Mr. Hart

Gunnar Hart awoke groggily in Loving Kindness Hospital. He was a decent and good-looking young man, quite strong and healthy, and so he had been at a loss when he suddenly felt pains shooting all throughout his body in the middle of the night. He was thankful for at last being given painkillers, and he had been **** ever since.

He was aware of some monitor quietly beeping away. A nurse looked in and called "Dr. King! It's Mr. Hart!"

An elderly man entered and sat down beside Gunnar, smiling reassuringly. "I'm Dr. Joe King, I'm in charge of you. How are you feeling?"

"No pain, thanks ... and very tired."

"You've had a long rest. You've been here over a month now -- not technically a coma, but practically as bad. Your body burned up a lot of energy just lying here. As near as we can figure, you've had some sort of second puberty. It's as if your body suddenly decided it wanted to continue its old business from adolescence. Here." He reached into the night table and handed Gunnar a mirror. "See for yourself."

Gunnar was startled. He was still himself, but his face seemed different somehow: broader, sharper, more authoritative. Now that he thought about it, his voice was deeper, richer.

He flexed his hands, staring. "Doctor? Have I -- "

"Grown? Yes. You're seven feet tall now. We'll have to check your weight again, but somehow you've done all this while also acquiring excellent muscle tone. We've taken small samples of your muscle tissue, and we're still not sure what's happening. That pain you felt ... we think you were feeling your bones lengthening, so it's understandable while that might be uncomfortable."

"What triggered this?'

"We were hoping you could tell us. This all seems ... spontaneous."

"Puberty, huh?" Gunnar looked under his bedsheets and his robe -- and froze.

"We may have to talk to you about that," Dr. King advised delicately. "The new size of your testicles suggests that you're going to be ejaculating quite a lot of semen. As for the rest ... the average woman really doesn't have much use for more than an eight-inch erection, so you'll need counseling for that as well."

"Just as long as I've stabilized," Gunnar worried.

"You've stabilized. That's the only thing of which we feel sure right now."

Gunnar talked more, but the conversation became a big blur to him, and soon after Dr. King left, he fell back asleep.