Shanghaied

by TC Lin

Sid Hessy looked hungrily over the side at the dull twinkling of the city lights near the port where his ship was anchored. It had been an incredibly long voyage over the pacific, the longest Sid had ever been on personally, and now any city, even one as grungy and dirty as Shanghai, looked like paradise. He had heard stories, both good, bad, and questionable about the sprawling metropolis located a huge river delta, home to countless hordes of slant-eyed chinks. He could see some small, tight, oriental figures rushing about on the streets past the dock, some loaded down with heavy packages, some pulling rickshaws, some just squatting together in groups. In the summer heat, many were naked to the waist. As glad as he was to see any civilization at all, he missed sorely the lights of Chicago, now an entire planet away. It seemed that he had left 1946 altogether and come to another plane of existence. What a strange and eerie place he had come to. He looked forward to telling tales of his adventures in the mysterious Orient to wide-eyed kids back home when he was done.

The first wave of shore leave was at 20:00 but only a handful of sailors were allowed out, due to their current lack of personnel. Sid was lucky enough to be one of them. Well, "lucky" was probably not an accurate description. Sid Hessy was a big man, over 6 foot 5, around 200 pounds of stocky manhood, with brassy blond curls and piercing blue deep-set eyes. There was something in the way, perhaps, that his muscles pressed at his spotless white Navy uniform, or perhaps in the way he swaggered down the deck, that influenced the leave officer to include him on the first round of shore leave. Sid knew this and took it for granted, just as he had for most of his 21 years. He was sure that he would have no trouble even in the rough-and-tumble streets of Shanghai, which were reputed to hold some delightful secrets, which some lucky sailors might just be able to stumble across. In fact, Sid was sure he was going to be one of them.

The brightly lit sights shouted noisily, it seemed, from almost every corner and doorway, as Sid skidded up and down, left and right across the slippery rickshaw seat as the vehicle bumped its merry way over the narrow dirt and gravel streets. Beyond the strong brown back of the puller, he saw the streets crowed with seemingly all kinds of people, but what impressed him the most was that they were almost all slants. The sing-song sounds of their talk filled his ears with unfamiliar utterances, some shouted, some conversational, even some actually singing patches of this song or that. It seemed they were all looking at him. He imagined he was quite a sight anyway. He had told the puller to take him to the red-light district, or something like that(he wasn't sure the little man understood what he was trying to say or not, but after a lot of gesturing and frowns, the man nodded and smiled in an understanding sort of way, and motioned him to get in). But it seemed to be taking quite a bit longer than Sid had expected. Well, he thought to himself, what do you expect? It's a big city, especially going this slow.

Eventually the puller stopped and gestured at him to get out, saying something in Chinese. Sid got down, handed a wad of bills to the man, and began to wander towards the nearby alley, ignoring the incessant chatter of the puller behind him. Seeing his charge wasn't paying any attention, the rickshaw man put away the money, picked up his cart, and with a dismissing shrug, went his way.

Sid walked slowly down the narrowing alley, looking curiously at the red neon signs flashing in mysterious oriental characters. Not an A, B, or C to be seen anywhere. He had to duck numerous times various pieces of laundry, garbage, and other unidentifiable object strewn about.

"Hey, Sailor." a woman's voice called out, and Sid spun around to the direction it had come from. He thought he caught a flash of a red-sleeved hand in one of the dimly lit doorways. Curious, and becoming a little excited, he made his way over, stooping so as not to crack his skull on the doorframe. Inside, a dirty brown tile covered the floor. He started up the stairway to the second floor, to find there were no doors, so he went up to the third floor. There, a beaded glass curtain was all that separated inside from out. A flickering light shone through the curtain, casting muted mutations of light on the opposite, peeling wall.

Sid put his hand through and stepped inside. There was not enough light to see much clearly, but it wouldn't have mattered, for there was only one thing in the room worth seeing, as far as he was concerned.

She was gorgeous. Sitting on a small stool, beside a desk, her pearly white skin and red lips contrasted in a way which made Sid's mouth water as if he were consumed in hunger for some delicious dessert. Slowly, obviously aware that his eyes were focused upon her every move, she arose and moved towards the back of the room, where she opened a door. Glancing momentarily beyond, Sid could make out a more brightly lit room, a bedroom. Not even thinking about it, Sid followed. He had had prostitutes before, of course, but nothing like this.

Nothing like this, he though once again as he watched her lay down on the dark red covers. He sat down beside her, and she gently laid him down, undoing the fastenings on his uniform, stripping him completely naked and throwing his clothing on the floor. For the first time, Sid noticed, with a small internal laugh, that the ceiling was a big mirror. Then his attention was brought back to the girl as she began to suck...

...his big toe. Although he had showered before he came, Sid was a little embarrassed to have her sucking his feet, but then, he thought, what am I worried about, she probably does this all the time to the chinks that come in here in more ways than one. So he settled down and enjoyed it. And it was enjoyable indeed. In fact Sid has never felt such an incredible feeling from having some suck on his feet. He let her tongue move up to his ankle, around his calve, to his knee. It was exquisite, and Sid lay there in a blissful stupor.

It was some time before he opened his eyes. When he did, he found himself looking up at the big mirror, at the beautiful lady crouched with her mouth at his thigh......then he noticed something peculiar. His leg.....wasn't his leg! From his thigh down had become shorter, his right foot was now even with his left knee, and the entire leg had become brown, with black hairs only on his lower calve, the rest completely smooth! He tried to sit up, but was yanked back down by something...he looked up to find himself chained to the bed! He looked back in horror at the lady crouched by his side, but she seemed oblivious as she moved to his other foot, moving her mouth over his foot and lower leg. As she did, he saw his leg actually begin to shorten, the thick covering of golden hairs pulling into the darkening skin. When she was finished, his left leg was identical to his right leg, short stocky brown limbs which bore no resemblance at all to his own.

"No!!" he shouted as she took his penis in her hands, and bent down to place it in her mouth. Although the feeling of erection was even more wonderful than ever before, he still stared numbly as she bent over his genitals. He saw his testicles become smooth and dark, even darker than his legs, and his pubic hair darkened and straightened out as it receded to just a small patch around his organ, leaving the rest of his pubic area as smooth and as brown as his legs. He felt the strangest sensation in his penis, and he groaned as he remembered everyone telling him how Chinks had tiny dicks; what was she doing to it! Then she pulled it out, and he sighed in something like resigned relief to see that it had not shrunk at all. Still, there was a strange ring around below the swollen head; he now had a foreskin, a fairly long and heavy one, at that, and it was dark, his penis was darker than anywhere else on his body.

In the meantime, she was licking his stomach, and it amazed him to see once again the thick golden hair receding into the browning skin. It became a faint line down his stomach, and then disappeared, leaving his stomach bare and lean, seemingly without the spare tire he had arrived with. Sid stared, realizing at the same time that he hadn't seen his navel since puberty, but then again, the navel on this flat stomach wasn't his navel. None of this was his! Suddenly he felt his butt tighten and then the sheets felt smooth against it when he moved. He felt faint as she began to suck on his fingers, and watched as they shortened, the hair on his wrists disappearing and his arms shortening until the chains were tight. She put her tongue in his armpit, burying her mouth in the curly brass jungle. Then a blackness in the hair began to radiate out from her mouth, and the hair began to disappear, as if it were running down a drain, until all that was left was a small but fairly thick patch of long black hair which she teased with her tongue before moving to the other arm, giving it the same treatment. The chains were tight now as she sucked his chest, he could feel his backbone shortening. The thick growth on his chest began to recede under the influence of her tongue, as smooth brown skin began to appear like dry land out of water after a deluge. His nipples emerged, and the hair diminished, retreating to the middle of his chest, and then disappearing altogether. Sid stared in shock at his smooth, yet still well-muscled borwn chest, then looked up as he realized the lady's face was right in front of his own.

Their eyes locked for a few tense moments, and Sid thought he could detect a hidden amusement deep within her deliberately blank stare. Then, suddenly, she gave his ear a lick. He looked up to see what was happening as she began to run her tongue through his crew cut. Like a lawnmower, it began to cut jet-black streaks across his head. She kissed his left eye, then his right cheek and then ran her tongue across the left side of his mouth. He looked up to see his face begin to mottle, one ear big and white, the other small and brown. His left eye's lid began to thicken, rising to the surface of his face as the blue iris began to swirl into a big black dot, it seemed to push outwards until it was flush with the rest of his face. His right cheekbone swelled out, and the left side of his lips thickened, the 5 o'clock shadow disappearing, to be replaced with the same yellow-ish brown which was the color of the rest of him. Still she caressed his head with her mouth, she put her mouth over his nose, not an easy task since the famous Hessy eagle nose had been a trademark of Sid's face since childhood, but it seemed to melt in her mouth as she pressed it back with her tongue, and when she moved away, what remained was not only a quarter or it's previous height, but twice it's normal width. In fact, the more she licked, the wider and flatter his ever-browning face became. After she finished his other eye, he looked up and gasped at what he saw.

He was a Chink. In the reflection next to the girl sitting on the bed, a naked Chink man lay. Short, probably just over 5 feet, stocky but not at all fat, all smooth and brown, with only the thick black patches of long, straight hair around his grey-brown penis and under his two short arms, his jet-black hair in a sort of crew-cut. Under two wide yet semi-transparent eyebrows two slanted black eyes, unsullied by any complicated eyelashes, gazed intently at him, the wide mouth parted in shock beneath the faintest trace of a mustache on either side but not in the middle. He looked down directly at himself, and confirmed the reality of what he saw in the mirror. Now that his penis was no longer erect, it's head had retreated into the thick brown foreskin, and it flopped down, it's head brushing against the smooth skin of his inner thighs, a feeling he had never experienced before, except for perhaps distant childhood memory.

When he finally finished staring at himself, he looked up to see the girl was gone. The chains were also gone, and he picked his uniform up off the floor and tried to put it on. The pants now hung down over his feet, and were way too wide to wear, and the tunic's collar slid right down over his smooth brown shoulders. The shoes were even more hopeless, his small course brown feet filled about half the length, although they were wide enough. He looked around for something to wear, and found a pair of tattered shorts lying in the room outside. He put them on and although they were an awkward fit, they would do. Now he had to get back to the ship.

As he ran down the staircase(he didn't have to duck now, the doorframe was well above clearance level) he was suddenly aware of how much lighter and stronger he felt. It was as if his body had been taken in and well-oiled, and the way his shorts rustled against his smooth skin was almost pleasant. He felt as if all the dead weight had been thrown overboard. Also, he noticed that noone stared at him. On the trip over almost everyone on the street had been agog at the very sight on him, mothers grabbing their children, men laughing and pointing, people stopping in the middle of conversations and various transactions to point and stare, but now, everyone went about their business as if he didn't exist. He even saw some sailors, ones he didn't recognize, from other ships no doubt, but they too didn't give him a second glance even though he stared at them keenly. He was just another chink to them, a meaningless part of the yellow hordes.

That is, until he reached the dock.

"Hold it, there, boy! I said stop!" the guard shouted, pulling at his gun. "What do you think yer doing, slant?" Sid frowned.

"Hey, we're on the same side! I'm a seaman from dock 2-B!" But something was wrong, somehow his lips and mouth didn't want to do what they were told, and what came out was something more like "Hai! We an dei samsai! Ai shimen fom dok tu-bi!" the sing-song accent took him by surprise, but the guard just stared, raising his gun. His voice had changed as well, higher pitched but rougher. Sid tried again, willing himself to make the right words come out, but it didn't work, instead, he said,"Wei! Wo shi ziji ren! Wo shi erhao matou de shuishou!" The guard allowed a look of impatient distraction to surface.

"I.D, papers, anything?" Sid shook his head, not trusting himself to talk again. Then he got the picture, turned around and walked away. He knew the procedure and knew the danger of hanging around in such a situation. He walked back towards the city, knowing there was no way out. The salty air blew against the bare skin of his naked chest, the bare feet grasped the wet stone of the riverfront streets. Among the various conversations around him he thought he could pick up a few meaningful words here and there. They sounded lively and warm. He stopped and gazed once again out over the river at the city lights. He had been Shanghaied.

THE END

Shanghaied copyright 1996 by TC Lin.