Roman sat at the table, drinking his coffee and reading a newspaper. He sipped at his beverage, very obviously savoring the feel of the porcelain cup against his mouth.
“Mmm. That feels good. Rub your tongue up and down my side,” I said.
Roman obeyed, sliding his finger through my handle for good measure. “I'm surprised you didn't want to be my coffee, Corrie.” He took another sip.
“I'd love that, actually. I mean, being all liquidy, traveling down into you, being digested and becoming a part of you...”
“And there'd be no more Corrie.”
“But I'd be you.”
“I don't think you'd be alive anymore. I've never tried to do that; I don't know how I would get you back from that...”
“I understand. It's fine. I'm more than happy to be containing your beverage. The warmth inside me feels nice.”
“Being food is fun. You just don't want to get eaten. Remember you were a cupcake?”
I thought back to those first days with Roman, and the range of changes he had put me through. My body melting into the form of a little cupcake was just...great. “Yeah, I liked how that felt.”
“You know, if you liked that, I should make you gum! I bet you'd love it! I did that several times. When I was younger, in college, I'd stay the summer and just...be things. My parents had no idea what I was doing, although I'm sure they suspected. And remind me to tell you some of the sicko things I did with the girls–”
“With? You told them about you?”
“Well, not with. “'By' is a better term. Stuff like turning into a towel in their bathrooms... Okay, I'm not proud of that. Anyway, the things I did on my own were much better. The gumball thing was up there with my favorites. I'd become something small – like a gnat – and fly into a gum machine. Then I'd turn into a gumball and, well, someone would buy me and chew me.”
“That feels nice?” I asked, the wheels turning in my mind.
“Does it ever!”
“I want to do that,” I decided.
Roman looked slightly perturbed, apparently rethinking this. “You want to be in a stranger's mouth?”
How bad could that be? It sounded daring and exciting; a person never knowing just what his gum really was...“Sure, why not?”
“Well, I'll be happy to chew you instead. That'll be some turn-on.”
“But that ruins the whole adventure. Then we don't need a gumball machine, and, just knowing that I gave someone some enjoyment is...nice.”
“Well, I don't know about enjoyment. They're just chewing gum, that's all.”
I gave him my 'please transform me or I'll cry' face, and he softened.
“Well, fine, but I still want to chew you one day. And when are you going to get ready for college? Classes start in less than two weeks.”
“Oh, Roman, how much more do I need to do? I just have a few more books to buy. Let's do this gum thing today! Finish up, and let's go.”
As two gnats, we flew into the gum machine at the closest convenience store. “It's dark in here, Roman,” I mentioned, stating the obvious as I often did.
“Just follow me up to the opening up top here. Trust me, I know my way around a gum machine. Here we are!” We emerged into the globeful of colorful gumballs. “Stay near the bottom so we don't have to wait too long,” Roman suggested. I honestly didn't mind waiting; there was something exciting about being one gumball amongst many, just waiting for my fate...
Nonetheless, I pushed my frail bug body down through the gumballs. “I can't wait to be one!” I gushed.
“Then hold on tight!” he rubbed his wings at me, making me quiver.
“Oh, oooo!” I gasped as my spindly body began to inflate. My shape was quickly lost as I grew round, shiny, and very pink. “Oh, Roman! I love being round!”
He chuckled at me, as I was now a pink sphere with his wife's face on it, and he swiftly grew into the same shape. “You do understand we can't keep our faces once someone buys us. That might be a bit unsettling for the person.”
“Yes, I understand. Chewing a gumball that makes noises might be disturbing too. Oh, Roman, what a lovely blue gumball you are! I want to chew you!”
We sat and waited, and the wait alone was quite arousing. The knowledge of what lay ahead for me made me let out a sad wail. I was now glad we were at the bottom. This wait was long enough. “I want it now,” I lamented. I just wanted to be touched, and rolled in someone's hand...
“Wait until you're blown into a bubble,” Roman added tantalizingly.
“Oh, God. Roman, if you could touch me...can't you grow a little hand out your side or something–”
“Sh! Someone's coming!” Roman cautioned, and a teen approached, jiggling money in his hand. Roman gave me a gentle kiss. “Now if we're not bought together, I'll come after you.”
The jingle of change and the twist of the dial sent us both tumbling down what seemed like a slide. We collided with the door of the machine, which opened, and fingers dug us both out.
Oh, Roman!
Good. We're together!
But he's...
My excitement lessened as we were deposited into the boy's pocket. Yet the denim rubbed against me as he walked off, and I realized – being cozy and sandwiched in someone's pocket had its good points too.
Guess he's waiting a bit. We heard a crackle and both of us realized the boy was already chewing gum. Oh, you'll like that if he adds us to it, Roman pointed out.
I'm hoping he'll chew us only. Both at the same time.
That works too.
Sitting in our temporary pocket-home made Roman continue to reminisce about his gum experiences. This brings back such memories, he said. I'm so glad I have someone to do this with.
You didn't do it with my father?
Um, okay, Corrie. Now how uncomfortable would that be? Think about it.
Got ya.
Both of us were silent a moment. It was good to know that Roman had not done anything too weird with my own father. It just...well, things would not be quite the same if I knew that Roman and my dad had been chewed together, or something worse than that...
I miss your face being on you. I'm sorry I had to get rid of it. You know, you didn't tell me what you thought about being a gnat. Did you like it?
Um, Roman, I like being anything.
Did you like my actual transforming you? I tried to draw it out, to let you feel your legs thinning into bug legs, to let your body slowly segment into head, thorax, abdomen...
I liked the feeling when my new legs popped out.
Yes, that feels like a...burst of pure pleasure, if you do it right. Did I?
I felt like I was blushing, but of course I could not as a gumball. Even if I could, I was so pink-colored that no one would notice. Roman, did you hear me seriously shrieking as I changed? I think that was a good clue.
Awesome, Roman responded smugly.
And then fingers grabbed at them. They were scooped up and, just barely glimpsing the light of day, they were quickly inserted into a warm, dark environment.
Here goes, Corrie! Brace yourself!
Before I could formulate a response, powerful teeth ripped into me. There was a momentary fear, and then I felt like I was about to explode.
And in a sense, I did. The teeth broke through my crisp outer shell and into my soft insides. Roman had indeed been prudent in not allowing me to speak as I would have been screaming in ecstasy at this point. A second bite began to churn my innards together with my shell, mixing me together in a way I could only describe as wonderful.
Beside me came a slight cracking sound, and Roman's Oh, God! Yes! Told me that he was experiencing a similar fate. Then he was being chewed into me.
The feeling was odd; it was not quite the same as melding into one object, like the time we had both become one vase. Instead, I was aware of his substance being pushed into me, crushing and mixing into my own form. Hello, Corrie, it said in a mischievous voice. Nice weather we're having, huh?
Oh, God, Roman! Why didn't you do this to me sooner?
He laughed. Corrie, why didn't I do anything to you sooner? I mean, it's all amazing. Is there anything yet that you haven't enjoyed being?
No! No! I was only able to muster. We were, in essence, one mass now, but I still was aware of little parts of our shared-gum form that were not me.
There was an odd, delicious pressure pushing against me. What is that?! I gasped, and then I realized. It was about to happen. The boy was pushing his tongue into us, hollowing us out...And we began to inflate.
Roman, Roman...this is orgasmic! I sputtered.
Just you wait, he chuckled.
I was expanding more and more; the pressure building up inside of me was beyond sexual. I was now outside of the boy's mouth, building and building...
Roman!!
Any minute now...
When I popped, my whole world simply disappeared for a moment. The event surpassed anything I had experienced until now (and I felt this way after each new thing I turned into, but still...).
We were plastered to the boy's face, and I was thinner than I had ever been as a solid; thinner than a sheet of paper, thinner than material... I was merely film-like. The began to remove us, placing us back into his mouth. We were forced back together in a round mass, and the chewing began again.
Oh, Roman...it's almost too much! And at the same time, I want to be a bubble over and over!
Almost as if the boy had heard, he inserted his tongue into us, and we began to expand again.
I guess he's a mind-reader, Roman joked. Hold on tight!
The building and expanding... all I knew was that I needed to do this again. And again.
Sadly, the chewing eventually ceased. There were fingers grabbing us, then light, and then we were plummeting through the air.
We hit the cement with a thud, and lay there as our 'user' walked off.
Littering bastard, grumbled Roman.
Oh, I guess that's it, then, I said, let-down.
Not necessarily. One time someone spit me on the ground like this, and I just laid there for over a week. I was crushed into the concrete, and I was, in essence, part of it. I guess it's weird, but I kind of liked it. I stared up at the sky for days on end...
Although it sounded weird, I knew that if Roman had enjoyed it, I would too. Let's try it a bit. We have time, and we're together.
Being in a relatively busy spot, we were crushed into the cement fairly quickly. Roman was quite right – I liked the feeling of being flat again, and it was nice to gaze at the stars, truly together with my husband. Yet eventually a woman jabbed into us with her heel, and we stuck to it, ripping us from the pavement. Being walked on this way was not painful, but the idea that I was junk crushed onto someone's shoe was not a pretty one.
Roman, change us back, okay?
Wait, I found something you don't like being?
No, I like the way it feels, and strangely, being stepped on is actually kind of ticklish, but she'll scrape us off somewhere, and...
Okay, fine. Wait until she stops...
But she wasn't stopping, so Roman very swiftly turned us into water. We flowed to the ground, and when no one was about, two humans re-formed from the ground.
“Why is the light on in the house?” I asked as we neared it.
Roman looked confused. “I don't know?”
I grew worried. Since there were no people for miles around us, living in the middle of the woods, we usually did not bother to lock the door.
“Stay here.” Roman shrank into the form of a bee. He flew under the door, and was gone for only seconds. Resuming human form, he uttered, “Your mother is here.”
“My mother?” I gasped, both hopefully and angrily at the same time. Whyever was my mother here? I threw open the door and marched into the living room where she sat. “Mom, why are you in my house?”
She looked at me woefully. “I've been waiting here for you all afternoon. We really need to talk.”
Roman watched on somewhat disapprovingly.
“I think all's been said, Mom. I'm married to Roman, and I'm not leaving him.”
My mother regarded him standing in the corner, then she turned back to me. “Dave says Roman turned him into a wall.”
Roman guffawed and turned away. I sighed and shook my head. “I told you he's crazy. I told you a long time ago.”
She just kept her eyes on mine, searching my face. “Why is he saying that, Corrie? What did your...husband,” she spat the word out with vitriol, glaring at Roman all the while, “do to him? Did he mess with his mind or something?”
“His mind is already messed up,” Roman muttered, walking off to the kitchen.
My mother grasped my hand. “Corrie, he's saying Roman turned him into a doll too. He describes every detail of it...what it felt like, everything. I swear, it's like he went through it.”
“Obviously he needs help, Mom. Lots of it,” I said, and rose. “Now are we done here?”
She jumped up. “Corrie, your father told me that once, when we first met Roman. He told me that Roman turned them both into birds, and they–” My mother desperately searched my face for answers, and I grew guilty. Despite the past years, this was still my mother, the one I had shared everything with in my youth. And now I could see the silent pain in her eyes.
“Hypnosis?” I squeaked out as one last weak explanation.
Roman, obviously still listening from the kitchen, coughed.
My mother sighed, standing up. “You're not telling me everything. I know that look, Corrie.” She began to walk to the front door, and the stifled sob she emitted made me give in.
“Change me, Roman,” I muttered.
My mother twisted around, her mouth agape. She watched Roman enter the room, a look of amazement on his face. “Really?” he asked as he neared me.
I gulped. Was it wrong to 'out' my husband this way? But he didn't have to agree to any of this. Actually, he appeared to want to, which was even more astonishing to me.
“Really,” I said, still facing my mother.
He came back behind me, lifting my arms and forcing them to shift into wings. The feathers tingled as they poked through my skin.
My mother stood entranced, unable to move.
Roman released my arms, which now were large bluish wings. He stepped back and I raised them with a laugh. “I wonder if I can fly like this?” I wondered out loud.
My mother was dumbstruck. She pointed at me and her eyes teared up.
“Yes, it's true, Mom. Dad wasn't lying to you,” I said gently, stroking my feathers with my other wing.
“It's a trick,” she whispered, shaking her head violently back and forth. “He...it's drugs...”
This human-with-wings form just did not do it for me. I desperately craved a completely avian figure. “Finish me, Roman,” I instructed, and he placed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to shrink to the floor. Feathers poked out all over me, while a black beak grew from my face. My feet became bird toes, and my tail feathers popped out with a jolt. I glanced down at my new body and cawed, “I'm a blue jay!”
“Oh! Oh!” my mother gasped, stepping back and tripping. She pulled herself back up, her eyes on me all the while. “Corrie,” she whispered in horror. “Does it... did it hurt?” she cast another angry glare at Roman, who stood smugly by, his hands folded across his chest.
I shook my crested head and flew up to the top of a chair. I had to admit, I had gotten pretty good at flying and landing, thanks to my other bird experiences with Roman.
“It doesn't hurt at all, Kate. It's actually quite pleasant,” Roman explained cautiously. He sat down on the couch, open to the sea of questions he knew would soon be forthcoming.
But my mother did not move closer, nor did she ask him anything. She walked towards me and simply stared at my blue feathers. “You are lovely...like...that,” she ventured.
“Thanks, Mom,” I answered. I now felt uncomfortable. Looking back at the last few minutes, I felt my mother viewing me transforming was as if she had entered on a very private experience, and I began to wonder at the wisdom of letting her watch.
But her next comment heartened me considerably. Her face relaxed, and I saw a peace there that I had never seen before. She finally turned to Roman. “I thank you for allowing me into your world, Roman. I do wish I had listened to Robert when he first told me, but it was so ludicrous, and then he simply closed himself off to me. He would go off with you for hours, and I was so lonely. I grew so bitter...” She was crying now, and I wanted to comfort her. I flew to her shoulder, but that seemed to make her even more upset, so I retreated back to my chair top.
Roman rose and began to stroke my head, which was comforting, although it probably did not help matters with my mother. “Kate, Robert wanted to share it with you so badly. He had so many plans for you both – he wanted to be pairs of things with you – birds, butterflies, bees, horses, rabbits – even objects... But he had to give that up. You just wouldn't hear him. And when you forbid him from seeing me, and you thought he was having an affair? No, he was still visiting me. He had such a need to be transformed... I don't think you could ever understand.”
My mother gulped. “I even thought he was having an affair with you, Roman. I wondered if our whole marriage was a sham...”
Roman chuckled and kissed my feathered head. “Now I might be seen kissing objects or birds or whatever, but they're all really Corrie. Very transformed, but very female.” He winked, but my mother shuddered.
“Will we see you again soon, Kate?” Roman asked softly, watching my mom sidle towards the door.
“I...need time. I need time,” she murmured. She turned on her heel and walked out, leaving the door open behind her. I flew outside and perched in a tree, watching her drive off.
Another blue jay alighted beside me, but my eyes remained on the car speeding away. “Oh, Roman, I hope she'll be okay.”
He butted his head against me. “She might be better than ever, once it all sinks in. Come, let's fly.”
“Where?”
“How about to the university bookstore to buy those books of yours?”
“Okay,” I agreed. I really did need to get ready for school, after all.
“That's a lot of money for books,” Roman commented, surveying the selection of texts I carried in a red basket. He pulled out his wallet. “I usually like to use cash to pay for stuff, as you know, but I think we might just need to put this on the credit card.”
Then one of my bright ideas struck. “Roman! Turn me into money!” I ducked into a dark area behind the bookshelves.
He followed me into the shadows. “Money? Why?”
I wasn't sure why, actually. Being a piece of paper was always fun; being passed from person to person, living in a cash register, a wallet, a bank vault... Who knew what places I'd see, what adventures I'd have, and all to be experienced in a nice, flat, compact form...
“Corrie, that's risky. If I lose you, I could never find you. You'd be cash for life.”
I began to giggle. 'Cash for Life'- wasn't that one of those scrape-off games one could buy in the stationary store to win money? That might be fun to become also...being scraped with a coin to reveal the winning numbers printed on me...
“It's also illegal, I might add.”
“Illegal?” I scoffed. “How many illegal things have you done in your life, Roman? I mean, the way you've forged a new identity as Roman Smyth junior...”
“Yes, yes, you're right. But I don't want to risk losing you. Here. I'll turn you into cash and I'll follow you around in my trusty gnat form. And, wherever you end up when we turn you back, I'll make sure they get reimbursed.”
“With something else you turned into money?”
“Yes. Just as counterfeit as you are...right...now!”
Roman forced me to change so quickly that I was unable to draw a single breath before I flattened out and fluttered to the floor as a crisp dollar bill. In my altered, rectangular form, I was able to see through the features of the George Washington image on the front. Yes, in a sense, I had become the first US president. Well, a two-dimensional image of him, at least.
“Hey, I found a dollar!” Roman announced. He picked me up, kissed at my George Washington face, and folded me into four. “Yes, I know you like being folded, my love,” he murmured. “Now you go right where a good money-girl belongs.” He tucked me lovingly into his wallet between two twenties. “You comfy in there, little dollar?”
Very. I wish you could join me here.
“Normally I'd love to, but then, how would we pay for these books?” He closed me into darkness and I felt him stuff my wallet-home into his pocket. I heard him grunt as he picked up the heavy basket of books. “Off to the register!” he declared. For whatever reason, this filled me with great excitement. I was money, after all. I needed to be spent.
As Roman handed me to the check-out person, I wondered if he could feel me shivering with excitement. Fingers counted out the cash, “two, three, four, five,” he stopped on me as the proud fifth dollar, “Twenty, forty, sixty...” and then I was sandwiched into a pile of ones. Darkness fell as the cash register drawer closed over me with a snap.
If I was a person, I knew I'd be feeling very claustrophobic right now, but as a flat piece of paper, I was calm, nestled amongst my co-currency.
Suddenly I felt the lightest of touches on my surface.
“I really had to shrink down small to get in here,” said a tiny fly. It began to walk down me, exploring my surface, its legs tickling me. “You came out so nicely, Corrie. I think I should take up counterfeiting as a career.”
Roman, your legs tickle!
“And you love it, right?” he continued to walk, traversing my face. “You enjoying this?”
Turn yourself into a dollar and stay with me.
“Well, okay. But once you're used, it's unlikely I will be with you, so I'll need to go back to fly form.” A paper formed above me, growing until it eventually blocked my vision. But the George Washington on this dollar faced my own, and it was moving. “Hello, I am the father of your country,” it said.
Roman, that's actually creepy.
“You don't like talking to George Washington?”
I don't like talking to an image of him. Especially when it has my husband's voice.
Suddenly there was glaring light, and fingers grasped us up. “Three dollars is your change!” said a booming voice above us. We were crinkled up and stuffed into someone's pocket.
“Well, that worked out well,” Roman quipped. “Lots of pockets lately.”
I had been crushed into a tight ball. Slowly, helplessly, I began to uncrinkle. It almost felt like inflating as a bubble had, but the confines of the pocket prevented me from unraveling completely.
We remained happily ensconced in our pocket until I heard the voices of teens, and I was unceremoniously seized from my hide-out. “I love doing dollar tricks,” proclaimed a female voice. “Fold it here,” I was creased in half, “and here,” I was creased lengthwise, “and here....and you get a mushroom!”
Well, what she was doing was idiotic, but at least it felt good. I was a square folded in on myself. Then I was tossed to a table as the girl drew Roman from her pocket and did several other silly tricks with him.
“Hey, dudes, you got some money?” someone called drunkenly from the other room. I was immediately scooped up and reunited with Roman.
“Are we having fun yet?” he jested.
I was suddenly being rolled up. A funny smell met whatever the equivalent was of my nose.
“Oh, God, we're in a dorm–” Roman began, worried realization in his voice, and suddenly my paper body imploded, hardening into a small, flat circle. I fell from the boy's hands and clinked to the floor.
Roman, what did you do? What am I? I tried to sound angry, but honestly, this metallic form was even better than being paper.
“Dude, what the hell just happened? What'd you give me? Trick money? A dollar that turns into a penny?”
A gnat flew down beside me. “Oh, Corrie, I think we're done here. You smell that smell? This is college kids doing what they do best.”
I understood then that I had nearly become a piece of drug paraphernalia. No, I did not want anyone snorting illegal substances through me. No matter what I was. It was just the principal of the thing.
Roman turned us into bats. We fluttered around the room, enjoying the commotion we caused. Then we flew out into the night and ate bugs. Having sonar is cool.
Remaining in bat form, we snuggled into the sheets of our bed, which, since we were so small, seemed to go on for miles. “Before we sleep this way, there's one more thing we have to do,” Roman said. I could picture him raising his eyebrows suggestively if he had been human.
“Yes, Roman. We'll get to that.”
“But? You want to talk more first?” Roman was rubbing his fuzzy brown body against mine, and his pheromones definitely were affecting me. Nonetheless, I pushed him slightly away with my waxy wing.
“You never gave those kids a dollar back,” I pointed out.
“Eh, they're doing drugs. Doesn't make a difference,” he snorted, giving a dismissive flap of his wing.
“You know, that was fun today, but I feel like it got cut short.”
“So we'll do it again.”
“But there's so many other things I want to be first.”
Amused, Roman awkwardly lay back, trying to bend his wing behind his head. “Like?”
“Oh, millions of things. I just want to be...everything.”
“Just like your dad,” he inhaled deeply, then gave me the equivalent of a kiss on my furry face. “Listen, make a list of what you want to become. The day before school starts, as a treat to you, we'll do them all. We'll have a major transform-a-thon!”
“But...there's so many!”
“Well, my love, then it will truly be a day you will never forget. Now get writing!”