After gathering everything we needed for today, I regrew her limbs so I didn't have to carry all by myself. They instantly reappeared after I set her on the bed and it took her a few minutes to get used to them again. Her gait was hesitant, as if she had been drinking all morning and she looked for support on nearby walls. She reached for the bag of food, pressing her wrists together to lift it up before realizing she could actually use her hands.

"My god I feel so retarded", Katie said, gripping the bag with her right hand. "It feels like I'm using these for the first time ever."


She lifted her arm so quickly the bag whipped in the air before me, almost knocking down a nearby standing lamp, and slammed back down on her shoulder. On her left side, she bent and extended her left arm, delicately moving her fingers one after the other before grabbing the strap of her purse and carefully bringing it over her shoulder. She basically had the dexterity of a 5 years old child.


"I have found that it's often preferable to stay oblivious to the changes exactly because of this." I told her. "Remember earlier how good you were as a torso when you never knew you ever had limbs?"

"Yeah that was... Special." She relieved an itch on her nose with her closed fist then again noticed how clumsy she looked.

"Just give it 10 minutes and you'll be back to regular old you."


I got the rest of the things and we headed downstairs. Since my car wasn't big enough to fit a mechanical wheechair, I figured I'd materalise it later on during the day if we needed it, with or without memories. We had settled down for a day at the water park since the sun was so bright and hot already. We didn't talk much during the car ride. We mostly listened to the radio and sang a few cringy pop songs as they played along. After I had parked us in a handicapped spot right beside the entrance to the museum, I clarified some details with her.


"Alright so the only people who know about this today are us, of course." She nodded. "So don't worry about the transitions, people are not going to notice a single thing."

"Can you, I mean, will you.. warn me?"

"Sure, I'll do my best. Not like we're in an urge or anything." I said while removing the key from the ignition. "And you can also ask for changes if you want, by the way. Just don't say it too loud because that makes it harder to manage for people's memories if they hear stuff they're not supposed to. So, what form do you want to start off the day?"

"Anything except complete limblessness, that shit is seriously terriffying." She pondered. "Would me only missing a leg work to get tickets faster? I would kinda like to try missing only one limb."

"According to this," I pulled a disability recognition card from my pocket and flashed it to her, "it should. I'll help you get out."

"Why would I..."


She looked down and saw the fabric of her summer dress falling flat over her barren left hip. Lifting the dress to take a look, she found nothing but smooth skin where her leg was only moments ago. Over on the other side of the car, I opened the door and offered my hand for support. She first moved her leg out of the car, giving me a splendid upskirt view, then grunted and rose using the strength of her sole thigh. She stuck her head into the car again to grab her purse and she stuck the crutches I was handing her in her armpits. After a few test steps, she was ready to go. I handed her the bag of towels and small supplies, which she hung on her shoulders, while I managed the cooler. 

Clicks rhythmically emerged from the crutches as they hit the ground, shortly followed by the sound of Katie's flipflop stepping forward. As we progressed towards the entry gates, I noticed she was already getting quite the attention. Nothing disrespectful, but lots of glances, surprised looks, people turning their heads twice to confirm what they thought they had seen, some kids pointing her direction. I grinned and stayed by her side. The way her hips swung in a single direction when she walked was hypnotising, too.

"Man, I didn't think crutching would be that hard."

She stopped and dropped a bag to the ground, which I slid on my own shoulder. She caught her breath and headed off again, already starting to sweat under the blazing sun.

"Are you ok?" I asked. "Would you like me to change a thing or two?" I raised an inquisitorial finger.

"No really, I'm fine", she answered. "I just expected to have a bit of flesh left to act as a counterweight, that's all. Like when I got a cast in third grade. You should change yourself, too. Maybe some douche will run to rescue us and carry our shits."

"Worth the try I guess."


Just like that, I trimmed both of my arms midway between my wrists and elbows, throwing my hands into oblivion in the process. I fit my right arm into an armband fixed to the cooler's handle and, walking while slightly bent forward, could manage to pull it quite effectively. Now, people really stared at us. Queues were humongous at this time of day and since we could skip it all with our passes, we had to walk along it for an eternity. The rhythmic clicks coming from Katie, the grinding sound of the cooler's plastic wheels against the pavement, subtle whispers coming from my right side. When my arm slid off the armband and the cooler slammed on the ground, I heard a woman gasp. Using the blunt ends of my arms, I picked the handle up and fit it right back in the armband to try and catch up with my friend.

She was already showing her pass to the cashier at the counter when I got there.


"Very good madam", the guy said politely. "If you look at this map, there's a section here and here with ramps that should make it easier for you to access certains facilities and to set up your stuff. According to our security policies, there should be no problem for either of you to enjoy our rides today."

Katie frowned and looked at me. I smiled back. I rested my stumps alongside my body, their ends on my hips. She grabbed them and laughed.
I hit her empty hip with my knee in return.

The guy turned towards me : "For you madam that'll be $25 please."

I startled. "Oh yeah, sure. Just give me a minute."

I reached shoulder-deep in one of the bag Katie was carrying and plucked out my wallet. I unzipped it using my teeth before setting it on the counter, reaching down with my lips to grab the bills and grabbing them between my stumps. When I handed him the money, I felt his fingers brush against my skin but he did not flinch. He simply handed me a map of the park as well and wished us a delightful day. I picked up our stuff and we went our way, thus skipping the entirety of the queue.


"Those new arms of yours surprised me, Robyn." She ruffled my hair while we stopped to examine her map. "You look so cute!"

"Thanks. That's just too bad for yours, though. Just look at them!"

The fingers of her hands quickly shrunk inside her body. Her index was still pointing at a nearby waterslide when it vanished inside her palm, quickly followed by the other four fingers. The hand holding the map from beneath met the same fate. The paper, no longer supported by her extended fingers, collapsed backwards and slipped off to the ground. She lowered herself and caught it between her withdrawing limbs, pressing it against her belly and chest to try to fold it back without success. She managed to stuff it into her bag before her elbows vanished but lost her grasp on her crutches. They evaporated before they could touch the ground and, as she fell backwards, I materialized a bulky mechanical wheelchair below her rump. She shrugged to try to keep the bag on her naked shoulder but the strap slipped off and the content spilled on the ground in front of us. Still freaking out about the absence of her arms, you could see the muscles of her torso contracting under the fabric of her dress, trying to activate non-existing limbs. Finally, a young guy in his mid-twenties got up from his folding chair and approached us. 

"Hi girls, I don't mean to be rude or disrespectful, but would you like me to..."

"YES!!" We shouted in unison.

You could tell he felt unseasy about this whole situation, but still wanted to accomplish his good deed of the day. He picked up the spilled bag as well as dragging the dreaded cooler all the way to our designated spot without speaking another word. Katie could drive herself just fine using a joystick near her footrest, which gave her plenty of time to stare at me. I walked over behind her and, as she did to me only minutes ago, ran my arms back and forth in her hair to completely mess them up. Her shoulders moved helplessly as she whined and attempted to push me back. She lifted her foot off the controler causing it to stop and I rammed right into it. Then, with a surprising amount of flexibilty, she pushed away my arms and slicked back her hair using her foot. I grabbed onto it, locking her in such a stupid position I couldn't help but explode in laughter. When I let her go, the guy helping us finally stopped walking and turned around. I could see in his eyes he wanted to take a good look at us, at our limbs, and at the strangeness of our bodies but couldn't resign himself to act like so. Instead, he kept his eyes on mine to contain himself from doing otherwise. We soon followed after him, Katie still blowing on a wild lock of hair in the middle of her face.

Arrived at a particularly nice spot, the guy left us to our business and we set up camp. Katie quickly learned to manipulate the bags and the many items using her sole foot, or lowering her face to her stuff to use her lips and teeth. 


I stood up and took my summer dress off. "Alright, let me get your lotionned before we burn to a crisp."

"With those arms?!" She said surprisingly. "It's going to take forever!"

"You're right, but I still want to try it. My guess is the less limbs you have the faster it will be, right?"

She sighed and imploringly looked at me. "Yeah, but like I said earlier it's really not so fun, you know..."

"It'll just be for a minute." I answered. "Plus, isn't this day all about experimenting around what people say or do about us?"

"I guess you're right. Cut it off."

She managed to stay upright when her last limb vanished, leaving her standing in the center of her crumpled dress. She bent and struggled, trying to extend a limb, swing her garnments over her head, twisted one way and another... but nothing was left. The absence of sleeves and the shape of the dress around her pelvis was unequivocal and it would've dragged uselessly on the ground if she tried to move around with it. I approached her and clumsily extracted her from her clothes, more than often rubbing my stumps againts her skin than actually moving fabric, though. She was still as gorgeous as before and, without arms and legs to shadow the curves of her torso, the effect was amplified. There was nothing else to look at but her feminine traits. Her firm breasts, her lightly tanned skin, the characteristic hourglass shape between her shoulders waist and hips, her dark brown hair, the cute nose stuck in the middle of her face, her bright green eyes... All this protected only by three triangular pieces of fabric.


I pondered. "Can you lay down?"

She rectified: "I can fall down, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna hurt."

"Here then." I put my left arm on her back and my right on her belly and gently tipped her over until her back laid comfortably on the beach chair. "Is that nice for you?"

She rolled her shoulders and craned her neck. "I could use a pillow, I think."


Grabbing a folded towel, I slid it under her head. Then, I grabbed the bottle of lotion and pressed it against my chin to flip the lid open. Flipping it upside down, I drew lines and shapes on her on her belly and the remains of her shoulders before putting back down beside her. She gasped and shivered on the first couple of drops. Probably a bad idea to keep it in the cooler anyway. From across a grassy patch, I spotted a guy subtly trying to film us using his phone from behind his chair. People walking by systematically stared at us, hoping to catch a glimpse of the upcoming scene.

And what a scene it was. I dipped my arms in lotion and rubbed them together, like I would've with hands, but met very limited success. I didn't have enough surface for it to be worth. Instead, I simply leaned forward a little bit more and began smearing lotion over my friends body. Now people stared. The round stumps of my arms were really unfit for this task and I had to rub over the same spots several times. The spherical patches of skin on her hips were easier to handle. Around her top, it was precision work. More than once, I spotted the edges of her bikini with lumps of lotion, which I then scrubbed off as best as I could. Her shoulders were also tricky. They were narrower than before but also pointed slightly upwards. She contracted her abs, one of the only remaining muscles still useful in her current state, to lift her back off the chair so I could reach the base of her neck and all around the arm sockets. When she relaxed her muscles, I felt her breath against my cheek and our eyes met. I reached for the base of her neck and gave it a gentle kiss. I heard her sigh and her entire back arched, her shoulders again visibly trying to activate absent muscles.


I straightened again and flipped her over like a pancake.

"Wow, this is even prettier seen from the back", I said while helping her rest her face on the towel. "That ass is as fine as ever."

Her back was done and done quite easily I must say. No boobs and less fabric made for an easier job. I brought her upright again and went over her face and neck. I could feel her starting to get embarrassed over her body now. She didn't say anything anymore, barely answered when I spoke to her and she could not have blushed more. 


"Is anything wrong?" I asked, laying my arms on her shoulders.

"No... I know this is supposed to be fun but I'm kinda scared.. About not having any control over anything."


She looked at me and I could see the fear in her eyes. The air echoed. I took her hands in mine and every single water droplet, living creature and brushing leaves from the trees in the entire park froze in place.


"For as long as you can breathe and you're around me, nothing will ever happen to you. Is that clear?"

She sniffed and squeezed my hands in return. "Yes." A tear rolled down her cheek.


The park came alive again. I wiped the tear off her face with my stump. A stupid grin grew on my face.


"... and look what I've brought for you!"


Out of the bag I grabbed an extra-large strap-on baby holder and fit it over my shoulders. Katie laughed and shrugged, leaning her head to one side to wipe another tear. She laid on her stomach and after several minutes of pushing and pulling several ways, she managed to slither in the apparatus. Reaching in with my teeth, I tightened the straps to secured her against my stomach and we headed off to the wave pool. When we got there, I spotted a young woman in charge and asked her if there was any problem for us to go and enjoy the water. She double-checked the straps herself then gently grabbed Katie by the sides and tugged on her. After an approving nod and a radiant smile she let us go. I put my arms below my friends rump and jokingly made her jump as I strolled in the water for us to meet our first wave.