Alfred Gontarski had the misfortune to have been born into the wrong body. That’s all been fixed now; however if you are not familiar with how things were corrected, you should go back and read “An Incremental Journey” before you read this little adventure. Al, now Cynthia Lewis, has a problem. It seems that one of her nine-year old classmates has the same problem she had. He was born into the wrong body. Cynthia was able to work a deal with the SRU Wizard to get Bobby Schmedlap a gift certificate for his birthday that would allow him to become the girl Cynthia knows he wants/has to be. The problem is this. Bobby has not redeemed his gift certificate and now the powers behind SRU want to know when he’s going to do it because it’s the end of the fiscal year and unclaimed spells cause all sorts of accounting problems. It’s going to be Cynthia’s job to find out what’s going on and why Bobby Schmedlap hasn’t gone for the change he so desperately wants.

Cindy and Maddy begin to realize some more of their powers. They are not huge or particularly strong; however they are important. They are approached by an internet predator and his fate is what one might expect when encountering The Wizard. The Wizard once again shows a bit of his compassionate side. Cindy talks to Bobby at school and is able to tell him about things that Bobby never told anyone before. We are also finding out a little bit about why Bobby hasn’t cashed in the gift certificate. Cindy and Maddy come to the realization that Cindy is going to have to tell her parents the truth about her. That will not be easy.

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I have researched the Spell’s—R-Us Universe diligently and cannot find anything that violates it, other than that The Wizard is a bit kinder and gentler than sometimes reported. Don’t get me wrong. Given an opening and The Wizard could resort to some of his more ironic and nasty transformations. I’m sure that could happen at any time.

My thanks must go to Holly H. Hart for taking time from her harried life to correct the multitude of errors made while creating this story. She is a dear.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

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Chapter 4
 

Cindy was working at her computer later that afternoon. Before she had been aware of all the complications that Bobby’s transformation was going to entail, she thought it was going to just be a matter of getting Bobby to the SRU shop and let the transfer take place. The Wizard would make all the temporal adjustments and remove potential paradoxes. Then Bobbie could get on with her life and start the process of growing up.

Apparently, that was not to be. Even if she could get Bobby to realize that she was on his side, it wouldn’t do any good unless his parents and brothers agreed with the transformation. Cindy went to a number of the websites she used to frequent before her transformation. She had not felt any need to go there since; however, she knew there was information there about previous transformations. Maybe she would find something that would give her a clue on how to handle this situation. The problem was that she couldn’t find one scenario similar to this one. She thought it was going to be easy. It wasn’t.

She was staring out the window lost in thought, not really seeing anything, when she noticed that Maddy had awakened from her nap and was stalking a wad of paper that was one of her favorite toys. Maddy would approach it give it a little pat and send it off in one direction or another. Once it had become ‘alive’ she would pounce on it, give it a couple of shakes and send it off again. Finally, there was no life in it. Maddy picked up the ‘dead beast’ and trotted over to Cindy where she dropped it at her feet.

Looking up, Maddy uttered a very polite, “Mrrpreez.”

For the next ten minutes Cindy would throw the paper wad and Maddy would kill it several times before returning it to Cindy’s feet. Sometimes, Maddy would take her victim and hold it against the side of Cindy’s bed. She would drop it and then bat the wad high in the air before racing after it.

It was towards the end of this little session that Cindy noted something that at first astounded her. Maddy was making the paper wad move without touching it. After ‘killing’ her victim, Maddy would walk away a few feet and turn and face it. She would squat down and wiggle her rear end while staring at her victim. Suddenly, the paper wad would start to roll erratically away from her. She would wait a fraction of a second before leaping on it.

Maddy brought the paper back one more time. Her little sides were going in and out. It was obvious that she was exhausted. That wasn’t too surprising as cats aren’t known for their endurance.

“So, Maddy, you’ve learned a new trick.”

“Merwless. Mrrinner?”

“I guess it’s getting close to dinner, at that. Let me clean out your toilet and I will fix your dinner. I’ll bet you’re pretty proud of yourself. Have you learned to do anything else?”

“Mrohwl.”

“Well, you are just a kitten. Still, I can’t do anything like that yet; however, His Wisdom said we have a lot of time.

“We do have a problem, Maddy. I told you about Bobby. I know I am right about him and His Wisdom says I am. The problem is that unless his parents and brothers agree to let him become the girl he is inside, the magic won’t work. Bobby needs to be a girl right now so that her mother can help her grow up the right way. Real memories are a lot better than ones put there by magic that aren’t real. They aren’t complete. The real details are missing and no matter how good the magic is, it can’t be as good as the real thing. I am so happy that I have real memories, even though a lot of them aren’t mine.

“We have to come up with something. I think I have to convince Bobby first. Then we are going to have to work on his parents and brothers. They have to believe that the magic will work. His Wisdom says I am going to have to work this out on my own. I think it’s a test. Shoot! I’m only nine years old. What do they expect?”

They made their way downstairs and as they approached the rear of the house, Cindy could smell the wonderful aroma of dinner being prepared. In her past life food had been merely a means to temporarily satisfy her deeper appetites. She had not been a gourmet, she had been a gourmand, an over-eater. Food was now a wonderful experience. She enjoyed helping her mother, who was an excellent cook, prepare meals. Her father was also an excellent cook and sometimes the three of them would work on a meal.

On this late afternoon her mother was working on some real estate business in the home office. Her mother had an MBA from the Harvard School of Business and that was where she had met Cindy’s father. They had met on a double blind date, they were not each other’s dates, but the attraction was instantaneous. They married six months later and Cindy was born a year to the day after their marriage.

Stan already worked with Al Gontarski’s parents and had taken a year’s leave of absence to complete his degree. Marissa went to work for an accounting firm in Cambridge; however, after the death of Al’s parents (and Al, too, in this version of reality) she joined the firm as the accountant and business manager. The new partnership continued to thrive after the unfortunate deaths of the owners, due to their benevolence.

Cindy looked in on her mother. “What’s cooking? It smells delicious.”

“Pot roast: it does smell good doesn’t it? What have you been up to? I haven’t heard a peep out of you two since we got back from the mall.”

“I was looking up some things on the internet and then Maddy and I were playing. She fetches real well.”

“I hope you weren’t going anywhere where you weren’t supposed to.” When Cindy insisted on getting a computer, her folks weren’t too sure she should have one; however, after they talked to her teacher about it and found out that the students were encouraged to use the internet, they bought a nice one for her. When Cindy reached the fifth grade the next year, computers would be a necessity.

Her parents were amazed at how quickly Cindy took to it. She explained, somewhat truthfully, that she had learned at school where they had a computer lab. Of course, her father put in all sorts of protection so that the computer would not take Cindy to places that were not appropriate for a nine year-old girl. Cindy, of course, was able to bypass all the protection without her father or mother ever being able to detect it. Her interests were purely academic, now.

Her parents told her about the fact there were some evil people out there who would try to lure children into serious danger. Her mother had already had a pretty serious discussion with her about what it meant to grow up. Cindy appreciated the discussion, especially since it was from a perspective 180 degrees from the one she had the first time many years before. She had a much greater understanding this time about her parents’ concern.

Cindy cleaned out Maddy’s ‘toilet’ and added a little nice smelling, clumping litter. She checked the pet water fountain; Maddy liked to drink from where the water came out near the top, and then fixed Maddy a small bowl of wet food to go with the special dry food that Maddy seemed to be partial to. Maddy dove in.

The wonderful aromas from the kitchen drew Cindy back there. Her mother was checking on the roast that was in the slow cooker. Without being asked, she set the table. It was something she enjoyed doing.

While she carefully placed the utensils on the table she thought about what she was going to do about Bobby. She finally decided that the only thing she could do was try to gain his confidence. This might take a long time, especially because of her coming on too strongly with the gift certificate. She didn’t realize that someone who had gender issues might not be willing to jump at the chance to make the change. Instead she might have caused more damage than good, and had caused Bobby to be suspicious of her motives. She knew she would learn as she got older, but she didn’t want to ‘blow’ her first ‘assignment’.

Her dad and little brother had gone on their first fishing trip of the year and had returned while Cindy was setting the table. Tommy had a great time and actually caught a rather nice crappie. He couldn’t stop talking about it. It wasn’t his first fish, but it was definitely the biggest to date. That fish along with the half dozen his dad had caught would make a nice bunch of fillets for the Sunday evening dinner the next day.

After a very enjoyable dinner and helping clean up, Cindy retired to her bedroom to see if she could get any information from any of the past websites she had been visiting. She was not making any advances at all when her speakers gave a little melodic sound and a small square popped into view on the lower right side of her screen. Maddy, who had been draped around Cindy’s neck, gave a start.

It was an instant message announcement, something Cindy used from time to time to talk with her classmates if they were on line. This was different. It was a message from someone named ‘Lindy Lou’. “Hi, I am new in town and don’t have any friends. My computer said you were on line. Would you be my friend?”

Maddy started growling. She climbed off of Cindy’s shoulders and sat in front of the screen. While continuing to growl, she started batting at the window with the message. “Mrowbad!”

“I think you are right, Maddy. I think this is one of those people Daddy was talking about. What do we do? Gosh, I wish The Wizard was here.”

There was another melodic ‘ding’ and a window appeared on the lower left side of the screen. Cindy looked down and could see the interior of the SRU back area. The view kept getting obscured by the robed figure of The Wizard reaching above the screen. “Dagnabbit and drosophilae’s wings; I keep telling them that these computer interfaces don’t work well with magic. Cindy, can you hear me? Maddy just sent an alarm. Are you OK?”

“Oh, gosh! I can hear and see you. I guess that’s another trick Maddy can do.

“I’m fine, Your Wisdom, I was working on trying to find out what to do with Bobby when I got an IM from someone I don’t know. Maddy doesn’t like it and I don’t think I do either.”

“What’s an IM? Oh yes, instant message. I think the old way is better. So what does it say? What a second — where are those instructions they gave me. Oh yes, here they are,” he muttered to himself.

“Cindy, I am going to do something so I can see your screen.” He started singing to himself as a fiddled with an out of sight keyboard. “Ah yes, bibbitty, bobbitty, boo, there it is. Lindy Lou my withered gluteus, excuse me Cindy, this is a bad one. There’s evil everywhere. Let’s see what ‘Lindy Lou’ looks like.”

The Wizard struck a few more keys and the small window on the lower right side of the screen expanded a bit. Cindy could now see the inside of a room. There was a man peering into what she assumed was his computer screen. He was maybe in his late twenties. There wasn’t anything about him that appeared to be particularly evil.

“OK, we can fix this. This is a good connection and I can read his mind almost as if he were in the shop. Sick, sick, sick: we’re lucky on this one Cindy. He hasn’t been able to hurt anyone yet, but if we don’t do something to correct things, he will. I see he lives near you. We need to get him to the shop as soon as possible.

“I have an opening between two and three tomorrow afternoon. Let’s set up a meeting. I am going to reply to the message for you.”

Suddenly letters started appearing in the window below the image. “Hi, I’m Cindy.”

The image of the man perked up and he started typing. “Hi Cindy, I’m Lindy Lou. How old are you?”

“I’m nine. I don’t have many friends. How old are you?”

“I’m ten. We just moved here from Detroit.”

Cindy watched as The Wizard conversed with the man. Before she knew it, The Wizard had arranged to meet ‘Lindy’ at the mall the next afternoon. Lindy was going to be with her father. They would meet outside the candy store. There was no ‘candy store’ except for what Cindy knew would be the SRU candy store.

The Wizard terminated the connection.

“Your Wisdom, how am I going to get to the mall? We shopped there today.”

“That blue dress you bought is too small. Your mother accidently picked the wrong one off the rack. Just show your mother it is the wrong one. She will take you back. I’ll fix it so she doesn’t notice what’s going to go on. I’ll see you there at two.”

Sure enough, Cindy got the blue dress out of her closet, and just as the Wizard said, it was two sizes too small. She took it to her mother and showed her the tag. Marissa was a bit perplexed, but they agreed they should exchange it the next afternoon after church as Cindy wanted to wear it to school the next week. The four of them would have lunch in the nice cafeteria and then they could exchange the dress after lunch.

Chapter 5

The church service was nice enough. Cindy couldn’t really get into the sermon, if it was a sermon. Besides she was wondering what The Wizard had in mind for the internet predator. She had a feeling that a trap had already been set and that she was just along for the ride.

They had a very pleasant lunch at the chain cafeteria in the mall, and Tommy and Cindy were both allowed a generous wedge of egg custard pie for desert. The dress exchange went off without a hitch, and both her mother and sales lady were mystified as to how the error could have occurred.

They wandered through the mall for a while until her dad and brother spotted a sporting goods store. Tommy was starting to grow faster and he needed a new pair of athletic shoes. Strange, but there was a new candy store next door and the sign proclaimed ‘Sweets-R-Us’.

“May I look around in that new candy store. I just want to see what they have. I might want to buy Gramma Lewis a box of chocolates for her birthday. I don’t need to see anything in that sporting goods store.”

“Alright,” admonished her mother, “but don’t go anywhere else.
Wait inside and we will get you when we are through.”

“Yes, Mommy.”

Cindy waited until they entered the store before looking around for the predator. She spotted him immediately standing outside the store. He was rather nice looking; however, there was no doubt who he was.

She made a show of looking around before entering the shop. There was the same sound of the bell that she had come to love. The man followed her in a few seconds later. The interior looked like what she had seen in pictures of Victorian sweet shops. There were huge jars on the counters and bins under the counter and along the walls. Each contained thousands of jelly beans and each jar had a different color/flavored bean. There were huge jars full of various colored licorice. Trays were piled high with fudge and various toffees and peanut brittles. It was spectacular and in spite of just having had a very nice lunch, Cindy’s mouth watered.

“May I help you?”

Cindy turned and marveled at The Wizard dressed in a starched, striped shirt with a high collar. He had suspenders holding up his trousers. He sort of looked like an old time barber. His beard was gone and his hair was short and slicked back. Cindy had to suppress a smile and giggle. It was a pretty neat disguise. If she looked closely while squinting her eyes, she could see the real Wizard behind the disguise.

“I can’t buy any candy right now. I just had lunch. I’m supposed to meet someone here.”

The young man perked up at that comment. “Are you Cindy?”

“Yes sir.”

“Lindy had to go to the rest room. She wanted to meet you here but said we could meet her when she comes out. We can meet her down the hall.”

Playing along, Cindy said, “Well, I don’t know. I have to meet Mom and Dad here in a little while.”

“Before you go, why don’t you try a free sample,” The Wizard said offering a dish of Jelly Beans to them. “Take some for your daughter, too. Try them, you will like them.”

Without really thinking, the man popped a couple of the pink jelly beans into his mouth. He froze.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Tomlinson?”

“I don’t know. I feel a little dizzy. How did you know my name was Tomlinson?”

“Oh, I know a lot about you Mr. Tomlinson, or should I say Eugene? Why don’t you come with us to the back room? It wouldn’t look good if you fainted out front. This will take just a minute and you will be fine.”

The Wizard led the man to the rear of the shop. Cindy had never seen it look this way. There was a very nice sitting area with several very comfortable looking chairs. He had Eugene Tomlinson sit on one of them.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel light headed. I sure hope it’s not that swine flu.” Eugene pulled out a handkerchief and patted his brow.

“You don’t have the swine flu. In fact you are very healthy, physically. There is a problem inside that head of yours, though.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well to put it bluntly, you are a pedophile.”

Eugene suddenly had a look of panic spread across his face. Cindy could see him struggle to stand but he was unable to.

“Don’t worry about it Gene. We’re going to fix everything. I assure you everything will be fine. It’s just going to take a while to fix.

“Now about this fixation you have for little girls. Why do you have that? You may answer me truthfully. No one here will hurt you. Have some more jelly beans while you are thinking about it.”

Eugene obediently put a half dozen of the pink jelly beans in his mouth. He savored them, washing them with his saliva before he gently chewed them as they dissolved. “I have always thought I was a girl. But I couldn’t be one. I wanted to play games with girls, be close to them; to be loved. I wanted to be a mommy.” He started to cry. “I didn’t really want to hurt anyone, but I think I could have. I think I am losing control.”

Cindy could see the changes taking place. His hair lengthened a bit; however, the biggest changes were in his facial features. His prominent brow ridge disappeared and his face became heart shaped. His eyebrows remained full and there was no makeup, the appearance was very feminine. His clothing shifted and suddenly he, no she, was wearing a skirt and blouse.

“What are you doing to me?” she said in a very sweet voice

“I told you we are going to fix what’s wrong with you. Now stand up so I can see how we’re coming along.”

Her hips broadened a bit and her legs appeared to be relatively long and very shapely. Her waist nipped in very nicely.

“Turn around so I can see the rest of you.”

She did as told. The Wizard looked up and down. He made a few passes and the girl’s bust expanded a bit. He stopped the growth somewhere between what Cindy would guess was a ‘B’ or ‘C’.

“What do you think Cindy? Not overdone, not a busty bimbo: I think she’s a rather attractive young woman, or should I say will be. Now we need to do the final adjustments.

“Jean, you need to eat the rest of those jelly beans. They are very good for you.

The Wizard turned to Cindy as Jean obediently ate the rest of the beans. “There’s too much wrong inside Jean to fix here. It’s going to take a lot of love and nurturing.”

Jean started shrinking rather rapidly. She became a rather cute teenager, then post pubescent adolescent. Soon she was a six or seven year old little girl. Then she was four, three, two, and one year old. Then she couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. She started to cry.

The bell tinkled and The Wizard looked up. “Right on time; we should have this all made right very shortly.

“Mrs. Williams, we’re back here.”

The curtains parted and a young mother pushing a baby carriage entered the room. “Mrs. Baxter, (The Wizard was now definitely Mrs. Baxter) it is so nice of you to have a place like this for nursing mothers.” She sat behind a nice screen and pulled a small baby from the carriage. She opened her blouse and nursing bra and brought the little baby to her breast. The little baby latched on immediately. “Janie is such a good baby. I barely have enough for her, but we are doing alright now. I hope I can produce more as she gets older.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem at all. Have some of these chocolate, cream filled candies.”

“Delicious,” Mrs. Williams responded as she took a second and third candy. She never noticed that her bust increased at least two cup sizes in a matter of seconds.

“I think little Jeannie is hungry too, if her fussing is any indication.”

“Jeannie? Oh, Jeannie. Don’t worry Jeannie, there’s plenty for both of you. There always is. Here, I think I can still feed both of you at the same time.”

After about 15 minutes, both babies were, temporarily at least, sated. Mrs. Williams placed the two babies in the now twin sized baby carriage, thanked The Wizard for having a space for her to nurse, and left the store.

“It took her nursing Jeannie to complete the change. I think Jeannie will do a lot better this time around. By the way, the mall is converting a portion of this store into a nursing station. The entrance will be from the ladies rest room.”

Cindy returned to the front of the store and stopped to scratch the wolf’s ears. She couldn’t escape a slurpy kiss. She thought about what she had seen. Two days in a row now, The Wizard had performed a rather compassionate transformation. She didn’t think Tammy from the day before would grow up to be a vacuous bimbo, and she was pretty certain that Jean wouldn’t either. Still, she was certain that if situations presented themselves, The Wizard could perform some rather startling and bizarre transformations. She would stay on his good side.

“Cindy, I think another of your talents is beginning to show up. Your computer skills are very good and it will be important for you not to let on for a few years how good they are. We already know that you are developing the ability to detect the transgendered. Apparently you are also able to detect people like Jean. That could be very dangerous. I have fixed it so that if someone like Jean tries to contact you I will get an alarm. That way I can monitor what is happening and we will be able to do what needs to be done. It may not always be as simple as this time. You need to be very careful. Maddy and I will watch things closely.

“Your parents and brother should be coming along shortly. I’ll be close by regardless of where I am. All you have to do is call for me and I will contact you. Keep working on Bobby. He should be your main concern for a while. OK, I’m off to Anchorage.”

Once again he couldn’t avoid Cindy’s hug, and she felt he wasn’t trying too hard.

Chapter 6

Cindy looked across the playground at Bobby Schmedlap. He was playing softball with his class mates and doing very well at it. It was just that every time Cindy got within 50 feet of him, she could sense his female spirit. There was no question about it, and her dealings with The Wizard over the weekend only confirmed that her intuition was correct. Bobby was a girl inside and he wanted desperately to be a girl on the outside. She thought at first that Bobby’s display of sporting prowess was his way of hiding the real Bobbie; however, she began to realize there were some biases left over from her previous life. There was no reason a girl or woman couldn’t be an athlete and still love being a very feminine woman. After all, there were many very attractive athletes who were also famously wives and mothers.

On the other hand there were also a number of excellent male and female athletes who were gay. It boiled down to the fact that athleticism and gender were not tied directly together. Cindy knew she was going to have to work hard scrubbing stereotypical thinking from her mind. It wouldn’t be easy. Now she was going to have to do something for Bobby. She felt more and more that she had let him down. If she had gone about the whole thing a different way, like gaining his friendship first, things might already have been the way they should have been.

“Hi, Bobby, that was a neat catch you made. I thought Jason was going to hit it over your head.”

“Er, uh, thanks Cindy; I got kinda lucky with that one.”

“No, you are very good. I think you are one of the best baseball players in Carver.

“Could we talk a minute? There’s still some time before we have to be back to class.”

“I guess so,” he said after a short pause.

“Bobby, I’m sorry about the gift certificate. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted you to have something so that you would be happier than you are now. I should have talked with you before I did that. I know how you feel. No, it’s more than that. I know what you are inside.”

Bobby stared at her before talking. “My mom says you are nothing but a trouble maker. I don’t know what you know or how you found out, but my mom says nothing but bad could come from this. My folks have enough troubles with dad not being able to work. Besides, how could you possibly know how I feel?” Bobby was almost in tears.

“Because, I was once like you are.”

Bobby stared at Cindy. His jaw was slack. He shook his head. “That can’t be. We’ve been in school together since kindergarten. You’ve always been a girl. That accident last winter must have really messed you up. They say you almost died. I’ll bet it screwed your brain up.”

Cindy contemplated what she knew she had to say. “How different am I from before?”

“It’s hard to say. You are quieter. I don’t know, sometimes you don’t seem to be as girly as you were before.”

“I know; I am still learning that part. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be; however, it’s better than I ever hoped it would be,” she said almost as if she were talking to herself.

“That’s another thing. You are always talking like a grownup. You never used to talk like that.”

“Yeah, he warned me about that, too. I’m trying, Bobby, I really am. I hope it won’t be too long before you find out what it’s all about.

“I want to be your friend, and I’m pretty sure we are going to be friends for a long time.” She thought back to what The Wizard had told her that day she thanked him for everything he and the ‘others’ had done for her. “I am going to tell you some things that may sound a bit strange, and the way this thing works is that you won’t be able to tell anyone but your parents and brothers about what I am going to tell you. That’s because some of the magic is already in place.”

“What are you talking about — magic?” he said almost disdainfully.

“You were there that day, weren’t you?”

“What day?”

“The day I almost died.”

“Yeah, I was hanging out with Ken Burns. We were having fun with that toboggan run. I rode my bike over there.”

“Let me tell you exactly what happened after I went through the ice. First of all, drowning is not fun. It hurts. You were standing away from the others, but ran up to the edge of the ice. You tried to walk out. You even lay down like I did when I tried to save Maddy. That’s what I named her.

“You tried to get close to me, but went through the ice up to your knees. You were lucky. When I went under you took off up the hill. You were going to Ken Burns’ house to get them to call 911. You fell down twice: once when you slipped on the snow and the second time on the Burns’ front steps. I think there is still a mark on your shin from the scrape. After you got them to call the rescue people, you came back to the edge of the pond. Miriam was holding Maddy and she was crying. You took Maddy from her for a while, trying to warm her up. Miriam eventually took Maddy back before she gave her to my mother. After the ambulance took me away, you stood there for a long time. You sat on the edge of the snow bank and cried for me.

“You are probably thinking someone told me about this, and they could have. One other thing happened. You stopped at the old well house. I think you were looking to see if there were any more kittens. That’s all I can tell you.”

“What do you mean that’s all you can tell me.”

“Well, at that point I had to leave.”

“I don’t think I understand.”

“Bobby, I watched all of that. I was there with someone else. You couldn’t see us, but we were there. This is going to be hard for you to believe, but I am not Cindy. No that’s not exactly right. I am what’s left of Cindy and a lot more. Cindy died that day. Her body stayed alive and it gradually healed. Being under water that long caused a lot of damage and Cindy’s spirit had to leave.

“So, who am I? I was someone like you in many ways. I was a girl in a man’s body. I wasn’t a very nice person, and I blamed a lot of other people for my problems. It seems there were things about me that I didn’t know and I am still finding them out. Then I met The Wizard. Sometimes he has a shop in a mall around here. He helped make it possible for me to take the original Cindy’s place.”

Cindy watched as a look of astonishment spread across Bobby’s face. “You really are crazy. The Spells-R-Us Wizard doesn’t exist.”

“So, you do know about the SRU Wizard. There’s hope.”

“That’s a bunch of crap. My mom say’s it is just a bunch of wishful thinking.”

“How did you first find out about The Wizard?”

“From the computer in the library; we can’t afford a computer at home.”

“I hope you still have that gift certificate. You told me your family could read it. Where is it redeemable?”

“It says at my local Spells-R-Us Shop.”

“Have you shown it to anyone else?”

“The guys at school all thought it was for Wal-Mart.”

“We took it there, and they said it was for Dillard’s. We thought I might be able to get some new clothes so we took it there and they said it was for J. C. Penny.”

“That’s when my dad got pissed. We can’t afford to buy much gasoline.”

“Bobby, I know you are smart. You get some of the highest grades in class. Why are you and your family able to see what it is, I can too, but others can’t?”

“I don’t know. It’s really weird.”

“Bobby, it’s magic. The Wizard made that certificate for you and I paid a lot of money for it.

“I know some other things about you. Things you never told anyone. Your girl name is Roberta, that figures. You are glad you are a redhead and you like the color of your eyes. They are beautiful, by the way. You want to be tall, not too tall, maybe five-ten. You want to have nice breasts, you’re not too sure of the size, but I think a ‘C’ cup is what you envision. You wish your teeth were smaller and straighter. That will be easy to fix. You want to be married and have at least three children. You want the first two to be girls. You want to go to college and eventually become a youth counselor and coach. And above all, you want to play professional golf on the LPGA tour.

“Did I pretty much hit the nail on the head?”

“Oh my, I never told anyone all of that! Mom and Dad just know I’m a girl inside. We can’t afford to do anything about it. We lost our health care when Dad lost his job. Mom’s working as a waitress. We lost our home and….” Bobby was doing all he could to hold back his tears.

Cindy couldn’t help it as she moved in to hold the much taller Bobby to her. “Bobby, we need to get to class.”

“Boy, are we in trouble,” Bobby said while wiping his nose. “We’re gonna be real late.”

“I don’t think so,” Cindy said while checking her watch. I think time stood still for us for a while. The Wizard’s looking out for you. We still have a minute to get to class.”

When class was over, Bobby didn’t make an immediate exit like he had a few days before. “Would you walk with me to the bike stand? Your bus doesn’t get here for a few minutes and I think we need to talk.”

“Sure.”

“I don’t know how you know what you do, but it has to be magic. That’s the only way to explain that weird gift certificate. Can you really do what you said you could?”

“Bobby, the only thing I can do is detect people like we are or were. I can do something else, but that doesn’t matter right now. I’m too young to do any real magic. We’re not sure what I will be able to do when I’m older. Maddy’s got a bit of magic in her, too. The Wizard says she’s my ‘familiar’. She’s there to help me.”

“What are you — a witch?”

“Perhaps: what I really am is a nine-year old girl who is enjoying what I am very much. I lived 35 years as a male of the species and now that’s not a problem anymore. I’ll find out more about what I am later on. I’m just taking it a day at a time.”

“See, you’re talking like a grownup again. That’s another thing that makes me believe you. You never used to talk like this.

“I want to be like I feel inside very much. The idea sort of scares me, but I know it’s right. Before Dad got hurt and lost his job, they took me to a special counselor. She said I have gender dis… er disphora, or something like that.”

“I think it’s called gender dysphoria. There’re a lot of names for it. The names aren’t important. The important thing is that you know, your parents know, your brothers know, I know, and The Wizard knows that inside you are a girl.”

“So what do I do? Do I take the certificate to the wizard and he waves his magic wand or something. Where is he anyway? I have never seen his shop and I used to go to the mall all the time.”

“The only thing I can say is when the time is right he will be there for you. That gift certificate has locked you in. We do have a problem, though. Until your parents and brothers agree to let you use the certificate, it won’t work. The reason for that is that they are tied into your transformation. They know and believe in how you feel and they have been brought into the circle. We know that because they can read the certificate. They have to believe in the magic and consent to let it work.

“I’m new at all this. I might have to talk with your parents to try to explain things. They have to realize that the certificate must be magic. It can’t appear to be different to different people without it having some sort of spell on it.

“Please try to get them to understand how important this is. I don’t want you to have to go through what I did the first time.

“Look, my bus is coming. I’ll see you tomorrow. Wait, one other thing: what did your dad do before he got hurt?”

“He was a construction supervisor. His company built all sorts of plants and office buildings. Why?”

“I’m not sure. For some reason I felt like asking. It must be important.”

Chapter 7

For the first time since becoming Cindy, she had trouble sleeping. There had to be some way to meet with Bobby’s parents and two older brothers for that matter, and try to convince them that the gift certificate was real and that she was not crazy. She needed help and wasn’t sure where she could get it. After all, The Wizard said she was on her own.

She realized that since the change she had mentally been becoming younger and younger. There was that time when her new body had almost pre-occupied her. The wonder and the joy, maybe it was elation, she felt about what had happened to her no longer caught her attention every few seconds. She had all her adult memories; however, they no longer on the ‘front burner’, so to speak. If she needed something it was there for her. She had to search those memories out. It was different, though about the memories of the previous Cynthia. She could feel them being interwoven into her personality. It wasn’t like pulling up a page that said on this date and at this time she kissed her Grandmother Smithson goodbye before their trip home. Now she had all the details. She could smell her grandmother’s perfume; she could feel the soft texture of her skin. She could see the rouge and makeup on her cheeks, and she could see the fine hairs growing out of her cheeks. That was strange because her grandmother had died before Cindy had recovered from her near drowning.

Cindy knew she was becoming Cindy in every way. She didn’t have to act. Maybe the wizard had given her a ‘tweak’ as he put it, but she didn’t think so. She was just fitting in. Al Gontarski no longer existed, nor did Cynthia Lewis. She was Cindy Lewis. There was no schizophrenia, no voices, no two personalities occupying one body, one brain. She was Cindy Lewis and she had a mission, perhaps many missions and she knew she was going to enjoy every minute of what the future brought to her as she became a young woman, wife and mother.

She realized, too, that her thought processes that probably put her in the high genius category were still the thought processes of a nine-year old girl. She saw things in a considerably different light than Al Gontarski did. There was something else that really weirded her out. She thought at first that her poor coordination when she was recovering was due to the brain trauma.

She had received flowers and gifts from well-wishers, and her mother thought it would be good therapy if she wrote some thank you notes. Her writing was awful. Al Gontarski’s penmanship hadn’t been bad, but her attempts to write were almost painful.

“Mom, I can’t seem to write very easily. My hand doesn’t work right.”

“Here, let me see. This might have to be something the therapist will have to help you with.

“Oh, Cindy, no wonder you’re having trouble. You’re left handed.”

“Oh my, I guess I forgot.” After that many things became easier. She had to let things happen, rather than think about them. That became very apparent after her catheter was removed. It was a horribly embarrassing time. It took the best part of three weeks before she had any control at all, and another two weeks before she had essentially normal control. It was an enlightening and totally female experience. She learned something in a little more than a month that most little girls took many years to learn.

She knew that she had essentially caught up in most ways. Now she had to look to the future and the future included Bobby Schmedlap. What was she going to do?

“Maddy, how are we going to help Bobby?”

“Mtark.”

“What?”

“Mwarlk”

“Maddy, can you try to talk to me without vocalizing? Your lips make enunciation a bit difficult.”

“[What I said was ‘talk’. I thought I said that very clearly.]”

“Omigosh, you really can talk that way. I was just joking.”

“[You need to talk to Bobby’s family. We need to convince them that the magic is real.

“[Cindy, you need to tell your parents.]”

“Tell them about what?”

“[You, me, Bobby, the whole thing: I think they are part of the plan. You will know it’s permitted and meant to be if you can do it. If you can’t tell them, then you’ll know it’s not allowed.]”

“Maddy, how come we haven’t done this before? I mean, I knew you could talk, but not this way.”

“[Probably because there wasn’t any need before. You asked and suddenly I knew I could do it. I will try to practice talking the other way, too. It might come in handy. I think that was what they call anthropomorphizing. I don’t have hands, though these paws work pretty well.]”

“Cindy,” her mother’s voice came from the hall, “it’s much too late to be talking to your friends. Tomorrow’s a school day and you need your rest. Say goodnight. You can talk at school tomorrow.”

“OK, Mommy. Goodnight.”

“[Maddy, can you hear me?]”

“[Loud and clear.]”

“[Oh, this is going to be so much fun,]” she thought while Maddy snuggled up to her. “[But I’m not sure about telling Mom and Dad about me. They might think I’m crazy and make me go to some shrink. If they do that, I may not be able to help Bobby.]”

“[I don’t think that will be a problem. I think we need their help. We’re too young to do this on our own.]”

“[Speaking of being too young, how old are you anyway? You don’t sound, er, talk, er whatever, like a kitten. The Wizard said you were going to live a long time.]”

“[We will age together. I won’t be able to have kittens until you are old enough to have children. I think I have done this before. I keep remembering things. I think we will live a very long time, but we don’t have to worry about that now. We are just children.

“[I’m going to sleep now.]” And, she did.

Well, Cindy has her work cut out for her. It looks as if Bobby is beginning to believe in ‘magic’ and the gift certificate. Now Cindy is going to have to get her courage up in order to tell her parents who she really is. The thought scares her, but she knows it has to be done. If that works, then she is going to have to confront Bobby’s family and convince them to let Bobby use the certificate. Next time we will see if Cindy is up to the challenge. Thank you for reading and thank you for your comments. Constructive comments are always fuel for future stories.