After The Fall
by mittfh
 
Copyright © 2010 Ben Norwood.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got and home did trot as fast as he could caper,
To Old Dame Dob who patched his nob with vinegar and brown paper.

But what happened next? Jack soon finds out that concussion is the least of his problems...

They say concussion can do strange things to your head. But I'm convinced it was the double act of my sister and Old Dame Dob who were more responsible for what happened next. After all, I should have known that there's more to eccentric old women who maintain large herb collections and know about healing than meets the eye...

Anyway, I digress. My concussion. Our village's water supply had mysteriously dried up and the stream was all silted up, so I was sent to the next village to fetch a couple of buckets worth from their pump. As I had a reputation as a prankster, my sister Jill had been sent with me to keep me out of trouble. Anyway, I decided it would be quicker to go over the steep hill separating our two villages than take the long winding road between them. Jill agreed - she didn't like being lumbered with me almost as much as I didn't like being sent on the errand in the first place.

Fetching the water itself wasn't a big deal, but those two buckets were very heavy, and it was slow going ascending the hill again on the return journey. Jill, of course, refused to help out, insisting that it was man's work, they were too heavy, and besides, she didn't want to dirty her dress. I didn't complain, but concentrated on lugging the heavy buckets up the hill. However, just after clearing the brow, disaster struck. I was concentrating so hard on keeping the buckets upright that I didn't notice the rock in my path until I'd tripped over it, sending the buckets flying. I think I told you the hill was steep, but I didn't quite realise how steep until I found myself descending it via a more direct route than I anticipated, hitting several more rocks en-route. I reached the bottom, and was wondering how Jill was doing when I suddenly felt something rather large and hard hitting my back, before something covered my eyes. Pushing the covering away from my eyes, I realised it was rather heavily blood-stained fabric - and realised it must be the skirt of Jill's dress. I tried standing up, but felt very feint. In the end, Jill (who appeared to have suffered very lightly for her fall) more-or-less had to drag me home, whereupon dad helped carry me over to Old Dame Dob at the other end of the village. What seemed like an eternity later, I woke up to find my head enclosed in a makeshift bandage and reeking of vinegar, and Jill standing over me trying to suppress a fit of giggles. Apparently I was to remain at home for the next few days while my head healed itself. I don't think dad was particularly pleased as he couldn't delegate errands / chores to me.

Days turned into weeks, and Mum thought it best to keep me confined to near the house, lest I go wandering off and get myself into more trouble - either by pranking someone or hurting my head again. I was asked to help out around the house, and surprised myself by not only completing the chores, but I didn't feel like moaning or grumbling about it as I've been prone to do when asked in the past. I also found myself chatting to Jill a lot, whereas before the fall I'd do almost anything to avoid her company. She may be my twin sister, but before the fall I intensely disliked her - she always seemed so pretty and innocent, never got intro trouble, and was always praised up by Mum. Since the fall, I also appear to have stayed out of trouble, and was often praised for completing chores on time. This was an entirely new experience for me!

About a month after the fall, I noticed two slightly worrying things. First, my hair seemed to be growing much faster than usual, yet I had no desire to cut it back to a more boyish length. Secondly, I was convinced that certain, erm, "things", erm, "down below", were shrinking. I thought the latter was probably my imagination, besides which, it wasn't polite to talk about such things with anyone. Things got even stranger when I started noticing the choices of clothing Jill was wearing, and when she noticed me staring at her, rather than tell me off (as usual), she started describing her clothes. Weird!

I was convinced something weird was definitely going on after the third month, by which time my, erm, "things", had practically disappeared altogether. I wanted to ask dad about it, but every time I was near him I completely forgot about it and talked about something else as well. In addition, my clothes started to feel scratchy and uncomfortable. At about the same time, I'd noticed Jill was making a lot of new dresses, which seemed odd as she'd already got several. But as with trying to talk to dad about my problems "down below", I somehow couldn't ask Jill about why she was making extra clothes, or who indeed they were for.

A new phase of life started about a month later, when somehow Jill convinced me to try on one of her new dresses. Although I was very apprehensive at the start, by the time she had finished dressing me in it, I felt wonderful! The dress somehow fitted perfectly, far better than my own clothes. Jill seemed to sense this as well, and took me out of our room to introduce me to mum and dad as her "sister" Jane. Mum was delighted, dad was initially shocked but after Jill had started at him intensely, he immediately calmed down and started talking to me in the same way he always talked to Jill. It was very strange, happening as suddenly as someone clicking their fingers, and I was by now convinced that something very weird was going on. I'd always thought of magic beforehand as being something of the realm of fairy tales, but and tales of witches were highly exaggerated stories of eccentric old women, but I couldn't help but wonder if magic did exist and Old Dame Dob was a witch... I still wasn't sure of the extent to which Jill was wrapped up in her scheme though.

That evening, Jill asked me how I felt. I replied that, strange as it may seem, I felt wonderful in these new clothes, and my life seemed inexplicably better since the fall. She smiled and nodded, as though she was expecting that reply. I didn't flinch when she offered me a spare nightgown to sleep in, and I think I realised then I'd never go back to wearing my old clothes.

My transformation was evidently complete when, about a week later, I started getting pains in my stomach area. Looking over at Jill, I realised she was too, and it seemed to be the same kind of pain she had about every month...

By that time, I'd effectively abandoned my old life as "Jack", and everyone in the village seemed to accept me as "Jane", Jill's twin sister. Questioning some of the locals, it appeared they only remembered "Jane" and Jill as twin sisters, and that "Jack" was a troublemaker from outside who'd left the village several months ago - and good riddance as far as they were concerned. Whatever the cause of my transformation, I'm certainly happier now as "Jane" than "Jack", and wouldn't dream of reverting to my old life, even if I know how.

One final note - apparently the village's water supply miraculously started working again about an hour after I'd set off for the next village on that fateful day, and the stream cleared itself of silt. Did Old Dame Dob plan the entire expedition in the first place, knowing that it would be the perfect opportunity?

I don't know why I started thinking of Jack and Jill, least of all applying a TG spin to it. The idea hit me last night, and I played around with it in my head until this morning, when I decided to scribble it down. As ever, I thought it would be <500 words, but it ended up closer to 1,500...