Part 31 – One-Trick Pony

As it so happened, the trick specialist wasn’t at all what I expected. At the very least, it was one of the more interesting visits.

“Come in, come in,” a woman ushered me into the room and I stopped mid-stride unable to bring myself to look away.

The woman that stood on the other side of the door was gorgeous, her long blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders in ringlets and I looked into her bright blue eyes in shock. She looked like she belonged posing in the centerfold of a dirty magazine, and I couldn’t bring myself to accept my imagination hadn’t conjured her up.

I bit my lip and stepped inside the room. The woman smiled and lurched forward hands reaching up to push the door closed behind me. She smiled as I turned to face her. “Hello, I’m Dr. Foster, but you can call me Janet.”

I glanced back over my shoulder, wishing that Carrie hadn’t left, but unwilling to give voice to her absence. The nurse has told us that the trick specialist had wanted to visit with me alone, and I had grudgingly agreed. I should have insisted she come along, but hadn’t wanted to rock the boat.

Janet’s bounteous chest, loomed less than a foot from my face and I stared at it with eyes wide.

“I-I’m Calista,” I said averting my eyes, my cheeks flushed.

“Please have a seat,” she held her hand out motioning at a pair of seats along the far wall.

I complied, seating myself and peered back at her. She grabbed the other chair, positioning it opposite me and sat down, crossing her legs and folding her hands across her lap.

She peered at me, a slow smile touching her lips and she glanced down at a tablet clutched in her perfectly manicured hands. “I’ve been reading your file. It says here you’ve already discovered a trick. Can I see it?”

I nodded, but didn’t speak. Instead, I clenched my eyes shut and concentrated on my outfit. For the third time that day, I shifted my clothes, the fabric slithering and crawling across my skin. When I opened my eyes again, I glanced down at myself, and smirked. I was wearing a simple strapless black minidress.

When I looked back up and met her gaze, she folded her arms across her chest and studied me her eyebrows furrowed. “Well, color me jealous. A trick like that would come in handy. I’d never have to go clothes shopping again.”

She pursed her lips, again, glancing down at the tablet. “It says here you were a boy before your twist. That must have come as a shock.” She grinned, cleared her throat and again peered at the tablet. “I’d say from your choice of outfit, there were a few mental changes as well.”

I nodded, and she slipped the tablet on the counter, letting out a long breath of air. “Could you tell me how your trick first manifested itself?”

I frowned and told her how Mr. Hails had encouraged me to see if I had a trick and in doing what he suggested I discovered it. She listened and nodded when I had finished.

“Tell me how you feel when you use your trick?”

I shrugged. “Well, my skin tingles, like it did when I underwent my twist, only not as intense.”

“I’m interested in this anomalous tissue Dr. Clark has discovered. I think it might have something to do with your trick. Tell me, can you use your trick on other people? Could you say… turn my blouse into a v-neck?” She asked arching an eyebrow.

I shook my head. “I can–” I started say, but stopped thinking back to the gas station. “Well, I can’t change what a person is wearing, but I can– Let me just show you.”

I reached out, clasping hold of her hand and to my surprise she didn’t jerk back or try to draw it away. Again, I clenched my eyes shut, trying for something simple. Some of the fabric from my dress wiggled across my skin, down my arm and onto her wrist. I pulled back and slid my eyelids open to reveal my handiwork. A simple black lace wristlet, about half an inch wide had appeared on her wrist.

When I looked down at myself, my outfit remained more or less unchanged. I saw no difference, but I knew the fabric from the bracelet must have come from somewhere.

She blinked, lifted her arm, and turned her wrist back and forth examine the result. When she glanced back up at me she arched an eyebrow.. The doctor remained silent for what felt an eternity then let out a long sigh and smiled. “I think I understand. You can’t change what I’m wearing, but you can shift clothing onto me, is that correct?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I… found that out the hard way.”

She pressed her lips together, but did not comment. Instead, she ran her hands through her hair strummed her fingers across the armrest. We sat there for several moments, looking back at one another before she spoke up. “This mystery tissue around your muscles may be related to your trick. It might be why you can’t change other people’s clothing. I’d like to run a more specialized scan if that’s okay with you.”

I paused a moment, not keen on yet another scan, but sucked in my breath and nodded. Though I didn’t understand why the doctor seemed so intent on unraveling this mystery, it seemed best to play along. I suspected that if I ever got into legal trouble over what had happened in Clearville or the gas stop, it would be nice to point to this and show how harmless my trick was.

She guided me over to an exam table where she attached an array of sensors to my skin. She initiated the scan using her tablet and asked me to shift my clothes once every several minutes. When all was said and done I was wearing a purple minidress with a plunging neckline that was the same shade of purple as my hair, and a pair of tall black boots that went up almost to my knee, which I learned later were called wedge boots. She had me concentrate, like I did when I used my trick, and, as I expected, my skin tingled.

After a few seconds, she had me stop and one by one removed the sensors from my skin. She didn’t speak for the longest time, instead moving across the room and set the sensors down on the counter. She kept her back to me, then turned back and studied me both of her arms folded over her chest. “Well, the scan detected a lot of interesting activity. When you use your trick, you call on the quantum field which seems to interact with the anomalous tissue around your musculature. That is why, you can only shift clothing that’s touching your skin.”

“Uh, that’s good?” I said making it more a question than a statement.

The doctor smiled, but didn’t reply, instead she rubbed her chin and glanced back down at her tablet. After another few moments of silence she spoke. “Well, I don’t think there’s anything more we can do here today, and Dr. Mansfield is waiting.”

I nodded and let her lead me out of the room. We traveled halfway down the corridor where we paused and she knocked on a door indistinguishable from the rest. She knocked on the door, and a loud thud sounded from within the room. A moment later, the door slammed open and the rooms occupant stood in the doorway. I swallowed… hard upon seeing the creature and stepped inside the room.