The Long Lost Pair

Freaks

Kathryne

      My first memory from when I was young was the first day someone had come to adopt me. My frizzy black hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail at the crown of my skull, and my caretaker, Madame Louis, had forced me into a long and frilly pink dress, white shoes to match the lace. My eyes shined like the freshly mowed grass outside. Each orb was filled to the brim with excitement only a five year old could muster.

      Madame Louis led me by the hand to the conference room and opened the door for me. A man and woman sat at the table and smiled brightly when they saw me. The lady wore a red lipstick which was far too bright for her age and did not match her cream hat or blue dress. Her hair was black, like mine, and pulled back into a tight bun beneath the hat. The man's hat was cream colored, like hers, but his suit was black and formal. I assumed his shoes matched. His blonde hair was slicked back on his head, and his hat remained on the table.

      The longer they stared at me in silence, the more uncomfortable and nervous I became. Madame Louis was the first to break this silence. "Kathryne, this is Mr. and Mrs. Doucet."

      I tried to smile, or at least I think I did. Mrs. Doucet gasped and her husband shouted something about a monster. Madame Louis quickly took me from the room and brought me back to mine. I could hear her speaking with the Doucets, but my eyes were too focused on my mirror to remember their words.

      My hair was not black or frizzy anymore. My eyes were no longer green. Without my knowledge, my body had changed itself. What had once been long, dark, curly hair had straightened itself and completely turned green from roots to ends. My eyes were an unnatural bright yellow that haunted my reflection in the mirror. My hands remained on my face in sheer horror at what I had become.

      It must have been hours latter that Madame Louis had come to check on me. By that point, I had gone through several different colors and styles for my hair, along with at least nine different eye colors. But for now, I looked normal. My own kind of normal.

      "Are you alright, my dear?" She had asked me when she came in. She placed herself in the chair beside my bed as she waited for my response.

      Slowly, I pulled my eyes from the mirror to meet hers. "Madame Louis, I'm a freak!"

      She immediately scolded me. "You are no freak, Kathryne! You have an amazing gift!"

      "This is not a gift!" I yelled back at her, which was far from my normal calm demeanor. "I'm a freak! I'm a weirdo! Is this why know one wants me?"

      "I want you, Kathryne, and I don't want any freaks," she had told me. "One day, you'll understand why you're special."

      After that day, I had begun to practice my freak show in the mirror, in a hope I could control it. I never wanted anyone to see it again. I learned to change the length of my hair first, and then the style. The colors were harder to master, but I could soon change them as well. Before the age of nine, I knew how to control it perfectly, but also how to change anything about myself. No one would know about it, I had sworn that to myself.

      I began to refuse to see anyone about adoption soon after I had learned control. Madame Louis eventually gave up on even scheduling me. She told me that it was my choice, but that I shouldn't let anything hold me back.

      This was a continuous argument until the summer of my eleventh birthday. I had been lying about in the early hours of the morning when Madame Louis came into my room and pulled me from my bed.

      "You have a meeting," she had told me. Before I had a chance to deny it, she continued, "I think you'll like this one, Kathryne. Just hear her out."