Extracted - Chapter 10 – Hello Mudda’ – Part 2 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 10 – Hello Mudda’ – Part 2 of 2

 

Agatha Marsh looked out her kitchen window at the backyard.  She had seen Stephen going outside a little while ago and wanted to keep a close eye on him.  The truth was, she didn’t trust him…or whoever he thought he was.  It took some visual searching, but she finally saw just a bit of his head, hiding behind one of the gardens.  Wondering what he was doing out there, she quietly went outside to check.  She stopped though before she got too close.  He was crying…like a little girl.  This wasn’t the first time she had caught him crying either.  Her heart went out to him…or her.  How difficult was the situation that her son…or whoever it was…found himself in?  She stood there behind him, unseen, watching for a minute more, then she left him and went back into the house.

Three times already since Steve had gotten home from the hospital she had to tell his friends that he wasn’t up to any of their company, and he might not be for a while.  And worse, she had flat out told Melody not to even call him for a while.  To stay away.  Agatha didn’t know yet what they were going to do about anything.  She had no doubt that football camp in a few days was going to be out.  How about school though?  There was no way that Steve…this Steve, or Nancy as he seemed to be, could ever go to school.

She had to wonder if Nancy knew anything at all about calculus, one of the classes that her son was looking forward to when school started.  Steve was good at math and liked it.  Something that Agatha and her husband were both very proud of.  Steve could do a lot more than just play football.

The subject of trying to hide what was wrong with him ran through her head again.  She and her husband had mentioned it several times.  The fact that she had turned all his friends away already seemed to cement what they needed to do.  They didn’t want anyone to know about the true problems that Steve had now.  Who would understand it?  Who would believe it?  Could it affect her husband’s job?  She didn’t think so, but still, people would talk, and that wouldn’t be good.

The only thing she knew for sure was that there was something seriously wrong with her son, Stephen, and that she herself was hurting so badly because of it that it was nearly killing her!  And she needed to not let any of it show.

 

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Wanda knew what the problem was.  Well, not the big problem, but Nancy’s immediate problem.  Nancy was lonely.  She was bored.  And to make matters worse, Emily was going out of her way to have nothing to do with Nancy at all.  As far as Emily was concerned, that wasn’t Nancy in her sister’s body…at all!  Whoever it was, or whatever it was, was a thing.  Emily had mentioned that maybe they should call a church somewhere and have them perform an exorcism.  Wanda herself wondered the same thing.  She just wasn’t ready yet to admit it.

She watched as Nancy came dejectedly up the basement steps, then climbed the steps leading up to her room.  She felt for Nancy, both her original real daughter, and this one that was somehow using Nancy’s body.  No matter what though, that pretty little body was the one she had birthed to her daughter, so no matter what, that body was in a way still her real daughter.

She felt for Nancy, but she had no clue what to do for her.  They were purposely not letting any of Nancy’s friends come over for any kind of playdate, and this Nancy for sure wasn’t going anywhere else.  Once again, she considered that the shame of it all was Emily.  Yet how could she possibly blame her older daughter?  She couldn’t.

A seventeen year old boy, somehow trapped in that tiny feminine body?  How ridiculous, yet that’s the only way she could think of it.  How did that boy inside that body have to feel?  She tried to imagine some of the things he might be dealing with, and realized that while the list went on and on, she probably wasn’t scratching the surface of it all.

Not having a clue how to help her…or him…she went back to trying to figure out what to do about dinner tonight.  The food supply was starting to get a bit low.  Did she dare take Nancy grocery shopping?  As she glanced one last time up the steps, she just saw Nancy walking out of sight towards her room.  What should she do?

In Nancy’s room, Steve sat on the bed.  According to Emily, it was a house rule that all beds had to be made every morning.  He didn’t see why.  It was his room, although he didn’t recognize anything in it.  When he had gotten dressed today, he had worn the same thing he had on yesterday…minus that stupid little bra thing.  That thing had really been stupid.  Thinking about it made him rub the tiny breasts sprouting from his chest.  Damn they could hurt sometimes.

Once again his eyes fell on the pink cellphone still laying on his dresser.  Should he call them?  Or would that be a mistake?  He looked at his bedroom doorway and didn’t see either his new mother or Emily.  Picking up the phone he swiped at the screen.  No password!  Just another cute picture, this one of her.

Hoping it wasn’t a mistake, he punched in his mother’s cellphone number, and waited.  He heard the phone ring several times and then he heard a woman say hello.  He’d know that voice anywhere!  His mother!  “Mom?” he whispered so that Emily across the hall wouldn’t hear.  “It’s me, Steve.  I know I don’t sound like myself…I guess because I’m not myself right now.  But I am Steve.  Please believe me.”

“Steve?” Agatha replied tentatively.  “Is it really you?”

“Yes,” Steve whispered.

“What?  I can hardly hear you.  Why are you whispering?”

“So nobody will hear me.”

“Steve, what’s going on?  Where are you?”

“Somewhere in New York.  But Mom, I’m not me anymore.  I’m…  Shit!  Got to go.”

With that, Steve ended the call and put the phone behind his body.  Emily came out of her room and glanced in at him.  She gave him a nasty look before she turned away and headed for the stairs.

Nobody had said he couldn’t call his real mother and father, but something told him they wouldn’t like it.  He was in enough trouble trying to figure out what he was supposed to do about suddenly being a twelve year old girl.  He didn’t need any more problems than that.

With Emily gone, he took the cellphone and stuck it in the bottom of his top dresser drawer, underneath a bunch of panties.  Did he dare call his mother again?  Yes!  Just not right now.  Still, it had been great hearing his mother’s voice again.

 

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Agatha was dumbfounded.  Was that Steve?  Her Stephen?  It certainly hadn’t sounded like him.  It sounded like some kid.  Was it a joke?  But if it was, how would the kid know that her Steve was missing…at least mentally.  The kid had said he was in New York, then had suddenly hung up.  Why?  And why did he have to whisper?  Was it so that she wouldn’t recognize who was really calling?  She didn’t know, but there was one thing she did know.

She punched in the phone number for her husband’s cellphone and prayed he was in a position where he could answer it.  So many times he wasn’t.  She got lucky.  “Henry,” she said quickly the moment he answered.  “I just got a weird phone call from some kid claiming to be Stephen.  He kept saying he really was Stephen and that he was in New York, but that’s all I know before he suddenly hung up.”

“You said from a kid?”

“Yes.”

“Damn!  How did word of what happened to Steve get out?  I’ve gone out of my way to keep quiet about it as much as possible.  Nobody outside our family should know.”

“I’ve done the same,” Agatha told him.

“Okay,” he said.  “I’ll have to ask around.  Maybe we can figure out who actually knew and could have done this.  And Aggie,” Henry continued.  “If he calls again, let me know right away!”

“Don’t worry, I will,” she promised.