It happened as we were walking home from dinner that night. As we passed the park, we heard a woman sobbing loudly behind a bush.

I was inclined to give the poor woman her privacy, but Cindy Lou was more the nurturing kind I guess. She walked around the hedge. “Are you all right, mi—oh my God. Come here!” she called to me.

So I followed her around the hedge and found a red-haired woman on her knees, staring at her right arm. The arm seemed to be…melting. Below the elbow, all that was there was…a big rope of snot? “What’s happening to meee?” the woman wailed.

“She’s a GaIA!” Cindy Lou hissed.

“I’m a—a what?” the woman whimpered.

Cindy sighed. “There’s nothing for it. I’ll have to do this before she goes all to pieces.” She took the woman’s head in her hands and leaned in to give the woman a deep, probing kiss. The woman’s eyes widened for a moment—then she melted entirely and flowed into Cindy’s mouth. A moment later, she was gone.

“Oh, great,” I said. “Another mouth to feed.”