All The Creatures — H.C. Turk

Two families suffer when their deepest desires are fulfilled in a most foreign manner. On vacation in a mountain cabin, six people are standing before a fireplace when it explodes. Something comes down the chimney that they can look at but not see, an entity so alien that humans are psychologically unable to perceive it, just as lesser animals can view TV but not understand what's being shown. No one is harmed, but the unknowable entity senses the humans' sharing Christmas wishes, which it tries to manifest in a selfless manner. The entity makes the cabin more efficient by causing the heater to blow oven-hot air. The water faucets are like waterfalls. The lights become bright enough to blind, and food becomes active, trying to force its way into the humans' mouths. The personal modifications that begin are even more dangerous. Brad, a retarded man who wished to be smart, begins speaking fluently. His Uncle Martin and Aunt Lorraine, whose ages differ by 22 years, begin to close the gap. Limping Martin no longer needs a cane, and Lorraine's weak hearing turns to deafness. Six-year-old Alison, because her parents (Valerie and Wes) mentioned how quiet she was when younger, becomes a toddler. The "Christmas gifts" turn extreme. Frigid Valerie's breasts grow huge. Her weak husband becomes painfully muscle-bound. And Brad is a genius who deduces their final outcome. He will be thoughtless, Valerie a protoplasmic blob, Wes crushed by his own weight. Martin might survive as a permanent teenager, but Lorraine will be dead of old age in hours. Alison will soon be a fetus, and Valerie is inversely pregnant, ready to accept her daughter into her womb. Perhaps worst, Brad surmises that Wes's father, buried nearby, will soon be resurrected, as was the family dog. The story is of average people turned bizarre who try to return to normalcy. They will only succeed not by defeating the alien, but by overcoming their own desires, which not even exceptional people always understand complete