.......... "Hey! Let's pull in here, guys. Fast food is fine with me."

.......... "Wait a minute, Terry," my wife, Samantha said, "Bob and Linda might not be as fond of burgers as you are, and they are driving."

.......... Bob and Linda were our best friends, and we were riding in their mini-van.

.......... "It's okay with us, isn't it Bob?" Said Linda.

.......... "Yeah, fine!" said Bob, who was driving. "It's getting late, and I'm hungry. Helping you guys move in isn't easy. I didn't think you could put that much stuff in a rental truck that size."

.......... "Let's eat inside, though," said Linda. "I hate eating in the car."

.......... Bob pulled the mini-van into the parking lot and parked. We walked into the fast-food restaurant and looked for an empty table. It was crowded, and the only place with room for four was by the front windows of the restaurant. There was a wooden bench fastened to the wall that ran all along the low wall under the windows. There were tables at intervals along the bench, each big enough for about four people to eat at. On the other side of each table from the bench were two wooden chairs.

.......... "You and Linda go hold the table for us and Bob and I will order." I told Samantha. "What do you girls want to eat?"

.......... "Just a small cheeseburger and small fries for me, with a small diet soda." Linda said. "How about you Sam?"

.......... "Make mine a fish sandwich," said Samantha. "Just ice-water to drink, though, I've really got to watch my weight. Everything I eat these days just seems to go right to my butt and hips.

.......... Bob and I went to the counter at the back of the restaurant to order. We stood in line waiting.

.......... "It's great to have you guys move out here," said Bob. "I know Sam will love her new job."

.......... "Yeah, I hope so," I said. "That was really a great offer your company made to her. I hope I can find something that good."

.......... "I'm sure you will." said Bob. "With all the companies that have moved out here, there's bound to be something you'll like."

.......... Bob and I had met in college, as engineering students. In fact we were roommates for awhile. I had met Samantha in one of my classes. She was also studying engineering. I fell for her right away. She was blond and well built. Almost like a swimsuit model from one of the sports magazines. It took me a while to work up the courage to ask her out, but, to my surprise, she said yes right away. After we had been going out for a while, she asked me why I hadn't asked her out sooner. I honestly told her that I was afraid she wouldn't go out with me, that she was too good looking and must already have a boy-friend. She said that sometimes, being too good looking was a problem, it intimidated people that she would like to meet. In fact, during our senior year, during job interviews, she had her long hair cut short and took to wearing more conservative clothes, to present a more business-like appearance she said. It must have worked. She got a good job offer from a large national engineering firm.

.......... Bob met Linda in an art class he was taking to fill a humanities requirement. She was shorter than Samantha, and thinner, with dark hair, and seemed kind of intense for my taste, but Bob was fascinated with her.

.......... After college, it seemed we should get married right away, and Bob and Linda did. Bob got, and accepted, a great offer from a firm on the West coast, and he and Linda moved out there and were able to buy a really nice house right away. I had a harder time finding a job, and wound up with a smaller company, making less money than Samantha. It didn't bother us, but Samantha's father was quite old fashioned and didn't really want us to get married. He said he didn't believe in wives supporting their husbands. We finally did get married, but after we were, visits to and from Samantha's parents were few and always uncomfortable.

.......... So, when Bob called and said that he thought he could get his company to make Samantha an offer to move out to the West coast, she jumped at the chance to put some distance between her parents and us. She applied and was given an offer too generous for her to turn down. I quit my job and we took our savings and gathered up what money we could and put a down payment on a house near where Bob and Linda lived. We packed everything from our apartment into a rental truck and moved out to the West coast. I drove the truck and Samantha followed in her car.

.......... Now at last we had finished unloading the truck and returned it to the rental company. I soon would have to find a job, because even with Samantha's new, larger income, we were going to have a good sized house-payment coming up every month. And, unless I started working soon, what little was left of our savings was going to go pretty quickly.

.......... We finally got to the counter and ordered. We took our food back to the table and joined Samantha and Linda. They were sitting on the bench on the back side of the table. Bob and I sat in the chairs facing them.

.......... "We move 2000 miles and the fast food tastes exactly the same," said Samantha. "It's amazing the quality control these companies have. Their food tastes just as bad no matter where you go."

.......... "Don't complain too much," I said. "Until I find a job we can't afford anything fancier than this."

.......... "You'll find a job soon, Terry," said Bob. "There's lots of opportunities out here."

.......... "I hope so," I said. "That new house looks pretty empty. We're going to need a lot of stuff, even with everything we brought with from the apartment back East."

.......... "Well!" Said Samantha, finishing up her food. "We should get back. We've got to get the house in some kind of order so that we can get to bed tonight. Tomorrow's Sunday and we've got a lot to do before I start my new job on Monday."

.......... "I still haven't finished my fries," I said.

.......... "That's okay," said Linda. "I want to use the rest-room, want to come along, Sam?"

.......... "Sure," said Samantha. "We'll be right back guys."

.......... Bob and I sat and finished our food. We talked about job possibilities for me and how Linda was finally getting to do some painting and photography and other art work. She had set up one room of their house as studio, and was actually making a little money selling some paintings in a small art gallery in town where she worked part time.

.......... As we talked, I noticed the people sitting at the next table. It was a rather good looking woman with two children, a boy of about 3 or 4 and a girl of about 9 or 10. I never was good at guessing kids ages.

.......... The woman seemed to be trying to get the kids ready to leave. She was trying to get ketchup off of the boys face and get the girl to clean up the toys she had brought with her. She was playing with a doll. The well-known fashion doll that all women seem to complain about as being totally unrealistic, but that all little girls seem to want and their mothers buy them anyway. This one seemed to be different in that instead of having the usual long legs, it was in the form of a mermaid.

.......... The mother finished with the boy and tried to get the girl to pack all the doll accessories up. Just then, Samantha and Linda returned from the rest-room. Seeing that Bob and I were not quite done yet, they started to slide in behind the table and sit on the bench. Just as they were doing that the little boy at the next table reached for the girls doll and grabbed it. The girl saw this and tried to pull the doll out of her brothers' hands. As she yanked the doll away from him, it flew out of her hands and landed on the wooden bench and slid to just where my wife was sitting down. She sat on the doll and there was a cracking sound as my wife let out an "Ouch, what the heck."

.......... She stood up quickly and picked up what was left of the doll. It was broken in half at the waist and one arm was broken off.

.......... The little girl let out a cry and reached for her doll. "My doll, you broke my doll," she cried, and tears started to flow.

.......... People were starting to look. The girls mother quickly turned to see what had happened and started to apologize. "I'm sorry," she said. "I was trying to get them out of here but they both seem kind of cranky today."

.......... She turned to the little girl and said, "That's the third doll you've lost or broken since your birthday. I'm not going to replace this one." The little girl started to cry even harder and yelled while pointing at my wife, "It's all her fault, she did it, she broke my doll."

.......... The woman grabbed the two kids and swept their remaining stuff into a bag and started to carry the boy and herd the girl out of the restaurant. "Sorry" she said over her shoulder to us.

.......... My wife rubbed the seat of her pants and said, "That really hurt."

.......... "That's all right," I said. "I'll rub it for you when we get home. Want me to kiss it and make it all well."

.......... She chuckled and said, "No, at least not here. Is that all you men ever think of?" But she said it with a smile.

.......... Just then, the little girl came running back to us. She had broken away from her mother and she came up to Samantha, pointed her finger at her and said, in as menacing a voice as a little girl could manage, "You broke my doll, I'll fix you for that. I'm a witch, a real one, and so is my mother. I'll fix you good for that. You'll be sorry for breaking my doll."

.......... My wife kind of lost her temper then and said, "Look, I'm sorry your doll broke, but don't try to blame others for things that are your fault. You should learn to show a little more respect for adults."

.......... If looks could kill, the look on that little girls face would have wiped out everyone in the restaurant. She raised her arm up over her head and looked as though she was getting ready to throw something at my wife. Just then, the girls mother came running up with a horrified look on her face, and grabbed the girls arm before she could move it. "Patty!" she said with an angry hiss to her voice. "Don't you ever try that again, how many times do I have to tell you not to EVER do anything like that?"

.......... "I'm really sorry," the woman said. "She didn't do anything to you, did she?"

.......... "No," said my wife with a puzzled look on her face. "She just seems so angry, I didn't mean to break her doll."

.......... "Don't worry about it the woman said," dragging the girl away with her. "It's just a stage she's going through."

.......... "Wow," I said. "That little girl was really mad."

.......... "I know," said Linda. "Kind of makes you wonder about having kids, doesn't it?"

.......... "Let's get out of here," Samantha said. "That was embarrassing."

.......... We left the restaurant and went out to Bob and Linda's mini-van. Bob and Linda got into the front seats and Samantha and I got into the back through the sliding side door.

.......... "Well, that was fun," I said, trying to sound sarcastic. "Let's get back to the house and try to start getting things unpacked. I want to be ready to start job-hunting on Monday morning."

.......... "Your idea of fun and mine are two different things," muttered Samantha.

.......... As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Linda said, "This is really a friendly town, don't let a little kid give you the wrong impression."

.......... "She was really mad at me," said Samantha. "I don't think I've ever seen a little kid get that mad. I'd swear her eyes were almost glowing at me."

.......... As Bob pulled the van out into the street, a car pulled out of the restaurant parking lot right behind us. The road was four lanes in front of the restaurant, and Bob stayed in the right-hand lane. As we went down the street, the car that had pulled out behind us changed lanes and slowly started to pass us on the left, the side my wife was sitting on. As the car pulled alongside and slowly started to go past us, my wife pointed to it and said, "That's the woman and kids from the restaurant. Look there's that little girl in the back, looking at us."

.......... The little girl recognized us, and glared. She had the window open in the back seat where she sat. As she had done in the restaurant, she reached her arm up over her head, looking as if she was preparing to throw something at us.

.......... My wife yelled, "Duck! She's going to throw something!"

.......... As the little girls arm came forward, Linda ducked down. I was sitting next to her and, I guess, because there was a glass window between us and the girl, and also because I just didn't see anything in her hand, I didn't duck.

.......... A small ball of bluish-white light left the girl's hand and came straight through the glass window of our mini-van. It passed over my wife's lowered head and hit me right in the chest.

.......... Bob, who was driving, yelled, "What the hell was that?", and stepped on the brake. Samantha and Linda both looked at me, and, at almost the same, yelled, "Are you okay, are you hurt?"

.......... Bob had pulled the mini-van off onto the shoulder of the road, and I started to say, "I'm okay........"

.......... Just then, I started to feel very strange. It felt as if my skin suddenly became loose on my body and a bunch of worms were crawling around under it. There was no pain, just a very strange sensation of things rearranging themselves under my skin.

.......... I started to say, "Sam, help me.......", but then my voice just turned to a kind of squeak as changes started to happen. I felt hot and cold at the same time. I felt as if I had no control of my arms and legs, everything felt limp. Even my scalp felt as weird as the rest of me. It itched and felt like it was moving around on my head. Now even my bones seemed to be moving around inside me. I managed to look down at my chest, and the T-shirt I was wearing looked looser on my torso, and then began to fill out around my chest. I tried to talk, but all that would come out was a gurgle.

.......... I was aware that Bob, Linda, and Samantha were all staring at me as if they had just seen a UFO. Samantha was shaking her head from side to side, saying, "No, no........."

.......... Then, a bigger change began to happen. I felt a pain in my crotch as if someone were trying to pull my pants up over my head, giving me a kind of super-wedgie. Then the crotch-seam of my cotton pants began to rip open, and I felt my legs begin to pull together. All my adult life, I had never been able to sit comfortably with my legs held together. Women could sit like that, but my male equipment got in the way if I tried to hold my legs together. Now, however, my male equipment seemed to be gone, or displaced. The inseam of my pants continued to rip and as the last bit of thread broke down by the cuffs of the pants-legs, the fabric fell apart and I saw that my legs had fused together, from crotch to toe, pushing my shoes off of my feet and ripping my socks apart.

.......... The crawling sensation under my skin continued. I began to feel pain in my joints. My hips seemed to move slightly in my seat. As I looked down at myself, I could actually see my hips widen and my belt became looser. I tried to touch my reformed legs, but my arms seemed to have no control. The only thing that was keeping me from slumping over in my seat was the seat-belt and shoulder-strap.

.......... I was horrified and fascinated at the same time. I had no control over my body, but there was a tingling sensation on parts of my body that was not at all unpleasant. The tingling seemed to be concentrated in my chest and in my reformed crotch area, though from what I could see, I no longer had a crotch.

.......... Both Samantha and Linda were now staring in shocked silence as the changes continued. Bob kept asking, "Are you all right? Can I help you?"

.......... I couldn't talk. The changes continued. My feet now seemed to be the center of the changes. I could almost feel the bones moving, changing, rearranging. Even though they had merged into one foot, I had the sensation that my feet were trying to turn outward from each other. They seemed to flatten and broaden.

.......... I felt changes occurring now all over me. In my face, my arms, and even on top of my head. My ears even itched.

.......... Then the shock of the changes got to me and I lost consciousness.

.......... When I came to, it had apparently been only a few moments. The crawling sensations under my skin and in my bones had stopped. The tingling was still there all over my body, mainly in my crotch and on my chest, but it was less than before and seemed to be subsiding. I felt groggy and uncoordinated. My wife had her hands on my T-shirt and was touching me on the chest and then down by my legs.

.......... I was still not completely awake. I heard Linda say, "What should we do, should we go to a hospital, or something? Should we call the police or an ambulance?"

.......... Bob said, "I don't think we should do that. Nobody, and I mean nobody is going to believe this! They'll probably want to put her into a tank and study her!"

.......... I heard Samantha say, "You're right, I saw it happen and I don't believe it. Let's take HIM home and try and figure out what to do."

.......... Him, her, what were they talking about. I tried to talk, but nothing intelligible came out. I tried to move without much success. I felt incredibly weird in my lower body.

.......... I felt the mini-van start to move, and for the next I-don't-know-how-long, faded in and out of consciousness.

.......... The next thing I remember is the van pulling into a garage, hearing the garage door slide shut, and then the van side door sliding open. Bob was reaching in and undoing my seat-belt and picking me up. That was wrong, I weighed more than Bob. He should not have been able to pick me up like that without help. I began to panic and wondered what was wrong. My legs did not move right. Nothing felt right. Had my legs been injured in an accident? I tried to move around and Bob said, "Keep quiet, you'll be all right."

.......... I felt Samantha take my hand, and she was crying. She kept saying, "this just can't be, it just can't."