When you see a church you think, "Lord." When you see a crow you think, "Death." Yet, when you see someone like me it's, "Run idiot or you'll get killed!"

Actually now that I think of it, that has happened to me quiet a lot. I also just noticed I'm the only vegetarian of my kind. The only.

I live with my mother. She's such a pain. Always tellin' me to stop takin' her stuff. Tellin' me I'm more woman than I am man. She sits in that recliner of hers and says, "Boy, you is goin' gay one minute, and manly the next. Choose one already!"

That was the day I changed. I was strollin' in the forest near my house. My little sister, Lucy, was at school. So, I was free for the day.

It was around Autumn, just when them trees in the forest were gettin' real beautiful. Y'see I live in North Carolina. Where there ain't nothin' to do but work, get pregnant, and walk through forests. I hate workin', and I ain't a girl. So, I just mostly walk through forests.

But as I was sayin', the trees in Autumn get as beautiful as Aphrodite. That's mighty pretty. The wind slowed, almost to a stop.

It was quiet. I mean, it's alway quiet in North Carolina, but today was just TOO quiet. I turned back, and hurried home.

About twenty-three feet from my house I saw her. The woman that would curse my life.

She was wearin' one of them fancy Japanese robes. What were they called? Kamikaze? Kamata? Kimono! She was wearin' a kimono with cherryblossom leaves all over. She must'a been a foriegner because of the way she looked. 'Er hair was silver, straight, and cut so it fraimed her face.

Before she changed me, we had a small and quick conversation. She stared at me with her red, burnin' eyes. "Excuse me," she started, "do you perhaps know the land? I've seen to have gotten lost." Her legs swung back and forth from the tree branch she was on.

I stared at 'er, amazed. My daze ended when she jumped down and waved her hand in front 'o me.
[Chapter one to be continued...]