Witching Hour   Part Three: Family Feud   by Roberta J. Cabot   Courtesy of Diane's witchy friend, Helen, all of their pets, I mean familiars, have all been provided proper papers and licenses, and after they got their new licenses and medalions, the girls were to go on to Union Square, one of the pet-friendly places in San Francisco that had a lot of places to shop and browse, but as they were on the way, they noticed dark stormclouds gathering at one of the tallest buildings in town. It was weird because the rest of the town was totally bright and drenched in sunshine. Taking it as an omen, the girls instantly decided to change plans and started making for the building. What they'd do once they got there, they didn't know. But, hey, they were witches - what can happen?

I wasn't a local, and I have only been in San Francisco for less than three years. I only relocated from LA to San Francisco to be near my sister Kaye, so I didn't know the city enough and be able to follow where Diane was going.

I didn't really want to move to San Francisco but Kaye insisted - thank goodness my job allowed me to do this, but I suspected that the other girls didn't want me there much, like I was an intruder in their home. But with my job, I wasn't there much - I was usually there once or twice a week only, which probably gave Cassie and Diane a kind of sense of relief.

Also, I was ill-at-ease there, especially around Cassie, because it was obvious Cassie and Kaye were an item.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I guess I wasn't as enlightened as I thought I was, and Kaye and I had very bitter arguments about it.

But then, what happened to Kaye happened, and I realized my stupid prejudice didn't matter. What really mattered was that the two were in love, and I was so sad that I made it so hard for them when I should have been supportive.

But now, I felt totally different. Now, I could understand and accept their love. Also, I was very attracted to her now even though I was now a girl. Does that make me a lesbian? But then, was I actually hetero becuase, though my body was a girl's body now, was my mind still a guy's mind?

But then I looked through those pictures of those gorgeous guys on my computer last night and I was equally turned on. So was I I being hetero that time?

Or maybe I was actually bisexual.

And as I thought all these things, I then had a new thought. Does it even matter?

It was enough to make anyone confused. I wished Kaye was still here so I can talk about my problems with her the way we used to...

When Cassie made a sharp turn, it snapped me out of this chain of thoughts. Socks and Miles squeaked when I inadvertently squeezed them when we slid around the back seat.

"Cassieee!" I complained.

"Sorry, honey. Buckle up, and buckle up the kiddies as well."

"Okay," I pouted. and sat Socks and Miles in the middle of the seat, their butts on the seat like they were little people, and buckled the seatbelt across their bellies.

As for the other two in the back, Brian and Alloysius seemed to be manageing well so I just told them to hold on

I looked through the window and I saw the clouds gather around the Transamerica tower. It was one of the tallest buildings around, and since it was shaped like a needle or a tall, skinny pyramid, the dark clouds around it made it appear like it was a needle piercing a large flat cloud in the middle of a clear, sunny sky.

As I looked, bolts of lightning from the cloud was arcing and striking the building.

"Oh, wow," I said. "Hurry, Cassie," I said.

"I see it, Bia," she said, and goosed the accelerator.

The car jumped over one of those ubiquitous San Francisco streets, and I exclaimed "yayyy, rollercoaster!"

The girls laughed at that, and it lightened the mood a little bit.

Cassie drove even faster.

When we got to the Transamerica Tower, or rather the Transamerica Pyramid, we stopped right at the foot of the tower.

 
*** Cassie, in Downtown San Francisco ***

"What's happening, Cassie," Diane said.

"Why, Mommy," Bia interrupted.

"We're in the middle of the commercial district, baby," Diane said. "Look around."

"Gosh," she said. "No people."

"No cars, either," I said. Actually, as I drove here, I've been noticing the traffic had been thinning out, from Helen's all the way here. I wouldn't have been able to drive as fast as I did if it hadn't been. But here, there were no cars at all. And no people.

"Well," Bia said, "there's them." She pointed down the street, and right right in the middle of the street, where the pedestrian lane was, there were eight people - three women and one man, plus four others that look like midgets - three male ones and one female.

And they were all wearing what looked like leather biker costumes, or maybe I should say fetish costumes. the women were wearing black patent-leather bustiers or corsets plus tight leather miniskirts or tights and sky-high stiletto heels or boots, while the men were wearing leather pants with jackets or leather singlets or sleeveless shirts.

In a way, their outfits were like cliche biker outfits, but far from making them look tacky, they were looking very sexy in a dangerous way: the man had a shotgun that he was holding and resting on his shoulder; the woman to his right had a whip wrapped loosely around her neck; the one to the man's left had a scabbard hanging from her belt, and by the length of it, the sword it contained was extremely long and wicked-looking; and the woman to her left had daggers in her hands, and by the amount of metal jewelry piercing her cheeks, eyebrows, lips and earlobes, she was, by far the scariest looking. As for the midgets, they aped the normal-sized people in their own costumes, though none of them held any weapons.

I looked a bit closer and I noticed that the small people had collars around their necks, with studs and a chain that was being held by their, I guess, their masters.The males to the women and the one female midget to the man.

I leaned over to Diane. "Midgets?" I asked.

"I think they're humunculus," Diane said.

"What're... humming crews?" Bia asked, and Diane pulled her close and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Humunculus, honey," Diane said. "They're like artificial people that are grown inside horses' wombs or from mandrake root. They're usually used by their masters to do their bidding."

"They each have one," Bia noted. "They're like their slaves?"

"I suppose."

"I wouldn't have slaves," Bia said, like an eight-year old who had made the decision that she will eat her vegetables from now on. "An' I will hurt anyone who does, an' free their slaves."

"Me, too, baby," I said.

"But who're they," Bia asked.

"They're sort of relatives, honey," Diane explained. "Those four witches too. They're from the Unheimlich Schwesternschaft, but we like to just say the Clan of Evil."

"Huh," Bia said, seemingly unimpressed.

"You're a snob, honey," I chuckled, and she gave me a razzberry.

"They're sort of the modern equivalent of dark witches," Diane continued. "Starting at the end of the 1600's, white witches, like us, started to, ummm, get rid of these dangerous witches, and, in a period of about fifty years, we had more-or-less dealt with the dark witches, though there were still a few that continued to exist and make trouble for the world. Among them, These particular ones were the worst of them."

"So we gotta get rid of them?" Bia said.

"I don't think we can," Diane said. "We're not ready, and Tamara's not here."

But Bia was in high spirits. "C'mon, guys," she said and unbuckled. She opened her door, stepped down from the car and waved for us to follow. "C'mon!"

A clap of thunder reverberated throughout the buildings, and we couldn't stop from wincing.

Our four familiars rushed out as well and surrounded Bia, like they were protecting her.

"C'mon, Diane," I said, echoing Bia. I knew a little bit about the dark witches, but I was feeling cocky. We were the elementals, after all.

The both of us unbuckled and stepped out. I went to Bia and put my arm over her shoulders and Diane stood on the side of Bia. Diane and Bia held hands.

Another spear of lightning and another boom. I could feel Bia jump a little.

"So, Lucy," Diane said, "we meet again." Seems Diane knew them personally.

Bia made a face.

"What's wrong, Bia?" Diane whispered to her, sotto voce.

"That's such a cliche," Bia whispered back.

The woman with the sword laughed. "The little one is right, Diana," she said. I suppose that would be Lucy.

"Such a cliche," Lucy continued. "What will you say next? 'A bird in the hand?'"

"Shut up, Lucy," Diane said. "Why are you here?"

"Can't we take a stroll in your beautiful city in peace?"

"Why are you here?" Diane repeated in deadly monotone. I've never heard her speak like that before.

Lucy relented.

"Well, we heard you had a new addition," she explained. "We just wanted to say hi, and meet her."

Bia made a face and stuck her tongue out from behind Diane.

The four laughed, and, after a beat, their humunculus laughed as well.

"Your addition seems a trifle too young," the man beside Lucy commented.

"No, I'm not!" Bia yelled back, and the dark witches laughed again. I felt Bia tremble, and I was afraid she might just cry. I gave her a kiss and whispered in her ear to buck up and not show them what she was feeling.

I felt her square her shoulders and steel herself against these a-holes.

"So now that you've seen her," I said, "get lost."

"Well, Cassiopeia," Lucy said, "maybe not right away?" She knew me.

The woman with the whip growled. "Will you stop screwing around?" she said. And with that, she mumbled some kind of spell and held her right arm out and toward our direction.

Diane was thown back by some kind of power.

"Mommie!" Bia screamed and ran to Diane. She tried to sit her up but Diane was completely out cold.

"You hurt my mommy," she grated.

"What was that, child?" Lucy said. "I couldn't hear you."

"You hurt my mommy!" she screamed. She stood up and rushed them. The girl with the whip did the same thing she did to Diane, which pushed Bia back, but though she was knocked down, she wasn't knocked out.

Bia got up, and started walking towards them again. She was plenty mad now.

The witch with the whip tried to blow her back down again. But this time, Bia wasn't affected, and kept on coming.

The girl tried again, multiple times, but Bia kept on coming. Bia screamed and a big orange ball of fire exploded in front of the four dark witches and their humunculus, and it was their turn to be thrown down. Nothing was burning, though, probably because the fire was there for only a moment.

As soon as the fireball exploded, the dark clouds in the sky started to disperse, and the lightning stopped.

Bia came running and started kicking the the girl with the whip on her side while she was still lying on the ground stunned. I can't help but think of a little girl kicking the playground bully while he was down.

I suddenly realized I wasn't moving yet, and wasn't helping. So I ran towards Bia to help.

Our familiars also went into action and stopped the humunculus-dwarf things from helping their masters. Only Brian, Diane's dog, and Alloysius were large enough to hold their own with the dwarf-things, but Socks and Miles had claws and teeth out, and bit and scratched their humunculus as they harassed them, and these ones ran away yipping in terror. As for the ones that Brian and Alloysius were fighting, they were bleeding all over. In the case of Brian's dwarf, the little monster was cradling his arm because Brian had probably broken it. They ran away as well.

As for their masters, the girl with the knives was the first to recover. She got up and tried to rush Bia with knives out. I called up what Diane calls my "talent," and sent a strong gust of wind towards this one. But the witch wasn't pushed back down to the ground. I was, however, able to mess up her aim enough that she missed Bia and fell forward a couple of feet beyond my girl, fetching up near me. But the witch was able to recover quickly and stood up again.

I reached out, grabbed her by her ponytail and lifted her up. Needless to say, she was caught off-guard by that, and she flailed ineffectively, with feet kicking in the air. I wasn't really strong enough to lift people off the ground that way, but with my talent to affect the air around me, I could lift things with it and make it look like I was super-strong.

Anyway, I lifted the much shorter witch while holding her by her ponytail, and turned her around so she faced me.

"You've been a bad girl, little witch," I said.

But I miscalculated - her arms were long enough that she was able to slash me on my arms and on my stomach. I let her go and staggered back.

"Cassie!" I heard Bia scream.

Before the witch could slash at me again, little balls of fire exploded in her face one after another, like little firecrackers. She held up her hands to protect her face, but the fireballs kept on popping in front of her, and they were so many, they set her hair and leather bustier ablaze. As for me, I whipped up a breeze and made the fire grow, The witch ran away in the same direction as their humunculus, screaming.

Bia went to me, and looked at my slashes. "You're bleeding, Cassie!"

As she was assessing my slashes, Lucy and the guy-witch (or is it worlock), had recovered enough that they were able to sit up.

"Ich denke es ist zeit zu fliehen," Lucy said to the guy. "Was denkst du?"

"Ja," the guy said. They both staggered up and ran in the same direction the girl and the midget witches ran. And when the girl with the whip saw them run, she struggled up and ran after them as well.

 
*** Bia, taking charge ***

I wanted to hug Cassie but she was still bleeding. I took her by the hand. I noted our pets, I mean familiars. "Guys? Check out mommy. See if she's okay."

The dog, red panda, fox and cat ran to mommy, their new leashes dragging on the ground. That was a load off my mind, that mom was safe, with our pets standing guard.

But then I had a thought. "Brian?" I called, and Diane's big dog came over.

"Can you go to the car and get my purse? I need my phone to call for an ambulance."

Brian woofed in agreement, and ran full-tilt to the car, and in less than a minute, he came back with my borrowed purse in his mouth.

"Thank you, honey," I said, and hugged him around his neck. "Now go to mommy and keep her safe." The dog woofed again and trotted back to the others while I called for an ambulance.

- - - - -

Before the ambulance arrived, people had started coming back. It seemed that when the clouds around the building disappeared, whatever kept people away disappeared as well, and the crowds had slowly trickled back.

Because he had the most flexible front limbs and had the most functional paws, I asked Alloysius to go back to the car and lock it up. If we left the doors wide open, someone was liable to steal stuff, or maybe even steal the car.

I then had everyone but Brian come stay with me, and I made sure Brian put his leash in mom's hand so no one would be in doubt that he was mom's "pet," while I made sure I had everyone else's were in mine.

I was almost out of my mind with worry because I couldn't be with mom, but she had a concussion and I couldn't do anything for her while Cassie was bleeding. I needed to stay with Cassie more, but that didn't mean I could stop my worrying about mom.

Some a-hole wanted to rob Diane but Brian could be very scary if he wanted, and the guy just ran away.

Thank god the ambulance arrived in less than twenty, and they were able to take Cassie and mommy to the hospital very quickly. I explained to Cassie that I was going to follow them in the car, and left my name and phone number with the ambulance driver, and that was how I finally accepted my new name. I had no choice - I had to give them something. So I was now Beatrice Kim Nightingale (although I'd be pronouncing my name "bee-yah-triss," with stress on the middle syllable, instead of "bee-triss" as it was usually pronounced. That way it'd be closer to "Bia").

I got into the car and let out a shuddering breath. Less than three weeks ago, I was a man that drove himself regularly, but now... Would I still know the the things I used to know? I think I did. The problem was more a matter of confidence, and I didn't have a lot of that now. I was crying from panic and fear - fear that I might let my family down.

Socks jumped in my lap and looked at my face, and Brian, who was in the passenger seat, rubbed his big head against me. My new friends were trying to comfort me.

I gave them all hugs. "Thank you, guys," I said.

I took a deep breath. "I can do this," I said to myself. "I'm a thirty-one-year year old guy, I mean girl" (my mistake made me giggle). "I'm not really twelve years old!"

I adjusted the seat, the rearview and side mirors, and the seatbelt, having to pass the belt between my new babies, and when I got them to the best possible setting, I finally turned the key.

When the engine rumbled to life, I jumped a little bit. "Now or never," I thought. I took a deep breath, reversed, and pulled away from the curb.

"Yayy!" I said.

With a lot of backseat driving from my four-legged passengers, I was finally able to get to the hospital parking lot, and we only had a couple dozen close calls, too. lol.

But when I got to the parking attendant's booth, the guy shook his head - no available parking. I sighed and got down from the big SUV. I had to almost literally climb down. Three weeks ago, I'd just step out. Guess I still had to get used to being so short.

I went to the attendant. I knocked on the glass window of his booth and he rolled it down.

"They just brought my... mom and my friend through the emergency room, and I need to be there with them," I said to the guy. "Please, are there really no more parking spaces?" My lower lip trembled and was so, so worried I couldn't go right in to the hospital.

I looked up at the guy, but he was looking at my chest. "Mister?" I said, and he suddenly realized what he was staring at. He looked up.

"Parking," he said briskly, trying to cover up his embarassment. "Right."

He got out of his booth and blew a whistle he had hanging around his neck, and waved to the car that had just entered the parking lot. The car's driver hadn't found his parking spot yet and was still driving around looking for it.

When the attendant blew his whistle, the driver stuck his head out of his car window and yelled, "What!"

The parking attendant waved him back, and though very irritated, he drove back.

"Dammit, dude," the guy said, "what is it? Oh!" He suddenly realized I was there. From there, his angry demeanor changed.

"Hi," he said, and smiled at me.

"Can I have your ticket, sir?" the attendant said to him.

"Why?"

"Just gimme your ticket!"

Without another word, he handed his parking ticket back, and the parking attendant tore it in two.

"Hey!" the driver exclaimed, but the attendant went closer to the guy.

"Listen, man," the attendant said in a voice that was so low, I shouldn't have heard it, but I guess my new ears were better than my old ones.

The attendant pointed back to me with his thumb. "See that babe? Her mom just got brought in in an ambulance. Can't you just let her have your parking spot? I'm sure you're not here on an emergency."

"God, she is truly smokin' hot! Okay, dude, go ahead and let her have my spot."

"Thanks, man. Pull up over there, and, as soon as someone leaves, I'll let you be the next one up."

The attendant punched up a new ticket and gave it to me. In gratitude, I gave the attendant a kiss on the cheek, and I gave the driver a kiss as well.

The attendant raised the barricade, and I went back to the car and drove through, waving at the two boys.

Hmmm... I think I can get used to this, I thought to myself, giggling.

- - - - -

Several hours later, I was in a double-occupancy room with Cassie and mom. I was able to use my newly-found charms to sweet-talk the head nurse in charge to put them both in the same room. I had also snuck in my four guys and, with a kind of extra-sensory thing that I seemed to have now, I'm able to sense if someone was approaching, and I'd be able signal the kids, and they'd hide. Socks and Miles, because they were the smallest, were able to hide under the beds, while Alloysius and Brian hid in the two closets.

Cassie was awake now, and was very alert as Diane was brought in - she had just had a cranial scan, and it was confirmed: apparently, she hit her head on the pavement and now has a concussion, but she was totally out of danger now.

As for Cassie - her wounds were bandaged now. They weren't as bad as they looked, and not deep at all. They did require stitches but nothing much beyond that. In fact, the doctor told us that she could probably go home tonight.

But Diane will have to stay longer.

Cassie and I talked about what happened, with Socks and Miles on my lap, and Alloysius and Brian, chins on Cassie's bed, listening to us.

"Those guys were real scary!" I said, and shivered.

Cassie laughed. "You wouldn't know it to look at you."

I pouted. "You're making fun of me..."

"Me? No!" She smiled. "The way you faced off those biker chicks - it was amazing. Plus, I guess we now know which element you are."

"We do?"

"Well, if Diane is Earth and I'm Wind, and since the two left are fire and water, then I guess you have to be Fire, and that would make Tamara Water. Hmmm... I guess we should tell her - she probably doesn't know yet."

She beckoned me to come closer. I came over and leaned down. Cassie gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek. I shivered. Not that it was sexy, though it was, but I couldn't escape the feeling - the feeling of love. Love unreserved, unquestioning and complete. It was... I guess the only word I can think of is "indescribable." And to think I hated her before. I felt so guilty.

I reached out and touched her cheek.

Cassie smiled and took my hand.

"Thank you for rescuing me, my love," she whispered.

I guess, since it was still so new, I felt a little awkward.

"So," I said in an effort to change the topic, "who were those guys anyway? Diane seemed to know them. Or at least the leader, Lucy."

"Well, like Diane said, they're from the Unheimlich Schwesternschaft. I guess you could say they're a rival witch clan. And, yeah, they're the bad guys, which makes us the good guys, I guess."

"But what does, ummm... Heimlich sweater-shaft mean?"

Cassie giggled. "'Unheimlich schwesternschaft,'" she corrected. "In English, that translates to the 'the scary sisterhood,' although that's their old name, and it isn't accurate anymore. They have worlocks now. You know - male witches. And they have sorcerers and other witchy folk. Like us and most modern covens. Of course, no one calls them the scary sisterhood anymore - most witches call them the Clan of Evil nowadays."

"You make it sound like everyone knows them."

"Well, yes, most everyone knows them... well, most witchy folk, anyway. You see, very few practice dark magic anymore - we got rid of most of them over the centuries, because they were dangerous, but for self preservation as well: the normals were scared of us, but mostly because of the dark ones. So we went underground and helped the normals hunt down the dark practicioners.

"There are a few still practicing the dark arts, and the few covens that still do - they couldn't help but stand out. And because they're dark practitioners, most don't, well, dont like to be around them. But so long as they didn't bother anyone, much less hurt anyone, they're tolerated. These dark witches paled in comparison to the evil that the old ones indulged in.

"The only coven who's actively being a dick, pardon my french, and is indulging in the dark arts without caring whether they hurt or harm, is the Coven of Evil. Many things have happened in the world over the years that are directly attributable to them, and this included several supposedly natural disaters as well as several man-made ones."

"Such as?"

Well, the first and second world wars, the 1929 stock market crash, the explosion of Krakatoa and Pinatubo, the 2011Tsunami in Japan, Typhoon Haiyan..."

I looked at Cassie wide-eyed. "Ohmigod!"

Cassie nodded. "I know. That's why, in 1915, all of the known covens in the world got together and formed a new one basically to stop the onslaught of their clan, and we were able to stop them, and this was our clan.

"We used to be around a thousand strong, but because of divided loyalties, almost of all of them had gone back to their home clans and families after the end of Word War One. But the... predations of the black clan continued. So, around 1921, a new conclave of the covens came to a decision - to finally do away with the Clan of Evil."

I was listening to Cassie's story wide-eyed. "And?" I asked, hanging on to her every word. Unconsciously, I had been holding on to Socks and Miles so tightly that I was hurting them, but they weren't complaining. It took Brian to let me know by head-butting my elbow. I let go of my little guys immediately, gave them apology kisses on top of their heads and repeated, "And?!"

"Well, the witches, having banded together, basically dealt with them and, for a time, everyone had thought they were gone forever, but I suppose, through some kind of spell, the clan came back with new members and new witches. Over the years, it's been in the middle of most of the century's major tragedies, and it was only the intervention of our clan that their efforts had been, ummm, restrained. And to prevent the decimation of our clan again, a spell was especially composed and cast, and we who heard the call are now here."

"Wow..."

"Yeah. Wow," Cassie said and chuckled. "But our sisters knew that our coven needed some help as it struggled to become self-sustaining, and that is how the elementals came to be. Four from the clan were to be the elementals, with power to control nature, and combat the dark witches.

"For a hundred years now, our clan has been struggling to keep our numbers up and prevent its dissolution, but, apparently we were reall meant to be only thirteen in number - nine sisters of the dawn and their four elementals."

"Sisters of the dawn?"

"That is what our coven is called - the Coven of the Dawn." She shrugged. "Almost all of us find the name a little pretentious, so we just call it our coven. And you know how our coven is about names," she chuckled.

I giggled. "And how!" I agreed.

"The dark clan is about fifty-strong now, so we're desperate to... reconstitute the elementals. Otherwise, we're dead, and the world may be, as well."

I gave Cassie a hug. "We'll be okay," I said. "Especially now that I'm here." I grinned widely and and waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Ha-ha," Cassie said. "You're so full of yourself, you know that, my love?" She smiled.

I giggled like a little girl, and gave Socks a squeeze, and Cassie laughed as well.

"So!" someone at the door said. "What's all this laughing about?"

"Who's that?" I asked Cassie.

"That, my dear, is one of your coven sisters. That's Helen, the lady who gave all of our pets..." the four howled and yipped in protest. "Sorry, guys!" Cassie apologized. "I mean, familiars! What I was saying was, Helen was the lady who got our, ummm, kids their licenses. Helen? Come on over and meet our new sister, Bia."

"Bia? Oh, wow! That's amazing. If I recall properly, Bia's one of the Titans that fought on the side of Zeus and the other gods. She's going to be awesome!"

"And more!"

"Oh, Cassie," I said. "Stop it..." I couldn't stop blushing.

Helen giggled. "You're so cute!" She came over and gave me a hug. "Welcome to the family, m'dear."

"How did you manage the licenses and the medalions?" I asked. "And all in a few hours?"

"How else?" she said, "with magic!" and Helen and Cassie laughed.

I looked a little confused and irritated at the corny joke.

"Oh, come on, my dear," Helen said, "it was begging for it."

"You'll eventually get used to Helen, Bia," Cassie said. "But aside from the one-liner, Helen was being serious. It was a spell that gave the kids their medalions."

"Speaking of which," the kindly, silver-haired old lady said, "I have a present for you, little girl!" She reached into her giant satchel-bag that reminded me of my mom's bag, especially with the embroidery on the side.

From the bag, she brought out a Manila envelope and handed it to me.

"In there is a full brace of identification papers. You know, I do all the paperwork for everyone in the coven. And this one, I put some extra flourishes, just for the heck of it."

Inside were several IDs - essentially equivalents of my guy-IDs... I mean my old IDs - based on these new ones, it seems I was still an engineer, but instead of being an L3 engineer, I'm now just an L1, which meant I'm practically just starting out. But that was to be expected since I noticed that I was now ten years younger than my old age - per the IDs, I was now only twenty-one, although my new birthday still had the same day and month. I looked through everything, and there was a birth certificate, high school diploma, a college undergrad and masters diplomas, a social security card, driver's license, employment certificate, and so on. Everything was the same except that the last digits of the ID numbers were all higher, and the year of all the dates were all ten years later, and, of course, they had my new picture in place of my old picture - funny, though - my poses and expressions in all the new pictures were exactly like my old pictures' poses and expressions. But...

"Cassie," I whispered and showed her my new driver's license. It had all my new details - new birthday, new eye color, new hair color, new height, but...

"Ummm, Helen," Cassie said.

"What?" Helen said sounding worried.

Cassie showed my new ID to her. On it, it said my name was "Kimberly Nightingale."

"Oh!" Helen exclaimed. "I thought her new name was Kimmy, so, naturally... Well, let me take care of that."

She took back the Manila envelope and made some gestures over it with her right hand.

"There you go!" she said, and returned it to me. I was surprised that it was that quick. I took out the papers and looked for my driver's license again, and now it said "Beatrice Kimberly Nightingale" - exactly the name I was hoping for.

I gave Helen a big hug. "Oh!" she said. "That's a nice surprise."

"Thank you, Aunt Helen," I said.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek. "You are quite welcome, my dear. And if you are to look at the bottom of the pile of papers..."

I did and found my birth certificate again, with my new birthday and new name properly filled in, but there was another certificate paperclipped to the back of it. I checked it out, and it was another birth certificate - this one, a certificate of live birth, just like the other one, with all the details the same except this one had the name of my adoptive parent in place of mom's name, that Diane Joyce Burton was my adoptive mother, and that it was a San Francisco birth certificate issued about a year ago instead of an LA one issued thirty-one years ago.

Later on, after a bit of research, I found that adopted children were issued new birth certificates, and that was all that was needed.

Anyway, this made mommy my official mommy. Yayy!!!

I gave Helen a big hug.

She hugged me back, and, then we heard a new voice.

"So, what's with all this hugging, and how can I get some of that?" I turned around.

"Mommy!" I exclaimed in happiness. "You're awake!"

I resisted my urge to give her a hug. I didn't know if I should, what with the IV drip and other wires attached to her. I settled for a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Hi, baby," Diane said. She sounded weak and tired.

"I'm so glad you're awake, but the doctors said you'd be asleep for a while yet."

Mommy nodded her head to the kindly silver-haired grandmother-type.

I looked at my new Aunt Helen.

"Didn't you know?" Helen said. "I do a lot of things for my sisters. And one of them is I fix everyone." She gave me another hug. "Your mommy's gonna be okay in a couple of hours, and maybe we can have her home by today."

"What's wrong with who?" someone asked.

We all looked and there was this pretty, oriental girl by the door. She had a backpack on her back and a small suitcase in her hand.

"Tamara!" Helen exclaimed. "You're back!"

"Yes, I am," she agreed, smiling, and then looked at me. "Who are you?"

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