One: Meteorite

 

 

Middleburgh, New York

Friday

Eleanor Andersen hefted her carrying platter and struggled across the restaurant floor to the dish tub beside the kitchen entrance, darting through the obstacle course of small tables and chairs filling the dining area. She rested the platter on the side of the tub and straightened her five-foot frame to ease the sensation of strain in her back. A touch on her shoulder interrupted her emptying the platter into the dish tub and she turned to see the homely face of her employer Kevin Corcoran, the owner of the Rusty Nail Bar & Restaurant. He was a short, jovial, potbellied man with scanty hair and a constant, gaptoothed smile.

"Ellie, it’s seven o’clock. You should go home now. The room is quiet and the weather’s starting to look bad."

Ellie looked around him at the uncurtained front window. It was almost full dark outside. In the light of the outside sign she could see a hanging planter swaying on its hook from the restaurant’s rafters. Droplets of rain smeared the glass.

"I don’t mind staying until closing--" Ellie began. She had worked since six that morning to cover for another waitress who called in sick. Kevin shook his head.

"It’s okay," he replied, one ham hand sweeping the dining room. Only two tables were occupied and were being attended by Marlene, the other night waitress. The others were empty.

"Marly can handle the two tables we have and we’re not going to get any more patrons in the dining room tonight."

Ellie brushed away some crumbs from her apron. She was tired after pulling a full thirteen-hour day. She ran her hand through her short auburn hair, looked up at Kevin and smiled.

"Okay by me," she replied. Kevin nodded and wandered back to his accustomed place behind the bar. Ellie looked around the dining room one more time, her experienced eye seeking anything that needed cleaning or straightening before she left. The room was clean. Ellie added her platter to the neat stack beside the waitress station, pitched her apron in the laundry bin and waved her good-byes to the other staff.

Her boss was right about the weather. The rain was cold--a few degrees colder this November night and it would become icy. Ellie straightened herself in the car seat, trying to ease the fatigue in back and neck as she steered her five-year old Ford onto Route 44, heading for her home. Yawning, she turned on her car radio in the hope the noise would help her to stay alert. The car heater warmed the interior and she began to relax. The tune on the radio was familiar to her and she hummed along with the song until it ended.

The radio disc jockey announced that it was seven thirty p.m. when startlingly loud static suddenly roared from the car speakers. As she reached to turn down the noise a brilliant light appeared in front of the car, blinding her. Ellie jammed on the brakes. The Ford swerved wildly on the slick roadway. With a stunning bang the car jumped the curb and thudded into the drainage scree beside the highway. It spun as one tire blew out then came to a stop.

Ellie sat still, stunned. She shook her head to clear it. The engine was still running and she fumbled to find the key and turn it off. The cabin of the car seemed to cool rapidly and she began to shiver. Another light appeared through the rear windshield, a light that gradually grew brighter. She turned and shielded her eyes with a hand as lights slowly came to a stop behind her. She heard a car door open, then saw a smaller light jolting its way towards her.

"Are you all right?" she heard a muffled voice call out. The light moved from the rear of her car to the driver’s side door. The door opened, admitting raw outside air. Ellie shielded her eyes from the glare of the flashlight and looked up.

"Yes-yes, I think so," she replied. The man with the flashlight looked her over carefully.

"I’m going to unbuckle you. Okay?" the man asked. Ellie nodded.

"That must have been some ride," the man said. "Are you hurt? What happened? Did one of your tires blow out?"

Ellie hugged herself as the icy wind-driven rain soaked her.

"I-I think I’m okay. I saw a bright light flash in front of me. I stepped on the brakes, and I guess I skidded off the road." She shook her head. The man whistled.

"Maybe it was another car," he said. "Here, take my light. I’m going to call for help. I’ll be right back to you in one minute, okay?"

Ellie nodded, and the man ran back to his car. She stepped out, mincing carefully on the sharp stones of the scree to the front of her car. She saw a 4x4 truck parked in the breakdown lane beside her Ford, its hazard lights flashing, the man illuminated by its dome light holding a cellular phone to his ear. She was about to walk to the truck when she heard a soft hissing noise.

Ellie swung the flashlight back and forth. Perhaps that hissing was the radiator of the other car. Instead, she caught a glimpse of a small, steaming object sitting in a shallow depression. Ellie moved closer. The object was dark gray in color, its glinting surface smooth in places, pockmarked in others. The hissing sound diminished as she reached the depression, and she heard several sharp noises like the thing was cooling. She bent forward to get a closer look, then jumped in surprise when with a loud crack it disintegrated, leaving a perfect, silver-white sphere that seemed to give off a soft luminescence, like a glowing, baseball-sized pearl. Curious, she gingerly reached out to touch it. Unlike the strange rock that had encased it the object was cool, and she lifted it from the pile of rocky dust it rested on. It seemed to glow more brightly for an instant--

A sharp pain arced up Ellie’s arm and she cried out. Her hand spasmed, gripping the object so tightly her fingers hurt. She dropped the flashlight and tried to pull the sphere from her grasp but her hand held it too tightly. She seized her left wrist with her free hand as the pain was replaced swiftly by numbness, a paralyzing numbness that raced up her arm. In a few seconds her left arm hung limp, then her left leg became useless, toppling her to the ground. The numbness struck into her middle, then her right. Ellie was barely conscious that her left hand was still gripping the sphere when she suddenly could not breathe. She passed out.

 

Parkertown, New York

Friday

Ellie came to and blinked to clear her vision. The overhead fluorescent lights were dazzling. Lights? She shivered again, and rubbed at her eyes with her hand--her left hand.

Ellie’s eyes snapped open. She looked at her hand, then at her surroundings. She was in a small, white-painted room decorated with glass-door cabinets and anatomical charts and pictures. A thin white sheet was pulled over her. Ellie peered under the sheet and found she was only dressed in a thin hospital gown.

"You’re awake," a voice said. She looked toward the voice and saw a man looking around the doorjamb. "Hey, doc," he called. "She’s awake."

Ellie looked at her hand again. Had it been some kind of hallucination? It hurt so much when she picked up that--thing. She flexed her hand as a woman dressed in a sweatsuit and a white doctor’s coat strode into the room.

"I’m Doctor Sparago," she began. "You’re in the Parkertown DOCS clinic. Can you tell me your name?"

"Eleanor," Ellie replied after a moment’s hesitation. The doctor nodded.

"Do you hurt anywhere?" she continued. "Any nausea? Any pain here? Here? Let’s sit you up. Any dizziness? Watch my finger. Good."

Other than a pain in her left shoulder ("seat belt bruising", the doctor said), Ellie thought she felt fine. Whatever that glowing thing was she had picked up, it hadn’t hurt her--

Ellie stared at her bare feet, visible below the sheet covering her. She couldn’t dismiss the feeling that they looked different somehow. She held her hands up, rotated them in front of her eyes.

"May I come in?"

Ellie looked up as the man she saw before walked into the room to the foot of her bed.

"You look better than the first time I saw you," he said.

"You’re the one in the truck?" she asked.

"Yes."

Ellie observed that he wasn’t much older than her own age of twenty-one. Framed by straight dark brown hair, his face was regular save for a nose that looked just one size too large. His brown eyes were warm, sharp and intelligent. His body was slim in a shapeless plaid shirt and chinos that bore the muddy evidence of a recent mishap. He followed her eyes and looked down at the dirt and stains on his clothes.

"You’d wandered away from your car," he explained. "I found you maybe fifty feet away, lying in a puddle. I’m afraid I slipped in the puddle, too, trying to pick you up." His smile was replaced by a rueful grin. "I guess next time I should put on waders. My name’s Steve, by the way, Steve Carter."

He reached for her hand and smiled.

"Eleanor, Eleanor Andersen, but everybody calls me Ellie," Ellie replied, returning the smile. The doctor paused in listening to her chest and looked first at Ellie, then Steve. She returned to her examination, hiding a small grin.

Ellie didn’t pull her hand out of his grasp. His hands were large and warm, like his eyes. She found herself momentarily forgetting the frightening experience she had—how long ago was it?

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It’s just after nine," Steve answered. His voice was deep and musical. She blinked and smiled again.

"Thank you for helping me," she said. Steve nodded.

"You’re welcome. It’s not every day I get a chance to help a pretty girl on the road."

Ellie looked at his hand holding hers, then up at his face. His features were handsome, his expression open and honest. He was very attractive, she thought. Figures, she thought. Want to meet nice, good-looking men? Get in a traffic accident.

"Ahem," Dr. Sparago suddenly said. Both Ellie and Steve looked at her, Steve releasing Ellie’s hand.

"Well, Ellie, you were lucky," the doctor said shortly. "Good thing you were wearing your seat belt. You may suffer some whiplash from the accident, but I detect no other injury. I don’t think you need to go to a hospital."

Ellie realized her clothes and purse were nowhere to be seen.

"Your clothes were soaked," Sparago said, anticipating her next question. She gestured to Steve. "Mr. Carter has already spoken to the police about the accident."

"I told them where it was," Steve added. "They said they would come to see you in the morning."

"Did you see my purse?" Ellie asked. Steve’s eyes widened and he shook his head.

"No, I’m sorry. I’m afraid I didn’t look for one at all."

"Is there someone I can call?" Dr. Sparago asked. Ellie shook her head. Her only means of paying for a ride home was miles away in her abandoned car, her only living relative was in Minnesota and she would never ask the help of her recent ex-boyfriend Ernie. Several oaths suited the situation perfectly, and she uttered one. Steve’s eyebrows rose momentarily, then he grinned.

"My car’s right outside," he volunteered. "I’d be happy to see you home."

"No, that’s all right. I can figure something out—"

Ellie’s polite refusal was interrupted by vertigo. She blinked. Steve shook his head.

"It’d be my pleasure to see you home," he insisted. Ellie looked at him, then at the doctor, who grinned again.

"Thank you, Steve. I’d appreciate it."

 

Steve’s car was new-looking and well-appointed. Ellie shifted in her seat to get more comfortable and drank in the heat blasting from the ventilators. Surgical sheets that Steve had wheedled out of the doctor covered both seats to protect the upholstery. Steve was tapping on the keys of what looked like a laptop computer attached to the dashboard.

"Satnav," he said, noting her attention. "I’m using it to retrace my route back to Middleburgh."

"You don’t live around here?" Ellie asked. Steve shook his head.

"North Carolina. A friend of mine lives up around Lake Placid and invited me up for a week. Good game up there."

Ellie turned to look in the back of the truck and saw two long gun boxes.

"Did you get anything?" she asked, trying to keep the distaste out of her voice. He grinned again.

"Nope. My friend Bill and I drank too much each night to be at top form in the morning. I think we both made so much noise we scared everything out of the woods. I didn’t mind, though. It’s beautiful country up there."

Ellie returned his smile and shifted in her seat again. She tried unsuccessfully to spread her toes to ease the sense of cramping in her wet sneaker loafers. The waistband of her slacks was chafing her sides, her Rusty Nail polo shirt was tight across her shoulders and her bra felt snug. Ellie puzzled over how uncomfortable her clothing felt. Could clothes shrink that quickly? And the notion she’d gotten in the DOCS clinic bathroom when she looked in the mirror while clothing herself and thought her body looked different. Ellie shrugged. Probably an illusion in reaction to the damp mess her clothes were in combined with the wild night she had experienced.

"Were you driving back to North Carolina?" she asked.

"No," Steve replied. "I was on my way to the Westchester county airport. I was going to fly home tonight, but I got started late and then this weather closed in. I guess I’ll head for a hotel and get home tomorrow." He paused and rubbed at a dirt stain on his shirt, then ran his hand through his tousled hair. "I’ll probably get offered a bowl of soup or a trip to local police station looking the way I do." He grinned again.

"You’re welcome to change your clothes at my place, and clean yourself up," she offered.

"Thank you," Steve said. "Unfortunately, I sent my luggage off a day ahead so I’m stuck with what I’ve got on. I’ll just sleep in my car--it wouldn’t be the first time. I can clean up later."

Ellie shifted in her seat again. She could see Steve in the soft glow of the satnav display. She admired the play of muscles in his forearm as he gripped the wheel. He was attractive and pleasant. He was a hunter but didn’t look or act like any of the local rednecks. In fact he didn’t fit any preconceived notion she’d ever formed in her experience. She found her eyes roving down his frame, fixing on his crotch, and she blushed, glad that he could not see her in the darkness.

"Here we are," he said suddenly, and she heard a beep from the dashboard. She looked out and saw that he had pulled up in front of her home. He reached up and snapped on the dome light and turned towards her.

"Well, Ellie, I’m glad to have met you, though I wish it had been under better circumstances," he said. Ellie reached out and touch his upraised arm.

"I have a spare room. Why don’t you sleep over here tonight? You can make use of my shower and my laundry machine, too. It’s the least I can do for you helping me."

"I wouldn’t want to disturb your family."

"No, I live here by myself."

"You’re all alone?" His surprise was honest. Ellie realized he expected her to be attached to someone, in a complimentary way.

"No parents, no siblings, no one. Please."

Steve hesitated, then smiled and nodded.

"Thanks. It’ll be nice not to smell like a bog."

 

Ellie thanked her neat, girl-scout habits as she took the emergency key from her mailbox and unlocked her front door. She waved until she found the switch to the light in the foyer, and threw it. She led Steve through the foyer into the front hall, pausing to turn on lights in the kitchen and hall. Steve's eyes roved everywhere, sharp and alert. He gestured to a framed picture atop a small table in the hall.

"Your folks?" he inquired. Ellie nodded.

"Yes, that’s Mom and Dad."

She watched as Steve looked at the portrait, a smile creasing his face.

"They look like nice people," he said. "Reminds me of my Mom and Pop. Do they live here, too?"

"No. Mom died ten years ago and Daddy just last year. I live here alone."

"I’m sorry."

"Thank you." Ellie was about to say more when another sensation of vertigo struck her. She stopped and put her hand to her forehead.

"Are you all right?" Steve asked, coming up behind her. Ellie turned to face him and nodded. As she looked up at his--six foot?--frame she suffered another crazy notion. Did he look different than she remembered from when they walked out of the clinic? Dirt flaking off his clothes--and hers, too--brought her back to the present.

"Now," she said, "here’s a towel," and she reached into a closet at her left. "The bathroom is down the hall, two doors on the left. Leave your clothes outside the door and I’ll put them in the laundry machine."

Steve took the towel from her--it was pink in color--and grinned.

"Well, it’s not quite my color, but it’ll do," he quipped. Ellie smiled as he moved past her towards the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Ellie followed and stopped for a moment by the bathroom door. She heard the jingle of his belt being undone, blushed again, and continued down the hall to her bedroom. Turning on a light, she retrieved her bathrobe from her closet just as Steve suddenly began singing Home on the Range. She listened for a moment and was impressed--he actually knew more than the first stanza of the song. Ellie closed her bedroom door and sat on her bed to remove her loafers. She tried kicking them off but they seemed glued to her feet. She grunted as she strained against the constricting waistband of her slacks to reach her shoes, using both hands to tug off each shoe, then sat upright and reached for the closure on the right hip of her slacks.

Ellie stopped. The top two buttons of her slacks had popped free and fallen beside her, leaving one button and the zipper to hold them closed. Picking up one of the buttons, she noticed the needle holes had shattered, leaving a larger, jagged cavity. Ellie stood upright and undid the last button and the zipper. She was surprised at the feeling of release. Why did they fit so snugly after she opened them? She tried to pull her slacks off but couldn’t--the legs of the pants were clinging to her thighs and there wasn’t enough loose fabric to grasp. She bent forward nearly to her knees before she could grab enough cloth to pull them down her legs.

Ellie looked at the care label on the slacks. Polycotton--machine washable. They couldn’t have shrunken so badly in just--she turned to look at the clock on the nightstand beside her bed--two hours? Her clothes weren’t even fully dried yet--

Ellie dropped her slacks on the floor and looked down at herself. She choked as she experienced another spasm of vertigo compounded by shock. What is happening to me? she thought. What the hell is happening to me?!

Ellie moved quickly to the full-length mirror standing in a corner of her room. Her polo shirt was stretched across her shoulders, pulling up her sleeves. Its hem had risen up to her navel and the fabric was taut across her breasts--breasts that looked double their normal size. Her panties pressed into her like a second skin, squeezing her hips and butt. She wrenched her shirt over her head, unsnapping her bra in the process, and gaped at her body. Her breasts, free of restraint, stood out at least a full size larger than her normal slim A. She slipped her thumbs in her panties, slid them off and looked at herself again, blinking in utter disbelief. In the space of two hours her body had somehow--swelled? Grown bigger, more curvy, and--taller?

Ellie looked around the room, noticing a hardcover book and a pencil on her dresser. She pressed herself up against the nearest blank wall, balanced the book on her head and drew a line. Hurrying to her closet she rummaged among her belongings to retrieve an old wooden ruler. She began to march the ruler up the wall towards the mark, scratching a line for every foot of distance. She reached the line and measured, carefully. She caught her breath and stepped back, almost tripping over her own feet. She repeated the marking of the line again and found she had drawn over the same spot on the wall.

Sixty-six inches. She was six inches taller now than she was this morning! Ellie reeled slightly. This was impossible. She was a grownup. Adults just don’t grow several inches in a day--they don’t grow at all. Ellie felt a combination of shock and fear. She looked at her left hand again. That thing she had picked up. Did it do this to her? How? It was a miracle, but--would she stay this big? Would she continue to grow, or would she diminish back to her former size?

She was interrupted by a sudden silence. Steve must be finishing his shower. Ellie pulled on her one-size-fits-all bathrobe, grabbed up her clothes, threw open her door and raced down the hall. His clothes were in a neat pile on the hall floor and she scooped them up. She ran to the pantry and flung all the clothes into the washer, added soap powder, dropped the lid with a clang and twisted the machine dial. The machine started and Ellie dashed into the kitchen.

Steve appeared at the kitchen entrance just as Ellie had finished adjusting her robe and was peering into her refrigerator. She looked up at him and felt her face warm. With the borrowed towel wrapped around his middle, his body was very engaging, muscular but not massive, with a not-too-thick mat of hair running from neck and shoulders to his waist. His hair was combed straight back.

"I hope you don’t mind my borrowing your comb," he said apologetically. "I’m afraid my fingers weren’t up to the task."

Ellie smiled.

"You certainly look better," she said, and felt herself blush again. Steve grinned and bowed his head.

"I do appreciate not having muck all over me. Thank you again," he said. Their eyes met again. Ellie found herself breathing rapidly under the combination of the thrill-ride fear over her body changes and Steve’s proximity. Then Steve noticed what she had pulled from the refrigerator.

"Here, let me help," he said, reaching to remove the paper containers from Ellie’s hands and placed them on the counter. "I’ll prepare something while you get cleaned up."

"O-okay," Ellie stammered, then she recovered her wits. "But you will share with me?"

"I was hoping you’d ask." Steve gently took her shoulders in his hands and turned her down the hallway. "I promise I know my way around a kitchen. I’ll have it waiting for you when you get out."

Ellie allowed herself to be propelled down the hall to the bathroom. Another surprise, Steve had left it in the same condition he’d found it. Ellie shucked off her bathrobe. Thinking how she had stood clothed only in a bathrobe with an attractive stranger made her grin and blush girlishly. She opened the faucets and tested the spray with her hand when she felt another spasm of vertigo that made her lean forward, her hands against the wall.

Ellie inhaled deeply to dispel her anxiety. She looked in the mirror over the washbasin. The same blue-green eyes, the same auburn hair (was it longer?), the same face--then a long neck, broader shoulders, bigger, rounder boobs, wider hips, a bigger butt and longer legs. Was she spurting up with each dizzy spell? Maybe this is all some silly dream, she thought, then she snorted at her whimsy. She cupped her breasts in her hands and rubbed her nipples, surprised at the intensity of her own reaction. No, this was incredibly real. She stepped into the shower.

The hot water relaxed her. She soaped rapidly, then applied shampoo to her hair. Her nipples and crotch were suddenly, profoundly sensitive and she began touching herself until soap trickled into her eyes, irritating them. She rotated and bent in the middle to wash the soap from her face. Another dizzy spell made her reach out abruptly for support from the wall again. Ellie felt her heart fluttering. Did I just grow some more? Do I need to measure myself before and after to find out? It just can’t keep happening to me. It’s got to stop sometime--doesn’t it? The idea of her body growing and growing, getting bigger and bigger without a stop suddenly terrified her. She rotated twice under the stream of water, turned off the tap and stepped out of the shower.

Ellie grabbed a towel from the towel bar and rubbed the mirror quickly to clear it. She looked at herself again and decided she didn’t look any bigger than before. She blew out her cheeks in exaggerated relief, then remembered her guest.

Steve, now singing what sounded like a sea chanty (with some risqué lyrics) had been busy in the kitchen. The dinette table was set with two places, and the plates were filled with the leftovers of the chinese she had squirreled away in the fridge. Ellie marched up behind him and eyed their relative sizes. To her relief he looked as tall as before, too. He turned, noticed her, and stopped singing.

"I was wrong, Ellie," he said softly after a moment’s observation that warmed her. "It’s not just a pretty girl I helped today--it’s a beautiful woman."

"Flatterer," she said.

"I mean it. I’m really glad to have met you tonight. Now," he rubbed his hands together, "let’s eat."

They sat opposite one another at the dinette table. Ellie’s stomach growled loudly as she began to eat, embarrassing her. Steve chuckled and speared some of the chicken and broccoli covering his plate.

"When will my clothes be done?" he asked. "Somehow I don’t think I cut too dashing a figure in a sarong."

Ellie smiled and cocked her head towards the pantry.

"Judging from the sound, the wash should be finished in about ten minutes. Say thirty minutes to dry and you’ll be all set."

They wolfed down the food and Ellie retrieved the bottle of wine that had been her birthday gift from her boss. Fed and with one glass of wine inside her, Ellie felt contented--she ignored two more episodes of vertigo--and began to enjoy the task of being a hostess. Steve was good company--literate, charming, and witty. Ellie found herself talking to him as though she had known him all her life. She told him of the loss of her parents, her mother to cancer and her father to a stroke. Steve showed genuine sympathy.

"I had to leave college and use up all my savings to take care of my Dad," Ellie continued. "So I work a couple of jobs now to build it back up so I can go back to school and get my degree."

"Ellie, I’m very sorry," he replied. "I have a pretty good idea how you feel. I lost both my Mom and Pop when I was seventeen."

"Steve, I’m sorry. How?"

"Oh, it was a traffic accident. Drunk driver. Just one of those senseless things that happen. But it helped me grow up and get a grip on myself. Here’s to our folks."

He raised his wine glass. Ellie joined him in his toast.

"What is it you do down there in North Carolina?"

"I own a computer engineering firm," he answered. Ellie put her fork down and stared.

"It isn’t called Carter Specialist Computing, is it?"

"Ah, you’ve heard of it." Steve’s smile was modest.

"You’re Carter, of Carter Specialist Computing? Isn’t it a big company?"

"Pretty much," Steve replied. "Not as big as some others."

Ellie wondered. Last month's New York Times devoted almost a full page to the new, exciting billion-dollar international company and its rising-star creator, who had solved the year-2000 computer programming problem for virtually all the world’s computers so simply and elegantly that it stunned the entire computer industry and made Carter Specialist Computing one of the richest firms in the world overnight.

"You own the company?"

"Well, actually, I’m the owner of two companies and part-owner in five others." Steve gave her a charming, lopsided grin.

"Wow," she murmured. "I’m entertaining a celebrity."

Steve burst out laughing. "No, I’m no celebrity. Wouldn’t want to be."

"The guy who burst into Forbes’ top ten."

"Well, I will admit a lot of people like what my people and I do." Steve laughed harder.

"The guy who scandalized People magazine by running their photographer off his property with a shotgun."

"Guilty," he replied, his unabashed grin threatening to split his face in two.

"One of the most eligible bachelors in America, according to Liz Smith," she said softly. Steve turned serious.

"Too true," he replied in an equally soft tone. He hesitated for a moment. "I must admit I have a little confession to make. Just recently I met the right girl. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. My instincts tell me she’s the right person for me but I don’t think she knows it--at least, not yet. I’m really hoping she’ll accept me."

Ellie only half heard his words. She was astonished by the intensity in his expression. That fluttering sense of excitement returned, and a little voice inside her head was yelling at the top of its lungs at her. She gulped.

"Tell me," she whispered. Steve hesitated for a few seconds, then reached across the dinette table and touched Ellie’s hand.

"You," he said.

 

"Me?" Ellie was dumbstruck. What on earth would cause someone like Steve to suddenly profess love for a twenty-one year old, college dropout waitress? She stood abruptly, pulling her hand from under his. Her other hand was partially curled around the stem of her wine glass and it was only by the mercy of Providence that she did not scatter wine over the dinette, the floor and herself. Steve stood up too.

"You can’t be serious," she said.

"I am."

"You don’t even know me. You’ve never met me before tonight."

"And you don’t know me, but if you’re willing, we can spend the next fifty years finding out about one another."

"Do you always proposition women you meet in traffic accidents?"

"Just this one."

Ellie made an exasperated noise. He was utterly serious. She felt like she was in some silly romantic play--but those were fiction. Steve circled the dinette table and approached her. She backed away, and he stopped.

"For a smart man you sound pretty ridiculous," she said.

"Pop always told me I have the best instincts," Steve answered. "Ellie, you are smart, too, and pleasant, and brave--most people would have a fit of the screaming meemies in a car accident like yours. You didn’t. You even got out to look in case another car was involved. You have beautiful eyes and nice dimples and the nicest smile I’ve ever seen. I am prepared to devote myself to you, if you’ll have me."

Ellie found herself at a loss. Her last boyfriend, Ernie, was the total opposite of Steve--in fact, all three of her previous boyfriends didn’t compare to him. Ernie lasted only as long as he was able to get sex on demand, and when she refused he packed up and left the same day. Her college friend Alan had been a nice boy--and that was the way he stayed. Harry had been a smelly sloven whose thin charms wore off very quickly. Ellie has resigned herself to either spinsterhood or to moving out of Middleburgh to find the right guy--but was he in her house now?

"What if I’d said ‘have a nice day’ in your car?" she snapped. Steve’s expression darkened.

"I-I guess I would have left. I’m very glad you didn’t," he whispered in reply. Ellie watched as he seemed to collapse in on himself. She shook her head--another dizzy spell--and began to regret her words. Steve was mature, steady, very handsome, obviously successful, and had just opened up his heart to her. She found herself saying yes to the little voice in her head, and let herself be swept up in a romantic tide of emotion. She reached out her hand, and he moved slowly towards her, his eyes locked on hers. He took up her hand and squeezed it gently. She drew him closer to her.

"I’m very glad that it was you who stopped to help me, Steve," she said, and her smile returned. "This is turning out to be the best day of my life. Yes, I will ‘have you’, as you say."

They kissed. She felt his free hand caress the line of her jaw, gently, hesitantly. Her heart was racing in her chest in her excitement--a spasm of vertigo went unnoticed--and she pulled her hands free to encircle them around his neck. They kissed again and again until Ellie began to hum with pleasure. She felt his hands circle her waist and draw her closer to him. His skin was warm to her touch. She felt desire well up inside her. Pulling away from his grasp, she undid the knot of her belt loop and shrugged her bathrobe from her shoulders to let it fall into a heap at her feet. Steve’s eyes glowed.

"Stay with me tonight," she whispered.

 

Ellie tugged away his towel as he laid her atop the covers. He lay down beside her. They kissed again, long and deeply, and then Ellie laid back and let Steve explore her with his hands and mouth. He kissed her mouth, her ears, her neck and chin, and began to tongue her aureoles and nipples, sending sparks of energy surging through her body. Ellie was surprised at the speed of her own reaction. She felt her breasts and nipples swell and harden under his questing hands and mouth. He began to massage her breasts while running his tongue down her breastbone until she gasped at her first orgasm. He began to massage her neck and throat, his lips tugging at her nipples. Ellie purred under his ministrations, her eyes closed. He moved down her, stopping at her navel, and then her crotch. She felt his warm hands stroke the inside of her thighs, then slip between her legs to open them. He ran first his hands and then his mouth up her thighs to her crotch. She began thrusting with her hips, pressing him into her womanhood. Her second orgasm came faster than her first and was far stronger, and she cried out her pleasure. She opened her eyes to see Steve hovering over her, eyes wide.

"I want more," she said. She reached down to his middle to his erect manhood and pulled him towards her. He slowly settled as she guided him into herself, moaning as he penetrated deeper and deeper into her. He began to stroke slowly, but she immediately started matching him thrust for thrust. With voice and hands she encouraged him and he stroked faster and faster. The resulting orgasms shook Ellie. She cried out until she was hoarse, then Steve stiffened and let out a cry of his own.

 

Ellie and Steve lay under the covers in each other’s arms. Ellie idly played with Steve’s chest hair. Steve seemed half-asleep as he ran his hands down her form. He cupped one breast in his hand, and stopped, a curious look on his face, then went on.

"What is it?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing. I couldn’t ask for anything better than tonight. I love you, Eleanor Andersen,"

"I love you too, Steve Carter," she replied. She ran her sole down his leg to his foot--and beyond.

"Now, don’t do hogging the bed," she playfully admonished him. Steve raised his head from the pillow and grinned.

"Me? Never, I’m ramrod straight."

Something in his voice snapped Ellie out of her reverie. She rolled onto her back and reached out to snap on her endtable lamp. In the soft glow of the light she saw her eyes were level with Steve’s. She lifted the covers and looked at his recumbent form. He was lying straight in the bed, a bemused expression on his face. She also noticed her breasts were even bigger than before, two fleshy half-globes atop her chest.

The now-familiar flutter in her chest returned. I’m still growing, she thought. I must be nearly six feet tall. I couldn’t look Steve in the eye like this otherwise. She turned off the light and lay back, Steve’s hand stroking her body once more. Steve noticed something, too. Can I tell him what happening to me? Should I? He’s so wonderful, but would he keep his promise to me when he sees how big I’ve become? Ellie winced at another spasm of vertigo. It’s still happening!

"What’s still happening?" Steve asked softly. Ellie jerked, startled.

"What did you say?"

"You just said ‘It’s still happening’. What?"

Ellie realized she had spoken her thought aloud. She had to come up with a distraction.

"Why, the most wonderful time of my life," she exclaimed, and blushed. It sounded so phony. Steve smiled and ran one hand along the line of her chin.

"And mine, too," re replied. Ellie’s heart softened again. He was such an utter romantic! She kissed him, hard.

"Oh, by the way, don’t ever look like you looked when I found you," he said when they came up for air. He used the same playful tone she had earlier. "Unless, of course, you want to scare me out of a year’s growth."

Ellie couldn’t help feeling her heart flutter at the mention of the word growth. She turned to face him. "How I looked?"

"Yes. I’d just finished talking to the police when I noticed you left your car. When I looked for you and found you lying like a statue, I was really scared you’d were badly hurt. I grabbed you up, bundled you in my truck, punched up the location of the nearest source of help and got you to the clinic."

"Steve, was there something in my hand when you found me?"

"You mean that crystal ball thing? Sure, you had it when I found you. It fell from your hand when I picked you up."

Ellie sat up in bed and looked down at Steve, who had folded his hands behind his head.

"Do you know what happened to it?"

"Sure, it’s in my truck. Is it yours? I’m sorry, Ellie, I’ll go get it for you."

Ellie sat up in bed, raising her knees and wrapping her arms around her legs, dragging the bedclothes off Steve in the process. He sat up on his elbows. Ellie turned away from him so he couldn’t see the anxiety she felt. I can’t NOT tell him, not anymore. I can’t mislead him. I have to tell him what’s happening to me. He’ll probably get scared and leave when he sees how I’ve changed, how much I’ve grown. God knows it’s scaring me. Ellie came to a sudden realization that struck her forcibly. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to face what happening to me alone. I don’t know how to deal with these changes in my body. I keep changing and I don’t know what to do. But I can’t keep it from him any longer.

Ellie abruptly left the bed and straightened until she was her full height--whatever that was --and faced Steve.

"Steve, I’m not sure how to tell you this," she began, and hesitated. Steve lay where he was, puzzlement and concern etching his features.

"Steve," she said, "I love you. Please know that."

"Ellie, sweetheart, I love you, too. What is it? Is--is it another--?"

Ellie burst into a fit of giggling at the emotion in his voice. He obviously struggled to control his features, and she covered her mouth with her hand to stop her laughter.

"No, no, never, lover," she replied. "No ‘other man’ at all. You have given me the most solemn promise I’ve ever gotten and I--I will give my whole devotion to you--for as long as you’ll have me."

Steve visibly relaxed, but his puzzled expression returned.

"Steve, something incredible is happening to me," Ellie said softly. "Ever since the accident there been something wrong with me. I think that--crystal ball, you called it? --is responsible for it. Steve, I didn’t say anything about it before, but remember after you unbuckled me, then left to call for help? I got out of the car because I wanted to get warm. I was going towards you when I heard a hissing noise. I thought it was another car, but I found what I think was some sort of meteor instead."

Steve’s eyebrows rose to his hairline.

"It was a big gray rock sitting in this bare spot in the ground," she continued, gesturing with her hands. "I was looking at it when it suddenly fell apart. Inside it was that crystal ball thing you saw in my hand. When I picked it up it must have done something to me. What it did, I don’t know. All I remember is it sent some kind of a shock into me that paralyzed me. And now, it’s affecting my body. It’s--well, let me show you."

Ellie reached out and turned on the nightstand light once more, then straightened and looked at Steve. He smiled as he admired her form.

"Now, stand here next to me," she said.

"Okay," Steve replied, a touch of humor in his voice as he stood erect and began to walk around the bed towards her. His smile faded slightly and the puzzled look returned to his face. He and Ellie were seeing eye to eye.

"Steve, how tall are you?"

"Six feet," he replied. "Ellie, you do look a little different--"

"I’m growing, Steve. My body is growing bigger with every moment that passes."

"Ellie, that’s silly," he scoffed gently. "Adults don’t grow--"

"I’ve been five feet tall since I was thirteen years old." Ellie stepped towards Steve until only a few inches separated them. "Now, I can look you right in the eye without tilting my head. Steve, I’m--I’m scared. I don’t understand what’s happening to me. Oh!"

Steve grasped Ellie’s arms as she suffered another dizzy spell. She closed her eyes and cursed with the effort to shake it off.

"I think I just had another growth spurt," she said. She gripped his arms to steady herself. "I keep having these attacks of vertigo. They started when I was at the clinic. I think that every time I feel dizzy my body is spurting up." Her eyes misted over. "Oh, God, Steve, what am I going to do? I’m scared it’s never going to stop!"

Tears began to roll down Ellie’s cheeks. Steve stood before her, his face totally blank, jaw dropped in shock. He must be completely dumbfounded by what she had told him.

God, she thought, panic rising inside her, he doesn’t believe me. He must think I’m some kind of crackpot. Please, I don’t want to be alone, I don’t want him to leave--

Steve closed his mouth with an audible snap. The smile returned to his face, slowly. He put his arms around her and hugged her until she found it hard to breathe.

"Pretty lady," he whispered in her ear. "I believe you. I don’t understand it, either, but I know you’re telling the truth."

Ellie began to sob. Steve released his hold on her and took up her hands.

"I thought something was funny. After we’d made love I thought I felt something here." He moved one of her hands to her breast. "I thought maybe it was my imagination playing tricks on me, but I would have sworn your breast was bigger in my hand. I’m no world-class stud so I doubted that your blossoming was due solely to my skill--"

His voice was light, and despite her despair Ellie began to giggle. He feigned insult, then laughed too.

"As you say, you were five foot until tonight. Now you’re not. Well, Ellie--" He hesitated. "I have a confession of my own to make. When I was a teenager I fantasized about making love to giant women. I haven’t thought about my fantasies in years, but you are bringing them back to me. You were beautiful before, but you’re more beautiful now. So, you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not."

Ellie stopped crying and sniffed to clear her runny nose. Steve ran his hands up her arms to her neck, brushing aside her hair. He delicately kissed her on the lips until he felt her smile.

"That’s better," he said. Ellie sniffed again and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed herself against him, his hair tickling her nipples. She kissed him again and again, her urgency increasing. Soon they were both too involved with one another to think, and they made love again, and again.

Ellie woke suddenly. She inhaled deeply, and blinked in the darkness. A soft snoring reassured her that Steve was still there. She rose slowly so as not to disturb him and padded softly out of the room, feeling her way in the dark for the bathroom. When her hand found the bathroom doorjamb she halted, struck by a sudden thought. She turned to face the door. Reaching inside, she found the light switch, and light flooded out of the room. Ellie choked. She was now as tall as the top of the door. She looked down at herself and muffled her soft cry. Her body had expanded even more. Her boobs looked like little half-melons stuffed under her skin, rubbing against one another. Her hips had flared voluptuously, and her butt--her butt looked like a watermelon with a slice cut out. Ellie felt unnaturally clumsy and unsure as she entered the room and closed the door.

Ellie left the bathroom and walked down the hallway towards the living room, moving slowly. Sure enough, she found the edge of her couch in three fewer steps than she was accustomed to. She went to the picture and pulled open the curtains. It was just beginning to become light, and she could see that it was still cloudy outside. The windowpane was cold and damp to the touch.

It’s still happening, she thought. I’m still growing, and growing, and growing. I must be seven feet tall now. How big will I be tonight? Tomorrow morning? The day after? Steve may get his fifty-foot fantasy girl after all. God, I hope I come up to his fantasy. What if I grow so big I hurt him? I don’t ever want to hurt him.

Another spasm of vertigo hit her. She imagined she could almost feel the effect this time--a strange subtle slipping sensation under her skin, the feeling of shifting inside her body. She covered her breasts with her hands, pressing, weighing. My adolescent fantasies have come to life, too. Oh, I want this to stop. Ellie left the curtains open and settled on her couch, shaking her head as her weight made its springs creak. Well, Steve, I really hope you do like big women, ‘cause I think I’m becoming the biggest woman ever.

 

Growth Encounter part 2