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Chapter 6: A Sunday Routine

The sound of Suzanne's electric razor continued for much longer than usual the next morning, Sunday. Marlee heard it each time she walked between her bedroom and their kitchen as she got herself ready for the day and made their breakfast (Suzanne would cook supper tonight). Finally her sister joined her in the dining room. She was wearing her light-blue-with-dark-blue-circles zentai, with the hood down, so she appeared to be headless. Try as she might, Marlee still found the sight somewhat disconcerting, but held herself together and asked "What were you doing, Sue?"

"Shaving my hair, Marlee" Suzanne's voice answered. "Feel this."

Marlee held out a hand in response and felt her sister's lycra-covered hand put something that felt familiar, yet was invisible into her own. After a moment's puzzlement she asked "What is this...your hair?"

"Yes, it is."

"Wow" Marlee said as she looked down at her hand with a look of astonishment on her face. "Your hair stays invisible even after you cut it off!"

"I cut it partly to see if it would become visible again. It didn't."

"What do you plan to do with your hair now?"

Suzanne sighed before answering "I guess I'll just throw it out. I don't think 'Locks of Love' will be much interested in invisible hair."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

Following breakfast and clean up, Suzanne zipped her hood up, so the shape of her head was once more visible. Marlee looked her sister over and commented that her head indeed looked much less lumpy under her suit than it had before.

"That is another reason I cut my hair" Suzanne said. "That, and I never could do the zipper without my hair getting caught!"

Suzanne then showed her sister a printout with some of the zentai designs she thought she would make for herself. In addition to several suits of various solid colors, she also liked a number of multi colored designs including one that was red on one side and black on the other, another with red and black stripes in a zebra-like pattern, a light blue suit with diagonal pinstripes, and a fourth with mutiple colors in an irregular pattern.

"When do you think you might start making them?" Marlee asked.

"I'll go back on the computer this evening and order the fabric" Suzanne answered. "Mostly solids at first, but some multi colored too. I'm starting to like the idea of going out wearing a multicolored suit with no other clothing, sort of like wearing a matched set of pants and top or a jumpsuit. And I think I'll order at least a couple more wigs too!"

"And if you like I'll be your official photographer" Marlee said half seriously. "You're already coming up with some interesting fashion ideas, maybe some of those magazines would publish some."

"And no one will be able if I am smiling or frowning while walking the runway!"

Just then the phone rang, Suzanne picked up. The caller was a friend who asked if the Kerguelen sisters were interested in going to church later that morning. The two looked at one another for only a moment, then Suzanne gave their answer.

"Yes, we will go, you will pick us up?...thank you, we will be ready!...bye, see you later."

Marlee and Suzanne were not the most regular or church goers, but they usually went about twice a month. With the dust still settling from the events of the day before, the sisters did not go last Sunday, so their decision to go today was an easy one. All they needed to do was change.

They did not usually go overboard as some people did when it came to dressing for church, but they always wanted to put a best face forward - no 'Sunday worst' for them! Marlee put on dark pants that would not have looked out of place in a lawyers' office, and a long sleeved white blouse. To that she added open-toed platform shoes, with weights added inside the hollowed-out heels to give her some much needed ballast. Suzanne changed into her tan zentai before putting on a red skirt suit, pumps, and her wig. Before, like her sister, she had usually worn pants to church, but the changes in her wardrobe occasioned by the Xanadu event had also led to a change in attitude: she felt wearing pants over her zentai suit would be like wearing pants over other pants or leggings. She did not care for that style, so she opted for a skirt instead. When both were done, each picked a floppy hat to wear.

Even though Marlee and Suzanne were aware early on that many conventioneers had been much more drastically changed than they had been, that still did not fully prepare them for the sight which greeted them when their ride came to pick them up. They only recognized them by their minvan, and the distinctive voices of Lisa, her husband Karl (who was driving), and their children Bethany and Ben. All got out to greet their passengers-to-be, who did a momentary double-take. All four looked like versions of Cousin It from the Addams family, with thick blond or light brown hair that reached all the way to the ground and totally hid their faces, and the rest of their bodies. Lisa and Bethany wore two more of those wide brimmed floppy hats, while Karl and Ben wore derbies. All wore dark glasses of various styles.

"Hi!" Marlee and Suzanne finally called out.

"Hi!" Karl, Lisa, and Bethany replied in turn, while Ben said something that was unintelligable to the Kerguelen sisters' ears.

"Ben says 'Hi, I'm glad to meet you too!'" Karl said, anticipating the likely question.

"Does he have a speech impediment?" a puzzled Suzanne asked.

"Well, yes...and no."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We decided to go to the Kubla Con as a family of itts" Lisa said. "You have heard of the 'Addams Family' TV show, have you?"

"We have" Marlee answered.

"Well, we four went in full costume" Lisa said as the six got into the minivan. "The three of us mostly talked normal, but Ben decided he would talk like Cousin It, kind of a mumble, so no one could understand what he was saying. When we got turned into real Itts, his voice was changed for real too."

"Is that the only way he can talk now?"

Ben now said something in a matter-of-fact tone, and Bethany translated.

'That is right, this is the only way I can talk now.'

"How well can you understand him? Is it hard?" Marlee asked.

"We understand everything he says."

"How?"

"Because we are Itts too!"

"So you are his interpreters?"

"Yup!" Bethany said with just a bit of pride showing in her voice.

"What do you do when none of you is around to interpret for him?" Suzanne now asked.

"We have not had that problem so far, one or another of us is always close by when he does need translation help."

"What will you do when he goes back to school? Will he?"

"He and Beth will both go back starting tomorrow" Lisa said. "Karl or I will be with Ben the first few days, to help him and the school get adjusted."

"What will he do then?"

Ben now said something and his sister interpreted.

"'I'll just write something on my message pad, no problem'."

"Can't doctors operate to give him his normal voice back?" Marlee asked.

Lisa's voluminous hair rippled as she shook her head.

"Unfortunately, that is not possible. The problem is not with his vocal chords, it's with the portion of his brain affecting speech. He is already on a waiting list for a universal translator."

Ben once more said something, this time with noticible excitement in his voice.

"'I hope I can get one! That would be so cool! I would be able to talk with anybody!'"

Lisa had just enough time to add that researchers were hoping to reverse engineer a universal translator with help from a Wookie, when they arrived at the church. The pastor was on hand to greet them, along with other parishioners who had already arrived. Several were obviously Xanadu survivors, including a centaur couple who trotted up with refreshments for the congregation in packs on their backs. They were reluctant to enter the building due to their greatly increased bulk and weight, but their dilemma proved easy to solve. A double shot window stood just feet from the pulpit, when the lower windows were raised they could lean their upper bodies in and listen to the sermon easily and in comfort.

The pastor's sermon that Sunday was inspired by the events of the previous weekend. While Karl, Lisa, Bethany and Ben Muller were already beginning to accept things as they now were, the same was not always true of the other changed parishioners. There were two women with elephant trunks, one had a stoic demeanor but it was clear the other had spent a good deal of time over the last week crying.

"I don't want to be like this anymore!" she kept sobbing, between occasionally removing her oversized dark glasses to wipe her eyes. Some of the other parishioners tried to comfort and encourage her, including the other elepant trunked woman, who hugged her and wrapped her own trunk around her waist.

Nearby, a nine year old girl in a wheelchair was also sobbing as her parents tried to offer encouragement of their own.

"How can I...do any of that if I can't even walk!" she wailed and slapped the floor with her tailfin. She had enjoyed swimming in her mermaid tail but of course had never expected to become one for real. She had been a very athletic type, but what she had gained in the water did not nearly make up for what she had lost on land, in her view. Her parents had taken her home immediately after the Change, so she never had the chance to experience the companionship of other Mers or swim in either the hotel pool or a nearby lake that had been opened to the newly minted mermaids and mermen the next day.

Not all the changed parishioners had been affected so drastically, however. Some even found a touch of humor in their new situations. As Marlee and Suzanne waited to enter the church building they spoke with a woman wearing a wide brimmed floppy hat (actually, quite a few fit that description!).

"Believe it or not, almost every waking moment I'm wearing one of these hats, whether I want to or not. If I go outside for ANY reason, or someone comes to the door, it's 'pop' and I'm wearing a hat."

"Can't you do anything about it?" Suzanne found herself wondering.

"No, I can't."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"Not as much as it might have...I always loved wearing hats. I'll just have to see what happens when I go to a Magic game and they play the national anthem." She paused, then went on "One good thing, no matter how hard the wind blows, I no longer have to worry about losing a hat!"

"Really?" Marlee now asked.

"Yes, really. Try taking my hat off."

Suzanne tried, but no matter how hard she tugged on the brim of Raisa's hat, she could not get it to budge. Even with what had happened to her, she still found it hard to believe.

"Wow. And you can't take your own hat off in public either?"

"Nope!" Raisa said and pulled on the brim of her hat with both her hands. She had no more success at removing it than Suzanne had.

'Really, though, I could have done a LOT worse' all three found themselves thinking as they took their places in one of the pews.

"On Saturday afternoon last weekend, there occured an event that has proved to be a trial for more than a few souls..." the pastor, Richard Johns, began. When he took his first pause, more than a few parishioners murmered their agreement.

"Several of those who were caught up in the evnts of that afternoon are with us here today..." Johns cast his eyes about the congregation, starting with the Muller family sitting in the third row. They responded with nods of the head that set their hair rippling.

"Those of us who were there are but a small fraction of the total, yet I can already see them experiencing the variou stages of grief. Shock...anger...depression...resignation...acceptance" Almost every head in the congregation nodded at one time or another to the speakers' words.

"Perhaps the greatest challenge is acceptance" the pastor continued "Acceptance of that which we cannot change, and finding ways to adapt..."

"People often take much longer to accept lesser changes in their lives, I myself have had such an experience. And yet, some of us here who have been changed have already found ingenious ways of dealing with their new circumstances" he said as he glanced toward the centaur couple looking through their windows, and thought of the post-sermon refreshments they had brought. Before, it would have been a heavy load for either of them, now it was positively effortless.

"Those of you who have had an especially difficult time accepting or coming to terms with your new situation may feel like you are all alone in the world, but that is not true. Someone, somewhere, does indeed care about each and every one of you. Presumably most of you have families who care...if you do not have family suely you have friends and neighbors who care about your well being...and don't forget about those who are with you in this room as I speak..." More than a few 'mundane' worshippers looked toward one another or their changed counterparts with thoughtful looks on their faces.

"It has been said that God never does anything without a purpose, although I must confess His reasons are sometimes most inscrutable even to me. I cannot as yet devine why some of you were changed, or to what purpose. Perhaps in time a revelation will come to us..." More than a few parishioners looked down at their hands, as if the answer might lie within themselves.

"...if any of you are simply looking for someone to talk to in confidence, you may come to me if you wish. As always, I promise anything you might say will never pass my lips agiain...and I will most gladly help any way I can. I am not merely a servant of God, but also a servant of my flock..."

Following the end of his sermon, pastor Johns spoke privately with a few parishioners, including both elephant-trunked women and a couple whose son had been turned into an oversized (5 pound) hamster. All had been badly shaken by the turns their lives had taken, but all at least were able to take their leave with stoic looks on their faces. None stayed for refreshments that day, but they did leave open the possibility of doing so the next time they came to church. Pastor and fellow parishioners alike were cautiously hopeful their troubled friends might avoid the depression that had already led a few Xanadu survivors to take their own lives.

Marlee and Suzanne were among those who stayed to partake of the offered refreshments. Suzanne was initially reluctant to remove the hood of her zentai, this would be her first public 'appearance' since the Xanadu event. After drinking a glass of water through the fabric covering her face, her sister finally persuaded her to doff her hat and wig and unzip her hodd. Although she had only told a few people about her invisibility, no one batted an eye to see her seemingly headless, or to hear her voice come from empty air where her head should have been. seen. Try as she might, she still had some difficulty keeping a tone of self-conciousness from creeping into her voice. Eventually though, with help from Marlee and other parishioners, she managed to settle down and join in a discussion what some of those who had been changed might do in the future. For example, the centaur couple, Rob and Elisa, said a friend had already asked them if they might be interested in taking part in a riding program for autistic children.

"She has been doing it for years, and says it is amazing how horses can get some of those kids to come out of their shells" Elisa said.

The Kerguelen sisters had indeed heard of such therapudic riding programs, then Marlee asked "Are you sure those kids will accept you as you now are? I mean, we have heard they can have a hard time accepting anything different at all."

"We don't really know, we have not gone there yet. Maybe some will freak out at the sight of us, but maybe some will open up when they do see us. And perhaps some really would love to meet real live centaurs!"

Eventually Suzanne was asked if she had ever thought of working with movie and TV producers in 'special effects' work.

"No, I have not, I have had enough to think about so far as is."

"You might want to at least consider it. I suspect quite a few producers would be willing to pay you good money. Having someone who is invisible like you do special effects would be so much easier than editing someone out of a scene after shooting..."

Unlike some of her friends and Katya, Suzanne had never done, or been interested in such work. She was not so sure she would not be making a spectacle of herself by doing so now...then again, how could she do so now that she was invisible?

"I might be interested" she finally told her questioner "But I won't be rushed, and I might decide I just don't want to do that sort of work at all."

"That is alright. I'll tell my friends in the business how you feel...is it OK if we at least keep in touch about it occasionally?"

"Yes, you may..."

Suzanne and Marlee returned home again later that afternoon, having made a trip to a store Katya had emailed them about. Suzanne picked enough fabric to make a couple more zentais, and also bought a white suit with a smiley face where her own face had once been visible. On Monday, after completing a conference call with a client and catching up on work on her computer, she intended to start making her new zentais in the afternoon. For her part, Marlee bought what for her were now comfortable platform shoes, with heels large enough to hollow out and insert weights so she would not all but bounce as she walked. As she looked over a pair of platform wedges that gave two inches of extra height at the toes and four inches at the back, her sister kidded her "You really do want to be taller than me, do you?"

Description
Chapter 6: A Sunday Routine

The sound of Suzanne's electric razor continued for much longer than usual the next morning, Sunday. Marlee heard it each time she walked between her bedroom and their kitchen as she got herself ready for the day and made their breakfast (Suzanne would cook supper tonight). Finally her sister joined her in the dining room. She was wearing her light-blue-with-dark-blue-circles zentai, with the hood down, so she appeared to be headless. Try as she might, Marlee still found the sight somewhat disconcerting, but held herself together and asked "What were you doing, Sue?"

"Shaving my hair, Marlee" Suzanne's voice answered. "Feel this."

Marlee held out a hand in response and felt her sister's lycra-covered hand put something that felt familiar, yet was invisible into her own. After a moment's puzzlement she asked "What is this...your hair?"

"Yes, it is."

"Wow" Marlee said as she looked down at her hand with a look of astonishment on her face. "Your hair stays invisible even after you cut it off!"

"I cut it partly to see if it would become visible again. It didn't."

"What do you plan to do with your hair now?"

Suzanne sighed before answering "I guess I'll just throw it out. I don't think 'Locks of Love' will be much interested in invisible hair."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

Following breakfast and clean up, Suzanne zipped her hood up, so the shape of her head was once more visible. Marlee looked her sister over and commented that her head indeed looked much less lumpy under her suit than it had before.

"That is another reason I cut my hair" Suzanne said. "That, and I never could do the zipper without my hair getting caught!"

Suzanne then showed her sister a printout with some of the zentai designs she thought she would make for herself. In addition to several suits of various solid colors, she also liked a number of multi colored designs including one that was red on one side and black on the other, another with red and black stripes in a zebra-like pattern, a light blue suit with diagonal pinstripes, and a fourth with mutiple colors in an irregular pattern.

"When do you think you might start making them?" Marlee asked.

"I'll go back on the computer this evening and order the fabric" Suzanne answered. "Mostly solids at first, but some multi colored too. I'm starting to like the idea of going out wearing a multicolored suit with no other clothing, sort of like wearing a matched set of pants and top or a jumpsuit. And I think I'll order at least a couple more wigs too!"

"And if you like I'll be your official photographer" Marlee said half seriously. "You're already coming up with some interesting fashion ideas, maybe some of those magazines would publish some."

"And no one will be able if I am smiling or frowning while walking the runway!"

Just then the phone rang, Suzanne picked up. The caller was a friend who asked if the Kerguelen sisters were interested in going to church later that morning. The two looked at one another for only a moment, then Suzanne gave their answer.

"Yes, we will go, you will pick us up?...thank you, we will be ready!...bye, see you later."

Marlee and Suzanne were not the most regular or church goers, but they usually went about twice a month. With the dust still settling from the events of the day before, the sisters did not go last Sunday, so their decision to go today was an easy one. All they needed to do was change.

They did not usually go overboard as some people did when it came to dressing for church, but they always wanted to put a best face forward - no 'Sunday worst' for them! Marlee put on dark pants that would not have looked out of place in a lawyers' office, and a long sleeved white blouse. To that she added open-toed platform shoes, with weights added inside the hollowed-out heels to give her some much needed ballast. Suzanne changed into her tan zentai before putting on a red skirt suit, pumps, and her wig. Before, like her sister, she had usually worn pants to church, but the changes in her wardrobe occasioned by the Xanadu event had also led to a change in attitude: she felt wearing pants over her zentai suit would be like wearing pants over other pants or leggings. She did not care for that style, so she opted for a skirt instead. When both were done, each picked a floppy hat to wear.

Even though Marlee and Suzanne were aware early on that many conventioneers had been much more drastically changed than they had been, that still did not fully prepare them for the sight which greeted them when their ride came to pick them up. They only recognized them by their minvan, and the distinctive voices of Lisa, her husband Karl (who was driving), and their children Bethany and Ben. All got out to greet their passengers-to-be, who did a momentary double-take. All four looked like versions of Cousin It from the Addams family, with thick blond or light brown hair that reached all the way to the ground and totally hid their faces, and the rest of their bodies. Lisa and Bethany wore two more of those wide brimmed floppy hats, while Karl and Ben wore derbies. All wore dark glasses of various styles.

"Hi!" Marlee and Suzanne finally called out.

"Hi!" Karl, Lisa, and Bethany replied in turn, while Ben said something that was unintelligable to the Kerguelen sisters' ears.

"Ben says 'Hi, I'm glad to meet you too!'" Karl said, anticipating the likely question.

"Does he have a speech impediment?" a puzzled Suzanne asked.

"Well, yes...and no."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We decided to go to the Kubla Con as a family of itts" Lisa said. "You have heard of the 'Addams Family' TV show, have you?"

"We have" Marlee answered.

"Well, we four went in full costume" Lisa said as the six got into the minivan. "The three of us mostly talked normal, but Ben decided he would talk like Cousin It, kind of a mumble, so no one could understand what he was saying. When we got turned into real Itts, his voice was changed for real too."

"Is that the only way he can talk now?"

Ben now said something in a matter-of-fact tone, and Bethany translated.

'That is right, this is the only way I can talk now.'

"How well can you understand him? Is it hard?" Marlee asked.

"We understand everything he says."

"How?"

"Because we are Itts too!"

"So you are his interpreters?"

"Yup!" Bethany said with just a bit of pride showing in her voice.

"What do you do when none of you is around to interpret for him?" Suzanne now asked.

"We have not had that problem so far, one or another of us is always close by when he does need translation help."

"What will you do when he goes back to school? Will he?"

"He and Beth will both go back starting tomorrow" Lisa said. "Karl or I will be with Ben the first few days, to help him and the school get adjusted."

"What will he do then?"

Ben now said something and his sister interpreted.

"'I'll just write something on my message pad, no problem'."

"Can't doctors operate to give him his normal voice back?" Marlee asked.

Lisa's voluminous hair rippled as she shook her head.

"Unfortunately, that is not possible. The problem is not with his vocal chords, it's with the portion of his brain affecting speech. He is already on a waiting list for a universal translator."

Ben once more said something, this time with noticible excitement in his voice.

"'I hope I can get one! That would be so cool! I would be able to talk with anybody!'"

Lisa had just enough time to add that researchers were hoping to reverse engineer a universal translator with help from a Wookie, when they arrived at the church. The pastor was on hand to greet them, along with other parishioners who had already arrived. Several were obviously Xanadu survivors, including a centaur couple who trotted up with refreshments for the congregation in packs on their backs. They were reluctant to enter the building due to their greatly increased bulk and weight, but their dilemma proved easy to solve. A double shot window stood just feet from the pulpit, when the lower windows were raised they could lean their upper bodies in and listen to the sermon easily and in comfort.

The pastor's sermon that Sunday was inspired by the events of the previous weekend. While Karl, Lisa, Bethany and Ben Muller were already beginning to accept things as they now were, the same was not always true of the other changed parishioners. There were two women with elephant trunks, one had a stoic demeanor but it was clear the other had spent a good deal of time over the last week crying.

"I don't want to be like this anymore!" she kept sobbing, between occasionally removing her oversized dark glasses to wipe her eyes. Some of the other parishioners tried to comfort and encourage her, including the other elepant trunked woman, who hugged her and wrapped her own trunk around her waist.

Nearby, a nine year old girl in a wheelchair was also sobbing as her parents tried to offer encouragement of their own.

"How can I...do any of that if I can't even walk!" she wailed and slapped the floor with her tailfin. She had enjoyed swimming in her mermaid tail but of course had never expected to become one for real. She had been a very athletic type, but what she had gained in the water did not nearly make up for what she had lost on land, in her view. Her parents had taken her home immediately after the Change, so she never had the chance to experience the companionship of other Mers or swim in either the hotel pool or a nearby lake that had been opened to the newly minted mermaids and mermen the next day.

Not all the changed parishioners had been affected so drastically, however. Some even found a touch of humor in their new situations. As Marlee and Suzanne waited to enter the church building they spoke with a woman wearing a wide brimmed floppy hat (actually, quite a few fit that description!).

"Believe it or not, almost every waking moment I'm wearing one of these hats, whether I want to or not. If I go outside for ANY reason, or someone comes to the door, it's 'pop' and I'm wearing a hat."

"Can't you do anything about it?" Suzanne found herself wondering.

"No, I can't."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"Not as much as it might have...I always loved wearing hats. I'll just have to see what happens when I go to a Magic game and they play the national anthem." She paused, then went on "One good thing, no matter how hard the wind blows, I no longer have to worry about losing a hat!"

"Really?" Marlee now asked.

"Yes, really. Try taking my hat off."

Suzanne tried, but no matter how hard she tugged on the brim of Raisa's hat, she could not get it to budge. Even with what had happened to her, she still found it hard to believe.

"Wow. And you can't take your own hat off in public either?"

"Nope!" Raisa said and pulled on the brim of her hat with both her hands. She had no more success at removing it than Suzanne had.

'Really, though, I could have done a LOT worse' all three found themselves thinking as they took their places in one of the pews.

"On Saturday afternoon last weekend, there occured an event that has proved to be a trial for more than a few souls..." the pastor, Richard Johns, began. When he took his first pause, more than a few parishioners murmered their agreement.

"Several of those who were caught up in the evnts of that afternoon are with us here today..." Johns cast his eyes about the congregation, starting with the Muller family sitting in the third row. They responded with nods of the head that set their hair rippling.

"Those of us who were there are but a small fraction of the total, yet I can already see them experiencing the variou stages of grief. Shock...anger...depression...resignation...acceptance" Almost every head in the congregation nodded at one time or another to the speakers' words.

"Perhaps the greatest challenge is acceptance" the pastor continued "Acceptance of that which we cannot change, and finding ways to adapt..."

"People often take much longer to accept lesser changes in their lives, I myself have had such an experience. And yet, some of us here who have been changed have already found ingenious ways of dealing with their new circumstances" he said as he glanced toward the centaur couple looking through their windows, and thought of the post-sermon refreshments they had brought. Before, it would have been a heavy load for either of them, now it was positively effortless.

"Those of you who have had an especially difficult time accepting or coming to terms with your new situation may feel like you are all alone in the world, but that is not true. Someone, somewhere, does indeed care about each and every one of you. Presumably most of you have families who care...if you do not have family suely you have friends and neighbors who care about your well being...and don't forget about those who are with you in this room as I speak..." More than a few 'mundane' worshippers looked toward one another or their changed counterparts with thoughtful looks on their faces.

"It has been said that God never does anything without a purpose, although I must confess His reasons are sometimes most inscrutable even to me. I cannot as yet devine why some of you were changed, or to what purpose. Perhaps in time a revelation will come to us..." More than a few parishioners looked down at their hands, as if the answer might lie within themselves.

"...if any of you are simply looking for someone to talk to in confidence, you may come to me if you wish. As always, I promise anything you might say will never pass my lips agiain...and I will most gladly help any way I can. I am not merely a servant of God, but also a servant of my flock..."

Following the end of his sermon, pastor Johns spoke privately with a few parishioners, including both elephant-trunked women and a couple whose son had been turned into an oversized (5 pound) hamster. All had been badly shaken by the turns their lives had taken, but all at least were able to take their leave with stoic looks on their faces. None stayed for refreshments that day, but they did leave open the possibility of doing so the next time they came to church. Pastor and fellow parishioners alike were cautiously hopeful their troubled friends might avoid the depression that had already led a few Xanadu survivors to take their own lives.

Marlee and Suzanne were among those who stayed to partake of the offered refreshments. Suzanne was initially reluctant to remove the hood of her zentai, this would be her first public 'appearance' since the Xanadu event. After drinking a glass of water through the fabric covering her face, her sister finally persuaded her to doff her hat and wig and unzip her hodd. Although she had only told a few people about her invisibility, no one batted an eye to see her seemingly headless, or to hear her voice come from empty air where her head should have been. seen. Try as she might, she still had some difficulty keeping a tone of self-conciousness from creeping into her voice. Eventually though, with help from Marlee and other parishioners, she managed to settle down and join in a discussion what some of those who had been changed might do in the future. For example, the centaur couple, Rob and Elisa, said a friend had already asked them if they might be interested in taking part in a riding program for autistic children.

"She has been doing it for years, and says it is amazing how horses can get some of those kids to come out of their shells" Elisa said.

The Kerguelen sisters had indeed heard of such therapudic riding programs, then Marlee asked "Are you sure those kids will accept you as you now are? I mean, we have heard they can have a hard time accepting anything different at all."

"We don't really know, we have not gone there yet. Maybe some will freak out at the sight of us, but maybe some will open up when they do see us. And perhaps some really would love to meet real live centaurs!"

Eventually Suzanne was asked if she had ever thought of working with movie and TV producers in 'special effects' work.

"No, I have not, I have had enough to think about so far as is."

"You might want to at least consider it. I suspect quite a few producers would be willing to pay you good money. Having someone who is invisible like you do special effects would be so much easier than editing someone out of a scene after shooting..."

Unlike some of her friends and Katya, Suzanne had never done, or been interested in such work. She was not so sure she would not be making a spectacle of herself by doing so now...then again, how could she do so now that she was invisible?

"I might be interested" she finally told her questioner "But I won't be rushed, and I might decide I just don't want to do that sort of work at all."

"That is alright. I'll tell my friends in the business how you feel...is it OK if we at least keep in touch about it occasionally?"

"Yes, you may..."

Suzanne and Marlee returned home again later that afternoon, having made a trip to a store Katya had emailed them about. Suzanne picked enough fabric to make a couple more zentais, and also bought a white suit with a smiley face where her own face had once been visible. On Monday, after completing a conference call with a client and catching up on work on her computer, she intended to start making her new zentais in the afternoon. For her part, Marlee bought what for her were now comfortable platform shoes, with heels large enough to hollow out and insert weights so she would not all but bounce as she walked. As she looked over a pair of platform wedges that gave two inches of extra height at the toes and four inches at the back, her sister kidded her "You really do want to be taller than me, do you?"