Switching Keys

A Winds Of Change Story

By Bryan Derksen

The dance seemed to be going quite well. I was standing off to the side, partnerless as usual, but that wasn’t a big concern for me; I wasn’t a very social person. My friends were more important. And despite all that had been happening to us, things were continuing to look up and up.

Even for me. "Hey, Michael," I caught Michael’s attention. He flicked one eye in my direction first, only a moment later following it with the other. Still very freaky, in my opinion, but fascinating at the same time.

"What’s up?" he asked.

I ran the tip of my tongue over my incisors. There was a definite point in front now, I was almost certain... "Is it just me, or is my mouth surging?"

He shrugged. "You’re asking me? I can’t tell with you, you’re taking such tiny steps. Maybe. Are you looking forward to it all of a sudden?"

I grinned, feeling how my lips pulled back over my teeth and now becoming certain they’d grown slightly since getting here. "Maybe. Low degree means I’ll keep all my fingers... and if David’s able to do that well with a bluejay’s voice, I’m sure I can adapt to talons."

Michael examined his nails idly with his right eye and then polished them on his shirt. "It’s a common feature these days," he agreed. His left eye turned away, looking back out at the dolphin and the mare, and his right switched back to me. "This dance is almost over, want to see if Dave’s got plans?"

"Nah, I’m sure he doesn’t want to be bothered." The last word suddenly caught in my throat somehow, coming out squeaky and raspy at the same time. "Ack!"

"Heh! Well, Jim, I guess your voice is finally Changing!"

I grimaced in embarassment, and also at the pun. "Hey, no fair. Just ‘cause I started last..." Rubbing my throat didn’t reveal any changes I could feel by touch, but as I spoke I could tell that something was going on in there that wasn’t business as usual. "Looks like I’m surging, all right. I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a sec." Michael nodded, and I headed for the gym’s exit. The song ended just as I left.

I deliberately picked a small bathroom at the other side of the school, not wanting to be disturbed as I checked out my latest changes. It was still a habit of mine, even though my nearly neurotic anxiety over the process had reduced to manageable levels; you only Changed once, after all, and I didn’t want to miss anything. I walked straight to the sinks and checked myself out in the mirror.

"You’re getting a definite beak there, old bean," I muttered quietly to myself as I examined my teeth. They were completely fused now, smoothing out and projecting slightly in front. It was starting to make me look like I had a severe overbite, and I hoped I wouldn’t be lisping for long while I adapted. Running the tip of my tongue over my teeth again told me that their edges were getting sharper... and, more startlingly, my tongue was turning black. It looked like I’d just eaten a whole bag of licorice. I chuckled out loud.

The chuckle died in my throat as I felt a tickling itch on my cheeks, though, and I watched my face in the mirror as another small surge hit. Green, downy feathers sprouted on my cheeks, spreading from their previous limit where my sideburns used to be. I licked my teeth again nervously, discovering that they’d projected even farther out; I couldn’t quite close my lips over them any more. "Wow, my face is going to be gone any day now!" I exclaimed. Then I coughed and rubbed my throat, surprised by the strange feeling my speech had produced in there. The skin on my throat was still perfectly human, but I could feel that the larynx under it had changed significantly. I coughed again, and then realized my cough sounded a bit like a parrot squawking.

"Awk! Er... hm. Testing, one, two, three..." With only a little effort, I managed to get my voice sounding normal again. A grin spread over my nascent beak. "Do, rey, mi, fa, so, la, ti do!" I chuckled again; I sounded a lot like David had only moments earlier in the gym, when he’d sung. My avian srynx had developed. What was the significance of this Change, though? Parrots had excellent vocal dexterity for birds, but I was still mostly human. I tried doing an impersonation. "Ah did not have sexual relations with that woman. Heh." Even though the governor had been a birdmorph himself when he had said that famous line, I could tell my voice didn’t sound anywhere near his. "Read my lips, no new taxes!" A little better, I thought I put the right nasal quality into that one. "I am not a crook..."

It did not come as naturally as might be expected for a parrotmorph. But after only five minutes of practice, I was doing far better than I had ever done before at voice impersonations. I began to wonder if I could manage a good singing voice too, like David had. "Ahem. Put your glad rags on and join me hon’, We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one. When the clock strikes two, three and four, If the band slows down we’ll yell for more!" I laughed. I sounded different than I had before, but it was hard to tell if I was any better. I needed to have someone listen and rate me from the outside. "Time to go back to the party," I concluded. I hoped the karaoke was still being run.

When I got back, I found that David had apparently been the only one brave enough to give singing a try and the DJ had moved back to regular songs again. I was both disappointed and relieved at the same time; I’d wanted to see what my voice was capable of, but at the same time I was understandably reluctant to test it out in front of everyone at the dance.

Shrugging and trying to tell myself that I hadn’t been all that eager in the first place, I looked around for Todd and the others. You would have thought that a wheelchair-bound raccoon would have been relatively easy to spot, but it took me a while to locate him in the corner with Michael. As I worked my way over to them, I idly wondered if Michael had had something to do with that. Chameleons were supposed to blend in, after all...

"Hey, Jim, good to see you back," Todd greeted as he spotted me.

"Surged, huh?"

I stroked the feathers on my cheeks with my fingertips. "Yeah.

Just a little, as usual."

"You sound different, too," Michael told me. I grinned.

"Yeah. My voicebox changed, too. I was hoping to test it out on the karaoke machine, but shucks, looks like that’s over. Where’s David?"

"Ah, I’m sure they’d let you give it a whirl if you asked," Todd assured me. "Go on. I dare you."

I grinned wider and chuckled. "No, really, I’m fine. I’ll check it out on the mike when I get home."

Of course, I should have realized, by then I was already doomed. Michael and Todd couldn’t rest until they’d got their newly squawking friend up on the stage in front of the whole school, and before long I found myself standing on the stage right where they wanted me. They managed it so quickly and smoothly that I was still trying to figure out how it had happened when the batmorph DJ leaned over my shoulder. "What’s your request?" she asked quietly.

To get down from here, I immediately thought. "Uh... uh... Whole New World?" I stammered uncertainly. Mano had been humming that tune incessantly before he had been grounded, he had a thing for old Disney animation and the lyrics had remained embedded in my head since then.

The batmorph nodded. "Got that one. Just hang on a sec, this one will be done in a moment..." She tapped a couple of keys on the main mixer board next to her, and just as she had said the current selection of music began winding down to its conclusion. "Ever sung before?" She asked with a smile.

"No... but I’ve seen it done hundreds of times by a friend of mine. How hard can it be?" I chuckled, trying to hide my nervousness with humor.

The DJ shook her head, still smiling. "Good luck, kid. Don’t sweat it, and have fun." I swallowed hard. Then she announced me to the crowd, the spotlight came on, and I tried to shove all the stagefright away into the back of my mind. Have fun, I repeated silently to myself. We’re just a bunch of high school kids... The music began,I took a deep breath, and then did the best Alladin impersonation I could.

I was sweating now, at least with the parts of myself that still had human skin. My impersonation of Alladin was passable, I thought, considering I’d never even tried it before; but singing was hard. My tempo was off, and I kept miscalculating tones. David had always made it look easy. But there was no turning back, and I reminded myself that this was just for fun after all; there was no real pressure. I licked my lips nervously and charged onward.

It was getting easier, even though I wasn’t particularly improving. I was normally a quiet person, I’d never stood out... but now I was actually having fun doing this! It was a surprising realization, but then, I’d already gone through a similar realization regarding my norm form. Terrifying, but once I let go of the fear it suddenly became exhilarating. A pity I just wasn’t very good at this, I thought to myself with a chuckle, even with a parrot’s vocal flexibility!

As I finished that last line, I had only a split second to remember that the next verse wasn’t sung by Alladin. I panicked, but at the same time I reflexively did my best to match the sound I was producing to the sound I remembered hearing. I shot up an octave and belted out most of the next verse in Jasmine’s voice before I even realized what I’d managed.

I almost choked on the last line, originally sung in harmony by both Alladin and Jasmine simultaneously. By god, I think I almost managed to mimic a duet! It threw my timing off completely, though, and I flumbled to catch up again in the next verse. I was back to just one voice again, thank heavens, even if it was still Jasmine’s.

At the end of the piece, I received almost as much applause as David had. My applause was much less serious than what he’d got, of course, and I blushed fiercely at the laughter and wolf-whistles being directed my way. But I think it was a good laughter, not mockery. I’d been pretty shakey singing Alladin’s voice, but by the time I’d hit Jasmine I had taken off. I was quite stunned at how I’d managed. "Good show, kid," the DJ grinned at me as I walked back down to Todd and Michael in a daze.

"Sweet," Michael enthused, "We’ve got a female backup vocal for the band now!" I blanched and shook my head wordlessly, and Todd laughed.

"No way," I protested. "I cannot sing. You heard me fumbling up there!"

"Stripes can give you lessons," Todd suggested. I groaned, dreading the idea. David was a great singer, but I’d heard the practice he’d put into it and I doubted I could withstand that level of embarassment. Still, after the playful ribbing I got from my friends trailed off, I was left pondering the idea. There were a couple of songs we could use a female voice for, and I could play keyboard and sing at the same time...

I shook my head. "Nah," I muttered to myself. "We don’t need a female vocal enough for that."

Copyright 1998, Bryan Derksen

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