Introduction: Things are coming to a head. Somebody's been dangling wishes in front of Adam, and he is sure it's an internet hoax. Then things start adding up. All the people he's been meeting outside the job are interrelated. All these strange things that have been happening have been planned. There is a conspiracy, and Jim may be involved.

This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Charli and the Girl Cave, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story takes place about three to four years after Charli and the Girl Cave. If you haven't read the stories before, it might be a good idea to go back and start at the beginning.

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Once again Holly H. Hart has willingly provided her invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English. Thank you so much, Holly.

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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Adam and the Three Wishes
 

Part 5

Chapter 9

Adam left the computer on overnight, and when he got up the next morning the computer had gone to sleep. It came on as soon as he wiggled the mouse, and the wish screen was gone.

He thought about his confession to Jim that if he were a woman, he would like to go to bed with him. He wanted Jim to make love to him, just not as he was now. That sort of thing didn't appeal to him, and he thought that Jim understood that; however, he realized that his admission meant quite a bit. It meant that as a woman, he was attracted to Jim. He knew that for sure. Maybe, that was what April had sensed. What she didn't realize was that it wasn't a gay thing. Of course, April probably didn't understand the difference between being gay and being transgendered.

He was on his way to several places north of Boston. His first stop was going to be in Salem. It was for package insurance coverage for a specialty shop in the downtown area. From what he could determine from the copy of the application, the place sold scented candles, potpourri, specialty tea and coffee, and they had a tea room. His appointment was at 10:00 AM, and he had deliberately started out early so that he could grab a bite to eat.

He remembered there was an IHOP at the corner of Trader Way and Highland which was right on the way to his first destination. He got the requisite order of coffee, and went over things in his mind. There were all sorts of little things, each by itself not meaning much, but now, he couldn't deny they all seemed to be interconnected, and they all seemed to be connected to that group in Bridgeport. Well, all except that Mr. Bettencourt he'd met in Cape Girardeau. One or another member of the group called him His Wisdom or The Wizard, and he felt that the 'The' was supposed to be capitalized.

Those two delightful little girls, well they were hardly little, acted as if they could read his mind, his most closely held secrets. He knew he had seen the shop disappear in Bridgeport, and as much as had tried to deny it, there was no question that it had pulled the same disappearing act in Cape Girardeau. The girls' mothers seemed to know an awful lot about him and The Wizard. Under other circumstances, he would have said they were quite dotty, if not borderline mad; however, he was pretty sure they weren't. The evidence pointed otherwise.

What about Bobbie? She was attending college hundreds of miles away, and yet she and her husband were giving a golf clinic in Hartford. And, it just happened to be at the course where he and Jim were playing. She greeted him like an old friend, but they'd been in contact for only a few minutes. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Both meetings had been planned. In fact, he was beginning to believe all the meetings had been planned.

'Holy shit, it's all planned; every bit of it. Why didn't I see that? Obviously, Esmeralda was in on it, too. There had to be more to those disappearing clothes than met the eye. Obviously, they weren't for him, but why were they even there? He really liked that house, the whole neighborhood for that matter. It seemed that his arrival had been anticipated, but how? It didn't matter now. He would never be able live there as the place was going to private homes, and the prices were bound to be astronomical.

That work had been well under way before he had left. A local construction company had been working on building garages, and he suddenly remembered that there had been another truck there. He could see the sign on the door of the truck: Lewis Construction. The condo he was renting was in a building owned by Lewis Properties, LLC. Cindy, Marissa and Randi Lewis, they were all connected. Of course they were. Esmeralda had given him the address. There was a major conspiracy going on, and he was in the middle of it - and Jim was involved.

Time flies when you're involved in things, and he was almost late to his appointment. It was a quaint little shop built in the Colonial Style. In fact there was a plaque on the wall stating that the building had been built in 1680. My goodness,' he thought, 'that was before the Salem Witch Trials. Witch, witches, that's it! They are all witches, every one of them.'

He held the door open for a lady who had just parked her car behind his. "Yes, Adam, we're all witches, except Hilda. We wondered when you were going to figure that out. Come on in, Nancy has some tea ready for you, we need to talk."

'What the hell is going on?' It was Evelyn Alden.

Adam realized that introducing himself to the pleasant proprietress was unneeded.

"Have a seat, dear. The tea is ready. No sugar, right?"

"Thank you," Adam quietly answered as he sat at the little table set for three. "Would someone please tell me what's going on."

"We're not allowed to tell you, but we want to assure you that only your best interests are in mind. As to what's going on, you will have to talk to His Wisdom. Marissa told you how to contact him. All we are allowed to tell you is that it's very important for all of us that you see him."

"I'm not sure I want to."

"We think that when you hear what he has to say, you might change your mind."

"I'll think about it - nice tea, thank you. I have a survey to do, and I have two more stops after this. I have to go over to Gardner to survey a museum."

"Yes, the Gardner Museum, they have a wonderful display of Arthur Stone Silver. Be sure to see the demonstration movie. His shop made the spoon you're using. Don't worry about your survey. We filled out your forms for you. All you have to do is take some pictures. We could take those for you, too, but it might be better if you did that yourself."

"But that's not right. How do I know you filled it out correctly?"

"We could make you think you saw exactly what we wanted you to, but we wouldn't. This is a special building. It sheltered many of us during those hard times. The sad thing is that every one of those poor girls was totally innocent of being a witch. We weren't a hundred percent safe, and our hands were tied. We're a lot smarter now, and know more about our powers and what we can do with them. It has been a long educational process for us."

"You talk as if you were there."

"I was. I was twenty-three at the time, and I cried and cried for those poor women and girls. But Ezzie and I knew if we tipped our hand they would take us out. There had been witch hunts in the past and there would be more. There were also others who just took pleasure in hunting us down. When His Wisdom arrived a couple of hundred years ago, things got better. For a while he rescued many of us. Then he lost focus for a while, but things have gotten better for us and him lately.

"Now, you be careful going to Gardner. There's some construction and the road is down to one lane."

Adam felt a lot better about things as he more or less went through the motions for the rest of the day. He managed to get back home before the afternoon traffic got too bad, although it was never very good, at best.

Phantom was waiting for him when he got home. "Mrowl" (Did you have a good day? I went exploring for a while, and I made sure that the door was locked. I think The Wizard wants to talk to you.'

Jim knocked about five minutes later. "So, how was your day?

"Pretty good, and yours?"

"Quite good, they want to send me to school out in Silicon Valley for a month. I'm going to have to leave next Monday. We're going to upgrade our mainframe, and I'm going to be second in command. There're all sorts of things I'm going to have to get familiar with."

"I guess that calls for a celebration. How about I fix dinner? I've got a couple of large pork chops and some Pinot Grigio chilled. How about you get cleaned up?" Adam said as he started to fix the chops.

"Have you checked your computer? I was wondering if that same problem was popping up."

"I'll check it while you're cleaning up. I haven't had a chance to turn it on, yet."

Jim returned fifteen minutes later freshly showered. 'I like the way he smells. I wonder what soap he uses?' Adam thought.

"Go ahead and check the computer out. I'm working on the Cesar salad. When you get the internet up, go to 'my favorites'. The first one is the one I was going to when I got that window."

"Yeah, I see it." Jim opened the program, and almost immediately a window popped up. It just wasn't the one he expected.

"JIM, PLEASE DON'T LET ON THAT YOU ARE READING THIS. ADAM WILL BE AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES FIXING THAT SALAD, SO THERE IS TIME FOR YOU TO READ THIS. TRY TO UNDERTAND THAT NOTHING EVIL IS GOING ON; HOWEVER, IT WILL BE A WHILE BEFORE EVERYTHING IS CLEAR TO YOU. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU ARE AWAY FOR A WHILE AS EVERYTHING COMES TOGETHER. PLEASE TRUST YOUR HEART ON THIS. I WILL CONTACT YOU ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER. EXPECT SOME VISITORS IN A DAY OR TWO. YOU WILL KNOW ONE OF THEM. THE WIZARD"

The window blinked out, leaving the home screen for the site.

"Did that window show up?"

"No, everything looks normal."

Phantom had been perched on the desk next to the computer. He had been intently staring at the screen. "Chirrup (Everything's going to be fine.)."

"I certainly hope so, Little Fella'. I certainly hope so."

"Did you say something, Jim?"

"I was talking to Phantom. He was watching me working on the computer."

"He likes to do that. He chases the cursor."

Adam wasn't sure what the problem was, but Jim seemed a bit subdued during dinner.

Both friends had a lot to do over the weekend. Adam had several reports to submit, and Jim had quite a bit to do to prepare for his trip.

Early Monday morning, Adam let Jim out in front of the terminal for his flight to California. Adam was heading to Gloucester to survey a hotel, and it worked out perfectly. They shook hands and briefly hugged before security approached to shoo Adam on.

"Keep in touch, Jim."

"I will."

Chapter 10

After Gloucester, it was Ipswich. Then it was on to Georgetown and Lawrence. It wasn't too bad a day, as his last three stops involved convenience stores all covered by the same policy. It was show up, introduce himself, take a few pictures, do a quick inspection, discuss any problems, and move on.

The traffic was heavy, but fortunately against him as he headed into Boston. The wind was picking up a bit and the forecast was for snow. There had been a few snows earlier that winter, but this one was supposed to be the first big one for the season. The flakes were starting to come down, blowing from the northeast, as he pulled into the parking lot. He noticed wet foot prints left by some animal as he started down the entry hall. The prints didn't last very long as the feet obviously dried out, so he didn't know where the animal had been going, or where it had been coming from.

Phantom was sitting on the desk washing his paws. Adam didn't think there was anything to it. He turned on the computer before he went to the bathroom to clean up a bit of the day's grime. When he returned, the computer was up and most of the wallpaper was obscured by "Congratulations: You Have Won Three Wishes. Click below to acknowledge this message. Note: All wishes must be claimed in person."

Below that was what appeared to be a pretty standard disclaimer. Then the last line below the disclaimer caught his attention: "Wishes R Us, a subsidiary of, and wholly owned by SRU Enterprises."

'Well, I'll be darned. They're part of the same outfit. So, what do I do? I think it's time to put an end to this one way or the other. I wonder what the hell they want with me? I think it's time to find out.'

Adam went to his employer's website to sign in and check his assignment list. He had picked up a couple of new assignments; however, something very strange had happened. Every assignment due date had been extended at least 30 days. Why would they do that? Things had been rather thin of late as far as assignments were concerned. Maybe he could take a little time off to contemplate things, find doctors and counselors, talk to his parents, and do other things; however, the main thing was to put an end to what he was beginning to feel was close to subtle harassment in some sense of the word.

"So, Phantom, what are we going to do about this?"

"Merro."

"I think you're right. I think I'll go in the morning if the snow isn't too bad."

"Meeoo."

"I think you'd better stay here. I don't know exactly where I'm going, and if I get there, I'm not sure you'd get along with a certain wolf. You'd better stay here."

The big nor'easter was a bust. It didn't snow an inch. That was all Adam needed to see to know that he was going to spend the day on the road.

"Phantom, I'm on my way to Bridgeport. It should take a bit more than four hours each way. I should be back sometime after dark. You have plenty of food and water. If the weather turns bad, I'll spend the night."

"Nrrow."

"You'll be alright."

He locked the door, and headed for the elevator.

"Mrrow. (I'm going with you.) Phantom was sitting at his feet.

"What the hell!"

"I don't know how you did that, but you have to stay here." Of course the door was locked.

He put Phantom back inside, and made sure both locks were locked. Ten seconds later, after a series of clicks, Phantom was outside.

"Okay, if you're so smart, let me see you lock it."

It took less than ten seconds. Phantom stared at the door, there were two sets of clicks, and the door was firmly locked.

"I think that says quite a bit about some things that have happened over the months. You're one of them, aren't you?"

"Mrres. (Of course I am.)"

The roads were clear, and once they got south of Hartford, there wasn't even snow on the grass.

"I guess I know better than to try to lock you in the car. Do you think you can ride on my shoulder, or do you want me to carry you? We'll just make believe we didn't see the 'No Pets' sign."

Phantom snuggled into the crook of Adam's arm as they made their way across the parking lot to the mall entrance. There was no SRU shop where he had seen it before; just the Hallmark Shop as the mall directory indicated.

The pair headed for the hall that Marissa had indicated in Adam's previous trip. 'This is ridiculous,' Adam thought. 'This hallway doesn't go anywhere near where the rear of that shop would have been.' He couldn't deny, though, that there was a sign that said "SRU Deliveries Only - Ring Bell" above a door that should have opened into a shoe store. Adam, his hand slightly shaking, pressed the lone button. An electronic buzz greeted him, and there was the sound of the door unlocking.

Inside it was just like it had been in the rear of the store in Cape Girardeau. A skeleton hung to the side of the open rest room. He noticed that the toilet seat was slightly askew. 'I thought he said he'd fix that.'

"I guess I should have done that sooner. There, it's fixed now."

Adam watched as the seat shifted slightly and the broken hinge repaired itself.

"I always felt that helped the ambience of the place."

Adam looked up to see Mr. Bettencourt now dressed in the robe that most expected The Wizard to be wearing. In his readings, he had seen it described as a bathrobe; however, it was obvious that it was a wizard's robe designed to make a statement with its embroidered crescent moons and stars. The Wizard's long hair and beard were more like he expected them to be.

"How about some tea while we're waiting?"

"Thank you."

"Phantom, would you like a little half and half? It's been treated to prevent lactose intolerance. I never understood why you cats like cream so much when it messes up your digestion so much."

"I would like that very much," Phantom responded.

Wolf came through the beaded curtains, and stretched a bit. "Hi, Phantom, long time, no see."

"Good to see you, Wolf. I missed you."

They were interrupted by the sound of the front door bell.

"Ah," said The Wizard, "Marissa and Petra are here."

"Mommy!" Phantom shouted as he raced for the curtain. He greeted a sleek, finely striped tabby with a pink nose. She immediately rolled him over and proceeded to clean his ears.

"Young man, I taught you better than that. Whatever am I going to do with you?" she said as her raspy tongue continued to work away.

"Hello, Adam, we're so glad that you decided to come," Marissa said as she greeted Adam with a hug and kiss.

"Your Wisdom, Cindy said she would meet you at the usual place, but I suppose you knew that. She had to finish up a lab practical in organic chemistry."

Adam was speechless, probably in near shock, as he quietly stood in the back room of the SRU shop sipping the tea The Wizard had prepared for him. Before Cindy arrived, an attractive redheaded woman arrived with the twin to Petra.

"Hi, Adam," she said as she greeted him the same way Marissa had. "I'm Sally Schmedlap, Bobbie's mother, and this is Selene, Petra's sister.

"Hello Adam," Selene said with her sweet voice. "It's so nice to meet you at last. I understand you've been taking wonderful care of my nephew. He's a good boy."

He heard the doorbell chime twice, and then heard two women talking as they approached the curtain. They were Cindy and Bobbie, and they gave Adam the same affectionate greetings he had previously received.

"Are we expecting anyone else," Cindy asked.

"Esmeralda and Evelyn are involved in some coven business, and they might be delayed, and Charli and Randi are in school," The Wizard said as the door chimed three more times. "Ah, that's everyone. We can get started in just a minute.

"Ladies, everyone else is in here, and we need to get started," The Wizard said to the new arrivals who hadn't yet come to the back room. "I have to be in Istanbul in an hour."

Evelyn and Esmeralda entered, followed by ....

"Bev!" Adam exclaimed rather loudly. "What are you doing here?

"I'm here to see my great-great grandchild start a wonderful life." Then she hugged and kissed him. Adam, once again, could see tears in her eyes.

"May I ask why all of you are here? I came here to tell The Wizard and anyone else who would listen that I was tired of being harassed. Why would a group of witches want to keep bothering me about something that is very personal. I've never told anyone except one person about how I felt, and that was Jim, and that was probably due to too much wine."

"I don't think so, dear," Bev said. "I think you've wanted to tell people for a long time, but just didn't know how to go about it.

"It's not easy, is it Cindy?"

"No, it certainly isn't. I lived with it for 35 years," Cindy replied.

"Charli and Randi wanted me to tell you that they lived with it, too; however, they're fine now. They wanted me to tell you that everything will be fine."

"What, you were like I am?"

"Me, too," Bobbie added.

"I don't understand why all of you are so interested in my personal problems," Adam said with a tone of frustration. "I was going to make an appointment with a doctor. It will take a while, but I could start living as a woman soon."

"Why don't you let His Wisdom take care of things? You know he can," Sally said, holding her daughter's hand.

"For obvious reasons; I've read too many accounts about young men entering this place and departing as bimbos. I'd rather be an unattractive, androgynous woman than be some vacuous bimbo with huge tits, er breasts who has trouble following a grocery list."

"I don't do that anymore, at least not very often," The Wizard replied with a bit of a hurt tone. "Cindy, Bobbie, Charli, and Randi certainly aren't Bimbos. I used to do what you are talking about until someone made me realize that being a woman is one of the greatest gifts there is, and I was sullying womanhood. I've learned quite a bit about life over the last few hundred years. Besides, most of those stories just aren't true."

"So, you're telling me that you turned men into Cindy, Bobbie, Charli, and Randi?"

"They just told you that, and it isn't that simple. Cindy and Randi involved a spirit transfer. They'll be more than happy to tell you all about that some other time. Charli was a homeless boy. We almost lost her. I'm very proud of how that worked out. Bobbie was born right here as Robert Schmedlap. Cindy helped accelerate that change.

"All of you seem to have a lot of interest in me. I take it that you will do your magic thing whether I want you to or not and turn me into a woman. There has to be a reason for it. What's in it for you? TANSTAAFL. Why is everyone here?

"Bev, you say you are my great-great grandmother. Why should I believe that?"

"I guess we could do a DNA test, I didn't think of that. For right now, I just ask that you believe what we're telling you. The proof will come later.

"Adam, for a fellow I've trained, I'm a bit disappointed in you. You keep ignoring the facts and evidence. What can you tell me about them?" Bev said while pointing to Wolf and three napping cats.

"They obviously know each other. Petra is Phantom's mother, and ... oh shit, they've been talking ever since I got here."

"What do you know about witches and cats and other small animals?"

"I guess they are familiars, if there is such a thing. Wait a minute, Phantom is talking. Does that mean I'm a witch? I couldn't be."

"That's just it," The Wizard said. "You could be if you would let the transformation take place. You are carrying the witch gene. We duplicate that part of the X chromosome, splice it to your Y chromosome and you're XX and a witch. If you wanted to, we can make you look like any one of those beautiful young ladies whom you've collected pictures of. I can do that."

"I admire their beauty, but that doesn't mean I would want to look like any one of them in particular. That's like identity theft. I do like some more than others, though.

"What about reality? If you change me, what does that do to present reality?"

"Actually nothing, in your case; however, any change like yours might be would be difficult to explain. So, we just go back and alter a few things so that people think that who you are is who you've always been. It involves changing just a few billion bits of data. It's a piece of cake."

"What about my family? What about everyone here?"

"The closer things are to you, the more difficult it becomes to change them," Bev responded. Your mother's memories cannot be changed without great difficulty, as she is half magic. The others in your family will just remember what your past might have been like. Your mother knows what's going on. She says she knew about you and is fine with it. Your friends and acquaintances will always remember you as a girl. The records are easy to change. His Wisdom does it all the time."

"What about Jim?"

"Jim will just remember you as a girl he knew from college, who just happened to show up as his marriage collapsed. That situation has yet to be resolved."

Adam thought for a minute. "No, that's unacceptable. If I'm to do this, Jim has to know exactly what happened. If we ever have a relationship, it cannot be built on false memories. I couldn't live knowing that what he thought about me wasn't real.

"You say I could be a witch. Why is that so important?"

"Because, you are the last in my line," Bev said. "I gave birth to many children, but the line stopped at the end of the next generation except for your mother's line. We didn't understand genetics then like we do now."

"Jim carries the witch gene, doesn't he? You're just setting me up to breed more witches. I don't think I like that at all. I think I'd just rather go the way I originally planned. Then I don't have to worry about becoming breeding stock."

"It doesn't work that way, Adam. There's one ingredient we haven't figured out. It's the one little bit of magic we don't seem to be able to control among the magic. The only thing that saved us for a long time was our longevity. There were so many arranged marriages, and most were childless. Of course, it was the woman's fault that she couldn't carry a baby to term. Then we discovered that when two people married out of love, that sometimes a witch would show up. Sometime, all the daughters of a witch might be witches, sometimes none of them. Then Mendel's discoveries about genetics became known.

"Now we have some of the answers, but by no means all of them. Witches do show up now and then from loveless marriages. There's something there we haven't figured out. We have found that some of those turned to the dark side, but a few have done just fine. Usually it was because there was a strong parent child relationship from either the father or the mother; however, most loveless relationships end up childless. The embryo doesn't form correctly and is discarded."

"Oh shit, April Dawn, she never loved Jim at all. She's a witch."

"Yes," said Marissa, "and not a very good one at that. She was doing genealogical research and discovered that there were witches in Jim's ancestry. One of the few powers she is able to control is that she is able to detect magic. Another is that she can detect gender identity problems. Based on her upbringings, she thinks the latter is an abomination. We don't.

"April detected GID in you, and she also detected magic. She also thought that you were going to steal Jim from her. She was sure that you were gay. So, she went after Jim hoping that her female children would be witches, and that she could start an empire. We know the unfortunate results of that. The sad thing is that April will never love anyone but herself. She's a dead end, and doesn't have enough power to do any serious damage. We are slowly pulling what little power that she has away from her. She's a sad case."

"So now you know why we're here. There is one other thing you need to know. Because you are magic, we can't mess with your mind. His wisdom can't install false memories. He can do some temporary things, but he can't change, will not change, who you are.

"We want you to be part of the family. You've only met a few of us, but there are many more of us out there. Only the group you've met, and your mother know about you."

"And Jim ...?"

"And Jim."

"So that's what this has all been about. How amazing. I guess I'll have to think about it."

"Adam, you know how to get hold of me if you want to. Just let me know," The Wizard said as he escorted Adam to the back door.

"Let's go home, Fella," he said. He turned to the group who stood a bit slack jawed. Adam had been given an opportunity that Cindy and Bobbie, under similar circumstances would have jumped on in a second, and he was walking away from it.

"Thank you everyone for a most interesting afternoon." He picked up Phantom and headed out the door, down the hall towards the exit and parking lot."

"What do you think about all that, Phantom? I guess you've known all along haven't you."

"Mrrowless."

"I thought so."

He started the car in the failing light. He must have been in the shop a lot longer than he thought. But the Wizard said he had only an hour before he had to leave. Adam looked up as the outside scenery shifted and blurred briefly. He felt a brief disorientation, but when things cleared he was looking at his condo building from his parking spot. 'What a way to fly,' he thought.

Back in The Wizard's back room things were not going well. Cindy was almost sobbing. "We pushed her too hard. She's scared, and we've lost her."

"I don't know," Bobbie said. "Maybe I should have offered to give her some golf lessons. He's pretty good, but she'd need to make some adjustments."

"Did you make that ball go in the hole?" Sally asked.

"No, he did that all on his own. I promised Gramma Naomi that I would never cheat at golf or any other sport, and helping or hindering another player is cheating."

"What are we going to do?" Bev asked. "I was so sure she'd do it."

"Look," said the Wizard, "sometimes these things take a while. You have to be patient. I've learned that over the last eight or nine hundred years."

Back in the condo Adam fixed a light dinner, and poured a glass of pinot noir. It had been an emotionally draining afternoon. He had been offered something that he was pretty sure he would have been given if he'd accepted it. It would have been a life changing event, to say the least, but was it what he really wanted? What about Jim? He'd made it very clear that he didn't want Jim "messed with". What would Jim think about all this?

After dinner, he turned on the classical music station, and poured a glass of port. Fittingly, they were playing Elgar's Enigma Variations. The announcer was discussing what the final unsolved enigma might be. 'It's Pi. Play 31415 on the G Minor scale. It's obvious'. Then his thoughts went to more serious things. What did he want? What was the best thing to do? He poured a second glass of port.

Finally, he turned on his computer. When it finished booting up, a window, not exactly the one he expected, popped up. 'Accept', 'Don't Accept' were the two choices. Below that was a box for comments. Adam studied the box for a few minutes before writing a few sentences. He sat back looking at what he wrote. He wrote a bit more, even though he thought there was an implied agreement. He knew for certain now that this was not a hallucination. It was far from it. This was his reality whichever way he went. His desires were known and there wasn't much else to do. He checked a box, and went to bed.

Well, Adam made a decision, obviously. I wonder what it was?