The Everythings

Chapter 3

I wait outside the school building after school. I'm not sure what I will tell my family about my transformation. Should I show them how I have at least two, possibly even more transformations? Maybe I should find out more about it. Maybe it was just a freak accident that won't happen again. Maybe I'm just being paranoid and overreacting...

A black stallion stops in front of me and transforms into Granny. She immediately asks me, "Okay, what is it? What's your transformation?"

I hesitate for only a moment before smiling and telling her, "I'm a tiger."

"Ooh, nice! Show me."

I focus on the image of a tiger, trying not to turn into something else, like a Pigeon. To my relief, I turn into exactly what I intended to. She looks at me and smiles. I roar at her playfully.

"Guess you don't need me to give you a ride anymore. Come on, let's go tell your mom and Grandpa," she smiles, "I'll race you..."

She grins and transforms into a horse again. Already in transformation form, I speed forward to get a head start. I almost immediately hear loud, galloping, horseshoes behind me. Soon she is a blur beside me. I speed up. We turn a corner and the house is directly in front of us. I concentrate only on getting there as fast as possible. Before I know it, I am on the front porch and Granny is just behind me. We are both panting. She smiles at me while gasping for air.

"I think you win."

Mom and Grandpa are ecstatic when they here my transformation.

"Wow, a tiger! That's amazing!" says my mom. Then she adds, "Oh, I went out to the store and got a paint can for your hand print, by the way."

My handprint. I finally get to put on the wall the thing I have been waiting for my whole life, just like my mom did, and like my dad before he died.

But what handprint would it be? A tiger or a pigeon? Something else?

"Oh, Ok, how about we do it right after I finish my homework?" I say as I go to my room, trying to sound like I'm not crazy confused.

I whizz through my math problems (well, maybe not whizz) and decide to play around with my transformations. I think of the first animal that pops into my head. How about a cat. Why not?

I concentrate on the image of a cat, envisioning its fur and it whiskers... I begin to shrink. My arms and legs change to paws and I feel like a mini version of a tiger...

I did it... I am almost certain now that any animal I wanted to transform into. I don't know how to feel. Happy that I have cool powers? Scared that my transformation-transformations-are different?

Maybe I should put my tiger claw on the wall. It's not like I can't add more later...

Yeah. I'll  just do that. Before I can change my mind, I call across the hall, "Mom! I finished my homework!"

Before long, I hear footsteps and the creak of my bedroom door. My mom's smiling face pokes out from behind the doorframe. She is carrying a paint bucket.

"Are you ready, Amola?"

I go by Amy, but my full name, Amola, means unique. I grin. Even if I'm confused about it, putting my print on the wall is something I've looked forward to my whole life.

I transform into a tiger and watch her dip the brush into the runny white paint. I give her my paw, her gentle strokes reminding me of all the times she held my hand when I was scared or sad, or when I was happy. All my birthdays, and all the days we spent time together. Her familiar hand places it on the wall and I stare at the mark left on the wall. A mark of all the bad and good days that we helped each other through, a mark of her love for me.