When the phone rang, it was a bit of a surprise for Mrs. Grayson. They had been getting calls nearly every fifteen minutes in the first couple weeks since the sun changed, since Fred had disappeared. Police calling to report in on the status of the search, friends and relatives expressing their sympathy and concern, the occasional news person who had picked their son out of all the other people left unaccounted for in the aftermath of the event.
But that had tapered off; most of the other "missing" persons turned up in some new form, and the police simply couldn't find any new leads in her son's disappearance, the news people got bored of the subject as it became less of an issue, and there was little that their friends could offer that they hadn't said several times already. And, honestly, it was probably for the best; between the emotional stress and the switch to a night schedule, both she and her husband were completely exhausted. She almost considered letting the answering machine take it, but...somehow she wound up picking it up out of habit.
"Hello," she said.
"Deanna...Grayson?" a young woman's voice said. It sounded a little peculiar, but so did a lot of people these days. "I...I'm calling about...about your son."
She sighed; she wanted to hang up right then and there, but...she didn't. "Are you with the TV people?" she asked. "We're tired of talking about it. Please stop calling us."
"N-no, I'm not...not with a news agency," the caller said. She sounded...troubled. Why would she be distressed by this? "I...I'm calling because I..."
There was a pause. "I'm calling because I have information on...on your son," she said.
Mrs. Grayson gasped. "Y-you...do you know where he is? Is he all right!?"
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "He's...he's okay," the caller said. "Is your computer on?"
She frowned. "What? What does that have to do with anything? Tell me where he is!"
"It's...it's easier to show you than to explain," the caller said. "Just...is it on? Can you see the screen?"
She felt like hanging up again. She didn't want to be jerked around; this wasn't a game! But...something in the caller's voice kept her on the line; somehow this young woman sounded...sad, like she herself was hurt by this... "I can see it," she said, peering at the monitor.
"Okay, hang on." There was a pause, and...something began to take shape on the screen. It was...a person!? Not webcam footage like she'd see in Skype, but a...a sort of stylized, animated young woman drawn right on the desktop. How did this work? She really didn't know all that much about computers, that had been Fred's department, but she couldn't recall ever installing anything like this...
The young woman stood up, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but it took a minute for her to actually work up the nerve to speak.
"H-hi, M...Mom," she said.
Mrs. Grayson stared at the screen, not really comprehending, for a moment. Effie could see her through the webcam; it was a chintzy USB model they never bothered to turn off. Grainy as the footage was, it was triggering something in her; the pictures were only static images to her, but...something about seeing this woman in motion, the little movements in her face as realization flickered across it...little bits and pieces were beginning to come back to her, data that hadn't been accessed in so very long, but was never purged...
"FREDDIE!?" Mrs. Grayson yelped. It...it couldn't be! She'd heard of the sun doing things like this, but for it to actually happen, to someone in her own family...but what if it was true? Was...was this really... "A-are you...are you really...my son?" she asked.
The girl cringed, and she realized she must have struck a nerve. "I...I am...what he's become," she said. What's left of him, she'd wanted to say, but she knew it would've bothered Dennis. "I'm...I'm a computer program now, they call us 'digital fairies.' My...my name's...Effie."
Her mother frowned. "Y-you changed your...your name?"
The WinME fairy sighed. "Not by choice...my old one was deleted. I didn't even know what it was until you said it."
"Deleted?" her mom said. "W-well, you can't, you know, un-delete it?"
Effie shook her head. "No, it was...it was gone. I lost some other things...I remembered about you and Dad, but...I couldn't remember our last name...I might have forgotten other things too, I don't know how to know if I've forgotten something when I can't remember ever having known it... M-mom, I...I'm not the same as I was...I'm sorry. I was him...I remember being him...but...I'm different now. I...I'm sorry..." She sank to her knees, and her mother could see that she was crying.
"H-hey, honey, you don't need to...to be sorry," her mom said. "I...I didn't mean it like that...but how did it get deleted? Is it safe where you are? Could you...could you come back home?"
Effie sighed. "No...I couldn't run on your computer, not fast enough to live at the same speed you do. I spent weeks just waking up and finding my way out of my ME box when I changed...but I have a host now, she's a nice person, and since she's a robot she's powerful enough to run me and...my friend as well as her own code. And she has better security, so she can keep out people like...the ones who..." She shuddered. "Who...deleted parts of my mem-memories..."
Her mother gasped. "People did that to you!?" she said. "They should be in jail! Haven't you talked to the police?"
She shrugged. "They're...they're software, like me," she said. "The normal police can't just slap handcuffs on them. But...there are people trying to put a stop to...to behavior like that. Right now, though, I'm just...trying to keep a low profile, and...and...get used to...to this."
"Oh..." Mrs. Grayson said. "Fr...Effie, honey, are...is that just how the computer draws you, or...are you...?"
Effie smiled sadly. "It's...it's all kind of the same, really," she said. "But...yeah. I'm...I'm a g-girl, however that applies here..." She'd pondered what the functional implications of this might be before, but she didn't really want to go back to that subject at the moment. "I'm...I know I'm so different from...from how you knew me," she said. "I...I'm sorry, Mom, I wanted...I wanted to come back to you like I was, but...it's so dangerous to try and change anything, I looked into it but it's just so difficult..."
Her mom sighed. "It's...it's okay, honey," she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's okay...I'm just so happy you're alive...I'm so glad you're safe. C-could you w-wait here while I...while I go get...your f-father?"
Effie nodded and watched her mother go, then started crying again. She felt Dennis's hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze; he knelt next to her, though he didn't manifest on the screen. "It's okay," he said. "It'll be okay."
"Th-thank you," she sniffed. "You...you were right..."
Max stepped into the counselor's office feeling nervous and self-conscious. It had been weird enough being like this at home, but when she was out and about, when she was moving around so much, she could feel it...even with her breasts restrained, she could feel the little motions that the simple act of walking set off in them. Not so visible as when she hadn't had this bra, but still...she shivered slightly. At least the counselor was a woman, so she wouldn't have to feel like someone was staring at her...to be honest she didn't really have any idea how much attention she was actually drawing, but it felt like people were watching, to her...
She gasped as she looked up. The counselor...Max wasn't all that versed in classical mythology, but she'd seen this creature in a handful of video games. She stood and stared, part of her wanting to turn and run, part of her trying to reassure herself...the woman was smiling, after all, so she couldn't...couldn't be dangerous...could she?
"Hello," the Gorgon said. "You're Max, correct?" The cat-girl nodded meekly. "Have a seat, if you like," she continued. "Or...if you're uncomfortable right now, we could do this another time."
"N-no, that's o-okay," Max said, edging over to the chair opposite the counselor's. She knew she probably seemed rude to be reacting like this, but...well, at least the counselor didn't seem too offended...
"Now, I read in your file that you changed about a week ago, correct?" the older woman asked. Max nodded, shuddering a little as she thought back to the day of her change. "Well," she continued, "it's encouraging that you're back in school so quickly. How do you feel about this?"
"Um, what's 'this?'" Max asked.
"Returning to school," the counselor said. "Though obviously I'd like to know how you feel about your situation in general."
The cat-girl sighed. "I...don't know. My dad thought I should get back to classes so I wouldn't fall behind, and I guess he's right, but...I don't really feel...ready for this."
"Mmm. Is there anything in particular that bothers you about it?"
She cringed a little; it was one thing to talk to Jon about this, her friend and someone who knew what she was going through, but to share it with a stranger...even if this stranger was a woman and a professional... "Um," she said, "I...um, I keep feeling like...like people are probably staring at me...'cause of my...my b-breasts..."
"Ah," said the Gorgon, her hair-snakes bobbing, somehow managing to look thoughtful in the process. "Can you tell me, Max, is it being built like this that bothers you, or is it the feeling that it draws attention?"
"I...I think it's the attention," Max said. "I mean, just having 'em feels weird, and they're...kind of a pain to deal with, I mean, with the specialty underwear and all, but it's not like it's painful or anything...it just makes me look like a freak, and gets everybody's attention..."
A frown flickered across the counselor's face. "Now, Max," she said, "you're talking a lot about drawing people's attention...have you actually seen them staring at you?"
"Well, uh, no..." Max sighed, ears drooping. "I just...I feel like people are watching me, but no, I haven't seen them..."
The counselor nodded. "I see. Max, have you thought that...maybe you feel that way because you yourself aren't comfortable with your new body?"
The cat-girl frowned. "What? What do you mean?"
"Well," the counselor said, hunching forward (which looked difficult to do with a tail,) "if you haven't actually seen anybody staring at you, or heard them saying anything, that means that the person we've heard the most from about your new form is you, Max. Specifically, that you think you look like a freak, and that you think this body draws a lot of unwanted attention. I think you're blowing this out of proportion because you perceive it as such a big change. Which it is, certainly, but it's not so clearly evident for others as it is for you."
"B-but...but look at me!" Max sputtered. "H-how many other people do you see with...with these?"
"'These' in general, quite often," the counselor smirked. "But if you're referring to unusual configurations...here, in the school? You're the only one that I know of. But there's other people in the area who share that with you; you might even have seen one or two of them, if you were out and about during the daytime before now."
She laughed. "But look around you, Max. You're in a different world now, surrounded by people with all kinds of different changes. There are things about you that are less than common, yes, but you don't stand out as much as you think you do."
"...Oh," the cat-girl said. She...she wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was nice to hear that maybe it wasn't such a big deal as she'd thought, but...it didn't make it not weird.
"Obviously, it's still going to take some getting used to," the counselor said. "But I think you'll find that you don't draw that much more attention than other girls your age. But...if you ever want to talk about it, please don't hesitate to stop in."
Max balked at the idea of getting attention as a girl, and she almost wanted to ask about that, but...she wasn't sure she'd like what she heard, and anyway she wanted to get going. "Um, yeah," she said. "And...thanks..."
The Gorgon smiled, hair-snakes springing up in cheery array around her head. "Any time," she said.
