Chapter 3 — Misstep

Ness was having a good day. She liked the face she saw in the mirror that morning; it felt like all the years of HRT — never mind the expensive and uncomfortable facial feminization surgery — had finally paid off. It wasn’t the first time, but she relished the feeling of warmth while she had it.

She had opted for the tail and ears, too. The first time she had worn them out in public, she’d been almost as nervous as the first time she had worn women’s clothing. It felt like a transgression, and even though it was just a quick walk to the corner bodega, she had felt anxious and on edge. The time after that was easier.

She wore them most days, now; they were starting to feel like a part of her, and they helped her tap into the sense of joy and bubbliness that had been missing from her life for so many decades. Sometimes just putting the ears on could turn her mood around; she imagined it was like drawing energy from an elemental plane of puppy energy, and the thought always made her giggle.

The weather outside was unusually pleasant; warm and a little breezy, and she’d opted for a crop graphic tee and some lightweight synthetic cargo pants. She finished the look with her pair of docs. She had a love/hate relationship with the boots; those were her third pair; the first two wore out after only a year o two. The build quality sucked and they weren’t that comfortable; but especially with that day’s outfit, the aesthetic was exactly right. At least that pair was pretty new, and the soles hadn’t quite cracked or blown out yet.

That day was meetup day across the city, and she’d decided to walk the few miles to the beer garden; the route mostly took her through the city’s expansive park, and she looked forward to the sun and warmth and nature. She thought of herself as a walking kind of person- a few miles across town for an event was pretty standard fare for her, and might explain why she tended to go through boots so quickly. She rubbed sunscreen into her face and arms, and set out.

The first half mile or so from her apartment was the least interesting part of the trek; blocks of concrete and asphalt along mostly the same old small converted apartment buildings. Sometimes she was lucky enough to see a bodega cat along the way, but none were in evidence, and she didn’t want to bother actually poking her head into any of the little stores.

The park was as welcoming as ever- verdant green and lush grass, organic winding trails through the half-wild, half-manicured green space. She had picked her apartment for its proximity to the park- as close as she could afford, anyway. There were homes across the street, with permanent views of the lush greenery, but she regrettably lacked the millions upon millions of dollars it cost to live in them.

Her spirits dimmed a little bit when clouds started to roll in; halfway through the park phase of her walk. The weather forecast had not predicted clouds, but no forecast was perfect. She hurried along the park trail, focusing less on enjoying nature, at that point, and more on getting out to the street at the far side so that she could call an uber.

Her mood really started to turn when she realized she was lost; she had walked through the park that way a number of times in the past, but typically not in a rush. She only realized that she had taken a wrong turn when the trail she was following dead-ended in a remarkably circular clearing, surrounded by a copse of tall, thin oak trees.

She wandered, annoyed, into the circle of trees while she dug out her cell phone to pull up its map app and find out exactly how lost she was. A completely neurotypical part of her brain noted helpfully that there were thirteen trees, a number both prime and particularly delightful.

The clouds overhead had grown thicker, and ominous; the forecast had said nothing about rain, but the clouds above threatened storms and torrents, and she was feeling annoyed and frustrated.

As she tapped the power button on the side of her phone, the world turned white, and she was hit with a sound so loud it felt like a physical force. Her first thought was that her phone had exploded in her hand.

Her vision returned before the ringing in her ears dimmed. Nothing hurt- which was a significant flaw in her exploded phone hypothesis; and the little black rectangle of glass in her hand was still a little black rectangle of glass. It was, in fact, a stubbornly black rectangle of glass, despite pushing the button on the side a few extra times, for good measure. She shoved it back into her pocket, annoyance mounting.

She looked up, expecting to see some clue as to the source of the painfully bright flash and oppressively large sound. She wasn’t sure precisely what she expected to see.

She didn’t expect there to be a woman standing just in front of her, looking almost exactly as surprised as she felt.