Elisa was the most popular girl in school, and also one of the most beautiful. She didn't even know that I existed. I was but a lowly freshman. Elisa would never take time out of her busy party and dating schedule to acknowledge the existence of a simple freshman, especially one as unpopular and ugly as I was.
Mother had always told me that true beauty came from the inside, not the outside. Mother, however, was full of crap. My beautiful insides would never be seen past my fat and awkward outside. I was unfortunate enough to be born of two overweight parents. Their genes combined to produce a child who was not only overweight, but downright fat. The boys in grade school had bestowed the deplorable nickname of "Eclipse" on me. It seemed they felt my excess proportions blocked out the sun. The nickname stuck throughout grade school and then into high school.
Even if it wasn't for the weight, I would probably still be considered the poor ugly girl of the school. My hair was in a constant state of frizzy disorder my front teeth had a gap between them that made the Grand Canyon seem tame in comparison. And, to top it all off, there was the painful and unpredictable embarrassment of all the pimples, which not only covered my whole face, but my shoulders and back as well. I was a walking freakshow. Every aversion to attraction that a young woman could have, I had in abundance.
My real name was Lynn, not that most people knew me by anything other than "Eclipse." The boys never took notice of me, accept to ridicule me. The lack of any attention from the boys, however, didn't concern me. I paid no attention to them either. As if my social ostracism wasn't bad enough already, I was only bound to make it worse if I were to admit that my true feelings ran toward females. I was especially attracted to the female breast. Elisa had perfect breasts. Of course, that wasn't surprising. She had the perfect everything. She had the perfect nice, rich, and loving parents. She had the perfect college athlete boyfriend with sculpted good looks. She had the perfect little sports car to drive. She had the perfect valedictorian grades. Finally, she had the perfect supermodel body with the gorgeous long, flowing hair, big breasts, slender waist, tight butt, and long legs. The beautiful body of hers was only covered in the latest and most expensive of fashions. I didn't know much about fashion beyond sweatshirts and sweatpants, which was about all in which I could be comfortable given my weight. Elisa was the captain of the cheerleading team. She was the walking definition of popularity. Only the most popular of high school students had the opportunity to get to know her, being that she mostly associated with the college crowd.
I had been attracted to Elisa from the first day of high school. I, of course, kept my attraction highly secret. I was almost afraid to even look at her, afraid that I would be caught giving her a look of pure lustful interest. My life was hard enough without rumors of my sexual interests floating around the school. I knew that any fantasies I had about Elisa were just that, fantasies. I had no chance whatsoever with the lovely Elisa. She was not just in another league, she was in a whole other galaxy than I was. Even if I were to have the guts to actually go up and introduce myself to her, I doubt that she would acknowledge my presence. She would inevitably ignore me at all costs just as all the popular students do to the lower lifeforms of the school, of which I was the lowest.
Still, I couldn't help but think of her all the time. I wanted her as my lover. More than that, I wanted to be her. I wanted to be popular and beautiful like she was. My chances of achieving either one of those goals was zero. I was trapped in this fat and ugly body. I could possibly change my diet or my level of exercise, but there was no way to change my genes, and short of that, there was no way that I was going to have a beautiful body like hers anytime soon. Failing the first goal of having a beautiful body meant that I would also fail the other goals as well. I couldn't hope to be too popular without the killer body to go with it, and I could never expect to attract Elisa without being popular and gorgeous. And even if by some miracle I could achieve those goals, Elisa would still not want a woman as a lover even if that woman was popular and sexy.
I finished my freshman year, and Elisa went on to college. With Elisa out of sight, one would assume that she would be out of mind. I assumed it anyway. I figured that when I came back for my sophomore year, that I would find a whole new beautiful student that I could never have. I did not, however, find anyone new. I still thought of Elisa my Sophomore and Junior years at high school. Elisa's image seemed to be burned into my mind.
Halfway through my senior year, I finally thought that I might be forgetting about the long since departed Elisa. Then, she returned to my life. It was almost as if cruel fate was mocking me. I had not known where Elisa had gone to college, but I soon found out that it was the same nearby university to which I was applying. Fate wouldn't stop there though, oh no. It went further. Elisa was working in the college department of admissions as a secretarial aid. The very same office that I would need to visit on several occasions to see the academic advisor.
When I walked into the department of admissions, I saw her immediately. She looked very much the same as she had three years earlier. If anything, she was even better looking now than she had been then. I approached Elisa's desk in a somnambulist-like lurch, almost as if I was in a trance brought on by her beauty. She looked up at me from some papers she was working on and asked in a desultory manner if there was something with which she could help me. I tried to respond, but only managed a bit of a sputter.
She said in a rather annoyed tone. "Excuse me?"
I started to stutter. "I... I... um... uh..."
"Well?" She asked impatiently. "Ga.. ga... Get on with it." She mocked my newfound stutter. Grace was one thing that Elisa never had. She never needed to be polite. What she lacked in good graces, she more than made up for with her looks, popularity, and money.
"Um, I'm here to see the advisor about, uh, coming to school here in the Fall." I finally managed to say.
"There, was that all that hard to say? Learn to talk for crying out loud." She rolled her eyes in annoyance as she spoke, as if doing her job was cutting into her precious party time, which I assumed that it probably actually was. "I'll notify the advisor that you're here." Elisa then gave me a cold, impatient stare, as if she wanted something from me.
"What?" I finally asked in response to her stare.
"It would help if I had your name." She responded, giving me an even more annoyed look. "You can say your name can't you, or I'm I going to have to wait a half hour for you to get that out?"
I was a little disappointed that she didn't know my name. I should have known that she wouldn't, being that I was but an unpopular and lowly freshman when She had left school, but somehow, I had hoped she would have known. "My name is Lynn Holland. I... I went to school with you, um, high school I mean, th... the same one rather, um, high school, er I mean that I was a uh freshman when you were a senior. Maybe you remember."
Elisa gave me a look that might resemble the look she might give to a cockroach scurrying across the floor. "No, I don't remember, and please stop babbling. You're starting to give me a headache." Elisa got up and walked into the advisor's office.
I wondered if Elisa usually did this type of receptionist work in this office. If she did, she wasn't very good at it. She didn't exactly give visitors to the office a sense of feeling welcome. I suppose that her disagreeable attitude could be saved only for the ugly and unpopular like myself. I had shed a few pounds since my freshman year, and the pimples had cleared up slightly, but basically, I was still the same overweight and hideous person that I was then. Elisa returned from inside the advisor's office. She told me to waddle over and sit in one of the chairs outside of the advisor's office. Waddle? Elisa sure wasn't discreet about her distaste of the homely, overweight, or unpopular.
I suppose if I could think clearly, Elisa's bad attitude should have revealed to me that Elisa was not worthy of my attraction. My thoughts weren't clear however. They were obscured by Elisa's outer beauty. I had always felt uncomfortable around Elisa. I was always intimidated by her looks and popularity. I had so much wanted to be with her, and so much wanted to be pretty and popular like she was.
Elisa's bad attitude did nothing to dissuade me of thinking of her in the days that followed my initial visit to the academic advisor's office. In fact, just seeing her again made me think about her constantly. She was one of the first thoughts I had waking up, and one of the last thoughts I had going to bed. Elisa was both my idol and my object of affection. I accepted the fact that I would never be with her sexually, nor would I ever be like she was. That is, I accepted that fact until the day I was given a ray of hope.
What sort of hope is there for the hopeless? For one whose desires can never be fulfilled? One who only wants that which she cannot get? One who raises the bar of expectations so high as to never achieve happiness. Full attainment of one's hopes and desires is surely not the path to happiness. If you achieve all that for which you hope, then you are left with no aspirations whatsoever. Yet, one needs to be able to attain a fraction of one's goals. I had several objectives before meeting Elisa again. I wanted to go to college, and get a good job, and find someone that I loved and who loved me back. Now, all those aspirations were gone. After seeing Elisa again, I only had two goals left. One was to look pretty and be popular just like Elisa, and the other was to be Elisa's lover. I had those two objectives for a long time. It was different now though. Always before I had other goals as well. I wasn't so consumed as I was now. The reach had not only extended my grasp, but it had also rocketed light years past it, and my grasp was crippled by the desires of my own mind. My current hopelessness was bound to lead to outright depression shortly, or, so I thought. My ray of light which illuminated my dark pit of hopelessness that I had created for myself came in the form of an advertisement.
Yes, it was a mail advertisement to be exact. It was addressed to me. I saw it on the kitchen counter that day, about two weeks after I saw Elisa at the department of admissions. I gave it a quick glance while simultaneously walking toward the trash can, where I intended to place it. Just as I was getting ready to rip the ad in half, one word caught my eye. The word was "attractive." It was embedded in the sentence: "Would you like to be more attractive?" I don't know if it was luck that I didn't rip it in two, or if it was somehow my destiny to pursue the merchandise advertised in the mailing. I did know that the question in the ad came right to the point and that the answer from me was a resounding "yes!" I was perfectly aware that such questions are for the sole purpose of selling more merchandise, and not something that to be taken that seriously. Nonetheless, it seemed too relevant to me.
The mailing was advertising clothing. The company was called "Clothes Make the Man." It was a store right here in my home town. I looked at the address. It said 110 Old Oak Road. Old Oak Road? That couldn't be right. I knew that road very well. My father had first taught me how to drive on that road a couple summers ago. It was a great road for the beginning driver because there was almost nothing on it. It was out in the country. The only thing off that road was a bunch of old farm houses. No business owner would build a store on that stretch of road. They would never get any business. It was far away from the business district of town. If some lunatic had been crazy enough to build a store on that road, I surely would have heard about it. I read more of the writing on the card. It said: "Our clothes are 100% guaranteed to make you beautiful." 100% guaranteed to make you beautiful? That was a very bold statement.
No mention of a sale, a grand opening, prices, or what types of clothes were sold was mentioned on the ad. This place's ad was most effective, at least for me. I was dead set on visiting the store that very day. I kind of doubted the ad's effectiveness with others though. Most people aren't obsessed with popularity and beauty to quite the same extent as I was at that moment. In addition, what good is an ad that gives the wrong address? It had to be wrong. No idiot would put a store out in the middle of nowhere like that. I suppose that Old Oak Road was only about a 15 minute drive from the business district of town. Yet, as they say, location is everything when it comes to business. Why would a shopper travel 15 minutes, when they could travel two minutes to get the same thing? I suppose if the prices were a lot less, then perhaps, but it would still seem like an odd location.
I got in my car and drove out to Old Oak Road. I had no idea where address 110 was at on Old Oak, but I figured that it wouldn't be too much trouble to drive the whole stretch and see if I found anything. Even if there wasn't a store out there, it would be worth going just to prove to myself that nobody would ever build a store there. If some person was odd enough to build a store there, then it would give me a chance to shop. I loved shopping for clothes. I didn't really know why. By all means, I should have hated shopping for clothes. Everything I liked was never available in my size anyway. I was always stuck buying ugly, fat women's clothes. I guess that I just liked to torture myself. I kind of wondered by the name of the store, "Clothes Make the Man," if the store was a man's clothing store. Probably a big and tall clothing store for men I thought as I drove out toward Old Oak Road. Oh well, At least I'd satisfy my growing curiosity about the store if nothing else.
It didn't take long before I saw the store. It was huge! I couldn't believe it. It had to be the biggest store in town. It was only one story tall, but it seemed to stretch out forever. It was about twice as big as the entire mall downtown. I couldn't believe that I had never heard anyone talk about this place before. How had I ever missed this place?
As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed something strange. The parking lot was dinky. It only had ten marked off spaces to park. Ten parking spaces for a store this size? That was pretty stupid. Another strange thing was that there were no other cars. I was the only one there. I thought for a moment that perhaps the store was closed, but when I looked toward the door, I saw a neon sign that clearly read "open." One would think that at least the employees' cars would be here. Perhaps there was another parking lot in the back I thought. No other roads led to the back of the store, but I assumed that there had to be another parking lot which came off another country road. It was the only logical explanation.
I walked to the front door and pulled the door open, revealing to me a giant store filled with every imaginable type of clothing one could imagine. I walked down the main aisle of the store. My heels clicked against the floor and echoed loudly in the emptiness of the store. I saw no other people. I hurried down the main path to what appeared to be a customer service center. I noticed no one behind the counter and so I rang the service bell atop the counter.
"May I help you." I heard a voice come from behind the counter. I leaned over the counter, and beheld to my surprise, a male dwarf. His entire body was in proportion. He didn't have the large features on a small frame like a midget. Other than his height, he looked like an ordinary man. He couldn't have been more than 2 feet tall.
"You should get yourself a stool." I said
"Why?" He asked with genuine curiosity.
"So that people can see you behind the counter." I replied with a smile. I couldn't help but find the sight of this little person to be adorable.
"What people?" He asked with a tone of confusion.
I arched a brow in puzzlement. "Well, the customers of your store of course."
The dwarf shook his head, not understanding the line of conversation. "You have found me already."
"Well yeah, I have, but what about the other customers?" I asked.
The dwarf responded with his own question. "What other customers?"
I looked around. "Well, I guess I might be the only one now, but what about when other customers come?"
The dwarf laughed at my question. "You are the only customer. The only customer at this store location anyway."
"Uh... Thank you." I responded politely. I assumed that he was merely trying to make me feel special, so that I might return to the store on future occasions.
"Now, what would you like?" The dwarf queried.
"Oh, I was just checking to see if any sales people were here. I'm just browsing." I started to walk away from the counter to start looking through some of the countless rows of clothing.
"You know that is not true." The dwarf's voice followed from behind me. I turned around and leaned back over the counter, only to find that he was no longer there. I felt a soft poke on my knee. I saw that the dwarf had come out from behind the counter. You know exactly what you want, so why bother browsing?"
"I know exactly want I want huh?" I said, mocking the little man.
"Yes, you do." He responded.
"Well, if you are so sure of what I want, then why don't you just go get what I want for me and bring it back." I said smugly.
"Ok," The man replied simply and walked away.
"Hey!" I yelled after him. He didn't stop. He used his miniature legs to run toward the center of the giant store. What a strange little man, I thought to myself as I followed behind him. I followed him to the woman's department. I lost him though, when I saw all the beautiful clothes, in sizes big enough to fit even me. The man returned with some ladies clothing in his diminutive hands. "I think that I would like to try on this dress." I said, pointing to a hot little number that I had never before seen in my size.
"No," The man replied. "Those clothes aren't for you."
"What?" I asked, a little shocked at his comment.
"Very few of the clothes in this store will help you. These clothes here are more what you are looking for." He held out his little hands and revealed a skirt and blouse combination, and a two-piece swimsuit.
I shook my head. "If I'm going to by anything it is going to be a dress. I don't want a skirt or blouse, and I'm certainly not looking for a two-piece swimsuit. I rarely wear swimsuits, and when I do, it is always a one piece. I'm afraid that I haven't got the body type to feel comfortable in a two-piece if you know what I mean."
"No, the dresses will give you a whole different body type than what you are looking for." The dwarf stated.
"Body type?" I was starting to get really confused. "What do you mean body type?"
The little man sighed. "Ok, let me try to explain. I don't just sell clothes in here. In fact, clothes aren't even really the point at all. I sell hopes, and dreams, and wishes. More specifically, I sell body types. Like this body right here." The dwarf looked down at his own body.
"I'm sorry." I said softly.
"What are you sorry for?!" The dwarf barked back at me.
"Oh... uh... I didn't mean any disrespect." I felt a little embarrassed by my remark.
"You think this body of mine is a tragedy? You think it was some kind of mistake of nature? Nature had nothing to do with my body. My body is a result of some of the clothing in here. I wanted to be this size!" He yelled up at me.
"Why would anyone want to be two feet tall?" I asked, now completely bewildered.
"Why would anyone want to look like some damn Barbie doll?" He asked in response. He saw my confused looked and continued. "That is what you want to look like right? Like that Elisa woman?"
"How..." I was shocked. How did he know Elisa, and how did he know that I wanted to look like her. I had never told anyone about that.
"Not as bad as your other desire I guess. To make love to that pathetic little Elisa woman. Why would a receptive young woman like yourself be attracted to another woman? It's an abomination I think. A beautiful woman like yourself should be with a nice man, not some skinny, mean woman."
"Hey!" I yelled down at him.
"Look," He continued in a calmer tone. "I'm not here to judge you. I'm just here to sell you clothes. Hey, if you want to be like that skinny chick, that is your concern. Personally, I like big women. I like them tall and plump. You take my girlfriend for example, she is 6 feet tall and 350 lb. Now that is a whole lotta woman."
I chuckled. The thought of this little guy with a 6 foot, 350 lb. woman was rather amusing to me. The little man seemed annoyed by my laughter. I controlled myself and asked. "You said your form is a result of these clothes huh? Not that I really believe you or anything, but how did the clothes you used make you beautiful? That is the guarantee right? They will make you beautiful? Seems like most people would find dwarfs to be less than beautiful."
"In answer to your question, the clothes did make me beautiful. They made me beautiful, not to most people, but to the only person that really mattered, me. I couldn't imagine a much more beautiful form for myself, other than maybe being even smaller. I had thought about being 6 inches tall originally, but I didn't do it. I was afraid that I might get stepped on and killed. Looking back though, I think that I should have risked it and gone to 6 inch size." The man stated wistfully.
I smiled to myself at the irony that such a little man was weaving such a tall tale. "So why don't you buy some more clothes. Get some that will bring you from two feet to 6 inches?"
"I wish that I could." The man said longingly. "The magic of the clothes only works once, even for me, the humble seller. Once your body type changes, there is no turning back, nor is there any further changes that can be made. It's a one time deal."
I laughed heartily, not being able to control myself any longer. "That is really good. You've got a great knack for story-telling. Magic clothes and changing body types, that is one I'll have to remember. But seriously, I will try on this dress." I reached up and got the dress from off the rack. I suddenly wondered how the little man was able to get the clothes off the upper racks. I assumed that he must use some kind of ladder. As I brought down the pretty dress to get a closer look at it, the dwarf snatched it away from me.
"I said that is not for you!" He yelled.
"Ok, that's it! I'm out of here." I started to walk toward the entrance.
The dwarf yelled at me as I headed toward the door. "I certainly won't make you buy anything, but are you absolutely sure that you don't want to buy anything?" At that moment, I felt a sharp pain in my gut. I stumbled over to a nearby mirror to steady myself. The pain quickly disappeared. As I regained myself, I looked into the mirror upon which I had balanced myself, and looking back at me was not my usual hideous self, but a body very similar to that of Elisa. Some of the features where different though. The image that looked back at me was like a cross between Elisa and myself, or rather myself if I had a thinner and more attractive body. I looked down at my real body, and for just a second, I saw the beautiful body that had been reflected in the mirror, but in an instant it was gone, and the ugly body that I knew as my own returned to me.
"What the Hell?" I asked myself.
The dwarf approached me. "I shall explain no more. You may either buy, or you may leave, the choice is yours, but you will make that choice now. What is it to be?"
"I shall buy." I said in a voice so quiet as to almost be a whisper.
"I thought so." The man said with a smile. "When I asked you earlier what you wanted, I wasn't just being curious. I needed to know. I can only sell you one set of clothing. You must choose. Which is it to be?"
"What do you mean?" I asked in a voice that was still quiet and now a bit shaky.
The dwarf sighed. "I said that I didn't want to do any more explaining, but I guess that since you are now in a buying mood, I will. The skirt and blouse set will fulfill your wish. They will make you irresistible to Elisa after the very first time that you wear them. She will only be able to think of loving you. It will change your body type. After wearing this skirt and blouse, you will be changed into the man or her dreams."
"Man of her dreams?" I asked, a little disturbed.
"Of course, Elisa has no interest in women as you do. She is interested in men. After you wear these clothes, you will become the man of her greatest desire. I would suggest that if you choose to buy the skirt and blouse, that you change into them in a private place. The skirt and blouse are going to look rather inappropriate on your new body type once the change is over. Not only that, but you'll have to get a whole new male wardrobe. In addition, no one who knows you now will recognize you in your new body. Not to worry though, your new body will come with a new identity. No family or friends, but enough of an identity to keep you out of trouble I assure you.
"But, I don't want to be a man!" I protested.
"Ah, then perhaps you are more interested in the swimsuit. It will also fulfill a wish of yours. It will make you into the woman you saw in that mirror just a few moments ago. You will have a body type very similar to that of Elisa. Of course, Elisa will not have any attraction for you, being that she has no desire for women." The dwarf held out the articles of clothing. Both the skirt and blouse as well as the swimsuit looked lovely. The skirt was black and the blouse was a shimmery purple. The swimsuit was black and covered in a pretty golden design.
"But, I want both. I want to be an attractive woman like Elisa and I want her to love me." I was almost whining at this point, as I was beginning to believe this man's tales of bodily transformations.
"I only guarantee that you will be beautiful, either to yourself, or to the one you desire. I cannot guarantee that all your wishes will be fulfilled. So, what is it to be? Are you to be a beautifully handsome man in the eyes of Elisa, or are you to be a beautiful woman in your own eyes?" The dwarf waited evermore impatiently for an answer.
I grew frustrated. I just didn't know which I wanted more. I desperately wanted the love of Elisa. I wanted so much to make love to her, and to share intimacy with her. Yet, I also so much wanted to be rid of this hideous body, and live life as a beautiful woman. "I can't decide! Isn't there some way of looking like Elisa and being intimate with her at the same time?" I asked desperately.
"Well... I suppose you could always..." He trailed off.
"What, tell me? Is there a way?" I pleaded for him to tell me what I wanted to hear.
"There is a beauty of which you dare not speak, or even contemplate. The thoughts are within you, but buried away. Yet, being beautiful is not a sure road to happiness. You have to be prepared to live with the beauty you seek. I don't think you are prepared. You should leave now." The dwarf turned around and started to walk away from me.
"Please!" I begged. "Give me what I seek."
The man turned around and with a concerned look on his face said: "There is a way to get what you want. The solution is simple. You simply mix the sets. You need only wear half of each set at the same time. Here, take these." The man handed me the swimsuit top and the skirt. "Wear both of these items together, as if they were a matching set."
"How much do I owe you for these clothes?" I asked, expecting some incredibly exorbitant price, as I suddenly began to wonder if I wasn't being tricked into paying 50 times what the clothes were worth. I was, needless to say, shocked when the man quoted me the price of one cent. "One cent?! That's it? That's all it costs?"
The man shook his head. "No, it will cost you a lot more, but not costs of a pecuniary nature. I only hope you are prepared for the beauty that you seek."
I paid the one cent and took the skirt and swimsuit top home with me. The dwarf told me that the bodily change would start to occur only a few moments after I put on the clothing. He told me that I was to wear only the skirt and the top, and nothing else, not even any underwear under the skirt. I raced home, not wanting to wait for the transformation to begin. Finally, I would have the beautiful body that I always had wanted, and soon, Elisa would find me just as attractive as I had always found her.
I striped down naked and then pulled on the skirt over my large, naked butt. I then slipped my breasts into the bikini top. I stood in front of my mirror and looked at my usual ugly body. I waited. Nothing. I was beginning to think that I had been swindled. But how? I only paid a penny for this stuff. How is that being swindled? Perhaps that dwarf was just crazy. Just as I was about to sink into a state of depression, I felt strange. I felt lightheaded. The sight of my surroundings in my bedroom started to get blurry. Everything started to fade. Suddenly, everything around me was white. I was in a vast open nothingness. I was greatly disoriented and in what could only be described as a void. I felt frightened, and just as I was on the edge of absolute panic, images started to slowly reemerge. I grew a little more relaxed as solid patterns started to reappear. My relaxation was short lived however.
I began to realize that the surroundings that were reemerging to my vision were not the surroundings of my room, but of some other place. I couldn't tell where yet, it was still too blurry. Horror struck me. I wasn't alone. There was someone else here. Some was right beside me! The sounds which had been just as obscured as my vision suddenly came back to me in the form of a scream. The sight of the person next to me was still to blurry to make out, but I recognized the sound of the scream. It was Elisa's voice. My vision returned, and I realized that the person next to me was Elisa, and she was screaming. She was naked, and wet, and so was I. I realized that we were in a shower. My skirt and top had disappeared, and I was standing naked next to Elisa in some shower stall. I tried to move, but I was paralyzed. I stood still, right next to Elisa, not being able to move any part of my body other than my eyes. I looked over at Elisa and realized that she was having the same difficulty. She was not moving either, except for her eyes, and mouth from which the sounds of her screams emanated. I tried to speak, and found that I too could move my mouth and tongue. I thought for a moment, but all I could think of to say was "You are beautiful, Elisa!" I shouted it over the sounds of her screams.
I looked down at my body and realized that it was moving. Yet, it was not under my control. It was moving on its own. No, "moving" was not the right word. It was... morphing. My flabby body was changing shape. It was becoming tighter. My skin tone was becoming more healthy looking. I was quickly developing a body like Elisa's, tight, healthy, radiant, and buxom. Soon, I had a body that looked like a mirror image of Elisa's body. I felt my face changing too. I assumed that it was becoming more beautiful as well, just like the face I saw staring back at me in the mirror at the store. A face that was as beautiful as Elisa's and shared many of the same features, but had it's own look. The face was my own, but more beautiful than it had ever looked before.
I gazed down at my beautiful body as the transformation ceased. My tears of joy mixed with the water from the shower that rolled down my face. I looked over at Elisa. Her body was changing too! She was reaching out toward me, or at least her torso was. It was coming toward my torso, as if pulled toward it by some invisible force. Her skin touched mine, but the stretching didn't stop there. I felt her inside of me! I felt her ribs next to mine. I felt her intestines press up against mine, on the inside of my body! We were merging! The sides of our legs were coming together too. My right arm, and her left arm, disappeared, into the merged flesh in-between our bodies. Our shoulders pressed into one, as did our hips, as my right leg and her left leg seemed to just disappear. Our vaginas collided. I felt sexual excitement as our pussies merged into a single vagina. The right side of my vagina and the left side of hers just seemed to disappear, as the left side of my pussy and the right side of hers joined to form one single vagina shared by us both. Our shoulders stopped merging, and our heads came to rest on a single broad set of shoulders.
The merging stopped. The paralysis was gone. I could move. No, that wasn't right. I could only move half of my body, the left half. Yet, I could feel my entire body. I could feel all the sensations on the right side of my body, but I could not move it. I felt something new as well... a.... head! I felt the sensations of a second head to my right! I felt the eyes of that head blink, but yet I could not move the eyes, nor could I see out of them. I felt the movement of the tongue within the head to my right, but I could not move that tongue. The sensations I was receiving were so strange. I looked to my right, and saw Elisa looking back at me. When our eyes met, she let out a blood curdling scream that hurt my ears, and her ears as well. I could not hear through Elisa's ears, but I could feel the pain that her loud scream brought to them.
We stumbled out of the shower and managed to stand in front of the mirror. It was a very odd reflection that looked back at us. From the stomach down, we had the body of a single beautiful woman. We shared one belly button, one vagina, and two long, slender and beautiful legs. It seemed that I controlled the left leg, and that Elisa controlled the right leg. Yet, even though I couldn't control it, I could feel the right leg, and I could feel it being moved when Elisa chose to do so. From the stomach up to the shoulders, Elisa and I shared a chest that was similar to that of a single woman, but it was wider. So wide in fact, that it held three breasts rather than the normal two. The outer breasts appeared to be D-cup in size, and the middle breast was bigger, about a DD-cup in size. We had the arms of a normal woman. I controlled the left arm, and Elisa appeared to control the right one. Just like the legs, I could feel all of the sensations from the right arm even though I could not move it. Atop our shared shoulders, were two heads. The left head was mine, and the right head was hers. We had been conjoined. We were now two heads in control of one body. We looked like a two-headed woman, or a set of Siamese twins, except that the faces were different from each other, although both faces were lovely.
Elisa stopped her screaming, and now tears started to roll down her face. I could feel the tears as they streamed down her cheeks. Through the tears, Elisa managed to speak. "Who are you?! What have you done to me?" Elisa obviously either did not recognize, did not remember, or was unable to see my form before I had transformed from my usual self to the newer, slender and pretty me in the shower before we had merged.
I hesitated to answer for two reasons. First, I was stunned by the feeling of sound being made by Elisa's throat and mouth. I could feel every word which she was uttering, almost as if I was trying to speak; yet, it was detached. It was a throat separate from mine, but I could feel everything. I could feel the lump in her throat created by her sorrow that she felt for herself. Second, along with my amazement at the new sensations I was experiencing, I didn't quite know how to answer the question. This strange new body type of which half was mine, was not what I was expecting. I was expecting to be a beautiful woman whom Elisa would find irresistible. I wasn't expecting to be one half of some Siamese-twin-like conjoined being.
I was surprised that I was not crying right along with Elisa at this strange new form which I shared with her. I did, in fact, feel on the edge of tears, but not because of sorrow, but because I could sense the sorrow that Elisa felt. I sensed the lump in her throat. I felt the tears on her face. It was almost as if I felt her sadness. If I shed a tear, it would be out of sympathy for Elisa, not out of my own anguish. Why didn't this form bother me? I had just been denied half of my independence. I had just become dependent on another person for one half of everything. Almost everything I did in this new body would depend on the cooperation of my right-hand woman. I would need Elisa to walk, to run, to manipulate objects with two hands. Hell, we even shared the same lungs.
It was the beauty of which the dwarf had spoken. This conjoinment was the unspoken and uncontemplated beauty to which the dwarf eluded. He had wondered if I would be prepared to live in this strange manifestation of beauty that I had unknowingly created for myself. It appeared that the answer to that question was "yes." I was prepared. I found my new form to be shocking, but I did not find it to be horrifying or sad. In fact, the thought of sharing such intimacy with Elisa was quite appealing to me. I had wanted to be a beautiful woman. For some strange reason, I considered this conjoined form to be quite attractive. I also wanted to make love to Elisa, but I found the closeness that we now had to be even more intimate than any love making.
Now, the trick was to explain it to Elisa. Was I to be truthful, and admit that I was responsible in some way for this odd new body that we shared? Or, was I to be dishonest and say that I was just as shocked as she was? I don't like the prospect of being dishonest to my new second half, but I figured that now, in the midst of all the shock created by the new transformation, was not the best time to talk about my part in this affair. I lied to Elisa, and told her that I was just as shocked and upset as she was.
She asked again who I was. I tried to answer honestly, but discovered that I could not do so. I did not remember who I was. Actually, I did know who I was, but yet, I didn't. I had a sense of self. I had a memory of my past as a separate individual. I had a memory of all of my past experiences, but many of the faces and names where gone. It was as if someone had gone through my past and selectively erased all the identifying features of my life, while still leaving the memories themselves intact. For instance, I remember my eighth birthday party. I remember my mother bringing out the cake. I recall my father snapping pictures of me blowing out the candles. Yet, I didn't see the face of my father, or of my mother, nor did I remember their names, or where the house, that was the setting of the party, was located. All of my memories where like that. Many names and faces remained, like that of Elisa and of the dwarf, as well as many others, but none of people that would allow me to identify who I was. It was like everything that would provide me with information of those people and places that used to be important to me were gone.
Moreover, I didn't even remember my own name. Not only did I not remember it, but the name "Christi Bowden" came instantly to my mind whenever I tried to think of what my name was. I knew that this was not my name, but it was all that came to me. I told Elisa that Christi Bowden was my name, and I gave a sad little history of myself that was not true, but yet was even more vivid to me than my real memories were. My history as Christi Bowden was a sad tale that ended in me being without friends or family. I, or rather my new identity, was a true loner. The dwarf had mentioned something about a whole new identity being forged with the new body type. Apparently, Christi was my new identity.
Elisa didn't seem to suffer the same effect. When I asked her who she was, she told me exactly who she had been prior to the transformation. Her memories had remained intact. I could only assume that a new identity was formed only for the buyer of the clothes. The fact that Elisa hadn't been afforded a new identity was problematic. I soon learned from her that she was living in a sorority house, and that several of her sorority sisters where in the house. They would be in for quite a shock, as would everyone else who knew Elisa as she used to be.
We spent a long time in the bathroom, allowing Elisa to control her wild emotions at the occurrence of the transformation. Eventually, after Elisa had fought various bouts of sorrow and anger, she managed to gain a sense of sanity. In her fits of anger, Elisa had actually tried to "push" her left side away from her. Specifically, she used her right hand to roughly try and push my head away from hers. She was, of course, unsuccessful in doing anything but straining my neck a little. It quickly became all too obvious that my head was firmly attached to the same shoulders as her head.
Elisa was eventually able to control herself long enough to allow us to attempt to get dressed. The procedure was much more difficult that I had expected. We had no premonition of when and how exactly each of us were going to move our respective half of our body. In attempting to put her underwear and pants on our body, we fell over several times. We had to talk ourselves through each step of the dressing process. Eventually, we got our pants on. Now, the question was, what to do about our upper half. The bra that Elisa had taken off before getting into the shower was no longer of much use. It had two D cups. We now required two D-cups for the outer breasts, and a center DD cup for our middle breast. The shirt she had taken off before showering was also a problem. It only had one head hole. If we attempted to put both of our heads into that single opening, we would about choke ourselves. Looking at the shirt and realizing our new dressing problems, Elisa burst into a new fit of anger.
"Give me back my body, you bitch!" Her yells resounded loudly into my right ear which was very near to her mouth on our shared shoulders.
At that moment, we heard a knock at the bathroom door. "Are you talking to yourself in there, Elisa?" It was a pretty female voice, obviously one of Elisa's sorority sisters.
Elisa tried to compose herself and responded. "Um... not exactly." I let out a hearty laugh at Elisa's response. She was talking to herself in a sense, but yet talking to someone else. I found the thought of that to be rather amusing.
The sorority sister must have distinguished my voice from that of Elisa's voice. The sorority sister yelled through the door. "Oh my god, are you taking a shower with another woman in there? That is disgusting! Wait until the other sorority sisters find out that you are doing queer stuff in our bathroom. I don't think that they are going to like it, Elisa!"
"I... I'm not. Not really." Elisa struggled to speak as fresh tears streamed down her face.
"Then open the door." The voice outside the door demanded. Elisa sighed and then grabbed a towel with her hand and asked me to help wrap it around our torso. I complied. Elisa then slowly unlocked the door and turned the handle. When the door swung open, the woman outside caught a glimpse of my face and started to rail. "I knew you had another woman in there with yo...." The woman suddenly realized to her surprise that the head of the other woman was attached firmly to the shoulders of Elisa. The woman stood there in a state of shock, with her mouth gapping open. She finally managed: "What the hell?" She started to back away from us, as if she was looking at some horrible monster. The difficult explanations followed.
In the first months after our conjoinment, Elisa and I had a lot of explaining to do. The shock and confusion was a hard thing for us to explain away, especially since Elisa had no answers, and I was not willing to be forthright about my involvement in the affair. Our answers were usually just that it happened, and we did not know how or why. That was usually never enough to satisfy anyone. We drew large crowds whenever we'd make an appearance. We also got attention from the media, especially the tabloids. We were coined as the "two women who became one." We attained quite a bit of notoriety.
Some people did not try to explain it. Others came up with their own bizarre explanations. Some thought it was the work of aliens or the devil. Some people thought it was the work of god, as a punishment and a sign for a society that had grown too emotionally distant from one another. Some thought it was a complete hoax, that we were the result of fancy make up and special effects. Some thought that it was a partial hoax, that we were not the result of a "sudden conjoinment," but had been born as Siamese twins, and then one of us had plastic surgery to change the face just enough that we didn't look like twins. Several other strange theories abounded as well. I knew the truth, but would not tell anyone, at least not for the time being. The general consensus was that people found us freakish. Elisa's sorority sisters certainly didn't want us in the same house anymore. Luckily, it turned out that I, or rather my new identity, had a place to live. It seemed that the new identity not only came with a legal name, and history, but with a place to stay. Thank goodness for small favors.
We visited doctors shortly after Elisa made the shocking and traumatic visit to her parents and relatives, most of whom blamed me for the resulting form, not knowing how, but nonetheless assuming that my evil plans had created this strange conjoined form involving their little Elisa. The doctors were very interested and confounded by us. They ran a whole bunch of tests to see how this could have happened. They were unable to come to any conclusions about how the "sudden conjoinment" had occurred, but to the public's relief, they were able to rule out contagious disease as the cause. The doctors told us, much to Elisa's dismay that separation surgery might be possible, but that it was very likely that at least one of us would die and that if we did survive, that we would be severely handicapped. They said that we could live a much more healthy life staying conjoined, that despite our abnormality, we were in perfect health.
Learning to walk, and eventually run, was fairly easy. It was difficult at first, but we learned quickly. The more experience we got, the less we had to communicate about our movements. We got rather adept at anticipating each other's movements. Some communication was always required though. The very act of crossing our legs required getting the other's permission to lay our respective leg atop the other's leg. Of course, anything that required two hands to manipulate, necessitated a bit of coordination on our part as well.
What was more difficult for me than learning to walk, or coordinate efforts, was learning to tolerate Elisa's attitude. I didn't mind Elisa's pugnacious and conceited attitude before, but living only inches away from a mouthful of arrogant speech was a difficult task indeed. I was able to adapt though. We argued a lot, usually over the littlest of things. I got irritated by the little things as well, like Elisa's snoring. She didn't snore loudly or often, but when she did, there was no getting away from it other than by waking her up, which of course irritated her. Sleeping in itself is something that took some getting used to. One of us may be tired, and the other one may not be, but we had to decide on a time to go to bed regardless. I spent many a night desperately trying to get to sleep after Elisa fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Waking up is an issue too. One of us may have to lay in bed awake while the other gets just a few more precious minutes of sleep.
Nowadays, our typical day consists of countless examples of cooperation and coordination. We must decide when both of us are ready to get up out of bed. We must both decide what we will wear. The decision of what to wear is always a challenging one. I prefer to wear sexy skirts and dresses to show off what I feel is our lovely body. Elisa, on the other hand, prefers pants and clothing that helps to obscure a body which she still finds embarrassing. We usually trade off with my style of clothes one day, and her clothes the next, unless there is a specific event we are attending which calls for either formal or casual clothing. Clothing for us is expensive. We have to have all of our tops specially made. Our tops have to conform to two heads and three large breasts on a single body.
The very act of slipping into a pair of pantyhose is a lesson in cooperation. One of us will raise our respective leg, and we will use our hands, her controlling one, and I the other, to slip the slick, soft fabric over our toes and up our leg. Then, we repeat the process with the other leg, and it is the other's responsibility to raise the leg up. Putting on our specially-made three-cupped bra is much the same. We will bend over slightly with our shared back, and each of us will place a strap of the bra over our respective shoulder. Then I'll position our left breast into the left cup while she positions our right breast into the right cup, and then one of us will do the same for our middle breast. We will then use the arms over which we have control to hook the bra in the back.
Autonomy is something that is an issue as well. Many people tend to treat us as if we were one single person. In other words, one person with two heads, rather than the two heads and two individual minds controlling one body that we actually are. I always find it annoying when someone asks us what we want, and then turns away after only one of us has answered, as if my tastes couldn't possibly differ from Elisa's. Such is often the case at restaurants. Sure, it all ends up in the same stomach, but I enjoy the experience of tasting food too, and I can safely say that my taste in what constitutes good food differs dramatically from Elisa's. In addition, many times, people will look at us and ask a question without first prefacing the question with one of our names. A look is enough for most people, but since our heads are so close together, it is often impossible to tell to whom the question was directed.
Showering is an example of teamwork as well. We typically use two bars of soap. I mostly lather up the parts of our body on the left side while she lathers mainly on the right side. The lingering modesty of our old individual selves made the first few showers an ordeal of awkwardness, but modesty soon went out the window. It was hard to remain modest around each other for too long considering that we have no choice but to always use the bathroom together. Modesty prevented us from engaging in masturbation for some time as well, but it wasn't long before the curiosity of experimenting with a shared vagina got the better of us. It is sort of like masturbation in that only one vagina is involved, but kind of like sex as well in that two people are participating. We both feel the same sensations from our shared sex. I know exactly the pleasure that Elisa is feeling because I am feeling it too. In fact, we often moan at the same time, feeling the same sexual sensations at the exact same time.
I'm quite satisfied sexually with just our shared masturbation. Elisa is the lover that I always wanted after all. Elisa never gave up her desire for men though. She need never tell me when she finds a man sexually alluring. I can feel the heat rising from our shared sex. I feel turned on vicariously. When she sees a man that she is sexually attracted to, I feel the attraction in our shared vagina as she looks at him with feelings of passion. I, of course, don't feel the same passion for whomever she is eyeing, but I do feel the pleasure of the feelings that her passion creates in our shared body. Elisa has a boyfriend, which sort of makes him my boyfriend too I suppose, even though I have no intimate feelings for him. Nonetheless, he is sleeping with me. Whenever he penetrates Elisa's pussy, he is penetrating mine as well. I am not attracted to this man, or any other, but I contribute to the sex out of respect for my right half. I make the occasional kiss to Elisa's boyfriend, but leave most of the love making to her.
I can't help but wonder if Elisa is cognizant of the fact that every time that her boyfriend sleeps with her, he is also cheating on her with me. I never say it like that to her, but I can't help but think of it like that sometimes. When he has sex with her, he is also having sex with me. True, he is penetrating the same vagina, but it is not hers alone. I think her boyfriend is interested in our conjoined form. He claims to only be interested in Elisa, and that he is open-minded enough to accept that she shares a body with me, but I suspect that his true attraction is to our conjoined form, and that he is sleeping with two women at the same time, but yet only penetrating one vagina.
I had been given my wish. I had wished that I could look like Elisa and be intimate with her at the same time. I certainly looked like her, being that I was her in a sense. As for intimacy, there was no greater intimacy than what we shared now. True, the body type that I had been given was not the one which I had expected, but I nevertheless found great beauty in it. The dwarf was right when he said there would be more costs though. The added cost of this form was some of my individuality. It didn't bother me in the same way it bothered Elisa though. After a while, I didn't consider it to be a loss of individuality. I soon began to consider Elisa as part of my individuality. I don't mean that I considered us to be one person, but that privacy was something that I didn't need to have from her, and that we could still have privacy together. Another cost was, of course, my old identity . I didn't mind that cost much either. I did miss my the faceless memory of my parents, but they only remember me as the pathetic, ugly, fat girl. I would prefer those memories to die anyway. I wondered if my parents remembered me, or if memories of me were completely wiped clean for them. I might never know. I could only hope that the memories of me were completely erased. I hated to think that they might remember me, and miss me.
Eventually, I told Elisa the truth about the clothing store. I told her about how I, not Christi, as a fat and homely girl, whose name I could not even remember, had lived a whole other life with a whole other family whose names and faces I could no longer remember. I explained how my true and hidden identity had longed to look and love the great and popular Elisa. I explained how I became obsessed with Elisa, and how the man at the clothing store had provided me with a ray of light, a hope that could only be created through magic.
Elisa was angered with me after I told her. She wasn't angered by the fact that I had helped to create the conjoined form which she still hated, but that I would make up such a story. Elisa did not believe me. Why would she? There was no store on Old Oak Road. You see, the mysterious store is no longer there. As far as anyone else seemed to know, it had never been there. I had been the one an only customer... at this location anyway. I wondered just what other locations the store might emerge at, and even more, I wonder if anyone else could find beauty in being one half of a shared body.