Jon felt behind him for the doorknob and turned it. "Sorry, I really have to go," he said, and got halfway out the door before turning back to a disappointed-looking Mrs. Black. "I think Mr. Black is in the den."
He shut the front door behind him and hurried down the sidewalk -- "hurried" being a relative term with his large breasts and small feet altering his balance -- halfway afraid that Mrs. Black would call after him.
If she had, though, he probably couldn't have heard it, given that the Blacks' across-the-street neighbor was having some landscaping work done, and a gardener was using a noisy gas-powered trimmer to take care of some weeds.
Jon had to stop to catch his breath, inhaling both his scent and the scent of the fresh-cut vegetation from across the street.
He caught the gardener's eye -- a Latino man, maybe college age or a little older -- and Jon turned away quickly to start walking toward home. The sound of the trimmer continued, which was probably a good sign.
Jon's family didn't hire a gardener or a lawn service, which meant Jon did most of the yard work. The thought suddenly crossed his mind -- in the reality created by his current form, did his father still make him mow the grass? It didn't seem safe with the high-heeled shoes and the large breasts, and --
He heard himself saying, "I wish I had perfectly smooth skin that I never had to shave or wax."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his hand flash, and then felt a brief tingling over most of his body.
He stopped and looked down. The hair on his arms was gone, as was -- he peered past the mounds on his chest -- the hair on his legs. He reached up to touch his face, but instead of the light five-o'-clock shadow he would have expected, it was the "perfectly smooth" he'd wished for.
He shook his head and continued walking. Landscaping had triggered his wish, which was for something only tangentially related. If that could happen, maybe there wouldn't really be any advantage to being at home instead of at Karyn's, or anywhere else. Still, at least he might be more comfortable trying to think of a solution at home. But he still had several blocks to go.
