Mary scarcely had time to cut a hole in her pants big enough to string the tail through when her phone rang. It was her friend, Kelly. They had stayed in touch after graduating college together, and lived in the same town only minutes away.
"I was wondering if you'd like to visit for a movie night," Kelly asked. "We haven't hung out in a while."
Mary knew what she meant. The last time they were together was weeks ago. Her own job had been keeping her busy lately, but now things had calmed down a bit. Except for the vials, of course.
She told Kelly she'd be over later, and mentioned having a little surprise in store. With that cryptic comment, she hung up the phone and began anticipating that evening.
For the rest of the day, Mary cleaned up her house and looked through the vials some more. She was amazed at the assortment of animals. For such a small box, it looked like it had every single species on the planet...and then some.
When the time came, Mary took the vials and a few packs of microwaveable popcorn and stepped outside. She looked around, making sure there wasn't anybody nearby who would spot her tail. Then she closed the door.
A terrible pain shot through her and she dropped everything in her arms. Her tail was throbbing badly, and she realized she had slammed the door on it. "Shoot!" she said, mad at herself. "I've got to be more careful..." She didn't notice anything visibly wrong with the tail, and the pain, thankfully, was subsiding. She picked up the vial box, purse and popcorn and proceeded to her car. Making sure she didn't make the same mistake, she took her long tail and strung it across her lap before closing the car door. The base of her tail hurt a little bit as it was squished against the back of the seat, but there was nothing Mary could do about that. She turned on the car and headed to Kelly's house.