The drive back was comfortingly uneventful, and by the time Steven pulled into her driveway, she had mostly calmed down, except for a lurking nervousness about her parents' reaction and the unsettling weirdness of the sensations her new body was producing. But she was managing to stave off the panic, at least for now. She shut the engine off and unbuckled her seatbelt. She could see her mother standing on the front porch, undoubtedly wondering why she was out so late; the car's clock revealed that she'd been asleep for about three hours. Gathering her courage, Steven stepped out of the car.
Steven's mother just stared at her for a minute. "Who are you," she said, "and what are you doing with my son's car?"
Steven gulped. "I know this is going to sound crazy," she said, her new voice still a surprise to her, and trembling nervously, "but...it's me. It's Steven."
"Very funny," her mother said, stepping down off the porch toward her. "Now who are you? Tell me what you're doing with my son's car, before I call the police."
Steven sighed. "Really, Mom, it's me. If you can think of anything that only Steven would know, I'll tell it to you."
Steven's mother stepped forward, clearly getting angry. Worried, Steven jumped up, folding her legs under her, coming to a sitting position about seven feet in the air. Her mother gaped. "H-how are you doing that?"
Steven shrugged. "I was abducted by aliens," she said. "I know this doesn't prove I'm Steven, but it should give you some idea of just how weird things are right now."
"I can't argue that," her mother said. "All right. Supposing you are my son, you should be able to tell me what you asked for for your tenth birthday."
Steven laughed; that was a good choice, because it wasn't an obvious answer for what a ten-year-old boy might want. "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn," she replied. "Vinyl. Original UK release. I heard 'Astronomy Domine' on the radio and asked Dad what it was, and then I went and looked up the album and decided I wanted to hear the rest of it."
Her mother stared at her. "No," she said, "that can't be...how did you find out...but your...your face...God almighty, it is you, isn't it?"
Steven nodded, dropping back to the ground. "Yep. I can't say I blame you for not believing me, though."
Her mother shook her head. "No, I should have seen it. You look...well, you look just like yourself, only as a girl. I don't know how I could look at my own child's face and not recognize it. Were you really...?"
"Abducted, yes," Steven replied, as her mother embraced her. "I really can't tell you any more than that; I got knocked out running away from the...whatever they were, and when I woke up they were gone and I was like this."
Pulling back, her mother stared at her, studying her deep green hair and the small horns poking out from under it. "Like this...just what are you, anyway?"
Steven smiled slightly. "Comic book alien. I bought a volume of Urusei Yatsura today, and I think they saw that in the backseat and decided to make me the same race as the leading lady." She was trembling as she spoke, remembering the terror that she'd felt as the ship chased her down the isolated back road.
Her mother looked at her, concerned. "Are you all right, dear?"
Steven started to tear up. "Well," she said, lower lip trembling, "I just convinced you that I'm your son, so I don't have any need to hold myself together anymore, and frankly I'm really freaked out by this whole..." She broke down, sobbing into her mother's shoulder. Her mother held her tight. "I understand, dear," she said. "Let's get you inside, and we can talk about this in the morning."