by Tanya Allan
“Look, you wanted to know my secret, and now I’ve told you. Do you really want to know the truth, or will you just cry and run away and tell everyone?”
Connie suddenly looked frightened. Keira’s voice held a hint of menace.
“The truth?”
“Can you handle the truth?” Keira asked, rather melodramatically.
“I don’t know,” Connie replied, suddenly feeling less sure that she actually wanted to know.
“That’s honest. Look, this is heavy shit I’m going to tell you. This is real X file stuff, so you either walk away now and that’s it, you just forget everything you’ve seen, or you swear to keep silent and I’ll allow you to know the truth.”
“If I don’t?”
“Don’t what? Keep silent?”
Connie nodded, looking increasingly alarmed.
“I said I have powers, so you’ll suddenly find you won’t remember jack shit, but you won’t know it, because you won’t even know you ever knew it.”
Connie was confused and frightened.
“I need a pee!” she declared.
“Well, truth or mind-wipe?”
“Truth; but can it wait until I’ve had a pee?”
Keira nodded her head towards the bathroom. On entering, Connie immediately saw the window was too small for her to fit through. Instead, she sat and relieved herself.
Part of her was frightened, as she didn’t understand, but a greater part of her was curious, and a little in awe of this strange girl whom she discovered she didn’t know at all.
Keira was enjoying herself. She had no idea where she was going with this, but if the fat girl blabbed, then it would all be proved to be a vivid imagination.
On a whim, she focussed on the PC monitor on his desk in the corner. Then she imagined picking it up through mental power alone. To her delight and surprise, the monitor rose a few inches off the desk, stopping only because the cable reached its limit. She carefully lowered it again.
“Cool!” she said to the empty room.
Connie returned looking less worried.
“Better?” Keira asked.
The other girl nodded.
“Come and sit down.”
It was a very different Connie who walked home about an hour later. Usually, she was a bubbly person, often without good reason. She was one of the world’s optimists. She would be the girl who was given a box of horse poo for Christmas, and believe she had been given a pony, but it was hidden by her parents first, just for her to have fun looking for it.
She walked into the kitchen silently and simply sat down at the table.
Her mother was slightly startled, as normally Connie entered like a mini tornado and never silently.
“Are you ill?” she asked.
“No.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“Was school okay?”
“What’s with all the questions?” Connie asked testily, standing up and heading to her room.
Her mother heard her door slam. Now she was really worried.
Aston, Connie’s younger brother, grinned and shouted, “Connie’s on the rag!”
Without really thinking, his mother slapped the back of his head.
“Don’t you ever say such a thing again, that is cruel and heartless!” she said, knowing it was also untrue, as Connie wasn’t due for another ten days.
Connie lay on her bed staring at the ceiling.
“Aliens do exist, and I’ve met one!” she told herself. Then she thought about everything she saw the alien do.
“I’m not born of Earth,” Keira had told the gullible Connie, dramatically. “At least, I was actually born on Earth, but I was conceived many light years away. My people are not like you, but through a highly sophisticated seeding programme, we were able to use the womb of a human female who thought she was infertile and by pairing human DNA with our own, I was planted in her womb and permitted to grow with the appearance of being human.”
“S.s.so what do your people look like?”
“Different. We have not possessed organic or corporeal bodies for many millennia.”
That flummoxed Connie.
“You what?”
“We don’t have physical form. My people are pure energy and spiritual beings.”
“Um, if you were born here, how do you know all this?”
“I was ignorant of my origins until quite recently. Through telepathy, my people contacted me and informed me of my origins, my powers and my purpose here among you humans.”
“What’s that?” Connie had asked.
“To serve and protect a weaker and vulnerable species!” Keira had said, barely able to keep a straight face.
“You mean like a superhero?”
“They are just comics, whereas I am real. I have to finish my Earth Education before undertaking my true calling, but I may have to get some experience first, with lesser activities of justice.”
“But why do you have the ability to change sex?”
“Camouflage,” Keira invented on the spot. “You’ve seen superman, and isn’t that pair of specs and a floppy fringe a lousy disguise? If you have a superhero who is growing up and has yet to master whatever powers that exist, and she’s obviously female, then when you try to find her, you won’t look at any males, will you?”
“Gosh, how clever!”
“You see, up until this point, all my powers were latent, so I just didn’t know I had them. But now I’ve had the call, so to speak; I’m beginning to learn how to master them. It’s a vulnerable time – a time in the old days that lots of people used to be burned as witches, so we learned to hide.”
“You mean you’re not the only one?” Connie asked.
“There’s another safety feature. If there are we won’t know until we’re fully developed and can seek out any others. You see, if we banded together, then we’d be even more vulnerable, and could give the others away unwittingly.”
“That makes sense.”
“I’m almost ready to come out of hiding now, so it’ll soon be time for me to be a girl all the time.”
“How will you cope with school and stuff?”
“I’m not sure; it might be tricky.”
“What about your parents; won’t they be shocked and angry?”
“Probably,” said Keira with a naughty grin. “Now, do you want to see what I can do?”
Connie had just gaped as she watched Keira use only her mental power to lift objects like the next door neighbours’ Jaguar six feet in the air and then lower in again.
“Now you know why I am not exactly encouraging people to get too close to me. You have wanted to be close, so I trust you. If you ever betray me, you will never know what hit you!”
Connie had left at that point, walking home as fast as her legs could carry her.
Meanwhile, the ‘alien’ was having fun discovering just what she really could do.
She had no idea how she managed to do these things, but she did connect it to the torc. She knew she could fly, well, sort of. It was more an exaggerated jump, as if someone switched off the gravity. She could move things by her mind, and possibly throw bolts of energy. So far she’d made a real mess of the fish tank. It had taken ages to clear up, fortunately none had died. Two rolls of kitchen paper and the hairdryer had managed to dry the carpet, which was just as well, as she discovered she couldn’t dry things with her breath.
As an experiment, she took off the torc, and discovered that without it, Kenneth was powerless. It was a no brainer, so the torc went back on without delay.
She hoped that the story she wove for Connie would have the desired effect. Actually, it was quite useful having a ‘normal’ as a sort of side kick, as there would be things she needed that Kenneth would be unable to acquire, but Connie would be able to purchase without drawing attention to herself.
At present, she planned to become Keira whenever she could, at least once a day. She grinned as she looked forward
to leaving school and home. Then she could be Keira all the time!
However, the joy was short-lived. She had to have a strategy to ensure that she could make a seamless transition from Kenneth to Keira without too much hassle. That was a real problem, and one she would have to think carefully about.
She couldn’t just appear one day and announce that she’d been a girl all along; it wouldn’t wash. No, there had to be a way.
Six
After Connie had left her on that first introduction to the torc’s powers, Keira was desperate to know exactly what she was capable of. She was still chuckling about the wild story of the alien impregnation of her mother, and wondered if Connie really was as gullible as she appeared.
On taking off the torc, she steeled herself for the change back. She didn’t actually mind, as she knew that it was only temporary.
Kenneth examined the torc, but found it revealed absolutely nothing about its functions, capabilities or origins. There were no markings, no cracks, seams or any features visible.
The metal was smooth and curved into a ‘C’ that left too small a gap to fit a neck. He tried bending it, and failed. But, when he held the orbs at each end, the metal gradually warmed to his body temperature and very gently it straightened and allowed him to place it back around his neck. Once on, it remained warm and closed gently, so it fitted neatly. There was no way it could be removed, except through decapitation. She wondered if anyone else could make it bend or straighten. She made a mental note to ask Connie to try, just so she knew.
Keira was used to the tingles now, and took them in her stride. She just felt it a shame that she had to hide away indoors when she so wanted to go out and live as a girl.
She held that thought.
She was not exactly the same as Kenneth, so there was nothing stopping her going out of the house. She just had to make sure she was Kenneth when she came home to her parents or met anyone who knew her, him, or whatever.
She wanted to go and buy herself proper girl’s clothes and just do girl’s stuff. She paused, realising that she had nowhere to keep the trappings of a second life. It was bad enough being an only son, but to be so constrained by pushy parents made anything like this hard to manage.
The clothes she wore were all boys’ clothes. She had no decent underwear, and really hadn’t a clue about makeup or anything like that.
Oh! Why was everything so complicated?
She glanced at the clock and swore. It was almost five-thirty, so her mother might be back at any moment. In any case, she needed to get her homework done.
She went back to her room and opened her school case. She groaned, as it was French homework. She didn’t like French, so reluctantly she took out her books and settled at her desk.
She got a small thrill every time she saw her breasts pushing her shirt outwards; equally, when she brushed against something unexpectedly it made it very hard to concentrate. She was about to stop and change back, when she idly read a passage of French.
Miraculously, the passage translated itself in her mind. She tried a different passage, and almost as quickly as she read it, the translation popped into her mind. After doing her homework in about four minutes, she went on the internet and found an Italian website.
As she read a passage, she instantly was provided with an accurate translation. It was the same with a German site, and even a Japanese site.
She placed both hands on her torc.
“You little beauty!” she said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Okay,” she said to herself. “What exactly can you do?”
She took out a piece of paper and began to write.
CHANGE GENDER
TRANSLATE LANGUAGES
ASSIST IN FLYING/LEVITATION/ANTI-GRAVITY?
MOVE OBJECTS/TELEKINESIS
SHOOT BOLTS OF ENERGY?
Then she stopped.
“Is that it?” she said, reading the short list. Actually, just the top one would have done her, she thought, but the others were a neat bonus.
She looked down the list, at each in turn. When Connie had likened her to a comic-book superhero, she had dismissed it, but actually, it wasn’t far from the truth. Yet superheroes were fictional, weren’t they?
Basil the dog sat on the rug, looking at her, hopefully.
“Do you want a walk, Baz?” she asked.
Baz wagged his tail, looking enthusiastic.
Okay, now, what can I wear that is okay for both a girl and a boy? She thought to herself.
In the end, she wore a tee shirt and a pair of shorts. The trainers were plain white and didn’t discriminate, except she thought that her feet were slightly smaller as a girl
She ran down stairs and left a note for her mother, just in case she came home early.
Homework done. Taken Baz for walk.
Leaving it on the kitchen table, she attached a lead to the dog’s collar and led him down the garden to the gate at the bottom. There was a public footpath than ran along the bank of the river, so she turned left and let the dog off the lead. Basil ran on ahead, heading towards the fields.
It was a lovely September day, almost warmer than it had been in July and August, so she enjoyed feeling the sun on her face. She felt the joy of fulfilment bubble up in her chest and released it as a laugh. An elderly couple coming the other way frowned.
“Sorry, but isn’t it a lovely day?” she asked them.
In the end, both smiled and agreed. Remarking how nice it was to see a young person who wasn’t morose and miserable.
“But everything is wonderful!” she said, leaving them staring after her.
She came to where the path entered a field that broadened out with woodland beyond. Basil knew this area intimately and set off to explore the place where he had found rabbits in the past.
Keira sat on the grass and watched the river flow past. Several boats were on the river, the occupants of which waved and nodded amiably at her, which she returned.
Idly she thought about this gift she now possessed. She was intelligent enough to realise that if handled badly then there would be those who would seek to find out what she had and try to take it from her. She regretted letting Connie know, but perhaps that could be turned to an advantage.
She touched the torc with her fingers, wondering how it came to be, and what sort of hands put it together, and why.
Was it an ancient artefact from a lost civilization like Atlantis? Or, was she quite right in thinking it was from an alien visitation to Earth?
She wondered how old it was. There was no indication obvious just by looking at it. The question arose; was it magic or scientific?
She never used to believe in magic, but that was before she could lift a car with the power of a single thought. It didn’t seem heavy or hefty enough to contain such power, but maybe all it did was accentuate power that was already there.
Regardless, she felt an overwhelming gratitude towards the unknown maker or makers. In one crazy moment, her dreams were fulfilled, her prayers answered and her ambitions formulated beyond her imagination.
The world was hers to do what she willed, now, and she was not going to pass up the opportunity.
Using her finger, she pointed at the water and made patterns as if her hand actually touched the surface, while in fact she stood ten feet from the edge. She looked around and saw too many people, either on the water in boats or walking dogs. She wanted to try to see how high and fast she could fly, but knew she’d have to wait until later.
Basil came trotting back after she called him. He did not seem to either notice or mind she was now a girl. She started back, returning along the same path that she had taken to get here.
As she reached the gate, she met her neighbours, Ruth and David Watson with their Labrador - Ben.
“Oh shit!” she muttered. She did not have the time nor the opportunity to take the torc off and allow the few moments to change back.
“Hello Basil,” said Ruth, making a fuss of the little dog who
greeted her as an old friend.
“Oh, hello; I thought for a moment you were Kenneth,” she said as Keira approached. “But I see I was wrong. This is Basil, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes. I’m Keira, Kenneth’s friend. He’s at home finishing his homework, so he asked if I could take Basil out.”
“You are very similar to Kenneth, are you related?” David asked.
“Not that I know of,” she said.
Ben decided to chase a Spaniel, so their attention was diverted. Keira left, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Okay, girl, you just learned something – not in your own back yard!” she said to herself as she walked rapidly home.
Her mother had not returned, so she took off the torc and changed back to normal.
Normal?
No, she changed back to being Kenneth, and couldn’t wait to return to normal; to be Keira.
Linda came home a little before eight, to find Kenneth sitting on the sofa with the dog on his lap, watching TV
“Have you done your homework?” she asked, seemingly distracted.
“Yes, and I’ve fed the dog and had some supper.”
“What did you have?”
“There was some pizza left from yesterday.”
“Oh, was there enough?”
“Not really, so I made a bacon sandwich as well. How’s Uncle Bill?”
“Not too bad. He’s getting stronger each day. He and Carrie went for a walk today, just around the flat bit in the country park. They had a cup of tea at the visitor centre.”
“That’s good.”
“Did you walk Basil?”
Kenneth was about to say that he had, when an idea came to him.
“No, I had some French homework to do, so a friend took him to the woods for me.”
“Oh, what friend; Connie?”
“No, you haven’t met this one; her name’s Keira.”
“Oh, a school friend?” Linda asked as casually as she could. She was beginning to be very concerned over Kenneth, fearing that he might be gay, as he appeared to have no inclination to meet girls; apart from that dreadful Connie, who didn’t count.
“No, she goes to a girls’ school, I think. She lives along the road somewhere. I’m not sure where.”
“Oh? How did you meet?” Linda asked, thinking that Kenneth was being deliberately evasive; as if he was hiding something. She remembered her first boyfriend, of whom she knew her parents would disapprove. She was equally vague and evasive about him.