Xenophobia Chapter 2

The dream began with Tim sitting alone in his car. He was parked
in the old drive-in movie theater. It was dark outside and a movie had
just started. He turned to the woman that was suddenly sitting next to
him.

"Are you enjoying the movie?" he asked her.

"Actually," she responded, "I just can't get that story off my
mind."

"Yes, I know. It's as if it was written to my soul. I've always
wondered what it would be like as a woman."

"Why don't we switch?"

"What?"

"Let's switch. Just like in the story. I'll become you and you
can become me. It would be wild. We could jump in the back and have
sex."

Tim couldn't believe this. He knew he was in a dream, but he
couldn't wake up. He figured that he might as well go along with it.
"OK, let's do it," he said and then he was looking at himself. They
hopped into the back of the car and started to fool around. Before Tim
had a chance to even get excited, the phone rang, waking him up.

"Hello?" he said slowly.

"Tim? Is that you? Did I wake you up"

Tim's sister Pam was calling. Tim remembered that Pam was flying
in to visit with him for a few weeks and he was suppose to pick her up
at the airport. "Actually sis, yes you did."

"Well, excuuuuuse me," she said in her best Steve Martin voice.
"Did you forget that you needed to pick me up at 2:00?"

"No. What time is it?"

"2:30"

"Shit. Sorry sis, I'll be there in 20 minutes."

Tim jumped out of the bed and rushed to his room. He pulled out
underwear, socks, a tee-shirt, and some shorts and quickly put them on.
Running out to his car and racing down the highway, Tim made it to the
airport in just a little over 20 minutes. His sister was waiting at the
curb. Tim got out of the car and helped her load her bags into his
trunk after hugging her hello. They climbed into the car and headed
back to Tim's place. The conversation was the quick catch-up type.
Since they talked on the phone twice a week, nothing new had happened
except the meteorite. Tim told her the entire story.

"So that's how you lost the hair on your legs, huh?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I didn't think you would shave them. And since they don't
appear to have any hair on them, I figured that it happened when the
meteorite landed."

Tim took a brief look at his legs and noticed his normal thick and
dark leg hairs were gone. He rubbed his hand over his legs and they
felt smooth to his touch. "I..I don't know what happened."

Pam could see he was a little shaken by this discovery. "It's
OK," she said. "It should grow back in about four weeks, maybe a little
longer." She decided not to follow up on this line of questioning and
quickly got Tim talking about the latest computer game he was playing.
This filled the time until the reached his apartment.

Once home, Tim and Pam went to the spare bedroom and Tim helped
her unpack her things. She would be staying for a month and had brought
enough clothes to last that amount of time. "You never know when you'll
need to change clothes," she said when he asked her if all the items
were really necessary. When all the clothes were hung up, they went to
the kitchen to start working on dinner.

"I'll start the chicken while you do the salad," Tim said.

"OK. Where do you keep you knives?"

"Second drawer on the left."

Pam opened the drawer and pulled out a butcher's knife. Setting
up on the kitchen table, she began to cut the vegetables for the salad.
She was halfway through when she cut her finger. "Ouch!"

Tim rushed over to her side. The cut wasn't deep, but it was
bleeding pretty heavily. Tim held her hand and placed a finger over the
cut to reduce the bleeding. Tim lead his sister to the bathroom to
cover it with a bandage. "You should be more careful, sis."

"Ms. Klutz is what they call me. I'm OK to finish the salad."

While this was happening, the being tentatively soaked up some of
the blood from Pam and began to compare it with Tim's.

The rest of dinner preparations went uneventful and they were able
to sit down and enjoy the expertly prepared food.

"This food is delicious," Pam said. "You should open a catering
business."

"But I need to finish college."

"No you don't. Mom and Dad aren't paying for it and you could
always go back if the business didn't take off. And I could work as you
business manager. After all, two years out of college and the best job
I got was working in retail. Which I was fired from last week."

"Yea, and now I get to support you for a month."

"I'll get a job somewhere and give you a cut for rent."

"Sure you will. What are you going to do? Walk the streets?"

With that comment, Pam threw some mashed potatoes at Tim and they
both broke out in laughter.

"That's no fair. When I wanted to do that I was only 10 and I
didn't know what they were really doing."

"I know. Heck, if I didn't remind you of that career choice you
wanted to make, you might get a swelled head thinking you weren't
capable of making misjudgments. Let's clean up and go watch some TV"

Tim and Pam cleared the table of the dishes and then went into the
living room to watch the tube. After talking and watching TV for a few
hours, they went to bed.

The being continued its work on Tim. Removing his leg hair and
under arm hair had been simple. Burrow under the hair in the follicle
and then absorb it from the root up. Burrow deep enough and the
follicle will never produce another hair. The next step would have been
trickier except for the luck of Pam cutting herself. The being had
spent the time since the injury analyzing her blood for difference
between Tim and Pam. The being knew that she was the female sex by
interpreting Tim's brain. He would use her as the template for the
changes. For the first time in a long time, the being realized that an
unlimited supply of it's basic needs would be satisfied. Tonight, it
would let Tim in on the plan.