A Short Story about a certain kind of Power
22 January 2025
Charlene (well, usually Charlie) Lowell was in the 11th grade in high school, and her brother Tim was a Freshman in college, when she heard him and some of his buddies talking. She really wasn't trying to listen, but they were loud and they were laughing, and when she heard the word "sex" a couple of times, it piqued her interest. It wasn't a subject she knew much about (like, absolutely nothing!), so it was natural to listen, wasn't it?
They were talking about another boy in their class - Dan Jeffries - who she knew by sight, but that was all. "He's an absolute sex magnet," one of the boys was saying. "The girls just flock around him, and won't leave him alone. He can have his pick of anybody he wants, and they say that - if a girl becomes one of his selections - she won't ever forget what she gets from him!"
"Wow!" Tim exclaimed. "That bad, or that good?"
"Oh, definitely good. No matter what she has the rest of her life, she probably won't find anybody to top that experience with him."
There was some more laughing and talking that Charlie couldn't quite make out, then the third boy said, "Man, wouldn't that be something!" After that, they left the house, leaving Charlie with some big questions.
Charlie liked boys, and boys liked her. She and her girlfriends often went to the movies or the burger joint with a bunch of the boys from their class. She'd been on a couple of "dates" with just one boy, and had actually kissed one (no, make that two). But Sex - anything beyond holding hands and a brief kiss - was completely unknown territory.
She tried to picture Dan Jeffries, and to think of him as a "sex magnet," whatever that was. She didn't know him - didn't think she'd ever talked to him - but from her highly imperfect understanding of boy-girl relationships - especially male-female biology - he just didn't strike her as a "sex magnet," whatever that was. He was tall and slim - not skinny, just slim. He didn't have big body-builder muscles, but certainly looked healthy. From what she could tell from afar, he had a cute face - actually, better than cute - handsome. He wore glasses, and she wondered if "sex magnets" did. Well, he certainly would be a very nice looking college boy, but...
She had lots of questions.
***
Charlie's Junior and Senior school years passed by. She thought the boys her age were looking and acting a lot more interesting than they had, before. They must have felt the same about her, because boys who had been her "buddies" for ten years or so, now seemed ready for another kind of relationship. She added several more to her list of different boys kissed - and could have added quite a few more, she thought, if she'd wanted. Also added was hugging while kissing - a decided advancement. She felt that she had learned quite a lot about male-female biological situations, too, but that remained entirely academic knowledge, not experimental.
Sometimes, when she stood and kissed someone for a little longer than usual, she felt some unusual stirrings, and she wondered if that was "sex." At those times, she found herself thinking about Dan Jeffries - the "sex magnet" - and wondered if she was feeling some of that magnetism. No, what she felt was maybe a little intense, but still nice and calm. She didn't feel like flying to her partner, like some deranged moth to a flame. She was sure that Dan's form of magic had to be something much, more than the inklings she was feeling.
She hadn't seen Dan since she learned about his powers. He, her brother, and her brother's buddies were all off at college, and barely ever got to town. She wondered if his looks had changed. In light of the changes in the high school boys she knew, she figured he must look somewhat different. It was a given that the "change" would be to even more handsome than she remembered. (In her more lucid moments, she had to admit she really hadn't known very precisely what he'd looked like. Her only views had been long-distance, and before she had developed her current interest in him. Still, it was just reasonable to remember him as being quite handsome, and then to assume he would be better looking, now.)
Actually, more than wondering what he looked like, she wondered if his powers were changing at all. They might be just the same, but (oh, my!) maybe they were increasing with age. (She didn't consider they might have lessened. He was only 22 or 23.) If he was stronger, no woman would be safe around him. (But, she guessed, that wouldn't be a problem, because apparently no girl or woman who came under his spell wanted to be "safe.")
When she really got into her speculating, she wondered if you could actually see his powers at work. Were there always swarms of females around him, or was it all more secret and mysterious?
If you knew about him, it must be very exciting to feel yourself being irresistibly drawn into him. But what if he didn't know about him, were completely unaware of his magnetism, and suddenly felt yourself being bodily moved into his arms? Being helpless, would you struggle, or just accept your fate?
For that matter, what would be her fate? Was that when he did to her that thing, the memory of which she would cherish and never forget for her whole life? (Whenever Charlie got to that point in her speculating, she had the uncanny feeling that she might be feeling a little of his magnetism, even at that great distance. That was time to get her mind on something else.).
***
Charlie started college with high academic expectations. Her goal was to excel at college work, and become ready to face the world as a skilled and independent woman. She did very well in all her courses, but she soon found out that male-female relationships were considerably more advanced in college than they had been in high school. Boys still liked to kiss and hug, but they liked to do other stuff, as well. Her own knowledge of "sex" was still book-learning and "girl talk," but she liked the idea of some of the things that boys suggested, and she felt confident that she knew enough to get involved.
She had once heard a girl described as "not easy, but could be had." She felt a lot like that, and it wasn't long before she had been - had, that is; eventually, several times. She liked it - the togetherness of it - but she adopted strict rules for herself. She never had sex with anyone before the third date, and she never had sex with the same boy twice. Her general plan was never to date the same boy more than twice, so qualifying for the significant third date was far from easy. In other words, her expectations had to be pretty high for the boys for whom she broke her rule.
Because she always knew well in advance when she would have a Close Encounter of the Third Kind (kissing, then hugging, then...), she was always well prepared. Her choices of partners was also well thought out. She never dated fraternity boys or football players, having the distinct feeling that their interests would be considerably more advanced than hers. She picked quiet, polite boys, and found out that some of them possessed inventiveness and imagination far beyond what might have been expected from their sedate exteriors.
As I said, she definitely liked physical sex, but even when she felt "satisfied" with the encounters, she would find herself thinking about Dan, the "sex magnet." As good as she thought her couplings were, she never felt "magnetized" - never felt swept off her feet, drawn into someone's embrace, or interested in the same boy twice. Was there something more that Dan possessed that she hadn't yet come in contact with? A tantalizing question.
***
Charlie didn't see Dan during her first month at school, and she asked her brother if Dan was still in attendance there. Since Tim hadn't realized his sister even knew Dan Jeffries, he questioned her interest. She was more than a little embarrassed, but she said she wondered if he still was a "sex magnet."
"Sex magnet? Charlie, what are you talking about?"
"Several years ago, I overheard you and your buddies talking about how he could have any girl he wanted, and that the girls just couldn't stay away from him. Does he still have those powers?"
He looked at her strangely. "Are we talking about the same Dan Jeffries - nerd, bookworm, "four eyes," librarian in the making? We certainly never said anything like that about him!"
"Yes, you did. I shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but I heard you very clearly."
He continued to stare at her. Finally, he said, "We must have been joking about him. Flocks of girls attracted to him? That's quite a laugh! I can't imagine even one girl with any class wasting her time with that loser. I don't know what you thought you heard, but..." He shrugged, and walked away.
Well, that was very confusing. She was sure that Tim was lying to her, but she couldn't figure out why. Her first thought was that he was trying to be chivalrous, warning his little sister away from something that she couldn't handle. She rejected that idea pretty quickly. Tim wasn't that kind of brother.
Her second thought was that he and his friends were so jealous of Dan's abilities that they didn't want to admit they existed. He had hesitated a bit before he denied everything. He must have been trying to think up a good way to discourage her enquiry.
Yes, that had to be it. Jealousy.
***
Dan was still attending the college, and only a couple months into her Freshman year, Charlie finally saw him. He was alone, sitting on a bench in the sun, reading a book. There were no girls visible, and she didn't feel any invisible presences of the female kind. She walked up close, and said hello.
He looked up from his book, then gave his eyes a second or two to adjust, before returning the greeting.
"I'm sure you don't remember me - well, I'm not sure we've actually ever met - but I knew who you were back in high school. I'm Charlene - Charlie - Lowell, Tim Lowell's sister."
As she talked, he had been giving her face - and figure - a detailed examination. It wasn't lascivious (was that the word she wanted? She wasn't sure); it was just... what? Highly appreciative? Clearly, he liked the looks of girls.
"I think I may remember you, but you were just a pretty little girl, then. I suspect you look considerably different, now." He smiled at that, and she found herself smiling back.
"I assume you go to school here, Charlene... No, I think I like Charlie better. It seems more like you. Is that okay?"
She said it was okay (She stopped herself from saying very definitely okay!), and completed his inquiry for him. "Yes, I'm a Freshman this year. I haven't picked a major, yet; maybe History. I like history, but I like other subjects, too, so..." She let the thought trail off, as he continued to survey her.
Suddenly, he stood up. "Wow, what a gentleman I'm not, sitting here like a lump, while you stand. Can you sit for a minute?"
She could, and did. He sat next to her. She motioned to his book. "Are you studying for a class? I didn't mean to interrupt."
"No, no. I'm glad to be interrupted, but this isn't school work. It's an old British novel - I mean, really old - 1907, even older than me! It's by Jeffery Farnol: 'My Lady Caprice.' It's what today we might call a 'RomCom.' The 'Com' is of a similar type as today, but the 'Rom' was quite different in those days. Today, you might run into me at the ice rink - I mean, literally run into me. As you help me get up off the ice, I ask if you'd like to go for coffee. You say yes, and soon love is in bloom. In Farnol's day, I might see you across the aisle in church, and decide you look interesting. I might go to your parents, explain my background and my prospects, and ask if I might court you. If they say yes, then I would go to you, and make the same request. If you express interest, we would begin meeting on regular occasions - highly chaperoned, of course - and eventually 'get to know one another.' Perhaps, someday, marriage would be agreed to.
"Not quite the same, right?"
Charlie's thoughts were somewhere back between the ice rink and "love in bloom," but she rallied with some appreciative comments. That was when he asked her if she had time for a cup of coffee.
***
After their meet for coffee, (at which she learned - no real surprise - that he was an English major) there were no immediate signs of "love in bloom." Charlie and Dan returned to their old ways, both hard at work academically, and both still dating, with about the same pattern and frequency as before. However, they "ran into each other" rather more frequently that mere coincidence would suggest. In truth, Charlie spent a lot of time planning how they would meet "by chance," and she was pretty sure that Dan was doing the same type of engineering.
By midway through the school year, about half of their dating was with each other. By the end of the second term, they were an exclusive act. Occasionally, Charlie wondered what had happened to all the formerly magnetized girls. She'd never actually seen many, but the ones she knew about just seemed to have drifted away. She was sure Dan wasn't losing his power. She was also sure that he was now aiming it all in her direction. It was definitely working, too. She found herself being drawn to him - but an odd thing about that: she felt that she was creating an equal force of her own, pulling him toward her. Consequently, they seemed to be meeting in the middle.
She found she was amazingly happy most of the time, and she thought it was because of their talks. They talked all the time (well, almost all the time, with brief breaks for other activity), and they talked about everything: war, peace, love, hate, religion, politics, social issues, the Environment, world famine, climate change, books, movies, television... Well, you get the idea. The list went on and on. But they didn't just TALK about those things - they CONVERSED. They traded information, opinions, ideas, hopes, and dreams. Nothing was off-limits. They weren't afraid to disagree. If they did, they talked it out. Sometimes, one or the other had a mind change. If that didn't happen, they just "agreed to disagree," but by then they fully understood the other's point of view. It was a pretty nice relationship, she thought.
You might have noticed that sex wasn't mentioned in the above listing. That's because there hadn't been any. Oh, they loved to stand very close together to share long, deep kisses. They loved to hold hands, and to walk or sit with Dan's arm around her shoulders. She loved to have him run his fingers through her hair, before kissing her on the forehead, and then on the nose, before finally telling her that he loved her with all his heart and soul. That was all lovely, and very much appreciated and enjoyed. On that final, male-female physical coupling - the universal symbol of SEX - there was no action. Dan, being the SEX MAGNET, certainly knew about the subject. If he was thinking about it at all, he kept the thoughts entirely to himself.
In this day and age, Charlie knew it would be perfectly appropriate for her to bring up the subject. She would have been happy to do that, but for some reason, she just didn't feel the need. She wondered if, with all of the other connections that they had developed, physical sex wasn't really a necessity. (She discarded that thought within a few seconds of its arising.) Then, she began thinking that everything they had been sharing - all the INTERCOURSE - was really SEX, and the physical coupling was just one small manifestation of it. She liked that idea, but she wanted to be absolutely certain that "small part" never got lost in the larger milieu.
So, as time went by, she really was a little puzzled. However, she never was worried because she had the prophesy - an implied promise - that Dan was going to do something with her that she had never known before, and that it was going to be something that she would remember vividly for the rest of her life. With that promise, she could hold on.
***
At the end of the school year, Dan had a summer job out of town. Charlie worked full-time at a dress shop downtown. Consequently, they only met a couple of times before school started again in September. However, they kept the phone lines red-hot all summer with frequent long calls, and both wrote occasional long letter with greater detail of significant events. In September, Sophomore Charlie and Senior Dan picked up exactly where they had left off in June.
In the spring, Dan sat Charlie in a chair in her dorm room, and knelt in front of her. "Charlene Charlie Lowell, I suspect you have no doubts that I love you tremendously. I will be graduating soon. I expect to come back to get an advanced degree eventually, but for now I have been promised a job teaching English at the local high school. The salary is little more than minimum wage, but it is guaranteed, and with a little bit more I have been able to set aside, I think it would be quite possible for us to get married. If you would be interested in such a transaction, I would be more than pleased to carry the idea forward."
As he finished his speech, he offered her a small box, which she opened to find... a small purple elastic band. She stared at it a moment.
"Daniel," she began, "I'm sure you knew before you asked that I would very sincerely and happily say 'yes' to your proposal. Similarly, I was aware that we would start out with church mice being only slightly poorer than us. However," and here she held out the rubber band toward him, "Did you really feel it necessary to emphasize our impending penury quite so dramatically?"
He smiled. "Perhaps I should have explained..."
"Perhaps."
"Right. What I was about to say is that in the movies, in tv shows, and in advertisements, the male aspiring to be bridegroom, husband, and lifelong lover of the ravishing beauty, kneels before her, and offers her a beautiful engagement ring. He likes it a lot. He wouldn't have bought it, if he didn't. But he won't be wearing it. Assuming the beautiful creature before him accepts his offer, it will be on her finger. Considering the source and the occasion, she will like it, fine. But will she love it as much as one she had selected for herself? They never address that question in the ads.
"Now, what the man currently kneeling before you suggests is that you and he go to the jewelry store together, and you pick out the ring that is really and truly the one you like best. Does that sound logical?"
She considered. "Yes, but let me pose a question. What if the ring I really and truly want costs much, much more than we could ever afford?"
He took her hand, and led her over to her bed. They sat side by side on the edge. He still held onto her hand. "Charlie, my first and only true love - for now and forever - you are worth more to me than the Hope Diamond. If you wanted it, and it was available, I would strive to get it for you. Thankfully, it isn't available, so you'll have to settle for something a little less ostentatious. Now, I won't say that money is not a consideration in your choice, but I will point out that this is exactly why God invented credit cards and time payments. If you have the ring you really want, we're not going to be concerned that our kids or grandkids are still paying for it, long after we've departed this life, are we?"
It was her turn to smile. "Okay. It's off to the jeweler's." She held out the rubber band. "But what do I do about this?"
He regarded it. "Well, my love, that is entirely up to you. I guess I would like to see you keep it forever with your other prized possessions - a symbol of the beginning of an everlasting love. But, as I say, that's up to you."
"Well, with no pressure..."
***
Dan graduated. They rented a little apartment (little, being the right description). They got married, celebrated for an hour or so with family and friends, and soon found themselves entirely alone, in their newly-wedded state. Charlie was excited. For almost two years, she had been feeling deliciously intense little spikes of the Sex Magnet's power. Now, she was ready for the full treatment, ready to be inescapably possessed by the extreme bondage of an irresistible seduction. Feeling that intensely, it was a disappointment to come out of the bathroom, and find Dan sitting in his boxer shorts on the edge of their bed, looking very sad. She sat beside him.
"Are you okay?"
He looked up at her, and tried to smile. "I guess. I'm suddenly very worried. I've never done this before, and I don't want to disappoint you."
She thought she should be surprised, but found out that she wasn't. She put her arm around him. "There is no way you're going to disappoint me. Let's get in bed. I think I know a little bit about getting us started. After all, how hard can it be?"
She climbed up on the bed. As he started to follow her, she reached back and pulled down his shorts. They lay close together, and she proceeded to do the "little bit" she knew to get them started. The episode was very gratifying to both, but over very quickly. They continued to lie close, and kissed with intensity. After a bit, Dan pulled away, and went into the bathroom.
When he returned, he pulled the covers off the bed, and began an intensive, inclusive, and very personal examination of Charlie's body, making love to every part of her as his appraisal progressed. She let him continue until she felt as if she would explode from his ministrations. She changed positions with him, and conducted her own in-depth assessment. After that, neither was sure what exactly transpired and when, but they spent a vigorous, almost sleepless ten hours learning all about each other, as affected by what (Charlie was later sure) was clearly extreme sex magnetism. They paused to acknowledge the sun coming up, following that with another three or four sleepless hours of more of the same. Finally exhausted, they fell asleep in each other's arms, remaining oblivious to everything until early evening.
The honeymoon was off to an auspicious start.
***
Thinking it about it all later, Charlie felt the prophesy/promise had been fulfilled. Dan had certainly delivered to her (well, actually, they had delivered to each other) something that was far beyond anything she had ever felt, before. Actually, it was far beyond anything that she thought it was even possible to feel!.
However, it had been incorrect that it was a one-time event. The first time would always be specially memorable, of course, but In the next fifty years, they had quite a number of comparable get-togethers. They even had two or three that they agreed were probably even a little bit more exciting than the rest - but those were probably the result of lots more experience.
As to the other half of the promise, she agreed that she could never forget how that first time felt, as the full power of the Sex Magnet captured her completely, took command of her, and never after that let her escape.
For his part, the Sex Magnet felt exactly the same about what Charlie had done to him.
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