The paint

It all started two weeks ago. My son's room needed re-painting. He said that he wanted me to re-paint it black and white. My son has always liked skunks. He wanted me to re-paint it black and white because that is the color's that skunk are. I had no idea where I was supposed to get black and white paint, I had thought of simply using black pain then white paint, but he said he wanted 'special' black and white paint. He told me that his friend told him of a store that sold it that was located at the outskirts of town. I figured that I had nothing to lose, so I drove out there.

Fortunately, I was able to find the store easily, it a bit too easily. The store seemed normal enough. They had a lot of different types of paint and wallpaper but no black and white paint. I decided to ask the guy at the back desk. I asked him if they have any 'special black and white paint'. He looked at me like I was crazy. I was half expecting him to say that there is no such paint anywhere and that I had been the victim of a practical joke. But to my surprise, he said that they carried it, but warned me that the 'special back and white paint' can be dangerous. I wasn't sure what he was talking about, I mean any paint can be dangerous if not used properly. Perhaps I should have asked him what he meant. But instead I said that I knew it could be dangerous and decided to buy it.

The pain looked very strange, it was indeed black and white. When I opened it, it had a swirl of black and white arround it, rather then a solid color. My son thought it was 'very cool'. I also noticed something else that was very strange. It had an odd musky odor instead of the usual smell you'd normally associate with paint. Despite this, I decided to go ahead with painting his room with it, ignoring the feeling that something just wasn't right. With the way the paint looked in the container, I had expected it to paint on the walls all smeared, but somehow it was going on black with white stripes down it, it was the strangest thing that I had ever seen. To paint the upper part of his walls, I had to use a latter and that is when it happened.

I am unsure exactly how it happened, but as I was painting the upper part of his walls, something caused me to slip, I fell back and onto his bed. I was okay, the bed cushioned the fall. But my falling also caused the paint to fall, right on top of me. The entire container and it contents fell all over me, all over my face, clothes and arms. As I ran into the bathroom to try to wash it off, I noticed that the pattern in which it fell on me was strange, and very coincidental. On the front of my shirt, it was all white, and it was mostly black on my face, except for on my cheeks and a small stripe down my forehead, where it was white. It was all back on my arms, but white on my hands and it was white in my hair. I had hoped to wash it off, so I ran into the bathroom, and turned on the shower in an attempt to get myself clean.

The paint seemed to wash off pretty easily, something that I was thankful for. I only had to stay in there for 15 minutes to get all of the paint and the smell off. After I got out, I threw my clothes into the wash, and sat on the couch in my bathrobe waiting for the wash to be done. That was when it started. Strangely, I didn't notice it at first. My face felt strange, almost itchy. I scratched, somehow not noticing the fur that was growing on it. As I watched the TV, my bathrobe seemed to be slowly getting bigger. For nearly an hour I watched TV as my bathrobe continued to seem to get bigger and my face continued to itch. I heard the washing machine finish it's cycle so I went downstairs and got them out. I was surprised, they were completely clean, and the smell was gone. They look oddly different but I couldn't place my finger on it. I ignored the feeling and put them in the dryer. As I walked back upstairs, the feeling in my face continued. This time it almost felt like something was pulling on my face! What was happened had started to spread. My chest and arms were starting to feel very itchy. It was then that I noticed just how loose my bathrobe was and that it wasn't growing, but it was me that was shrinking! I reached up to feel my face, and what I felt scared the hell out of me. My face felt furry! And my mouth felt, strange. My hair felt different, it was a lot softer, not as soft as the fur, but still soft. I returned to feeling my mouth, trying to figure out what was going on until I got to a mirror. I nearly gasped when I saw why my face felt so strange. I had a muzzle and my nose was small and black. I could see why my chest felt so strange, I could see that fur was growing all over it. I was white and was very soft. On my arms, black fur was growing. My hands had been feeling strange; I had been so fascinated by what was happening to my face that I hadn't of noticed.

I looked at my hands and received another surprise. They looked different. Not only were they were covered in white fur, but also I seemed to have lost a finger on each one! My hands had both changed! I only had 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand. My hands looked like those of a cartoon character! I had a small claw at end of each finger. I wasn't sure what do think, had the paint somehow caused this? Was this what the guy meant when he said it was dangerous? My chest and arms were still itchy. When I looked in the mirror again I saw why. The white fur on my chest was now a pelt, as was the black fur on my arms! My bathrobe was now so big on me that I took it off out of fear of tripping on it. It was then that I saw that the fur was spreading to my legs and that I was starting to grow a tail! I tried to say something, and my voice sounded so strange, it was far higher pitched then normal. It seemed that I was not only getting furry, but I was also getting younger. My feet started to change, and I watched in horror as my toes merged and my feet reconfigured. My legs were getting furrier; the fur was black, except from my ankles down, where it was white. I was starting to feel very warm, and was still shrinking.

My tail was continuing to grow! Before, it was little more then a stub, but now it was nearly a meter long! The tail's coloration gave away what I was becoming. It was back with 2 white stripes going down the sides that met at the end of it. I held it in my arms; it was soft, and warm. I seem to have stopped shrinking; I was a little shorter and younger sounding then my son. He was at school at the time; I wondered how I was going to explain this to him. I heard the dryer go off, so I ran downstairs go get my clothes out of it.

I received another shock. My clothes had changed, they were much smaller then normal, they were in fact, the perfect size for my new body, they even had a tail hole that was the perfect size for my new tail. I put them on and ran upstairs to the mirror to see how I looked. I had to admit I look very cute. I had to wonder how my son was going to react to seeing a humanoid skunk. He always loved skunks, and had wanted a brother; it looked like I had become both.

When my Son got home, he was in for the surprise of his life. He called my name, and I (felling oddly frisky) immediately ran from the living room, and jumped at him, giving him a huge hug. From our size difference I estimated I was about 2 years younger then he. He immediately asked both who and what I was. I told him what had happened, he responded with a

"dad? That's really you under all that fur?” When I nodded my furry little head, he said (sounding very happy)

"you look so cute", and he gave me a huge hug. I wasn't exactly sure what we were supposed to do now. I didn't have a job; my wife was the one who worked. Having another kid to support wasn't exactly what I had in mind for her, but at this point we really didn't have much choice. My son kept commenting on how cute I looked and kept petting my fur. I had to admit that it felt nice.

When my wife got home and saw me, she practically screamed, asking,

"what is that?” It took me several minutes to calm her down, but once she felt my fur and felt how soft it was she was okay. It took a bit of convincing to get her to believe that I was really her husband. But once she was convinced, she calmed down considerably, commenting on how cute I was and giving me a hug. We ended up having a meeting on exactly what we were going to about this. We couldn't exactly keep this a secret someone had to know. Our first priority was to go to the paint store and ask them why this had happened. My son and I tagged along. My wife gave the man that sold me the paint a real mouthful, he was genuinely sorry for not telling me the specific danger that it had. He decided to compensate us with an interesting deal. He needed a mascot to help sell the paint; he told us he would put a warning on it about the dangers of it. I decided to take the job.

It's been two weeks and the payments are starting to come in. Becoming a humanoid skunk was never something I would have answered for the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?” but it so far it has certainly been a fun adventure.