“Wh. Whu …. What?”
“The skin cells on your arms are those of a female. Mum didn’t believe me when I came to that conclusion yesterday. She thought I had contaminated the sample, hence she took new samples last night. We have been up all night inducing those cells to divide and now looking at the cells under the microscope, there is no doubt that they contain two X chromosomes” Your sister tried to explain. “Our magical ingredient is changing your Y chromosome into an X”
Your mother chipped in “And it is spreading, apparently rather rapidly”
You looked at your arm “Can you reverse it?”
“Perhaps. We’ll try but it might take a bit of time. We don’t know why the effect is spreading. I would have expected your T-cells to destroy the RNA molecules so any effect is confined to where the ointment was applied. But that is clearly not the case”
“Time? How long? I have a date tonight”
“Not by tonight. I’m talking months if not years….. There is no guarantee we will ever be successful” Your mother could no longer look you in the eye.
“Can you at least stop it spreading? Or at least slow it down?”
“We don’t even know how it is spreading. It should not be happening”
“So what are the consequences if this spreads further? Do I turn into a woman?”
“I wouldn’t think so. You already have fully developed male secondary sexual characteristics. Your testicles should still produce testosterone and you don’t have ovaries to produce female hormones so you should not develop any female sexual characteristics. I think the only change might be that you don’t produce sperm with a Y chromosome. In that case you would only be able to father girls” said your sister
“But why are we seeing any physical changes at all?” asked you mother. “Why are the hairs on his arm looking different?”
Your sister just replied “I think we have a lot more investigation in front of us”
You felt faint. The realisation that you had just become a guinea pig for gene therapy treatments was sinking in. “This can’t be happening” you wailed.
………..
Your sister actually gave you a sedative to help you calm down. You took it. You certainly needed it. She then measured the growth of your ‘Soft skin’ as you termed your change. She then took blood samples from each of your arms. Lastly, she examined your body thoroughly looking for what she called ‘Physical signs of Metastatis’.
You were finally given the all clear to leave. “What am I supposed to do?” You asked your sister
“Whatever you like. I’ll just preserve these samples and get the culture started. Then I’ll be catching up on some sleep. I don’t think either of us can function without sleep. You go to work. Maybe by the time your back we will have some answers”
Your retreated to your room and found yourself getting emotional. Why me? Why now? Just when everything had been looking up. You had got a job and a date…… Now this!
Your date! How would you explain this to Carrie? Should you postpone the movie night? Till when? The changes were only going in one direction. It would only get worse. Better to have the date while you still could.
You prepared for work. At least it would be a distraction. If you stayed home you could see yourself hiding in your room all day.