Extracted = Chapter 9 – That’s Who I Am

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 9 – That’s Who I Am

 

Doctor Christopher Faucet shook Agatha Marsh’s hand, then he turned and shook Stephen’s hand.  As he did, he continued sizing the boy up.  A big one.  So big that he probably played football.  What surprised him at that moment though was how uncomfortable the boy seemed to feel about shaking his hand.  As if he was unfamiliar with the simple action.  And did he get a sense of…meekness from the boy?  He couldn’t be sure.

He turned to Mrs. Marsh.  “He’s plenty old enough that I can talk to him by himself.  Do you have a problem with that, or do you feel that you need to be there?”

“Old enough?  Huh!” Agatha grunted.  “If only that were true.  Tell you what.  Why don’t you talk to him for a bit and see what you think, then call me in and we can discuss it together.”

The doctor was dubious.  “I’m not sure I can divulge much of what we discuss,” he warned her.

“Oh, that’s fine!” Agatha replied.  “But something tells me we’ll have plenty to discuss, no matter what.”

Curious now, the doctor nodded his agreement.  “Come on Stephen.  Let’s go into my office for a little while and talk about whatever is bothering you.”

Nancy looked at the woman who was supposed to be her mother, then followed the doctor into his office.  The doctor closed the door and motioned toward one of the chairs in the room for her to sit in.  He grabbed his notepad and pen from his desk and sat across from her.

“Stephen,” the doctor said.  “Does anyone call you Steve?”

“Neither one is my name.  I’m not Stephen…or Steve.”

The doctor raised his eyebrows.  “Oh?”

“My name is Nancy.  Nancy Stiller.  And I’m not this huge monster of a guy.  I’m a twelve year old girl.  My father is Michel Stiller, the congressman from New York.  And I’m stuck in this stupid ugly ogre’s body…and I just want to be me again!”

The doctor was shocked.  Multiple personalities?  That was unusual, but he’d worked with several of them before.  “I see,” he said as he took further note of the person in front of him.  Hm…he didn’t exactly sit like a boy as old as he probably was.  “Nancy,” he said.  “Is that what you want me to call you?”

“Despite this stupid body I’ve got now, that’s my name,” Nancy replied.  “That’s who I am.”

“Okay,” the doctor replied, trying to figure out where to go from here.  There was one thing the boy had said that was a bit different for someone with multiple personalities, he had said he wanted to be me again and in the wrong body.  Someone with his condition usually believed they were in the right body.  This one didn’t seem to see things that way.  Still, there was nothing this could be except a multiple personality problem.

“Nancy,” he said, addressing the current dominant personality.  “When did you first come to the surface and…come into being?  Do you remember that?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Nancy replied.  “I’ve been me, Nancy, all my life.  Just not in this body.  I had a really nice, pretty body before.  And I have no idea how I got into this one, or even here to…they said this was Philadelphia.”

“That’s right,” the doctor told her.  “What’s confusing me about you a little though is that you said you had a different body before, and that’s a bit out of character for most people who have multiple personalities like you.”

Nancy was surprised.  She wasn’t exactly sure what multiple personalities meant, but she knew that she was just her and nobody else.  “I’m not sure what that means,” she told him, “but there’s only one person in this body.  Me!  Nobody else.”

The doctor considered that, then said, “You simply may not be aware of any others, but I can assure you, there has to be.  One of them being the real Stephen Marsh.”

“Trust me, there isn’t.  Don’t you think I’ve tried hard to find any sign of him in my head?  I can’t!  I don’t know him.  He’s a complete stranger, and he’s not in here with me.  Trust me.”

“Oh, I do,” the doctor replied.  “I just don’t believe that’s actually the case.  In the meantime, tell me a little about yourself.  Who exactly is Nancy?”

“Huh?  I’m not sure what you want to know.  I’m me.  I’ve always been me.  It’s just for the last few days that I’ve had this stupid boy’s body.”

“And how did do you think you got that body?”

Nancy was getting frustrated.  “I don’t know!” she yelled angrily.  “How many times do I have to tell you?  Ever since I was kidnapped and woke up in the hospital, everything has been all weird!”

“Easy Nancy,” the doctor told her.  “No need to get upset.”

“Wouldn’t you if nobody believed you?”

“Perhaps,” the doctor replied.  “But we’re here to explore some of these issues and figure out what exactly is upsetting you.”

“Well that’s one of them!” Nancy declared, still fuming.

“I see,” the doctor replied.  “Again, tell me something about yourself.  How well do you remember your family.”

“You mean those people here in Philadelphia?  Like that woman who thinks she’s my mother?  Trust me, I don’t know them at all.  Not one bit.  My family all live in New York.  We’ve got a big house near New York City.”

“New York,” the doctor said, noting that it wasn’t the first time she had mentioned that.  Earlier she had said her father was a congressman from New York.  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I’ve got one sister,” Nancy told him.  “Emily.  She’s sixteen and my best friend.”

“Your best friend?  I would think you would have other friends, perhaps more your age.”

Nancy sighed.  “I’ve got a few from school, but I don’t get to see them outside of school that much because of Daddy’s job.  And Emily and I go to a private school where there’s lots of security and it’s hard to do much with the other kids outside of school.  Sometimes Mom lets some of them come over so we can play, or she lets me go to their house, but it’s not really that often.”

The doctor was a bit surprised at that bit of detail.  Still, this was a big kid.  He wasn’t sure how old, but old enough to put together a fantasy like this.  “Do you know your mother’s name?”

Nancy sighed frustratedly.  “Of course.  Wanda.  My mom’s name is Wanda.  Wanda Stiller.”

“Does she have a job?  Does she work?”

“No.  She helps Daddy with his campaign stuff and fundraising.  She’s always doing stuff for him.  They have a lot of fancy dinners for all his contributors and political friends, and for some of the things going on.”

“Do you like those dinners?”

“I don’t usually go.  Rarely in fact.  That’s just for the grownups.  It’s all boring politics anyway.  Emily and I eat in the kitchen most of the time.”

“Do you feel left out because your parents are having a nice dinner somewhere else?”

“Are you kidding?  Like I said, politics is boring!”

“What do you do when you’re not eating in the kitchen?” he asked.

“We’ve got a big area in the basement where we hang out.  We’ve got a pool table down there and a big TV and I’ve got this great area set up for my dancing.”

That bit surprised the doctor.  “Dancing?”

“Ballet.  I’ve been taking it since I was six.  Daddy had some mirrors and a small dance floor put in for me, and it’s even got a ballet barre for me to work with.”

Doctor Faucet thought it might be more than a bit strange that a big boy like this should know anything about ballet.  Not that there was exactly much detail.  But how many kids like him would know what a ballet barre was?

“So you like ballet?”

“I love it,” Nancy told him.

“What else do you like?”

“Shopping with Mom.  Clothes.  I used to play with dolls a lot, but I’ve kind of outgrown them now.  Emily has been helping teach me about makeup lately, even though Mom won’t let me wear hardly any.”

“Your sister.”

“I told you that.”

“Yes,” Doctor Faucet replied.  “You said she was your best friend.”

“She is.  But…”

“But what?”

“I’m kind of worried?”

“About your sister?”

“Kind of.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s sixteen now and Mom said she’s going to let her start dating.  If she goes out on dates, where’s that going to leave me?  We hang out together all the time.”

The doctor noticed the concern, but was it enough to act as some kind of trigger for the personality disorder?  He didn’t think so, even if the true concern involved Stephen and perhaps one of his friends or another family member.  Did Stephen feel abandoned?

“Nancy,” he said.  “Tell me about Stephen.  What do you think of him?”

“I don’t know anything about him, except he’s a smelly slob!”

“A slob?  Why do you say that?”

“Because…his mother, the one out there, made me pick up his room when she brought me home from the hospital yesterday.  Talk about gross!  You never smelled anyplace so bad in your life!”

“But she made you pick it up.”

“She said that even if I was Nancy, which I am, since it was still my room, then I could pick it up.  You couldn’t even walk in there!  And he had not just dirty clothes all over the place, but all these weight things too…everywhere!  And don’t get me started on his bathroom.  Disgusting.  Thank God Mom out there said she’d have one of the maids clean it this morning instead of me.  I hope she’s done by the time we get home.”

The doctor considered that.  “Steve…Nancy….  Would you mind if I invite your mother in now so I can talk a bit with her?”

“Fine with me,” Nancy told him.  “You’re not going to be able to help me anyway.  You don’t even believe me.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you.”

“Do you think I can’t tell?  Get a grip!  I’m twelve, not five!”  She got up from her seat.  “I’ll send her in.  And she’s not my mother.  Not my real mother anyway.  My real mother is in New York!”  With that, she walked out.

Two minutes later, Agatha Marsh walked in and took the seat in front of the psychiatrist.  “What did you think?” she asked.

“There are some things there that surprised me.”

“Imagine how we feel,” Agatha told him.

‘Yes,” the doctor replied.  “Obviously your son has some kind of multiple personality disorder, even though there are more than a few elements that I noticed that seem to be…unique to cases like this.  But…”

“He doesn’t have multiple personality disorder!” Agatha told him firmly.  “I know that for a fact.  Multiple personalities means more than one person, and trust me, there’s only one person living in that body, and it’s not my son!”

The doctor shook his head.  “As I was about to say, as with all mental disorders, each one is unique and different.  It really is quite amazing how advanced his fantasy life seems to be.  So much odd detail that I would never have expected.  But as far as I know, there can be no other reason for his behavior, except for some type of multiple personality disorder.  There’s Stephen, who doesn’t seem to be able to manifest himself at all right now, most likely being completely blocked out by the current Nancy persona, and then there’s Nancy, the alternate personality, who has manifested due to some kind of major trauma we have yet to identify.  Perhaps, and most likely, something to do with when he was abducted.  We just need to look for it.”

Agatha shook her head.  “I still don’t believe it.”

“It’s the best explanation I can offer,” the doctor told her.  “I’m sorry to say, that in your son’s case, I believe we should consider having sessions here several times a week.  I barely scratched the surface with him today, but he’s given me a lot to think about.  Hopefully, next time, I can get closer to identifying what underlying symptoms may be bothering him.”

Agatha shook her head again.  “Fine!” she said.  “I’ll make another appointment for him in a couple of days.  But I still think you’re wrong.  It’s not any kind of multiple personality problem.”

“That’s all it can be,” the doctor told her.  “I’m sorry.”

“Me too!” Agatha said as she stood up and walked out.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In her New York office, Doctor Isabella Montcliff picked up her phone and dialed a number that she had been given.  The phone rang a few times then was answered.

“Wanda Stiller.”

“Mrs. Stiller?” the doctor replied.  “This is Doctor Montcliff.”

“What can I do for you doctor?” Wanda asked.

“Is there any way you can come into my office today?  As soon as possible.  I really need to talk with you.”

Wanda was frustrated.  “Today?  Uh!” she grunted.  She considered her options.  “Look, Doctor, I just can’t see how I can possibly get there today.  I’ve got so much going on today it’s ridiculous.”

“Perhaps later this afternoon?” the doctor suggested.

“Not a chance.  Sorry.  I’ve got a dinner party tonight that I’m hosting.  The best I can do for you is tomorrow sometime.  But…wait, I was right.  I just checked and we already scheduled Nancy’s next meeting with you for tomorrow, and I’m supposed to see you first, just before that.  I’m sorry, but those appointments are the best I can do right now.  Since we spent so much time in the hospital with Nancy, everything is piling up on me, and I’ve got to get things taken care of.”

“I understand,” the doctor replied.

“What was the problem?” Wanda asked.

“Something I discovered.”

“With Nancy?”

“Yes and no.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I think it might be better to discuss it in person, especially because of the security you’re demanding.”

“Yes,” Wanda agreed.  “We really have to be careful, especially now.”

“I’ll just have to discuss it with you tomorrow,” the doctor told her.

“Great.  Thanks.  Anything else?”

“No.  Thank you Mrs. Stiller.  Good luck with your party tonight.”

“Thanks.  This one’s for some of our biggest supporters.”

Extracted - Chapter 8 - Absolutely Bonking Freaking

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 8 - Absolutely Bonking Freaking

 

In her home outside of Philadelphia, Judith poured herself another drink while she listened to the discussion going on between the members of their special soul extraction group.  Neither she nor Ben had dared tell anyone else what they had done.  In fact, from everything either of them had been able to tell, nothing had been reported as being wrong with the kids they had kidnapped and then returned, so they were both guessing that both kids were now completely normal, and the soul switching had no effect on them at all.  At least, as far as they could tell.  Finding any information on either child had proven nearly impossible.

She took her refreshed drink and carried it back to her seat as the discussion between the five remaining members moved onto one of the more immediate questions; should they bring in some kind of doctor to help them if they decide to go ahead and experiment again.  But what kind of doctor would they dare even tell what they wanted to do?  No matter how any of them looked at it, what they discussed doing would most likely be a criminal act, something they were all loath to do.  But the problem for all of them was that the scientific research was simply too tantalizing to ignore.

As they discussed the subject, one of their members held his drink up and leaned forward in his seat.  “We all know the implications of what we’re talking about,” he said, grabbing everyone’s attention.  “And I for one have absolutely no doubt at all that if we ever really do something like we’re discussing, then we need some kind of expert with medical training, or psychological training, which I personally think is even better.  Because of that, I’ve been looking at psychiatrists who I think might be…let’s just say, not so judgmental about our discussions.”

“And?” Ben asked.

“And I came across a somewhat noted psychiatrist, right here in Philadelphia, that I think we should seriously look into.”

“Why this one?” one of the other members asked.

“Because for a psychiatrist, he has a somewhat unusual hobby.”

“A hobby that’s unusual?” Judith asked.  “What kind of hobby?”

“He hunts ghosts.”

There were chuckles all around the room.

“Ghosts!” one of them exclaimed.  “Really?  And he’s a psychiatrist?”

“Yes!” the first man replied.  From what I read, he really does it for fun and…it seems he’s been trying to actually study them.”

“Isn’t that what most ghost hunters do?” someone asked.

“I would imagine.  Yes,” the man replied.  “But this one has even published a scientific paper on, of all things, the psychology of ghosts.

There were a few chuckles around the room, but Judith could see that mostly everyone was seriously considering what they had just been told.  She made a quick decision.  “As much as I hate to say it,” she said.  “Maybe we should talk to him, if for no other reason than to discuss some of the…theoretical aspects of our work.”

Everyone looked around at each other.

“Maybe it might be a good idea,” one of them agreed.

“Especially if we confine our initial meeting with him to, as you said, the theoretical aspects of our interest,” Ben agreed.

“What’s his name?” Judith asked.

“Doctor Christopher Faucet,” the man told them.  “And as I said, as far as I can tell, he’s a well-established and noted psychiatrist.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Agatha walked up the stairs to let “Stephen” know that dinner would be ready soon.  She never went into his room.  His room was the biggest blight on the earth, and she refused to pick it up for him.  He was going to be a senior this year…or he was supposed to be.  She wasn’t sure what was going to happen now.  But either way, he was more than old enough to pick up his own room.  It was such a disaster area she didn’t think it would ever look decent again.

When she got to the room however, she simply stood in the doorway and stared in disbelief.  Not only was the room picked up, but the bed was neatly made.  Her son never made his bed!  With the window wide open, the room smelled better than usual too.  Walking inside, she found Steve staring through the door that led into his bathroom.

“Your room looks…amazing!” she told her son, who it seemed wasn’t her son.

Nancy looked back around the room.  “I didn’t know what to do with anything.  I just stuck all the dirty clothes in that pile over in the corner, and the stupid weight things that were all over the place I tried to put on the racks over there.  It was weird.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to lift some of them, but I had no problem at all.”

“Hm!” Agatha grunted.  “Have you looked in the mirror?  Have you seen the muscles you have?  You lift those weights a thousand times a day.”

Nancy looked around the room.  “The only mirror I see in here is the one over the dresser.  It’s not like the big mirror I have at home.”

It was another reminder to Agatha that she didn’t know what she was dealing with here.  “You have a big mirror at home.  Full length?”

Nancy nodded.  “How else can you see the outfits you put together?”

“You…Steve…was never very interested in his clothes, other than his uniforms.  And he didn’t put those on until he got to whatever school he was playing at.”

“I don’t know anything about football,” Nancy told her.  “I don’t even like football.  It’s just stupid!”

“Don’t tell Steve…or your father.”

Nancy wanted to tell her that the man downstairs wasn’t her father, but she held her tongue.

“You made your bed,” Agatha noted.  “I haven’t seen that bed made up that nicely in years.”

Nancy shrugged.  “I always make my bed.  My mother makes us.”

“Us?” Agatha asked.

“Emily and me.  My sister.”

Agatha nodded, once again reminded that this was sounding more and more like someone else.  Not her child.

“I really don’t know what to do with most of the stuff in here,” Nancy told the woman that was supposed to be her mother.  “There’s so much stuff in the closet that I don’t even recognize, and all the clothes in the closet and the drawers are all jumbled together.  They’re not neat at all.  And all the stuff on the desk…I have no clue what any of it is.  I had a laptop kind of like the one there, but…I don’t recognize anything he has on it.”

Agatha thought of something.  “Any pictures that maybe might jog your memory?”

“Not that I saw,” Nancy told her.  “I didn’t bother looking much though.  I found a cellphone over there, but I couldn’t get into it.  It has to have some kind of pin number or something.  My phone at home doesn’t need that.  When you came in, I was trying to figure out what to do about the bathroom.  Sorry for saying this, but it’s…disgusting!”

“I’m sure,” Agatha told her as she looked around the room again.  “Tell you what, don’t touch the bathroom, okay?  I’ll send the maid up here to take care of it first thing in the morning.”

“You have a maid too?” Nancy asked hopefully.

“Do you?” Agatha asked.

“She just comes in during the day a couple of times a week,” Nancy explained.

“Ours too,” Agatha told her.  “And I don’t have her clean your room.  That’s your…I mean Steve’s responsibility!  I guess, your responsibility now too.  Except for the bathroom tomorrow.”

“No problem,” Nancy told her.

“I just came up to tell you that dinner will be ready soon.”  She looked over at the open window, and please remember to close the window before you come down.  It might rain tonight.”

“Yeah.  No problem,” Nancy replied.  “It just still smells in here.”

“I’ll give you a can of air freshener right after dinner.  And I’ll show you where the laundry chute is for your clothes too.”  She looked around and shook her head.  “This room hasn’t been this clean in a very long time.  Dinner soon.  Wash up.”

“I will,” Nancy promised.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Doctor Isabella Montcliff stared at her computer screen in disbelief.  How weird!  How absolutely bonking freaking weird!  Philadelphia really did have a District Attorney named Henry Marsh, and according to the picture of his family that she found, he really did have a son named Stephen who was in High School.  The picture was probably a few years old though, but still the kid looked to be fairly big.  But none of that was the weird part.  The weird fact was the recent news story that she found before she found anything else out about Henry or Stephen Marsh.  Stephen had been kidnapped recently at the same time that Nancy had.  Not only that, but Stephen had been returned, unconscious, the same day that Nancy had been returned.  Both of them had been found outside of restaurants.

There were simply too many matching facts that couldn’t be dismissed as a coincidence.  Were both kids kidnapped by the same people at the same time?  And if so, what had happened while they were gone?  Nancy, it seemed, had no memory of what she went through, but then she had no memory of her actual self either.  She acted like she had someone else’s memory instead…memory that belonged to this boy, Stephen Marsh.

What did the boy remember about the time he had been kidnapped?  Was there any way she could find out?  Right now, it didn’t sound likely.  Not even counting the extra security restrictions that were placed on her because of the congressman, as a doctor and a psychiatrist, she would never divulge anything about one of her patients to anyone else, for any reason at all…other than a court order.  Something told her that if Stephen Marsh had a therapist too, that therapist wouldn’t divulge anything either.

So what was she supposed to do?  The first thing that came to mind was to talk to Nancy’s parents, or at least her mother.  She had two appointments set up for the day after tomorrow, one to meet with the mother, then another session with Nancy right after that.  But that was the day after tomorrow.  Should she contact them sooner?  She had to strongly consider that.  There was just too much here for it to be a coincidence, and she had barely started searching.

Had someone else already started looking into this?  It was important for her to know.  It was important for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was Nancy herself.

How could she find out?  Once again, because Michael Stiller was a congressman, she could only think of asking Nancy’s parents, and most likely it would only be her mother that she would have access too.  She made a decision right then and there to call the family tomorrow and try to talk to at least her mother…immediately!

Somebody had to know!  If they didn’t know already.  And she hoped to high heaven that they did.

 

Extracted - Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 2 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 2 of 2

 

Twenty minutes after he walked out on the psychiatrist, their car drove up the circular drive to the front door of the family’s New York home.

“Are you going to be alright?” Bill asked the congressman.

“We’re fine,” Mike Stiller replied.  “Thanks for all your help today.  I’ll see you in the office tomorrow.”

With that, everyone got out of the car and Stephen followed them all to the front door and into the house.  He found himself in a large beautifully decorated formal living room.  As soon as they got inside, Mike turned to his wife.  Wanda held up her hand and said, “I’ll talk to her.”

Mike nodded.  “Thanks,” he said, then turned and walked off.

Steve automatically knew they were talking about him.  As Emily stood watching, his new mother turned to him.  “Can you find your room alright?”

Find his room?  She had to be kidding.  This was obviously a large house.  He had no idea where it would be, except perhaps upstairs somewhere.  “I’ve got no clue,” he told her.

“I can show her, Mom,” Emily offered.

“No.  I’ll take her,” Wanda told her older daughter.  “This way,” she said as she turned and headed further into the house.  Steve followed her, and Emily followed him.  With every step he took, Steve tried to take in everything he could see of the house.  Like his own house, it was large and well decorated.  But he was guessing that a congressman would need a house like this.  The staircase was located near the back of the house.  He noticed part of the kitchen in the distance as his new mother led the way onto the stairs and up them.

At the top of the stairs, he was surprised when his mother turned left instead of right.  He paused a moment to look in that direction.

“Problem?” Emily asked.

He shook his head.  “Where I live, my room is that way.”

“Where you live,” Emily said nastily.

He just looked at her.

“Your room is this one,” his new mother said as she stood in front of one of the open doors in the hallway.

Afraid of what he might be walking into, he headed that direction and stood in the doorway looking in.  Just as he had feared, he was staring at what he could only describe as a little girl’s room, complete with a plethora of stuffed animals and ballet pictures.  He chanced walking in and was immediately assaulted by the smell.  Yuck!  It burned his nose.  “It smells in here,” he complained.

“That’s your fault, I’m afraid,” his mother replied.  “You seem to have a thing for perfume lately, and you tend to use too much.  Way too much!”

“Trust me,” Steve replied.  “That won’t be a problem anymore.”  He had no interest or intention of using perfume…or any other girly stuff.

There were a few clothes strewn around the room, but no matter how he looked at it, the room was far neater than his own bedroom at home.  There was one other major factor that he noted as well that might prove to be a problem in the future.  The bed was neatly made.  He couldn’t remember ever making his bed at home.  He rarely even changed the sheets except when his mother recommended that he get it done again.  His mother at home rarely went into his room, declaring it a war zone and a safety hazard.  Something told him that his new mother, and probably his new sister as well, would be in his room often.  He didn’t like that.  His room should be his world.  He looked around the room again.  This though, obviously wasn’t his world in any way, shape, or form.

As he looked around, he noticed another thing he wasn’t happy about.  He had a bathroom attached to his room at home.  He didn’t see one here.  Where was it?  Close, he hoped.  In fact, he knew he would be needing it soon, maybe just as soon as these strange people left him alone for a while.

His new mother sat on the bed and patted the bed beside her, wanting him to sit next to her.  He sat and looked at her, waiting.  “What did you discuss with the doctor?” she asked.

“I thought that was all supposed to be private,” he replied.  He noticed that she didn’t look happy with his answer.

“If you insist.  I’m your mother, whether you think so or not, and you have no idea how concerned I am about what’s going on here.”

“Just imagine how concerned I am,” he countered.  “I’m so confused I don’t know which way is up.  I’m not a little girl.  I’m not Nancy.  Sorry about that, but it’s just the way it is.  I have no memory of being Nancy in my head at all, and believe me, I’ve been trying to find even one little thing.  But there’s nothing there.  Nothing!”

“Is that what you told the doctor?”

“Pretty much,” he replied.

She nodded.  “I’ll leave you to look around and get some rest then.  After being in the hospital, rest may be the best thing for you.  Dinner will be in about an hour, don’t be late.”

“I’ll make sure she remembers,” Emily told her.

Wanda nodded and turned back to Nancy.  “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs.  Or if you have any memory of being Nancy at all that hits you, come find me immediately!  Right now, that’s the biggest thing I’m praying for, for you to come back to me and remember being my little girl again.”  She suddenly reached out and hugged her daughter tightly.  “I miss you Nance!” she whispered.  “Come home!”  With that she suddenly let go and ran out of the room, crying.

Steve could only watch her go.  He saw Emily, still standing in the doorway watching his new mother run off as well.  A few seconds later, Emily turned back to look at him, then came in and sat down on the bed where his mother had been.

“I can’t believe you don’t remember us,” she said.  “I can’t believe you don’t even remember who you are.”

“I don’t believe it either,” Steve told her.  “As far as I’m concerned, my entire life right now is one big hallucination.  I even told the doctor that.”

“What did she say?” Emily asked.

“I’m not sure I understood it all.  Something about which way I was looking at things.”

Emily looked at him for a moment then said, “In the hospital, a few days ago, you said you would date me.”

Steve was surprised.  “I did?”

“Yes.  Do you remember that?”

Steve considered that.  “Oh yeah,” he said a moment later as that memory returned.  “It was right after I woke up the first time.  I didn’t know who you were.  I didn’t know who anybody was.”

“But if you’re really Steve, like you claim to be, and you’re really an…older guy…”

“I’m actually seventeen,” he told her.  I’ll be a senior this year.”

She nodded.  “But what I mean is, you said you would date me.  Would you?  Really?”

“Huh!  If I was a guy again, of course.  I love pretty girls.  A lot!”

“Do you have…a girlfriend?”

“Oh yeah!” he said lecherously.  “Melody.  She’s…fantastic!”

“Fantastic.”

“Oh yeah!”

“Can you tell me about her?”

“Melody?”

“Yes.  What’s she like.”

“Like I said.  Fantastic!”

“No.  What does she look like?”

“Oh.  Let me see.  She’s really pretty with long, silky hair that she recently had colored all black.”

“Do you like it better that way?” Emily asked.

He shrugged.  “It’s good both ways.  I don’t really care.  Like I said, she’s pretty.”

“How does she dress?”

“I don’t know.  Nice.  Real nice.  And sexy!”

“Sexy?”

“Yeah.”

“But you can’t give me any details?”

“Why?”

“Because…I’m girl!  Maybe I want to do something similar.  I’d love to have some guy interested in me.”

“Oh.  Well, why wouldn’t they now?”

“Because of…look.  You and…I mean Nancy and I, we go to a private school because of…Dad.  The boys there are all great, and rich, but…I don’t get to go out with any of them.  But Mom said that now that I’m sixteen she’s going to start letting me date, but so far….”

“No luck.”  He chuckled.  “Shit, I’d date you in a minute.  Trust me.”

“But you’ve got a girlfriend.”

“Huh!  That doesn’t exactly stop me.  What she doesn’t know, can’t hurt her.”

“Or you?”

“Nope!”

She sat and looked at him for a moment before she said, “Tell me something.  Honestly!”

“Okay.”

“When you look at me, do you have any kind of…um…”  She rolled her eyes around looking for a polite way to say it.  Finally she blurted out.  “Do you have any kind of sexual interest in me?”

He was surprised by the question.  Oddly, he had to sit and consider it for a few moments before he could answer.  “The strange thing is,” he said.  “I should.  I know for a fact I normally would.  But right now…”  He shook his head.  “Somehow, I just don’t.  Not now.  And I don’t know why.”

Something in what he said angered her.  “Why don’t you look in the mirror, dummy.  Maybe that will clue you in.”  With that she walked out.

Emily hurried down the stairs.  She found her mother making dinner in the kitchen.  “That’s not my sister upstairs,” she declared angrily.  “It’s not Nancy!”

Her mother nodded.  “I’m not sure what’s going on,” she told her older daughter.

“Well I can tell you for a fact that it’s not Nancy.  Not at all!”

Wanda nodded.  “Yeah, I know.  And it’s eating a hole in my gut like you wouldn’t believe.”

Upstairs, Steve’s eyes fell on something bright and pink and shiny.  Something that looked like it was covered in sequins or something.  It took him a moment to figure out what it was.  A cellphone!  Did he dare?  Did he dare pick it up and phone his real mother and father in Philadelphia?  That’s what he wanted to do.  That’s what he yearned to do.  But what would he say?  What would he tell them?  That he was somehow trapped in some weird little girl’s body?  Nobody here believed him, why should they?

And then another thought hit him?  What if he really was home in Philadelphia?  What if the real Steve was there in the house with them?  What then?

Should he call?  Or not?

He sat staring at the phone.  Wanting to call, but too afraid.

Extracted - Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

In the New York hospital, Steve looked dejectedly out through Nancy’s eyes.  He was being sent to a shrink.  He wasn’t sure if that was the right answer for him or not, but one fact stood out perfectly clear.  He needed help!

He was leaving the hospital now.  Being thrown out.  They couldn’t help him, so they were making him leave.  He was seventeen years old and a strong boy, at least on the inside.  He was a football player who could handle anyone who came up against him.  It was just his new physical body he seemed to have that he couldn’t handle…not to mention the life that this body might entail.  Like it or not, he had to admit, just the thought of leaving the safe confines of the hospital, scared him.

Despite his physical appearance that he could still only put down to some kind of hallucination, he wasn’t a young girl at all.  But as the hallucination seemed to continue with no seeming end in sight, he didn’t know what he could do about it.  He wasn’t going start trying to act like a girl, especially a little one, he knew that much for sure!

But now they were making him leave the hospital, and his whole strange new family was there to make sure of it.  He was unfamiliar with his new hallucinogenic body.  He was unfamiliar with his new family.  He was unfamiliar with New York.  He was unfamiliar with everything he could think of.  But mostly, right at that moment, he was unfamiliar with the clothes they had just handed him to wear.  They had to be kidding.  Everything they had set on the bed next to him was…tiny.  He guessed like his new body.

This strange mother figure who called herself Wanda…what a dumb name…helped him remove the hospital gown he had been wearing, exposing the girl’s panties he had just put on underneath.  Then came a little off-pink thing that kind of looked like some kind of little bra that was pulled over his head and down his chest, covering the tiny bumps that were all the breasts he had.  Dumb and stupid.  And what was the point of all the lace on the thing?  Tiny shorts that left his legs mostly bare soon covered his panties.  After that, a tiny shirt covered the bra he could see no use for and that felt weird underneath the shirt.  And finally, tiny sneakers where the original laces had been replaced with a double set of pink and yellow ones, making them difficult to tie and making the bold mixed colors stand out.  Why?  It was all so dumb.

He thought he was ready to go, but his replacement mother had other ideas.  She grabbed him and started attacking his long unwanted hair with a hairbrush, brushing it over and over again before pulling it back.  Emily handed this new mother something and he felt her doing something different with his hair that eventually left it in what he could only guess was a ponytail.  At least it was out of his face now.  The ponytail felt annoying back there as it seemed to move around with a life of its own, brushing the back of his shoulders and back.  He also wasn’t happy about the constant feel of every bit of the hair on his head being constantly pulled back so tightly.

“There’s my little girl,” his replacement father said with a smile.

His little girl?  That’s what he thought.  Steve had other ideas on the subject.

“Let’s go,” Daddy told everyone.

Steve was put into a wheelchair and one of the hospital aides wheeled him all the way down and out through the doors.  As they went out, Steve got the impression that these doors were not the front main entrance to a hospital.  There was a man in a suit waiting for them just outside.

“Congressman,” he greeted the man claiming to be his father.  “Mrs. Stiller,” he greeted the woman claiming to be his mother.

There was a car pulled up to the curb and the man in the suit opened the passenger doors.  Steve was ushered out of the wheelchair and directly into the backseat of the car.

“Push over a bit,” Emily said as she got in next to him.  His supposed mother hurried around to the other side and got into the backseat with them, leaving him in the middle.  The man who claimed to be his father got into the passenger side of the front.  The man in the suit got behind the wheel and in seconds the car was pulling away from the hospital.

“Anyone notice you?” Mike asked his aide.

“Not that I could tell.  I think we’re okay.”

“Good!” the congressman replied.  “How about the psychiatrist?”

“All arranged.  They know to expect us as soon as we get there and they know that discretion has to be their main concern.”

“Thanks Bill,” Mike told him.

“Any improvement?” Bill asked.

“Not yet,” Mike admitted.

Bill looked over at his boss, then back at the road.  He didn’t know what the girl’s exact problem was, only that it was some kind of mental problem.  But any kind of problem like that could turn out to be very bad for the congressman.

In the backseat, Steve tried to follow what little had been said between the two men in the front seat.  They weren’t happy about something.  They weren’t happy, but he was the one who was really unhappy with this situation.  Not to mention, he was unhappy about the way his damn ponytail kept hitting the back of the seat so that he couldn’t really lean his head back.  It was more annoying than the feel of the tiny fake bra thing he was wearing under his shirt.

Bending his head forward so the ponytail wouldn’t poke the back of his head was difficult because  all his hair was trapped behind him and it had his head literally tied back.  He leaned his entire body forward and reached around, grabbing the ponytail.  He pulled it over his shoulder and left it there.  Much better!  Well, not really, but at least his dumb hair no long kept his head from moving.  Annoying!

With his head free, he turned it to look at his new supposed mother.  She was looking at him.  Watching him.  He wanted to say something nasty to her, but decided against it.  Something told him it would do no good.

He turned to look at the girl who claimed to be his sister.  He never had a sister or brother before, and considered his life as an only child to be perfect.  A brother or sister would probably get in the way of all the time he and Melody had gotten it on in his bedroom while his mother was out of the house.

Now, according to what they had told him, he was on his way to see a psychiatrist before going home.  A shrink.  Just then he wanted something to shrink all his problems down to nothing and let him be himself again.  He still could only consider this to be one big hallucination because he simply didn’t have any other explanation for it.  Maybe the shrink had a better idea of what his problem was.  He could only hope.

The drive from the hospital was fairly long, but eventually the car pulled off the road and up to the front entrance to a building.  Steve noted that Bill was quick to get out of the car and open the door for his fake mother, but everyone else opened their own car doors.  It seemed like Bill and his new father were trying hard to usher everyone inside the building as fast as possible.

They were met inside by two people, an older man and an older woman.  Nothing was said at all as the two people led them directly into an office.

“Congressman,” the man said as he shook Michael Stiller’s hand.  He turned to Steve’s new mother.  “And Mrs. Stiller,” he said as he shook her hand.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  He turned to the woman with him.  “This is Doctor Isabella Montcliff.  She’s agreed to look into your daughter’s little problem.”

“Thank you,” the congressman told him.  “You are aware of our need for strict security on this issue.”

“We were told,” the man who hadn’t introduced himself replied.

“You have no idea what something like this could do to my position in the government,” the congressman said.  “If people find out that my daughter has mental problems, that could easily reflect on me and cause a lot of trouble with my entire constituency and the things I’m trying to achieve in congress.  If anyone finds out that she’s having problems, people could think that maybe I might have those same mental issues as well.  Or, since she was kidnapped, they might think that I’m being blackmailed over something.  So please, nobody must find out.”

“I…we…understand,” the unknown man assured him.  “We’re a psychiatric clinic.  Discretion is one of our primary concerns.  In this case, I can assure you that we’ll be extra cautious.”

“I agree, and understand,” Doctor Montcliff told them.

The congressman nodded.  “Thank you,” he said.  “How do we proceed from here?”

“Since this is our first meeting,” the doctor said.  “I’d very much like to just have a quick talk with your daughter here.  Even with children I prefer to do this alone, but since she is a child, very often at least one of the parents or at least some kind of guardian is present as well, so I have no problem with either or both of you sitting in with us.  As I said though, I prefer to do it alone simply because I don’t want the issue of parents getting in the way of anything she might want to tell me.”

The congressman considered that.  “I can see that,” he agreed.  He turned to his wife.  “Do you want to be there?”

“Yes!” Wanda told him.  Then she added, “But no.  If she feels it would be better to talk with Nancy alone, then I’ll agree, but only so long as someone tells me what went on.”

The doctor looked at her.  “Possibly!” she said.  “That’s all I can tell you.  I do need to build up a degree of trust.  That’s important in any kind of work that I do.  However, I already know that before long I’m going to want to sit down with you alone, and maybe your husband as well, and get your thoughts on whatever her situation is and how it’s affecting the rest of you.”

“Of course,” Wanda agreed.  “Anytime.”

“Then maybe we should get started,” the doctor suggested.  “If you want to wait in here, I’ll take…I understand her name is Nancy?”

“Yes,” Wanda confirmed.

“I’ll take Nancy to my office so we can chat.”  She turned to the young girl in the room.  “Come on dear.  Let’s let our hair down for a bit.”

Steve followed the psychiatrist out of the room they were in, down the hall, and into another office.  The office looked very nice.  Comfortable.  The doctor sat down in one of the chairs and picked up a notepad and a pen.  She motioned toward the seat across from her and Steve sat down.  The doctor sat there staring at her, saying nothing.  Steve stared back for a few moments then said, “What?”

“Do you want to tell me about your problems?  Your mother said your name is Nancy.  Can I call you that?”

“I’d rather you didn’t!” Steve said nastily.

The doctor was surprised.  “Then what would you like me to call you?”

“How about my real name.”

“And what’s that?”

“Stephen.  Or Steve.”

That threw the doctor, but only for a moment.  “And why do you think…”

“Oh for heavens sake!” Steve exclaimed angrily.  “You’re another one.”

“Another what?”

“Another part of this big hallucination!”

“Hallucination?  What hallucination?”

“This life I’ve got.  This stupid little girl body I’m stuck in.  It’s not mine and nobody can seem to understand that.  The entire world is now one big hallucination, and I can’t find my way out of it!”

“A hallucination.  Tell me about it.”

“Tell you what?  I’m not this little girl named Nancy.”

“You said your name is Stephen.  Can you at least tell me about Stephen then?”

“Ask me anything you want.  I can tell you anything and everything about him.  What I can’t tell you about is who the hell this stupid little body I’m in actually belongs to.”

Doctor Montcliff considered that.  “Okay,” she finally said.  “Tell me about Stephen.  I guess you’ve got parents.  Who are they?”

“Easy!” Steve declared.  “My dad is Henry Marsh.  He’s the Philadelphia D.A..  My mother is…”

“D.A.?” Isabella asked.

“District Attorney.  He’s the Philadelphia District Attorney!”

“Okay,” the doctor replied.  “Just making sure of what we’re talking about here.”  The mention of district attorney seemed strange.  Would a girl that young know what a district attorney was?  “And your mother?” she continued.

“My mom’s name is Agatha.  Agatha Marsh.  She doesn’t work.  She likes to throw a lot of dinner parties for my dad’s friends and political associates.”

“Dinner parties,” the doctor said, the word associates sticking in her head.  Obviously this girl used an advanced vocabulary.  There was something else about the way she was speaking as well.  What was it?  “Political associates?” she asked.

“Yeah.  My dad’s got tons of them.”

“I see,” the doctor replied.  “Any brothers or sisters?”

“Nope.  Just me.”

“Okay, tell me about you.”

“Like I said, I’m Stephen Marsh.  I’m actually seventeen years old and I’ll be starting my senior year of high school in a few weeks.  Next week in fact, I’m supposed to be going to football camp to get ready for the season coming up.”

“You like football?”

“I love football!”

“Do you have any friends?”

“Friends?  I’ve got tons of friends.”

“Who’s your best friend?”

He laughed.  “My girlfriend, of course.  Melody.”

The fact that he claimed to have a girlfriend and even had a name for her surprised her, but only a bit.  Obviously this fantasy world was more complete than she originally thought it might be.  “And how often do you see her?”

“Huh!  All the time.  We hang out together every chance we get.”

“And what do you do when you hang out?”  She was surprised to see the look on his face change as he sat there saying nothing.  “I see,” she said.  “So you don’t know because you don’t really have a girlfriend.”

“What?  Of course I do.”

“Then what do you like doing with your girlfriend.”

“If I answer that, will you tell my parents?  I mean, my real parents?”

“Nancy, I promise.  I…”

“Don’t call me Nancy!  Please,” he added more contritely.  “I’m not Nancy, no matter how much you think I am.”

The doctor looked at him for a moment then continued.  “I won’t tell anyone.  What is it you do with your girlfriend, although I can pretty much guess what you’re going to say now.”

Steve looked at her for a moment then said, “Sex.  We like sex together.  Okay?  Both of us.”

“Mm,” the doctor replied.  “Tell me about the sex.”

“I’d rather not.  And I’d really rather you didn’t let anyone know.”

“Trust me, I won’t.  All these conversations we have are strictly confidential…unless you or your parents say I can divulge that information.”

“But it’s my parents that I don’t want to know about it.”

“Those parents?” she asked, pointing toward the door.

“They’re not my parents!  I really don’t know who the hell they are.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“My real parents.  My father is the D.A. remember?”

“I remember,” the doctor replied.  “I made a note of it to make sure.”

Steve nodded, satisfied.

“What about your other friends?  Any who are boys?”

“Huh!” Steve grunted.  “I play football, remember?  I weigh almost two hundred pounds.  The entire team are my friends.”

“I know a little about football,” the doctor told him.  “What position do you play, quarterback?”

“No, linebacker, and I’m good at it.  I’ve got a really good chance of being drafted to play on a college team next year.”

“College,” she replied.  “And what college are you hoping to go to?”

“Ohio State.”

“Ohio?  But you live in New York?”

“Actually, I live in Philadelphia, remember?”  Then he shrugged.  “I like Ohio.  And from there I’ve got a better chance of maybe making a pro team.”

“So you’ve got big football aspirations.”

“Absolutely!”

“Except…if you look in the mirror, you don’t exactly have the body for it, do you.”

Steve grew angry.  “This damn hallucination.  I’ve got to find my way out of it!”

“Steve,” she said.  “Did you ever stop to think that maybe this hallucination as you called it, could be the other way around?”

“What do you mean?”

“That maybe you really are a little girl, and the hallucination is this football player named Steve that you’ve dreamed up.  That’s your hallucination.”

He shook his head and stood up angrily.  “I’m not some stupid little girl named Nancy, no matter what you think.  My name is Stephen Marsh, and I’m a big, seventeen year old boy.  And I…want…my…life…back!”  With that, he angrily stomped out.

Doctor Montcliff was left sitting there with no choice but to consider everything that had been said.  She wasn’t sure what she was dealing with here.  One of the things that bothered her the most was the voice inflections.  She would swear they weren’t the voice inflections of a young girl…or an older girl either.  They were more like those of a young adult male.  How would a young girl learn to talk that way?  And there was another thing she had noticed about the voice inflections.  She had grown up in Philadelphia.  Nancy’s accent sounded a lot like a Philadelphia accent.

Was she dealing with a mental he here?  The young girl certainly seemed more like a boy, and an older boy at that.  Not to mention, how had she come up with all those details so quickly.  A linebacker?  She would have thought the girl would pick someone more like a quarterback for her fantasies.

She needed more information.  The girl had said she was seventeen, but she insisted she was a seventeen year old boy, which she obviously wasn’t…physically.  But mentally, she had sounded just like one.

She had to wonder, which way did Nancy’s hallucination really go.  Was she a boy hallucinating that he was a girl, as he claimed?  Or as she had suggested, the most likely and obvious case, was she a girl hallucinating she was a boy?  Except, there was simply too much disturbing detail.  Way too much!  Enough that it really bothered her.  Worried her too.  There simply shouldn’t be that much detail!

The reality of it was that what Nancy, or Steve, believed had happened, was simply impossible.  You certainly couldn’t take someone’s entire personality and stick it into someone else.  It just couldn’t be done.  So what the heck was going on?  But this had been only the first meeting.  She had no doubt that many more meetings would follow, and something told her that right now those meetings needed to be often!  At least two a week, or more.  And the next meeting she wanted to have, needed to be with the mother.  Alone!  Since her father was a U.S. congressman, she had no doubt that getting a session with him was going to be impossible.

In the meantime….  She looked down at her notes and wondered how much information she could find on the internet.  Who really was the Philadelphia District Attorney?  And if it really was someone named Marsh, what information could she find out about his family?  Building a framework for a fantasy would be much easier if all that information was available online.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Extracted - Chapter 6 – Welcome To My World

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 6 – Welcome To My World

 

Nancy, in Steve’s body, remembered what she had seen for the first time just a few hours ago, and shuddered.  It was so gross.  It was so disgusting!  It was so…awful!  But it had also seemed so real.  What was she supposed to do about it?  And worse, it seemed to go along with every horrible thing that her pretty body had become.  She knew what the boys called it.  They whispered about it at school all the time.  The girls though whispered the word even more.  Cock.  Penis.  There were other words for it too.  Words she’d rather not think about.  Somehow, that banned word.  That banned…thing!  Was now a part of her.  She had one.  Somehow.  Ugh!  She wanted to scream!

Those weird people were in her room again, the ones who somehow believed they were her mother and father, even though she knew for a fact that they weren’t.  Did it have something to do with this stupid monster body she seemed to suddenly have?  That’s the only conclusion she could think of.  Did God hate her so much that he stretched his hand out and somehow gave her this ugly stupid body?  She didn’t know, but it seemed like it.

Like it or not, she wasn’t being given a choice in the matter.  The hospital was throwing her out and she was told that she had to go home with these…strangers.  It was like she was being kidnapped…again!  Mommy, Daddy, Emily, where are you?  I miss you!

Once again she dragged her stupid monstrosity of a body out from under the covers and hung her huge hairy legs over the side of the bed.  Just the sight of them made her want to barf.  Her huge legs were so long they reached all the way to the floor.  Her father handed her some underwear.  She stood up on those monster legs and stepped into the, um, boxer shorts he had called them.  Stupid.  She pulled them up under her hospital gown, especially covering her…did guys usually call it a penis or a cock?  What was she supposed to call it?  From here on out, maybe she’d just call it Gross!

Covered that much, one by one, she put on the clothes she was given.  White gym socks, a pullover shirt, jeans, and then she was handed a pair of sneakers.  She sat on the bed and stared at them.  They were so big they looked like clown shoes.  Every piece of clothing she was wearing was huge.  Too big.  Too…stupid.  She felt stupid.  She felt ugly.  She was ugly.  She was…cursed.  God hated her too much.

Once the shoes were on and tied, she stood up.

“Okay,” her father said.  “Let’s go.”

A nurse held a wheelchair for her and she sat in it.  Together, the entire fake family made their way through the maze of hallways in the hospital, and she was finally let out of the chair when they got to the parking lot.  Henry…her father…ran to get the car.  A few minutes later, they were all in it and heading…home.

Where in the world was home?  She already knew they weren’t going back to New York where she belonged.  As far as she knew, they were in Pennsylvania somewhere.  Someplace called Philadelphia.  She had certainly heard of Philadelphia.  She had just never been there.  From what little she could already see, so far, it was just another dirty city.  Nothing magical about it at all.  But then somehow magic had ripped her from her pretty little feminine body and stuck her here in this stupid ogre’s body instead.  Magic for sure.

Everybody kept calling her Steve, even when she had told them countless times that her name was Nancy.  She supposed she could understand that, sort of.  She certainly didn’t look like herself anymore.

She knew the car she was riding in was nice.  In fact, it was kind of like her father’s car.  Her real father’s car.  But her father was a really important man.  A U.S. congressman.  She didn’t know what this guy who was pretending to be her father did for a living, but it couldn’t be anywhere near as important as that.  Maybe his job was to pretend to be a fake father to people.  People like her.

There were too many things for her to remember during the long drive, but when her father pulled into the driveway of a house, she suddenly paid more attention.  From the back seat, she looked at the place carefully.  Nice.  That surprised her.  Not as nice as her real house in New York, but still pretty nice.  At least it wasn’t a dump like she expected…so far.

She got a brief glimpse of another car parked on the far side of the driveway before everything grew dark as her father pulled the car into the garage and the garage lights all came on.  As the garage door came down, everyone opened their car doors and got out, so she did too.  She saw another nice car parked next to this one.  A third car in the family.

She had no luggage, nothing to carry.  His mother held a plastic bag containing the pajamas she…this body…had been wearing the night she…or he…had been abducted.  Not knowing where to go, she followed everyone through a door that led into a small room of some sort where coats were hung and boots were lined up on the floor.  From there it all led into a kitchen.  A really nice kitchen.  Big!  Like the one her family had at home.  Her mother and father both seemed to be heading in different directions.  Not knowing where to go or what to do, she wandered.

The kitchen and family room were all one.  Huge.  Her father had gone through a doorway off of the family room.  She headed cautiously in that direction and saw him sitting down at a desk in a really nice home office.  He was back at work already.  She stopped to watch him for a minute until she saw him look up at her…him.

“Anything you need?” he asked.

Nancy shrugged, then looked around.  “I’m…lost,” she explained.  She noticed the look of annoyance that seemed to cross his face.  Before he could say anything else, she asked, “What do you do?”

“What?” he replied angrily.  “You know perfectly well what I do.”

She shook her head.  “I haven’t a clue,” she replied before starting to walk off.  She didn’t need more confrontation.  She was only twelve and was completely confused by her situation.

“Steve!” Henry called.

Like it or not, she walked back to his office door.  She would have said ‘yes Daddy’ but she refused to call that man her father in any way, shape, or form.  Instead, she just stood there, looking at him.

“Tell me about who you think your father is,” he said, his voice only a bit more moderated.

“He’s U.S. Congressman Michael Stiller.”

“A U.S. congressman,” Henry repeated with distaste.  “From what state?”

“New York of course,” she replied angrily.  “That’s where we live.  I’ve never been to…Philadelphia.  I don’t know anything about it.”

“Well in case you need reminding, which it looks like you do, I’m the Philadelphia D.A.”

“What’s a…D. A.?” she asked nastily.  “Never heard of it.”

“District Attorney!” he yelled in return.  “And you better start remembering that!”

She shook her head.  “I have no idea what that is!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know!” she yelled back.  With that she started crying and ran off.

Henry was totally surprised.  He got up from his desk and went out to follow his son.  He found him leaning against the wall next to one of the windows at the far end of the room, standing there hugging himself like a child and crying.  It was only then that he remembered that his son Steve seemed to have no memory of anything at all, except the fantasies that were somehow running rampant through his brain.

Softly, Henry said, “Sorry.”  He saw Steve look over at him.  Despite the bit of beard stubble, his son’s face looked more like a child than he could ever imagine as he stood there crying.  Henry sat on the arm of a chair and watched him for a moment in wonder.  Parents always say their kids grow up too fast.  He knew that for a fact now.  Yet here his son was, looking like…he didn’t know what.  Just…a child of some sort.  He sighed.  “A District Attorney processes all the criminal cases for an area.  I’m the head guy.  The man in charge of all that prosecuting for the entire area around Philadelphia.”  A thought occurred to him when Steve just kept looking at him.  “Do you know what prosecuting means?”

“No,” Nancy replied.

“When someone does something criminal…  Do you follow me so far?”  He saw Steve nod his head.  “Then they have to be punished.  They have to go through court battles.  I’m in charge of deciding which cases go into court and I’m responsible for making sure that the criminals are punished the way they need to be.  Do you understand that?”  It was a moment before he saw his son nod.

“I think so,” Nancy told him.  “Thanks.”

“As you can see, it’s an important job.

Nancy shrugged.  “Not like my real father.  A U.S. congressman.”

This time it was Henry’s turn to shrug.  “Maybe, maybe not.  I imagine, that both jobs are pretty important.”

“Thanks,” Nancy replied, a few tears still falling from her eyes.

“Dry your eyes.  Get a drink,” Henry told his son.  He was disgusted to see him crying like that, but there was something awfully wrong with him just then, and something else inside him made Henry feel bad for Steve.  What the hell was his son going through?  And why this elaborate fantasy?  A U.S. congressman?  Where the hell did that come from?  “I’ve got work to do,” he told Steve.  “Are you going to be alright?”

Nancy nodded, but stayed where she was.  She watched as the man left her and went back to his office.  She stood there for a while, then finally wiped her face with her hands.  She moved from the window and continued her small tour of the house.  From where she was, there was a wide doorway on the opposite wall.  She went through into a beautiful fancy entryway.  She looked around.  There was a big chandelier light on the ceiling next to the staircase.  On the other side of the hallway from where she was she saw another room.  She went in.  Her eyes found her fake mother there, even while she realized that the room was some kind of nice living area, but there was no TV or anything, just nice looking seats and sofas.  Her family had a room like that in their house.  Her mother and father held a lot of parties there.

Her fake mother was sitting in one of the seats.  “You okay Steve?” she asked.

“Sort of,” Nancy admitted.  “This is nice,” she said looking around.  “Do you hold parties here?”

“Of course,” her fake mother confirmed.

Nancy nodded.  “We’ve got a room like this where we live too.  We have a lot of parties.  Or my parents do.  I don’t usually go.  Neither does my sister.  It’s all usually grownups and business people.”

Agatha nodded, noting the detail that Steve had put into the statement.  It sounded so real!  “What kind of house do you have?” she chanced asking.

“I guess, a lot like this, but…to be honest, I think yours is a bit nicer.  We’ve got a big kitchen too, but we’ve got a huge dining room where we hold lots of fancy dinners.  Or my parents do.  Emily and I usually eat in the kitchen.”

“Emily?” Agatha asked, remembering that Steve had mentioned the name a number of times in the hospital.

“My sister.  She’s older than me.  She’ll be a junior in high school in…a few weeks.”

“And you?” Agatha asked.

“Seventh grade.  Junior high.”

The detail was so real, and surprising.  It was like she was talking to a real child.  But Steve’s big muscular body was right in front of her.  It was difficult to combine the two properly.  She pointed at another doorway.  “Our dining room is right through there.  Take a look.”

Nancy did just that.  She went as far as the doorway and looked in.  The room was beautiful, of course.  “Our dining table is bigger,” she noted.

Agatha decided to chance something.  “I guess your family is wealthy?”

Nancy shrugged.  “I don’t know.  We’re not poor, I’m sure of that.  I get a good allowance every week.  Emily gets more.  A lot more!”

Again, the detail.  As if she was talking to a real child.  A twelve year old child she guessed.  “What do you do with your money?”

Nancy was shocked.  “Shop, of course.  Mom and me…Emily too sometimes, we go shopping all the time.  I love buying clothes.  You should see my closet at home.”

“What else do you like?” Agatha chanced asking, the fear in the pit of her stomach growing with each answer.

Nancy shrugged.  “Clothes, makeup…even though Mom doesn’t let me wear much.  Emily sneaks me some of hers though and she’s been showing me how to use it.”

“A good sister,” Agatha noted.

“The best!” Nancy replied.

“What else do you like?”

“I don’t know.  Boys, games, dancing.  I love dancing.  I’ve been taking ballet lessons since I was six!  But what I really like doing the most is getting together and doing things with my friends.  I don’t get to do that too much though cause of…”  She shrugged.  “Security stuff.  It’s so annoying sometimes.”

That was a detail Agatha hadn’t expected.  The distress in the pit of her stomach grew quite a bit.

Nancy turned and faced her fully.  “So…do I have a room somewhere or something?  Or am I going to be chained up in the basement.  You did kidnap me.”

“We didn’t kidnap you!” Agatha said quickly.  “And you’re Stephen, our son, not some….”

“I’m Nancy!” Nancy shot back quickly.  “Stop calling me Stephen!”  With that she walked away quickly, the tears starting to fall from her eyes again.  She walked straight through the dining room and found herself in the kitchen once again.  She went through the kitchen and back into the mud room next to the garage.  There was another door there, it was locked but she unlocked it easily and went outside.  The yard was nice.  Real nice.  She sat down on the steps that led from the big patio to the grass and let the tears out, hugging herself and crying.  She was just so confused.

Agatha saw Steve sitting on the steps crying.  Softly she opened the door and went outside.  She sat down next to her son, who also wasn’t her son.  If she was this confused herself, and if there really was some young girl living in Steve’s body, how confused did she have to be?  She put her arm around her son’s big body and pulled him into her, letting him cry.  It was so strange to see him crying.  She didn’t think her son had cried since he was very young.  Much younger than the twelve year old girl that he was claiming to be.

Finally, when Steve’s tears seemed to be subsiding, she said, “You really don’t remember anything at all about being Stephen, my son?  There’s nothing in there at all?”

“No.  Not at all.  I only remember everything about me.  And I mean I remember everything about me.  Everything!”

“It seems like it,” Agatha admitted.  “Come on.  Would you like to see your room?”

“Yes please.”

Please.  Her son never said please.  With a shake of her head, she stood up and waited until Steve, or Nancy, or whoever it was, stood up too.  She led the way into the house, through the family room and up the stairs.  At the top of the stairs was another hallway.  She pointed to the left.  “Our room is down there.  The rest is guestrooms and a bathroom.  She pointed to the right side of the house.  “Your room is that way.  I’ll let you…experience it for yourself.  I’ll go back downstairs and leave you to it.”

Nancy watched as her fake mother went back downstairs.  She wiped her face again with her hands to clear some of the tear residue away, then she turned to the right and headed down the hall.  There were four doors, two on the right and two on the left.  She opened the first door on the left and found a  nice bathroom.  She tried the door across the hall and found another nice bedroom, all made up.  Was that her room?  Something told her it probably wasn’t.  The next door on the right held another bedroom.  It looked nice too, but it was decorated differently.  They were like the guest rooms in her own house in New York.

There was one final room.  It was on the other side of the hallway, and there was an ugly poster stuck on the outside of the door.  She guessed that the poster was from some band she had never heard of.  She opened the door and knew immediately that it was supposed to be her room.  What a disaster!  The room was an absolute mess, and one of the biggest things she noticed about it was the smell.  Awful!  It smelled like old gym socks or something.  She backed up across the hallway and stared into the room.  How could anyone breathe in there?  If she went in, would she die of asphyxiation?

Taking her life in her hands, she entered the room.  There were clothes and things strewn everywhere!  It took her a minute to figure out what all the ugly black things were that seemed to be all over the room.  Weights.  For exercise or something.  She was guessing the ugly red bench thing by the window went with all the weights too.  But why did they have to be thrown all over the room?  The bed not being made didn’t surprise her in the least.  The big desk along one of the walls had so much stuff on top of it she couldn’t figure out how anyone could work there.  She noted though that the computer there looked pretty nice.  Better than hers at home.  Kind of like the laptop that Emily had.  The wall above the desk was filled with papers and pictures and the shelf had trophies and model cars.

The top of the dresser was another disaster.  There didn’t seem to be any order to what was on it, just…everything!  And it was piled deep!  There was a door next to the dresser.  She opened it and found a closet.  Lots of clothes and the floor of the closet held all kinds of things, most of which she was guessing were sports related.

There was another door across the room.  She opened it and found a bathroom.  She was guessing it could have been a nice bathroom, but again, it was a disaster.  The bathroom attached to the bedroom though seemed nice.  It was just that she couldn’t figure out how anyone could live in that room.  Especially with that smell.

She hurried out of the room and all the way back downstairs.  She saw her mother in the kitchen.

“Did you find your room alright?” Agatha asked.

“How can anyone live there?” Nancy replied.  “Especially with that smell!  It nearly killed me when I opened the door.”

Agatha shrugged her shoulders.  “It’s your room.”

“It’s not my room!” Nancy was quick to point out.  “It belongs to that…other person.”

“That other person is my son…who you also happen to be,” Agatha reminded her.

Nancy simply stared angrily back at her.  “I don’t want to be your son!  Sorry, but I just want to be me again.  Badly!”

Agatha stared at him, then softened her look.  “I’m sure,” she replied.  “We’re hoping the new doctor will help.”

“When do I see him?”

“Tomorrow,” she told him.

“Tomorrow,” he said.  “What am I supposed to do till then?”

Agatha shrugged.  “Pick up your room.”

“It’s not my mess!”

“But like it or not, it’s still your room.  If you don’t like it, fix it.”

Nancy threw her arms up and turned away.  “How?”

“And while you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt you to shave your face a bit!” Agatha called after him.

Nancy turned back toward her.  “Shave?”

“Yes!  Your razor is up there…somewhere in that mess!”

Feeling like the entire world just dropped into an entirely new level of strange, she went back upstairs to her room.  The first thing she did was to open the window, letting some much needed fresh air into the room.  She looked all around.  What was she supposed to do with it all?  There was a dirty pair of boxer shorts on the floor at her feet.  She reached down and gingerly picked them up with two fingers.  She held them up.  “Ew!”  She looked around.  What was she supposed to do with them?  What was she supposed to do with her life?

Ew!  Ew!  Ew!