The Visitor by K. A. Applegate

meat and fur. In my dream it was a dead cat. A deadcat covered with vermin eating the decayed flesh.
    A shrew was getting in on the feast, eating the dead flesh and the living maggots with equal enjoyment.
    In my dream I knew: I
was
that shrew.
    â€œYou look tired,” Jake said the next morning. We took the same bus to school.
    â€œThanks,” I said grumpily.
    â€œDidn’t get enough sleep last night?”
    â€œI guess not, if I look as bad as you say.”
    â€œI didn’t say you looked bad, I just said you looked tired.” He hesitated. He glanced over his shoulder, checking to see whether anyone was listening. Fortunately, the noise level was pretty high in the bus. Jake lowered his voice and leaned close to my ear. “You didn’t get creeped out by the shrew, did you?”
    â€œWhy? Just because I’m a girl, you think the shrew bothered me more than it would have bothered you or Marco?”
    â€œNo, that’s not it at all,” he said earnestly. “It’s just … see, when I did the lizard morph, that bothered me. I had nightmares —”
    â€œNightmares?” I said it too loudly. Then I lowered my voice back to a whisper. “Nightmares?”
    â€œOh, yeah. Definitely. When I morphed the tiger I had dreams, too, but not nightmares.”
    â€œWhat kind of dreams?”
    He smiled. “Kind of cool, really. Stalking through a dark forest at night. I was hunting something. It was like I wanted to catch it, but at the same time it was like if I didn’t catch it that would be okay, too. Because just running and creeping and then running some more through the woods was the best thing in the world.”
    I nodded. “I felt like that after the elephant morph. It was this incredible feeling of being huge and invincible. Like I could never even possibly be afraid of anything.”
    â€œBut the shrew was different, wasn’t it? Same with the lizard.”
    â€œI guess it’s the different characters of the animals. Maybe some are good matches for our human brains. Maybe others aren’t.” I looked out the window for a while. Then I said, “You know what scares me?”
    To my surprise, Jake nodded. “Yeah. You’re afraid that someday we might have to morph into bugs.”
    I shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll be willing to do that. I think that may be too much.”
    â€œWell, your next assignment is a cat. Tobias was a cat. He said it was amazingly cool. He liked it. Just like I really enjoy being a dog. Sometimes when I’m feeling depressed, I really wish I could just morph. Dogs know how to have fun.”
    The bus pulled up in front of the school. “Another day of school. Normal life.” I looked over the crowd of kids milling around on the lawn and on the steps. I spotted Melissa.
    â€œSee you later, Jake,” I said. “Thanks.”
    â€œNo problem. We’re all in this together.”
    I made my way down the bus aisle and ran to catch up to Melissa. But when I got close I saw that her eyes were red and swollen. She’d been crying.
    I didn’t know what to do. In the old days I would have just run right up to her and asked what was the matter.
    â€œHey, Melissa, how’s it going?”
    She looked at me, confused. “What?”
    â€œI said, how’s it going?”
    She shook her head slowly, like she couldn’t believe I was even talking to her. “What do you care?”
    â€œMelissa. Of course I care. What’s wrong?”
    Her eyes went kind of blank. She seemed to be looking at nothing but the air right in front of her face. “What’s wrong? Everything is wrong. And nothing is wrong. But just the same, everything is wrong.”
    â€œMelissa, what are you talking about?”
    â€œForget it,” she said. She started to walk away.
    I grabbed her arm. “Look, you can talk to me. I’m still your friend. Nothing has