Mary hurried to the phone, the apartment landline, it was closer than her cell, and punched in the three number series that everyone knew and hoped to never need. Something was terribly wrong with her son. If he needed an ambulance, she would make it work somehow, cheap boss or no cheap boss. Better to have a live child than any amount of money in the bank. Not that she had much in the bank… but this was not the time to worry about that. Hospitals let you pay on an installment plan if you had to.

“What’s your emergency?” asked a calm man’s voice on the other end of the line.

“My son,” Mary said. She took a deep breath to get her quavering voice under control. “My son has collapsed and is unable to speak. He’s awake, but he can’t walk or stand.”

“Is he having trouble breathing?”

“No.”

“Is he responsive?”

“Yes.”

“So, he can answer yes or no questions?”

“Yes.”

Mary was directed to relay questions to Jubal. She had to carry the phone into her bedroom and set it down on the floor, just inside the door. The power cord wouldn’t go any farther, and Jubal couldn’t go anywhere at all. It was a wonder he’d even made it to her room when he started feeling off instead of collapsing in the hall.

The emergency operator asked questions, and Mary relayed the questions and Jubal’s answers (nodding or shaking his head).

“Can you breathe alright?”

Yes.

“Are you in pain?”

Yes.

“Is it a sharp pain?”

Yes.

“Can you point to where it hurts the worst?”

Yes. His abdomen.

“Ma’am, please press down on his abdomen and look for hard lumps.”

Mary pressed her fingers into Jubal’s abdomen. He felt warm and mushy. She reported this to the voice on the phone.

“Did it hurt more when your abdomen was pressed on?”

No.

“Please feel along his legs.”

Mary did. They were as warm as his abdomen, and oddly mushy, just like his belly.

“I think I know what’s happening, and there is no need for you to panic, ma’am. It sounds as though your son is going through a hybrid transformation. Once the pain stops, you should make an appointment with a doctor specializing in hybrid care.”

“A hybrid?” Mary shrieked. Absently, she noticed Jubal cringing back a little and covering his ears, but she was too distracted to care much about that. “How could that have happened?”

“If I had to guess, ma’am, I would say that a reality tear probably opened up and dropped a hybrid seed on him while he was asleep. But that’s only a guess, of course.

“Try to make sure he gets enough to eat. The initial hybrid transformation is very resource intensive, and there is a risk of lingering malnourishment, or even deformation, if the changing individual doesn’t get enough to eat”

Then the emergency operator hung up, leaving Mary kneeling in her bedroom, holding the phone handle and trying not to scream again.

Mary would be the first to admit that she was bad with feelings and words and delicacy, and there was a good chance that whatever she said, she was going to make her son freak out even harder than he already was. She’d just have to try.

She knelt down beside Jubal, opened her mouth, and tried.

“Well, you’re not dying, and he said not to bring you to the hospital unless you start having trouble breathing.”

Jubal nodded and gestured for her to continue. His eyes were alert and attentive.

“The emergency operator said that you’re definitely hybridizing, and that it’s very important that you eat.”

Jubal gave her a shaky smile. She helped him to his feet and draped his arm over her shoulders. Absently, Mary noticed that her son was much taller than he was the last time he needed her help to get around. Together, they staggered to the kitchen, and she helped him into a chair.

Before she could turn away to start making food, Jubal tapped the table to get her attention, then mimed thumb typing on a phone.

“You want your phone?” Mary asked, feeling a little confused. “Honey, you need to eat, not play video games.”

He nodded, then gestured for his phone again, so she went and fetched it for him. Once it was in his hand, he started messing with it, so she turned away, shook her head, and started cooking. Toast, eggs and bacon, fast things that she could get to him quickly, even as she started the oven preheating for some of the slower things that were sitting in the freezer.

A delicious smell filled the kitchen, and Mary snagged a few bites for herself as well. The night continued in a flurry of cooking as Jubal ate everything she put in front of him at a steady rate, well beyond what should be able to fit in his stomach at one time, with no sign of slowing down or stopping.