I met her at a party. It had been a very hot summer and the heat was just starting to die down, so on Sunday my friends and I had people over for a barbeque. She'd just moved down and was working at a restaurant with one of my roommates. She showed up early with another guy from their work, then he and my roommate Randy went to buy beer. She made eye contact with me and then told them she'd stay and wait.

"Mila," she introduced herself before saying anything.

"I'm Jeff."

"You guys had a nice place."

"Thanks."

I wasn't such how to get past the small talk. But she seemed confident enough, I guess she saw something she liked. I smiled at her. I liked her body already — short brown hair, big brown eyes. Pretty and slender, and about six inches under my height. An elegant and confident body.

"I've got a super-power," she announced.

"Oh?"

"Yea. Wanna guess what it is?"

Lots of people have super-powers. I'm not one of them. Born on the wrong side of the rift, or whatever. It's not predictable, that's all I know, and I still might have some latent powers somewhere, waiting to be tapped. You read about it all the time these days.

"Um… Shark vision."

"No really, c'mon."

"Laser toes."

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No. Guess again!"

"You're a werewolf."

"You suck at this."

"Fine, how about camouflaging skin?"

"No, but at least that's a good guess."

"You can breathe underwater."

"I'll give you a hint. It's really weird."

"Like a unique power?"

"Yes. As far as I know, anyway."

Like I said, lots of people have super powers. Usually it's a type of resistance, to heat, cold, pain, fear, hunger. Sometimes they're more exceptional. Shapers for example. But meeting someone with a really unique power, one that is only their own, that's an uncommon thing.

"Show me."

"Okay."

Her head turned into a toaster. That's just what happened.

I didn't really know what to say.

"Well?"

"You can talk?"

"Weird, isn't it?"

"So you're really a toaster? That's your power?"

"No, not that."

Her head turned back into her head.

"Then what?"

"I can turn my head into anything."

"Can you make toast?"

"Sure!"

Her head turned into a loaf of bread.

"Here, take a couple slices," she said. She handed me the loaf. Her head.

As casually as I could I got out the cutting board and the bread knife. There's a lot of weird things in the rift, but this had to be a first.

"Are you sure this won't hurt you?" I asked.

"Don't worry," said the loaf of bread.

I sliced off a couple pieces, and handed the rest of the loaf back to the headless body. She put her head back on and it turned into a toaster. Then she set her toaster on the counter, plugged it in and made toast.

"So I should tell you you've got a nice toaster," I said.

The toaster laughed.

"And is this it?"

"What, you're not impressed?"

"No, I mean I'm curious, is it only your head?"

"Yes, just my head. For now."

"That is… still the most unique power I've ever heard of."

"Thanks! It's alright I guess."

The toaster dinged. I got out a plate and some butter. I buttered the toast while she put the toaster back on her body. It turned back into her head.

"So what do you think?" she said, taking a bite.

"Good toast," I said. It was true.

When we'd both finished, she turned to me and said, "Wanna know something funny? You just ate my ear."

"I … what?"

She turned to show me, pulling her hair back to show her missing left ear.

"I kinda feel like an asshole now," I said.

She laughed. "Don't worry. I wasn't finished explaining my power. So, for a long time, yes, it seemed like my only ability is to turn my head into something else. Well, in trying to figure out more about that, I figured out that if I turn into some food, and someone else eats that food, I can shapeshift them as well."

"You mean, me?"

My head turned into a pineapple. That's just what happened.

"Exactly," said a bunch of bananas.

The others got back with the beer. Mila put our heads back to normal so we could drink some. My head was still spinning a bit, not only from what just happened, but also from the spark I was sensing between Mila and I. She didn't do this for just anyone.

"So do you ever show off?" I asked her, once we were through the first beer.

"The head thing? Um… not usually. I mean, I have a couple times, but mostly I just get uncomfortable with the attention."

"How did you discover it?"

"My head turned into a balloon and floated away. On my birthday."

"How old were you?"

"Twelve."

"How did your friends react?"

"I don't know. We played around with it for a while, once I figured out how to control it. But in high school it just seemed really weird to most people, so I stopped doing it mostly. And in undergrad I finally met people who thought it was really cool, so now I'm kinda proud of it."

"It's … well, it's a unique power, right? Pretty much?"

"I've found out there's a guy in England who can change his face to look like anything else, and of course there are full on shapers who could do this if they tried."

"Yea, but they're been through years and years of schooling."

"True enough. Still, I don't have the shaper gift. Just this."

Her head turned into my head. My head turned into hers.

"I was gonna ask if you could disguise yourself."

"Wait, I'm gonna show you one more thing."

She took off her head. Just like she was taking off a hat.

"Take off yours!"

I took my head off. It was actually just that easy.

"Now we trade."

We did.

"Did we just switch bodies?"

"Um, no. Not quite. We still control our original bodies, I can't rejoin parts like that. A body shaper could though. But it looks like we're in our own bodies. You wanna go rejoin the others?"

"With everything switched?"

"C'mon, just for a few minutes. It'll be funny."

Funny isn't the first thing I'd think of when I describe that. But we did that. It turned into a game of improv where I had to explain all of the things Mila was doing, and she for me. However, to pilot my own body was significantly harder without watching myself. Mila was better at that, and kept turning me away so I would bump into people.

After a few minutes of that, she walked out into the yard. I did the same. We switched our heads back and broke down laughing.

"So do you have a favorite thing to turn into?" I asked.

"A few. Being a ball is pretty fun. I like to play basketball with myself."

"What about a frisbee?"

Her eyes lit up. She grinned at me, then her head turned into a frisbee.

"That's a great idea," said the frisbee. "I've never been one of these. You wanna throw me around?"

"Sure."

We played catch with her head for a while. Things were going great until I threw her into a tree.

"I got it," I said. "You. I mean, I got you. Sorry."

"I'm over here," said the frisbee.

"Alright, I'm coming," I started to climb up into the tree.

"You're sweet," said the frisbee.

"But you didn't need to do that," she said, her head turning back into itself as I pulled her out of the branches. I almost dropped her from the change in weight, but I managed to tuck her under my arm and jump down to the ground.

I handed her head back to her. She took a moment to brush her hair out of the way, then put it on.

"Thanks," she said. "You know I could have just turned into something like a rock and fallen through the branches."

"That would be too easy." I grinned.

"Yea," she said. She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.

"Wanna get a drink?" She asked.

"Sounds good, I'll be right—" I was cut off when her head turned into a pitcher of beer.

I was in love.