Mother and Child Reunion

As one of Farra’s bodies (the Braided haired one) transferred the clothes in her suitcase to hangers in her closet, the other (Loose haired one) poured tea from her instant kettle into a small cup as she watched the sunset from her balcony. The closet was a full walk in, roomy and immaculate, the view from the balcony absolutely splendid as the sun began its transition beneath the horizon.

She saw both these sights at once, smelled the sterile cleaning fluid from the closet along with the sea breeze, felt flat interior air and the warm tropical wind at her face. Every sensation was now a two for one package, it seemed.

But when one body reached for the book she was going to read just as the other turned toward the suitcase for her next item, the disorientation overtook her. She fell, spilled, felt a slap as her round bottom made contact with the floor, a scalding pain as hot tea ran down her thigh.

Loose Farra shouted out a curse in Farsi, while Braid Farra said “Motherfuck!”

She picked herself up, and dabbed the tea from her leg, internally promising herself to keep future experiments less dangerous.

Farra had been making progress. She’d found that Leah had not been lying about her brain boost. She’d been able to read two things at once with perfect clarity, to listen to two things and been able to perfectly differentiate them, and perform multiple complex tasks simultaneously. Typing and speaking at the same time, for instance, had always been a struggle for Farra. Now, with two bodies, it was somehow natural.

The problem came from motor control. She hadn’t expected that. Quite the opposite; when she’d first changed into this weird hive mind, she’d assumed that sensory overload would be her problem, while movement would be simple. Instead, sensing came naturally, and she was overthinking the movement. All it took was one part of one body moving too suddenly, and she’d reflexively try to overcorrect with both.

Still, she was making progress. Thinking back on her clumsiness when she’d first transformed (back then she could barely move) she was actually proud of how far she’d come in a single day.

There was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” She called out.

“It’s me Mom.” An emotional voice said from the other side.

A woman’s voice. It took her a moment to remember, and when she did, it made her heart ache.

Ryan had avoided her since their mutual transformations. Farra didn’t know if that was on account of hers, his, or some combination of the two, but she knew her son well enough to appreciate when she needed space. Ryan always came around. You couldn’t demand or even coax him into it. It happened on his own time.

Just to be safe, she had Braid step into the closet and pull the door behind her. Darkness enveloped that half of the senses as she turned the light off. The effect was tantamount to turning her second self off. File that one away for later.

She walked her remaining body toward the door and opened, revealing a scared, puffy eyed blonde who looked so like, and so very unlike her all at the same time.

“Oh, Ryan…” Farra cooed, taking her into her arms.

The woman who had been her son embraced her eagerly, sniffing against her breasts.

In truth, Farra had always wanted a girl. In the end, her and her husband’s careers ruled out multiple children, and she loved the one she had with all her heart. But part of her had always wanted this, even if under wildly different circumstances.

“Come here, joonam.” She said, leading Ryan to her bed.

She patted the spot next to it.

Ryan looked around the room like a frightened doe.

“Where’s the…the other one?” She asked.

So she was afraid of her new form. She quickly shelved the deep hurt she felt at that, focusing on Ryan.

“I put her on ice for a bit. It’s just you and me here,” She said. “Are you alright?”

It was a stupid question, and she regretted it even before Ryan harsh, sad laugh.

“No, Mom. Everything feels weird, I have no idea how to be a girl, I can’t even put a fucking bra on, and my only way back to normal is to seduce my best friend. I have absolutely no idea who my target should be for this stupid contest, and my roommate is fucking crazy.”

Ryan took a deep breath.

“Yeah, I’m pretty fucking far from okay right now.”

Farra slipped an arm around her waist. Ryan didn’t flinch away from it, but she did tense up.

“Are you…younger than me now?” She asked nervously.

“No, joonam,” Farra assured her. “I’m 56 years old and the same stubborn old crone who was busting your balls about working this morning. All that’s changed is a little window dressing”

That was about the understatement of the century, but it seemed to relax her a bit. So she added.

“And I still love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.” Ryan said, though Farra could sense her discomfort.

“Your roommate hates you?” She asked. “I take it you got that topless girl with the green hair?”

She realized she felt a faint bit of disapproval at this; as though this roommate assignment were a bad crowd her new daughter could fall into. That was absurd, of course, but maybe that line about the old crone in her wasn’t as far off base as she hoped.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Ryan said with a sigh. “With…anything, really.”

“Start by telling me what you need help with,” Farra said, sitting up straight. “I’ve been a woman for 40 years now. I know how to do it.”

This seemed to make Ryan more uneasy, not less.

“I don’t…I don’t know…” She said, shrinking away a bit. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it. It’s just…”

Farra drew back a bit, taking a breath. She’d intended to give her son space, but this proved to be a mistake. She accidentally drew back with both bodies at once. The one in the nearly pitch dark closet backed into the door with a crash. That made Ryan jump. Overcorrecting, Braid flailed in the dark while Loose, in front of Ryan, contorted suddenly.

In this blur of confusion, Ryan hopped up from the bed, frightened, two hands flying over her mouth.

“Ryan, wait!” Farra said, but it came out of Braid’s mouth from the closet.

She was getting a crash course in how difficult everything was to control under stress. It was one thing to move deliberately, but as soon as something went wrong, that feeling of disjointment was overwhelming.

The closet door crashed open, and Ryan jumped back with a little cry as Braid landed at her feet, staring up at her. Ryan’s blue eyes darted between one pair of her own and then another.

“Joonam, please…” Farra pleaded, but Ryan was already shaking her head.

“I”m sorry. It’s…it’s all too weird. I just need to be alone,” She said.

She took one last look at loose, who watched in with a pained expression as her own child fled from her.

*****

Ryan was a bit of a mess as she stumbled back to her room. Her young Mom, her stupid new body with its stupid new urges…everything felt so wrong. She’d never even been very emotional as a boy and now she could barely keep it together.

She was thankful to find her room empty by the time she stumbled back to it. She didn’t know thing one about her roommate and definitely didn’t want to cry in front of her. And yet, shortly after burying her head in her hands to let it all out, that’s exactly what she found herself doing as Lindsey emerged from the bathroom in a pair of cotton short shorts and a bra.

Fuck, she was beautiful. Even completely out of sorts as she was, Ryan instinctively found herself imagining the breasts beneath that bra, and whether the patch of hair beneath those shorts was the same teal as her hair and eyebrows.

“Oh… shit dude,” she said, looking around nervously. “I should go….”

“No…” Ryan sniffed, not wanting to be rude. It was her room. “You can… can…”

She couldn’t even finish before fresh tears came.

“Heeey…” the strange girl said, taking a seat next to her. “It’s okay… I mean, it’s not. This whole thing pretty fucked up, especially what you’re going through, but…”

She seemed to realize what she was saying.

“Shit. I’m not helping, am I?”

Ryan’s laugh was utterly devoid of real humor, but it made her feel better all the same.

“No… you’re not,” she said, looking up at her. “But thanks for trying.”

“Hmm… sounds like I need to up my comfort game.” Lindsey said. She pulled her legs up, sitting Indian style as she examined Ryan. “Anything I can do? Talk? Listen? Drink with you until we can’t move right?”

She examined Lindsey for a moment as she sat there, apparently genuinely waiting for a response.

“You’re really weird, you know that?” Ryan said finally.

She regretted the words as soon as she said them, but Lindsey only brayed out a laugh. It was infectious, and Ryan found herself smiling a little more.

“Yeah… I get that a lot,” she admitted.

Ryan let out a heavy sigh as Lindsey handed her a box of tissues. They were her tissues, of course; Ryan would never have thought to have any.

“I’m sorry,” she said, blowing her nose. “I don’t want to lay all my bullshit on you.”

“It’s fine, really. It’s kind of our bullshit, collectively when you think about it. We’re all in this together, right?”

“How are you so cool with all this?” Ryan asked, drawing her entirely too long legs up to her entirely too generous chest. “Aren’t you literally some stranger? You don’t know any of us.”

Lindsey shrugged.

“Kinda the way I like it, tbh,” she said. “Makes the whole thing a bit more of an adventure.”

“An adventure? Aren’t you scared at all?”

Ryan could barely believe what she was hearing.

“I mean, a little. But what’s an adventure if it doesn’t scare you a little?” Lindsey said. “Fucking off to Colombia to hike for a month was scary but it was fun as shit. And, in some ways, this is even cooler because we can do totally impossible stuff!”

She put a hand on Ryan’s thigh.

“Like you for example! You get to be a girl! How fuckin cool is that?” she said. “I mean, it’d be pretty boring for me obviously, but how many guys have had that chance? Like, none, right! You’re gonna have such a huge leg up on other dudes when this is over!”

Ryan wiped her eyes.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she said. “But what if I get stuck like this?”

“Pfff… okay, well, worse case scenario, you do and you’re stuck with a body that like…” Lindsey waved a hand over it. “Which, oh my god. Super jelly. But one of us will probably win and wish everyone back anyway, so screw it. I think you’re only stuck if you don’t get eliminated, right?”

“But how do you know? What if someone wins and they don’t help the rest of us?”

“Well… I guess I don’t know it,” Lindsey said. “But it’s all we have. It’s like life, right? The show goes on with or without you, so you just gotta roll with the punches and hope for the best.”

Ryan breathed deeply, a gaming technique that never failed to steady her nerves.

“You’re right… thanks, Lindsey,” she said. “All I can do is put one foot in front of the other, right?”

“That’s the spirit!” Lindsey said, smiling as she clapped her hands. She lowered her voice. “And uh, hey… if you need anyone to teach you, y’know… girl stuff… don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Really?” Ryan asked, perking up a bit.

Ryan knew she needed the help, particularly if she were to actually compete for anything meaningful in this show. Her Mom had offered, of course, but something about that was too intimate. To close to her, even without her weird transformational stuff. Somehow, the idea of going through the motions with a stranger made it seem a little easier.

“I think I kinda need that. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Lindsey shrugged.

“Not really,” she said. “Hang out with me and talk me off a cliff when the inevitable cracks start appearing in my chipper facade?”

Ryan smiled shyly.

“I think I can manage that.”

Lindsey held out her hand, and they shook on it.

“Out of curiosity,” she asked. “Why is it you aren’t talking to your mom about all this shit?”

Ryan grimmanced.

“Ugh… I tried to but… it’s just hard. I’m not used to seeing her all young and stuff. And the twin thing kinda freaks me out,” she said. “I know she says she’s just one person, but I never know which of her to talk to. It’s all freaky.”

Lindsey’s mouth became a straight line.

“Not gonna lie, that’s kinda fucked.” she said.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, not really looking forward to the answer she thought was coming.

“We’re all going through some shit, right? Her probably more than most of us.” Lindsey said. “She’s probably pretty freaked out too. So, y’know… give her a break. Try to suck it up. She’s your freaking Mom, and she seems nice.”

A flush of shame filled Ryan. She’d been so caught up in what she was going through that she didn’t even stop to think about what her Mom was.

“Dammit… you’re right,” she said, wiping her eyes with the now sodden tissue. “I better go apologize.”

She stood up and Lindsey gave her a hug.

“This was good,” Lindsey said. “I’m glad I got stuck with you and not the camwhore.”

“Oh my god,” Ryan groaned. “Is she fake, or what?”

“Total poser,” Lindsey agreed. “Anyway, go talk to your Mom. Skedaddle.”

Ryan nodded, but as she turned to the door to make the journey back the way she’d come, she found that Loretta was standing there already.

“Hey, ya’ll.” She said with a warm smile that reactivated all the arousal he’d almost gotten over from his roommate. “What are you two up to?”

“Oh, shootin’ the shit,” Lindsey said, “Ryan here’s about to go see his Mom, I think.”

“What’s up?” Ryan asked the beautiful interloper.

“AJ’s tending bar down by the pool. I reckon about half us have settled in there,” She said. “I was wondering if you guys were gonna come join us. Emily says she’s got a bonding exercise in mind.”

“Hell yeah!” Lindsey said. “I dunno about you, but I could use a fucking drink.”

She could too, come to that, though the idea of being in a big group didn’t exactly seem like a good one at the moment. Whatever…damage control came first, at any rate.

“I gotta talk to my Mom,” Ryan said, “But I’ll be happy to meet you there.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” Loretta said, stepping aside for her. “But I hope we see you there.”

Ryan gave her a tired smile.

“You will,” She promised.

“Good luck!” Lindsey said, as Ryan headed out the door.

She took a deep breath, and headed off to see her Mom.