"Well, I was thinking," Sally said tugging at her pink Angora sweater, "We might try increasing the growth rate of Angora goat's hair. When the goat arrives we shear it, then card the wool and make yarn for our project display. We also measure the growth rate of the goat's hair for a week. Then we begin giving it vitamins, and hormones to increase the growth rate of the hair. I read an article about confusing the animal's glandular system into making it grow hair all the time. You've heard of that disease in humans where they look like werewolves because all their hair follicles are constantly growing? Well, this will work along the same principles as that, and oh, I'm so excited. When is the goat coming? Oh, wait, we'll need a pen for it first, and feed, and I'll make a list." Sally didn't speak, she streamed. I wonder how she manages to breathe with her constant chatter.
She was working on her list, so I asked Mr. Hutchins about where we might keep a goat on campus. He remarks that it would make a marvelous mascot, pointing out that Naval Academy's mascot is a goat, and Thor's chariot was pulled by a goat or goats. Our school's team is the Vikings. So harnessing Gunther to a chariot might be fun. In any case, when the school budget had permitted the "Viking" had ridden a horse, and the abandoned stables were next to the fieldhouse. I'd always assumed that was just storage for the fieldhouse maintenance crews, but it really was a stable. What better place for a jock like Gunther? Hutchins gave me a pass to talk to the head coach about using the stables, and maybe letting Gunther pull a chariot. We could do Sally's hair growth experiment and a real physics experiment determining the optimum weight for goat boy to pull.
I told Sally, I was going to see about commandeering the stable, and she just said, "Uh,huh. Good, I'll keep working on the list of items we need." She typed into the keyboard of her laptop.
Hm, I liked her not talking all the time. This project with Gunther seemed to have nothing but plus sides.
Heading out to the gym, I extracted my black orb.
"Okay, Nino, time to grant a wish. This one is time released, so don't change him right away."
"I've been paying attention to what's been going on. You want me to turn that Gunther ape into a goat, right? Wish it and it'll be so."
"First, I wish I had a tiny video camera - no make that a dozen minicams with wireless transmitters and 1 year batteries concealed in Gunther's bedroom, locker, locker room, wherever he might be, and I want all the transmissions to be collected on a new computer at my house with sufficient memory to handle several hundred hours worth of monitoring. I don't want Gunther to be able to take a piss without a camera recording it."
"Hm, I see you want to watch him changing into a goat over a period of time, Master?" she clucked her tongue, "That's a bit harder than an instant change. You see I have to make sure that all the parts work together while they're changing. Can't have his goat blood be attacked by his human antibodies and vice versa - but I think I can do it. There all the cameras are in place, and if Gunther goes anywhere unexpected a camera will materialize there."
"Nice, okay then the main wish is that Gunther transform slowly over the next four days into an Angora goat, and at 4 AM Friday, I wish goat boy to be naked in a shipping crate ready to be delivered to this school later that morning."
She clapped her hands and laughed. "This will be fun. It's already begun. Gunther's got his first goat hair! Want to see it?"
"Sure, but not in person on a monitor."
Instantly, my brain was bouncing around or maybe outside my skull. I was back in my bedroom standing in front of a new computer monitor attached to my new computer, and Camera One was on screen showing a sweaty Gunther changing at his gym locker. He pulled off his shirt, and balked as he held a six inch hair between his index finger and thumb. It was growing out of his right pec.
"Where'd this come from?" Gunther asked ripping it out by it's root. He headed to the shower where he could be seen from Cameras 4, 5, 6, and 7 from different angles of the shower room. I felt a bit creepy seeing the other guys naked and showering, but I was intent on watching Gunther's change. He lathered up his muscled body and shampooed his hair. He paused to feel a couple of bumps on his head. Nino whispered, "Nubs of his horns starting to grow in."
By the time he toweled off, he knew he was having body hair growth issues. His whole smooth body had 5 o'clock shadow.
I looked into the 8 ball again and wished that Nino would put me back at school. I had thought she'd put me back in the hallway, but instead she put me in the locker room right behind Gunther. He was still naked and dialing his locker combination. I nearly jumped out of my skin, and he stood up perfectly straight when there was a loud popping sound, and his vertebra just grew an extra segment. He now had a flap over his butt that might be called a vestigal tail. In four days, it would be anything but vestigial.
Silently, I inched away from him and headed toward the coach's office. I was glad Gunther hadn't seen me materialized. I'd have to check the video tonight to see if I had been caught on camera materializing. I wonder what it looks like..."