Transformations: The New Normal Ch. 1
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Prologue
Roxbury, Kansas
The Kansas rain turned the front windshield of the old truck into an abstract painting. The air smelled like warm pavement and cool water with a tinge of prairie dust and steam.
Evelyn Price and her son, Adam, sat silently in the truck and watched the Transcontinental Bus Lines depot across the street. The bus in the first bay's sign changed from 'Roxbury, KS' to 'Buffalo, NY'.
Adam sighed. "I guess that's the one."
Evelyn nodded and smiled, the laugh lines around her eyes crinkling. She ran her fingers through her gray and red hair and tried not to cry. "You study hard, Adam. I won't tell you to stay away from the girls because I know you won't..."
Adam laughed. "Mom..."
And, just like that, Evelyn heard the baby who became the boy who became the young man she had given birth to and then raised for eighteen years and the tears came.
He put his hand on her shoulder. "Mom? It's okay. Don't cry..."
Evelyn laughed. "Easy for you to say." She shook her head. "I always knew this day was coming." She took his hand and squeezed. "So much of your father in you - that can be a blessing and a curse."
Adam laughed and fought back tears of his own.
"Mind me: you focus on school. You have a lot to learn."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Now, kiss your mom and go get on that bus."
***
Adam walked through the downpour. His denim jacket was already soaked, and he wasn't halfway to the bus. He paused though and looked back at his mother.
She rolled down her window. "Boy, I didn't raise one so dumb he didn't know to get out of the rain. Git!"
He laughed and turned to run but not before he saw his mother break into uncontrollable sobs behind the rain mottled windshield.
He ran toward the bus.
Adam stopped at the bottom step.
The driver was a big guy with black hair and a beard. A patch on his rumpled blue bus uniform read 'Eric'. He smiled down at Adam. "Get on the bus, kid. Destiny awaits."
Adam took one last look at the pickup and climbed onboard.
The driver closed the door and Adam left Kansas behind.
Forever.
***
Evelyn watched the bus pull out, watched it go down the street and disappear around a corner. Her hand hovered over the ignition. Part of her wanted to chase after him, make the bus pull over, tell her son the truth - all of it. Truths she had wanted to tell him for eighteen years.
Someone tapped on the window.
A Mexican man stood on the other side of the door, his hat in his hands even though the rain was pouring down his face.
Evelyn rolled down the window. "Can I help you?"
"Perdona, senora, my wife? The baby is coming sooner than we expected. I hate to ask but could you take us to the hospital? Por favor? I have a little money..."
Evelyn looked past him at the small woman wrapped in a shawl with the enormous belly leaning on the plexiglass covered bus stop. "Oh, my God! Let's get her in this truck."
Together Evelyn and the woman's husband helped her onto the pickup's bench seat. The woman was shivering.
Evelyn climbed back into the driver's seat. She touched the woman's face. "Tranquilo, mamacita. Everything is going to be fine. When did her water break?"
"About ten minutes ago," the husband said.
"First baby?" Evelyn asked.
"Si," the woman whispered.
"You're going to be just fine." She looked at the husband. "What's your name, dad?"
"Ramon Rodriguez, senora."
"Ramon, can you open the glove compartment? There are some papers in there. Can you hand them to me?"
He nodded and pulled a sheaf of yellow paper out of the glove box.
Evelyn took them and retrieved a pen stuck in the sun visor. "Ramon Rodriguez," she said as she wrote on the paper. She handed the papers to Ramon.
"What... I don't understand?"
Evelyn smiled. "This old truck isn't much but it's all yours. They'll give you the title at the DMV."
"But no, senora! We just need..."
Evelyn opened her door. "I don't need it anymore. You do. But take her to the hospital in McPherson. It's not far and much better than Roxbury. You have time. Vaya con Dios."
"Gracias, senora. Muchas gracias."
Evelyn turned toward the bus terminal and walked through the rain.
She heard the truck start and pull out behind her.
The rain fell on Evelyn Price, soaking her. She was in no hurry to reach the terminal. She just let the warm rain wash over her.
No one watched the crazy woman walking in the rain.
If they had, they would have seen a miracle. The rain washed through her hair and the gray began to fade, becoming lustrous red.
She turned her face to the sky and the rain ran down her face, washing away her sparse makeup.
It also washed away her wrinkles. The skin became tighter and smoother, years washing away in the Kansas rain. The eyeliner ran down her face, but it was replaced by darker eyeliner - an electronic tattoo that darkened beneath her skin.
Her lips grew full and red.
Her thin arms developed long, lithe muscles as did her thighs and calves - thighs and calves that began to lengthen making her inches taller in seconds.
Her breasts grew one cup size, two, three, four, straining against the wet material of her sundress. The material had been rendered nearly translucent by the soaking rain.
When she stepped through the front door of the bus terminal, middle aged Evelyn Price was gone.
Evie Price, a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties had replaced her.
Heads turned.
She walked up to the ticket booth and the old man there tried not to stare at her breasts. "Excuse me," she said, her voice sultry and sweet. "Can you tell me when the next bus to New York leaves?"
"Uh... that will be 9:15 tonight, Miss."
Evie smiled. "Thank you." She turned and walked toward the benches. The muscles and sinews in her calves were pulling tighter - she needed heels. It would be difficult to walk in a few minutes.
A television mounted on the wall was tuned to a news network. "There is evidently a disturbance going on in downtown Manhattan. We're unsure if it is a terrorist attack or a riot, but we have been told that the police are actively involved in attempting to cordon off a section of Manhattan..."
Evie stared at the screen as a half dozen people gathered around it. "Oh, Eric, what have you done now?" Evie whispered.
She turned back to the counter to buy her ticket.
Three Church agents stood in their black suits between her and the counter. "Mistress Evelyn Price di Morpheus?" the lead agent asked.
Evie stared at him. It had been so long since she had heard her full name. "Y... Yes?"
"I..." The man looked at the floor. "Mistress, it's an honor."
Evie sighed. "No, sweetie, trust me. It isn't that much of an honor. What do you want?"
