Johnny he was a changing. He thought at first he might be becoming an
ape or werewolf, but his claws fused into hooves, and then his hooves
splayed back into paws, and finally scales began to appear in patches
of his fur. His brain unfolded. It was a reptile brain, and then
something less. He could no longer think and breathe properly. He
seemed finally to become a gelatinous heap of single celled organism.
Perhaps a slime mold? he would wonder later. Then his cells changed.
Chloroplasts formed within them. The foul apple had pushed him off
the evolutionary ladder and was now coaxing his animal cells into
becoming plant cells. He was briefly an algae and then he evolved up
the evolutionary ladder albeit the evolutionary ladder of plants. He
was a fern, then a pine and finally he was a deciduous tree. His
roots burrrowed deep into the soil sucking up water and nutrients. His
arms and face reached for the sun. Bees buzzed. His sweet blossoms
were pollinated, and rapidly changed and grew into apples.
"You are what you eat, my pretty boy!" cackled a woman's voice.
His leaves rustled as he struggled to turn his trunk to see the origin
of the voice. It was Dorothy Storm his old baby sitter. She was
inappropriately dressed he noted she was wearing elegant silver
slippers and a gold filigree skullcap with her blue jeans and red
plaid blouse.
"Oh, Jonathan, you really let yourself go to seed," she said reaching
up and plucking an apple from a low hanging branch.
"Ouch!" Jonathan shouted.
"Trees can't talk? I must be dreaming," Jonathan said.
"Oh, silly boy, enchanted trees can talk, and you ate at least one f
the apples I left in the refrigerator, as I knew you would. Your roots
are firmly planted, but you can move your trunk and branches freely.
You can see and hear and talk. I can move your roots. I can
transplant you where I want. You will be my spy, and-"
"What if I don't want to be your spy?"
"Well, then you'll be kindling. There's quite a demand for apple wood
to smoke meats with, but I don't think you want to be kindling. If
you're a good tree, I may even let you become human every now and
then. Like right now, weretree!"
She clicked her heels together. They sparked magically glowing red
with a preternatural light. Jonathan felt a burst of heat inside his
core spreading outward. His vision became blurry and his mind blacked
out. Suddenly, he was human again clothed only in tattered rags that
had been a t-shirt and basketball shorts, and had most lately been
rags hanging from his branches.
"Go put something on, and then I want you to jog over to Zack Atwood's
house, and plant yourself outside his window. Best strip before you
change, and put your clothing in a water proof bag in a hollow at the
base of your roots. I'll expect detailed reports. My winged
monkeybirds will roost in you regularly to collect the reports on
everything that goes on in the Atwood household. Do well, and you may
have a chance to wear clothes again. Now hurry times a wasting.
You'll turn back into a tree in exactly 55 minutes."