By Robin Hillard
Rosalie nipped my ear and I swatted her, just as Dad came in. He waved a vase of roses to thump me. Mum’s favourite vase. She screamed and he lost focus. The vase crashed, Rosalie Buzzed off and the parents turned on me.
“Leave your sister alone,” Dad said. “You have a special gift…”
I groaned. What’s so special about Changing Shape? So I can spend my Saturday working on Uncle Desmond’s farm, as an elephant.
“Everything’s easy for you,” my uncle says. But even elephants get tired. Sometimes I wish I were like Rosalie. She’ll never grow bigger than a mouse and nobody expects her to work.
I made my first Change when I was three. I should have kept it quiet, but I was only a kid and Mum was searching for my Gift.
“Din-dins, Freddy,” she would say. ““Point to din-dins.”
I waved my fist.
“Show him, Reg. Show Freddy how to Move.”
Dad waved his hand and the plate rose. I screamed as it wafted away.
“It’s no good, Maude, he’ll never be a Mover. Dad waved my dinner back.
“Perhaps he’s an invisible, like me,” Mum said. “Hide, Freddy.”
I crawled under the bed.
“No. Hide like this. Ccch. . .” And she wasn’t there.
I screamed.
She shimmered back. “Hide, Freddy. Ccch.”
“Ccch.” I squeezed into a cupboard.
She pulled me out. “Hide, Freddy.”
“He’s not an Invisible, Mum,” Raymond said. My brother tossed me onto his shoulder and took me outside.
Raymond isn’t a Mover or an Invisible, he’s a Seeker. When Mum lost her keys, he wriggled his fingers, sniffed, and found them on the kitchen floor.
Seeking is a comfortable gift. People ask questions and after you’ve solved their problem, go away.
I was five when Rosalie found her Gift and started Buzzing around Mum’s head.
“Such a clever girl,” Mum said.
Ugh! If I were a great black crow, I’d really make my sister Buzz.
I pictured the big, black crow—and I was IT. I flapped and cawed, a stupid little kid who was too proud of himself.
Mum was thrilled. “You’re a Changer, Freddy. A great gift!”
Changing was fun for a couple of years, till the family saw how useful a horse—or an elephant—could be, when there was work to be done.
One day I decided I had had enough. It was the afternoon of The Big Game, and I’d settled in front of the TV when Mr Jamison rang. His champion bull had disappeared. “Stolen out of the paddock!”
I wondered where the thieves were holding the bull and as even as the words left my mouth, I knew I wouldn’t be watching the Big Game.
I Changed into a kestrel, and saw the bull, penned in the gully, ready to be trucked away. When Mr Jamison came to collect his beast, Dad offered my help. Have you ever tried to move a frightened bull? I Changed into a cattle dog, but it took all afternoon to get the animal home.
I was still sore about missing the Big Game when Rosalie nipped my ear, Mum yelled about the broken vase, and everyone blamed me. I had had enough. I was sick of Changing.
I made my move that night.
“I’m not hungry, Mum,” I said, poking at my favourite sausages. “Can I go to bed?”
That worried her. “You might like some ice cream later,” she said. I refused dessert.
I probably should have missed more meals, but next morning I was ravenous.
“I’m OK,” I said in my weakest voice. “I just came over funny for a while. Sort of empty,” I improvised. “I feel — sort of light.”
Mum put extra bacon on my plate.
Later she wanted apples for a pie. She thought I’d Change to a monkey to climb the tree, but I dragged a ladder out of the shed. She wondered why I took so long.
“Sorry. . .” I turned away, as if I did not want to talk.
After dinner Mum dropped her glasses behind the bookcase and asked me to get them. An easy job for a mouse. I piled most of the books on the floor, then tried to move the shelves. I must have pulled too hard. They fell with a crash. I ran out of the room, rubbing my eyes.
After that, nobody talked about Changing in front of me. I tried to look miserable, which was hard because I had never enjoyed myself so much. I could watch as much TV as I liked or play football. Dad came home with a new computer game and Raymond let me practise driving his truck.
This went on for a couple of months, till one afternoon when I was sitting by the window, watching Rosalie Buzz outside, Aunt Margaret came into the kitchen with Mum. They did not notice me.
“Freddy looks all right,” Mum said, and my aunt agreed.
“He is probably just run down,” she said.
“Do you think he’ll ever Change again?”
“Oh yes.” Sometimes I thought Aunt Margaret saw too much. I’d have to be careful.
I sat very still, watching Rosalie. The silly little thing was stuck. Before I stopped Changing, I would have rescued her. Today, she’d have to wait till Mum got a ladder. That would teach her to be careful where she Buzzed!
But there were crows! Lots of them! I could see them circling over Rosalie. An easy meal.
No time to open the window.
I Changed into an eagle. Heavy enough to shatter glass! Fast enough to reach the crows!
“There was no time,” I said afterwards while Mum wiped off the blood and tried to bury me in bandages.
“So, you have your Gift again,” Aunt Margaret said.
“It just came back.”
“Hmm.” She winked. “You’ve got a great Gift, Freddy, but you’re just a boy. Don’t squander it on little things.”
I looked serious, but I was grinning inside as I promised not to “squander my gift.”
About the Author
Robin Hillard
Robin Hillard has had a number of stories published in magazines and ezines including AntipodeanSF.
She now lives in Melbourne with a bossy little dog who takes her to the off leash park.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Jolie Lindholm grew up in small towns on Long Island, NY, later moving to Florida for college.
You can follow her creative writing journey on Twitter: <
Chris Karageorge is a lover, brother, son, neighbour and a keen observer of all things in sight. 
Bethany Tatman is an aspiring writer who currently resides in one of the more hipster suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
William Kerr is a self-professed science fiction enthusiast. He was born and raised in Tasmania but now calls Canberra home.
PS Cottier is a poet who lives in Canberra, with a particular interest in speculative poetry.
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.