"The Christmas Wish"

Chapter 4
Winter

“Is that everything?” Daniel asked the women with the butterfly glasses as he hauled the duffel bag into his trunk. “Yes, and good luck!” she waved half-heartedly as he drove off. Turning on the stereo, he endured the droning of an allegedly eminent psychologist about childhood sleep disorders for as long as he could before ejecting the CD and pushing the radio dial. A cheery voice came on over a backdrop of discordant carols, urgently extolling the virtues of the latest Christmas diversions. Wincing, he popped in another CD and tried to concentrate as a soothing matronly voice patiently explained the Eight Secrets to Successful Parenting. When he finally pulled up at the martial arts academy, Tommy was waiting impatiently at the door. “You said you had a surprise for me today?”

They turned off the highway into a tree-lined suburb with manicured lawns and tidy wooden fences, and came to a stop in front of a small red brick house with ivy running down its side and a basketball hoop hanging above the garage.

“What do you think?” Daniel asked nonchalantly as Tommy jumped out from the car.

“It’s very nice, but can you please tell me what we are doing here?”

Daniel smiled at him. “I just bought this place. Want to take a look inside?”

Tommy ran into the living room, bounced on the couch, dashed thru the cozy kitchen and gawked at the huge backyard with a rope swing swaying at a far corner. Running upstairs, he peeked inside Daniel’s room, which was strewn with books and dominated by three flickering computer screens. Directly opposite, there was a smaller room with a little writing desk and a twin bed with crisp, fresh sheets soft as cool skin. A window looked out over a small patch of woods laced with a babbling creek.

“This is your room.” Daniel said quietly as he stepped up behind him.

“You mean you’ll finally let me stay the weekend?”

“No. You can stay here for as long as you want.” Daniel turned to face him. “I’ve adopted you, Tommy. You’re never going back to that home.”

Daniel watched Tommy’s eyes widen with disbelief as the news sunk in. Abruptly, the boy flung himself with full force at Daniel, knocking him flat on his back, and then hugged him so hard that he could barely breathe.

+---+---+

Tommy trudged wearily after Daniel towards their hotel room. They had driven a couple of hours to an alpine resort and spent the day sledding & snow tubing, before sharing a gooey cheese fondue for dinner. The resort’s main square had been strung with thousands of twinkling blue and white lights surrounding a huge flickering Christmas tree trimmed with glimmering ornaments. Down in the hotel lobby, there had been a fire in the fireplace and candles everywhere, which made for a wonderful soupy light that cloaked everyone gently. They had sung carols, eaten snowman-shaped sugar cookies and drunk steaming mugs of hot chocolate. It was the best time that Tommy had ever had, but now he was completely worn out.

After showering, Tommy snuggled up beside Daniel and tried to peek at the book he was reading. “So what do you want Santa to bring you tonight?” Daniel smiled as he snapped the book shut and tousled Tommy’s hair.

“Nothing really, I just want you to be happy.” he mumbled drowsily, resting his head on Daniel’s shoulder, and soon fell fast asleep. After a few moments, Daniel gently carried him over to his bed and tucked him in.

+---+---+

Tommy stood alone in the silent corridor, filled with an underwater-like twilight. Clinical-green walls stretched towards a foreboding metal door. He stepped forward, and the walls shimmered slightly. Another step, and the temperature plunged, shadows flickered and dissonant voices started whispering, calling out to him with spiteful names and hissing hurtful things. Taking a deep breath, he focused on the door and raced forward. The voices crescendoed, the cold closed in on him like a vise, and he felt ethereal fingers grasping at his back, but he continued to plunge forward, seizing the chilly handle with both his hands, and pushed.

The door opened in blinding flash, and he found himself sucked inside into a young man’s body. Two orderlies in white coats were dragging him along as he struggled to break free. In the middle of the room crouched a contraption that looked like a dentist’s chair from hell, connected by tangles of wires to cabinets of switches and pulsing lights. The orderlies stripped him to his underwear and strapped him roughly to the chair. There was a thick glass screen in front, where a couple stood solemnly looking in at him.

“Mom! Dad!” Tommy cried out in recognition.

“Silence!” A distinguished looking doctor with a bearded face walked out and glared at him. “What right do you have to speak to them? They gave you all their love, everything you could ever have wanted, and how did you repay them? By breaking their hearts with your treacherous and disgraceful deeds!”

The orderlies were busily attaching rows of electrodes to his exposed skin. “What are you going to do to me?” Tommy cried out as he continued to struggle. “This is our most effective treatment for your condition.” the doctor smiled as flung a switch on the wall.

Tommy screamed in agony as pulses of electricity shot thru his body. He convulsed violently as his muscles began to melt away, and his thick chest fur faded to a fuzz. With alarm, he realized that he was shrinking back into a lanky teenager. “Mom! Dad! Why are you doing this to me! Please make them stop!” he pleaded desperately.

But the electric pulses continued, and searing pain shot to the core of his being. There was constant pressure on all his limbs now, and he could feel them contracting, the bones getting smaller and more compact. A burning smell lingered in the air. “No, no! Make it stop, oh please make it stop!” he screamed in an increasingly high pitched voice as his body continued to wither away into boyhood.

“Don’t worry. Soon you’ll be waving goodbye to all those perverted, obscene thoughts. Just a pure, innocent baby.” the distinguished doctor said smugly.

“No! Pwease top dis! I don wanna be bah bee…”

“But you already are, sweet pea.” The doctor reached out and tickled Tommy’s one-year old tummy. “Ready to start a brand new life on the right path.”

Tommy’s face flushed red with anger. “You have no wight to do this to me.” he yelled. “I am a grown man.”

+---+---+

Daniel was in a near state of panic. Tommy had been screaming and convulsing in bed for several minutes, and there was nothing he could do that would calm the boy down. He was just about to call an ambulance, when Tommy abruptly stopped and opened his eyes, staring straight up at the ceiling. “Talk to me, Tommy.” he pleaded as he cradled the boy in his arms.

To his amazement, Tommy’s short crewcut started to grow out and darken, while his face widened and grew more angular. His chest puffed out and shoulders broadened, while his arms and legs extended and stretched outward. As he continued to grow, the seams in his pajamas began to strain and rip as his muscles swelled and bulged out, his pecs pushing harder and harder against his now puny shirt. Buttons popped, exposing a treasure trail winding down six deep, defined bricks. Veins snaked down his arms as his powerful biceps filled out.

Daniel stared at the handsome and athletic young man sitting up on the edge of the bed in the shredded remains of his pajamas, and then hurriedly fetched and draped a bath robe around him. After a long period of silence, Tommy finally looked up at him and spoke in a slow, deep baritone that sent a tingle down his spine.

“Daniel, when I was growing up, my parents could never understand why I preferred guys. They thought it was some kind of evil disease, and they did everything they could to cure me with drugs, counseling, and endless visits to therapists. I tried to keep things under wraps and told them that I had changed, but they weren’t convinced and kept spying on my every action to make sure that I hadn’t relapsed. I was so glad to escape to college, but in my final year I took a summer internship in my hometown, and my parents caught me in a tryst with my boyfriend. They were so furious that they handed me over to some goons from a corrective institution who forcibly regressed me back into a baby and wiped away my memories. Then, my parents tried to raise me again, but they both passed away in a car accident when I was still a toddler, so I ended up in that home.” He glanced at the floor, paused for a moment, then looked back into Daniel’s eyes. “Thank you so much for setting me free.”

“But… but what did I do?”

“You gave me the courage and strength to believe in myself. Even though you knew what I was, you adopted me and took care of me. And once I knew that what I was doing wasn’t wrong, the power that others had to hurt and control me just vanished.”

Tommy rose to his feet, and Daniel realized that he was now looking up at his adopted son. “In any case, the past doesn’t matter anymore. I’m no longer that little boy you adopted, Daniel. Would you still let me stay with you?”

“But I… I shouldn’t be staying with another man.” Daniel stammered helplessly.

Tommy gave him a bemused look. “You told me yourself that it’s okay. Don’t you even believe in what you say? Besides, I can tell that you really want to be with me. Why are you denying it?”

“But… but I’m not prepared…” Daniel whimpered in a child-like voice as he stood, immobilized in terror & exhilaration, his heart racing as it had never done before. Finally, he let out a muffled cry and clasped hold of Tommy’s barrel chest, clinging on tightly like a dopey little schoolboy on his first date. Quivering uncontrollably, he began to sob.

“Relax, and just let yourself out.” Tommy whispered tenderly into his ear as he wrapped his thick arms around Daniel’s lithe frame, engulfing him in his embrace.