Rachel had done the grocery shopping, but there were a couple items left on her mother's list she would need to get from another store, pertaining to craft activities her mom planned on doing with her club that afternoon. She briefly thought about stopping there on the way home, but another glance in the mirror made up her mind.
She tried not to speed as she drove home. She was anxious, of course, but another difficulty was the fact that for some reason she couldn't control the car as well as she had before. The wheel was a little harder to turn, and the pedals were a little harder to push. On top of that, her clothes were still shifting every few minutes...a distraction she tried her best to ignore.
Upon pulling into the driveway, she grabbed the groceries and trudged into the garage. She struggled to hold all the bags in one hand while opening the door to the kitchen. Once inside, she dumped the bags on the counter with a heavy gasp.
Her mother, arranging furniture in the living room, came to greet her, but stopped short at the entryway into the kitchen.
"R...Rachel?" she said with shock, tinted by wonderment.
"Yeah, Mom, it's me," she said. She winced at the higher pitch of her voice. She tried to force it lower and speak again. "I don't know how..." her voice started at its regular tone but with each word, against all her effort, her voice again rose up into a higher octave, going even higher than it had been a minute before. "...it happened, but I've changed somehow." She brushed some of the ringlets behind her shoulder. "My hair, my clothes... My clothes!"
Rachel had looked down at her sundress and suddenly realized it had gotten fancier. It still had the flower pattern, but the makeup of the dress was more delicate, with short puffy shoulders and white lace trim at the collar, sleeves, waist and bottom of the skirt. Most interestingly, her sneakers still had not been altered.
"Oh no! It's still happening, Mommy!" Rachel said, in a highly pitched angelic voice. Again she gasped in shock at how childish she sounded.
"Your voice!" her mother said. "You're so different..." She moved closer to Rachel, and reached out to touch her soft curly hair, which had now grown down to her waist. "But it's definitely you. Your eyes, your face. This is incredible!"
"Mommy...I mean, mom," Rachel said, still with a sugary sweet voice, "I'm freaking out. On top of this, I'm not as strong as I was, and now I'm saying things in a way I don't mean."
"This day has been unusual from the start," her mother said. "With you burning breakfast and that smelly perfume..."
"Yes!" Rachel said, realizing. "The perfume! Or whatever it was that came in the mail. I spilled it all over me..." she looked down at her dress. "And it got on my clothes! These ones, except for the shoes which I wasn't wearing at the time. Holy crap, and we threw it away!"
Her mother looked at her with concern. The eye contact made Rachel felt an odd sense of guilt. She put her hands to her mouth. "I'm sorry, Mommy," she said in a tiny hush. "I said a bad word."
Rachel's mom brought her into a tight hug. "It's okay, sweetheart. You're going to be fine. Look here, I found the package it came in in the hallway." Her mom fished a torn box out of the kitchen trash bin. "I didn't see anything inside, but maybe it can still help. And the perfume bottle is in the dumpster. I'll go look for it right now. You just stay in here and help finish setting up for the company."
"You're still going through with the club?"
"They're due in fifteen minutes. It's too late to cancel now. Besides, there's probably nothing we can do just yet anyway. I'll go get that bottle."
"Thanks, Mommy... Mom... Muh...Mmmmm...Mommmmeeeee," Rachel tried to suppress the "mee" sound after saying "Mom," but like a nervous tic she had completely lost the ability to stop herself. "I'm trying to talk normally, I really am. I'm scared, Mommy." Tears began to well up in her eyes, but she was able to hold them back.
Rachel's mother hugged her again, this time even tighter. "Don't be afraid, sweetie. We'll figure this out. Just be brave for Mommy."
"O...Okay," Rachel choked. She meekly waved her mother goodbye as she headed outside to find the bottle in the trash. She stood in the kitchen for a minute, feeling afraid to be away from her mother for the first time in many years. Fighting back whatever feelings she could, she straightened her now much prettier dress and started to put the groceries away, hoping the task her mother had assigned would keep her mind off things for at least as long as it would take for her mother to return.