Mrs. Gibson was focused solely on the spinning sphere of colors engulfing her son. She repeated her question, “Is Toni okay?”

“I said the magic would reset your child’s body to align with their brain.”

Mrs. Gibson kept her eyes on the sphere, “I know Toni’s immature for his age. So, the magic will change him from twelve to, what, a nine-year-old? That’s about his developmental level, right?”

Dr. Parker looked at the toys magically appearing in the room, “Your child appears to be a little more immature than that, but there is a more urgent matter for us to discuss. The magic rebuilds the body to align with the brain. It takes all its cues from the child’s brain and gives them the body to match. For children with birth defects, it will give them the body the brain processes and views themselves as having. Children without limbs may suddenly find they have that limb.”

Mrs. Gibson turned and looked at Dr. Parker, “Really, that’s amazing.”

“The more dramatic the change to the body, the stronger the TSS effect is.”

“Toni doesn’t have any physical defects, so other than getting younger, there won’t be any significant changes,” Mrs. Gibson stated while looking for confirmation. However, the expression on Dr. Parker’s face put that into question. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Mrs. Gibson, look at the changes the magic has made to prepare the room for your child. Those changes are all based upon who your child is in their brain.”

Looking through the two-way mirror into the examination room, Mrs. Gibson was confused. The shelves had turned a bright pink and the walls a light purple. Pictures of unicorns, rainbows, and Disney Princesses were on the walls. The toys were primarily dolls with all the accessories to play house. The Legos were pink and purple Duplos.

“Some very powerful magical spells were put on that circle. They help us access and interact with children who can’t communicate in conventional ways. People often believe that children with poor communication skills have low intelligence. Once we establish a means to interact with a child, perceptions change. The circle’s magic allows us to access what the child knows, feels, and perceives at their core. Who they believe themselves to be. A non-verbal child who understands language will come out of the sphere able to talk and tell us what they know.”

“So, what does that have to do with Toni? He knows how to talk already. And that doesn’t explain why it decorated the room for a little girl. Some of those toys are things I would get for a preschooler.”

“And some of those are for kids a little older, so I am guessing your child will come out maybe five or six years old. Those are ages when they like Preschooler toys and Little Kid toys.”

Mrs. Gibson was starting to get visibly frustrated as she looked between the toys, the spinning sphere, and Dr. Parker.

Looking into the examination room, Dr. Parker stated, “The magic sphere doesn’t know a child’s birth gender. It only knows the gender of the child based upon what is in the child’s mind.”

“But Toni is a boy!” Mrs. Gibson almost shouted. “He knows that. He has known that since he was a toddler.”’

“You taught your child that they were a boy. You trained them to act and play with the boys. In your child’s mind, however, they are a girl.”

“No,” Mrs. Gibson stared at the sphere. “No.”

“The magic sphere tells no lies, but it does tell us what the child cannot.”

Barely above a whisper, Mrs. Gibson said, “No.”

Dr. Parker looked at the sphere, “Did you have a girl's name picked out when your child was born,”

In a haze and without thinking, Mrs. Gibson responded, “Amanda Rose. I always liked the name Mandy and figured that was short for Amanda.”

Dr. Parker wiggled her fingers toward the spinning sphere, “Done. She’ll now know her girl's name is Amanda Rose, with a nickname of Mandy.”

This brought Mrs. Gibson out of her shock, “What? What did you just do?”

“I let your daughter know her name.”

“My daughter?”

The spinning sphere started to slow down and turn back into a column before the rainbow colors retreated into the circle on the floor. Standing in the middle of the circle was a girl who looked about six, with high pigtails tied with pink ribbons. She was wearing a flowery, frilly dress. The girl reminded Mrs. Gibson of pictures from her own childhood, back in first grade.

The little girl looked around the room, and their smile grew bigger the more she saw. When Mrs. Gibson was certain the smile couldn’t get any larger, the girl noticed her outfit. With a spin to make the dress flair out, the smile grew even more. Then the little girl went to a baby doll and picked it up to feed it a bottle.

Looking at Dr. Parker, “Toni is transgender?”

“No, your daughter Amanda has a birth defect. Well, at least she does when magic hasn’t transformed her. At the moment, she is 100% girl inside and out.”

“Amanda,” Mrs. Gibson looked through the two-way mirror at . . . her daughter. “Mandy?”

“Yes. That is Mandy in there playing Mommy with a dolly,” Dr. Parker smiled at the little girl playing. “I understand the nomag society has some strange views towards transgender individuals, but in the magic community, they are honored. They usually have a deeper understanding of people because they have experienced them from both genders. They can see things non-gender variant individuals can’t.”

“Is he . . . she going to remember this when he . . . she changes back?” Mrs. Gibson shook her head as she tried to process what she had just said. “This is confusing to get it all straight.”

“Yes, Amanda will fully remember everything that goes on today. Look at your child Mrs. Gibson. They have had all barriers lowered and behaviors not mastered stripped away. Amanda learned to be a boy for you, but being a girl in her brain meant she would never master that skill. Now you get to see her true self.”

“True Self Syndrome! Oh my god! He’s going to want to be a girl away from school. Isn’t he?”

“Sort of, but you have it backward. We have let Princess Amanda out of the castle tower, and she now knows she isn’t wrong for liking girl things. She isn’t going to put the effort any longer into pretending to be a boy. Getting her locked back into that tower might be impossible. But honestly, it would be a bad idea even to try. The psychological damage would be quite significant.”

“No, you did something to Toni. You are cruel for dressing a boy in girl clothes and hairstyle. How could you do that to a child?” Mrs. Gibson stood up and went into the examination room.

“Mommy,” Mandy said with glee. “The magic circle knew I liked all the girl toys and dresses. Isn’t it cool?”

“If you want, Munchkin, I can get Dr. Parker to make some boy toys for you to play with.”

“No, Mommy,” Mandy immediately responded while vigorously shaking her head. “These toys are much better.”

“Okay, Munchkin,” Mrs. Gibson stared as her child returned to feeding the baby doll.

Dr. Parker put her hand on Mrs. Gibson’s shoulder, “Let her play a little before Teacher Susan comes to test her. Come back into the other room.”

As the two adults left the room, Mandy put the baby in a doll stroller and wheeled her around, looking at the various toys. She stopped in front of the Disney Princess toys and sat down on the floor to play with them.

“Mrs. Gibson. There have only been two alterations to Amanda’s brain. The magic blocked all the brain pathways that led to learned skills, so we only see mastered skills. I added the two names, Amanda and Mandy, to her knowledge of self. Amanda still knows her name is Toni, but she also knows it is Amanda. If you want, We can have Teacher Susan ask your child which name she wants to be called. In fact, let’s do that.” Dr. Parker grabbed a tablet off a shelf and e-mailed Teacher Susan, “Okay, when Teacher Susan goes in, she will not assume gender or name. She’ll let your child establish that during their initial interactions.”

“Look at him,” Mrs. Gibson watched her child play. “He’s changing clothes on the princesses. That isn’t boy behavior. How could I not know that my baby was transgender?”

“Parents of children with disabilities will often make wrong assumptions when a child demonstrates cross-gender behaviors or interests. The parent will conclude the child doesn’t understand and needs more lessons on girl versus boy things. To make things even harder for the parent, children with disabilities can be less assertive than a child without disabilities. The child will question their beliefs because the adults repeatedly tell them what they believe is wrong.”

“So, I was brainwashing him into thinking he was a boy?”

“Amanda is only twelve, with a developmental level of maybe a six-year-old. You can’t go back and change the past, but you need to decide where you and your family go from here.”

The adults sat in silence as they watched Amanda play. About three minutes later, a woman entered the examination room and sat on the floor next to Mandy.

“Hi, I’m Teacher Susan. What’s your name?”

The response came with eyes still focused on the doll in hand, “I’m Mandy.”

“I see you have Ariel there,” Teacher Susan looked at Ariel in her dress and then down at the mermaid tail on the floor in front of Mandy. “Ariel has changed into a pretty dress.”

“Yeah, she gets to be a girl now.”

“How about you? Are you a girl, boy, or mermaid?”

Giggling, Mandy continued to fasten the velcro to secure the dress, “Your silly. I’m a girl.”

Teacher Susan wiggled her fingers toward the table, causing a tablet and stylist pen to appear. Then, the pen started to write things on the tablet. As Mandy answered different questions posed to her while she played with the Disney Princesses, the pen would write or tap away. After playing with the toys for a little bit, Teacher Susan got the two of them to sit down at the table. Mandy did different basic learning tasks with Ariel on the table beside them. Upon finishing a task, it would magically disappear. A moment later, stuff for the next task would appear.

“Why is the teacher testing things like the alphabet and numbers? Toni, or Mandy, is twelve. They know the alphabet and their numbers,” Mrs. Gibson questioned.

“The magic sphere stripped her knowledge down to what she had mastered. We need to figure out what Mandy has mastered. Just because she was previously able to do some things, that doesn’t mean she can still do them. According to her records, Mandy would lose a lot of skills each summer vacation. Children tend only to lose skills they had learned but not mastered. We’ve designed her day to tell us what academic, communication, motor, adaptive, and social skills Mandy has mastered. Some of the tests are more formal like she is doing now, but we evaluate others while she plays or interacts with people. The magic sphere gave us a starting point. From there, we have to figure out each kid's range of skills between the different developmental areas. Mandy can have some skills at or above a twelve-year-old level while having other skills down at a preschooler level or lower.

Dr. Parker and Mrs. Gibson watched and talked for half an hour. When Mandy stood up and started dancing a little while still doing the task, Mrs. Gibson immediately focused on her child.

“He . . . she has to go potty. Why isn’t Teacher Susan taking her to the bathroom?”

Dr. Parker calmly answered, “It is part of the evaluation. Is Mandy toilet trained?”

“Of course he is toilet trained,” Mrs. Gibson blurted out. “Toni hasn’t had an accident for years.”

“Remember, we are figuring out what is a learned skill versus a mastered skill. It is not uncommon for six-year-olds to still struggle with toileting issues. Especially autistic six-year-olds.”

Mrs. Gibson turned and looked at Dr. Parker, “But Toni is twelve.”

“Amanda is six with twelve years of experience. She isn’t six, and she isn’t twelve. We have learned that it is best to treat children at their social/emotional level, which for Amanda is six years old. That being said, we teach them what they are ready for. If Amanda can do something at a twelve-year-old level, then we will work on that skill at that level.”

“Do you magically transform the children when they are here? Is that how you teach them?”

“We will have nine years to teach Amanda. During her last year, we will not transform her. However, in the first few years, there are parts of every day when kids are offered an opportunity to transform. Some do it every chance they get, while others only choose to change occasionally. The more we teach them how to deal with their disability and life, the less the kids transform. They eventually realize they can be their true self without the transformation. Amanda’s issues, however, bring in a complication. I must follow the laws of the magical community. If she chooses to be female while at school, that will happen every time she goes through the portal to the school.”

“So, you will turn her into a six-year-old little girl every morning when she arrives at school?”

“No, she will be a girl at school but offered the opportunity to regress to her developmental level at special times throughout her school day. Then, when they graduate from our school, they’re given a magical gift. For the last thirty years, I have been here, 100% of transgender individuals have asked to be transformed into their true gender full-time.”

Mrs. Gibson looked into the examination room. The little girl in there obviously needed to go potty, but she continued to do the activity with Teacher Susan.

“I gotta go potty,” Mrs. Gibson finally heard the little girl say through the speaker.

Teacher Susan and Amanda left the room.

“I hope she makes it,” Mis Gibson said. “I never let it get that far with Toni.”

“How often do you tell Amanda to go to the bathroom?”

“Amanda? . . . Toni?”

“Here’s something that can help,” Dr. Parker added. “When discussing times your child is dressed as a boy, call them Toni. When they’re dressed as a girl, call them Amanda or Mandy. As you adjust to all of this, your brain will eventually be able to refer to their whole life using her girl names.”

“Yeah, that might be easier,” Mrs. Gibson gave a half smile. “Toni hasn’t had a potty accident since he was nine, but he still does the potty dance occasionally. I just tell him to go, and we have no issues.”

“When the magic stripped away the learned but not mastered skills, Amanda apparently lost some of her toileting skills. We teach the whole child, which includes toileting. In time we will figure out exactly where her skills are and advance them.”

“Back to potty training? I thought we were done with that.”

“That’s the thing Mrs. Gibson. If you were still telling your twelve-year-old to go to the bathroom, you weren’t done yet. You were just avoiding the accidents. We work to teach the child mastery of the skill, and don’t worry about accidents.”

“How can you not worry about accidents?”

“If a kid uses the toilet but still has accidents, we put them in training pants. If they are not using the toilet, we put them in diapers. Then we go about the day teaching them what they are ready to learn. No big deal.”

“Dr. Parker, you have such a laid-back attitude toward big gigantic issues; gender identity, potty training, and developmental delays. These dramatically impact the life of . . . Amanda and our family.”

“No, not really,” Dr. Parker smiled. “You and your society view them as big issues. To us here, they are just who Amanda is. It is no different than accepting the difference between someone with red hair versus black hair or someone who needs glasses compared to someone who doesn’t. Amanda is who she is. Our job is to guide her on her journey to be the best person she can be. When she is ready, we advance her skills as much as possible. Everyone will find things easier by joining her in her world instead of forcing her to always be in ours. In time we will merge her world with ours, so there will be an overlap. We’ll teach her how to spend time in both without undo stress. You have to understand, however, that no matter what we do, she will always need to spend more time in her world than ours.”

While Mrs. Gibson thought about that, Mandy and Teacher Susan returned to the examination room and went back to work.