A RELUCTANT SPIRIT — FILTERED SPIRITS

By Ingrid Halb

Dan's wife Chrystal, owns the magical vessel but Dan wants to wish for his wife and him to have nicer things. Unfortunately for Dan, she lets him. A cautionary tale set to remind us to appreciate our significant others and appreciate the efforts taken to keep a house clean and tidy.

Dan Simons had been on a run of bad luck. The affect of losing his job a few months back and his inability or unwillingness to find a new one had led to a lot of increased stress in his home life. Fortunately, his wife, a dental hygienist at a private clinic, was still able to bring home a paycheck and keep the couple afloat. The tight money situation did lead to a lot of bickering, and Dan clearly resented his wife’s weekly flea market and yard sale forays. She never seemed to buy anything useful in Dan’s eyes. When she had offered to show him her most recent find he had expected something along the lines of a flowerpot painted to look like a cow or maybe an old piece of lace someone had glued to a picture frame, or some other complete waste of their meager monies. He had definitely not expected to see a three-foot tall magical being.

“Amazing!” he said in wonder.

“See Sweetie, I told you it was magic!”

“Quiet Chrystal, I’m trying to think” Dan said as he lit another cigarette, contemplating the little man in front of him.

Chrystal Simons was miffed by her husband’s attitude. That was just like him, she thought, wrinkling her nose at the smoke. Fine for him to complain about her hobbies but as soon as there was something that interested him it was ‘quiet I’m trying to think’. It was her money after all and not like he was contributing much to the household lately. That is unless you counted the overflowing ashtrays and dirty dishes that waited on her when she got home from work.

She sighed to think how tired she was of it all. She worked long hours for meager pay and was still expected to clean and cook while Dan sat and railed against the world. The least he could do was pitch in on the cleaning. Still, it was hard to stay mad at him. This was especially so with proof of the existence of magic standing right in front of both of them.

She had bought the little man’s vessel because she thought it looked pretty. In addition, it had only cost ten dollars. It had reminded her of magic, unicorns and faeries and such. It seemed a pleasant addition to her collection and was a complete surprise when it turned out to actually be magical. I mean if this could be real, what was stopping all magical creatures from being real?

Dan had a different set of mind. He saw this as better than a lottery jackpot. Hell, he could wish for a jackpot and still get more out of this. His dreams of avarice were slackened dramatically by the lack of response from the little man.

“What do you mean I don’t get to wish?” Dan shouted at the little man.

“Please don’t shout,” the little man responded, wincing. “First off, I highly recommend that you disregard any urges to make wishes. They never work out the way one intends. And secondly, only the true possessor of my vessel has the capability to unleash wishes.”

“He means me,” Chrystal offered.

“What do you mean, true possessor?” Dan asked.

The little man glanced at Chrystal once, shrugging, before answering Dan’s question.

“Only the person who actually owns my vessel, whether it be by purchase, theft, or fortune, has the right to enact wishes,” he lectured.

“That would be me,” Chrystal said.

“Indeed it would,” the little man agreed and smiled at Chrystal.

“What if… what if she gave me your vessel? Would that make you grant my wishes?” Dan proposed.

“Hey!” Chrystal protested.

“Well yes, providing that she did actually give you the vessel voluntarily,” the little man acknowledged. “Chrystal, do you relinquish the vessel to your husband?”

“No!” she said firmly. “I don’t. I used my own money, thank you very much, and I don’t appreciate you trying to jump in and take control. I even invited you to come along but no, you didn’t want to have anything to do with ‘the junk’ I always bring home. So I’m keeping this ‘junk’, mister!”

Dan knew enough to recognize when his wife was upset and in ‘one of her moods’. Unfortunately, he did not always react in the best way possible to those times.

“You mentioned theft. What if I stole you from her?” he asked.

“HEY!!” Chrystal shouted.

“Theft is an acceptable means of gaining my vessel,” the little man agreed. “Were you thinking of leaving your wife or having her killed or thrown out of you r home?”

“HEY!!!!” Chrystal shouted louder.

“What?! No!” Dan protested. “Nothing like that, I love my wife. Can’t we just say I stole your vessel while I make a wish?”

Chrystal folded her arms with a harrumph and glared at her husband. The little man scratched his head a moment, wondering how he should phrase this.

“It is not really stealing,” he explained slowly, “if she is still living in the same home with you. There would be nothing stopping her from calling me up and making a wish.”

Dan took a long drag off his cigarette, blowing the smoke through his nose as he thought deeply.

“What if…,” he said, striving to find the wording that let him use the little man’s magic. “What if she wishes for me to get wishes? Hunh? How about that?”

The little man rolled his eyes and pinched his nose before replying.

“That is doubly not recommended,” he replied.

“But it’s possible, right?” Dan said with glee in his voice.

“Yes, yes it’s possible,” the little man said with resignation. “As long as both her wish granting you this power and your resulting wishes are properly formatted, then yes. It’s possible.”

“Yes!” he shouted fist pumping the air. “Honey, wish me up a bunch of this little guy’s wishes.”

“Daniel Simons,” she answered sternly. “What makes you think I’m talking to you? Steal my magical man, I mean, really. Sure fine for you to talk, but let me bring one nice thing home and suddenly you’re all over it. That’s just like you!”

Dan was smart enough to not point out that she was in fact talking to him.

“Honey,” he said sliding over to put his arms around her. “This is for both of us. You know I love you. C’mon. It’ll be great.”

“Well,” she said, warily.

“I must point out,” the little man interrupted. “That what your husband proposes will complicate matters most profoundly.”

Dan shot the little man a look. Chrystal on the other hand, took him a little more seriously.

“What do you mean ‘complicate matters’?” she asked.

“The difficulty is that the wish will remain yours even as your husband invokes it.”

“Still my wish?” she asked.

“Yes,” the little man answered emphatically. “So his exact words will have to be interpreted by your impressions prior to the magic enacting their exact meaning. The results would be completely unpredictable!”

Chrystal thought carefully on what the little man said.

“Well we’ll just have to be careful on what we wish for then,” Dan offered. “Go ahead Honey, wish me up some wishes.”

“I don’t know,” Chrystal hesitated. “Maybe you should just tell me your wishes and I’ll say them.”

“No,” he said. “This is dangerous. I want to make sure it’s done right.”

Chrystal bristled at Dan’s implied assumption that she would get it wrong but was willing to acquiesce to his persistence.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll get you your wishes, Dan. But I want to hear them first.”

“Okay, dear” he said offering both hands up in a placating gesture. “Whatever you want.”

“I would not recommend it,” was all the little man said.

“Fine,” Chrystal said exhaling. “Properly formatted, right? Well then, I wish that whenever I hear Dan make a wish, I reserve the right to allow that wish to happen.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned, shaking his head sadly.

“Is that it?” Dan asked.

“Almost,” the little man replied.

A small ripple seemed to pass through the space around them, bouncing back and forth between Dan and Chrystal several times before finally settling down.

“Now it is it,” the little man said.

“Really?” asked Dan.

“Really,” the little man confirmed.

“Wahoo!” shouted Dan before grabbing his wife and giving her a great big kiss. “Honey, you’re the greatest! And I know just what to wish for too! We’re going to get all new stuff! Top of the line! You’re going to love it!”

Chrystal was already beginning to regret what she had done but Dan’s enthusiasm was infectious. Besides, they really could use new stuff, she thought looking around at the worn furniture and stained carpeting that filled their run down one storey home. It was not a bad home, just old and worn, which she tried to keep clean after work and on the weekends. It would be good to have nice things for once.

“Alright,” she said. “But be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I got it all figured out,” he said, glancing excitedly back and forth between Chrystal and the little man. “I wish…, I wish all our stuff was brand new and expensive! Nothing but the best stuff!”

“That is what you call a carefully thought out wish?” the little man asked, looking askance at Dan.

“Is it working?” Dan asked darting his eyes back and forth as if he expected riches to fall from the heavens.

“Uh, Sweetie,” Chrystal said touching Dan gently on the arm. “You have to include a time reference for wishes to be properly formatted.”

Dan seemed puzzled.

“Time reference?” he asked.

“You were this close with the word ‘new’ but it just did not take,” the little man offered holding his fingers an inch or two apart.

Dan was not quick to pick up on the sarcasm.

“What kind of time reference?” he asked, even though the little man had clearly explained the need for a time reference along with all the other requirements of a proper wish.

“Why don’t you say something like ‘over the next month everything we own will become brand new’?” Chrystal suggested, genuinely trying to help.

“I would not try to help him,” the little man said. “This will end badly.”

“That sounds good,” Dan said agreeing to Chrystal’s suggestion over that of the little man. “I wish that over the next month everything we own will become brand new and expensive, top of the line and fancy!”

To Dan and Chrystal it appeared that nothing had happened. To the little man it was quite apparent that magical lines of force were pent up, aimed and steadily building strength. This would not end well. But this amount of magical tension needed release.

“Why is nothing happening?” Chrystal asked.

“It is waiting for you to allow the wish,” the little man explained.

“How do I do that?”

“Just say ‘I allow it’.”

“I allow it,” Chrystal nervously spoke in a questioning voice.

Instantly a ripple shot through the room and one could almost hear the faint tinkle of lead crystal glass as the color saturation of every object in the room began to fade.

“Whoa,” said Dan.

But that was all either Dan or Chrystal could say as they watched the changes unfolding around them. There was always a suggestion of color left before an object’s outline would blur and reform into a new shape, similar but different than it had been before. New objects were popping into existence all around them, regaining color as they brightened into this reality.

“Whoa,” Dan repeated. “This is cool!”

Chrystal had to agree as she watched what had been a pressed wood coffee table with cardboard supporting one leg, transform itself into a hand-carved tiger maple table with silver inlays. She also admired the way the leatherette couch and loveseat transformed themselves into silk brocade sectionals. Maybe this magic stuff would work out alright, she thought.

“This is amazing!” Dan said, watching as their aged television transformed itself into a 62-inch plasma hi-def flat screen. He was a little perturbed when his Budweiser beanbag chair and Coleman cooler transformed into a pair of high back rattan chairs on either side of a café table and refrigerated wine cooler but he was not going to let that detail get him down. Not when everything they owned was being upgraded so dramatically before his eyes.

“Hey!” he shouted. “What’s up with my bowling trophies?!”

Dan watched helplessly as his half dozen trophies shimmered and reformed into various Fenton art glass sculptures and vases.

“Ooh! Pretty,” Chrystal said. She had always liked Fenton and had never cared much for bowling anyway.

It was at this point that Dan began to notice that the room was not exactly taking on a style that he would have chosen. Overall the room had kind of a feminine feel to it that left Dan feeling a little excluded. Still, one could not help but be excited at the obvious increase in the family’s fortunes.

“Honey!” he shouted looking out the window. “Check out your Dodge, it’s turning into a Porsche Cabriolet!”

He was less impressed by what he next observed happening to his pickup truck.

“Hey! HEY!! What the… God damn it! Why is my truck turning into a Miata?” he demanded.

“Really?” Chrystal asked. “I always liked those cars!”

Dan remained agitated as he stormed around the reforming house pulling open doors and drawers in an increasingly agitated state of mind.

“What the hell… Where’s my fishing rods?” he demanded. “And why is there a brand new vacuum cleaner here?”

Dan did not wait for an answer but stormed off into another room of the house shouting helplessly as he watched more and more of his stuff transformed. Chrystal had no ready explanation and was in fact distracted by what was starting to happen to her clothes. The shimmering left her slightly exposed for a moment as her clothes reformed into a new pattern.

“It’s Dan’s wish, isn’t it?” she asked the little man as her simple t-shirt transformed into a Michael Kors silk blouse. “Even our clothes are becoming fancy.”

“Quite so,” the little man agreed. He had relaxed as the magic had fallen into place. This particular transformation seemed to be following a reasonably mundane path and there seemed little need for worry at this point. “For the next month, everything that comes into your or your husband’s possession will transform in a like manner.”

Chrystal thought for a while, watching as her blue jeans morphed themselves into a Dolce & Gabbana high waist pencil skirt.

“Doesn’t this mean,” she asked the little man, “that over the next month I can go buy any old thrift shop clothes and when I bring them they’ll turn into designer skirts and dresses for me or suits for Dan?”

“Skirts and dresses, sure,” the little man agreed. “Suits might be a bit of a problem.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as leggings that she thought might be Chanel began to creep up her legs.

“It is still your wish,” the little man explained. “Even though it was your husband who wished for everything to become ‘top of the line’ and ‘fancy’ any magical transformations will reflect your understanding of ‘top of the line’ and ‘fancy’.”

I think these are Jimmy Choo, she thought looking at the shoes appearing on her feet.

“So any magical changes to Dan’s clothes…” she started.

“Will reflect your understanding of ‘top of the line’ and ‘fancy’” the little man finished.

“WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO MY CLOTHES!?!” Dan screamed from somewhere in the back of the house.

“Oh dear!” she said. “Maybe I should go check on him.”

“That is probably a good idea,” the little man agreed.

_____ o _____

The little man was used to the clamoring demands of mortals for additional adjustments to magical changes in status. So he was not overtly surprised to be recalled to Dan and Chrystal’s new house one month later even as he admired the cohesive feel of the somewhat feminine style of his surroundings.

“Hello Chrystal, hello Dan,” he said.

“Hi!” Chrystal waved.

“Finally!” Dan sighed.

“I take it Dan is not too happy with the way his wish turned out,” the little man remarked.

“Not too happy, no,” Chrystal said. “He hasn’t left the house in a month.’

She was wearing a stylish and expensive looking pant suit that would have looked quite appropriate in a business semi-formal setting. Dan was wearing beige Capri pants with a side zip and a powder blue sleeveless tee with a scoop neck. On his feet he had on a pair of New Balance cross trainers with lime green piping.

“Do you have any idea of what I’ve gone through this last month?” Dan demanded.

“I think I have a pretty good idea,” the little man answered nonchalantly. “Everything you owned including your clothes has transformed into a high class female version of what it was before.”

“That’s…! That’s… absolutely correct. How did you know that?” Dan said deflating his bluster, before pulling a cigarette out of a long thin pastel colored package and lighting it with a slim elegant silver lighter.

“I see the magic, Dan,” the little man lectured. “Once things start to fall into place I have a pretty good idea about how they will turn out.”

“You should have seen him that first day,” Chrystal giggled. “He was wearing a Vera Wang Lavender label little black dress with matching shoes!”

“Even my underwear changed,” Dan said, turning a deep crimson. “I almost snapped an ankle before I got those shoes off too.”

“I didn’t know they made designer dresses in that size,” Chrystal said.

“It is the magic,” the little man said.

“Can we please not talk about my dress?!” Dan shouted, stabbing the half-smoked cigarette out on an overflowing ashtray.

“Even these girlie ultra-lights are driving me nuts!” he said. “I would kill for a Marlboro right now.”

“All his cigarettes change as soon as I bring them in the house,” Chrystal confided to the little man who nodded knowingly.

“But the magic is over now,” the little man pointed out. “There is nothing stopping you from buying more gender appropriate clothing and getting on with your life.”

Dan and Chrystal looked at each other briefly.

“There is one thing stopping us,” Dan said.

“Dan’s wish that everything we own be expensive,” Chrystal explained. “This place is costing us a fortune. We might be able to make the utilities but we’ll never make the mortgage.”

“I see,” the little man said. “Have you considered selling some of your recent acquisitions?”

“That’s what I suggested!” Chrystal said. “The TV alone could get us a thousand dollars even on the used market.”

“Screw that!” Dan spat. “The TV is the one thing that’s turned out alright about this wish. I have a better idea.”

“Please not another wish, Dan,” the little man begged. “It will not end well.”

“Don’t worry, I have it all figured out,” Dan promised. “We just need enough juice to keep this place going and to buy me a new set of clothes. After that, we’re all good.”

Chrystal and the little man cast skeptical looks at each other.

“Oh, you don’t believe me?” Dan asked. “Well check this wish out. I wish that both Chrystal and I had jobs that would allow us to keep this house running indefinitely and finally get me enough money to wear some proper clothes!”

“I should know better,” Chrystal said. “But I allow it.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned as he let slip the lines of magic.

A small but significant ripple shot through the room, bouncing several times before settling in on Dan and his wife.

“Is it finished?” Dan asked.

“Not quite yet,” the little man answered.

Their attention was drawn by the magical appearance of a framed certificate appearing over the oak desk in the study behind them. The certificate had the name ‘Chrystal Maartens, D.D.S.’ on it.

“I’m a dentist?” Chrystal asked before years of education and experience began forming up in her memory. “I am a dentist!” she exclaimed.

“Not just a dentist, but also a full partner at the clinic,” the little man pointed out.

“Cool!” Dan exclaimed, “I can’t wait to see what kind of job I get out of this!”

“Why does it have my maiden name?” Chrystal wondered aloud.

Just then, the magic seemed to take hold of Dan and he shuddered violently as the clothing he wore began to fade into non-existence, solidifying once again into a completely new pattern. It quickly became apparent that the baby blue polyester clothes with wide grey collar combined with the non-slick shoes that he wore was a service uniform. The tea apron, skirt, and no-nonsense opaque beige pantyhose he wore, also proved that he was now more properly classed among the house cleaning staff.

“I’m a freaking maid!” he shouted looking down at the clothes he wore.

“I think the term is ‘housekeeper’” the little man corrected. “Now it is finished,” he added.

“Amazing!” Chrystal said, tittering at the sight.

Dan was indeed wearing the clothing of a female domestic servant, complete with little frilly bonnet. However, this in no way matched the obvious male body he possessed. The overall impression was of a man-maid of six-foot height wearing a perfectly fitted obviously female servant’s dress.

“Why the hell am I a maid?” Dan asked as he put away a pile of magazines that were scatted on the coffee table, straightened the couch pillows, then emptied and cleaned the ashtray before sitting down and lighting another smoke.

“This must be the job you wished for,” Chrystal said. “Magic’s way of allowing you to keep this house running.”

“Indeed it is,” the little man agreed.

“How does this keep the house running?” Dan shouted from the kitchen. He had stubbed out his cigarette and taken the ashtray into the kitchen for re-cleaning. Along the way, he had picked up all the old drink cans and a leftover empty plate off of the coffee table, all of which he was now rinsing prior to stacking the plate in the dishwasher and putting the cans into the recycling bin. “All I’m doing is cleaning!”

Chrystal showed remarkable restraint at that comment but she did shoot a look at Dan who emerged from the kitchen with dust rag and spray polish in his hands which he proceeded to use on the coffee table he had just cleared. Maybe she should keep Dan like this for a while just to let him know how much work it took to keep this place clean. There was however one question that she had not gotten an answer to.

“Why am I Dr. Maartens instead of Dr. Simons?” she asked.

The little man studied the lines connecting Dan with Chrystal for a moment before answering.

“It appears that there has been a fundamental shift in the relationship between you two,” he said.

“No shit,” Dan responded sarcastically as he straightened up from cleaning the table, smoothed out his hem of his dress and headed back to the kitchen to return the cleaning supplies.

“It seems,” the little man continued nonplussed at Dan’s interjection, “that the two of you are no longer man and wife.”

“What!!” Chrystal yelped in shock. They had been married seven years now and while Dan was definitely a slob and a bit of boor, they did have a loving relationship.

“Yes,” the little man continued. “It seems that your current relationship can best be described as that of one between employer and employee.”

He had gestured towards Chrystal at the word ‘employer’ and ended at Dan with the word ‘employee’.

“What!!” Dan yelped in shock. He had just gotten the vacuum cleaner out and was half way through unwinding the cord when the little man had made the outrageous claim. “I work for her now? No! No, no, no, no, no!”

“I am afraid the answer is yes,” the little man said consolingly.

Chrystal smiled contemplatively.

“Does this mean he has to do what I tell him?” she asked.

“Oh most assuredly, I believe the terms of the spell would compel it.”

Chrystal’s smile broadened.

Dan stood shaking in his maid uniform before reaching into a pocket of his apron to pull out his smokes and the slim silver lighter. He lit one of the ultra-lights and inhaled deeply trying to regain his calm before speaking.

“How long,” he said through clenched teeth.

“What?” the little man asked.

“How long do I have to work as her maid?” he asked, fighting to remain calm.

“I believe that the original time frame of this wish was for an indefinite term of employment. I am afraid that only another act of magic would be able to relieve you of your duties,” the little man said sounding sincerely apologetic.

“How soon,” Dan said in a surprisingly calm voice despite the roaring noise going on in his ears.

“You probably should consider leaving things as they are...” the little man started.

Dan silenced him by raising one hand and spoke slowly, in spite of the feeling that his head was about to explode.

“How soon, before I can wish myself out of this nightmare,” he asked, still calm.

“Hard to tell,” the little man shrugged. “These constant compulsion type wishes are a tremendous drain. Plus everything around here is already magically generated. Not much free magic to be had. I would think it probably echoes the first wish, one or two months should do it.”

“One or two months!” Dan shouted.

“Maybe three,” the little man responded. “Like I said, it is hard to say. Listen, I know you two have a lot to talk about but in just a couple of moments, I will have to leave. I would like you to consider keeping things the way they are because as uncomfortable as this may be believe me it could get a lot worse. So maybe see you later but hopefully, goodbye.”

With that, the little man vanished. Dan stood there slack jawed in shock and surprise. Chrystal inspected her six-foot tall man-maid standing there in his neatly starched dress. It really was remarkably well tailored, she thought.

“Finish the vacuuming and we’ll talk later,” she said, sighing with resignation.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Dan responded automatically, plugging in the vacuum and flicking on the switch before starting in on the carpets. He was half way through the first room before he realized what he had said and what he was doing.

_____ o _____

“Dan, Chrystal! Good to see you both. I trust you are doing well,” the little man remarked cheerfully.

“Hi!” Chrystal waved. She was actually quite elegantly dressed in a designer tracksuit, barefoot, reclining in a lounger with a cut-glass tumbler of lemonade in her hand.

Dan just rolled his eyes without comment. He was wearing a navy blue professional maid’s uniform with white collar and shoulders, and accented by his white apron. The dress came to just over his knees. His nylons were opaque white and he wore sensible black patent leather shoes with a one-inch heel. He also happened to be carrying a feather duster, which he was busy flicking over the knick-knacks in the room. The house looked spotless.

“It has been a while,” the little man said. He noticed that Dan wore a light foundation with subdued lip and eye color. His nails were neatly polished a bright pearl that matched the solitaire earrings he wore. He was very professionally dressed but looked ridiculously inappropriate.

“Six months,” Dan muttered.

“Yes it has,” Chrystal agreed. “Dan, be a dear and get us a refill would you?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Dan replied while curtseying quickly before taking the glass from Chrystal and heading back to the kitchen.

“He does that now!” she whispered conspiratorially to the little man. “He can’t help himself!”

Dan returned from the kitchen with a full glass and offered it submissively to Chrystal.

“Thank you, dear,” she said with a gleam in her eye. “Just put it down on the table. He’s such a treasure. I don’t know how I managed before I found him.”

“Can we please get on with this,” Dan begged, blushing a deep red color as he put the drink down on a coaster.

“Now, now dear, don’t be rude, I won’t allow it” Chrystal laughed.”Wouldn’t want to give me a reason to let you go would we?”

“No, Ma’am,” Dan said politely, hanging his head.

“Of course Maria is always threatening to hire you away from me. You could always go work for her,” Chrystal teased.

“Maria?” the little man asked.

“One of the girls that works for me down at the clinic,” Chrystal explained. “Dan cleans house for her every first weekend of the month.”

“I can’t ‘not clean’,” Dan spat out bitterly.

“That’s not quite true, Sweetie. You also do the shopping and cooking now!” Chrystal said with a straight face before bursting out laughing.

Dan blushed even deeper.

“So you go out dressed like this?” the little man asked trying to determine exactly how deep this compulsion ran in Dan.

“It started when I wouldn’t allow him to smoke in the house anymore,” Chrystal said answering for Dan who by now had resumed his dusting chores. “Then I noticed that he didn’t hesitate when I had him take the garbage out or fetch the mail. Soon I had him picking up the shopping for me and now I let him work weekends out. He has six other houses he cleans for. He earns some decent money, too.”

“Fat lot of good it does me,” Dan complained. “All I can buy with it is cleaning supplies and girl stuff.”

“Well it is important to always look properly dressed,” Chrystal said laughing again. “Seriously though, I am going to miss his cleaning.”

“You are going to allow him to make another wish then,” the little man said nodding in resignation.

“Yeah, I think he’s suffered enough and I believe he’s learned his lesson now.”

“Yes! Finally!” Dan said were more emotion than he had shown till now.

“You should probably consider keeping things the way they are. Wishes never work out the way one intends,” the little man cautioned.

“Shut up!” Dan snapped at the little man. “Just you shut up. This nightmare ends now!”

“What I mean is…”

“Shut up!” Dan snapped again, pointing warningly at the little man. “I’ve had six months to think about this. You’re not stopping me now.”

Dan’s tone softened as he looked at his former wife.

“Honey, I’m sorry,” he started. “I’ve been a total ass. I bossed you around and disrespected what you did to keep this place going. I want you to know I love you and that I just wish that you can forgive me and that we could be together again forever.”

“Oh, Dan,” Chrystal said with tears in her eyes. She rose to fall into Dan’s arms and they kissed passionately for a time. Which was an odd sight given that Dan was still a six-foot tall man-maid and had neglected to put the feather duster down.

“Now that’s a wish I can allow,” Chrystal said when they broke for air.

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

After a brief wait, a familiar ripple passed through Dan and Chrystal causing them both to shudder. Dan in particular shuddered visibly.

“Oooh!” he said. “I am never going to get used to that! Did it work?”

“Oh it worked,” the little man assured him.

“I think the question should be what did it do,” Chrystal said nervously biting her lip.

“An excellent question,” the little man agreed. “And I believe we should be getting our answer shortly.”

Just then, Dan’s clothes began to shimmer slightly and take on a more indistinct appearance as they began to shift.

“It’s working!” he said.

Neither Chrystal nor the little man said anything as they watched Dan’s clothes flow to assume new shapes. The apron disappeared entirely and the navy blue of his maid’s dress faded to a charcoal gray. The bottom portion of the dress detached itself into a separate skirt while the top lost its collar, developing an open scoop neck. The bra he had been compelled to wear as a housekeeper softened and began to spread lower to cover his ribcage and belly before poking out the bottom of his newly transformed top with a good three inches of lacy white trim. There was no expansion upwards as the newly formed camisole stayed level across his chest, scooping low across his armpits while the straps become extra skinny and were clearly visible on his shoulders.

“What the hell!” Dan exclaimed as he could feel his pantyhose split at the crotch and disappear from his hips as they started to travel down each leg as individual stockings. They kept their opaque color as the material thickened and settled down as a pair of knee high white cotton socks. His shoes in the meantime had transformed themselves into a pair of slip on Keds emblazoned with cartoon characters.

“Oh dear,” Chrystal said in a worried voice.

“What the hell is going on?” Dan shouted in a voice that seemed unusually high pitched.

The little man took a moment to study the flow of magic before answering.

“It appears Dan that the letter of your wish will be honored and that you and Chrystal are about to be bonded into a relationship that cannot be broken by contract or marital status,” the little man said with a sigh.

“You don’t mean…” Chrystal’s words drifted off as she watched Dan’s clothes continue to change.

The little man just shrugged his shoulders.

“What are you two talking about?” a highly agitated Dan demanded in a voice that seemed to rise to an even higher pitch. He watched in a kind of horror as his gray skirt developed pleats and crept up to mid-thigh while his top brightened to a rich pink color with sequins sprouting on the front in the shape of a unicorn.

He still has his earrings on, Chrystal thought, but not his wedding ring. She noted with a start that her own wedding ring had disappeared without her notice sometime while she had been watching Dan. Dan was too involved with his clothing changes to notice the absence of the ring and was about to make another noisy demand for answers when he was interrupted by another ripple passing through his body and a particular strong shudder it gave him. To ‘Dan’ it had felt like a strong in-folding centered on the crotch. The in-folding seemed so particularly crotch orientated that ‘Dan’ could not avoid reaching down to feel what had happened. The thin material of the skirt and panties did nothing to hide the obvious absence of external genitalia.

“I’m turning into a woman!” ‘Dan’ screamed in a voice that was almost cartoonish on the man-sized body she temporarily possessed.

“Technically true,” the little man agreed. “But it will take a few more years for that to happen.”

“What?!” ‘Dan’ said before becoming distracted by the room suddenly seeming to grow in size. Panic filled her as she stood there with her hands clasped across her now feminine groin, watching as the room slowly grew in size. She was momentarily disorientated by light auburn colored hair that fell past her shoulders eventually reaching halfway to her skirt. She was doubly disorientated when she looked up at the others in the room. Chrystal was now noticeably taller than her, and the little man was gaining on her by the moment.

“You’re becoming my daughter,” Chrystal said.

“WHAT!?!?!” the rapidly younger girl shouted.

“Quite so,” the little man nodded. “By now you should be solidly associating with the name Diane Maartens, not quite seven years of age and only daughter of Chrystal Maartens, Doctor of Dental Surgery. Quite a feat it must have been, going through dental school as a single mother and all.”

“Yes,” Chrystal agreed as new memories of past struggles appeared, “but worth it,” she added looking at the young girl in front of her. Diane was now no more than half a head taller than the little man and it looked like the changes were coming to an end.

“Diane Maartens?” Diane asked still in shock but realizing that that was indeed her real name now. “I can’t be Diane! I’m not a little girl! I’m a grown man!”

Chrystal shook her head sadly.

“No,” she said. “You’re my little baby girl now.”

“No!” Diane shouted back. “We need another wish! We need to make a wish right now!”

“That’s enough,” Chrystal snapped, raising her voice. “There will be no more wishes now or ever!”

“But, Mother…” Diane started to say before slapping her hand over her mouth, shocked at how she had automatically referred to Chrystal.

“No buts, young lady!” Chrystal said sternly. “I won’t have you talking back to me. Now you get yourself washed up and ready for bed. You have school in the morning and you need to get your sleep.”

Diane could only manage a strangled ‘eep’ noise before running off in confusion to her room to change for bed.

“This is going to be weird,” Chrystal admitted to the little man once Diane had left the room.

“It will get easier with time,” the little man shrugged.

“I see both a daughter and a husband when I look at her,” she said.

“The husband part will fade and she is a beautiful daughter.”

“Yes she is,” Chrystal agreed.

“You are not going to make any wishes are you,” the little man said. It was not really a question.

“No,” she said, smiling tiredly. “They don’t seem to work out the way you plan. I think I’ll try this reality out for awhile. Maybe I can get comfortable with it.”

“I hope so,” the little man said, “for both your sake.”

“At least he finally quit smoking,” she laughed.

“There is that,” he agreed.

Chrystal was going to say something else but the little man had already disappeared. She heard the sound of Diane running water in the bathroom. She took one more wistful look at the little man’s vessel. I am going to miss the cleaning, she thought picking up the duster that Dan had dropped during his transformation, then shook her head once before getting up to check on her daughter and help her get ready for bed.

THE END

A RELUCTANT SPIRIT

By Ingrid Halb

In which we introduce a three-foot tall magical being that enables wishes that should not be made. And Jack, who thinks he's smart enough to make wishes that can't go wrong. Revised and rewritten here for your appraisal, with a slightly re-written ending.

“So, you’re a genie?” Jack would have had a hard time believing this if he had not just seen evidence of the little guy’s capabilities.

“That’s close enough,” answered the three-foot tall man standing before him.

“And you do magic on request?” Jack felt stupid asking the question but it was hard to deny the evidence before him.

“It’s more correct to say that I allow the magic to happen” the little man answered calmly, if not a little tiredly. “You see, there is a certain amount of magical energy inside everything. When I hear a properly formatted wish from the person currently in possession of my vessel, it triggers me to release that energy in a general predetermined direction.”

“But you do grant wishes, right?” interrupted Jack.

“Okay fine, I grant wishes, but I strongly recommend you avoid doing so as much as possible.”

“Why? Is it because I only get three wishes?”

“No, you get all the wishes you want.”

“Then why not make wishes?”

The little man rolled his eyes heavenward before answering. “Magic is funny. It goes where it wants. I can channel it in a general direction but not control its outcome. And once a wish is granted, it is devilishly difficult to reverse the effect. So it is very important to never make a wish unless you are completely certain that you will be happy with every possible outcome that fulfills the wish.”

“Happy with anyway it turns out, eh?” Jack said scratching his head. “So all I need is a ‘no-lose’ wish then.”

“Exactly, but no such wish exists,” the little man said shaking his head side to side.

“Yeah, well. Check this out then.” Jack retorted in a cocky voice. “I wish for beautiful women!”

……..

After awhile, the cocky expression on Jack’s face was replaced with a more puzzled look.
“How come nothing happened?” he finally asked.

“You did not make your wish in the proper format,” the little man said condescendingly. “There are rules for constructing a proper wish.”

“Rules?” Jack said, not at all used to the rather unusual situation of having a three-foot tall man look down his nose at him.

“Yes. A proper wish must have an object, and action, a time reference, and no more than three qualifiers.” The little man was clearly lecturing now. Jack scratched his head again before answering.

“Hold it. A what?”

The little man rolled his eyes before repeating in a more careful cadence. “An object, an action, a time reference, and no more than three qualifiers. Understand?”

“Uh, no,” admitted Jack. “Explain that in more detail.”

“An object is something for the magic to act upon or, depending on context of the wish, something that is to be created.” The little man was clearly in lecture mode again. “An action is what you intend the magic to do to the object, or in the case of an object created out of nothing, it refers to the simple act of creation. For example, a wish to make you smarter would have ‘you’ as the object and ‘make smarter’ as the action. Whereas in a wish for ‘beautiful women to appear’, ‘women’ would be the object and ‘appear’ would be the action.”

Jack bristled at the implied insult. “But that’s what I wished for!”

“No.” The little man wagged his index finger at Jack. “Exact words are important and yours were ‘I wish for beautiful women’. That is an object and one qualifier with no action and no time reference, which makes it more of a general statement of yearning than a formal wish, really.”

Jack felt chagrinned. “So if I include an action, I can have my wish?”

“An action and a time reference.”

“What kind of time reference?”

The little man went back into lecture mode. “Almost anything is acceptable. You could wish for something at once, or at some future or past time. You can wish for something to last a given length of time such as being lucky for a day, or not hungry for an hour. You have to be very careful with your time references, though. The wish will last the exact time requested. You cannot extend it longer and you cannot end it early. Understand?”

“Uh, yeah. I think so.” Jack did not look like he understood at all, but at least he was willing to ask more question. “What were those things I got three of?”

“Qualifiers.”

“Yeah, qualifiers. What are those again?”

“Simply put, a qualifier is anything extra added to a valid wish. If a wish can be granted without a given phrase or expression, then that phrase or expression is a qualifier.”

It looked like a light was dawning behind Jack’s eyes. “So I could wish for beautiful women with red hair and that would be a qualifier, right?”

“Technically, that would be two qualifiers; red hair and beautiful. You would also need an action and a time reference to consider that a formal wish. You could wish for beautiful women with red hair to be attracted to you whenever they see you or for beautiful women with red hair to appear before you every third Tuesday. Then you would have a properly formatted wish.”

Jack was nodding his head up and down all during the little man’s explanation. “Okay,” he said. “I think I understand this and I’m ready to make my first wish.”

The little man winced. “Please reconsider your intent. I have done this a lot of times and wishes almost never work out like you think they are going to.”

Jack was undeterred. “I think I have a fool-proof wish ready,” he maintained.

The little man winced even more strongly. “Everyone thinks that way. I beg you. Do not make that wish. You will be better off without it.”

“I wish to be surrounded by beautiful women for the rest of my life!” Jack voiced loudly, a big grin on his face.

“As you wish,” the little man intoned formally.

Jack looked around eagerly for a few moments. Gradually though, the smile began to fade from his face. “How come nothings happening?” he complained.

“Give it time!” the little man answered brusquely. “Magic has to flow some before it has a noticeable effect.”

A shudder passed through Jack and for a moment, it seemed a ripple passed through the room.

“Whoa! Did you feel that?” Jack asked.

“Yes I did. The magic is starting to work.”

“What’s happening? What’s it going to do?”

“I do not know.”

“You don’t know?!”

“I told you,” the little man said once again shaking his head and rolling his eyes at Jack’s questions. “I just allow the magic to happen. I do not control what it actually does.”

Jack accepted the little man’s explanation if for no other reason than he was being distracted by what was going on with his apartment.

“The room seems kind of shimmery now.” Jack was not addressing anyone in particular. He just felt the need to say something in the face of the visual strangeness going on.

The little man chose to answer anyway. “The magic is definitely having an effect. First it will set the stage for your wish to be granted.”

Jack was enthralled at the changes that were beginning to take effect on his apartment and belongings. “Hey cool! All the doorways are arches now. And there are rugs and pillows all over the floor. And what’s with all that squiggly writing on the walls?”

“That is Arabic script,” the little man answered as he carefully studied the room’s growing number of changes. “They are lines from the Koran, actually. This new reality of yours seems to be taking on a Middle Eastern flavor.”

“Middle Eastern? You mean we’re not in the U.S. any more?” Jack was confused but taking it in stride.

“I would very much doubt it,” the little man replied distractedly. “Definitely Arabic or possibly Persian. Anyway, judging by the looks of things, this will be the palace of a very rich sultan.”

“A palace? I didn’t wish for a palace, I wished for girls!” Jack was adamant on this point.

The little man was still too engrossed in the details of the changing room to be put out by Jack’s tone of voice. “Magic is unpredictable, but it does try to tie up loose ends. Perhaps it was easiest for you to be surrounded by beautiful women if you were a rich sultan.”

“Yeah?” Jack was obviously pleased by that idea. “That would be so hot, man. But where are the women at?”

“Patience,” the little man replied. “Magic does take some time and this is just the stage being set. Ah! I believe these are the women arriving now.”

Some dozen forms began to materialize around the room. Lumpy and indistinct at first they gradually took on the more recognizable form of curvaceous women. Dressed in silks and bedecked in jewelry, they lay about the room in varying stages of undress.

"Oh man! They are gorgeous! I am going to enjoy this!" Jack rubbed his hands in glee at the prospect of meeting these women. "These dozen babes and this palace are perfect! See, I told you this wish was fool-proof."

"Fourteen women, by my count." The little man was still paying attention to the details of the enfolding wish. "And it does look like you have been granted your very own harem. Congratulations, it is very rare to have a wish work out as well as intended."

"This is going to be great! My own harem! And you said I shouldn't make any wishes. Hah!" Jack was clearly gloating at this point.

"It does seem that fortune has smiled on you but for your own sake, I urge you to make no more wishes." The little man spoke without looking at Jack but continued to pay close attention to the surrounding details of the room.

"Whoa. I mean, hey now...Did you feel that?" Jack asked the smile no longer on his face.

The shudder that had just passed through Jack was similar to the earlier one but this time the ripple did not pass through to the room but stayed centered on Jack. The little man did not answer Jack but his attention was now focused on Jack directly.

"I...I feel funny. What's happening?" asked the no longer smug Jack.

"The magic is not yet over," the little man began to explain in a calm manner. "It is now altering you to fit within the parameters of your wish."

"Altering me? How? Why?" A note of worry crept into Jack's voice. He did not like the idea of being altered, at all.

"I do not yet know exactly," the little man admitted. "But based on the pattern of the magical lines of energy surrounding you and this room, I would say that the creation of the harem was to fulfill the action of the wish while the changes being placed on you have to do with fulfilling the time reference."

Jack did not like this at all. "You mean the 'rest of my life' part?" he asked worriedly.

"Exactly. Perhaps you are being turned into an Arab," the little man offered. "After all, not many Americans own their own harem."

"I guess I could live with that," Jack ventured after considering the possibility for awhile. "Man, do I feel weird. Even my clothes are changing now. Is there a mirror around here, so I can see what's going on?"

"Yes, near the urn by the archway on the other side of the room." The little man pointed as he spoke.

"Okay, I see it." Jack began walking between several recumbent women as he made his way across the room. "Boy, even walking feels weird. Kind of slinky and wriggly at the same time."

The little man was still studying Jack closely. "You do seem to be walking peculiarly."

"And these clothes are getting thinner and thinner. I mean you can almost see through these things." Jack rubbed his hands across the increasingly gossamer-like material.

"Soft though. Are they supposed to be like this?" he asked looking back over his shoulder.

"If what is happening is what I think is happening, then yes. Your clothes will change a little more dramatically than you had anticipated," the little man answered cryptically, still studying Jack intently.

"What do you mean by that?" Jack asked, distracted by his reflection as he came up to the mirror. "Hey, get a look at me. I think I am becoming an Arab. My eyes were never brown before, my skin tone is definitely darker, and my hair is turning jet black. Kind of long though. It looks like I'll need a haircut."

"Believe me, I do not think you need a haircut," the little man said with an odd inflection in his voice. Jack however was too distracted by his reflection to notice.

"Really? It's pretty long." Jack noted while pulling on his hair, now extending an inch past his ears. "God, I look so young. You don't think I'm turning into a kid do you?"

"No," the little man said looking Jack over from head to toe. "I believe you will be a fully functional adult when this is over."

"That's good," Jack said, a little more relaxed from the assurances of the little man. "Because it would like totally suck to have my own harem and be too young to use it. If you know what I mean."

"There would be a certain irony to that," the little man said in agreement.

Jack noted the beginning of another shudder. "Wait, here comes another wave," he spoke just as the ripple passed through him followed by a particularly gut-wrenching shudder.

"Oooh-ah!! That was the strongest one yet. Hey, my hair is definitely too long now!" Jack shook his head as he spoke; feeling his hair brush against his shoulders and across the top of his back. "Why are my fingernails so long? Am I wearing jewelry? I am wearing jewelry! These are earrings!"

He reached up to hold one earring in each hand before looking down over the rest of his body.

"And these clothes, is it necessary for them to reveal so much skin and...," Jack leapt back from the mirror as if bitten.

"Merciful Allah! I am becoming a woman!" his panicked voice registering in a higher pitch than it had just moments before.

"I am afraid so," the little man said consolingly.

"But it makes no sense! How can I own a harem of beautiful women if I myself am such a woman?" Jack said, a dazed and confused look in his soft brown eyes.

The little man shook his head sadly. "It makes perfect sense if we assume that instead of owning such a harem, you are in fact a member of the harem."

Jack looked stunned as his eyes widened with understanding. "Me? A harem girl? No, this cannot be! I command you to change me back!"

"I do not act on commands, I act on wishes," the little man answered patiently. "And wishes can not just be reversed while the time reference is in effect. They are not stable that way."

"I do not care!" Jack said with a note of hysteria in his voice. "Make me a man again, immediately! I wish it so!"

.........

"Why is nothing happening?" Jack asked in a hushed and surprisingly sultry voice.

The little man looked askance at Jack. "There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, the magic has not finished fitting you into this reality. Notice how your clothing is becoming more revealing and that your breasts are still filling out. More importantly, the magical energy from your immediate surroundings was released to create these changes and it is now depleted. You must get a good night's sleep to replenish it."

Jack grabbed his expanding breasts with both hands and looked at the little man in horror. "You mean I must stay in this form until morning?”

“At least,” the little man answered in a tone that sounded far too casual to Jack’s now shell-like ears. “Until the energy is recharged there is nothing I can do for you. And I strongly recommend you consider staying in this form permanently.”

“WHAT?!”

The little man continued in that same irritatingly casual tone. “Sure, you will get to live out your life in pampered splendor as a member of a royal harem. Another wish is just likely to make things worse. This reality is not so bad, really.”

“Listen, imp!” Jack was finally able to find his voice. “It could not possibly be worse than this and I intend to remedy this situation at first light of the morning!”

“Will you not at least consider staying as you are now?” the little man asked.

“Never!”

“All right, then,” the little man’s voice took on a note of resignation. “I will see you in the morning. In the meantime, you might want to keep me hidden. If one of the other wives were to take me away from you, then you will not have any choice but to stay as you are.”

“Other wives? Take you away?”

“It has happened before. The power of magic is a powerful lure to most people. Just keep me hidden and I will see you in the morning. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight?”

_____ o _____

“Good morning!” the little man was in a chipper mood as he addressed the young woman who had until yesterday been Jack. “My you are looking lovely today. I must say that those veils with that skirt are quite attractive on you.”

“Be quiet!” the woman replied.

“You have redone your hair!” the little man continued in the same light banter. “And are you wearing eye makeup? Oh, I am so glad you have reconsidered and started adjusting to your new life in the harem. Within a few years, you will be glad you listened to me.”

“I said be still, imp!” It was obvious that ‘Jack’ was not in a good mood. “I have no intention of adjusting to this form in which I find myself. I intend to wish it away and return to my manhood at once.”

This time it was the little man who looked confused. “But it is almost noon now. Why did you wait so long to call me? And why go to the trouble of accenting your eyes and hair and dressing in such a provocative manner that so highlight the lovely feminine attributes of your new body?”

‘Jack’ blushed and demurely turned her face away before answering. “These women, the rest of the harem… They woke me at dawn, bathed me and dressed me. Then they are the ones that painted my nails and face while redoing my hair. I have not had a moment’s solitude all morning.”

“Bathed you, eh?” The little man rubbed his chin while he considered the prospect. “That could not have been too bad.”

“That was… not unpleasant.” ‘Jack’ admitted. “But torturous to be so surrounded by the temptations of flesh and so ill equipped to profit from the experience. They call me sister! And they covered me with silks, jewels and perfume!”

“You do smell nice.”

“Shut up! This is all your fault and I will stand it no longer.” ‘Jack’ spoke with conviction in a voice that sounded anything but authoritative. “Reverse the spell that was cast upon me yesterday. I wish it so at once!”

“As you wish” the little man intoned formally before continuing in a slightly irritated voice. “And this is not my fault! I have done nothing but warn you and urge you not to make wishes. Did you listen to me? No! And now you have gone and wasted another wish trying to undo things that cannot be undone!”

“It’s working! I feel it working!” ‘Jack’ said as he felt the now familiar shudder. “I feel strength coursing into my arms! Quick! Where is my mirror? Ah hah! See! My hair is shorter and I no longer have my makeup on! I am becoming again a man!”

“Oh, that you are, I assure you,” the little man said as he shook his head. “I can see how this is going.”

“Lying Djin!” ‘Jack’ trumpeted his exultation. “You tried to trick me into that female body. But I did not listen! My breasts are becoming small again and my clothes are becoming a shirt and pants again!”

“You did not listen all right. That’s for sure.”

“Hey! My penis is back! Fucking-A!” Jack crowed. “And my testicles! Hello boys, I missed you.”

“I hate to break into your little family reunion,” the little man interrupted. “But you do remember me telling you that it was not stable to try to reverse time-referenced magic, right?”

“Don’t worry,” the newly returned Jack dismissed. “First thing tomorrow, I’ll make a new wish and this time I’ll word things a little more specifically. Hey, look! My apartment’s coming back! Boy it’s good to be back home again.”

“You do not get it, do you?” the little man said as if talking to a child. “Wishes are trouble, and they cannott be just reversed like this. All you have done is push a ball halfway back up a hill that it just fell down.”

"Ah, you worry too much." Jack said almost scornfully. "See, everything is solid and back to normal." Indeed, everything did calm down and settle into the comfortable patterns with which Jack was familiar.

"And now the ball rolls back down the hill," the little man said tiredly.

"Huh? Hey, why is the room getting shimmery again?" Jack asked just a shudder passed through him and a ripple swept the room.

"Why do you think?"

"No! Make it stop!"

"There is no stopping it. The magic will do what it will do."

The little man’s words were barely finished before another ripple ran through the room. In rapid succession the archways, pillows, rugs, and other exotic yet familiar features formed up and solidified. In very short time, the room solidified and it became apparent that they were indeed back in the palace.

“We’re back in the palace? Why are we back in the palace?” Jack anxiously rushed around the room confirming by touch that they were indeed back. “It came back so fast. Why did it happen so fast?”

The little man explained carefully. “Yesterday, magic was creating a reality. Today, it was just returning you to a reality that already existed. Additionally, it was one that you never really left in the first place. Any moment now it should start fitting you back.”

Jack looked aghast. “You don’t mean that I’m going to go back to being that w… Oh! Hey! What? Oooooh!!”

Whatever Jack was going to say next was interrupted by a rapid series of ripples and shudders that shook his body. The changes that Jack had undergone yesterday were quickly repeated. In rapid succession his hair lengthened, his skin toned darkened, his clothes became the diaphanous veils and skirt he had been wearing earlier. Makeup reappeared on his face and jewelry once again draped around his neck, dangled from his ears, and jingled around his wrists and ankles. Finally, his body changed as his size shrank, his breasts grew, and his features softened.

“By the prophet that is a most unpleasant feeling. AIIYEEE! I am unmanned again!” ‘Jack’ was clearly distressed to find himself once again in the body of the harem girl.

“But you still smell nice!” the little man laughed but quickly grew serious as he saw ‘Jack’ bent over and quietly sobbing. “Hey, are you crying? Do not cry. Believe me things can get a lot worse than this. This is not so bad.”

“It could not be worse!” ‘Jack’ sobbed. “Do you know who I have become and what is to happen to me?”

“Well let’s see,” the little man said and began to examine the air around ‘Jack’. “The magic is settling down now. I should be able to read the lines. Ah yes, your name is Jasmina and you are the youngest daughter of the house of Iskander, your mother is the third wife…”

“I know my family!” Jasmina snapped at the little man. “Do your devil eyes not tell you why I am here?”

The little man studied the air a little more. “Uh, yes! You are here in the palace of Mahmood Shah. You are betrothed to become his fifteenth wife as part of a deal to increase the ties between your families. Oh, a political marriage. Sorry about that, but still, you will be marrying a rich and powerful man. That is not a bad way to spend your life.”

“Are you mad?! I am a man!” Jasmina choked back a sob before continuing. “Yet tonight I am to wear this very dress in front of all the invited guests at the wedding feast and dance enticingly for my future husband so that he may take me tomorrow for his bride! Take me! To bed! You understand this?”

The little man scratched his chin and considered his words carefully before answering. “I am led to understand that it can be considerably pleasurable for a woman to be…”

“Are you being deliberately thick?” she interrupted in an angry tone. The tone did not last however as she continued in an increasingly plaintive voice. “I tell you I am a man! Inside, I still feel as a man feels. I spent last night and all this morning in the company of my beautiful harem sisters. To be with them as one of them is to be shown women with so little inhibitions as no man has ever seen. I have seen them in their entire splendor, and could do nothing. Do you not understand me? I want to take them to bed, not be taken to bed!”

Jasmina ended her tirade by breaking down into more sobs. The little man was not without sympathy but was unable to do anything until the magic had a chance to recharge.

“That is a dilemma,” he said as he tapped his chin with both forefingers. “I have no idea what you can do about it tonight. I still advise you make no more wishes. In any case, you have used up all the magic energy in you immediate surroundings. So there is nothing I can do for you until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!” wailed Jasmina. “But the wedding feast is tonight! What am I supposed to do about that?”

“Practice dancing?” offered the little man then disappeared, leaving a very beautiful woman wailing alone in her room.

_____ o _____

“Good morning Jasmina. How was the wedding feast?” the little man asked cheerfully.

“I do not wish to speak of it,” Jasmina replied in sullen tones.

“It could not have been that bad,” he said, leaning forward.

“It was the single most humiliating night of my life!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

“Was your dancing that bad?” he prompted.

“My dancing! …was remarkably good,” Jasmina offered as she fiddled with the silk material or her ornately embroidered dress. She could not quite make eye contact as she said this, instead averting her eyes downward.

“Good?” the little man asked, not sure that he had heard her correctly.

“Yes, I said good. This body…” she indicated her self as she spoke. “…seems to be naturally talented in the necessary moves.”

“I do not understand.” The little man was not used to being confused. “If you were good, what was so embarrassing?”

“Idiot!” she snapped. “Do you forget that I am truly a man? Do you have no idea how it would feel as a man, to dance such a dance and to do it so well? I still remember the look in the eyes of the men as they leered at me.” A small shudder shook her body as she spoke, a natural shudder with no magic behind it.

“But did you not make them happy? Was your future husband not pleased?” he asked.

“My future husband was the worst of the lot!” she sneered. “As revealing as my clothing was, I felt more naked still beneath his gaze. I could sense his longing, his desire for me. Tonight he would take me as his own. Such would be my fate, to feel as a man feels and be taken as a woman! It must be avoided at all costs! Tell me, imp. What is there, of the ways of magic, that you have not already told me?”

The little man thought carefully for a while before answering. “Well, you know most of the useable information. You know the structure of a properly formatted wish. You know that they cannot be strictly reversed, and you know that any given object must recharge its magical energy before it can be altered again. As for enabling the magic and seeing and reading the magical lines, that is inherent in my nature and not something I can teach you.”

Jasmina thought carefully a moment in return. “What exactly do you mean, when you say that wishes cannot be strictly reversed?” she asked.

“By that I mean the exact wording of a stated wish must be adhered to at all times." The little man was clearly in lecture mode again and continued, "Any given magical change generated by that wish can be altered, but only in such a way that the result still fulfills the original wish."

"Then there is still hope for me!" Jasmina said excitedly. "I did not specifically wish to be a woman!"

"True," the little man affirmed. "But you did reinforce your current status with that attempt to reverse the first wish. By twice becoming Jasmina you have made it more difficult to become someone else. Magic likes to follow a well-worn path."

"Tell me then, oh great and powerful Djin," Jasmina leaned forward, unaware how seductive she looked when she did. "What type of wish is most likely to rescue me form this form and return my manhood?"

Not really being human, the little man was unaffected by the form of the sensuous woman plying him for more information. Yet at heart he was a helpful sort.

"Do you really need to make another wish?" he asked. "Things can go horribly wrong with wishes and you do have a nice set up here. You are young, rich, and attractive. I am sure that given enough time you will get used to being a woman."

"Listen carefully," Jasmina hissed through clenched teeth. "I will never get used to being a woman! Now advise me, imp! Or I will wish tortures on your head!"

"All right! All right! Do not do anything rash," the little man flinched. "I cannot promise anything, but I think your best bet is to make a very specific wish for exactly the changes you want and then nail it down with a time reference of a very specific time length. That way it will stick where you put it."

"You are a tricky one, imp. But I think you have given me sage advice here," she said absent-mindedly playing with a strand of her hair. "Let me think a moment before I make the wish."

"Are you sure I cannot get you to leave well enough alone?" the little man asked one last time.

"Be still!" she snapped. "I know what specific change I require and for what length of time I require it. I wish for my sex to be reversed and for this change to be permanent! I will not have you trick me again!"

"As you wish," the little man intoned formally.

"Is it happening yet? Is anything changing?" Jasmina asked anxiously. "Why is nothing happening?"

"Patience," the little man counseled. "The magic is flowing and starting to find its way."

"I think I feel it now!" Jasmina offered as small ripple washed over her body, leaving a familiar shudder in its wake. "My body tingles and my head feels like it is full of bubbles!"

"Yes, the magic is working," the little man agreed studying the air around Jasmina. "And the pattern that is defining your body is starting to change, but not by very much."

"It stopped!?" Jasmina noted to no one in particular. "The tingles and bubbles are gone! Why are they gone? They will start once again, no?"

"No," the little man said. “The magic that was invoked from within you is spent. Your wish has been fulfilled.”

“But I am still a woman! I am unchanged!” Jasmina frantically looked herself over for any sign of change.

“Yes you are still a woman, but you are not unchanged,” the little man said.

“What do you mean?” Jasmina asked. “I am starting to have a bad feeling about this.”

The little man looked like he had something to say but was not sure about how to do it.

“Do you remember,” he began, “when you said that being in the harem frustrated you because you desired after the women as a man would even though you were equipped as a woman?”

“Yes…” Jasmina felt there was a trick here somewhere.

“And do you remember,” continued the little man, “how humiliated you felt at the wedding feast having to dance seductively in front of all those men?”

“Again, yes.” She was on her guard now.

“Well that will never happen again,” the little man said with finality.

Jasmina felt that she had missed something here. “Explain why,” she said.

“Because you now have the normal sexual desires of a heterosexual female,” the little man said casually.

“WHAT?!”

“From this day forward, women will seem to you to be just other people while men will excite you,” the little man tried to explain again.

“WHAT?!”

“You are now a heterosexual woman. You will want to sleep with men,” he spoke clearly and slowly.

“But I had wished to become a man again!” Jasmina’s mind reeled as the implications of what the little man was saying began to strike home.

“No, you had wished for your sex to be reversed, and permanently too I might add,” the little man was clearly more comfortable in lecture mode. “I assume that the magic just found it easier to arrange for your reaction to any sex you get to be the reverse of what it was before.”

“This cannot be!” wailed Jasmina.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” the little man suggested.

“Bright side? What bright side?”

“At least you will be able to enjoy your wedding night now.”

Jasmina’s eyes shot daggers at the little man and she gritted her teeth before replying. “I would strangle you now if I thought I could. Wait a moment!” a flash of hope lit up her face. “There is still time before tonight is here. If I went to sleep right now, how long would it take to regenerate enough energy to make another wish?”

“A week,” he simply said.

“A week! What happened to a day?” she shrieked.

“You have changed into Jasmina three times in three days. Each time you have worn a deeper rut in the magical pathways. The energy requirements to kick you out of that rut just go up exponentially each time,” the little man shrugged his shoulders as he talked as if to say that he would have helped had he been able.

“Three times? I’ve only become Jasmina twice!” she protested. “I already was her before this last unholy change!”

“Actually,” the little man answered in an apologetic tone, “your whole body gets thrown into flux during a change so that technically you did change into Jasmina three times, even though this last time you were only given a different mind set.”

Jasmina plopped down onto the floor, staring off into the distance. “A week?” she asked no one in particular.

“I am afraid so,” the little man consoled.

“What am I to do until then?” she asked in the same flat tones.

“Smile pretty and enjoy the ride?” the little man suggested.

“I feel sick,” she said.

“Call me if you need to talk,” offered the little man then disappeared from sight leaving only Jasmina behind. The stunned looking but very beautiful woman sat for a while then buried her face in her hands and began to sob softly.

_____ o _____

“Hi there! How is my favorite newlywed been coming along this past week?” the little man asked in a light tone.

“You would mock me in my misery, imp?” Jasmina sat sullen with her neck slightly bowed, looking at nothing in particular.

“I was just trying to lighten the mood,” the little man replied apologetically. “So I take it the honeymoon is not going well.”

“It is horrible!” she moaned.

“What is the matter? Does he beat you or something? If he does, just make the wish and he is a cockroach.” The little man seemed genuinely concerned.

“No! Don’t. He… he is a kind man, and gentle. He treats his women well.”

“I do not understand then,” the little man scratched his head in puzzlement.

“That night, the first one after we last spoke …my wedding night.... I was anointed with fragrant oils and dressed in the finest silks then led trembling to his bedchamber. I was frightened that I was to lie with a man and he sensed this. He seemed to understand my fear though he misunderstood its source,” Jasmina sighed heavily. “Then again, perhaps it is the same for all women who first lie with a man. Surely, I do not know.”

“I cannot help you there,” the little man added. “I would not know either.”

“He was very gentle. He didn’t rush nor force it upon me what was his right to take. He coaxed me down the path we both followed that night, and I was his,” Jasmina sat in front of the little man holding her knees to her chest with both arms and stared off in the distance as she recounted this.

“Well, that sounds kind of pleasant actually,” the little man said still confused. “What was so horrible?”

“You hear but do not understand,” Jasmina said turning to look at him directly. “He did not take my maidenhood from me; I gave it to him willingly! I wanted to be his woman! I want him now! His mouth on my mouth, his hand on my breast, his manhood inside me… I need him now. I think…”

“But those are the normal healthy feelings that any woman could have,” the little man countered.

“Any normal woman, yes,” Jasmina agreed, nodding her head. “But I am no normal woman. We have been busy you know. This past week has seen us seldom leave the bridal chamber. I have learned much as to how to pleasure a man and how to take pleasure from a man. I look and feel as a normal woman, I burn with the desires of a normal woman, yet I still remember that I was a man.”

“Gee, it seems like you could be happy here. Could you not try to forget your past?” asked the little man.

“Forget? I would dearly love to forget,” Jasmina said sadly, lifting her eyes heavenward. “I wish that right now time would roll back so that I could forget you and live the life I knew before.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

“What?! Wait! No, that was not my wish! I did not make that wish!” she almost yelled as she spoke, a small hint of hysteria creeping into her voice.

“I am sorry,” apologized the little man. “I am bound and obligated to enact all properly formatted wishes.”

“But I had no intent to make such a wish!” she moaned.

“Intent is not important, words are” the little man reminded her.

“What will happen? What is to become of me now?” her eyes darted around the room looking for the first signs of any change.

“I do not know, but we are about to find out.” The little man began to study the air around the room.

The palace walls, they shimmer now,” noted Jasmina as a ripple washed through the room.

“Yes, the changes are starting,” agreed the little man.

“This room grows smaller, and the rugs and pillows are gone.” Jasmina pointed as she spoke.

“It does seem as though wherever we are going to will be a less palatial place.” The little man nodded agreement.

“It is starting to look as a living room does. I see that that will be a couch and that there will be a television. There is something very familiar about this.” Jasmina wrinkled her brow in thought.

“It kind of looks like it is becoming a typical, middle-American house. Could be almost anywhere,” the little man sniffed.

“Aieee! I know this place!” she said excitedly. “It is the very house that I grew up in! I have not dwelled in this place for many a year. Why would the magic bring us back to where I have not lived since I was a child?”

The little man considered the magical lines forming around the room for a moment before he answered. “You never did specify how far time should roll back,” he said carefully. “Perhaps it is magically convenient to take you all the way back to when you were little boy.”

A light went on in Jasmina’s eyes and she began to rush around the reforming room excitedly causing the silks she wore to swirl around gracefully. “Could it be that my unintentional wish has given me back the very thing I desired? Allah be praised, it should be so!”

“Do not jump to conclusions. Magic is tricky stuff,” cautioned the little man just as a ripple washed over Jasmina’s body causing her to shudder noticeably.

“Ooooh! I tingle all over so,” she exclaimed.

“The magic is definitely beginning to fit you into this reality,” the little man said as he studied the air around Jasmina.

“I feel it! The room grows larger. No, wait. It is I that grow smaller! I am becoming a boy again! See, even my breasts grow small. My clothes are changing too. Hey! I’m starting to get really short here,” she piped in a child-like voice.

“You are definitely younger,” the little man observed. “I’d say you are pre-teen now and still getting younger.”

“It stopped!” she said surprised. “The tingles stopped and the room isn’t shrinking any more.”

“That is because all physical changes are substantially complete.” The little man spoke like someone noting the finish time of an experiment.

“Complete? They can’ be complete. I still have long hair!” Jasmina said tugging on the long black hair. “And I’m wearing a dress!”

“That is because you are still a girl,” the little man pointed out. “More exactly, you are still Jasmina.”

“WHAT?! Still Jasmina?” the little girl said looking very confused.

“Uh huh. Same black hair, same complexion, and if you looked into a mirror you would see the same brown eyes. You are only about seven years old right now, but you are essentially the same person you were back in the harem.” The little man sounded like he had been reading off from a checklist.

“But I had wished for my old life back!” she protested.

“And you pretty much have it. You live in the same house, you go to the same school, and you have the same parents. The only exception is that in this reality they are your adopted parents and they named you Janice.” The little man smiled at the little girl in front of him, now almost eye level to him.

“But I’m a girl! Why give me my old life back but keep me a girl?” Janice almost cried.

“You keep forgetting that magic chooses its own path and that each of your wishes has to be strictly enforced during the time references,” the little man patiently explained. “Your first wish was to be surrounded by beautiful women for the rest of your life. The easiest way for that to happen is if you too were a woman, or at least a girl. Your second wish to reverse the first wish did nothing but reinforce the conditions resulting from the first wish. Your third wish gave you a permanent female sexuality, suppressed but not gone now that you are in a prepubescent form. Given all that, it is no wonder the magic made you a seven-year old girl. Anything else would have been even more different from your old life.”

Janice thought it over for a little while before asking in a small voice, “How long do I have to stay a little girl?”

“You will probably hit puberty in about four to six years,” the little man answered.

“Hah hah, you are so very funny. I meant how long before I can make another wish,” she said.

“This is the fourth time that you have become essentially the same person. It [s going to take about two or three months to regenerate enough magical energy to impact you physically,” he said.

“Two to three months! That’s like, forever!” she pouted.

“It might as well be, because you will never make that wish,” the little man replied.

“Huh? Why the hell not?” she demanded.

“Because the magic is still flowing and it’s about to grant the rest of your wish,” was his enigmatic answer.

“The rest of my wish?” Janice could not remember any rest of the wish.

The little man smiled gently yet sadly before replying. “The part about forgetting that you ever knew me,” he softly said.

“That… I never intended for that to happen,” was her weak reply.

“Intentions are unimportant. Words are very important. That was a valid qualifier to a properly formatted wish and so it must be strictly enforced. In just a few more moments, you will forget ever having met me. You will still remember that you used to be an adult man, as well as a harem girl, but you will have no idea how you wound up as a seven-year old girl named Janice,” the little man said offering her one last lecture.

“No! Wait, I need another wish!” she cried desperately.

“Goodbye Janice. At least when you hit puberty, you will have a healthy attraction to boys. I hope you will be happy from now on,” he smiled as he finished.

“Wait! Don’t go! I’m a man! I don’t want to be a girl!” she begged.

But the little man was already gone. Janice looked confused for a moment then looked down in shock. She was a girl! Jack shook his head. He could not really be a seven-year old girl, could he? How the hell did that happen?

THE END

A RELUCTANT SPIRIT: DAMPENED SPIRITS

By Ingrid Halb

My second story, in which Hank meets a certain magical little man and wishes to become an Olympic athlete. He should have been more specific about which team he wanted to be on.

“So let me see if I understand this correctly. Essentially, you are a genie,” Hank was starting to believe the little man might be for real after all.

“Essentially,” said the pudgy three-foot tall man that stood in front of him.

“And you will grant my every wish, provided it follows the proper format?” Hank asked skeptically.

“Technically I just enable the magic that grants the wish. Saying I grant it sounds like I control the outcome, which as I have already warned you, I most assuredly do not. This is one of the reasons I urge you to forget about wishes and forget you ever saw me.” The little man was emphatic but Hank was already thinking of other possibilities.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as long as my wish contains an object, an action, and a time reference, it’ll be granted, right?” said Hank almost dismissively.

“Yes,” the little man admitted reluctantly. “But you’ll probably not like how it gets granted.”

“Okay, you’ve warned me and I’ll be careful. Don’t distract me now. I’m trying to make sure I understand all the parameters here.” Hank was thinking hard. This was the chance of a lifetime. No, it was more than that. This would be unique over a thousand lifetimes. This was a chance to regain lost opportunities, the ultimate do-over. He knew he would have to be careful but he knew he could not pass this by.

“I also get up to three qualifiers per wish, and a qualifier is anything added to a wish that if left off would still leave a properly formatted wish, like an adjective.” Hank was checking all the facts for possible traps and loopholes.

“An adjective can be considered a qualifier, it would depend on the wording” the little man said.

“And the way that most of your previous grantees got into trouble was that they messed up the time reference, or forgot to allow for the magical energy to regenerate, or they just got careless with their choice of words,” Hank summarized the long string of warnings the little man had given him.

“They got in trouble because they made wishes!” insisted the little man. “You have no idea how tricky they can be. Magic never turns out like you would expect and no good comes from messing with it.”

“Relax, I’m on it,” Hank said, smiling confidently. “That just means I have to make a wish that’s good no matter what.”

“There is no such wish!” the little man said, spitting out the words.

“Give it a rest,” Hank said rolling his eyes. “If you think I’m turning down a chance like this, you’re dumber than you think I am.”

“Just remember you were warned,” the little man said wagging his finger at Hank.

“Sheesh, already. Now let’s see, what shall I wish for?” Hank stood tapping his finger against his chin in thought. “I think I’d like to be a professional athlete. No wait! An Olympic athlete! Yeah! That’s it. I want to be a little younger too. So… I need a time reference that pegs me to being a little younger. How can I word that? I wish… I wish I had the body and skills necessary to be a champion at each of the next three Olympic Games.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned formally.

…..

“That’s it? Nothings happening,” Hank complained loudly.

“Be patient,” sighed the little man. “You wished for some dramatic changes. The magic’s flowing. It will take a minute or two to kick in.”

Hank was going to say something but a ripple passing through his entire apartment and a small shudder passing through his body interrupted his train of thought.

“Hey! I felt that!” he said. “The room just tilted. Now it’s getting fuzzy. What’s happening to my room?”

“The magic is setting the stage for your transformation,” the little man explained carefully. “Obviously, as a young athlete you would not be living in this shabby apartment all alone.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Hank said thoughtfully. “I’d kind of hate losing all my stuff. What kind of place do you think this is becoming?”

“I don’t know,” the little man said with a shrug. “It is big though. Those look like bleachers.”

“Hey, you’re right,” Hank agreed. “I bet this is a gym. Does that mean that I’m going to be a gymnast?”

“I don’t think so,” the little man said. “I think this is going to be a pool. That looks like water forming up in the middle.”

“A pool?” Hank said thoughtfully. “Okay, so I’ll be a swimmer. Swimmers are cool. Hey, wait a minute. This is a high school! What am I doing in a high school pool?”

“Springdale Valley High Wildcats/Lady Cats,” the little man read off the banner appearing over the bleachers. “Yup, this is a high school alright. Well, what did you expect? You did wish to be competing in the next three Olympics. That is a time span of some twelve to sixteen years. You would have to start pretty young to cover that.”

“I guess you’re right. But damn, high school again?” Hank sounded uncertain.

“Looks like the students on the swim team are starting to form up in this reality,” the little man said pointing toward the shadowy amorphous forms around the pool. “Excuse me, swim teams. Looks like the guys are just arriving and the girls are getting ready to hit the showers.”

It soon became apparent that the little man was right. The individual details of the coalescing forms were becoming distinct. Hank gave the girls’ team a long look over, admiring a few of the swimmers in particular.

“Oh, yeah! There’s some fine young pussy on these Lady Cats!” he leered. “It might not be so bad being back in high school after all.”

The little man had been studying the flow of magical energy lines around the pool and around Hank when Hank’s lechery caught his attention.

“I think you may be having a slightly different point of view on that in just a minute,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Hank asked.

“Let’s just say that I think I see where this wish is heading,” the little man added cryptically.

Hank was about to ask the little man to explain that last remark, but was once again interrupted by a ripple passing through his body, causing him to visibly shudder.

“Oooh, wow!” he said, shaking his head. “That felt strange. Hey, I’m wearing a swim cap. And my clothes are shrinking up on me.”

Hank’s clothes were indeed shrinking up on him as well as becoming more form fitting. His shirt had fused to his pants and his belt and shoes had disappeared. Hank stood there barefoot as his sleeves and pant legs began creeping up his limbs. The little man studied the magical lines around Hank for a while without saying anything.

“The magic is starting to shape you to this reality,” he finally said. “Your clothes should change into a swimsuit in just another moment.”

Hank felt the material of his suit.

“Yeah the material’s changing all right. It looks like this is going to be one of those full body suits that the Olympic athletes use,” he said.

“No, I do believe it’s just a regular swimsuit,” the little man stated, dismissing Hank’s supposition out of hand.

“Oh, you’re crazy!” Hank said. “Look it goes up over my chest and over my shoulders.”

Something about the size of the people materializing around him was starting to worry Hank.

“Jesus, these kids are tall,” he said. “I’m like the shortest guy here. Isn’t that going to affect my ability to compete?”

“Probably not,” the little man said simply.

“Are you sure?” Hank asked. “I mean even half the girls are taller than me.”

The little man did not answer and just continued to study the air around Hank.

“Oooh, Ah, Yow!” ‘Hank’ exclaimed as a particular strong ripple caused a gut-wrenching shudder to pass through him. “That was a strong one!”

“That should be the worst of it,” the little man said nodding with a sense of finality. “The magic is almost ready to slip you into this reality.”

“That’s good, I don’t want to go through that too many times. Damn, this suit’s riding up my ass. Is it supposed to go so high up my thighs?” a much shaken ‘Hank’ said pulling at the material. “Hey look, you can tell I’m a swimmer. My legs are shaved!”

“Yes. Yes they are,” the little man said without further comment.

“Why is my suit wet if the boys’ team just got here?” ‘Hank’ asked noting the puddle of water gathering at his feet. “I guess we are supposed to shower first.”

Disturbingly, the puddle seemed to lead from the pool rather than from the shower area where the boys were emerging. Speaking of the boys, something else about them seemed odd.

“Hey, they’re all wearing just regular Speedo trunks. Why am I wearing this full body thing?” ‘Hank’ asked in growing confusion. “And why are they all over on that end of the pool while I’m over here with the girls’ team by the girls’ coach?”

Nothing seemed to make sense to Hank. The swimsuit, though all wrong, seemed familiar too, like something he should know but was seeing out of context. It showed too much thigh and seemed to cover only half of the buttocks. The back plunged too far while the front covered his entire chest. ‘Hank’ had seen this kind of suit before on someone, but who? It was disturbing. Especially the way the chest seemed to rise with each breath but not go back all the way down again.

“Holy crap! I’m a girl!” ‘Hank’ exclaimed.

“I am afraid so,” the little man said, nodding in agreement.

“How?! Why?! How!?!” she stuttered.

“Well ‘how’ is magic and ‘why’? Who knows?” the little man shrugged his shoulders as he answered. “Magic just chooses its path. Since you never specified either sex, as good an answer as any would be ‘why not?’.”

“But I can’t be a girl!” ‘Hank’ nearly shouted as she tried to push her growing breasts back down, her voice rising in pitch along with the panic.

“Judging by the way you’re starting to fill out the top of that swimsuit and the way you do not fill out that crotch, I’d say there’s a pretty darn good chance that you can be a girl,” the little man pointed out.

“Change me back! You need to change me back right now!” ‘Hank’ gave up pushing down on her breasts. The feelings that gave her were too disturbing.

“Even if that was a proper wish, there is nothing I can do until tomorrow. So relax, get a good night’s sleep, and then we can talk,” the little man explained. “I would however, like to suggest you learn to adapt to this new life of yours and not make any more wishes.”

“What!” she exclaimed. “No! Hell, no!”

“Look, it really can get a lot worse,” the little man was clearly lecturing at this point. “This is not so bad, believe me. Now the magic is about to place you into this reality and you do not want to be seen talking to me when that happens. So go hit the showers with the rest of your team. It is 7:00 AM now; you will need to get dressed and ready for the day’s classes. I will talk to you again in the morning.”

“Showers? Dressed? Classes?” ‘Hank’ repeated meaninglessly.

“We can talk in the morning,” the little man repeated. “Meanwhile, think about it.”

With that, he disappeared. ‘Hank’ still looked quite shocked and confused. But the coach had just finished talking and the team headed off to the showers. She had little choice but to pad off on bare feet behind the rest of the girls into the shower and changing room areas.

_____ o _____

The little man was used to changes in who possessed his vessel and so was never surprised to find himself appearing in new places. This was clearly a girl’s bedroom and he was currently standing on the foot of the bed in front of the teenaged girl to whom it apparently belonged. She had shoulder-length red hair and was sitting cross-legged on the bed in from of him leaning; her back against the pillows.

“Good evening, Miss. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” He bowed then started his spiel. “I am the spirit that manifests when you…”

“Stuff it, genie boy. It’s me,” she interrupted.

“Oh, hey. Hi there. I didn’t recognize you without the swim gear on.” The little man rapidly regained his composure. “This is a nice look, though,” he added lamely.

“I look like a girl,” she sneered.

“That my dear, is because you are a girl,” the little man said stating the obvious.

“You have no idea,” she said shaking her head. “Do you know what your magic has done to me? Who I’ve become? Do you?” she demanded.

The little man took the question quite literally and switched to lecture mode.

“Well, let’s see,” he said studying the magical lines intently. “You are Heather McCullough, 16 year old freshman star of the Springdale Valley High Lady Cats swim team. Your parents are Mark and Sandy McCullough and you live at…”

“Stop it!” Heather interrupted. “I know all that. Don’t ask me how I know all that, but I know all that. What I meant was do you have any idea what I’ve gone through over the last day and a half?”

“Uh, no,” the little man admitted. “The lines of magical energy do not really tell the past. They just tell me what currently ‘is’.”

“Well let me clue you in, then,” Heather said, stabbing a painted fingernail at the little man’s chest. “After our little talk, I followed the team into the changing room. The girls’ changing room, where somehow I knew which locker was mine. Do you know what I found inside “my” locker?”

“No?” the little man said, making it sound more like a question than an answer.

“I’ll tell you what I found in “my” locker,” she continued. “There was a towel, a hair dryer, a change of clothes, and about a million soaps, shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers, cleansers, cosmetics, and several feminine hygiene products.”

“At least you were prepared,” the little man offered.

“Prepared? Prepared, you say?” Heather said raising her eyebrows in mock surprise before leaning forward menacingly. “There is no way in hell that could have prepared me for taking off my swim cap and finding out that I now had shoulder-length red hair, or taking off my swimsuit and finding out that I’m now a natural red head.”

“Admittedly, that would have seemed somewhat bizarre given your recent transformation,” he said.

“No,” she corrected. “Bizarre is taking a communal shower with the twelve members of a high school girls’ swim team and realizing that if you weren’t there, it would be eleven! Bizarre is drying your hair and putting on makeup while your best friend “Kelly” tells you about the hot date she had last weekend!”

“That does’nt sound too bad,” the little man tried inject a lighter tone into the conversation.

“That was just the start!” Heather shouted. “Do you remember that change of clothes I had? The only ones I had to wear to school that day? Apparently “Heather” and “Kelly” had decided to wear skirts to school that day. Nice short ones, too. With heels no less. After all, why wear a short skirt if you’re not going to wear high heels to help show off your legs?”

“I am sure you looked nice,” the little man said.

“I looked too damned nice!” she glowered. “I spent a whole day, going from class to class, with a school full of horny teenage boys ogling my legs. I’ve never been so self-conscious in my whole life.”

“Okay, so it was embarrassing. Big deal!” he countered, still trying to think of some way of avoiding another wish. “There is nothing that says you’ll have to wear skirts ever again, if you don’t want to. What you have on right now looks comfortable.”

“These are hip-hugger jeans with no pockets, and a t-shirt that shows off my bellybutton. It is anything but comfortable,” Heather said pointedly.

“Why did you put them on if you don’t like them?” the little man asked, confused by this.

“It was the least feminine outfit in my closet,” she admitted.

“You look nice,” he offered.

“I’m wearing a bra,” she said making it sound like an accusation.

“Yeah, that’s probably going to be necessary from now on,” the little man conceded.

“Don’t tell me it’s necessary!” snapped Heather. “I know it’s freaking necessary. I just want to hurry up and wish things so that it’s not freaking necessary!”

“If you feel that strongly about it, why did you wait until now before calling me?” the little man asked. “I mean, it’s past 8:00 PM already. You’ve been a girl for over 37 hours now. You could have called me first thing in the morning.”

“Apparently,” Heather sighed holding her head with both hands, “my Mother is really supportive of her little girl’s athletic career. She made sure I was up and ready to go to the pool this morning for swim practice. So, I had to go through that whole scene in the changing room again, twice, before yet another day of school where I was yet again ogled at and hit on by horny teenaged boys and even hornier pervert teachers. This is the first time I’ve been alone all day!”

“You do seem to lead a very busy life,” the little man observed.

“Shut up!” Heather said. “We need to talk about how I’m getting out of this. The team’s leaving for a two-day swim meet tomorrow after school and I am not getting on that bus if I can help it. What exactly did my wish commit me to? How much can I change?”

“Everything is changeable, as long as it still agrees with the wording of the initial wish,” the little man said. “But, magic is not strictly reversible in the sense that one cannot go directly to the exact conditions existing prior to when the magic began. It isn’t stable. You need to take sneaky steps to get back to where you started. And of course, anything specifically covered by the time reference is locked in for the duration specified.”

“Okay, so where does that leave me?” Heather asked. “I wished to be young again. Do I have to stay a girl until I’m old?”

“Is it so bad?” he asked in an imploring tone. “You’re young and talented. You have a future as an athlete. Wishes have a tendency to screw things up. Can’t you just forget you ever saw me and leave well enough alone?”

“Listen you pin-headed half-pint!” she yelled. “I have shoulder-length red hair and pierced ears. I wear makeup andI have long painted nails. I have a closet full of skirts and dresses and a drawer full of bras and panties. I have boobs and a pussy. Guys want to do me. I’m a freaking girl! No, I can’t leave well enough alone! Now answer the freaking question! Do I have to stay a girl until I’m old?”

“Technically, no,” the little man admitted. “You never specified your gender or sport. So theoretically, those things are changeable without problems. Your age is partially locked in by the time reference, though. You had wished to be able to win at each of the next three Olympic Games. That’s like twelve to sixteen years. When are the next Olympics anyway?”

“Who cares, keep going,” Heather demanded.

“Uh, anyway,” the little man continued. “You could alter your age a bit by changing your sport. For instance, you could make yourself older if you changed your sport to something like archery or younger if you wanted to be on the women’s gymnastics team.”

“I don’t want to be on the women’s anything team. In fact, I’m turned off to the whole Olympic athlete thing right now,” she said. “I don’t actually have to be an athlete, do I? I just have to have the body and skills necessary to be one if I wanted to be one, right?”

“That’s splitting hairs a bit, but essentially correct,” the little man nodded.

“But I’m pretty well stuck at being in high school,” Heather observed. “Oh well, I guess I could live with that if I had to. I think I know what I’m going to wish for.”

“Please don’t,” the little man urged. “It never really works out. You’re a very pretty girl. You could learn to be happy with it.”

“Get bent!” she hissed. “I’m going to wish for just one thing so that nothing goes wrong. I wish for a male body, at once, and just screw that whole me being an athlete thing.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly, and both he and Heather sat back to wait.

.....

“Does this always take so long?” she asked impatiently.

Normally the little man would have chided her for impatience but the truth was that it was taking longer than it should have. It seemed like the magic was struggling to find a path that matched the pattern of the wish. He studied the flow of magical lines closely before answering.

“Normally, no,” he finally answered. “It almost looks like something blocked the magic from following an easy route and now it has to travel a more convoluted pathway.”

A small ripple passed through the room but the bedroom continued to remain solid.

“But the magic’s moving, right?” Heather asked impatiently. “Why is my room not changing? This still looks like a girl’s room.”

The little man rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Look, I really don’t know what’s happening either,” he said. “Maybe it didn’t… Oh, wait. There’s something changing now.”

The little man was pointing at an amorphous shape that had appeared on the bed almost beside Heather. As they both watched, the shape began to solidify and rapidly became recognizable as a handsomely built teenaged boy with blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

“Who the hell is that?” Heather yelled pointing.

“I don’t know,” the little man said, somewhat irritated. “Calm down and let me check the lines of magical energy. Ah hah! Well that certainly explains things.”

“What does?” Heather asked.

“Apparently,” the little man said, studying the air around Heather, “he’s the male body that’s being made for you.”

“What?” she asked not sure she heard him correctly.

“You wished for a male body. He’s the male body that’s being made,” he explained.

“What?!” she asked again still not sure of what she heard.

“Yes,” he said slipping into lecture mode. “I see that the easy way would have been to just turn you into a male. Something about the way you worded your wish made it easier to create a male out of nothing.”

“I don’t understand. What went wrong?” Heather asked.

“It’s a little hard to tell. The magic is still settling,” the little man examined Heather and the emerging form closely.

“Oh, yes. I guess that does make sense,” he finally said.

“What does?” Heather asked.

“I think I know what went wrong and what the magic is doing,” he said.

“Tell me,” she said, getting impatient with the little man.

“You’re not going to like it. Or rather, you are going to like it,” he corrected, “but you’re not going to like it that you like it.”

“Will you quit babbling and tell me what’s going on,” Heather said, having had just about enough of this nonsense.

“This person being created,” the little man said, pointing to the solidifying form, “is Frank Harding. And he is being created for the specific purpose of having sex with you.”

“WHATT!!!” she yelled, jumping back from both the little man and the materializing shape now known as Frank Harding.

“Yup,” nodded the little man. “When you wished ‘to just screw the whole you being an athlete thing’, the magic created Frank here to do the screwing.”

Heather looked in horror at the young lad appearing beside her.

“Oh, hell no! That was never part of the wish!” she insisted, her voice breaking slightly.

“Then you shouldn’t have said it while you were making a wish,” the little man explained. “It makes sense, really. If the magic had made you male, you couldn’t be screwed. You could have screwed someone else but you wouldn’t have been able to be screwed. So when you wished to ‘screw you being an athlete’, the magic had to keep you female and created Frank here to do the screwing. It’s quite an elegant solution, really. I told you words were important.”

The little man was clearly enthralled at the intricacies of this particular turn of magic. Heather wanted nothing further to do with it.

“I won’t do it!” she shouted. “I refuse to do it! I’ll run away! I’ll… I’ll scream rape! You can’t make me do it!”

“I’m afraid you’re magically locked in,” he answered in a very consoling tone of voice. “In just a few more moments he’s going to phase into this reality and you two are going to bump like bunnies until he manages to screw the ‘whole’ you.”

Heather just sat there in shock. Her jaw was moving up and down but with no words coming out of her mouth.

“Anyway,” the little man continued, “I’ll leave you two kids alone to have some fun and you can check back with me in the morning.” With that, he disappeared, leaving Heather alone with Frank.

“No, wait! He… I… Is that…? Oh, my God! Umm…” her last words were cut short as Frank leaned forward pressing his lips against her mouth and his hand on to her breast.

_____ o _____

“Heather! It’s good to see you again,” the little man said, genuinely pleased at seeing the girl sitting demurely on the edge of her bed. “It had been so long that I had halfway thought that you’d given up on making more wishes.”

“I guess it has been a few days,” she said, wringing her hands in her lap and not making direct eye contact.

“It’s been three weeks,” he said.

“Three weeks?” she asked. Heather seemed startled by the fact.

“Yes,” he said, somewhat concerned about Heather’s state of mind. “How did the swim meet go?” he asked trying to keep things simple and non-threatening.

“What? Oh, ah, really good,” she said getting her bearings on familiar ground. “I got two firsts and a second in the individuals and I got a third in the relays. Our school won. Well, the girls’ team did. The boys came in fourth. They announced it over the intercom and everything. It was really neat.”

“Congratulations! I’m glad you did well,” he said, somewhat relieved that she seemed calmer at least while talking about swimming.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said, nervously twirling a lock of hair. “I broke the school record for the butterfly.”

“Did you? Well again, congratulations,” he repeated. “You’re looking well. That’s a very petty dress you have on. It’s kind of short though isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, you look lovely in it, but I wouldn’t have expected you to wear something so feminine so soon after your transformation.”

“That’s kind of the problem,” she said blushing. “It’s not me, it’s Frank. He likes me in short skirts and dresses. I never wear pants anymore.” She pulled self-consciously at her hemline.

“He doesn’t force you, does he?” the little man asked.

“No, it’s not like that. It’s like… Oh, God. This is so embarrassing,” Heather blushed deeper then hid her face in her hands for a moment. After a moment, she looked back up at the little man.

“I can’t get enough of him,” she admitted quietly. “We’ve had sex every day since we met. Sometimes three or four times a day. I can’t say no to him.”

“I don’t understand,” the little man said. “There shouldn’t have been any more magical compulsion after the first time.”

Heather blushed even deeper before answering.

“There wasn’t,” she admitted. “I mean, there was compulsion that first time, yeah. There was no way I would have touched him that first time if the magic didn’t make me. In my head, I was still a man. It was the magic, that’s what made me kiss and stroke him. But, oh man… That first time… The things he can do with his hands! He had me gasping for air. He knew what, where, and when to touch me. My mind fought it, but not for long. I was moaning for it before he even got it out of his pants, and I was screaming for it by the time we finished. It’s… it’s like he can hit every one of my spots anytime he wants to. It’s almost like perfect sex!”

“I guess that does make sense,” the little man said. “After all, he was created specifically for the purpose of screwing you wholly. It’s no wonder then that he does it really well.”

“Oh baby, that he does! Believe me,” Heather said, growing more comfortable talking with the little man about this topic. “We did it two more times that first night. The third time, I was riding him! No compulsions, I just wanted to. Ever since then, I can’t seem to do without him.”

“So you’re having great sex on a regular basis,” he summarized. “I’m afraid I don’t see what the problem is.”

“The problem…,” she said shyly, “is that I’m becoming his girlfriend.”

“I thought you already were his girlfriend?” he said scratching his head.

“No, you don’t understand,” Heather said. “I’m becoming more and more his ‘girl’ friend. Every time he touches me, I just want to melt into his arms. And every time we do it, makes me just a little softer and gentler. I spend most of my day thinking of ways to make him happy. I put on makeup and jewelry trying to make myself pretty for him. I pick out my clothes by asking myself which I think he would like to see me in. A couple of days after we first did it, he mentioned that he liked the way my legs look in a skirt. I haven’t worn pants since. He’s making me more of a girl than your magic ever did.”

The little man could tell she was upset so he let the remark about it being his magic slide by. Still, he did want to avoid any more wishes, and so tried again to convince Heather that things were not so bad.

“You do realize,” he started, “that physically you are a girl and that becoming one mentally would probably be a very healthy thing for you to do.”
“Oh but you don’t realize how bad it gets,” Heather said after sighing heavily. “He’s got me so sex-happy that I’m walking around in a cloud with a big dreamy smile on my face. I’m becoming a total ditz.”

The little man did not know what to say at that point and so said nothing. Heather continued after awhile.

“If I stay like this any longer I’ll go over the edge and give up. I’ll be a girl for real and won’t care.” She had been speaking softly, almost as if she was talking only to herself. She turned directly to face the little man and spoke with resolve, “If I don’t change back now, I never will.”

“What about Frank?” the little man asked.

“I… I don’t know. I don’t want to lose him. I definitely don’t want to lose that intense sex life. I mean, when he lights me up I go off like a roman candle.” A faint smile crossed Heather’s face at the memory. She did manage to shake it off before reaffirming, “But I have to become a man again!”

“What are you thinking of doing?” he asked, still searching for some way to avoid her making another wish.

“The one thing I can think of that will keep us together and still saves me,” she said looking squarely at the little man. “I’m going to switch bodies with Frank.”

The little man thought for a moment before pointing out a flaw in her plan.

“Won’t Frank become upset when he finds out he’s become a girl?” he asked.

“Believe me, after a month of being me, he won’t care,” she said flippantly. Her expression softened though as she thought it over. “Then again, I should wish it easier on him,” she said thoughtfully, looking her body over as she did.

The little man could tell a wish was coming, but had to try one last time to change Heather’s mind.

“Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” he said. “I mean you’re almost fully conditioned to being a girl now. And wishes never go the way you think they will. Besides, you said it yourself, in a little while you won’t care anyway.”

“I have to do this,” she said firmly.

“You’ll give up being an athlete,” he pointed out.

“I don’t care,” she said with resolve. “I wish to exchange bodies with Frank at once, right now! And with the qualifier that the sex is just as great and that we’ll keep doing it just as often until he gets used to being my girlfriend! That ought to get him over the gender hump.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

Heather sat anxiously waiting. She started to check the stubble on her legs, then stopped when she realized what she was doing and straightened out her skirt.

“Is it working?” she asked timidly.

“It’s working,” the little man said.

“It’ll be good to be a man again,” she said sounding as if she were trying to convince herself. “I really think this wish will work out for the best.”

“I actually agree with you,” the little man said, studying the air around Heather closely.

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

“Call it an educated guess,” he said with a shrug.

A sharp sudden ripple passed through Heather’s body, causing her to shudder. She might have fallen if she had not been already sitting on the bed.

“Ooh! I think it’s starting to work,” she said. “It is! I feel myself getting stronger!”

Heather admired her biceps as she felt strength coursing through her body causing her muscles to grow and bones to lengthen.

“Since you only wished to exchange bodies with Frank and not places, you might want to get out of those clothes,” the little man said pointing at Heather’s dress.

“Huh? Jesus, you’re right!” she said and wriggled out of the increasingly tight dress. “Don’t want to ruin this. Frank’s going to need it later!”

“He probably will,” nodded the little man.

Wearing only her underwear, Heather walked up to the full-length mirror in her room, undoing her bra along the way. She stared at her increasingly masculine body in the mirror. Her breasts were considerably smaller but still recognizable as female breasts. The rest of her figure had suffered more. The straight lines of a gangly teenage boy had already replaced most of her curves. Her hair looked like a shaggy pageboy cut instead of the thick shoulder-length mane it had been. It also had a distinctly lighter hue.

She had been engrossed in watching these changes and so she was caught by surprise when a strong ripple passed through her followed by a gut-wrenching shudder. When the dizziness passed, ‘Heather’ looked up into the mirror to see the face of a teenaged boy with short blonde hair and blue eyes instead of the redheaded brown-eyed girl that had been there. A smile crossed his face.

“You know,” ‘Heather’ said running a hand across his smooth flat chest, “I bet Frank is really freaking out right about now.”

“Yes, I imagine he’s having a bit of an identity crisis,” the little man said without breaking concentration on the flow of magical energy.

“I know what she’s going through!” ‘Heather’ smirked as he examined the growing erection underneath the ill-fitting panties he still wore.

“I almost forgot what one of these feels like. I guess Frank will forget what this feels like, now. Unless she wants to reach out and touch mine, that is!” ‘Heather’ laughed loudly at his joke. “Yeah, she’ll get used to it. I almost did.”

‘Heather’ watched in the mirror as the last few pounds of bulk added to his frame. Finally, the facial features changed and looking back at him from the mirror was the exact image of Frank, the young man that had almost screwed him into wanting to be a girl. A smile crossed his face as he thought about what ‘Heather’ must be going through right about now. A little sex would cure that, he thought. His erection grew as he imagined bedding ‘Heather’. The little redhead was cute, with a nice taut swimmer’s body.

“So I’m Frank now,” he mused. “You sure my sex life will keep on going?”

“It won’t miss a beat,” the little man assured him.

“That’s good,” Frank managed to say just before another ripple passed through him suddenly.

“Whoa!” he said. “What was that? It thought the wish was done.”

“The main body of the wish has been granted, true,” the little man agreed. “There is just the matter of the qualifiers you added. Those still need to be implemented.”

“Qualifiers?” he snapped. “You son of a bitch! What are you doing to me?”

“It’s not me, it’s you,” the little man patiently explained. “You’re the one that phrased that wish that I told you not to make. Besides, I don’t know any more than you do about what’s happening. We both have to wait and see.”

Frank thought that the little man had a better idea of what was going to happen than he was letting on. He did not trust the little man and returned his attention to the mirror to see if he could detect any changes. There might have been something different about the eyes and chin, but he could not quite put a finger on any specific changes. A small shudder struck his body and when he refocused, he saw that his hair had grown longer. It hung well past his ears now. In addition, his chin was narrower with higher cheekbones. It was still recognizable as Frank’s face, just softer somehow. He thought that the mirror had gotten bigger before realizing that he had in fact lost a few inches in height. He had a sick feeling that he knew what kind of changes were happening.

“It’s making me Heather again, isn’t it?” he shouted angrily.

“No, that wouldn’t be stable,” was the little man’s calm response.

Frank looked at his hands and saw that his fingers were becoming long and slender. He felt a weakness rush up his arms, across his shoulders, and down his torso through his legs. He darted his gaze back to the mirror and in doing so felt his hair brush against the top of his back. The mirror showed that his shoulders were softer and rounder, leading from a delicate neck down to his now slender arms and hands. His fingernails grew longer and took on color as he watched.

“Liar!” Frank said, his voice cracking in pitch. “Anyone can see I’m becoming a girl again!”

The mirror showed his nipples and areola to be larger and darker. They also began to rise off his chest as the flesh filled in behind them. He turned to yell once more at the little man but a powerful yet familiar gut-wrenching shudder interrupted him and knocked him to the floor.

Lying on hands and knees, ‘Frank’ knew that she had a vagina again just as she could feel her hair continue to lengthen and breasts continue to swell. A last few tingling sensations passed through her buttocks and legs before that too settled down and all changes seemed to stop.

“I never said you weren’t becoming a girl again,” the little man said. “I just meant that you were not becoming Heather.”

‘Frank’ got up off the floor and turned back to look in the mirror at the girl she had become. Other than being a teenage girl, she did not look much like she was when she was Heather. Where Heather had had neat shoulder-length red hair, the girl in the mirror had locks of blonde hair that cascaded down to her waist. While she thought her breasts were huge when she first became Heather, they were nothing compared to the size of the breasts that now stuck out firmly from her chest, bobbing gracefully with each movement. Where Heather had had an athlete’s taut muscled body, this girl was all softness and curves except for a tightness of muscle in strategic places, indicating a different kind of stamina for more indoor sports. Heather had been cute; this girl was hot.

“Who… Who am I” asked ‘Frank’ in a scared, vulnerable yet incredibly sexy voice.

“You’re still Frank,” the little man said, “or a female version of Frank anyway. Specifically, you’re Francine Harding; What Frank would have been had he been created female. And of course the person who used to be Frank is now Heather, or rather Harold McCullough. He’s still a redheaded star of the swim team. Except now he’s on the boys’ team.”

“What happened?” Francine asked in shock and disbelief.

“It was mostly that qualifier about keeping sex just as great,” he explained. “You do know that women get more out of sex than men do, don’t you?”

“I didn’t think it would do this!” she said indicating her almost nude female body. “I just thought it would make me more sensitive or something.”

“Well, you’re definitely more sensitive,” he agreed.

“I look like a wet dream,” she said staring into the mirror.

“That shouldn’t be surprising,” the little man said; now back in lecture mode again. “Frank’s body, the body you have now, was magically created for maximum sex with Heather’s body. Given that Heather is now a very male Harold, then it becomes obvious that you, as Francine, would have to be an ideal sex kitten to give an equivalent level of satisfaction to Harold.”

Francine plopped down to sit on the bed, a stunned look on her very pretty face.

“Don’t take it so bad,” the little man said consolingly. “You two are quite literally made for each other. He’ll hardly be able to tear himself away from you, much less cheat on you or ever leave you. Believe me, there are worse fates than winding up as the bimbo girlfriend of a future star athlete.”

“Bimbo?!” Francine’s head snapped around.

“Oh, I guess I didn’t mention that,” he said. “Funny thing about keeping a healthy male athlete sexually satisfied is that it’s not all physical. You will have to be thinking about it about as often as he does and you know guys. You will be almost insatiable. Plus, you’ll need a large working knowledge of techniques. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for other thoughts.”

“No!!” she gasped.

“I’m afraid so, you’re going to be thinking about sex almost all the time” he said studying the air around Francine intently. “That part of the transformation should kick in right about… now!”

Francine froze for a moment. It felt like someone was rummaging through her mind pulling out all the memories she had of having sex when she was Heather. Then multiplying them and expanding them in ways she never imagined. She could tell other thoughts were being crowded out of her head, but once they were gone, she no longer knew what they were. So why get upset about that?

New knowledge filled the gaps. She knew how to excite men, how to move, how to act, even what to say. With the right shifts, twitches, licks and touches she could bring a man to the point of orgasm as fast or as slow as she wanted, then keep him there indefinitely before pushing him over to experience things he never dreamed.

“I don’t have to stay this way, do I?” she asked breathing heavily. “I can switch bodies again, right? I just have to wish again.”

“Yes, just as soon as you meet the time constraints,” the little man said.

“Time constraints? What time constraints?”

“Two, actually. The last one was for you and Harold to keep doing it at the same pace until he gets used to being your girlfriend.”

The color drained from Francine’s face.

“But… but I’m the girl!” she cried. “How is Harold supposed to get used to being my girlfriend if I’m the girl?”

“I suppose you could try convincing him,” the little man said with a shrug, not really believing that Francine could do it, “but until you do, the wish remains open-ended and fixed in place.”

“Fixed? You mean forever?”

“No, hardly forever” the little man said, patting Francine reassuringly on the knee as he spoke, “just until Harold has had a chance to compete in the next three Olympics, so only for the next twelve to sixteen years. But you will have a higher than average libido for the rest of your life.”

Francine sat stunned, her mouth hanging open.

“Anyway,” the little man said, brushing his clothes reflexively, “I suppose I should wish you goodbye and good luck for the rest of your life.”

“Wait… what? NO!” Francine shouted, snapping out of her daze. “You can’t go! I need to make more wishes, there’s got to be a way out of this! I still own your vessel!”

“Technically Heather owned the vessel, and Heather is now Harold, while you’re Francine with the vessel here at Harold’s home, understand?”

“But I have the vessel!” she cried.

“Only until Harold gets home and wants an explanation about the changes the two of you went through,” the little man pointed out.

“I… I’ll think of something.”

“You’ll think of sex, and then you’ll tell him everything. Sorry, this is goodbye.”

“Don’t go!” she begged. “I don’t want this.”

But the little man was already gone. Francine shook her head once, and then got up to look in the mirror for a while. She then went to her closet and pulled out a couple of different outfits. She held each in turn against her body while she considered her reflection. She wanted to look nice when Harold came home. She had to try to convince him there was a plausible explanation that left magical wishes out of the picture, but all she could think of was how much she wanted to give him a blowjob. Maybe something would come to her.

THE END

A RELUCTANT SPIRIT — INQUISITIVE SPIRIT
By Ingrid Halb

Some questions should best be left unasked. Some doors are best left closed. What would happen if a man of science were to find the magical vessel? And how would he go about studying such an artifact? The only certainty, this will not end well.

Dr. Brian Godbolt was an ambitious man, confident in his own intellect. He felt he understood the world. Sure there were mysteries, but he had the confidence that with enough hard study he could crack any problem. Life was a personal challenge he felt he would always win. There were smarter professors at the University, but few with the same drive. This ambition coupled with his intellect and naturally competitive spirit functioned well in the realm of academia and after 23 years, he was comfortably situated as Head of the Physics Department.

Therefore, the sudden appearance of a three-foot tall being that proved the existence of magic was both confounding and exciting. Physics did not allow for this. There was no possible way for the little man to exist much less be standing in his office having a conversation with him. Clearly magic was real and just as clearly it needed to be explained. The whole understanding of physics needed to change to accommodate this phenomenon.

Here was the puzzle of a lifetime! He had to find out more about the basic nature of this being. Measurements proved useless as any physical characteristic such as mass or temperature fluctuated wildly even as he tried for more precision. It was if the little man was composed of approximates laid over raging uncertainty.

“I told you that would not work,” the little man said with polite amusement.

The professor sat back in his chair stroking his chin.

“Are you sure there is nothing more you can tell me about the nature of magic?” he asked.

The little man shrugged.

“You mean other than the fact that it cannot be trusted and should be avoided at all costs?”

“I’ve noted your multiple warnings,” Dr. Godbolt said. “And believe me; I have no desire for any transformations. However...”

“Here it comes,” the little man said aloud to himself, rolling his eyes heavenward.

“However,” Dr. Godbolt continued slightly perturbed. “An opportunity like this is not to be dismissed lightly. Think of the insight to be gained. Our understanding of the universe and our place within it would be dramatically changed!”

“Yeah, you would gain insight alright,” the little man said.

“I have no intention of wishing for physical change, only the opportunity to continue my studies on you and your magic.”

The professor sounded very certain but the little man remained unconvinced.

“Your intent is unimportant,” he said. “It is impossible to predict how your wish will be granted. Magic is unfathomable and cannot be trusted!”

The professor gave consideration to the little man’s warning. He would be a fool to do otherwise, given the obvious power behind the forces involved. Yet those same forces drew him like a magnet. There were answers hidden here; answers that could lead to a whole new understanding of science. And he could be the father of that new science! All he needed was time to concentrate on the little man and study his magic without interruption and away from the prying eyes of other researchers. After all, science was a competitive game and the chance to be first to publish a whole new branch of physics was worth protecting.

Dr. Godbolt sighed, looking at the pile of midterm tests he still needed to grade. There was also the journal article he had agreed to review and two grant proposals he needed to submit before the end of the month. He needed more time for the little man but taking time away from his current obligations meant that someone would notice. Then they would start asking questions. Could he hide the little man and his magic long enough to find the answers he sought? Dr. Godbolt did not think so.

He examined the little man intently. There was precious little to go on here. He was evasive about his origins and spoke little about magic except for his repeated warnings to leave it alone. His clothes suggested a near eastern origin but research would be needed to trace it further. This was definitely going to take time.

The little man sighed. Things were falling depressingly into place. The professor had the look of someone who had come to a conclusion.

“No,” Dr. Godbolt said to his own internal debate. “The only logical response is to use the resources at hand to maximum effect. To do otherwise would be foolish.”

“The operative word being ‘foolish’,” the little man muttered.

“Quiet, you,” the professor snapped back. He was not used to being disrespected and the little man’s mutterings were proving to be distracting just when he needed to concentrate most.

“I wish…,” Dr. Godbolt started to say.

“Oh brother, here we go again,” the little man said sadly shaking his head.

“I wish,” Dr. Godbolt continued while shooting the little man an icy glare, “that for the next three years I will have you as my exclusive field of study with the added qualifier that no one else will even consider following similar research either directly or indirectly.”

With that the professor leaned back in his chair, a smug look on his face.

“As you wish,” the little man intoned formally. Perhaps this time it will not be as bad, he thought as he watched the lines of magic begin to shift and crawl. At least he would have three years without anyone else finding the vessel.

“Talk to me,” Dr. Godbolt said pulling out a pen and small notebook. “Tell me everything you see.”

The little man did not let his attention waver from the shifting lines of magic. This was dangerous business and magic was attracted to magic. He needed to pay attention to avoid becoming ensnared. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to protect Dr. Godbolt. That man was doomed to whatever new reality the magic made from this wish. The most the little man could do was to try and satisfy some of the professor’s scientific curiosity and possibly answer his questions.

“The magic is being loosed from its connections and is starting to flow away from the underlying reality,” he said.

“So reality is separate from magic,” Dr. Godbolt said making notes as he spoke.

“Is the shoreline separate from the sea? No, they are the same. One cannot exist without the other and the shape of one determines the other. Both become open to change when they separate and that is when it is most dangerous,” the little man was beginning to like this conversation. He felt comfortable lecturing and it was rare to find an audience this eager to learn.

“What does reality look like?” Dr. Godbolt asked after a thoughtful pause.

“It ‘looks’ like areas of concentration where the universe decides its most likely shape.”

“A probability matrix?” Dr. Godbolt asked, scribbling furiously in his notebook.

“Yes, but keep in mind that this matrix is shaped by its contents. Magic determines what is probable and the shape of your wish determines how that magic will flow. In essence, the wish shapes the magic.
Once that new pattern has been set, reality adjusts to accommodate it.”

“Then what… nnghak!” Dr. Godbolt started to ask before being interrupted by a shudder passing through him that had followed shortly after a ripple passing through the room.

“What was that?” he gasped.

“That,” the little man calmly replied, “was the impact of your wish on the surrounding magical field. When I enable a wish, the energy within the magical field is used to create dampers and blockages as well as attraction points. This creates a reduced energy state within the immediate area causing the surrounding higher energy magic to flow into the depleted area along the created pathways. Then reality simply modifies to reflect the new flow patterns.”

“So you can tell what the new reality will look like?” the professor asked.

“A little,” the little man said. “But it is kind of like predicting the path of a lightning bolt. We can set up a lightning rod and know where it will strike but not the twists and bends it takes to get there. Or in the case of magical wishes, we can set up the twists and bends but have no idea exactly where it will strike.”

“Interesting,” Dr. Godbolt said still making rapid notations.

“And now the lines of magical energy flow back into this area and reality starts to adjust to the new conditions,” the little man gestured as he spoke as if what he was describing was plainly visible to anyone.

What Dr. Godbolt saw was objects within his office beginning to shimmer and fade away.

“Very interesting,” he said as he was forced to stand as the chair he had been sitting in also became insubstantial. In fact the very walls of the office also began to shimmer and fade.

“This seems to be progressing further than I had intended,” Dr. Godbolt said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. “Does my office not exist in this new reality?”

“I warned you about the danger from unintended consequences,” the little man said. “But to answer your question, no I believe your office still exists. This looks more like a shift in our location rather than a physical alteration. And I believe we have not been moved very far either.”

“This is the quad!” Dr. Godbolt said excitedly. “We’re still at the University!”

“This does appear to be a campus of some sort. I will have to take your word for it being your University,” the little man shrugged as the grassy quadrangle around them took on more texture and solidity.

“Oh, it is,” Dr. Godbolt said, nodding as he gestured to the appearance of the surrounding buildings.

“That’s the Student Union building and that is Admissions and over there is the Student Housing office. But why are we being dropped off here? My office is in the Physics building, about two blocks that way.”

“There is a reason,” the little man spoke cryptically as he watched the lines of magic begin to move in on the professor. “And I am sure it will be made plain to you in short order.”

“Most interesting,” Dr. Godbolt said as he continued to make notes.

He was still making notes when another ripple passed through, this time running through his body and causing a much more violent shudder than prior.

“Ngah! That was worse than the first one,” he said, trying to shake it off. “Was that another impact on the surrounding magical field?”

“Not quite,” the little man replied, still in lecture mode. “The magical field has been set. What you felt was you being drawn into the new flow pattern. You may notice a few changes as your personal reality adjusts to fit you in.”

“Changes? What sort of changes?” Dr. Godbolt asked. There was a note of worry in his voice as he watched his clothes begin to shimmer and shift.

“It is difficult to be certain,” the little man said, “but I believe the context does present a strong indication.”

“Context? You mean the University?” Dr. Godbolt asked, distracted by the sight of his shirt cuffs disappearing as the sleeves started to creep up his arms.

“More specifically, this location near Admissions and Student Housing,” the little man pointed at the buildings as he spoke.

“I don’t understand,” Brian Godbolt said as he held his necktie in his hands. He could feel it shrinking as it slid through his fingers.

“Those are offices that cater to students. This whole area is frequented by students,” the little man indicated the materializing clusters of young people scattered around the grassy areas and lounging on the steps.

“So?” Brian said, amazed at the sight of the buttons on his shirt fading away leaving a smooth seamless front to his shirt.

“So I believe you are becoming one of them, a student.”

“What?! I can’t be a student, I’m a professor!” Brian shouted but there was little denying that his dress shirt was now a clingy t-shirt, gradually changing into the school colors. There was also no denying that his slacks were becoming denim with a noticeably tighter fit.

“But I’m too old!” Brian insisted.

The little man just shrugged.

“Blame it on the unpredictability of magic,” he said. “You asked for three years to study me, so you became a nineteen year old sophomore.”

“Nineteen?” Brian spoke with a hint of disbelief to his voice as he looked down at his changing wardrobe. He was surprised to notice that his brown leather shoes had turned red and lost their laces. He was more surprised to see his notebook transform into a slim binder with the words ‘Registration Packet’ emblazoned on the front.

“My notes!” he shouted in dismay then quickly leafed through the binder to confirm that all of his notes and observations on the little man and his magic were gone.

“All my notes are gone and I can’t believe I have to be a student again,” he said snapping the binder closed in disgust. “At least second year physics won’t be much of a problem.”

“That may prove to be more of a difficulty than you think,” the little man said, “given that you are now a liberal arts major.”

Brian had a shocked look on his face for a moment before once again pulling out his registration packet and furiously flipping through the pages.

“I’m majoring in Middle Eastern Studies?!?” he shouted after coming to one page in particular.

“With a minor in the department of Religion,” the little man added.

“But I’m the head of the Physics department!” Brian wailed.

“Oh? And how much physics do you know right now?” the little man asked.

“I…” Brian started to reply but stopped, not sure how to answer that. How much physics did he know? He knew there were formulas he should remember and something about atoms and molecules. But maybe that was from the chemistry class he had in high school. There was also something about the stars but he could not seem to remember anything beyond the names of all the constellations and where they were relative to the zodiac.

Brian slumped down, using a low wall as a seat he sat holding his head with both hands.

“This day could not possibly get any worse,” he said before being interrupted by another ripple passing through his body followed by the most gut wrenching shudder yet.

“Ungh!!” ‘Brian’ managed to say through clenched teeth. “That was terrible! Are these going to keep getting worse?”

“That should be the last one.”

“That’s good. I don’t think I can take too many more shocks to the system like that,” ‘Brian’ said followed by a few short coughs. “Excuse me. I think I strained my voice a little bit. I can’t seem to clear my throat.”

“Do not worry, your voice should be normal in a few more minutes,” the little man said in distracted manner as he watched the final lines of magic settle in on the former professor.

‘Brian’ was not sure how to take that reassurance. Staring down at his feet he noticed that his shoes had developed more of a pointy toe and had lost material along the sides so that there was almost nothing to them except for the shiny red leather covering the back of his heel and the pointy toe caps. And somewhere along the way his socks had disappeared.

‘Brian’ was beginning to get a bad feeling. A different bad feeling, more foreboding than the dejection he had just been feeling. Who goes barefoot in skinny red shoes? And why were these blue jeans so tight?

“What’s wrong with these clothes?” ‘Brian’ asked nervously.

“They are just settling down into a normal form for this reality,” the little man calmly replied.

“Normal?” ‘Brian’ said, standing up and wobbling slightly from an unexpected raised heel on the new shoes. “There’s nothing normal about these clothes!”

‘Brian’ tried to understand what was happening to his still shifting clothes. The blue jeans sat low on the
hips and his wide brown leather belt was now a slim red belt that matched the shoes. The t-shirt had stopped changing but the remnants of his tie had slumped down around his shoulders underneath the shirt and were wrapping around his chest.

“There’s definitely something wrong!” ‘Brian’ insisted. “What kind of a person wears more clothes under a t-shirt and who has pants without pockets?”

“I am afraid that this is normal now, Bettina,” the little man said.

“Normal? Well I’ve never… wait… what did you call me?”

“Your name, Bettina Glanzer. And yes, the clothes are fairly normal for a nineteen-year old woman.”

The name ‘Bettina’ echoed in ‘Brian’s’ head with familiarity. Yes, his name was Bettina now, Bettina Glanzer. But that was silly. Bettina was a girl’s name. The rest of the little man’s words sank in with a start and Bettina looked down to see a slim waist and tight fitting jeans wrapped around widening thighs leading to long curvy legs perched on top a pair of high heeled shoes. Bettina reached trembling fingers down to confirm that there was nothing more than a low sensitive mons at her crotch.

“I’m a woman!” she shouted in a voice that seemed more melodious than it had a moment prior.
The little man did not see this as a question and chose not to reply.

“But… but… no!” Bettina stammered in words that definitely sounded like musical notes. Holding her hands palm downward in front of her, she watched in horror as the nails on her now slender fingers began to lengthen and turn burgundy red as polish appeared on them. She felt a weight on her ears and reached to examine what was dangling from them but was interrupted by a cascade of blond wavy hair that fell over her shoulders half way to her waist.

“What … wha… why… woman… why… why a woman?” she finally managed to ask as she stood there holding the ends of her hair in her hands.

“I am not sure,” the little man said. “But it has something to do with that qualifier you added that no one else consider your line of research and it appears to be centered on your breasts.”

“MY BREASTS!?!?” she shouted hysterically.

Bettina clutched at her still flat chest in shock and realized that she was in fact wearing a bra.

“Yes, something about your breasts will ensure that no one follows your work,” the little man stood deep in contemplation as he considered the still flowing magical energies on Bettina’s chest.

Bettina could feel a tingling build across her chest and her nipples stiffened as the flesh began to rise and press against the cups of her bra. Her hands began to fill then overfill as her breasts continued to grow. The stretching of her t-shirt began to reveal a noticeable cleavage and she felt the straps of her bra begin to press on her shoulders under the added weight. The expansion of her chest caused the hem of her shirt to lift and reveal her bellybutton but Bettina’s view was already blocked from easy glances downward. Finally the tingling feeling faded, leaving Bettina standing there holding an enormous pair of breasts almost spilling out of the tight t-shirt into her hands. They were huge. Not freak show huge but impressive even from a great distance.

“Well that would do it,” the little man said nodding. “And I should bid my leave.”
Bettina just stood there speechless.

“Leave?” she managed to say.

“Yes, in a moment you will be completely in this reality and the universe will know you only as Bettina,” the little man gestured as a passing male student openly ogled the former professor as he walked by.

“You see, you are already starting to interact here.”

Bettina blushed and tried to cross her arms in front of her chest but found that was not the most comfortable position to hold.

“You can’t leave me like this! What am I supposed to do?” she said, her voice sounding sweet and musical even in complaint.

“Do?” the little man shrugged. “Do whatever you wish. You can stay, you can drop out, or you can get married and have babies. Whatever. There is no compulsion on you to complete the time reference of your wish. But that one loose thread of magical energy will stay loose and prevent you from making additional wishes until you complete the three years of study.”

“Babies!” Bettina said in shock tinged with fear. “I can have babies now?”

“Bettina,” the little man said softly, trying to sound reassuring. “Of course you can have babies. You are an attractive young healthy woman. There are plenty of men willing to bed you and father your children. But that would slow down your studies and there is nothing further I can do for you until those are completed. So once again, goodbye and good luck.”

“Wait!” Bettina shouted, but the little man was already gone.

Bettina stood for a moment and brushed back a lock of hair that blew across her face. The world looked normal and solid again. It was only Bettina that felt different. Fellow students walked past or lounged nearby; the males with longing on their faces, the women mostly with disdain.

“Three years? Like this?” she asked herself before shouting to the empty air, “This isn’t over! Do you hear me? THIS ISN’T OVER!!!”

The outburst drew attention from those nearby but no real concern. Even in anger her voice had a tone that reminded one of tiny silver bells which was more cute and endearing than threatening.

Bettina turned and stormed off heading for the Administration building, not noticing how quickly she adapted to walking in heels. If she had to be Bettina Glanzer for three years of study then she was determined to spend not one minute more than necessary before getting the little man back to undo this.

“This is not over,” she muttered to herself, completely distracted by the waving of her hair in the wind, the sway of her ass in the tight jeans and the rhythmic bouncing motion of her bosom as she walked.

_____ o _____

“Bettina?” the little man asked.

He had appeared in a Spartan one-room bedroom combination office which had the distinct look of a dorm room. He was speaking to a woman seated on a hard-backed chair, turned away from a simple wooden desk with a computer on top. The only other furniture in the room was a bed and a small bookcase full of textbooks and binders.

He was not sure that this was Bettina. Three years was a long time and almost anyone could have the vessel by now. She had blond hair and was about the right age but the Bettina he had last seen was a long haired girl in high heels whose buxom body was poured into tight fitting jeans and t-shirt. This woman had a short severe haircut and was wearing a loose fitting plain brown pantsuit and brown lace up oxford flats. There was the same oversized bust that even the loose clothes could not completely hide. If this was Bettina, it was not a good sign. He had hoped that the girl he had left at the quadrangle would have adjusted to her femininity and gotten distracted from fulfilling the time reference of the wish. This woman clearly had issues.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d show,” she said in that unmistakable voice.

“Hello Bettina,” the little man said.

“Hello yourself, little man,” Bettina replied with a sinister grin. “Or should I call you Abd-al-Nuwas Azim aal-Sanaa?”

The little man took a sharp intake of breath and looked warily at Bettina.

“It has been a long time since I heard that name,” he said. “You have studied well.”

“Then I was right!” Bettina said slamming both fists down on the table in front of her. “You were there! There was a djinn influence at Aksumite. You were at the court of DhÅ« Nuwas!”

“I was there,” the little man admitted.

“But you, you are not a djinn,” Bettina said almost gloating. “No, you are something else.”

“I am not a djinn,” the little man agreed. “I am but the ward of the vessel.”

Bettina held the little man’s vessel between them.

“Then that would make this…,” she said leaving the sentence for the little man to finish.

“The incarnate body of the Ifrit responsible for the slaughter of the Aksumite garrison, trapped by his own magic,” the little man answered.

Bettina’s eyes almost glowed as she gazed on the magical being she held in her hands and her smile grew broader and more sinister.

“I was right,” she said, “and they wouldn’t believe me. No, I was just the silly blond girl with big tits who believed in genies. But I was RIGHT!!!”

The little man grew nervous. It had been five hundred years since anyone had come this close to the truth.

“So then you understand the danger,” he said, “and why there should be no more wishes.”

“Oh there will be wishes,” Bettina said not taking her eyes from the vessel, “there will be lots of wishes.”

“Why risk catastrophe, can you not accept things the way they are?” the little man asked.

“Accept?” Bettina turned to look at the little man, putting the vessel down carefully. “Accept this?” she indicated her body as she spoke.

“Do you know what it’s like to be an intelligent educated man trapped in a body like this?” Bettina said, the musical lilt to her voice masking her rising anger. “Do you know the humiliations I have gone through just to get to this point?”

“I am sure there have been some difficulties,” the little man said.

“Difficulties? Do you call these difficulties?” Bettina stood holding up her huge breasts.

“Surely there must be some bonus to being so… well endowed?” the little man knew he ended that sentence lamely but he was running out of arguments.

“Do you mean like chronic backaches?” Bettina snapped, her voice making even her complaints sound pleasant. “Or having to pay $100 for a bra that fits? Or maybe you mean the little snickers you hear when you walk by or that fact that no one ever makes eye contact with you when you talk to them? No, these breasts have to go.”

Bettina sat, her angered breathing making her chest heave.

“And this voice,” she said clutching a hand at her throat, “this voice has to go too! I sound like a ditzy airhead. Between this voice and these breasts, no one listens to a damn thing I say. Do you know what it’s like when no one takes what you say seriously?”

“Actually I have a fair bit of experience with that situation,” the little man replied.

“Shut up!” Bettina said in a charming soprano. “The three years are up and there will be more wishes. Besides, I know what I did wrong. I wished for time to study you when I should have wished for time to study magic. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“You went wrong when you made a wish in the first place. And now you know what you risk,” the little man indicated his vessel. “Would you be the one to loose a being of malevolent chaos onto the world?”

“Don’t worry,” Bettina said. “I won’t break the vessel and I know the risks from repeated wishes. That is why I intend to take the power of magic for myself. If wishes never go well then I want the power to manipulate magic directly.”

“That is extremely difficult for a non-magical being,” the little man said.

“But not impossible?” Bettina asked with a smile.

“No,” the little man shook his head, “not impossible.”

“In that case,” Bettina stood and spoke with as much command as her lilting musical voice could muster.

“I wish to learn the secrets to manipulate magic,” she said. “And to accommodate the time reference, I wish to start learning immediately and at such a pace that in three years’ time, I will be acknowledged as the greatest wielder of magic alive!”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

Bettina stood smiling smugly, her arms crossed underneath her breasts.

“It will not end well,” the little man said.

“How could it not?” Bettina said. “It’s perfect! I’ll be able to turn myself back into a man and maybe get a little payback on some of those jerks at the University. Especially Dr. Stevens. Did you know I had to flash my titties at him for an entire semester just to get access to his collection of parchments? Bastard! I should give him a pair of his own to stare at. And Dr. Patterson, too! I should zap him into a harem girl out in the desert somewhere. Maybe then he’ll believe in genies!”

The little man sighed and watched the flow of magic as Bettina stood by smiling and plotting revenge. Eventually a ripple passed through the room causing Bettina to shudder.

“I will never get used to that,” she said.

“One would hope not,” the little man said in agreement for his own reasons.

“So the wish is in place,” Bettina said. “Has the magic begun to flow? Can you tell how it’s going?”

“It is still early,” the little man said, studying the surroundings intently. “But the magic is flowing.”

Bettina was almost giddy with excitement as the walls of her dorm room shimmered and faded away. Her excitement waned as new surroundings began to materialize around them. They found themselves in a small dimly lit room made even more cramped by numerous shipping crates and oversized luggage chests. One side of the room was dominated by racks of clothing. The only furniture in the room was a dingy cot, a well lit mirror perched on a small table, and a wooden stool.

“Hey, Azim,” Bettina said trying to draw the little man’s attention. “What kind of place is this anyway?”

“It appears to be some sort of preparation area for actors,” the little man said without taking his attention off of the shifting flow of magical energy.

“A dressing room?” Bettina asked before examining a tattered poster proclaiming Branson, Missouri as ‘The best direction for your vacation’. “This IS a dressing room! Why would we get dumped here?”

The little man looked confused for a moment and then thoughtful and then finally relieved.

“That was indeed a fortunate twist,” he said, “but it is rather odd.”

“What is?” Bettina asked.

“This tendency for people of your time to use the word magic when they mean illusion,” he replied.

“What?”

The little man just pointed to the wall behind Bettina. Bettina turned to see a full color flyer tacked to the wall over remnants of previous announcements. The garish photo showed a man in a frock shirt trying to look mysterious as he stared out at the viewer. The words ‘The Astounding Adam’ were in bold block letters across the front but what drew Bettina’s eye was the background. The blond haired well endowed assistant posed provocatively by an ornate booth. She was heavily made up and barely dressed in a silver sequined one piece with numerous exposed panels showing lots of flesh. Her legs were encased in black sheer stockings and she was standing in a pair of silver strappy shoes with a very high heel. Bettina immediately recognized herself as the girl in the picture.

“No freaking way!” she shouted.

“I am afraid so,” the little man said.

“But I can’t be… ahrngg!!” Bettina started to say before being interrupted by a ripple passing through her body causing her to shudder.

“Damn, those things always catch me by surprise,” she gasped trying to catch her breath.

Bettina stared in dismay as the loose fitting brown pantsuit she wore began to shimmer and cling more tightly against her body. Her shoes had already turned silver.

“No! Not heels again!” she moaned, but she could already feel the heels of her shoes rising. “This isn’t what I wished for!”

“Actually it is a rather neat solution to the wish parameters,” the little man said. “You wished to learn the secrets of magic. Can you think of a better way to do that than as a magician’s assistant?”

“This isn’t what I meant and you know it!” Bettina said as the drab brown jacket of her pantsuit faded into nothing followed shortly thereafter by her belt. Her pants by this time had clung tightly enough to her legs so as to stay up by themselves. They were however, beginning to turn black in color.

“How many times must I tell you? Your intentions have nothing to do with how the magic will flow,” the little man said with a hint of exasperation in his voice. “You wished to learn the secrets to manipulate magic and so you will, but on a stage and in a costume.”

“I won’t do it! I’m not going to parade around in skimpy clothes for every pervert! I’ll go back to the University. I’ll get a Master’s degree. I’ll…” Bettina was interrupted by her close cropped hair regaining its full length as it fell across her shoulders almost to her waist.

“Shit,” she said. “Do you have any idea what a pain it is to take care of hair this long?”

“No idea,” the little man said. “But your intent to further your education, while noble, will have to be delayed.”

“Why?” Bettina asked, worried and distracted by the disappearance of her shirt.

“I am afraid that you have set a rather more stringent time frame than your first wish,” the little man said, slipping into lecture mode. “You see, you wished to begin learning immediately and at quite a fast pace. You WILL spend the next three years learning to be the greatest magician alive.”

“But…” Bettina wanted to say something but could not think of anything that would help. She watched in despair as her pants continued their transformation into a pair of sheer black pantyhose and her shoes finished their transformation into a pair of strappy stilettos. She stood there dressed in nothing else but her underwear and watched as the conservative white panties shifted into a thong and her businesslike bra shifted to provide more lift and reveal more cleavage. Her underwear darkened to nearly match her skin tone so that at a quick glance it looked like she wore nothing but the black hose.

“But what am I supposed to do now?” Bettina almost wailed.

“I suppose you should finish getting dressed,” the little man said. “You have a show tonight. As for me, there is nothing more I can do here, so goodbye.”

“Wait!” Bettina called, but the little man was already gone.

She looked down at herself as best she could past her impressive cleavage. The tan underwear made a good impression of nudity and the black pantyhose were very sheer and wrapped her hips and legs in shimmering shadows that followed the contours of her curves. There was glitter woven into the threads so that they would sparkle as the stage lights hit them. They would definitely draw the eye. Bettina sighed looking at her shoes. The four inch heels were no problem for now but she knew that by the end of the day her ankles would be aching. She was momentarily surprised to see red polish on her toenails visible through the thin fabric of the hose and the open toe of her shoes but quickly realized that it matched the polish on her slightly lengthened fingernails as well.

“Of course it does,” she muttered before glancing into the mirror. She was shocked again to see her face made up with stark eyeliner and bright colors on her eyelids, cheeks, and lips. Stage makeup, she thought then turned away from the mirror to examine the racks of clothes in the room. Most were very obviously designed for a woman and one of the first visible costumes was the silver sequined one piece she had seen on the poster.

“Fifteen minutes, Tina,” came a voice from the hallway.

Tina? This just gets better and better, she thought.

“I’ll be ready,” she sang out in the same musical voice that no one seemed to take seriously.

The thought that the show must go on flashed through her head. She sighed as she took the costume off the hangar and went back to the mirror to get dressed. She still had that same voice. She was still Bettina, the blonde with big boobies who believes in genies and now wants to be a magician.

“But you can call me Tina,” she said sarcastically to her reflection in the mirror.

_____ o _____

“Hello?” the little man called out to the unoccupied room where he had appeared. It was another dressing room but bore little resemblance to the dingy room he had last been in three years ago to the day. This was much more posh with thick carpeting and an elegant sitting area to one side. The dressing table was huge and looked expensive. Gift baskets of fruit and flowers were placed throughout the room. He suspected that this was in fact Bettina’s new dressing room and the posters on the wall seemed to confirm this. The posters were professionally mounted and were emblazoned with bold script proclaiming ‘Tina Mistress of Magic’ and ‘World’s Greatest Magician’. The posters all showed Bettina in skimpy costumes doing various magical acts like levitating tigers and being suspended over a pit of knives. There was even one poster dated two and a half years ago showing Bettina in a campy genie costume materializing out of a lamp. That one was called ‘Tina of the East and her Magical Harem Show’.

“You like that one?” Bettina asked. “It was my first.”

The little man jumped, startled at the sudden appearance of Bettina behind him.

“Your first?” he said.

“My first headliner,” she explained. “Kind of an homage to my origins.”

“You have shown remarkable adaptation since we last met,” the little man said.

And indeed Bettina did resemble someone at ease with her gender. She wore a fitted leather jacket over a red silk blouse, a mid thigh-length black skirt and calf high boots with a moderate heel. Her hair was long and obviously cared for as were her bright red painted nails. She wore a modicum of makeup, tastefully done, and even earrings.

Bettina smiled.

“This? This is showbiz,” she said. “I’m a public figure now and the public always gets what they demand. This is just another costume really.”

“I do not understand,” the little man said.

Bettina sighed.

“This,” she said indicating herself, “is what I wore today for my interview with Woman’s World. And this…”

Bettina snapped her fingers twice and her outfit was immediately changed into a rhinestone and red sequin blouse, black leather shorts, fishnet stockings, and thigh high boots.

“is what I wore for Friday night’s show. And this…”

Two more snaps and Bettina was encased in a full length silver evening gown.

“is what I wore for the Magicians’ Gala. And this…”

Another quick change and Bettina was dressed in a purple brocade vest over a ruffled blouse, skin tight leather pants, and black ankle boots.

“is what I am going to wear when I perform on Oprah.”

“That is amazing!” the little man said in awe.

“You’re impressed by that?” Bettina asked puzzled.

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” he said.

“Let me get this straight,” Bettina said. “You can see actual magic. You can trigger transformations to reality itself. But these stupid little tricks amaze you?”

“Well it is different with real magic,” the little man explained. “There I can see what is causing it but this just comes out of nothing!”

“So you would be totally blown away if I did this,” Bettina pulled a rabbit out of thin air.

“Or this,” she said turning the rabbit into a deck of cards, “or even this.”

Bettina threw the deck of cards in the air where they promptly disappeared then pulled a long string of handkerchiefs out of the little man’s ear. The little man actually applauded.

“Stop that!” Bettina demanded.

“Sorry,” the little man said, awkwardly putting his hands behind his back.

Bettina continued to glare at the little man.

“So, Azim,” she said, finally breaking the silence. “The three years are up. Are you happy to see me again?”

“In of itself yes, but given your proclivity for making wishes I would rather you had lost the vessel and never called me again,” the little man answered. “Or better yet, hidden the vessel where no one else would ever find it.”

“Good to see you, too,” Bettina said. “And you are right; I do intend to make another wish.”

“But why?” the little man said. “You have everything. You are rich, you are talented, and you are famous. Is that not enough?”

“I am rich, talented, and famous, but I am a rich, talented and famous WOMAN!” Bettina spat the last word out with scorn. “Look at me! I have the exaggerated body of a porn queen complete with cartoon voice! Every single man I have met wants me in bed. I get wedding proposals from complete strangers.”

“That is kind of a compliment,” the little man said.

“That is kind of creepy,” Bettina replied.

“But your three years are up now. You can quit your career and retire out of the spotlight,” he said.

“And do what?” Bettina asked, her musical voice not carrying the sarcastic tone at all. “Retire, find a nice man, settle down and raise a bunch of babies?”

“If that is what you want.”

“That is not what I want!” Bettina snapped. “I am not a woman! I am a man! Or I was one anyway, and with the help of your Ifrit, I can be one again.”

“But to risk so much for a minor change is madness,” the little man said. “You have been a woman for six years now can you not continue as you are?”

“Six years. Six years where they expect you to be shy and demure. Six years where they want you to dress pretty. Six years of bloating and cramps. Six years of physically looking up at men while they look down at you. Six years of being grabbed and pinched and being afraid to walk the streets. Six years and you call this a minor change?” Bettina had a glower in her eye and spoke through clenched teeth. “No. No more! This ends today. I want my balls back!”

The little man could tell he was not going to win this argument. Bettina calmed down abruptly and sat gracefully in one of the armchairs, her legs neatly crossed at the knee and ankle, before conjuring a glass of red wine from out of thin air. The little man suspected she might be unbalanced and decided not to press a mentally unstable person with the imminent ability to make a magical wish.

“You see, Azim,” she said, “with the power of the djinn I can be anyone I want. I can make other people be anyone I want, or anything I want. I could be the queen of this world!”

The little man thought it wise not to point out that Bettina was referring to herself in a female role, and braced himself for a wish he was certain would go wrong.

“I want the power of transformation over objects both animate and inanimate,” Bettina said in her lilting voice as she calmly swirled the wine glass. “I wish to be given expertise in the manipulation of true magic, no cheap tricks or illusions. And for a time reference, I want this to begin immediately.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned.

The little man had a nervous air as he watched the surrounding space. Bettina smiled sweetly between sips of wine as they waited for the impending magic. Inevitably, a visible ripple did pass through the room causing Bettina to shudder.

“Nnngh… Yes!!” she squealed throwing the wine glass, leaning back in her chair and kicking her feet in glee. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!! This nightmare is finally over! I can be me again!”

Bettina jumped to her feet and started dancing in celebration. Given that she was still a well endowed blonde in tight leather pants; her dance had the distinct look of an erotic shimmy. She was unaware what that the rotations she was doing with her hips and the shaking of her shoulders and breasts would have done to any normal hetero male in the room. The little man was more concerned with the shifting flow of magical energy.

“Say goodbye to this!” Bettina sang as she ran her elegantly manicured fingers through her hair. “And these,” she said giving her bosom an extra shake. “No more periods, no more bras!”

Bettina kept singing and giggling as the dressing room faded around her. Her giggling and singing stopped however and a frown crossed her face as she saw the room that was materializing around them.

“What the hell kind of place is this?” she asked.

“I believe this is a bedroom,” the little man answered.

And indeed Bettina and the little man found themselves in the middle of an ornate room dominated by a large four-poster bed. The overall theme of the room was pastel shades of blue with a lot of ornate trim and lace. There was thick plush carpeting on the floor and velveteen wallpaper on the walls. It had the look of a boudoir with a settee, a large wardrobe, a full length mirror, and an elegant vanity. The only exit was a large oak door.

“What’s a bedroom got to do with magic?” Bettina asked.

The little man did not answer but stared intently at the air around Bettina. His look of concentration broke into a wide eyed look of surprise.

“Bettina,” the little man said, “are you a virgin?”

Bettina blushed deeply and turned to look away.

“Well that explains it,” the little man said.

“Explains what?” Bettina said after regaining her composure.

“The connection between you, this bedroom, and magic,” the little man said in his annoying matter-of-fact voice.

“What? Explain!” Bettina demanded.

“Sex,” the little man said.

“You’re not clarifying things here,” Bettina said.

“There are many kinds of magic,” the little man said slipping back into lecture mode. “And numerous ways exist to approach their study.”

“I’m not following you,” Bettina said looking up and noticing the mirror on the ceiling.

“Consider the definition of magic,” the little man continued, “at its simplest level magic can be defined as the indirect influence of objects, behavior, or events based entirely on the force of one’s will.”

“Oh…kay,” Bettina said slowly as she picked up and examined the fur-lined manacles attached to the bedposts.

“Popular opinion insists that magic needs a supernatural origin, but that is mistaken,” the little man seemed amused by what he was about to say. “Magic is a part of this world. It exists as a hyperextension of the natural world. A more correct term would be ‘ultranatural’ rather than ‘supernatural’.”

“You lost me,” Bettina said examining the interior of the wardrobe. There seemed to be a lot of leather and vinyl clothes with an unusual number of buckles to them.

“One way for you to gain expertise in the manipulation of true magic is to achieve a deep level of experience and profound understanding of one of the natural forces,” the little man smiled encouragingly.

“I still don’t understand,” Bettina had abandoned the wardrobe and made her way to the vanity and began searching the drawers.

“Given the rather ample assets you currently possess,” the little man said making an hourglass shaped gesture in the air as he spoke, “the line of least resistance would be for you to follow a course of study that would lead to your gaining expertise in the use of sex.”

Bettina’s hand closed on an unknown object in one of drawers and just as the little man had finished speaking, she pulled it out to see she was holding a very large rubber penis.

“Wha… Hnnghrrah!!” she grunted as a ripple passed through her body making her shudder.

“Why do I never see those coming,” she panted for awhile, catching her breath before realizing what she was still holding.

“Eeew!” she said throwing the artificial penis to the corner in disgust. “Wait, did you just say that for me to gain magical powers I need to become an expert in sex?”

“That is the path that has been chosen for you,” the little man answered calmly.

“Like this? As a WOMAN?!?!” Bettina’s lyrical voice really did not carry the full shock and panic she was feeling which was only growing as her clothes began to shimmer.

“That would actually be an advantage,” the little man said. “You have a more versatile sexual anatomy what with multiple orgasms and numerous points of penetration.”

“Is this because I’m a virgin? Because I won’t do this!” Bettina stamped her foot in defiance but gasped a moment later as all of her clothing, from boots to vest, changed to a dazzling white color.

“I think it had more to do with your body shape being a natural sex attractant,” the little man studied the flow of magic around Bettina carefully. “Your virginal status had more to do with the qualifier you added and why you will have no choice.”

“I did what?” she said distracted by the now white vest tightening around her waist. The sleeves on her shirt detached from her shoulders and flowed down her arms and fingers, settling down on her hands as a pair wrist length open lace gloves. Her pants seemed to be slipping down past her hips exposing her crotch.

“The qualifier you added that there be no cheap tricks or illusions,” he explained. “I think you will find that you are almost the opposite of a cheap trick and that soon this will all be very real.”

“I am what?” Bettina was finding it difficult to immediately understand what the little man was telling her while still paying attention to her changing clothes. It was apparent now that what used to be her vest had transformed itself into a half corset which pushed her breasts up prominently as it tightened. Straps descended down from the bottom of it, catching hold of her retreating pants and holding them at mid thigh level. The pants themselves were becoming sheer and soon took on the look of a pair of patterned stockings. What was left of her shirt was doing its best to wriggle out from under the corset and move up her neck.

“You have been sold,” the little man explained. “The rights to use your body for sexual purposes have been traded for money. And it would have been an enormous sum of money given that you are a 25 year old virgin with a body like that, quite the opposite of a cheap trick.”

“Sold?” Bettina murmured softly, feeling the heels on her boots grow to six inches and watching her
panties transform into a crotch-less bit of lace revealing her cleanly shaven sex.

“I am afraid so,” the little man said.

“But… but… but I can wish again, right?” she whispered, as what was left of her shirt settled around her head, covering her face as a veil and a long train down her back.

“I am afraid this is goodbye, Bettina,” the little man said. “I have to go. You do not own the vessel anymore. You do not own anything anymore. You are chattel. And as soon as you are inserted into this reality, your new master will come through that door to claim you and start your education.”

Bettina was surprised to find she was holding a bouquet of white roses and looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror in time to see the veil settle into place and the final seed pearls and lace appear on her corset. Dressed all in white with crotch-less panties, tight half corset, stockings and six-inch boots she looked like a pornographic fetish bride. With a shock she realized that that was exactly what she had become.

“Wait!” she cried, but the little man was already gone.

“This isn’t over!” she yelled. “Do you hear me, Azim? I will find you! I will see you again!”

Bettina stopped at the sound of someone at the door and watched with growing terror as the knob turned to open the door to her future life.

Curiously enough Bettina did get a chance to meet the little man again. But that was many years later when she had completed her studies and only after a drunken group of frat boys wished for unlimited access to Madame Glanzer’s Magical House of Harem Girls.

THE END

A RELUCTANT SPIRIT: A SPIRITED BATH

By Ingrid Halb

In this story we join Astrid and Hanna as they contemplate the after effects of a wish. The two girls quickly come to grips with the situation and Mike gets to watch.

“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

The small Asian girl, who had started the conversation, Choe Ha-Neul or ‘Hanna’ as she would be known to her American classmates, was perched on top of a barstool idly sipping from a champagne glass. The bar itself curved about a third of the way around a large but still somewhat intimate cabana, the interior of which was primarily illuminated by candle light, although a significant amount of illumination came from the few scattered tiki torches situated just outside. The focal point of the cabana was a large sunken hot tub occupying most of the central floor space.

Astrid Gjelsvik, the blonde Nordic girl who had answered her, was reclining in the hot tub her head laid back in a rest with a wet towel draped over her eyes. An empty champagne glass stood within easy reach of her left hand. She was topless, wearing only a bright pink bikini bottom, the color of which flashed through the ripples of the water. Hanna was similarly dressed except the maroon of her swimsuit better complimented her Asian skin tones. They had been here for several hours now and if the night air proved too chill for their exposed flesh, there was always the hot tub to warm them up again. That and a seemingly endless supply of liquor and fine wines from the bar.

Hanna sighed, gazing out the window at the moonless night. It was dark but the stars shone brightly which helped to outline the shape of a large building, probably the mansion they had been in prior to their current situation but difficult to tell what with a few hidden light sources deep in the house adding ghostly illumination to only a few windows. The cabana was clearly within the property of this estate. And somewhere within that estate was the little man’s vessel, probably.

“Do you think that’s the same house we started at?” Hanna asked nervously.

“Yes,” Astrid hissed with impatient irritation.

Hanna remained unconvinced.

“You know, we can’t even be sure that we’re in the same city,” she said.

“I said I didn’t want to talk about it,” Astrid replied.

Quiet settled in on the cabana broken only by the occasional splashing noise as Astrid shifted her position in the tub. Hanna considered her companion and by comparison, herself. Aside from the obvious similarities in gender and dress, they bore little resemblance to each other. Astrid was a big girl, not fat, but buxom with a lot of womanly curves in all the appropriate places. Her hair lay golden even plastered wetly across her shoulders. Her breasts were floating partially exposed and Hanna could just see the pink areolas and nipples as they occasionally broke surface.

Her boobies are bigger than mine, she thought, comparing her well proportioned apple-sized breasts to Astrid’s impressive grapefruits. She’s got to be at least a D cup if not more, she estimated, and briefly considered sneaking into the changing room to check the tag on her European friend’s brassiere. She looks so mature while I look like a little kid, she pouted. The fact that their passports listed them both as age 19 seemed a poor joke to Hanna. I’m going to get carded till I’m 35, she decided dejectedly, punctuating the point by finishing her glass of wine in one gulp.

She was not entirely fair in her self-appraisal. While definitely slimmer and decidedly shorter than her friend, she had a lithe flexible look about her and was not without her own set of generous curves. There would have been little difficulty in either girl getting escorted past the waiting lines and into any nightclub in town.

“Do you want some more champagne?” she asked, lifting a half-empty bottle.

Astrid’s response was to reach out without lifting the towel off her face and hold her empty glass up without comment. It was a little presumptuous. Hanna did not mind as she hopped off her barstool to go and fill her friend’s glass. She felt responsible for their current situation and was willing to go to great lengths to make it up to her. Besides, with her friend’s eyes covered, she could linger in her contemplation of the blonde bombshell lying in repose in front of her. She made sure to pour slowly, wondering what great lengths her friend might consider appropriate.

“Thanks,” Astrid said, breaking the moment.

“S’okay,” Hanna replied, retreating back to her barstool.

Astrid took the towel off her eyes and sat up to sip the wine. This had the effect of lifting her bosom clear out of the water. Once again, Hanna was struck by the piercing blueness of Astrid’s eyes and lowered her gaze in shy response only to become entranced by the way the water ran off those large breasts. She quickly gulped her newly filled glass and turned to stare outside, telling herself that it was just the night air that was bringing tenseness to her nipples. She heard her friend sigh as she slid back into the water. The mental image was perhaps more distracting than the actual sight, but she kept her attention focused outside the cabana.

A flash of light darted across the heavens.

“Hey, did you see that! A shooting star! Let’s make a wish,”

“NO!! No wishes!” Astrid lurched out of the tub and strode towards Hanna, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders and shaking her vigorously.

“You and your stupid wishes are what got us stuck here in the first place!” she shouted in the smaller girl’s face. “No more wishes!”

Hanna was stunned silent, confused by her own feelings as much as the violence of the moment. There was fright involved, or at least a startle reaction, but that was counter-balanced by a warmth low in her belly that may have been due to the vision of a dripping wet Norse goddess looming over her but seemed to be more related to liking the feeling of someone bigger and stronger grabbing and forcing her attention. She regretted when Astrid let go.

Astrid turned her attention to the door of the cabana, pulling and pushing furiously but uselessly on the frozen door.

“I said I was sorry,” Hanna said, slipping into the welcoming warmth of the hot tub.

Neither girl could stay out of the tub indefinitely. It seemed to calm and restore them, almost nourishing them. They were linked to it somehow. Hanna had only been out of it lately because she had been trying to avoid being in close proximity with Astrid. Now that the blonde girl was out of the tub, Hanna felt tremendous relief in the grip of the warm waters. Probably a result of the wish, she thought, calmly watching her friend’s futile efforts to force the cabana door.

“It won’t open,” she said, taking a sip from Astrid’s wine glass, watching her friend’s ass jiggle attractively as she tried to force the door. She began to surreptitiously touch herself under the water as she contemplated her friend. The bright pink string of Astrid’s thong disappeared enticingly between those immaculate cheeks and Hanna wondered what it felt like. Her own, more conservative bikini bottom felt quite natural and she could only wonder if Astrid felt the same.

“The door won’t open, the windows won’t break. The only places we can go are the bathroom, the changing room, the bar, and this tub. We’re stuck.” Hannah said, summarizing their situation between sips.

Astrid’s shoulders slumped as she let the door handle go in defeat. A brief moment of intensity had her grab a whiskey bottle off the bar and fling it against one of the surrounding windows, but it only bounced harmlessly, not even smudging the glass. Astrid continued to pace the room.

“We have to get in there. Get that vessel, and you have to conjure up that little genie of yours again,” she muttered with an air of desperation.

“He never said he was a genie,” Hanna pointed out languidly, finishing off Astrid’s drink.

“Well whatever he is, we need another wish.”

There was a tone in Astrid’s voice that Hanna found endearing.

“I thought you said no more wishes,” she teased.

Astrid shot her a sharp look that seemed to soften and drift downward along Hanna’s floating form.

“What I wish is, I wish this door would open,” Astrid said, turning a little too quickly away and giving the door a few more useless tugs in frustration.

What was that? Was that a look? Hanna wondered. That would be… interesting. She leaned forward on the edge of the tub, resting on her elbows, her wet naked breasts on full display.

“So what would you do?” Hanna asked coyly, her head tilted slightly to one side. “If that door suddenly opened wide for you, what would you do?”

“I’d… I’d go up to that house and get that vessel is what I’d do,” Astrid stumbled on her words trying to not look at the half-naked wet Asian girl talking to her from the hot tub.

“Looking like that? Don’t you think you’d better get dressed first?” Hanna said, pointing at the dressing room.

Astrid blushed remembering the tiny dresses and stiletto heels that waited for them there.

“I have a hard time picturing me wearing those things,” she said meekly.

Hanna had no trouble picturing Astrid in the pink patterned micro-mini tube dress that was clearly meant for the bigger girl. In fact, it brought a warm feeling to her that had nothing to do with the hot tub.

“Well, is it easier for you to imagine me in that shiny red backless number with the slit on the side up to my hip?” she asked, drawing her finger along her thigh as if to illustrate.

Astrid blushed even deeper. This was getting fun, Hanna thought but then she wondered if perhaps she had pushed her friend too far. The truth was that neither girl was going to get dressed any time soon. Something compelled them to stay the way they were, mostly naked, lounging around the hot tub.

“Besides,” Hanna offered in a more conciliatory tone. “That door isn’t going to open for another week.”

“A week’s so long,” Astrid whined. “You know we could get deported by then.”

“I hear Korea’s nice,” Hanna said with a shrug. “Besides, you might like Sweden.”

“Norway,” Astrid snapped.

“Whatever. The point is, we’re legal. We’re nineteen, we’re freshmen in college, and we have passports and student visas. Nobody’s deporting us unless our grade point average drops. And we’re definitely going to kick ass at ‘English as a Second Language’.”

“Can’t you be serious? I was born in this country.”

“You were born is some unpronounceable town about two miles from the North Pole. And I could seriously use some more champagne, give us a fill.”

Hannah held up her glass while Astrid resigned herself to filling up both their glasses, taking a long drink then sitting down beside the tub.

“This is nuts. This is nuts. This is nuts.” Astrid clasped her knees to her chest with one arm, holding her wine glass in the other as she rocked back and forth beside the tub.

“Hey, calm down Astrid, it will be all right.”

“Don’t call me that! My name’s not Astrid, it’s Alvin! Alvin Graham. I was born in 1965 in Springfield, Illinois. I’m not Astrid Gjelsvik, and I was not born in Stavanger, Norway. This is not me. This is not me!”

“Yeah, and my name is not Choe Ha-Neul, I’m really Harold Chambers and I was not born nineteen years ago in Daegu, Korea. Get over it. It’s the wish. We’re stuck.”

“What if... what if someone comes here and finds us like this?” Astrid said, looking nervously at the door. “I mean, what if… what if a MAN came here and found us? What would we do?”

Astrid spoke the word ‘man’ as a stage whisper that she was afraid to say too loudly. Hanna could almost hear the capital letters
that Astrid gave it. What if a man came here? Hanna had not considered it till now. The way she was feeling, she figured she would be up to a little experimentation. Take the new equipment out for a test drive, sort of to speak. More interestingly, why was Astrid wondering about a man coming here?

“I don’t know,” Hanna replied conspiratorially. “What would YOU do if a man came here?”

Astrid rewarded Hanna by blushing even deeper. This was definitely fun, Hanna thought. I bet it would be even more fun if a man was here and I teased him the same way. Would a man blush as easily, she wondered?

“Come back in the hot tub,” she said. “It will calm you down.”

“How could this wish get so screwed up?” Astrid moaned, sliding her body back into the tub.

“Oh I don’t know, ‘a week in a hot tub full of international co-eds’, what could possibly go wrong with a wish like that?”

Astrid laughed, weakly.

“Yeah, what could go wrong with that?” she said, the regret clearly audible in her voice.

Both girls were now in the tub. Hanna had sympathy for what Astrid was going through but right now the nearness of the bigger girl was causing her heart to race and touching herself was not going to be enough this time.

“You know, there could be benefits to this,” she tried to appear casual as she let her foot reach out under the water and brush against her friend’s leg. Astrid gave a slight start but other than a quick shy look at Hanna, she made no protest. Hanna felt emboldened and began to run her foot along Astrid’s calf. Astrid’s breathing seemed to pick up and while she avoided eye contact, Hanna noted with a smile that her nipples were now as taught as her own.

“It’s only for a week, and we do get an endless supply of some of the finest champagne as well as any other fancy liquor we want.” Hannah had exaggerated the flick of her tongue as she said the word ‘liquor’ then slowly licked her lips after taking a sip of her wine.

“I’m dry,” Astrid whispered in a small voice.

“Here, let me,” Hannah offered leaning over her friend to retrieve the bottle from Astrid’s side of the tub. She was literally lying in the bigger girl’s lap as she reached over for the bottle. She also made sure to use Astrid’s inner thigh as a brief handhold before sliding back, to sit close beside her, her right hand resting lightly on the blonde’s shoulder.

“Here we go!” Hanna said sprightly, with the wine bottle in her left hand and a big smile on her face. “Just say when.”

The wine glass was almost overflowing before Astrid said ‘when’. Both girls sipped. Hanna’s legs lay lightly over top of Astrid’s under the water and with Hanna’s arm around her shoulder, Astrid got the distinct impression that the Asian girl was sitting in her lap. Astrid had time to admire the dark burgundy color of Hanna’s toe nails, the color matching exactly the finger nails of her left hand, now holding the wine glass. Her right hand was not visible, but Astrid could feel it ruffle her wet hair then move to her right and begin to slowly massage her shoulder. Hanna was leaning into Astrid now, their eyes locking. Astrid could feel the movement of Hanna’s bicep and forearm across her back as the smaller girl continued to massage her right shoulder. Astrid could feel her own heart pounding as she fell deeper into the brown pools of Hanna’s eyes.

It seemed almost automatic. Hanna put the wine glass down and moved to hold Astrid’s face with both hands while she slid up to kiss her passionately with open mouth. Astrid froze for a second before her own mouth opened and her jaw muscles seemed to move of their own accord. She did not know where to put her hands. She had a wet nineteen-year old Korean girl in her lap French-kissing her and did not know what to do with her hands. She finally settled on putting them on Hanna’s lithe back, feeling the interplay of her friend’s muscles before clasping her tightly to herself. Hanna gave a little high pitched ‘oomph’ but their kiss continued unabated with their breasts pressed firmly together.

Finally the kiss was broken by Hanna, only so that she could sling her leg over and straddle Astrid, bending over her face to face as she delicately kissed her in between phrases.

“You know... there’s something... I remember... about that wish... it wasn’t just a hot tub... full of... international... co-eds... it was a hot tub... full of...’horny’... international... co-eds... Do you feel horny...? Astrid?... Do you?”

“If this is horny...” Astrid breathed heavily. “I’m definitely feeling it.”

Both girls smiled at each other and kissed one more prolonged time before Hanna sat up still straddling Astrid. She reached down and took Astrid’s hands in hers, marveling at the interplay of finely shaped fingers and delicately shaped nails. Her own burgundy colored nails contrasted beautifully with Astrid’s pearly pink, as she took the Scandinavian girl’s hands and pressed them against her own breasts. Arching backwards, she felt her own wet hair brushing against the small of her back. There was nothing like this that could have ever happened in her old life and she wanted this to go on forever.

If she were a man, she would have ravaged the girl below her but she did not feel like a man. She was smaller, and weaker than the Viking goddess she spread her legs around. And the feeling of those strong hands kneading her breasts was making her melt. Instead she folded like a lotus onto her companion, anointing her with kisses and the fluttering of her hands and lips along the curves and crevices of the female form below her.

Astrid’s mind was spinning. Her hands stroked along Hanna’s breasts, hips and thighs. So young. So firm and warm. This all felt so familiar and yet so new. It seemed like triumph and surrender at the same time when Hanna collapsed on her in a flurry of kisses and caresses. The touch of her lover’s fingers found new experience everywhere. New feelings were building up in her, gaining warmth, gaining strength. She squeaked in surprise when she felt Hanna’s lips take in her nipple, alternately kissing, and sucking and flicking the sensitive nib with her tongue. Hanna’s hand massaged the unoccupied breast while her other hand was somewhere lower. Astrid could hear soft feminine coos and moans but was not sure who was making them as her own hands were reaching across Hanna’s back, massaging the firm round derriere and exploring between the thighs of the small girl riding her.

Hanna could feel the rising pressure in her to the point of distraction but tried to keep her lips actively engaged with Astrid’s breasts as she fought to catch her breath, one hand on Astrid’s breast, the other searching the inside of Astrid, the thong pushed aside, her fingers gently penetrating. At the same time, the feeling of Astrid’s hands massaging her from below and behind, slipping in and out of her was pushing her to the edge and she was afraid she would not be able to last much longer. But she could not stop writhing and rubbing her chest against the slippery girl below her.

Just then Hanna heard Astrid gasp and felt her shudder. Astrid momentarily stopped moving in her distraction but the feeling of her clamping down on Hanna’s fingers inside her was enough to push Hanna over the edge as well. She felt her own breath catch in her throat and she too began to quiver as waves of feeling swept over her. The waves seemed to crash a very long time and momentarily she forgot where she was. Eventually the waves did ebb but the feelings were still reverberating through her as both girls lay there, smiling and kissing as they stroked each other’s face and hair.

Neither girl said anything, just grinned and stroked each other, flushed and gazing into each other’s eyes. There were no right words for what they had just gone through. There was just the moment and the feeling. And the gentle caresses, which touched on the echo of those waves they had felt. That echo never completely stopped and slowly it began to build again as the girls continued stroking and kissing. Both knew what was happening. Both knew they were starting again. They were ready, but neither girl was in a hurry. There was urgency here but there was no need to rush. They had all week.

----

Mike Rankin was having a very good day. Not only did he have like the easiest score in the history of breaking an entry but he also got a front row seat as those two foreign chicks did a lesbo scene right in front of him. In freaking amazing! God damn shame he had to leave before they were done, but as it was he had a hard time hopping walls and low crawling with a woodie that wouldn’t quit. God damn that was awesome. He had come within a hair breadth of leaving DNA evidence behind. Plenty of fodder for future wank sessions. Freaking awesome!

He was less impressed by the sudden appearance of a 3-foot tall slightly portly man in Middle Eastern garb.

“Whaa!! Who the hell are you?” Mike demanded trying to hide his ill gotten gains under the bed with his foot.

The little man bowed to the new owner of the vessel.

“Good evening, Sir,” he said. “I am the spirit that manifests when you activate that vessel which you have most recently acquired.”

The little man had started in on his standard introduction speech but he was greatly distracted by the vast eddy of unconnected magic that seemed to curve in on itself around this man.
1
“You came out of this,” Mike said in disbelief, holding up the little man’s vessel. It was not really a question but Mike needed a moment to wrap his head around what had just happened.

“In a matter of speaking,” the little man acknowledged.

Like most mortals, Mike was completely unaware of the natural flow of magical lines surrounding our normal day to day world. The little man could detect those lines and what he saw was far from normal. There was a swirl of magical eddies that rotated ominously through the room. And as the little man watched, they began to coalesce into a single spiral. This was bad.

“Like magic. You just showed up from inside of this.”

“Like magic, yes, but not exactly from inside. Allow me to explain…”

“Poof! There you were. Magic!’

“Please, there is a potential for great harm here.” The little man was worried. Mike was not at the center of the vortex but it seemed he was caught in it. Clearly he had had a brush with unfinished magic and it clung to him now seeking to complete the circuit. Great delicacy would be needed to pluck him from this danger and for that he needed Mike to watch what he said.

“Can you do any other tricks?” Mike asked, oblivious to the little man’s concerns.

“I don’t do ‘tricks’,” the little man answered, impatient with trivialities while he tried to save this mortal’s reality.

“Listen,” he said finally getting Mike’s attention. “There is great danger here. You must be very careful what you say next.”

Mike looked nervously around for a second and waited over a prolonged silence. “Why?” he finally asked carefully.

“Because what you say can trigger great but unpredictable change.”

Mike waited another long period of time before responding.

“How?” he said carefully, his eyes darting around the room.

“There is a tremendous amount of unstable energy about this place. If you were to carelessly utter a phrase in the proper format it would trigger a wish of profound impact, possibly impacting a tremendous number of people.” The little man was not exaggerating. He had seen these kinds of eddies before. This was loose wild magic, thrashing around looking for a place to connect.

“A wish?” Mike asked skeptically.

“Yes,” the little man replied. The normal introductions would need to be forgone. This man needed to be interrogated immediately. It was vital to find the origin of this mess. If it could be reconnected there it would minimize the effects.

“Like magic?” Mike persisted, still ignorant of his current situation.

“Yes,” the little man replied, desperately trying to trace the lines as they gathered speed around the room.

“I thought you said you didn’t do tricks?” Mike asked in a peeved voice.

“Please,” the little man answered impatiently. “We need to determine the origin point of this energy. Have you been to any high school football games or swim meets.”

“Well, not in the last ten years,” Mike said trying to remember how long ago he had dropped out of school.

“Okay, how about a daycare or maybe a car impound lot?” the little man asked.

“Nooo,” Mike answered slowly in a drawn out tone. This little man may be magical but he seemed to be off his nut.

“Middle Eastern harem?” the little man asked, smiling hopefully.

“Okay now, that’s just weird,” Mike replied.

“How what about an estate? Like a mansion. Have you been inside any fancy homes of any kind?”

At this point Mike suspected he may be involved in some elaborate police sting. Definitely a weird one though. Still, he glanced around the room more suspiciously and spoke for any potential microphones.

“I like many people have been in numerous situations like that before but I am sure I have an alibi for the particular home you have in mind and of which you speak. Hypothetically, that is.” He stated in an exaggerated voice, expecting someone to barge in waving a badge and gun.

The little man was far more interested in the pending magical emergency than any of Mike’s past petty criminal escapades.

“Excellent! Do you know a Harold Chambers or an Alvin Graham?” he asked.

“Who?” Mike asked, confused.

“You may know them as Choe Ha-Neul and Astrid Gjelsvik.”

“What!?” Mike asked even more confused.

“How about a hot tub, do you remember a hot tub?” the little man prompted.

“Oh yeah!” Mike relaxed in the fond memory of his recent voyeurism. “Those two dykes! You know them?”

“Yes!” the little man cried more in triumph than in answer to Mike’s question. “Good, we have found the origin point. This is excellent.”

“Excellent is right! They were totally hot!” Mike spoke lost in the memory. “Man, I wish I was in on the beginning of some of that kind of action right now! Know what I mean?”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned formally, pessimistically hoping that this particular cluster would end reasonably well.
Instantly, the magical lines snapped in on themselves, pulsing in bright magical spectra around Mike. This circularity worried the little man but he saw nothing he could do until this resolved itself. To Mike, it seemed as if the room around them had flashed to slate black empty space with nothing in it but the little man and himself, brightly illuminated with no visible light source. It seemed like someone had thrown a switch sending power to a giant set of bass speakers without actually playing any music through them. There was nothing but this great potential in the dead air around them.

“What happened?” Mike asked in that echoless space.

“You uttered a properly formatted wish,” the little man said with resignation in his voice.

“A properly what?”

“A properly formatted wish,” the little man sighed. “With the object ‘I’, meaning ‘you’, and the action to be ‘in on some of that kind of action’, meaning the sexual encounter you observed, and a time frame of ‘in the beginning’, which I am not yet sure how that will interact with the original time frame of ‘one week’. But you may or may not find yourself back in time by one day, or not. Also, you chose not to include any qualifiers, so we do not have that particular complication in mind while we consider the possibilities. Do you understand?”

“No,” Mike answered honestly.

“You are going back to the hot tub,” the little man clarified.

“For real?” Mike answered nervously. “You don’t think they’ll like, call the cops or something? I’m just saying, a strange guy showing up and all. Most girls would freak. Not like anybody stole anything, nothing like that, but they might think I’m like an intruder or something. You know how girls are.”

“Trust me,” the little man said. “You’ll fit in.”

Mike was skeptical but at that point a shudder passed through his body and it seemed a ripple passed through the slate black nothingness that surrounded them. Soon it became apparent that walls were materializing around them in the form of a small room.

“What’s this place?” Mike asked.

“This would be the changing room of the cabana,” the little man answered analytically. “Kind of appropriate really, given the situation.”

Mike did not know what the little man was talking about. He seemed to speak in riddles. The small room they were in shimmered briefly and took on more detail. Mike could make out a couple of benches and tile flooring. It definitely was starting to look like a changing room, with open faced lockers and an attached shower area. There seemed to be a bathroom area on the far side of the showers, but Mike was distracted by the mirrors. For the life of him, he could never remember being in a locker room before that had a full length mirror in it. That just seemed odd.

Another ripple passed through the room, this time causing Mike to shudder uncontrollably for awhile.

“Aahh. Whoa. Damn, what the hell was that?” he cursed, before addressing the little man. “Are you getting taller?”

“That,” the little man answered, breaking his silence. “That was the magic fitting you in to this reality.”

“So what does that mean?” Mike asked.

“It means that you will soon be reunited with those two girls in the hot tub,” the little man replied.

“Really? And you’re sure they won’t freak out on me?” Mike asked hopefully.

“They are going to welcome you with open arms,” the little man remarked.

“That totally rocks!” Mike said with great enthusiasm. “This magic stuff is pretty all right.”

Just then he noticed that somehow he was now barefoot and he watched in growing alarm as his clothes began to dissolve.

“Hey! What’s going on?” he cried trying to grab his pants and t-shirt as they seemed to blow away into the air. Only his boxers remained to cover him. “What happened to my clothes?”

“They are probably in the locker by now,” the little man answered calmly. He seemed more relaxed. This particular magical pattern was settling down into a well defined pattern. The wild magic had reconnected somewhat near to its source and the threat of broad scale magical changes had dissipated. Mike on the other hand was smack in the middle of some fairly intense local changes.

“You do not want to be fully clothed in the hot tub, do you?” the little man prompted.

“I suppose not,” Mike replied nervously. The material of his underwear had changed to resemble that of a swimsuit, which made sense to him, but these seemed to cling snuggly to his legs and waist instead of hanging loosely as they had before. They also seemed to be shrinking, riding low on his hips and climbing higher on his thighs. He was also put off by the day-glow green color they had turned into. It seemed inappropriate.

Glancing up at the lockers he noted that clothes had indeed appeared in three of them and he stepped over to see if his were there.

“I think we’re in the wrong room here,” Mike called over his shoulder to the little man. “This is the girls’ changing room.”

“Yes,” the little man agreed. “Yes it is.”

The three lockers definitely contained women’s clothing. The first locker on his left had some sort of pink patterned robe which after a moment he recognized as a strapless tube dress, although he was not quite sure why he recognized it. The underwear was folded neatly on a shelf and Mike noted the strapless bra. More accurately, he noted the large cup size of the strapless bra. Healthy girl, he thought wondering if he would get the chance to meet her. There was also a purse and pair of silver colored strappy mules with a three-inch stiletto heel. He wondered how women managed to walk in these things.

The second locker also held a purse and shoes. Unlike the first pair, these shoes were black open toed platform pumps. What impressed Mike was that even though the size was clearly smaller than the first pair, these must have had at least a four-inch heel. She must be short, Mike reasoned. The dress that hung neatly was red and felt slick to his touch. It’s an open back halter top with a slit skirt, Mike noted. And if that’s real silk, this would be expensive. It did not seem to cross his mind as to why he was considering the relative costs of material in women’s clothing. All he could think of was that those thigh high lace printed stockings looked great in black and totally made the outfit

The third locker kind of disappointed him. There was a simple denim miniskirt, short but plain and a skinny black belt with a silver buckle in the shape of a flower. There was also a sleeveless cotton shirt with an open collar. It was white with a dark-green border around the neck and along the hem. The underwear was white and conservative with only a moderate amount of lace. The shoes were open toe sandals, well worn, with at most a two-inch heel. For some reason this embarrassed him. The other two outfits were stylish and sexy while this just looked plain. It also looked like it belonged to a high school teenager and did not have any of the grown up sophisticated feel of the other two.

Even the purse had seen better days. I mean, how plain was brown. Mike opened it up and glanced inside. He could see a brush, a compact, and some cosmetics and what looked like a wallet or maybe a checkbook. The other purses looked more expensive and he bet they held a lot more money in them. The idea of stealing them surfaced from the back of his mind, but he dismissed that thought. It seemed an invasion of privacy to poke around those purses. This purse though gave him no such qualms. If anything he felt kind of possessive about it. Poking around deeper he found what looked like a passport.

“You know, I think this girl is from a foreign country,” he mentioned aloud, and then cleared his throat. He seemed to have picked up a bit of a tickle there, and coughed a second time.

“She soon will be,” the little man replied.

That seemed an odd response, but Mike was distracted from questioning it by noticing that the hair on his legs seemed to have completely disappeared all of sudden. This drew attention to the fact that his swimsuit was now considerably smaller than any Speedo trunks he had ever worn before. He also felt the tickle of something like hair brushing across the back of his neck and touching the tops of his shoulders.

At that moment a massive ripple passed through him causing him to spasm several times in rapid succession.

“Unnh!!” was all ‘Mike’ could utter in that moment. It took a moment for him to gather his breath. “What the hell was that? “

“It will not be long now,” the little man consoled. “From now on things will start to seem normal.”

“What?” ‘Mike’ managed to squeak out but the little man did not answer.

For ‘Mike’ the weird feelings did not end there. There was this creepy crawly pulsing feeling in the nipples causing them to go erect. And as they tightened they expanded, the areolas widening and darkening as they pushed away from the chest, fatty tissue filling in behind them. The remnant of swimsuit was now visible to ‘Mike’ as no more than a triangle of fabric centered on the crotch with strings tied on each hip in an elegant bow. And that triangle seemed to meld closer to the hips with every breath.

“Oh my God! I’m a girl!” she shrieked, her hands rushing up to clasp her expanding breasts.

Why do they always shriek like that, the little man wondered wincing at the noise.

“Of course you are a girl, what did you expect making a wish like that?” he said.

“I what? How? I mean… what? Expect this?! How? HOW??!!??” she repeated clutching her own breasts as she stared wide-eyed crazy at the little man.

The little man sighed and tried to calm the girl down. The magic was settling and while still moving, it posed little immediate threat to the current situation.

“Listen,” he said. “You did make a wish right? Even though I warned you, you went ahead and made a wish, right?”

“… I… I guess,” she stammered, noting in spite of herself that the sea-foam green nail polish on her nails was a little chipped and would need re-doing. At least it matched her toes.

“And what was that wish?” the little man prompted.

“I don’t remember,” she whispered, seeing and feeling her hips fill out. God they looked fat, and her thighs were even worse.

“Was it not something about ‘getting in on that kind of action’?” the little man prompted again.

“I guess so,” she answered weakly, dropping her hands to her smooth but firm thighs.

“And exactly what kind of action was that?” he asked.

“Two girls?” she answered plaintively, raising her hands to feel the rapidly lengthening hair falling from her scalp, holding it in front of her face. It was red, she noted.

“Two girls, yes,” the little man agreed. “So if someone were to grant you your wish for some girl on girl action, what would that wish make you?”

“A girl?” she offered questioningly.

“That is right. And what are you now?”

“A girl?” she repeated. “Wait,” she said, shaking her head. “Are you telling me that I just got turned into some kind of a lesbian?”

“No!” the little man reassured her. “No, nothing like that, at all. You are just very, very horny, like Ha-Neul and Astrid. Thanks to a previous wish, by the way, nothing to do with you. Well, something to do with you as it turns out, but believe me, if a man showed up, the three of you would be all over him.”

Somehow this failed to reassure her.

“Anyhow, “the little man continued. “This reality is almost fixed in place, and your change is almost complete. I think you will find whatever you need to know inside your purse over there. And since the vessel is well away from your possession, I guess this is goodbye.”

“What ?” she started.

“Yeah, this no longer concerns me,” he apologized. “Not my choice, magical rules and all. You are kind of on your own though. The girls are through that door there, so once again, good bye.”

“No! Wait!” she shouted. “You can’t leave me like this.”

But the little man was already gone.

“You are going to turn me back, aren’t you?” she asked the empty air. There was a slight echo off the tiles but no other response was forthcoming.

Cautiously she made her way back to the purse and once again examined the passport, opening it up with a sense of dread. She saw the picture of a girl with green eyes and red hair that reached well past her shoulders. Melissa Ryan, female, she read, born nineteen years ago. The words seemed to reverberate inside her head with familiarity. She was Melissa Ryan, even though she had also been Mike Rankin.

Moving to the full-length mirror, Melissa saw that she did indeed match her passport. She was a nineteen-year old girl with red hair past her shoulder blades and piercing green eyes. I’m beautiful, she thought. But I’m a girl, she added rapidly. Standing there wearing nothing but a bikini bottom, it was hard to argue differently. Her taught body with average breasts and decent hips looked more athletic than anything else. There was also a youthful vibrancy about her that promised great adventure.

My teeth are straight, she thought looking in the mirror. And I’ve got a bit of tan. That’s important, isn’t it?

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door of the changing room and walked into the focal point of the cabana where Astrid and Hanna waited for her.

“G’day,” she said to the two girls. “I’m Melissa, and I think I’m Australian now.”

“Hi Melissa, I’m Hanna. Cute accent,” Hanna said.

“I’m Astrid. Would you like a drink?” Astrid asked.

---

The little man watched from the darkness of the estate as Astrid and Ha-Neul welcomed Melissa into the sorority of the hot tub. The situation was bad. Not as bad as he feared it could be but still worse than he thought it would be once the changes that had engulfed the former Mike Rankin had started in earnest.

Harold Chambers had started it, even though he was now Choe Ha-Neul. There had not been enough bodies or magical energy around when Harold had wished for a hot tub ‘full’ of international co-eds. The magic reached out and changed him and his friend Alvin.
It had also changed Mike Rankin, although that was probably a good thing. From a 27-year old petty thief into a 19-year old college student was not such a bad deal. Unfortunately, Mike’s wish referred to being in on the beginning. This had the effect of tying the magic back in on itself very near its beginning. Not quite at the very beginning though, there was an offset by about a half day.

What made the situation really bad was that the magic had become self triggering. It no longer required a wish. Such was the power of sex acts and circular wishes, the little man shrugged. He had seen many cursed pools before but this was the first time he had been involved in creating one. But it stood outside the realm of his vessel. This was unrelated magic now and not his concern. He had noted those six empty lockers though. This particular magic pool would not be satisfied until it held nine bodies for the full week. That was the extent the word ‘full’ held on this hot tub.

Doubly unfortunate was the under lap. Once an individual girl had spent her assigned week here within the confines of the cabana, she would be free to leave and resume her new life. The under lap meant that it was highly unlikely that the hot tub would ever be full for an entire week straight. Nine people simultaneously? For an entire week? The little man doubted this curse would be lifted any time soon. That meant that this magical hot tub would likely continue a very long time, ensnaring the new and magically unaware that stumbled onto its location

Still he wondered, what would the long-term impact be of all those magically created international co-eds with the source of their transformation staying open? Once their individual weeks were up they would be spreading out to Universities across this land, fulfilling the co-ed part of their transformation. Then, once their educations were complete, they would return to their home countries. Trails of magic would follow them as long as this cursed hot tub continued. The reverberations from this pool would be felt in many lands.

The little man shrugged again. He had done what he could. The rest would be reported up the chain to the international desk for higher beings to consider. In the meantime, someone else had found his vessel. He needed to appear and warn them against making wishes. They never turned out the way one thought.

THE END

A RELUCTTANT SPIRIT: TEAM SPIRIT

By Ingrid Halb

Yet another tale of magic gone awry. Matt and Adam find the little man. They agree to share the magic and so must take their wishes in turn. Their intent is to help the football team. Their phrasing however, was open to interpretation. Can they survive each other's wishes and lead the team to victory? Go team!

Matthew Johnson and Adam Tolbert had been best friends since the first grade and were still best friends in high school. It was a natural friendship. They were both intelligent and had many similar interests and hobbies. One such interest was a love for the game of football. Unfortunately, neither boy had the strength or manual dexterity to excel at the game. Truth be told, physically, both boys could best be described as dweebs.

Still, that did not stop them from sitting in the bleachers and cheering on their high school team. Either one of them would have given much to be even slightly associated with the team. Unfortunately again, both boys could also be described as nerds and thus to be avoided like the plague by anyone popular enough to be associated with the football team.

And they truly were nerds. They were in the chess club and worked on the school paper. They loved history and excelled in things scientific. Which is why they both happened to be out one day with metal detectors, looking for a lost civil war encampment, when they happened to find their very own genie.

“A genie?” Matt asked skeptically.

“Pretty much so,” admitted the portly three-foot tall man standing between the two boys. Adam could not quite bring himself to believe the little man either, but both boys were hard pressed to come up with a logical explanation for what they had just seen the little man capable of doing.

“Maybe he’s an alien,” Adam suggested. “He could be using advanced technology.”

“I am not an alien,” harrumphed the little man.

“Then it’s some sort of mind control,” suggested Matt. “You’re just making us think we saw that happen.”

“Go ahead and touch it then, if you don’t believe me,” the little man offered, pointing at the recently altered object behind them. Both boys rapidly declined the offer.

“So you can grant our wishes, then,” Matt said.

“Allow the magic to occur that grants our wishes,” Adam corrected.

“Provided they are in the proper format,” reminded Matt.

“Which mean they must include an object, and action, and a time reference!” countered Adam.

“And have no more than three qualifiers!” Matt finished. Both boys high-fived each other, taking a personal pride in being able to follow complicated directions.

“Correct!?!” the little man was clearly surprised at how fast the boys had picked up on the rules. “But only the one who possesses me will get his wishes granted. Which of you is currently in possession of me?”

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged.

“Well, we agreed to split everything we find,” Adam said.

“So technically,” Matt continued. “We both are.”

“Both? This is most unusual,” the little man remarked. “But not unprecedented. Your wishes will be granted under the following provisions. You must both be present to make a wish. Only one wish at a time may be granted. You must alternate who makes wishes. And finally, no one of you may call me or take me away from this place. You must act in tandem.”

“Piece of cake!” Matt said.

“Yeah! We’ve been a two man crew for years!” Adam agreed.

“Please don’t say anything rash,” urged the little man. “Wishes are powerful and usually go very, very wrong. They are incredibly tricky and best avoided.”

“We thrive on tricky,” scoffed Adam.

“I really think you shouldn’t…” the little man started.

“Don’t worry, little dude,” interrupted Matt. “We’ll be careful.”

The two boys conferred privately for some time, appearing to make suggestions and debating ideas amongst themselves. Finally, they seemed to reach a consensus and returned to where the little man stood patiently waiting.

“We’ve decided to take your advice,” Matt said.

“Yeah, we’ll start small and not make any earth-altering changes until we have a better handle on what we’re doing,” Adam finished.

“My advice,” the little man said, rolling his eyes heavenward, “was to not make any wishes.”

“Nonetheless,” Adam countered, “we’ve come up with a small wish to improve our social standing. We’ll build up to bigger things later.”

“Very well,” sighed the little man. It was clear the boys would not be dissuaded. “Which of you is to make the first wish?”

“I am,” Matt said, looking at Adam as he said it. Adam nodded in approval.

“I wish,” Matt started, then took a big breath and started again. “I wish that both Adam and I will make significant contributions to help the football team win next week’s game. That we will acquire the knowledge and natural ability to do so on a continuing basis and that we will be recognized for our contributions.”

“As you wish,” intoned the little man solemnly.

.....

“Notice anything?” Matt asked.

“Nope,” said Adam.

“Hey little man, how come nothings happening?” Matt asked.

“The magic is having a difficult time placing both of you together,” the little man explained after studying the lines of magical energy for awhile. “It is going to have to separate you and insert you individually into the new reality.”

“What do you think he means by that?” Matt asked Adam. Just then, a ripple shot through the surrounding glen causing a shudder to run through both boys.

“Man, did you feel that?” Matt heard Adam say, but when Matt turned to answer him, all he saw was Adam shimmer and fade away along with the rest of the surrounding glen.

“Where did he go? What did you do with Adam?” Matt anxiously demanded.

“Relax, he’s fine,” the little man said. “The two of you are going to have to enter the new reality in slightly different times and places. That’s all.”

Matt was not sure he liked the sound of that but also was not sure what he could do about it at this point.

“We will be able to find each other again, won’t we?” he asked. “You said we wouldn’t be able to make any more wishes unless we were together.”

“The lines of magical energy have tied you two together,” the little man explained. “Whatever happens with this wish will not separate you any great distance.”

“That’s good,” Matt said, reassured but still nervous. “Hey, this is the practice field. This is where the team trains.”

“It certainly resembles an athletic field,” the little man conceded.

“You don’t seem convinced,” Matt pointed out.

“I’ve learned to take nothing for granted when it comes to magic,” the little man said warily scanning the flow of energy around the field.

“Well take my word for it,” Matt insisted. “Adam and I spent some time here. Of course we were always in the bleachers while the team was here but we used to come down after they left and just imagine what it would be like to actually be on the team.”

“I imagine that that would be the team now,” the little man said pointing towards some shadowy shapes solidifying near them. The forms rapidly took on the form of teenaged football players and their adult coaches.

“Yup, that’s them,” agreed Matt. “They’re wearing their practice jerseys. It must be a light workout. They have their helmets on but shorts and no pads. There’s a few people in the stands too. Mostly girlfriends and football wannabe’s like Adam and me. That’s the cheerleading squad on the other end of the field. I used to dream about dating any one of them. They only go out with football players though.”

Matt felt a tremendous shudder as a ripple passed through him.

“Whoa! Damn, that’s a strange feeling!” he said.

The little man said nothing in response but started to study Matt more closely. Matt did not notice the little man’s attention, being more concerned with what was happening to his clothes. The material of his jeans was transforming into a lighter more water-resistant fiber and was turning black in color. The pant legs started to creep up his legs, past his knees, stopping about mid-thigh.

“These are shorts, aren’t they? Am I on the football team?” he asked excitedly.

The little man shrugged, as if to say he did not know. The light jacket that Matt had been wearing sealed up the front. Gradually, it changed into an open mesh fiber that hung over his gangly body.

“This is a jersey, isn’t it? I am on the team!” Matt shouted.

He could feel strength coursing through his body, especially around his legs. Looking down he could actually see his thighs and calves gaining mass. He noted his legs were hairier than they had been. At the same time his socks grew thicker and extended halfway up his shins. He noted he was wearing cleats now, too.

Matt felt his t-shirt shift and used both hands to hold open the front of his jersey. He saw that his t-shirt had changed into a wife-beater style of undershirt which hung loosely on his still narrow frame. At the same time he noticed that his hands looked bigger and stronger. He was just starting to admire his biceps when he felt something hard form up in the front of his shorts. ‘I’m wearing a cup,’ he realized with a smile.

“Hey little man, this is so cool!” he said. “What am I becoming anyway?”

Just then a major shudder passed through Matt’s body, nearly bringing him to his knees. His quick reflexes and strong lower body kept him upright. The little man seemed smaller now but ‘Matt’ realized that he must be bigger

“Isn’t it obvious?” the little man asked, a little puzzled at the question. “You’re becoming a football player.”

“No,” ‘Matt’ explained. “I meant what position do I play?”

“I believe you are what they call a running back,” the little man answered.

“Fantastic!” ‘Matt’ exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have believed it. Where’s Adam? Did he change into a football player too?”

‘Matt’ noticed that his thighs seemed massive to him now and he could feel his chest expand to fill his undershirt.

“I don’t know,” was the little man’s simple answer.

“You don’t know? Why not?” he asked.

“It’s because I have divided my attention between the two of you,” the little man lectured. “Half of me is here with you while my other half is with Adam. I won’t be able to compare notes until I rejoin myself. Then I won’t be able to clue you in until you call me up again. And since you two have to be together to do that, the question becomes moot.”

‘Matt’ thought over what the little man had said before asking his next question.

“How am I supposed to find him if I don’t know what he looks like?” he asked.

“You have time,” the little man said, once again slipping into lecture mode. “The time reference on this wish lasts until the end of the game next week. That’s six days where you will only be able to make minimum changes anyway. By the way, your name is now Mark Jameson and in just a moment, the coach is going to call you over to run a few practice plays. So I’ll leave now and see you again when you find your partner.”

“Okay, see you,” Mark said, but the little man was already gone. The name ‘Mark Jameson’ seemed familiar to him, almost natural. A cool breeze blew across his body, momentarily giving him goose bumps. He looked over his barrel-chested body with growing pride.

“This is going to be a great week!” he said then bent down to pick up his helmet that appeared on the ground in front of him and went to join his teammates on the offense who were already doing their warm-up stretches.

……………

“Notice anything?” Matt asked.

“Nope,” said Adam.

“Hey little man, how come nothings happening?” Matt asked.

“The magic is having a difficult time placing both of you together,” the little man explained after studying the lines of magical energy for awhile. “It is going to have to separate you and insert you individually into the new reality.”

“What do you think he means by that?” Matt asked Adam. Just then, a ripple shot through the surrounding glen causing a shudder to run through both boys.

“Man, did you feel that?” Adam asked, but just as Matt turned to answer him, Matt began to shimmer and fade away along with the rest of the surrounding glen.

“What happened? Where did Matt go?” Adam anxiously demanded.

“Relax, he’s fine,” the little man said. “The two of you are going to have to enter the new reality in slightly different times and places. That’s all.”

Adam knew he did not like the sound of that but had no idea what he could do about it now.

“How are we supposed to find each other?” he asked. “We can’t make another wish if we’re not together.”

“The lines of magical energy have tied you two together,” the little man explained. “Whatever happens with this wish will not separate you any great distance.”

“So no matter what, we theoretically can find each other,” Adam mused. “Where are we now? This looks like the school practice field.”

“It certainly resembles an athletic field,” the little man conceded.

“You don’t believe me?” Adam asked.

“I’ve learned to take nothing for granted when it comes to magic,” the little man said warily scanning the flow of energy around the field.

“Well take my word for it,” Adam said. “Me and Matt used to hang out here a lot. I always wondered what it would be like to be on the team and practicing for real.”

“I imagine that that would be the team now,” the little man said pointing towards some shadowy shapes solidifying on the other side of the field. The forms rapidly took on the form of teenaged football players and their adult coaches.

“Oh yeah.” agreed Adam. “Looks like a no-contact practice. They’ve got their helmets on, but they’re wearing shorts and no pads. There’s a couple of gawkers in the bleachers, too. That’s where me and Matt used to hang. This must be the cheerleading squad on this side of the field. Damn, they’re fine! They never talk to guys like me though”

Adam felt a tremendous shudder as a ripple passed through him.

“Eee Yow! That’s the strangest feeling I ever had!” he said.

The little man said nothing in response but started to study Adam more closely. Adam did not notice the little man’s attention, being more concerned with what was happening to his clothes. The material of his jeans was transforming into a lighter thin cotton material, much lighter in weight and shade to the jeans he had been wearing. The pant legs started to creep up his legs, past his knees, before he realized that they were becoming shorts.

“These are shorts! Am I going to be on the football team?” he asked excitedly.

The little man shrugged, as if to say he did not know. The light jacket that Adam had been wearing sealed up the front. Gradually, it changed into a soft stretchy fabric that clung tightly to his gangly body. The arms had completely disappeared leaving thin shoulder straps. The neckline dropped in front and back. It was peach in color and would have shown a lot of his chest and upper back if it had not been for the t-shirt he had on underneath.

“What, the hell, kind of shirt is this? This isn’t a football jersey!” Adam said.

He felt something tickle his ears and neck. Reaching up he noticed that sometime over the last few moments his hair had gotten thick and shaggy. It also felt very silky, and for some reason, curly. It was not long enough to see without a mirror, but he could tell that it was longer.

A wave of weakness seemed to wash over him starting at his arms and rushing over his body and through his legs and feet. Looking down he first thought that all the hair on his legs had fallen out but when he reached down to touch them, he noted slight stubble not quite visible on his legs. His thighs looked bigger to him while his calves seemed less pronounced. His knees and ankles had become rounder and did not look as bony as they had just a short while ago. He was still touching his altered legs when he saw his socks shrink down to where they were barely visible over the edge of his shoes. Instead of his grubby old sneakers, he now wore a clean pair of low white deck shoes with peach laces. It struck him that his shoelaces matched the shirt he now wore.

Just then, his new white shorts drew his attention. They had finally stopped shrinking up on him. It was probably because they did not have too much more to shrink. At their longest, they were maybe four inches and rode up high on his thighs but low on his hips. This gave him the competing urges to pull them both lower and higher.

He was starting to get a little scared now, but he was more confused than frightened when he felt his t-shirt tighten and start to wriggle up underneath the peach-colored shirt. He saw the sleeves disappear and the neckline plunge out of sight below the neckline of his new shirt. He also felt the bottom of his t-shirt ride up past his belly and partially up his chest before stopping. There was obviously still some cloth right in front of his chest, but there seemed to be nothing else left of his t-shirt except for an irritating elastic strap around the back and two more running over his shoulders. It reminded him of something.

Cautiously, he tugged at his neckline with both hands and looked down the front of his shirt. He was wearing a bra, the empty cups of which rested over his nipples. Moreover, the hands holding his shirt were smaller and more delicate looking. He could actually see the nails growing and turning pink. He was about to say something when he felt his underpants give a little jerk, then he felt them crawl up his ass. ‘I’m wearing a thong,’ he realized with a start.

“Hey little man, what is this!” he said. “What the hell am I becoming?”

Just then, a major gut-wrenching shudder passed through Adam’s body, knocking him to his knees. Long curly blonde hair fell past ‘Adam’s’ face. The little man seemed bigger now but ‘Adam’ realized that he must be smaller.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the little man asked, a little puzzled at the question. “You’re becoming a girl.”

“No!” ‘Adam’ shrieked. “How is this supposed to help the team?”

“I believe you are what they call a cheerleader,” the little man answered.

“This is insane!” ‘Adam’ exclaimed. “I don’t believe it! Where’s Matt? Did he change into a cheerleader too?”

‘Adam’ could clearly see that the tight small shorts she wore neither had nor needed any room for external genitalia. She could also see and feel the front of her chest expand to fill the cups of her bra.

“I don’t know,” was the little man’s simple answer.

“You don’t know? Why not?” she asked, staggering to her feet.

“It’s because I have divided my attention between the two of you,” the little man lectured. “Half of me is here with you while my other half is with Matt. I won’t be able to compare notes until I rejoin myself. Then I won’t be able to clue you in until you call me up again. And since you two have to be together to do that, the question becomes moot.”

‘Adam’ thought over what the little man had said before asking her next question.

“How am I supposed to find him if I don’t know what he looks like?” she asked.

“You have time,” the little man said, once again slipping into lecture mode. “The time reference on this wish lasts until the end of the game next week. That’s six days where you will only be able to make minimum changes anyway. By the way, your name is now Alice Timmons and in just a moment, the head cheerleader is going to call you over to learn a new routine for the game. So I’ll leave now and see you again when you find your partner.”

“Wait, don’t go!” Alice called, but the little man was already gone. The name ‘Alice Timmons’ seemed familiar to her, almost natural. A cool breeze blew across her body causing her nipples to tighten and momentarily giving her goose bumps. She looked down at her rather large breasts with ample exposed cleavage with a sense of horror.

“This is going to be a long week,” she said then bent down to pick up a pair of pom-poms that appeared on the ground in front of her and went to join her teammates on the cheerleading squad who were already doing their warm-up stretches.

_____ o _____

“Mark! Alice! Good to see you both again,” the little man was genuinely pleased to see the two kids again. “So obviously, you two did find each other after all. Did you have any trouble?”

“You might say that,” Alice said icily, shooting daggers at Mark.

Mark turned his palms outward and shrugged his shoulders.

“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t want to find you,” he said with an apologetic smile on his face.

“You just didn’t look very much, did you!” she shot back. “So I had to spend the whole week looking like this!”

She seemed to be indicating the cheerleading outfit she wore, but both Mark and the little man knew she meant the very shapely female body she wore instead.

“You look nice,” Mark offered lamely.

Alice gave a cute little harrumph noise, stomped her foot and turned away. Mark used the opportunity to check out her ass and legs.

“So…” the little man entered into the awkward silence. “It’s been nine days. I had kind of hoped that you kids had gotten used to your new lives and given up on wishes.”

Alice maintained her stony silence while Mark continued to admire her backside.

“How have the last nine days been for you Mark?” the little man asked. “…Mark? …Mark! …MARK!!”

“Huh? Oh, uh… Great, man!” he answered. “I mean I’m hanging with the guys on the team and from like day one, girls are clinging to me and everyone wants to be my friend. Dude, it’s awesome!”

“That sounds nice,” the little man said, somewhat bolstered that at least one of the kids might consider not making any more wishes. “How about you, Alice? Did you have fun?”

“Fun?” she asked over her shoulder before turning to face the little man directly.

“Excuse me, did you just ask me if it was fun? Hmm, let’s see. What did I do that might possibly be described as fun? Was wearing a bra fun? No… That wasn’t fun. How about having to wear lipstick and makeup? No, no fun there. Oh, I know! It must have been great fun wearing skirts and high heels almost every other day because that’s what the cheerleaders were all doing this week! No? Well I wonder why none of those things were any fun? Oh, that’s right. I don’t want to be a girl! I hate being a girl! And will you QUIT STARING AT MY CHEST!!” This last invective had been hurled at Mark who had become enthralled by the way the school’s emblem was being curved sitting on front of Alice’s cheerleader uniform.

“Pig!” she added for good measure.

“She’s just mad because I kissed her,” he said as an aside to the little man.

“You promised you wouldn’t tell!” Alice shouted. “You swore you wouldn’t tell! I can’t believe you! And you didn’t kiss me, you groped me. Pig!”

“I didn’t know it was you!” Mark said defensively. “I didn’t know it was her. I mean him, I mean… I didn’t know who it was.”

“What happened?” the little man asked, happy for now that no wishes were being made but still not liking the direction this conversation was going.

“Check this out,” Mark started talking enthusiastically to the little man. “My main man, Jimmy, he’s the quarterback, asks me if I want to go on this hot date with these two cheerleaders. And I say ‘which ones’ and he says ‘Mindy and Alice’. I say ‘cool, which ones mine’. He says ‘Alice’ and I say ‘sweet’. You know, cause I’ve seen Alice on the squad and I know she was really hot.”

“Watch it!” Alice warned sternly.

“I was just saying,” Mark offered as explanation. “Anyway, like we go to pick up the chicks and Alice comes out wearing this short red dress and she’s got these fine sexy legs and tight little ass…”

“Don’t talk about my ass!” Alice yelled.

“Sorry, babe,” Mark apologized. “Anyway, she keeps coming on to me and breathing on my neck and stuff. And she’s wearing this dress that like barely keeps her in…”

“Stop it! Let me tell it,” Alice interrupted. “You’re making me sound like a total slut. And I should start at the beginning.” She crossed her legs demurely and sat on a nearby log.

“The very day that I became a cheerleader I checked out the rest of the squad to make sure Matt wasn’t one of them,” she continued. “Other than myself, there were two new girls. Things must have gotten shuffled around for me to get put on the team. Anyway, after hanging out with Carla and Mindy for a few days, I ruled out Matt being a cheerleader. Both of them were way too heterosexual for either to be a recently transformed boy.”

“How soon before you figured out he was on the football team?” the little man asked.

“Almost right away,” she answered proudly. “I mean like, our school hasn’t had a decent running back in years. Then suddenly we have one that runs like the wind and can dodge bullets. Plus, his initials are M.J. just like my initials are still A.T., I figured it had to be him.”

“That’s pretty clever,” the little man said. “But why did you go on a date with him if you knew it was him?”

“Because Pig-boy over there was already dating three girls by the time I figured out who he was,” Alice flipped her hair back as she talked. “The rest of his free time was spent with his new best friend Jimmy.”

“Hey, Jimmy’s cool,” Mark objected. “Me and him are buds.”

“You spend way too much time with Jimmy,” Alice responded before returning to her story. “I figured the only way I could talk to him alone and get out of this mess is if I became his number four. I thought I had the assets to pull it off, anyway.” She self-consciously adjusted her uniform.

“And how!” Mark added causing Alice to blush deeply.

“So that’s when the whole date/groping thing occurred?” asked the little man.

“Yes,” she answered somewhat reluctantly. “I tired to make sure he’d call back so we could talk alone.”

“I take it then that you didn’t call her back right away,” the little man said addressing Mark.

“I was busy learning plays,” he shrugged. “The game was only two days away.”

“That’s right, the game,” the little man eagerly. Any thing that went well was likely to help sway them away from making wishes. “I imagine that both of you performed rather well.”

“Oh man! You should have seen,” Mark answered enthusiastically. “I got 163 yards rushing and 46 more through the air! Two touchdowns! Coach even gave me the game ball.”

“Ahem…” Alice interrupted.

“Uh, the cheerleaders did well, too,” Mark added. “Alice was really good. She can kick real high and everything. It really got us and the crowd going.”

“As I was saying…” Alice continued. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to him again until the celebration party after the game.”

“That’s where we wound up on the couch together!” Mark helpfully added.

“Don’t remind me,” she responded. “Anyway, he finally calls me on Saturday except we’re double dating again with Jimmy and Mindy. Finally, on Sunday, we get to be alone together and he freaks out when I tell him who I am. He says he needs to think and goes home.”

“It was freaky,” Mark said defensively. “I mean, like she’s my girlfriend who’s a lot like my old best friend, then like she’s my girlfriend when we’re out with my best friend, then she is my best friend who is also my girlfriend, but she’s only my girlfriend to be my best friend again, but is mad at me because I made her my girlfriend. Does that make sense?”

“No,” Alice answered rolling her eyes. “Now he wants me to consider staying his girlfriend permanently!”

“All I said was think about it,” Mark offered. “I make a real good running back and you make a real good cheerleader. It won’t be good for the football team if we change back. And you can’t tell me you didn’t have a little fun there when we were together.”

Alice just looked disgusted at him.

“The boy makes some very good points,” the little man said.

“What?!” Alice shouted whirling to face the little man.

“Wishes are highly unpredictable and often have disastrous results,” he lectured. “The reality you have now is very stable and has many benefits for both of you. You just need to relax and enjoy being a girl.”

“Yeah relax,” Mark agreed, nodding his head. “You make a wish and you could wind up a monster or something, or really ugly.”

Alice looked back and forth between Mark and the little man.

“Are you two insane?” she asked. “I don’t want to be a girl! I never wanted to be a girl! You, I ought to wish you into skirts just so you know what it’s like. But I won’t do that. You are right, to a point. You are a good running back and Lord knows our team needs one. But I am not going to stay a girl for one more hour. It’s my turn to make a wish.”

The little man sighed and Mark groaned.

“I wish that instead of being a cheerleader,” Alice started wishing, “I was a regular member of the boys’ football team with the qualifiers that Mark remains unchanged, that we both make important contributions to help the team win next week, and that nothing screws up any of this until after the game is over.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

Alice smiled with satisfaction and stood confidently waiting for the magic to take effect. Mark, on the other hand, looked like somebody had shot his dog. He kept staring at Alice as if trying to get one last look in before she disappeared forever. This, in a sense, was exactly what he expected to happen. Eventually a ripple passed through both Alice and Mark making them shudder.

“At last I can finally say goodbye to this nightmare,” Alice said brushing back a stray strand of hair.

“Was I supposed to feel that too?” Mark asked. “I thought I was going to stay the same.”

The little man looked both Mark and Alice over carefully before commenting.

“The magic does seem to include both of you even though it is centered on Alice,” he said.

“I’m not changing too, am I?” Mark said quite concerned.

“Nothing so major,” the little man reassured him. “But exactly what is happening, is still unclear.”

“It would serve you right!” Alice added in Mark’s direction, but she stopped talking as a shimmer spread over her body. She could feel her clothes start to twist and rearrange themselves. The shifting clothes seemed to settle down and after a brief buzzing feeling in her head, all signs of magic abruptly stopped.

“What happened?” a very confused Alice asked.

“The wish has been completed,” was all the little man had to say.

Alice looked down at herself. Instead of the cheerleader’s outfit she had been wearing, she now wore a pretty, but ordinary looking blouse and a pair of very tight-fitting blue jeans, which did nothing to hide her still very feminine figure. On her feet, she now wore open-toed sandals with a higher heel. These did show off her pretty feet and painted toenails. Other than clothing, she seemed to be completely unchanged.

“What do you mean ‘completed’?” she said. “I’m still a girl!”

“You sure are!” Mark said with a big smile on his face as he followed the contours of her jeans.

“You shut up! And you…” she said returning her attention to the little man. “What happened?”

“You got your wish,” the little man said calmly. “You are no longer a cheerleader.”

“I had wished to be a boy again!” her voice rising with a tinge of hysteria to it.

“No,” the little man corrected. “Your exact wish involved you being on the boys’ football team, which you are.”

“But I’m a girl!” she repeated needlessly.

“Yes,” the little man agreed. “And if I am reading this correctly, you are what they call a kicker. Apparently, though unusual, this is not a precedent and is a very stable solution to the wish parameters.”

“Cool! We’re on the team together,” Mark said sidling up beside Alice. “How about me? How come I felt the magic too?”

The little man studied Mark and the stunned looking Alice for a while.

“It seems that some sort of compulsion has been placed on both of you,” he commented. “Probably as a result of the combined qualifiers that Mark remain unchanged and that nothing be allowed to interfere until after the game.”

“A compulsion? What sort of compulsion?” Alice asked snapping out of her dazed look.

“Apparently Mark has very strong feelings for you, Alice,” the little man started once again in lecture mode. “He considers you to be boyfriend and girlfriend and that too is left unchanged. Adding the qualifier that nothing be allowed to interfere means that nothing will be allowed to alter Mark’s opinion that you two are a couple. This resulted in a compulsion placed on both of you to preserve that opinion. Until the next game is over, you two will have no choice but to act as a loving boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Really?” Mark asked hopefully.

“What the hell does that mean?” Alice asked angrily.

“The impact of the compulsion upon your freedom of choice will depend very much on you actions,” the little man lectured. “The more you act like a loving couple, the less compulsion you will feel.”

Mark and Alice looked at each other. Mark raised his eyebrows and smiled broadly.

“No way!” she spat. Mark’s expression dropped instantly.

“Listen, you two are about to phase into this reality and there is nothing else I can tell you or do for you until next week,” the little man started to wrap things up. “So I’m going to say goodbye for now and maybe I’ll see you after the game.”

“You’re damn straight you will!” Alice shouted, but the little man was already gone.

Alice looked back at Mark standing there shuffling his feet in the dirt.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s get out of here already.”

With that, she turned and started walking back the way they had come. Mark caught up to her and the two walked silently together. Eventually the path forced them to walk closer together and Mark was very surprised when Alice reached out and took his hand. They walked hand-in-hand with Mark leading the way helping Alice over logs and holding branches out of the way for her. When they reached the main road, Alice slipped her arm around Mark’s waist and snuggled into him as they walked. Mark put his arm around her shoulders and held her close. Looking down at the beautiful blond angel beside him, Mark felt like he was walking on clouds. He felt he was in heaven. Alice smiled dreamily up at Mark, then leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed happily. She felt she was in hell.

_____ o _____

“Alice! Mark! Good to see you both again,” the little man said before noticing Mark’s face. “That’s quite a shiner you have there Mark. Did you get it at the game?”

“More like right after the game ended,” he answered.

“And you deserved it, too. You disgusting pervert!” Alice interjected.

“I take it Alice is the one who gave you that eye then,” the little man suggested.

“Oh yeah,” Mark confirmed.

“What did you do to deserve it?” the little man asked.

“To be honest, I still don’t really know,” answered Mark with a shrug of his shoulders. This proved to be too much for Alice to take.

“You don’t know!!” she shouted. “You raped me, you sick little freak!”

“I didn’t rape you!” Mark said visibly shaken by the accusation. “I didn’t rape her! We made love. You said you loved me! Even afterward you said you loved me.”

“I was being compelled, you idiot!” she said shaking her head. “I never had a choice! Didn’t you notice the compulsion?”

“No,” Mark said carefully.

Alice glared but kept her silence.

“I didn’t feel compelled,” Mark tried to explain. “I mean, I felt compelled but not like I was forced to do something. I did what I did because I love you, baby.”

Alice kept a stony silence, which led Mark to try to coax her.

“Don’t be like that, baby,” he said. “Didn’t we have a good week? Everywhere we went you were laughing. And all those times we made out, you must have enjoyed some of that. Come on, baby. You were so into it that night before the game. You even said you wanted to motivate me special for the game. We kissed every time the offense came off the field for Christ sake!”

“I assume the game went according to the wish,” the little man said trying to divert the topic of conversation away from the unpleasant aspects of the wish.

“Hell yeah! We kicked ass!” Mark said biting on the change of conversation. “I got 142 yards rushing, but she was freaking awesome! She hit five field goals, and her punts! It was like she could drop the ball on their five-yard line any time she wanted to. They never had a chance. If we win next week, we play for the city championship.”

A small smile crossed Alice’s face at the memory.

“I was good,” she admitted quietly.

“Aw baby, you were awesome!” Mark played up to her slight acquiescence. “See, it wasn’t all bad. We had some fun. You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it a little. With all that moaning and that little scream you have.”

Mark moved up behind Alice who had been facing away from him. He put his hands on her shoulders and bent down to kiss her. She shrugged off his attempt and turned to yell at him.

“You don’t get it, do you?” she yelled. “I was compelled! I don’t feel that way about you or any guy. I don’t like guys. It’s still me in here. I still feel like I’m a guy. How about you? Do you want to sleep with a guy? I don’t! But thanks to that stupid wish and you, I have to remember it for the rest of my life! How would you like that? Huh? Do you want to close your eyes and remember what it’s like to have some horny guy grope you, or stick his penis between your legs? Or maybe, just maybe you would like to be able to really know what it’s like to give a guy a blow job?”

“You didn’t,” the little man said to Mark.

“Oh yes he did!” Alice said defiantly.

“I just asked. I thought you wanted to,” was Mark’s lame defense.

“Now you get up there and wish me back into being a guy or so help me, I’ll cut your balls off,” she said kicking Mark away.

“But, baby…” he tried.

“Do it!” she shouted.

The little man did not even try to talk them out of making this wish. He could tell it was a foregone conclusion. Mark hung his head dejectedly, looked at the little man then back at Alice once more.

“I wish… I wish…” he started out unsurely before finally blurting out the rest. “I wish for the same wish as last week except that I want Alice sexually attracted to me!”

“WHAT!!!” she shrieked.

“As you wish,” intoned the little man solemnly.

“You take that back!” she shouted. “You make him take that back!”

“I’m sorry,” the little man said. “A wish was made, the magic is flowing.”

“You son of a bitch!” she shouted taking a swing at Mark. “You are so dead when I get my wish!”

“Aw baby, don’t be like that,” he said dodging the punch. “I just thought you’d reconsider if you were more into it.”

“That’s all I am to you now, isn’t it?” she said with resignation plopping down on a nearby log. “I’m just a piece of tail for you, you asshole.”

“It’s not like that, baby. I love you,” he said sitting beside her.

A ripple passed through Mark and Alice, causing them both to shudder visibly.

“You just wait until next week, pig!” she said standing up and storming away from him. Mark stood too but was preoccupied by something else.

“Was it supposed to feel that strong?” he asked the little man. “I don’t remember it being that strong.”

“Curious,” the little man said while studying the air around the two kids. “The distribution of magical energy is similar to last week’s wish except this time it seems to be centered on Mark instead of Alice.”

“On me? What’s it centered on me for?” Mark said starting to feel a little scared right about now. “She’s the one who’s supposed to change.”

“Bastard!” Alice called out over her shoulder with vehemence.

“Magic usually does the unexpected,” the little man explained. “That’s one of the reasons I urge people to not make wishes.”

“What’s it doing to me?” Mark asked nervously.

“I hope it turns you into a pig, you pig!” Alice shouted.

“It’s not turning me into a pig, is it?” he asked the little man.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” the little man consoled. “The pattern is definitely human. We’ll just have to wait and see for details though.”

Mark still looked concerned. Alice still looked angry. The clothing Mark wore developed a slight shimmer and gradually his jeans began to twist and change. The material began to darken and turn shiny. At the same time, his pant legs began to creep up his legs while the crotch seemed to lower. The crotch met the rising pant hems at roughly knee level, where they coalesced until there was only a single opening for both of Mark’s legs. The hemline however, continued to rise. The material finished changing just after the zipper of his fly disappeared. It was quickly obvious that Mark was standing there wearing a black leather miniskirt. Alice took one look at him and burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny!” Mark protested.

“Yes it is,” she said laughing even harder, the little man just shrugged.

Mark had been wearing his football jersey over top of a t-shirt, but the magic soon began to work on his jersey. The weave of his jersey shrank to a finer mesh while the fiber itself turned bright red and silky. The neck hole increased in size moving partway down his chest and a lot closer to his shoulders. If not for his t-shirt, much of his chest and his entire collarbone would have been exposed. At the same time, the whole shirt tightened up on him to cling more closely to his body. The bottom of the changing jersey even tucked itself under the waistband of his skirt. Finally, a broad frilly collar grew in an unbroken arc across the front of his shirt to meet at the back where Alice noticed a series of dainty looking buttons now ran halfway down his back.

He became distracted by something brushing his jaw line and was greatly surprised to reach up and find he now wore long dangling earrings and that his hair now hung almost to his shoulders. A wave of weakness sped through his body, starting in the pit of his stomach and rushing out through all his extremities. When his head cleared, he looked down to see that his legs were now clean-shaven with very smooth, almost shiny skin. He also seemed to have acquired quite a tan. He seemed to be a light even brown color on all of his skin that he could see. There also seemed to be a lot less muscle mass on his legs. His upper thighs still seemed to have some size to them but the overall impression was one of softness and curving lines.

He only had limited time to inspect his legs though, as his white gym socks began to reach up his legs. By the time they reached his knees, they had turned dark in color but had grown so thin that he could see his legs through the material. They were halfway up his thighs before he realized that they were becoming nylons. He felt the material slip up under his skirt and blouse before settling down around his waist. He looked at his pantyhose clad legs and for a moment thought that his legs had gotten longer. With a start, he realized that this was because he was now wearing bright red high heel shoes. His red-painted toenails were clearly visible through his nylons.

He reached, as if to touch his transformed legs but stopped when he saw his hands. They had gotten smaller and his fingers seemed longer and more slender. Red-painted nails topped each finger and extended noticeably past the tips. Each hand sported several delicate looking rings and brightly colored bangles and fine metal bracelets adorned each wrist. Mark looked up in horror at Alice and the little man. Alice noted with amusement that Mark was now wearing bright red lipstick and heavy eye makeup. His face was more oval with higher cheekbones.

“Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!” he shouted with a voice that was becoming increasingly higher in pitch. “What’s happening to me?”

“There is no making it stop,” the little man softly said. “The magic is flowing and the wish must be fulfilled.”

“What’s the matter Markie?” Alice called in a lilting voice. “Don’t you want your wish?”

Alice continued to laugh. Mark felt the top and back of his t-shirt melt away and the bottom ride up to settle on his chest. The thin red material of his blouse did not do much to hide the fact that he now wore a black bra. The lacy upper edge of the empty cups were visibly peaking out above his blouse as were the black straps over each shoulder.

“Hey, Markie!” Alice teased. “This is your lucky day. Tonight you’re going to get some pussy!”

Alice laughed aloud at her own joke. She was clearly enjoying this. The implications of what Alice had said hit home to Mark when he felt his panties slip between his cheeks and ride up his ass. Mark looked down at his partially feminized body, now almost fully clothed in female attire.

“Nooo!!” he shouted but was cut short by a gut wrenching shudder passed through his body. Off balance in the high heels, ‘Mark’ stumbled and leaned against a tree for support. Reaching down gingerly under the skirt, ‘Mark’ found that she now had a body that matched the clothes she wore.

“Madre dios,” she muttered as long, wavy, jet black hair tumbled over her shoulders. Her breasts were rising to fill the bra cups up to a size that to her anyway, seemed huge. After a short buzzing feeling filled her head for a while, all signs of magical change seemed to stop. ‘Mark’ turned toward Alice and the little man.

“ ¿Qué sucediá³?” she asked, then realized that she was speaking and thinking in Spanish. She found she could think in English but had to concentrate. “Wha… happen to me?” she finally managed in accented English.

“Your wish has been granted,” the little man simply said. Alice just giggled.

“I no wish for this!” the pretty Latina said in a very agitated voice.

“Not exactly, no,” the little man agreed. “But it is a neat solution to the wish parameters, Maria.”

“Maria?” she asked.

“Maria Jimenez, that’s your name now,” the little man explained.

“Si,” Maria agreed, realizing with a start that that indeed was her name now.

“Your wish was to re-invoke last week’s wish” the little man lectured, “so all those parameters are still in effect. Both of you are regular member of the boys’ football team. Alice is still the kicker and Maria is still a running back. Although, I am not sure how long that will last. Nonetheless, both of you will make important contributions to winning next week’s game and that nothing will be allowed to interfere with that.”

“But I was to be unchanged!” Maria protested. “This is unchanged?”

“You did throw in that qualifier about Alice finding you sexually attractive,” he reminded her. “Even I heard her tell you she didn’t like boys that way.”

Alice laughed then sauntered over to the busty raven-haired girl. She slid her arm around Maria’s waist and purred into her ear.

“Don’t you worry, my pretty Chiquita,” she whispered while kissing Maria’s ear. “I think I find you very… very… very… sexually attractive!”

Maria gulped in response. Everything about her situation was disorientating. For one thing, she was not used to looking up at Alice’s eyes. It made her feel small. It got worse when she realized that Alice was wearing sneakers while she had high heels on. She felt exposed in these clothes and was completely unprepared for how her body was responding to Alice’s attention to her ear.

“There’s nothing else I can do for you two until after next week’s game,” the little man said intrusively, intent upon making his exit. “So I’ll take my leave from here with one word of warning. The compulsion to be boyfriend girlfriend will still be enforced. Since both of you are now girls, your initial reactions to each other will define the dominant and submissive roles in your relationship. Well, goodbye until next week then.”

With that, the little man was gone. Alice smiled wickedly, looking down at a very frightened Maria. She ran her hand down the small of Maria’s back and across her buttocks.

“Don’t worry my little Spanish hottie,” Alice whispered. “I don’t think we’ll have any trouble defining our relationship.”

Alice ran a finger slowly across Maria’s bust line before tweaking one of her nipples. Maria gasped at the unfamiliar sensation. This was Alice’s cue to kiss her half-open mouth forcibly. Maria’s mind was in turmoil. She saw the beautiful blonde girl kissing her but instead of a growing stiffness, she felt a moist warmth grab hold of her groin. In her head, she wanted to seize the initiative and have her way with Alice, but her body was sending signals of softness and opening up to sensations. Alice began to minister to Maria’s nipples, which proved to be too much for her mind to overcome. With a sigh, Maria closed her eyes and tilted her head back and to the side and just let her body respond. Alice eventually broke off the kiss.

“Girly girl,” Alice whispered. “I have so very much I want to show you.”

Alice led the pretty Latina back down the path. The wilderness trail was difficult for Maria to walk in high heels. She found she had to frequently lean against the bigger girl for support. By the time they got to the main road, she was still leaning into Alice. While on the inside, she was frightened and desperately trying to think of a way out of her situation, to the outside world she looked to be smiling dreamily up at the face of the blonde beauty whose arm was around her waist.

_____ o _____

“Maria! Alice! Good to see you again,” the little man greeted the two girls. “I had a feeling you’d be back. I just couldn’t see you two being happy with the way that last wish turned out.”

“Not happy, no!” Maria pouted.

Alice just smirked. The little man noted that both girls were wearing jeans and sneakers. They were not exactly embracing their femininity, he thought. Then again, he also noted that both had blouses on as well as minimal makeup and jewelry. This gave him some hope that he would be able to avoid enabling another wish.

“I take it you two didn’t have a good time,” he sighed.

“Oh, I had a blast,” Alice said with a smile. Maria just glowered.

“I mean, how often does one get to go an entire week with their very own girly girl who would do absolutely anything for you?” crowed Alice.

“You bitch!” Maria cursed.

“Payback is a bitch!” Alice shot back.

“You do this on purpose!” accused Maria. “I did not know you no like what I do.”

“That doesn’t change the way I felt!” Alice shouted back then regained her composure. “Anyway, I just wanted you to have a few special memories of this past week. And it was special, wasn’t it? I’m sure your best friend Jimmy thought it was kind of special. He seemed pretty eager when I invited him to help make you the center of attention of our impromptu threesome.”

Maria blushed deeply and turned her eyes downward. Alice laughed some more. The little man tried to think of some angle to get the girls to not make anymore wishes.

“I’m sure there were some good things,” he said. “How about the game? You won, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Maria admitted, grumpily.

“You don’t sound very happy about it,” he pointed out.

“Let’s just say our little running back isn’t the offensive powerhouse she used to be,” Alice said. “What was it Maria, eight carries for 46 yards?”

Maria didn’t answer so Alice continued.

“Of course, 45 of those yards were on your last carry. It did set up the winning field goal with no time left on the clock. Everyone who saw that last run of yours thought it was simply magical the way you ran down the field.”

“You bitch!” Maria repeated. “You just wait for me to wish again, then we gonna see who is so smart!”

“I wouldn’t threaten the person with the next wish, missy!’ Alice said menacingly. “With that crap you tried to pull last week, I should wish you permanently in that body down in some whorehouse in Mexico.”

Maria blanched at the threat, realizing how vulnerable she really was with Alice having the next wish. The little man groaned inwardly knowing there was no way he was going to talk them into accepting their situation. Mentally he resigned himself to enabling more wishes.

“But that wouldn’t be good for the team,” Alice said in a softer tone of voice. “This used to be about the team. Before we started all this fighting, we cared more about the team than anything else. Now we’ve won that last game and next week we’re in the city championship. If we keep fighting, we’ll screw that up. Now you were a good running back and the team needs that next week. So how about we just bury the hatchet and become regular members of the football team instead of this freakish lesbian couple we are now?”

“Bueno! Yes!” Maria said enthusiastically.

“And I’m willing to forget all about our little fight if you are,” Alice added.

“Si, I agree!” Maria answered wholeheartedly.

“All right then,” Alice nodded. “Little man, I wish that Maria and I were the same sex as everyone else on the team and we stay on the team and continue to help it until we go on to win a championship. And because I don’t want any freaky carryovers from these last couple of weeks, I want to add that we both have strictly heterosexual thoughts from now on.”

Maria nodded her agreement.

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

Both girls waited impatiently for the changes to start. They knew that the magic would take some time to kick in but that did not make waiting any easier. Finally, the glen around them began to shimmer and disappear. Nobody said a word while surrounding objects began to coalesce out of the surrounding shimmer. It became apparent that they were inside a large room.

“This look like the gym,” Maria noted.

“Yup, those are the bleachers. This is definitely the gym,” Alice agreed. “Hey little man, how come we’re being brought to the gym?”

The little man shrugged before answering.

“The magical lines of energy aren’t clear enough to read,” he said. “Until they are, your guess is as good as mine.”

Amorphous figures appeared in various positions, mostly centered toward the bleachers in front of the two wishers. The forms gradually began to take shape and were rapidly becoming recognizable. Alice and Maria did not want to admit it, but it soon became obvious that they were standing among a group of girls wearing the same short dress with the school emblem emblazoned across the chest.

“These are the cheerleaders,” Alice said, stating the obvious.

“Where is the football team?” Maria asked looking around.

“Hey, little man!” Alice yelled. “What are we doing here at the cheerleader practice?”

“I would imagine it’s to practice,” he answered.

“Is he trying to be funny?” asked an increasingly frightened Maria.

“Are you nuts, little man?” Alice asked. “We’re football players, not cheerleaders. We just wished to be boys again.”

“No,” the little man answered speaking slowly and clearly. “Your exact wish was to be the same sex as everyone else on the team. The trouble was that you never actually said which team. Evidently, the magic chose to move you over to the cheerleading squad rather than make you boys again.”

“What!!” Alice shouted.

“No football team?” Maria asked in a trembling voice.

“No, my dear,” the little man said to Maria. “I’m afraid that all the football games you’ll be attending will have you cheering from the sidelines.”

Just then, a ripple passed through both girls causing them to shudder slightly. When they regained their composure, both girls’ clothes were beginning to change. Both pairs of jeans shrank up and changed into short skirts that fused to their blouses. The colors of their clothes steadily shifted to their school colors and a large school emblem appeared emblazoned across each girl’s chest. In very short order both girls found themselves dressed exactly like each other and exactly like the other girls in the gym.

“Aiyee!” Maria shrieked, never having been dressed as a cheerleader before.

“Christ, not again,” Alice said disgustedly.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Maria said jumping around pulling at her uniform.

“Calm down,” Alice said, irritated at both her current situation and Maria’s behavior. “We just have to play along until your chance to wish comes up and we can get out of this mess. That’s probably going to be another week, right?”

“Wrong,” the little man said. “It will be more like eight months to a year.”

“Months!?!” Maria said. “Year!?!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” demanded Alice.

“Your time reference was until you win the championship,” the little man lectured. “Since it’s too late to win this year’s cheerleading competition, you will have to wait for next year’s competition.”

“I didn’t… That was supposed to be the football championship!” Alice blurted.

“I’m afraid the wish happens to be clearly centered on the cheerleading team,” the little man said apologetically. “Both of you will have to remain cheerleaders at least until next year’s championship.”

“We no can wish for a year?” Maria asked.

“I don’t think you’ll even get that chance,” the little man said casually. “Both of you will probably be girls for the rest of your lives.”

“WHAT!!” both girls shouted as one.

“Think about it for a minute,” the little man explained. “You two are going to be very popular, very pretty, hormonally driven teenage girls for most of a year. What’s going to make either of you voluntarily give up having your pick of all the boys you want?”

The girls looked askance at the little man then at each other with a confused look and then back at the little man.

“ ¡Completamente loco! I no want boys,” Maria said.

“Yeah, you’re off your nut all right,” Alice agreed. “Neither of us thinks of boys in that way.”

“That’s because that qualifier hasn’t kicked in yet,” he countered.

“What qualifier?” Alice asked.

“The one about having strictly heterosexual thoughts from now on,” he explained. “Given that both of you are currently female, I believe that will mean that both of you will be thinking of boys ‘in that way’ from now on.”

Both girls looked at the little man in shock, and then looked at each other. After glancing over the rapidly solidifying teenage girls of the cheerleading squad materializing around them, both girls got the sick feeling that what the little man was saying was correct. Maria was the first to break the silence.

“Your stupid wish make us girls for real!” she shouted at Alice.

“Calm down,” Alice urged. “We’re not beat yet. We just have to stay focused on our goal of becoming boys again. We can do it. It’s only a year. We just have to remember to stay focused!”

“I’m afraid that’s the other problem,” the little man interjected.

‘What? Staying focused?” Alice asked.

“No, only a year,” he said. “Your wish did not specify that you would win the championship only that you stay this way until you do. Your team has some talent but it is hardly at a championship level, you might find yourselves graduating from high school before you win.”

Alice and Maria stood with mouths open. Neither girl had anything to say so the little man continued.

“I might as well go now,” he said. “There’s nothing more I can do until you do win a championship and you two are just seconds’ away form joining this reality anyway. Cheer up; maybe you can win at the college level. And for what it’s worth, good luck.”

With that, the little man was gone. Maria and Alice stared at each other for a moment. Then Erin, the head cheerleader, called everyone over to start practicing the first dance number. Alice and Maria both grabbed their pompoms and got into position with the other girls. One thing was certain; Alice was the most determined cheerleader out there. She was going to win the next championship if she had to be the peppiest cheerleader in the state. Maria just wanted to cry.

The End

A Reluctant Spirit: Truncated Spirits
By Ingrid Halb

Ken finds the magical vessel in a junkyard while looking for car parts. What a great opportunity to wish for a new ride that will make him look good! Now then, what were those instructions again?

Ken Newland was a slacker. At thirty years of age, he still had not held a job for more than six months. Subsequently, he had great difficulty in maintaining a place to stay. He would spend a few months at a time living with various friends and girlfriends until they had enough and invariably kicked him out. More often than not, he would wind up living in his parents’ basement. While this was always a blow to his manhood, he would stay as long as his parents let him. This was primarily because his father had a large well-stocked garage which allowed Ken to indulge his one true passion; cars.

Ken lived and breathed all things automotive. He had a particular fondness for small Japanese sports cars. Unfortunately, his inability to maintain a steady income meant that his current ride was an aging four-door Toyota Corolla with an exhaust leak and a transmission that tended to slip out of fourth gear. This was why he was spending his Saturday afternoon at Mel’s Pick-A-Part Automotive Recycling Yard looking for replacement parts, when he stumbled across his very own genie.

“You’re a what?” asked Ken.

“A spirit obligated to enable the flow of magical energy whenever cued by a properly formatted wish statement offered by the true possessor of my vessel,” answered the portly little man.

“And that means what?” Ken asked, still confused.

“If you make a wish, I have to make it happen,” the little man simplified.

“You mean you’re like a genie and I get three wishes?” Ken asked excitedly.

“Like a genie yes, but the number of wishes is technically limited only by the current levels of magical energy,” the little man lectured. “For instance, if one were to make a wish involving a previously incarnated…”

Ken’s attention began to drift, as the little man seemed to drone on endlessly. A genie! And three wishes! It was like some sort of fairytale. And if years of watching Disney movies had taught him anything, it was that fairytales always worked out well.

“…and three qualifiers,” the little man continued. “Understand?”

Ken smiled and nodded.

“Good,” the little man said. “But I must warn you, wishes never…”

The little man sure liked to talk, Ken thought. What should he wish for first? It should be something really hot for his car. Some trick wheels would be good, maybe a new paintjob. Of course, the engine needs work. Some headers and a turbocharger would do the trick. That would mean he would need a tougher block with higher compression heads. Then he would need some way to hook all that power to the road. Definitely a stiffer transmission and some fat tires were needed. How many wishes was that? There had to be a way to get all that. Maybe he should just wish for a total new ride and see where that got him.

“…and that is why it is vitally important that you never make any wishes,” finished the little man, thinking that he had really gotten through to Ken.

“I wish I had a total upgrade on my ride so that I look good and turn some heads when I drive by!” Ken blurted out.

The little man’s jaw dropped open in surprise, but he had no choice in the matter.

“As you wish,” he intoned solemnly, then looked at Ken and shook his head in amazement.

Ken stood there smiling and looking around for his car to appear.

“So where’s my car?” he finally asked.

“Probably out in the parking lot,” the little man answered.

“No, I mean my new car,” Ken insisted earnestly.

“First off, the magic hasn’t even started working,” the little man lectured. “And secondly, we don’t know you are getting a new car. Magic is tricky and always does the unexpected. Yes, it is a guarantee that the wish will adhere to your exact words, but the question remains as to whether or not that will result in…’

The little man’s voice just seemed to go on and on. So, his new car was out in the parking lot. It would be good to finally get a little respect on the streets. Some nice hot wheels would be just the trick to making his name on the avenue.

“…so we’ll just have to wait and see,” the little man finished.

Just then, a ripple seemed to pass through the junkyard, causing Ken to shudder.

“What was that?” he asked.

“That was the magic. The parameters of this wish have been set,” explained the little man. “Apparently, there is no need to change locations to fulfill this wish.”

“So my new car is out in the parking lot?” Ken asked hopefully.

“Look I just explained… Oh, never mind,” sighed the little man. “Yes, your car is out in the parking lot.”

“Wahoo!” Ken shouted and grabbing his tools, he rushed out to the parking lot.

The little man watched him go and tried to read the lines of magical energy flowing around Ken. He never did get to read all of them before Ken disappeared from view.

Strange fellow, the little man thought. He never even took the vessel with him when he left. Hopefully, it would all work out all right but the little man had a bad feeling about this wish. The pattern of magic looked more like an ongoing magical effect rather than a straightforward transformation.

The little man would have to wait for Ken to come back before he could tell what had happened. If he came back that is, and if nobody else found the little man’s vessel first. The little man shrugged his shoulders and disappeared.

Ken ran out into the parking lot breathless from excitement and exertion. His heart sank when he looked at where he had parked and saw his old beat up Toyota still sitting there.

“I knew it was too good to be true,” he said aloud to no one in particular and got in to drive back home dejectedly.

It soon became apparent that there was something decidedly odd going on with this car ride. People kept staring at him. People in other cars, people walking down the road, people just sitting on steps and bus stops. They all turned their heads to watch as Ken drove by. Well, mostly it was just the guys. Including this one guy, whose girlfriend slapped him after he turned to watch Ken. It was strange. The car seemed to be the same scratched and dented old Toyota that blew smoke when he accelerated yet he was getting all this attention. He could not figure it out.

That was until he stopped at a traffic light near a modernistic office building with silvered glass windows. At first, Ken thought he was seeing the reflection of another old beat up Toyota, but he soon recognized the distinctive dings and scrapes of his own car. It was his reflection that threw him off. For the driver, as clearly shown in the mirrored windows, was a gorgeous blonde woman wearing a tube top. He moved a few body parts experimentally and the woman in the reflection mimicked his movements perfectly.

Ken looked quickly down at himself and confirmed that he was still male, and still wearing the grubby t-shirt and jeans he had when he left the house this morning. His rearview mirror on the other hand, showed the same feminine reflection the building had. She was also in both side mirrors and the mirror clipped onto the sun visor. He had to double-check himself but only his reflection had changed.

Blue eyes, he thought looking into his rear view mirror. She has beautiful blue eyes. He shook his head experimentally and watched the long blonde hair brush against the exposed shoulders of the woman in the mirror. She was startlingly beautiful. He was so engrossed with studying his reflection that he failed to notice when the light changed. He also did not notice the first horn blast from the car stuck behind him at the light. He did notice the second blast but did not quite react until he heard the man behind him yell.

“Let’s go, you dizzy broad!” the man behind him yelled. “You can check your makeup when you get home!”

With a start, Ken drove through the intersection and pulled over into a parking spot. The car behind him roared past hurling a gender specific derogatory comment at him. Ken waited a couple of minutes trying to get his bearings. A man walking past on the sidewalk winked at him. Ken gulped then looked once more at the female reflection in the mirror.

“Everyone thinks I’m a woman,” he said aloud to no one in particular.

_____ o _____

“Hello Ken,” the little man said pleasantly when Ken returned to the junkyard the next day.

“What did you do?” Ken demanded.

“Excuse me?” the little man said, confused.

“What did you do?” Ken repeated slowly.

“I didn’t do anything. What are you talking about?” the little man replied.

“Liar! Everyone things I look like a hot blonde chick,” accused Ken.

The little man looked Ken over very closely. He looked the same as when they met yesterday. That might even be the same t-shirt.

“You don’t look like a blonde woman to me,” the little man noted.

“Everyone else thinks I do!” Ken complained. “It started when I drove home yesterday.”

The little man thought carefully and examined Ken a little more closely. There was a faint trace of magical energy clinging to Ken as if he were tied to something directly affected by magic.

“Tell me, Ken,” the little man finally asked. “Do other people think you look like a woman all the time?”

“No, just when I’m in my car,” admitted Ken.

“There’s your problem,” the little man exclaimed and slipped into lecture mode. “You need a new car. The magical energy, working within the parameters of your wish, has focused on your car. All you…”

A new car? And he wouldn’t look like a woman anymore? Sure, he wanted a new car but how was he going to be able to afford it? He could trade the old heap in but that wouldn’t get much in the shape it was in.

“…inherent danger of magical wishes…” continued the little man.

That’s it! He still had two wishes left. He could wish for a new car. But what kind should he get? Toyota’s were always good but Mazda was probably better for your money. Then again, a Mitsubishi would be pretty awesome. Oh heck, it didn’t really matter.

“…and if you just get rid of your old car your magical problems will be done with and there’s no need to make any more wishes,” finished the little man.

“I wish for a new car that won’t make me look like a woman when I’m really a guy! Something Japanese that I can use to blow away everyone I come up against!” blurted Ken.

The little man clasped his forehead with one hand and shook his head slowly.

“As you wish,” he intoned solemnly.

Ken stood there smiling, waiting for his car to materialize. The little man wanted to ask Ken something but could not begin to imagine how to word the question. Eventually another ripple passed through the junkyard, making Ken shudder.

“Was that it? Did I get my wish?” asked Ken enthusiastically.

“That was it,” the little man said.

He was going to start to explain to Ken that things would probably not turn out the way he expected. One look at Ken’s face told him he would probably be wasting his time.

“Your car is in the parking lot,” he finally told him and waved goodbye as Ken ran off without another word. The little man watched until Ken was out of sight then shook his head and disappeared.

Ken rushed out into the parking lot excitedly looking for his new car. He was slightly disappointed to find that sitting where he had parked his old clunker 4-door was a brand new 4-door Toyota instead of the sports car he had intended.

“I guess I should have been more specific,” he said aloud, looking the sedan over in more detail.

Maybe this was not it, he thought. However, his key did open the door and so he gingerly climbed inside and started the car. It ran like a new car. What about the mirrors, he thought. With trepidation, he turned the rearview mirror. If Ken were the type to think things through, he would have realized that he had been granted his wish. He no longer looked like a woman while riding his car. What he did look like was a Japanese kid maybe sixteen years old. He really was not the kind to think things through, though.

“I look like some Asian chick!” he shouted.

His reflection definitely looked like a teenaged girl. Miniskirt, blouse, long hair, and small tits he noted. Cute though, he thought. This was clearly unacceptable. He was going to go right back into the junkyard and complain to the little guy when he saw the manager of the junkyard hang the closed sign in the window. He had forgotten that they closed early on Sundays.

“Shit! I got to look like this till tomorrow?” he said disgustedly and put the car in gear to drive home.

He was not turning heads quite the same way he had been yesterday, he noted thankfully. Still, he was drawing his share of attention. The admiring glances he did draw seemed to agitate him oddly. It was almost as if the looks were pulling him nearer somehow. He managed to fight the feelings off for quite awhile but was caught off guard by a young man maybe eighteen years old, who smiled at him from the crosswalk when he stopped at a red light. Ken surprised himself by smiling back but was even more surprised when he found himself rolling down the window and popping the lock open on the passenger door. The young man sauntered over and stuck his head in the window.

“Hi,” he said with a smile.

“Hi yourself,” Ken said. “You look like you could use a ride.”

“Sure,” the young man said then opened the door and got in. “My name’s Nick.”

“I’m Kayami,” Ken heard himself say.

“That’s a pretty name,” Nick said. “A pretty name for a pretty girl.”

“Thanks, you’re cute too,” Ken heard himself say with a smile, then drove off when the light changed.

“You go to school around here, Kayami?” Nick asked.

“No,” Ken said. “I’m new here.”

Ken did not realize it at first but every time he shifted gears, his hand would drift over and start massaging Nick’s inner thigh. When he did realize what he was doing, he could not seem to make it stop. It was as if he was on autopilot when he drove the car to a secluded spot on a quiet road. He was very surprised when he and Nick passionately kissed but he was outright shocked when a few minutes later his face was buried in Nick’s lap with his head bobbing up and down. It took a few minutes but Ken did manage to clumsily ‘blow’ Nick away in the car.

_____ o _____

“Hello Ken,” the little man said genuinely pleased but slightly surprised to see Ken again.

“Okay, make it stop,” Ken said quickly.

“I’m sorry?” the little man said, not at all sure what Ken was talking about.

“Make it stop!” Ken insisted.

“Make what stop?” the little man asked.

“That thing in the car…” Ken could not bring himself to tell the little man about the five guys he had picked up yesterday and the three he had serviced on the way back here this morning. His jaw ached and he felt slightly nauseous thinking about what he had swallowed these last 24 hours.

The little man studied Ken closely. The faint trace of magical energy still clung to Ken indicating he was still tied to something directly affected by magic.

“This is just a guess, Ken,” he said. “But I would wager that the magic is still centered on your car. I’d have to see it to be sure though.”

“How am I supposed to bring my car in here?” Ken gestured at the junkyard.

The little man looked askance at Ken.

“You do realize that I can leave with you, don’t you?” the little man asked.

“Really?” Ken said very surprised. “I thought you had to stay by that doohickey you came out of.”

“I don’t have to stay with my vessel or doohickey as you call it,” the little man explained. “I can only be re-summoned near my vessel but I don’t have to stay there. Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t you take my vessel with you?”

“I can do that?” Ken asked.

“Look, I explained all that when we first… Oh never mind,” the little man replied. “Let’s go look at your car.”

Ken scooped up the little man’s vessel and together they walked out of the junkyard and into the parking lot. Once there, the little man looked over Ken’s brand new Toyota very carefully. Occasionally he would chuckle and once he seemed very surprised. Finally, he turned to talk to Ken.

“The magic is definitely centered on the car. That’s the good news. You shouldn’t be affected if you’re not in the vehicle. Your unfortunate use of the term ‘blow away’…”

Why can’t the little guy just say what he meant, thought Ken. Oh man, this was some mess he was in. It sounded like he had no choice. Did that mean he had to suck off every guy he met? He could not believe he had done that once, never mind eight times. About all he could do now was to use his last wish to stop doing it. That would leave him still looking like a girl, though. How was he going to get around that?

“…people admiring you as a girl will trigger your response, and only in this car,” the little man continued.

So, people seeing him as a girl made him want to do those things. All he needed then was some wish that made people see him as a guy again. Then he could keep his car without stopping to pick up other guys all the time.

“…so get rid of the car and there is absolutely no need to make another wish,” the little man finished.

“I wish that people would always see me the way I really was!” Ken blurted out.

The little man threw his hands in the air.

“As you wish,” he said, perhaps a little less solemnly than he usually did.

“Has it happened yet?” Ken asked.

“No, it hasn’t happened yet!” the little man snapped at Ken. “What were you thinking? Haven’t you been listening to me? Magic isn’t some toy to play with on a whim, it requires…”

Boy that little guy could talk, Ken thought. Lucky thing he had had a wish left. Otherwise, he would have been stuck doing that to guys. How gross would that have been? Kind of weird though, how different guys could be different down there. He never would have guessed it. Especially those last few guys. They took hardly any time at all. Maybe he was just getting better at it. That was a disgusting thought. Anyway, this wish should fix it so he could get back into the car without that happening again. It was not a bad car, after all.

“…act of extreme recklessness!” the little man finished.

“So can I get back in the car now?” Ken asked.

The little man pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger and fought the urge to scream.

“Sure, knock yourself out,” he said.

Ken got in the car and threw the little man’s vessel in the back seat. The little man got in the passenger side and closed the door. Ken looked in the mirror on the sun visor and saw the same Japanese teenager that had been there before. He noted that she now wore a dark green miniskirt.

‘Hey, the mirror still makes me look like a girl,” he complained.

Just then, a ripple passed through the car causing a powerful shudder to run through Ken’s body.

“Wagh!” he managed. “Dang, that was a freaky feeling. What was that?”

“That” the little man said, “was your wish starting.”

“Oh, good. I think,” Ken said wriggling in his seat.

His clothes felt funny, kind of like they were moving. It made sitting very uncomfortable. His pants were clinging far too tightly and he could feel almost every little contour of the seat through them. They were getting thinner too. For a while there, he thought he could see his leg hairs through them but that seemed to go away. He could definitely see his underwear through them though so he pulled his t-shirt down to cover up. The shirt seemed to stretch further than it should have. He was actually sitting on it. The t-shirt was getting clingy too, especially around the waist and hips. The chest still seemed loose but the sleeves had disappeared. He did not remember his t-shirt being dark green either. It was really starting to cling to his upper thighs now. If he was going to walk around wearing this thing, he was going to have to take short little steps.

Speaking of walking, his shoes looked odd too. Somehow, his sneakers were now a pair of ankle high boots with zippers down the side. They were black boots with pointy toes and some sort of higher heel. It was funny, but they kind of reminded him of women’s shoes. Especially the way his skintight see-through pants ran right inside them instead of over top of them, like they should. The material exaggerated the look. Why they almost looked like pantyhose, he thought. He did a quick double take on how his nylon clad legs looked, especially the way they seemed to run up and disappear under the tight dark green hem of what had been his t-shirt. He reached up to tilt the rearview mirror in his direction. He was dressed exactly like the girl in the mirror.

“Gaaaah!” he yelled. “I’m wearing a dress!”

“That does seem to be what the magic is doing,” agreed the little man.

Ken noticed that his hand still holding the mirror now had long reddish-purple nails. In fact, both hands did. He thought he felt something on his neck and reached up with both hands to discover that he now wore dangling earrings that seemed a close match to the jade earrings that the girl in the mirror wore. Additionally, his hair was long and getting longer. He could just pull it into his field of view to note that it was now jet-black instead of the dark brown it had been.

“This isn’t what I wished for!” he said.

“But it isn’t not what you wished for either,” the little man pointed out. “I told you magic was tricky.”

“Huh?” was all Ken could say.

“Let me try to explain this,” the little man said slowly. “You wished for people to see you the way you really were.”

“Yeah, a guy,” Ken nodded.

“That is what you wanted to happen, I know,” the little man continued, trying not to make things too complicated. “But instead of making all the people see the guy you really were, the magic is making you really be what the people saw. You see?”

“So now I got to dress like her too?” Ken asked, not really understanding what the little man had said.

“It’s a little more than that, I’m afraid,” the little man said.

Just then a gut-wrenching shudder passed through Ken’s body. If he had not been sitting in the car, it might have knocked him over.

“You’re actually going to have to become her, Kayami,” the little man said.

Long straight black hair fell over her shoulders. The front of her dress clearly showed the outline of a pair of small firm breasts.

“Kayami?” she asked. “That’s the name I told the guys I met.”

“That’s your name now, Kayami Nakamura,” he told her.

“Kayami?” she repeated. It seemed right.

“I’m a girl?” she asked touching herself gingerly in several places.

“Yes my dear, you are,” the little man confirmed.

“So I’m stuck like this forever?” she asked.

“You are stuck,” the little man said slipping into lecture mode. “But only until the magical energy has had a chance to replenish in direct proportion to…”

Stuck! Forever a girl. Did she really look like that, Kayami thought looking in the mirror. At least she was cute. If she had to be a girl, that was something. But she couldn’t possibly be a girl. She was wearing a dress, though. She didn’t have a bra on, but the girl in the mirror didn’t seem to have one on either. She grimaced and watched as her reflection did the same. She licked her lips and felt something waxy. I’m wearing lipstick, I am a girl, she thought, as if that proved it.

“…nothing else I can do for you today, so goodbye for now,” the little man finished.

“Huh? Oh, goodbye,” she said but the little man was already gone.

Kayami sat and considered her situation for awhile. Eventually though she started the car, adjusted the seatbelt and shifted the driver’s seat forward before putting the car in gear and driving off down the road. She only got a mile or two before she found herself pulling over in front of some guy waiting at a bus stop. He readily accepted her offer for a ride. Clearly, she was still in the throws of her oral compulsion.

_____ o _____

“Kayami!” the little man said in some surprise. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Hi,” said the girl, showing a great deal of surprise herself.

“It’s been so long that I thought you had fully adjusted to your situation,” he said.

“Huh?” she asked.

“How have you been these last four months?” the little man simplified.

“Not so good,” Kayami admitted. “I got arrested a couple of times.”

“Arrested? What for?” he asked.

“A couple of indecent exposures, one lewd behavior, and two counts of solicitation,” she shrugged.

That did not sound like the Kayami the little man knew and it definitely did not sound like Ken. It sounded more like someone acting under a compulsion. Given what he knew about this case, that could only mean one thing.

“Kayami” probed the little man, “are you still driving that same car?”

“Yeah, why?” she answered.

“And you’re still stopping to pick up guys, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she repeated, looking embarrassed.

“Do you like giving away blowjobs?” he asked carefully.

“Me? No!” Kayami insisted. “But I guess you do get kind of used to it after a while. It’s better if you don’t try to fight it and just relax. I’m getting better at it too, so it doesn’t take nearly as long as it did at first.”

“You do realize, don’t you, that it’s the car that’s making you do that,” the little man said.

“I thought it was the magic,” she said in confusion.

“Yes, it’s the magic but I told you it was centered on… Oh never mind,” the little man said in exasperation. “Tell me, if you don’t like giving blowjobs and you didn’t know it was the car making you do it, then why did you wait four months before calling me back?”

“After I used up my three wishes, I just kind of forgot about you being in the back seat there,” she said innocently.

“You’re telling me that you spent the last four months as a girl with a compulsion to give oral sex because you didn’t know you could get more wishes?” the little man asked incredulously.

“I get more wishes?” Kayami asked in surprise.

“I quite clearly told you that the number of wishes is unlimited except for the requirement of energy regeneration which takes a minimum of…”

Wow! More wishes. Maybe she wasn’t stuck after all! She just needed a wish that stopped her from picking up guys and blowing them. Wishing to be a guy again wouldn’t do it because she was a guy when she started doing it. There must be some wish that could work to end the compulsion.

“…so simply getting rid of the car will end the compulsion allowing you to lead a normal happy life of a girl your age. Your legal problems on the other hand…” the little man lectured.

The car! All she had to do was get rid of the car. She wondered why the little man had not mentioned that before. Of course, that would leave her without a car. You needed a car, preferably a fast one. Not like this car she had now, which was okay for a family car but nowhere near good enough for serious street action.

“…extremely tricky wishes can be. I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the little man finished.

Kayami smiled prettily and nodded her head in agreement.

“I wish that right now I had a totally hot car instead of the one I now have!” she blurted out still smiling. “And I’ll learn my lesson this time.”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned, wondering if it was possible for magical beings to get migraines.

Both of them stood and waited in silence. The little man could not think of anything to say and Kayami just leaned against her car, smiling and humming some song she knew. Eventually a shimmer passed through her car and it started to disappear. Kayami staggered and nearly fell to the driveway as her support melted away. The little man’s vessel, which had been in the back seat, did fall to the driveway with a loud clatter.

Kayami rushed out and quickly scooped up the vessel.

“So where’s my car?” she asked.

“Patience,” the little man urged. “Your old car must be completely disassembled first so that all of its magical energy can be used to summon the new car.”

As if on cue, an indistinct car-shaped blob began to materialize on the street near the driveway. Kayami actually recognized the emerging shape before it had solidified much at all. It was a 2002 Acura/Honda NSX-R in brand new condition. Its 3.2 liter V6 engine was capable of producing 280 horsepower. Coupled with an all aluminum and carbon fiber body and a 6 speed manual transmission meant that this was one car to be taken seriously.

It was just about Kayami’s dream car.

She almost cooed as she walked around the solidifying sports car trailing her fingers over its lines. This car made her weak in the knees. She actually squealed when she saw that the keys in the ignition were attached to a big letter ‘K’ keychain.

“It’s mine isn’t it?” she asked breathlessly. “This is my car!”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” cautioned the little man. “The magical energy is still in flux and hasn’t settled in a definite pattern yet.”

But Kayami was already climbing into the driver’s seat. The leather bucket seats held her like a warm hand. She lovingly held the steering wheel for a moment then let her eyes and hands wander over the interior. Caressing the titanium shifter gave her a pleasant warm moist feeling in her crotch, which made her want to squeeze her legs together.

“Come on, let’s go for a ride!” she called to the little man.

“We really shouldn’t until we understand what the magic is creating here,” warned the little man, but he climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door anyway.

“First I better put this someplace safe,” Kayami said holding up the little man’s vessel.

She thought about it for a moment then popped the trunk open and got out with the vessel in hand. She slammed the trunk and returned empty handed.

“You better put your seat belt on!” she laughed, buckling up herself then starting the car.

She squealed the tires as she accelerated down the road. What a car! This was like a dream. Heads turned to watch her drive by and this time they were mostly looking at the car. The best part was that she did not feel a compulsion to stop and pick up guys. Though it might be fun to do it anyway, she thought wickedly and laughed as she kicked it into a higher gear and headed for the interstate.

“Hey little man, how about I wish myself into being a guy again?” she asked.

“You have to wait until this wish is fully granted,” he explained. “There might be enough energy in your body to make the change. It would help if you drove someplace previously unaffected.”

“No problem!” she said taking the onramp without slowing down.

The little man was still studying the flow of magical energy and had a very concerned look on his face.

“What’s the matter?” Kayami asked. “Too fast for you?”

“This? Please, I’ve ridden magic carpets,” the little man scoffed. “It’s just that there are some long-term impacts from this wish that you will want to know about.”

Kayami was enthralled driving the car, a look of rapture on her face.

“Kayami, listen to me!” the little man insisted. “In just a few moments the police will pull you over. When you asked for a really hot car, you got a stolen one.”

“This isn’t my car?” she asked, crushed.

“No,” the little man confirmed. “You’re going to be arrested for stealing this car.”

“Arrested?” she asked a little frightened.

“Yes,” he said. “This on top of your previous arrests means that you’re in a fair bit of trouble.”

“Am I going to jail?” she asked worriedly.

“Some” he admitted, “but you’re a juvenile. It won’t be too bad. You actually set your own punishment when you added that qualifier about learning your lesson.”

“Huh?” she asked, not remembering any qualifier.

“Reform school,” he said. “You’re going to be sent to a reform school until you learn your lesson.”

Kayami blinked a few times quickly as the reality of her situation began to sink in.

“I got more wishes, right?” she asked. “I can get out of this, can’t I?”

“Kayami, think,” the little man told her. “You locked my vessel in the trunk. The police are not going to let you near it ever again. You’ve lost possession. You’ll be stuck like you are for the rest of your life.”

“So I don’t get to keep the car?” Kayami asked fondling the steering wheel.

“No,” was all the little man said.

“And I have to stay a Japanese girl forever?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Shit,” was all she could think to say.

“On the bright side” the little man said, “at least you got rid of the compulsion. And all of your offences are on your juvenile record. Study hard, learn your lesson, and listen when people talk to you. Think of this as an opportunity to start over.”

“Listen?” she said confused.

“Goodbye Kayami,” the little man said affectionately. “And good luck.”

“Goodbye?” she said, but the little man was already gone.

She heard a siren and saw a flashing blue light in the rearview mirror.

“You know” she said aloud to no one in particular as she pulled the car over to the side of the road, “the little guy could at least have warned me that something like this would happen.”

The End

A RELUCTANT SPIRIT: Vengeful Spirit
By Ingrid Halb

My fifth story, in which we meet Larry, a small-minded cubicle dweller bent on payback for every imagined wrong with a particular grudge against his supervisor. Not an unusual character, and one that can be found in many office buildings across the land. But Larry has a certain vessel that can conjure a three-foot tall enabler of wishes. Now what was it that they call payback again?

“Okay, I believe you,” Larry said plopping down across from the little man sitting at his kitchen table calmly sipping tea.

“Finally!” the little man said with relief. “You’re a difficult man to convince.”

“Yeah well, it’s not every day you get a three-foot tall genie pop up in your kitchen and tell you he’s going to grant all your wishes,” Larry pointed out.

“Enable. Enable your wishes,” the little man said with exasperation. “Look, I’ve told you several times. You must understand by now!”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it,” Larry said dismissively. “All I got to do is wish for something to happen to something and say when it happens and I get my wish, right?”

“At risk of making an incredible oversimplification, yes,” the little man agreed. “But I must repeat my warning that you refrain from making wishes. They invariably do the unexpected and usually backfire.”

“Like those four guys you told me about,” Larry smiled. “They all wound up getting turned into women.”

“Girls really,” the little man corrected. “Three teenagers and a small child. And none of them were all that happy about it either.”

“Does it always do that?” Larry asked. “Change guys into girls, I mean.”

“No,” the little man admitted. “But it does seem to be in a bit of a rut. What can I say, magic likes patterns. Last time it got stuck in a rut was over two hundred years ago. Everyone was getting turned into animals which meant they got stuck because they couldn’t vocalize any more wishes.”

“That’s funny,” Larry said.

“What is? People turning into animals?” the little man asked.

“No, guys turning into girls,” Larry answered. “I’d like to see that.”

“You want to be turned into a girl?” the little man looked sideways at Larry.

“What? No!” he quickly denied. “I want to see some other guy get turned into a girl. This one guy in particular, Ronald Whitaker. He’s the office manager where I work and a real boss’ pet. I wouldn’t mind seeing him taken down a peg or two. Guy’s younger than me and thinks he can boss me around all day. I wonder how bossy he’d feel in a skirt!”

“It’s not a good idea to use magic in the first place” the little man outlined, “but it’s especially not good to use it to be mean to people.”

“Why?” Larry asked. “Would that make it not work or something?”

“Oh, it will work,” asserted the little man. “Magic doesn’t care about intent. It’s just not a good idea to do bad things to people. Haven’t you ever heard that old saying that what goes around comes around?”

Larry let out a loud raspberry at the little man’s comment.

“That’s a total crock!” he added. “I’m just dishing out a little payback is all. I’m going to take you to the office tomorrow and we’re going to have a little fun with Mister Perfect, Ron Whitaker.”

“I sincerely hope you feel differently in the morning,” the little man said, genuinely relieved that no wishes were being made today but leery about the morning.

“Yeah well, don’t count on it,” Larry said.

The little man sighed but bid Larry a good night before disappearing. Larry barely noticed his leaving, being obsessed with the idea of getting even with Ronald Whitaker.

_____ o _____

“Hello Larry,” the little man said trying to sound cheerful. They were obviously inside an office cubicle, apparently Larry’s. “I see you’re still intent upon making that imagined payback wish.”

“You’re damn straight!” Larry said firmly. “And I ain’t imagining nothing. He’s been pushing me around since he got here. I’m tired of him telling me what to do.”

“He is your boss, Larry,” the little man tried on last time to dissuade him. “Magic is dangerous. Bad things can happen to those that use it.”

“That’s him!” Larry said pointing out the cubicle entrance and down the hall. “Bastard’s even got a real office with a door and everything.”

“You’re not listening, are you?” the little man sighed.

“Is he going to remember changing?” Larry asked turning to face the little man. “I want him to remember me changing him.”

“Only the true owner of my vessel remembers by default,” the little man lectured, happy to delay Larry a little. “The object of a wish only remembers the action and a wisher only forgets if specifically made to do so by a qualifier.”

“So is he going to remember or what?” Larry asked.

“Only if you wish him to,” the little man simplified.

“Cool,” said Larry. “I want my wish now.”

“Say it then,” the little man sighed with resignation.

“I wish Ronald Whitaker would turn into a woman right now,” wished Larry. “And that only me and him will remember he used to be a man!”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

Larry eagerly stared at the closed office door, waiting.

“Is it happening?” he asked.

“It’s happening,” the little man confirmed.

“I don’t see anything happening,” pressed Larry. “How do I know it’s really happening?”

“If you wanted to see it happen, you shouldn’t have waited till he closed the door!” the little man said sharply. “Trust me, it’s happening.”

“You didn’t have to snap at me,” complained Larry. “I just thought I’d see something happening that’s all.

Larry sulked quietly, staring at the office door. Eventually the door opened slowly and a very confused and frightened woman stuck her head out the door and looked around nervously. She had auburn shoulder-length hair. She wore a modest amount of makeup and had small silver hoops in each ear.

“Is that him?” asked Larry.

“Yes, that’s him,” the little man confirmed. “Or her, rather. Her name is now Rita Wanamaker. Otherwise she’s exactly the same person.”

Larry could see Rita nearly jump out of her skin when one of the office clerks walked up and started talking to her.

“Ms. Wanamaker,” the clerk said. “I need your signature on these reports before I can send them out.”

Rita let the door swing wider and Larry could see that she now wore a conservative blue knee-length dress with white collar. She took the reports from the clerk as if they were toxic, before bending over a nearby desk to sign the papers. Larry saw that she had long nails painted copper-red. While she signed, Larry admired her ass and shapely nylon-clad legs. He noted she had matching shoes with a low heel.

“Are you all right, Ma’am?” the clerk asked.

“Uh, yes. Yes I’m fine, David,” she answered. “Thanks for asking.”

“There you are, Rita.” Larry recognized the voice of Mr. Richards, the district manager and rapidly pretended to be busily working.

“I need you to talk to a client, right now,” Larry heard Mr. Richards say to Rita. “He has some questions on last quarter’s numbers and I need you to explain them.”

“Yes Mr. Richards, right away sir,” she answered.

Larry saw her fidget self-consciously with her dress as she walked by his cubicle. He could hear the rapid click-click-click of her heels fade off in the distance as she rushed to keep up with the district manager. Larry had a big idiotic grin on his face when he turned to face the little man.

“That was hilarious!” he said. “Did you see how freaked out she was?”

“You know, it’s not nice to pick on people,” the little man reminded him.

“I bet she has a nervous breakdown by noon!” Larry crowed.

“You’re not hearing a word I say, are you?” the little man asked, not expecting a response.

“This is going to be the best day ever!” Larry went on. “I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

Finally, Larry did pay attention to the little man in his office cubicle. He looked thoughtfully at the little man for a moment, and then spoke.

“Listen, you better disappear for now before anyone sees you,” he said. “I’ll call you when I need to make another wish.”

“Very well,” the little man sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward before disappearing from sight without saying goodbye.

_____ o _____

“Hello Larry,” the little man said with a note of irritation in his voice. Even without magic, he could tell he was still in Larry’s office cubicle.

“Hey,” said Larry in an obviously distracted manner. His brow was furrowed and his lips twisted in a scowl as he kept glancing down the hall toward Ms. Wanamaker’s office door.

“What’s the matter Larry?” the little man asked, beginning to take a pleasant interest in whatever was annoying Larry. “Was yesterday not the greatest day ever?”

“No!” said Larry. “It wasn’t.”

“Whatever is the mater?” he asked feigning sympathy.

“Wanamaker. She’s just like she was before,” Larry complained.

“You mean she’s a man again?” the little man asked in a very surprised tone of voice. He tried to think of a way that that could happen without it registering in the magical energy of the area.

“No, she’s still a she,” Larry said. “But she’s still pushing me around, telling me what to do, correcting me in front of people and stuff. She hasn’t missed a beat. It’s like Ron never changed.”

The little man was visibly impressed.

“Evidently, this Ms. Wanamaker is one resilient person,” he noted. “Most people wouldn’t have adapted this quickly.”

“Yeah well, I’m going to bring her down a notch or two,” Larry threatened.

“I wouldn’t underestimate her if I were you,” the little man warned. “She may be more formidable than you think.”

“Let’s just see how ‘formidable’ she is when I wish her into being some of the hired help instead of management,” Larry said, smiling wickedly at the thought.

“What are you going to do?” asked the little man.

“This,” Larry said. “I wish Rita Wanamaker was a secretary. And that everything she knows about running an office is all secretarial and I want her to still remember who she used to be. And I want it now!”

“As you wish,” the little man intoned solemnly.

It took almost no time at all before Larry felt a small shudder pass through the room.

“Was that it?” he asked. “Has it happened already? That seemed fast.”

“Yes, it’s happened. And of course it was quick,” the little man lectured. “There were no physical changes involved, just a slight alteration in the social status of one person. That doesn’t take any time at all.”

Just then, the door to Ms. Wanamaker’s office opened and Rita stepped out with a confused look on her face. She stopped just outside the door and looked back inside as if she had forgotten something or was trying to decide between two different things to do. She looked down the hallway for a moment then seemed to make up her mind. She headed purposefully down the hall towards the suite of executive offices. Larry noted that she had her purse and jacket with her and certainly looked as if she was not coming back any time soon.

“You stay here,” Larry directed the little man. “I just got to see this!”

Larry grabbed a clipboard and some loose papers and followed a short distance behind Rita. He watched as she walked up to the empty receptionist’s desk outside the main offices. She seemed confused for a moment, and then hung her jacket across the back of the chair before sitting down. She put her purse in the lower right hand drawer without thinking, and then began rearranging the top of the desk to better suit her needs. When the phone rang, she reached for it automatically. Larry pretended to photocopy some papers so he could listen in.

“Good morning, Southern District. This is Ms. Wanamaker. How may I direct your call?” she said in a crisp professional tone. “One moment please. Mr. Crandall, Mr. Jeffers is on line one for you.”

“Thank you, Rita,” was the answer over the speakerphone.

“He’ll be with you in a moment, Mr. Jeffers,” she said then put the call on hold.

The intercom buzzed once.

“Yes, Mr. Richards?” she asked after pressing down the button on the speaker.

“Rita, bring me the international file and could you get me another cup of coffee, please,” said the voice on the intercom.

“Certainly, sir,” she said then got up to get the file and coffee.

Larry had seen enough and was chuckling the whole way back to his cubicle.

“Hah!” he said when he rejoined the little man. “That ought to bring her down a notch! Thinks she can boss me around, does she. Well let’s just see how she likes being just a secretary instead of the boss for awhile.”

“You’re enjoying this too much,” the little man said sadly shaking his head.

“Little man, this is just the start,” Larry said, his eyes bright with imagined plans. “Once I finally put Rita in her place, there will be a few changes made around here, there will.”

The little man was concluding that he did not really like Larry very much. Therefore he did not bother saying goodbye. Instead, he just raised his palms up in surrender then disappeared. Larry was too preoccupied with his inner machinations to notice.

_____ o _____

“Hello Larry,” the little man said coldly, disappointed that Larry was still the one calling him. “What’s the matter now; you need me to torture someone today?”

“Yeah, Rita,” Larry said glowering back down the hallway.

The little man was a little surprised at this.

“I thought you finally put her in her place,” he said sarcastically.

“That ball-breaking bitch doesn’t know her place!” Larry fumed. “She’s still bossing me around. She won’t let me near management without an appointment and she sent back three of my memos because they weren’t in the proper format!”

The little man smiled in spite of himself. His opinion of Rita Wanamaker was growing. This was one resilient individual.

“What a shame,” feigned the little man still smiling.

“I got to do something that will freak her out so bad, that she won’t ever order me around again!” Larry said gnashing his teeth.

“What did you have in mind?” the little man asked cautiously. There did not seem to be many ethical limits on what Larry was capable of wishing.

“I’m going to turn our former ‘him’ into a hot young little honey,” Larry smiled evilly. “She’ll be so freaked out at being turned into a little sexpot and having guys hit on her all the time, that she’ll be easy to push around.”

“I think you may be underestimating her,” the little man warned.

He was not sure exactly why he was warning Larry, other than he did want to avoid letting more magic loose. Besides, it was a mean trick to play on Rita. Still quite clearly remembering that she used to be a man, she was likely to be traumatized winding up looking like what Larry thought was a hot young little honey.

“Nah, this will work,” Larry said confidently. “But I want to see it happen. Not like that first time.”

“Very well then,” the little man sighed. “Make your wish.”

“I wish that the next time I see Rita Wanamaker, she turns into an eighteen-year old” Larry wished, “except with blonde hair and bigger tits. And I still want her to remember she used to be a guy!”

“As you wish,” the little man said solemnly. “You know, you can be a real bastard sometimes.”

“Yeah like I care what you think,” Larry dismissed. “It’ll happen, right? She’ll change as soon as I see her?”

“She’ll change,” the little man assured him. “The magical energy is building up and just waiting for you to trigger it.”

“Sweet!” Larry said. “Wait here, I got to check this out.”

Once again, he grabbed a clipboard and some loose papers for the copier and went down the hall to check on what the magic was going to do to Rita Wanamaker. When he rounded the corner, he saw her standing at the filing cabinets reorganizing files. He had to smile when he saw her because as soon as he laid eyes on her, he could see a ripple pass over her body causing her to shudder. She already looked considerably younger and her clothes were starting to change by the time Larry got to the copier.

“Hi Rita, how’s tricks?” Larry asked nonchalantly.

“Oh, hi Larry,” she answered. “More copies? You are using your own account, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he said gritting his teeth.

It particularly miffed him that she always called him by his first name like some lowly clerk. But he had to smile when he heard her gasp. She had started to notice some of the changes in her clothes and body. Where Rita had been wearing a rather conservative dress with a knee-length hem, she now had on a brightly colored miniskirt and blouse combination. Instead of the plain pumps with a one-inch heel, she now had on a pair of ankle strap mules with a three-inch heel.

“What’s the matter Rita? You all right?” he smiled while he asked.

“I’m… I’m fine,” she answered.

She was definitely starting to look like a kid, a kid with large breasts. It looked like someone had stuck two grapefruits down the front of her blouse. Her shoulder length auburn hair was now a rich honey blonde that hung halfway down her back and was still growing.

“I just need to sit down for moment,” she said walking back to her desk.

Larry admired the view of her long legs walking away. Her hair seemed to have stopped growing at roughly the top of her pert young ass. The thought crossed his mind that she looked as good coming or going, as she sat down and put her tits in Larry’s field of view again.

“All right then. Take care,” he said grinning as he walked back down the hallway. Just before rounding the corner, he looked back to see that the UPS guy was already hitting on the buxom blonde receptionist that was Rita.

“Gotcha!” he whispered and whistled a happy tune all the way back to his cubicle.

“I think I got her this time,” he said to the little man waiting back at his desk.

“You do, do you?” the little man said skeptically.

“She doesn’t know what hit her!” he bragged. “I bet I have her in tears by noon. She won’t be bossing me around any more.”

The little man had decided that his feelings for Larry were more of an active dislike bordering on open hatred. Still, Larry had possession of his vessel and he was therefore obligated to act on his wishes.

“Are you sure now?” the little man asked dripping with sarcasm.

“Oh yeah I’m sure,” Larry said chuckling. “Listen, you better cut out of here before someone sees you. I’ll call you when I need you.”

The little man gritted his teeth at Larry’s dismissive attitude and disappeared without saying another word. Larry sat back in his chest, still chuckling to himself.

_____ o _____

“What do you want?” was how the little man greeted Larry on their next meeting. He was not even trying to be friendly anymore. Frankly, at this point he almost hoped Larry would make another wish. Maybe he would be careless and caught by his own words.

“I need to make another wish,” Larry demanded.

“Who do you want to pick on now?” the little man asked, rolling his eyes.

“Rita,” Larry answered.

“Again?” the little man said with surprise. “Didn’t you do enough to that poor girl yesterday? I thought you finally got her good.”

“She’s still ordering me around” Larry complained, “but now she’s got half the guys in the building doing her dirty work. I tried picking on her and some delivery guy threatened to beat me up. Mr. Richards just about ripped me a new one in front of the whole office. He said I wasn’t being a team player. He accused me of having a vendetta. She’s got him totally brainwashed. She’s sneaky, I’ll give her that.”

“Did it ever occur to you that she’s just a nice person who works hard at her job?” the little man asked.

“I’ve got to get her good,” Larry said, clearly not listening to the little man. “I know how I screwed up. Making her young and good-looking just gave her weapons to use against me. I have to hit her with a real handicap. Something that will slow her down just enough without making people feel sorry for her.”

“What sick little twist did you have in mind?” the little man said frowning.

Larry smiled broadly before answering.

“I’m going to wish she was a single mother,” he said smugly.

The little man could not believe Larry’s gall and lack of empathy.

“Have you absolutely no human decency what so ever?” he asked.

“No, it’s perfect,” Larry said. “A little social stigma, a little financial hardship, and a whole lot more stress. A few months of taking care of some squalling brat and she’ll be just another stressed-out secretary. Let her try to boss me around then!”

“I’m appalled,” the little man said. “Not only are you trying to ruin this poor girl’s life for petty vengeance over imagined slights, but think of the child! What kind of psychological damage do you think it will cause to a child to have a mother with no emotional attachment for it? You’ll be ruining two lives!”

“You’re right,” Larry said thoughtfully. “She might dump the kid off in some orphanage or something. I better wish for her to be emotionally attached to the kid so she stays stuck with him.”

The little man was speechless. Larry did not give a damn about the child’s welfare. He just wanted to make sure he got his vengeance in.

“I wish” Larry started, “that when Rita Wanamaker gets off from work, she finds out that she has a kid but there’s no changes to her memory and that she has enough emotional connection with the kid to not give it up. And I want to be there to see her face when she first realizes she’s a mother!”

“As you wish,” the little man said solemnly.

“This time I got her good!” Larry cackled rubbing his hands with glee. “There’s no way this isn’t going to slow her down!”

The little man decided that loathing was not a too strong a term to describe his feelings towards Larry right now. He was so involved with thinking of things that he would like to see happen to Larry that he was as surprised as Larry was when a ripple passed through the fabric of the office cubicle.

“What was that?” Larry asked, recovering from the shudder that had followed the ripple.

“That was… that was the magic setting the stage to grant you wish,” said the flustered little man.

He rapidly began to scan the flow of magical energy around the room. The little man had allowed it to get ahead of him and he was racing to catch up.

“What do you mean?” asked Larry nervously.

The little man just shushed him. Larry could be put off only so long, though. When the wall and furnishings started around him began to shimmer and vanish, he could not control his anxiety any more.

“What the hell is happening here? Where are you taking me?” he asked.

The little man sighed before explaining it slowly to Larry.

“I’m not taking you anywhere,” he said. “The magic is finding the locale where Rita will realize she’s a mother.”

“Oh,” Larry said. “What kind of place is that going to be?”

“A little patience and we’ll both find out!” the little man said sternly.

“You don’t have to yell,” Larry sulked and continued to sulk while the surrounding room began to form up.

“It kind of looks like a school,” Larry finally said, noting the colorful numbers and letters on the wall alongside children’s art projects.

“It’s a daycare,” corrected the little man. “You didn’t think an eighteen year old would have a child old enough for school did you?”

“I don’t know,” Larry shrugged, idly examining his surroundings.

The room they were in was medium sized with a low gated divider separating their side of the room from the outward leading doors. One end of the enclosure they were in had a small low table with little chairs around it. The other end had a little playhouse with large openings for windows and rounded corners. Large safe-looking toys with bright colors were strewn about.

“So where are the kids?” Larry asked, kicking at a red plastic ball.

“I would imagine that this is them now,” the little man gestured at several shadowy shapes materializing around the room.

Sure enough, eight of the forms were solidifying into the recognizable shapes of young children. Two large shapes were taking the form of young women.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Larry complained. “Neither of those two is Rita!”

“Don’t be so thick,” the little man chided. “Those are the daycare workers. Rita hasn’t arrived yet.”

“So she will come here to pick up her kid then?” Larry asked.

“Yes already,” the little man impatiently answered. “That’s clearly defined in the energy lines.”

“That’s good,” Larry nodded. “I don’t want to miss it.”

“You can’t miss it you idiot!” the little man snapped. “You specifically wished to be there when it happens.”

“Your attitude is beginning to bug me…” Larry started to say before a ripple and resulting shudder passing through his body interrupted him.

“What the heck was that?” he asked.

“That” the little man said, “is the magic acting to fit you into this reality. I hadn’t thought that you would be so strongly affected.”

“What’s it doing?” Larry asked nervously.

The little man din not answer right away but continued to study the lines of magical energy surrounding Larry. Suddenly, he raised his eyebrows in surprise at something, then slowly a big grin crossed his face and he started to chuckle.

“What?” Larry repeated. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

“Oh, nothing,” the little man laughed. “Let’s just say that you will definitely see the look in Rita’s eyes when she realizes she’s a mother.”

“What do you mean by th… Ouch!” Larry yelped as his bare foot came down on a little toy dump truck. “Hey! What happened to my shoes?”

“Don’t worry Larry, I’m sure someone will help you find them,” the little man continued to chuckle.

Larry had been sitting on the floor rubbing his injured foot. He climbed unsteadily to his feet. For some reason standing seemed awkward. His shirt and pants felt funny, too. Looking at the little man, he was shocked to see that he was only a head taller than the little man.

“When did you get so tall?” he asked.

“Larry, Larry, Larry,” the little man said shaking his head but still chuckling. “I know you’re slow on the uptake, but can’t you put it together? Look around you. Does the room seem bigger to you? I’m not any taller, you’re getting smaller.”

“Smaller! Why am I getting smaller?” he said looking around the room in a panic.

“Because you’re becoming a child again, Larry,” the little man spoke in a teasing lilting voice. “A very young one, too. Maybe 14 months old if I read this right.”

“I’m becoming a baby?!” he said in shock, noting that he was now shorter than the little man.

“Toddler, technically,” the little man corrected.

“But why a baby?” he said pulling at his shirt which was now a sleeveless undershirt with grape juice stains down the front. His pant legs had disappeared and the seat seemed baggy.

“How old a child did you think Rita could have, after you made her eighteen years old?” the little man asked, smiling down at Larry.

“You mean Rita is my… my…” he could not finish the sentence.

“Your mother, yes,” the little man finished for him. “Kind of ironic don’t you think? Here you were trying to get her to stop bossing you around at work, and she winds up being the boss of your whole life. That’s funny!”

“Nooo…” whined Larry just before a particularly gut-wrenching shudder knocked him onto his butt. ‘Larry’ could feel changes slowly peter out and finally stop.

“I can wish myself out of this. You have to help me,” Larry demanded of the little man.

“Ooh, sorry. All the magical energy in this room is gone. Used up! Finished!!” the little man replied, clearly enjoying this. “You’ll have to wait till tomorrow to make another wish.”

“Tomorrow?” ‘Larry’s’ pudgy little face had a shocked expression on it. “I’m stuck like this until tomorrow?”

“I’m happy to say you’ll be stuck like this for considerably longer period of time than that!” the little man almost gloated. “You see, you left my vessel back in the office. You’d have to go back there to call me and they don’t let one-year olds out to go visit an office building. Face it, you’ve lost possession. You are stuck for good!”

“No!!” ‘Larry’ yelped. “I still remember who I am!”

“That’s part of the beauty of all this,” the little man smiled. “You’ll still remember who you were but developmentally you will roll back to being fourteen months old. That includes vocabulary and potty-training I’m afraid.”

“I have to grow up again?” ‘Larry’ asked starting to realize the predicament. “With Rita as my mother?!”

“Yes, and I might add that you could use it,” the little man answered. “As ‘Larry’ you were one vindictive immature lazy failure of a human being. Maybe this time you’ll get it right!”

‘Larry’ gave up trying to stand and plopped onto the floor in stunned silence.

“What goes around comes around,” the little man chuckled. “Oh, and one last thing. I think there’s going to be a real strong family resemblance!”

With that, the little man disappeared, but his laugh still rang through the daycare for a few moments. ‘Larry’ looked at the other children playing in the room. None of them seemed to notice anything unusual. One of the daycare workers came up and smiled at ‘Larry’. She seemed enormous.

“Oh dear,” she laughed. “We better get you cleaned up and dressed. Your Mommy will be here any minute.”

‘Larry’ could not quite understand what she was saying, but she seemed nice. She took the grape-stained shirt off and used a baby wipe to clean ‘Larry’s’ face before checking the diaper. Evidently, the diaper was still acceptable, because she did not change it. She slipped a fresh undershirt over ‘Larry’s’ head and then a clean white shirt with buttons on the back. Then some sort of baby-blue outfit was slipped over ‘Larry’s’ head. It had shoulder straps and hung to his knees. The nice lady hummed while she put lacy socks and shiny black shoes on ‘Larry’s’ feet.

“There you go, all done!” she said picking ‘Larry’ up and walking to the mirror. “Do you want to see how pretty you look?”

Looking in the mirror, ‘Larry’ saw the daycare worker holding a pretty little blonde girl in a baby blue dress. It took ‘Larry’ a couple of moments to realize whose image that was.

‘I’m a girl?’ she thought. ‘I’m going to grow up a girl? So when that little guy said there was going to be a strong family resemblance, he meant there would be a STRONG family resemblance.’

Just then, a young blonde woman with large breasts came in through the front door.

“Hi Rita! Lucy’s ready to go. Let me just get her stuff together,” the daycare worker said then handed Lucy/Larry over to Rita.

“Well this is some week I’ve been having,” Rita said looking into Lucy’s eyes. “I guess you’re just one more surprise I am going to have to deal with. But you sure are the most precious little surprise, aren’t you? Yes you are! Can you say Momma?”

Lucy knew this woman but could not remember her name.

“Momma?” Lucy finally managed to say.

Rita’s heart melted at the sound and she gave Lucy a hug just as the daycare worker came back in.

“Here are her things,” the daycare worker said, handing Rita a diaper bag and a few other things. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Sure,” said Rita bouncing Lucy in her arms.

“Honestly, Rita,” the daycare worker said. “I don’t know how you do it, a single mother at your age.”

“You just got to work through the obstacles,” Rita said. “That’s one thing I’m definitely going to teach my little girl here. Be nice to people and work hard at your job and you’ll be surprised where it gets you.”

Lucy realized that she had wet herself and started to cry.

THE END