Cecelia was turning out to be the kind of girl he’d always dreamed about. She was kind, sweet, fun loving, sensitive, and she seemed to be quite open to strange things. Davy had found himself telling her about his telepathy on their first afternoon together, something he hadn’t really told anyone – except of course for Micky, Peter, and Mike, since they already knew. But somehow, telling Cecelia had seemed natural. And she had reacted calmly, as though it was the sort of thing one encountered daily. Which of course he was thrilled about.
If it had been anyone else, Davy would have found it concerning how much he could trust her. But he couldn’t sense anything bad about her. He could sense her emotions and her thoughts like anyone else’s, so he knew there was nothing strange about her. But something was different. Something that made her seem so much different from every other girl he’d ever known. In a good way, of course.
As he approached the Pad, he noticed that Mike was driving the big car out of the driveway. “Hey!” he shouted. “Wait up!”
The car paused in the street in front of the Pad and Davy hopped into to the middle seat. Before he could even buckle himself in, the car sped off again.
“Where are we going?” he shouted over the roar of the engine as soon as he had buckled himself in. He looked around and noticed that everyone was there. Mike was driving, Thomas was in the front seat next to him, Robert was in a new car seat next to him, and Micky and Jenny were behind him. Mike didn’t seem to hear him, so he turned to Micky and Jenny and repeated his question.
“To the vets,” Micky replied simply.
The drive would have normally taken about twenty or thirty minutes. With luck from the lights and Mike’s ignorance towards stop signs, they arrived in fifteen. Mike parked the car in front of the building and everyone got out, feeling like their hair had been blown back permanently.
Davy brought Robert along since he was sitting next to him and it seemed Mike wasn’t eager to remember him.
Joel met them at the door. They were getting ready to close down for the day, but he let them all in. “Wow, we’ve got a whole crowd today, don’t we?” he commented with a grin.
“Yep,” Micky replied, introducing himself, Jenny, and baby Robert, since they hadn’t met yet.
“Where’s he at?” Mike asked impatiently as soon as they’d been introduced.
“In the back,” Joel replied. “Here, I’ll show you.” He headed off down the hall way, the five visitors (plus the baby) following behind him.
Peter appeared astonished (as astonished as a dog can look, anyway) to see all of them there.
’Wow,’ he said. ‘You all didn’t have to come!’
“No,” Thomas assured him. “But we wanted to.”
“Well I guess you’re ready to head home then, huh?” Theresa asked from the doorway.
’Yes ma’am,’ Peter replied politely.
“Okay then. Whenever you’re ready.”
Everyone stared.
Theresa and Joel stood near each other, expressions of disbelief mixed with intrigue, curiosity and excitement. Davy held Robert, who appeared to be very quiet lately. Mike and Micky looked on with anticipation but not as much excitement, as they’d seen it all a hundred times. Jenny was a bit more interested. She’d heard, but never seen. And Thomas appeared the calmest of all, although he, too, was relatively new at watching transformations.
Peter began to feel a little bit nervous. He took a deep breath and concentrated.
The light blue glow began around him and it intensified as he continued to concentrate. Nothing appeared to be happening for a few seconds, and even Mike, Davy, Micky, and Thomas began to get a bit worried.
The transformation began slowly. First his ears grew smaller. It was almost unnoticeable at first, but then it became apparent and they shrunk down quickly. Theresa let out and audible gasp, and Joel’s eyes grew wide. The hair on the ears receded completely. Then the face began to reshape. The nose grew smaller, the eyes changed shape, the teeth began to dull and flatten. His feet were at the same time slowly changing shape into human hands and feet, the hair at the same time receding quickly. The tail disappeared quickly, shrinking back into the spinal cord. The legs grew longer in the back. The front legs developed hands and thumbs. Organs rearranged themselves.
Then it was all over.
There happened to be a blanket in the room, and someone – though no one later could recall who exactly – handed it to Peter, and he wrapped it around himself, shivering slightly. In the stunned silence afterwards, no one appeared to notice his lack of clothes.
Joel was the first of the new-comers to react. “Wow,” he breathed, more fascinated than stunned. “That was amazing.”
“Amazing?” Peter repeated, looking at him with an expression of disbelief.
“Yeah!” he replied. “I never knew stuff like that happened in real life! It’s pretty cool!”
Peter glanced towards Mike, Micky, and Davy. Then he laughed. “It is, kind of,” he agreed with a smile. Soon most of the rest of the room was laughing along with him.
Theresa was the only one who appeared silent. “I know you, don’t I?” she asked.
Peter sobered immediately. “Yeah, you did,” he replied.
“What?” Mike asked. “How? When?”
“A long time ago,” Theresa stated.
“Yeah,” Peter agreed.
“Who is she to you, Petah?” Davy asked. “An old gi’lfriend?”
Peter shook his head. “No,” he replied. He glanced towards Joel. “When I met her she was already taken.”
“I remember you now!” Joel realized suddenly. “But you didn’t go by Peter then. It was something else.”
Peter nodded.
“That’s right!” Theresa agreed. “He was Paul.”
“Paul? ” Davy, Micky, and Mike repeated in unison. Thomas and Jenny both stared.
Peter nodded again.
“Why Paul?” Micky asked.
Peter shrugged. “Somebody suggested the name,” he replied. “It fit, sort of.”
“What was the matter with your regular name?” Jenny wondered aloud.
“He didn’t remember it,” Joel recalled.
“That’s right,” Theresa agreed. “He had amnesia.”
“Amnesia?” Mike asked. “When was this?”
“Oh! When Pletah was there,” Davy realized.
“Pleter?” Jenny, Thomas, Joel, and Theresa asked in unison.
“Yeah,” Micky agreed. “That musta been when, right Pete?”
Peter nodded.
”Who’s Pleter?” Jenny asked. “And what kind of a name is that?”
“Thomas gave it to him,” Mike recalled, somewhat surprised at the boy’s confused expression.
“I did?” Thomas asked.
“Yeah,” Micky continued. “Pleter was his evil double. Thomas and Davy were the only ones that figured it out.”
Davy nodded. “That’s right. Petah disappeared for a while there. I always wondered what ‘appened to ‘im then.”
“Wandered around, mostly,” Peter stated. “But I spent some time here.”
“Yeah, you did,” Joel remembered. “You lived with that old lady down in that big house. Well, she wasn’t that old then.”
Peter laughed a little. “Nope, she was kinda young then,” he agreed.
“Well this calls for a celebration,” Jenny decided. “We need a big party.”
“That’s right, we do!” Micky agreed. “We were gonna go out and celebrate anyway. If Peter’s up to it, we’ll all go out tonight!”
“Out?” Peter asked.
“Just to dinner,” Jenny added. “We’ve got celebrating to do.”
“I’m okay with dinner,” Peter replied.
“Good. We’ve got four things to celebrate,” Micky decided.
“Four?” Peter asked.
“You being well again,” Mike began.
“The baby’s room being almost done,” Davy added, still holding Robert.
“Meeting old friends,” Theresa suggested.
“And our engagement!” Micky and Jenny said together, grinning from ear to ear.
The excitement was nearly enough to make poor Peter faint again.
But he didn’t. In fact he got through the evening spectacularly well. The whole group headed out and dressed up to go out. Then they met back at the Pad before heading out to a fancy restaurant.
They had to wait forty-five minutes to get a table big enough to hold eleven people in the busy restaurant, but it was worth it. Nicole got a few kind neighbors to watch after all three babies, but Thomas and Joanne both came along. Davy immediately invited Cecelia, finding it the perfect time to introduce her to everyone.
The resulting dinner party was huge, chaotic, and noisy, but a lot of fun. And they all agreed, to the restaurant owner’s combined dismay and delight, that they simply had to do it again sometime.
