I let myself in through the side gate. Jacob had moved out months ago, but his mom said I could still use the pool.
Someone was here, sitting on the edge of the pool, ankles in the water, leaning back on her arms. At first, I didn’t recognize her.
It was Mrs. Keller. I thought she was supposed to be on vacation but I guess she’d come back early.
Except she was huge now. Her whole body looked swollen—thicker in the thighs, her hips spreading wide over the tiles, her belly soft and heavy above the tight line of her bikini bottom. Her chest strained against a teal top that clearly wasn’t made for whatever she’d become. Her skin glistened, freckled and wet, and her face…
Her nose had turned into a blunt, fleshy snout. Her ears had curled into pointed pig-like flaps. She blinked slowly, catching me standing there like an idiot.
“Well,” she said flatly. “Guess I forgot to lock the gate.”
I tried to say something, but nothing came out.
She sighed. “You don’t have to freak out. I’m not contagious.”
“What… what happened?” I finally asked.
“Midlife crisis,” she said, flatly. “Thought I’d try something new instead of getting a facelift or dating a yoga instructor.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “Signed up for a gene therapy. Experimental stuff. They called it ‘biological rejuvenation.’ Supposed to boost metabolism, reverse cellular aging. I figured what the hell—better than Botox.”
She finally looked right at me, and I flinched. The snout wasn’t subtle. Thick and fleshy, curled slightly at the tip. Her nostrils flared when she exhaled.
“They said it was based on adaptive mammalian DNA,” she continued. “Didn’t mention that meant pig. Something about porcine genomes being stable, efficient, blah blah.”
She waved a hand at her body. “Only they screwed something up. My cells didn’t just rejuvenate. They rewrote themselves. And kept going.”
I stared at her—at the way her body had bulked out in all the right places…
“I’m in litigation now,” she added. “I’m ugly but at least I’ll be rich.”
She looked me up and down, then went back to gazing at the pool.
“Well?” she said. “Water’s warm. Or are you just going to stand there and gawk?”
