Blue Moon

I knew there and then, I would drive my ass straight home, no more stops except perhaps to pee, and even then, only at a rest stop or restaurant where there would be other people. Even then, I wasn't sure who or what I might actually run into!

I had been driving for several hours and was just starting to calm down and convince myself I was fine, and that nothing else weird was going to happen to me, not before I got home anyway. Which is when I crested the rise on a hill starting down the other side. Ahead of me in the road, it appeared that someone had hit a dog, which was simply lying there in the middle of the road. "Now what?" I thought, though feeling sorry for the dog. I had plenty of time to correct my course and drive around it, which I began to do, when I suddenly saw it lift its head up.

"Fuck! Someone hit a dog and just left it to die there!" I thought to myself.

I'd always had a soft-heart for animals anyway, and I sure as hell couldn't leave one sitting there in the road dying, and have some other car or truck come by and hit it again. If nothing else, I'd at least move the poor creature off to the side of the road, and then if it didn't look like it could be helped, I'd at the very least put it out of its misery myself, though I wasn't looking forward to that.

I slowed down pulling over and stopping. Once again seeing the dog lift its head looking over towards me. It appeared to be a Golden Retriever, advanced in age perhaps by the look of it. As it had either been hit by a car, or so old and feeble it had gone off some place to die. I'd heard how many animals did that when it came to be their time. Maybe it hadn't made it as far as it had wanted to before collapsing just where it lay. I wandered over, but noticed immediately there wasn't any sign of blood anywhere. And even more strangely, the dog lay there wagging its tail.

"What's the matter girl? You hurt? Lost? You dying?" I asked and then let her sniff my hand as I held it out to her. She licked it in addition to that, and then lay back down again. "Well, we can't have that now can we?" I said. "I have to move you sweetheart, or someone for sure will come by and hit you with their car. If you're too weak to move, how about I help you?"

Once again she lifted up her head, looking at me almost appreciatively. I picked her up, considered briefly moving her off to one side, and then new immediately that I couldn't do that either.

"Shit," I said to myself. "Sure as hell can't leave you here either!" She wore no collar, had no identification on her at all. Perhaps she did have one of those chips embedded beneath her skin however. So if nothing else, if I could find some sort of an animal hospital in the next town, maybe they could locate her owners. If nothing else, at least she'd have someone who'd perhaps be able to do something for her, if not for humanely putting her down at the very least. Better than me having to do it anyway.

I then carried her over to the van and sat her down in the passenger seat next to me. She seemed to curl up, even giving off a relaxing sigh as she settled down there on the seat. I walked back around, got in the van and headed off down the road once again, wondering if the next town I came to might indeed have some sort of veterinarian.

We'd been on the road for a while when she actually sat up in her seat. I was surprised by that for one thing, as she actually looked a hundred percent better than when I'd first seen her.

"It's ok girl...next town, we'll get you some help," I assured her reaching over to pet her.

"Jack, I need to talk to you while I still can."

I nearly ran off the road. I stared at the radio, but the song I'd been listening to was still playing. I turned it off, staring at the dog.

"Maybe you'd better pull over." The dog said, "Before you kill us both."

I did that, shaking like a leaf, for sure now that my head was about to explode or something, expecting some sort of cosmic collapse that would steal my soul or melt my mind into oatmeal. If that hadn't already happened.

"You need to listen to me Jack, I have a lot to tell you, and not too much time before I can't do that anymore. Times running out on me."

"You really can talk...but, but you're just a dog!" I spoke to her as though I wasn't, still speaking to myself, or some psycho version of myself anyway.

"Well for the time being...yes, I can. Now please, listen. Like I said, I don't have a whole lot of time."

I had managed to pull the van off the road well out and away from the main highway. But I was still shaking like a leaf as I sat there staring at the dog, listening to her speak, which she began doing. Oddly enough, she had the exact same eyes as every woman I had met along the way.

"My name is Rebecca, and yes...I'm a very special breed of Golden Retriever. And I'm not the only one...there's several of us, though not near as many as you might believe."

"I'm not sure what I believe at the moment," I told her, though she continued on anyway.

"You see Jack, my species, well...this particular species of dog and not all dogs either by the way, and not all Golden's either. Just a few. We have this certain ability. We have the ability to shape change for one. I can turn into just about anything, for short periods of time before reverting back to what I truly am. A dog. But I can also create things, not real things, dimensional things, things which seem real, and while they exist, are real. But then they too eventually go away. The thing about that is, whenever I do shape change it weakens me a little. Not a lot, just a little, as it does whenever I create things. Small things don't take nearly as much energy as it does when I attempt to do much bigger things. Sort of like the difference between a dozen eggs and a red brick house. Understand?"

I was beginning to. But at the same time, not sure I wanted to. "Yeah, well...sort of," I said talking to a dog.

"Good. Now then, there's more."

"Why am I not surprised."

"Please Jack, listen to me...I really don't have too much longer, the sun will be setting soon, and then I won't be able to speak to you anymore."

"Why's that?"

"You ever heard of a Blue Moon?"

"Yes, of course. They call it that whenever there are two full moons within the same month. At least I think that's what it means."

"Well, it's because of that, that my species, my kind has been given a very special gift. During the phase of a Blue Moon, we are able to shape-shift, speak, and very often turn into people. Which I've been doing ever since I first met you back there on the road."

"Becky?"

"That was one of me yes. But you see Jack, there's something else that is both a blessing as well as a curse. While we're in human form, we can experience and enjoy all the wonderful, natural things that you humans take so much for granted. The gift of love, and pleasure for one thing. But it costs us to do so. Even more so than when we create dimensional illusions. Whenever we have an orgasm, in particular a really intensely satisfying orgasm, it ages us. Or rather it ages the human body we've created. That's why I kept appearing to you as a different, slightly older woman, so that you wouldn't freak out upon seeing me after we'd been together."

"You mean the way I'm freaking out now?" I said hearing the tone in my voice raise about three octaves. "You're sitting here telling me, as a dog speaking...that the women I've been with, were all one and the same. You...a dog," I added shuddering at the thought.

"Not exactly Jack, though in a way yes. While human, I am human, not a dog. She yipped. "Sorry, it's starting to happen sooner than I hoped for. But yes Jack, yes, we were...or I was rather," she said, though I heard a yip come to the end of her sentence once again. "My time is growing short jack, as soon as the moon makes a full appearance, I'll be a dog again, unable to speak. For the moment, I still have these memories, these thoughts. But in a couple of days, those too will be gone. And I will indeed simply be a dog again. Until the arrival of the next Blue Moon, and then for those of us, of our species, we'll once again be able to shape-change, and live for a time at least, as humans again."

I just sat there looking at Rebecca, or at least the name she went by. She was still a dog, albeit a talking dog. And I still wasn't sure if I was imagining all this. It was a very real possibility that I was.

"So you're telling me then, you could have stayed as being just Becky, but that after every time we made love, and you climaxed, you'd have grown a little older."

"Yes, if I'd remained in that body, you'd have simply seen the same woman age over the course of the Blue Moon, though aging more and more rapidly towards the end, the more often we actually made love, or that I had an orgasm."

"Bernice!" I said. To which she laughed at.

"Yeah, maybe now you understand that a bit more. I was already weak enough as it was, especially after creating the house and the car...all that. Another orgasm with you, and I'd have been barely able to even get around. Even in dog form it was bad enough. I had barely enough strength to turn myself into a bird, fly on up ahead as far as I dared, before collapsing there in the road just ahead of you. I didn't want you to pass me by Jack, I wanted to talk to you while I still could, try and explain everything. I grew to love you Jack. Does that scare you? Surprise you?"

"A little," I honestly told Rebecca. "I mean shit...you are after all still a dog."

"For the most part...yes Jack. I am. But I sense that you do have a love of animals, do you not?"

"Yeah, I do...but I ah...well to put it bluntly Rebecca, I don't exactly run around having sex with animals either."

"No, I hope you never do Jack. But you need to know. When I'm human, I really am human. That's not an illusion, it's real. But I'm only able to do that, and everything else I do, during the course of a Blue Moon."

"Maybe that's where they get the saying from," I quipped trying to still gather my wits about me regarding all this.

"Maybe," Rebecca barked. The moon just then beginning to make an appearance in the night sky.

"So, now what?" I asked.

"Well, I guess that's up to you Jack. I really would like to be your dog, and your human companion to when I can be. But you need to know a couple of things about that too. I will never, ever appear in that form to anyone that knows you, or might know me. I will revert back into my normal form even during the course of the Blue moon, or perhaps some other person or animal even. But under no circumstances will I ever reveal my Blue Moon self to anyone but you. Secondly, nothing I create is permanent, remember that. What seems real, and is real for the duration of it, isn't. Think you can wrap your head around that one and accept it? In other words, I'm not a Genie Jack, I don't grant wishes."

"Ok, I sort of get that part. But tell me this...where you dying back there on the road or what? I mean, you look pretty good at the moment, even if you're a dog now."

"Well (woof...woof) I ah, wasn't (woof) dying, if that's what you meant. I've still got a goodly number of (woof woof) dog years ahead of me. But like any of my breed...they are dog years Jack, so eventually yes, I will die, (woof) just as in time...you will. (Woof!) What I was doing, was getting some (woof) strength back, which with the onset of the moon, it brings me.

"Oh good, so you're not dying then."

"Not (woof) just yet anyway. Now...one more thing while I still can Jack, (woof). Like I said, tomorrow, I won't be able to speak, but I still may have a few lingering memories of all this...but only for a couple of days at best. After that, they too will (woof) fade away, until the next Blue Moon. So...as far as you're concerned about me (woof) I will be a dog Jack, just a dog. Can you? (Woof) Will you? Accept that?" (Woof)

"I think so. Yes...I can. And I have to ask, do I actually call you Rebecca then?"

(Woof!) She said, and then licked my hand.