Chapter 7 - Family Crisis
Laura races down the stairs even as they sway under her feet, threatening to pitch her to the bottom in one deadly go. The clock strikes three, but the house is nearly as dark as night, save for when the occasional blinding flash illuminates the windows and rocks the house with another thunderous boom.
"Mom! Dad!" Laura cries as she reaches the bottom of the stairs. "Where are you?!"
The winds rise in an unearthly howl, and the windows rattle. She clamps her hands over her ears when another flash is quickly followed by a deafening crack.
Laura whips her head around. "Don't leave me alone here again! Don't--!"
She screams as a window in the living room shatters. Wind and rain whip through the house. Beyond the broken window, the black clouds are tinged green, and the tempest shrieks as the wind rises further.
"JENNY!" Laura bellows. She turns and races back up the stairs. "Jenny, where are you?!" She ducks in and out of rooms, the normally four-bedroom house having multiplied such that there is no end to where she must search, the corridor twisting and turning until she is sure she is searching the same room over and over again.
Laura shrieks when ice bangs against the windows, each hit as loud as a gunshot. More glass shatters in the distance. She turns and glimpses a flicker of long blond hair as it disappears around a corner.
"Jenny, wait, come back!" Laura yells as she pounds down the hallway. "I have to get you to somewhere safe!"
"I don't want your help!" Jenny shouts from another direction.
Laura skids to a halt and whirls around. Jenny disappears into a bedroom and slams the door shut behind her. Laura dashes to the door and wrestles with the knob before flinging it open.
For a moment, she is too stunned to move or speak. Jenny is lying on her bed, calmly reading a fantasy novel. Rain, hail, and wind roar through a broken window, soaking her and her book, wind tearing at her hair, but Jenny appears oblivious.
"Jenny, what are you doing?!" says Laura. "We need to get to safety!"
Jenny looks to her sister and laughs. "Why? Anywhere is just as good as this."
"But I know what to do! We need to get to the basement!"
"Fuck off, Laura, can't you see I'm busy?"
Laura tries to run to her sister, but the wind rises and pushes her back. Suddenly the half of the room containing Jenny rips free and flies off into the stormy skies. "Some sister you turned out to be!" Jenny yells as she vanishes into the distance ...
Laura's eyes flew open, and her body jerked as she awoke with a start Wednesday morning. She turned over on her back, wincing slightly. After nearly a full minute, she finally realized her alarm was going off. She groaned and banged her hand on it to silence it.
She rolled onto her side and reached behind her to rub at a spot just below the small of her back through her nightgown. It took her another moment to wake up enough to realize her tail bone ached. The only time in her life she ever had pain there was when she slipped on the ice and fell on it when she was little. She had not realized she even had a part of her spine down there until that accident.
Laura swung her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed her eyes. At least the itchiness she had felt there right before she went to bed the night before had subsided. She stepped over to the door to her room and opened it in time to see Jenny come sailing past in her bathrobe.
Laura leaned out into the hallway. "What's got you up so ..." She trailed off as she spotted the wide streak of pink down the back of Jenny's head.
Jenny whirled around. "I wanted to make sure I got a decent shower before you broke the heater again with your silly hair."
Laura stepped up to her. "Look who's talking," Laura said as she reached for Jenny's hair.
Jenny slapped her sister's hand away. "Yeah, fine, it's turning anime pink. At least it's not getting all curly like yours."
Laura sighed. "Is it too much to ask that you not be hostile towards me today?"
"If I'm going to be stuck having you shadow me all freaking day, you get me as I am. Deal with it."
"I didn't ask for this, Jenny," Laura said in a lower voice.
"I didn't hear you tell Mom no."
"How could I?"
"Like this: no. See? I say it all the time. It's real easy. But, no, you have to be miss goodie two-shoes."
Laura frowned. "That's not what this is about."
"Right. Tell me another one. Look, I want to get dressed, it's freezing out here, and--" Jenny suddenly fell silent and stared.
"What are you looking at?"
"Your eyes," said Jenny, bemused. "They're green!"
"No, they're not!" Laura retorted. "I mean, they can't ... I ... shit ..."
Laura spun around and bolted for the bathroom. Her mouth fell open as she stared at her face. Where blue-gray eyes had been before, she now sported bright emerald green.
"Jesus ... what else is going to happen to me?" she murmured.
Sarah glanced across the table at Bob and finished chewing on some egg before saying to Harold, "Do you really think he's ready to go back to school?"
Harold smiled as he gazed at Bob. "I'd say that's up to him."
Bob raised his eyes from the science magazine lying open next to his plate. He had dressed himself in the faded jeans and buttoned shirt that he typically wore to class. "Yeah, I think I'm ready. I feel a lot better. I really don't want to miss any more school."
"Besides, he's far from being contagious anymore," said Harold.
"Not that it matters, considering how many people got it already," Sarah said.
Bob turned towards her. "Don't you think that's a little strange?"
Sarah paused and glanced at Harold, her eyes lingering for a moment on blue hair that now covered the back of his head. She idly played with a bang of her own red hair, only a fringe above her forehead retaining its former hue. Streaks of pale salmon pink had appeared along the sides of her head. She had not yet arranged it into her usual ponytail, thus its increased length from the day before was quite noticeable. "What do you mean?" said Sarah.
"It went through town really fast," said Bob. "Influenza is not normally that virulent."
"This is a small town, honey," said Sarah. "Closer quarters, easier to transmit."
"Then there's your hair," said Bob. "And Dad's. And--"
"What about it?" Sarah said a bit forcefully as she pulled her hand away from her hair.
"Hadn't you noticed that you all got this weird hair thing in the same order you came down with the flu?"
Sarah hesitated. "No, I hadn't."
"I had," Harold murmured.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Oh, now, that's ... that's silly. Flu doesn't change hair color. If that was the case, Doctor Conner would've told us."
Bob caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and stared as Laura stepped into the dining room.
Sarah glanced at Laura and stood up. "How many sausages do you want with your ..." She trailed off. "Laura, what--??"
"It doesn't change eye color, either," Bob murmured.
Harold just stared.
"Um, hi," said Laura as she took a seat. "Yes, I know. Green eyes."
Sarah took a deep breath. "Laura, did ... has anything else ...?"
"I checked myself over just before getting in the shower," said Laura in a subdued voice. "Nothing else changed. My tail bone aches, but it's not bad. And just one sausage, please."
Sarah nodded slowly before heading into the kitchen.
Laura glanced at Bob. "Could you not stare at me?"
"Oh, sorry," Bob said, turning his eyes back to his plate. "If it helps any, it's a nice shade of green."
One corner of Laura's mouth rose. "Thanks. I'm trying not to freak out about it. I mean, it's only eye color, right?"
"Your vision isn't impaired?" Harold asked.
Laura shook her head. "I didn't know it had changed color until Jenny noticed."
Sarah reentered the room carrying a plate with sausage and eggs. "Speaking of whom, where is she?"
"I guess she's up in her room," said Laura as Sarah put the plate before her. "She was up before me, so I don't know what she's doing."
Sarah sighed. "I do." She turned her head towards the stairs. "Jenny, stop Skyping with your Aunt Eileen and get down here right now!"
Bob glanced towards the stairs. When he turned his gaze forward again, it met that of Harold's. He quickly dropped his eyes back to his magazine. Harold gave him a troubled look.
"Gimme another five minutes and then I'll be done!" Jenny shouted back.
Sarah approached the stairs. "You're done right now, young lady!"
A few seconds later, Jenny came flying down the stairs, her blond-and-pink hair trailing behind her like a banner. "I wish you'd cut me some slack."
"Jenny, you've used up about a lifetime's worth of 'slack'," Sarah snapped.
"Then give my aunt a break. She's coming down with the same miserable flu we all had."
Bob turned his head. "She is?"
Jenny scooted around her mother and flounced into a chair. "Yeah. Coughing like crazy, chills, fever, the works. Must've gotten it from you."
"But I shouldn't still have been contagious. Besides that, the symptoms shouldn't have manifested that quickly." He turned back to Sarah. "This is just getting weirder by the minute."
"All this speculating is getting us nowhere," Sarah declared as she headed towards the kitchen. "The test results for Laura's hair should come back soon, and then we'll know exactly what this is. Now, Jenny, how many--"
"Three," said Jenny.
"You get two. Three is too much."
"Then why even ask me?" Jenny muttered.
Laura took a bite of her sausage and frowned. She chewed very slowly.
Jenny glanced at her. "Is the Royal Breakfast not to the Fae Queen's liking?"
"This tastes weird," said Laura.
Jenny glanced down at her sister's plate. Laura had already cut the sausage into several pieces. Jenny deftly plucked a piece in her fingers and popped it into her mouth.
"Hey!" Laura cried.
"Tastes fine to me," said Jenny.
"Jenny, don't do that," Harold said. "Laura, what's up?"
Laura swallowed the first piece and speared a second with her fork. She gave it a sniff. "Something's off about it."
"What's the matter?" Sarah said as she returned with Jenny's plate.
"Her Royal Majesty is displeased with the breakfast fare," said Jenny.
Laura rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Mom, it's probably just me." She hesitated before eating the second piece with just a few cursory chews and turned to her eggs instead. She tentatively sampled a bite. To her relief, they tasted fine.
Sarah started to sit down when her cell phone chimed. She pulled it out and stood up straight. "I better take this, it's from Greg."
Jenny waited until her mother left the room before saying, "Now that the evil sorceress in the employ of the Fae Queen has been distracted--"
Harold groaned, "Jenny, don't call your mother that."
"--the poor peasant girl turns to the honorable knight who knows of her plight and how dreadfully unfair her punishment is and implores him to lift this horrible fae curse from her."
Harold wiped his face with his hand. This was not the first time Jenny had tried to get him to convince Sarah to rescind a punishment. Sarah handled discipline so rarely that it often worked.
Jenny's gaze flicked briefly to Laura. "Perhaps the brave knight would be willing to keep his watchful eye on the peasant girl himself and--"
"No," said Harold.
"But you're condemning the peasant girl to be the prisoner of the horrible Fae Queen and subject to her evil enchantments!"
"Then she'll just have to deal with her poor plight," said Harold. "Besides, evil enchantments build character."
Bob chuckled. Laura giggled softly.
Jenny frowned. "Fine. Let the Fae Queen be the downfall of us all."
"Wait, what?" said Laura. "Look, I've resigned myself to being in your stupid fantasy, but this is kinda pushing it."
"Well, you got this hair thing first, so maybe it's spreading like the flu did--"
Laura snarfed down a few more large bites of eggs and stood. "I'm getting ready for school before I say something I shouldn't."
Jenny watched her go before turning to her father. "Can I have her sausage?"
"What do you mean, they're gone?!" Sarah exploded into the phone in her office.
"In that they are no longer there," Greg deadpanned. "The rock face is blank."
"Petroglyphs do not just get up and walk away."
"Most likely explanation is that someone wiped them."
Sarah fell into her chair. "But wouldn't that leave behind some sort of mark? You said the rock face was blank."
"Yes, but it's uniformly dark, meaning someone etched away the rest of the surface rock. My guess would be some sort of acid."
Sarah banged her fist on the desk. "Dammit! When did they do it?"
"Probably during the accident. It was the only time no one could access the site."
"But you got clear pics of it after the accident."
"Yeah, but when I was setting up the shot, I thought the surrounding rock looked a bit darker than I had remembered it," said Greg. "I assumed it was just poor lighting. Must've been slow-acting acid or something similar."
Sarah lowered her head and ran her hand through her hair. "No one can tell me this is the work of some random vandal. Someone purposely destroyed this evidence."
"I gotta admit, this is creeping me out," said Greg. "I mean, this was organized."
Sarah leaned back in her seat and shielded her eyes with her hand. "Honestly, Greg, I don't know what to do. Who do I turn to for help?"
"We could hire a private investigator."
"I don't have that kind of money."
"I was thinking of hitting up some of your colleagues to chip in," said Greg.
Sarah frowned. "The same ones who laugh at my ideas?"
"Such blatant destruction of archaeological evidence is so loathsome that I'm hoping they'll rally to you." He paused. "There are also government agencies who specialize in dealing with this sort of vandalism."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Right. How many years will that take to trickle through the bureaucracy?"
"I know, I'm grasping at straws," said Greg. "But I want to help. I'm about as upset as you are, Sarah. If we had reported our findings and someone claimed you were wrong or that this was faked, that would be upsetting but an order of magnitude better than this."
"If anything, the fact that someone felt strongly enough that they had to get rid of it means I might be on to something," said Sarah. "So now it's imperative to find more evidence."
"There's something you need to consider," said Greg in a solemn voice. "Whoever did this acted fast. That could mean they're aware of our movements."
Sarah felt a chill down her spine. "You don't mean they're following us? Have us under surveillance?"
"I know that's not a nice thing to consider--"
"I'm not concerned so much about me as my family," Sarah said. "I don't want them to get hurt."
"Then you might have to consider backing off. Drop the pursuit of your theories for now."
Sarah grasped her hair and tugged in a gesture reminiscent of Laura. "I can't. This is becoming my life's work. At least ... at least let me think about this. You still have those pics, right?"
"Yes," said Greg. "Though of course people can claim it's Photoshopped."
"Still, keep them safe for now."
"I'll do the best I can. I better get going. Be safe, Sarah."
"You, too." Sarah hung up and uttered a quavering sigh. She took a deep breath and bolted to her feet. She started out of the room, only to be brought up short by Harold standing in the hall, his arms folded.
"All right, Sarah," he said. "You know I try not to listen in on your conversations, but when I hear things like surveillance and safety of our family--"
"No, it's fine." Sarah glanced past him. "Are the kids gone?"
"Yeah, they're all off to school. Now, what's up?"
Sarah summarized her phone call with Greg.
"Fuck," Harold muttered.
Sarah usually didn't like him using such language, but even she felt it justified. "Harry, things are going from strange to surreal. Maybe if it had been only this stupid hair thing or only the dig or only having to deal with Jenny's issues--"
"Yeah, I know," said Harold.
"And I've got this really bad feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Kevin turned towards his patient one last time, a middle-aged man with azure hair. "And please don't hesitate to call me if any other symptoms show up."
"All right, doctor," he said in a subdued voice.
Kevin found Heather waiting for him in the hall. "Please tell me you've magically divined the cause of Lurid Hair Syndrome?" Kevin said hopefully.
Heather smiled. "Well, perhaps, but not from me. You've got a call on line two from Rod at the lab. It's about Laura Tanner's test results."
"I'll take it in my office." Kevin headed inside and dropped the folder he was carrying on his desk before picking up the phone. "Yes, Rod, what do you have for me?"
"Well, I'm about to fax the results over, but I wanted to talk to you about it first so I can ask you one thing," said Rod.
"And what's that?"
"Is this some sort of joke?"
Kevin raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"
"Are you sure you actually sent us what you think you did?" Rod asked. "A sample of human hair?"
"That's precisely what I sent you," Kevin said firmly. "I know the coloration is odd, but that's the very reason I sent it in for analysis."
"Well, we did analyze it," said Rod. "No trace of any chemicals or dyes. And no eumelanin or pheomelanin, either."
Kevin sat up straighter in his chair. "Come again?"
"There's not a trace of either biochemical responsible for human hair color. This thing shouldn't even have any color, let alone bright orange. The only explanation is that it's not even human hair."
"It most assuredly came from a human female," Kevin declared. "I don't play games like this with you guys."
"I know, but when stuff like this happens, I have to follow up on it," said Rod.
Kevin took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So the test result boils down to: orange, reason unknown."
"Pretty much, yes."
Kevin stroked his beard as he considered. "Then I guess you're going to have similar reports in the future, just different colors."
Rod paused. "You're kidding me, right?"
"So far I have encountered orange, purple, yellow, olive green, and azure," said Kevin. "You already have at least four more samples on the way."
"Are you dealing with some sort of weird new disease?"
"I don't know," said Kevin. "It's not following any known pattern."
"Think you should contact the Colorado Department of Health?"
Kevin sighed. "And tell them what? That I've got cases of hair turning odd colors? They'd be as skeptical as you. Technically, all my patients with this are healthy, save for the usual post-flu effects."
"Well, all right, I'll try to convince the others here that you're not pranking us and we'll churn through those other tests."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Kevin hung up. He was about to stand up when he considered something he had just said. He glanced at the picture of Anna before putting on his reading glasses and examining his patient records for the last few days. He then thumbed the intercom. "Heather, could you step into my office, please?"
Heather arrived seconds later. "You find something?"
"Sort of," said Kevin. "Laura's test results were a bust, but the conversation I just had with the lab tech made me think of something. All of our patients with odd hair had the flu, didn't they?"
Heather smirked. "It's kinda hard to find someone who didn't have it."
"Yes, but hear me out. What if this is somehow related to the flu?"
Heather's eyebrows rose. "I'd rather it not be. I had the flu, remember?"
"How long ago did you get the first symptoms?"
Heather clutched the folders to her chest a little more tightly. "About two and a half weeks ago. It was about six days ago when I felt well enough to come back to work."
Kevin tilted his head. "And obviously your hair is not changing color."
"Yet," said Heather in a low voice. "At least according to you."
Kevin stood. "From now on, we ask every patient who comes through this office if they had the flu and when. Also, I'd like you to follow up with the patients we already had and get that information from them."
Heather gave him a skeptical look. "You don't seriously believe the flu did this?"
"Laura's test results showed no dyes whatsoever," said Kevin. "I don't think your theory about viral marketing is holding water. I'm back at square one, and that means I'll follow any lead, no matter how remote."
Heather sighed. "All right, but I have to give you a heads up. Janet Turner called."
"Fred Turner's daughter?"
"Yes. She said her father's been acting weird in his phone calls to her," said Heather. "Well, weirder than usual, I guess. She's on her way into town from Nebraska. She's going to try to convince him to come in for a checkup."
Kevin sighed. "Oh, fun."
"You remember the last time he was here," Heather said.
"Yes. He was convinced the vitamin shot I wanted to give him was a secret government serum intended to control his mind, and he barricaded himself inside the supply closet."
Heather nodded. "I'll make sure the police are on speed-dial."
"Yes, do that, please."
At the end of the school day, Bob slipped out of the building from a different entrance than the one Laura and Jenny tended to use and headed straight home. He heard Sarah typing at her computer, and Harold was on the phone speaking in formal, quiet tones, most likely another phone screening for a job.
Bob headed up to his room and shut the door before sitting before his computer. He started Skype and hesitated. He really shouldn't be disturbing his mother if she was sick, but worry weighed too heavily on his mind.
He initiated the call, and to his surprise, it was answered in less than a minute. When the video started, it was jerky at first, and the camera was aimed above his mother's head at a wall. A hand reached to the side and the camera slid back down, and it was clear that Eileen was taking the call from her laptop in bed. "Hey, Bobby!" Eileen said in a raspy voice. She coughed a few times before saying, "Sorry, I mean Bob."
Bob smiled faintly. "It's all right. Maybe I'm being silly for insisting on it."
Eileen shook her head. "Just means my little guy is growing up."
"How are you feeling?"
"Eh, like shit," Eileen said. The video was still shaking a bit, and it took Bob a moment to realize it was because his mother was shivering. "Typical for the flu."
"Didn't it hit you kinda hard?"
Eileen chuckled weakly, only to have it devolve into another coughing fit. "Yeah, it pretty much knocked me flat soon as I got home."
Bob gave her mother a troubled look. "I'm a little worried about you, Mom."
Eileen waved a hand. "It's just the flu, I've had it before. I'll get over it and be just fine."
"It's just that something's really weird about it."
Eileen tilted her head. "What's up?"
"Well, this is going to sound a bit stupid, but--" He explained about the others' hair problems and Laura's eyes.
Eileen smirked. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, I am."
"Jenny didn't mention anything about it when she talked to me this morning. I guess I just didn't notice the pink streak in her hair. You sure the rest of the family's not pulling a prank on you or something?"
"Mom, I'd know dye or a wig if I saw it," said Bob. "Also, if this was some new affliction, wouldn't it be more consistent? Like everyone's hair would turn a single color, or be a variation of their existing color. Instead, there's no rhyme or reason to it." He paused. "And it's not just here."
Eileen paused to cough again and to wrap the blanket around her more tightly, which steadied the video somewhat. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm seeing it at school, too. Many of them are trying to hide it with hats or hoods or bad dye jobs, but about a quarter of the other students have some form of oddly colored hair. Even some of the teachers have it."
"And you think this has something to do with the flu?"
"Well, I don't have any hard evidence," said Bob. "It's the only thing everyone with this has in common."
"So why am I not hearing about this?" Eileen asked. "Sounds like prime fodder for the internet." Her voice broke up into a spasm of coughing, and she shivered so hard the laptop screen pitched backwards. For a few seconds, Bob saw nothing but the picture hanging on the wall above the headboard. Eileen yanked it back into view and groaned. "I'm really sorry, but I gotta get some rest. This is really taking a lot out of me. I hadn't wanted to say anything, but--"
Bob forced a small smile. "It's okay, I understand. Take care of yourself, Mom."
Eileen's lips curled into a trembling smile. "Email me if anything else happens. I'll try to reply when I'm feeling better."
"I will, I promise. I love you, Mom."
Eileen's smile steadied. "I love you, too."
Bob closed the call and turned to his browser. It still displayed the article he had been reading that morning before school, which contained a picture of a smiling Sarah standing beside her first major archaeological find, a previously unknown cliff dwelling uncovered in the wake of a forest fire.
He opened a new tab. His first searches concerning odd hair color turned up little more than furry and cosplay sites. He was about to give up when he finally came upon a tumblr blog of a young woman. She had posted a picture of a streak of violet in her hair, dated that morning, claiming it had spontaneously appeared.
He looked back at her earlier posts. He found one saying how she was finally recovering from a bout of the flu she got while on a ski trip to Breckenridge, which was 15 miles south of Lazy Pines. He clicked over to her profile, hoping to see something that would hint she was posting from Lazy Pines, or somewhere else in Colorado.
She was posting from Arizona.
Harold looked up from where he had been watching TV in the living room when he heard the door to Bob's room open. "Hey, sport. Everything okay?"
Bob hesitated halfway down the stairs. "Just worried about stuff."
Harold thumbed the "mute" button on the remote and tossed it aside. "I can tell. Want to talk about it?"
Bob continued down the stairs and shrugged. "Nothing more to tell. I already said what I thought was causing this hair thing."
Harold ran his fingers through his own hair. "We're all concerned about it, but that's not what I meant."
Bob had started past the sofa to the kitchen, but stopped and looked at Harold. "What do you mean?"
"You've been acting really distant lately."
Bob sighed and looked away.
"It started before your mother visited, and it seemed to get worse after that."
Bob's jaw tightened. "I really don't want to talk about this."
"Are you angry with me?" asked Harold. "With Sarah?"
Bob remained silent.
"Because if you are, I haven't a clue why," Harold said gently. "And that bothers me."
"Tell me the truth," said Bob. "Am I wanted here?"
Harold blinked in surprise. "Of course you are. Why would you think otherwise? I know Laura and Jenny don't involve you in a lot of stuff but--"
Bob shook his head halfway through Harold's sentence. "I don't have anything in common with them. I'm fine with them doing their own thing."
"Then where did that question come from?"
"You took me in because you always wanted a son."
Harold had not recalled telling Bob that directly, but he saw no reason to lie about it. "Yes, that's right, but that wasn't the only consideration. Sarah and I wanted you to have a good home. Forgive me for saying this about your mother, but she just wasn't up to the task of raising you."
Bob nodded quickly. "No, I understand all that. I mean, maybe she is now."
Harold decided not to debate that point. "Do you want to go back with her?"
"I don't know." Bob paused. "Jenny was unexpected, wasn't she?"
"Yes, she was. Sarah had failed repeatedly to conceive again before that. We were very surprised to discover she was pregnant a few weeks after we took you in."
Bob turned his head as Sarah began talking on the phone in her office.
"So why is this coming up now?" said Harold. "I don't remember discussing this with you."
Bob listened to a few snippets of conversation before turning back to Harold. "Voices really carry in this house, you know?"
Harold gave him a puzzled look. "Huh?"
Bob shook his head. "Look, I need to get to my homework, and I'm really thirsty. I just want to get some water and head back upstairs."
He fled before Harold could say another word.
Harold pondered Bob's words. He remembered how Jenny had heard him and Sarah arguing the day before and tried to slip up the stairs unnoticed. He recalled several other arguments that he had recently ...
Harold suddenly sighed and dropped his face into his hands. "Shit," he muttered before heading to Sarah's office.
Sarah spun around in his chair. "That was Greg. You're not going to believe this. Someone tried to hack his computer, the one he had the pics on."
"Sarah," Harold said softly. "We need to talk."
"Didn't you just hear what I said?"
"It's about Bob. He heard us."
"What are you talking about?"
"Two weeks ago. That little dust-up we had about finances when, uh, certain things were said in the heat of the moment."
Sarah just stared at him for another confused moment before finally uttering a despairing sigh. "Dammit." She stood. "Yes, this is more important."
"Let's go for a walk," said Harold.
They donned their jackets, called up to Bob that they were stepping out for a short while, and headed out the door. "Bob is very smart," said Sarah as they reached the street. "He's going to figure out that we're talking about him."
"Let him," said Harold. "Maybe he'll think we actually care about how he feels, which we do."
Sarah sighed. "Remind me again what we said?"
"I said something to the effect that I hadn't asked for three kids. Then you countered about not being the one to want a son so badly that I was willing to take in someone else's kid. Then I said something about you wanting just as bad to yank Bob away from your sister. Somewhere along the way we started arguing about not waiting long enough to know you were pregnant--"
"Okay, I get it," Sarah muttered.
"I feel like we used him as a punching bag," said Harold.
"I care for Bob just as much as I do for our daughters. So do you. Surely he knows that."
"Honestly? I don't know," said Harold. "Maybe he got a bad vibe from me. I'll come clean, Sarah. I had hoped for a son I could spend a lot of time with, who wanted to do things my Dad did with me. But I'm an outdoors guy and he's not."
"But you two had something in common the last couple of years," said Sarah. "You're in the IT industry now and he's into computer programming."
"Yeah, and I've tried to engage him in conversation about it, but he never wants to hang around for more than ten minutes, like all these years has made him uncomfortable around me."
"And yet he started calling you Dad!" Sarah declared. "I don't get it."
"Maybe it was just to placate me. Something like, 'see, I'm calling you Dad now, so you can stop trying to be my Dad.'"
"That's not at all logical."
"He's a teenager. By definition, he doesn't have to be logical."
Sarah turned to face her husband. "I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Both my career and my family seem to be falling apart at the seams. Yes, I know, you don't like it when I inject my career into discussions about family, but right now the two seemed inextricably linked."
Harold scratched his head. "We may have to make some very hard decisions, like moving someplace where I can find a job."
"That's not going to magically fix things."
"No, it won't. But it will introduce some damn stability and income." He took a deep breath. "And that's assuming this stupid hair thing is not some new disease that's going to drain our finances further."
Sarah picked up a few strands of her hair. "This is really what we should be worrying about, isn't it? It seems so stupid that something like a change in hair color scares the hell out of me."
Harold wrapped an arm around Sarah's waist and drew her close. "No, it doesn't sound stupid at all."
Laura buried her hands in the pockets of her jacket and shivered as the air had become decidedly colder during the progression of the day. She glanced up at the mountains where clouds slowly brewed, a mist rolling down their sides in prelude to another spring storm.
Jenny suddenly burst past her before spinning around to face her, hair whipping around her head. "I need a place to act out a scene."
"Of course you do," said Laura in a low voice. "We can go to the park."
"There are a lot more interesting places than that around here."
"But knowing you, they're either dangerous or on private property. So it's the park or we go home."
Jenny placed her hands on her hips. "Wow, way to be really bossy."
"Call it whatever you want," said Laura. "But Mom put me in charge of you, and I'm taking it seriously."
"Yeah, almost too serious."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Jenny shook her head. "Never mind, forget it."
Laura stepped up to her. "Look, I just want to do this right. I don't want to fail ... to fail to live up to Mom's expectations of me."
Jenny made gagging noises.
"Stop it. Now, do we go to the park or home?"
Jenny sighed dramatically. "The park."
"Thank you."
Laura soon realized with chagrin that Jenny was not going to wait until they got to the park to start her "acting". She wished she knew how Jenny had gone from being an almost painfully shy kid at five to this at fourteen. She was often mystified as to how little she knew her sister, but then again, the days when they were inseparable were long past.
At the park, Jenny became even more dramatic, her voice rising such that other park-goers glanced in her direction in amusement. Perhaps it was just a distraction from their own woes, as some of them sported streaks of odd color in their hair.
Jenny stopped and reached around behind her head. She pulled a fistful of pink hair into view. "You know, maybe I can do something with this anyway."
Laura stared. "Huh?"
Jenny tossed the hair behind her. "I had hoped for blue hair. It fit in perfectly with one of the main characters, but I can make pink work after all."
"Wait, you actually want this to happen?"
"Why not?"
"I don't believe this," Laura murmured.
"Purple!" Jenny cried. "Purple eyes to go with the pink hair. That would work."
"You're insane," Laura blurted. "Aren't you worried about this?"
Jenny paused. "Yeah, a little," she said in a softer voice. "I just don't want to freak out over it."
"I'm not freaking out," said Laura.
"Yeah, but you don't know how to have fun with it."
"And why do you feel the need to do that?"
"Because the real world is boring."
Laura paused. "Run that by me again?"
Jenny grinned. "The world is boring. My own head is more exciting. I know I can write this stuff down, but it's like that's not enough." Jenny threw up her arms. "My hair is turning pink! Maybe my eyes will turn purple or some other color! It's weird, it's maybe a little scary, but you know what it's not?"
One corner of Laura's mouth rose. "Boring?"
"Exactly."
"I still think you're insane," Laura said. "I mean, come on, you actually trespassed on Fred Turner's property."
Jenny rolled her eyes. "Like I'm the first one in the family who ever did something like that. Dad did it when he was a kid."
"Now you're just making stuff up."
"I'm not!" said Jenny. "He told me a cool story once. He and a friend sneaked onto a nearby rancher's property to shoot off fireworks. They were pretending to be soldiers on a battlefield. The firecrackers were gunshots, the bottle rockets artillery, that sort of thing."
Laura gave her a skeptical look. "I never heard him tell that one."
"Well, yeah, it was a while ago," said Jenny in a more subdued voice. "He kinda stopped telling me more stories after that."
"Probably to stop giving you dangerous ideas."
Jenny shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, like I told Mom, I didn't know it was Turner's land. Except for the gun, he didn't look very scary. For one thing, he wasn't very tall." She giggled. "And he had a full head of peach hair and was wearing silly ears on his head."
Laura's eyes widened. "What do you mean, silly ears?"
"It looked like something you'd see someone wearing at a furrycon," said Jenny. "He looked ridiculous."
Laura paled.
Jenny tilted her head. "You okay?"
"T-Turner is the person I think I caught the flu from," Laura said in a quavering voice.
Jenny's eyes widened. "Really?"
"He was sick when I saw him in the grocery store a few weeks ago. I had the first flu symptoms two days after that."
Jenny paused for a long moment before finally giving her sister a weak smile. "I think you're worrying too much. Really, if you had seen him for yourself, you'd think the same thing I did."
Laura ran a trembling hand through her hair. "I guess I'm going to have to take your word for it, aren't I?"
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Our main human family is kinds of messed up. Seriously I think Jenny will only grow up when she finally make a serious enough mistake that either she or someone close to her gets hurt badly or nearly dies. So far Jenny is my least favorite character because of her complete stupidity.
The names trigger me so much you couldn't have picked more unmemorable names seriously i have no idea who anyone is or what they've done.
ARIZONA??!! It crossed state lines!! It'll spread like WILDFIRE!! Lock up your doors, brick up yer windows, board yer chimneys, this thing's going' NATIONWIDE!! AN' IT AIN'T ON YER SIDE!!
7885696 Well, I mean... They're regular human names. What do you want; the townsfolks to be named Dusk Twinkle, Xerxes, and Flexo?
7885823
Your home is not safe. Go to Madagascar.
*shiver* This keeps getting better... a pony/hot zone crossover.
So Turner was 'patient zero' and now it's too late to contain the pathogen.
The eyes, the tailbone, sausages tasting weird, the bright orange hair with no real colour pigment, disappearing evidence... If I didn't have a good idea about what is happening to them, this would be a real thriller by now.
Try and read this with the Mass Effect 2 Galaxy Map theme on loop. Perfect.
Well they're starting to suspect something's wrong, and reacting predictably foolishly about it. I will gift these lovely people with my facehooves.
Jenny you glorious bastard.
7885953
Borders already closed.
7886780 Madagascar has already been invaded by the New York Giants.
38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyy610843t1qc8h2yo1_400.gif
7885953
7885953
Advisor: President Madagascar! A man in Colorado is growing pony ears!
President Madagascar: SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING!
7886780
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/411/525/067.jpg
Ain't no pony pathogen gonna spread to this island!
7887166 s14-eu5.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2Fcdn.ndemiccreations.com%2Fuploads%2F289-2015-12-27-24-Finally.Square.png&sp=71d90db5a8a3a9bc628d8be7926cd931
7887435
F'in Greenland always ruins my Mega Brutal strategies. 
7886282 That the scary part about it. We know what is going on, almost exactly and yet the tension is still getting to us.
That's one scary writting skill!
7885696
Specifically, I feel like the three main female characters' names blend together. I'm only now getting a rough hold on which one is which.
I can't help but remember that you can use a virus as a vector to implant foreign genetic material into cells. Of course that shouldn't cause something like this, gross physical structures would not be targeted piecemeal, if at all and certainly not at this rate, despite what cartoons and tv sci-fi may show. However, add magic and all bets are off. Equestrian magic has rewritten gross physical characteristics (the breezie transformation) so it could do something like rewrite human biology and force it to regrow along the new pattern.
Still waiting for that kid to get a good dose of reality.
Jenny has the worst case of 8th-grader Syndrome I've seen in a long while.
And so the infection starts to spread through the world.
First it was a small town.
Then it spread to a few other towns.
Now it has spread out of state completely.
This may be a stupid idea but what if this is what causes equestria girls.
It spreads to the entire human species and it causes the skin colors.
The hair colors.
I might be on to something....nagh probably not.
I am loving the story though especially with this disease type.
It's actually a pretty cool aspect and I've never seen a story like this so it's very unique.
Keep up the good work.
Laura is Sunset Shimmer, confirmed.
As someone who is adopted, you are representing it better than any author I have ever seen. Do you have experience with people who are adopted?
Truer words have never been spoken.
i believe that laura is turing into carrot top orange curly hair green eyes
Heres my guess in tribes
Laura bob and dad are unicorns
Jenny and mom are pegusus
Odd story I got from fairly reliable sources... IRL with the disease being unprecedented, and the color change (maybe even specifically to green), there might be concerns that this is ebola. There was a case where some guy went to Africa to do charity and caught ebola. Naturally he wanted to come back to his home (probably America). Makes sense... better treatment facilities, closer to family (even if they might not be allowed in the room with him).
Anyway, the first I heard about this was related to them having solved the problem of transporting him by borrowing one of the old Apollo capsules from the Smithsonian Museum (probably hosed down the outside with flamethrowers after he was inside.
The point is that, when I mentioned this to my general practitioner, the GP said that after the guy was treated initially he ended up with one green eye. I think this was AFTER he was initially released from quarantine. Anyway, he apparently had infection still in his eye. The treated the eye, and nothing more happened as far as himself or others being infected.
And, yes, there IS a pretty effective treatment for Ebola, it just has to be made from the blood (or something) of someone who survives it, which perhaps WITHOUT said treatment. Surviving without treatment is rare, and, if In were to guess, it is probably very expensive to make and/or has a short shelf life. MAYBE can't get much per pint of blood, but I have heard that isn't true, which is why an Ebola epidemic is something that is considered a problem that can be prevented.
8145642
I Pinkie clone more like it since we KNOW the Mane 6 are out there.
You know people wouldn’t really notice eye color without purposely looking can you remember if you stared at a family member and looked at the color of their eyes?
9557129
They were earlier described as 'emerald green', though, and pones tend to have very vividly coloured eyes. It'd be noticeable.
9557129
I have a habit of memorising eye colour in people I meet and get the name of, it helps me remember the person's name (I'm shockingly bad at remembering the names)
So some people would notice it very easily ,others? Probably not.
So Laura is going to become a Pegasus? Interesting...
9557129
My friend once had some contact lenses that made his eyes turn a bright yellow. It was the first thing you noticed when you looked at him, even after you got used to them. 4rtemis is right, bright emerald green eyes would be noticeable, if not distracting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb2fjZa_L74