Struggling in vain against the two garish clowns that hold his arms
Jerry Youngblood finds himself being dragged though a dark a place past
vats filled with something heaving and unwholesome, the clowns make not
a sound as they are joined by two other shadowy figures, a tall woman
in a ringmaster costume, and an even taller glowering brute in a red &
while shirt stripped just like the dimly seen roof of the circus tent
he seems to be in, the two new ones grab his feet and host him into the
air.
Powerless he struggles against them; with a gooey splash they drop him
Into something that starts to cover him like quicksand made from cream
of wheat, the lady ringmaster's face comes close for a moment as
something is shoved into his nose and over this mouth, he tries to pull
it out while also doing the best he cane to rise out of the clinging
gruel, but it's all hopeless as it rises over his face and swallows
him.
"Garrrrgh!" Gasps Jerry breaking out of the nightmare "Damn, what a
dream!" he thinks as he kicks his already half off covers to the floor,
goosebumps form on his sweat-covered body as the cool bedroom air hits
it.
"I've had some bad dreams, but that was a dozy," he thinks to himself,
"it was like those circus people really had me and were drowning me in
slime or something. "Man is my bladder full," feeling both that
pressure and the need to get his mind somewhere else, what better to
drive the cobwebs and crazy clowns away than a four a.m. leak he
thinks?
Doing his customary roll out of bed Jerry is shocked when instead of
his feet hitting the floor as he springs up, his whole body falls what
feels like a couple of feet as he lands face down on the carpet.
"Awwww!" yawls Jerry more from shock than pain, the exclamation
sounding strangely high, "what the hell was that?" he thinks more as a
complaint than a question, "that damn dream must have messed with my
head, I should never have eaten all those cheap hotdogs at the circus
yesterday" remembering that brings back thoughts of the dream, "that's
were I saw that woman in the dream!" he thinks "she was the one in the
getup with the top hat, heels and fishnets in that barbershop tent
across from the civic center where the circus was. The one where I got
a shave I didn't need just so I could check her out, damn, why couldn't
the dream have been a wet one?"
His bladder reminding him why he was on the floor in the first place,
Jerry gets up and heads for the bathroom, for a moment he almost falls
again as a wave of dizziness comes over him, something seems odd as he
walks down the hallway.
Reaching the bathroom Jerry squints in preparation of the pain and hits
the light switch, or would have except instead of the switch his hand
just meets smooth wall, "Now what?" he thinks rubbing his hand over
where the switch should be, somehow it keeps escaping his touch.
All the while the pressure below grows worse, "Damn" he thinks "I know
where the john is, this is getting ridiculous!" Hopping to where he's
sure the can is Jerry doesn't even bother to grab his member to pee
just points in the right direction and let loose, along with the relief
Jerry feels his feet being anointed with his own water.
"DAMNDAMNDAMN," he says out loud, "now what?" cutting off the stream
mid point with an effort, Jerry is surprised at the strange high sound
of his own voice.
Knowing he'd been over confident, with one, and ignoring the other,
Jerry grabs for his penis to direct the flow, and fails to find it.
Jerry doesn't say anything; he didn't even produce a human thought as
he pats himself looking for something that can't be messing while
feeling only hair and skin.
Sure now that something is going on, but not sure what, Jerry feels a
sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, his eyes at last having
become accustomed enough to the dark to be able to make things out, he
looks to his right where he can just make out the dim form of the light
switch he had been unable to find only second before.
Somehow it seems to have risen what looks like 2 feet higher than it
should have be, whatever the case he makes for it, "am I in the wrong
apartment?" he wonders to himself as he hits the light switch and his
eyes are assaulted by the glare while he does the best he can to keep
them open.
"It's all just a leftover from the dream; it's all just a leftover from
the dream!" he chants mentally while his eyes adjust. Adjusted at last
he sees he's indeed in his own familiar lavatory, but there was
something odd, everything seems off kilter, as it things had gotten
larger, no, it was like he was looking at things while standing on his
knees.
"I walked in here on my knees?" he thinks not believing it for a
moment, however because of the crazy night he was having he looks down
just to be sure and there are his feet, or a set of feet, small wet
feet, that support two hairless somewhat stubby legs that rise to meet
a much plumper middle then he's use to, where he stares down at a
vagina, A VAGINA below a torso that has a figure that isn't familiar to
him, nor are the two pert breasts, all this adding up to a very compact
and exceedingly female form.
"Narhhhge" is Jerry's articulate response on seeing this, the body was
his alright, he could feel his wet feet, the toes of which wiggle when
he wiggles them, and as he was the one doing the wiggling, the toes
then had to be his, as if further proof were needed, he raises both
hands in front of his face and watch's with something a good deal
stronger than fascination as he wiggles his now also stuffy seeming
fingers on those small hands which, despite the old saying, are not as
familiar as the back of his hands.
However he knows for sure the strangely small and soft digits that are
Squirming about on his now plainly undersized hands belong to him.
"Okay, what fresh slice Hell is this." thinks Jerry, taking a deep
breath, making his new petite breasts heave in a way he would just as
soon not feel.
Turning to his left he readies himself to see what he will find in his
Bathroom mirror, and looks straight at the surface of the sink, finding
he has to look up to even see the bottom of the mirror, in which all he
can detect is part of the top of his head, while the round bit of
chestnut hair was at least somewhat familiar, being able to only see
that is far from reassuring. Trying to boost himself up to get a better
view Jerry finds this no easy task, besides in trying to do this his
newly discovered knockers press against the marble of the sink
convincing him this is not the route to take.
"The bedroom mirror!" he thinks speeding out of the john and heading
back to where all this started, his arms held out from his body like
someone playing airplane due to his fear of making contact with the
unknown body he seems to be living in.
Walking down the unlit hallway, the light from the bathroom fading, he
comes to the dark origin of this waking nightmare, he stops and backs
away, "GOT to look!" thinks Jerry, to his right was the hall light
switch, finding he has to stand on his toes to do it he flicks the
light that reaches into the bedroom enough so he can see there is no
height or dick stealing monsters lurking there, just his room, with his
rumpled bed in view. Taking a deep breath Jerry announces out loud
"Alright let's do this," then gasps as he hears a high pitched female
voice in his ears.
In his room, another on his toes hop is needed to flick that switch
well, now he can see why he fell when he got out of bed, where the
night before it had been at knee level, now the surface is level with
his bellybutton.
Moving to his left to stand in front of his closet door where a full
length mirror is bolted Jerry at last sees his reflection. He stares
into the eyes of a woman who looks just like him, or what he would look
like if he had been born a woman, a dwarf woman, "no, is that's not
right? The word these days is little person isn't it?" Thinks a now
oddly calm or perhaps numb Jerry Youngblood.
The woman he sees looks silly standing there with her arms out as if
about try to take off by flapping her arms, so she lowers them, just as
Jerry had feared, even though at the time he had not known he feared
it, her hands run themselves over her body, unlike a dream he feels
every sensation.
Stepping toward the mirror, Jerry thinks "it's me, it's really me, but
I'm a woman, a little woman," burying her face in her hands Jerry
closes her eyes and rubs her hands over her face as if washing it.
"This can't be real!" the he inside her head thinks, there, where at
least he sounding as he should, lowering them he takes another hard
look at her body which she starts to see is indeed real, and his.
"NO CRAZY! CRAZY! CRAZY!" She screams running around in a circle
unable to stop, but also unable not to stand still as the panic attack
jumps out of his back brain and takes over. "Not real!" she shouts,
jumping up and down slapping herself "dream, illusion,
somethingsomething notnot ME! AGGGGhhh!" she finishes next to the
mirror, propped up by her two small arms looking up and down at her
little person's body as it breathes heavily.
Jerry shudders, takes another deep breath, while not over, the panic
attack at least takes on another phase, "this can't be real, therefore
it's NOT real" Jerry tells her reflection with her high woman's voice,
"the hospital, that's were I need to be, somebody drugged me, that's
it, I get to the hospital and they'll give me a shot or something, I'll
go to sleep again, wake up, and all this will go away just like that."
But not nude, showing up at the E.R. nude would hardly be the best
start for a climb back to sanity.
Remembering where he put his clothes when he was sane, Jerry looks at
the chair he keeps in he's bedroom, and there they are, just where he
left them last night.
Shoes, socks, pants, belt, shirt, they're all still there, only as he
picks them up he sees nothing to help calm him, the Nikes are still
there, and they fit his hands like they look right, like they should
have if everything were normal. Were they normal?
That had to be it, the shoes were his, they fit in his hands, and they
would fit on his feet therefore this was all some sort of crazy
hallucination, but the room still looked bigger to him, he was still?
still a woman, as far as he could tell, but it had to be a delusion of
some sort, dragging in and releasing a huge sigh Jerry knows things are
messed up in his head but it can be fixed, sure it can.
"Just get to the E.R." he says frustrated to still hear the woman's
voice his ears "and no more talking out loud" he continues silently,
"just get dressed," this course of action soon tips the world back out
of kilter.
While his shoes seem to be his Nikes, where his socks should have been
laying he finds a pair of women's socks height hose, his jeans are
still there but they are a pair of women's jeans.
"Just get dressed!" he tells herself, then he comes to his shirt which,
the night before had been a black T-shirt he had tossed his jeans on
top of, now he finds and holds up a red & yellow woman's blouse with
poofy sleeves, under the blouse are revealed a pair of white woman's
panties & a bra.
"Okay?" he starts to say out loud then stops herself, and thinks "Okay,
this is all just too unreal Jerry, get something from the closet
that'll be just the thing." He assures himself mentally.
Reaching up to opened his closet, an action that does nothing to assure
him that none of this is real, as if he were not really a little person
why does he still have to reach up?
Then things get weirder, where his mind tells him he should be greeted
by his always carefully hung fresh clothing, what she sees, looking up,
are a few empty coat hangers, while piled on the floor before her are
stacks of clothing, shoes, and unopened hosiery & underwear packages,
as if some packrat had stolen all his things and hastily replaced them
with what he sees at her feet.
"Hell getting my stuff from way up there would have just been a pain
anyway," she says out loud, not because she is now comfortable with the
sound of her voice, but because of a numbness that has settled over her
in place of the panic attack.
"Get to the hospital" is now the driving motivation of his life, with
the dull calm suppressing everything else Jerry raffles through the
clothing at the bottom of his closet and selects an armful, with glassy
eyes she even goes back to the bathrooms and washes off her legs and
feet, then even struggles up onto the toilet and takes care of the
momentarily forgotten full bladder, by the time she is done the trance
is even deeper.
Before he knows it Jerry is back in her bedroom dressing herself in the
Items picked at random, there is a brief spark of the former alarm when
on deciding to skip on one of the alien bras, he is brought up short on
feeling her breasts rub against the fabric of the top as she puts it
on, thankful at least it's the type that hooks in the fount.
Still numb, but starting to cope, Jerry takes a look at herself in the
mirror, he sees a little woman in her middle 20's, the faces is his,
but feminine, with the bone structure of a slightly changed by whatever
sort of dwarfism she has, the change is so striking Jerry doesn't even
notice his hair having been given what would be called a pixy cut,
dressed in a simple dark gray blouse with a V-neck, matching dark blue
cotton pants, and red nylon knee-highs which make it up all the way to
just under her kneecaps, the package ends with a pare of brown shoes
with very girlie straps & buckles. "All right then" says the woman in
the mirror addressing herself and almost not caring that it's a woman's
voice saying it, after all his voice coming out of that cute little
woman would be even more disturbing. "I'm relatively calm, I'm dressed,
and I still seem to be a dwarf woman, now lets see what they think
about this down at the hospital."
Finding his keys in a pocket of her woman's jeans, another brick in his
growing wall of craziness, Jerry makes his way to his car, opening the
car is a problem that further insists that he is in fact a small person
now, not the five foot 10 inch man he feels....knows, himself to be.
Jerry makes it into the car, keys in hand, and finds the pedals too far
away to reach with even the tips of her small brown shoes, that's when
Jerry really looses it.
The clock shows it to be 4: 23 in the a.m. as resident Dr. John
Graystoke, signing in for both his first psyche rotation, and the late
shift at County General Emergency, steps out of the elevator to take
his first call of the night. "What have we got?" he asks the one who
had called for a psyche evaluation, Dr. Vatchic, another resident, only
taking care of the more physical concerns of gun shot wounds, gastric
distress & drug reactions that take place in large city during the
witching hours.
" hysterical woman in her mid-twenties, police found her in a car in a
residential area, when they couldn't calm her down they called in the
paramedics who brought her in, we took her vitals, and started blood
work, she's not on any drugs, or medication, and she settled down a
little after she got here, but she hasn't says much after she gave us a
wallet and asked to be helped with what had her upset, wants to speak
with an expert on the matter, we figure that's you " explains Vatchic
handing Graystoke a chart, and wallet the driver's license already
removed and on top of it.
"I see," he replies "sounds simple enough; if she's calmed down, why
call me?"
"Notice the I.D.?" asks the E.R. doc, Graystoke looks seeing a bad
picture of a woman with her eyes closed, the details read:
Jasmine Ellen Youngblood 1509 15th Ave South Chicago, Ill 60601 Sex F
Race W Date of Birth 04 - 04 - 81 HGT 3' 10 WHT 88 EYES Grey HAIR Brown
RESTRICTIONS N (built up pedals)
"Alright?" says Graystoke making the word a question, "And" replies the
other doctor, "she's calm now, and insisting we help her with her
problem, seems to think she's really a 5 foot 9 inch man by the name of
Jerry Youngblood, and something happened during the night that's making
her hallucinate she's a little woman."
"I see" says Graystoke "I'll go talk to her." "That's why they pay you
the big bucks" says Vatchic. Taking the chart, Dr. Graystoke turns to
go to where the chart says she is, examination room 2.
34 MINUTES LATER
"I'm glad you're seeing things more clearly Ms Youngblood" says a weary
Dr. Graystoke "I'm recommending you stay with us for a few days, I'm
sure you finding your car extenders missing was the cause that set off
the stress that lead to your dissociative episode, we'll watch you and
talk more over the next three days, I'm confident we'll soon have a
treatment plan. I'll go and arrange things while you wait."
Jasmine gives a weak smile that says she's embarrassed by the whole
thing and ready to come to grips with it with the help of modern
psychology, after the doctor leaves Jerry fingers her telltale drivers
license that proves him to be a her after all.
"Yeah, screw you too doc." says Jerry clambering down with difficulty
from the E.R. table she had been setting during the exam and interview,
on shucking the paper gown they had insisted on her wearing, even
though they obviously just thought her a nut, and putting back on the
alien woman's clothing Jerry carefully peeks out the door to see where
the doc is.
She sees him talking to another doctor, unfortunately both are standing
so she can't leave without them seeing her.
Closing the door Jerry waits for her chance to bolt, this gives Jerry
time to really give a hard look at the damning license. "Jasmine my
ass" grumbles Jerry mentally, looking at the card, then she noticed
something, "Hold the phone!" says Jerry aloud with Jasmine's voice as
she pecks at a corner of the laminated card with a fingernail. Sure
enough it comes loose, with a little more work it comes apart, with
smell of fresh glue hitting her nose, a grin spreads across her face as
bits of the proof that's she's a woman named Jasmine fall off the card
and float to the floor to fall around the buckles of her shoes.
Revealing is the fact that everything but the official seals has been
covered up, beneath that is revealed his old self, Jerry Earl
Youngblood, 5' 9! somebody had faked his I.D. to match up with the
changes in his body, "was it done to convince others or to convince
me?" wonders Jerry, however after the ER's physical exam, the long
talk with the doctor, and even longer wait under the uncompromising
hospital lights Jerry has dropped his idea that this is all some kind
of fever dream, but how could it have happened? And even if it could
happen, why would anybody go to the trouble of faking a new I.D.
thinking about those questions Jerry knew what the next he had to do
would be.
First however Jerry knows he has to stay out of the psyche ward,
peeking out the door again she sees the doctor has ended his conversion
and is across the room on a phone, "committing me doc?" says Jerry,
"not just yet."
For the first time since loosing 23 inches her new height proves an
advantage as she is able to walk quietly past the registration desk
below the sight of Dr. Graystoke by just keeping her head down.
With a whoosh the automatic doors close behind her after letting her
out, "Now what?" she thinks after the satisfaction of escaping passes.
"Okay," thinks Jerry walking down the street to distance herself from
the hospital, "what does a dude who's been turned into a girl, who's a
little person do after dodging the loony bin, and finding that his
identity hasn't been stolen, it's been altered?"
She walks and thinks griping his wallet, the female cut pants she's
wearing not having pockets. "I haven't got the foggiest idea." she
says out loud. Then Jerry sees a bank of pay phones, "Chicago at 5:00
in the morning is no place for a girl like me, let's get home do some
hard thinking on this."
As Jerry walks the block to reach the phones her situation again dawns
on her, getting use to being under four feet takes more than a few
hours it seems.
Jerry stands before the phones that rise above her, she sees she can
get hold of the ear & mouthpiece only by reaching up and tugging on the
cable connecting it to the main body of the instrument, the coin slot
however is impossibly beyond the reach of her body.
"Crap!" says Jerry propping her head against the body of nearest phone
sagging into on herself "What's the point anyway, I don't even have any
quarters on me."
At that Jerry knows for sure he is about to start crying, "and here
they'll find the crazy dwarf woman, then they can take her back and
give her the pills that'll made bad old Jerry go away."
"Hey honey!" booms a loud woman's voice from behind her, startled Jerry
jumps as if hit by a live wire, turning to the voice after imagining
for half a second the jump had been high enough to almost take his
small body to it's old height, Jerry looks up into the face of a woman
leaning out of a taxi, apparently a gypsy cab from it's beat-up
appearance. The woman is fat, smiling, and the owner of the tallest
beehive hairdo he has ever seen. "thing must be half as tall as I am
now." thinks Jerry looking at it.
"Sorry for the scare honey, need a ride?" she asks. Swallowing Jerry
thinks "some good luck, about time!" out loud she says "Yes, yes I do."
At that reply the large woman gets out, both opening the door for Jerry
and helping her in.
Situated in the back of the cab Jerry gets a very strange feeling, and
not just form the weird experience of setting in a car and not being
able to set back and have his feet touch the floor, "I've seen this
woman somewhere before, but where?"
"Where to hon?" asks the woman, Jerry gives his address in reply.
"Heading home huh Jerry? " She asks, "yeah sure" is his response,
already he has started to ignore her to concentrate on what his next
move will be. "Hire a detective? How will I pay for it? I don't have
that much money, and I sure can't go to work today, my god! What are
the people I know going to say? Will anyone even believe I'm me, and
dad, we haven't talked since mom died, he raised cane when I just told
him I haven't been to been to church in since I started collage, what
would me showing up a woman lead to!"
Then Jerry's train of thought is derailed by a realization "Say!" asks
Jerry speaking to the woman driver "How did you know my name is Jerry?"
"Oh honey." she says in answer, "we know more about you than you can
guess, let's go inside and talk about it."
Looking over the bottom edge of the backseat window Jerry sees that
while he was thinking his deep thoughts the cab has gone a route that
has taken him nowhere near his apartment.
With the early morning sunrise just starting to redden the sky behind
it, Jerry sees the circus tent like barbershop where he had gotten his
shave from the sexy deep voiced woman in the ringmaster outfit, in fact
he sees her standing outside the tents front flap, then two more
figures step out.
Two clowns from his nightmare that he had been having not 2 hours
before, on seeing Jerry's small head peak up out of the back window all
three smile and wave, the one's on the clowns sending a shiver down her
spine.
"Oh sweetie we're got a lot to talk about!" says the large woman
pulling up in front of the tent.
Jumping across the seat of the taxi, Jerry grabs the handle of the door
opposite from the one facing the tent and the frightful people in front
of it, to his dismay it refuses to open.
"Oh honey, don't be that way!" says the fat women opening the other
door, "Mike, be a gentleman and help the little lady out." With that
the biggest man Jerry has ever seen comes into view, reaches out a hand
at the end of a long arm and with no visible effort puts it around
Jerry waist and halls her out, carrying not like a child but a doll the
man takes Jerry and moves toward the open door of the tent. "So we've
not another live one ah Sadie?" says the tall women wearing a red
tailed ringmaster's jacket, top hat, fishnet hose and incongruously, a
beat-up pair of work boots, and who, in much more normal looking
attire, had given him his unneeded haircut not long ago. While saying
this the two clowns, which Jerry, who having given up his struggling,
can now see are made up of one male, and one female clown both of whom
give the thumbs up sigh.
"Yeah, I been following this one since we let her loose doing our usual
follow watch, and I could tell she's one of the rare ones." "Well, Ms
Youngblood," says the tall women speaking to Jerry, while at the same
time holding up her hand to stop the big man who had been carrying her
toward the open tent flap, "welcome back, you're one of the few to dig
beneath surface, most people, even the ones who get the stranger
remodeling jobs," on saying the word "stranger" the woman putting
noticeable force behind the world, while the male clown standing to her
right grins even bigger and honks his horn twice, "most just drool for
a few days, then dive into denial and become what we've made of them,
and of the few like you that do resist, well! You're the quickest to do
so yet, most take months before they come looking for us, and fewer
still make it."
Making a come this way finger wiggle at the big man, the woman in the
top hat makes a sharp right turn and walks off, "That's why we'll be
taking Ms Youngblood to tent number 2 first, I think she can handle a
full disclosure."
Without a word the big man holding Jerry under one arm like a loaf of
bread follows Top Hat woman, the two clowns and the fat woman closely
behind him.
Having calmed down on seeing that, while weird as scuba diving cats,
these strange people don't seem to be about to harm him, Jerry speaks
up. "Great, in that case since I'm so sharp, and we're such big buddies
and all, how about letting me down so I can walk on my own?"
"We like you, but we ain't stupid," says the big woman who is walking
just behind the one called Mike. Saying this she reaches out a hand and
pats Jerry on her round butt, "But I don't like running and you might
try to scat." "Honk Honk" goes the male clown's horn, "giggle, tee
hee" goes the female clown.
"Don't worry, Jasmine" says the Top Hat woman, as soon as we're in tent
2 Mike will let you have a seat, we'll have a nice talk, and all this
will become clear to you." So, as if she any say in the matter Jerry
stays as calm as an adult being carried by a near giant can and looks
around.
As they move around the first tent, which, on going past the open flap,
Jerry is able to see is the one that holds the barber chair, popcorn
machine, calliope and other paraphernalia he had seen when he got his
haircut.
By the time the Top Hat woman is done with her speech they are behind
that and Jerry sees another tent even bigger and shabbier than the
first just behind it, with three mobile homes and a scattering of
trucks and cars between the two.
"Welcome to the Traveling Hippodrome of Hair!" says Top Hat woman in
tones that almost seem to expect to be followed by a circus band
sounding a fanfare, "You've seen the face, now meet the heart!"
With those words and having reached the front of the larger tent, two
flaps are opened, pulled from within as if on cue by two new people, a
tall, but not as tall as Top Hat woman, elderly woman, and a little
person, a man.
"You people practice this?" asks Jerry, in response the giant gives
Jerry an uncomfortable squeeze, while the fat woman gives her rump an
even harder slap, Jerry's other remarks remain unsays. However it's
unlikely that Jerry would have had anything else to say as by that time
they are within the tent, and he can see what's in it.
The long, low red & white stripped tent is filled with what appear to
be the tubs of his dreams, only his fully wakeful mind and eyes now see
them for what they are, six small, high sided, swimming pools, like you
might buy at a K-Mart for a child, arranged opposite each other down
the length of the tent with a path between them leading to a small
brightly lit area with a few chairs and tables.
While they now seem far more mundane, the rest is even more appalling,
because of his clarity of mind he is now able to take in the whole
tableau.
The air is filled with a most, organic odor that reminds Jerry of a
swamp he once drove by, while at the same time the air is filled with a
symphony of hisses, pops and gurgling sounds.
"I think Ms Youngblood may be starting to be impressed," says the
ringmaster woman, "give him a quick peek at our two latest guests
Mike."
Moving up to the second to last pair of vats before they get to the
well lighted area, the giant called Mike holds Jerry out over the vat
on the right, looking down Jerry sees that it's filled almost to the
brim with a cloudy liquid that, or so it seems to Jerry, is making the
noises while giving off the smell, which, as Jerry finds herself
suspended over it grows much worse.
Submerged in the liquid, in the vat, which is the color coca diluted in
water, Jerry sees to her horror a human form. "These freaks have
drowned someone!" thinks Jerry, her eyes widening, then she notices
more, then one of the legs of the figure move in the vat showing it's
not a corpse, it's a woman, and Jerry can see what looks like a
transparent oxygen mask fitted over her mouth, at the same time two
tubes run up her noise, all of which run to a gas tank and other
apparatus supplying oxygen, the images from his dream comes back to
Jerry, only now she can plainly see what they really had been, then
Jerry takes in the woman.
Of average height, the woman is nude and has skin as white as an
eggshell, around her head in the liquid her hair floats around her, it
appears to be sky blue in color. "One of my little projects" says a
voice that sounds like Mini Mouse playing with a helium balloon.
Startled, Jerry looks up from the women in the vat and sees the female
clown has come up to the edge of the plastic receptacle holding her. "I
like making girl clowns, I don't care if they start out as boys or
girls, I like making girl clowns," absently the garish woman, who
appears to stand just a little over five feet, but has a figure that
would challenge one a foot or more taller and is dressed in a shiny
clown costume composed of primary colors, disturbing Jerry even further
he can see that the clown woman looks nude under her costume, her
breasts pressing against it reveal that her form does not come from
exaggerated clown padding, as she talks she trails a day-glow yellow
gloved hand though the muck the unconscious unreal looking white women
is suspended in. Pulling it out she sees it's now covered with a beige
film, giving it an angry look, she slings her hand and the glove flies
off hitting the dirt floor, Jerry sees that her exposed hand is whiter
than the women's in the vat, "but Hoyt and Cyrus want let me make as
many as I want to! They say they're too hard to? integrate! I wanted
you! They let me have Jennifer Robin?" "That's enough Yum Yum!" says
Top Hat in a commanding voice before the clown girl can say the woman's
full name, "Mike the next vat, please" continues Top Hat, and with a
pivot Jerry finds herself over the one opposite it.
Like the first, this one is filled with a bubbling murky liquid, with
clumps of something mossy looking floating in it that gives off a moldy
earth scent, the surface of this one however is disturbed by small
waves, the source of which Jerry can see comes from a pair of
amplifiers bolted to the far side of the vat, with the speakers
touching the side of the converted kiddy pool, whatever sound they are
producing to muffled for Jerry to make out, but whatever it is, its
loud enough to vibrate the brownish water.
Beneath its ale colored surface Jerry can make out another woman not as
bizarre as the first figure, the thin nude woman however is just as
unconscious, as well as fitted out with the oxygen ensemble. Of average
height, with long straw colored hair, she has almost pretty, if pinched
looking features, other wise there is nothing to distinguish her
someone you might pass on the street.
"Not one of our more outr? subjects" says Top Hat, "Mr. Cooper is just
another of a particular breed of bureaucrat that seem to feel the need
to vex us from time to time, we have a special blend for them which he
is at present soaking in, it's well on it's way but he still has some
cooking to do, we call it our `Carney Special.' The sound system helps
with that, our usual policy is to keep things quite for our guests as
our Stuff is quite psychoactive and there is no telling what effect
things heard while in it might have. With his sort however we take full
advantage of that property, so that when the snooty, demanding Mr.
Cooper wakes up far from here as Sally June Cooper, in her cut offs,
tank top, flip-flops, and a backwoods accent thick enough to spread on
toast, that will be all we'll hear of her." "Yeah, another hour and
it'll be time to take her out so I can give her a Dolly do," says the
fat woman to Top Hat while stepping up to look in the vat.
"I think that's enough so that our friend can better appreciate our
talk to come," says the tall woman to the giant, "let the young lady
have a seat Mike." Thankfully no longer suspended over the grimy vat
containing "Mister Cooper," the large man takes Jerry to the well lit
area and places her on one of the low tables there, her back to the
tent facing the strange crew who line up in a semi-circle behind Top
Hat who, like her, face Jerry.
"I guess introductions are the first order of business," says the woman
who seems to be in charge. Taking off her top hat she points it first
at herself, then at the others in turn from left to right as she says,
"Myself, you can call Cyrus, but let me present, Hoo-Ha, Yum-Yum," the
female clown strikes a pose while the male one honks his horn,
"Sadie," the fat woman with the big hair salutes Jerry, "Golda and
Mike," the older woman and huge man barely acknowledge Jerry, "and my
long time partner under these the not so big tops, Hoyt!" "The
situation you find yourself in was mostly my idea," says the little
man, the only one to speak, if you discount Hoo-Ha's horn honking. "If
it had been Sadie's turn you would be a 600 pound man now, Yum-Yum's
and? well you've seen the vat. I expect at least a thank you from you
before this is done, in fact considering how well you've turned out I
wouldn't be opposed to introducing you to finer details of your new?
situation." He concludes leering openly at Jerry, or rather the Jasmine
she now is. "Cut it out Hoyt!" says Cyrus the circus ringmaster woman
rolling her eyes, "how many times have you tried that with our guests?
Finding themselves at eye level with you isn't going make them see eye
to eye, try reading Dale Carnegie. But lets stay focused, I have things
to tell the former mister Youngblood."
Taking one of the folding chairs that scattered in that end of the
tent, Cyrus turns it around and sets down straddling it, the man called
Hoyt, looking slightly angry, finds another chair and plops down with
his arms crossed staring at Jerry. "If we're going to get everything
ready in time for those two," says Mike speaking for the first time
while jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the two vats Jerry had just
been horrified by, "we need to get some things moving, we still don't
have all the clothes ready for them."
"I'm sure Hoyt and I can handle this," says Cyrus, "you and the rest do
what needs to be done." As soon as the others have disappeared into the
gloom that takes up most of the big tent Cyrus turns to Jerry and says.
"So? Questions?"
Jerry, her small legs dangling over the side of the table on which she
has been placed, and who by that time was sure she he could not be
surprised by anything else that might happen that night, finds there is
still some left and uses it to be surprised at the question asked.
"A few!" says Jerry, the indignation and anger she feels becoming the
most conformable and reassuring emotion he has felt that night. "I'm a
man, I've been a man on my own since I was 18 and left for collage!"
"We know," says Cyrus interrupting, "You didn't know it, but the water
we used on your hair during your trim was a very mild offshoot of our
Stuff, makes people spill their guts, I know all about your
estrangement from your father, your lack of other relatives, friends,
your job?" "can I continue?" asks Jerry interrupting her with some
heat, the look she sees in Cyrus' eyes making Jerry feel even better.
"As I was saying," continues Jerry, "I've been my own man for over 8
years, I take in your stupid circus," "not our circus," says Hoyt
quietly, Jerry glares "I went TOO the circus and got a haircut in that
other tent, I go back to my apartment, go to bed and wake up and find
I'm a women, a woman who has to reach up on HER toes to turn on HER own
bathroom light, a woman who can't even reach the gas peddle on HER car!
Then I find I've got a fake ID calling me Jasmine Ellen for Christ's
sake! Yeah I have a few questions, such as what happen to my dick, why
am I three foot, fucking ten instead of what I should be, how and why
did you do this to me and how soon, are you going to change me the
G&@!*%N, M*|&$#$@*G, F|#K BAAACK!"
Having vented his feelings in a question that ends with Jerry's new
voice bouncing back from the dark corners of the huge tent, she not
caring how feminine the pitch is, or the rounded breast she feels under
her blouse when she stops and holds her chest needing to stop and
breath heavily, her tirade going so long that she has run out of air.
"Damn baby," says Hoyt his anger at Cyrus gone, "You're hot when you're
furious, I like that in a chick, you sure you won't let me show you how
the new gear works?"
Jerry, not caring if it means that Mike the giant will jump out of the
dark and stick her head first in one of those vats without the
breathing tubes and masks points a stubby middle finger at Hoyt and
says nothing.
"You're upset," says Cyrus, "that's understandable, you had a life, not
much of a life you'll have to admit, but one you were use to. And let's
face it Jerry, you know there was not likely to be much changing in it
anytime soon. But look at you now!" she says gesturing at Jerry with
her top hat which she still holds. "Now when you walk down the street
people are going to notice you, you're sexy," Hoyt leers again, Cyrus
holds up her hat free hand to keep him from saying anything, "and
you're beautiful, and you getting on the trail to us fast as you did
shows you're smart, now you can go some place, now you can leave the
mundane behind! Embrace this, make it your own, there is no going
back!" Her speech ended Jerry sees a light has entered the strangely
dressed women's eyes, while before all of the odd people he has meet
since being dragged out of the taxi had had a peculiar look about them,
now in the woman's eyes, and those of the dwarf setting near her, it
has taken on a new quality, reminding Jerry of religious zealots he has
met in the past.
"But how did you do this to me? Why did you do this to me? When are you
going to changing me back?" says Jerry the tears she isn't shedding
sounding in her voice.
The look in the eyes of the woman dressed like a circus ringmaster,
while retaining this peculiar light, also grow sympathetic. "I
understand but you have to face it, you are Jasmine now, there is no
going back. I've gone though something like what you've gone though
myself. You can't tell it by looking at me now, but I'm over 60 years
old, though now I only look to be in my 30's, and I use to be a man,
I've only been a woman for a little over a year, while I spent more
years than you've been alive being a man, but believe me, you get use
to the change."
Not knowing what to think, Jasmine asks the first question that comes
into her mind, "has he always been a little person? Or did you people
turn him into one? Why isn't he a woman too?" the former Jerry
Youngblood thinks for a moment, "he didn't use to be woman was he?"
"No," says Cyrus, "that's how Hoyt was when he was born. Here let me
start my story, that will tell you what you want to know I think."
Getting up she moves to a corner of the tent near the table where
Jasmine is seated and returns with a metal bucket covered with a wet
cloth. Setting it beside Jasmine she pulls off the cloth. "First look
at this, this is what has made you, and me, the women we are today."
After Cyrus removes the cloth Jasmine again smells the earthy scent
that rose so strongly from the bubbling vats, and which, to a lesser
extent, pervades the air of the tent, looking in the bucket she sees
that it is half filled with a greenish brown lump of? something.
"Fungus'" Says Cyrus, "Doesn't look like much does it?" Cyrus, still at
the table with Jasmine, jabs a finger at it, "but it's the miracle of
the ages and it showed itself to me, me!" stepping away from the table
and looking not at Jasmine but a space above her head, Cyrus begins
talking, telling her a story that, if not told a thousands time, must
have certainly run though the speakers head ten times that or more.
"I was a nobody," begins Cyrus, her eyes looking up but unseeing, her
arms held out at her sides, seemingly as if waiting for a stop light to
shine on her, Jasmine Jerry half expecting one to appear, "just a boy
really, with no future to speak of, coming from as poor a family as I
did, and from such a small town, a town with few jobs to speak of and
it most notable feature a nearby swamp, I won't say where this was, you
wouldn't know the name if I told you, but far from here."
"One day while exploring a part of the bog I had never been through
before I came across a tree, but that's not what's important, what is
important is what was growing on that tree. Running up and down the
whole trunk I found the fungus like what you see in the bucket, I
thought nothing of it, and would have walked right past it and
forgotten it, only my old beagle Jimmy detected something more to it
with his noise than my eyes were telling me.
Jimmy went right up to the nasty looking stuff and started wolfing it
down; I had to pull him off! After that I took us both straight home, I
didn't know what to do. Could fungus hurt a dog? I was worried.
The next day however I was amazed, I got up having forgotten about
Jimmy and the tree fungus and found him frisky and ready for more
summer exploring. By the way, Jimmy was over 14 years old, and most of
his friskiness was gone, that it was back was a surprise but not
amazing, what was amazing was his tail, which he had lost to a bigger
dog when he was a pup, it was back, overnight he had grown a completely
new one! One that was healthy, and wagging and as blue as a robin's
egg.
I knew the only reason for this had to be the fungus, I knew it had to
be some kind of wonder maker, what I didn't know was what to do about
it. One thing I knew however was that I wouldn't be telling anybody
about it. I knew if I told anyone they would take it away from me, and
it had found me, not them, so it was mine.
So I kept the secret, I found that with a little water it thrived apart
from the tree quite well, and so I experiment with it. That's how I
found that while it was unaffected by water, if you added just a little
bit of vinegar it broke down into a liquid that still had it's
wonderful properties, and that once turned into a liquid anything could
added to it, and that what was added to it made it do new things.
By itself it made things younger, and caused their hair and skin to
become different colors, it didn't take long for Jimmy to grow back to
being a pup, and blue all over, that was the sad part, having to take
him into the woods and leaving him so my folks wouldn't see.
Though if I had just waited for a bit it wouldn't have mattered as he
would have fit right in. My tests lead to a lot of green, purple and
pink dogs & cats wandering the neighborhood. That was when I found that
different things mixed in with the fungus juice let it would do other
things, before long there were housecats as big as goats chasing by six
legged dogs.
Most everyone just pretended it wasn't real, or blamed it on the
nuclear reactor, even though the closest one was up river 20 miles.
That's when I found that most people when running into something like
this do their best to pretend everything is normal. It was also at that
point that I found," with that Cyrus stopped looking off into space,
dropped her arms to her sides and looked Jerry in the eyes, "that
animals and humans can only take one dose of the fungus, one change,
and one change only, another makes them sick, a third kills them,
that's why you're staying the way you are Jasmine," a pause with a
raised eyebrow from Cyrus then, "but let me get back to my story, I'm
just getting to the meat." Returning to the chair she had started in,
Cyrus folds her arms over the top of it, and still looking at Jasmine
resumes.
"By that time I was almost out of high school and had one burning
question, what would happen if a human who consumed the fungus? I was
not about to try it myself, and hardly likely to find any volunteers.
However while I was the only one who explored it for fun, I was not the
only one who used the swamp, there were more than a few illegal stills
secreted around in it. Having grown up less than a mile from the swamp,
and knowing it better then almost anyone, I knew where and how to get
into, about, and out without being seen.
So one night I went out with a handful of fungus, and a coke bottle
full of one of my mixes, and flavored two illegal stills. In the first
one I just dropped in the raw fungus, as by that time I found it
dissolved as well in alcohol as it did in vinegar, while in the next
still I put in a mix of the liquid fungus that, in animals at least,
bleached out all the color in them. I figured that once the moonshine
was sold, word would get around about customers getting healthy, and
blue-green, or becoming albinos, it was after all a small community.
Sure enough in less than a week things started to happen, however I had
forgotten to take into account that most anything added seemed to have
an effect on the result of the fungus, and popskull White Lightning is
a pretty powerful additive! That's when the first sex changes came
about due to the fungus.
First in ones and two's, then a dozen or so of the customers of the
first still I added the straight fungus to started to go though
changes, seems they would be talking down the street, or in bed asleep,
or knocked out here are there by the rotgut, and explode out of their
clothes, gain 300 pounds in just a few hours, while at the same time
turning into women.
Now that folks noticed!" For a moment Cyrus stops, laughs
nostalgically, then resumes, "But not as much as the ones who sampled
the other batch, which had the bleaching effect mix, until the hooch
sent it off on a tangent.
Not as many of those turned up in public, seemed that while the public
at large could deal with fat ladies, even if they use to be man, what
happened to the others was more? well more than they were ready for.
But I saw one fellow who got struck by that special brand of White
Lightning, He wasn't an albino, it was more like he had been white
washed, but only his skin, his lips and nose had swollen up to three
times their original size and turned a bright red, his hair became
frizzy, and turned a bright electric blue, his feet grew to twice their
normal size, while his voice sounded like a cartoon character. Oh? and
he wasn't a man any longer, he had become female, and what a female,
had a chest she could just barley see her toes over, but only because
her feet were so big, and? well you've heard of having a butt you could
set a shot glass on? You could have set a whole pitcher on hers! He had
turned into a living breathing real life lady clown.
I really felt bad about that happening to my father, how was I to know
he sometimes liked to sneak a drink of shine? But it did give me a
chance to get a close look at one of the people who were effected by
the fungus."
Seeing the look in Jasmine's eyes Cyrus stops, "you think?" a laugh
"No! No Yum-Yum is not my father! That would be too bizarre working
with him. No, this was many years ago, my father retired years ago
after finding a job with the circus, which is ironic, as back then he
had never approved of my interest in that institution, but let me get
back where I was."
"Never on the strongest financial footing this sent the family into a
spiral, until she, my father that is, was able to get a job with the
Raptor & Wildman circus, not a big show, but open to some of the?
graduates of the Hippodrome's work, they're still limping along to this
day.
"Whatever the case dad was off doing that, and mom followed along, high
school over, it was taken for granted that I would just have to do the
best I could. I was able to scrape together enough to go to barber
school and made a living doing that. But what I really planed on doing
was exploring my fungus and what it could do.
This went on for years, during that time I found the most impossible
things were made possible with it, an artist and his clay are nothing
compared to the changes that can be placed on the human body with it.
The mind as well, because by that time I found that a very mild mix of
the fungus, and two other ingredients creates something that, while
having no effect on the body of the person it's used on, does effect
the mind. One squirt and they can't shut up, can't lie, and are willing
to tell anything; two squirts and you go into a dream like state that
leaves the psyche open to probing, three squirts, and your out like a
light.
It's how we find our candidates, it's how we found Jasmine, and how we
got you here and back to your place with no problem, but don't worry!"
says Cyrus seeing the anger once again replacing the almost slack jawed
disbelief she had been listening to Cyrus's story with, "don't worry,
no lasting effects, and unlike the big change" she says while giving
the charades `quote' sign with her hands, "and it can be used more than
once without harm. But where was I? Oh yes!"
"Its years later and I'm working as a barber, I'm still fiddling about
with the fungus, but have to admit that by that time I'm out of my
depth, I just don't know what to do next. Then I meet Hoyt here."
Gesturing toward the small man who until then has remained quite though
out Cyrus's talk, taking up the story from the top hatted women.
"I was a student of chemistry back then," says Hoyt, "Cyrus, who at the
time, was this tall skinny redneck sounding guy, worked in a barbershop
shop just off campus, didn't even own the place, just worked there, I
don't think he was even the head clippster, anyway I didn't pay any
attention to him, I mean I'm a chemical genius, and this guys working
for tips! " now it's Cyrus's turn to look cross, as he interrupts Hoyt.
"Yes, not my most auspices days," says the woman taking back control of
the floor, to tell her story, "however I was busy looking for people
who could help me, and it turns out the university was just the place
to do it. I had been sneaking in sprits of my tongue loosing mix from
time to time and grilling the guys who came in, that's how I was able
to tap into the bottomless well of resentment that was young mister
Hoyt here," at that the small man smirks, interrupting.
"Yeah, I've had a barely restrained grudge against the sizeist jerks
I've had to deal with my whole life, and to tell you the truth with a
little prodding I would probably have told Legs here all about it, if
he had just had better people skills. But I had it well bottled up;
Cyrus here contacted me later and says he wanted to help me do
something about it, mind you in return for helping me he expected me to
help him with something."
Hoyt's smirk turns into a genuine smile as he settles back in his
folding chair and continues "He showed me some of the stuff this fungus
could do and I was knocked backwards by it, he showed me pictures he
had taken in secret of people who had been exposed to it, wild stuff! I
had to be part of it, I don't know if it was the spray, or just all
those years of resentment finding an out, but I knew just what to do."
With no visible sign of him being done, Hoyt stops talking and Cyrus
takes back over.
"In just a few months Hoyt came up with more things that could be done
with the fungus than I had in the almost 20 years I had been working
with it, as well as new ways to administer it. Injections, lotions,
sprays, all sorts of things, less than a year and he had added fifteen
new effects to the thirteen I had found. Then he got ahead of himself."
Hoyt on hearing that rolls his eyes into his head and waving his hands
in the air saying "Yipes!"
"Yipes indeed," says Cyrus continuing "It seems that Hoyt had found an
outlet for his resentment, and revenge and on a scale that I had never
even dreamed of attempting. He injected boxes of expensive chocolates,
with a concentrated form of the fungus mixes and left them as gifts for
different groups around the campus."
"The football team, two sororities, the chemical faculty and senior
chemistry class." Says Hoyt interrupting, a huge grin on his face.
"Yes, a lot" says Cyrus continuing "within days the whole campus was
disrupted as students and teachers didn't show up, and then when they
did show up it was as people like mister Hoyt and yourself now."
"Yeah, all of a sudden I was the big man on campus" Says Hoyt.
"It was chaos," says Cyrus, "when these things were one or two strange
transformations spread out over years, people could convince themselves
to look the other way. When a third of the schools football team, over
two dozen of the schools most popular girls, as well as random
students, and professors go to bed with aches and pains and wake up in
a pool of their own sweat, to find themselves little people ranging in
height from 3 foot 3, to at most 4 foot 6. Well?. Emotions run high,
you can understand that can't you Jasmine." Jerry Jasmine just looks at
the two speakers unable to think of anything to say, Cyrus don't wait
for her to respond.
"Even a school with as weird a reputation as little Miskatonic U finds
it hard to absorb something like that," says Cyrus continuing her story
"in a flash the school is the host to an army doctors and other experts
from the World Health Organization, as well as every outlet of the
media in the known universe," "I got interviewed by Diane Tomasina
Sawyer, Wolfgang Blitzkrieg, and reporters from the New York Times, the
Enquirer and Grit when they thought I was one of the victims." says
Hoyt.
"All we knew," says Cyrus, "was that sooner or later the FBI, and who
knows who all else, would be called in, and there was no telling what
they would find, so we ran."
"Also as far as we know they never did find out what caused it," added
Hoyt, "Miskatonic really is a very, VERY, odd little university."
"We haven't looked back since then," says Cyrus, "over the years we've
picked up the rest of the Hippodrome here and there, surprisingly
enough only myself and Yum-Yum have been exposed to the fungus." Cyrus
stops seeing a look in Jasmine's eye, "No really, just myself and Yum-
Yum, Ho-Ha is just an? eccentric guy. Eventually we'll all climb into a
tub, Father Time waits for no one, for now however we're to busy
running the Hippodrome." "As I said I did it just a year ago, I had put
together what I called my Fountain of Youth mix, it should have just
halved my age. But the elderly lady you meet early, the quite one, it's
always the quite ones isn't it? She added something else and I became
the woman I am now, only fair I guess.
And here we are in this city, we follow different circuses around the
world, but are not a part of any of them, and they don't know what
we're about. Which brings us to the present, when you can in, you and I
talked for the longest time, though of course you don't remember it.
And I found out about how you have no one, no friends, no family, no
girl friend, and you told me about your frustrations about how you feel
no one will ever notice you, so we came to your rescue. As it was
Hoyt's turn he picked the mixture that turned you into Jasmine, and we
used our other skills to fix your ID, and we supplied you with
clothing, and now all you have to do is run with it!"
"Run with it," adds Hoyt in a more quiet tone.
The woman in the ringmaster's outfit, fishnet hoses, top hat and work
boots, and the small man look at Jasmine, Jerry, who is now Jasmine,
stares back at them for almost five minutes.
"You're fucking kidding me." She says at last. "That doesn't say why
you did this, why, why in the world would you turn a perfect stranger
into a woman, a little women?"
"Because we can," replies Cyrus without a touch of irony in her voice,
"because me finding that fungus could not have been a random happening,
because my father buying and drinking that moonshine, and ending up in
the circus, the place I had always wanted to be, which lead to him, or
her then really, and my mother going off on the road with them, which
lead to me having to change my ideas about what to do with my life and
becoming a barber, a barber!" shouts Cyrus seeming to feel that Jasmine
should be as indigent at that as she, "which lead to my meeting Hoyt,
which lead to the Traveling Hippodrome of Hair, which lead to you
becoming Jasmine, and lead to you Jasmine setting on that table, which,
by the way, is the same table we laid you on after your change, which
lead to you being taken to the trailer where Yum-Yum and Golda dressed
you and Sadie fixed your hair, which lead to Mike taking you back to
your apartment and putting you back in your bed and laying your new ID
on your new clothes, which of course lead to you finding us again. It
happened because this can't be chance Jasmine, it's God, or the
Universe, it's what I call Destiny with a capital D, I was meant to
find that fungus, we were meant to form the Hippodrome, you were meant
to be Jasmine!"
At that Cyrus stops talking as if there can be no auguring with what
she has just said and just looks at Jasmine waiting for her to see the
light, Jasmine looks back at her. "This is really me?" asks Jasmine
breaking from the staring match between them, "It can't be real, even
if I am a woman now, where did the rest of me go? I was five, nine; I
weighed over a hundred and eight pounds! Where did all that go?"
"That's the amazing part," says Hoyt, who unseen by Jasmine has come to
stand near her while she was captivated by Cyrus's rant. "The fungal
liquid seems to become a part the person placed in it, during the first
30 minutes it's almost as if the body dissolves, becoming almost like a
human shaped chrysalis, unneeded mass is shed, or as the case may be,
drawn in from the surrounding liquid and in just minutes this new
plastic form becomes a new person, whole, healthy and younger. Your ID
said you were 26, now I'd say you were more around 22 really, and
perfectly formed. By the way I'm still waiting for that thank you from
you for my excellent work." As Hoyt says this he runs his hands up and
down Jasmine's left leg, Jasmine jumps back from him upsetting the
bucket filled with the fungus beside her, spilling it out as she moves
away from Hoyt, her right hand lands in the stuff that oozing out,
which stops Jasmine in her retreat as her hand sinks in it up to her
wrist.
"Cut it out Hoyt!" says Cyrus, sounding genuinely cross, "You'll put
Jasmine off my offer to join our little troop, and if she does say yes
I would hate for her first action to have to be to start a sexual
harassment complaint against you, being a witness as I am I could
hardly ignore it. I'm thinking the proper redress would be to either
give you to Yum-Yum for remodeling, or better yet, once Ms Youngblood
has learned the ropes of the Hippodrome let you be her test subject for
her first turn!"
"Jeez! Just showing I can be a caring person too!" says Hoyt raising
both hands and backing off from Jasmine.
"Join you?" asks Jasmine.
"Seems a reasonable idea," replies Cyrus getting up from her chair and
going over to stand on the other side of Jasmine, "after all, while you
had that horrid job at that temp agency, Jasmine I'm afraid is
unemployed. Now we can help you fake the papers saying that Jasmine has
the same degrees in, what was it now? Oh yes. French Literature, with a
minor in computing, but you're still going to have to go job hunting,
and who wants to do that? Join us in our travels. The pays not so
great, but you meet such interesting people."
Jasmine's response is to just look open mouthed at Cyrus.
"By the way, If you're thinking about going to the police, forget it!"
says Hoyt having retreated to stand by his chair after his rejection,
"Trust me, no one will believe you, and we're more on the beam then you
know, we've got connections and skills and Golda knows more about
computers than that crummy little minor gave you and has already hacked
into some government data banks making Jasmine real enough to land you
in the loony bin if you do."
"You're really not helping my cause," says Cyrus tossing a rye look at
Hoyt, who shrugs his shoulders and replies with a "what am I suppose to
do?" expression of his own. Turning back to Jasmine she continues.
"I'm serious Jasmine, come with us, we're changing the world one or two
people at a time, you can have a say in that."
Looking from Cyrus, and her openly sincere look, to Hoyt and his barely
suppressed angry one, Jasmine takes a middle path and decides its time
for her to do something. Getting down from the table with a jump, that
as the old Jerry would have been no more than a hop, Jasmine lands on
the dirt floor under the tent. With her left hand she checks to see if
her wallet is still in the waistband of her pants where she had placed
in on getting into Sadie's cab. Finding it still there she starts to
walk backwards toward the vats and the darkness she had just been
brought though to the pool of light where she is now, and the final
shattering of her life. As she backs up she looks back and forth
between the strange pair before her.
"Look," she says the calmness she hears in her tone more surprising to
her than the sound of a woman's voice coming out of her, "I'm sure it's
a real hoot traveling around the country, and the world? Yeah the
world, kidnapping people and turning them into this that and the other
thing. Better than anything you can pick up in your local hobby shop I
bet! But, no offence mind you, it's not my thing, but you carry on and
all, me it's not what I'm looking for, I'm really more?" Then with a
quick about face Jasmine sprints into the darkness between the vats to
make her escape.
And runs straight into a tree, knocked back a few paces with grunt she
looks up, and up, to see that it's not a tree that she has run into but
the right leg of Mike, who had either been standing in the darkness
listening, or just coming up on them. In his left hand he holds a
plastic sack, in his right he holds what looks like come kind of blocky
club.
"Oh crap!" Thinks Jasmine "they're not going to let me go, this ones
going to beat me to death with a club, they'll probably stuff me and
put me on display as Jo-Jo the girl faced boy or something!" Her mind
frozen Jasmine stairs at the thing the giant holds in his right hand,
for a moment she thinks about charging in a desperate attempt to get
past him, but she knows that even as her old self of Jerry that would
have been pointless against this brute. "Sorry, we forget this the last
time you were here," says the one they called Mike, sounding more
gentle than brutish, holding what he had in his right hand in front of
Jasmine where she sees what looks like two wooden blocks with attached
straps. "We were so busy I forgot your car needs boosters for you to
reach the gas and brakes now, these will be easy to put on." Then he
thrusts the plastic sack he holds in his other hand at her. "Sadie felt
bad about the rough treatment, so she made you a couple of egg
sandwiches and put in an tangerine a