Alex and Emma were like any other married couple. They lived in a nice house and were very successful. Alex was a handsome man, standing six foot five with dark blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Some say that he was terminally handsome. Emma had the same blond hair and darker blue eyes. She stood five foot eight. Not too tall but not too short. Some would say a brother and sister looking kind of couple.
Alex and Emma lived a rather quiet and private life. They had no children. Both pushing forty. They kept in shape and ate only organic. Alex and Emma loved each other. Even after the virus.
It was a selective sort of virus. Choosing people at random like any old virus would. It started on a quiet morning when Alex got out of bed. He didn’t need to go to work. He usually worked from home as a CEO of his internet company. Emma didn’t need to work, so instead she would volunteer throughout the community. Today was one of those days she couldn’t work at the women’s shelter.
Alex woke up to his wife next to him. She was very hot and very sweaty. Emma clutched her stomach. Alex ran to the bathroom to retrieve a cold wash cloth.
“I feel so hot,” Emma moaned. Alex put his hand to her forehead. She definitely had a fever. She was shaking.
“It’s okay, honey. I’ll take care of you. Do you feel like I need to take you to the emergency room?”
“No. I think it’ll pass. I don’t want to risk contaminating anybody else,” Emma said.
Alex took her temperature. Despite her burning skin, Emma wasn’t running a fever.
“Weird,” Alex said.
“What is it, honey?”
“You have no high temperature,” Alex said, showing Emma the thermometer.
“If it’s all the same. I think I’ll stay in bed today,” Emma said.
“I don’t blame you, sweetheart. If you need anything, let me know,” Alex said and kissed his wife’s cheek. Emma did just that. She stayed in bed, only getting up to go to the bathroom. All she wanted was water. She had no appetite.
“If you don’t feel better tomorrow, I’m taking you to the doctor,” Alex said.
“We’ll see. I hope it’s a twenty-four hour thing,” Emma said.
“Just the same, I’m sleeping in the guest room tonight,” Alex said and Emma agreed. She didn’t want to make her husband sick.
The following day, Emma woke up feeling strangely renewed. She felt full of energy. No sign of the sickness that overtook her the day before. She put on her robe on and went downstairs to the kitchen where she found Alex making breakfast.
Alex seemed surprised by his wife’s healthy glow as she wandered on into the kitchen. They embraced and Alex kissed her deeply.
“Glad to see you’re feeling better,” he said. “Hungry?”
“Starving,” Emma said. Her stomach let out a loud growl. Alex laughed.
“I’d say, baby,” he said and stole another kiss. “Good thing I had a big breakfast planned.
Emma sat down and read the newspaper while her husband made eggs, bacon, and a nice sized plate of pancakes. Emma poured herself a cup of coffee.
Alex sat down and they both started digging in. Alex is a man with a large appetite, but this morning Emma had him beat.
“I can’t believe you ate all that, Em,” Alex said in surprise.
“Would you believe that I’m still hungry,” Emma said as she went to the fridge and pulled out some leftover chicken.
“I’d better go to the store then. Is there anything special you would like?”
“Not really. I feel up to anything right now. Hell Al, I could eat a whole cow right now,” Emma joked.
“I’ll be back. Don’t clean out the fridge while I’m gone,” Alex said. He gave his wife a kiss and off to the market he went. Little did he realize, Emma did clean out the fridge and a few cabinets. She couldn’t get her appetite under control. It wasn’t until after she demolished the content of her kitchen that she went for a long nap.
Alex stared in shock at the empty refrigerator. In the short time he was gone, Emma had wiped almost all the food. He noticed the egg shells and the empty carton. Emma had eaten the eggs raw. If the virus didn’t make her sick, surely the raw eggs would.
After restocking the fridge, Alex went upstairs to check up on Emma. He found her passed out on the bed. His same sweet Emma. He traced her cheek delicately with his thumb. Her skin felt soft. Not it usual soft. More like that of a baby. She stirred a little.
“Hey baby,” Emma whispered.
“Hey,” Alex said with a smile. He couldn’t be mad at her, even if he tried. Emma was the world to him. “I see you didn’t listen too well,” Alex joked and Emma giggled.
“I couldn’t help myself,” she said. Just then her stomach growled again. “I’m still hungry.”
“Can’t you just ignore it, Em. Jesus, you ate everything. I don’t want to have to go back to the store.”
“I know, sweetie. Maybe if I just sleep a little more. I feel tired too,” Emma said.
“That’s my girl,” Alex said covering up his sleeping wife.
Later in the day, Alex became concerned. Emma slept six hours straight. This wasn’t normal. So he went back upstairs to check up on her. What he saw left him in shock. Emma still laid there, sound asleep, but she looked different. Her face filled out. Looking not like that of an obese person, but like that of a child. Even her hair color changed to a sandy blond instead of Emma’s usual dark color. Alex wanted to wake his wife, but he was afraid. He looked at the book shelf of pictures. Emma like displaying old pictures. He found the one of Emma at age three, fishing with her father. Emma had somehow transformed into an oversized version of her three-year old self.
Alex let out a noise. Emma stirred from her slumber. Alex watched in horror as his wife’s pudgy hands wiped the sleep from her childlike eyes.
“Oh Alex, it’s just you,” she said in a voice that didn’t sound like her own.
"You okay, Em,” he asked. Staring at the oversized toddler that was once his wife.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something,” Emma said. She looks down at her hands. They were not her usual slender hands. In fact they were void of freckle and age lines. “What the…”
She jumped out of bed and into the bathroom. She screamed when she looked in the mirror. Her height was the same, but her body had changed. She became young again. Much, much younger. An oversized child. She felt hideous and monstrous. She started to cry. Alex took her into his arms. This was still the woman he loved, even if he was shocked by the sight of her.
Alex called a friend of his who happened to be a doctor. The man agreed to see Emma at their home. He brought over his bag. He took blood and measured Emma. He even took skin and DNA samples. Emma felt like a science project.
“Never seen anything like it,” Alex’s friend Vin said. “It’s almost like her life is starting over again. Everything physically about her is that of a three year old, but her mind is still there. I’ll run the lab work as quickly as I can. This is something new. I’ll have to see if this virus has affected anyone else.”
“I trust you, Vin,” Alex said as he showed his friend out.
Emma started to cry. She sounded so much like a child.
“I’m a freak,” she sobbed. “What’s going to happen to me, Al.”
“Well, let’s just say that if Vin is correct, I’m glad we live in a house with vaulted ceilings.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Vin has a theory for now and if it’s true, you are evolving. Your body somehow turned back time and now you are back to growing up all over again. Only this time, you are really going to be daddy’s big girl,” Alex said with a small but somber smile.
“How big does he think I’m going to get?”
“Well, at age three you are half your size. If Vin is right on this. He seems to think you’ll grow to be about ten to eleven feet tall. That is if your body fully matures again.”
“I’m going to be like a goddamn dinosaur then. How is it possible? People with gigantism can’t even walk.”
“You don’t have that kind of gigantism. Vin seems to think you’re going to be wired a little differently. As you grow back up again, your body will be adapted. Please sweetheart, I’m tired. It’s been a long day,” Alex said in frustration. “I’m going to be sleeping in the guest room from now on, by the way. I don’t feel right sharing a bed with you until you’ve matured some. I’m sorry.”
Emma watch as her husband climbed to stairs and then she started to cry again.
A week later, news reports came in across the country and around the world of adults falling ill to some strange virus. It wasn’t biased. Men and women around the world fell ill to the same affects that took over Emma a week ago. Alex shakes his head. “Seems the human race is changing,” he mumbles to Emma who now stands around six feet.
“They have no idea what they are in for,” Emma responds.
“How’s it like, honey,” Alex asks his now four-year old looking wife.
“Weird. Good thing I’ll be aging a lot quicker this time around, but I’m going to have to throw clothes shopping out the window for now.”
“Until people see that the sizes have changed. One size does not fit all,” Alex says and Emma laughs. “At least my newest venture will be ready by then. Clothing for the newly evolved.”
“I’m so lucky to have such a smart husband,” Emma says. Normally she would kiss him, but their marriage has kind of been on hold for now, at for another sixteen weeks.
“I don’t feel so good all the sudden. I think I’ll go to bed,” Alex says. He stood up and fell to the ground. His skin felt hot to the touch. Emma carried Alex to the guest room.
“Hold on, baby. Looks like it’s your turn,” Emma said.