Chapter 01

"The easiest thing in the world is to fill a story with exposition and dialog," said Jack, as he dabbed his pipe.

Cherry-scented smoke wafted from chair to shelf and eventually left through the open window.

"The problem, of course, is that it needs to go somewhere," said Jack. "Talking around the details of a story is almost the worst way to share it."

The ambient moonlight drew strange figures, distorted by the night's clouds, against wall behind Jack.

"But then, it depends upon the story," said Jack, settling deeply into his arm chair, "one such a tale that comes to mind is about Beschdel Jenkins."

...

Beschdel "Leroy" Jenkins slowly walked up and down the brightly-lit pier.

"One," said Leroy, as she watched the dolphin swim around the furthest pier post.
The dolphin, Martha, made short work of the post and quickly disappeared beneath the waves.

"Two," shouted Leroy to Martha, as she walked one post closer to the shore and a glass penguin bobbed.
Leroy looked up as she heard the dolphin squeal happily beyond the waves.

"Three," said Leroy to herself, as she stood by the pier post touching the shore.

"And, given my stride and distance from the glass penguin," said Leroy, as she watched for the dolphin, "I think it will take precisely ten seconds."

Satisfied, Leroy walked to the end of the pier.  Logging the results of her trial walk-through, Leroy stowed her equipment and walked to the base of the pier.

'I love the crashing waves and the gentle rocking of the pier,' thought Leroy, 'It makes me feel centered.'

Standing still, Leroy watched as the Martha swam playfully toward the pier post.  As the dolphin arrived, Leroy sprinted the length of the pier.

"Now!" shouted Leroy to Martha, as she dove off the end of the pier.

Contact with the brisk water was shocking and Leroy blinked as her arms and legs lightly contracted.

"I need to focus," said Leroy, as she slowly began to tread water. "It will not happen unless I focus."

Eyes shut, Leroy visualized herself as weightless, floating, supported by the waves.  Seeing feet, knees, hips, ankles, hands, neck, Leroy quickly completed the mental image.

Leroy's descent crawled to a halt as her inner picture became a precise mapping to her own body.

And once her mental map was complete, her hands were the first to go.

Dexterous fingers and delicate palms slowly became saturated with water - became visually gelatinous - became amorphous - and then became naught.

Martha swam around Leroy's slowly dissipating form in circles.

At the same time, her furthest extremities complemented one another - each aqua-formed finger matched an aqua-formed toe - until hands and feet were only memories.

Martha called out happily to Leroy as she continued to change.

Leroy's wrists and ankles aqua-formed to follow suit and, as her clothes drifted away, her skin began to smoothen.

To Leroy's left, the glass penguin floated toward her morphing form, elongating to match her height.

Martha continued swimming around Leroy - drawing closer with each transition.

Leroy's closed legs thickened, lengthened, and merged becoming a solid, powerful appendage.

A large slit opened up in the penguin to reveal an empty, clear container with several holes - which enveloped Leroy.

And at the last, Leroy looked up and cried out for joy as her transformation completed.

And the two dolphin sisters, now finally reunited, swam off into the sunset.

...

"Dialog can play a relevant part," said Jack, as he blew odiferous rings into the dark night air.

The billowy rings twisted in mid-air, and twisted together as they drifted out the open window.

"However, excessive reliance can take what should be a simple organic tale and almost drag the reader through a cacophony of mixed metaphors," said Jack as he stood up from his chair.

The chair murmured an onomatopoeia of satisfying release.

"We will talk more on such things tomorrow," said Jack, as he grabbed his coat and left the cottage.

It was a dark and stormy night.