I had finished a long story and was 8 chapters into a new one. Then I had the idea for another story. 4 chapters into that I had three story lines come to me. You've read the first 2, and this is the third. I'll start posting the long one soon.

Marianne

Lefty’s Leg

My name is Dan Rivers. You may recognize it if your read the Roswell Chronicle. Born and bred in Roswell, I had gone to college in Albuquerque under a grant from the government to help descendants of the Mescalero tribe advance themselves. I had studied journalism and was an instant new hire with the Chronicle, where I was set to work writing about Apache problems.

Roswell is quite a large town, making a good living off the visitors trying to see flying saucers and three-eyed green things walking along the South Union Avenue. Of course, there was no way that they would be allowed into the military base, even if they could find anybody silly enough to show them where it was. There was a stretch of barren land which everybody would tell them was the site of Area 51, and there were enough signs to allow visitors to take pictures and go away happy.

The real base was south of the town, and just north of the Roswell Correctional Centre, out in the sagebrush near an old watercourse. The base was underground, so there was nothing to be seen from the air, and the area was kept looking as if it was just desert scrub. It was accessed by a large tunnel under the Centre. There were barriers to get into the Correctional Centre, and you had to be inside before you could find the tunnel. If you did find your way to the Correctional Centre, you could go a little way south and photograph the old Nike Missile Base W50, a left-over from the cold war.

The only person that I knew who had been close to the base was Scav, short for Scavenger Hamilton, an old schoolmate from High School. He had a six-wheel drive truck which didn’t need any roads. He drove around, picking up bits and pieces, visiting workshops to take the scrap, scouting through wrecking yards to find something old but useful. He knew of a tip that the military had, outside the base with just a hatch to take things out. They would throw out old equipment and cover it with sand when the pile was complete.

Scav would visit the tip every so often, across country, coming back with odd lumps of metal to on sell to the dealers. If it was weird enough, there was a store in town that sold ‘genuine’ Roswell souvenirs, The stranger it looked, the more they paid him for it.

One day, I was sitting outside Andrews Donuts, on the corner of South Main and East Poe Streets, passing the time talking to another old school friend, Bob Hardman, or Lefty as he was now known. He had been a brilliant student and had been snapped up by a big company in Dallas but had lost his right leg and several fingers on his right hand in a laboratory explosion.

Instead of being cast aside, the company had given him the money to set up his own laboratory back here in Roswell where he had plenty of support. He lived on the outskirts, in a purpose-built house so that he could get about with a wheelchair, complete with that specially built laboratory. All set in the middle of ten acres and the best security system money could buy. He had repaid them with a number of discoveries which they could patent.

We would often meet around midday and sit with our donuts and coffee, discussing the problems of the world. I was idly looking at the traffic passing by when I saw Scav come by with his truck. Seeing us, he stopped, backed up and drove into the parking lot, taking up the rest of the bays. When he got out and came over, he told us to hold on for a moment while he got his own donuts, and then he came out and sat down beside us, speaking in a low voice.

“Glad I saw you two guys. I was down at the special tip in the early hours and there was a lovely bit of scrap just waiting for me. Took me a lot of effort to get it in the truck. There was also a locked case next to it. I don’t know what it is, and it doesn’t look like anything I could sell to the shop. On the way back, I realised that if the military knew I had it, I could be in trouble.”

After we had finished our donuts, Lefty and I went over to his truck, and Scav lifted the tarpaulin so we could see the object. It looked a lot like a small refrigerator, covered in numbers and letters. Lefty offered Scav five hundred bucks to take it to his house and then keep quiet. I helped Lefty into the truck, stowed his wheelchair in the back, and we went to the house. The two of us made light work to unload the thing and take it into a room that Lefty opened for us. He told us to lift it onto a work bench. Scav then went outside to fetch the case. After Lefty had reset the security, Scav drove us back to Andrews where we got out and then went to our cars. Lefty drove one with extra controls and a rack for his wheelchair.

I didn’t see Lefty again for six months and had totally forgotten the box when a new car pulled up as I was at Andrews eating a donut. Lefty got out and walked towards me on two perfect legs, holding out a fully fingered right hand to shake mine.

“Let’s go somewhere different, Dan. I don’t want to be seen by too many that know me. If you follow me back to my house, I’ve had some donuts freshly delivered this morning.”

I left mine on the table and got into my car to follow him. All the way, my mind was trying to figure out how he had been able to grow a leg and some fingers. Whatever he did, it will take the world by storm, and I was just the reporter to break the story.

At his house, he opened up and sat me at the kitchen table while he brewed coffee, the cups joining a plate of fresh donuts. Then he started the talk that changed my life.

“Dan, what I’m going to tell you has to be kept secret. That box that Scav found was a totally new experimental project designed to produce super soldiers.”

“What, copies of Iron Man?”

“No, Dan. More like Superman. The problem was that they stuffed up. That’s why the box and the case were dumped.”

“Ah! The case. Something good in it?”

“Very much so. It had the scientific notes and reports of trials. I could see where they went wrong. They thought that there would be no evolution of the things that they were creating, so the trials gave them results that nobody wanted. I believe that the notes reported on around twenty guinea pigs that were exterminated before they started killing the workers on the base.”

“Why did they want to kill everyone?”

“I think that they were bred to kill and were so frustrated when they weren’t allowed that they went berserk. It all depends on what you add to the mix. The military has, I think, shut the whole thing down as a lost cause. As you can see, I’m proof that it has a future beyond the military. That’s why I’m asking a huge favour.”

“OK. First you have to tell me how you grew a new leg and fingers. You’re not a starfish or a lizard.”

“You know, Dan, you’re smarter than you let people believe. What they were working with was nanite technology, or very tiny molecules that can be programmed to give you an intended outcome. The big problem was that they ran before they could walk. I worked backwards to the base unit and then started with adding essence of starfish to come up with a brew that I tried on myself. As you can see, it works.”

“And very well, I must say. You look exactly like you did before you went to Dallas.”

“Dallas, right. I’m going back there and working on this technology to legitimise the old firm being the one to discover the process. It may take years, at least long enough for the military to forget they ever worked on it. I’m asking you if you would live here and look after the place. I’ll pay you as much as you would earn as a reporter, and there’s an account with several suppliers that I’ll take care of. You can go out and about as much as you want but I want to make it look as your staying here to look after me. You can tell the locals that I’m having trouble with my health and need a full-time carer.”

“That sounds like a good deal, Lefty. Or should I go back to calling you Bob?”

“Carry on calling me Lefty to keep this secret. If you’re ready to take it on, I’ll give you a tour of the house and land. When I leave, I’ll let you know all the security codes. You can work your resignation and clear your apartment and then move here. There’s no rush.”

He showed me the rest of the house. Except for the obvious places where it was set up for a person in a wheelchair, it was simply a magnificent mansion. There was a large guest room with ensuite and walk-in robes that stood empty. I could bring my own things over and be sleeping there in days. He said that he would get big-city tradesmen in to make the changes for normal use, telling them that the disabled person has died. It would be the same companies that did the original installations.

In the laboratory, the box was in a corner, open and empty. There was a full set of benches and several bits of technology, such as an electron microscope.

“I’ll leave all this as is. Most of the equipment is now out of date and I’ll be using the latest things in Dallas.”

“What was it that you found, Lefty? You said that you used essence of starfish, surely there are other animals that can give the base for changes?”

“I thought a lot about what I would add. Several animals can regrow limbs or tails. There are lizards that will just leave a tail behind to allow it to escape. Many spiders can regrow lost legs. I chose the starfish because we came from the sea, and it’s the only one that’s fleshy.”

“You certainly hit the nail on the head. What about other issues? Are you likely to grow a third leg?”

“I’ll have to wait to see. These bits took a long time. The leg started at the same time as the fingers. They were full size in six weeks and the leg took another three months. Since they reached full size, there hasn’t been any other changes. I’ve been measuring them every few days.”

“Did you figure out what the military was adding?”

“Not exactly, but from the reports I expect that they tried gorilla and lion mix. One trial had the guinea pig eating his own arm. I’ve made up some trial bottles to look at later. The regrowth of limbs will change the world, though, and is worth a fortune if we get it marketable.”

“What else have you mixed?”

“I’ve made up some mixtures based on animals that can change colour. Some frogs can; of course, everybody knows about the chameleon. There are fish and even animals like the snow leopard that grows white fur in winter. One thing that I have made up is from a frog that can change from a male to a female if the number of females becomes too few to maintain the population. There are also many fish which are born male and the turn female to breed, others are born hermaphrodites so that they can breed while never seeing another example of their type.”

“It would be nice to look more Anglo. Sometimes looking like a red Indian can be a pain. It’s all right here, but when you get to a place like Dallas there are many who gauge you on what you look like.”

“Very difficult to set an outcome like that. You may start with a red hue and end up green. If you took the chameleon mix you could be a different colour depending on where you’re standing. Might be something we can sell to spies.”

We shook on the deal, and I left the property to get my things ready. At the office I gave my resignation, and the editor just paid me out the two weeks and told me to get going. There was I, thinking that he thought that I was doing a good job. Now a free agent, I went to see the rental office to tell them that I was giving up my apartment. The guy rubbed his hands and told me that he had someone wanting a place in that area and was willing to pay more.

He paid me the rental bond and told me to leave the keys on the kitchen bench. He had a set on a hook. I drove around until I saw Scav, getting him to follow me to my place where we loaded my furniture and electricals. I had boxes with my clothes and kitchen stuff. I loaded up my car until the place was as empty as it had been when I moved in, some ten years before.

Scav followed me to the mansion and helped me move my things to my room. I told him that I would be caring for Lefty, who stayed out of sight. Any extra things went into a storeroom next to the laboratory. I had enough to give him a hundred for his help and he went off to spend it in the local bar. When he had gone, Lefty came out of hiding and we made dinner. I told him about my sudden move from an employed journalist to a lay-about inside five minutes.

“That’s because you never showed how good you are, Dan. As far as he was concerned, you’re just another low-paid Apache who can write. I suggest that you use your time here to read lots of books and see if there’s anything that you can take up as a project.”

We worked out how I could order food and other things, and he showed me how to operate the central vacuum system. The laundry was huge. With me settled in, he was gone to the company in Dallas. I could oversee the tradesmen when they arrived and, before long, the mansion looked like any other you would see.

I read for a while, watched a lot of television. I caught up with some streamed series that I had wanted to see. I did go into town for a change of scenery and told anyone that asked that I was caring for Lefty. I got bored after about three months and thought about working on a project.

I started thinking about the mixes that he had made. I wondered if the one that would change my skin colour would be safe. I went into the laboratory and looked at the bottles. He had said that it was boosted by essence of frog. I found the frog one and tipped a small amount into a glass of water. I said a little prayer and swallowed it.

Two months later there had been no change in my skin colour, so I emptied the bottle into another glass of water and drank it. I might end up green, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

I was starting to think that even the whole mix hadn’t been enough when I realised that my reflection was a little different. It took me a while to figure out, but then saw that my skin was actually a little pinker. The other thing was that it was now soft and smooth.

I was spending some time running around the grounds to get fit and I put the fact that my waist was thinning down to that. What it didn’t explain was that one day I couldn’t pull up my jeans because of the size of my hips.

I stripped off and stood in front of a full-length mirror to have a thorough inspection. My skin colour had become pinker, all over. I would now pass as Anglo. My Apache facial features had softened, and my face looked almost feminine. My hair had grown to below my shoulders in just a month after my last visit to the barber.

Below the chest my shape was that of a woman, small waist, and big hips. I turned sideways and saw that my butt had grown. I scratched at the itching that had begun around my nipples as I wondered if these changes were side-effects of the frog mix.

I ended up putting on elasticised running pants for comfort and sat watching the television and thinking about my future. I wasn’t going to order any new clothes until the changes stopped. Lefty had said that it took four months for the leg, if I was having a whole-body change, that could be up to six months. One thing I wouldn’t do is call Lefty and complain that his mix was flawed.

Over the next week or so I stayed in bed taking painkillers for a bad stomach-ache. I hadn’t eaten anything different, so wondered why. I only got out for the toilet and a bite to eat. When I did so, I started to notice bulges on my chest that weren’t there before. That’s when I knew that the mix wasn’t faulty. Some frogs can change sex and that’s what I was experiencing.

I followed Lefty in measuring myself and noting the changes in size. I spent the time in track pants and tee shirts as my body developed. The hardest part was when my penis shrank to the point where it inverted and the pain in my lower abdomen was intense for a day or so. I knew what was happening and just had to bear it.

That point was the final stage of the changes. I had been shedding body hair in the shower for weeks. The measurements remained the same for a week after, to make sure I was stable, and then I got onto the internet to order in proper clothing for a very well-shaped woman with a beautiful face and long black hair. When I had received everything that I had ordered I dressed and took a selfie to send to Lefty, with the note that his frog mix worked.

He arrived with a couple of other men and a woman, just two days later. He questioned me about our earlier life at school and I proved my identity. Then the woman took me to my bedroom for a full examination. She had brought a small, portable, ultrasound machine and I was shown that I had the full sexual organs of a woman.

After that, I had to sit while he asked me about my journey and one of the men recorded it. It transpired that I had taken one of the general frog mixes, not the Tree Frog one, the main frog that changes colour. Lefty wasn’t mad at me, just happy that I hadn’t let anyone else see me during, or after, the changes.

I went with them when we left, locking up the mansion. In Dallas, I was given a good hotel room and a credit card to go shopping. The woman who examined me was my companion, and keeper. I build a wardrobe under her tutelage and the company organised identity papers for Danielle Rivers.

Over the next few months, I was back in the mansion, overseeing tradesmen who were creating rooms for guests. The laboratory was stripped and turned into an examination room and sick bay.

After that was all completed, I was living there, with two nurses, to cater for guests who would be staying up to six months to undergo the frog mix therapy for a complete, and irreversible, sex change without surgery. I know that they paid a hefty sum for the privilege, and I was paid very well as a key employee of the Victory Experimental National Network company. After a year or so, I met a wonderful guy in Roswell, and we married. We lived in town, and I went to work at the ‘Clinic’. A year later, I gave birth to twins. It was painful, but the pain was worth it as I held my two babies.

Whenever I meet visitors who tell me that Area 51 is a myth, I can tell them that it is still doing good in the world, and just give them a knowing smile. Lefty confided that there had been a bit extra that grew a bit. He said that all his girlfriends were very happy.

Marianne Gregory © 2024