When I looked into her green eyes, I felt taller. The best way I can describe it, is that my hormones were changing. I had been on many walks with women where it was difficult to talk to them, even difficult to walk with them—some wanted me to lead and others wanted me to follow, but she was unlike any woman I had ever met. True, she was crazy—and maybe that’s why I didn’t feel a burden, but there was something else happening inside of me that I had never felt before. It could be love, but that didn’t make any sense because we’d only just met. No… it was that I was feeling stronger. I was more like a man.

I knew the police station was on the other side of the park and the fastest way to get there was to cut through the woods. So, I asked her…

“Would you like to go for a walk in nature?”

“Oh, would I,” she said. Her smile lit up my heart. And soon we were enjoying the river that flowed through the city and next to the park.

Voices carried across the water, like they were whispering inside my ear, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. It wasn’t what they were saying; it was their tone. “My cousin does that; he’s stupider than you.” The voices were closer now and I sensed Samantha’s shoulders. They were tense and I could feel them, without touching them.

“Hey, what are you doing with that pretty young thing? She’s too good for you.” There were three of them and Samantha wasn’t going to help me. She reminded me of a scaredy-cat ready to bolt. And I asked myself why I didn’t work-out more?

“Hey darling, you have such silky skin.” And the next moment was a blur, like a hurricane. That power I’d been feeling suddenly rushed into my fingertips. One of the guys in a long trench coat punched at my face, so I grabbed his hand. “It’s burning; you’re burning me,” he screamed. His hand caught fire and then he used his trench coat to put out the flames. The other guys saw something in my eyes that scared them. They ran, leaving their smoldering trench coat smoking on the ground.

I looked for the woman and I couldn’t find her. And then I noticed an orange cat hiding in a tree, looking at me.

“Samantha?”

She looked amused. I noticed my basketball shorts lying on the ground. Then she sprang off the limb and transformed into a naked woman.

To be continued…