LADY ANN'S FOLLY: Chapter Ten - Part Five

Little Reggie was still hugging Elizabeth but she felt suddenly uncomfortable and hot. His little arms were pulling on her tightly with surprising strength but she extricated herself as firmly as she could.

“Sorry Reggie,” she said. “I don’t feel well and your hijinks aren’t helping.”

The little boy continued to cling on, looking to Howard for some odd reason but allowed himself to be pushed away.

Elizabeth shunted along the sofa, touching her forehead with one hand and her chest with the other. “Oh dear. I don’t feel right at all. Darling I wonder if I should go and lie down.” She looked at her husband. He had an oddly charged and expectant look on his face.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine in a moment,” he replied. “Just sit back and rest. Reggie, come away from your auntie. Give her some space.”

“I feel funny too Uncle Howard,” said Reggie. They both turned to him. The child stood pouting, gripping his little round stomach. “I feel like I might be—” Reggie stopped talking abruptly as in a silent rush he suddenly sprouted, inexplicably growing several inches taller.

Elizabeth’s eyes and mouth turned into circles of disbelief. Howard was watching the boy too but he kept flicking curious glances in her direction.

Reggie had grown. He had definitely grown. He was wearing a white sailor suit and his wrists extended out of his sleeves. The buttons down the front of his tunic were tighter. He wasn’t so dumpy and round anymore. “Auntie, what’s happening to me?” he said. And there was another flurry of something on his head as his hair shifted, getting longer.

“Oh good God,” whispered Elizabeth. “Howard, what’s happening to him?”

“I have no idea darling,” he replied.

Then Reggie had what seemed to be another shift in height that made Elizabeth gasp, except this time his clothes didn’t seem any more strained. She frowned, trying to understand the truth of it, and then she realised with sudden dread that her clothes were no longer tightly fitting on her. It wasn’t that Reggie had grown again. She had shrunk.

“Oh no,” she said. “Howard. Look at me. I just got smaller. What’s happening to us?”

Howard strode forward. “Reggie, undo those buttons quickly.” He got down and helped the boy unbutton his top.

“Howard?” said Elizabeth, her voice becoming higher and rather panic stricken.  “What’s happening to me?”

She got another peculiar sense of constriction and this time she was sure of it. She shrank several more inches, her clothes remaining where they were and becoming that much looser. Howard pulled the top Reggie was wearing over his head and whipped down his trousers, just as the boy swelled again, becoming a whole foot taller, and suddenly Elizabeth knew exactly what was happening and she gave a shriek of horror.

“No. Howard! We’re both changing! We’re changing into one another!”

Howard stood up and back, looking her in the eye. Again his expression was inexplicable, but how could she have expected him to look? His wife was turning into a little boy.

Elizabeth tried to rise but the dress she was wearing now swamped her. Her hands only just protruded from the sleeves now and they had become little boyish things. She struggled, climbing up onto the sofa inside her dress in a panic, wailing, tears streaming down her face, then she lost her footing and fell face first onto the floor, ever more tangled in her now gargantuan clothes.

Tears were rolling down Reggie’s face too as he saw the Countess effectively vanish inside her billowing clothes. He was getting taller and taller but his middle was also expanding. He had to thrust off his underwear and he staggered away from his clothes, naked now and gaping down at the radical changes that swept over him. His legs, stomach and buttocks were swelling into great round womanly shapes and his chest was swelling too.

He looked to his uncle but the Earl was only staring in wonder. Reggie was so much taller now. The Earl still towered over him but he had to be at least as tall as... as his aunt had been.

Then a swish of long hair fell into his field of vision and he reached up for it, stopping when he caught sight of his dainty female hands. He stared at them, revolving them to get a better look. Again he looked to his uncle.

“I’ve turned into Auntie,” he said, touching his neck in wonder when he heard what sound ever so much like her voice coming from his mouth.

Uncle Howard nodded. Then they heard a cry of anguish from the heap of clothes on the floor and a chubby little boy struggled out through the neck hole of the dress, gaping up at what were now the only two adults in the room.

The boy looked exactly like Reggie was meant to and the fear that settled onto his anguished face was terrible to see.

“This can’t be happening,” said Elizabeth, gaping up at the naked woman that looked just like her, knowing that it had happened nonetheless. “I can’t be Reggie. I just can’t be. I’m meant to be a woman. I can’t be a little boy!”