Seriously Weird: Seeds of Distortion

"I'll put him in our garage," suggested James.

He got his arms under the rickety old dog and lifted him carefully, then we went to the garage and made a bed with some sacks. Killer settled on the rough mattress and wheezed contentedly. We were just about to go when he gave a yelp and started to change again.

In a matter of seconds he was back to being a young dog again!

"I don't believe this!" said James.

Killer pranced about us, jumping up to reach our hands and wagging his tail like a broken fan. He was his normal energetic self. It was like nothing had happened to him!

I felt the other berries in my pocket and pulled a few of them out. Red ones, yellow ones, blue ones ... I wondered.

"He ate a yellow," I said.

"Yeah?" said James, looking at me curiously.

"Maybe the other colors have different effects?"

"You're not trying them on Killer!" said James.

He was right of course. We might have been very lucky with the dog.



So I went home and tried a blue berry on our cat.

Nothing happened for about five minutes, then the cat sat down and gave a meow. I watched, feeling a bit scared, but excited.

The cat began to swell!

It went up like a balloon, rounder and rounder, until its legs sank into its body and left four little dimples, then its head went in with a pop. It went on swelling until it filled the room, then it exploded like someone passing wind through a powerful amplifier. The sound shook the house. Furniture was blown across the room, and all the kitchen windows were popped out.

I lay on my back, halfway across the room, feeling like I'd just been punched in the stomach, and struggled to get my breath back. The living-room rug was all over me, and the flowers from off the TV were scattered about my head. Everything was in a mess.