a disturbing amount of genuine-looking cleavage on display in the front view.
      "See what I mean?"
      "Why the difference between them?"
      "It's to do with the hormone levels. We've reduced the levels in the second batch. Yours is fifty per cent lower than the original. So there's no risk of your getting a pair like Diane's. Not that she's complaining, of course."
      "No, of course."
      "When's your period?"
      "Next week. But hang on! I'm not taking this stuff. No way!" She tried to hand it back. Marianne refused to take it. It fell on Sue's bed and rolled to a halt. 'Sample Number 13' was uppermost. "Especially with that number! You could have called it 12a, at least."
      "There's no risk at all, Suze! Put it in your purse, okay? Just think ... a lovely pair of luscious boobies just in time for Christmas! Hey, is that the time? Catch ya later."

"All ready, Miss Bullinger? No second thoughts? Good!" Professor Anstruther seemed in good form, if a little on edge. "Now, we'll be on our way as soon as Miss What-her-name arrives."
      "Hayley? She'll be with us?"
      "You know her?" The professor sounded surprised. "She'll be in the back here, with you."
      "Where will you be?"
      "Driving the lorry, of course."
      "Driving? Where are we going?"
      "I told you already, we can't do it here at the university. We have a drive of about two hours ahead of us. You'll be in the back here. There are plenty of seats. Miss Whatsit will be working on the computer, but she can talk at the same time. Remarkable girl. Remarkable."
      The remarkable girl came clanking up the steps at that moment and edged sideways through the door. In a grey sweater, she looked bulkier than ever. She put a notebook computer and a pile of papers on the work surface. "Hi, Susan. All ready to go?"
      "More or less."
      "Good. I'll be here to look after you. And Professor Anstruther's a careful driver. Aren't you, Angus?" She smiled sweetly at him. "Off you go and play at truck drivers. Us girls will make ourselves comfy in here." She began plumping up cushions on the upholstered seating along the front bulkhead of the van. "You sit there, Sue. I'll be at the computer. God, Angus, are you still here? Run along, there's a dear!"
      She shoved him out and closed the door. Their ears popped.
      "It's airtight in here," Hayley explained as the engine rumbled into life. "Pretty quiet, though, when it's running. Just the vibration. And it's hard to keep your balance, too." She sat down quickly, her breasts bouncing heavily. "You'd better take your jacket off, you won't feel the benefit of it when you go outside. Now, have you decided how far back you're going?"
      "Erm, yes. I thought ten years."
      "Ten? Sounds good. You'll still be yourself. Any reason for making it ten years?"
      "Yes. My ... my Dad would still be alive."
      Hayley nodded. "He died more than five years ago?"
      "Yes. It's been eight years now."
      The girl typed something and watched her screen, then nodded again. "Looking good. Everything's tickety-boo. You can take your handbag thing. What's in it?"
      Sue reddened slightly. "Just a hankie, some money. Tampax."
      "Okay. Make sure the money is legal currency. Paper money's okay. Better leave any coins behind. They might have the wrong dates. Do you need the tampons? Had you started your periods ten years ago?"
      "I think so. I'd have been ten years old. I thought it would be better to be on the safe side."
      "Sure. You never know, your time of the month might have changed in ten years. You could start your period tonight, or any time. That's about everything. Any questions?"
      "Where are we going? Why do we have to drive two hours away?"
      "Didn't Angus explain? He forgets, you know. He assumes that because he knows, everyone else knows as well. We have to go to the right place."
      "But how do you know where the right place is? I'm going to be a ten-year-old girl, and you're going to abandon me somewhere in the countryside late at night?"
      "I shouldn't worry about it. The past will always take care of itself. The only thing to remember is that you have to get back to exactly the same place in exactly one lunar month's time. It will probably happen automatically and you'll just kind of turn up there, but it depends on the field strength. You might just have a sort of vague feeling that you need to get to the place in a month's time. You'll probably find that nobody will do anything to stop you."
      "What ... what if...?"
      "If you don't get the feeling, you can stay another month, no problem. Don't worry. If you don't rematerialise in a month's time, we'll be there for you in two months' time. And so on until you're back with us. Large as life and twice as handsome, okay? You're sure to get back: you're here now, aren't you!"
      "Okay. But you didn't answer the question. Why are we going seventy or eighty miles before we can do this thing? It must be because there's some risk involved."
      Hayley giggled. "Of course there's no risk, silly! We just have to get to the junction."
      "What junction?" Sue tried to visualise a map. Were they going to London? Watford Junction? Clapham Junction?
      "The junction of the ley lines, of course."
      "Ley lines? You mean, that medieval claptrap...?"
      "Lines of force," Hayley interrupted loudly, deliberately not listening. "The nearest significant junction is..." Hayley revolved her chair and hit a few keys. A map appeared on the screen. It showed a portion of the surrounding country, with towns and roads. Thick straight lines in red criss-crossed the screen. "Just here." She peered through her huge glasses. Arklow Tump. That's where we're going."
      "But ... shouldn't I remember having been to this place before? It was only ten years ago, after all."
      "But you must have been there, Sue. You're going back there now."

She stood up painfully. There was no sign of the truck. She had a burning wish to climb back into its comforting warmth. She dragged her feet through the thick snow, pulling her school blazer tighter round her shoulders and ducked down behind the stone wall again. It provided a little shelter from the snow, which was driving horizontally across the open moor on a stiffening wind. Her skirt offered little protection. Mum was right. It was far too short. She was glad she'd allowed herself to be persuaded to wear her leggings. But she'd lost one shoe in the snow.
      Someone shouted, a weak sound on the wind. She'd almost given up, thinking they'd stopped looking for her until morning. "Hello!" she yelled. "Hello! Over here!"
      "Hello?" It was closer this time. Then a dark form came bounding out of the darkness, snuffling and making grumbling noises. It barked, wagging a bushy tail, and a big wet nose explored her face.
      "Hello? Here she is, Jack! Brutus has found her!"
      There were three of them, lifting her up, wrapping her in a coarse blanket, carrying her through the howling wind and snow, into somewhere warm and dry. A woman was talking to her, comforting, taking her leggings off...
      "Lost ... shoe..."
      "Never mind your shoe, Susan. You're mother won't tell you off for losing it."
      It was lovely and warm, and her circulation was returning with lots of tingling in her toes. "I think I'll just go to sleep," she murmured.

She didn't feel like a hero, but that was what the newspapers said she was. The girl who crawled half a mile to get to the telephone when the bus skidded off the road in a blizzard. On Arklow Moor, it said. The name sort of rang a bell. More or less. A pity she couldn't remember a thing about it.
      "You seem funny, Susie. Ever since the accident, you've been different."
      "I can't remember any accident. The bus was just driving along and it fell over. I got out. Then they put me in the ambulance. They had this big dog."
      "Corrr."
      Sue was beginning to wonder what she had ever seen in Lisa. Everyone needed a best friend, but she couldn't help thinking that if she had her time over again, she could make a better choice. One strange thing, though; Lisa had a bust. Funny how she'd never really noticed before. For a ten-year-old, Lisa had a remarkably full blouse. She found herself staring at it, the way it wobbled and bounced as Lisa scratched her back; the way it got squashed when Lisa turned round and leaned across the back of her chair to talk to her.
      "What you starin' at?"
      "Wha...?"
      "Why d'you keep starin' at my boobs? It's all creepy."
      "I'm not staring at them. I've got to look somewhere, haven't I?"
      Lisa stared at them herself, and shook her shoulders slightly. "You reckon boys like big boobs?"
      "Boys?" Sue's mind had gone blank.
      "My sister's got huge ones. Janette's got loads of boyfriends an' she says it's 'cos she's got such big boobs. I wonder if it would work for me..."
      "Boys? What do you want boyfriends for?"
      "I dunno. Janette says they're brilliant." She lowered her voice and looked around the classroom. "She does it with them. In her bedroom."
      "Does what?"
      "You know!"
      "With her boobs?"
      "I suppose so."
      "How?"
      "I dunno. I've never watched her. Hey! We could...!"
      "Could what?"
      "We could wait until she's got a boyfriend at home, then sneak in and watch them."
      Sue felt a strange thrill in her tummy. "What for?"
      "Because!"

"We can watch through that wall," said Lisa. She was sitting criss-legged on her bed.
      Sue stared at the wall, then at her friend, her eyes boggling. Lisa gave one of her wobbly giggles.
      "These two rooms used to be one big one until my dad built this wall between them. There's a gap between the panels, up there. If the light's off in here, and you put your eye right up against the crack, you can see Janette's bed. You can hear through the wall as well. With a glass."
      This sounded a bit too far-fetched. "How can you hear with a glass?"
      Lisa showed her, and offered the glass for Sue to hear for herself. "Like that, see?"
      "I can't hear anything."
      "Of course you can't. They're not in there yet. There's no point in looking through the crack. You won't see anything until she puts her light on."
      Sue gaped at her, wordless.
      "When they come in, I'll look through the wall while you listen. I'll have to sit on your shoulders, 'cos it's so high up. We can swap after a bit."
      "What are we doing all this for?"
      Lisa sighed. "To find out what Janette does with her boobs with her boyfriends. So we can see if it's worth doing."
      "But we haven't got boyfriends. We're not old enough."
      "There's no harm in looking, is there. Anyway," Lisa sniggered. "We may not be old enough, but we're big enough. At least, I am!"

"He's sitting on the bed. So's Janette. They're not doing anything. What are they talking about?" Lisa removed her eye from the crack in the wall, dissatisfied.
      "I can't hear. With you on my shoulders, I can't get my ear close enough to the wall. Anyway, your legs are squashed against my ears."
      "Let me down. I'll show you how to do it." Lisa climbed down to the floor. "We'll have to be the other way round. You have your back to the wall then I sit with my legs hanging down your back." Sue looked unhappy with this arrangement. "You get on my shoulders and I'll show you!"
      They rearranged themselves, Sue rising slowly into the air with Lisa's chin pressed into her crotch. She applied her eye to the crack and after a few shaky seconds Lisa succeeded in pressing the glass against the wall.
      "They're not saying anything," said Lisa after a few moments. "What are they doing now?"
      "They're just sitting there on the bed. Next to each other."
      "Let me see. You can listen."
      The whole fragile edifice dismantled itself, then Lisa scrambled aboard. Sue found the position somewhat less than satisfactory.
      "You've got smelly knickers," she said.
      "So have you," Lisa retorted with spirit. "I didn't complain."
      "I changed mine before I came over here after school. And I had a shower."
      "Let me down again!" Lisa said crossly.
      "What are you doing now?"
      "What's it fucking look like? Taking my panties off, of course. Right, let me up again!"
      "But...!"
      This was even worse. Instead of having Lisa's stale gusset in her face, Sue now had a mouthful of surprisingly hairy crotch. It was not a pleasant experience.
      "You're all hairy," she complained.
      "I can't help being hairy. I'm more grown-up than you. And if you�re talking about hairy pussies, you should see Janette's!" Lisa peered through the wall, trying to see. "They're just talking. What are they talking about?"
      Sue tried to concentrate. There was a stray pubic hair in her mouth. A long one. "Wait a minute. She's talking about her shirt buttons..."
      "Wow! Give me that glass again!"
      Sue was beginning to feel like a yo-yo as Lisa came tumbling down and hoisted her in turn up to the crack.
      "They've gone all quiet," said Lisa from down below. "Are they still sitting there?"
      Sue was suddenly grateful for the fact that the lights were out in the bedroom. She was blushing deeply. Not that Lisa could see her face from down there. "Yeah," she lied. "Just sitting there." She tried to remain cool but it wasn't easy. Janette's boyfriend had removed her shirt and was fumbling around behind her back, presumably trying to undo her bra. He succeeded.
      "They're still quiet," said Lisa.
      "They're still just sitting there!" It was strictly true. They weren't standing up or lying down. The bra was off. Janette's boobs looked about twice as big as Lisa's. They swung mightily from side to side as the boyfriend mauled them around with his inadequate hands.
      "She's kind of moaning now," Lisa reported. "They're not still sitting there, are they?"
      "Still sitting there. I'll tell you when they do anything different." This was different! The boyfriend had slipped to his knees between Janette's meaty thighs. His face was buried between her boobs, and she seemed to be trying to squash his head between them. They were easily big enough to squash his head. They had great big round patches at their ends, where the nipples were. And the nipples themselves were enormous. How did they get that big? Were Lisa's as big as that?
      "They're both moaning now! Are they still sitting there?"
      Sue crossed her fingers, watching. "Mm-hmm. No, wait a minute. They're moving..."
      Suddenly, they lurched away from the wall and tumbled in an untidy heap on the bed. Lisa's voice was indignant. "You've done a pee!" she squealed. "You've pissed yourself!"
      Sue tried to explain, but it wasn't easy.

Sue had a disturbed night. She hadn't had another chance to look through the crack in the wall. Lisa had sneaked out to the shed and fetched her dad's step-ladder, then monopolised it for the rest of the date. "What were they saying?" she had asked Sue later, after it was all over. Lisa was breathing heavily and touching herself down below. Interestingly, her nipples were poking through her T-shirt. They weren't as thick as her big sister's, but they certainly stuck out a mile.
      Now, lying in her bed, it felt weird in her tummy. Sue felt her own nipples. Wow! Would they feel as good as this if they were as big as Lisa's? Or Janette's? Judging by the amount of moaning Janette had been doing, they probably would.
      Sue rolled over on to her tummy, with both hands underneath her body.

"Mine get bigger before I start my thingie," Lisa confided one day in class. It was about a week after Janette's big night, and Lisa had never stopped talking about it since.
      "Your thingie?" Sue thought she knew what Lisa meant but wanted it confirmed.
      "My period. Do you have those yet?"
      "Of course. I've been having them for more than a year."
      Lisa sounded disappointed, offended even. "So've I," she lied. "But just before mine start, my boobs get ever so big. They feel like they're going to burst! You wouldn't know about that, though, would you?"
      "Not yet. I don't think I'd want mine to feel like that. Bursting doesn't sound like much fun."
      "It doesn't happen. It just feels like it. They get all heavy and bouncy."
      "Yuck! I'd rather be able to play games and stuff. You're useless at netball since you got boobs."
      "Boys don't play netball," said Lisa.
      That was true, although Sue couldn't really see the point of the argument. She was worried, too. Surely her thingie should have started by now. It was always round about the same time. Her mum had explained that your thingies happened every four weeks, and they stopped happening when you were going to have a baby. She'd also explained about how babies were made, but it had sounded altogether too complicated and messy. And it involved having a boyfriend, so it wasn't really relevant.
      But hang on a minute! Wasn't that what Janette and her boyfriend had been doing? She went over the facts in her memory. From what she'd seen, the action seemed to fit the description. There had been a lot of other unnecessary stuff in there as well: a lot of bouncing around on the bed and humping, not to mention all that playing around with Janette's boobs beforehand, but the more Sue thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. Janette and her boyfriend had been making a baby.
      It was stupid. Why make a baby? Janette was still at school. What would she do with a baby at school. Girls didn't bring babies to school. Sadly, she dismissed the whole idea as being too outrageous. They'd just been playing. Pretending to be fighting on the bed. Maybe she'd ask Lisa about it later, though, just in case. Or ask her mum. She might know.
      Then a terrible thought occurred to her. Was it possible to have a baby just by watching? That would explain why her thingie hadn't happened yet. An uneasy feeling came over her. Something more ominous than the feeling that she might be going to have a baby. There was this weird feeling deep inside her head that having a baby would be an unmitigated disaster.

In the end, Sue never did ask her mother. The opportunity never really presented itself. The moment was never really right to ask Lisa, either, especially when Lisa announced that she had a boyfriend!
      "He's fifteen," she whispered, sounding almost scandalised at the very thought. It was Monday morning and they were walking up the path to school.
      "Poo! That's ancient, said Sue.
      "I know! I had to tell him I was thirteen. His name's Jeff and he's a brilliant kisser and he's got lovely hair. But now he wants to meet me tonight after school, and I can't let him see me coming out of kids school. So when we get out tonight, I've got to sneak up to the High School and pretend I've been on detention or something."
      "What about the uniform? You'd have to wear a High School skirt and a silly hat."
      "I know. I borrowed one of Janette's straw hats. She doesn't wear it any more. It's in my bag. Maybe the skirt won't show. It's nearly dark."
      "Wow! What are you going to do with him?"
      "Same as Janette did. Not in my bedroom, though. We'll have to do it outside."
      "But it's cold. It's going to be freezing again tonight. Your boobs will turn into icicles."
      "Jeff can keep me warm. Anyway, it's only for a couple of hours. I've got to be home by seven. I'll give you a call and tell you all about it."
      "I won't be in," said Sue gloomily. "It's Monday night."
      "Yeah? So what?"
      "I told you. The sergeant from the police station wants me to go up to the road where the bus crashed tonight, to see if I can remember anything more about it."
      "Can you?"
      "I might, when we get up there. He's picking me up in his police car. Ever so late, too. Half past eight! It's got to be the same time as the accident, he says. It's a reconstruction."
      "Corrr," said Lisa, deeply impressed for all of five seconds. "Are my boobs getting any bigger since Jeff kissed me? He says they're ever so big for thirteen. Maybe I should have told him I was fourteen... He's gonna kill me if he finds out I'm only ten! Hey, where are you going?"
      "I've got to go to the loo. Urgent! Tell Miss Wilson, my thingie's just started..."
      "Wait a minute! I can't tell her that. Oh, yucky!"
      At least, Sue thought, looking on the bright side, she wasn't going to have Janette's baby. Feeling curiously grown-up and womanly, she rummaged in her school bag and found the packet of tampons. Strange. There was something heavy inside. She took it out and looked at it.

"Bleeding? Oh, yucky!" she said. Her mother must have put the stuff in her bag and forgotten to tell her. She unscrewed the cap and sniffed the contents. Not bad. In the distance, the bell sounded for classes. Quickly, she raised the cylinder to her lips and took a swig.

"Up you come, quick. It's going to start snowing again."
      She took Hayley's hand and clambered up the steps into the time machine. The door slammed behind her.
      "We thought you weren't coming. The prof's just gone round to the cab to start the engine again. Was that a police siren I heard just then?"
      "Yeah. It's a long story."
      "Tell me later. We've got some hot soup. Sit down and take your jacket off or you won't feel the benefit of it..."
      Hayley uncapped the thermos flask and carefully poured steaming soup into a mug.
      "Here y'are. This will warm you up. Fucking hell, Sue!"
      "What's the matter?"
      "Your tits! Sheesh! You've always did have a pretty huge pair, but you've only been away a month and they're miles bigger!"
      "Does it show that much, Hay?"
      "Show? What are you trying to do to me? Steal my job at the Red Lion?"
      "Of course not! Organising the cheerleaders takes all my spare time." She peered into the diminutive mirror attached to the front panel of the truck. It wasn't easy as the professor had already coaxed the vehicle into motion over the rough road. "Does the Red Lion need another topless barmaid, do you think? Would they be interested in me?"
      "You stay away from that pub or I'll send you right back to the Dark Ages, Missy! You wouldn't enjoy being a topless barmaid, not one little bit. All those men leering at your chest and trying to cop a feel!"
      "Men? No, I guess you're right."
      "Anyway," Hayley went on. "I'm not working at the pub tonight. He's given me the night off. After all, it's not every night your live-in lover comes back from the past, is it?"