Slip thought the words written in his grandmother's spidery handwriting were silly, but he kept them folded up in his pocket, even though he had them memorized without even trying. After she died, he found the paper in a box of her stuff before his mother threw it in the garbage.

He stuck his hand in his pocket and put his head down when he heard Justin's big mouth behind him at the bus stop, which was down the street from a bunch of empty factories. A couple of eighth-grade girls puffed cigarettes and a sixth-grader smaller than he was waited there. There was no sign of the school bus.

Slip's stomach twisted in knots and he stared at the creepy line of blackbirds lined up on the wire stretching across the street. He didn't have a chance.

"You know what I want, Slippy."

Justin's Mohawk stuck out in sticky clumps.

"You're such a tool, Justin." The taller cigarette girl said. "You don't even pay for lunch."

Justin shoved Slip hard. Justin was in eighth grade but he was held back.

Slip felt something shift inside his head and he clutched the bills his mother gave him. Everyone waited.

"I could change you to a bird," he said. He unclenched the hand he held the money in. "Just like that. I'll bet you."

Justin took his money.

"We'll do it after school," Slip said as the bus came. "Over there." He pointed to a weed-filled vacant lot.

Justin got up in Slip's face. "It's your funeral." He walked up to the bus, and everyone else waited for him to go first.

"You are crazy," the tall cigarette girl said. "He's going to hurt you bad."

Slip's hunger gnawed so bad all afternoon, he decided to go to the vacant lot after school and let Justin kill him once and for all so he wouldn't have to feel scared and hungry anymore.

Justin got there first. The wind was blowing hard but Justin's Mohawk didn't move.

"Well? " Justin said. But he didn't come near him.

Slip retched, but he was so empty, nothing came up.

He said the words in a rap/chant and changed "bird" to "crow."

And Justin stood still.

Slip said the words again and again. By the fifth time, the wind gusted dirt into Slip's eyes, but he kept on. His voice was hoarse and he felt woozy from lack of food. He ended the last line with a clap and added "right now."

The wind swirled dirt in Slip's face and mouth and he spit it out and turned to run home.

But Justin wasn't there.

Justin's clothes, even his boxers, were blowing away in the fierce wind. The tornado siren sounded and Slip ran home as fast as he could on shaky legs and tried to figure out how the heck Justin had pulled his disappearing act.

Justin wasn't at the bus stop the next day or the day after that. The next day, the police were talking to kids at Lincoln Junior High in the counselor's office. Slip was called out of his biology class. The tall cigarette girl came out of the office, and then it was his turn.

The police officer had a gun in her holster and handcuffs on her belt loop. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail.

"Why do they call you "Slip?'" she motioned to a chair with cushions. She sat very straight on a hard plastic chair.

"I hate my real name," he shrugged.

"The kids say Justin gave you trouble."

"I guess." He bounced his knees up and down.

"He's missing," she said.

"I figured,' he said.

"Do you have any ideas where he could be?"

"No."

"If he's hurt, we need to know," she said. "We'll make sure he doesn't take your money anymore."

Slip stood up so she could see how small he was, compared to Justin, anyway.

"I don't know where he is."

"Okay," she said.

He left then and there was no one else waiting. The tall cigarette girl stood by the drinking fountain.

"Hey." She tugged him next to her. He tripped on his feet. His legs were shaky.

"I saw you turn Justin into a crow," she said in a whisper. A couple of seventh graders across the hall were looking at them.

"Yeah, sure." Slip rolled his eyes.

"I saw it," she said it louder. "Right before the siren went off.

Her hair smelled like cigarettes and Slip swallowed hard.

"That's impossible. Justin left his clothes there to mess with me."

"You clapped your hands and he flew away." She thumped him on his shoulder. "I didn't say anything to the police, but I will unless you do what I want. Meet me at the same place you did with Justin after school."

She was already there when Slip got there. She was alone and she lit a cigarette and blew the smoke out in a puff toward Slip.

"Turn me into a bunny rabbit," she said. "Or I'll tell your mother and the principal what you did."

"They won't believe you because you're making it up."

The wind blew her hair in her face and she stomped her cigarette out.

"Justin and I talked sometimes," she said. "He told me his step dad pulled his pants down and hit him with a belt and his mom is a drunk. My dad is a drunk and he hits us. He does other things to me too. My mom's too scared to fight back or report him. Justin's better off."

"It didn't happen," Slip said. "He's just hiding someplace."

"Say the words or I'll scream," she said. Then she did.

"I'll say the words, but it won't do any good," he said.

He switched "bird" for "bunny," "feathers" for "fur" and "whiskers," "wingspan" for "ears," and "majesty of flight" for "majesty of open spaces." He just left other words out.

He finished the third round and she started to cough.

"You shouldn't smoke," he said.

She doubled over and then she was gone.

Her clothes and her cigarettes were in a pile. A brown bunny with a white tale hopped out of the pile toward some bushes.

"Quit messing around," he yelled. "You got a bunny someplace. Come out or I'll tell the principal."

A siren sounded in the distance and Slip ran home as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him. His mother was still working at the hospital. He went downstairs to the box of his grandmother's stuff his mom had kept, but all that was in there were towels and yarn.

His mother was later than usual because her bus was late. He waited until she was pouring pancake batter into the skillet to talk to her.

"What does shape shift mean?" he asked.

She didn't look up from the pan. "Changing from one form to another. It's an ancient legend. Why?"

She looked up then and Slip hurried to the silverware drawer to set the table.

"I found something in Grandma's stuff," he said.

"Let's see."

Slip fished the wad of paper out of his pocket. She glanced at it and chuckled.

"It sounds like mumbo-jumbo to me," she said. She kissed his cheek then flipped the pancakes.

The police came after they finished the dishes. His mother answered the door.

"Arthur?" she called.

Slip sat down next to his mother on the couch. It was the same lady police officer he talked to that afternoon.

"Hey," the police lady said. His mother looked worried.

"A girl you ride the bus with is missing," his mother said.

He asked who and the officer said the tall cigarette girl's name.

"You were talking to her at school today after you and I got done," she said.

"What were you talking to Arthur about?" his mother asked. She sounded nervous.

"Another boy on the same stop went missing on Tuesday," she said. "We found his jacket and her clothes in the same field three blocks from here."

His mother gasped and clutched his arm.

"We have extra patrols in the area, ma'm," the police officer said.

"Her father beats her, and does other stuff to her too," Slip said. "Justin's dad beats him, too. That's what we were talking about at school."

The officer stood up. "Okay, then. Thanks. "

Slip's mother showed her out, and then she went into her bedroom and came out with a dusty box. She set it on the floor.

"This was grandma's," she said. She pulled out two stacks of papers and put one in Slip's lap. It took him one hour to read through it. They were mostly recipes and letters to "my darling George," who he had never heard of. His grandfather's name was William and she never called him "darling." But he didn't say anything about it to his mother.

He was dozing off on his fourth stack when his mother nudged him awake. She looked pale and her eye twitched, which meant she was worried.

"Look." She held out a paper with some of the same words on the sheet he'd showed her earlier. A lot of the words had been crossed out. His mother pointed to the bottom of the page to a line with exclamation points next to it.

It said, "free will reigns. The words have no meaning…" The rest was crossed out.

They went to sleep then and didn't talk about it again.

The police arrested Justin's father for selling drugs but they didn't ask Slip anymore questions. He got to use his lunch money every day and he didn't feel woozy anymore. The other cigarette girl moved away.

His mother burned the sheet of paper titled "Incantation for shape shifting" in an old ashtray.

But he didn't tell her he had the words memorized.

An unusual tale that caught my fancy, this cautionary parable is a neat debut for Terry. Let us know if you like it or hate it on our BBS. -GM