I woke up gasping. I will not relate the terrible thing I was doing in my dream; I don’t want to give the impression that I might do such a thing in real life. I don’t even know what brought on such a nightmare!

The sun hadn’t risen yet. I checked the clock on my phone.

4:45 am.

I must have fallen asleep with my mouth open, because my breath stunk. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that nightmare, and my breath was going to bother me anyway.

I put on my glasses, got out of bed, and started for the bathroom.

Fortunately I know my way around the house so well that I didn’t need to turn on any lights until I was in the bathroom.

I brushed my teeth, timing it perfectly for three minutes, then spat into the sink. I hadn’t meant to look at myself in the mirror, but I had to wipe off the toothpaste lather from my mouth.

I continued to look at myself after I’d wiped my face clean. I’m not a vain sort; I don’t even like the way I look.

Something was off.

What was it?

I looked over every inch of my face and failed to find what was wrong. There was my short, wavy black hair; there were my eyebrows over my brown eyes; there was my nose, which I thought looked too much like a bird’s beak especially when wearing my glasses, as I was now; there was my mouth: my lips and my teeth; there were my two ears on the sides of my head.

Nothing there that shouldn’t have been. So why did I look so strange?

I looked at my cheeks and chin. I felt them. Smooth as a baby’s behind.

No stubble.

No stubble?

My face looked the same, but there was no hint of facial hair anywhere. The closest shave couldn’t make me look like that!

My eyes migrated downward.

I bit my hand against the yelp that escaped my throat—the yelp that was about an octave too high.

NOW I knew why I looked different!

Two small bulges protruded from under my T-shirt. I must have been an A cup size. My clothes hung off me, so I couldn’t get a good handle on the exact shape of my body. But now that I knew what had happened, I realized that my center of gravity had definitely changed; it was lower.

I felt between my legs.

NO doubt about it now!

I looked at my face again. My face looked exactly the same as usual, just without the facial hair.

And yet…I couldn’t stop looking at my face.

Slowly, the corners of my mouth turned up.

I liked how I looked. Kind of pretty, actually, especially around the eyes. I wondered if I could grow out my hair so that it framed my face. What would I look like then?

[Obviously the above didn’t happen in real life. But, with some modifications, it is based on a dream that I actually did have recently.]