I rubbed at my shirt thoughtfully, surveying the few outfits that hung in my closet. “You know, Roman, I really would love to get all my stuff from my parents' house. The summer's almost over, and I'll be starting college soon.”
“Go ahead.”
“But my mom is done with me. She doesn't want to see me anymore.”
I kneaded the silky blouse harder, running my hands up my chest until the article of clothing shivered. “We can get stuff when she's not there...” it pushed out amidst moans.
“No. No, I'm going to call her,” I decided, and I grabbed the phone, ceasing all contact with the shirt.
“Oh, my God, don't stop! Why'd you stop?”
“Oh, Roman, I can't wear you forever!”
The blouse disintegrated from my torso, becoming a light that grew into my husband. “Whyever not? I've never enjoyed myself more.”
I chuckled ruefully, looking down at my bra and remembering when I had recently worn my husband as one. “I doubt that. The things you must have done in your life... ” I began to dial my mother's number, but Roman pulled the phone away.
“Corrie, I can create anything you want, you know. Just ask, and it's yours.”
“I know, but ...I want my own things too. And not just clothes. You can't make photos, or yearbooks, or...”as I continued, Roman gently gave back the phone in understanding, and I dialed again, my finger shaking slightly.
My stepfather picked up. “Dave?” I said in a small voice.
“Who is this?”
“It's Corrie.”
There was a pause and some grumbling. “Kate, she's on the phone.”
“Tell her I'm not speaking to her and she knows it,” my mother's voice echoed in the background.
“What the hell do you want from her, Corrie? Your little whore act is killing her,” Dave hissed into the phone.
“Whore?” I exclaimed indignantly. “What are you talking about? We're married, and–”
“How long were you with him? If it was before you were eighteen, we can try for the statutory rape thing–”
“Statutory rape? How dare you?” Roman saw my eyes watering. He came up and once again tried to remove the phone from my grasp, but I shook my head. “You know, I just called to see if I could come and pick up my stuff from you guys,” I sputtered into the phone. “I didn't need this...crap from you, you horrible...” I hung up and turned away in tears.
Roman attempted to comfort me. “Don't worry. There's a million ways to get your stuff. Wanna be a moving van?”
Despite myself, I smiled. “Funny, Roman. Although being a truck...”
“Remember I said I wanted to make your stepfather a wall?”
I nodded.
“That is swiftly approaching reality.”
***
Roman created a lavish dinner for us, but I was inconsolable. Despite how poor relations had become with my mother, I still missed her. Of course, having Roman helped considerably, but it still felt like there was a small hole in my life.
I poked at a perfect chocolate lava cake, spooning it into my mouth without tasting it.
“Good?” Roman inquired.
I nodded emptily.
“Hey, I'll have you know that cake was very happy as a dead leaf until I transformed it.”
His effort at levity was met with silence. He watched me consume his creation for a time. “Anything in particular you'd like to be tonight?” he offered with hope in his voice.
I sighed. “Something nice...” I finished the last spoonful with a tortured gulp.
“I know what you need.” He picked me up from the chair and stood in the middle of the tiled kitchen floor. “Put your arms around me,” he instructed.
I blindly obeyed, and soon found myself melting comfortably down, mingling with my husband's own body until we lay on the floor, an amorphous golden puddle.
Oh, God, that's always good, Roman commented in my thoughts.
Oh! This is wonderful! We're liquid?
You and I are both a puddle of gold.
So are we very hot? Melted gold–
Nope. We don't have to be, unless you'd like it.
No, I'm fine. This is a wonderful feeling. I love how we're...together. It's like when both of us merged and became a single vase.
I know. And I can sense it's making you feel better. Less sad.
Let's stay like this all night. We can talk, and sleep. I feel very relaxed, I admitted.
That's what I was aiming for. I've always found becoming a liquid very soothing.
Roman's words were actually laughable, I realized, if they were not so true. Finally I asked something I had pondered for a while but never bothered to mention. Could everyone in your family do this, Roman?
Change? Not at all. However my mother used to tell me stories about shapeshifters that had been passed through the generations of my family. These ancestors could supposedly change anything, not just themselves. You know, Corrie, when we're merged as one, you can read my memories as well if I bring them to the surface. I'll let you see my experiences first hand.
This made me slightly worried, which sent a small ripple through us. What do I need to do?
Nothing. Just watch.
***
The young boy looked strikingly like Roman, only his dark hair was slicked back in a late- fifties style. He was staring into the mirror, and I was looking into the reflection with his eyes, as if I were he.
Suddenly the door burst open and three boys rushed in. “Roaming Roman!” cried the obvious ringleader of the bunch. We appeared to be in a boys' bathroom, perhaps in a school.
“Ah, Kevin and his local thugs,” I found myself saying with Roman's young voice. But I knew his was only a false bravado; I could sense the fear in the young boy's heart.
“I know you're sweet for my girl, you bastard,” cried one of Kevin's sidekicks. He looked to the older boy for approval.
“Clark, you should kick his ass first,” Kevin answered.
Roman turned from the mirror, and now I was looking directly at the three boys. They seemed to be of high school age, and apparently out for blood.
The third stepped forward. “I know you also ratted us out for cheating, you little freshman. You're going to pay.”
“Damned straight he is,” said Kevin. “And since his daddy's dead, I don't think anyone will make a big deal of it if we rough him up a bit.”
“My mom might,” Roman uttered under his breath. I could tell Roman knew he was no match for the three large boys, and slowly he was slinking to the door.
“Your mom's a prostitute,” laughed Clark.
Roman cocked his head as the others chuckled. “What are you even talking about?”
“I knew it, Clark,” said the third boy.
“That's funny, Timmy. She's like a librarian or something, isn't she?” asked Kevin, nudging Timmy in the back.
“She's the head of the biology department at a college. What are you, stupid?” Even at this young age, Roman's quick answers and general wittiness were very evident.
“You little asshole!” The boys lunged, and Roman ran.
I could feel Roman tiring quickly as he fled from the boys. He burst out of the school and into the woods. Heart pounding, he raced towards a small cave that he had frequently played in as a young boy. As he entered, he wondered at the wisdom of this move, for if they found him, there was no way out.
He thought of the stories his mother had told him, how a distant relative had escaped death by changing to stone.
And suddenly he was.
More thrilled than afraid, he suddenly could not move. He gave a cry of surprise as his body solidified. He had willed the change, and it had happened. The stories were true, and he had inherited the ability to transform!
I was truly thrilled for the boy; he was experiencing just what I had the first time Roman had transformed me. He loved the way he felt; there was no fear at being stone, only a sense of peace and calm. And when the three boys entered the cave and saw the statue standing there, their faces registered their shock, which titillated Roman all the more.
“What the hell–”
“It's like, a statue of him! How the hell did it get here?”
“And where is he? He ran in, and there's no way out...”
The three stood gaping at the stone figure, and then Roman decided to change back.
“Holy shit!” Clark and Timmy yelled, and they scuttled out of the cave in terror.
But Kevin did not budge. He simply watched, open-mouthed, as stone became flesh.
“Kev! Get the hell away from him!” Clark yelled from outside, but Kevin did not answer, and the boys ran off.
Roman stretched his arms, staring down at himself in amazement. “I can't believe it's true,” he uttered, and I could feel him running his hands down his skin. He did not care about the boy in front of him; for there was nothing the teen could do to him now. “I'm all back, and everything's the way it was...How the hell is this even possible?”
“What the fuck are you?” Kevin finally breathed.
Roman glanced up at the boy, his mind working. In the stories, his ancestors could change anything, not just themselves.
“Are you an alien, Smyth?”
Curiously, Roman reached his hand out to the quaking youth. Kevin tried to shrink away, but there was nowhere to run, and Roman's hand met with his face. “No, but I'm apparently amazing,” Roman chuckled. “And now I'm going to try a few things out, with your help, Kevin.”
Roman's touch had obviously done something to the boy. His skin was reddening, and Roman watched in fascination as he focused on the bully, pushing his body, sculpting it, forcing it to soften and round out...
“Oh, my God! What the hell is happening to me? What the hell are you doing to me? Are you crazy? I'm...shrinking...”
Roman was nodding and smiling, the realization of his immense power nearly overwhelming him. “You are! You really are! And I'm making you into...a tomato!” He began to laugh uproariously as the frightened boy fell with a clunk to the floor, now a rather-overripe tomato.
“See what happens when you're a bully? You end up as a vegetable...well, technically a tomato is a fruit, so...” Roman picked him up and inspected him. The boy-turned-fruit was quivering in fear, and Roman was enjoying this. “I'd say a taste of your own medicine is good, but you couldn't do this to me no matter how hard you tried!”
Please help me, the tomato whined, and Roman found this most interesting.
“I hear you in my head,” he said, intrigued. “I wonder if I can make you a talking tomato?” He concentrated on its fleshy side, and a small face appeared. “Okay, that's very freaky. Can you talk?”
“Yes.”
Roman scratched his head. “How the hell is that possible without any vocal cords? How can you see or hear? It must be like your soul is separate, and your body is a tomato...I have to ask my mom if she knows anything about this stuff.”
“I'm sorry for what I said about your mom,” whined the vegetable.
“Don't talk. It's weird.”
“Please change me back. I feel so strange like this.”
“Well, I guess you would, since you're a vegetable! I felt great when I was a statue. Who would think transforming would feel good? I would think it would hurt.” Roman turned the tomato around in his hands. He poked at its flesh. “You feel this?”
“Yes I do. Stop it! You'll bruise me. You'll...oh, God damn it, Smyth! Change me back, you bastard!” The tomato attempted to nip at Roman, which felt more like a sucking action, but, now feeling far superior, Roman grew angry.
“How dare you, you little nothing!” he spat, and threw the tomato at the wall.
It hit with a yelp and a sickening thump, and spattered to the floor.
His superiority complex shattered for the moment, Roman dove down and scooped up the crushed fruit. “Holy cow! Are you dead?”
“No, you son of a bitch. I am so going to kill you for that. Relentlessly. You need to die.”
Roman studied him for a moment. “Well, now, we can't change you back now, then, can we?”
I continued to watch through young Roman's eyes as he experimented with the bully. He tested his ability to the extreme, changing the boy into whatever came into his head. Kevin became all manner of substances and beings– animals, plants, liquids, gases... Roman could mold the unlucky boy into whatever he wanted, and he was relishing every moment. He shrank him down to a sand grain, then made him so large of a boulder that he scraped the cave ceiling. “How big can I make someone?” Roman wondered aloud, and the boulder simply sobbed. “Doesn't that feel nice, though?” Roman asked, quite seriously. “I liked being stone.”
“I'm pushing against the ceiling...I feel...pressure... Are you done with me yet? Please, I'll never bother you again,” the boy pleaded. But Roman shrank him down to an ant, and he watched him scurry across the floor.
“I can't wait to do this myself. The things I can be...Ooh, I got one, but I need to take you home for it.” Kevin became a pebble which Roman tossed into his pocket. When they were back in Roman's bedroom, Kevin found himself growing into glass and metal. “What the hell am I now?”
Roman unscrewed the light bulb from a lamp and picked Kevin up. “Guess!” Roman cried excitedly.
“No! No! It'll kill me!”
But Roman screwed the newly-created bulb into the socket. “I doubt it. If you're a light bulb, the electricity can't kill you.” He flicked the switch, and Kevin made such a pleasured moan that Roman grew jealous. “That good, huh?”
“The electricity...it feels...oh, my God, please leave me like this, Smyth. Please...mmmm...”
Roman did not particularly like that the bully was experiencing pleasure, so he removed him from the lamp and placed him on his dresser. “You know, I wonder if you can be an appliance or something...Yes!” And suddenly, Kevin became a television.
“My own TV!” Roman clapped his hands together, then plugged the large box into the wall and turned it on. A picture flickered onto Kevin's screen, and the TV groaned. “And you work! How is that possible? I am...awesome! And very tired. This transforming stuff must take a lot of energy.” And over the television's elated gasps, Roman relaxed and viewed several shows.
“Roman? Wherever did you get a television?”
Roman glanced up in shock to find his mother at the door, waiting for an answer.
But he didn't need to give her one. “Hi, Mrs. Smyth,” the television greeted her in a blissful voice.
***
Roman chuckled, sending another ripple through the liquid that he and I were. I really messed that kid up, he pointed out. I think he might have ended up in an institution.
Roman, that's horrible!
Oh, I didn't mean that literally. But he never bothered me again. He tried to tell his parents about me, and everyone then made fun of him for it.
Don't you feel bad about what you put him through?
Maybe a bit, when I look back at it. But those three boys tortured so many kids through the years. It made me a hero, and I learned a lot about my talent by using him. He made a bitter laugh. When my mother saw what I could do, she wanted me to apologize to Kevin, but I couldn't ever get near him. After I changed him back, he was not quite the same...But he made a nice TV.
That sounds like something I'd like.
Hmm...yes. You would.
Suddenly I felt like something was being pulled from my liquid body, and I realized that Roman was re-forming. Oh, Roman, leave me like this a bit!
I will. I just want to give you a bit more fun. He retrieved a spatula and drew it back and forth through me, splitting me up and sending small bits of me to different parts of the room. I liked it.
***
The next day, we heard banging outside the front door. Roman approached the window and looked out, murmuring, “There's all kinds of stuff piled up out here. Why?” We walked outside to see my stepfather unloading bags and boxes from a rental truck and dumping them unceremoniously onto the porch.
“Here's her shit,” Dave mumbled, tossing another box to the cement. A cracking sound indicated that something breakable had just met its demise.
“Well, thank you, Dave. I'll be happy to help you with that,” Roman said, trying to sound diplomatic.
“Fuck you, Roman.”
Roman studied him, and I shot him a warning glance as he curtly responded, “Dave, you hardly know me, you know. Would you like to come inside to get better acquainted?”
Dave hauled the last box off, and sputtered “asshole” under his breath.
I saw Roman's anger increasing, and I knew I couldn't let him do anything to Dave, as much as I would have liked him to. I tried to usher him back inside the house. “Roman, go in. I'll take care of this.”
Roman turned to me, his eyes pleading. “God, Corrie, please let me have him.”
Dave's sharp ears picked up on Roman's request. “Have him? What the hell does that mean? You already have her, a kid... Kate says you're old enough to be her father, maybe grandfather.”
“Dave, shut the hell up!” I finally exploded. “You're an asshole who ruined my family and my life!”
And then Dave slapped me.
As I clasped at my stinging face, it seemed that everything then happened in slow motion. Dave clutched at himself in terror as, with a nasty pinch, Roman sent him shrinking to the floor. His legs collapsed from under him, and he lay paralyzed, a miniature rag-doll version of himself.
“Oh, no, Roman, don't–” I cried.
But Roman had grabbed him up and was shaking the helpless cloth man back and forth. “You bastard! How dare you hurt my wife? How dare you insult her! We've had enough of you!” He squeezed the doll so hard, Dave's cloth head bulged gruesomely. “I've wanted to do something to you for a long while, and now's my chance. But I need you inside for it, so let's go!” Roman marched into the house, not even looking to see if I was following. I wandered in behind him and watched him toss my cloth stepfather to the floor. Dave was fully inanimate; Roman had not even bothered to give him the gift of speech, and that was fine with me. Hearing Dave's cries would have made me feel guiltier.
I knew I should try to stop Roman, but it was already too late. Dave now knew what Roman could do, and there was no coming back from that. And a small part of me, I was ashamed to admit, was actually curious to see a man morph into a wall...
“Let's see, Corrie. How about a divider here? I always thought it would be nice to split off the dining room from the living room.” Not waiting for an answer, Roman placed Dave in the designated spot, and he began to restore my stepfather's humanity.
“But we can't have you run away, so the minute you're human, we'll go right into the next transformation,” Roman dictated quite happily. “Yes, I could have made you go straight from doll form, but a watching a living, breathing man transform is much more fun than a stupid ragdoll changing.”
The moment the growing doll was able to speak, he started to emit a garbled mess of moans and cries. “You son of a bitch! You're a fucking...wizard or something. Kate was right! You're not normal... Oh, shit, what's happening to me now?”
Fascinated, I observed my stepfather, now a full-grown human, as he tried to escape. He was wholly unsuccessful, as his feet had already fused and his legs were becoming one solid mass. “Oh, God, Corrie, help me!” he begged in horror. But I could not. My hunger for metamorphosis made me want to see this happen more than I realized.
Dave was becoming one solid mass; his limbs were gone and he was flattening out. His skin was growing pallid, and soon he was simply a white rectangle, stretching and expanding at Roman's whim. His features were still intact, although white as the rest of him. Yet now all he was doing was making whiny moans.
As my stepfather finished becoming our new wall, I was secretly thrilled.
Roman studied his work. “Hey, I'm some architect!” he announced, sweeping his hand over the wall. It shuddered slightly.
He turned to me, finally making eye contact. “So, what do you think? Does he make a good wall or what?”
“I've never seen a better one,” I uttered, starting to have second thoughts. How would this affect Dave? I knew Roman would not leave him like this forever. Yet, thinking back to what Roman had done to the bully, I knew that the boy had never been the same, and neither would Dave. But then again, maybe that would get him away from my mother, and we could make amends...or this turn of events would just sadden my mother even more...
“Can he still talk?” I whispered.
“Not anymore. I don't want to hear him right now,” Roman walked towards the kitchen.
“But he hears us, and you can hear him?”
Pausing, Roman cocked his head, listening intently. “Well, yes, but he's not really thinking right now. He's kind of blissed out still from the transformation.” He clicked his tongue. “Too bad he's getting some enjoyment out of this, but whatever.” I followed as he entered the kitchen. “That got me tired,” he complained, sounding almost bitter. “Let's eat something in our newly-separated dining room.”
***
I ate silently, not relishing the idea that Dave was behind me, unable to speak, but observing us every moment. “How long are you going to leave him like that?” I asked. “It's kind of creepy, knowing he's watching us.”
Studying his creation, Roman gave a rueful laugh. “I kind of like it. It must be some kind of control issue for me or something.”
“My mom's going to get worried about him when he's not back tonight.”
“You're worried about your mom after all this?”
I sighed and looked away. How could I explain how, despite everything, I felt my mother's absence deeply? “Yes, Roman. She still is my mom, and I wish this would all work out. She hasn't been the world's best parent, but I have very little family, and...I just hate having this hanging over me.”
He took a deep breath and turned away from me. “How are you feeling, Dave my boy?” he focused on the wall, and it began to sputter.
“Oh, I'm a talking wall now, huh, Roman?” Dave's face in the middle of the wall was truly disturbing, and I averted my eyes. “What's wrong, Corrie? Can't look at me this way?”
“I don't want to look at you ever, Dave,” I muttered.
“You having fun yet, my friend?” Roman asked merrily. “I had fun doing it to you.”
“What the hell are you, Roman?” This time, however, the question came out with some actual wonder in it. “Are you like some sorcerer-guy or something? Are you even human?”
“I'm very human. Usually,” he guffawed. “I just have a very rare ability. Very rare.”
Digesting this, Dave responded. “You do this to Corrie?”
“Well, I haven't made her a wall yet, although she might like that. You can't tell me you're not, maybe even a little.”
Dave hesitated a bit too much. “Damn it, Roman, you can't leave me like this. Corrie, please, tell him...”
“When I'm ready. We have stuff to do.”
Roman helped me to clean off the table, and we left Dave to his own devices for a while.
***
Night rolled around, and we had a lavish dinner by candlelight. It was not something Roman always did, but I had a suspicion that, even after everything that had befallen us, he was still trying to show Dave that he was an excellent husband for me.
Dave viewed us in silence, only asking at one point, “Can I eat like this?”
“Dave, you're a wall, for crying out loud. How could you eat?”
“Well, I do have a mouth,” he whimpered.
“Idiot,” grumbled Roman.
***
When we finished our meal, Roman wiped his mouth and stood up from the table. He walked right up to the wall, sticking his face into Dave's own. “Are you going to leave us the hell alone now, Dave?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“You going to go running to Kate now to tell her all about me?”
“I won't...unless it's okay...”
Roman snickered. “Well, that's up to you. My guess is that she'll try to get you thrown into an asylum after that, but I'll leave it to you to decide.”
The wall let out a happy breath as it shrunk into the figure of a man. Dave fell to the floor, shaking. He then stood up and looked down at himself in amazement. “Oh, my God, I have arms again, I can move... Thank you, Roman.” He looked up at Roman, who did not meet his eyes.
“Get the hell out of my house, Dave,” Roman muttered, and went off into the bedroom.
I glanced at my stepfather. “You can let yourself out, Dave,” I said, and followed Roman.
***
“Corrie, come in the bathroom!”
“Why?”
“Just come.”
I entered the bathroom, but no one was there. “Okay, Roman. What are you?” I surveyed the room, trying to find what did not belong.
The bathtub was full, and the water rippled. “Take a bath in me, Corrie.”
Bathing in one's husband was quite interesting. It was tough to simply wash myself, because Roman, now a tub of water, was rushing against my body, caressing all the good spots with ripples and eddies. “Nice?” came his voice from all around me.
“Oh, so nice...Roman, I want to try this.”
“Finish up, and we'll switch.”
I stood naked in the tub as Roman stepped out, human once more. “Oh, I have one better for you. You ready?”
I nodded in anticipation.
He touched me tenderly. “Become a nice bubble bath for me,” he demanded, and with a delighted gasp, I liquified into bubbly water, quickly expanding to fill the tub. How wonderful it felt, as I rushed around into little waves from the impact. I was all of the water; my bubbles popping wonderfully, each burst sending delicate waves of pleasure through my amorphous form.
I let out a long, luxurious sigh. “Mmm...I'm lavender-scented...”
With a laugh, Roman stuck his foot into me, and I surrounded it lovingly. As the rest of him entered and lay down in me, the rush from him parting my form as well as the immense number of popping bubbles sent me into one of the familiar highs that I loved. Every form had its pleasures, and this definitely one I hoped to repeat. Frequently. “It feels so good...oh, so many bubbles...” I giggled, and Roman purposely began to pop more and more of me.
Dave's little adventure did not even approach our thoughts. We were having too much fun.
***
We got into bed that night, and Roman asked his usual “Want to be anything before bed?”.
I blinked back at him, his handsome face gazing at me with love. “You feel guilty about Dave?” he added thoughtfully.
I glanced at the ceiling. “I guess. It was coming to him. And you, well...”
“Yes, I enjoyed it, and I'm not sorry I did it. And if he tells your mom, well, it might be quite interesting.”
“Yes, that's what I'm worried about. She always wondered what you and my dad did all those afternoons.”
“I highly doubt she'll think I transformed him, or Dave, for that matter.”
Roman drew me toward him, and I knew I needed him, right then. “Wanna be tigers tonight?” he offered hungrily.
“No. I want to be people,” I said, and I started to pull off his pajamas. He reciprocated, and soon we were naked in each others' arms.
“Then I have one transformation you'll really enjoy right now.”
I moaned as Roman entered me, and then we were solidifying that way.
“Oh!” I burst out, my whole body exploding with unrelenting pleasure. We came to a climax just as we completely became stone, a marble work of art of a man and woman coupling.
And we remained that way to the next day.