Jeff grabbed the remaining groceries from his mom's sedan and slammed the trunk down, still thinking about the Chronivac. It didn't seem like it had changed his mom at all yet, but from what he'd learned in school evolution did take a long time to take effect, and he didn't even know how long the Chronivac might take to evolve her- it might take hours or even days for her to evolve thousands of years. Heading back inside, Jeff decided he would check on the Chronivac and make sure he got all the settings right.
"Where do you want these, Mom?" Jeff asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Oh, just on the counter, I need to make dinner with them pretty quick. Thanks, Jeffy!" Irene replied, bent over in the fridge putting the perishable goods away. Jeff did as he was asked and placed the plastic bags on the counter top and was about to head back to his room when his mom stood back up- and when he saw her at her full height, he froze.
She was definitely taller than she had been only a minute earlier, well over six feet tall and towering over Jeff- most of the height seemed to go to her neck, which was slender and long; Jeff remembered seeing pictures of some African women who wore rings around the necks that made them look incredibly long, and his mother looked a lot like that now, only her neck actually was longer. Her forehead also seemed taller, stretched up a couple of inches making her head look almost egg-shaped, her actual forehead a wide tract of smoothed out skin, her previously shoulder-length hair now only reaching down to her jawline due to her neck and head both increasing in length. Irene's green eyes also looked just a bit larger, the wrinkles and bags underneath seemingly disappeared, though those changes were not as noticeable or startling as her other ones.
"Everything okay, Jeff?" She asked, closing the refrigerator door and allowing him to see the rest of her. Further evidence of her growing taller was the fact that her tan sweater now only went halfway down her torso,leaving her midriff exposed, her torso having apparently elongated as well, her chubby tummy flattened into a taut stomach. Irene's limbs were also affected, arms stretched longer and thinner, gangly yet delicate, the sweater sleeves only reaching halfway down her forearms, ending in thin dainty looking hands, each finger stretched out like rubber, almost alien-like. Her legs looked similarly changed, the pant legs only reaching halfway down her shins, though her shoes hid any changes to her feet. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Ah- n-no, I'm fine! You just, uh, look... really pretty today?" Jeff stuttered, trying to act casual. His mom wasn't freaking out about her evolution, so maybe she didn't notice it yet. If that was the case, Jeff didn't want to change that- who knew how she would react to her new looks?
"Really." Irene said mater-of-factly, raising one eyebrow over her enlarged eyes. Of course his mom didn't buy his act for a second, and she walked over to him- her longer stride made it take less time than usual, and seeing his mother tower several feet over him and have to literally look down at him was really freaking Jeff out. With what seemed like a much longer, almost sweeping motion, she brought her hand to Jeff's head, her palm covering his entire forehead, her fingers able to wrap halfway around his head. "Well, you don't feel sick. You sure you're alright?"
"Y-yeah." Jeff practically had to look straight up to look his own mother in the eye- looking closely, he could see that she was still changing, eyes steadily growing larger, heck stretching longer, forehead arching taller. It was somewhat terrifying. "It's, um... guy stuff."
Irene stared at Jeff for a moment more before letting it drop. "Okay, whatever you say." She shrugged and turned around, moving to the counter where Jeff had placed the groceries, and he couldn't help but notice that her pants were loose around her rear, whatever fat that had accumulated back there apparently stretched out to unnoticeability. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour. Tell your sister, and make sure to do your homework until then."
"I will." Jeff said, gulping, before diving out of the kitchen doorway. Once he was sure he was out of earshot, Jeff exhaled a deep breath. His mom had become a totally different woman in just under two minutes, and for all he knew her changes had only just begun. Maybe her changes so far were just the result of a few hundred years of evolution- who knew how much she might change in 5,000? The thought terrified Jeff- but also filled him with curiosity. For some reason, his mother's changes were fascinating to him. She had already become a brand new human being, a creature that had never existed before he made her that way; it made Jeff feel the way he imagined Dr. Frankenstein must have felt when he made his monster. His mom was no monster of course, but she was just as unique, and it was all because of him. She may have already changed even more radically in the scant few seconds he had been standing in the hallway catching his breath, and he felt the compulsion to watch her change, to watch her evolve further into the next stage of humanity, to see what she could become. But he also felt the compulsion to head back upstairs to the Chronivac, to check up on the program and see exactly what it could tell him about what had happened so far, and perhaps change his mother even more- or even change someone else. Or someTHING else; if he remembered correctly, plants and animals could also be evolved by the Chronivac.
The mere thought made Jeff feel like a mad scientist, and he couldn't decide what he wanted to do...