“I’m not against letting formerly disabled kids compete,” Eric said, “but I’m not sure exactly where you’d draw the line between someone venned into a healthy body and someone venned into a more athletic body.”

The next morning, Meredith got up early to help her mom start cooking. I rolled over and fell asleep again, getting up about eight-thirty to take a shower. After I got dressed, I joined Meredith, Erin, Caleb, Will and Aiden for a light breakfast, and then washed dishes while Meredith and Erin got back to work on dinner. When Sophia woke up, I got her to run over to the Venn machine with me and venn me from the turkey-girl form to my dragon-girl body. Justin and Savannah woke up a little later, around the time Eric and Vanessa came over from the hotel. A little later, most of the menfolk started watching a football game in the living room, while Vanessa, Savannah, Sophia, Desiree and I hung out in and near the kitchen, helping out with the cooking as much as we could and keeping the cooks company when we couldn’t.

Britt sent me and Jada a couple of texts an hour or so later, a selfie with her big sister and brothers, and then a picture of herself holding her baby niece. Jada replied with a “squeeeee~” and a string of heart-eyes emoji. I took a selfie with Meredith, her mom, her aunt and Savannah in the background and sent that to them.

Eventually, everything was ready and Erin sent Meredith to the living room to summon everybody to the dining room. She and Vanessa hauled the turkey to the table, Savannah and Sophia and I carried various smaller dishes, and everybody gathered around. Justin cleared his throat and said, “Let’s ask the blessing now. Or just think about what you’re thankful for, if you’re not one to pray.” Everybody quieted down, and he asked the blessing. I prayed with him, thanking God for the food and the cooks, and the whole Ramsey family, and Mom and Nathan, the Venn machines, Metamorphoses... and most of all for my girl body. Things were so much better now than they had been two or three years ago.

After the blessing, we served our plates and dug in. Conversation during dinner turned toward the recent controversy about school athletics. Early on, athletic associations in areas with a Venn machine had put seemingly reasonable rules in place about athletes not being allowed to venn themselves into stronger, faster bodies. But that was being challenged now by a group of formerly disabled kids and their parents, who were filing class action suits against several athletic associations and school districts. Meredith’s boyfriend Hunter, who had muscular dystrophy in his baseline body, had been following the news closely, even though he was going to a small community college with no athletic department to speak of. “He thinks he might try out for the cross-country team after he transfers to NC State,” Meredith explained, “if they loosen up on letting disabled people venned into healthy bodies compete. He’s been running a lot ever since he was venned.”

“I’m not against letting formerly disabled kids compete,” Eric said, “but I’m not sure exactly where you’d draw the line between someone venned into a healthy body and someone venned into a more athletic body. I mean, you want to allow venns that level the playing field, but not ones that give formerly disabled kids an advantage over the kids who built up their baseline bodies with years of exercise.”

“They have some ideas about how that could work,” Erin said. “You could have doctors examine the venned kids to make sure their bodies are still completely human, with no extra features, and use fingerprints or retinal scans to make sure they don’t venn again between the doctor’s exam and the competition. Or have a coach or referee witness the venn and make sure the venn partner isn’t including anything extra.”

“That’d require kids to go back to their baseline disabled body before getting re-venned with a witness, though,” Meredith said. “Not a great look. I don’t know if it’s better or worse than making trans people go back to their baseline body before having their transition notarized, but both are pretty awful.”

“I’m not interested in competitive athletics,” I said, “but if they let disabled people compete, that’ll probably benefit a lot of trans people that venned to fix their dysphoria, too. Not scalies and furries, but basic human trans people at least.”

“Yeah. Hunter and I are going to the demonstration at the courthouse when the suit comes up.”

“I’ll come with you if I can get off work,” I said. “I’d probably better venn into a human body that day, though.”

Meredith giggled. “Yeah, that might help.”

That led to a discussion of venning into particular forms for particular purposes. Justin mentioned how he and Caleb had venned into agile, catlike forms for cleaning out the gutters, and Savannah talked enthusiastically about the doll form she’d worn much of the time since last Thanksgiving and how she’d gotten so much more done since she needed to sleep less. Sophia and I talked a little about the different forms we’d used for work. Then Justin and Erin mentioned the merfolk bodies they’d worn for a while during their anniversary trip to the coast the year before, and Eric and Vanessa admitted they’d venned into alternate forms for their anniversary date a few months earlier, but wouldn’t say exactly what. To divert their children from their demands to know what their parents had venned into, I talked about venning into little girls with Britt and playing on the indoor playground at the mall during some of our dates. (I didn’t say anything about the times we’d venned into tiny bodies.)

I don’t want to give the impression we only talked about venning; Eric and Justin talked a lot about stories from their childhood together, and Erin and Vanessa pitched in now and then with stories about their own families. All four of the parents bragged about the accomplishments of their kids, and Caleb, Will, and Meredith talked about their professors and the extracurriculars they were getting involved with.

At last, after everybody had eaten more than was good for them and nobody could eat any more, we left the dining table. Several of the menfolk who hadn’t helped with cooking cleaned up, continuing to watch a football game (I’m not sure which one) on Caleb’s laptop while they worked. After they were finished, several of us including all of the younger folks went for a walk around the neighborhood, as far as the park and the library.

Just after we got back to the house, Jada called me. I went down the hall to Meredith’s bedroom to have some privacy as we talked.

“How’s your Thanksgiving going, sweetie?”

“It’s been really good so far. I wish I could be with my own family, but at least I’ll see Nathan on Saturday.”

“We still on for tomorrow at five?”

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

We talked for a little while longer, then she said: “Hey, is Meredith there?”

“Yeah, you want to talk to her?”

“Sure, I haven’t talked to her in too long.”

So I found Meredith and handed her the phone, and she and Jada talked for a while. After a few minutes, Meredith said to me, “Hey, would you be okay with making tomorrow evening a double date? You and Jada, me and Hunter?”

“Oh,” I said. “If Jada’s okay with it, sure.”

“Yeah, it was her idea. Lemme talk to Hunter about it.” She handed me the phone and pulled out her own.

“So we’re doing another double date,” I said. “I told you about me and Britt stumbling into a double date with my boss and her wife, right?”

“Yeah, that was neat. Well, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with Meredith. I haven’t hung out with her in way too long.”

“Yeah, before yesterday I’d only seen her for a few hours in the last three months. And even back in the summer, living in the same house, we were missing each other a lot because of different work schedules. This’ll be fun.”

We exchanged virtual kisses and hugs, and said goodbye. When Meredith got off the phone with Hunter, we joined Sophia and their cousins for a few rounds of Hanabi, a card game the Georgia Ramseys had brought with them.

* * *

Friday morning, I went to work while the Ramsey womenfolk went shopping. It was a moderately busy shift; most people who were shopping all day, and going out to eat in between stores, were doing their shopping down in Catesville or Greensboro, not in Brocksboro. On the other hand, we got a fair number of locals who were taking their out-of-town relatives out to eat at the local Venn restaurant. I got Anna to venn me into a lynx-morph for the shift, and afterward, into a mostly human girl with iridescent scales in strategic areas.

When I got back home, Justin and Eric were playing chess at the dining table while Caleb and Will were playing a first-person shooter I wasn’t familiar with. The women weren’t back from the stores. Aiden was watching the game, looking bored, and he latched onto me, asking if I wanted to play something.

“Sure,” I said. “Let me just go put my stuff away. I’ll have to get ready for my date later, but I’ve got a couple of hours before my girlfriend gets off work.”

After I put my purse away and took off my shoes, I went back to find Aiden, and he taught me a card game that probably wasn’t designed for two people. It wasn’t bad, but I think it would have been more fun with three or four players. We were still playing when the women got back from their shopping trip. Aiden and I finished the game and then Savannah, Sophia and Meredith fixed sandwiches from the leftover turkey and joined us for the next game. Savannah excitedly told us how Sophia had split her into two bodies for a few hours so she could visit twice as many stores.

After a while, Meredith and I excused ourselves to get ready for our double date. I wore a knee-length navy blue dress with strategic cutouts here and there, showing a little belly and back and a little cleavage; I had scales in most of those areas. Meredith wore an eggshell white blouse with puffed sleeves and a flower-patterned skirt. I took Desiree with us, letting her perch on top of my purse.

We sat down in the living room again and chatted with Savannah and Sophia while they played another game with Aiden — and Eric and Justin, who’d finished their latest chess game while Meredith and I were getting ready. Not much later, the doorbell rang and Meredith and I went to answer it. It was Jada and Hunter. Jada had Lydia in her arms, but that didn’t stop her from giving me a hug and a kiss in front of everybody in the living room. Hunter was a little more circumspect, kissing Meredith’s hand rather than her lips.

Jada and I sat in the front seats of Jada’s car, and Hunter and Meredith in the back. Desiree and Lydia snuggled in my lap. Our first stop was the library, where we asked Meredith and Hunter to pop the plushies in the Venn machine while we sat down on the bench nearby, holding hands and leaning on each other — it was easier to assimilate the memories sitting down.

“You want to split again right away?” Jada asked after we’d silently assimilated the last four weeks of memories from our divergent selves.

“No,” I said. “Let’s do it tomorrow. Or Sunday, if you can make time to meet me here before you leave for college.”

“Tomorrow would work better.”

We all got back in the car and Jada drove us to the Thai restaurant in Catesville. On the way, we chatted about various things, including what Meredith and Jada had gotten up to at college, the video on splitting that Sophia and Savannah had suggested, and the upcoming demonstration at the courthouse.

“I talked to Mr. Buckholtz this morning about taking that day off and working the following Wednesday instead,” I said. “He said he’d work it into the schedule if he could.”

“Cool,” Hunter said. “You want to plan on coming with us when I pick up Meredith? Around eight?”

“Sure, assuming I get the day off.”

What with not having a car, and most of my local friends being less politically involved than Carmen and her friend group, I hadn’t gone to any protests or demonstrations since the wetland bill protest when I’d lived with Carmen at UNC Greensboro. I was looking forward to getting involved again.

At the restaurant, once Jada and Meredith could sit face to face, they talked even more about what all they’d been doing since they saw each other last. I hadn’t talked with Hunter in a while either, not since he’d come over to eat supper with the Ramseys occasionally the previous summer, though I was never close friends with him like Meredith and Jada. We wound up talking more about the formerly disabled athletes movement while Jada and Meredith talked about their classes and the clubs they were getting involved in.

Toward the end of supper, we talked about what we’d do afterward. Meredith and Hunter had been tentatively thinking of going to the bowling alley down the street from the restaurant, but were open to other suggestions. Jada suggested we go to the mall, venn into little kids, and play on their indoor playground. Meredith’s eyes lit up at that, and though Hunter needed a little persuasion, he agreed when Jada and I talked about how much fun we’d had doing that a while back.

The mall playground wasn’t open to venned adults until later, so we wound up doing some window-shopping for about forty-five minutes after we got to the mall. The mall wasn’t as super crowded as it had been that morning, I’m sure, but it was still more crowded than I usually saw it. Then we went over to the Venn machine and venned each other. Jada and I were four-year-old girls, both with an extra pair of arms to make climbing the monkey bars easier (and make it obvious to mall security we weren’t unaccompanied minors). Hunter and Meredith were slightly older, around six, just younger versions of their everyday bodies.

We hurried off toward the playground. “Last one there is a rotten egg,” Jada exclaimed, shooting ahead for a few moments before Hunter and Meredith’s longer legs caught up. I was worried we’d get in trouble for running in the mall, but nobody reported us, and we were all laughing as we reached the playground.

We clambered over the monkey bars and chased each other around the tunnels of the fort, and then hit the swing sets for a while. There were only a couple of other adult-kids there that night, a brother and sister with cyborg parts, and we played with them too. Before long, Hunter said he was glad he’d let us talk him into it.

The PA system announced that the mall would close in fifteen minutes, and five minutes later, we and the cyborg siblings hurried along to the Venn machine to change back into our everyday bodies. We got our stuff out of the lockers and went out to Jada’s car.

“Y’all want to do anything else tonight, or go home?” Jada asked as we were getting in and buckling our seatbelts.

“I think we’d better go home,” Meredith said. “I’ve got family stuff tomorrow, and Lauren, don’t you have to work?”

“Yeah,” I said. I’d gotten Jada to venn me into a robin’s egg blue dragon-girl with a hadrosaurus-type head; that was a variation I’d never worn to work before. “We’ll see each other again tomorrow afternoon.” I reached over and rubbed her shoulder for a moment as she cranked up the car.

Sorry for the delay. I've been sick and haven't had the spoons to post chapters to BigCloset or TGStorytime, but of course the pre-scheduled chapters have been going up weekly on Scribblehub, as was foretold. I'll try to catch up over the next few days.