The Wishing Stone By Teek © 2020

Summary: Making a wish on the Wishing Stone is a great honor. One that only ten people every hundred years gets to make. Many wishes throughout time have dramatically changed the life of the Wishee for the positive, but there are consequences to one's actions. When the youngest Wishee in history makes a life-altering wish, those around twelve-year-old Mikey must adjust to the changes.

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Chapter Summary: A doctor is called in to help investigate why Milly's cognitive abilities do not match that of a 7-year-old.

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Marsha sent Sarah off to find her bedroom. Looking down at Milly playing with her Little Ones Princes Stacy Castle Playset, she saw a little girl fully engrossed in a full make-believe world. She went over to the nightstand and picked up The Book. Sitting down on the window seat, she opened it and typed in the name of a book that both Mikey and Sarah had loved when they were turning six and just learning how to read. Milly was seven, so this should be easy for her.

“Milly,” Marsha said. “Come here for a minute.”

Milly put down her toys and went up to Mommy.

Mom lifted Milly onto her lap, “Milly, let’s read a story. Do you know this story?”

“Tom the Bat,” Milly declared with a smile.

“Yeah,” Marsha smiled as she pressed the button to turn the page. “Tom the Bat sat on a mat. Okay, Milly, now your turn.”

“He go broom broom broom up in the air and flew around all the trees,” Milly traced the path that she thought Tom should take.

Mom smiled and gave Milly a slight squeeze, “Princess, that’s not what the words say. Can you read the words? Tom will do all the things if you read the words.”

“No, Mommy,” Milly pointed at the words. “I don’t know any of those words.”

“Tom go up,” Marsha read as Milly got all excited as Tom flew up off the mat. “Tom on top.” The holographic bat flew to the top of a holographic tree. “Tom go down.” The bat flew back down to the mat.

Each time Mommy read the words, Tom flew to the next place. Milly followed the path with her finger, occasionally trying to catch the holographic bat. When Mom reached the end of the story, Milly clapped and asked Mommy to read it again. Mom said she would reread it later and sent Milly back to playing.

“She should have been able to read that Gregg,” Marsha said. “And by seven-and-a-half, Mikey and Sara were calling this a baby book. Did you see how she was responding when I was reading it? She definitely doesn’t view it as a baby book.”

“What does this mean,” Gregg asked?

After a few moments of the two parents just watching Milly, Marsha said, “House, Medical Mode.”

>>Do you want a doctor brought in on this?<<

Taking a deep breath, “Yes, House, please see if the kid’s Pediatrician is available. If not, send all reports to the Pediatrician’s office, and ask for a consult when available.”

>>We are second in line for consultation with the Pediatrician. A nurse is available if needed.<<

“No Nurse is needed at this time. Start a General Health Scan of Milly.”

>>Heart, Lungs, Blood Pressure, and temperature are all within normal limits for a passively playing 6-year-old girl.<<

“House? Milly is seven.”

>>Checking. Melissa Louise Soffin, 6 years, 11 months old.<<

“House, confirm please.”

>>Melissa Louise Soffin, 6 years, 11 months old, 1st grader at Diamond Lake Elementary School. Confirmed with school and medical records, along with biological scans to determine age.<<

Perplexed, Marsha looked at Gregg, “House, how old was she when the medics checked her after the wish?”

>>6 years, 11 months old<<

“Gregg, I saw the medic’s display. It said her age was 7-years, 5-months old.”

Gregg shrugged his shoulders.

Marsha continued, “House, go deeper. Do a Well Child Check-Up scan,”

>>Scanning. Everything is in the average range for a 6-year, 11-month-old girl.<<

Marsha looked at Gregg in confusion.

“What,” Gregg asked? “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Soffin,” Dr. Mire said as a Holographic image of her appeared in the room. “How can I help you today?”

Marsha stood up, “Dr. Mire, I have some concerns about Milly.”

“Milly?”

Marsha gestured to Milly playing on the floor.

Dr. Mire looked at the child playing on the floor and then at the file connected to that child, “What? This file says I examined Milly in person five months ago, but I don’t recognize the child in front of me.”

“Dr. Mire,” Marsha looked down at Milly. “I have a strange question for you. Who are my children?”

“Mike and Sarah,” Dr. Mire responded without hesitation.

“Were you aware that Mike won The Wishing Stone lottery?”

“Everyone knows that. He is the first in the Weetoon Province to win that in over a hundred years. Probably known throughout the Solar System, being the first pre-teen to win the Wishing Stone Lottery.”

“Mike made his wish, and it turned him into this little girl. I am now the proud mom to Melissa Louise Soffin, age 6.”

“Oh my,” Dr. Mire exclaimed as she started flipping through the files in front of her. “How odd, I have six years of medical records on Melissa, or should I say, Milly. According to these records, I have been her doctor since the day she was born, but I have no recollection of Milly.”

“I never even considered the possibility of Mike being Transgender. Did you ever test him for gender identity?”

“It’s not one of the usual tests we run on children unless there is a reason to do it. I don’t recall you or the schools bringing up a reason to give the test.”

Marsha scrunched her eyes together and shook her head back and forth, “Although this concerns me, there are more pressing issues. She has gotten six months younger since the initial wish transformation. How young is Milly going to get? She is having memory problems, not even remembering making the wish. Then there are cognitive issues. She can’t read yet, even very beginning reading books, and she appears to act like she is a Little Kid, not a Big Kid. Could she be Intellectually Disabled?”

“I’ve read about regression wishes and gender-switching wishes,” Dr. Mire smiled at the two worried parents. “Not sure there has ever been one that combined those two. The general belief has always been that all transformation occurs at the time of the wish, but if that were true, she wouldn’t still be getting younger.”

Dr. Mire started pulling up some information and ordering scans, “In the past, attempts to study wish magic from a medical perspective has always faced challenges. The magic changes all records, so only people’s memories can tell us what changes occurred.”

“That would explain it,” Marsha blurted out. “Just after the wish, the medics device listed her age at 7 years, 5 months old, but now house says the scan then put her at 6 years, 11 months old. If the wish magic changes the records as she gets younger, it will put her age then the same as now.

“Well, we know Mikey was a 12-year-old boy, and now, he is a 6-year-old girl,” Gregg stated.

“That is something we know, but it also presents us with a lot of unknowns,” Dr. Mire stated as she looked at scans and ordered more. “No child younger than 18 has ever wished before, and I believe the youngest to make a regression wish was 68, and they only became 30. We are in uncharted territory here.”

Gregg went over and hugged Marsha.

“First, let’s get the legal elements out of the way,” Dr. Mire stated. “Office, link to the Wishing Stone Database. Create a new entry, with security locks in effect until the Wishee dies or she unlocks it as an adult. Upload all medical records gathered in our attempts to explain or examine changes due to the wish. Since we are in an unknown area here, upload all data for the next year, and at that time set a prompt to ask me if the process should continue.”

Dr. Mire looked at the worried parents, “Now, let’s see what we can find out. Looking at these scan results, it looks like basic health is within the normal range for a 6-year-old girl.”

Dr. Mire pressed a few buttons on her display, and a blue light engulfed Milly, “That is odd.”

“What,” Marsha immediately questioned?

“Normally, in 6-year-olds, there is a multiplying factor of brain neuron development. Her number of neurons are shrinking, but the system hasn’t flagged that. Hold on a minute, let me check something.”

Dr. Mire scrolled through the flagging criteria, “Oh, I see. The number is still above what is considered normal for a 6-year-old. It won’t identify an abnormality until it gets below what is normal for her age. It makes sense, I guess. The programmers never expected backward development. Okay, changing those criteria so decreasing neuron numbers are viewed as out of the norm.”

Pressing a few buttons on her display control panel, the light around Milly changed to purple and focused on just encompassing her head. Milly just kept playing with her toys.

“Fascinating,” Dr. Mire looked at her display. “The links between neurons are disintegrating. What is causing that to happen?”

Dr. Mire swiped one scan data up to its own display and then did the same for another scan. After pressing a few buttons, she did it again, “House, focus scan right there where the neuron links are disintegrating. Can you get a closer look at that?”

>>Increasing scanners to their maximum level.<<

“What is that?” Dr. Mire scrunched her eyebrows. “There is some type of foreign substance in her brain, eating away at the neuron links. House Unit, use all your scanners. Scan everything within your range, looking for this unknown substance.”

>>The highest concentrations are seen to various degrees through Melissa’s body, clothing that she is wearing, and clothing she isn’t wearing. Trace amounts of that substance can be found throughout things in the house. It is changing things at a molecular and atomic level. Amounts of this substance are dropping fast in most items.<<

“House Unit,” Dr. Mire commanded. “Link to the Wishing Stone Database. Is there any reference to a substance that changes things at this level?”

>>Nothing in the database appears to match what my scans are detecting.<<

“Maintain link, create a new entry, and label the substance, I don’t know, something like Magical Transformation Substance. Ping the Wishing Stone Society, highest priority.”

“What is going on Dr. Mire?” Marsha asked. “Is Milly okay? Are we in danger?”

“There appear to be no negative emissions, so I see no danger to anyone other than Milly. I think we just discovered the substance that does the magic. I will let the W.S. Society deal with that. Now, back to Milly. From what I can see, the magic is still changing Milly.”

“How young is she going to get,” Marsha questioned? “Do I need to start shopping for a crib?”

“I don’t know how much younger, but . . .”

>>Incoming Government Communication: Wishing Stone Society, Professor Ian<<

“Accept,” Gregg said.

“Greetings. I am Professor Ian. I have dispatched a mobile power plant to your location, and it should be there in less than ten minutes. As soon as my transport is loaded, I will be on my way to your house. I should be there in 30 minutes with a Research Level upgrade for your House Unit. As soon as the power plant is attached, I want your House Unit to continuously scan with all sensors throughout your house and grounds constantly. Record data on house archive and be on constant upload to the Wishing Stone Society Archival Database. Any questions?”

“Um, Professor Ian,” Gregg said. “You may be used to getting what you want, but no one enters this house without my permission. The law is pretty clear. My child cannot be a lab rat.”

“I am sorry, Mr. Soffin,” Professor Ian stated. “I completely understand the law regarding the study of the wish magic. You may not understand that the law allows for passive and active scanning when the Wish Particle is found. I do not require access inside your house for any purpose other than installing the new scanners, upgrading your House Unit, and the power plant to keep it running continuously. I have no intention of having any interaction with your child. I am only interested in the Wish Particle and what it does. I see you have a Doctor's consult currently going on. If it makes you feel better, all data collected by the scanners on humans can go through her first, with only the Wish Particle data coming to me.”

“What is this Wish Particle you keep referring to,” Marsha asked?

“Mam, the Wish Particle is the unknown substance your House Unit sent us information on. We first picked it up with a scanner 50 years ago, but nowhere near the level of quality imaging you have. That is why your House Unit was unable to get a match from our database. Attempts to scan when an individual makes a wish has always overwhelmed our tech, but I will be just as happy to study the aftereffects if the Wish Particle is still there. We have been waiting for this opportunity. House and Office level scanners in the last seven years have finally reached a level where they can see it. Your House Unit must have been built since then.”

>>This Housing Unit was grown nine years ago.<<

“Those must have been some high-end scanners at the time of install. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. They are out of date now, and I need research-grade scanners to go sub-atomic. I’ll be replacing your scanners with the latest Military Grade Research Scanners.”

Mr. and Mrs. Soffin looked at each other and then at Dr. Mire.

“Dr. Mire,” Marsha said. “I’ll do anything to protect my baby. I assume those improved scanners will improve your ability to treat her.”

“Yes, they will,” Dr. Mire said. “Professor Ian, you should know that the Wishee is still being transformed. Based upon that fact and where we are seeing the highest concentration of this Wish Particle you are talking about, you will find other things like her clothes being transformed. Shhhrrr . . . She’s shrinking! That is why the clothes are saturated with the Wish Particle. They are constantly adjusting to her new size. House Unit, every thirty minutes, I want you to print a hard copy of her height, weight, age, and basic health info to my clinic printer.”

“That is a strange request Dr. Mire,” Professor Ian commented. “Hard Copy printers are rarely used. Why are you printing a hard copy of the info?”

“The child’s age has changed in my electronic records since first read after the transformation. If I can’t rely on my electronic records, I am hoping a hard copy can save the changes.”

“That is brilliant Dr. Mire,” Professor Ian noted. “That might explain why we get no data when we start scans before the wish. The Wish Particle infects anything connected with the Wishee transformation of reality as we know it. We will need to scan anything holding the data for the Wish Particle constantly. If we detect it, we can’t trust the historical elements of the data. House Unit, who or what in the house has the highest saturation of the Wish Particle?”

>>Melissa does.<<

“House Unit,” Professor Ian directed. “We need a way to measure the level of the Wish Particle. If an item with no particles has a score of zero, scan all items in the house and assign a number to Melissa’s saturation level, assume she is below 50% saturation.<<

>>I have assigned Melissa a Wish Particle number of 41 per 1 atomic density. Sending you information on all items in the house using the same scale.<<

“I think I will step out and look over this data. I will be at your location shortly,” Professor Ian said before vanishing.

A rumble was heard coming from outside the house.

“What dat Daddy,” Milly asked, looking up at the ceiling?

“I think that is a special thing to make sure we don’t run out of power,” Dad said, looking down at Milly. “Don’t worry about it Princess. I will go deal with it.”

“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” Sarah screamed as she came running into the room and embraced Mom.

“It’s okay Sarah,” Mom got down and hugged her. “It is just something very big being delivered. Why don’t you go play with your little sister.”

Dad left the room after kissing Sarah on her head. Sarah looked around at the holographic person in the room.

“Hi Dr. Mire,” Sarah said as she passed her and went over to play with Milly.

“Hi Sarah,” Dr. Mire replied.

“Dr. Mire,” Marsha asked? “If she is still getting younger, how much is she shrinking?”

“The display currently records her age at 6 years, 10 months old, and height at 117 centimeters tall. You said the medics reported her as 7 years, 5 months old just after the transformation. We don’t have the data, but I bet she probably is shrinking. I just wish there was a way to figure out how much.”

“She’s six now?” Sara asked. “Wow! Mommy, Mommy, I know how to tell if she is shrinking.”

The doctor and Mom both looked at Sarah, while Milly just played with a Little Ones Princess figure in her hand.

“She hugged me just after she turned into a girl. I could just barely see over the top of her head. If she hugs me again, I could see where the top of her head is on me.”

“Smart little girl you have there,” Dr. Mire complemented. “That will give us a way to measure her that is guaranteed not to be impacted by the Wish Magic. Sarah’s height will stay the same over the next few days, and we measure from the bottom of her eyes to the top of Milly’s head.”

Marsha got Milly to get up and hug Sarah. This time the top of Milly’s head was at Sarah’s mouth.

“Look, Mom,” Sarah said. “I can put my chin on the top of her head.”

“No, Sarah. I need you looking forward for this,” Mrs. Mire said as the house projected a ruler to measure the distance.

“House Unit,” Dr. Mire ordered as the girls went back to playing. “Professor Ian will order what he wants, but I want Well Child Check-up level scans once a minute linked to my office. At this point, she is getting younger, but there does not appear to be any health concerns connected with that. If anything moves out of the green on the Well Child Check-Up, Emergency Medical Ping me.”

>>Affirmative. Continuous Well Child level scanning of Melissa, with a once per minute link to your office. Emergency Medical Ping if anything goes out of the green.<<

“Now,” Dr. Mire said. “These cognitive concerns you mentioned. What we may be seeing is her cognitive level matching where her body is progressing to. The changes that happen in the brain between five-and-a-half and six-and-a-half alter how a kid thinks. Make-believe play like she is doing right now comes in the mid to late 2’s, so we know she is functioning higher than that. House, scan Milly’s various developmental levels, include a cognitive processing scan.”

>>Inconclusive.<<

Dr. Mire and Marsha looked at each other in confusion.

“House,” Dr. Mire inquired? “Explain.”

>>As per the Pediatric Health Guidelines, Melissa’s Social, Emotional, Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, and Adaptive skills were all scanned three times. Each time, a different score was recorded in each area with no pattern or trend to the scores. Expecting a human would ask for me to scan again, I did. There are now six different scores for each of those areas. There is no obvious pattern to the score distribution. They fluctuate up and down at random.<<

“I was afraid of that,” Dr. Mire said. “With her still regressing, things are in too much flux to get an accurate reading. Let’s try a different approach. House, what is the high and low-end range of the skills?”

>>The average high is at an 8.8 age level. The lowest scores average at 36 months.<<

Dr. Mire took a deep breath, “36 months to 8.8 years old. Interesting range, but I would guess her final age will be somewhere in that range. Her physical body is getting younger, so I can’t explain why some of those skills are so much higher, unless . . .”

Marsha looked at Dr. Mire just standing there thinking, “Unless what Dr. Mire?”

“Unless the wish magic is leaving options open for the final transformation. That covers two developmental stages: the Little Kid stage of 3 to 6 years old, and the Big Kid stage of 6 to 9. Mike was at the end of the Tween stage when he made the wish. Milly’s physical body has regressed one level down from Tween to Big Kid. Developmental Scans and your observations have her functioning more like a Little Kid, which would put her two stages down from where Mikey was. But body and mind regressions are not stable. Either it overshot one, or . . . or it is still trying to stabilize them and is unsure which to settle on, Little Kid or Big Kid.”

“That makes sense. I guess,” Marsha looked down at Milly playing.

“For this moment,” Dr. Mire said. “I am not sure what can be done. This is Wish Magic at work. It has never harmed a Wishee, and it doesn’t appear to be harming Milly. She appears healthy and unfazed by all of this. Until this process is done, all we can really do is monitor the process. Unless you have something else for me to look into, I’ll check back with you in an hour,” Dr. Mire commented as she continued to look over the data.

“Thank You,” Marsha said. “I guess I will just have to wait for the process to end.”

“You can get through this,” Dr. Mire reassured her. “I’m here if you need me. Right now, I’m going to look over this data and look up some other information. I’ll see you in an hour.”

Marsha watched Dr. Mire vanish, then sat down watching the girls play peacefully.

With the girls getting along, Marsha stood up, “Sarah, please stay here playing with your little sister. I’m going to go look around the house.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Marsha kissed Sarah on her forehead, “Thanks. I’ll be back shortly.”

Marsha decided to start on the ground floor. The girl’s playroom was huge, with a toy store supply of toys. Marsha noticed that there were still some toddler toys spread throughout the room, including a few out, looking like they had been played with recently. Did this mean Milly was going to regress down to a toddler level? Marsha shook that off, remembering that little kids don’t give up the toys they have outgrown very easily.

In the kitchen, Marsha found sippy cups, divided plates, and toddler silverware. Nothing out of place for a 6-year-old. One drawer did have three bibs in it, but again, an occasional bib at 6 wasn’t unheard of. Marsha was relieved not to see a high chair in the dining room, but there was a Princess booster seat.

After checking in on the girls, Marsha went to look at the bedrooms. Sarah’s bedroom seemed almost identical to what it did before the wish, except it was bigger and had an attached bathroom like Milly’s room did. The master bedroom was a suite that was very large and had a fantastic mountain view. Gregg always wanted a house with a view. It looks like he got it. Almost everything in the room was the same as what was in their old master bedroom.

“How could I have not known that my boy was transgender,” Marsha asked to an empty room? “What kind of mom doesn’t know something like that about their child?”

Marsha looked down at the multiple people working around the mobile power plant, getting it connected to the house. A military looking transport vehicle was approaching the house. Figuring it was Professor Ian, Marsha headed for the garage to meet him, only stopping for a moment to make sure the girls were still playing peacefully.

When Marsha opened up the door to the garage, she saw three transport vehicles in the four-vehicle garage. She didn’t recognize any of the vehicles but figured the flashy high-end transport was probably Gregg’s. It was the type of vehicle he liked. The Easy Access Family Transport was probably hers. She had always wanted one like that, especially when Mike and Sarah were small enough to be carried to the house when they fell asleep during transport. Marsha realized that Milly now fit into that category. The third transport had a guy getting stuff out of the back.

“Hello, and welcome,” Marsha said as she approached.

“Hi there. One minute,” the guy said as he pulled a large case out of the transport.

“Sorry,” the guy said, turning to Marsha so she could see him for the first time. “I am Professor Ian. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Soffin. If you can direct me to your House Unit, I will get to work upgrading it.”

“Welcome, Professor. The Multi-Floor lift is right over there,” Marsha said, pointing to a gated area by the door into the house. “From what I saw, the House Unit utility room is on the ground floor.”

Marsha thought for a moment and then stated, “House, please give Professor Ian access to all sections of the house he needs to upgrade your systems. Link to his tablet any house maps you have to the various sensors and scanners.”

>>Temporary 1 hour access to house granted. If longer access is needed, new permission will be needed.<<

“Understood House,” Professor Ian replied.

>>No access is granted to 3rd floor living quarters. All those sensors are accessed through the attic.<<

“Thank You, House, for that information,” Marsha said. “Professor, I will try to keep the kids in the bedrooms and out of your way.”

Marsha left the garage and went back to the girls.

Sitting down on the window seat, “House, treat the Professor like any other service tech. Regular security protocols if he does anything outside of his assigned task, which is to upgrade the House Unit and its sensors.”

>>Affirmative<<

“Girls, there is a guy named Professor Ian in the house. He is making improvements to the sensors. If we stay in the bedrooms, we will be out of his way.”

“Okay, Mommy,” Sarah said while stopping what she was doing.

Marsha looked at Milly. She made no reaction to the comment. She just continued playing. After about ten minutes, Gregg came into the room.

“Well, the external power plant is all hooked up,” Gregg announced as he came over and sat next to his wife. “They say it is enough power to run a small research facility for a year. With it just powering our house, the kids will have grandkids before it runs out of power.”

“Why did they bring something so powerful,” Marsha asked.

“The techs don’t ask those types of questions. They just do as they are told. They were told to deliver a T-12 Power Plant to this residence and connect it to the house. When they finished that, they left. No questions asked.”

“That’s the government for you,” Marsha rolled her eyes.

“I saw a transport vehicle drive into the garage,” Gregg commented. “Was that Professor Ian?”

“Yeah, he is upgrading the House Unit and all the sensors. If we stay in the Living Quarters, we will be out of his way since the sensors for these rooms are in the attic.”

“Okay,” Gregg said, giving his wife a quick peck on the cheek. “I guess that gives me a good excuse to play with my girls.”

Dad got down on the floor with the young girls and picked up a knight on a space skid, “Okay, I slayed the dragon and saved the princess from a life trapped in the tower of the castle. Do I get a kiss now?”

“Ewwwwww,” Milly exclaimed, holding up the princess in her hands. “A proper princess would never kiss a yucky boy unless they were Prince Charming, and then only because it is a law that princesses have to kiss Prince Charming.”

Dad chuckled, “But I am Prince Charming, just wearing my knight’s battle gear.”

“You can be such a goofball at times Gregg,” Marsha said, smiling.

“Yup, that’s why you married me. My wit and charm.”

“I’m not sure who behaves more like a little kid, you or the girls,” Marsha responded.

Both girls pointed at Daddy. Everyone started laughing.

A few hours later, dinner was interrupted by the House Unit, >>There is an incoming Holo Com-Link from a personal number. It has been more than six hours since the wish. Do you still want all personal number calls blocked?<<

Gregg took a deep breath and looked over to his wife. She just shrugged her shoulders.

“House, allow communications from family only,” Gregg stated.

>>There is an incoming Com-Link from Marsha’s parents.<<

This time it was Marsha that took a deep breath, “House Accept Com-Link.”

“It is about time you answered my Com. I have been trying to reach you for hours. That idiot World Leader is all over the news networks claiming that Mikey has been transformed into a 7-year-old girl. What kind of total garbage is that? They even created some Fizbam act showing the wish magic transforming him.”

“Hi, Mom,” Marsha finally got in. “Nice to see you, but please watch your language. We have two little girls here.”

“Don’t tell me to watch my language, and you are no longer a little girl.”

“Mom, let me introduce you to your new granddaughter, Melissa Louise Soffin. She goes by Milly.”

Milly held up her right hand, and she opened and closed it as a way to wave hi.

For the first time, Marsha’s Mom looked around, noticing the little girl in pigtails sitting next to Sarah. She looked back and forth between the two kids.

“Who? What?”

“Hi, Grandma,” Milly and Sarah said together.

“You mean that windbag World Leader Evans was telling the truth?”

“Mostly. He probably doesn’t have the latest information. Milly is now 6, not 7. Her regression is slowing, but she does still appear to be getting younger. About forty-five minutes ago, the doctor said she was about 6 years, 5 months old, which means she has gotten one year younger since the wish initially turned her into a 7-year-old girl.”

“What happened to Mikey? Where’d he go?”

Sarah started moving her pointy finger over and over again at Milly.

“A Fairy Godmother granted my wish and turned me back into the little girl I was before the evil witch turned me into a boy,” Milly declared between bites.

“What?”

“Mom, it’s just her way of understanding something beyond her level of comprehension,” Marsha explained. “She’s just a little girl trying to make sense of something the adults are struggling to understand. If you want proof, look at the artwork I sent you last month from the two kids. I bet the one from Mikey is now from a little kid named Milly.”

Marsha’s mom went to the next room and looked at the artwork. The elegant drawing Mikey had done was gone. It had been replaced with a coloring sheet of a princess, with most of the coloring going outside the lines. It looked only a little better than scribbling. At the bottom of the picture was a little kid writing of the name Milly.

“What happened to Mike’s artwork?” Grandma asked, holding up Milly’s art.

“All of Mike was magically transformed to Milly, that includes records, art, and other stuff,” Marsha tried to explain. “Material things are changed, but human memories are not. Well, one person does have altered memories, Milly.”

“But . . . What . . . Milly?”

“Mom,” Marsha broke in. “We are in the middle of dinner. I will Com-Link you tonight after we put the girls to bed.”

“Little Girls, bed. Yeah, Com-Link me then,” Grandma said and then vanished.

“What was wrong with Grandma,” Sarah asked?

“She was struggling to accept Milly,” Mom responded. “Gregg, why don’t you go call your parents and sister in your office. Let’s not have another event like that in front of the girls.”

Taking a big mouth full of food, Gregg got up and headed upstairs to his office.

“Mommy,” Milly asked. “Should the Fairy Godmother have kept me a boy?”