This is a story about Tom the deer.

Tom's real name was actually Tomoko. She just always had been a bit of a
tomboy - even when she had still been human.

Her mother had always been a bit concerned that she rather played with toy
cars and spaceships instead of princess dolls like most of the other girls in
her age, but then her grandma had taken her mother aside and told her: "Don't
worry, you were the same when you were young, she'll come around when she gets
older."

Thing was, she didn't get her chance to get older.

Tomoko died the day of her thirteenth birthday - at least officially - That
day her parents had taken her and some friends she had invited to her birthday
party to a local petting zoo.

Tom had taken shelter under a fir tree when the sudden downpour of a summer
storm had started. There she stood, together with one of the zoos young deer.
The animal had been really afraid from the thunder, and had stared at Tom with
its big brown eyes.

Tomoko had always felt a close connection with animals. Sometimes it was
almost empathic, but this time it was as if even their sous actually touched,
as if they were sharing one mind. For a short split second.

Then came the cracking white hot searing flash that changed everything and
tore them apart forever.

Tom felt herself thrown to the ground. Her whole body was in searing pain,
cramped and burning. She couldn't move, only tremble, and she couldn't get any
air in her cramped lungs.

Then she saw her mum, her dad, too. They ran over in tears and were screaming,
even though she couldn't hear any noise at all. Her ears were momentarily
deaf, ringing from the devastating cracking explosion of the lighting strike.
She watched her parents lean over the charred smoldering body that was laying
motionless on the ground just a few feet from herself.

She saw the tree she had stood under, cracked down the middle of its trunk,
charred, and still smoking despite the rain. And that charred body must be
what was left of the deer, dead, on the ground, hit by lightning.

Just why were her parents tending the dead deer? Why were they ignoring her?
She was hurt, she was in pain. She wanted to call out, but only a coarse bleat
escaped her lips. She stared at her hands, but saw only twitching hooves.

Thats when she realized that the dead body on the ground in front had her
clothes on. And hair too, her hair, although singed and charred. Then her gaze
fell on her own lifeless face, one eye staring expressionless into nothing,
the other charred beyond recognition by the lightning strike.

The sight burnt itself into her brain. Even years later she would sometimes
see that image in a nightmare just before she woke up in sweat.

Except this nightmare had been real. She had died that day. Except that in
some weird way she had been spared. Instead, this poor frightened animal had
swapped places with her the moment of her death, and had given its body for
her.

Tom took minutes to get her new body's senses together enough to get up and
get someones attention. In fact it had been a close call. She had nearly been
passed out by the time her lungs had finally responded and she had been able
to breathe on her own.

It was one of her friends, Mark, that came over. They were as shocked as
everyone, but her friends hadn't been allowed to go to the hospital in the
ambulance in which they had brought her parents and the dead girl away.

"Hey, look, the deer's still alive!" Mark called out, almost as if it was an
accusation. Why had the deer survived when their friend was dead?

Tom then had managed to lift her head and looked at him, slightly insulted.
Her arm, or rather her front leg, hurt. Her fur and skin were singed from the
lightning strike. But at least this body that wasn't hers now responded to her
thoughts.  She managed a few bleats, trying to move her tongue and lips in a
way to articulate words.

It sorta worked. At least Mark made a puzzled face and kept with her.

"Maaa ..  sss mee ... Tahm" she managed to squeeze out. It wasn't really
comprehensible speech. Likely it was more wishful thinking than actually understanding
what she said, but it did the job. Mark's jaw dropped.

"Tom, is that you?  That can't be ...."

Tom nodded vigorously. A second later Mark was hugging her as if he wanted to
squeeze her to death, tears in his eyes.

"Guys, come over!" he shouted, his voice hoarse from crying. "Tom is alive!
She's the deer now!"

Of course they didn't believe him either. But they came over, and it didn't
take much more than a few looks and head gestures to turn their glimmers of
hope into tears of joy.

It actually took a lot more effort to get her parents to believe the story, but
eventually they had shown up too. It had been a heartbreaking scene, and Tom
was slightly embarrassed about it, when she thought back about it later, but
right away, she had a different issue to deal with.

Tom was a deer now. A white tail doe to be exact. And that was as tricky for
her as for the society she lived in. Luckily for her, her parents took care
and shielded her from most of the attention.

Tomoko's uncle was the major of the little town they lived in. His best friend
owned the local newspaper. That made it relatively easy to protect Tomoko from
too much nation wide attention, or becoming subject to tests in secret
laboratories to find out how a girls consciousness could fit into a deer's
skull.

Instead the paper printed a small cover story about the tragic accident and
the family that had adopted the little tame doe in honor of their deceased
daughter.

All her friends of course knew the real story, and so did her teachers
(although she would happily have skipped school for the rest of her life) and
the doctor who had his practice down the street. Even the local police was
"in" on the secret, just to make sure no officer was accidentally mistaking Tom
for a feral deer loose in town.

Lucky for Tom the attention she got was mostly short lived. The first weeks
everyone at school wanted to see her, to see if the story was real. Some
wanted to pet her, others made fun of her, others again asked embarrassing
questions, but after a while the deer in class became almost a normality.

Her speech improved, and so did her abilities to control her body, and
eventually she was able to live an almost normal life.