Jeff’s mind reeled at the possibilities. Imagine the job prospects for someone who doesn’t need equipment – who can move Earth and lay concrete with their bare hands, or weld metal, or even fuse carbon. Jeff could make himself a human power-plant and provide energy for the world! And he’d get all the credit for such great skills, because he would have the properties of those objects whilst still looking completely human, completely like himself. Amazing!
Jeff scrolled past option after option, leaning closer and closer into the screen as the opportunities blossomed in his mind. Then things started to get weird. He could easily see the applications of being a human earth mover or a human power-plant, but as he scrolled on he found options that confused him. They were body-parts. He couldn’t even fathom how such a thing could work.
Jeff shook his head and scrolled back up to look at more useful transformations, but soon found the thought eating away at him. How would they work?
Jeff agonised for what felt like hours over what object to choose. Even worse, his morbid curiosity just wouldn’t go away. He resigned. He just had to know! If anything went wrong he could always use the Chronivac to change himself back, right?
So Jeff scrolled back down to the body-parts he had seen. One stood out.
“A cow’s udder?” He muttered to himself, frowning.
Well, if he’s going to do something weird, he might as well go big or go home he reasoned. He clicked the option. He would function like a cow’s udder whilst appearing completely human.
He looked at the other variables and checked the box marked “reality shift” after seeing the small info-box that was next to it. The infobox explained that a reality shift would change the world around him to make his transformation seem normal. He reasoned that if he was going to function as an udder, the best way to see how that works is to make it completely normal and let the world show him how.
He took a deep breath, then hit the “confirm” button.
Suddenly, he felt nauseous. He felt like he was on a rollercoaster doing loop-de-loops. The room around him seemed to undulate and swirl. Jeff felt breathless. His body tingled slightly. He couldn’t concentrate. Then, just as quickly as it all started, it stopped, and Jeff was sitting there in front of the Chronivac. Jeff took stock of his body. Everything was the same as it had always been. He glanced around himself at the room. It was almost the same, although somewhat cold. He did notice that there was no radiator, and that the door seemed bulkier, with a seal around it.
Jeff stood up, and found himself nauseous again. He staggered over to his bed and decided to take a short nap.
“Jeff, breakfast!” A voice shattered his sound sleep.
Jeff bolted awake. Checking his bedside clock, he realised it was 7:30am the next day. He’d slept all day and all night yesterday! If he didn’t hurry, he’d be late for school!
No time to shower, Jeff quickly changed his clothes and ran downstairs, having to shoulder his door open to break the seal.
When he got downstairs, it wasn’t just his family sitting at the dinner table. His best friend from school was there too.
Dan was a tall, muscular boy whose step-dad and grandparents ran a farm just beyond the suburb. Dan often helped out over there, and sometimes invited Jeff over too.
“Dan, what’re you doing here?” Jeff asked.
Dan and Jeff’s parents and sister laughed.
“Typical Jeff,” his mom tittered, “so scatterbrained this early in the morning.”
“C’mon, Jeff!” Dan got up from the table and lead Jeff over. Jeff felt strangely compelled to listen to Dan more than anyone. He’d always been close to Dan, but right now he felt more connected with Dan than he ever had before, “We need some milk for our cereal.”
Dan abruptly tugged down the zip of Jeff’s pants in front of everyone.