There were a few things I had to learn about the suit before I was ready to venture into public. For example, the initial charge lasted only two hours, less if I used the invisibility function. I could control the power in my muscles by twisting the thumb wheel on the remote. Dad said he was working on something more elaborate, but needed Mum to plot my neurological traces to make sure things didn’t go haywire. Now I’m not the science geek they had hoped for, but I’m not completely clueless either. I love some of the geeky stuff almost as much as Aunt Chloe loves fashion and now that I can walk I want to get a little closer to my inner geek too.

A month had passed when Dad knocked at more door. He wanted to make a couple of adjustments to the suit. I was at my desk in the middle of a maths assignment when he asked me to turn around. I rolled the chair around so I could see him. My suit hung on its hook behind the door. He had the controller in his hand.

‘Watch this.’ He said.

‘Dad, I’ve got an assignment due, What?’

‘This.’ He clicked a new switch on the remote and the dress changed shape. Now I had a little black evening dress. Another click and it changed into a pants suit, anther click and school uniform. ‘Neat, eh?’

‘A school dress? Why that?’

‘Help you to go unnoticed, I don’t know? This material of fabric has so many properties the combinations are endless. I had to go through your grandmother’s sewing patterns to get about a thousand variations.’

‘Grandma’s patterns, You didn’t ask Aunt Chloe?’

‘No, why would I. I found the box in the garage, besides fashion comes and goes.’

‘Only a man could say that.’

‘Anyway, I scanned your body when you were sleeping and fed those dimensions into the algorithm. You’ll never have to shop again.’ He looked so smug I wanted hit him.

‘You scanned me?’

‘Yeah, It’s okay, I have all your dimensions now and I’ve computed your expected growth and made allowances.’ His grinning told me he didn’t get it and the hole he dug just got deeper.

‘Whatever.’ I said and turned back to the assignment.

As he left the room, I caught a glimpse of him reflected in my computer screen. He looked crushed, but he’d made me mad as only a dad can do.

I was still fuming when Mum came into my room just before eleven. Thanks to their invention my muscles were regenerating and a few personal tasks I could manage now. She picked up a wrist band and ran her fingers around one of the jewels.

‘Know what I call this stuff?’ she said.

‘No.’ I had to stop myself snapping at her, she would always try to smooth any friction between Dad and me.

‘Unobtanium.’ She passed it to me. ‘There’s a completely original name with about seventy-five letters in it and four hundred pages of text describing it, but to me, its plain old unobtanium. These little black discs have taken him over ten years to develop. So top secret that outside the family only Mr Strange has seen them.’ Mum wriggled further onto the bed. ‘Aunt Cloe’s not just a fashionista either. She works with Dereck.’

‘Not her boyfriend?’

‘Don’t think so?’

‘So why was he here?’

‘He’s military, wanted to verify if the suit worked. The government provided the finance the medical research budget wouldn’t.’

‘Why?’ I thought I knew the answer and wondered if Mum thought it too.

‘That’s why Dad wanted you to see what it could do.’ She rubbed the back of my hand. ‘You feel cold.’

‘Why did Dad show me that stuff?’

‘So you can hide.’

‘Hide, why?’

‘Dereck says some of your father’s work has been leaked. Not these little glass baubles, but the suit itself. It will take time to replicate but if our enemies get their hands on it, our country loses its advantage.’

‘Am I safe?’

‘Yes as long as we give the suit to Dereck next weekend.’

‘Mum…?’

‘For the best love?’

‘Well why all the stuff the old patterns and how the dress could change shape?’

‘I think he wanted to show you how important the project was to him, that’s all.’

‘To him, what about me?’ I was crying now and didn’t know how to feel. ‘He said he scanned me.’

‘Inappropriate, but necessary, I was here.’

‘Oh, I don’t believe you two.’ I roll turned to the wall and cried. After a few minutes Mum got up and went to the door.

‘No more Millennium Woman.’ I whispered.

I heard Mum sniffle and a tissue pull from the box on the hall stand. Everyone in my family would have a rough time searching for sleep tonight.