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.

My gravely ill father had put his foot down (Part 7), telling my grandma that if she and Uncle Grisha insisted on bringing his degenerate daughter along then he didn't need them visiting him either. Grandma had called his bluff, letting him sit out Wednesday (Part 8) without a single visitor, and I spent that whole day happily playing with- I mean by myself at home. Doing a couple of cleaning projects I'd been meaning to get to, then watching the Mets game (9-2, we slaughtered 'em!), and then an old Meg Ryan romantic comedy with a pretty heartwarming ending. A peaceful, productive day ....... But all good things must come to an end, and come Thursday it was time to venture back into that hospital room again.

Where to my utter astonishment Papa was pleasant to me from the moment I arrived. Talking to me and everything! Wow, Grandma's little boycott must've really done the trick! But all was not as it seemed...