Chapter 1

"Hey, Gorgon, did you twist last night?" Called the familiar and unwanted voice of Tommy Radner. "Look, somehow you got uglier." Suddenly a hideously mangled image of my face appeared floating in front of me where everyone in the hallway could see it.

"Tom, I think you may have improved his looks." John Lee joked. Tommy and John were both on the football team and could do no wrong according the school administration. No wrong apparently included accosting innocent students such as myself.

"You're right," Tommy agreed. "Not even my illusions can achieve Gorgon's natural ugliness."

"Oh, you're horrible," Tommy's girlfriend Jenny groaned, pulling Tommy down another hallway as John's girlfriend Nancy started pulling John in the same direction. Jenny and Nancy were on the cheerleading squad and thankfully tended to pull Tommy away from me if they found him picking on me. I couldn’t understand why they dated those jerks in the first place.

Tommy allowed himself to be pulled away from the target of his prank but not without first calling out, "Not as horrible as Gordon..."

The image faded as Tommy moved away from me. This was not the first time, nor probably the last time Tommy had pointed out the obvious. My face had several unfortunate features that made me far less than handsome. My nose was wide and bulbous, my ears stuck out comically, my eyes were narrow and too close together, and I had several vertical scars that made the right side my mouth seem to be smiling maniacally. It did not help that I was shorter than most of the other guys in my class, too, at just five feet three inches.

My name was Gordon Harrison and I was a junior at Starling High in Spiral. I turned 16 several months ago and while both my parents were Twisted, I had not undergone my own twist. Sometimes I wondered if I ever would.

What’s a twist? Twists only happened to the descendants of the survivors of the devastating Antarctic Flu, which swept across North America over fifty years ago. Over two million people died from the virus before a vaccine was found. Since my parents were both twisted, I had always known I would probably twist. Twisting could cause you to be altered physically and/or mentally, from slightly to drastically or not at all. What you were doing when the twist happens could influence how the twist manifests. Who you were may be totally different from who you became.

Along with these changes, many twisted can unconsciously tap into a quantum field that gives them powers. They called these powers tricks to downplay their significance because these same powers caused fear and hatred in the non-Twisted population. These advantages tended to be tempered by unusual changes in physiology or unusual compulsions or both.

Tommy's trick was the projection of illusions. I wasn’t sure if he had any additional compulsions or not since he was always a complete jerk to me before his twist.

Putting Tommy's taunts out of my mind, I went to my morning classes where I paid as little attention as I could get away with. At lunch, I was the last one to reach our usual table. I sat down next to Elliot. Elliot was my best friend since we were in preschool together. He was taller than me and probably pretty good looking, but he was such a science geek he got little respect from the girls in our school.

As soon as he saw me, he began, "I heard what Tommy did. You need to deck him."

Pete, another nerdy student relegated to our table asked what happened and Elliot filled him with a surprisingly accurate account considering he had only heard the rumors.

"I tried decking him, remember?" I replied. "All it got me was detention and more ribbing. I think he's getting bored, though. It had been three days since he last picked on me before this morning."

"Yeah, that's a good plan. Maybe he'll forget who his favorite punching bag is," added Jim, the fourth member of our band of misfits.

"At least he isn't throwing actual punches," I said.

"No, he leaves that job to Colby," Pete declared.

I sighed at mention of the name. Colby graduated last year and I only had to worry about running into him at the mall. He became famous for managing to break my nose, giving it a greater bulbousness than it had originally possessed. Yep, he had made me uglier. When he was suspended for two weeks, he blamed me for getting him in trouble.

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang far too soon and we parted ways. The rest of the day was pretty good as I avoided the obnoxious kids who picked on me. Elliot and I walked home together as usual. He was talking at length about a new video game he wanted to get as soon as it was released. Since he lived just a couple doors down from me I stopped in for a while. We played the prior release of the game he was dying to get. After an hour I had to leave. It was nearly 4:30 and I was responsible for starting family dinner.

As soon as I got in the door, I filled the oversized pot on the stove with water for pasta. Mom's twist accelerated her metabolism to the point that she had to eat like twenty grown men to maintain any fat tissue on her slim figure. Eight or nine hours without a couple pounds of pasta and her body shriveled into the shape of an emaciated famine victim. Her trick allowed her to move insanely fast for a few moments at a time. She often described the world around her as if it was stopped in time when she used her trick.

Mom arrived home shortly and immediately sat down with a big bowl of buttered pasta. "How was your day?" She asked after scarfing down half the bowl.

"Same as usual," I replied. "I'm going out to the garage."

She got up to refill the bowl, "Okay, I'll call you when dinner is ready."

The garage was my sanctuary, mostly. Half of it was cluttered with stuff normally found in a shed. The other half housed my kiln and clay works. I sculpt clay, and other materials when I can afford them. I tend not to call myself an artist though since people expect me to be able to draw or paint. While I can draw a decent image, it’s not nearly as good as my sculpting.

I was between subjects at the moment. I gathered up some clay I had left over from my last commission, Aunt Sofia had asked for a pair of bookends that looked like cherubs. They had been the best pieces I had ever done. Dad always complained it would be impossible to live on the income of the average sculptor, but even he admitted my works were lifelike.

There was always dust in the garage. I was constantly brushing and dusting it away. While near my display shelves, I wanted to look at one of the pieces I kept under a sheet. It was a bust of a woman's head that I had done a few months ago. It came out of the kiln perfect but I had only put a base coat of glaze on it. I had decided not to color it, not sure why. Her face was drop dead gorgeous if you will allow me to indulge myself, although I always felt there was something wrong with the hair. It wasn’t a face I had ever seen before or since. Elliot was the only person I’d ever shown it to.

When my mother called me to dinner, I realized I had been looking at the bust for a while. I quickly put the sheet back over the bust. "Coming," I shouted back.

Dad had come home while I was in the garage. I hadn’t heard him park the car in the driveway and walk past the garage on the way into the house. "How was school today, son?" He asked.

It was somewhat out of the blue as he usually was only interested in school when report cards were due. I tried to be noncommittal in my answer, "Same old, same old."

I need not have worried. Dad and Mom started talking about local gossip and ignored me through the rest of dinner. When dinner was over I cleared the dishes, wrapped the leftovers, threw out the garbage, and put the dishes and silverware in the dishwasher. This was always my job and I did it without being asked most nights.

Afterward, I went upstairs and started on my homework. I had a deal with Mom and Dad about being able to spend afternoon time in the garage, my art studio, while the sun was out. I just had to do my homework right after dinner. It took me about an hour to finish that night.

As I was vegging out watching some videos, Dad knocked on my door. "You look down. What's the matter?"

"Nothing," I lied.

"I heard about you getting picked on in school today. I hear about it most of the time. Why don't you ever tell your mother and me when it happens?"

"It happens all the time. And when I do tell you it just gets worse after the jerks at school get their slaps on the wrist."

"I wish I could tell you life was fair, Gordon, but it isn't." Dad said putting a hand on my shoulder. "If it were, you wouldn't get picked on just for being different. I'm sure in a few years your jerk classmates will mature and see how foolishly they've treated you. But, as I've told you before, you will twist someday. And what you are now might have no bearing on what you become. Embrace what is good about now and the bad you can hope will go away when you twist."

"That doesn't really make me feel better."

"I didn't think it would," he admitted. "But, it does give you something to think about other than the specific taunts and torments your classmates make at your expense."

* * *

The next day, I made it to first period without being insulted or picked on. Yay, me. Elliot met up with me before class and looked worried. "Watch out today, Gord. Tara Parker dumped Ryan Cairns yesterday and I heard he was planning to take it out on you later."

"Great," was all I could reply as the teacher started class. After second period, I was walking up the back stairwell when I was interrupted by a soft voice.

"Gordon?"

I turned to see a girl of stunning beauty looking at me hopefully. "Marie?" I replied. I thought that was her name. She had recently twisted and looked nothing like the mousey bookworm she had once been.

"I hear you're a sculptor and was wondering if you could do my bust."

Years of never getting anywhere with a girl might have been the only thing that prevented me from recognizing the double entendre in her request. So I managed not to stutter as I replied, "I only work in clay and my kiln isn't big enough for a full sized bust. It would be about two-thirds scale."

"That should be fine," she agreed. "When could we start."

"We?" I began, "I would just need some photo references for most of the work."

"Oh, no, I want to pose for you. If you aren't busy Friday, meet me in the parking lot after school Friday and I'll give you a ride home. We can work out the details." She turned and walked down the stairs.

The next two class periods were a blur as I spent most of the time wondering if Marie would like the bust I hadn’t even started yet.

It was while thoughts like this swirled about in my head that I walked into trouble. Biology class ended and the teacher bolted faster than most of the students, I think he had a free period next. As I stood up my book bag slammed to the floor. I stooped to pick it up but it was stuck.

"Problem, Gorgon?" Asked the deceptively pleasing voice of Ryan, yet another of Tommy’s friends. His trick increased the weight of objects, like my book bag apparently.

"C'mon, Ryan, I've got to go." I said uselessly.

"Now, that is true. You have got to go," Ryan laughed humorlessly. "Your kind of ugly is dangerous."

"How many mirrors did you break today?" One of his cronies, Jared I think, added.

"Saw you talking to Marie earlier," Ryan continued. "You think she likes you?"

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"Like anyone would date ole Gorgo here. I'm sure any girl getting that close to him would be petrified."

"Petrified he might try to kiss her?"

"No, petrified as in turned into a statue."

I wanted to run. I could not just punch them. They had the principal wrapped around their fingers. "She just wants me to sculpt her bust." I muttered in useless explanation.

They laughed loudly. "That's as close as you'd ever come to touching a bust," jabbed Jared and a couple guys high-fived him for it.

"A bust?" Ryan accused. "So, you admit it. Your face can turn people to stone. Can't it, Gorgon?"

I felt hot. A chorus of "turn her to stone" and "Gorgon" surrounded me as I felt something like a live outlet zap me. Pain rang out all over my head. As I grabbed my head it felt funny, bumpy I think, and I remember feeling my hair fall out. The taunts turned into shouts and sounds of running away. I hit the floor with a thud or maybe that was the classroom door slamming.

I did not remember anything after that until I woke up. I was face down and cold. My head itched like crazy. I opened one eye and there were thick greenish cords in front of me. Before I got a good look at them, my head itched again and the cords kind of swirled up and out of the way. A pant leg and a woman's shoe were a few inches away. I looked up and there was a hand near my face. Beyond that I was greeted by a shocked woman's face that looked odd. She was bent down as if to look at someone lying on the ground in front of her. She did not move and she was somewhat ashen. I was still disoriented.

I rolled onto my back. My body felt different, like I had a pair of somethings stuck to my chest. And my arms were no longer scrawny, being slender and smooth. And they had a funny orange cast to them. Sitting up, I looked down at myself and beheld a naked woman. She had an orange complexion and was completely hairless. My arms tentatively touched the breasts and I felt the touch. Great, I thought. I must have twisted into a woman.

I was still a little woozy and my head still itched. I reached up to touch my hair but stopped. My fingers were orange in color but I was struck was how long they were and how they ended in long, sharp looking nails. I more gingerly reached up and found the thick cords were on my head. I grabbed one to look at. It felt strangely leathery yet smooth. It was trying to bend itself around my hand. I pulled it forward and a snake head was in front of me, hissing. Incredulous, I looked back at the woman who had not said anything to me. It was the school nurse. She wasn’t ashen. She was stone.

I had turned her to stone. I must be hideous. My hair was snakes. All those times I had been called Gorgon and now I was a gorgon: The Gorgon, Medusa. I panicked. I ran to the door. It was locked.

"Gordon?" Called a man, I think it was Principal Jameson. I didn’t answer. What horrible things might my voice do? "Gordon? Stay calm, Gordon. We've called the Clinic to help you. What happened to Mrs. Rhymes is not your fault. Some Twists are dangerous to others. The Clinic will certainly work with you to gain control."

The Spiral Clinic was a place where they helped Twisted learn to deal with their twists and to help identify those Twisted who were dangerous to the public. I had no idea what they did to Twisted with dangerous uncontrollable tricks. And I didn’t want to find out.

I backed away from the door in a state of shock. I slumped to the ground in a corner where I could not see Mrs. Rhymes. Mr. Jameson called my name a few more times before giving up.

Time passed. Without warning I heard a surprised shout, "Oh, my!" Mrs. Rhymes exclaimed as she nearly fell forward. "What happened? I couldn't-- where's Gordon? "

I resisted the urge to look at her. "I'm over here. Don't come close or you'll probably be turned to stone again."

"Oh, you did turn into a w– Turned to stone? I wasn't turned to stone, was I?" She asked as if the idea was crazy. "Is that why I couldn't move?" She went to the door without looking in my direction.

As she tried the doorknob, Principal Jameson called my name again. She replied, "No, it's me, Elizabeth. Why is the door locked? Get poor Gordon some clothes."

The door opened slightly, permitting her to leave. I heard her exclaim, "Over an hour? It was like five minutes, tops." And then there was silence.

After a few moments it dawned on me that turning Mrs. Rhymes to stone had not been permanent. I wouldn’t be locked away for other people's safety. And then I started crying, I would still spend life as a monster with a hideous face and snakes for hair.

As I sobbed, the door opened and I heard a paper bag slide into the room. With nothing better to do I got up and investigated it. Walking over, I noticed I was definitely taller than I had been, perhaps a whole foot taller. My legs also felt unusual as I walked.

It was a large, brown paper bag with clothes in it. With a sigh, I picked up the plain, white panties on top and looked at them. Turning them the right way around, I had to bend almost in half at the waist to reach my feet. I slid one really long, sleek leg into the hole. I was amazed how smooth my legs were. I pulled the elastic to my narrow waist, trying to ignore how flat the area between my legs now was.

There was no bra, not that I wanted to deal with one right now. I picked up the shirt, no, the blouse, I corrected myself. Pulling it over my head reminded me of the snakes on my head. They were flying out away from my head making it hard to get the blouse down on my body. I angrily thought about cutting them off and they started hissing. I politely thought about them drawing themselves upward and the volume of snakes interfering with the blouse disappeared. I pulled the blouse down and put my arms through the short rounded sleeves. The blouse was light blue and had a scooped neck. I definitely had cleavage. My unusual skin tone contrasted obviously against the blue blouse. I thought at first that my normally pale skin had tanned. Instead, it was actually a kind of an orange metallic, almost copper color. The faces of the snakes on my head had a streak of this orange color running around their mouths and disappeared into the green color of their bodies. A pattern similar to scales playing across my skin as well but my skin still felt smooth, not bumpy or scaly.

Without looking down, somehow I could see what looked like running pants in the bag. I closed my eyes and the bag came into sharper focus. I could feel the snakes moving, turning their attention toward the bag. As they got into position, the area of focus widened. I reached up grasping a snake from the other side of my head and said, "You look over this way." That snake hung nearly straight out in the direction indicated. Quickly the area across the room came into focus while the bag on the floor beside me was also in focus. I opened my eyes and the sense of the bag and the area across the room diminished but I could still see what the snakes saw. I could see all around me. At least the snakes gave me a cool ability.

My elation was short lived. Someone had drawn some circles where eye holes would go if someone were going to put the bag over their head. Written next to the holes was "Do not cut out! Extreme danger!"

I could just imagine Tommy's crew had been involved. I knew I shouldn’t let their antics get to me. But they did. I put the running pants on and noticed the mirror near the eye wash station. Could I turn myself to stone? It would not last forever if what happened to Mrs. Rhymes applied to me. I gathered what courage I could and approached the mirror from the side.

Leaning in from the side, I closed my eyes and asked one of the snakes to look at the mirror. The face of the snake came into focus, his head bobbing gently in mid-air. I stepped forward and turned toward the mirror. I opened one eye slightly. I could see a beautiful woman's face wreathed in snakes. I opened both eyes and was shocked by how stunningly beautiful my face was. Even the way the snakes undulated in the air around my face added something tantalizing to my look.

I focused on my eyes, wondering if I was just immune to my own gaze. They were a rich orangish-yellow, the color one sees near sunset before the sun turns fully orange. The lid was human, but the pupil was definitely snake-like. In fact, there was a second lid that I was looking through. With a careless thought, that lid twitched and opened. There was a loud crack as the mirror exploded. Instantly, the snakes were covering my face. There was no pain. But, I knew three of the snakes were injured.

The snakes got out of the way. All that remained of the mirror was small bits of glass. Drops of blood dotted the wall where the mirror hung. The room was vivid, with colors I had never seen before. Something caught my eyes' attention and I saw a bird land on the sill outside the window. Within a second, the color drained from its body, leaving behind an incredibly detailed statue of a bird.

I snapped my eyes shut too late. When I reopened them, the colors had returned to normal. I opened the second lid again and examined the bird. It was as if I could see lines and colors inside the bird. Suddenly, I desperately wanted to touch the bird. I closed the inner lid and the desire mostly disappeared.

A drop of blood landed on my nose. One of my snakes was still injured. The other two had stopped bleeding already. I gently reach up and grabbed the injured snake on the first try without having the grope around for him. He was nearly severed in half about five inches from the left side of my head just behind the ear, if I still had ears. I wasn’t sure if I did.

I went to the door and knocked. "I need some bandages. I cut myself."

"Are you bleeding?" Asked Mrs. Rhymes.

"Did you cut yourself?" Asked Principal Jameson.

"Not on purpose," I replied. "I seem to have shattered a mirror and some flying glass has nearly severed one of my, um, head appendages."

"I'll be right back," the nurse said.

"Did you strike the mirror?"

"No," I laughed. "I looked at it funny." I noticed a pair of sandals in the bag and put them on.

"Some kind of eyebeam in addition to your other trick?" Jameson asked.

"Actually, it's probably all just one trick," I began and I told him about the second lid. "If I keep that lid down, it should be safe to look at me." I explained.

"So, you've seen your reflection?" Jameson asked with sincere curiosity. "How do you look?"

"Different." I coyly answered.

The nurse returned and after she heard about the mirror she wanted to come in.

I turned away from the door and she entered. "On my left," I explained, holding the limp snake in hand.

"That's a bit too high up for me to reach."

I had forgotten I was taller now. I grabbed a chair and sat down.

As she approached, the other snakes started hissing.

I concentrated and they pulled away from the damaged snake.

"You can control them?" she asked.

"When I try," I explained. "Do I have ears?"

"I can't really see through the mass of, um, appendages," she replied in the same rhythm I had used to refer to the snakes. She started to bandage the snake when she stopped. "Oh, my, it's growing over."

"What is?" I asked and then I felt the snake disappear. "Did it fall off?"

"How did you know?" She asked. "There was only a thin piece of skin holding it on. The end was sealing over before I got here. As the stump closed, the end just fell off. Do you want to see it?"

Without warning I turned around. She flinched then relaxed. "I don't bite," I quipped. "Although I don't know whether these little guys do."

"You look lovely," she announced, looking me in the eyes. She started to laugh. "I did it to myself, didn't I? I lifted your inner lid."

I nodded and pointed at the bird. "I did experiment before saying it was safe. This is the science lab."

She held out the dead snake. It seemed slightly shriveled compared to the active ones.

There was a knock at the door and two men entered. Both were wearing doctor's coats over their suits. Shortly behind them followed Mr. Jameson. "There she is," he said. "Apparently he's, I mean, she's not as dangerous we originally suspected."

"I'm Dr. Parker," said the taller of the two gentlemen, though he was still a few inches shorter than me. He reached to shake my hand. He was obviously Twisted as his skin was actually white, not the pale pinkish color normally called white. "My partner is Dr. Lewis. There was something in the report about external transformation?"

We all shook hands as Mrs. Rhymes answered, "That would be me. I'm the school nurse and Gordon was knocked unconscious after his Twist, as is common. When I went to check her eyes, I was apparently transformed into stone for a little while."

"65 minutes, at least," Mr. Jameson clarified.

"I'm fine now,” she insisted.

"Has this trick manifested since then?" Dr. Lewis asked. He was a normal looking man in his early 50s, slightly balding with dark and gray hair. That didn’t mean he wasn’t Twisted.

"I did it to that bird out on the window sill about fifteen minutes ago," I admitted, pointing at the bird. "I can control it."

"Well, let's gather the bird and take the two of you back to the Clinic. I'm sure some of the trick specialists will want to examine you to determine the limits of your trick."

"I thought it took a few days to get an appointment at the Clinic," Mr. Jameson said.

"Usually we let the newly Twisted take a couple days getting use to their new body before we run them through our battery of tests. But, with a trick as potentially dangerous as this one, even if it only lasts an hour or so, we like to assess the trick as soon as possible."

"If it wears off, how dangerous can it be?" I asked.

"What if she had been driving a car when you had petrified her?"

Before I could reply my mother suddenly arrived in the room. She seemed to suddenly appear in front of Mr. Jameson, "I was told my Gordon had his Twist and you were with him. Where is he?"

"Pleased to see you again, Mrs. Harrison," he answered. "Gordon is the young woman standing over there."

"What?!" she exclaimed turning in my direction. "Gordon? Is that you?"

"Hi, Mom," I replied with a little wave. "You said you always wanted a daughter."

She approached me. "My beautiful boy is now my beautiful girl." We hugged.

"Ma'am, we were just going to take Gordon to the Clinic for evaluation. Would you like to drive him down instead?"

"Oh, I can't," she blushed. "I ran over here as soon as I got the call. I'll have to run back to the office and drive over." She turned to look at me. "I'll meet you there, okay, Dear?"

"That'll be fine, Mom. I know how you are when you're in a hurry."

We left the biology lab after one of the Clinic physicians retrieved the bird from the window and received the shriveled snake from Mrs. Rhymes. Mr. Jameson arranged it so there were no students in the hallway as we left the school grounds. I got into the back seat of a minivan behind Dr. Lewis who was in the driver seat. On the ride over to the Clinic they asked me to tell them about my experiences so far. They didn’t interrupt me with many questions. When I asked why they didn’t have any questions, they laughed and told me there would be plenty of questions once we got to the Clinic.

Mom was already at the Clinic when we arrived. An office assistant handed Dr. Parker a file as he stopped at her desk and then he indicated I should follow him to his office. Dr. Lewis stopped to say something to my mother that I did not hear.

Dr. Parker closed the door to his examination room and said, "Do you want to talk first or do the exam first?"

"Let's get the exam over with."

"You'll have to disrobe for that."

I don’t know why that surprised me. I had been coming to the Clinic every year since I was twelve for examinations. For known descendants, they took a base-line against which they could measure the changes every twist usually involved.

He pointed to a screen behind which I could disrobe and I did so putting on the thin patient's gown hanging behind the screen. It was barely long enough to reach my mid-thigh.

When I came out he said, "Lie down on the examination bed and relax. This won't take long."

Lights in a variety of colors and intensities played across my body. At one point all of my snakes started hissing and my sense of surround vision disappeared as the snakes had all closed their eyes at once.

"Did that hurt?" he asked.

"The snake-like appendages didn't like that light. They seem to hiss on their own when threatened."

The test ended. As he went over the results, I got dressed again.

"There are a few anomalies in your test. Nothing completely unusual, as I've seen things like this before." He pulled up a few images on the computer and pointed to a few discolored areas between my liver and my stomach. "This is a weird gland, sort of like a pancreas. Not sure what it does or how it will affect what you eat." He pointed to another discoloration surrounding my hands. "There's some kind of lymph-like tissue in your hands unrelated to the normal human lymphatic system. Not sure what that's for either." Then he pointed to the head on one of my snakes. "Finally, I think these, um, snakes are poisonous. That looks like a venom sac. I'll make a note for Dr. Adelaide to see if she can milk any venom out of them to test its toxicity level." He turned off the screen. "I don't think any of that should raise any red flags. Just let us know if you have any unusual food cravings or experiences with food that are unusual."

"Okay," I replied a bit surprised at how different I was.

"One last physiology change. Despite the snakes and scaly skin, you are in fact a human woman, with ovaries and a uterus. You’ll most likely start your cycle soon since you’re past puberty. You should have a long talk with your mother about what to expect." He seemed somewhat amused by this and it also seemed like something he had said many times before. "Any questions about anything we've discussed or that you've observed?"

I put being a woman aside so I could ask the more pressing questions. "Why is my skin shiny?"

"The outer layer is closer in cell structure to snake skin than human skin. But you are still warm blooded, your skin has pores like human skin does. You’re probably less likely to bleed from a shallow wound than you were before."

"Will I shed?"

"Your body probably won't. But the snakes on your head might? I don't know."

"Do I have ears? I can't find them and everything is slightly muffled."

"You lack ear cartilage. Your auditory canal just ends and ten or so snake appendages grow out around the hole. Their bodies act as your external ears, channeling sound into your middle ear. Your hearing test was still within human range of frequencies with some slight loss in the high frequencies but you can hear sound at volumes much softer than normal. Your ability to pin point sound direction may also be affected since unlike an ear, the snakes surrounding your external auditory canal move. That might distort or enhance your ability to determine the direction a sound comes from."

"Maybe their movement explains why it sounds like the room is noisy when I can't see a reason for it to be noisy."

"I have one last test. I want to get a look under that second eyelid you've got. Since I can't look myself without being petrified I'm going to ask you to look into this camera with your eyes wide open."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "The mirror did not survive my trick."

"I picked this camera because it was cheap," he admitted.

He started the camera's video recording function and clamped it into a stand. "I'm going to leave the room. I want you to stand over there and look into the camera. If it doesn't break, walk toward it. Once you get close to it or it is destroyed, you can close your inner lid and call me back in."

I announced to the camera I was about to open my inner eyelid then I did so. The colors were fascinating. I walked toward the camera until I heard a crack. I closed my inner eyelid and called him back in.

"That was fast," he said as he retrieved the data card from the camera and inserted it into the computer.

"I was at least 15 feet away when it I heard a loud crack." I explained.

The video started running on the computer screen. We heard me announce I was ready and then I took a step or two forward and the video ended abruptly.

"So much for that," Dr. Parker laughed. "I guess I'll have to see what Dr. Adelaide might be able to find out. She specializes in examining Twists." He pointed to the chair and started asking questions about how I felt about being a woman, how my head felt, etc. When he found out I could see through the snakes, he gave them an eye exam. As I had suspected I could have them focus in any direction I wanted and when I concentrated, I could see, reading multiple eye charts at once, almost as well I could with my normal vision. At one point I had them all pointing outward from my head in all directions and I could literally see everything in front, behind, beside and above me at once.

After that session I met with Dr. Lewis again. He had me take the personality test that I had taken several times before. It was a series of strange yes/no or either/or questions where the choices were usually less than clear cut. I didn’t notice any changed in my attitudes while taking the test.

"So, I know it hasn't been very long, but have you felt any strange compulsions other than wanting to touch the bird as you told us in the car?" He asked.

"Not that I've noticed."

"Do you still want to touch the bird?"

"No."

"One moment," he said as he left the room and returned with a birdcage. "He's fine now as you can see. I'm going to leave again. I would like you to petrify him again and talk to me about the compulsion. But, try not to touch him just yet." He exited.

The bird from the window sill was sitting on a perch in the cage. I opened my inner eyelid and the colors all around struck me with fascination again. The bird lost his color like before. "I can feel it now, with my eyes fully open. I want to touch the bird, to feel the lines of color inside him. Okay I've closed my inner eyelids."

He reentered. "How do you feel about the bird now?"

"I kind of still want to touch him but more out of curiosity."

"Okay, come sit down again." He said. As I did, he was looking at his watch and writing some times down. "Does it bother you that you have this compulsion?"

"No. I think it has to do with the colors. When my trick is active I can see these vivid colors that aren't normally there. And inside the bird are these colored lines and swirls that obviously aren't there now. I think there's something about those lines and swirls that means something to my twist."

"If you figure it out, please let me know," he said. We talked about my new height and how I had not picked out any clothes since twisting. He then said, "Now, I see you use to have issues with being bullied by the other kids at school. Do you think that will stop now?"

"Probably not," I answered frankly. "They use to call me Gorgon and that's what I've become. It would be funny if it wasn't me."

"That's called irony."

"I know."

"Will you change your name? Most Twisted who change so drastically change their name."

"When I thought I'd killed Mrs. Rhymes, I thought I was a monster and thought about calling myself Medusa."

"Certainly a more feminine name than Gordon, or Gorgon for that matter. And you aren't a monster. You are a lovely woman."

"I have snakes for hair."

"Certainly exotic, like the coppery tone of your skin."

"And I turn people to stone."

"Not because your face is ugly. That's just your trick." He pulled out a photograph. It was one of the few photographs of the old me that I knew of and I guessed he got it from my mother. "As I said, after spending years being picked on for this unfortunate set of features, how ironic is it that you are a living beauty who can actually do what they taunted this poor boy with. You should be happy with how you look. After all, you’ll look like you do now far longer than you looked like that," his voice rose as he spoke and then he stopped, putting the picture in his breast pocket. "You don't have to decide now. You could always pick a less conversational name like Mary or Beth."

After a short silence, giving me time to consider what he said, he continued, "Speaking of your snakes, I read in your physical exam results that you can see with their eyes. Do you feel what they feel?"

"If they bump into something I know about it. But I haven't felt anything like pain from them. Not even when they got cut by the shattered mirror or when the one that was severed fell off.

"I think I've gotten more use to them than I would have thought possible before. They just kind of float around in the periphery of my vision unless I think about them. And yet I could give them all individual names if I wanted to. These two were cut in the mirror explosion," I reached up with two hands and pulled the two snakes forward pointing to where their wounds were already almost healed completely. "And this stub was the other injured snake." As I grasped the severed snake I notice it was longer than it was before. "I think it's regenerating as the stub was shorter at the school."

"Well, I think I want to schedule a followup with you in a month or so. I feel as though you are still learning too much about yourself to begin any in-depth introspection about your less exotic changes." He stood up. "Be sure to tell Dr Adelaide the snakes are able to regenerate."

Feeling a little better about myself, I met with Dr. Adelaide. She was a curvaceous woman who looked far too young to be a doctor. She had a serious face and long blond hair. She wore a tight sweater and a skirt that together resembled a cheerleading outfit. "Oh, my god! Snakes for hair. They, like, told me about it. But, like, seeing the snakes, like float around your head. Wow.” She paused. “Sorry. Please sit. So, like, tell me about your twist. It says here you, like, turned someone to stone, too. That's far out. If it didn't last, like an hour, I'd totally ask you to do it to me right now."

"Really?"

"I, like, study twists and I might have you stone me before you leave."

"Okay," I replied cautiously.

"Now, I see you, like, destroyed a camera with your eye beams. Bummer. But I have a tunnel I want to put you in if you'll follow me."

We went to another room. It was long and narrow. She placed a small camera on a chair at the far end. She had me destroy another five or six cameras plus some of her other recording equipment in the room before we were done.

About an hour later we were back in her office. She began explaining how she thought my trick worked. I only understood half of what she said. She said something about the different body parts as different colors perhaps meant they were different kinds of stone. She suggested I look at various normal stone materials with my sight to see if they were multicolored, too.

"I may have pushed you, like, too far. I'm sorry," she said as she rearranged her computer and stood up. She removed her lab coat and shoes as she spoke, "I'll totally, like, call you in a few days after we, like, test the venom we got out of your awesome snakes. I have one last request. I'm, like, going to stand here and I, like, want you to totally petrify me and then, like, press record on the computer so I can, like, totally watch myself turn back, like, to flesh. You are free to leave after you, like, start the recording." After that she removed her blouse and skirt, waiting in just her bra and panties. "I'm, like, mega-sorry if this makes you, like, uncomfortable."

"I- I don't mind," I stuttered. I might have looked female, but up until a few hours ago I had been a teenage boy. Looking at the doctor in her underwear was making feel an unusual feeling in my borrowed underwear.

"Are you, like, sure?"

I nodded and she immediately removed her bra and pulled her panties down. She stepped out of them and gathered them up into a ball on her chair. I stared at her naked body a bit too long I realized when she interrupted me saying, "I'm totally ready whenever you, like, are."

"Are you sure?"

She just nodded and stood still.

She looked so much like she were waiting for me to photograph her that I joked, "Say, 'Cheese.'"

As she broke out in a genuine smile I dropped my inner eyelid. Her body stopped moving and began to lose its color. A second later she was solid stone. The varying shades and colors of stone in her body were vivid. The urge to touch her was overwhelming. I closed my eyes. When I opened them I did not open the inner lid. The colors were gone. The urge was different, more of a curiosity. I ran a finger over her protruding nipple. She was already cool to the touch.

I started her recorder before I left the room. I locked the door before closing it.

The waiting room was mostly empty. The receptionist waved me over, "Your mother needed to go start dinner. She said your father would be here in about a half hour." She glanced over at Dr. Adelaide's door before continuing softly, "She had you petrify her."

I must have looked shocked as I nodded.

"Margarite, like, totally loves being transformed." The receptionist said mimicking Dr. Adelaide's voice and diction before returning to her own odd speech pattern. "She's a multimorph. Once she turns back to normal, turning to stone will become a form she can change into from now on."

"So, I've just expanded her trick?"

"Yep. I’m Tess," she said holding out her hand.

“Medusa,” I replied.

The receptionist started looking around her desk. "I just remembered. I’ll find the note Dr. Parker dropped off for you under this envelope.” She moved an envelope on her desk. “Here it is. There is venom in your hairsnakes. Apparently, it's a paralytic toxin. A regular dose might last 30 to 60 minutes." She handed me the paper as she finished divulging its contents. "Can I be among the first of many to ask how it feels to have snakes for hair?"

I laughed, "They are heavier than normal hair. And when they really move around a lot, it itches or tickles my scalp."

She laughed. "They look adorable. I know that's not the usual response but really I can see you putting little bows around their necks."

Some of the snakes hissed at the idea. I was surprised to be feeling some of them would enjoy the adornment. "Well, little bows might make them less intimidating," I replied.

"Exactly," she agreed. "Pink bows wouldn't go with your skin tone. A cream tone or perhaps dark red would be perfect. Oh, your father will be here in a moment. You have no questions you wanted to leave for the staff. I've scheduled an appointment for a month from now on a Saturday with Dr. Lewis.” She handed me an appointment reminder card. “Your father is arriving now. Hello, Mr. Harrison," she called to my father as the door opened."

He looked shocked as I turned to face him. His body language lacked its usual confidence as he approached the desk. "Gordon?"

"I do believe I'm the only snake-haired woman here," I joked.

“That’s your first question?” Tess said under her breath.

"How does it feel being a woman?"

I shrugged. "I haven't really noticed yet. What with turning the school nurse into a statue and all the stuff here."

"You should take her home so she won't have to repeat her stories to your wife," the receptionist interrupted.

"Yes, you're right. Come along, um, Dear."

We walked silently to the car. As we got in I altered the awkwardness by saying, "I might call myself Medusa."

"That certainly fits," he replied. He paused before asking with caution in his voice, "Notice any compulsions yet?"

"Not yet."

"I hope this isn't too weird. I think I'm more intrigued by the fact that you're a woman now than that you have such a strong, potentially dangerous trick. I have no doubt you will be responsible with your trick. But, my best friend growing up also became a woman when he Twisted. Her compulsions really changed her. So, there was little chance we could stay friends. I was relieved when your mother said you seemed to still be our Gordon. And I hope I get answers to some of the questions I never got to ask my friend."

"Can't you just ask Mom?"

"What makes you think I haven't?" He asked with a smile. "But, to the best of my knowledge, she was never a sixteen year-old boy."

So, in order to get more attention from him all these years all I had to do was turn into a girl. Is that disturbing or just funny? "Well, let me have a chance to get use to being like this. It's only been a few hours and I haven't really had any time to think about the changes that took place below the neck."

He laughed. "See, that's something I would never have considered possible. When we get home, you should spend some time alone. I'll make sure your Mom and I give you some space after dinner."

We arrived at home shortly. Dinner was mostly me telling them everything that happened since my twist. When dinner was over Mom said, "I stopped at the mall on the way home and bought you some underwear and a pair of pajamas. Tomorrow we’ll go out and buy you a new wardrobe. Your old clothes are all too small and are somewhat inappropriate."

"That was good thinking, Honey," Dad interrupted. "Maybe... Medusa should go take a bath and become acquainted with her new body."

I was going to complain about the idea of taking a bath when Mom agreed, "Of course. There's probably ash from your old clothes trapped in your skin. Go take a bath."

I was glad to get out of clearing the table. My room wasn’t how I had left it. Mom must have zipped through here and removed all the clothes that had been strewn throughout the room. She had also cleaned up any forgotten dirty dishes. My bed was made. She found the comforter? Where had it been hiding? On the bed was a package of plain white women's underwear, a green pair of pajamas, and two large fluffy towels. Trying not to over think it, I took off the clothes I had received at school. I grabbed the towels and was headed to the main bathroom when Mom appeared.

"Before you go in there, I need to give you one little lesson in being a woman," Mom explained. She proceeded to explain that a certain place was prone to infections and diseases and that it was very important to wipe from front to back when going to the bathroom.

As she said it, I realized I had to go somewhat urgently. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t noticed this before. "Actually, Mom, that's very timely advice as I really need to go. So, if you'll excuse me..."

I went into the bathroom and put the towels down on a bench. I approached the commode. Because we had just talked about it I didn’t make the mistake of facing it. I sat down and managed to go without any effort. It felt exactly the same and yet totally different at the same time. I wiped as instructed and flushed the toilet. Before I stood up I realized my feet were flat on the floor. My legs were really long apparently. That would take some getting use to.

I got up and started the water running in the tub. The place where I usually lined up the faucet handle felt very cold so I increased the heat. The tub was a large soaker tub able to hold two adults comfortably.

As the water ran, I stood up and looked at myself in the full length mirror. I was stunningly beautiful. I was still having a hard time associating me with this face and now this body in the mirror. I couldn’t believe how tall I was now. It was strange to see breasts and think of them as mine. They seemed a bit bigger than my mother's breasts. They weren’t overly large but they were large enough that guys would have to notice them. My waist looked too thin compared to my hips. For a girl as tall as I it was giving me an almost exaggerated hourglass figure. I wondered what my measurements were.

Before I got too distracted, I turned away from the mirror. When the tub was half full I got in. The water was much warmer than I usually showered with. Yet, it felt great against my skin. I leaned back marveling at how good it felt creeping up my body. I could feel my nipples hardening. When they touched the water my entire body quivered. I gently ran my hands over them, enjoying the pleasure this simple act provided. I had to laugh as I realized this was my first time making it to second base. I spent a lot of time rubbing and occasionally squeezing my breasts. I told myself I was doing it to get use to my breasts but frankly it just felt nice.

After a while I noticed my snakes splashing in the water behind me. Sometimes they seemed to have minds of their own.

My hands roamed down my body to the area I was simultaneously most curious about and most apprehensive about. My hand was laying flat between my legs and my brain was telling me that area should not be flat. Except it was not totally flat. After caressing my breasts for so long, the area down there was slightly open and a little swollen, inviting deeper exploration. I wasn’t ready for that and once I decided to put it off I laughed. If I’d had the same opportunity yesterday to explore a woman's body would I have stopped?

I reached for a washcloth. I didn’t have any body soaps for women so the decision about what to wash with was moot. I looked at the shampoo and realized I would never need that again. Not only was my hair replaced with snakes, but there were no hairs on my skin. Did I have eyebrows? I would have to remember to check. I ran the washcloth along the length of each hair snake. Scrubbing between them against my scalp was oddly invigorating, like a massage. As I ran the cloth down the length of each snake it was a little disconcerting since I was fully aware of the snake's body as I washed it. Normally, I would be no more aware of their bodies than I would be aware of my neck if it was not being stimulated. I also counted thirty-eight snakes of nearly uniform girth, a little over an inch I guessed. Four of them were over twice as long as the others.

I dunked my head a few times to get the soap out from between the snakes. Again, some of the snakes enjoyed it and others hissed. Two of them spit some water out at my face after the third dunk. "Okay, I'll stop," I said to appease them. The water was getting cool anyway so I opened the drain and stood up.

I toweled off and was about to wrap the towel around my waist when I stopped myself. I shouldn’t leave my breasts hanging out. It took a few tries, turning the towel lengthwise and getting it tight enough so it wouldn’t slip down off my chest.

I looked in the mirror and discovered the copper cast to my skin above my eyes darkened to almost a brown color, imitating eyebrows. But there was no hair there. My outer eyelids, which resembled human eyelids, however did have lashes. So I wasn’t completely hairless.

I stayed in front of the mirror watching the snakes. I spent a good hour commanding them in groups and individually to move about. The four longest snakes were also the most dexterous. I got one of them to hold my toothbrush and actually do part of the brushing. After a minute or two, that snake was weakening. I had another long snake continue the job until it started weakening. Then I finished brushing my teeth manually.

I left the bathroom, crossing the hallway in just a towel and closed the door to my room. Mom said I wasn’t going to school tomorrow so I had the evening to do whatever I wanted. I sat down on the bed and opened the package of underwear. Letting the towel fall off, I prepared to put a pair on. Once again I noticed that when I bent at the waist my head did not reach the middle of my shins like it should. My head was only down to my knees and I had to reach with my arms almost straight down to touch my toes. Sitting on the bed it was much easier to put on the panties as I could pull my legs toward me. Once I got them on. they slid home disturbingly flatly, but also comfortably soft.

I put on the pajamas next, fumbling with the buttons on the top until I realized they were backwards. I once read that women's clothing buttoned the opposite way to how men’s clothing buttoned. I guessed that was true. The pajamas fit oddly. The shirt seemed too long and the pants were so short they barely reached the tops of my calves. The material felt nice on my skin, satin according to the label. My nipples were creating a tent effect on the top. I guessed bras were not just for support.

There was a knock at my door. "Come in," I called out.

Dad opened the door. He focused his attention on my face. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind doing something."

That was vague. "What exactly?"

"Your mother and I assume you would never use your trick on someone maliciously. But, we also don't really know what your trick does, um, first hand. I want you to petrify me so that if we needed to punish you for some reason related to your trick we would have some basis from which to gauge what you did to determine a suitable reaction."

"I guess I should appreciate your frankness," I replied. "We should go down to the garage. We wouldn't want a statue of you crashing through the floor."

"You don't mind?"

I shrugged, "It's who I am now."

As we walked down to the garage Dad reminisced about his old friend. "After Shawn, now Shawna, twisted we would still talk regularly for a few weeks. She once told me how when she and her Mom went to buy clothes she was surprised at how much she was into the frilly clothes. I tried to remind her that personality changes can easily include changes in fashion sense. I even tried to convince her that no one wanted to see the beautiful girl he’d become dressing in oversized shirts and boys jeans.

"But somehow, every time I tried to comfort her or be supportive, she took it the wrong way. Eventually, I found out that one of her compulsions made her suspect that anyone being nice to her was trying to get into her pants. That was so bizarre since she was also attracted to the low-life losers who would openly admit they wanted to get into her pants. I suppose that made her feel they were being more honest than me. When I denied wanting to have sex with her she figured I was lying.

"In any case, don’t be surprised if you find out you like something that the old you would rather be dead than wear because, in a way, Gordon is dead. And while I may not have a son any more, I am certainly happy that I have you as my daughter."

"Daddy, don’t," I choked out as I felt a swell of emotion. "I’m not ready to cry at the sappy parts of the movie yet."

"Sorry," he said stopping in front of me. "I didn’t realize we were on stage. The point I’m trying to make is that you should embrace your new self. You’ll feel better about all the changes that way." He surprised me again by giving me a big hug. It felt nice to be safe in Daddy’s arms. I did tear up and I wasn't sure if it was because he was trying so hard to be understanding or if it was because I was thinking of him as "Daddy" instead of "Dad" or "Father".

As we entered the garage, I turned on the light. "How do you want to pose?" I asked pointing toward the other side of room.

"Oh," he mused as he crossed the room. He stood with his legs shoulder-width apart with his hand hovering just off his hips. "How's this?"

"Very Superman," I joked. "Ready?"

After he nodded, I thought I would be dramatic, "In 3,... 2,... 1,... Rock!"

Watching him suddenly stiffen and start to turn gray was less exciting since his clothes obscured most of the effect. Once again there was a weird scent right as he transformed. It smelled really good. It was kind of like ozone but nuttier.

It was odd to see a stone statue wearing clothes, though. I checked out the colors inside of him. They were more complex and more pronounced than the bird's had been. Standing here, the urge to touch the statue was also stronger than it had been with the bird. I wanted to experiment, but not with Daddy.

With a head shake, I turned to leave. I was going to turn off the light but left it on so he could see when he transformed back.

In the enclosed breezeway between the garage and the kitchen door I bumped into Mom headed the other way. Startled, my hairsnakes hissed at her, forming a display around my head that made me look taller and made my head seem wider, like a cobra ready to strike.

Mom jumped back, startled. She might have been intimidated by my being taller than her, especially with my hairsnakes accentuating my height.

I willed my snakes to settle down as I said, "Sorry, they do that by themselves. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I was just going to check on your Father, make sure he doesn't fall over."

"The way he's standing that's highly unlikely." I said as I walked past her. That was when I noticed she was holding the good camera. What was happening clicked for me and I could not get away from the garage fast enough. I failed to not think about the time she told me how much she enjoyed being so fast that the people around her looked like statues.

In my room, I played video games with the sound turned up a bit louder than usual.

After a few hours, there was a knock at my door. Mom opened the door and announced, "We're heading to the mall early so shut that down and get some sleep. Good night."

I lowered the volume and finished the level so I could save. After I turned it off I turned out the lights. The room was still plainly visible though there was no color. Could I see in the dark? I closed my eyes and the room was still plainly visible. It was my hairsnakes. They could see in the dark. I opened my inner lids and my vision became more sharp but there was no color to become more vivid. I wondered if I could petrify someone in the dark.

I laid down on my stomach as usual but that was a mistake. There was no way that would work with these breasts of mine. Rolling onto my side irritated my hairsnakes. I used my arm to sweep the snakes in back upward as I settled down on my back. No body parts seemed to be complaining now. I stared at the ceiling for a little while. My neck felt relieved now that it was not holding up a head and thirty-eight snakes.

When I woke up I couldn’t remember falling asleep. It was still dark according to the clock even though I could see clearly. I felt wide awake so I got up. I used the bathroom and went downstairs.

Mom was in the kitchen looking like she normally did in the morning, painfully thin like she was about to waste away. She barely grunted at me as she struggled to lift a box of cereal. I rushed over and helped her pour her first bowl. She nodded gratefully as I poured the milk. She was already spooning it into her mouth rapidly, though to her it must felt like it was going slowly.

Since she didn’t like being watched when she had to load up on food, I excused myself. I went into the breezeway and looked outside. I saw a bird not far away. Looking around to make sure I was alone, I flashed my inner eyelids open and close quickly, catching the bird as they were unfurling their wings to take flight.

I stepped out the door and brought the bird into the garage, setting them down on my work bench. I opened my inner eye and really examined the lines and swirls of color only I could see. This bird was more vivid than the other bird, the lines more dynamic. I grabbed a drawing book from the shelf and it suddenly clicked. The swirls were the bird's underlying musculature. The lines were possibly veins and arteries or nerves. I could see the petrified anatomy of someone I petrified. I could also see a faint glow emanating from my palms. That desire to touch the bird was back and I knew somehow I should place my palms against him.

I needed to know what this was about. I placed my palms on the bird's chest and back as those were the flattest parts of the bird in this pose. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment. I concentrated on my palms when suddenly I felt a surge of power. The glow on my palms brightened. The crazy display of colors became more rich. I felt a little warm all over.

"Medusa!" Mom called.

I released the bird and snapped my eyes shut in case she was coming in.

"I made pancakes. Come and eat," she continued.

"Be right there," I called back. I got up and looked at the statue. Since I didn’t want to leave it trapped in the garage an hour from now, I picked it up and set it down outside facing away from the house.

I went to the kitchen where Mom was looking fit, rather than deathly ill.

"You're up early," Mom noted.

"Yeah, I'm not sure why," I replied as I sat down at the table. "I feel very awake this morning."

Mom sat down in front of a huge stack of pancakes and laid out her plan for getting me a new wardrobe. As we talked Daddy arrived and ate a couple pancakes before heading off to work. When he left, Mom got up too and gave him a kiss goodbye. "I'm going upstairs to find you something to wear to the mall," she told me.

I finished my breakfast and cleared the table. Having one's twist apparently only got you one day off from your chores. When I went back to my room I found a jogging outfit on the bed. The top was basically a jacket with a zipper and the bottoms had a simple drawstring waist.

"Mom?" I called. "Don't you want me to wear anything under this jacket?"

She zipped into my room and said, "Normally, you would wear a sports bra and a T-shirt or tube top of some kind under the jacket of a jogging outfit. But, you’re going to be taking off and putting on that jacket so many times today, you will be glad you aren't wrestling with pulling a shirt over your hairsnakes every time you do." When a few of them hissed, she added, "See? Even they agree."

I had no reason to protest even though I felt like this was a bit risky. Was I a prude?

"Besides," she continued. "It'll make you look a little frumpy. Your head is going to call a lot of attention toward you. You don't need your body doing it too on your first excursion to the mall, do you?"

"Well, isn't being stared at something I need to get use to?"

"You will have a whole lifetime of guys and some gals gawking at your boobs and long legs, dear," she said with honest sympathy. "And unlike most girls your age, you haven't had fifteen years of training, learning what it's like to be looked at like a prize to be won by creeps and gentlemen alike. You’re not only gorgeous, you’re also exotic. You've seen yourself in the mirror. Wouldn't the old you drool over the sight of you, hairsnakes or no hairsnakes?"

"I wouldn't even try to talk to me if I were Gordon."

"No, most guys would consider you out of reach," she continued with disdain. "But you know which classmates would pursue you, and probably will pursue you. What do those guys have in common?"

I thought about who the school players were and realized where she was going, "They're all jerks, far more interested in themselves than the girls they date."

"Thankfully, you are aware of the problem. But, has it sunk in that you’re now playing the game from the other side now?" She wondered. "You handled being ostracized because of your looks very well. And I'm sure that at first, your current looks will continue to put some people off. But, you're very tall, thin, curvy and have big boobs. The boys at your school will eventually find your hairsnakes normal and after that they will only see you as a hot babe. Go to the mall frumpy while you can. There's no need to rush into looking your best when you have nothing at all to wear."

I felt overwhelmed by the foresight and understanding Mom was displaying so I pulled her into a hug. It was oddly comforting even though I towered over her. "Thanks, Mom," I choked out.

"You're welcome," she replied stiltedly, perhaps not expecting me to express my thanks like this.

We separated and I said, "I don't know where that came from. You never really gave me a talk about boys before. Not that I needed one. Um. Relationships, that's it. You never talked to me about relationships between adult partners before."

"I don't know what to say. I would have stepped in if I’d witnessed any misogyny from you," she replied. "I guess I always thought of that as your father's department."

"Daddy was always so distant," I explained. "Last night, I heard about his best friend growing up. I was the longest story I've ever heard him tell about his youth."

"Daddy?" Mom asked. "I’ve never heard you call him Daddy since you were like three years old."

"I don’t think I’ve thought of him as Dad…" – I had to pause not to put the "Eee" at the end of Dad – “since he picked me up at the Clinic."

"He never speaks about his youth. The fact that he told you a story yesterday is amazing." After an awkward pause, she joked, "If this is how you react to a talk about boys I can't wait to see how you react when we have the full feminine hygiene conversation."

There were not a lot of people in the mall, but I was turning every head. I heard a little child asking his Mommy why that lady has snakes on her head when it wasn’t Halloween. In fact, with my heightened hearing I could make out more of the conversations left in my wake than was comforting as several of them involved young men posturing with one another at how they hoped I would make them rock hard. I suspected they wouldn’t be the last guys to make that joke about me. Some also speculated about what they would find at the top of my long legs.

We arrived at a specialty lingerie shop. The old me would have been beet red at the thought of going in here, worried that he would be kicked out at any moment. Today, I was just glad to get out of the open part of the mall.

"Oh, my gracious me," the older saleswoman exclaimed as she caught sight of me. "You are just stunning. And far more out of proportion than most girls."

"What do you mean?" my mother asked.

"They won’t bite will they?" she asked as she reached toward my forehead with a tape measure.

"If I want them to," I said. "Go ahead, it’s safe." I held my hairsnakes at bay while she measured from near the top of my head to my waist and from my waist to the floor.

"For a girl your height, your waist should be six inches lower and your diaphragm should extend another couple inched down. Here and here." She said putting one hand on my thighs and the other just above my belly button. Not to mention your narrow waist. You are going to have a rough time finding clothes that fit," she explained. "Since you aren’t wearing a bra I’m guessing you twisted recently?"

"Yesterday," Mom said. "She’s bigger than me and since she’s so tall I figured she should get herself measured first."

"All women should get themselves measured, Deary," the lady said. "And every few years get your size rechecked since gravity is not your girls’ friend. Now let me see about the young lady. I might need my step ladder to reach over your shoulder. She managed to take measurements in various directions around my chest. She declared me a 34D and called that a normal size. When I mentioned that I didn’t think the cup would be so high, she explained that cup size goes up as the chest diameter goes down. "Your upper ribcage is nearly as narrow as your tiny waist. A corset is going to love you, dear."

She handed me a dark emerald lacy bra and pointed me toward the fitting area. Mom had been right about wearing something easy to take off and put on. I unzipped the jogging jacket and laid it aside. My mother gasped. "What?" I asked.

"Your back, have you looked at it?"

"Not really."

"Your skin has that orange hue to it but down your spine starting from your hairsnakes, the color deepens to a rich green stripe about a couple inches wide."

The woman got a large hand held mirror and angled it so I could see my back. "The way the colors blend is very striking," she commented.

"I didn't think to look at my back."

"Shall we get back to your front?" She asked. After I nodded the woman put down the mirror and stood behind me. She told me to bend over. Then she showed me how to get all of my breast tissue into the cup before standing up by literally reaching into the cup of the bra and pulling my boobs into the cups. Though she did it with the casual air of someone who would say, "I've pulled a million boobs into bras. They're just boobs," they were my boobs and my boobs had not been handled in such a manner before.

When I stood up I was shocked at how much the bra caused my breasts to thrust forward. She made a few minor adjustments to the straps and then asked how it felt. "That is so much more comfortable than going braless."

She showed me how to work the hooks and then I tried on a couple more bras for fit. We ended up buying several green bras, a couple orange bras, and a couple sports bras. I wore one of the green bras out of the store. It felt that good. I could not believe the price of a bra. As we left I asked Mom about where the money would come for this.

"A friend of your father’s suggested we open a savings account as a contingency for an unusual Twist. You were about four at the time. There’s quite a bit of money in that account so we can easily afford an entirely new wardrobe. Hopefully, there will still be something left in the account when we’re done."

"Clever."

"And if you had never needed it, we'd have vacation money we could use once you went to college."

"Was I invited?"

Mom immediately pointed to our next destination, "Next, everyday wear."

At the next store we tried to find me normal clothes but the jeans weren’t available for girls with my narrow waist and long legs. We tried some normally knee-length skirts that barely made it down to the middle of my thighs. I was not ready to wear skirts that short. The blouses felt like dresses since some of them also reached down to my mid-thigh.

We had nothing but underwear and bras when we went into the shoe store next. My feet at least were only slightly on the high side of average, meaning they looked dainty on my large frame. She picked out a pair of sandals that looked okay, a pair of sneakers, and then I saw them: snakeskin pumps. I needed to have snakeskin shoes.

Mom thought I was crazy, "Those must be five inch heels. You’ll break your neck in them. And you really don’t need to be taller."

"But, they look so good and they don’t come in a smaller height."

"Gor-- um, Medusa, you are not ready for stiletto heeled shoes."

"Let me try them on," I begged.

"Fine," she relented handing me a box in my size.

I opened the box and let my fingers run up and down the shoe. I was already wearing socks from trying on the other shoes so I slipped the shoe onto my foot. It was a perfect fit. I got the other one on and stood up. I had thought I was tall before but adding another four or five inches to my height was unbelievable. I could see over everything in the store.

I took a few tentative steps without falling and became emboldened. After just a few stumbles, I was walking around the room with a casual ease. When I returned to the chair I had started from, Mom was just staring at me awestruck.

"How did you do that?" She asked.

"I have no idea," I replied. "But, I am curious." I reached for a lower, chunkier heeled shoe in my size that was just leather. I put them on and walked around feeling less confident. I wobbled more and was taking the occasional baby step. "It’s the snakeskin. I must have an affinity for it, or a compulsion."

"Well, would you wear those pumps to school?" She asked. "That’s the important question."

"I guess so," I relied. "Daddy said I need to be true to who I’ve become."

We left the shoe store with a pair of sandals, dark brown flats, a pair of sneakers, and my snakeskin pumps. From there we were headed to another clothing store when I stopped in front of a boutique shop with a dress in the window that caught my eye. It was white, voluminous, and sleeveless with lots of draping.

"I want to try that on," I told Mom.

"Really?" she asked incredulously. "That's a very dressy dress. You couldn’t wear it to school."

"I need to try it on."

"Okay, let's go in."

She followed me inside. Many of the dresses in here were wonderful to look at. I was cringing on the inside at the thought of wearing a dressy dress. I guessed it was the draping that was setting off my compulsion. Draping in sculpture always fascinated me and now I was attracted to it in clothing.

While I was gawking, Mom found a saleswoman. "This is my daughter Medusa. She just twisted."

"You have wonderful skin, my dear," the woman said reaching to shake my hand.

Taking it, I said, "I want to try on the white dress in the window."

She took out a measuring tape. "Oh, dear, I'm afraid that dress wouldn’t look good on you. That one is designed to raise the level of one's hips and you don't need that at all. Why don't you try this one. It's more a cream color and should complement with your skin tone." She flipped through a few dresses on a rack before pulling one off in my size. It was gorgeous. "Follow me to the dressing room."

I would have followed her anywhere. In the dressing room I removed my jogging suit and even the hairsnakes cooperated to get the dress over my head. It was similarly draped and had just one wide strap of flowing material going over my left shoulder. In the mirror in the dressing room, the dress flared slightly below my hip making my torso look longer. A golden clasp sat at the shoulder holding two separate straps on the same side. The two pieces of fabric ran down my chest, cupping each breast separately creating a peek-a-boo window between my breasts. The dress stopped just slightly above my knee. Most of my upper back was also exposed. It was a bit disconcerting. But at the same time I loved the look.

"Are you okay?" called my mother.

I stepped out of the dressing room and over to a three-way mirror.

"Oh, honey, you look amazing in that dress," Mom declared. She started to tear up. “You should be wearing one of the orange bras though. It wouldn’t show through the front as much.”

"Yes, she does," added the saleswoman. "Do you see how this ruching here seems to pull your hips down?"

"I love it," was all I could say. "Are they all this fancy? I don't think I could wear this to school."

"To school? You mean like a prom?" asked the saleswoman.

"No, I mean to everyday classes," I replied hopefully.

"My dear, these dresses are meant to be evening wear. A girl your age should be wearing lighter, less busy clothing."

"But all the tops felt like short dresses and none of the pants fit my long legs."

"You went to a normal clothing store, right?" the saleswoman asked. "I have another store here in the mall that has similar tall fashions as we have here but they are casual wear instead of formal wear. Why don't you head over there and try on some clothes?"

"I had no idea those two stores were related," Mom stated.

After purchasing the cream colored dress, we went to the other store where we were greeted by another saleswoman who seemed to be expecting us. I immediately noticed a leather skirt. It was long and narrow and I just had to try it on. Mom insisted I find a top before going into the changing room. I had several tops, skirts and a summer dress by the time I went to the changing room.

It turned out I had a thing for leather, like the snakeskin pumps. But, the real reason I didn’t like the other clothes was not because I needed draping. It was the sleeves. I felt uncomfortable in any top or dress that had sleeves or wide straps. Spaghetti straps and strapless tops were comfortable. I also didn’t like tight pants. Baggy pants like the jogging outfit were tolerable. I just didn’t like having fabric tight against my inner thighs. I also seemed to like clothing that pinched at the knees. The summer dress was functional but I liked wearing one with a mermaid style. While most of my tops were sleeveless, I discovered I liked shawls. Most girls layered jackets over their tops, I was more likely to layer a shawl over mine.

"This did not turn out as I expected," Mom said as we took a break in the food court. "I expected to be buying you a bunch of jeans and T-shirts, just cut appropriately for your body. The only denim in here is a tight skirt."

That was one of my favorite skirts because the opening at the knees was the narrowest of all. I guessed I was going to be a good girl since I liked to keep my knees locked together.

"I also expected to just buy T-shirts and jeans," I agreed. "I don't feel as weird about buying dresses and skirts now that I've been trying them on."

"Well, normally I’d suggest a trip to the hair salon but that's one aspect of being a woman you won't get to enjoy," Mom said half-jokingly. "How about a nail salon to do something about those sharp nails?"

"You just want to see me with nail polish on my fingernails."

"That too," she admitted. "C'mon, it'll be fun. I thought you were embracing the new you."

"I knew I never should have told you that."

When we got there we were lucky to get an immediate opening. A woman older than I expected showed me to a chair. "Well, look at you, do you control those things?"

"Mostly," I said trying to sound unsure of myself.

"Oh," she had been reaching for my hands but jumped back.

"Don't scare the woman," Mom admonished me.

"They listen to what I tell them to do but they can act on their own."

The woman finally took a look at my nails and made ticking noise by drawing air between her teeth, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, these nails are wonderfully long but the shape is scary. Do you want me to reshape them?"

I could feel discontent forming among the snakes, "Well, I guess so. I don't want to hurt anyone with them." The snakes grew louder and were definitely hissing.

The woman let go of my hand. "I've seen this before. The thing is, I'm guessing you just twisted. When a twist makes this kind of specific change to things like hair or nails, changing them can cause problems. Now, how about we just give them some color and leave the shapes alone."

As she said this the snakes stopped hissing, although a few different ones seemed to be against the coloring. Though they did not hiss as vehemently.

"It's too bad you aren't wearing any makeup that we could coordinate the color with," the woman said.

"Make up," Mom exclaimed. "I almost forgot."

"I'm not so sure," I stated.

"Oh, what young woman doesn't like makeup?" the woman asked.

"The kind who can shatter mirrors with a glance," I replied.

"Really?"

"Oh, I forgot about that too," Mom admitted.

"There's a lot of mirrors here not shattering," the woman said nervously.

"Well, no one's poking at my eyes."

"Okay, you could still wear lipstick, blush... I was going to say concealer but your skin is almost flawless so you don't really need it. Still, there's lots of makeup that doesn't involve poking at your eyes. An eyebrow pencil could give you a bit more definition above your eyes. Would that be safe?"

I sighed. "Yes, that all sounds safe. Stuff that lines the eye could cause a problem."

"In that case, there's also eye shadow," the woman added. "Though your eyes really don't need enhancing." She turned her attention to my hands. "I'm going to put a dark green polish on your nails and then put a thin silver streak down it. I think pulling those colors out of your friends there will pop, especially if you can get a matching lip gloss, or perhaps a few shades darker. Just make sure it's a pure green, not something found in leaves, like a holly green."

"I'll go with whatever you think works," I accepted.

She started working on my nails, buffing the edges. If she hovered her hands over clippers or scissors my hairsnakes would hiss. At one point she commented, "Can they see?"

I closed my eyes and said, "Point at something." When she did, I told her she was pointing at my mother.

"You can see through their eyes? Wow, that is one major twist."

"You don't know the half of it."

"I think I do," she whispered, leaning in close conspiratorially. "I heard a rumor that someone at the high school was turned into a statue and is now hidden in the basement so no one will find out. Any truth to that?"

I looked at Mom who shrugged then nodded. "Very little," I admitted. "The school nurse tried to check my eyes while I was unconscious after my twist. And she was petrified. It only lasted a little over an hour. I don't know what the school keeps in the basement."

"Your eyes are open now. Am I in danger?"

"Do I look dangerous?" I asked swiveling my hairsnakes in her direction. "My eyes are not fully open. If I did open them you'd be petrified and the mirrors behind you would shatter."

She jumped back a bit. "Don't do that with your friends up there," she admonished. "You wouldn't want me to mess up your nails."

She changed the topic and soon my nails were dried and polished. She had even rounded the very tips slightly taking the edge off. A few doors down we found a bath and body shop and Mom insisted we ask them about body wash for my unusual skin. They actually had a test kit to determine what kinds of botanical soaps would work best to keep my skin soft and healthy. Mom bought some body wash and a scrub sponge.

We went to the cosmetics counter at one of the mall's end stores. An older woman there retreated as soon as she saw us and we had to wait a few minutes while another salesclerk came over from another department to help us. Mom was muttering about how she could not understand how people like that lived in Spiral.

A few minutes later another saleswoman arrived and spoke with the woman hiding from us. The later arriving woman walked up to us and said, "I'm terribly sorry about my colleague over there. She's deathly afraid of snakes and is embarrassed by her inability to maintain a professional attitude."

"It's okay."

"Well, you are too kind. Now, what can I do for you?"

"She wants a makeover." Mom blurted out.

"I do not want a makeover." I interrupted. "The woman at the nail salon suggested I find a similar or darker green colored lipstick to go with my nails."

"Your face is so exotically gorgeous even I don't think you need a make over. I would recommend a little eye shadow to really bring your eyes out. And maybe a gold eyeliner."

"No way," I said. "Just the lip gloss."

"You're being rude," Mom loudly whispered.

"Should I come back?"

"No, it's fine," I said. "What you don't realize and Mother here seems to have forgotten, is that I woke up yesterday morning as a sixteen year-old boy. My twist turned me into this Ancient Greek myth and changed my gender at the same time. I'm not interested in makeup and considering what these eyes can do, the last thing I need is to call attention to them."

"Do I want to know what they can do?"

"The snakes should be a clue. It only lasts about an hour." I blurted out. "I also shatter mirrors when I use that trick."

"Okay, I can get you the lip stick. I think this would look good on you." She said reaching into the display case and got out a silver tube. She spent a few minutes teaching me how to apply the lip stick. It looked very striking in the mirror. "Are you sure we can't try a little eyeshadow?"

I sighed. "Okay, just don't get too close to my lashes." After she got out a few powders, she put some yellow powder on a small applicator and told me to close my eyes. I moved some snakes around to get a view of what she was doing.

"What are they doing?"

"I can see what they see."

"Well, then you have nothing to worry about once you learn to do this yourself," she explained. "You can use them as your mirror, you don't have to worry about shattering a mirror in your face."

"I didn't think of that."

She applied two colors to my eyelid and showed me how to blend them. Then she demonstrated applying eyeliner on herself. I ended up getting several types of makeup, including eyeliners and mascara.

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

We returned from the mall around two o'clock. As we walked past the garage I was surprised to see the bird statue still sitting just outside the back of the breezeway. As I hurried up to my room to drop off my shopping bags, Mom called out to me. "Don't even think about wearing that cream colored dress in that filthy garage. And don't get any makeup on it when you take it off."

I kicked off the pumps and removed the dress carefully. I put on the first top I could find. It was a dark green, cropped tank top with a zipper in front. I grabbed the tight leather skirt. It felt really good to pull the skirt's zipper up my backside. I put my snakeskin pumps back on.

I knew Mom would need to do some carbo-loading so I hurried out the front door and around to the backyard. I picked up the still petrified bird and went into the garage.

Making sure the door was shut, I opened my eyes to look at the bird. The colored lines and swirls inside the bird were very muted. If I had not seen them brightly before, I might not have noticed them at all now.

Before I could speculate about why the bird was still petrified. There was a knock at the door. I closed my inner eyelids quickly.

"I'll be sure to knock first, Mrs. Harrison," a voice called out. It was Elliot. "Can I come in?"

"It's open," I announced.

Elliot opened the door slowly. When he saw me his jaw hit the floor. He just stood there in shock.

"If you are just going to stand there like a statue, I can turn you into the real thing."

"Gordon?" He managed to ask.

"I think I'm going to use the name Medusa. It's more appropriate than Gordon."

"You are smokin' hot," he looked me up and down. "And so tall. That skirt is so... why are you wearing a skirt and those shoes?"

"You're allowed to stare uncontrollably for only a few more minutes," I joked. "As for the skirt, I have some kind of compulsion against wearing pants. And the shoes, they were a compulsion too."

"Bummer," he commented as he finally stepped into the room and closed the door. He walked straight up to me, "I can't believe how tall you are. In those heels you must be six foot nine or so." His eye level was even with the top of my cleavage. He made a point of looking straight ahead and said, "I can't complain about the view." With a laugh, he sat down on the low bench he always sat on. "It's really true. You had your twist. There were rumors that you turned someone to stone. People are going to believe that rumor when they get a look at you."

"It's true."

"You're shittin' me."

"No, it's true," I said, pointing at the bird.

"Holy, fuck," he exclaimed.

"It only lasts an hour or so. Or at least it did when I did it to Mrs. Rhymes."

"Wow, how'd she react to being turned into a statue?"

"It's funny. She thought she had only been unable to move for about five minutes." I said. "Let me tell you about my day yesterday.” When I mentioned how I discovered I could see with my hairsnakes, he interrupted.

"You can see with those things?"

"Yes, it's like black and white and last night I found out they can see in the dark."

"And I can tell you can control them. How well can you control them?"

I had a couple of the really long snakes extend themselves. "I used these two last night to brush my teeth. Doing that tired them out pretty quickly but I'm sure it looked cool. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

"I decided to chance looking at myself in a mirror hanging in the biology lab. And that's when I discovered I had this face."

"You know," Elliot interrupted. "You don't look anything like you use to but I know I've seen that face before."

"It does seem familiar," I agreed. "I don't look like any of my cousins or aunts. While looking in the lab mirror, I noticed there was a closed inner eyelid under my normal eyelid. I was looking through it. While squinting to see it, I made it twitch and open and suddenly the mirror shattered. These little guys jumped in the way of the flying glass. One of them was nearly sliced in two but it's already regrown its head.

"Looking around the room with those lids open is psychedelic. The colors are more vivid and there are colors that make no sense. I accidentally petrified a bird sitting on the window sill outside the biology lab. And that was when I realized I wasn't dangerous."

"What's it look like when you petrify something?"

"It's odd. The color seems to drain out of them and leaves behind the dull stone statue. It only takes a second. Oh, and when I look at a statue I've made, I can see lines and swirls inside the stone. I don't know what that means.

"Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, some doctors from the Spiral Clinic arrived and asked me a bunch of questions. Then, they took me to the clinic and asked me even more questions for a few hours. When I was done with the last doctor, she asked me to petrify her."

"She didn't."

"She did. According to the receptionist, the doctor is a multimorph and she probably had me petrify her so she would gain another form she could change into. Although I don't know why someone would want to turn into a statue." That last comment made me think of my parents and I just shook my head.

"What's with the head shake?"

"Nothing."

"You lips say, 'Nothing,' but your snakes look embarrassed."

"They do?"

"No, I can't read your snakes, yet. But now I know you do feel embarrassed," he laughed. "So spill it."

"I wasn't going to mention this, but Daddy last night—"

"Daddy?" Elliot asked in a tone mocking how I had probably said it. "You sound adorable saying, 'Daddy.'"

"Now, I am embarrassed," I said. I must have been blushing and that made me curious what color I was. "Last night, my father," I overemphasized, "asked me to petrify him."

"Did he say why?"

"He said something about needing to know what happens when I cause someone to be petrified so that if he needed to hand down punishment over my misuse of my trick he would be familiar with what being petrified felt like."

"And you thought this was bullshit, why?"

"As I left the room I ran into Mom heading to the garage with a camera."

"No way."

"You know how she goes fast? She once told me it thrilled her to move around other people standing still as statues."

"I think the only thing worse then finding out about your parents’ kinks would be finding out your parents don't have any kinks."

"That's very comforting," I laughed. "Where was I?"

"You were leaving the clinic."

"Dadd-- Dad picked me up from the Clinic and we went home. I had dinner and then I was sent to go take a bath because Mom said I probably had soot in my hairsnakes. That was the first time I had a big mirror to see my whole body with. I'm just going to call the bath sensual because even if I go into detail, you will read more into it than actually happened regardless. I figure you may as well have your little fantasies."

"Thanks, I think," Elliot replied. "Did you go while in the bathroom?"

"Oh, yeah, I did. It wasn't very interesting. In fact, it wasn't very different aside from having to do it sitting down. Oh, and having to wipe afterward."

"Nothing's there to give a good shake."

Ignoring that comment, I continued, "Afterward I spent time in front of the mirror practicing getting these guys to do what I ask. When I got back to my room I put on some pajamas Mom bought while I was at the Clinic. Eventually, I went to bed and woke up this morning. Today was a five hour shopping spree at the mall."

"Are you wearing lipstick?"

"Yes, it goes with my nails," I said with my voice pitched up higher than normal as I twinkled my fingers at him.

Elliot started laughing hard, "Woah, that was girly."

"Well, I've always known I was going to twist and that the person I was would not necessarily be who I became. I need to embrace my girly-hood."

"I can embrace that for you."

I made my hairsnakes swing around and glare at him.

"That's intense, dude." He leaned back.

"I'm afraid I have to be one of those girls that friend-zones you. Don't expect benefits."

"Awww, you're no fun," Elliot moaned. "But seriously, you never struck me as someone who would be happy to explore his feminine side this easily."

"I'm not or I wasn’t. It's just if I don't just go for it I get the feeling I'd end up curled up in my bed sobbing all day."

"Do you need a hug?" he asked. Something about his body language seemed genuine.

"I don't know."

He got up. "That means you need a hug," he demanded reaching out to me. "C'mon, no funny business. You need a hug."

He held me. I tensed up waiting for him to do something stupid. But, all he did was stand there with his hands holding my back.

"Loosen up a little Gordo. If you need to cry, you go right ahead."

I raised my arms and he let go immediately. "Thanks, Elliot. But, I don't think I'm ready for being held like that."

"Like what? I was just being a friend. You're the one who friend-zoned me." He smiled. "Can I touch a snake?"

"Sure," I said, floating a long one to him.

He held his hand out and let the snake curl around his hand once. He rubbed the back of its head with his other hand. "Feels like a real snake. Do they eat?"

"I have no idea. I certainly hope not. I can't imagine how these short ones would be long enough to digest anything." I could feel some of the snakes drifting toward Elliot. "I think they like being rubbed like that."

"Can you feel it?"

"Distantly. If a bunch of them were as mellow as the one you're holding, it might feel nice to me. All I know is that one snake is felling mellow."

"So what it's like to have big boobs?"

"You would ask that," I replied.

"Yeah, but consider how long we've been talking and I'm only now asking about having boobs."

"Is that restraint or is the rest of my twist just that much more interesting."

"I'm going with restraint only because it sounds more mature."

"Yeah, right, I believe that." I mocked. "In any case, the answer I'm sorry to say is I don't know. They feel nice, not that I'm inviting you to check yourself."

"Awww."

"And they are kind of heavy. I was disappointed last night when I couldn’t sleep on my stomach comfortably like I use to. I haven't internalized having them yet. They're still 'these things on my chest'. I'm guessing someday they'll be 'my breasts' but I'm not there yet."

"I assume that's also the answer to your other feminine anatomy."

"Yes," I replied noncommittally.

Elliot looked like he was going to press the point but decided to drop it. There was an awkward pause until he suddenly looked all around the room and jumped up. "I've got it."

"Got what?"

He went over to a shelf and pulled the sheet off the bust I had made a few months ago. "That's who you look like," he exclaimed pointing at the bust.

I walked over to the bust and looked at it. I picked it up and held it up beside my face and asked him, "Seriously? Do I look like this?"

"That bust is your twin sister who had snake reduction surgery."

I laughed as many of the snakes hissed.

"Why are they hissing?"

"They don't like it when they feel threatened. They lack a sense of humor." I put the bust down on the bench nearby and studied it again. "I guess I do look like this."

"Your twist must have pulled your look out of your subconscious. That's so cool."

"Then why am I orange and green? And scaly?"

"You aren't scaly."

"I'm not bumpy. But there's definitely a scaly pattern in my coloration."

"In your coloration? What are you a puppy?" He asked. "You actually worry that you're some kind of monster, don't you?"

I flared my snakes into a big headdress. "Don't I look monstrous?"

"Squeal about your lip gloss and shiny colored nails again," he deadpanned. "That was monstrous."

"Okay, I'm not a monster. Just don't offer to hug me again."

"A change of topic seems in order. What did the Clinic have to say about your tricks? You glossed that part over."

I described the various tests Dr. Adelaide conducted, finishing by saying, "They were surprised by my trick. Very few Twisted can directly affects others without touching them."

"Can you petrify multiple people at once?"

"I don't know," I realized.

"Do your targets have to look at you and do you have to look at your targets in order to petrify them?"

"I guess so."

"Which one? Both? Was that bird looking at you?"

I thought back to petrifying the bird and it was about to fly away from me so how could it have been looking at me? "No, the bird wasn't looking my way. Oh, the doctor measured the distance at which my gaze broke mirrors and it was just under sixteen feet."

"Medusa?" Mom called out from the kitchen.

"Yes, Mom," I called back after opening the door to the breezeway.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Is Elliot staying for dinner?"

"Tell her, 'No'," Elliot said.

"He said, 'No'," I repeated. "I'll be there in a few minutes." I closed the door."

"You need to find out if you affect people looking away or standing behind you."

"At some point."

"No, let's start finding out now."

"How are we going to do that?"

He stood up and grabbed the measuring tape from a shelf and handed the roll to me and told me to stand by the door while he walked to the other side of the room holding the end. "How far apart are we?"

"Over nineteen feet," I read off the tape.

He turned around away from me, still holding the end of the tape measure in his hand, over his shoulder. "Turn on your trick and start walking toward me. If I turn to stone, stop walking toward me and record the distance. If you can affect people not looking at you we'll find out the range at which that works."

"And you'll be a statue for an hour."

"It'll only feel like five minutes by the time you get done with dinner. Besides, at some point you're going to zap me. May as well be on my terms the first time."

I sighed. "Okay, it's on," I said opening my inner eyelids. "Eighteen feet."

"Oh, that's good," he said. "It's like a countdown. If I don't petrify at the range the doctors said, try concentrating on petrifying me."

"Sixteen feet, so if you had a mirror facing me, it would have shattered about now," I commented. "Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten. I just noticed that strange psychedelic effect I usually have when my trick is active isn't doing anything to make you look weird. Nine, eight." And it happened. One second, there was nothing unusual and then suddenly I could see all these lines and swirls on Elliot's body and a split-second later the color drained from his flesh and he turned to stone. I snapped the lock on the tape measure, which read seven feet, two and a quarter inches. I put the tape measure down and walked over around to the front of Elliot and laughed. His head was tilted upward and slightly to the right. His eyes were closed and his mouth was puckered up for a kiss. I bent down a little and briefly kissed his stony lips. "I'll see you in an hour."

As I turned to go, I noticed the bird and reactivated my trick. The lines and swirls inside the bird were definitely regaining their strength and vibrancy. Closing my inner eyelids again, I left the garage, leaving the light on in case I could not get back in there before Elliot returned to normal, normal for him anyway. I went to the powder room and washed my hands. In the kitchen I sat in my usual seat.

"Did Elliot leave?" Mom asked. "I didn't hear him go."

Daddy interrupted, "Elliot was here? How did he react to the new you?"

"He's very supportive," I replied and rushed to keep the topic away from Elliot's whereabouts. "Of course, he can't stop flirting with me and I find that a bit annoying. On the one hand, he said I'm smokin' hot but he's still Elliot. We've done a lot of things together. He's like a brother to me. And to hear him using double entendres about me is odd. For example, when I tried to describe what having breasts feels like, he joked about feeling them himself. If any other guy were to make that kind of crack, I'd probably want to deck him. But, I know Elliot was just trying to treat me like I was one of the guys still."

"What are you going to do about it?" Mom asked.

"Nothing," I replied. "I'm hoping he's just as confused about how to act around me and that we'll fall into a new rhythm eventually. I mean, I hope he'll reach a point where he doesn't feel the need to use the 'If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me' jokes any more."

Daddy cleared his throat and changed the subject, saying, "You'll be going to school tomorrow. The Clinic cleared you and your principal wants you to report to his office before first period. I'm going to drive you there in the morning. Be ready at 8:05 sharp."

"I only get one day off for twisting? Totally unfair!" I complained. "What's the principal want?"

"He is probably going to tell you he doesn't want find any statues temporary or otherwise on school grounds." Mom said. "I know when I went back to school I was told there better not be any high speed running through the halls while I was attending school."

"It's normal," Dad said. "Anyone with a semi-dangerous trick is given a warning to remind them to behave." After a pause, he said, "I can't believe the clothes you are wearing, Medusa."

"Gregory!" Mom exclaimed.

"It's okay, Mom," I stated. "Sometimes I can't believe it either. Besides, Daddy hasn't heard about my issues with fit pants and sleeves."

"Some kind of compulsion?" He asked.

I nodded. "I think we all were expecting to see me in a bunch of T-shirts and jeans. But, I just couldn’t stand to wear anything on my arms or anything wide on my shoulders. And I tried those tight fitting joggers and I just couldn't stand to pull them higher then my knees. Fitted pants were very irritating. I also seem to be drawn to leather and other animal skins."

"That doesn't explain the makeup."

"No, it doesn't," I admitted. "I'm just doing what you said: embracing the new me."

"Well, that's wonderful," Daddy exclaimed.

The conversation became a store by store description of our day. Daddy interrupted to see my fingernails up close and to see me walking in my snakeskin heels. After dinner, I had to clear the table and fill the dishwasher. Another chore only given a one-day reprieve after being Twisted.

Afterward, I returned to the garage. Elliot was still a statue. I glanced at the clock on my phone and guessed he still had another five or ten minutes. I walked over to him. The Clinic said I was stronger than normal. I tried to turn Elliot around. With a little effort, I had him facing my work area. I sat down on the stool next to my workbench. I could see how the tall stool would normally be hard to sit on in a tight skirt, but I was so tall that I could keep my legs together while sitting on the stool with both feet on the floor. I took out my phone and started the video recorder running.

A few minutes later, color seemed to flow into Elliot and he was no longer made of stone.

He opened his eyes and looked around. "That was freaky, dude," he stated. "How did you turn me around?"

"I just did," I replied putting down the camera and holding up an arm in a muscle pose. "I'm not as weak as I look. What was it like?"

"Rhymes is right. It's only because you told me I would be turning to stone that I believe I was stone." He stepped forward and retrieved the tape measure as he spoke. "I just felt like I couldn't move and it only felt like it lasted five minutes or so."

"Anything else?" I asked.

"I don't think so. Why? Did you grope me or something? I did feel you touching my arms just before I could move again. That must have been when you were turning me around." He glanced at the tape measure. "Your trick affected me a little over seven feet away, looking the other way, with my eyes closed. That seems to mean that you can petrify people who aren't looking at you. Now we need the opposite test."

"The opposite test?"

"Will someone walking up behind you become petrified if you are using your trick facing the opposite direction?"

"Do we have time for that? Don't you want to get home for dinner?"

At that moment, the bird on my bench regained its color almost instantly then it stumbled forward on its feet. It regained its balance and took flight.

"What time is it?" I demanded.

"Almost 7 o'clock," he replied looking at his phone.

"Really?" I thought about what time I came downstairs. "That was a little over fourteen hours."

"Fourteen hours? I thought you said it only lasts an hour."

"It does unless I mess with it." We watched the bird circle the garage and then settle down on a high shelf. I turned my attention back to Elliot. "Nobody else knows this, but my palms glow when my inner eyelids are open. Or maybe they always glow and I can only perceive the wavelengths necessary to see the glow when my inner eyelids are open. I touched the bird and nothing happened. Then I thought about my glow while touching the bird.

"Suddenly I felt warm all over and I felt comfortable and energized. I don't know how long I was in contact with the bird but Mom called me at that moment and I was startled. When I looked at the bird with my sight again, the lines and swirls were faint, barely visible. And afterward it took the bird fourteen hours to return to normal."

"You say you felt energized."

"Yeah, I felt good all over like I'd woken up from a great night's sleep and quickly downed a couple of energy drinks."

Elliot paused, "I don't know how to make this comment without potentially freaking you out but that sounds like you were draining the bird's vitality like some kind of vampire."

"I know," I nodded. "I'd been trying not to think about it. Is there a point where the bird would permanently be a statue? I don't know if I want to know."

"You have to know."

"You volunteering?"

"No, the bird is," Elliot said getting up. "I'm going to go outside. You do what you do to the bird and then drain it dry and then find him a nice perch."

"To spend eternity."

"I doubt the garage will last that long."

"I don't think this is a good idea."

"Of course it isn't. It's one of mine," Elliot joked. "But seriously, you need to know everything there is to know about yourself."

"All right. Go outside and close the door firmly."

"Call me in when you're done and you have the safety back on your eyelids," he said as he left the garage.

I got up and snatched the bird from the shelf. There were advantages to being really tall. I calmed the bird down before startling it. As it was about to take wing, I petrified it again. That scent of nutty ozone filled my nostrils. I turned the bird this way and that. His head was turned funny. Oh, well. I opened my inner lids again and looked at the bird. The lines along its neck reminded me of muscles. I placed my hands gently around the bird. Before concentrating on my palms, I evaluated the look of the bird with my sculptor's eye and wondered if he would look better with his head turned a little. I placed a hand on the side of its head and imagined the lines inside the bird were less curved, straightening on center while pushing gingerly on its head. The bird's head turned, facing how I intended.

I had just reshaped stone as easily as I would sculpt clay.

There was a soft knock at the door. I snapped my inner eyelids shut and called out, "Come in."

"Is it done?"

"No, I think I'm doing a different experiment, now."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Look at the bird," I said. "When I petrified it, his head was turned to the right at a sharp angle. I didn't like the way it looked so I turned it back forward."

"You turned the stone neck forward?"

"You know how I see these lines and swirls inside the stone?" I ask rhetorically. "Well, while lightly pressing against the side of its head, I imagined those lines which twisted with its neck to straighten out. And slowly its head turned back forward. It looks natural, doesn't it?"

"Sure, I couldn't tell it was modified."

"Well, the experiment now is to find out if the bird survives my messing with its anatomy while its made of stone."

"Right," he seemed to understand. "For all you know, you snapped its neck or ruptured a bunch of cells in its neck. Hopefully it worked or an hour from now you might have a bloody mess on your workbench."

"I know."

"Okay, time for the next experiment. You go stand where I was facing the garage door and I'll sneak up behind you."

"Why don't I just stand over here again?"

"Because there's a lot of reflective metal over here. There's none over by the door. If you remember the myth, Perseus observed Medusa in a polished bronze shield. Your trick shatters glass mirrors but it doesn't affect any of the metal in this garage."

"You think I could petrify myself in a metal mirror?"

"We can test that tomorrow."

"We can?"

"All we need is a toaster or some other shiny appliance."

"I guess I shouldn't use my trick in a kitchen."

"Stop stalling," he said giving me a playful pull. We walked over to the far side of the room. "Turn around and hold out your hand," he instructed. He put the tape measure in my hand and started walking away from me. "Shout out when I'm over sixteen feet away."

"That's sixteen," I called out. "I have my trick active. Start walking forward when ready."

"Okay, here I come," he started. "The sneaky thief is creeping up on the girl with the luscious body and snakes for hair."

"Ell-- ee-- ot!" I sternly intoned, emphasizing each syllable of his name individually.

"Shush, I'm narrating," he joked. "What malicious deeds ran through his mind? What salacious needs ran through his loin?"

"I'm warning you."

"Would she be startled to find him breathing down her neck or would some quantum force-- Oh," he said and was suddenly cut off. There was silence for a few seconds.

"Elliot?" I called. I called his name once more before looking at the tape measure to my right, moving the lock into place. I turned off my trick and turned around. "Seven feet, three and three-quarter inches. About the same distance either way." I had a sudden realization. "Elliot, we are idiots. We didn't test when someone is petrified head on. Just because the mirrors break at around 16 feet doesn't mean head on I would petrify someone sixteen feet away. Or fifteen feet, or fourteen feet. Any distance greater than seven and a quarter feet is purely speculation on our part."

I was pacing back and forth in front of him when the door to the garage suddenly opened.

"Oh, there you are," Daddy began as he stepped in and stopped. "I thought Elliot went home?"

"I never actually answered that question," I explained.

"And why is Elliot a statue?"

"He said I was making him stiff too many times," I joked. I had no idea that was about to jump out of my mouth.

"What?"

"I'm joking. We were experimenting. He insisted I need to know everything about my trick to know my limitations."

"Well, that sounds surprisingly wise coming from Elliot. It doesn’t explain why he’s crouched like that?"

"We only did two tests, since it takes an hour once he ends up like this."

"He was here through dinner?" Daddy asked.

"He was standing over there facing away."

"Okay. Now explain these experiments."

I explained the experiments in detail involving Elliot. I did not mention the bird at all. At the end, I asked, "Speaking of experiments, last night when I petrified you, how long did it last and how long did it seem to last?"

"It lasted about an hour as apparently is usual. You mother was in here talking the whole time so it felt like an hour went by before I could move again. Also, like Elliot said, I had no idea I was made of stone. I just couldn't move."

"Oh," I exclaimed. "I wonder if this time Elliot will feel the whole hour going by since we're talking in front of him."

"Probably," Daddy answered. "When he can move again get him into the kitchen. I'll have Mom reheat something. I will not send him home this late without giving him supper."

"Thank you, Daddy," I said sweetly.

Nonplussed, he gave a perfunctory, "You're welcome. Carry on," he added as he left.

I felt ambivalent about using such a sweet, girly tone on Daddy. I really didn’t want to become one of those girls who wraps their father around the finger. I felt a little dirty pulling that voice on him. At the same time, I didn’t want to get in trouble for omitting the fact that Elliot was a statue in the garage while we ate.

I turned to look at him and said, "You're always making my life interesting. I'll give you that."

My comment was met with stony silence.

I turned Elliot so he was facing my workbench. Rather than just wait, I experimented with my hairsnakes. I poured an assortment of screws and bolts out of a jar onto the workbench and attempted to sort them into piles using my snakes. With my eyes closed, I instructed the four long snakes directly, shifting my focus from snake to snake. I was talking about how I was thinking about naming the snakes and other trivialities just to keep Elliot aware of how much time was passing.

Eventually, the bird was flapping its wings and taking flight again. I had forgotten all about the bird. I followed it over where it was perched and managed to get a hold of it. It appeared to be turning its head from side to side without a problem.

"I've got food for Elliot when he's ready," called Mom from the kitchen.

"It'll be a few more minutes," I called back.

I returned to the screws on the workbench. Before the bird interrupted I had started getting some of the snakes to work independently of my explicit commands. I concentrated fully on the task and lost track of time because when I was done, Elliot was standing there video recording what I was doing with his phone.

"You have got to see this video," Elliot said, hitting a few buttons on the camera.

"Inside," I said pointing toward the house. "Mom insists on feeding you before you go home."

"I know," he said as he handed me the phone. As we sat down inside and I started the video.

"So, now you're a scientist?" Mom asked Elliot.

"Mad scientist," he insisted. "What's point of being a scientist if you can't take over the world?"

"Well, Medusa's trick is dangerous so be careful."

"We were just testing her limits. She can affect people she's not looking at or who aren't looking at her within seven feet."

"Did you speed this up?" I interrupted.

"No," Elliot exclaimed. "Your snakes were moving that fast. When I could move, I whipped out the camera because you were obviously not paying attention to me. I know you started out with just a couple of the snakes working but how did you coordinate so many at the same time."

"What are you talking about?" Mom asked.

I paused the video and slid the slider back a moment. Then I handed the phone to Mom.

"I didn't coordinate them. They joined in on the task on their own as they understood what to do. I would have to correct some of them as they didn't all realize there was a difference between screws and bolts. But eventually, I was just supervising them without really giving directions."

"I've got to show this to your father," Mom said zipping out of the room with the phone.

"How long did it feel like you were stuck?" I asked.

"Almost an hour. When you were talking and practicing with your hair, time crawled along, probably at what is normal speed." He continued in a quieter voice, "I didn't see what happened when you were doing something with the bird. I didn't see any blood either."

"The bird seems fine." I started whispering, "It was turning its head normally. It was looking up and down. I'm not going to mention this to Mom and Dad yet."

"If you insist," he replied.

Daddy entered, "Honey, this is amazing. This is your phone, Elliot?" He handed back his phone as Elliot held out his hand. "Who knew how useful those snakes could be?" He added as he exited.

"Yeah, every teenage boy wants to have snakes for hair when they grow up," I muttered.

"Hey, none of that, Missy," Elliot admonished. "No one is going to mistake you for a teenage boy. And you know you enjoy finding out what you can do with those snakes."

"Well, maybe a little," I admitted.

"Oh, my!" Elliot exploded.

"What?"

"You just twirled a snake around your finger like it was long hair."

I looked at the snake in my hand and let it go, "No, I didn't."

Elliot laughed. "You're right. No, you didn't. I'm crazy."

I giggled like a school girl and was shocked by having done so.

Elliot looked down at his plate. "No comment, here."

I resisted the urge to run from the room. "Tell me, Elliot," I stated calmly. "What color do I turn when I blush?"

He looked up and laughed, "You actually are a deeper orange or rust at the moment."

"I thought so."

"Tomorrow, I have just the thing for testing your trick on yourself."

"Oh, I just remembered," I interrupted. "On my way to biology yesterday, I ran into Marie Applebottom and she wanted me to do a bust for her in clay."

"Marie Amplebottom was talking to Gordon Harrison?"

"Don't call her that."

"When were you supposed to start?"

"She's giving me a ride home Friday afternoon."

"Who knew Gordon was a heartbreaker?"

"Oh, please," I sighed.

"Do you still like girls?"

I didn't answer immediately. "I didn't think I was going to be dating Marie."

"That's not what I asked."

"I don't know. I haven't seen a guy I've gotten all flustered about. I also haven't seen a girl who did it either. Of course, other than going to the mall, I haven't seen a lot of people either."

Elliot got up from the table. "Well, don't sweat it, my good friend." He reached out to give me a hug and did so when I didn’t resist him. "I've got to go home. You usually clean up the table, right?"

I rolled my eyes at him as he scurried out the door. I cleared his plate. I went out to the garage and scooped up the screws and bolts and put them back where they belonged. The bird flew by. I forgot he was still flying around in here. I opened the overhead door and chased him out of the garage.

In my room, I took off my shoes and got undressed. I found my closet emptied of most of my old clothes and the new clothes we bought today hanging in their place. I picked up the pajama bottoms I had worn last night but it did not feel right to wear them. I went back to the closet and picked out a sleeveless nightgown that had caught my eye at the mall. I put it on and went to the bathroom to relieve myself and brush my teeth. The hairsnakes did not tire as quickly tonight and I managed to use them to do the whole job. I also removed my eye makeup and lipstick after Mom knocked at the door on her way by and reminded me to do so.

I didn’t feel like watching television or playing video games tonight. So I decided to turn in early. A parade of students reacting to the new me wandered through my mind as I tried to fall asleep. I imagined most of those reactions being poor.

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

I woke up Thursday morning with a queasy feeling in my gut. I figured it was nerves: today was my first day back to school. I hoped taking a shower would help me get settled. I did my business in the bathroom and felt a little more awake. That seemed to help.

I felt the need to wear my other leather skirt and another crop top tank blouse. I managed to get my feet into sandals without feeling any pull from my pumps. I was going to have to buy more leather skirts. I got out my makeup case. I looked at my nails and they still looked good so I applied the lipstick as I had been shown. I didn’t have a mirror. I didn’t need one. I had a few snakes looking at my face. I also applied some eye shadow very faintly because it helped tie the lipstick into my the rest of my face. It took a few tries to get it just how I wanted.

Putting away the case, I went down to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Medusa," Mom said. "I'll have a plate of scrambled eggs ready in a moment."

There was a plate of bacon and some toast already on the table so I took a slice of toast and a few strips of bacon and combined them waiting for the scrambled eggs.

Mom turned around and put the plate down. "You look great, honey," she stated. "I like how the makeup looks. It's subtle."

"I was going for 'Hey, I wear makeup now but that doesn't mean I want to look like a clown.'"

"Well, it certainly meets that criteria. Now eat, your father will be here in a few minutes."

Just as I was finishing my juice, Daddy entered the kitchen. "I swear you look prettier each time I see you."

"Thanks, Dear," Mom interjected.

"I meant-- Oh, you look beautiful too, Dear." Daddy backpedaled. "I was just complimenting Medusa on her makeup."

"Thank you, Daddy," I said. Every boy wants to be their Daddy's beautiful princess. The queasiness returned.

Mom looked around the kitchen, searching for something, "Where's your purse?"

"Do I need a purse?"

"Look at the clothes you're wearing," she explained. "Where are you going to put your phone? Your wallet?" She zipped out of the room and zipped back. "I put your eye shadow and lipstick in here just in case you need to touch it up. Your phone and wallet are in here though we need to get you a wallet designed for a purse and not for a back pocket. Your house keys should be in here, too."

"Let's get going, dear," Dad announced as he got up. "You don't want to be late."

I added my house keys to the purse. It was a small, dark green leather purse – Mom called it a clutch – with a thin shoulder strap. I hung it from my shoulder and it hung down around my hip. "I feel awkward but I'm sure that's because it's just new."

"Yes, dear," Mom said kissing me on the forehead. "Have a good day on your first day of school."

"Compare it to the first day of school, that certainly makes me less nervous," I joked.

I got in the car with Daddy and he drove off. We arrived at the school shortly and I must have looked at Daddy oddly as he got out of the car. "I want to hear what he tells you," Daddy explained as we walked to the building.

I could feel every pair of eyes we passed looking at me. Whispers of who's that chick and what the boys and a couple of the girls would like to do with me reached my improved hearing. Not a single utterance of monster did I hear.

We entered the building and went directly to the front office.

A young woman working at the desk looked startled as we approached her. "Oh, hello. Are you a new student?"

"No, she isn’t. I'm Gregory Harrison and this is my recently Twisted daughter, Medusa," Dad introduced us. "We have an appointment with Mr. Jameson."

"I'll let him know you're here," she replied picking up the phone. ''He's ready for you," she said putting the phone down and pointing to his office door.

Mr. Jameson and Daddy shook hands as we entered and we were shown to a pair of chairs on this side of his desk.

He then sat down on his side of the desk before beginning, "Welcome back to school, Miss Harrison. Have you changed your name?"

"Medusa Harrison," I replied.

He raised an eyebrow at the name but just nodded, "I'll need your old student ID. We'll need a new photograph in order to issue a new ID. Ms Weathers will help you with that when we're done here.

"Since your visit to the Clinic, have you noticed and changes in mood or personality?"

"No, none," I replied.

"Yet, you are just recently a sixteen years old boy who had an abrupt change in sex yet you are already wearing makeup and a tight leather skirt?"

"I find the makeup weird at times too," I calmly explained. "Wearing it is a conscious decision on my part in order to fit in. My parents always told me a day like this could come and that I should embrace whatever changes came. So, I'm embracing being a girl to make it easier to fit in. As for the skirt, I have a compulsion again wearing fitted pants or leggings. Neither of these things are part of my mood or personality."

"Okay," he said moving on. "Any incidents with your trick I should know about? Accidental firings or anything like that?"

"I have not turned anyone to stone who did not ask me to do it first."

"Someone asked you to?"

"Yes. Curiosity is a funny thing, I suppose."

"Who?"

"I don't believe I have their permission to share that information with you."

"Fair enough," Mr. Jameson replied. "This person or persons you have used your trick on. Did the duration vary from the hour Mrs. Rhymes spent petrified?"

"It did not. And I have not had any incidents of breaking any mirrors since breaking a bunch of mirrors and cameras at the Clinic."

"How about the venom found in the, uh,..."

"I call them hairsnakes," I replied. "And no one has volunteered to be bitten by one. I know as much about that as is probably written in your report."

"The reason for my concerns, Miss Harrison, is the psyche profile I received from the Clinic indicates that you are essentially still mentally the same as Gordon Harrison. I know Gordon had many problems with believing the football players were always picking on him. I want to make sure you will not seek any revenge again those boys or any other students."

Daddy laughed disdainfully. He was obviously upset, "I love how you worded that. You really believe Gordon was somehow delusional about those boys picking on him?"

"I have no proof that any incidents ever happened."

"And how much effort did you put into finding out?" He continued. "There are cameras all over this campus. Did you ever use them to determine if Gordon and the other boys were in the locations at the time the incidents took place?"

"Well, no, Gordon complained so many times at first that we saw no need to continue investigating."

"Brilliant," Daddy leaned forward. "Be sure to use just as little diligence should someone report being petrified or you'll be hearing from my attorney."

"Now see here," Mr. Jameson puffed up in anger. "I won't have you threatening me."

"And I won't have my daughter threatened by anyone." Daddy reached into his jacket pocket. "Place this letter in Medusa's file. She is not to be questioned by anyone regarding any disciplinary event without me or my wife present for the ENTIRE meeting. You'll find it is signed by the Superintendent and has a file number for when it was placed on record with the Board of Education." He turned to me. "I expect you to behave yourself. But, if there's trouble say nothing until we arrive. Now, go get your student ID taken care of. I'll finish up here."

"I wasn't done," Mr. Jameson complained.

"Yes, you were," Daddy shot back as I left.

I went back to the receptionist about getting a new ID. She took me to a room with a camera hooked up to a computer. She had to adjust the height of the camera before she could take the picture. I made sure many of the hairsnakes were facing the camera when she took the picture. A few minutes later I had a laminated student ID with my new name and picture. I was also given a late note for getting to my first period class late.

I stepped into the thankfully empty hallway. I hurried to my first class and entered. Every eye in the room was locked on to me. The sounds of gasps, expletives, and prayers to God reached my keen hearing.

"What the fuck!"

"What is that?"

"Check her out."

"Snakes!"

"Those legs!"

Over the comments and a couple literal screams of terror, Mr. Hoagland's voice pierced the din. "Settle down, class. It's just Miss Harrison." He announced, "I assume that is a late note in your hand." He was talking to me, now. Curling his fingers in a come here gesture.

"That's Gordon?"

"She's hot!"

"Snakes are freaky."

"What color do you think her nipples are?"

Visions of petrifying the whole room and smashing them all with a bat conflicted with the desire to flee, or shrink to the size of a flea. I stepped toward the teacher and after an eternity handed him the note.

"Miss Harrison twisted Tuesday afternoon. Are you changing your name?"

I nodded mutely and he waited for me to reply, "Um, Medusa."

"Splendid choice. Please take your seat and let's see if we can salvage part of today's lesson."

I had not thought about how much taller I was now, nor how much of that height was located in my unusually long legs until I tried to sit down in one of the school desks. I turned sideways and backed into the seat. Since my knees would not fit under the desk with my feet flat on the ground, I ended up crossing them off to the side, kind of sitting side saddle.

"Those sure are long legs," someone whispered and suddenly I was reminded that all eyes were watching my every move.

Mr. Hoagland cleared his throat and resumed the lesson. My snakes confirmed everybody was staring at me. I knew what the boys were thinking. I knew exactly what some of them were thinking. I couldn’t understand why I was of such interest to the girls.

When class ended a few people tried to get my attention at once, but only one of them called me Medusa so I turned to face Stacy Kellor. She was a pretty brunette known to lead a group of girls known as the Fashion Police. I was suddenly very nervous about being noticed by her.

"Medusa, I've got to know," she declared leaning close to my face. "Is that lipstick?"

"Yes," I replied. "My natural lip color is orange-colored."

"Oh, that would be so wrong," she nodded. "Did you pick that color?"

"I picked the shade after the store clerk suggested I needed something."

"Well done. I approve," she said turning to go.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that conversation but I didn’t have time to ponder it.

I arrived on time to my next class and caused less of a stir, catching half the class off guard as I entered and the other half as they entered. Still, the comments I overheard were a mix of sympathy and male hormones. I managed to seat myself more gracefully this time though actually sitting side saddle still seemed awkward.

Jeff Rogan, sitting behind me, looked nervous. I turned and said, "They won't bite, unless you're poking at them."

"Th-that's good-d to know," he sputtered. "Could you k-keep them off my desk?"

I gave him a sly wink and turned back around. I swept my hairsnakes up in my arms and pulled them to the front leaving one of the longer ones behind and hovering off his desk, watching him.

Mrs. Garcia, a tiny slip of a woman, entered and began her lesson.

I don't know why I did it. Jeff was neither friend nor enemy. Catching glimpses of him squirming amused me during the boring class.

Without warning a bunch of my hairsnakes thrust themselves outward on my right side, intercepting a spitball fired at me.

People on that side of the room reacted in shock, a couple girls and one guy shrieked. Several guys laughed. The teacher exclaimed, "Miss Harrison, what is this outburst?"

I reached up to one of the hairsnakes and pulled the spitball from it. "Some juvenile thought it would be funny to provoke my hairsnakes with a spitball," I calmly replied. "Not realizing that the bite of my hairsnakes is poisonous, I suppose they could not understand how foolish their actions were."

Mrs. Garcia looked to left side of the room, my right side, and asked, "Who did it?" After a moment with no response she pointed out the three boys who reacted by laughing and myself and told us to stay after class.

Wonderful. I got to stay after class because of those idiots. I had my hairsnakes keep an eye on them for the rest of class.

When class ended the room emptied until it was just the five of us. "You three," Mrs. Garcia started. "Apologize to Miss Harrison for shooting a spitball at her."

Two of them mumbled something that sounded like "Sorry, Medusa." But Frank Myers said, "I didn't shoot anything at the freak."

"Fine. Instead you can apologize for calling a fellow classmate a freak."

"I call it as I see it," Frank continued. "It doesn't mean anything. My mother has horns. I call her a freak to."

Mrs. Garcia was getting mad. "Just because you can insult your mother at home does not mean you can insult people at school. Do you understand?" She was growing taller and more muscular as she seethed with anger.

"Fine, fine," Frank said backing away from Mrs. Garcia. "Medusa, I'm sorry I called you a freak."

"Get out of here," Mrs. Garcia growled at the boys.

They ran out of the room. I was going to follow them but Mrs. Garcia held up a quickly shrinking hand. "Idiots," she mumbled. "I don't like to hulk up like that but sometimes these kids need a virtual smack. It's not like we wanted to twist like this."

She wrote me a late note. "Don't think I didn't see you messing with Jeff's head, my dear. If he has a problem with snakes you of all people should cut him some slack."

I thought about denying it but instead nodded, "I will."

She also nodded and pointed at the door.

Showing up late to third period was not as shock-inducing since word of my twist had gotten through the school's grapevine. Still, hearing guys talking about me like I was a list body parts was both off-putting and enlightening. Just a few days ago I would have been one of the guys ogling this body if this had happened to someone else.

Sitting down this time was smoother than my first two attempts. I was sitting next to Jenny Wu in this class and realized I wasn’t intimidated by her. She was just another pretty face, like me. Of course, her boyfriend was that prick, Tommy Radner.

Professor Zin taught this math class. Zin was neither male nor female, though he preferred male pronouns for simplicity. He looked like one of those fabled Area 51 aliens with the long head and big triangular eyes. What made him strange was how he spoke without his face moving in any manner and the pitch of his voice varied by several octaves often after each word without rhyme or reason.

My hairsnakes were on edge, moving around like there was something they did not care for around them. It was most likely Zin's voice. Nothing I could do about that.

When class ended I went to the bathroom, the correct room, thankfully. After doing my business, I stepped out of the stall and saw Jenny brushing her hair. As I went to wash my hands, she said, "I don't know how those snakes feel, but they have to be better than brushing long hair."

"I think they are heavier than hair and drying between them is slow since a blow dryer isn't good for the skin." I explained. "They definitely have some useful traits, but that’s wiped by their shock value."

"Are they really that shocking to someone who's met Professor Zin?" She said with a laugh. "You're getting stared at because you're gorgeous."

"And I used to be a guy."

"That also contributes," she agreed looking me over. "Nice skirt. It's also surprising to see on you because of who you were. And that blouse, guys don't bare their shoulders normally."

"For some reason I feel really uncomfortable in pants or when my shoulders are covered."

"I'm not sure I should say this but I'm sorry about Tommy."

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," I replied, as the atmosphere became unwelcome with the change of topic. "I've got to get to class," I said as excuse and fled from the bathroom.

I hurried up the backstairs to get to my next class when I actually bumped into Marie.

"Oh, hello," she said. "Are you new at school?"

She had not heard about me? "No, I'm Gordon, Medusa now. I've twisted."

"Oh, now the rumors make sense," she blushed. "I heard Gordon turned into a gorgeous she-monster. I couldn't understand why they would say that. You were never a monster. Are we still on for some sculpting after school tomorrow?"

"I'm still looking forward to it," I replied. We said our goodbyes and I hurried to my next class.

The muttered comments at the start of class were becoming fewer and fewer and the lustful stares were increasing. This was another reminder that I had spent more time focused on my trick and not enough time on my becoming a girl. How do girls get use to getting those looks from horny guys?

Lunch was not even close to the time of day when I could relax that it use to be. The comments about me while I waited on line were deafening.

"That snake is staring at me."

"I heard she has a short thick snake between her legs."

"I want to run my hands down that green stripe on her back."

"That's sick."

"Oh, those legs..."

"I bet she's stuck up now."

"She petrified Jenny in the bathroom. Just swung the stall door open and froze her with her pants down then walked out all mad about something."

"Probably get Tommy next."

"She dresses like a slut."

"Yeah, isn't it great?"

A voice rang over the din, "Freak ain't getting me." Tommy strode past those on line and stepped in front of me. "Heard what you did to Jenny, Freak," he poked at my chest.

"I spoke with her. Whatever else you heard was a lie," as he poked at me a second time I caught his finger in my hand and twisted his arm backwards. "If you want this broken, say something else I disagree with." I stared him in the eyes, my hairsnakes staring too.

He locked eyes with me and I ended up looking away first. He smirked triumphantly and didn’t say a word as he walked away. This was far from over.

Finally, I made it to the front of the line. I bought my lunch and made my way toward my usual lunch table. Elliot, Pete, and Jim were already there. I sat down and said, "Can I not be stared at here?"

Pete, a short boy I have known since kindergarten, looked down and then back at me. "Sorry, dude, but you’re hot."

"You find 'dudes' hot now?"

"You know what I meant," Pete responded. "Calling you Medusa sounds funny. How about we call you Meg?"

"Meg?" I asked confused.

"Well, it's almost short for Medusa and it's better than Sue in place of Sa."

Jim, who had been silent up until now, added, "And I don't think you want to be known as Deuce."

"Probably not," I agreed.

"Do they bite?"

"If I let them, or I get distracted when someone messes with them." I leaned in and whispered, "Sometimes they have minds of their own."

"Your twist has to be ten times worse than mine," Jim added, holding up his hands. They were at least twice as big as they should have been. He use to wear a hoody jacket and keep those mitts in the front pockets of it before he realized no one cared about his big hands and feet. Of course, it helped when some of the girls started a rumor that a usually unseen body part had been enlarged similarly. He had ended up being the target of a dare and had enjoyed helping the girls verifying their theory. Since then he didn’t mind if people saw his hands.

"Only ten times?" Elliot asked. "He's a girl now and looks like a mythological being. That's got to be at least eleven or twelve times as bad."

I had been nodding until Elliot pulled that swerve on me. "Hey."

"Don't leave your mouth open like that," Jim warned. "Unless you want to see if you can handle me."

"If you want," I said coquettishly. "But I'd probably end up petrifying you and breaking that beast of yours off." I added making a snapping-in-half motion with my hands and saying "Oops" in a high pitched voice. "Accidentally, of course."

Elliot and Pete burst out laughing.

Recovering quickly, Jim retorted, "It might be worth it, babe."

And the rumors that he was a bit too cocky were also true. "I hope that was a joke," I demanded.

He looked like he was going to tense up, but Pete put a hand on Jim's arm. "Of course, we assume you still like girls."

I shoved a forkful of food in my mouth and looked down at my tray.

"You like guys?" Pete whispered too loudly.

"I don't know," I replied. "I haven't had a chance to even think about my sexuality."

"I think that's the polite way of telling us you are one hundred percent virgin," Jim concluded in a soft voice. "Haven't checked out the equipment yet, have you?"

"Would you mind?" I was getting upset. "There hasn't been time."

Elliot interrupted, "Let's change the subject."

"You should just slap this dweeb in the face," Stacy Kellor declared. She and two members of her clique circled the table.

Melody Richards, a tall, redhead bent over and picked up my tray saying, "You were right. She does need our help."

Stacy took my arm and I found myself being taken to another table. I muttered something about the boys being my friends but the girls ignored me. I was sat down between Melody and the third girl, Tess Anders, while Stacy sat across from me. Trays of food were waiting for the other girls.

They ate politely as they spoke. "The only intelligent thing your friends said was you need a nickname. Medusa is a great name, but it's easier to call out, 'Hey, Meg.' in a crowded room."

"How did you know that?"

"Much better than Deuce," Tess extemporized.

"My people are everywhere."

Melody laughed. "It's her trick. She can pay attention to like a dozen different conversations at a time."

"You're Twisted? I had no idea."

"And I'd prefer to keep that knowledge quiet," she glared at Melody. "Who helped you buy your clothes? You're mom?"

"Is there something wrong with my clothes?"

"No," Tess interrupted. "That skirt is almost killer. It's just obvious the clothes were chosen by someone older."

"Can I interrupt?" Asked Melody. "I've got to know. Third day as a girl and wearing a sleeveless blouse and skirt? What's up with that?"

"I said we shouldn't grill her," Stacy complained. "Though, I am curious about this myself."

"I was raised knowing I might twist into someone very different than I once was so I'm just embracing the new me." I proclaimed, then added after a pause, "That and I have a strong compulsion against pants."

"That doesn't explain the lipstick."

"Looks hot," I said.

They laughed with me.

It was weird acting like one of girls almost. As weird as it felt being treated like one of the girls. I kept waiting for a prank to happen, ending what I couldn’t help assume was a facade at first. The prank never came. These girls seemed to be genuine in their offer of friendship.

They asked me about my trick and what happened to the nurse. Other than that the conversation was mostly about clothes. Stacy made sure talk about boys was minimal. I guess she did it for my sake.

After lunch, it was time for biology. The lab didn’t show any signs of my twist having taken place here two days ago. Even the mirror over the eye wash was replaced.

Ryan, Jared, and several others guys who had been there for my twist entered and made a point of bumping into my desk as the walked to their seats. Ryan made sure to have my attention as he glared angrily at me.

There were none of the comments about my appearance like before. People seeing me for the first time saw the way Ryan and his gang were staring at me and decided to stay out of it.

I was becoming upset and worried that I might start to cry. None of my friends, old or new, were in this class and I felt a little trapped. My hairsnakes started to hiss quietly and I had to calm myself down before they got any louder. I noticed the queasiness I had felt earlier was back as well.

Mr. Heinz entered and started the class without seeming to notice the tension in the classroom. I paid little attention to the class. I was watching Ryan and his pals instead. They were sitting all around me and dividing my attention among that many snakes made it hard to listen to Mr. Heinz. I was startled when the bell rang and Mr. Heinz hurried out of the classroom.

The boys rose from their desks as one and were stepping toward me when a voice called from the door, “Meg! Let's go, you don't want to be late for gym.” It was Elliot at the classroom door.

I packed up my books and raced out the door into the crowded hallway. Ryan's troop looked unhappy with my escape.

Going to sleep queasy must have been why I had so many nightmares. One particularly vivid one involved me devouring people, my friends and family, like a snake would. I woke rubbing my jaw wondering if it could drop low enough to swallow a human whole.

I felt wrong. The queasiness was gone. But, something was off. I opened my eyes and saw a snake tail. I reached out to touch it and saw that my arm was all scaly green and that my hand was claw-like. The tail was definitely attached to me below my waist, far below my waist.

Panic building, I tore the sheets away from me revealing a thick snake body coiled in bed attached to my waist where my hips use to flare out.

I must have been screaming because suddenly my door was open and Mom appeared. She started to ask something but a second later her body had turned to stone.

My inner eyelids were open? Why couldn't I see the psychedelic colors that I normally saw? I touched my face. It was bumpy, scaly, and felt a bit longer than normal

The urge to touch Mom was great. I could feel my coils twisting to start moving me toward her. The urge was like a hunger. I needed to feed on that delicious stuff inside the stone. I needed to drain her dry.

I needed to get away. I turned around so I could not see her but every snake on my head was staring at Mom. I opened the window. I grabbed a thick coil of my body and tossed it out the second story window.

There was an odd sense of falling while also being stable on the bed. I pushed more of my body out and was surprised when my tail touched the ground and there were still a few coiled loops in the bed. How long was my snake body? I slid out the window. The desire to grab hold of Mom and drink her vitality down almost got me to climb back in the window.

"Medusa?" Dad called out. "What did you do to..."

I let go of the window and dropped. My upper body landed upright, never touching the ground. I turned and slithered toward the woods behind the house. As I reached the wood line a bird crashed to the ground in front of me made of stone. I reached down without thinking and drank the bird's inner life force. I drained dry a couple more birds and some squirrels before I regained my wits. The squirrel statue in my hand tasted great. I had stopped before draining it dry. I put it down. My eyesight was slowly regaining the strange colors I associated with my trick.

I had little idea how far into the woods I had gone. I turned around by twisting my human torso, lifting it up and around with my snake body, and then pushing forward. My eye height was a few feet higher off the ground compared to my human form. My body trailed behind my torso at least twenty-five feet. It was as thick as my waist for a good ten to twelve feet then slowly tapered down to a few inches thick at the end of my tail. Thankfully, I did not have to think about moving. I just picked a direction and my snake body moved in that direction.

The nightgown I had been sleeping in was in tatters as the straps had broken and it had slipped down around my upper tail. I slid it all the way off and took stock of my body. I was green and scaly all over. My breasts were flatter and nippleless. I used my headsnakes to look at my face. I was no longer pretty due to the scaliness. My nose was less pronounced. My eyes had a yellow glow around them. There were fangs in my mouth. I wondered if I had a venom in this form. Even my tongue was forked.

I wondered if this was a form at all. Was this what I was supposed to be? A monster for real? No, I had to believe I was a metamorph. Anything else would be too hard to live with.

I picked up a pair of stone squirrels. The one I had not drained fully still had lines and swirls within it. The other was a uniform off-white. Returning to the first squirrel, I tried to turn off my trick. After a moment, I could not see the colors in the stone. I looked around. I spotted a squirrel about thirty feet away. I rose up on my body and lunged at the squirrel catching it... ugh, in my mouth. I opened my mouth immediately but not before a warm fluid drained from my jawline into the squirrel. I could feel the venom run along my gum line.

I looked down and the squirrel was lying at my... where my feet should have been. It was not moving. I picked it up with a clawed hand. It was alive but unable to move. I had paralyzed it.

Fascinated, it took a moment to remember I had just lunged thirty feet with amazing accuracy. And I had not turned the squirrel to stone. I guessed it was safe for me to be around humans again. But, I didn’t want to be seen like this. I didn’t want to be seen walking out of the woods naked either.

First, I tried to sate myself on a few more critters. I wanted to be sure I was full. I didn’t drain them dry. But they would probably be statues for days. After another bird and one and a half squirrels, I just could not drink the sweet nectar any more.

I didn’t know what to do next. I looked at myself again and noticed I wasn’t a uniform green color. My skin had the strange tessellations of a snake’s skin. There were patches of light and dark green with copper colored tiles separating the patches. It was really quite striking. Though, at the time, I wasn’t happy about it. The sun was high in the sky and I realized I had no idea how so many hours had gone by. Mom and Daddy were probably worried. At least Mom should no longer be a statue by now. I slithered back to the tree line. I wondered how fast I was moving. It seemed very fast.

At the tree line I had to slither a few houses to the right to get to my backyard. From behind my house I could see that neither Mom nor Daddy had left for work. So much for sneaking in.

I was going to try transforming when I realized Mom had probably seen my snake body. Resigned, I gathered my courage and broke across the yard. I reached the house in seconds. I opened the back door to the screened-in breezeway and called out, "I'm home," as I entered the kitchen. My head was brushing up against the ceiling.

My voice was lower than normal, still feminine but with a bit of chain smoker in it.

"Medusa?" Mom cried out from the living room and an instant later she was in the kitchen. She pulled up short when saw me. "Oh, I guess I didn't dream it, did I?"

Daddy entered, "Medusa, what happened to you this morning?"

"Well, I discovered I need to feed."

Mom suddenly disappeared and reappeared holding out a pajama top "Could you put this on before you continue?"

I laughed as I took the top and put it on. "I think I also figured out why I have an aversion to pants." I rose slightly showing off my distinct lack of legs. I told them about my morning, about feeling queasy the day before, about the nearly dozen birds and squirrels permanently petrified in the woods. I also mentioned the bird I had drank from yesterday.

When I was done they scolded me for not telling them everything. But, they seemed to understand that feeling queasy the first day back to school could easily be confused with nerves.

The doorbell rang. Mom disappeared and reappeared. "It's Elliot. Should I send him away?"

"No," I replied. "Send him around back." I looked at the clock in dread. How had it gotten so late? How much time had I spent in the woods?

She disappeared again. She returned with a long robe. "In case you find yourself transformed and nude."

I waited a moment before going out into the backyard. Elliot came around the corner and stopped dead. "Medusa, what happened?"

"Let's head into the woods where fewer people can see me." I started telling him about my day. We only went a little ways into the woods before finding a small collection of stone wildlife. "I was afraid of that."

"What?"

"I told my parents I killed maybe ten little animals. There's seven or eight here and I know I stopped more than once to feed."

"Wonderful. You didn't ask me into the woods for privacy, or for freaky sex, but to find out how much you ate."

"Looking like this you still went for the sex joke?"

"Would you prefer that I run out of the woods screaming 'Monster'? Frankly, being called a monster all these years has obviously affected you deeply. What you never seemed to have learned is the monster isn't defined by its looks. It's defined by its deeds. You don't have a monstrous bone in any of your bodies. You regret killing these animals. A monster wouldn't care." He reached around my waist and hugged me.

I slid backwards and down so I could rest my head on his shoulder. And suddenly I was crying. My body was shaking. He held me tight. I don't know how long I cried. After a while I noticed he was talking.

"It'll be alright. Crying is good."

I felt comfortable. The next thing I knew I had picked my head up and kissed him on the lips.

He jerked his head back and put a finger to my lips. "Not like this," he chastised me.

"I'm sorry," I sniffled. "I forgot how ugly I look."

"You moron," he declared. "I don't mean like this in reference to how you look. I mean how vulnerable you are like this. How would I ever forgive myself if I took advantage of you?"

I cried again. I did not deserve such a friend. After a while I stopped crying. He picked up my head. "Do you want to go home or shall we resume our tour of the small animal statuary annex?"

I laughed. "I need to know how much I ate." We found four more small clearings with six to ten statues of bird, squirrels, and the occasional opossum, skunk, or porcupine. In the last clearing we found the remains of the squirrel I had paralyzed.

Elliot asked me how I caught the squirrel. I demonstrated by snatching a bird in flight with a powerful lunge. I ended up paralyzing the bird in the same way. "Feathers do not taste good."

"I would assume not," Elliot agreed. "We should head back. It's already after five. Are you bringing the bird back to time your venom? "

"I suppose,” I said. “These three I didn’t drain dry. I was in control when I drank just a little from each of them.”

“They’re probably safe here. You don’t know when you drained them so we can’t really learn anything from them.”

“Probably.”

We walked in silence to the edge of the woods. When I hesitated to leave the woods he asked what was wrong.

"I think I should walk the rest of the way."

"Okay," he said expectantly. After a pause, he added, "Should I look away?"

I nodded and said, "I don't know if I can switch back. I'm also worried about losing control of my trick as I change since I couldn't control it this morning."

"That was probably caused by your need to eat. I'll wait twenty feet away looking the other way so you'll be private, but not alone." He turned to walk away.

I said, "Wait, don't turn around."

"If this is when you devour me, I will be sorely disappointed. The clearing with the animal statues was where it was supposed to happen."

I tossed the robe over his head, "Just hold my robe so transforming doesn't damage it." As he continued away from me I added, "And if I ever need to kill you, I'll be sure to give you a genre appropriate death." I watched him walk away and sit down facing away. It was all up to me now.

I imagined myself as I was. I imagined transforming. I imagined I could be here all night though this body would not get cold. I tried imagining harder. I felt silly. I activated my trick. I tried visualizing how I looked now. I tried visualizing my human form. I still felt silly.

I tried visualizing me without form. I concentrated and it was like the world shifted. I immediately imagined standing here in the woods. I felt locked in place as my tail shrank, split, and turned into legs. My arms shortened and the hands lost their claws. I could feel my breasts fill out. My face itched.

When I could move, I called out, "It worked! I'll be right there. Don't you dare turn around."

"I won't," he called back holding up the robe awkwardly behind him.

I closed the distance between us and took the robe. I turned around as I put my arms in the sleeves. I pulled the trim tight around my middle and tied the belt. "Okay, I'm at least decent now."

He turned around. "After all this running around, I bet you would like a nice hot bath. I'll run interference with your folks while you rush upstairs," he suggested.

"A quick shower will do if you want to wait for me," I countered as we headed for the breezeway back door.

"Okay," he said. He entered the kitchen first and began, "What we found in the woods was interesting and I'm going to tell you all about it while Medusa goes and gets washed up."

I entered and spoke as I walked through the room, "I'll be down as soon as I get the smell of the woods off me."

Elliot continued, "We found twenty-seven statues of small animals in the woods. She will need to find a better source..."

I couldn’t hear the rest of what was said. I didn’t want to hear it at all. I quickly entered the bathroom and closed the door. I reeked of dirt and moss. I turned the shower on and hurried inside. The water was cool and dirt was already puddling in the shower. I pulled a few twigs and leaves from between my hairsnakes. I tried to figure out how freaked out I should be over being a thirty-foot long snake-woman most of the day.

The soap was done clearing away the visible dirt. It did little to clean the guilt away. Twenty-seven dead forest animals. When will I need to do that again? Will I start looking for larger prey? There are a few dogs in the neighborhood. Would their nectar taste better?

Reluctantly, I turned the water off and dried off. Wrapping the towel around me, I crossed the hallway to my room and put on a new set of pajamas. I retrieved the robe from the bathroom and brought it down to the laundry room before returning to the kitchen.

Daddy was talking, "... can find a better supply of animals." He looked up as I entered. "How are you feeling, Honey?"

"Great physically," I admitted. "Morally a wreck and emotionally taxed."

"One out of three is a good batting average," Elliot quipped.

Daddy ignored him, saying, "I understand the last one and I suppose the first one makes sense. We need to discuss that middle one. What have you done that's amoral?"

"Killing indiscriminately," I pointed out, pacing around the room.

"That's not what you did."

"You weren't there," I cried. "I don't remember most of it. I just killed and ate and if you had been there you'd be dead. All of you!"

"You didn't drain me," Mom said simply. "You fled. You saved me from your so-called rampage."

"I almost didn't," I whimpered.

"Almost doesn't matter. Doing matters."

"We just need to make sure it doesn't get to the point of desperation like it apparently did this time," Daddy added.

"You said you were queasy yesterday morning," Mom began. "We need to see how long it is until you feel queasy again to determine how often you must consume this whatever it is."

"Fine," I said. "I don't want to think about it any more." I walked out the door to the breezeway. I entered the garage and plopped myself down at my work bench.

Elliot followed a moment later. He picked up the tape and handed it to me as he pulled the tape out and walked to the far side of the room.

"I don't want to do this," I declared.

"You don't know the plan yet," he replied, handing me the tape measure. "We, including the valley girl doctor at the Clinic, have been measuring your maximum range. That's the mistake. You need to see that you are only as monstrous as you allow yourself to be. We are going to work on your minimums. I believe that if you practice you can learn to use your trick selectively. In fact, I'm willing to spend a lot of time standing around like a statue so that someday you will be able to petrify a bird I am holding without affecting me."

"Seriously?" I asked. "You have a lot of unfounded faith in my abilities."

"That's what friends are for," he replied. "Now stand twenty feet away, kick on your trick and head toward me. Concentrate on not petrifying anyone, especially me. Visualize me remaining flesh and blood as you continue forward. You control the trick. It doesn't control you."

I waited a moment before submitting to the task at hand. I concentrated on believing my trick obeyed me and would not affect Elliot.

He continued the pep talk until he was cut off mid-sentence, petrifying in an instant. I clicked the lock on the tape measure and read the distance aloud, "Thirteen feet, four inches." I was flabbergasted. "You were right, Elliot!" I exclaimed.

I walked up to Elliot. I looked at his mouth head-on and from the side. I giggled. "Petrifying talking people leaves them with funny shaped mouths."

"It's good to hear you laugh," Daddy said, entering unexpectedly.

"I suppose it's just good to be laughing," I agreed.

"So what was this experiment?"

I explained the premise and initial success of the experiment.

"That's great," Daddy said. He waved his arm toward himself. "Let's take a little walk. Elliot will probably prefer that time passes quickly."

I followed Daddy out through the breezeway to the front yard and we sat down on the porch steps.

"I know Elliot is enthusiastic and willing to help. But, I hope that's all he wants."

I stopped Daddy right there, "Please don't. Elliot is well aware that I think of him as a brother."

"Good, good," he responded. "How about what I asked that first night. Anything to report?"

I thought about it for a moment. "It's funny," I began. "When you asked me to gather data on the other team, I didn't think it would be difficult to tell of my discoveries. Spending this morning as a half-snake hybrid makes how I feel now not only more palatable but also more natural. Being a guy now feels like the other team. I knew someday I might come to feel that way. But, I feel that way now. And while I could tell you what things are like, it feels awkward telling my Daddy about my body."

"I was afraid of that."

"You've spent the last few years drilling it into my head that the person I was may not be the person I become. Aren't you glad I've taken one of your life lessons to heart?" As he stared at me I could not help but giggle girlishly.

“It's every parent's dream come true. But, apparently, I should have also drilled in that being comfortable talking about the changes would also be good.”

I laughed. We talked some more. I found out we had an appointment at the Clinic tomorrow. Once Elliot was back. Daddy suggested we verify our findings by having him and Elliot standing in front of me while I tried not to affect one of them. I had decided to protect Elliot. Daddy was petrified at sixteen feet. When Elliot reached ten feet I closed my eyes and turned off my trick.

"I'm starting to feel a strain. I don't see the point of petrifying you twice tonight. Why don't you head home so I can get some rest?" I pleaded.

Elliot asked if I was sure I would be alright before leaving.

I went back into the house and found Mom in the kitchen wolfing down her bedtime snack.

I turned one of the kitchen chairs away from her and sat down facing away from her. I commented, "I wonder if how you feel about eating these extra meals is similar to how I should feel about devouring all those animals."

"How do you think I feel about eating so much?" She asked between bites.

"You always do it when no one is around. I've always assumed you would be embarrassed if someone watched."

"Is that why you're facing away from me? Even though I know you can see through your hairsnakes?" She laughed. "Turn around, Dear. I would prefer company to eating alone."

"But..." I started helplessly.

"I eat alone so that you and your father don't feel obligated to join me. My sister quickly gained like thirty pounds in the first month after my twist because she thought I felt funny having to eat so much."

"I didn't know," I said, turning my chair around.

"Well, she swore us to secrecy when I had you. There are no pictures of her from that time any more." She got up and added more cereal to her bowl.

I learned more about how Mom's twist affected her life that evening than I had ever known. And I had thought I understood her completely beforehand.

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

I woke up Saturday morning with two legs, much to my relief. I showered and returned to my room. As I looked through my closet I noticed the one pair of jeans I had purchased just a handful of days ago. Reaching for the jeans made me feel funny on Thursday. Today, I picked them up off the rack without my compulsions complaining about it. I put them on and still there was no problem. I had to admit I liked the way they hugged my body. When I finished dressing I went downstairs for breakfast. Mom and Daddy were already up.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Daddy asked.

"I feel pretty good, I guess." It felt good to say that.

"You're wearing jeans? " Mom asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "They don't bother me now."

"Perhaps that discomfort is a gauge of your hunger?" Daddy suggested.

"Maybe. I did wear those pajama pants that first night."

I finished breakfast and then Daddy and I went to the Clinic for more tests.

Dr. Adelaide greeted us first and we discussed my new form. The first thing she asked me to do was the thing I did not really want to do. She wanted to see my new form. Reluctantly I complied – it only took eight minutes wearing nothing but a hospital gown to figure out how to do it – and she ran me through a series of tests.

"Totally Rad!" She exclaimed. "I've, like, never seen such a totally complicated Twist. The good news is you are a metamorph, having two distinct forms, one bipedal and one snake-like, or, like, perhaps lamia-like. But lamia are like demons so you probably prefer snake-like. It also appears that you feed on a substance that doesn't exist in this dimension."

"What?"

"I know, it's far out." She said. I was finding her enthusiasm annoying. "When you, like, petrify someone something in its flesh totally interacts with the Darrington field, the quantum field, to create a vapor that is locked inside the stone. You mentioned that you could, like, change the pose of a bird. The glands we could not identify are what allow you to do that. They also allow you to release the vapor and absorb it into your body."

"What is the vapor?"

"I don't know, but it seems to build up in the statues you create, when it builds up to a certain level, it is released and the transformation is reversed. That explains why when you absorb some of the vapors from a statue the reverse transformation is delayed."

"Do you have any idea how I'm supposed to deal with the craving? Or find a ready supply of animals to drain?"

She paused for a moment. "No, but I think you need some time with Dr. Philips. That's enough experimentation here. Keep working with that friend of yours. His attempts to improve your control can't be a bad thing. Let’s go see Dr. Philips."

“Before we do, I heard you were a metamorph.”

“Tess, like, sold me out. Didn’t she?”

“Yes. Can you turn to stone now?”

“Sort of. I’m totally unaware when I’m stone. And it lasts between ten minutes and three hours and I have like no control over it,” she said sadly. “Oo, I should totally do it in front of you so you can like see if I have the same like lines inside me as people you petrify. Hang on. Let me stand over here. I can totally film myself turning to stone. Once you get a look inside me, just head on down to Dr. Philip’s office.”

Adelaide transformed into a statue. I waited a moment before opening my inner eyelid. She had all the same swirls within her as I had observed in my statues. I found some paper and wrote ‘Same swirls” on it and left the paper in her hand.

I had to ask Tess how to find Dr. Philip’s office. There, we chatted for a few minutes as I told him about being a snake. I don't remember how he did it but soon I was crying about turning into a monster permanently. He let me cry about it for a while before trying to steer my thoughts in another direction. His words were plain and logical and I guess exactly what I needed to hear.

"You need to find a way not to focus on the negative aspects of your twist. You'll figure out your need to feed and how to avoid transforming into your snake hybrid accidentally. You will." He said reassuringly.

"Now, have things changed in school?" He continued. "How were you received by your classmates?"

"Most of them seem more focused on my becoming a girl than my snakes or my trick. The jerks who use to pick on me still do."

"Let's get back to them in a moment. How do feel about being treated as a girl?"

"Well, when the other girls do it I feel included. When the boys do it, I feel like I'm just some walking collection of boobs and legs for them to ogle. I realize they're just doing what I'd be doing if I were still a guy and I have sympathy. For the guys who do more than ogle, I get angry."

"So, you're having the typical experiences of a typical teenage girl?" He asked.

"I suppose so."

"And the boys who taunted Gordon?"

"Still taunt."

"You have to stop letting them control how you feel about yourself. What they think of you is theirs to control. How you feel about yourself is entirely up to you." He advised. "You are bigger and stronger than you use to be. I'm not recommending violence, I would never do that. But, you should not feel intimidated by them."

From there we talked about my experiments with Elliot. I was caught off guard when he asked, "How do you feel about Elliot?" As I stumbled unable to answer he added, "How do you think Elliot feels about you?"

After moment I said, "I don't know." When he did not follow up that question with another, I continued, "We've been best friends for as long as I can remember."

"Is he like a brother to you?"

"Maybe." The word escaped my lips unexpectedly. Last week I would have said "Yes" immediately. Why had I replied "Maybe?"

The session ended not long after that. My head was swimming. How did I feel about Elliot? How did he feel about me?

Daddy and I left the Clinic in silence. I was very deep in thought and I guess he was giving me some space. About half way home I realized if I went home I'd have to deal with Elliot. I asked, "Didn't you have an idea for how I could feed that you were going to share? "

"Well, sure. You just looked like you wouldn’t be in the mood to do that now."

"No, no reason to put it off."

Daddy changed direction and about twenty minutes later we were in a parking lot. "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?" he began.

"I guess not."

"Are you sure you want to deal with this now?"

I nodded and got out of the car. We were behind an animal hospital. I had a bad feeling I should have paid attention to what he was saying. Though, I didn’t really hear him at the time.

Daddy opened the rear door to the building for me and called out, "Douglas!"

A voice replied, "Wait in my office."

We were in a hallway of nondescript doors. At the end of the hallway was a reception area. I could smell the distinct scent of many fuzzy animals in the air. There were occasional barks and meows. Daddy led me to the second door on the right and we entered.

The office was neatly kept, with two plush chairs facing a plain steel desk. Based on the diplomas and awards Dr. Douglas Hauser was a renowned animal surgeon.

Daddy asked me again if it was a good idea to be here now.

I was vague in my nod and it wasn’t until the doctor entered the office that it occurred to me that they thought I would euthanize sick animals.

Like some monster.

Suddenly, now was not a good time to be here. "I've changed my mind, Daddy. Can we leave?"

Not hearing my whispered plea, Daddy introduced me to the doctor.

Douglas took my hand and said, "I'm a bit dubious about this my darling. I wanted you to meet an old friend of mine."

They led me to the next room where an old dog was sleeping on the floor. When he saw the doctor, the dog lifted its head and struggled to stand up on obviously arthritic legs.

"Duke, here is almost fifteen years old and I'm going to have to put him down soon because of the pain he suffers just standing like this," he began, a tear in his eye. "Your father has put into my head the idea of something better than taxidermy, which I loathe. Before asking you to do anything to Duke, I want to know that it will not hurt him."

"I've told you it didn't hurt," Daddy interrupted.

"You said being petrified doesn't hurt," the doctor explained. "I want to make sure the feeding doesn't hurt."

"I can't do that to a person," I stated. "It's too dangerous."

"Then, there's no solution to your hunger problem here. I won't allow my animals to suffer so some vain socialite can claim to have had a statue made of their old pet."

"How many people wanting to turn their sickly pets into statutes are there?"

"Once the first statue appears in one of their homes, they'll all want one."

"What will we do after everyone has one," I asked. "Fads don't last long."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out when the time comes," Daddy reassured me.

They looked at me expectantly. After a moment I said, "Okay. Where shall I petrify you?"

"Not here, not now," Douglas said. "We'll do that when I'm not on call. Perhaps tonight for dinner? Betty would love to see Silvia again."

"That's fine with me."

I just nodded and stood up. "Let's go, Daddy." I walked out. As I left I could hear the doctor ask Daddy if he was sure I was ready. Daddy admitted he wasn’t sure.

As I walked to the car, someone let out a wolf whistle at me. I spun around in fury, my head snakes flared out and hissing loudly at the man. He turned white as a sheet and for moment I thought I had petrified him. Then he screamed and ran off. I had not used my trick on him. I’d merely frightened him to near death with just a look.

I ran out of the parking lot towards a park and into a nearby woods. I ran until I could no longer hear Daddy's voice calling me back. When I stopped I was near some train tracks as they crossed over a stream.

I sat down, realizing Mom would probably be annoyed about the dirt all over my jeans. Too late to care. Several moments passed without me paying attention to them. A voice called out, "Are you a real gorgon?"

I looked up to see an old man approaching me. He was frail, poorly dressed, and I could smell him already. One of his eyes was milky white from an old injury based on the scar on his face.

"I suppose so."

"Heh, heh," he cackled. "Nope, I don't think so. If'n you were I'd be all statue-like already. You're just a girl with a weird hairdo. Must be."

"Maybe I don't feel like turning you to stone."

"Nope, gorgons hate all livin' bein's. They's ugly to the bone. And they'd never con-verse with a lowly retch such as me. Heh, heh. Nope. You're no gorgon, girly," he kind of danced in place at he made each point. "And you be too beautiful, too, girly."

I stood up, "Beauty means I'm not a gorgon?"

"Damn, you is tall, girly," he said looking like his neck hurt to look up at me. "Damn right, you too beautiful, though I prefer my ladies a smidge shorter. No offense."

"What if I weren't beautiful?"

"How?"

I turned around and pulled off my jeans.

"What you be doin'? I be far too old for you girly."

I snickered as the snakes showed him turning as if to look away, but he was definitely staring at my ass. With the pants off, I transformed into my half snake form. I turned back around. "Are you sure I'm not a gorgon?"

"Heh, heh, I still ain't no statue, girly. That's a good trick. But, you ain't no gorgon."

"That eye of yours works, right?"

"Heh, heh, yes, it do. Can you lower your head so I don't have to look up?" As I complied, he continued, "You might look monstrous, snake girl, but you ain't no monster. I ain't dead or made of rock. You don't hate all livin' bein's. In fact, I bet you love a few, girly. And more than a few love you; I'd be a fool not to bet ya. What are you doing trying to convince a daft old man that you's a monster for anyway?"

"I didn't expect it to take so long," I joked.

"Heh, heh," he laughed as his laugh dissolved into a coughing fit. "It's too bad you ain't a gorgon. Petrifying can't be the worst way to go."

"I'm told it gets boring."

"Ya, I could see that. Heh, heh, told by who?"

"Just because you believe I can't petrify people doesn't mean I can't. It just only lasts about an hour."

"You see what I'm saying. What kind of monster petrifies only for an hour, girly?"

"I guess you're right."

"Medusa," a voice called.

I flattened out down on the ground. I don't know why and I felt silly almost immediately. "I should get going."

"Heh, heh, yes, you should. Me, too," he announced after looking at his unadorned wrist. "I got to go convince a man over on that ridge over there that marriage will be wonderful." And he walked off in the direction of the ridge.

I transformed and quickly put on my pants. I walked back to the park. When I saw Daddy's determined grimace as he searched for me, I turned to look for the old man. He was not where I expected to see him. He was at least a mile further away talking with a man.

Maybe he was Twisted, I thought.

"Medusa," Daddy called out as he started running toward me. "You had me..."

I cut him off with a gesture and gave him a big hug. "Yes, worried sick. I'm sorry about that. Let's just go home."

Caught off guard, he replied, "Um, okay." I stood there holding him for moment. "If we're going home, you'll have to give up this hug," he interrupted.

I let go and we walked back to the car. It was a longer walk than I expected. As he saw me looking around he said, "Didn't think you ran so far, did you? You were moving extremely fast. Not as fast as your mother, but you sustained a higher than normal level of speed for a relatively long time." He laughed, "I tried to run after you. But, I was gasping for air after a few minutes. That's why it took me so long to catch up with you."

"I had no idea," I replied.

"I don't want to jinx it, but running off actually seems to have helped."

"It kind of did," I replied. "I met someone who seemed to know just what I needed to hear. And he said it in manner that I was willing to listen to."

"What's his name?"

"Heh, I didn't ask."

Later at home, I was in the garage. I felt like challenging myself so I took an old T-shirt and ripped it into strips. I carefully threaded it through my head snakes, blindfolding myself. With my head snakes it seemed like I could see perfectly all around me. The only real difficulty was remembering which direction my legs were facing.

I sat down at my desk and worked on some sketches for Marie's bust. The door to the breezeway opened slowly and Elliot asked, "Can I come in?"

I nodded without looking up from my sketchpad. I tried to minimize the snake's tendency to track movement, allowing Elliot's passage through the room to pass from one snake to another.

"How's it going?"

"Not bad," I replied curtly.

"Are you blindfolded? "

I tilted my head up. "Cool, isn't it? What do you think of this sketch of Marie?" I asked turning the pad around.

"Looks just like her," he replied after a moment. "You seem more relaxed, even sure of yourself. Did you learn something at the Clinic? "

"Not exactly," I began. I told him about visiting with Dr. Adelaide, skipping over the entire visit with Dr. Philips. I detailed the visit to the animal hospital. I was a little embarrassed talking about frightening the guy who whistled at me, though I noticed Elliot became a little agitated when I mentioned the whistle. Finally, I told him about the old man.

Elliot looked surprised as I told him about the old man. "Wow, I didn't think it was true. You must have met The Advisor."

"You think so?" I asked. The Advisor is a legendary figure around town. Most presume he was Twisted with a trick that attracts him to people who need advice, or vice versa, and the trick makes it so he always knows exactly what to say. "He did seem adamant that I not refer to myself as a monster. And I do feel more comfortable with my twist than I ever have."

"Guess he's not a myth."

"Are you going to leave the blindfold on all the time from now on?"

I laughed, "I forgot I was wearing it."

"Really?"

I started removing it. "Maybe I've discovered the latest women's fashion trend."

After a few questions and answers to clarify parts of my story, there was a pause in the conversation. I closed the sketchpad and rearranged my legs to put the pad away without falling off the stool.

Elliot took the opportunity while I seemed distracted to check me out. I watched as his eyes ran up and down my legs and lingered on my breasts. I leaned forward more than I had to and was oddly delighted to know I had drawn his eyes to my ass as I turned it toward him unnecessarily.

How did I feel about Elliot? How did he feel about me?

As I sat back in the chair, Elliot shook his head and turned away from me. His expression was a mix of confusion and surprise. He managed to keep both feelings from his voice as he asked, "You want to experiment today?"

"Do you like me?" The words spilled out of my mouth before I realized I was going to say them.

He looked as surprised and nervous as I felt as he managed to nonchalantly say, "I wouldn't be here if not. We're best buds, aren't we?"

In for a penny, I thought. "Elliot and Gordon were best buds. What are Elliot and Medusa?"

"I'm not giving up over twelve years of friendship over your twist." He began and then I could see from his expression that something unexpected had just occurred to him. "Wait. Are you suggesting we might become less than best buds? Or more?"

I looked downward, my snakes scrambled behind me in a flurry of movement, putting Elliot out of sight. There it was... out in the open... and we could no longer ignore it.

I heard him move and he took hold of one of my snakes, turning it toward his face. "I would prefer to tell you this to your beautiful face but I'll settle for this little guy's face if I have to as long as I know you can see me."

I looked up at Elliot and he dropped my snake to look me in the eyes. "We have loved each other for many years. We never considered acting on that love romantically before because for most of those years we were just kids and presumably two straight guys. Circumstances have changed so maybe we will reconsider romance in the future. I doubt either of us are ready to take that step anytime soon, if ever. If we do, it will be when we are both ready. You still need to learn who you've become and I'll be here to help you as much as you will let me."

Tears were welling up in my eyes and whatever vestiges of manhood remained inside me made me want to look away but I held my gaze on him and said, "That is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me." I felt like such a girl as I said it and more so as I continued, "You’re right. I wish I had the courage to have said anything nearly that honest." I reached out and hugged him close, his head next to mine, and whispered, "I truly do love you, Elliot."

"I love you, Medusa," he whispered back. "But, could you not wrap your snakes around my head?"

We let go of each other and the few snakes that had coiled around his head let go. I laughed, "They wanted a hug, too." I wiped my tears away.

"Let's do something else before we start to feel awkward," Elliot suggested.

"Okay, but it won't stop us from feeling awkward later."

"Okay, you obviously want awkward. Turn into your snake form."

"Why?"

"It's a test."

"I can't in these jeans."

"I'll step out while you wiggle out of them and transform," he declared as he left the garage.

I watched him leave with my jaw slacked open. Resigned to whatever he planned-- after our declarations of love I could not claim not to trust him-- I took off my blouse and bra. Then I shimmied out of my jeans and panties. I don’t think I had ever been naked in the garage before. I stood with legs together and willed the change to begin. For the first time I really watched the transformation take place. My hips shattered painlessly and started sinking down my legs toward the floor. As the remains of my hips descended, they gained mass from the mass of two legs combining into a single cylindrical structure that wound up narrower than even one thigh by itself. Around where my knees had been my body was around six inches in diameter.

While this process turned me from two legs to none, green color washed around from my back to my front. My breasts flattened. As their mass was redistributed my flesh became more scaly. My arms narrowed and became longer as did my hands. I think my neck expanded.

When the remains of my hips reached my feet I became unsteady as my feet were absorbed into the mass. I seemed to sink down into that mass until all at once the mass became my coiled lower body. The urge to stretch out overcame me and I slithered around the table.

The whole process took less than five seconds. I put my blouse back on. Nothing else I had been wearing would fit now. "I'm ready," I called out to Elliot.

He reentered the garage and walked straight up to me. Without warning his hands grasped my upper arms and he pulled me down to eye level with him.

I was about to ask him what he was doing when he leaned in and kissed me. It was not a passionate kiss, he did not try to push his tongue into my mouth. It was soft and warm, gentle I suppose. Our eyes were open and suddenly I needed to stop.

I pushed him back and exclaimed with more indignation than I felt, "Elliot!"

"Let me explain," he requested holding his hands up in submission. "First, I warned you it would be more awkwardness. Second, it was a test. It was a test you would have been giving to me forever if I hadn't just done this. When I said I loved you, I wanted you to be clear that I meant all of you, including this you."

He was going to continue complementing me so I stopped him. "Yes, yes, you don't care if I can devour someone's life force, have a scaly face, or started wearing nothing but pink. I know this. That's why I trust you implicitly."

"Oh," he replied. "Sorry about the kiss then. I did have a backup plan." When I just looked at him expectantly, he continued, "Let's go to my house and play video games. You and me will leave the garage right now, head down the sidewalk and enter to my house."

"Looking like this?"

I thought I would be afraid to go out in public like this but the thought of being seen like this no longer bothered me. I was a little nervous. In the spirit of his plan I said, "Challenge accepted." I turned and slithered to the door.

"Really?" Elliot said, a look of shock covering his face.

"Sure, I should get out more." In the breeze way I called out, "I'm headed over to Elliot's house."

"Call if you'll be late for dinner," Mom called back.

“I won't be late,” I replied. “We're going to Dr Hauser's for dinner tonight.”

I reached the breezeway door facing the front yard and was suddenly overwhelmed by the vast openness of the public road and sidewalk. It's not the mall, I reassured myself as I swung the door open and slithered forth.

Elliot held the door open and I turned to see why he had not followed me out the door. "I didn't think you wanted me to let the door slam on your tail," he explained.

I forgot it was trailing so far behind me. I coiled up my tail a bit until the tip was only a couple feet away.

Elliot closed the door and joined me halfway to the sidewalk. Though I towered over him, he gallantly hooked his arm around mine. Conveniently my long arms put our hands at about the same height. "It's a lovely day for a leisurely... ambulance along the sidewalk. Wouldn't you say?"

"You were going to say walk."

"No, no. I was going to say stroll."

I laughed. "This is weird. I can feel the texture of the sidewalk as I move along it. At the same time I am receiving that sensation from what my mind usually thinks of as my stomach, thighs and shins all at once."

"That makes sense," Elliot said. "Your current abdomen is composed of elements of those three body parts."

The walk of four house lengths was over quickly and we entered Elliot's house. His mother entered the living room as we arrived. She did not hide the shock from he face upon seeing me. She smiled warmly as she said, "Medusa, it is wonderful to finally meet you again. Elliot however did not tell me you would be in this form. I was under the impression you were unhappy with this one."

"Given the choice, I'd still be a guy. I have been working to become use to being a girl and I figured out that I need to get use to this form, too."

"It is striking," she said. "I love the richness of your coloring."

"Thank you."

"We're going to play some video games in my room," Elliot announced as he headed for the stairs.

Winding my way up a flight of stairs was a little tricky until I figured out how to do it. Elliot's room was clean as usual. I moved into a corner and wound myself into a coil with my torso perched at the top of the coil. It almost felt like I was sitting.

We were playing for about ten minutes when the door was flung open and Elliot's little brother Todd burst in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me and declared, "You look awesome." Todd was a typical eight year old boy, full of energy and questions.

"Thank you, Todd."

"Are you really Gordon? "

"I use to be Gordon. Now, I'm Medusa."

"What's it feel like to be a snake?"

"Todd!" Elliot admonished.

"It's okay," I stated. "He's just curious. Todd, I'm only half snake so I don't necessarily know exactly what being a snake feels like. Snakes don't have arms, for example. For me it feels a little weird when I'm stretched out. My head's here and my tail could be far away."

"Is it true you can turn someone into a statue?

"Yes, now can you let me and Elliot get back to our game? "

"Okay," Todd said. "Can I watch? "

"If you're quiet," I said.

He sat down in front of the bed and was quiet for a few moments.

"Can I feel your skin?

"Why do you have little snakes on your head?

"Is it true your wee-wee fell off?"

"That's it!" Elliot declared. He call out, "Mom, Todd is asking rude questions."

"I'll be quiet," Todd pleaded. "I want to stay."

"Give him a chance," his mother called back.

Elliot leaned down and whispered, "If you aren't quiet I'll ask Medusa to turn you into a statue. Statues are very quiet."

"You can turn me to a statue right here? That would be great. Do it." He was jumping around excitedly.

I stared at Elliot in annoyance. "First, you need to ask your mommy if it is okay for me to turn you to stone. Then, I'll think about it."

"Moooooooom," he called out as he ran out of the room.

"What is wrong with you?" I demanded.

"What?"

"Be good or my monster friend will get you."

"That's not what I..." he paused dejectedly. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking about how you would feel about it."

"Why does Todd want to be a statue?" Asked his mother as she stepped into the room.

I looked at Elliot meaningfully.

"He won't keep quiet so I kind of implied..."

"You threatened your brother with petrification?"

"It didn't sound so bad when I was saying it. Besides, it would only last an hour."

"I'll deal with you later," she told him. Then she turned to me and requested, "If Todd manages to ask you politely, would it bother you to fulfill his request? "

"Not at all," I replied. After she left I turned to Elliot and said, "Since petrification is apparently a valid means of punishment, you aren't leaving the room when I use my trick on Todd. I will try my very best to only affect him, like we practiced in my garage yesterday. But, if I mess up, the worst case is I get an hour of uninterrupted solo game play.

Todd returned, walking slowly and deliberately. "Excuse me, G-, Medusa," he began. "I want to know how it feels to be a statue. Would mind using your trick on me?"

"Do you understand that it will last for a whole hour whether you like it or not and that I can't undo it earlier? "

"Yes. I will be stuck for an hour."

"Do you want to face the TV so you can watch us play our game? "

"I'll be able to see?"

Elliot replied, "And hear and even feel if someone touches you. Now stand how you want to be posed."

I drifted my upper body toward the TV and turned to face them both. "Are you ready?"

He had his arms straight out and his body tilted like he was an airplane making a banked turn, "Yes."

"Are you looking at the TV screen? "

"Yes."

I immediately concentrated my focus on just him as I flashed my inner eyelid open and close. The color drained out of Todd, leaving him a white statue. "There you go, Todd. You are a statue. And you are not."

"Wow, you did it," Elliot was surprised.

We resumed our game. A little while later, Elliot's mother poked her head in, saying, "Sorry, I just had to see Todd."

We paused our game as she entered with her phone. She spent a minute making a video of Todd as a statue and asking us questions.

"Yes, he can hear us talking. He can probably see the TV," I told her.

"I've never had the sensation of needing to scratch an itch when I've been petrified," Elliot explained.

After she left, I asked, "Do you think she was wanting to get stoned?"

"Maybe," he shrugged.

An hour later, Todd returned to normal in silence.

"Well?" I asked. "Did you enjoy it? "

"It was okay," he answered. He turned and gave me a hug. "It was a bit too boring."

"You don't want to go another hour?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "Maybe some other time. B-bye." He ran from the room calling his mother and asking her about the video she made.

We finished playing several hours later. Since I didn’t have any pants with me I had to slither home. After spending so much time relaxing in this form, it was not as big a deal to slither home as it had been to come here. Mom just said hello without commenting on my form as I went up to my room. I returned to human form to get changed for our visit to the animal doctor. I chose a dark green blouse to go with my jean skirt.

We got in the car and arrived by six. The doctor apparently was well off. The house was not quite a mansion. But, it was set back from the road with a long driveway. It looked like it might have five or six bedrooms.

An obviously Twisted woman, a humanoid cat really, answered the door. Her face was mostly human with a faint coating of light orange fuzz, though her pupils were like cat's eyes. Cat whiskers hung stiffly straight out to the sides from the edges of her nostrils. Cat ears with leopard patterned spots were atop her head poking through a normal human blond head of hair. The fuzz on her face thickened and gained a leopard spot pattern all over her body. She seemed short because she was standing with bent back legs and it seemed like her limbs were shorter than her body height would suggest. A long tail swung lazily behind her. She was wearing nothing but a small blue bikini and a gauzy, white jacket.

"Betty, it is so nice to see you," Daddy said to her with a sociable hug.

"Gregory, Silvia, it's good to see you again." She looked up at me. "And this is certainly no longer your son."

"I'm Medusa," I replied shaking her hand. I have to admit, I only shook her hand to find out if it were a hand or a paw. It was a fuzzy hand with rather short fingers.

We went inside and met Dr. Hauser before we all sat down in a formal living room. Daddy and Douglas talked about their old college friendship while Mom and Betty talked about how long it had been since Betty had seen me. I had been three years old they decided. After a little while, Betty stood up to excuse herself so she could check on dinner.

Mom took my hand and stood up, "Would you like some help?" I was forced to stand up too.

"No, you're our guests," Betty replied as if reading from a script.

"I insist. Besides I've heard all their stories before."

"Well, I wouldn't want to subject you to them again," Betty agreed.

Mom pushed me in front of her as we were led to the kitchen.

Betty spent all of a minute checking dinner. She then grabbed a bowl and poured a dish of pasta into it and handed it to Mom. "I know you probably need this," she told my mother.

Mom said, "Thanks."

The three of us sat around the kitchen table to talk while Mom ate.

"Seeing you wearing a skirt and heels, I guess it is okay to ask you how you feel about being a woman?" Betty asked.

"As long as I get to hear what it's like to be a cat."

"Oh, that's not even close to the same. Although it's taking all my willpower not to swat at your snakes. Their movement triggers my cat compulsions fiercely." Her eyes were obviously tracking one of my snakes and she was leaning forward in her chair.

"Well, warn your cat instincts that my snakes have a paralytic venom and they can react to perceived danger before I'm even aware of it."

She sat back and pulled her knees up. "I better keep my distance," she laughed. "I was about to do it."

I reached up and took one of my snakes in hand, "This one?"

"Wow, how'd you know?"

"I can see through their eyes," I explained. "That has nothing to do with being a woman. I've been concentrating on the more exotic parts of my twist at the expense of exploring my gender change."

"If you can see through their eyes you've already mastered having eyes in the back of your head." She laughed. "Given how quickly you're adapting to those exotic changes, you should have no trouble with your other new parts. Are the clothes a compulsion?"

"Partially. I can change into another form, basically into a snake woman."

"No way," she interrupted.

"Yes, but when my legs merge and turn into a snake abdomen and tail, clothes between my legs are destroyed. I have a slight compulsion against wearing pants."

"At least you can wear clothes," Betty laughed. "Anything I wear makes me itch so bad that after a few hours I go absolutely crazy and rip them all off. In a bikini and wrap like these I can get through an entire day. But, that's about all I can wear."

A timer rang and she got up to get the food out of the oven. As Betty and mom brought dishes of food out to the table, they sent me to bring the men to the dining room.

Dr. Hauser stood up as I entered the room. Daddy followed his lead eventually.

"Dinner is ready," I announced.

When we got to the dining room the men sat down. I went into the kitchen and mom handed me a platter. "Go set this down on the table and take your seat. We'll be in right behind you."

I returned to the dining room and took my seat.

Douglas asked, "What was it like hanging out with the ladies? "

Daddy laughed, "Don't bother, Douglas. When Medusa first changed I asked her to report on what she might learn about the other half. But yesterday she told me it felt awkward talking to me about girl stuff."

"Surely she was only talking about sex stuff and boys. What girls talk about in private can't be an issue."

"That would be true,” I said. “Except that most of the private, girls-only talks I've been privy to were about boys, or sex. I didn't contribute much to those conversations."

Betty and Mom entered and dinner conversation drifted through recent local events. At the end of the meal, Douglas and I went to the backyard patio. "I thought I might stand here and watch the sunset."

"It is a lovely view. Are you ready?" I was nervous. I hoped I could control myself and feed the smallest amount.

"You have an excellent bedside manner," the doctor noted. "I'm ready."

Without preamble, I flashed my eyelids open and close. He turned to stone within a second. I reached out and placed my palm on his chest. I opened my eyelids again. The taste of his life energy was tantalizing my tongue. I held back. I left the ambrosia like substance remain where it was, confirming I was in control. "Douglas, this is what drinking feels like." Then, I took a small sip of it.

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

It. Was. Divine. I had to have more! More! But, I didn’t take more. I took my hand away with my trick still active. I was in control, at least I was when I was not starving for the stuff. "That's it. Now, you just have to wait it out." I closed my eyes and opened them. The urge subsided a bit.

I walked back inside. "I'm done," I told the others. They went outside to see Douglas.

There were a few interesting art pieces in the foyer where I waited. They returned in a few minutes as I was looking at a lithograph of a Dali painting.

"Do you like Dali?" Betty asked.

"Of course, though my normal tastes are of the classics. Probably because I can't paint nearly as well as I sculpt."

"You sculpt and your trick petrifies people? How ironic."

"Tell me about it. I never really got to work in stone before. I might stick to clay in my artwork."

"Have you made anything noteworthy? "

"Those bookends for my sister had some wonderful cherubs on them," Daddy proclaimed proudly.

"Actually I did something better. I sculpted my current face. There is a bust in the garage with my new face with hair that I made several months before my twist."

"Why didn't you ever show it to us?" Mom asked.

"Because I always thought it wasn't quite finished. Maybe it was because it has hair instead of snakes." I answered. "But enough about me, I'm wondering what the story is behind twisting into a human-cat hybrid, if you don't mind."

"I've told that story many times but I'm guessing you haven't heard it." Betty began. "My twist is unusual because it happened when I was two. I fell into the leopard enclosure at the zoo. The momma leopard protected me from the other leopards and licked my head wound clean. The zookeepers quickly moved the other leopards to another enclosure. But, they had to tranquilize the leopard protecting me. As she fell, I twisted. I spent a lot of time with occupational therapists relearning how to walk."

"Makes me feel a little guilty since I adapted to my snake form instinctively." I said.

"Oh, don't feel guilty, I was only two and crawling had suddenly become very natural and faster, too." Betty paused mischievously. "Has your father ever shared his twist with you?"

Strangely, my mother reacted with outrage, "Why would he share his trick with his child?"

"Calm down, Silvia," Daddy implored.

"Oh, gods, no, Silvia," Betty replied in embarrassment. "I asked about his twist, not his trick."

Mom seemed somewhat confused, "How are they different? "

Daddy was shaking his head. "You do know how to make things interesting, Betty. They are very different. I doubt Medusa would be pleased to find out what my trick is. But, no, Betty, only my parents, you, and I know the secret of my twist."

"There's a secret you never told me from when you were a teenager?" Mom asked sadly.

"I'm sorry, Gregory," Betty explained. "I thought Silvia knew. It's nothing bad. In fact it's extremely ironic."

"I'll tell them," Daddy interrupted. He paused before starting. "There's a reason you've never seen a picture of me as a child. I was born as a girl."

"You weren't always male?" Mom asked, obviously relieved.

"Well, that's debatable," he continued. "I hated everything about being a girl. I hated frilly stuff. I hated dolls. I always wanted the trucks and airplanes. I always ran around with the boys. I played sports all the time with the guys, and beat them often.

"In high school, I never hung out with the girls. My circle of friends treated me as one of the guys. Those friendships became strained when I started dating one of the cheerleaders. To this day I'm not sure if she was gay or just experimenting.

"My twist was the answer to what I thought was an impossible dream. I finally felt how I always thought I was supposed to feel. My twist occurred while I was with my girlfriend and that's all I'm going to say about that.

"We broke up shortly after my twist. My guy friends continued to be my guy friends. That's the story."

"Why wouldn't you tell me that story?" Mom asked.

"Because it wasn't important," he answered. "I've always felt I was male. Twisting only took away the doubt from others. Since you've only known me as I basically appear now, why would I complicate things with something that happened in the past. I suppose it kind of matters now only because of Medusa's twist."

"Does Shawna actually exist?" I asked.

I had been silent throughout the story. They all suddenly looked at me. Betty spoke first, "You told her about Shawna Jelicho?"

"Well, Dad asked me on the day I twisted to help him understand women since my perspective was different. I thought it was because he wanted to understand his friend who also changed from male to female." I turned from looking at Betty to Daddy, "You’re still trying to understand yourself, aren't you?"

He just nodded without looking at us.

I excused myself and went to the bathroom. When I got out, Betty was hovering nearby. She asked, "Do you want to see Duke?"

"I don't think so. I can't decide if I should get to know him before I have to... you know."

"Yes, that makes sense, too."

There was an awkward pause as I debated my next question, "What can you tell me about my father's trick?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

I nodded.

She sighed. "Without getting explicit, your father can do something probably no one else can do with his, um, you know," she held the end of her tail suggestively.

My eyes rolled. "Tell me. I'd rather know than regret not asking and I can tell he’ll never tell me."

Though we were alone, she whispered, "He can detach it when it's erect."

"That's enough details, I think," I announced.

She had a faint smile, "I was only interested in whether you knew he was a girl. You asked about the rest."

"I did," I admitted. "Duke is a quiet dog. I have no idea where you keep him."

Betty seemed glad for the topic change. "He had his own room on the other side of the house. I don't normally go over there," she admitted. She then saw the question in my face and added. "Cats don't get along with dogs."

"Another compulsion?"

"I suppose. Douglas knows we aren't getting another dog once Duke is gone. I suppose that's why he's interested in having Duke preserved."

So much for changing the subject. Thankfully Mom entered, "Oh, there you are. Douglas returned to normal. He's going to get Duke and bring him to the den."

"I'm going to my room while you deal with Duke." Betty said.

Mom just nodded knowingly as Betty went one way and we went the other. The den was empty. Mom sat down and looked at me with her worried look. "Are you sure you want to do this? No one will be upset if you decide not to do it."

"I'm fine," I laughed. "I thought you were worried about what we found out about Daddy." I looked at her again and asked, "Should I ask if you are okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'm just surprised. I can understand why he never brought it up. It certainly explains his mantra for the Twisted: what you are may not be what you become." I could not tell if she was trying to convince me or herself why he never mentioned it.

After an awkward silence, Daddy entered, "Douglas is taking Duke on one last walk." He sat down on the sofa Mom sat on, though he left an awkward gap between them.

Mom and I nodded then the silence resumed.

"What was your name?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Your birth name. I doubt it was Gregory."

"Oh, right," he replied. "I was born Harriet Harrison. When I was young I always assumed I'd marry my way out of the double Harries. I was apparently named for my mother's mother before she knew my father."

"Why Gregory?"

"It had three syllables, like Harriet, and Harry was not an option."

Douglas entered with Duke. Mom and Daddy slipped out of the room while Douglas spoke calmly to Duke. He turned to me and said, "I'm sure you'll get him in a good pose.”

“I have to ask you. What did it feel like?”

“Oh, you don't know. Yes, it didn't hurt. But, I definitely felt something. I can't really describe it. Being stone is very calming. And I heard you say you were about to do it. It was like a feather stroking my chest. I guess.” He paused. “Do you want his leash?

"No, and remove his collar. We don't want it deforming his fur."

"Right," he agreed. "Stay, Duke." He seemed like he was about to say something else but instead he turned and left.

"Stay," I commanded. I placed myself about ten feet away and commanded, "C'mere, boy. C'mon!"

Duke perked up and, with difficulty, raised up on his legs, then he started toward me. After a few steps his gait looked more natural. About a foot away, I did it. The color drained away in a second. Using my sight, I shifted one of his legs for added stability.

I went to the hallway and found Douglas crying on Daddy's shoulder. I turned and entered the kitchen, finding Mom eating leftovers from dinner while Betty spoke.

Betty stopped as I entered, "Is it done?"

"No, I was going to have Douglas look at the pose before I made it permanent."

"Just finish, he trusts your judgment more than he trusts his resolve."

I nodded and returned to the den. Duke was where I had left him. He did look natural, like he was going somewhere. I was suddenly nervous. I opened my inner eyelids. The colors within Duke were familiar but off in some ways. Were those dark patches disease? His paws and joints had lots of dark spots. I placed my palms on his chest and drew forth the ambrosia like stuff. While still awesome, there was something a little off about draining Duke. I consumed it quickly and soon no colors danced in the stone statue that was all that remained of Duke.

I closed my eyes completely and sobbed. No one interrupted me for what may have been a long time. Finally, all cried out, I got up and entered the hallway. Only Daddy was there. He looked at me expectantly and I just gave him a quick nod as I passed him. I heard him walk into the den as I proceeded to the kitchen.

"It's time to go, Mom," I announced.

She just stood up without question. "I'll call you tomorrow, Betty." She stated. Betty led us out, heading for the hall closet to get our coats.

Daddy met us in the hallway and followed us out without a word.

When I got home I went to my room and locked the door. I got undressed and transformed into my snake-hybrid form. I wrote “Back tomorrow” on a piece of paper and slipped it under my door. I dropped my tail out the window and slithered into the woods as fast as I could. Not being out of my mind, I thought my speed was slightly higher than my old running speed. I couldn’t be sure.

I concentrated on the way my tail pushed me forward. I could feel it gripping and ungripping the ground in a rapid cycle to get me slithering forward, serpentine-style. I had to really study how snakes move. I wondered if I could sidewind, not that I was sure what that entailed.

The woods behind the house were rather deep. I must have traveled about a mile from the house before I picked out a nice clearing to coil up and relax in. My tail was long enough that I could coil myself into a cocoon that wrapped my entire human torso within the coils of my lower half. It was rather comfortable and I eventually fell asleep.

I was still dark when I woke up. I felt better. My head was clear and for the first time since I was alone with Duke, I didn’t feel like I needed to burst into tears. Part of me wondered if I was actually better or was I now just uncaring and cold. I didn’t think I couldn’t care. I figured I was fine because I was wondering if I was not fine. Or something.

My life-sight, I needed a name for my psychedelic sight that did not imply illicit drugs and life-sight seems to fit the bill. My life-sight was active when I woke up. I heard something land with a thud nearby. It was a squirrel. Or what remained of a squirrel. The statue had cracked in half when it landed. I picked up the two halves and looked at them. All the colored lines within the statue looked normal except there the crack was where the color seemed to glow out of the statue. I pressed the two halves together and the glow stopped shining out of the statue. But as soon as I let go, the halves would separate. I tried fusing the two halves together in the same way I had gotten the bird's head to turn. After a few tries, the statue felt whole again.

I closed my inner lid and left the squirrel on a rock. I wished I had brought my sketch book with me. The little grove I was in was very pretty. I lost track of time and I did not notice the squirrel get up and scamper off until it was already clinging to a tree some forty feet away. I had repaired the broken statue. That also made me feel good.

I stood up. Well, I didn’t actually stand as I had no legs at the time. I lifted my torso above my abdomen and attained vertical balance. I think I will call that standing up from now on. I stood up and started to head home. Looking at the sky, it would probably be around noon when I got there.

Halfway there, I saw Eliot walking toward me. He called out my name but we were really too far apart for easy communication. I just waved at him and he jogged toward me.

“Do you mind that I'm here?” He said.

“Why would I mind?” I said continuing toward the house. He fell into step next me. He refrained from trying to look at me as my head was over two feet above his.

“Your Mom and Dad were worried about you.”

“I left a note.”

“'Back tomorrow.' Could you have been any less reassuring?”

“No note? Or maybe if I’d written ‘I have become death.’ in blood.”

He laughed. “You seem in better spirits than how they described you.”

“I am better.”

“Great.”

“No, not great. Just better.”

“Will you do it again?”

“I’ll have to. But, I don't think it will be nearly as traumatic as the first time.”

“Few things are more traumatic than the first time.”

“Yeah, that kind of bothers me. I hope it never feels routine.”

“Medusa, the great thing about you is worry about all the right things.”

“I do?”

“You worry about others. You worry about yourself becoming complacent. You worry about how your literal food feels. You probably worry about letting down your guard against worrying too much.”

“That does cross my mind occasionally.”

“Well, I'm your cheerleader. I'm here to remind that you've already worried enough about all these things and it's time to stop worrying at all.”

“You're a good friend.”

“The best friend. And your best friend.”

I laughed. We traveled in silence for a bit before he started talking about a video game that was due to be release next month.

My parents were low key when I got home. I coiled in a corner of the living room and said, “Have you heard from Betty or Douglas?”

“Betty called,” Mom said. “They’re fine. How are you?”

“I'm okay. No yearning desire to do it again but also no revulsion against doing it again.”

Elliot did not suggest that we do any practice today and I did not bring it up either. After some gaming and dinner, Elliot went home. After some homework and light reading I went to bed.

Thursday morning, Elliot and I were walking to school together. A car pulled up beside us. It was Stacy. “Get in,” she called from driver seat. “Melody, get in back. Her legs are so long she can't fit in the back.”

“What about me?” Elliot said.

Stacy looked at me and then said, “This time, okay.”

Elliot sat behind me. I had to adjust the seat so it was all the way back and still my knees where pressed against the dashboard.

“Thanks. What's the occasion?” I said.

“I wanted to invite you to the mall after school. You really need better clothes.”

“Pardon my interrupting,” Elliot said. “I know you'd rather be dead than be seen with me. But, why are you being so nice to Medusa?”

“That's none of your business,” Stacy said.

“I suppose that's fair,” he said. “But, you should tell her.”

“I will,” she said. She looked at me, “I will. But, not here. So, are you coming to the mall with me after school?”

“Sure, I guess,” I said.

“I'm not inviting you, Elliot,” Stacy said.

“Don't worry. I wouldn't want to be invited on a shopping trip.”

“You could use a makeover,” Melody said.

“No thanks.”

“But, you wear such frumpy clothes. Change out those shapeless tees for some polo shirts and you could look sharp.”

“I could look sharp?”

“You'd still be a loser. But at least it wouldn't be offensive to look at you.” After a moment Melody laughed. “You believed me, didn't you?”

“Which part? Am I actually offensive to look at or a total loser?”

“Neither,” Melody said. “I guess I've never looked at you up close.”

“Please stop flirting with Elliot, Mel,” Stacy said. She parked the car and everyone got out.

People in the parking lot took note that we were getting out of Stacy's car and walking to the entrance with her.

“Meet me back here after last bell and we'll hit the mall.”

“Okay.”

Classes went as well as they had been going this week. No one knew about my drama with Duke and I had already become last week's news when a freshman I didn’t know twisted, she had been flat chested last week. Now she had two, perhaps three, pairs of breasts of sizable girth. This problem was compounded by her near constant lactation. Rumors were going around that she spent most of her time attached to a milking machine.

I understood how she might feel less than human. She didn’t seem to have any down time at school that matched my own as I did try to seek her out to see if she wanted to talk about it.

Shortly after lunch, I was stopped in the hall by Marie. “Hi, G- Medusa,” she said.

“Hi.”

“We were supposed to get together last Friday but you were out that day.”

“Sorry. We never exchanged phone numbers or I would have called you.”

“Are you available tomorrow?” She said as we exchanged phone numbers.

“I suppose so.”

“Good. I'm only available on Fridays.”

“Okay. See you then.”

“Sounds great.” She gave me a friendly hug and walked away in the opposite direction to where I was going.

The rest of the day slipped by and soon I was in the parking lot with Stacy, Melody, and Tess, three of the most popular girls in school.

“Why are we doing this?” Tess said.

“Because it'll be fun.” Melody said.

“Okay.”

We arrived at the mall and they led me to store after store where they tried to find clothes that would look good with my wild proportions and oddly colored skin. They spoke in a cryptic code of colors and styles. They explained to me how sometimes a top was just a top and sometimes it was a blouse.

When they saw my stomach was naturally buff, they traded out some clothes that were keepers for some more mid-riff baring clothing. I spent a lot of time going in and out of the changing rooms and being met with anything from flat nos to mehs to wolf whistles. Melody was disappointed I couldn’t wear pants, pantsuits, or leggings. They had me try on sheer hosiery but the normal colors for hosiery did not go with the coppery tone of my skin. Tess suggested mail ordering silver colored hosiery.

I had to admit I was having fun when we hit the food court several hours later and we had a bunch of bags we were all carrying. They did buy a few things for themselves and each of them paid for some of my things, mostly when I was unaware they were buying something for me.

We went back to Melody's home, she had the largest bedroom with the largest full length mirror. Here, the lessons continued with mixing and matching all the clothes I had bought.

“It's too bad you can't wear a hat,” Tess said.

My snakes, who had be relatively quiet all day, hissed at the comment.

“Did they just wake up?”

“I have no idea what they do or don't understand when I'm not focusing on them.”

“That must be so weird,” Melody said. “Having parts of your body that can just do stuff if you aren't paying attention to them.” She looked at particular snake. “Can I pet you?”

The snake reached toward her and rested its head in her palm. She stroked the back of its head with her other hand.

“This isn't weird is it?” She asked me.

“I'm not sure. But, you don't have to stop.”

“Oo, I want to try,” Tess said and she reached for me too fast.

“Wait, no!” I said, too late. The snake she had been reaching for was cool. But a different one had freaked out and bit her. The snake Melody had been holding whipped back out of her hand.

“Ow,” Tess cried out and shook her hand. Before she could say anything else she stopped moving.

“What just happened?”

I shook my head. “What's the time?” I said. “Tess has become test subject number one for the paralytic poison my snakes' bites.”

“You paralyze and petrify people?”

“Usually not on purpose.”

“Usually?”

“Elliot has be helping me learn the extent of my abilities so, occasionally, I have turned him to stone on purpose.”

“What's that like?” Melody said.

I noticed Stacy seemed very interested in my answer. “Well, I wouldn't know myself. But, from what Elliot, Nurse Rhymes, and others have said, it's very calming. If no one is engaging with the statue, they lose track of time and the hour or so that the petrification lasts might only seem like a couple minutes.”

“Can you do it to me?” Melody said.

“Well, not while we're waiting to see how long Tess is paralyzed for. And I don't know if you want us hanging around while you are indisposed for an hour.”

“You can do me when you are ready to leave. I'll tell my parents not to disturb me and to see you out.”

“If you insist.”

The topic drifted to school work and boys. Stacy did not stop Melody from talking about a few of the cute boys she saw in class today. But neither of them seemed to expect me to join in if I did not want to.

About forty minutes passed before Tess grunted. She still couldn’t really move. But, it was the first sound we had heard from her in a while. As more moments passed, she was able to make small movements and soon able to talk. She had been saying, “What happened?”

I explained to her about the poison and asked her if she had not heard about the poison warning in school.

She had thought it was an exaggeration. It was another half hour because she could move sufficiently to walk but her movements were still obviously stiff. “Isn't your petrification instantaneous? Why did this take so long?”

“Do you want the long answer?” I said. “The venom is just a toxin. It has to get into your system. And then it has to get out of your system. So, you get to feel like you did as the poison gets out of your bloodstream. The petrification is a quantum effect much like twists are quantum effects. One moment you are flesh and blood and the next moment you are stone.”

As it was getting late, Stacy and Tess said goodbye to Melody and said they would meet me downstairs. I turned to watch them leave her room and watched them go downstairs. When I heard them talking to Melody's parents I went back into her bedroom where she was out of her clothes.

“Can you take some pictures, too, before you leave?”

“The camera cannot be active when I do it. I broke a lot cameras at the institute.”

“Okay. Just take them after I'm stoned.” She said with a giggle.

“Like I haven't heard that before.”

“You should get use to it. Stoned is easier to say than petrified.” She set her feet shoulder width apart and cocked her right hip out. She put her right hand on that hip and placed her left hand on her head. “How do I look?”

“Great. Ready?”

She turned her head a little to the left so she could see the mirror and said, “Do it.”

I did. I then picked up her phone and took a few pictures of her. I took another pic with my phone before saying, “Enjoy an hour of stillness.”

“Did you do it?” Melody's mother said.

“Yes, your daughter is a statue at the moment. Should last about an hour.”

“Okay, well, you girls get home safe.” As she closed the front door behind us I could hear her rushing up the stairs.

On the ride to Tess' house, she said, “I kind of want to have you do me, too. But, not tonight. I'm still a bit out of it from being poisoned.”

“Some other time. Sure,” I said.

After Tess was dropped off, Stacy drove me home. “You never did ask me why I'm being nice to you.”

“I figured you would tell me when you needed to.”

“That just makes me feel worse. I tried to get Jenny to talk sense into Tommy about picking on Gordon. She tried but failed to get him to ease up. Eventually he convinced her I was trying to break them up so I could date Tommy.”

“Were you?”

“Date Tommy Radner? He isn't all that,” she said with a sneer. “I invited Jenny to come with us this afternoon. She isn't talking to me, I guess.”

“I hope I didn't...”

“Shut up. You didn't do anything. Why are you so nice?”

I didn’t answer.

We drove in silence for several blocks before she continued, “My cousin was put down after her twist.”

“I--”

She pushed forward over my attempt to give condolences. “She was reading some weird book and she turned into an obscene tentacle monster covered in eyes and mouths. She ripped her brother in half and devoured part of him. My aunt and uncle managed to flee from the house. The authorities put several dozen bullets into her before she stopped moving. The autopsy said she probably was unaware that she killed Eddie because she was probably disoriented by having too many eyes and mouths in random parts of her limbs. She probably could still be alive today except the people who first responded overreacted.

“When I heard they thought you had kill Mrs. Rhymes, I had a panic attack. I thought I was going to witness in school what I heard had happened to my cousin. You even have more eyes and mouths than usual, like she did.”

I didn’t respond immediately. “What was her name?”

“Rebecca.” She said. “We had always wanted to go to the same college when were old enough.”

“Well, I’m sorry you had to worry about me.”

“You didn’t need to say that.”

“I'm just lucky to have people who care about me. Including you.”

She parked the car, as we had arrived at my home. She hit a button to open the trunk of the car. “Do you need help carrying stuff inside?”

“No, I am much stronger now than I once was.”

She pointed at my snakes and said, “Behave!” My snakes, as one, recoiled. She gave me a kiss on the cheek before they could react. “Have a good night,” she said.

“Good night.” I got out of the car and grabbed my bags from the trunk. After I closed the trunk, she drove away.

Mom entered my room as I was unpacking the bags. “Did you have fun with the girls?”

“Elliot told you, didn't he?”

“You didn't tell me.”

“I said I'd be out late with friends.”

“Elliot was more forthcoming.”

“He needs a good talking to.”

“These are lovely clothes. I suppose these popular girls thought the clothes we bought together were too old for you.”

“Your tastes are apparently not those of teens today.”

“Probably true.” She held up a tube top. “Is this even allowed by the school dress code?”

“Not normally. Since I have a registered shoulder compulsion they might have to allow it.”

“Did the girls suggest that?”

“No. They didn't know about the compulsion.”

“Medusa!”

I shrugged.

After school Friday, Marie gave me a ride home. Elliot was nowhere to be found so I assumed he was giving me some space with Marie. Though, I wasn’t sure why.

We talked mostly about school. She complimented me on my outfit, one of the new ones I had bought the day before. When we entered my garage, I pointed out the chair she should sit in so I could start her bust.

“I was wondering,” she said. “It'll probably be boring just sitting here. I heard when you did your trick, time seems to go by faster.”

“Are you asking me to petrify you?”

“Do you mind?”

“Only because I realize you asked Gordon to make a bust of you. So, it's not like you planned for him to be able to petrify you. This is a new idea you've had.”

“Well, yes, since your twist I've wondered what it would feel like. But, no, it's not the first time I've wondered about that. Athena and Perseus were the villains of the myth.”

“Let's talk about that later when the light is less natural. It only lasts an hour.”

“Then, you can keep doing it to me until the bust is complete.”

“Fine. Stand up. I was only having you sit so you would be comfortable. Standing I won't have to lean down to check out the details.”

She stood up. “Should I smile?”

“A slight Mona Lisa smile is good. A big toothy grin would just be scary on a bust.”

This caused her to smile naturally and I flashed her into stone before she even knew what was happening.

“Hope it was everything you hoped it would be.” I said. I snapped a pic of her before getting into the clay. I already had a bust started with the head a bit too big and waiting to reveal Marie within the clay.

The hour passed quickly and I was so in the zone I was startled when she laughed.

“That wasn't fair,” she said. “I had no warning. And it was exactly what I had hoped for. Can I see the pic?”

I unlocked my phone and handed it to her.

“That's so fabulous. It's too bad it only lasts an hour.”

“Why is that bad?”

“I'd love to be in an art gallery standing there as a statue for a weekend. Being seen by people and they have no idea I'm alive watching them look at me.” She looked at the sculpture. “Wow, it already resembles me a bit.”

“Got started with the gross structure, eye placement, cheekbones, etc. Once all those proportions are correct, I'll then spend time getting all the little detail right. Ready for another hour?”

“You didn't say you couldn't make last longer.”

“No, I didn't. But, I'm not going to do anything like that without your parents' permission. My folks would flip if I experimented with making your petrification last longer than usual.”

“Why?”

“I should not tell you this. If you tell anyone I'll deny telling you. Swear you won't tell anyone.”

“I swear.”

“Check out that bird on that shelf.”

“Did you do that?”

“I did that a couple days after my twist.”

“It's been a statue for a couple weeks?”

“And it will remain a statue forever.”

“That's so cool.”

“Until they throw me into a jail cell forever. Then, it's not so cool. I'm fairly certain this wouldn’t happen to you. But, I don't think your parents or a judge will be happy hearing me say, I warned her this might happen and I told her I was fairly certain she'd be fine.”

“I get it. So, just hit me for an hour.”

She settled her face into a nice smirk and I flashed her to stone. I got into a good grove and got a lot more done than I thought I would.

Daddy entered the garage. “Are you and your client coming to dinner?”

“What?” I said distracted. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven o'clock,” he said. “That really does resemble the young woman whom I assume wanted to be a statue.”

“You have to admit, standing still for a bust is much easier when you can't move.”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, when she's normal again, come to dinner.”

“We will.”

After he left I looked at Marie. She should have turned back to normal two hours ago. I had been so in the zone I had no idea I had been sculpting for three hours straight. She was holding the bird statue. I opened my life-sight and she seemed normal, slightly dimmer than I would have expected. The bird also had life lines in it.

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

How could this be? She had been holding the lifeless bird statue when I petrified her and some of her life force was now in the bird. How much had been drained from her? The bird had had no life force for over a week.

I looked at the place where she and the bird were in contact and I could see some of the red inside her moving into the bird. I grasped the bird and was able to remove it from her hand. The bird's life lines were still very faint. At least now the essence was no longer flowing from Marie to the bird.

I carried the bird into the house and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Where's the young lady?” Mom said.

“I had an incident.”

“What happened?” Daddy said.

“You remember me telling you about this bird?”

“That bird is just a statue now, isn't it?”

“Not any more. Marie was holding it when I zapped her. I went about working and three hours went by before Daddy called me to dinner. Well, this statue now has a very faint life essence. And Marie's life essence has dimmed slightly. It'll probably be a few hours before she turns back to normal.”

“We have to call her parents,” Mom said. She ran out of the room.

I just nodded.

“This wasn't your fault,” Daddy said. “In fact, this is good news.”

“It is?”

“It means if you were to accidentally drain someone to permanent stone, they could be revived.”

“That assumes the bird will eventually revive.”

“True. But, it does give you hope that it works that way.”

I ate dinner. Mom came back into the kitchen. “They were rather calm about it,” she said.

“What did you say?” Dad asked.

“I said Marie was with Medusa and she accidentally got zapped so she would be late coming home.”

“Ellen, her mother, said Marie had told her she was sleeping over tonight.”

“She said what?”

“Then she asked if I meant Marie would be late tomorrow and I had to tell her I didn't realize Marie was sleeping over. I said, never mind then, since she should be fine by tomorrow. Ellen thanked me for calling and then we talked about some parent's club school stuff before we hung up.”

“Can't really ask her anything until she's no longer stone,” I said. “But, I will get to the bottom of this.”

“I'm sure you will,” Dad said.

After I ate, I went back out to the garage. No reason to waste the added time she was a statue. It was another five hours before she moved.

“Wow, that hour seemed to drag out forever,” she said.

“It was more than an hour.”

“Did you zap me more than once?”

“No, there was a weird trick accident. It's almost one in the morning.”

“Really? I was a statue for like seven hours?” She said with glee. “I thought you said it had to be only an hour. Oh, wow, that looks so cool.”

“It's ready to be fired. I'm glad you think it came out well.”

She walked around the bust and looked closely at it, careful not to touch it. “It's an uncanny likeness.”

“So, why does your mother think you're staying the night?”

“Oh, I didn't say that. I said I might stay the night. I was hoping we could get this done in one sitting but you had implied it might take a few weeks of sittings.”

“You got your wish.”

“I got two wishes. You finished the hard part of getting the bust done in one night and I got to be a statue.” She yawned. “Can I stay the night? I'm really sleepy.”

“Sure, I guess. Let's go inside. Daddy probably stayed up to make sure you were okay after your extended petrification.”

We went inside and Mom and Daddy were both in the kitchen. Mom was eating her midnight load of carbs.

“How are you feeling, Marie?” Mom said.

“Tired. Like, really rundown.”

“You can stay here tonight. Do you want to stay in the guest room or make it a sleep over?”

“Sleep over, if that's okay with you, M?”

“Em?” I thought, then said. “Sure. Are you hungry or too sleepy?”

“Let's go to sleep.”

“G'night, Mom and Dad.”

“Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison.”

“Good night, Marie.”

When we got to my room, I said, “You can take the bed.”

“We could share it. Just to sleep, of course.”

“Okay, sure, of course, right.”

She took her book bag into the bathroom and changed into pajamas that she had brought with her. I was already in my pajamas when she returned. I went to the bathroom and she was in my bed, taking up the half against the wall when I returned. I got into bed next to her.

“Can you make me a statue for an entire day?”

“I don't know. I haven't explained to you what happened tonight.”

“That will have to wait until morning,” she said with a deep yawn. Several of my headsnakes were very close to her. She cupped one under the chin and said, “Good night,” to it. It flicked its tongue at her.

“Good night,” I said. But, she was already asleep.

There was a knock at my door and, half-awake, I said, “Come in.”

It was Mom. “Elliot’s here. Are you two still asleep?”

I looked over at Marie still sleeping. “What time is it?”

“Nine thirty.”

“I'll be right down.” I got out of bed as gently as I could without disturbing Marie. No luck.

“Is it morning?”

“Yes. Elliot is here. You can keep sleeping if you wish.”

“Okay.” She rolled over and her breathing indicated she was asleep.

I quickly got dressed and went downstairs. Elliot was eating breakfast with Daddy. “Morning,” he said.

“Morning.” I kissed Daddy on the cheek and gave Mom a hug before sitting down.

Elliot looked like he was about to say something about missing out but instead said, “I heard about Marie and the bird.”

“It was an accident.” I added, “Thanks,” as Mom gave me a plate of food.

“A happy accident,” he said. “You can't really kill someone by accident any more.”

“Maybe. We won't know that until the bird turns back to flesh.”

“True,” he said. “She's still here? I want to ask her about being a statue for seven hours.”

“At the time, she said it had seemed longer than an hour. She wasn't sure. But, I haven't even explained to her what actually happened. She was really tired when she changed back.”

“She's still sleeping?”

“She just rolled over and went right back to sleep when I got out of bed.”

Elliot occupied the conversation, speculating about applications of this life-energy transference. Marie entered the kitchen an hour later, dressed in different clothes than she’d worn to school the previous day. She must have expected to stay the night.

“I can't believe I slept so much,” she said.

Mom put a plate of food in front of her. “You are probably starved.”

“Oh, god, I am.” She sat down and wolfed half of it down almost as fast as Mom could eat. “I feel like a pig. Why am I so hungry?”

“Probably because you donated some of your life-force to a dead bird.”

“I did what?”

I explained how the bird was purely a statue until the accident. I went into detail about how I can see these life-force energies and how I feed on them. And I explained that the bird now had life-force energy again.

“I jump started the bird.”

“Or the statue somehow stole your energy and the bird is still dead. We won't know that if and until the bird comes back to life.”

After an awkward pause, Elliot said, “Now, can I ask Marie what it was like being a statue for seven hours? I've spent more than seven total hours as a statue but not for more than an hour at a time.”

I shrugged.

“It was amazing,” she said. “You've been zapped multiple times? You're so lucky.”

Elliot started describing our experiments and Marie bombarded him with so many questions she heard about every experiment in excruciating detail.

“I want to help,” she said at the end. “You zapped Elliot's brother without hitting Elliot. You probably need a lot more practice with that.” She was looking at me expectantly.

“That would be great. Although you seem to want to be a statue more than not.”

“Really?” Elliot said.

“I do,” Marie said. “I want to be a statue at an art show or something. Spend a day or a week in one spot being looked at by passersby. It would be so cool.” She sighed.

“I suppose we could practice the transference and find out how to time it so you would know how long the resulting stoning would last,” Elliot said.

Daddy looked like he was going to interject, but said nothing after I said, “I don't know how comfortable I'd be with that.”

“We don't have to start there,” she said. “It's not like there's an art show waiting for me to be exhibited there.”

“You should call your mother,” Mom said. “I may have scared her last night.”

She got up from the table. “Okay, I'll make the call and then meet you in the garage?”

“Okay.”

Elliot and I left the kitchen. Daddy cleared the plates.

“She's interesting,” Elliot said.

“I know.”

“This looks great,” he said, indicating the bust.

“Thanks. I'll fire it after our first experiment. Speaking of which. Go out into the breezeway. I want to take a look at the bird.”

“Gotcha.”

When the door closed, I opened my inner eyelid and inspected the bird. Its colored lines were improved from last night. It was a little disconcerting, I thought, to think this bird was tied into an alternate dimension now. And that link was filling it with life.

There was a knock at the door and I closed my inner eyelid.

“Ready, M?”

“Come in.”

“Are we going to experiment with the bird?”

“No, I was just looking to see what it's life force looked like. It's better. No idea how long it will take to fill up though.” I put the bird back on a shelf, out of the way.

“A selective petrification experiment, then?”

“When do you have to leave?”

“Mom wants me home by four so we could do four or five experiments if we get started right away.”

We started with me trying not to turn either of them to stone at I approached them. I managed to get within five feet of them before she transformed. I was startled when it happened and Elliot was transformed as well.

I spent the hour getting the bust glazed and ready for the kiln.

“Your eyes look so cool when you do that,” Marie said.

Elliot transformed back to normal as she spoke. “I never mentioned that, did I? But, it true. There's like a green glow to them but the vertical yellow color pierces the glow.”

“Thanks, I guess. I suppose I'll never get to see it.”

We tried that experiment for the next few hours. I was able to get within two feet of Elliot before he was petrified the final attempt. But, Marie always was petrified before he was.

Marie reluctantly drove home as it was nearly four o'clock. She returned on Sunday for more experimentation. She always volunteered to be the one who got petrified.

That morning before she arrived, there were some spots of blood in my underwear. I almost panicked until I realized what this probably meant. Welcome to womanhood, me. When I went down to breakfast, I must have had an inquisitive look on my face.

Mom immediately asked, “What's wrong, honey?”

“I think I have to put to practice the mother-daughter talk we had.”

She disappeared and reappeared even faster than I thought was possible for her. She was holding a small pink box from a store aisle I was not use to being in.

“Did you notice any discomfort last week? Feeling bloated or tenderness?” She said.

“Maybe. I'm not use to how I feel like this normally.”

“I'll ask you next month. You should start to bleed tomorrow or Tuesday.”

“Great.”

“Sarcasm is an excellent coping mechanism.”

Over the next few days, the girls who had befriended me, including a few I met for the first time in the bathroom, gave me all sorts of contradictory tips as well as commiseration. It was what it was. I wasn’t fazed by it so much because I expected it to be horrific, I guess. Not saying it was enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination. I could deal with it just like half the population has been dealing with it.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Marie would join us on Friday afternoons and weekends to perform experiments. On weekends they would arrive together. For some reason this bothered me.

During that time, I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Lewis at the clinic. I decided to dress up for the appointment. He noticed immediately.

“That is a very feminine outfit. I take it your transition to a woman is going well.”

“Other than my period last week, it’s been almost unremarkable,” I said.

“Well, all teenage women come to terms with that aspect womanhood over time.”

“Yeah, if people who are women all their lives can complain about it, so can I.”

“So be it. Anything you’d like to talk about? Are you still being bullied?”

“Not as badly. The guy, Tommy, still doesn’t like me. Tried to spread rumors that I wasn’t all woman. And he encourages his buddies to help out.”

“Do you know why he would do this?”

“He’s a prick.”

“Is that all it is?”

“I had never spoken to him before the first time he picked on Gordon. Can’t say I’ve ever had a conversation with him that wasn’t confrontational.”

“Do you feel you are handling these latest confrontations better or worse than you did as Gordon?”

“Better. He use to make fun of my looks. I would take that to heart no matter how many times I told myself not to. My twist made me beautiful, I’m told. So, he doesn’t have an easy way to torment me.”

“You said you’re told you’re beautiful. Do you think you are beautiful?”

“I was just being modest. It’s funny. I make clay sculptures. Before my twist I made a bust of a beautiful woman. My new face is the face I sculpted months ago.”

“That’s amazing,” Dr. Lewis said. “Anything else you want to discuss?”

“My relationship with my best friend is a bit weird.”

“Who is this friend and what’s weird?”

“Elliot’s been my best friend since we were little kids. We mutually decided we didn’t want to mess up our friendship.”

“How did he take that?”

“Just fine. I think I’m the one regretting it. He’s recently started dating someone. I don’t know how I feel about having to share him with his girlfriend.”

“Would these feelings be the same if you were still Gordon?”

“Mostly. There is a bit more subtext with my gender change.”

“You have feelings for him?”

“I’ve always had feelings for him. They hit differently now.”

“Do you like boys?”

“I think so. I’ve never dated. So, I have nothing to compare my new self to.”

“Is this Elliot’s first girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like her?”

“Yes, she’s actually been helping Elliot and me with learning how my trick works.”

“How do they help?”

“It started with Elliot. He would have me activate my trick and walk toward him to see when he would be petrified or how long I could prevent it from happen.”

“Has this worked?”

“Yes, I’ve used my trick on one person without affecting another at various distances.”

“With permission?”

“Of course. I have only turned one person to stone without prior permission. That was the school nurse when I first twisted.”

“Elliot and Marie enjoy being petrified.”

“I think Elliot tolerates it because he’s my BFF. Marie likes it. She’s wanted me to try draining her so she ends up being petrified for more than an hour.”

“That is dangerous.”

“I haven’t done this.” I lied. “And I agree that it would be dangerous. But, they keep pointing out that in a controlled environment it would be less dangerous than if it just happened by accident.”

“This is true. I can’t order you not to experiment. Just be careful.”

The next day Marie and Elliot arrived together.

“What’s this?” Elliot asked, pointing at a piece I had just finished.

“That’s Duke,” I said. The piece was a one-foot tall replica of Duke the last time I saw him. “Dr. Hauser would always bring Duke to work but he can’t do that any more. I figured he might like this for his desk at work.”

“That’s a beautiful looking dog.”

As we started running out of new experiments, Marie convinced Elliot that getting a timing on how long taking a sip of a statue increased the duration of their petrification. I didn’t want to take chances on draining someone to death. The two of them made multiple arguments about how I needed to know everything about my hunger.

“If you do both of us, we can compare notes afterward,” Elliot said.

I rubbed the side of my boobs. I was feeling bloated. I was not in the mood to argue. I had told Dr. Lewis only recently that I wasn’t planning to practice this kind of thing because it was dangerous. I sighed and told them to pose. Marie was immediately in a majestic pose. Elliot knelt down before her as if pleading for something. I flashed them without warning and they were made of stone in a heartbeat. I tapped the timer app on my phone and then approached Marie.

“I'm going to take a sip now.” My eyelid was still open and the swirls within her were familiar. I placed my hand on her chest and waited a moment, verifying I was in control. I drew as small a sip as I could. The ambrosia within her flowed for just a second. It was still divine. I left my hand in place for a second before removing it. I repeated the process on Elliot.

While equally divine and delicious, I noticed that they tasted different. There were distinct and subtle differences between their sweet nectar and the taste of other beings I had tasted, including Mr. Hauser and even Duke.

Elliot revived about thirty seconds before she did. The clock timer said eighty-two minutes had passed. We repeated the test and, on average, my quick sip added about twenty minutes to the overall duration. I had hoped we were done.

“Did you feel the pull, Elliot?” she said.

“This time I did.”

Marie had said the sips felt like I was tugging on her somehow. “You did? It's like a rope tied around my rib cage was gently tugged when the sip happens.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I wonder what a longer... drink would feel like.”

“I've already said this is dangerous.”

“I am curious myself,” Elliot said.

“Not today,” I said. I finally won an argument about this. I only noticed afterward that my bloating had subsided.

Marie, Elliot, and I would each lunch together at school on the days Stacy didn’t ask me to eat with her and her friends. Those days Marie and Elliot eat lunch at a table together.

One Tuesday, while eating lunch with Stacy and her friends, I spent most of the time there watching Elliot and Marie laughing together.

“Earth to Medusa,” Melody said.

“What?”

Stacy said, “I said, are you coming with us shopping on Friday? It's been a month since our last shopping trip. You need to add a few more things to your wardrobe.”

“Fridays, I'm usually busy. Thursday would be better.”

“You let me know.”

Wednesday afternoon, Elliot and I were in my garage after school when he said, “I have a question.”

“Okay.”

“Marie and I won't be able to come over Friday night. Will that bother you?”

“How do you know Marie can't make it?”

“Because she and I are going on a date.”

My stomach twisted into a knot. “Why would that bother me?”

“I can tell you’re upset.”

“I'm not.”

“Okay. I believe you. Are you happy for me?”

The question hung in the air a little too long before I said, “Of course.”

“Medusa, my friend. I don't want to hurt you. If you say, 'Don't date, Marie,' I won't. But, please be honest with yourself if not me.”

I sat in silence for a moment looking at the floor. “You can date anyone you want to, Elliot. I'm not a child. Yes, I think I'm a bit jealous. But, I'm also not ready to date anyone. Marie likes you. It's obvious. Find out what might develop.”

“You're sure?”

“No, I'm not sure. Just don't overthink it. You won't get rid of me by dating her. She likes being petrified too much to mess up our relationship.” I laughed.

“I suppose that's true.” He gave me a hug. “Thanks for being understanding.”

Friday morning, Tommy and Ryan made sure to be talking very loudly about women who have penises and implying I was one of them. I ignored them. But, Ryan used his trick on my shoes and I just stepped right out of them.

They laughed. “That usually works better with sneakers,” Ryan said.

“Hand me my shoes, Ryan,” I said.

“Why don't you just pick them up?”

“Because I know they probably weigh a ton by now. You will pick them up and hand them to me.”

“Sure,” he said. He picked them up and held them out.

As I reached for them, I pushed them toward him and let go. As they landed on his foot he let out a scream. Guess they were a lot heavier than they looked. The gathered crowd was laughing at him. I quickly picked up my shoes and left.

All during the shopping trip on Friday I was wondering what Elliot and Marie were doing. I swear I wasn’t mopey. But, they took me home rather than back to Melody's house for a fashion show.

I was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling when Mom tapped at my door frame. “Can I come in?” she said.

“Sure.”

“I noticed you didn’t spend any time in the garage with Elliot and Marie tonight.” She sat on my desk chair.

“It happens.”

“No, it doesn’t. Something you want to talk about?”

“Not really.” We sat in silence until I said, “They're on a date.”

“Elliot and Marie?”

“Yes.”

“A date date?”

“Is that a surprise?”

“It is. What do they have in common besides you?”

“Marie is into professional video game competitions. She knows far more about video games than I ever cared to know about it and apparently Elliot is into it, too. I never knew. She's even qualified for a semi-final for a military squad tactics game.”

“She's that good at video games?”

“She even streams. Has a ton of followers. Mostly because she’s a gorgeous girl who’s good at the games.”

“And all of this is a problem for you?”

“It isn't. And it is. I'm happy for Elliot, assuming tonight goes well. It will.”

She got up. “I know this probably doesn't help. But, the idea that one of you would have a girlfriend before the other was always something I worried about in the past. I hoped you guys would deal with it maturely. You being a woman doesn't fundamentally change the dynamic. Or does it?”

“Elliot is like a brother to me.”

“Good.”

“But, he isn't my brother.”

“Um...”

“I'm not ready for any of this. I told him not to waste an opportunity.”

“That's very mature.”

“Girls mature faster than boys.”

“We do.”

She kissed me on the forehead and left. Eventually, I fell asleep.

As I expected, the date was fabulous. They still spent Saturday with me being petrified. The first time I tried more than a sip, I slipped and Elliot turned back to flesh after three hours but Marie was still petrified.

“Three hours? How much more of sip did you take?” He said.

“It felt like maybe three or four sips worth. I'm as confused as you are.”

“How many sips did you take from Marie?”

“I messed up. Probably five or six sips worth. Based on what I can see with my special sight, she's probably got another three or fours to go.”

“At least we know she's enjoying it.”

“We also need a better unit of measure than sips.”

“I kind of like sips. It goes well with how you described how we taste.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said my life-force had a smokey flavor and hers was more floral. It's like we're expensive sipping whiskeys. So, sip seems like a great word for it.”

“I suppose it's better than comparing it to wine tasting,” I said. I changed my voice to sound more snooty, “Elliot pairs well with poultry.”

We laughed.

“How was your date?” I said after an awkward pause.

“It was good, I guess. I don't think I'm supposed to talk to my best friend about my date while my girlfriend is standing four feet away from me.”

“I'm not sure what the proper etiquette for that is,” I said, continuing in the snooty voice.

“She's fun. And when she's not like this, she's vivacious. We went for a walk in the park after dinner and she was constantly dragging me to see one cool thing then quickly to another. I'm never really seen the park before until I saw it though her eyes.”

I had brought it on myself. I smiled and said all the right things. But, I felt a small part of me dying inside. Unusual thoughts crept through my head: why couldn’t she have been boring? Why doesn't she have a terrible laugh?

She was restored after six hours and fifty minutes. They had to leave shortly thereafter.

Elliot and Marie were inseparable the next few weeks of school. I spent most lunch periods with Stacy and her posse. I still walked to school with Elliot, unless Marie drove past and picked us both up. Elliot use to spend every afternoon in my garage where we just hung out. These weeks he was only around on Tuesday and Wednesday by himself and Friday with Marie.

“I was thinking,” she said. “What happens if two people are touching when you zap them and then take a sip from one of them? The bird drew my life-force when I was holding it.”

“You just want to smooch Elliot as a statue.”

“I do.” She giggled. “Can we? You don't mind do you?”

“Just don't grope one another in front of me.”

“Okay.” She grabbed Elliot and they embraced and kissed one another.

I zapped them. They made a cute statue couple. I took a few pics because Marie was always sad when I forgot to take pics of her and Elliot as statues.

I put my phone down and opened my life-force vision. It was interesting. Some of the life force flowing through them was definitely jumping into the other where their lips met. I wondered what that meant. The stopwatch app was past ten minutes before I put my hand on Elliot's back and took a sip.

After enjoying the initial hit of his ambrosia, I noticed that he tasted different. There were notes of her taste in his. There was definitely a flow of life force running from her to him.

I touched her and took a second sip. The flow passing across their lips ran into her for a few moments. Normally, one sip from each of them would last a total of eighty minutes for each of them. As I waited, I did some homework. But I was distracted and the stop watch time slipped past eighty minutes without any changes in them. The watch was at one hundred twenty-five minutes when they both revereted together.

“How long?” She asked.

“Over two hours. Just like a normal two sips of a single subject.”

“You could see us swapping life energy before the sip?” Elliot said.

“I said that out loud? I guess I did. Yes. I should have guessed you were just one statue from the trick's point of view.”

“I felt both tugs,” he said.

“Yeah, I felt when you sipped him and when you sipped me,” she said.

I was in the stairwell at school when a voice behind me said, “Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

I stopped on the landing and turned around, face to face with Ross Perry. He was on the last step of the downward stairs. As I said, “Yes?” he stepped up onto the landing and I had to look up to look him in the eye. Ross was on the basketball team mostly because he was about seven feet tall. He was the only person in school taller than me.

“Medusa, right? I was wondering if we could go out for donuts and coffee on Saturday together.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Yeah, like a date. You like guys, right? I wasn't sure. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.”

“I don't know what to say.”

“I'd prefer, 'Yes'. If you're busy Saturday we can pick another day. Or you can say, 'No'. I just thought you might enjoy my company.”

“Okay. You aren’t put off by these? Or that I use to be a guy?”

“No, and no. I dig the snakes. And I'm sure you having once been a guy is more a thing for you than it is for me.”

“You have no idea.”

“If you aren't willing to go, for any reason, just say so, I can take it.”

“No, I think I should go. A donuts and coffee date sounds like fun. Maybe eleven o'clock?”

“Sounds good. I'll pick you up and take us to a shop around eleven.”

“Okay. It's a date. I'll send you my address.”

“Sounds good.” He smiled and walked away.

Melody was beside herself when I mentioned the date at lunch. “Ross Perry. Oh Em Gee. He’s so tall. You have to wear heels on this date.”

“Heels? On a donuts and coffee date?” Tess said. “That might make her seem desperate.”

“Ross is taller than our giantess friend by several inches. Heels are almost necessary,” Stacy said.

“You should wear that aubergine sun dress,” Melody said.

“That's purple, by the way,” Tess said.

“I sculpt and draw. I know more than eight colors.”

“No need to be snippy.”

“I am a bit moody.”

“Is it that time of the month again?”

“Yes, third time starting Monday if I'm regular.”

Elliot and Marie were happy for me.

“Are the fashion police driving you nuts about what to wear?” Marie said.

“Yes. Apparently I have an aubergine dress that will look fabulous.”

“That should be a good color for your coppery and green skin.”

“Yeah, I've taken art classes. It rarely comes up with sculpting, but I know a thing or two about color. I'm just not use to applying it to clothes.”

They made other plans for Friday so I could get a good night's sleep before my date.

Saturday could not arrive fast enough. I woke at seven and had breakfast with Mom. She didn’t mention the date, thankfully. After breakfast, I showered and painted my nails. I put on the dress Melody suggested. It was shoulderless, with a half sleeve on the upper arms only. I spend nearly an hour trying to decide how I should shade my eyes. I went with a palette that I found pleasing containing a blend of dark green and light purple. I used my usual dark green lipstick. I tied a few purple bows around the necks of the four longest hairsnakes. Three of them liked how they looked and the fourth I could tell was just tolerating it. I had started calling that one Dirk at some point. It fit him. And, yes, he was definitely a masculine hairsnake.

I buckled the tops of my black heels. They were taller than the ones I usually wore, just over five inches. I would still be shorted than Ross with them on. I had checked the contents of my clutch twice when the doorbell rang. I heard Mom shout she was getting it as I left my room.

“Medusa should be down in a moment,” I heard her say as I descended the stairs.

He was wearing jeans. I felt a bit over dressed. But, then I saw he was wearing a polo shirt so he was a little dressed up compared to a T-shirt.

“You look amazing, Medusa. I should have worn my khakis.”

“You look fine,” my mother said. “Have fun, you two.”

As we walked to his car, he said, “I love the heels. It's amazing that I don't have to look down to see your eyes.”

“I understand. I tower over a lot of people myself.”

He held the door to his car open for me. And closed it after I was seated in the passenger seat. After he got in, I said, “Where are we going?”

“Ever heard of Guilt Free Desserts?”

“Who hasn't? Is that where we're going? It's, like, on the far side of Spiral.”

“It's only twenty-five minutes away. Is that too far? I thought we could talk on the way there. We could just go to an Apollos.”

“No, that's fine. I've always wanted to try Guilt Free.”

He drove us to the crosstown highway. “So, I'm not sure about Twisted etiquette. Do I ask you about your twist early on a first date or late or do I save it for a future date?”

“I have no idea if there is such etiquette.”

“I wouldn't know. No one in my family is Twisted. I'm a natural mutant.”

“People must assume you're Twisted all the time.”

“Yep. They also want to know what my trick is. Other than a high percentage at the free throw line, I don't have anything close to a trick.”

“Were you always into b-ball?”

“Not initially. When I had my first big growth spurt in sixth grade, it felt like everybody was telling me I should be a basketball player. So, naturally I resisted the idea. I hadn’t been especially athletic before that. My cousin Archie convinced me to try it and gave me a few lessons in dribbling and stuff. I still can't say I'm into basketball. I don't watch pro or college games much. Are you into sports?”

“No. I was a bit too nerdy before this.”

“Doesn't matter. What are you now?”

“I wish I knew.”

“You will. You should come to one our games. See if you like it more with someone you're rooting for.”

“When is your next game?”

“Monday. We have a home game against North. We usually beat them. Though, who knows if they are any good this year.”

“I'm free Monday afternoon. I'll stop by if I can.”

“That's great. If all goes well, we can go somewhere after the game. And if today goes well.”

I just smiled.

“So, what's it like?”

“What's what like?”

“Any of it. Twisting? Being a girl? Being a mythic character? I'd like to hear anything about all those things you would be willing to share. Or I can continue talking about myself.”

“No, it's my turn,” I said. “Both my parents are Twisted so I always knew I would Twist. I have not spent a lot of time dwelling on being a girl. My father drilled into me not to get to attached to the old me and I guess that advice worked.”

“You don't miss being a guy?”

“Every time I sit down to pee.” We both laughed. “But, that's not important. I don't enjoy my periods any more or less than any other woman.”

“So, the rumors that moron Tommy says about what your packing under that dress are false? Good to know.”

“Yeah, about two weeks after my twist I was officially initiated into the sisterhood. Would you have asked me out if you thought he was right?”

“Probably. I'm not expecting to see under your dress.”

“Ever?”

“Expecting. If things go well, after some time together, who knows?”

“Okay. The gorgon thing was, of course, a complete surprise, as is the nature of my twists.”

“Ironic, too.”

“I can see that now. My friend Elliot's been great. He's helped hone the control of my trick by getting petrified by me far too often.”

“What's that like?”

“For him or for me?”

“Either. Both.”

“It's easy for me. I have two eyelids. When I open the inner eyelids, my trick activates. It's literally no big deal for me. For him? He says it's mostly boring. If nothing is happening, you barely notice the time passing, people say.”

“Elliot. I’m not sure which of your old friends that is. Is he the one dating Marie Applebottom?”

“Yes, they’re dating.”

“She doesn't mind that Elliot hangs out with you?”

“She wants to be there, too. Don't tell anyone. But, she actually likes being petrified.”

“She likes being bored?”

“I don't know why.”

“Do you have more friends now that you've twisted?”

“I think I do. The old me had a reputation for being a nerd. These days, only people like Tommy treat me like they treated Gordon.”

The conversation drifted into a discussion of the various clicks around school. Soon, we arrived at the bakery. There were people standing in line out the door and down past two neighboring stores. There were saw horses with Spiral police department logos placed to indicate where people should stand. Luckily, Ross found a parking spot not too far from the entrance. We got out and walked to the end of the line.

We got more than a few stares. Some of them were for Ross but most of them were for me. It was a little disconcerting to be stared at by so many people. I hadnt spent a lot of time out in public.

“You're popular here. You’re a stunning beauty, no doubt.”

“Yes. No other reason I might be stared at would make sense.”

As we approached the end of the line, the couple we were going to stand behind turned toward us. The guy said, “Those things are alive?”

“The snakes? Yes.”

“Can I touch one?”

“I wouldn't advise it. They are venomous.”

He was about to reach out but put his hand down after that.

“I apologize for Gerry's forwardness,” the woman said. “He has personal boundary issues.”

“I’m sure the visually Twisted get asked similar things all the time,” Gerry said, failing to defend himself.

“Why do you think my date is Twisted?” Ross said.

“Well, obviously… um, she… just look at her.”

“So, you judge people and pigeon hole them based on looks.”

“I didn’t… I…” Gerry looked like he wanted to storm off.

The woman with him said, “Just shut your mouth, Gerry. Thanks for that. He needed it.” Gerry turned to argue with her. She took Gerry to the end of the line putting a few people between us.

When we reached the doorway of the shop, we could see several display cases filled with pastries. There were still five or six people in front of us. The room smelled even better than the scent that had been spilling out the door.

A little boy sitting with his mother by the entrance looked at me and said, “You’re tall.”

“Am I tall?” Ross said.

“You both are.”

“Don’t bother the nice people,” his mother said.

“Why do you have hair, Mommy?” he said. “Snakes would be so much cooler.”

I leaned down. “Do you want to touch one of my snakes?”

“Yes, Yes.”

“What do you say, Jeremy?”

“May I please touch one of your snakes?”

“Only if you promise not to pull on it.”

“I promise.”

I had one of the long snake float down toward him. “Cup it in your hand and pet it with the other hand.”

He held out his hand and the snake nestled in it. He stroked the back of the snake. “What’s its name?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “What do you call your arm?”

“Arms don’t have names.”

“They don’t?”

“I call my right arm Priscilla.”

“I think its name is Foggy.”

“We have to move forward,” Ross said.

“Maybe, it is. Say goodbye to Foggy.”

“Bye, Foggy,” he said. “Before you go, can we take a picture together?”

“Sure.” I crouched down and his mother got her phone out.

“Say cheese danish.”

She took the pic and Ross handed her his phone. “Can you take one of us?”

“Sure, stand together.” She snapped a pic.

“Have a nice day.”

We stepped away from the table and closer to the counter.

“Lovely boy,” Ross said.

“Jeremy. I’ll never forget the first man to ask to touch my snakes nicely.”

“No one’s ever asked before?”

“No one’s ever asked nicely.”

“I’ll remember that.”

We purchased a dozen pastries intending to bring some of them home. We found a seat in the shop and ate one pastry each while drinking coffee.

“These are divine,” he said.

They were amazing, to a point. I found them lacking in some way I could not pinpoint.

“Is there something wrong?” Ross said. How was he so empathetic?

“No, I think my sense of taste is off.”

“That happens, doesn’t it?”

“I hadn’t noticed it before. I also haven’t had many pastries since my twist. They’re great. Don’t worry about that. I just think I expected them to be even better than they are.”

“I suppose that is a problem the bakery sometimes deals with.”

We got back in the car and started the drive back to our part of town. Ross made small talk about the scenery. It was nice to engage with him without it feeling like we were interrogating one another. At some point, I blurted out, “Have you dated a lot of girls?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve dated two other women. The first one was just one date. We had nothing in common. The second one took three dates to figure out we had nothing in common. Why do you ask?”

“This is my first date.”

“You hadn’t dated before…?”

“No. I never had enough nerve to ask anyone.”

“Well, I hope we’re doing okay at the moment.” After an awkward silence, he said. “What do you do with your time?”

“I sculpt. I make clay sculptures.”

“That’s cool. Kind of ironic.”

“Tell me about it. I recently did a bust of Marie Applebottom. It came out quite well.”

“I’d love to see it. I wish I were artistic. My sister is. She can draw anything. But she never finishes any of her stuff.”

“Finishing is important,” I said. He allowed me to prattle on about the sculpting process and how I got into it.

“Do you really make new sculptures all the time?”

“Not really. Other than the bust of Marie and one piece, I haven’t done much sculpting at all recently.”

“Why?”

“I’ve been spending time learning how to control my trick.”

“Turning Elliot and Marie into statues.”

“Yes.”

“How long have you and Elliot been friends?”

“Since we were toddlers, I think. I use to worry I’d have a big personality change when I twisted and we wouldn’t remain friends. But, if anything, it seems we’re closer than before.”

“I wish I had a friend like that.”

“Who do you hang out with?”

“Mostly guys on the team.”

The car turned onto my street and he parked in front of my house.

“I had a lovely time,” he said.

“So did I.”

We both got out of the car and he walked me up to the front door. He handed me one of the boxes from the pasty store.

“This is for you and your family.”

“Thanks. Would you like to see my studio slash garage?”

“I would.”

I led him away from the front door to the breezeway between the house and the garage. I opened the door to the garage and turned on the light.

“Sorry about the mess. But, then, it’s always something of a mess. That part over there is Mom and Dad’s stuff. The studio is this section here.”

“Are those cloth covered things on the shelf your pieces?”

“Yes. This was the one I did before my twist.” I uncovered the bust with my face.

“It looks just like you. Except for the hair.”

“I know. I never thought it was finished. Now, I know it was the hair.”

“Are you going to fix it?”

“No, I like to think this is what I would look like with hair.”

“Do you miss your hair?”

“No. I’ve gotten too use to these guys floating around my head.”

“They do give you a striking presence.”

After he had given the bust a close look, he ended up standing right next to me. I could smell his scent over the pervading scent of clay in the room. He was looking me in the eyes and I could tell my snakes were checking him out as well.

He leaned forward. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. His lips touched mine. His hands were touching my upper and lower back, pulling me into the kiss. My arms were useless. They just hung out to the side for the first few seconds of the kiss. Then, they wrapped around him.

The door to the breezeway opened and Ross and I were suddenly three feet apart. “I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I saw the car and was wondering where you two were.”

“I was just showing him the bust I made that looks like me,” I said, pointing at the shelf.

“It’s an uncanny likeness,” Ross said.

“I’ll get out of you hair... snakes,” Mom said awkwardly and left.

Ross and I stared at each other for a moment before laughing.

“Was she more embarrassed than we were?” I said.

“Let’s say she was. It was a beautiful kiss.”

“It was.”

“I should probably go.”

“Maybe we could do something after school Monday,” I said.

“After my game Monday,” he said.

“Right. I’ll be there.”

We kissed once more for who knows how long before he left. I brought the pastries into the house. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen.

“Someone had a good date,” she said.

“He is so nice. No, not just nice. Considerate.” I told them about the encounter with Gerry.

“He sounds very thoughtful,” Mom said. “I’ve been putting this off until you felt comfortable with yourself. But, we need to schedule an appointment.”

“For what?”

“You need to see a gynecologist.”

“Um…”

“I know you don’t want to think about this. But, delaying it will only make it seem scarier.”

“Okay. But, not Monday. I’m seeing Ross after school.”

“Okay, dear.”

Elliot called me Sunday night. “Hey, how’s it going?” He said.

“You and Marie have been spending a lot of time together.”

“Yes. I heard you had a good time Saturday.”

“From who?”

“Ross posted online.”

“Oh, the pic Ross had that woman take.” I looked up his social and found the photo.

“You two look so tall. That guy next to Ross is like more than a head shorter than both of you.”

“I was in heels. Ross is really tall.”

“You both were really smiley in this pic. Was the whole date smiley?”

“We had a good time. Ross is very thoughtful.”

“Yeah? I’ve never really spoken to him. Marie thought you two looked great in the photo. So, second date?”

“We’re going to do something after his game Monday afternoon.”

“I’m so happy for you.”

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

Monday started out weird and just got weirder. First, I was up early and spent most of the morning before school trying to decide what to wear for my second date with Ross. It had to be something that would also be good to wear all day in school. It took forever to decide on an outfit that, last week, I probably would have chosen without a second thought. The worst part was my assumption that Ross probably wasn’t thinking about his outfit at all.

Then, I did my makeup and it, for some reason, was difficult because I could not decide which combination of eye shadows looked best on my copper and green skin. Mom knocked on my door as I was adding a marigold eyeliner. “Not yet, Mom,” I called out. “I’m lining my eyelids.”

“You’re going to be late. I can see Elliot walking this way.”

“Okay, thanks, Mom.”

I finished up quickly and was out the door before Elliot could ring the doorbell.

“Don’t you look all spiffy,” he said.

“What this? I just threw on the first thing I saw.”

“Yep, and it turned out rather spiffy.” After a moment he said, “You’re nervous. I totally understand. I was nervous the first day of school after Marie and I went on our first date.

“Is it obvious?”

“Only to someone who’s been there recently. Relax. You had a good date. You’ve set up a second date. School should only be its normal level of awkward.”

“That’s a relief.”

We made it to school just in time to get to our first classes. After class Stacy walked with me to my next class. “Looking good, Em.” The Fashion Police had started calling me Em. “How was your date?”

“We can talk at lunch. Short answer: great.”

“Great. Can’t wait till lunch time.”

Before lunch, I saw Ross down the hall between classes. He smiled at me and then disappeared into the rush of students trying to get to their next class. Someone bumped into me from behind because I had stopped short. It was not until I was in my next class that I realized my hair snakes had not hissed at the intruder. They had been as distracted as I had been.

I was grilled at lunch by the girls and apparently the kid gloves with which I had been treated up until now were gone. They wanted to know everything and I could not keep any details private from them. I finally felt just like one of the girls with them.

When classes ended for the day, I rushed down to the gymnasium. The boys on the team were running in circles bouncing basketballs up and down and passing them between one another in a manner that looked like a choreographed dance. I didn't know much about basketball but I think it was called drilling. Ross towered over the other players. Only Ryan came close.

As I watched I didn't notice Jenny until she was sitting next to me. I said, "Hi."

"You're here to watch Ross? He is so hot."

"Won't Tommy be mad if he heard you say that? "

"He knows better than to be like that. Heck, he'd probably say Ross is hot."

"Really? I never would have thought those words could come from his mouth."

"Oh, no, he wouldn't say that in public or in front of friends. Maybe he'd joke about how hot Ross is in the locker room. But he has told me a few guys in school are hot."

"Why does he hate me?"

"It's all because of his asshole friends. Hell, if I ever dumped him, and he could figure out how to woo you, given the history, he'd date you in a second."

"I find that impossible to believe."

"I don't blame you. I've tried to get him to stop hanging with those idiots but they're all on the football team and he doesn't want to rock the boat. If he did, he would apologize for all he's done to you."

"Are you sure you know him as well as you think?"

She laughed. "Maybe I don't. But I believe what I'm telling you."

The game started and it only took the first ten minutes for Jenny to say, "You don't know anything about basketball, do you?"

"Not really."

She started explaining the game to me. Ross was the Center because he was the tallest player on the team. I remembered Ross telling me that and I wasn't sure what it meant.

At the end of the first half, I said, "Thanks for explaining what's going on in the game."

"You aren't the first girl I've had to explain basketball to."

"I'm sure I'm the first one who used to be a guy that you've helped in this way."

"Don't assume." She ignored the surprised look on my face and continued, "I saw the bust you made of Marie. You’re very talented. I will completely understand if you say no, but could you make a bust for me. I'd be happy to pay for it."

"A bust of you?"

For the first time since she sat down she seemed apprehensive and unsure. "I'd like a bust of me and Tommy, kissing. I can model my part and I have a photo of us kissing that would be so cool in 3D."

"And all that stuff about me not understanding Tommy was to get me to agree to do it?"

"Not as such. Please? I know you probably hate him. But I love him. And it would be a gift to him. He's always giving me thoughtful gifts and I want to one up him."

"He'd probably break it if he knew I was involved."

"I wasn't planning to tell him where I got it."

"Let me think about it."

"That's more than reasonable."

Jenny and I were waiting outside the boys locker room when both Ross and Tommy exited. They bid one another a good evening. Tommy didn’t say word to me. Jenny and I said goodbye to one another.

Ross drove us to a quiet coffee shop not far from my house. “I saw you were sitting next to Jenny during the game. “

“She knows a lot about basketball.”

“She does. Did you know she and I went on a date before she started going steady with Tommy?”

“No, I didn’t. She was the only one date girl?”

“Yes, I told her I didn’t think it would work out.”

“She still thinks you’re hot.”

“Am I hot?”

“The hottest.”

At the coffee shop we ordered beverages and sat on a sofa. “You’ve asked me a lot a questions. I still know very little about you,” I said.

“We’ve established that I’m the hottest, I believe,” he said with a wide smile. “Ask me anything.”

“Do you have any hobbies?”

“Aside from basketball? Actually that’s not really a hobby. It’s fun. But, it’s not a core part of me. I read a lot, mostly mystery thriller stuff.”

“When I suggested an action movie you didn’t want to see it.”

“I don’t think thrillers really translate to film very well. A thriller isn’t a scary story, it’s an edge-of-your-seat story. While some action films can give you that feeling, I far prefer reading them.”

“I guess I never really thought about it.”

“And that’s fine. I’ll give you one of my favorite books if you want.”

“Sure.”

We talked for a couple hours before we noticed it was getting late. He drove me home and we kissed for a moment in the car. He walked me to the front door and we kissed again. He had to get home for dinner so he didn’t come inside.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, Mom said, “How was your date?”

“It was good. We mostly just talked.”

“You could have invited him in for dinner.”

“He said he had to go home for dinner.”

Elliot noticed the photographs as soon as he entered. “Are you stalking Tommy and Jenny? Have you finally decided how to get your revenge?”

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“I’m just joking. I suppose you decided to make the bust for Jenny.”

“Yeah. I didn’t have anything else going on. And she’s paying for it. I can deal with Tommy’s face because I’m being professional.”

“She’ll be here Thursday so I can start the details of the bust. I was actually thinking you and Marie might want to model for the kissing part.”

“Well, I’m flattered. Am I as good looking as Tommy?”

“On the inside, where it matters.”

He laughed. “I’ll take it.”

“Where is Marie?”

“She’ll be here around five. She had an appointment.”

When she arrived she was eager to be petrified while kissing Elliot. I took a few pictures of them kissing, trying to match one of the photos Jenny had given me. We spent a few moments picking which photo would look best as a bust before I zapped them. I took a small sip part way through working on the bust. After an hour and a half, I had a rough sculpt of two generic people kissing. Marie and Elliot had to leave after that.

Jenny arrived at my house around four on Thursday. She liked the pose of the bust so far. She saw the stool and asked if she would sit there when she posed.

“Posed? I doubt you can pose all kissy-faced for very long.”

“I thought you would do your thing to me.”

“Why would think that?”

“Marie told me she posed for her bust.”

“You want me to petrify you?”

“Yes. Is that a problem? I’m really curious about it.”

“Curious, you say?”

“Marie isn’t the only person you know who’s contemplated being petrified.”

I laughed. “I had no idea it was so popular.”

“I’m serious. I first saw that Greek myth movie from the eighties when I was eleven. I must have cried for days when Perseus cut off the head of the gorgon. Do you know what kind of raw deal your namesake had?”

“Being cursed for getting raped? Yes, I’m aware of the parts of the myth most people don’t know about.”

“So, you’ll do it.”

“I’d have done it without the explanation. But I appreciate knowing what you said.”

“How should I pose?”

For almost half an hour we tried to get her to pose as if she were kissing someone. But it never looked right. I took a bunch of photos and she agreed she wasn’t doing it right. We could not get her to look right by herself.

“What if I kissed you?” She said.

“That could work. But how will I know how you look from a distance if I’m right next to you?”

“Take a selfie of us and we’ll see if I look better.”

We tried it. Her lips tasted of some kind of berry and we may have kissed a bit longer than was necessary. The selfie was much better. And after a second selfie, we were sure she would look right. We kissed a third time and I admit I let the kiss linger a moment longer than necessary before opening my inner eye and turning her to stone.

“What the fuck!”

My hairsnakes opened their eyes to see Tommy rushing toward me. The next thing I knew I was in serious pain as he had grabbed a handful of my snakes and tossed me to the ground.

“What is going on in here?” My mother said, suddenly appearing in the doorway. “Look out!” She shouted.

“Oh fuck, no!” Tommy shouted.

I heard a loud thump and a crack. When I got up Tommy was holding his head, his face went from shock to utter despair and he started bawling and repeating the word “no” over and over.

“Oh my god,” my mother said.

I noticed Jenny wasn’t standing where I left her. I stood up. She had fallen backwards, her head no longer attached to her neck.

“You can fix her, can’t you?” Tommy said, tears running down his face. “Dear god, I’ll do anything. Anything. You have to fix her.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” I screamed at him. “I don’t know if I can fix her. But I know I don’t need your fucking noise.”

“I’m going. I’m going. Ple--” he shut up and disappeared from the garage.

“Can you fix her?”

“I don’t know, Mom. Help me stand her back up.”

“He killed me,” Jenny said. She was in my arms as I carried her to the living room.

“He could have killed you,” I said. “You are alive. If you had shattered more, well, then he would have killed you.”

“I felt it. I felt myself falling. I felt it when I hit the ground. There was a loud cracking sound reverberating through my body. And then nothing. I was dead.”

She wasn’t wrong. But, I didn’t want her to completely freak out. I was barely holding it together. My stomach was flipping and flopping. I had to leave.

“I’m guessing you’re tired,” I said as I laid her down. The strain I was under was obvious though I doubt she noticed. “Sleep a while.”

“Okay.”

She fell asleep almost immediately. As soon as she did, I ran up the stairs to my room, removing my clothes as I went. Naked with my door shut, I transformed into my snake form and grabbed a canvas bag. I was out the window in a flash. I paralyzed a few small critters as I zipped into the forest. When I had a bag full of paralyzed critters I stopped and took one out of the bag. My body was screaming at me to suck the poor thing dry. I stood there holding the squirrel for several minutes before I opened my inner eyelid. It turned to stone in an instant. I put my palm on its chest and I slowly drained it. I stopped before it went completely gray and I set it aside.

I removed the next animal from the bag and repeated this controlled consumption of their life force. Eventually the bag was empty and I was surrounded by a stone menagerie. A menagerie of animals that would come back to life eventually.

It took over thirty animals to quench my hunger.

After standing the statue up, Mom said, “You can do something. I can see it in your eyes.”

“I need to look at her with my special vision.”

“I’ll leave.” She kissed me on the cheek as disappeared from the garage. The door slammed shut behind her.

When I opened my eyes, I was disheartened. There were no moving lines in the statue. Faintly, I could see where the lines would be. But they weren’t active. I looked at the head, still puckered up for a kiss. The memory of her lips on mine was all the more maddening. There were lines there. But they were quickly leaking out of the neck of the statue.

I quickly put the head on the neck of the statue. But it did not connect. There was no flow within the body for the flow within the head to connect to. I put my palm on the body near the break and for the first time pushed life force out of myself. It hurt. My body didn’t like what I was doing. I pushed some more. After a few moments, I couldn’t move. I felt my skin harden and the color drained out of my body. I had become petrified. I was holding her head in place and I could see my lifeforce flowing into her body and her head where I was touching her.

What had I done? Were we both going to die?

I was overjoyed when I could see the lifeforce flowing from her head into her body. Lines became more visible and took on the colors I was use to seeing. More of her life functions became visible to me.

“Medusa?”

I heard my mother calling me from outside the garage. I couldn’t answer. My phone rang on the table where I’d left it.

“Medusa?”

She must have called my name for a few minutes before she stopped. Then I saw her walking slowly around Jenny and I. “I hope you’re okay, honey,” she said. And then she left.

A moment later, Elliot was circling us. He was standing where I could see him. “It’s been two hours. She said she remembered to look at a clock when she left you to look at Jenny. I assume you’ll be stuck until the life forces equalize. And since it’s been over an hour, Jenny must not have had much life force. Did she?”

No, Elliot, she didn’t. I wanted to tell him.

He left shortly after that.

The sun rose. It hadn’t felt like we were standing alone together for eleven or twelve hours. I finally experienced time as a statue only feeling like five minutes.

At least another six hours passed before it happened. Suddenly we were made of flesh and bone again. Jenny collapsed into my arms and I was feeling the hunger. I picked her up and carried her into the house.

Everyone I knew was suddenly in front of me talking at once. I nearly zapped them all. “I have to leave. Stay back.” I growled at them.

Mom, Daddy, Elliot, Marie, and Ross took hold of the man and woman I didn’t recognize, whom I guessed were Jenny’s parents, and disappeared into the kitchen.

As soon as Jenny fell asleep, I ran up the stairs to my room.

I sat in the clearing for an hour or so before I heard Elliot calling out. “Is it safe?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

He was with Marie and Ross. I rushed toward Ross and he held his arms out. We hugged and kissed for a few moments before separating.

“So, I’m guessing this is the other form.”

“Good guess,” I said. “How is she?”

“Still asleep. The Wu’s had her pediatrician examine her. She seems no worse for losing her head.”

“It was never lost. It was right there on the floor,” I said.

“She’s fine,” Elliot said with a laugh. “Let’s leave her and Ross alone, Marie.”

“Are you fine?” Ross said.

“Fine enough to joke about it. Sure. Has Tommy been back?”

“Jenny was awake for a few moments and when Mrs. Wu asked if she should call Tommy. Jenny told her to let him stew about it.”

“She did say she believed he killed her.”

“She isn’t dead.”

“She was.”

The three of them were shocked.

I told them about pushing my lifeforce into her to get lifeforce to flow within her body.

“Cool. You’re also a healer.”

“Can you explain what happened from the beginning?” Marie said. “I still feel like I missed part of it.”

“Oh, yeah, Mom probably couldn’t explain how it started.” I told them the whole story, starting with the basketball game to explain why she wanted the bust.

“He just burst into the garage?”

“I’m not sure what his problem was,” I said. And then I blushed. “He may have seen us kissing.”

“You were kissing Jenny Wu?”

I blushed, or I suppose I oranged, even more. I explained why we were kissing staring into Ross’ eyes the whole time, pleading.

He didn’t say anything at first. “You don’t have to worry about me kissing John or Ryan as revenge for this.”

He said it so seriously I thought he was mad until he smiled and kissed me.

“It was all for art. I’d kiss Jenny for art’s sake too if she asked me.”

“Me, too.”

“Me, too. And if Elliot did it, I’d just ask him to tell me how it felt.”

“It felt great. Her lips are so soft.”

“I’m sure she would say the same about yours,” Ross said. And he kissed me some more.

“Should we leave?”

“No, we can all head back to the house together.”

When we got back to the house, Dr. Parker and Dr. Lewis from the Clinic were there as well as a police office. They were seated in our kitchen talking with Mom and Daddy and Mr. and Mrs. Wu.

I had to go over the story again from start to finish. And I had to do it in my snake form. The doctors and the police officer asked questions for over an hour before the officer was satisfied. She turned to Mr. and Mrs. Wu and said, “Do you think your daughter will want to press charges of assault against Tommy Radner?”

“No, they are dating.”

“And do you want to press charges against Mr. Radner?” She said to me.

Gordon would have jumped at the chance to do that. But I was no longer Gordon. Gordon didn’t exist any more. “No. I’m sure whatever he’s going through now is punishment enough.”

“Usually I’d say punishments are for the courts to decide. I’ll file your statement at the precinct and copies will be sent to you and the high school.” She looked at the Wu’s again. “Bring your daughter to the station when she’s feeling better so we can take her statement as well.”

“We will.”

Dr. Lewis said, “I don’t think we are needed here. But Medusa, I think you should schedule an appointment with Dr. Parker as soon as possible. And I’m sure Dr. Adelaide would be thrilled to hear about how you reattached a head.”

“She’d probably ask me to do if she doesn’t hold her impulsiveness at bay.”

Parker laughed, “You aren’t wrong.” He and Dr. Lewis left.

Mrs. Wu stayed the night in the guest room. Jenny was allowed to stay asleep on the sofa. Mom said she’d stay awake over night to watch her.

I said goodbye to my friends, informing them, I still needed some sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the kitchen. Mom and Jenny were eating bowls of plain pasta.

Jenny dropped her fork into the bowl and jumped up to give me a hug. “How did you save me?”

“That’s a long story. Let’s just leave it at ‘you got better’ and not talk about the details.”

“Why? I want to tell the world that you saved my life.”

“I’m flattered. And I can understand how you don’t want to downplay it. But, I don’t want too many people knowing I can see lifeforces.”

“Okay. I won’t say anything.”

“Does Tommy know you’re alright.”

“No. My phone was full of texts from his friends asking that I tell them I’m okay so he’ll stop crying. I haven’t responded to them.”

“Isn’t that a bit cruel?”

“You didn’t see his face. He wanted to kill you because we were kissing.”

“Kissing?” Mom said.

“I’ll fill you in later.”

“Sure you will.”

“You were telling me on Monday that he wasn’t the asshole I’ve always thought he was. Were you lying?”

“I said he was influenced too much by his asshole friends. I never said he wasn’t an asshole. I’ve also never know him to be this violent. I don’t know if I want to ever speak to him again.”

“As much as I believe he should be left twisting in the wind, you should let someone tell him you’re alive.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Mom said. “But I think he’s been sitting in his car since dinner time, parked across the street.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“I’ll go tell him and then tell him to go home.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do. I’ll get dress though, first. I’m not in a hurry.”

Tommy jumped out of his car and walked toward me as soon as I stepped out the front door. It was not yet dawn. “Is she okay? No one will tell me.”

“Shut the fuck up, Tommy. She doesn’t want to talk to you. So drive your ass home and don’t come back.”

“She’s alive? That means she’s alive.” He dropped to his knees in silent prayer.

“Yes, she’s alive. And she hates you for attacking me. I’m not thrilled with you either. What were you doing?”

“I couldn’t lose her. I saw you two talking during the basketball game. She’s into you. If I lost Jenny I’d be devastated. But I’d move on. Plenty of fish in the sea. If I lost her to you – of all people – you. I’d be ostracized by my friends.”

“Your friends suck.”

“They do. But they’re all the friends I’ve got.”

“There are plenty of friends in the sea as well.” I started laughing and couldn’t stop.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are. You’re pathetic. I never knew how pathetic you are. Picking on other kids because you’re worried about losing your friends. And somehow I was the loser.”

“You were a loser.”

“And now I’m not? Am I hot? You want me? Never gonna happen, by the way.”

“Don’t delude yourself. I wouldn’t date you.”

“Like you have a choice. But you just said you wouldn’t date me because of your friends. I’m not the one who’s delusional. Now get the fuck out of here before I call the police and tell them some guy’s been sitting in his car across the street from my house for the last ten hours.”

“Tell Jenny I’m sorry.”

“Tell her yourself if she ever lets you.”

---

Author's Note: When I split this into 10 sections I dropped the ball. The end of chapter 16 should have been a cliffhanger. But, chapter 16 is rather short. It should have been paired with last week's chapter 15. So, I erred on the side of have a sizeable release and not the cliffhanger. Oh, well. Not the worst opportunity I've missed in my life. Still, a bit sad. In any case, I hope you enjoy this installment.

And, as always, comments are encouraged.

I thought the prior Monday had been unusual. The atmosphere at school was unreal. Everyone already knew that Jenny had dumped Tommy. Neither of them would tell anyone why and the number of often conflicting rumors were unreal.

I had to stop a few of the rumors: Jenny had caught Tommy in bed with me; I had petrified Jenny because Tommy wouldn’t date me; and the funniest one: Tommy, Jenny, and I had had a three-way and now Jenny only wanted to date me. I had heard that last rumor with different woman and a couple different men in my place. I must have told a dozen people to leave me out of the Jenny and Tommy drama.

I was dreading biology and I was right to do so. As soon as Ryan saw me, he was in my face, “How’d you get Jenny to dump Tommy?”

“I didn’t do anything. Tommy got her to dump him all by himself.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“What you believe doesn’t mat--” Suddenly my head weighed a ton and I dropped to the floor. My own hair snakes felt like baseball bats as the struck my head. I squeezed my eyes shut in pain.

Mr. Heinz shouted, “Let her go.”

“Fuck off, you simp. Get out of here. I need to talk to the monster here.”

I heard the room clear out. My right arm lay across my chest and made it hard to breath. I couldn’t even slide it off and I felt a rib break. I cried out.

Ryan was shouting at me. And I couldn’t do anything.

I couldn’t do anything. There was ringing in my ear canal. I couldn’t do anything. I could taste blood in my mouth. I couldn’t do anything.

I – I could do one thing. I opened my eyes. Instantly all the weight crushing me disappeared.

“Fuck. She zapped him,” Jared said. He ran for the door.

I zapped him and whoever else was in the room. I got up. Ryan stood there like a statue. I placed my palm on his chest and took a couple sips. My head cleared a little and my breathing hurt a bit less. Enough for me to shuffle out of the room. My right arm hung limply at my side. I wheezed when I inhaled and there was a metallic taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sure if my inner eyes were closed. I pushed the door open. The rest of the biology class were all standing right there. Several of them shouted to call the nurse.

Mr. Heinz got in front of me and said, “Where do you think you are going?”

“Move.”

He muttered something and got out of my way. I was limping toward the nurse’s office when Ross appeared and picked me up. Next thing I knew I was in a chair in the nurse’s office. Mom was there. I heard the words concussion and bruising before I lost consciousness.

I woke up. Carefully, I opened only the outer lids. The light in the room was too bright. My snakes formed a light barrier over my eyes.

“She must be awake.”

“Who’s there?” I said.

A masculine voice said, “I’m Cynthia. I’m a nurse here at the Clinic. I’ll get Dr. Lewis.”

“I’m here, too,” said Ross. “I’d kiss you but it would probably hurt. Your face is all bruised. You bruise in a kind of sickly greenish color.”

“I never needed to know that.”

“The first thing they’re going to ask you…”

“The first things I’m going to ask you,” Dr. Lewis said, “Is why is Mr. Cairns still a statue? He assaulted you nine hours ago.”

“Yes, that,” Ross said.

“I may have drained him a little when I got up.”

“Probably a good thing you did. Your brain was near the consistency of pudding after being subjected to more than ten gravities of force by the foolish boy.”

“I don’t really remember anything but yelling at the useless Mr. Heinz.”

“Jameson already put him on probation,” Ross said. “A lot of students complained that he had never done anything to stop Ryan from bullying you, myself included. Ryan will probably get expelled as well.”

“Can you speak to a police officer?”

“Not without a lawyer present,” my mother said, arriving suddenly.

“Can you turn off the lights?”

“Yes, we can do that.”

“Where’s Elliot?”

“There’s a limit on the number of visitors,” Ross said. “He said he could talk to you later.”

After the police interview, I was famished and human food did nothing to curtail the hunger. Dr. Adelaide caused me to destroy a dozen more cameras as she tried to capture what was happening as I partially drained over two dozen lab rabbits and mice. It was barely enough. But my mind was much clearer afterward.

Ryan was a statue for a day and a half. I must have taken more than a few sips. Every time I think about that I realize I must have been near death when I drank from him. He was charged with attempted murder I believe.

My arm was still in a cast when I left the Clinic two days after the incident. Even the healer at the Clinic said she couldn’t do anything until it was set properly and allowed to heal on its own for a week. The contusions on my face healed and, aside from the cast, I looked like I did a week ago.

The night I got home I walked out into the woods alone. I didn’t turn into my snake form because of the cast on my arm. I created a large menagerie of stone woodland critters. I didn’t drain any of them dry. Just enough to make sure I wouldn’t turn into my snake form by accident.

Elliot was on the back porch as I returned from the woods. He pointed back into the forest and said, “How many experience points did you get?”

“Probably none. I’m too high a level to benefit from squirrels and birds.”

“I meant from Ryan.”

“More than I ever wanted.”

“Where’s Marie?”

“She figured you’d just want to talk to me. Not that you don’t like her company,” he quickly added. “She just thinks there are some friendships that are extra special. Like ours.”

I sat next to him and leaned my head against his shoulder.

He rubbed my shoulder and patted a few on my headsnakes. “You okay?”

“Fine. Just need a shoulder for a few minutes.”

“Take your time.”

I was actually cheered like some kind of hero when I returned to school on Thursday. Everyone wanted to sign my cast and thank me for getting Ryan expelled. I heard a lot of tales of heavy clothing falling off of the women and guys having their balls suddenly weigh a lot in the most painful manner.

At lunch, my new girlfriends had me sit down while they fetched my lunch. I was sitting there alone when my snakes saw Tommy heading toward me. I couldn’t read his intent.

He stopped at a respectable distance and loudly said, “Medusa, I want to apologize to you for any grief I’ve ever caused you. I don’t expect your forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. But after what Ryan did to you, I feel awful. I don’t remember which of us decided to pick on you all those years ago. But, if it was me, it was the dumbest thing I ever did. I’m sorry.”

He stood there a moment and then turned and walked away. Behind him a dozen guys, including Elliot and my old crew were standing waiting for something to happen.

“Thank you, Tommy.” I said.

He turned back and said, “No. Don’t thank me. I don’t deserve it.”

“Okay. I acknowledge what you said.”

“That is more than I can ask for.” And then he left. And the crowd dispersed.

“Did that really just happen?” Melody said, holding two trays of food.

I took the one she was holding toward me. “Thanks. Yeah, it really happened.”

It was May, the night was the prom. My stomach was in knots. I was positive this was not caused by my feeding hunger. I had just fed a few days before. The high school I attended had one prom for the seniors and juniors and one prom for the sophomores and freshmen. It had been six months since my twist and almost four months since the incidents with Jenny, Tommy, and Ryan.

None of that was on my mind as I was tying cream and scarlet bows around the necks of my hairsnakes. Even Dirk submitted to getting a bow – he preferred the red one. I was wearing the beautiful dress I made Mom buy when I first twisted. My makeup was more prominent than I usually would wear. My nails were freshly painted and I was wearing the tallest high heels I’d ever worn.

I still had at least five minutes until Ross would be here to pick me up. I was standing in front of the mirror on the inside of my closet door. It was the safest place for a mirror in my room. Mom suddenly appeared in my doorway. “They’re here,” she said. “Oh, those bows are adorable.”

“Thanks. I’m ready.”

She was downstairs before me. I started down the stairs as Ross entered the house. He was wearing a full tuxedo with an orange cummerbund. I was fully aware of how my black nylon sheathed legs poked out and tucked back inside the folds of my dress as I descended the stairs. When I reached the floor, Ross was still half a foot taller than me.

“Are you wearing platform shoes?”

“I knew you’d wear those heels.”

“I wanted to be taller than you.”

“Fat chance.”

I laughed.

“Let’s get a pic, dear.”

I stood on his left and he put his arm around my waist. Just before the pic was taken I kissed his cheek.

“Medusa!” Daddy said. “This time look at the camera.”

I just smiled bigger and Daddy took a couple more pics.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Elliot said, walking in. “Woah. I feel like a munchkin. Oh, you finally did the little bows. The girls are going to be jealous.”

“We should get going,” Ross said. “Marie was expecting us ten minutes ago.”

“I’m sure she’s glad for the extra time.”

She was. Marie was wearing a scandalous, for high school, red dress with a plunging neckline. The four of us posed for pics taken by Marie’s mother, Ellen.

From there we went to the dance. It was being held at a local country club ballroom. As we passed through the lobby, I spotted someone I had to say hello to.

“Dr. Hauser,” I said.

He was talking with an older gentleman and a woman I didn’t know. “Medusa,” he said. He put his arms around me and gave me a gentle hug. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you looking happy.”

“I’m sure the last time you saw me, I was devastated. Gillian, this is Medusa and her boyfriend?”

“Ross,” Ross said extending his hand.

Douglas shook Ross’ hand.

Gillian said, shaking my hand “They get bigger every generation.”

“Gillian O’Malley owns an art gallery downtown.”

“Did she do the statue of Duke?”

“Both of them,” I said.

“I meant the fake one. It is such an uncanny likeness of the original Duke.”

“I hope your father told how touched I was when he passed along the replica statue you made.”

“He did.”

“Could you do more works like that? I’m sure I could sell them.”

“I don’t have anything finished.”

“Here’s my card. Call me when you have five or six items you want to sell. We’ll see how it goes from there.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. It was good to see you, Dr. Hauser.”

“You, too.”

Ross took the card from me and put it in his pocket. As we were entering the ballroom, Marie was waiting for me to enter. “Did I see you talking Mrs. O’Mallory?”

“Um, yes. Why?”

“Does she want you to do an exhibit at her gallery? Can I be a statue at the exhibit?”

“Marie, she saw a sculpture I made and asked if I had any more.”

“To display?”

“To sell. I don’t think you want to be sold as a statue.”

She didn’t agree immediately.

“Marie?”

“Well, obviously I wouldn’t want it to be forever. I would miss Elliot for one thing. But, you know I’d like to be in a gallery as a statue. Just for a week. Maybe two.”

“Aw, you’d miss me,” Elliot said. “I could deal with a week or two as well. While you were in the gallery I could tell people my girlfriend is a real work of art.”

Several of us groaned.

“What? It’s not like I’d take her for granite.”

“Elliot…”

I looked up at Ross. “We could be dancing.”

He bowed and then held out his hand to me. He said, “Would the lady do me the honor of her first dance this evening?”

“Of course.” I took his hand and he led me away. I heard someone complain about their boyfriend not being as gallant.

The song playing was a slow song. I was glad to be wearing the high heels as we could dance cheek to cheek without one or both of getting a stiff neck.

As we slowly swayed to the music, Ross said, “Elliot is a wonderful goofball. I’m glad he’s your best friend.”

“I’m glad you like him. Do you have a best friend?”

“I have an opening in that department if you’d like to fill it.”

“I can’t be your best friend. I’m your girlfriend.”

“You are? We’re a couple?”

“You don’t think so?”

“I wasn’t sure what you thought.”

“Could have asked.”

“I thought I just did.”

“Could have asked sooner than at the dance.”

“I didn’t want to spook you.”

“I’m scarier than anything that merely spooks.”

“Not to me.”

He tilted his head toward mine and the room got dark. Our lips met. I realized later all my hairsnakes had surrounded our faces so no one could see us kissing. And they’d all closed their eyes to leave me in the dark like a proper kiss. In the moment, I just enjoyed the softness of his lips and the flutter in my stomach as we kissed.

A few songs later, we met Stacy, Melody, and Tess and their dates on the dance floor. Melody could not stop talking about how cute my hairsnakes looked in their bows. As the song ended, we all sat down at a table on the perimeter of the room. The guys asked the ladies if they wanted drinks and disappeared to get them.

“Does everyone have condoms?” Tess said. She had an assortment in her bag.

“No. And I won’t need one,” I said.

Melody removed a couple and put them in her own bag. “Thanks, I always forget.”

“Just in case,” Tess said.

“I’m good.”

“She’ll be fine,” Stacy said. “Ross is unbelievably considerate.”

“Isn’t he?” Melody said.

Pete and Jim waved and walked over to talk to me. They usually didn’t come around when I was with the girls.

“Hi, Medusa. Ladies.”

“Hi, guys. Here stag?”

“Yeah,” Pete said.

“I didn’t want Pete to feel lonely.”

“That’s very thoughtful, Jim.”

Jenny Wu sat down at the table. “I hope you don’t mind if I join you.”

“Not at all. These gentlemen were just expressing their feelings for the other,” Stacy said.

“Don’t feel bad,” Jenny said. “If I can end up going to a dance alone, going stag can’t be all that bad. It does make it harder to dance.”

“Pete is the least creepy of my old friends.”

“Is he? Are you?”

Pete stuttered out, “Not creepy at all.”

She got up and took his hand. “Let’s dance.”

“Later, Medusa.”

“I should be upset,” Jim said. “But, yeah, Pete’s less creepy than I am.”

The guys returned. Elliot gave Jim a hug hello. “Where’s Pete?”

“Dancing with Jenny Wu.”

“Really?”

Elliot and I were in the audience of the school’s graduation ceremony. Marie was graduating. Marie had made sure two of her allotment of four tickets were for us. The ceremony was as boring as most graduations are. Marie’s mother, Ellen, was seated next to me. One of Marie’s cousins sat next to Ellen.

After the ceremony we all went to a restaurant together where I met a few more of Marie’s cousins, aunts, and uncles. Some of her friends from school were there with their own families. I only knew the graduating seniors as faces I’d seen at school.

“I heard you’re deferring a year before college,” her cousin Abigail said. “Are you going to travel the world?”

“I can’t afford to do that. I’m hoping to spend time in a local art gallery.”

“You won’t make a lot of money in an art gallery,” her cousin Randall said.

“Probably not. But it’ll be an experience of a lifetime.”

A week later, Elliot and his family went on a vacation. I had been invited to prior vacations but this year they were going on a driving tour of the southwest, hitting places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, and others. Given these places weren’t safe for the obviously Twisted like myself, my parents convinced me I shouldn’t go. Two weeks without Elliot would have been unthinkable a year ago.

The afternoon after they left, Marie visited me in my garage. “Can I come in?”

“You’re always welcome, Marie,” I told her.

“Where’s Ross?”

“He works for his father during the summer. I’ll only get to see him on weekends.”

She sat down on the chair Elliot usually sat on. “I miss Elliot already.”

“It’s only been like six hours,” I said. We sat in silence for a few moments. “I miss him, too.”

“You and I talked about something a couple days ago and you said you’d think about it. That you didn’t just say, ‘No,’ was more than I’d hope for.”

“I did think about it.”

Marie wanted me to test petrifying her for the whole two weeks Elliot would be away.

“You realize, it’s dangerous?”

“You didn’t say too dangerous. Are you trying to get my hopes up?”

“I’ve been convinced I can’t be afraid of my own abilities. So, if you’re still interested I will petrify you.”

“Oh, thank you, Em.” Her whole body twitched as if she were going to fling herself at me for a hug. But her eyes were looking at my snakes.

I took hold of her and she held me so tight. She was dabbing her eyes as we separated.

“That’s a lot of happy tears.”

“I know, right?” She said. “I don’t want to do it here.”

“Oh?”

“As much as I love spending time with you here in this lovely garage, I’m hoping to be stuck in one place for two weeks somewhere with a better view.”

“That’s fair,” I said. “I also have one condition.”

She visibly deflated. “Okay. What?”

“It’ll only be for eleven days. I need to bum a ride from you on the twenty-ninth. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Eleven days is good, too. You had me worried for a minute. Why can’t Ross give you a lift?”

“Work.”

“Where do you need a ride to?”

“Dr. Hauser’s clinic.”

Her mother thought Marie was crazy. When we arrived an hour later at her home. Marie conscripted me to help rearrange the living room furniture. The result was probably the room’s Christmas tree configuration except in this case, Marie would be the tree. She wanted to freshen up before being petrified, leaving me alone with Ellen.

“A couple months ago, your mother seemed very worried about what happened to Marie. Now, you want to do it on purpose,” Her mother said as soon as Marie was out of earshot. “Is doing this safe?”

“Mostly. And it’s not what I want to do. It’s what Marie wants me to do.”

“’Mostly’ isn’t very reassuring.”

“I know. Did Marie tell you about what happened to Jenny Wu?”

“Recently?”

“When I petrified her a couple months ago.”

“Oh, that. Did she really die?”

“Yes.”

“And you revived her somehow?”

“Yes. Basically by doing the opposite of what I’m about to do to Marie. So, it’s reversible.”

“Well, if my Marie trusts you, I trust you. Can I hug you?”

“Of course.” Marie returned to the room wearing nothing but an opaque bathrobe as her mother and I finished our hug.

“I’m glad you two are bonding,” she said.

“I will need to come back a couple times to make sure you don’t recover faster than expected.”

“Marie mentioned that,” her mother said. She looked at the robe. “Honey, I wish you weren’t doing this in the nude.”

“Statues don’t wear clothes.”

“Statues of people in clothes are a thing.”

“Unfortunately, my power doesn’t affect clothes. It really is weird to see a statue wearing actual clothes.”

“I suppose. I guess I should leave now. Have fun. Is that what one says to someone about to become a statue?”

“It’s what you say to me when I’m about to become a statue.”

Her mother kissed her on the cheek and left the room. Marie didn’t see her shaking her head as she left. When I turned to look back at her, she had draped the robe over the end of the sofa and was posed for me to zap her.

“How’s this look?” She asked. She had one hand on her hip, the other bent to the side with her palm pointed upward at about eye level. Her feet were near one another but one leg was straight and the other was bent at the knee so only the toes touched the ground. She was facing the street through the window.

“Looks good. You are aware you’re currently flashing the neighborhood, right?”

“I’ll be flashing the neighborhood for eleven days.”

“Flashing with flesh tits is different than flashing with stone tits.”

“Tomayto, tomahto. Hit me.”

“I’ll count down so you can be sure your face is how you want it. Three.

“Two.

“One.” My inner eyelid opened and the color drained out of her body. The lines and swirls within looked as they always did. I probably could identify her and Elliot by just those swirls now.

I reached out and took a few sips. I was aiming for the first duration to be about seven days. I would take additional sips when I came back over the next few days. When I was done, I wondered how accurate my aim for seven days was. I made a mental note of how diminished her colors were.

I went into the kitchen where her mother was looking at her phone.

“Is it done?” She asked.

“Yeah. It should last seven days. I’ll know for sure when I return tomorrow or the next day to see how she’s progressing toward restoration.”

“Could you have just done it all at once?”

“Maybe. Doing it this way makes it nigh impossible for me to have overshot the target end date.”

“Sensible. I have a request.”

I don’t think I rolled my eyes.

“I’d like to experience what she doing for the normal one hour duration, if you don’t mind.”

“I would have been surprised if you weren’t curious.”

“I’m sure afterward I will only be more perplexed as to what she finds so fascinating about being a statue.”

“Where would you like to do it?”

“Can I stand behind her in the living room? Or will that affect her timer?”

“No, it won’t affect her at all. You just can’t be touching her.”

We went into the living room and Ellen stood half a room away from her daughter. For some reason, I suspected that she didn’t want Marie to know what was happening. So when she looked like she was posed how she wanted to stand, I tilted my head in question. Ellen nodded. And I zapped her. I took a few pics of Ellen and then of Marie.

“Marie? I’m leaving. Have fun.”

I locked the door behind me as I left. I walked over the lawn and took a few more pics of Marie through the window.

Marie spent the next eleven days as a statue looking out the window. Ellen enjoyed seeing the pics of herself. But her prediction came true. Being petrified wasn’t anything she ever needed to experience again. Marie’s first duration was probably a little less than seven full days. No big deal. Each time I visited, Ellen and I would chat for an hour or two. One evening she insisted I stay for dinner.

When I arrived on the twenty-ninth, Marie was already out of the window. Ellen hugged me as soon as she opened the door. The living room furniture was already back where it belonged. Marie came downstairs and said, “I was going to go pick you up.”

“I’ve gotten use to walking to your house.”

Marie gave me a ride to Dr. Hauser’s office. I was there to make an animal statue. I had done two animal statues since Duke and while it wasn’t emotionally easy, it didn’t destroy me like Duke had. I think knowing I could reverse it if I absolutely had too mitigated the darkness of the moment.

We walked in the back door and waited in his office. When Douglas returned, he smiled. “Medusa, so nice to see you again. Betty said to say hello.”

“Thanks. Say hello back for me. This is my friend Marie.”

After exchanging pleasantries, Douglas got serious. “Are you ready to meet Catmando?”

“Is that really the cat’s name?” Marie said.

“Unfortunately. Crazy pet names is one of the hazards of being a veterinarian.”

We went into another room. It was basically a supply room with an infrequently used examination table. An older tabby was resting in a pet carrier on the table. As soon as we entered the cat stood up and hissed at us. “He’s a little feisty. Let me take him from the carrier so he can get to know you.”

The cat would calm down for the doctor, but as soon as he put the cat down it would scamper away from Medusa. “I suspect he knows I’m a better predator than he is.”

“It would appear that way.”

“Can I hold him?” Marie said.

Douglas shrugged and passed the cat to her. He sat in her arms calmly.

“Zap us both. If I’m not touching the cat, you can separate us and do what you need to do,” Marie said.

Douglas took the cat back and handed Marie exam gloves.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Em, you know I love to get stoned.”

“What?” Douglas said.

“She means petrified, not high.” I said. “Everyone thinks saying I get them stoned makes them a comedian.”

A few minutes later, Marie and the cat were statues. It took some effort to make sure the cat wasn’t being squeezed before I zapped them. I took the cat from Marie’s hands and put it on the exam table. Once I was sure the pose was fine, I drained the poor cat dry. As usual it tasted so good, but a bit off. When I was done, I took the cat to Douglas’ office.

“So quick?”

“Sadly, it doesn’t really take any time.”

“I guess you’re going to be here for another hour.”

“Need any help with the other animals.”

“No, I had a surprise for you but she’s running late.”

“She?”

“Gillian O’Malley will be here in a few minutes. She was hoping to see the cat before and after. But I didn’t see any reason to make you wait.”

“She really wants me to make an exhibit?”

“Well, yes. She was hoping you could zap her, today. She seems a bit like your friend.”

“You didn’t enjoy being a statue?”

“Enjoy is a strong word. It’s not like it was a bucket list item for me to cross off. I’m guessing Marie has been a statue more than once.”

“More than I can count.”

The phone on his desk rang. The receptionist informed Dr. Hauser of an arriving appointment. “Duty calls. You can wait here or with your friend.”

“I’ll wait here.”

I heard the sound of the back door opening and a woman poked her head into the office. “Medusa. I’m glad I caught you,” Gillian O’Malley said.

“Do I call you Miss O’Malley?”

“Oh, please don’t. I’m Gillian to everyone I like. Oh, I missed the cat?”

“Sorry. Douglas didn’t tell me he was expecting you until after we did it,” I said. “Follow me. My friend wants to meet you.”

“Friend?” She said as we moved to the store room. “Oh, your friend held the cat I’m guessing.”

“Yes. She’ll be stuck for another thirty or forty minutes.”

“That gives me time to convince you to do a show at my gallery.”

I laughed. “I would love to do a show. I have a dozen pieces that I plan to make. But only about half of them have been fired.”

“That’s a lot more progress than I expected. At the prom I wasn’t sure you were enthusiastic about a show.”

“What kind of artist doesn’t want a show in a prestigious art gallery?”

“That’s kind of you to say about the gallery.”

“I’m curious though. Marie here would love to spend a week as a statue in an art gallery. Do you think we could make that happen?”

“Sans clothes, I hope. As it doesn’t appear that you turn fabrics to stone.”

“No, I don’t.” I took out my phone. “Here, look at this.”

“She’s naked in front of her living room window? When was this?”

“Actually she was there for eleven days. Just turned back to normal earlier today.”

She flipped between the various pictures I had of Marie, and Ellen, and Elliot for several minutes in silence. She looked embarrassed when she realized how long she’d been looking at the images. “I’m sorry. I’d be happy to have Marie spend any amount of time in my gallery. You need to get those other pieces finished.”

“She’s probably thrilled.”

“She’s aware?”

“Oh, yeah. People say it feels like only five minutes go by unless there’s something to pay attention to. For example, the two of us having a lengthy conversation in front of her. She’ll have been aware of the whole time we’ve spent talking in front of her.”

“How was she a statue for a week if it only lasts an hour?”

“Part of my trick.”

“Oh,” Gillian said. “And how the cat is a statue for good?”

“Same trick.”

“So, you could do that to a person?”

“Make a permanent statue? No, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.”

“I didn’t say you would. But it’s possible?”

“Why are you asking?”

Douglas chose that moment to enter the room. “You made it.”

“I made it.” They air-kissed.

“Did you ask Medusa to petrify you?”

“I was getting to it when you interrupted.”

“You want to be a statue?”

“I studied ancient roman art in college. I love everything about statues. And given the chance, I’d love to be one.”

“Here?”

“Anywhere,” she said. “Do you mind Douglas? If I am petrified I require that a lot of pictures be taken.”

“I will photograph you if that’s what you want. And you can stand here in this room for an hour if you like.”

“Please?”

“If it’s what you want. Don’t stand near Marie.”

“I’ll see you in my office, Medusa,” Douglas said as he left.

Gillian put her bag down, took off her shoes, and jacket. “Do you mind if I take my clothes off?”

“The number of women who’ve disrobed in front of me is far greater than a younger me could ever have guessed.”

“That’s a story I’d love to hear someday.”

“Maybe. I’ll step out into the hallway. Call me when you’re ready.”

It didn’t take long for her to call me back in. She was standing in a classical statue pose. “How does this pose look?”

“Classic. Ready?”

“Any chance you can make it last two hours.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Okay, never mind. I’m ready.”

I zapped her. Once she was stone, I examined the flow of colors within her. I was saddened by what I saw.

“Douglas,” I said as I entered his office. “She’s ready.”

“I’ll take the pics after you and Marie leave.”

“Makes sense. Do you know?”

“Know what?”

“I’m no expert. But I’m guessing she has cancer.”

“Cancer?”

“The glands here and here.”

“The lymph nodes.”

“That’s the word. I should study anatomy.” I said. “I guess you didn’t know?”

“She never said anything about cancer to me.”

“She was asking me about my trick and she start drilling down on whether I could do to her what I did to the cat.”

“What?”

“The patterns in her statue were similar to that dog I did a few weeks ago that you said had cancer. I haven’t seen a lot of sick people or animals with my weird statue vision. Or many healthy people for that matter. But this was the exact same condition.”

“I thought she was interested in you for the art. And I still think that interest is genuine. But could she have been thinking about what you did to Duke? Doing it to her? I can’t tell you what to do. But that is… I’m going to call my lawyer and see if he would look out for your interests.”

“I don’t think I’m going to do anything.”

“Just in case. You should tell your parents what you told me.”

“Okay.”

---

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.

“Medusa?” Jenny said as I stood outside her front door. “Why are you here?”

“Can I come in? I’d like to talk to you,” I said.

“Where are my manners? You can move into my room if you need to. Come in.” She lived in a larger than normal home in the wealthy part of town.

We sat down in a breakfast nook of the kitchen.

“To what do I owe the honor of my savior visiting me.”

“Please don’t refer to me as any kind of savior.”

“I owe you my life. I’m sorry. I suppose savior is a bit creepy. How’s Ross?”

“Ross is great. He just dropped me off.”

“He could have come in.”

“I wanted to talk to you alone.”

“Oh. Is it going to be unpleasant? Can we get the unpleasant part out of the way?”

“That’s up to you,” I said. “I wanted to ask you about when... when your head came off, what do you really remember about it?”

“I’ve kind of tried to block that out,” she said after a moment’s pause. “I died.”

“How do you know that?”

“You probably don’t know. You should ask Elliot or Marie about being a statue. When you’re a statue, there’s a vibe to it. I wasn’t a whole statue long but I felt a vibe to it. I could kind of understand why Marie loves it so much. It’s chill. The second my body hit the floor, that vibe disappeared. I felt cold, empty. The world became distant. The sound of you screaming and Tommy flipping out, I was vaguely aware of it. Being made of stone feeling lighthearted disappeared. It was dull. Final. I was gone. I felt like my life was spilling out me, perhaps how it would feel for your blood to gush out of you. I don’t know. Why?” I didn’t reply and she said something quietly, “Is it about the animal statues?”

“You know about that?”

“Butterbuttons the cat belonged to my aunt. I’ve seen the statue a few times. Never again. I can’t go back into the room where she has it on display.”

“I’m so…”

“Don’t be sorry. Her precious Bee Bee Cat was so old. My aunt is so proud that she was able to do this to the cat. Did you really make all that money?”

“It all gets donated to an animal shelter as charity. I don’t see a dime from doing that. Neither does Dr. Hauser. I couldn’t.”

“I have to ask again. Why?”

“I have a strong suspicion that someone’s going to ask me to do it to them.”

“To a person?”

“Yeah.”

“And you want to tell them the experience isn’t as pleasant as your normal ability?”

“Exactly. Anything to discourage the idea.”

“This person must be really sick if they would put you in this spot.”

“Or they don’t know what they are asking me.”

“Oh. Probably not. I don’t know what to tell you.”

“You already helped. I’m sorry I brought up what happened that day.”

“It’s no big deal.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that. And she ended up filling the awkward silence.

“I relive it in my dreams every night,” Jenny said. “No, no. No sorries. I’m working on it with my therapist. It’s better to relive it every night than to not live at all.” After a moment she said, “Can I get you a beverage?”

I asked for a soda. When she returned to the table she had the biggest smile on her face. “Guess who I’m dating.”

“Who?”

“Pete.”

“My friend Pete?”

“Yes. He was actually a very good dancer. And he had me laughing the whole time I spent with him.” She spoke for almost an hour about a guy I thought I knew but apparently Pete was much deeper than I ever knew.

Way to go, Pete.

“You’re giving me everything I want?” I said.

“Sure. Why not?”

“Because artists don’t get this kind of break usually.”

Gillian O’Malley and I were in her office at the back of her gallery. She had invited me in to look around and get a feel for the space. She hoped it would help inspire me to finish the clay statues so she could sell them. Though it was an office, it had a nook with comfortable chairs and a sofa. She was on the sofa and I was in one of the chairs.

“If that makes you one of the lucky ones, so be it. You’ll get to show off your clay sculptures, which I’m still not sure how to price. I don’t want to make them too expensive. But I want to be sure you get a good profit out of them. And your friend gets to be a statue any time she wants. I’ll set up a little display like it’s performance art and sometimes the performer is unavailable. Any time you want to set her up, you just let my assistant know and they’ll be sure the gallery is available to the two of you.”

“Why are you really doing this?”

“I understand this is unusual and you’re right to wonder at my motives. I just want you to be happy.”

“How long do you have?”

“Have?”

“You have some kind of cancer, I think. How long do you have?”

“A few months. How did you know?”

“I won’t do it.”

“I haven’t even asked.” In hindsight, I wish I had noticed how crestfallen she had appeared when she said this.

“No, you’re buttering me up first.”

“Is that what you see?”

“Is it an invalid assumption?”

She was going to defend herself but stopped. “No, I suppose it isn’t. I’m so… I suppose apologizing sounds like part of some kind of pitch if you already think this is a pitch. Okay. I give up. I won’t ask.”

“And no show, no performance art gallery.”

“Oh, no, none of that changes. In fact, since you know I’m dying, I’ll also tell you about my will. Part of the charter of the gallery and trust I’m setting up to run it will require that you can use the gallery any time you want.”

“Why?”

“I like you. More importantly, I wanted someone who would care about me and remember me to look after the statue I was hoping to leave behind. I never had children. And my brother’s kids are completely uncultured. I can’t leave them a gallery. The trust already has provisions that allow you to decide your role in the gallery. You can be as hand-on or off as you’d like. Originally I was going to just set up a trust for some scholarships, still am. But knowing I can leave the gallery to a local artist makes it even better.”

“We haven’t spent much time together. I’m only seventeen. Do I want to run an art gallery for the rest of my life? Will I still be sculpting when I get married? It’s all so sudden.”

“So is stage four cancer when you don’t catch it sooner.” She was looking at me funny and I wasn’t sure why until her head drooped and she started to weep. “I’m so sorry. You’re just a kid. I shouldn’t be dumping stuff like this on you. As I said, you can use the gallery like it was your own. My assistant will contact you in a few days with details. You don’t have work with me. I should never have even considered it.” She got up and poked her head out of the room. “Arturo?”

“You don’t…”

“Yes, Ma’am?” Arturo said. He was a man in his twenties, her assistant.

“Arturo, this is Medusa. I’ve already told you about her. I’m leaving for the day. Help her out with anything she needs before she leaves.”

“Of course, Ma’am.”

“It was good to see you again, Medusa. I’m sorry I tried to dump my burden on you.”

I was so overwhelmed I forgot Arturo was there.

“Do you really turn people to stone?” Arturo asked.

“Yes. Lasts about an hour normally.”

“Forgive my being forward about this. Gillian is an amazing woman. When she told me about you and what she hoped to have you do, I thought you had warped her perceptions somehow in order to steal the gallery. But, I was eavesdropping just now. You had no idea. I’m sorry I thought the worst of you without even knowing you.”

“You didn’t have to tell me any this.”

“No. I didn’t. But I think I should. I also think I should ask you to do what she said she would not ask. She told you she has months but as I understand it, she only has a few weeks. She stopped chemo a few months ago when she wasn’t responding to it. She only has hair now because she’s good friends with someone who has a hair growth trick.”

“I’ve decided I want to help her. But I believe euthanasia is illegal. I’m not willing to go to jail to help her. What should I do?”

Five minutes into my telling the tale, Dr. Parker stopped me and invited Dr. Lewis and Dr. Adelaide into his office. Five minutes later, they stopped me again and asked if they could schedule a meeting with a few more people. Daddy came in and asked who those other people would be.

“We know a few politicians and judges,” Dr. Parker said. “Whether or not Medusa decides to assist Miss O’Malley, we think a legal decision should be reached about the concept in general.”

A few weeks later, we were in a meeting room at town hall with the mayor, the city council, several state level politicians, a circuit court judge, Gillian, her physicians, her lawyers, the doctors from the clinic, the clinic’s lawyers, my parents, my lawyer, me, various town hall staffers, and several people I still don’t know what their affiliations were.

Before the meeting, I met with my lawyer, Lionel Barber, alone for the first time. He asked me one question and I answered him: was I willing to kill someone? We then discussed how I would proceed if I were asked.

I thought the graduation ceremony was boring. It was a Mardi Gras event compared to this. That was until the lawyer from the clinic stood up.

“While it may be unusual for doctors from the Spiral Clinic to provide medical treatment for someone, such as Miss O’Malley, who is not twisted, we believe we have a solution to the problem that will work for everyone represented here.”

“I’m all ears,” the mayor said. He had not been happy to be blindsided by a case for or against euthanasia in an election year.

“It has been medically proven that the trick possessed by Miss Medusa Harrison is a Darrington Field phenomenon that induces a suspended-animation-like state in living beings. It has been medically proven that this state is reversible. It is therefore, the recommendation of Dr. Lewis and Dr. Adelaide of the Spiral Clinic that Miss O’Malley could be placed into this suspended-animation state for medical purposes. At the moment, only Miss Harrison is capable of doing this. And she would only do this under the supervision of our medically trained staff. We would be able to study this phenomenon and perhaps someday reproduce it without the assistance of Miss Harrison.”

A murmur rose among those in attendance. Gillian looked to be on the verge of tears. After a few more hours of back and forth, the judge was willing to sign a court order permitting the use of this suspended-animation technique on Gillian. The state senator was going to attempt to make a state law endorsing the technique. That would take more time than Gillian had left.

As the meeting was about to adjourn, my lawyer, who hadn’t said anything during the meeting stood up. “If I may, Lionel Barber, counsel for Medusa Harrison,” he said. “This is a wonderful outcome for people who believe euthanasia is a human right. There is just one thing that hasn’t been addressed here. No one has asked my client if she is willing to kill someone.”

“That’s rather blunt,” someone said.

“Dead is dead. Murder is illegal. There are circumstances were killing is condoned. But, no one is forced to kill. All of this is for naught if my client is unwilling to do it. And no one has asked her. What happens a year from now when someone goes to the Clinic and asks to receive this wondrous new ‘medical procedure’? What happens when someone behind a court bench orders the ‘medical procedure’ to be performed under penalty of contempt changes?”

“No one would ever do…”

Lionel slammed his fist on the table. “Never say the words, ‘No one would ever do something to your client.’ There is always someone who is willing to do what we think is unthinkable. What protections does this minor, this minor child have that she will never be conscripted to euthanize someone against her will?”

I had never thought of that. I had thought I had nothing to fear in this meeting and now I was scared to death. My hairsnakes were getting angry. Whatever Mom and Daddy were paying this guy, it wasn’t enough.

Lionel sat down as the room erupted in a cacophony of everyone speaking at once. The mayor eventually reestablished order and immediately threw the ball into the judge’s lap.

“Mr. Barber brings up an important legal point that is further complicated by the fact that Miss Harrison is not a medical practitioner. Since I was going to sign this court order, it behooves me to ask you, young lady, are you willing to use your trick in the manner presented by Doctors Lewis and Adelaide for the experimental treatment of Miss O’Malley’s stage four lymphoma?”

I looked at Mr. Barber and he nodded.

“No,” I said. Before everyone started speaking at once again. I held my palm out to keep them quiet. “There is another choice. In some ways, it is more burdensome for me. In other ways, it is not. The suspended animation state that is at the heart of this discussion does not have to be permanent. As long as I have access to the statue, I can renew the effect of my trick prolonging the duration. A friend of mine spent eleven days as a statue at the beginning of the summer. I only had to be present to maintain her suspended animation three times in that eleven day span. Ultimately, I believe Miss O’Malley would prefer to spend her time as a statue in her own gallery than locked away in the Spiral Clinic under the fiction that she is undergoing a medical treatment.

“My only regret is that I didn’t offer this solution to her before things reached the point of involving all of you. But I’m glad to know where I stand in terms of the law.”

“I accept,” Gillian said.

“We’ll talk later.”

I stopped paying attention at that point. Mom took my hand and held it. Eventually we were standing in the hallway outside of the meeting room.

Gillian approached me. “I’m going to make a few changes to the trust. Nothing will change for you. It will just become a living trust instead of an estate trust. I’d also like to speak to you and your parents and our attorney’s about forming a legal partnership in order to make you co-owner of the gallery for the time when I’m... indisposed.”

“I suppose that’s a good idea,” I told her. “I have good news. I have a dozen pieces ready for you to put on sale.”

“That’s wonderful. Bring them by tomorrow and we’ll get that started as well. Though, you may end up selling them yourself.”

Fallout from the big meeting was limited. Somehow both sides of the euthanasia issue had reason to like or dislike me. Thankfully, it wasn’t a topic embraced by many high school students.

My senior year of high school was set to start a few weeks after the meeting. A week before that, I met with Gillian and our lawyers at the gallery. Mom and Daddy were there. The paperwork was completed and the limited liability corporation we were the officers of now owned the gallery. Gillian’s role in the company was as a silent partner.

Her time was nearly up. She threw a going away party at the gallery that evening. A few of her friends arrived and she said goodbye to them all privately and individually. When she was ready, the two of us slipped away from the party to go into a back room. She said to me, “Thank you for this.”

“No need to thank me. You’ve done so much more for me.”

“The fact that I will know what you do with my gifts to you is a far greater gift that you give to me. Even if I’m just a block of stone, as long as you live, I will go on. It is more than I could ever ask for. Let’s do this before I cry.”

“Okay.”

She disrobed and stood on the plinth she originally commissioned to be her final resting place. Now, it was going to be the display stand from which she will watch the world go by. Standing in a classic Roman statue pose, she recited her final words. The same words were already carved into the plinth: “May Euryale keep me from Hades’ grasp.”

I was glad she had chosen Euryale over Medusa for the not-an-epitaph. I flashed her to stone. The swirls in her body were awful. I took several sips. Even close to death it was still ambrosia. I pulled a sheet over her and called Arturo in to use the hand truck to move her back into the main room of the gallery.

The room was packed. The number of people had tripled or more in the time since I had left the room to turned her into a statue. I found out later Arturo had been keeping the pre-reveal party private. Once she and I had left, he had allowed others to enter the gallery. The guests fell silent as the covered statue was moved into place. Arturo picked up the edge of the sheet and announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Gillian O’Malley’s final commissioned work of art.” He flipped the sheet off the statue.

The room remained silent for a few heartbeats until someone shouted, “Long live our art maven, Gillian O’Malley.” Applause broke out along with other shouts of long life. Several people turned to me to compliment me on how regal she looked. I just smiled and nodded at whatever anyone said.

“My girlfriend is a real work of art.”

“Elliot, that’s the third time you’ve said that,” I said.

The gallery had closed for a few weeks after Gillian’s statue reveal party. We rebranded it as The Gillian O’Malley Gallery. We were having a small opening party on the eve of reopening the next day.

“Sixth or seventh time. You missed at least half the times I said it,” he said. “In all our testing, I rarely had the chance to really look at the statue of Marie.”

“She is very beautiful. And she looks great standing next to Gillian. It’s too bad she wants to spend time with you on weekends.”

“Not so loud. It’s bad enough she spends every weekday here while we’re in school. I only get to talk to her on weekends.”

“You could talk to her right now.”

“Ha ha.”

Ross tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around he kissed me. One of my snakes left its eyes open and watched Elliot trying to figure out how to occupy himself as he waited for the kiss to end. When it did, Ross said, “Elliot, your girlfriend is a real work of art.”

“Not you, too,” I said with a pout.

They high fived.

“I still can’t get over the idea that this is your art gallery,” Ross said.

“I barely believe it myself,” I said. “And look at the room I have for more statues.”

“More statues?”

“I’d be a lousy gorgon if I didn’t collect statues. It’s supposed to be a garden in a remote mountain location, isn’t it? I have time. I can work my way up to that.”

At that moment Dr. Parker from the Clinic approached the three of us. “It’s good that you can joke about that.” Dr. Adelaide was with him.

“I think I finally like who I am.”

“Is that a new feeling?”

“Aren’t you off the clock?”

“I can practice psychiatry in my spare time.”

I giggled. “Yes, it’s a new feeling. As Gordon, I was the ugly misfit.”

“You weren’t ugly,” Elliot said.

“Say that as much as you like. My face was ugly and I felt ugly inside no matter how many people told me not to.”

“You aren’t a misfit now?” Ross said.

“Will you be disappointed if I am or if I’m not?”

“Figure it out.”

“I’m still a misfit. But I’m a misfit who owns an art gallery. I’m a thriving member of society. I make art. I’m not just a pretty face. It took a while to get comfortable in this skin. But now that I am, I like who I am.”

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Dr. Parker said. “I was going to suggest at our next session that it be our last. But, you can cancel that session if you like.”

“I’ll miss our talks.”

“No, you won’t. I use to visit Gillian’s gallery at least twice a month. Now, it’s your gallery I’ll visit.”

“And how are you?” I asked Dr. Adelaide.

“I’m, like, just here with Francis.”

“Francis?”

“Like, duh, Francis Parker. My husband.” She kissed Francis and he kissed her back. For some reason I thought he’d be against public displays of affection.

“I had no idea.”

“Get a room,” a voice said. Tara Parker joined us. “I thought you said you’d just be a minute.”

“You know my daughter, Tara.”

“I never noticed you had the same last name.”

“It’s not like any of us were friends with Tara,” Elliot said.

“Is there something I don’t know?” Francis said.

“I believe Tara was, like, dating the young man who, like, assaulted Gordon and Medusa multiple times.”

“I dumped him before she twisted.”

“You dumped him the day I twisted,” I said. “I suppose I should thank you.”

“Thank her?” Ross said.

“If I hadn’t had such a radical twist, or worse, if I had become Gordon 2.0, I wouldn’t have all of this today, I wouldn’t have Ross, and Ryan would probably still be picking on me.”

Ross put his arm around my waist and held me.

“I still don’t know if I want to be thanked for all the other stuff Ryan probably did to you because I dumped him,” Tara said.

“No worries. You’re always welcome here.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate that,” she said to me before turning to look at her father. “Are we ready to go?” She looked at her mother and added, “Oh, I suppose not.”

“You did interrupt prematurely.”

“Talk like a normal person.”

“What did she interrupt?”

“I was, like, hoping you might, like, squeeze me in here between your two statues. I’m hoping a few days, like, as a block of stone will, like, help me figure out the morphic transformation so I can, like, do it to myself properly.”

“Is that really the reason?” Elliot asked. “Or do you just want to be a statue? It’s not as rare a desire as you might think.”

“There’s some literature on the subject I could send you links to,” Francis said.

“No, thanks, Dear,” she said. “So? Can I?”

“Sure. I was just talking about gathering a statue garden when you arrived.”

I didn’t mention it before. I had decided to write this memoir before I turned 40 in a few months. Being able to look back at this time in my life with the perspective of being my age now is a gift. Let me catch you up on where I am and where my friends from this time period are today.

I still run the gallery. More on that later.

Ross and I had a falling out my sophomore year of college. We didn’t speak to one another for eight years after that happened. I could probably write another book about all that. We will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary around the time this memoir should be released. The years we were apart were very important for me. I had other relationships that showed me I had been a fool for allowing us to break up. On occasion, Elliot continues to chastise me not making up with Ross sooner.

Mom and Daddy are still living in town. They’re both retired. Mom likes to help out at the gallery. She’s still a whirlwind with no signs of slowing down. Daddy has settled into the role of grandfather rather well.

My son’s name is Everet. It sounds like Elliot without actually being Elliot. He’s four years old. He looks like a clone of his father at that age from the photos I’ve seen. All through my pregnancy I was worried what would have if I were holding my baby and he grabbed at my hairsnakes. I needn’t have worried. My hairsnakes are more smitten with Everet than even I am, I think.

I haven’t told Ross, yet. But by the time this book is released, we’ll have a second child. I hope it’s a girl. Who am I kidding? Ross will probably figure out I’m pregnant before I tell him. (He did.)

Thomas Radner is a respected member of the community. He’s a lawyer known for his pro bono work. He runs a youth group out of his church. And any time I have a showing of up and coming artists, he’s there to purchase at least a couple of the pieces. I have no idea where he stores them all. We aren’t friends. But we can talk to one another. I don’t know where he met his wife but she seems like a nice person. When he introduced us, she gave me a hug and thanked me for the impact I’d had on Thomas. I didn’t ask for a further explanation.

I don’t know where Jenny Wu lives. But I’ve heard she is doing well.

I keep in touch with Stacy, Melody, and Tess. We have a chat group that we started in high school. They asked me not to get into their private lives so I won’t.

It turns out Elliot and I are separable physically. We live on opposite coasts now. We make it a point to talk on the phone for a couple hours each week. That happened shortly after we graduated from college and I still miss not seeing him every day. He’s married to Kelsey, a woman he met in college. They have the most lovely daughter, Oriole.

The Hausers, Douglas and Betty, use to visit the gallery infrequently. Douglas died a few years ago. In his will, he donated the statue of Duke to the gallery. I placed him by the front door. Everet pets him every time he sees the statue. Betty moved away from town shortly after Douglas died. I think Mom still talks to her occasionally.

I’m still an artist. I still own the gallery. Even though it’s named after her, there are fewer people who even know the statue of Gillian is Gillian.

Hers isn’t the only statue there. There are a handful of people I’ve met over the years who love to be petrified. One of them was so pleading that he pays me to be a statue for a month at a time at least twice a year. Other people found out and I have a handful of people who spend time in a special room in the gallery that I had decorated to look like a garden: a statue garden. When Ross first saw the garden, around the time we made up with one another, he couldn’t stop laughing.

The number of petrifications and the frequency with which I prolong them has meant I no longer need to find a source for my unusual feeding. It’s been a long time since I slithered into the forest to create a menagerie of small animal statues.

Gillian O’Malley’s statue stands in the gallery to this day. I moved her into the statue garden where she is the centerpiece. The other statues have positions around the perimeter of the room.

I’ve even had a wedding there, once. The bride and groom spend a week as a statue between the being told they can kiss and being pronounced husband and wife. Every year on their anniversary, they have me zap them for the whole day. It’s on my calendar. I look forward to it each year.

I get to see Marie Applebottom most days. She is a semi-permanent fixture at the garden. She went to college with Elliot for a year before they broke up. After I graduated, she showed up at the gallery. I hadn’t seen her in four years. She asked if she could spend a few months as a statue. At the time I didn’t think the request from her was unusual. When her time was up she left and came back a few months later and asked again.

It took three years for her to tell me she had dropped out of college, that she still loved Elliot, and that she didn’t want to do anything but be a statue forever. She spends all but a week of the year as a statue. She owns a couple properties around town that she rents out. I suspect she’s very wealthy. When she found out people pay to be statues in the gallery, she gave me a million dollars for cover the next twenty years as a statue. The gallery will never go bankrupt because of that.

The one week of the year she spends as a person she meets with her lawyers and business partners to ensure things are running smoothly. And then it’s back into my garden for another year.

She also stands in the center of the statue garden with Gillian. She always poses in a manner that it looks like she and Gillian are supposed to be paired together. Everet calls her Statue Marie whether or not she’s a statue.

Even I spend time as a statue in the gallery. During a heated sexual encounter I accidentally zapped Ross. I felt bad about it and joined him by pushing some life force back into him. I overdid it and he ended up no longer being a statue and I was stuck for a couple hours. He joked I could spend time in the garden. It was near Halloween. I spend a few days before Halloween in the garden snaked around the room. People loved it. It’s a tradition now for me to spend a few days – last year it was almost a week – in my snake form as a statue in the garden. People take pictures and we charge admission. A few other “monstrous” twisted have joined me for the Halloween exhibit. We donate most of the proceeds from that to charities decided on by my fellow “monsters”. Everet loves Statue Mommy.

He also loves Snake Mommy. I’ve spent a lot of time the last couple years in my snake form. He likes it when I coil around him and then he climbs out of the pit he’s in. It’s fun now but I hope he outgrows it soon. He’s starting to get too heavy to be stepping on my tail.

And that’s about it. I’m sure there will be folks who tell me later I should have included something about this or that. But, that’s what going on late night television is for, assuming the book is popular enough. None of that matters. I love Ross and Everet and many other people. I love and I’m loved. When I was sixteen, I never thought I’d be able to say that twenty years later.

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That's all folks. Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome.