With the pain and lack of oxygen it was impossible for Laura to make any other noise at that moment other than whimper. She was relieved when the man ...urned round once more to face the front. Laura found that the brutality of what was happening to her had the opposite effect to what she might expected. If someone had described something like this involving her she would definitely have said she would be terrified. Instead she found herself calming and her brain started to function more clearly.. "Rob grew several inches taller."What the shit?" Corky stammered."See it really works," said Rob, shrinking to his normal size."How did you--," I said. "This doesn't make any sense. There's no suchthing as a magic orb." Why don't you make yourself buff and show Lynn what's she's missing?"said Corky."That'll never work," I said. "She wouldn't believe that he could getmuscular so fast. Besides-she should like him for who he is."Rob looked at his shoes."He's right." Don't you have any other. I called Jan the following Tuesday and set up a date for the next Sunday afternoon. We ended up driving to Lake Michigan and swimming all afternoon. We talked a lot and found that we connected very well. As I planned on going to college in the fall, we did not officially become exclusive at the time. I never dated anyone else, and I do not know for sure, but Jan said she did not either.Jan never refused a date when I came to town on school breaks, and after I graduated, we became engaged. I got. "What the hell? All of a sudden, I itch... itch all over."They both dropped their rifles and began to scratch at the sleeves oftheir shirts. In a frenzy, they pulled off their gloves and archedtheir fingers to scratch better. Neither noticed that his hands weregetting smaller, more supple; his fingernails growing longer, turningred; and that his skin was darkening from pale white to the color ofcoffee with cream.Their fingers, now delicately manicured, moved on to scratch at theirtorsos;.