I want to thank Maggie for letting me add a couple of lines in TGIF to make this story work better, and for her work in making my Maggie fit her vision. And Heather Rose for rewriting her sections in her own language. The story is mine, with their help and a lot of help from shalimar, to whose online family we belong, and for her invention of Little Kids Kamp.

By
Holly H Hart

Copyright 2007 by Holly Happy Hart

I strongly encourage you to read Maggie the Kitten’s TGIF http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/story/3592/tgif, as this is an authorized direct sequel.

Permission to post to other sites is not explicitly granted. Please request permission via private message via Big Closet / Top shelf site

 

( Friday, July 1st )

 

Holly

Before the echoes of my “TGIF! Thank Goodness It’s Friday!” had died away, Shelly asked me, “Are you going to take your little girl home tonight, or stay here?”

“Do you have room?”

“Now who’s being a silly girl? Of course there is room. There’s always room for one, two, or even more. Besides, Allyson has already offered to sleep on an air mattress in Elsa’s room, so you can have her bed, and Heather Rose can stay with you or Maggie; her choice.”

Her enthusiam didn’t leave me much of an option, not that I minded staying. “It’s a good thing I always leave enough dry food and water down for my cats, so they can survive on their own for a few days.. You’re on! … Uh, this is a three-day weekend. Are you inviting us for longer than just overnight?”

“After over two years, you’re still that new to the family, Holly? Of course. The guys have been planning Monday’s 4th of July barbecue for months. If you hadn’t asked for a Gathering, you would have had an invite for the weekend, in any case. Bringing Heather Rose into the family only made it a better weekend.

And you’re always welcome to come whenever you can, and stay as long as you can . . . forever, for that matter. You can always magic the back door open, sis. We’ll all be hurt if you don’t stay. After all, it’s three hours earlier here than it is in California. You’ll be home in plenty of time for your stuffy old bank job. When are you going to quit it and come to work for the family firm?”

I ignored her last jab. After all, it was this family and their connections that had gotten me the job, and given me the small bank. Being the owner of the bank made it possible to grease the wheels of family projects. But I’m a California girl, always have been. Well, at least since I became a real girl, and for most of my life before that, when I was only a girl on the inside, looking out.

“I don’t know about you, but even though we closed at three, that was six here; and it’s what, after nine, now? I’ll bet we have some kids with real rumblies in their tumblies.”

“And some guys,” Prue interjected, “Not to mention that I could use some breakfast. It’s closing in on noon tomorrow back home.”

Just then Shelly’s hubby stuck his head in the door, “Can we eat now? We’re Staaarviiiing.”

“I guess that settles it,” Shelly said, capitulating. “Let’s get the food on the table before the hot stuff gets colder, or the cold stuff gets hotter. Holly, you want to stick your head out and call the kids in? As a new Auntie-Mommy you need practice in making sure the kids wash their hands, faces and behind their ears.”

“No I don’t. Heather Rose is fastidiously clean.” I lifted my head and looked down my nose at her through the bottom of the glasses I don’t really need, before I turned and headed for the back door.

“Kids, time to come in and wash up so you can eat!” I yelled, stepping aside so I wouldn’t be crushed in the stampede.

It was close to eleven, local time, before we got most of the kids off to bed. The adults, at least those that were from the Eastern time zone were ready for bed, too. In another hour, it would be my bedtime at home, for that matter.

Heather Rose had enthusiastically accepted the offer of sleeping with the Kitten, as Maggie is often called.

But for Prue it was still early afternoon, and I wanted to take some time to get to know my Kiwi sister a bit better. I had just started talking to her when we were briefly interrupted, but it was for a good reason, as Heather Rose came out to ask, “Mom, could you tuck me and Maggie in?”

I excused myself to Prue to do as my new full-time charge had requested. When I came back, I could hardly see to walk through the joyful tears.

Prue spotted my problem and gave me a hug before leading me back to my chair. “It’s a wonderful thing you have done for her, Holly; and I think it will be as good for you as it is for her.

We chatted for quite a while before I excused myself and followed a trail of tiny fairy lights Alysson had left to guide me to her room, watching each extinguish as I approached it. I was touched when I saw that she had turned down the bed, and laid one of her nighties out for me. I didn’t even hesitate when I saw that it was a Power Puff Girls sleep shirt, with “Girlz Rule!” obviously added by Alysson.

I fell asleep with a tremendous smile on my face, happy that all of my worry that my sisters would reject Heather Rose had turned out to be totally unfounded.

~~~~~

( Saturday, July 2nd )

I’m not usually a deep sleeper, but my relief and happiness made me one.

I was awakened by a shouted “POUNCE HUG!” with my heart beating about a thousand times a second, either that, or it had stopped. As I focused my eyes, I saw Heather Rose had grabbed Maggie just before she landed on me, and the Kitten was struggling to get away.

As my heart rate went back to normal, My daughter dropped Maggie the last two inches to the floor, and pounce hugged me herself, but gently. What a joy to think of her as my daughter.

After a lot of hugging and loving, I excused myself and went down the hall. When I came back, both little angels had gone back to sleep. Since the sun had barely risen and no sounds of life came from the rest of the house, I crawled under in and joined them. Heather didn’t even grumble when I rolled her over to make room.

Shelly’s soundproof bedrooms kept me from hearing the other family members get up and leave for work at the park. The next time I woke it was almost 9:30, and I decided to get Kitten and Heather Rose up and dressed. I found out later that Maggie and Heather Rose hadn’t mentioned that Baruchah had sneaked into their bed, and they’d left her there when they joined me. Luckily, Shelly had found her, got her up, and had taken Baru with her.

Once we got Maggie half awake, she opened her eyes, looking at things as if unsure why she was in Alysson’s room when Alysson wasn’t there. Then she popped to full wakefulness in a flash and smiled, “Auntie Holly?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Fanksforbwingin’HeaderRosetobemycuzn,I’m posi … posi … sureherismorehappiernow.” This was our Maggie of more words in one breath than should be possible. But somehow she always seemed to make it possible. ‘Maybe she has one bit of magic that really does work right?’ I asked myself.

I sent the girls off to get dressed, after giggling, “Header, dear. I’ve magically cleaned the clothes you were wearing when we arrived, even removing some grass stains you accumulated playing tag. We’ll have to see about getting you some things for the rest of the weekend later.”

“Okie!” She was smiling ear to ear as she let Magpie drag her back to her room.

We went back to the main part of the house to discover almost everyone was gone. “Mom asked me to stay here to let you in on her plans. I guess she thought that would be easier than writing a long, long note. Easier for her, maybe …” Alysson’s lovely smile told us that she was just teasing. “I’m supposed to take you to the Waffle Chalet for breakfast, so let’s finish getting ready and get going, everyone.”

“Anyway, everyone’s gone to work. This being a summer weekend, and a holiday one to boot, we need as many hands as we can get.”

I raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Do you get extra crowds at Kamp, just because it’s a holiday?”

“No, not at Kamp. But there are a lot of other activities. The theme park, mall, restaurants and such. They’re usually busting at the seams as soon as they open, all three days. It was pretty packed last night, too, but we had higher priority important business here at the house. But, hey, that’s what guys are for, isn’t it?” She smiled at my official niece/daughter. “I’m supposed to talk you into letting Maggie and I join you and Heather Rose in Lady Galadriel and get us all over to the Waffle Chalet for breakfast. I’ll call Jenna and tell her we’re on our way.”

Luckily, with so many kids, there were piles of the best and safest kid’s car seats money can buy, enhanced with loving magic. And Lady Galadriel, had been fitted to handle up to three in back, so she easily accommodated Heather Rose and Maggie in back

I knew how to get to Kamp, or to the mall, but Allyson had to lead us to the Waffle Chalet. When we got there, we found a line several hundred people long waiting to get in. “Follow me,” Alysson told us. We did, right to the front of the line, where the greeter said, “Jenna is waiting for you in room 3, Miss Johnson.”

I heard a couple of angry murmurs at our being let in ahead of so many who’d been standing in line, but heard the greeter telling them, “I realize you have been waiting, folks, but she is one of the owners, and the girls are her daughters and nieces. She is taking them to join their family.”

I hoped that satisfied them, but I was still a bit uncomfortable with it myself.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Heather Rose

 

Forward: If you're wondering about the way I'm talking or how an eight-year-old can write these parts, well...there's a couple answers. One of 'em is in my first life (when I'd been stuck in a boy's body), I'd always been good at reading and writing. Back then I was reading at like a fourth grade level by the time I was eight. I also got help from Auntie-Mommy Holly and some others who fixed up some of the really bad writing.

I also kinda still got a connection to the grown-up part of me. It almost feels like the part of me that I'm gonna be when I get older is kinda watching and helping sometimes. Sometimes it feels like they're talking when I'm having problems explaining some stuff, but mostly they just feel like they're just there and don't really get in the way much.

~~~~~

 

Oh, it felt so wonderful to finally, really, be ME!!!

It felt kinda weird when the light went away and I found I had to look up at all my new aunties. I could hardly believe it. It didn't really start sinking in 'til Maggie came in and I found we was like almost nearly the same size. I really didn't know if I should laugh or faint or cry or what. I dunno if maybe I coulda argued better with Maggie about her giving Darla to me if I wasn't so shocked, but now I don't think I could ever give up my pretty unicorn, and the book she'd colored for me with all the pretty colors is like my most favorite ever!

I hardly remember dinner, except that I needed two phone books to feel comfortable at the table even though it was one of the lower kid’s tables. Maggie and Little Sara (Auntie Rachel’s daughter) was on my right, and little Allie and Baruchah was on my left, and Alysson was across from me as table monitor.

After dinner, me and the other kids played for a little while before we got told it was bedtime. I really wanted to argue. I wasn't tired at all! Well, not really. Okay, maybe a little. Anyways, after we all got our teeth brushed and changed into our jammies (somebody lent me a really pretty 'Winnie the Pooh' nightgown), me and Maggie climbed into her bed, and Auntie Holly -- no, Auntie-Mommy Holly -- tucked us in and kissed us each on our foreheads before wishing us sweet dreams. Then she quietly walked out. I was kinda scared of the dark, until she peeked back in and some fairy lights started twinkling to give me enough light not to be scared anymore.

~~~~~

I kept my eyes closed when I first woke up. There'd been so many mornings I'd wake up wishing I'd be a little girl on the outside like I felt on the inside. Some mornings I'd open my eyes and nearly wanna cry when I realized I was still stuck in the same body I'd gone to sleep in.

I could feel a smile stretching across my face as I thought of the wonderful dream I just had. I'd been magically zapped into the shape I always felt like I aughta be, then I'd been adopted by a huge, wonderful family, and Aunt Holly had become my auntie-mommy.

I spent a long, long time just soaking up all the wonderfulness of the dream. Finally, as much as I hated to break the spell, I decided it was time to open my eyes and face reality.

I didn't recognize the ceiling at all. It wasn’t my room. It wasn't it Aunt Holly’s neither. I stared up at the ceiling for a while and wondered if Miss Hart becoming my aunt had been a dream too. I turned my head when I heard someone was snoring softly and found a lot bigger version of a familiar looking little girl cuddle up beside me. Because she looked so much bigger, it took a second to realize it was Maggie, the little girl I’d seen in the bank ... yesterday?

I felt an elbow in my ribs, turned my head in the other direction, and saw another Maggie! That's when I remembered Maggie had a twin sister. From somewhere deep in the dream that was starting to feel less like a dream, a name floated up: Baruchah!

I pinched myself, hard! It really hurt a lot and I couldn't help wimpering. I tried to keep quiet, but I still wound up waking one of the girls next to me.

“Wha’cha doin’?”

“Pinching myself.”

“Why? Don’t it hurt?”

“I’m trying to find out if I’m dreaming. Are you real, and are ya Maggie or Baruchah?”

“'Course I'm real! An' I'm Baru! Can’cha tell?” she gave me maybe the most evil looking grin that instantly turned into a really cute smile. “I’m t’one they call the ‘imp.”

"Okie, Baru. Ummm ... could ya lemme out so I can go to the lil girl’s room?”

She nodded and slipped outta bed.

Once she helped me find the bathroom, I closed the door, closed my eyes, lifted the soft flannel nightie over my head, and dropped it on the floor.

Even though I felt lots smaller than I'd been for an awful long time, I was still afraid to hope for too much. Eventually, I cracked open one eye and looked down. I had to grab a towel rack when my knees nearly gave out on me. What I expected to see wasn't there, but what I'd always secretly wished for was.

“I'm a lil girl!” I whispered to myself. I looked out the dark bathroom window and silently thanked whoever made my new life, family, and auntie-mommy real.

I did what I had to do, slipped back into the nightie, and went back to Maggie’s room. I later found out it was Baru’s too. I'd also found out Baru had gone to bed with her big sister Alysson, but she'd been at least half asleep after a night-time trip to the bathroom, and had crawled in bed with her sister and me.

 

When I came back into their room, I found Baru standing at the foot of the bed. Seeing me, that evil little grin crossed her face, and she quietly yelled, “Pounce hug!” landing on top of her poor sister.

Maggie’s yelp should have waked anyone within at least a mile. It only took a few seconds before she got over her startle, then grinned and reached up to her sister. “Ticklefess! C’mon, Header Rose!”

Of course I joined her, 'cause Baruchah really did deserve it. For some reason, all the yelling and giggling didn’t bring anyone running. Later on I'd found out from Aunt Shelly that all the children’s bedrooms are sound proofed really good, but they're wired to a magic box that listens for when kids are in hurt or in trouble or something like that.

When we finally settled down, the sun was just peeking over the horizon outside. We were all pretty tired from being up late, so once we'd settled down a bit and snuggled back under the covers, both twins fell asleep pretty fast ... maybe too fast. I couldn't tell for sure if they was really sleeping or just good fakers.

Eventually, I stopped staring at my cousins and decided to go look for Aunt Holly. I stopped as I opened their door and thought about who I was about to go see. She wasn't my Auntie any more, was she? She was my mom. Well, maybe my auntie-mommy. Still the thought gave me a happy, bubbly feeling. I closed the door behind me and wandered down the hall to see if she was awake.

I knew she was three doors down, so I carefully counted them and went into her room. A couple of steps in, I realized I hadn’t closed the door. As I turned to close it, I almost knocked over Maggie.

“Wha’chadoin’? GonnapouncehugMommy?”

“No!” I whispered. "I just wanna see if she's awake.”

“Her not wake.” Maggie grinned almost as good as her sister, darted around me and leaped at my auntie-mommy, yelling, “Pounce Hug!”

I managed to grab her elbow, but she was going too fast and just dragged me behind her. I dunno if it was both of us flopping on the bed or the way Maggie had yelled or something else, but whatever it had been was enough to wake my new mommy.

She woke and sat up with a tiny “Eep!” At first she looked scared, but after a second her face turned to a big smile as she held her arms out to me. I squealed and, without really thinking, pounce-hugged her.

She hugged me back until I could hardly breathe. When she eased off, she asked, “Are you as happy now as you seem to be?”

I smiled, and hugged her as hard as I could, It wasn't nowhere near the hug I’d given her the day before when I was bigger, but I put everything I had into it. “Yes, Mommy-Aunt Holly,” I whispered. When I pulled back, I saw tears come to her eyes.

After lots more hugs she promised me, “I’ll be back for more hugs, dear, but right now I need to make a little trip, ya know?”

I quickly got outta her way and climbed into her bed with Maggie.

We kinda fell asleep again. We musta been like really been sleeping good, 'cause next thing I knew, Auntie-Mommy was trying to wake both of us, and the sun was high in the sky. “Girls, time is flying. I crawled back in with the two of you and suddenly the morning is half over."

She made sure we was dressed nice before we went out looking for everybody else. We was only able to find Alysson, who'd been left to guide us to breakfast.

“I’m supposed to take you to the Waffle Chalet for breakfast, so let’s get the car ready and get going, everyone.”

I was really surprised when we got to the Waffle Chalet and Alysson led us past the front of the line until I heard the hostess lady tell someone that Aunt Holly was one of the owners of the waffle house.

When we got led to the back of the restaurant and though a pair of heavy wooden doors, we wound up in a really big, sunny room packed end to end with my new family. Auntie Jenna stood up in the middle of a long line of tables and greeted us with, “Well hello, sleepyheads. I was about to send out the search parties. Actually, I’m not surprised,” she said as Aunt Holly tried to hide a big yawn. “Those transformations take a lot out of you, and you, Sis, did it twice.”

I thought back to when Auntie Holly had changed to show me how she used to look. The second change was when she changed back to her real self. I started wondering how many others in my new family used to be like her or me, but got changed. Maybe that was why everyone was so cool with me and treated me just like a regular little girl, even when I'd still been in my big body. I prolly shoulda guessed it sooner, but I was pretty stressed out worrying about stuff that seemed kinda silly when ya really think about it.

Auntie Jenna saw the look on my face and said, “Holly give her a hug, fast. I think it is just really starting to sink in. She’s been running on adrenaline, happiness, and love since she got here. Dinner last night didn’t count. Right now, I prescribe a stack of at least three big Danish Waffles, loaded with butter and real maple syrup, mixed with hugs.”

I nearly choked at the idea. Even with a grown-up body, three waffles was a lot. It was a different story when the stack was put in front of me with thick syrup dripping down the sides and gobs of melting butter on. I dunno if it was the way my stomach started rumbling or what, but I kinda forgot my manners then and Auntie-Mommy Holly gently grabbed my hand just before I grabbed for the waffle on top.

At first I was a lil worried I was in trouble 'cause of the way her one eyebrow had popped up, but then I saw the smile in her eyes. She surprised me a little when she started cutting up my waffles, then even more when she popped a piece in my mouth. As I began chewing, she took a bite of food from her own plate.

I started feeling a lot littler after a while. The really young part of me that I used to think of as Rosie came out. I was also feeling like ... smaller, too. At least, I think I was smaller. It was pretty hard to tell since I'd only been little for a while. Maybe I was just imagining it? After a while, I gave up trying to figure it all out and enjoyed breakfast.

By the time breakfast was over, me and my mommy shared almost two plates of waffles, two huge slices of ham, a whole plateful of hash browns, and we had like a giant glass of orange juice, each. Her pieces and forks full were a teensy bit bigger than mine, but I still felt like a balloon that got blown up too big when we was done. I could hardly believe it when I was let out of the booster seat, but somehow I could still walk after all that, but Auntie-Mommy did make me promise not to go swimming for at least an hour.

As we was leaving the Waffle House I tugged my mom’s hand and tried to lead her towards the sign that said Kids Kamp, but Aunt Jenna stopped us. “Before we go there, we’re going to make sure you have everything you need. You need more than that one set of clothes, and I’ll bet you didn’t bring any, did you? … I thought not. And you need a hair brush, and toothbrush … and … and …”

“Aunt Jenna, I already got me a hair brush and a tooth brush." I thought for a minute before I admitted, " I do need some toofpaste, though. ’Sides, if I’d brought more clothes, they would’nt fit no more.”

“Oh, if you had brought them, they would fit. After all, those fit, don’t they? It’s all part of the service. When you get home you will find that all of your old clothes will still fit you now, and they will all look like new, too.”

“Uggh! There's some stuff in that closet I don’t never wanna wear again. I got some grownup things in there, and even some boy things in the back.”

“I’m sure you and Mommy can find someone with a use for them. There are still many boys who wish to be boys, you know.”

“Like Jeffy!’ Maggie piped up.

“Well, as far as we know, Kitten. “He’s a bit young to know yet, dear.” Jeffrey is one year old,” Alysson informed us, as she steered us towards a moving sidewalk, which Aunt Jenna told us was called a slidewalk.

The slidewalks are neat! When ya get to them ya get on this platform thingy sitting beside the slidewalk that gots like railings on three sides. When ya grab the front rail,one comes up in back, it waits 'til nobody's going past, then, ZOOM! Ya start moving, and the platform moves over on top of the slidewalk. When it beeps, and ya let go, the front rail slips outta the way. When ya step onto the slidewalk, the platform goes back to the side. If’n ya don’t get off, it moves over and slows down and ya don’t get to go on the slidewalk.

When you’re on it, ya can just stand there, or walk if ya wanna. When ya get almost where ya wanna get off, ya go over to one of these posts on the left side, press a button, and wait for a platform to get in front of ya. Get on it and when it gets to the next place, it moves over, slows down and ya get off. It’s lotsa fun!

 

Mommy and Allyson tried to tell me at almost the same time how fast they went, but one was saying miles and the other kilometers, which kinda confused me. It was lots easier just to know that you're moving lots faster than anyone can run, or even ride a bike.

I spent lotsa time trying to figger out how they got the long middle belt to curve so ya can’t see the other end for the trees, until Auntie Jenna reminded me, “Dear; We’re witches, remember?” I didn’t figure it out what she was talking about for a while, even then.

I didn't really have lotsa time to worry about stuff like that, 'cause before ya knew it we stepped to our right onto another fast belt just before we used another platform to get off down at the shopping area, where it seemed a lotta big East Coast chain stores had a branch. I tugged on Auntie-Mommy Holly’s sleeve. “Mommy, I ain't seen some of them names since I was a little … kid.” Growing up transgendered was pretty confusing, and it was lots easier to say 'kid' instead of trying to pick between boy and girl. “I never seen none of them here in California.”

“But Heather Rose, we aren’t in California anymore.”

For some reason, 'Over the Rainbow' started playing in the back of my head. “But … but …”

She leaned down so she could whisper in my ear. “I’m a witch, dear, I can use magic.”

That was when I realized what Aunt Jenna had told me about the belts. I tried reaching back to my old life to remember where I'd seen all these stores before. "Are we like in ... Penns'vania?"

“No, we’re not in Pennsylvania, but we’re close,” Alysson said. Hearing it in her British accent sounded funny. “You two go get the nuts and bolts. I’ll make sure my new niece doesn’t get a lot of old fuddy duddy clothes,” she said, looking pointedly at her Aunt Holly.

She led me into one store after another, and I almost fainted when I saw all the neat clothes that I could now fit into. “I like that … and that … and those, too,” I told her. She rejected a few as being the wrong color, or not fitting right, but the rest got put in baskets being carried by the clerks following us.

When we left the stores, I realized she hadn’t even bought anything, not even the new clothes I was wearing. At least, that's what I thought. That night when we got back to Auntie Shelly’s there they all were, waiting for us. Before I could ask more than, “How …?" I was told, “We’re Witches, remember?”

Later on I found out the stores were told we were coming ahead of time, and they all know who the family is. If we don’t actually own the stores, we own the buildings the stores are in. The bill for the clothes I'd got would get sent to the family, and they knew where to deliver all my stuff.

Auntie Jenna sat us down on a couple of benches I hadn’t even noticed before she pointed to them. Me and Auntie-Mommy was on one bench, and Alysson and Maggie sat on another to our right. She turned to them. “All right girls, I promised your mom I’d take care of your little problem last night. Everyone has had a chance to cool down, so I think we can work out a solution that will satisfy everyone.”

“Maggie, you did wrong to even go into Alysson’s room. You know that, don’t you?”

“B ... But .. I needs colors not in my cwayons!” Maggie’s lower lip was trembling, and she looked like she was almost ready to cry. I dunno if being a witch means you can read minds, but my mommy wrapped her arm around me and held me tight just as I was planning on getting up to hug my cousin. I kinda realized then maybe it wasn't the time to do that, so I just sat still and listened to Maggie say, “I needsm for Headers pwezzie!”

“Maggie, that still doesn’t mean you can go into Alysson’s room without getting permission. And you cannot go in there and take her things. You know that rule.”

“But I needered ‘em. And I did’n takum. Jus usdem.” I really wanted to stand up and defend Maggie when I saw the determined look on her face, but I knew Auntie Jenna was prolly trying to make a point so I just kept quiet.

Alysson glared down at her little sister. “When you sneak into my room and take my things without asking, that’s stealing. When you break them and I have to chuck the whole lot in the rubbish bin, that’s even worse. Maggie, that kit cost me seventeen pounds forty. That’s two weeks pocket money I got for babysitting, and…I bought that kit on special at Boots, and…Boots is in England, and because of what you did at Christmas it will probably be the 22nd century before we’re allowed back in, so you know what that means Maggie? I can’t get another kit like that one. It’s irreplacable!”

Tears began rolling down Maggie’s cheeks and her body trembled.

Auntie Jenna seemed to know Alysson was hurt, but couldn’t let her yell like that 'til her sister was crying and quickly gave her the look. “Alysson Sylvia Johnson, I think that’s just about enough. Do you still want to have that date tonight?”

Ally's voice quickly softened. “But she ruined my makeup kit Aunt Jenna. How can I go out if I can’t do my face?”

Auntie Jenna had that kinda smile mommies seem to do best. "If you promise not to throw your sister into the boiling soup cauldron, I'll use magic to fix your makeup kit."

“Really Aunt Jenna?” My older cousin smiled. “But she’s has to promise to never touch my make up again.”

 

Auntie Jenna turned to Maggie, who was sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "You hear that, Maggie? You have to promise not to touch Ally's makeup kit again without her helping you. And, Kitten, nooo magic.”

"Awwww…Aunt Jenna, I’m almos gettin bedders at magic.”

Auntie Jenna rolled her eyes and sighed, “I’m sure you are Kitten, but I mean it. No getting into your sisters make up and no more magic without your mommy or one of your aunts watching."

After a long pause, my younger cousin's shoulders slumped, "Otay, I pwomise."

"Good! Now both of you kiss and make up."

Maggie wiped the last of tears away, "I's sowwry Ally. I didn’t no means to makes yor cwayons iwwy…iwwy…iwwypas…iwwypastable."

Alysson giggled at her little sister’s toddlerese and gathered her up, "I know rugrat, you never mean to do anything bad, it just sort of sneaks up on you doesn’t it?”

Maggie nodded and snuggled with her big sister.

“Maggie,” Ally started again softly, “and I’m sorry I got so stroppy with you, but…I’ll make you a deal. If you can forgive your mean old big sister, then when Aunt Jenna fixes my makeup kit, I’ll make you up. How’s that sound rugrat? We got a deal?”

Maggie squealed and wiggled in Alysson’s arms. “Deal!”, she shouted and then sealed it with a kiss on Alysson’s cheek.

I smiled when I realized things really did eventually work out okay in the end and decided it was prolly okay to talk now. "Could ya make me up too, cousin Ally?"

"If you’re still here. Otherwise, next time you come, Heather."

My mommy let go of my shoulders just then, so I slipped off the bench and took a couple of bouncing steps over to Ally and gave her a big hug.

With that outta the way, we got onto another slidewalk that took us to Kids Kamp. When we got there, Auntie Jenna and Alysson sent us on to a kinda big building while they went off someplace else. A pretty girl who was maybe in her late teens looked up and smiled as we walked in the door. “Hi, I’m Janice. May I help you ladies? Do you have an appointment, or would you like to see a counselor?”

My mommy answered for both of us. “We’re just looking.”

The girl looked kinda flustered, but she still smiled when she said, “Feel free to look around, and if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them for you.”

As we looked at the displays in the lobby, I saw a worried frown on her face, and heard her whisper into a phone. I wandered a little closer so I could hear her better. “Hello, Miss Prue? We’ve got a couple of lookie-loos out here. One looks too young for our services, and the other is old enough to maybe even be her grandmother.” I covered my mouth with both hands when I heard that, but the giggles still slipped out, which seemed to fluster her even more.

By the time I'd got the giggles under control, Auntie Prue came out, and spoke loud enough for all of us to hear. “Janice, I rather suspected who it was. This,” she pointed at me, “is my niece, Heather Rose, accompanied by her mother. Holly is one of my sisters, and has been here before, but Heather has never seen the Kamp. I imagine they’re waiting for Jenna. Now don’t be worried, you did exactly the right thing by calling me when you weren’t sure which procedure to use. We can’t cover everything in the training course, and so there’s no procedure to follow when one of the owners, with a guest who’s never seen the place visits, is rare enough we didn’t figure it would happen often enough to a rookie to codify it.”

Turning to us, she said, “This is Janice’s first day, so don’t blame her. Jenna should have phoned ahead.”

“I didn’t, because I wanted to see how my star student handled it when faced with something unexpected. You did great, Janice,” Auntie Jenna said as she came in through a door from a back room. “Prue, do you want to show them the place, or should I?”

“I think you should. Everyone is already expecting me to be on the hot seat today.”

So Auntie Jenna gave me and my mommy the grand tour. First, we saw the suites for the staff and guests. She explained that's where everyone had gone last night, since Auntie Shelly’s house isn’t that big. It seemed like all my aunties had a cabin to use if they spent much time here and usually lived in their places when they here. “Auntie-Mommy Holly, which is yours?”

She looked down and smiled at me. “Since I started working at the bank, I don’t need one here. I use a guest suite if I need to, and have a few things stored in a locker for when I am here. I guess we will need a bigger locker from now on, daughter of mine.”

Her words and smile made me feel all warm all over. I mean, it was July and all, but it was a different kinda warm, if that makes any sense at all.

I was really surprised how much work was involved when Auntie Jenna started telling us about how the Kamp worked. Since most guests were only here for a vacation, they wanted stuff planned for them instead of exploring and finding things on their own. Games (and alternate games) was needed for all ages and boys, girls, and others that didn't like the other two choices. Of course, the mommies, daddies, and other grown ups wanted something to do while their ‘kids’ was having all kindsa fun.

"Most Little Kids are Little Girls, for some reason, but there are also Little Boys, who grew up being told they were girls,” Auntie-Mommy Holly explained. “In a way, their problem is even worse that yours. Sure many tomboys can get along fine, but when they can’t, there is even less knowledge about their problems. You think you had it bad, it is a lot worse for little boys, or even big boys.”

“You didn’t meet any of our boys last night, and only few of our husbands, because Holly asked to have a Ladies Only Gathering. She didn’t know how you would feel if you knew men were going to be voting on accepting you or not. We were only a minute away from sending someone out to get you when you arrived so precipitously, she giggled. “Instead, most of the men on the staff, and the boys in our family and our young male guests all went on a camping trip, roughing it on our back acreage."

Mommy added, “We also have athletic fields, a lake for swimming, horses to ride, and for a few family members, Unicorns. But we try to keep our guests from seeing them. We don’t want to keep having to tell guests that a unicorn picks the rider, not the rider picking a unicorn. And we do not want them trying to sneak down and get a ride.

"And we have rooms for dress up, playhouses for playing mommy, housewife, and makeup lessons. Even a nursery for those who want to be infants or young toddlers. But for that, they need to have a Mommy."

“Wow, you sure know lots about it for someone who don't work here, Mommy.” I dunno if it was 'cause my head was feelin' so full that I wasn't thinking too good or something, but somehow I had forgotten to add the 'Auntie' part in front of 'Mommy'. Even though I thought of her as a mommy, I tried to be careful to not be too pushy and actually say it, since she said she wasn't sure if she'd be able to be a mommy.

“I may not work here now, but I worked her on weekends while Uncle Bill, you’ll probably know him as Uncle Pickles, was training me to run the bank branch during the week.”

“Is that Mr. Picklesworth Ida was talking about?"

“Why, yes? What did she tell you about him?

I tried to remember her exact words. “Just that ... he recommended ya for your job.”

“Grr! We will have to do something about that woman! She thinks she is too good investigator. Maybe we should look into her to see who put the burr under her saddle.”

While my mommy had been telling me all about the Kamp, Alysson and Maggie wandered off, saying something about looking for Tamara. Just as Auntie-Mommy Holly was really starting to get frowny bumps between her eyebrows, both of my cousins came running back with Tamar and her mommy in tow.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Janet

Holly knew enough to take Heather Rose most places, but she doesn’t know much about horses or unicorns. At least I don’t think she does. But after this morning’s surprise, I’m not betting on anything where she is concerned.

Tamar and I brought them a golf cart, and soon we were on the way to the unicorn area. When we got there, there wasn’t a unicorn to be seen. “Tamar?”

My girl put her fingers in her mouth the way Grunge had shown her at Harleyfest. We’ll be seeing him again when Bill and Tamar and I go to the big Sturgis Harley Rally next month. Grunge is the six year old son of one of our friends from college.

The piercing whistle she let out made everyone jump, and brought Bill from his cottage across the road from the barn. It also brought Biker Chick and Harley from wherever they had been taking it easy.

As soon as I saw them come into sight, my eyes were on Heather Rose, watching her eyes grow as she saw these ‘mythical beasts' for the first time. No, not really beasts, for we were to find out they were more like people than any of us had realized. They did as asked if they wanted to, or stood like rocks if they didn’t wish to do as asked. And they often made us realize what they wanted, when they needed something. Only one had been willing to go to New York City to check out the zoo when we’d proposed letting the news of their existence be public.

Then, five of them had gone back after the herd had selected which of the Zoo attendants they wanted to be involved with. Five had gone, but one had disappeared, and after five months, we had no idea what had happened. Nobody has tried to claim a ransom, or even a reward for information, except the usual idiots who are looking for fame. None of their leads had proved out.

But now, ‘our’ unicorns came to a halt, with the rest of the herd spread out maybe twenty yards back. Heather Rose’s eyes hadn’t gotten any smaller, and she’d sort of stepped back, until Tamar went to Harley and whispered something to him.

Harley nodded, then slowly stepped towards Heather Rose, turning as he lowered his head so that deadly looking horn never threatened her. “He’s wonderful,” she said as she finally breathed. Tentatively, she reached out, “Can I …”

“Sure, just don’t touch the horn They almost never allow that. Some only when they are bonding,” I told her. Tamar nodded in agreement.

“Bonding?” Holly asked me.

“Yes. When a ‘corn decides he wants to have a special friend, he picks them, then comes to them and lays the horn in their hand. Then something happens. It can’t be explained. At least I can't, and it is one of the most wonderful things that can happen to anyone.”

Our attention was on Heather Rose, Tamar and Harley, as Heather Rose asked, “Can I ride him?”

When Harley backed away, I had to tell her, “I didn’t expect him to let you. I’m sorry, dear, but most of the ’corns will only let one person ride them, and many won’t let anyone.”

Heather Rose looked disappointed, but squared her shoulders, and mumbled, “Maybe someday …” as she looked at Harley, then her mom. That’s when I really knew Holly had a winner.

Biker nodded, then hooked her head to the right a couple of times, then raced off a short ways before coming back and repeating. “Mommy, I think she wants us to go for a ride,” Tamar told me.

I turned to Holly and Heather Rose. I think we’re going to have to go for a while. We’ll see you back here, or at the admin area, OK?”

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Holly

As Janet and Tamar rode off to give their unicorns some loving exercise, I consoled Heather Rose by telling her, “I want to show you one of my favorite spots. It’s just over that hill. I led her back to the golf cart, and she hopped on. “No. Sorry, we’re going to walk. I just came here to get this. Lifting the front seat, I pulled a picnic basket from under it.

As we walked, Heather asked, “Why ain’t there no fences to keep the unicorns where they belong?”

“Because the unicorns are extremely intelligent, and know they’re safe here. They can outrun anything that might come after them, even a cheetah, because they’re magic. But they also know how to ring the bell that we used to call them, if they need our help.”

Before long, we had gone over the hill that blocked out the view of a lovely little glen, where a stream of icy crystal clear water flowed from a pool at the bottom of a tiny waterfall. The lacy trees let through just enough light to let the meadow grow tall and lush, while proving cool shade along the stream. Heather Rose cried ,“Oooh! That's so pretty!” when she saw it.

“Yes, isn’t it? I love to come here to relax if I have the chance. I thought it would be a perfect place for the two of us to have a mother-daughter picnic, and make some decisions.”

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Heather Rose

“What kinda decisions?” I asked as I helped mommy spread a snowy white cloth over the grass.

“Well … “ she didn't say anything else for a minute, since she was busy opening a little square package into a bigger box that looked pretty shallow. When it was out flat, it had a long spike poking out from the bottom. I helped her press this down into the soft ground alongside the cloth. When it was as far as it would go, leaving just enough room to reach underneath with my hand, she pulled on a tab.

“When I asked for the Gathering for you, I asked for a few special things, because you are a special girl.” I think I prolly blushed then, but I didn't say nothing and just watched as she took a ball just a bit littler than a socker ball from the basket. Doing something I couldn't see, she popped it open and I saw two salads, one in each half. Holding up a smaller ball, she asked, “You can have any type of salad dressing you like, dear? What will it be?”

“Uh, ya got Thousand Island?”

“Again?”

I didn’t realize it until later, but she didn’t do a thing before she squeezed the dressing on my salad. Turning, she used the same little ball to smother her salad in what she said was her favorite dressing, Balsamic Italian. As she handed me my salad she went on. “I asked for some special dispensations, because I did not wish to make you lose some of the things you have, or some of the friends you have made. You have very many good friends that may have been the reason you made it this far without the serious problems Misty saw for you.”

“For one, you still have adult reasoning ability, and all your old memories are readily available. Most Kamp guests pay to have their big person memories , not exactly erased, but made weaker, so they can fade into the background. Most of the kids that go permanent ask to lose them, or have them buried deep.

She interrupted herself, “Ahhh! The Pizza is ready!” She opened the box we’d spiked into the ground.

Steam floated out of the box and the smell fo pepperoni and cheese made my mouth water. As hungry as I was feeling, my curiosity was stronger. “How could a big round pizza go in that little box you unfolded, and heat up without an oven?”

 

“Ahh, I am a witch, remember?”

After handing me a thick paper plate with like the hugest slice of pizza ever, she took a bite from her own slice before she went on. “You’re a wonderful artist, dear, and you have done and I know you’re in the middle of doing some work for a number of people. If we had done an ordinary conversion, you might be working at Maggie’s level. She does wonderful work … for a five year old using crayons, and, I have to admit, even better with her sister’s makeup.”

She giggled, which got me giggling. It was a good thing I'd just swallowed the big piece of pizza I'd just had in my mouth. I still kinda got the hiccups and had to stop and drink some juice that I was told to drink in slow sips. It was wonderful to see my new mommy so happy.

After I got the hiccups under control, she added, “In a normal conversion, all your artwork would likely just disappear, and the old you would be forgotten. And your friends who’re counting on you to do drawings would forget you, and either go without, or have to find someone else.

“The same would go for your wonderful stories. Our world would be a poorer place without your wonderful prizewinning ‘Shoes', which has inspired so many, even helping a large number to impress on their love ones, friends and acquaintances, by analogy, just how it feel to have a mind that is different in gender than the body holding it.

“I do not want to see that mind leave us, if only for a few years while you grow up. And I do not want to amke the rest of the world wait for you to grow up.”

”But I thought … I thought ya wanted me to become a little girl so I wouldn’t … have … a breakdown?” my voice tapered off to a whisper, and my chin began to quiver.

“I did, and I do. But I have talked at length with Dr Gina and the Pipster, and we have spoken to several others, and we have concluded that you can be very happy with the best of both worlds. That is, as long as you have this wonderful new eight year old body, and YOU can determine when you want a carefree child’s mind, you can decide to have a five year old mind, or a fourteen year old mind, or anything in between, or even an adult mind when you think you need it, without any danger of what we were so afraid was about to happen to you. You have a very strong mind, or you would not have made it to the point where I met you, but all the years of despair were pressuring you towards collapse. Now, all the reasons for that despair are gone and should never come back. Do you understand?”

“I think so …”

“Want to see some more magic?” I could tell mommy wanted to change the subject. When I nodded, she reached in the basket and tossed me a shiny little ball. Even though it started out tiny, maybe ony an inch, , it was almost too big to hold in both hands by the time I caught it. I looked up and saw her smiling at my surprise. “Wish it open!”

I wished, and it suddenly popped open to reveal a perfect silver bowl with a Hot Fudge Sundae inside! Hers opened and it looked almost the same, except hers was Hot Butterscotch. The ice cream was still barely soft, and the toppings was almost hot enough to burn our tongues. I started to ask how it was possible, then thought, “Mommy’s a witch, silly girl!”

Between spoonfuls of sundae, my mommy said, “I do not need, or want an answer now, or tomorrow, or by any other deadline. But once you have decided, and we have talked and agreed on it, then I will modify the spells to let you experience it the way you have decided for a month. If you’re comfortable about it then, I will let it go for another six months, before making it permanent. Of course permanent is only until you grow up, naturally.

“I love you HR, and I only want your happiness, but I do not want you to lose some of the happiness you always had, by making a too sudden decision.”

As she was speaking, we both noticed around the same time some really pretty music. When I asked Auntie-Mommy Holly what it was, she said it sounded like it was coming from a piccolo. Except that it wasn’t coming from a piccolo.

The cutest little silvery unicorn with a short golden horn came up to me, and we both realized the music seemed to be coming from her horn. A lot bigger unicorn who was gold colored but had a silver horn came up and stood next to the littler one.

I felt like I was floating on clouds. Mom said later that my eyes grew big and seemed to fill with stars.

I barely dared to breathe. Something, it seemed to be a little girl’s voice in my head, made me hold out my hand. The littler ’corn stepped forward and lowered her head, placing her horn in my hand. I gasped, remembering what Tamar had said that meant. She wanted to bond with me, as Harley had with her.

The bigger unicorn stepped closer, playing the same tune, but it sounded a lil deeper, more like a flute. I felt more words kinda float into my head and realized she was my new friend's mommy. My own mommy had stood when I did and put her hand on my shoulder as we watched the two of them playing a duet that seemed to be for me.

After a lil while, we heard music kinda like the two unicorns was playing, but lots deeper. A black unicorn that was a little bigger than the mommy joined them. He didn't play the exact same thing as the others, but their music fit together real nice like the way two hands do when the fingers is knitted together.

Auntie-Mommy Holly looked about as shocked as I was feeling, which is prolly why she didn’t even realize that the mother had lowered her head until she nudged her free hand up and put her own horn in my mommy’s hand. It prolly wasn't until the black unicorn blasted out the bugling sound before racing round and round the clearing, that she realized she'd got bonded too.

I felt this kinda peace that was almost like when I'd got changed and me and my mommy had become family. I noticed words in my head again. “Mommy, she says her name is Tarazed.”

As I tried to figure out why I’d never heard anyone say they could talk to their unicorns and was wondering if it was a secret only people who got bonded knew about, more words filled my head. “Her mommy's is Capella.”

“Does her father have a name?”

“Yeah. It’s Rigel.” His voice was a deep bass rumble between my ears.

 

‘All three names are names of visual stars known since ancient times’ another voice told me. I told mommy what I'd been told.

“Are you sure, Heather Rose?”

“Uh huh, just ask them!” Just as I was starting to feel frustrated when I realized she didn’t believe me, more words slipped gently into my head. ”They say they know what you’re saying, but you can’t hear them.”

The daddy unicorn hadn't come close to us, so my mommy called, “Rigel? Would you come closer?”

Her jaw hung open and her eyeballs looked like they was gonna pop out when he stopped pacing and came about halfway to me. After staring for a minute, she closed her mouth and then asked, “Is your name really Rigel?”

There was a snort that sounded the way some people look when they roll thier eyes and didn’t even need my translation. I heard Rigel’s words in my head, ‘Silly lady, you don’t believe your daughter?’ Then he slowly nodded his head several times, following it with another snort.

Mommy turned her back on the golden 'corn who’d bonded with her, waited a moment, then said, “Capella, would you come over here and face me? Then put your head on my shoulder?”

After a musical buncha notes that sounded an awful lot like laughter, the unicorn slowly went around her on the right, and laid her head on Mommy’s left shoulder. That seemed like all the proof she needed. She threw her arms about her new friend’s neck, or at least as far as she could.

“I’m bewildered. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to talk with unicorns. Talk to them, yes, and everyone in the family knows that they seem to understand everything that is said to them. But this …. This … is overwhelming. And I’ve never heard of unicorns making music, either. Oh, I’ve read of something like that, but it was in a fictional story of a magic place … ‘sort of like this,’” she said, going down to a whisper at the end.

Capella stepped back and nodded. “Ask how they make their music? I don’t see anyway for them to make a sound with their horns, but that seems to be where it was coming from.”

“Mommy, you ain't gotta ask me to ask her. Just talk to her like you'd talk to anybody else. I might need me to give you her answer, but she’s your special friend. You don’t wanna ignore her like that.”

Capella had been standing there taking it all in as I spoke. Now she lowered her head as she had when they'd bonded.

“Touch her horn, Mommy.” She held out her hand, and a look of amazement came over her as she felt a bond grow between her and Capella.

“Now she wants to show both of us how they make their music." My hand joined my mommy's on Capella’s horn, as she began to play a tune. As the notes changed, I could feel her horn vibrating in different parts. The higher the note, the closer to the tip of the horn the sound seemed to be coming from.

Suddenly she broke off, and began playing the music from a real familiar sounding waltz. I felt kinda frustrated when I couldn't remember the name, but the music just swept all the bad feelings away. (Mommy reminded me later it was the Blue Danube.) Then Tarazed and Rigel joined her, playing what sounded like different parts of the song, though this time, Rigel seemed to be playing as deep as before.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Janet

After we’d had a wild ride, I asked Tamar if she wanted to look for Heather Rose and Aunt Holly. When she nodded, I nudged Biker Chick to head in the direction where I thought they might be found.

We followed a small steam, and eventually heard music. ‘That’s gotta be them!’ I decided, ‘Only Holly would spoil this splendor with her ancient tired music’.

As the piece finished, we spotted Heather Rose and Holly. I cried out, “All right, where’s the boombox?” I was going to say more, but then I spotted three unicorns. They’d been standing just out of my vision, hidden behind some trees.

Heather Rose just pointed to the unicorn family.

“Unicorns can’t make music!” I was very positive in my convictions, until the silvery little filly walked over to me and played a short bit of the waltz we had been listening to.

Biker Chick turned her head to look at me, and I’d swear she laughed, then nodded her head.

“Capella says Biker Chick says they're special.” HR told us as she pointed to the three unicorns.

“I have to admit that. I have never seen a unicorn with that golden color, or for that matter, a silver one. And the only black Stallion we had disappeared three years ago, from the New York zoo exhibit.”

“Rigel says he’s the one that disappeared. He was feeling kinda like ... like stuck or something in the zoo, and he was really missing Capella, so he just came back here and found her.”

“Dey c’n talk?’?” Tamar asked in amazement.

“They can talk to Heather Rose,” Holly replied. “But not to me. However, they seem to understand everything I say …” I could see a thought occur to her. ‘Capella, would you go over by Rigel and play six notes?’

The golden mare went over to the black stallion and they played a duet of the six notes often used to excite crowds in stadiums. You know it, they’re the ones used to make the crowds yell, “CHARGE!” ?

“Janet, I didn’t ask them to play that tune. I just asked for six notes. That was six notes, wasn’t it? And no way were they random.”

I stood there, blown away by what the unicorn’s revelations. “Can all unicorns play music? And why haven’t they told anyone they can speak with us?”

“They don’t seem to be able to …” Holly’s words were interrupted by Heather Rose. “Capella says I’m the only one they can talk to.”

“This is big news. I have to go tell everyone, C’mon, Tamar!”

I looked at my sister, “The two of you coming back with us?”

“I’m not sure, this place is so peaceful, and Heather and I still need to talk. Especially with these new members of the family,” she gestured at the unicorns.”

“What do you mean?”

“They came to us and bonded,” she explained.

My jaw dropped. “I thought they were just entertaining you. But I guess Heather Rose couldn’t talk with them if that wasn’t the case.” After a moment I went on, , “OK. We’ll leave you to get better acquainted, but you need to be back at admin by 6PM, or you might have to spend the night here.”

“I can think of worse places,” she replied. I heard Heather Rose giggle as we rode off.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Holly

After Janet and Tamar left, HR tugged on my sleeve. “Capella wants to say something.”

I looked in her direction and nodded. "She says they been waiting ... for me? Yes, for me. She says they needed to find someone with the soul of a child, but enough experience … and … understanding?” There was a moment of silence as HR and Capella looked into each others eyes before the mare nodded and the girl smiled.“ Oh, she needed somebody with enough vocabulary to be able to understand them. They knew there had to be someone …”

HR turned to me, “Wow …” she whispered softly, her eyes glowing. “She says I’m special.”

“You certainly are, dear.” I gave her a hug.

“I’m really glad you didn’t let them make me like the other Little Girls.”

“Why is that? Oh, you mean if you were like them, you wouldn’t be able to talk with our new partners?”

“Uh, huh!”

I looked at Capella and Rigel, with a brief glance at Tarazed. “Can we tell the others about this?”

Both of the adults nodded, and then shook their heads.

“Yes and no?” I inquired, as Heather said, “She says some people, not all.”

“If I name some, can she tell me which ones?”

Capella answered with a nod. “You only have to think of them,” HR added.

“Well, I’ll name them anyway. It will help me. Shelly?”

Nod. I was glad of that.

“Prue?”

Nod.

“Janet?”

Yes and no.

“Janet, but not Tamar?”

Nod.

I wasn’t happy with that.

“Misty?”

A hesitant nod.

“Is that because she hasn’t bonded with any of you?”

Nod.

“I have to get her to try to bond, then. Jenna?”

An enthusiastic nod.

“She says that’s all.”

Heather Rose looked upset. Capella stomped her foot and gave a vigorous shake of her head.

“That’s true, Capella. Maggie is a bit of a blabbermouth.” As Heather Rose grimaced, I rolled my eyes in a silent amen.

“She says everyone can know about them, but not that they can talk to me, and understand so much when they’re talked to. She’s telling Biker Chick to not let Janet talk, if she can.”

All three ‘corns looked off in the direction of the barn they use in inclement weather, where Heather Rose had first met the unicorns.

It wasn’t long before we heard Janet’s voice, yelling, “Whoa! What’s gotten into you jugheads?” and other things of that nature.

A moment later, Janet and Tamar and their steeds were again standing in our midst. I think Janet and her daughter were more winded than the Unicorns. Actually, the unicorns weren’t even breathing hard.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Janet

We were about halfway back to the barn when Biker Chick almost threw me over her head as she came to a stop. If she’d been an ordinary horse, she would have, for I always ride bareback, with no halter or reins. ‘If Biker can read my mind,’ I was realizing,, ‘that explains why she always seems to know what I want her to do.’

Almost as soon as she’d stopped, Biker did an about face and headed back where we’d come from.

~~~~~

“Do you know what this is all about?” I asked when I found myself looking down at Holly again.

“I think so, sis. They want to limit the number of people who know that Heather can talk to them, and they, to her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Capella and Rigel say that everyone can know we have bonded, but she wants to limit the number of people with knowledge about it.”

I turned my head, “Capella, Tamar already knows …”

“She says you’re right, but you should make sure she doesn’t talk about it.”

“I can do that,” I said, with a stern look at my girl. Tamar nodded wordless, until I added, “You won’t say a word about this, will you.”

“Mommy, c’n Heaver hep me talk to Harley?”

I looked at HR, who answered, “Yeah, but only when nobody else is near us, and you can't never say nothing 'bout it to nobody. This is like a pinky swear kinda secret, Tamar. You can only talk about it with ..." HR paused and counted on her fingers, " ... with like the nine of us, and only when nobody else can hear us.”

Tamar looked puzzled.

“I think she means the four of us two legs, and the five unicorns, right Heather?” I told Tamar.

Tamar got it then. “I pwomizez.”

“I’m sure that will do. Tamar was GD/AD like you, Heather Rose, and held it in even tighter, until she found this place and realized it could help her. And she didn’t have to hold it in as long as you did. You’re both very lucky to come to this place.”

“Luck? A really smart lady who used to be just a friend of mine,” Heather Rose grinned at Holly, “once told me that we make our own luck.”

Holly went over to stand behind her, as … ‘Tarazed? Strange name,’ I thought, came over and nuzzled Heather Rose. “That’s right, I told you that, didn’t I? If you hadn’t been trying to let the world how you felt, by the way you dressed on Fridays, and if you hadn’t had that ‘accident’, and fainted at my feet, and then hadn’t been so scared of seeing a doctor, all those ‘lucky’ things, you not only would not be here, I shudder to think of how I’d have felt if you’d just shown up missing, and then I found out my favorite employee was locked in a padded cell.”

“Mommy,” Tamar asked me, “What a m’ploy?”

“I’ll tell you later, dear. Hey, you two, it’s getting even later. Biker, can we go now?”

She nodded and trotted towards the barn.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Holly

“That was exciting, wasn’t it?” I asked Heather Rose when they were out of earshot. As she nodded, all three ‘corns joined in with laughing whickers.

“She says we can talk now. You said you wanted to talk to me.”

“I think some of it can be put off a bit. But yes, I do still need to talk to you about a lot of things. Most mothers watch their own mothers with their sisters and brothers, or watch their peers and learn a lot that I don’t know. I’m afraid I won’t be able to be a good mommy for you.”

“You will. I know ya will. After all, I’ll be there to help you, and I’ll always be a good lil girl.”

“I’m sure you will, but still, there is so much I don’t know …”

“Well, ain't you already been taking care of me for like ... a month? I can't imagine anybody being a better mommy than you already been doing.”

“OK. Despite what I told Janet, I really don’t want to miss out on whatever is happening back at the house. Shall we go?”

“Can I ride Tarazed?”

I think I already knew the answer, and a glance at Capella told me the same thing that she told HR, ‘”Her mommy says she isn’t big enough yet, but she did say I can ride Rigel while you ride her!” HR’s smile told me all I needed to know. She was all excited at her first unicorn ride.

I think I already knew the answer, and a glance at Capella told me the same thing that she told Heather Rose, ‘”Her mom says she ain't big enough yet, but she did say I can ride Rigel while you ride her!” Heather Rose’s smile told me all I needed to know. She was all excited at the thought of her first unicorn ride.

After I helped her mount, she looked around at the lovely little glade once more, “I see why ya like this place. It’s beyootiful!”

I nodded as we left. I had ridden horses, but not comfortably, and I didn’t want to tell her this was my first unicorn ride, too. I found that despite the similarity in appearance, the ride was nothing like being on a horse. Even without any tack, we rode comfortably and smoothly, and I didn’t feel I might fall of even once.

“I ain't sure what she means, but Capella says to tell you, ‘What did you expect?’ ”

I explained my thought to her. “I’m spoiled. I’ll never ride a horse again.”

“She says, ‘you better not!’”

‘This is going to be an interesting friendship, Capella,’ I thought, and caught a definite nod as we approached the barn.

That made me think of the time I’d last ridden a horse, when I’d visited Yosemite National Park.

Cappela snorted, telling me, ‘You’re allowed to do that there, but not here.’

~~~~~

“So, the legends and rumors are true,” Bob, the head stable hand greeted us. “I heard the old boy was back, and thought I spotted him once or twice. And I heard rumors about these two, but I didn’t believe them. All unicorns are either pure white, or darkest black. Or at least they were until now. I guess I’ll have to eat my words and apologize to a couple of people.”

He turned towards Heather and Rigel. “I never knew a stallion to let anyone ride him, You must be a special little lady.”

“She sure is. Heather Rose is just riding him until Tarazed is large enough to give her rides. He seems to be okay with that.”

Bill just shook his head. “For ghost horses that would never let anyone near them, they sure seem attached to you two. You must have bonded?”

“Yes.”

“You’re two lucky ladies. Miss Janet went on ahead, but said if you get back soon enough, they’ll hold dinner till six.”

“Thanks Bill.” I slipped off Capella and gave her a hug. “We’ll be back, but you know we live far away?”

She nodded, as Heather Rose relayed with careful words, “I think she knows.”

So help me, Rigel blinked his eye on the side where Bill couldn’t see it. As we strolled over to the cart to go back to my car, I was glad Bob had apparently assumed that the music was from a boombox in the picnic hamper.

The unicorn’s whinnied, so we turned and waved. That was all they seemed to want, as they turned and galloped off.

As we were turning in the cart, I was handed a note from Shelly.

 

I’ve sent out a memo to all staff letting them know Heather Rose is now part of the family, and reminding them about you, too, Holly. And the magical wards protecting some of the high security areas have been reset to let you pass through them as if they were not there. If you ever find someplace you think you need to go, that is still warded off, you will have to get in touch with Prue, Jenna, or me.

I may have forgotten a few places.

Huggles, Shelly

“Now that you’re officially part of the family, and my beloved daughter, I can show you a few things I’ve kept secret from you. I’m one of the weakest members in the family when it comes to magic. So I have Shelly, or Prue or one of the others put spells on some of my things so that all my weaker magic needs to do is trigger the spell into doing what I want. Of course, that means I can only use it on things I’ve thought about beforehand. But I’m getting stronger with practice. Prue says that in another year or so I should have greater power than Maggie, but with much better control.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Did anybody tell you about the incidents when some of the family went to England for Christmas a couple of years ago?”

When she shook her head, I went on. “It seems Kitten wanted some cookies, and Shelly wouldn’t make any. So Maggie tried to magic up a dozen. Well, she either put too much wiggle or too much giggle in her twitch, because it started raining chocolate cookie dough on Christmas Eve. By the time Santa had made his rounds and the downpour finally ended, there was nearly three feet of cookie dough all over central London with drifts up to twelve feet from Trafalgar Square to the gates of Buckingham Palace. The morning headlines read, “London Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas?” Shelly met with the Queen on Boxing Day, apologizing for Maggie’s misfire, and offering her assistance in cleaning up the sticky situation. She even tried to inject a little levity to the situation by joking that it was a good thing Maggie had wanted milk and cookies or there would probably be cows in the Tower of London. To put it mildly, the Queen was not amused.

Heather Rose giggled at the thought of moo cows in the famous tower, but Holly told her to hold the laughter until the end as she had more Maggie mishap to share. “Maggie made friends with a small, fire breathing dragon and never told anyone. She somehow managed to smuggle it onto the 747, and probably would have made it at least as far as customs, but the dragon got the hiccups and began filling the cabin with smoke. The plane was rerouted to St John’s, Newfoundland where Shelly had to explain to British, Canadian AND American authorities that Maggie was only a five-year-old girl, who seems to get into trouble at the drop of a hat, and not a terrorist.”

By the time we reached Lady Galadriel, we’d almost stopped laughing. I set us off again, by adding, “All you have to do to make her mad is mention, ‘Cookie Dough.’ At least she still eats them, but she hasn’t wanted to help make any since then. But don’t mention the dragon.”

“Why not? I’d really like to see it. Where's it at?”

“Maggie didn’t realize that taking it from its mommy would not be good for it, so we had to return it. But maybe someday if we go to Englyland, as Maggie and Baru call it, you can visit it. I’m sure after awhile the Queen will calm down and have Parliament recind the Maggie-Ban. I’m sure she didn’t really mean it when she said that ravens will leave the tower of England before Maggie sets foot on the shores of Great Britain again”.

Holly paused and then sighed, “On second thought, I’m sure Shelly has pictures of the dragon somewhere.”

~~~~~

Dinner wasn’t ready by the time we got back to the house, and I was overjoyed to see Heather Rose revert to Little Girl mode as soon as I told her she could go play outside. As I was standing on the porch watching her, I remembered my own words when I’d helped push Janet into accepting Tamar as her daughter. … “So you’ll be ready in what, about forty years?”

I began to shake as I remembered, ‘I’m not sure I can do this … but I’ve got to.’

Sensing the problem, Prue came up and hugged me, saying, “Worried that you can’t be a proper mother?”

When I nodded, she went on, “You’ll learn, just like every parent in the world, that kids don’t come with instruction manuals. Nobody has ever written one that works all that well, because every child, and every parent, is not the same as the next one. It will all work, because you love her and she loves you. And you both have a lot more experience that the average new parent and newborn. At least you haven’t had to go through that … yet ....”

When I jerked at her final words, she went on, “… but maybe someday, dear. She’s a lovely girl, smart as a whip, and talented. I hope everything works out the way you want it to, so she doesn’t lose what she has now. But if she decides she that’s the way she wants it to be, wants to be like Maggie and Baru fulltime, and just grow up, don’t try to stand in her way. Let it be her choice, dear.”

“Thanks, sis.” I took a deep breath, and suddenly felt better. “I needed those words. I love you, too.” I lifted my shoulders and smiled, my fears gone as I wriggled so I could hug her back.

“I couldn’t help overhearing,” Jenna said as she came onto the porch.” I haven’t had Cathleen that long, myself, of course, but I’m told that it niggles at you even after they’ve spread their wings and flown. I still have doubts, but so far it is working just fine, and the joys far outweigh the doubts.

“I can’t believe it. We just got up eleven hours ago,” I told Shelly after dinner. “And it’s only 5PM by the clocks at home, but I am ready for bed.”

”Heather Rose is running pinhole checks, too, dear. Those transformations take a lot out of you. Go to bed. We can chat without you, and if anything is said you need to know about I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

I got up and waked my little one, just enough to lead her to bed. Tonight, we were going to be together.

As I helped her undress, she smiled sleepily, “It feels so good not to hafta worry about being undressed in front of anyone. Well, not girls, I mean. Of course, the past month, when you and Dr Misty found out I was a Little Girl, had been good, but … now I ain't never gotta worry ever again."

I slipped her into her Hello Kitty pjs, and soon we both slipped into a deep sleep.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Heather Rose

( Sunday, July 3rd )

We musta slept really good, 'cause in the morning we was both feeling lots better. When I cracked open my eyes and tilted my head to the side, I saw my mommy was already awake and rolled over on her side to face me. She had one of the happiest smiles I'd ever seen as she reached over and brushed away the hair that had fallen across my eyes. Even though we was practically right next to each other, I still managed to Pounce hug her. “I love you, Mommy.”

“You can’t love me as much as I love you , dear.”

“Wanna bet?”

After we went back and forth like that a couple times, getting sillier each time, we got up, threw on robes over our pajamas (just in case the guys came out), and went down and out on the porch to watch the sunrise. It'd been a long time since I’d seen one.

I thought we was the only ones up, until Auntie-Mommy Holly asked, “How is it that you imps’re up?"

“Wait’n fer ya,” Baruchah (I think) whispered.

The other twin said, Weknow’dy’dbedownHeaderRose.” The way she mushed her word together told me she must be Maggie.

“We’s like sunzup,” Baruchah told us.

“We’ hopin’yousbehere,” the Kitten added. “C’nwesnuggleyous?”

“Uh, huh.” I sat between them on the porch swing and lifted my arms so they could squeeze up next to me. Maggie looked at my mommy and waved. “You, too, Aunt Holly.”

I felt a smile all the way down to my toes as we snuggled together, the swing swaying just a little, and watched the sunrise together. Just about when I was thinking about getting up, Tamar and her mom burst quietly out the door. I say burst, because Aunt Janet never seems to do anything quietly, even when she isn’t making any noise. Mommy says she’s like a force of nature. “Well, now we know why they didn’t answer your knock,” she said, looking down at her daughter.

“You,” she wiggled her finger at my mommy, “are going shopping this morning. You’re going to break that stodgy mold, at least when you’re here. I’ve made arrangements for some private shopping before the best stores in the Mall open.”

“So have I, and somehow I doubt it is at the same stores." Auntie Shelly had a look that said there'd be no argument. “Heather Rose, you can come along, and if you see anything you really want in either my stores or the wild child’s, they’re yours as a welcome to girlhood present. You’re a little young to give you a bank, like we did for your mom.”

It took me a minute before I realized I'd forgot to blink. “You gave her the bank? Ya mean she owns it? I thought she was just the president and branch manager.”

Just as Aunt Janet was about to answer, Aunt Shelly spoke up. “Before we go anywhere, everyone is going to have a big breakfast. We’re going to need the energy. Jenna is already fixing it. Go wash up. That especially means you two," Aunt Shelly pointed to my cousins. "I swear I don’t know how you can go to bed as sweet clean little angels and get up in the morning looking as if you’d spent the night in a hog wallow.”

“I’ll help them,” I told her, grabbing them each by the hand just as they started sliding off the porch swing.

“Awwww , you no fun.” I wondered if they had to practice at saying things at the same time like that. I was just starting to get to know them, but I wouldn't be all that surprised if they had.

Once we was all cleaned up, we followed our noses to the dining room. It looked like somebody had everything ready for half the household. “We’re letting the guys sleep in. The poor dears need their beauty sleep,” Steffie said as she and her twin joined us.

Auntie Jenna seems to really like cooking a lot, and loves to see people really enjoy her food. And if you don’t seem to be enjoying it enough, she’ll make sure you get more. It felt like we ate for days, but finally none of us couldn't eat another bite, so we all went to our rooms to get dressed so we could get undressed to try on new things.

“Janet is going to be in for a big surprise when we get into the changing room,” Mommy told me. As we got changed, I tried figgering out what she meant, then decided not to worry about it and just keep an eye on my Aunt Janet.

~~~~~

A few minutes later we gathered down next to the garage. “It looks as if you two will have to go on your hog,” Mommy told Aunt Janet and Tamar. “Lady Galadriel can’t hold five of us, especially if we buy anything.”

“That’s why were taking the big car. It will hold all five of us, and there is room enough in the trunk to throw a dance,” Aunt Shelly insisted, nudging us towards a really long and kinda old, but nice looking car. Alysson and Elsa, looking really stylish in black uniforms and leather caps, was holding the doors for us.

Ten minutes later we was at the mall, and were soon standing in front of a shop named Biker Style.

There was three really nice people waiting for us there. As the grown ups lead the way through the store and I started looking around, I kinda got the feeling there wasn't nothing there my mommy would be caught dead in, let alone get caught alive in.

Boy, I sure had a lot to learn about her. She made a beeline for what looked like black, strapless, leather bras, but with a part attached under the bra that looked like it would cover the back and belly, and had strips of something stiff stitched into them. After grabbing a couple of them, she went over to another rack and got a few different styles of leather skirts. “Boy, I can hardly wait to try these on,” she told a Aunt Janet, who was looking as shocked as I felt and had to rush to keep the dressing room door from slamming on her.

Inside, Mommy flipped her top over her head, and dropped her long, nice-but-kinda-plain-looking and old fashioned skirt to the floor, letting Auntie Janet see her red undies. Grabbing the first top, she figured out how to put it on, and adjusted it. As she slipped into the first skirt, she looked at my still speechless Aunt. “Back when I used to ride my Indian, I always envied the girls who could wear something like this.”

“You used to ride?” the words came out of Aunt Janet as a strangled whisper.

“Sure did, till I got too busy and my wife and I had too many kids for our sidecars.”

Just then I realized Aunt Shelly had followed us in, when I heard her burst out laughing. She pointed at Auntie Janet, and kept on saying “You… you …” once she was able to get it down to giggles. It musta been some kinda deep dark secret, 'cause nobody would tell me what she was laughing about.

Even after having known her for a month as my Aunt Holly, I was still feeling pretty amazed. Tamar was just wordlessly looking from one to another of us, as if she wasn't sure what to make of it.

“Help me pick out a couple of outfits, and some leather panties. These really aren’t meant to be worn under a tight short skirt. But I couldn’t resist the chance to see your face. Then we can see what else you want me to wear. Now that I have managed the bank for a couple of years, and have a daughter, I suppose I might be able to throttle back the old lady bit a bit. But with an eight year old, I should look at least thirty, I think. A young thirty, but thirty.”

When we left there, Auntie Janet took us to another two or three stores, and Mommy got an awful lotta outfits that didn't look like anything she'd wear on duty at the bank. I felt a little sorry for Aunt Janet, but it was kinda funny how my mommy had taken the wind out of her sails. I was also really proud of how pretty she looked in her new clothes.

At first Aunt Shelly seemed to be really lost, trying to figure out my mommy. After a while, she kinda got into the swing of things and helped her find some neat outfits to wear away from the bank, as well as some that weren’t so just ... ughhh ... but still okay to wear on the job.

Tamar helped me to get a few things for myself, too. Nothing all that frilly, but stuff that could take the wear and tear of being a kid better than a lot of the little girl clothes I’d collected.

Back home later, (yeah, Aunt Shelly’s is everyone’s home) the entire family was teasing Aunt Janet. In fact she was still being kidded about it the next day, despite her anguished, “How was I supposed to know that Miss Old Maid there would have been a wild child herself if she could have, forty years ago? Did you really have an Indian?”

At this, my mommy piped up. “No, I didn’t used to have one. I still have two from the original Indian company, though they need a bit of work. And I bought a new one when they brought the line back a few years ago, but I have only put a few miles on it. It was home on the West Coast while I was back here working with you people, and then, well, I can’t see a bank President riding up on a nice bike like that giving the investors much confidence, can you?

It’s different from a bicycle. Where we live, riding a bi-cycle is a positive. But a motor-cycle is not. Just like dressing this way,” she waved the backs of her hands from top to bottom at the pretty outfit she was wearing, “at the bank is not. I like the look, for it makes me look twenty years younger, like I really am. Of course that might be a bit too young, for how can a twenty year old have an eight year old kid?”

Maggie and Baruchah and the other kids who'd been playing outside tromped in. “Mommy!” Cathleen yelled as she led the pack, "can we … Oh, Heverose pwetty,” she told the other kids coming in behind her.

All thoughts of whatever had brought them in was forgotten as they came over to see the new outfit Aunt Shelly had gotten me. It wasn’t all fairy lace and pink, but a nice jumper in a deep green denim, with a pair of deep pockets for my art stuff, and a pouch I kinda think was meant as a purse, but would work good for a couple of dozen sheets of paper if I folded up. Aunt Shelly had promised to magic all my paper so that even a big sheet folded down wouldn't get all wrinkly when I wanted to draw on it.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Holly

At lunch, I took a mental head count. There were 21 adults, counting Angela and Amelia, and I think there were 23 kids. ( I’m not sure I got the latter count right. There seemed to be a lot of Brownian movement at the kids tables that were scattered all over the lower floor. )

This was the largest assembly of the family I’d ever participated in. I’d been seated next to Christy at the table, and finally got to know her. Previously, I’d heard of her, but she hadn’t been down from her Canadian Hideaway. When she showed me pictures, I realized why. Her ‘cabin’, which was on a lake in the forest, was nearly as large as Shelly’s place, and other than the cabin and the dock she’d put in, there wasn’t a sign of civilization to be seen.

“It is lovely this time of the year,” she confided, “But you wouldn’t want to be snowed in, if it weren’t for the snowcats. Of course now, I can just magic my way out. Sometimes, like this year, it takes till June to get everything in shape after a hard winter. Still, I’ve had the family there for Christmas, and it would be hard to find a better place for an old fashioned one.”

“But now, what about you? Your life seems to have been going through some changes. Here I was expecting to see a maiden aunt, but in her place, I see a lovely young mother.”

“I’ve never been all that old, I hope. But I didn’t want to be a twenty one year old Bank President, either. And while I never was an old woman, I was an old man for far too long.”

“But as to motherhood, it’s all new to me, and maybe the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. Now I know how my wife felt. As a Daddy, I was proud, and I loved my kids, but as a mom, there is something extra. And I liked Heather Rose from the moment she came in hesitantly applying for a job. There was just something about her that made me want to help her.

“She had good recommendations and quarterly reviews, but had been let go abruptly several times. She wouldn’t say why, but as I’m sure you are aware, it almost certainly had to do with being found out a pre-op transsexual. Despite our progressive laws, sometimes it is easier to find an excuse to get rid of the source of a ‘problem’, than to go through with an effective program of education and enforcement of the anti-harassment laws.”

“I hesitated a long time, at least two days, debating whether or not to hire someone that might prove to be a troublemaker, but I guess somewhere deep down, I realized she might be a victim. She’s never given me the slightest reason to regret my decision, and I don’t expect she ever will. I think she is going to decide to keep a her adult mind, yet, as she has always done, be able to retreat to childhood when she lets go. This time, I don’t think she will mind growing up physically into an adult, because she will always have that child at the surface, ready to burst forth when she needs it or wants it to.”

“I can see how much you love her. Whenever she is in view, your eyes follow her, and when she isn’t, you keep looking for her.”

“I hadn’t realized …”

“Get used to it! It’s a mommy thing.”

“You know, you’re right. I used to see my wife doing it when our kids were young.”

“Do you ever miss them?”

“A bit, but not the way I would if they hadn’t been grown and off on their own. I miss the grandkids, though, but I don’t think they’d ever understand this.”

“Most people wouldn’t … Oops, looks like the boss has something to say.”

I turned to see Shelly getting ready to tap her glass to get our attention. When she had it, she announced, “The kids took a vote, and decided they wanted to go to the park this afternoon. I need volunteers to keep track of the little monsters.” She looked directly at me, to let me know Heather Rose was going.

I held up my hand and went out to help round up the kids, and make sure everyone had an adult assigned to them, that both sides knew it, and everyone had transportation.

When we got to the park, I found myself with Shelly, as her youngest twins wanted to be with Heather. “Why didn’t you build this place closer to the house?” I said, tongue in cheek. I’d been in on helping locate the land. The problem had been in finding a large enough chunk of land for everything, in one place. Just try finding a bit over 10,000 acres someone is willing to sell, Or even just try finding 10,000 acres in one piece!

As we watched the kids, I thought about how we’d felt lucky to find this place, an old military base that had been closed. The government had about given up hope of finding anyone to take it off their hands. Because of the huge amounts of toxic waste, nobody else would touch it. But we had Pleiades Resources’s ‘technology’ on our side, and took on the challenge. To make it look good, we’d had to scrape and put back down a lot of topsoil. The EPA monitors that came in and tested the soil were astonished at how well we’d done. We didn’t tell them that we’d cleaned up the soil even before moving it, that the earthmoving had all been for show. They were very upset when we said it was another trade secret, and that we would never allow them to watch while PR worked

I didn’t know whether to feel happy or not when Heather Rose announced she was tiring of the theme park after just an hour or so. However, her words made me feel better about it, “I want to be with you, Mommy. We can help Auntie Shelly, Big Allie and Steffie by taking the ‘brats’ off their hands.” If I hadn’t seen the playful grin with the word ‘brats’, I might have gotten upset at my daughter. But the grin, and knowing how she doted on them and vice versa, made me smile at her and send her off to Shelly to work it all out with her.

After Heather Rose spoke to her, my sister looked over at me. I nodded, she nodded back, and it was settled. A few minutes later, as soon as the twins were informed of the decision, three smiling faces headed back to me, and I saw smile on the faces of the older twins, too.

I was surprised, but maybe should not have been, when Baruchah and Maggie agreed with Heather Rose that there were a lot of other things to do instead of the rides. Of course, they were able to come here almost any time. Many people never visit the local attractions, but of course, their family doesn’t own the place.

Before long, we decided to leave the others and go over to the Kamp. I let Shelly know by phone, as we’d lost sight of each other, and we were soon on our way. Once at Kamp they all settled down to play dolls with a dozen or so Kampers, never letting on that they almost lived there.

Eventually I had to tear them away when Shelly phoned to say they were on the way home for dinner,

Dinner once again had tables spread out all over the lower floor of the house, as rain was threatening, and nobody wanted to take their chances outside. Sure enough, before we were through eating, it grew very dark and the rain began, following a bright flash and almost instantaneous clap of thunder. Heather Rose came running to me, frightened despite the assurances from her cousins. Eventually, by taking my half finished dinner to their table on the deep screened porch I was able to get her to sit through the biggest thunderstorm we’d ever seen. It lasted well over an hour, and in any one minute I think we saw more lightning than we’d see in a year back home.

Heather Rose was fairly calm now, though she wanted to hold me tight, and a couple of times I heard her mumble, “I’m glad I’m a California girl so we ain't never gotta see this where we live.” I could understand it. I knew this was normal here in the southeastern US, but it was still unnerving. I think Maggie and Baru gave us both strength. Afterwards, we had to admit it was awe-inspiring, and later, days later, after we’d been back home Heather Rose began doing some drawings and a couple of paintings of it.

Once she was over her scare, I sent the three off to join their cousins in the playroom while I helped clean up. Then we ladies had a hen party, just chatting in the front room so the men could use the kitchen to finish their planning for the next day’s barbecue. At bedtime, when I went to look for Heather Rose, I found her curled up with the twins and four of their cousins. I wished I had a camera, and was surprised when one appeared in my hands.

‘Wow, I’m better at this magic than I thought’, I was telling myself when I heard a giggle from Alysson. “You’ll find a few pictures already on it, but take some for yourself, Holly.”

If you wonder about her familiarity with an older aunt, remember that when I want to let my real body age show, I am only about five years older than Alysson is. And they are growing up after becoming early teens from young adults with GD. They had showed me that they were so responsible in helping Shelly with their younger siblings, so I told them to scrap the Auntie with me, whether or not any of my sisters are within earshot.

That almost caused a battle, till I explained my reasoning. After some thought, they were put on a first name basis with all of their Aunts and Uncles, but still call Shelly, ‘mom’. Of course I expect them to be doing that twenty or more years from now, too.

After I had my pictures, the camera disappeared, ( the pictures were in an email when I got home ), and I herded some sleepy kids up to bed.

Heather slept like a log, just snuggling up to me when another two thunderstorms came through to keep me awake. The second one was stronger than the one during dinner. At one point, I’d be willing to swear that the sky was lit up for over a minute without going dark. But it had to be farther away, as I could barely hear the thunder over the noise of the downpour that accompanied it.

~~~~~

( Monday, July 4th )

Even with her angelic smile, Heather Rose had a hard time waking her mom the next morning. I just did not want to wake up. Finally she left, only to come back for another try. “Mom, Auntie Jenna says she’ll throw it to the hogs if you ain't down in five minutes. Do they really gots hogs here?”

“I’m sure the only real hogs Aunt Shelly allows are the ones Aunt Janet and Bill ride,” I mumbled as I pried my eyes open, ( figuratively, of course.) As soon as I had my feet under me, Heather Rose began tugging me towards the door. I held back long enough to grab a robe. My nightie was, let’s say, suitable for a slumber party, or if I ever find him, that one special man. But not for all the males that would likely be stumbling about down in the kitchen, especially if the word got out, giggle.

After breakfast, which included three cans of Coke, since I cannot abide the taste of coffee or that pallid imitation in the blue can, ee went back upstairs and took showers. When I came out I felt like a new man , oops, I was one most of my life, remember … Force of habit.

Anyway, I was ready to face the day, which I was informed was almost half over. “The guys are fixing a couple of sheep Auntie Prue magic’d here from her herd of trained attack sheep, Hawaiian luau style. I guess they weren’t vicious enough,” she said with a wink, as we all knew the ‘trained attack sheep’ was just a joke. “The fire was started two hours ago, and the sheep went in the hole as soon as it was down to coals. That’s besides the usual burgers, steaks, kosher hot dogs, kosher all beef bratwurst, etc. Stay out of their way. They’ve taken over the kitchen and the screen porch for their messes. But it should all be worth it, cuz I’ve told them they don’t get another meal until they’ve cleaned up the mess to MY satisfaction.”

Three hours later, at 2PM, it was worth it. I’ve got to get the recipe for that marinade they injected into and used on the sheep. I consider myself a fair cook, but I’ve never fixed anything as fall apart tender, or with that taste.

Lunch over, we thanked the cooks as we left them to clean up while we headed for the amphitheater. This was a part of Kamp that had a large area of almost twenty acres we’d flooded a few inches deep. Cut into the hillside just outside of the Kamp boundaries was a terrace that could easily seat 150,000. Everyone at Kamp, staff and visitors had seating in the top center area, while just below and to the sides were seats for anyone with a Theme park ticket for any day of the weekend. The remaining seats were for anyone that had bought a ticket at the mall or several places in the nearby towns. The admission price of $1.00 went into the running of dozens of clinics in the neighboring counties.

We’d started letting the crowds in at 2PM, having told them they could bring their own food and non-alcoholic drinks for the afternoon and evening. They could also bring umbrellas for shade, but would have to take them down at sunset so they did not block anyone else’s view.

We’d added temporary staff ( mostly off duty staff from the theme park ), to handle the crowd control ,and arranged for a couple of dozen small local event catering outfits to take care of the food situation.

The afternoon’s entertainment was expensive, but we recouped a lot of the cost by selling food to those who’d not brought their own, even though .

Five big screens showed entertainment mixed with short educational documentaries on the various programs Plieades Resources was helping finance for the region, ( though we couldn’t tell them the whole truth, part of which was that we were losing money, writing it off as good will. The cost of doing the toxic cleanup and ordinary recycling was so low we were still making money at half our competitors costs. Being privately owned, we didn’t have to open our books up for a public auditor, but we still needed costs of doing business for tax purposes. )

Under the guise of providing new equipment for doctors and clinics in the area, we’d gotten small magic detectors such as Misty had used to diagnose Heather Rose, to find almost everyone in the region who was having difficulties in their lives. This was a lot more than just Gender and Age Dysphoria. It included other psychological problems even down to depression that looked as if it was more than momentary. Our biggest problem was trying to find a way to get help for them. You can’t just walk up to someone’s front door and say, “Hi, I’m here to help so and so with their bouts of depression," now can you?

We were not making anyone stay and watch all of this, as they were free to walk away and come back later. But we also gave them a few short segments on what it meant to the person involved when they realized they had some form of gender based Dysphoria, urging them and their families to go to their county health department for more information and referrals to someone who could help them cope until they reached the point of acceptance.

Shortly before sunset we asked that anything that might block someone else’s view be taken down, and a live program began. Mostly it was the drawing of stubs from kids tickets. Over one hundred kids would be able to press a button and start a segment of the evening’s fireworks display. And mixed with them, would be our own kids, including Heather Rose.

Sure, it could have all been done automatically, and in a way, it was. A computer programmed to sequence things properly selected the next switch in the sequence and lit a small light, telling the child that their switch was live.

But can you imagine the thrill for a small child, knowing that they had pressed a button and started even a small part of the show going?

The Grucci fireworks were out in the middle of the shallow pond, which gave almost everyone a reflected view as well as keeping us from starting any fires.

Heather Rose and I had to leave as soon as it was over, to head home and get ready for the next day.

~~~~~

We walked back from the show to our cabin at the Kamp, and transferring everything that hadn’t been magic’d to California already into Lady Galadriel, I decided it was time to let Heather Rose in on things.

“You were pretty preoccupied Friday night when we were on the way here, so I took advantage of that to magic us here. Since nothing had been decided, I was hoping you wouldn’t see how I got us here.”

I started Lady Galadriel, and got us on the way. “I’ve told you I am not yet a powerful witch like most of my sisters. So they put a spell on Lady Galadriel for me. When I do this,” I pushed in on the steering wheel adjust lever, then pulled it back hard, and released it … “she takes us to the nearest point to my destination where it is safe both physically and from observation.”

I completed the moves, and we found ourselves once again on the deserted road about a ten minute drive from the apartment. “Think of it as waving a magic wand,” I told her.

Heather Rose giggled at that. “You’re silly, Mommy.” A few minutes later, we pulled into the apartment’s lot and were soon home.

When I told Heather Rose, “Welcome home, darling.” That’s when it began to hit her. As the door opened and she saw a lot of her pink princess castle was now in our front room, and the rest in her room, she wrapped her arms around my waist and broke into happy tears, “Yes, it really is home, isn’t it Mommy?"

Opening the mail that had arrived Saturday I found a letter from Mrs. Blomfontaine who operated the day care center where Heather Rose used to visit, reminding me that I needed to pay for July’s day care for Heather Rose, and suggesting that I might wish to pay for August as well.

Things were looking up for these California Girls.

~~~~~

Authors note: More to come. Be on the lookout for ‘Ida the Spy’

 

 

This story starts just hours after the end of my story Ida The Spy.
Holly has just found out that a third daughter has become hers as a result of some black magic. But who dunnit? And why? How Shannon appear out of nowhere, (somewhere?), on the mountain above the house Holly is in the process of buying?

 © 2010 by Holly H Hart

I’d like to give credit to Shalimar for a couple of portions and ideas for a couple more;
to Heather Rose Brown for proofing and numerous small ideas and paragraphs here and there; ditto to Penny Cardon for proofing, and some small and one large portion of the text, and the incentive to even write this. However, any errors, omissions, grammar errors and typos are mine. As with Ida the Spy, there is a zinger, a part of the story nobody else has seen, part of it in the middle, plus the final few paragraphs.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental, except a lot of us whose fictional virtual personas are involved wish it were true.

Not true. In reality, everything comes in ones. Sometimes, when three "ones" come in a row, it seems like everything comes in threes. By the way, in medieval times it was widely believed that everything came in twenty-sixes. They were wrong, too. It just took them longer to recognize the pattern.

It wasn't until my sisters had left, that it really hit me. 'Ohmigaw ...Three kids … What did you think you were doing? " I asked myself, 'Taking on the responsibility for another child, one somewhere around 2 years old? Not long ago you were a crotchety old bachelor. Then you got your dream, and became a not unbeautiful young woman. Then you took on one kid, then another, and now, Shannon, too???'

‘But you couldn't not do it. She kept her eyes on you, not them. And her first words were directed at you, when she called you ‘Mommy.’ I argued with the voice in the back of my mind.

‘But ... but ... What do I know about taking care of an infant, well, toddler? At least she can walk. It's been forty years, and even then, you didn't do any more of the child rearing than you couldn't get out of, at least until they were three or four.'

‘Face it, she wants to be your daughter, Holly! You've already bonded. Look at the way you are holding her right now! Besides, you have your sisters to call on if you really need help.'

'But what am I going to do with her during the day?'

I giggled as I caught a mental image of myself standing over me. 'What to do you for your other kids? I think Mrs. Blomfontaine will be willing to take on a 3rd child . In fact, I'll bet the paperwork has already been done, just like it had been with Heather Rose and Dean, and shows she'd been going there for awhile. Magic, remember?'

I quit arguing with myself and admitted I'd never want to give Shannon up. It was true, a bond had been formed, both ways. Even my question about where she was going to spend the night was answered when I went into my room and saw a crib with a suspended Peter Pan and Friends in Neverland mobile night light next to my bed, which had shrunk to make room for it … no, the room was larger. 'We've really got to close on the house in the country and get more room.'

My first problem came when I tried to put Shannon down for the night. She wanted no part of sleeping in her crib all by herself . She wasn't talking to tell me what the problem was, just whimpering and reaching for me. "Of course! She has to be hungry. No telling how long it's been since she had anything to eat. You don't suppose ... Those training panties and clothes just appeared. You don't suppose ..”

Picking up my new ... newest, ‘daughter,’ I went out to the kitchen, where a cupboard that had been filled with pots and pans now held a wide variety of baby foods, some bottled, some in cans, crackers and cookies. Not knowing what she would like, but noticing that there were a lot more strained plums than anything else, I decided to give them a try. 'That either means she hates them, and I'm stuck with them, or hopefully, that they are her favorite'

As I turned around, I almost stumbled over my four footed kids, Bleu and Neptune. This place really is crowded, with what, me, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 kids. ‘Yes, I must see if Jack can do anything to speed things up.'

My fears about the food were unfounded, and Shannon gobbled down the entire jar. 'Should I give her more? No, better not take any chances. But I'll bet she can use some water. Oh, dear, I hope she can drink from a cup.' That prayer was answered, too. With a little help she was able to hold a teacup in both hands, and only spill part of it down her front.

It was only the next morning, when I noticed a new base cupboard under an extension of the kitchen counter, that I found the jars of baby food, bottles and everything to go with them. ‘I’ll bet Shelly did this. She was thinking of me and anticipating my needs. Thanks, Sis.’ I almost stopped to listen for an answer to my unvoiced mental thanks.

I was glad Heather Rose was pretty well able to get herself ready, even pouring cereal and milk into bowls for herself and Dean while I got Shannon and Dean dressed.

‘I’m so glad she can have the joy of being an eight year old when she wants to, yet show the maturity of her older self when it’s needed, especially since she doesn’t even seem to realize it. I never realized how tormented she was when she worked at the bank. And Dean, too.

‘I wish I knew more about my little one. I hope we can find out. Black magic is scary, but my sisters are sure that she didn’t do it, it was done to her, and she is as innocent as she appears to be.’

I looked at my newest daughter as I carried her from the car through the arbor of red roses leading to the entrance to Mrs. Blomfontaine’s Preschool and day care.

“Here, let me take Shannon from you, Dear, while you go back for Dean.” As I had figured, she already knew about Shannon.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this, the whole world changing when magic changes things, with only our knowing things are different.’ I shook my head as I went back and let Dean out of his car seat. Since it was one of those silly ‘teacher prep days’, Heather Rose was staying, too, and promised to help Mrs. Blomfontaine, who “Remembered her fondly,” even though Heather had never been there except to watch wistfully from the outside.

‘As clingy as Shannon has been, it’s hard to believe she took to Mrs. Blomfontaine as if she’s known her all her life.’ I shook my head again. After all this time, I still had trouble getting used to what my sisters could do with their magic. And I was becoming somewhat proficient with it, too.

Once I got to the bank, I did my best to concentrate on the tasks at hand, but it was quite a challenge at times to avoid drifting off and wondering what was going on with my children. Just after lunch I was surprised, and momentarily worried, when Ida, (the new, happier Ida), buzzed me. “Miss Hart? Your daughter is on the phone.”

“Hello? Heather?”

“Hi Mom! I just wanted to letcha know I could tell ya was kinda worried ‘bout leavin’ Shannon so long on her first day, so I thought I’d letcha know I been watchin’ her close, an’ I think she’s doin’ real good.”

“Thank you, Darling. Have I ever told you you’re a sweet girl, and I love you?”

“I think so …” She paused. “Uh, I think it mighta been when ya dropped me off at thepreschool this morning, but that was like ages ago.” Then she couldn’t help it, she broke into a giggle.

“Well, Miss Gigglepuss. I’ll be there in a bit.”

When she got home from the bank and preschool with the kids, Holly carried Shannon to the condo association’s little kid’girls’ play area where she met Rachel, one of Shelly’s adult children, and gave her a hug. At the time Rachel was watching Maggie, Baruchah, lilAllie, Michelle and lilSara. Obviously, the other sisters had to be around, too.

“Would you like to play with your cousins?” Holly asked. Shannon was a bit scared, and didn’t reply verbally, but the way she hid in her mommy’s arms spoke volumes.

Maggie grabbed Baruchah’s hand and came pouncing over to Holly and Shannon.

”Remembers me?” the MagPie asked. “I’s founded yous. Yous was tired and hungry. We is cousins. Dis is my twin, Baruchah. Hers the one whose magic works. I’m da udder twin. Mine almost works, but mostly not.”

“Hewwo Maggie.” Shannon smiled tentatively at her cousin as Baruchah started playing airplane with lilSara.

“Did you know Maggie likes Eyeore, too?” Holly asked Shannon.

“And who doesn’t?” asked Rachel. “My hubby says I giggle like Tigger.”

“I wikes Tigger bestest,” commented Shannon.

“I likes all Poohs speshully Eeyore but Tigger is kewlies.”

Shannon smiled, but still cuddled in her mommy’s arms.

“I gots candy some pace,” Maggie said. “Wait a mint! Its in my pocket! Can I gives her some candy, Aunt Holly?”

“Sure,” Holly agreed.

Maggie started pulling stuff out of her pocket while Shannon and the other kids watched in fascination. First was a bottle cap, then a small rubber ball, some jacks, a dolly shoe…

“Is dat da doll shoe from mommy’s dolly we’s gives hers for hers birthday dat she missing?” asked Baruchah.

“Maybe, don’t remembers … … dog biscuit with bite out of it …”

“Dat’s Bailey’s biscuit!” Allie exclaimed.

“IF she finds it, you should be fascinated, little one,” Rachel explained. “By the way, lilSara, flying with Baruchah, is my little one.”

“… toothbrush …”

“Hewwo!!” Shannon said.

“… sum jelly beans stuck together, pizza crust …”

“Hewwo!” lilSara replied

“Hummmmm,” Maggie contemplated as she dug deeper.

“… a shilling …”

“And it’s a tiny pocket, too,” Holly explained to Shannon. “That part of her magic does work.”

“… shoelace …”

Rachel picked up the crying lilSara and easily rocked the baby to sleep.

“… small pouch of catnip …”

“Imagine, a kitten that carries around her own catnip. That could be trouble,” Holly commented.

“… a green crayon, shiny rock …”

Shannon smiled up at Holly and clung.

“I tinks I gots it dis time,” Maggie exclaimed just before she pulled out an empty candy wrapper.

“Oh, oh! I forgotted, I ated it. Sorry.”

“Uhmmm,” Shannon replied, a disappointed look on her face.

Maggie checked her other pocket and found a hole in it.

“Awwwww!” Maggie exclaimed as she stamped her foot and pouted. “Maybe I cans magisize some up for yous.”

“Check again,” Holly suggested as she wiggled a finger at Maggie’s pocket. “I think there is another one there. Something is still making a lump.”

When Maggie reached in her pocket again, Shannon leaned her body to go down, so Holly put down her baby who ran over to her older cousin as she pulled out a piece of Cadbury chocolate and held it out for Shannon. Shannon ran so fast she knocked Maggie down. Soon they both were giggling as they shared the chocolate.

“Cmon, Shannon,” Maggie suggested after a while. “I cans makes you fly!”

Maggie picked up Shannon and started to run, “Its almost as good as riding mommy’s broom wid her.”

“Weeeeeeeeeeeee,” Shannon squealed and Maggie shouted.

After a few minutes Maggie said, “We gotta land in a minute.” She crashed with Shannon into a big fluffy bush and said, “Phew, I cans nots play airplane wiff you too long. I is too wittle or you is too big.” Maggie handed another Cadbury to Shannon before taking yet another one out of her never empty pocket. She popped it into her mouth before saying, with her mouth full, “Dis is da kind dat your mommy don’t want you to habs before bedtimes or eben dinners.”

Meanwhile Holly looked away so she wouldn’t complain as both little girls purred an “Mmmmmmmmm” before giggling.

“Here, do dis,” Maggie suggested as she put her hand down for a low five. “Here, Shannon, gib me a low five.”

Holly told Maggie, “Shannon is a baby kitten,” as Shannon timidly gave her cousin a low five.

“Wows!” Maggie said as she gently slaps Shannon’s hand. “I’s a kitten toos.”

Shannon squealed and giggled.

“Dat was good, Shannon. Dat was weally good. Now you’re kewl toos,” Maggie said as Shannon huggled tight.

“Maggie is know as pizzakitten,” Holly told Shannon.

“Its portant to be kewl,” Maggie explained to Shannon. “My big sister, Steffie says being kewl is what its all bout. I’m not sure wat alls dat abouts but I guess it’s good.”

“Otays,” Shannon agreed.

“Steffie is thirteen,” Maggie noted. “I don’t unnerstands her at all sometimes.”

“Wanna be kewl,” Shannon said with a very serious expression. “How do dat?”

Heather Rose, who had been trying to explain to her younger brother about the proper way to hold a doll baby, smiled and turned to Shannon when she heard her sister’s question. “Oh, first you gotta stand like this,” she said. She slouched and shoved her hands into the pockets of her pink corduroys.

Shannon managed a reasonable imitation of the slouch, but not having any pockets, she had to improvise by hiding her hands in the folds of her skirt. “Wike dis?”

“Uh huh! An’ then ya go like this,” Heather Rose instructed as she closed her eyes a little, then lifted her nose in the air in what appeared to be an attempt to look aloof.

“How dis?” Shannon asked as she craned her neck to lift her nose as high as possible.

“Ummm…”

Undaunted, my youngest daughter went up on her tiptoes and asked, “Dis better?”

My oldest daughter examined her sister’s pose for a moment, then said, “You almost got it. You’ll hafta keep tryin’, though.”

“Otay, I keeps twying,” Shannon promised as she attempted to lift her nose higher. This lasted about two seconds before she dropped the pose and said, “Maybe twy later.”

“I is always twying,” Maggie stated. “Da ladies at da dayscare I goes to says I trys dem all da time, ‘n sumtimes I’m vewy twying..

“We have a strange family, Shannon,” Rachel said.

“Den I’s in da right pace I tinks,” Maggie noted as Shannon cuddled into her. “I gotted called strange all da time ‘till mommy made me a liddle girl.”

“Shannon, your Aunt Shelly is my mom, and is Maggie, Baruchah, Michelle and Steffie’s mom,” Rachelle said. “I was already on my own when Maggie and Baruchah were born, so they call me Aunty Rachel because I was a grownup when they were kids. They still call me that and I accept the honor they mean it to be.”

“I’s all confused bout whos in da famby.” Maggie told her newest cousin. “Mommy says dat wiff da way our fambly is dat I bedders be carefuls or I will end up my own mommy.”

“You’ll be doing better than me, sweetheart,” Rachel giggled. “because I’ve been confused for a long time. I think our family is like a Celtic knot.”

“It otay, Shannon,” Maggie said. “We’s ain’t gotta knows nottin. Dats da kind of stuffs dat make grownups stay up late and drink coffie all night.”

Meanwhile Shannon was enjoying the cuddles, and the love in those cuddles.

“I likes you Shannon. You gwoovy. Dat’s one of dem words my big sister Ally, says sometimes.”

“Gwoovy?” Shannon asks.

“Uh huh,” Maggie continued. It’s a good word ‘cause I don’t gets inta no trouble when I says it. And Ally says it lots!”

Holly and Rachel giggled as Shannon went to her mommy for a cuddle.

“You know, Shannon, Maggie can be very trying at times,” Rachel explained tongue in cheek as Holly rocked Shannon. ”She’s always trying to get out of baths; trying to reach the cookie jar; trying to do magic spells; and trying to explain how it’s not her fault that something broke.”

“Bafs no fun,” Shannon remarked

Maggie went over to Shannon and gave her another low five.” You wanna join TABAS?”

“What dat?”

“TABAS is Toddlers Against Bafs and Showers, Caffleen da pwesident.”

“I’s a toddwer.”

“I’ll have to tell you Cathleen’s story about TABAS,” Holly told Shannon.

“Yeppers, pweeze do, Aunty Holly,” Maggie said as she yawned.

Shannon yawned, too. “I’s tiwed.”

“Ummmm,” Maggie said as her eyes drooped. “Bees careful, Shannon. Da sandman is round. My sandman yawn alarm jus go off. That mean he sneaking round put you to seep.”

“Yep, it’s about bedtime for both of you toddlers,” Holly told them as Shannon cuddled closer.

“Do you want me to tuck you in, Maggie?” Rachel asks.

“Pweeze,” Maggie said as she yawns. “I’s too tired to run from da sandman, tonight. I’s too tired ta talk my way out. I’s too tired to magicize my way out.”

“So you’re going to surrender without a fight?” Rachel said.

“Reads me story first?” Maggie asked.

“Strawberry Shortcake?”

“Uh hum,” Maggie agreed.

“Seep wid Maggie ‘n Bawu … Bawuca ‘n Sawa?” Shannon asked as she started crying tiredly.

“I gots lion dat cases away bad dweams,” Maggie told Shannon. “Sir Lionheart.”

Maggie opened her arms to Rachel, who picked her up and took her to Shannon’s room, followed by Holly and Shannon and the other kids.

“Aunty Rachel, I tinks you is gwoovy and purdy toos,” Maggie said.

“Thank you Maggie,” Rachel said as she kissed her and gently stroked her hair. “I think you’re groovy and pretty, too.”

Rachel put Maggie in her pajamas, then put her into bed with lilSara. Holly changed and pajamaed Shannon before she tucked her in next to Maggie and lilSara as Shelly tried to find room for Baruchah. Holly waved her hand and Shannon’s crib grew large enough for all four girls.

Calmed down by being with her cousins, Shannon stopped her whimpering. As Rachel read the story to the little girls, their eyes began to close.

When they were all out, the sisters went out to the front room, where they could all talk, could talk, interrupted only by the delivery of some kosher Chinese takeout Prue had ordered.

Shelly spoke up. “Holly, we need to discuss a Gathering for Shannon.”

Holly sighed, then was silent for a moment before saying, “She’s gone through so much. Is it really necessary?”

“As far as I’m concerned it is just a formality, but this is one rule we’re not going to break. There’s too much at stake if we don’t do it, especially considering the black kind of magic that was used on her. Damn, I wish there was a better term for magic done with an evil intent used on her. Besides, we’re doing it for Shannon.”

“Don’t forget, we still need to clean Shannon up,” Gina reminded them. “That evil magic smell is still on her.

Holly slowly nodded. “I know what you mean. I bathed her for nearly an hour before I realized what I’d first thought was an odd odor was actually something that went past the sense of smell; ordinary soap and water can’t touch it.”

“The materials we need to do that are in the clinic at the Kamp, not here, and they do not travel well magically. Besides, that’s where we have the stuff to find out what happened to her, too.”

“But we can’t take her back the normal way, either, because of the black magic,” Misty reminded everyone.

“We can use the corporate jet,” Prue suggested.

“What do I need to take? Holly asked.

“At the minimum you’d need several diaper changes and outfits for Shannon,” Jenna reminded her. “A few baby bottles and some toys. Take a few changes of clothes for you and the rest of your children.”

“How soon does this need to be? Even though I own the bank, I also manage it, and I have a number of appointments. I don’t want to ruin our reputation by just taking off for a week or two with no notice. Magic can’t fix everything, you know.”

Shelly cut off Holly’s protest. “Just because Shannon can’t travel by magic until things are fixed doesn’t mean you can’t come here during the day to work, and spend the rest of the time back east with your kids once in a while.”

“It needs to be done as soon as possible.” Prue told her. “The sooner we can test her, the more we can learn about what was done to her. I took a good look at those rags she was wearing when the kids found her. They aren’t rags, Or rather, while they’re badly torn up rags now, they used to be a tee shirt.”

“A tee shirt?”

“Yeah, before I encapsulated them for safety, I took a quick look, and it used to be a Righteous Brothers tee. It also said, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”

“Uhm. I always liked that song. Well, I’ll see if I can reschedule so I can get of the rest of the week.” Holly shook her head, perplexedly. “I guess I’d better get off to work if I’m going to get it done. Come back tonight and we can talk about it some more.”

The next evening, as the sisters watched the children play on the jungle gym/swing set provided by the Townhouse Association, Holly reported, “I managed to reschedule some appointments till next week, moved a couple forward to today, and I think Mark can take the rest. But there are still four I have to take tomorrow, the last at 3. When can you get the plane here?”

“It’s already been taken care of. One of the Plieades’ G-IVs is, or soon should be on its way west right now. Just be ready to go as soon as you lock the vault, or whatever it is you do, when you close tomorrow.” Jenna nodded, confirming Prue’s words.

“Holly, you know we can’t have the Plieades plant here on this property, as big as it is.” Holly looked at Shelly, wondering what she meant. “The hill is too steep. I don’t think it would be good for tractor trailers to negotiate a road back there.”

Just then Baruchah, pulling on Maggie’s arm came over. . “Wes lets da cat out.”

“Yeah. I pretty much realized that, but this will still make a great EWF West gathering place. And that’s not a hill,” Holly interjected. “It’s a mountain, 1,178 meters high, not one of your east coast ‘mountains’ that isn’t even 500 meters.”

“You just made my case,” Shelly grinned. “It would be too dangerous. You told me that a big Navy base nearby is going to close. We could put Pleiades there. The small shipyard could be converted to a tanker offloading area. The rest of the shore could be used for water based rides.”

Baruchah pulled Shelly’s arm.

“What is it, kitten?” Shelly asked.

“Wes sorta lets da cat out.”

“What do you mean you sort of let the cat out?” asked Holly.

“I’s was holding da door for Maggie dis afternoon when da cat ran out,” Baruchah explained.

“We chaseded it but it plays catch me if you cans,” added Maggie.

“Which one?”

“Da gray one.”

“Where was it last?”

“Over der,” Maggie pointed.

Most of the women began hunting for Neptune, Holly’s gray cat, but could not find him.

Later that evening, as the women were talking, Holly heard a small meow outside her front door. She found Neptune sitting in front of the screen door swishing his tail.

“You had an adventure.”

“Meow.”

“You know you shouldn’t leave like that.”

“Meow?”

“OK, you can come back in,” Holly told him as she opened the screen door, thankful that he’d come back before she had to leave for a few days.

She got on the phone before she returned to the front room. “Chris? This is Holly. What are you doing the next few days? … … I’ve got a problem. I need to leave town for a few days, and I need someone to take care of my cats while I’m gone. Could you …?”

As soon as we’d settled on our plans, my sisters and their kids walked into the Gather Room, and went home.

About an hour after the bank opened, I got the call we’d been waiting for from Jack. “Miss Hart? Call on line 2 from Jack Palmer.”

“Good morning, Holly, and it is a good morning. As soon as you can get down here to the title company, the papers are ready to sign, and then the place is yours.”

“That’s great, Jack. Let’s see, it’s not 10:30 yet. How long do you think it will take?”

“At least an hour, no more than two if nothing crops up. We’re going to do this as a video teleconference. Your sister, Mrs. Johnson, and the Harisons will be on the other end. They’d like to be through before 5PM on the other end, but we should be able to finish by then if you can get over here by noon. If you can’t, it will probably mean we’ll have found something that can’t be taken care of in one day, anyway.”

“Can you give me ten minutes to be sure I can get away?

“Sure, Holly. Want me to call you back then?”

I looked at the caller ID on my phone. “No. I’ll call you. Bye, Jack, and thanks for giving things a real push.”

Less than ten minutes later, I’d talked with my staff and made sure they knew what to do if anything came up while I was out, so I called Jack to tell him I could make it anytime. “If now works better, I can wait and take you out to lunch to celebrate.”

“It’s a deal.”

Lunch was almost on time. By 12:15 we were shaking hands with our counterparts on the other end of the video link as best one can from nearly 3,000 miles away. Shelly did the honors for me, in any case. I’d have to wait until the weekend, as I think the Harisons might just wonder if I showed up back there anytime that night.

I took Jack to one of the best restaurants in town, but all too soon duty called and I returned to the bank. I was anxious to get to the day care center, but knew I shouldn’t take off again.

I phoned Heather Rose when I knew she had a break from classes., “Oh, Guess what? We got the house. We can move in anytime.”

Heather Rose’s squeal almost broke the sound barrier, or at least, my eardrum. “Can we move in tonight? Can we?”

“Well, I didn’t mean that soon. I think it will take until Saturday to get things planned and underway.”

Boy, was I wrong! When I got off work and took my brood home, I found Shelly and half the rest of the family waiting for us. In fact, everything except a few of our personal belongings had already been packed, and loaded into two Plieades Resources vans. “Get busy, Sis,” Prue told me. “We left a few things for you.”

My head was spinning. Looking around, I was glad Shelly wasn’t with them.

Sure enough, after the kids and I had put the bicycles into the van, and put the cats into their travel boxes, and traveled the few miles to the house, Jack and his wife were waiting for me with a couple of housewarming presents. “Jack, you shouldn’t have.”

“Holly, it isn’t everyday I close a deal for $17 million.”

“In fact,” the petite brunette beside him said, “I don’t think he’s ever closed one for anywhere close to that amount.”

“Claire’s right. ,” Jack gave his wife a one-armed hug. “And since I own the agency, and handled the deal for both parties, that makes this my first million dollar commission.”

I stopped to run a fast calculation in my head. “You’re right. 6% of 17 million is just over 1 million. Congratulations, Jack. If you weren’t before, you are now a millionaire, at least until the tax man hears about this deal.” I gave Claire a hug, and thanked them both again, then pointed out that we had some vans to start unloading if we were going to have beds to sleep in.

When they were gone, Prue organized everyone. We went through the house room by room, telling the other sisters which room was which.

Prue and Jenna asked the kids to hold hands with them and me. We had to be part of it, but my two sisters did most of the work. About half minute after they began concentrating, the furniture from the similar room suddenly appeared, magic’d from wherever it had been in the trucks.

The only problems were when the furniture from one room in the townhouse needed to be separated into more than one room in the new house. Each of the kids, as before, had a room to themselves, though now, standing in the door of my room facing the hall, Dean was in the room on my right, while Heather Rose got the room directly across from Dean.

Shannon was in the room on my left, which had interior connecting French doors into what had been, I’m sure, designed as a sitting room off my room. While not quite a suite, each of the bedrooms had its own bath, what I’d known in my European travels as an en suite. Even Shannon’s did, but I sealed the door, figuring the huge master bath would do for both of us until she was old I could feel she was safe around its facilities.

Magic sure made the move fast and easy. The early autumn sun hadn’t yet set, though being on the northeastern slope of a nearly 900 meter tall mountain with its peak 300 meters higher due west had put us in shadow hours earlier by the time we were finished. When we phoned her to tell her the coast was clear, Shelly brought her family, with dinner for everyone.

After we ate, I was given a real surprise, as my three sisters brought furniture they’d purchased locally and hidden in a warehouse, to fill most of the guest rooms. Shelly explained it, “It’s close to bedtime for the kids. You didn’t think we were going to sleep on the floor, did you?”

“But I thought … oh, come here girls.” I gave them each a big hug, and didn’t forget the husbands who were hanging around. For some of them, this was the first time they’d seen the place that was going to be EWF West, Shelly’s place now becoming EWF East.

The next day, as soon as we closed the bank for the weekend, I picked up the kids. It’s only a few miles from the bank to a small business and private plane field big enough for the G-IV. As we approached the plane, Prue warned me, “Don’t be surprised by what you see on the plane. We’ve arranged some entertainment for the kids. It’ll be up to you to explain it to them.”

“Aren’t you coming, too?”

“I’ve got a faster way, remember? It’s going to take some time to set things up to get everything we need before you have to leave to get back here for Monday morning.” With that, she turned and left us.

Heather and Dean were no trouble. To them, it was their first plane trip, as neither remembered anything like that from their former lives, at least not, unless they really tried to remember, and Dean had never showed an inclination to try to remember his previous life. And Heather only remembered enough to help in her art, plus whatever it was that made her such a responsible young lady for an eight year old.

The surprises began as soon as we entered the plane, where we were greeted by three rabbits, an extremely tall white rabbit that sometimes turned invisible, who introduced himself as “John Howard, your pilot”; a gray one with extremely buck teeth, who always seemed to have a carrot on him, “Tim Holmes, copilot”, and an extremely sexy female, “Jessica, your cabin attendant.” I’d been wondering what sort of surprises Prue meant. Now I knew what some of them were. We had three of movieland’s best known rabbits as our crew.

I knew magic was involved though, as our tall pilot entered the cockpit through a door that only reached his shoulders, yet hadn’t had to duck. He went through it like a ghost. Looking at Heather, I saw she had spotted it out, too.

We were off the ground just before 5PM, with a 5 hour flight ahead of us, and a 3 hour time zone change, so we should get into the field near the Kids Kamp around 10 PM our time, but 1 AM local time. I had ‘Jessie’ send a message to tell everyone I was going to keep the kids on Pacific time, since it was just to be a 2 1/2 day trip, meaning Shannon was not going to be available until around 10 AM Eastern Time, but also, that we would not leave until10 PM Sunday evening. “Just make sure there are 4 beds set up for the return trip.”

“Already taken care of, Holly” Jessie told me. She dropped her illusion to let me see she was Janice, one of the regular staff members I’d hired when we bought the planes for Plieades before I went into the banking business. Guiding me further towards the tail, she showed me the two cabins, each with two large bunks, one above the other, Pullman car style.

Heather had shown Dean how to find a movie on the individual screens for each position, and set up a cartoon for Shannon while I was getting my tour. When I saw she’d pulled out her omnipresent sketch pad and huge box of colored pencils, I went back and helped Janice get dinner ready for the kids.

“I’ll bet you aren’t very used to making mac and cheese for two, and regular food with no Brussels Sprouts for one, plus adult food, are you, Janice?”

“Actually, my kids are worse than that, Holly.”

“You’ve got kids? I thought you were single.”

“I was when you hired me, but John and I got married a month after that. My mom takes care of the kids when we can’t be home, and works at the Kamp when she isn’t taking care of them. But when we’re home, it’s my job. I think it’s the best of both worlds. They get to see me a lot more than most kids see their working mothers, yet I get some time away, knowing they will get great care. And Mom loves it, she gets to see her grandkids more than most grandmoms do.”

“It sounds like it works well. That’s one of the things that bothers me about mine. I’m afraid I won’t always be there for them when they really need me.”

“That’s what cell phones are for, dear. You’ve got a good one in your oldest. I think you could trust her with one. Get her one that limits the numbers she can call, and the number of minutes she has for any non-free calls. You can get them, you know, that will let her call you free, and free night and weekend minutes, yet shut off charged calls once she reaches her limit for the month. They’re a good tool for teaching responsibility. My brother did that for his kids, and now I do it, too.”

“One thing I do not have to teach that one is responsibility. She has it by the bucketful. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more wildness from her, but I don’t want to suggest it.”

Heather Rose glanced up from her drawing just then. I thought I saw the hint of a mischievous grin, but it flitted away before I could be certain. As her attention returned to her sketch pad, I was once again reminded how little ears can have amazing hearing abilities at some of the most inopportune times.

We fed the kids, and took the pilots their meals before we ate our own dinners. As we were collecting the remains, Tim suggested, “If your kids would like to come visit the cockpit, just have them tell Janice. We don’t want to give them free run of our office, but we don’t have to follow all the airline rules on locking the cockpit when it’s just crew and members of the family that owns the plane. Particularly when you were one of the ones who hired us.”

Dean was excited when we told him, and to my surprise, Heather decided she wanted to see it, too. The rabbit illusions had been turned off for Janice and me, but were on once more when the kids entered. So of course, after the visit, that’s the way Heather drew it. Her near photographic eyes remembered all of the instruments and the cockpit layout better than I could, and she got our rabbit friends perfectly.

After the visit to ‘the office’ as Tim called it, I told Dean and Heather they could stay up if they wanted to, but that Shannon and I were going to nap until just before we landed.

When we woke 2 hours later, Janice told me we had gotten a good tailwind and would be landing in half an hour. “Heather and Dean are in the other two bunks. Do you want me to wake them?”

“Yes, please.”

I barely had time to get Shannon up and ready before John announced we should get in our seats and prepare for landing. Then, as Heather Rose and Dean rushed past to get to their seats, Janice asked, “Dean, would you like to watch the landing from up front?”

When my son looked back at me, I nodded, knowing he would certainly remember this flight for a long time.

Twenty minutes after each of the kids had thanked Jessica, Roger, and Harvey as they left the plane, we were at EWF East.

In the morning after we woke, Rachel took the older kids, and I took Shannon over to Little Kids Kamp.

We had to put up a sonic barrier so Shannon could see us, but not hear us as we discussed her case, before she would agree to let me leave her to be examined.

“I want some answers!” Shelly demanded when the meeting started “I want to know who did this to little Shannon, and I want to know how! And I want it BEFORE the Gathering!”

“Calm down, Shelly,” Kimmie told her. “We’ll find out what happened. I just can’t guarantee we’ll have it for Shannon’s Gathering.”

“Do you know anything?”

“Well, we’ve been looking over the shirt Shannon was wearing. We know that she was a novice.”

“She? You know this evil one was a woman?”

“We don’t know her age, yet, but yes, we know it was a woman. We think we even know the spell she tried to use, but the ingredient mix of the powder appears a bit wrong..”

“Get Scotty here. He knows chemicals. Maybe he can tell you something. It is a top priority.”

“Why are you so hot on this? You know we’ll find out.”

“This is a hate crime. This person is too dangerous. We are the only ones I know of who can punish this perpetrator. I will not have this person causing another Shoah.”

Note: “Shoah” is the Hebrew name of the Holocaust of 1932-45. The word means “burning.”

I’m not sure just what all my sisters did with their mysterious magical machines down in the Kamp’s evaluation center, but once they had gotten all they could, , I was told that we could head back anytime. “We will need time to evaluate it, and then we’ll have to go looking for the culprit. Most of what we got is circumstantial, as she really doesn’t have much memory of her previous life. One thing Shannon could not tell us was where, or even when she’s from.”

“What do you mean, ‘when’?

“We’re positive Shannon was not 2 years old where and when she came from. We’re more inclined to think she was between ten and twenty. We also think she is from somewhere at least five months before or after now, and maybe as much as a hundred or more ahead of now. I think we might get more, but it will take a lot more preparation and time than a weekend. We’re going to try and fix up what we need to be able to do the rest at your place in a few weeks.

The flight back, after a wonderful Sunday evening dinner at Shelly’s was uneventful. Dean got to sit up front for takeoff, while Heather was able to sit there for the landing this time.

I wasn’t too surprised to get a call from Chris Scott a couple of days after we got back. “I’ve had some time to think over what you told me and showed me, and I was wondering if you might like to have dinner and talk things over?”

I’d already made up my mind to say yes, when this expected invitation came, so I simply replied, “Yes. where and when? or, should I say, tonight, at my place? Six PM?”

“Sure … uh, what about the daughter you mentioned? Since school is in session, I suppose she’ll be there. Won’t that make things a bit awkward?”

“Not at all, Chris. She knows everything, and I do mean everything. Well, except about you, that is.”

“Well, okay, I guess. I’ll be there.”

I told him how to find the new place, then told Heather, Dean and Shannon that we were having company for dinner, and they became all excited.

“Is it a man or a woman?” Heather asked.

“A man,” I replied. She became even more excited at that.

I had deliberately not told Chris everything, wanting to surprise him. I greeted him at the door with a hug, then took his coat. “Come on into the family room. I want to introduce you to my family.”

I led him down the hall, and waited for the expected double take, which I got. Chris, these are my daughters, “Heather Rose, and Shannon, my son, Dean, and you already know our two junior citizens, Bleu, and Neptune.”

“But … but you said you had one daughter, and from your description, I assume that’s Heather Rose. You didn’t mention Shannon … or Dean.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to suspend your disbelief again. But let’s talk about it over dinner before it gets cold.”

Over dinner, which consisted of Beef Stroganoff over wide noodles, a green salad Heather had put together, and Acorn Squash, I told Chris about how first, Dean, and then Shannon had happened to join my brood. “All of this sounds unbelievable, but remember I’m part of the ‘Evil Witch Family.’ ” Heather Rose and Dean giggled at my reference to our family.

“But we’re not really evil, or even witches,” Heather put in quickly. She explained, with some help from Dean and me, how the family had come to be, as a gift from God, and how we not only never did anything evil, but only good. “ The Evil Witch part was a joke on my Auntie Shelly’s part before anyone in the family had powers, and we just kept it.”

“How old are you, Heather Rose?”

“Eight, most of the time. But Mommy made it so I can think older when I don’t need to be a little girl. And this seemed to me to be a time to be a bit more mature.”

“I… see. Well, I think you can be as old as you want to be around me, okay? You too, Dean.”

When dinner was over, Heather Rose told me, “You take your guest out back where you can be alone. We’ll take care of cleaning up. And then I’ll take care of things until bedtime, OK?”

“Okay, dear. Thank you.” I knew I could trust her to be her grownup, or at least mature self for at least a couple of hours, and told Chris so as we went up to the glassed in deck that looked up at the mountain, and towards the north, over the city.

“Obviously, you had something on your mind, Chris, what is it?”

“Nothing much. Just that I’d like a chance, if you will give it, to become better acquainted. But now I see there is even more to it than I thought.”

“I’d like that,” I told him.

“Say, Holly, how did you ever swing a place like this? I know you don’t make enough as a bank manager to afford it.”

“True, but I told you, I have a big, make that huge, family. We decided we needed a place everyone could gather here on the west coast, too, just like Shelly’s place back east. And this place fits the bill pretty well. We had been thinking about setting up part of the Pleiades operation here, but decided it was too steep, at least for the stuff coming in or leaving by truck. We might still bring in stuff by pipeline, but probably not. Pipelines make a lot of people nervous. So we might just leave most of it as a nature preserve, an unofficial extension of the state park, as it has been all along.”

We talked about a lot of things, mostly going into more detail of our lives during the time we were not seeing much of each other.

We were interrupted by a knock. “Mom?”

“What is it, dear?”

Heather stepped in, wearing her Care Bear jammies. “Dean and Shannon are in bed, and want to be tucked in and kissed goodnight. I’ll read Shannon a story and then I’ll go to bed too.”

“Certainly, darling.” I got to my feet and headed for the door, but stopped when she ran over to Chris. “Thank you for making my mommy so happy.”She gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to join me.

When the kids were down, before she read to Shannon, she whispered to me out in the hallway, “He’s pretty special, isn’t he?”

‘How has she picked up on that? I’m not sure how I feel. Or how Chris feels.’ “Yes, dear, he just might be. May I assume you like him?” I giggled.

“Unh huh.” She nodded in time with her words.

“Well, we’ll just have to see what happens.” I shooed her towards Shannon’s room.

Later, as Chris was leaving, he asked, “Would you like to attend a play with me Friday night? It’s Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Pirates of Penzance.’ Dinner first, of course. Pick you up at 5?”

“I’d love to, but I’ll need to get a sitter. Heather may seem grown up, but remember, she is only eight. Can I call you tomorrow?”

“Sure. You’ve got my number, don’t you?”

“I do unless you’ve changed it in the last couple of days.”

“Nope. I’ll be looking forward to hearing a yes from you tomorrow sometime.’ As he seemed to be hesitating, I wondered, ‘Is he going to kiss me?’ I was disappointed when he turned, just looking back over his shoulder a couple of times on his way to his Camaro. We’d always had a friendly rivalry, him with his ‘Stupid Chevy’ as I called it, and him, making snide remarks at my ‘Fix Or Repair Daily’.

The next morning, as Heather helped me by making her own lunch while I fed her siblings, I asked, “Heather, how do you feel about sitting for Dean and Shannon? I’m not really wanting you too. It’s a lot of responsibility for an 8 year old.”

“I’d druther not, Mom. I mean, I could do it in an emergency, but I would rather be a normal 8 year old as much as I can.”

“I understand, dear. I probably put too much on you a lot of the time, and I appreciate your not making a scene at the time. But at times like this, I want you to tell me, and afterwards, just remind me. Remember, I still sometimes confuse you with that young woman who worked for me, and who was one of my most trusted employees. Now you are just my always trusted daughter.” I gave her a hug, almost making her drop her sandwich on the floor. “Oops!”

When he arrived at work I called Mark into my office as soon as he arrived. “Relax Mark, I just need a favor, maybe. Your oldest is what, fifteen?”

“Yes. Marcia is almost sixteen.”

“Does she like to sit other people’s kids?”

“Does the Pope like to pray? She depends on it. Her basic allowance is pretty small, but I match anything she earns. I guess you need a sitter?”

“I have an invite to a play Friday. How soon can you get in touch with her? I need someone from about 5 till maybe midnight.”

“I can text her during her lunch hour. Would that be okay?”

“Sure, even tonight after you’re both home, though noon would be great! Thanks.”

Just before one, I called Chris, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but is that invitation still open?”

“Huh? Oh, yes, it is. If I didn’t believe you before, that’s the final proof. That weird sensayuma of yours. I’ll pick you up at five?”

“See you then.”

Mark brought Marcia over in time, As Chris led me out to his outrageously orange Camaro, I pretended to hold back. “I’m not sure I want to get in. Are you sure it won’t give my gown cooties?” We’d gone thought the ‘girl have cooties stage’ together many years before, as he reminded me.

‘Don’t you remember? It’s girls who have cooties. Are you sure you won’t give them to my car?”

We had a wonderful night, with a middle eastern dinner about 2 blocks from the theater, to which we walked, since the car was parked in between them.

This time, at my front door, he didn’t disappoint me. When he drew back, he said, “I never thought I’d ever kiss you, leave alone, enjoy it. Viva la difference.”

I’d let Mark know we were leaving, and when he should be able to pick up his daughter. He cut it pretty close, for his car was coming up the drive as Chris reached the road.

“How’d it go, Marcia?” I asked as I helped her pick up her books.

“I’ve never sat for any better behaved kids,” she told me as I counted out her pay, with a fair tip on top of it. I didn’t tell her I expected nothing else from my kids. All of the EWF family’s kids are very well behaved.

Marcia soon had a weekly sitting job, though it was usually on Saturdays so she could go out on her own dates on Fridays.

When I asked my kids not to tell anyone else in the family about Chris, they agreed, “As long as it’s not too long, Mom.”

As the family gathered at Holly’s new place for the first time over the weekend before Halloween, Holly, who’d had little time to herself for a long time, found once again that having family was wonderful. Even though it was her place, many of them had already been there and knew their way around, and were determined that she was not going to have to knock herself out for them.

As Jan, the Matriarch of the whole clan, told her, “You don’t think anybody, Shelly included, is ever in control of everything when we meet at her place, do you?”

Holly thought about it. While Shelly had often been the spokesperson, and ringleader, it was true. Most of her sisters and brothers-in-law had also been in charge of different activities, just as she had once in a while.

Jan didn’t give her much time to think it over, saying, “It’s hard to believe, Holly. 10 months ago, when I began the trip around the world that everyone gave me for my birthday, you were single, and a workaholic. I deliberately stayed out of touch while I was gone, and I come back to find you have not one kid, but three already.” She giggled, “At that rate, you’re going to catch Shelly in about five more years.”

“Not going to happen,” she replied. “I got all three kids in less than 3 months, and it’s been almost that long since Shannon arrived, literally out of thin air from what the others tell me. Besides, everything comes in threes, doesn’t it? And sometimes I think three is just too much, except then I immediately tell myself there’s no way I’d want to give up any of my three.”

“Of course not, you’re a mommy now, and it is your job to love and nurture them. I can’t imagine getting that many kids all at once.”

“Hey, some mothers have triplets, and get 3 or sometimes even more kids all at once, and somehow, they cope. And they have to go through the ‘terrible twos’ with all of them at once. I’m sure in Heather’s case, that her ability to be anything from a 5 year old to a teenager in her mind has made her a huge help, more than the usual 8 year old would be. Somehow she manages to keep that eight year old spirit, while being more responsible than one would normally expect from someone her age.”

“And Dean is somewhat the same way,” Holly admitted. “While Ida chose not to keep her memories of having been Ida, still, we had to leave a bit as the kernel for Dean’s personality. I think my sisters did a wonderful job of crafting the spell, so Dean is all boy, yet also better behaved than most. All of the other mothers at the day care have seen it. “One of his biggest gripes is that the other boys sometimes call him goody two shoes, because they are told they should be more like him. Yet they still like him, and don’t pick on him. In fact, the other kids, boys and girls, usually pick him when asked who should be the leader in some game or activity.

“And everyone is jealous of me about Shannon. While she doesn’t seem to have any conscious memory of her past life, still it seems to have had some effect on her, because the other moms say she shows hardly any signs of the terrible twos you mentioned earlier.” Jan kept Holly focused on the positive aspects of her new family. “Look at it this way. Which one would you give up, if you had to?

The shocked look on Holly’s face was all the answer she needed. “Maybe it’s too early to ask this, but would you ever think of having more, like your sister?”

“You mean like Shelly? No … not that many, at least.” After she left, I thought back to everything that had happened since that day we’d found Shannon … and decided I wouldn’t change a thing.

After we returned from the trip back east, the basement of my new place became the nerve center where plans were made to expand westward, now that we had a foothold.

I certainly couldn’t begrudge them. After all they’d done for me, turning a curmudgeonly aching old man into a vibrant young woman with a bank of her own, helping two similarly afflicted bank employees to reach their dreams, and help me care for Shannon, whatever her story, not to mention putting up the money for the house itself. Why, I owed them everything.

In the hours spent in planning, we had made good progress.

“So what have you found, Scotty?” Shelly asked.

“The chemicals used were common ones. The sulfur you smelled was a poorly mixed gunpowder. The gunpowder implies that the magic used was from a formula only a few centuries old, say around the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries.”

“Do you know how much gunpowder was used?”

“Enough to kill anyone nearby. If it wasn’t for the magic mixed with it, Shannon wouldn’t be alive.”

“So, it may have killed the practitioner?”

“That is possible, or at least severely injured her.”

“So you think it was done by a woman.”

“A girl, really, and she doesn’t know chemicals or spells well. I think she is about twenty. I could be off by a few years.”

“That, at least could help us find the girl. I’ll ask Misty’s husband if he could find an accident that may fit the crime seen. Do you know where?”

“No. It could have been in Baltimore or Timbuktu, Singapore or Vienna, but it is probably in a civilized area, because I found some cement that appears to be about ten years old. I also detected a language used in the spell that is not English, not even from that period.”

“It is true that basic English hasn’t changed THAT much since Shakespeare’s time. Hummm. We need a language expert. Laurie knows magical languages. Maybe she can help.”

When Laurie came and checked the information, she detected a form of French that was in use around the fourteenth century, but not knowing French of that time very well, she could not translate everything.

By the time she had finished her investigation, Bubba, Misty’s husband, had found only one incident that fit the parameters. He said that a girl of about nineteen had been severely injured and was still on life support several months later.

“We can’t let her die,” Betty pleaded.

“Why not?” Shelly asked. “She almost killed little Shannon Michelle. If Steffie hadn’t detected that the magic was done to her, instead of by her, we might have let the baby die.”

“If we save her life we might be able to find out more about Shannon.”

“Her punishment might be worse that her dying.”

“Remember, the girl is innocent until proven guilty.”

“I’ll try to keep my anger in check,” Shelly replied as she cried. “We all know how much we could be hurt just because of what we are.”

Misty, Kimmie AND Gina went to the hospital where Racinne was on life support care and cured her wounds. When she was well enough to travel they took her to the Kamp, where there was a Gathering to officially welcome Shannon Michelle into the family.

Racinne watched, spewing verbal venom when she realized the family seemed to be practicing magic, or at least, pretending to..

The next day, it was her turn, as she was put on trial.

Shelly and Laurie were the most vehement and acted as prosecuting attorneys. Brianna volunteered to be the defense attorney. At one time Shelly told the Gathering that she had to leave to get her anger out, as Racinne was incorrigible.

During one of Shelly’s timeouts, Baruchah and Maggie ducked under a woobie, pulling Michelle, lilAllie, Shannon, lilSara, “big” Sarah(UK) and Cathy with them.

Baruchah said to Maggie, “I has neber seen mommy so angry.”

“I hopes she’s neber that angry at us’es.”

“She not dat angry eben when you had dat dragon on da plane.”

“I haded time outs for a long time with dat! I thoughted dat I’d be a mommy before I got out of dat time out.”

“A real dragon?” asked Allie.

“Was whens wes in Engleyland,” Maggie explained. “Hers name Wendy.”

“Dat’s where I was born,” Allie replied. “I neber saw no dragon.”

“It was a little one like us’en and was Maggie’s friend,” Baruchah explained. “Mommy saided dat it needed to stay with its mommy so it went back to Engelyland.”

“No dragons here,” added Cathy.

“’Cept mommy now,” noted Maggie.

The older toddlers giggled. Not understanding, the younger ones still giggled.

“I cants see Wendy no mores,” Maggie sighed. “I cants go back to Engleyland.”

“She gets trouble in Englyland,” Sarah explained.

“Made cookie dough.”

“Cookie dough fun!” Shannon noted. “Mommy maked cookies dis morning! I licked da spoon.”

“Made too much,” Maggie admitted. “I uses magic. Dough all over! Dough so high it bigger den me! But it was chocolate chip.”

“Dats good cookies!” Michelle proclaimed. ”Da bestest.”

“When mama saw Mama sounded angry. Saided, ‘Don’ts used magic again.’ I saided, ‘I’s sorry.’ She saided, ‘I habta clean up da mess!’ Den we met da queen.”

“Da queen of all of Englyland?” asked Allie.

“Yea, she is like a grandma an she said, ‘We is not amused.’ Why she saided ‘we’ when she is only one sitting in chair? Den mommy saided ‘we have to leave.’

I saided, ‘Vacation over?’ Mommy saided, ‘For us it is. We cants come back.’

I asked ‘Why?’ Mommy just sighed. Den on way back to hotel I founded Wendy and took her on the plane. Dese men dey helps us pack I smiles at one he nos smiles back. and get on plane. We rides in car dat makes big noise den get on plane.

Wendy makes smokes and we lands in Canada. We meets more men, no smiles. ‘Cept one lady whos talks ta me an mommy. Mommy not happy. Meets Wendy, and me and Wendy huggs each odder. Wes gets home an mommy saided I’s grounded.”

In the other room, when Shelly came back from getting over her latest mad the trial resumed.

Racinne was questioned, and freely admitted what she had done, and why. She had been brought up homophobic, and transphobic, and every other phobic that her parents and their pastor could think of. Anyone who racially, religiously, or in any other way varied from the ‘true path’ of her pastor, was wrong, and was going to hell.

And as for the boy who thought he could become a girl, that was even worse. “I made up my mind to get rid of him and remembered a book I’d found in my parents things after they died, a book which was supposed to have magic spells in it. It belonged to many of my ancestors, going way, way back. One of the spells was supposed to make a person live backwards, becoming younger and younger until they died of being too young to live.”

“I don’t know what went wrong. It wasn’t supposed to affect me, but it nearly killed me, and it apparently blew him to hell, because they never mentioned finding even the tiniest parts of a body besides mine.”

Racinne went on and on, until she ran out of things to say. Finally, she was taken back to her room, where everything was magically protected against her doing any damage, and which she could not leave unless escorted by one of the adult ‘witches’.

It had a large window overlooking the backyard play area. The only chair was set next to the window, and could not be moved from the spot. All she could do was lie on the bed or sit in the chair. She’d apparently had enough of lying in bed during the time she had been on life support, as she spent all her time in the chair, except at night.

Watching, she saw how the children seemed to have so much fun. She’d never been allowed to have fun, being told it was evil.

‘But if it is wrong, why is it that almost everyone doesn’t seem to think it is?’ That and other thoughts came to her as she watched a young woman talking to some of the kids, who looked up at her and smiled as they listened. One of the youngest ones, the little blond girl they’d made such a fuss about the night before, looked up most often, even waving to Racinne towards the end of the talk.

When the talk was finished, the children dispersed, but Racinne noticed that the little girl kept looking at her every minute or so. Towards supper time, the little girl went over to the woman and they talked for a long time before going in.

Racine’s dinner arrived in the hands of the woman who had been talking to the kids, and later, to the young girl alone. She did not offer to leave, but instead, sat on the bed while Racinne ate. “I saw you watching the kids play. Do you really think that young kids having fun is evil? Play is a normal part of growing up. It is teaches them interaction with each other, hopefully, without any fights or hard feelings.”

“I’m beginning to think a lot of what I was told, what was beaten into me, was wrong.”

“I’m glad to hear that. My youngest one thought you looked lonely and sad, and wanted to come see you. When I told her why you are here, and why you can’t go out to play, she said she forgives you.”

Racine stopped chewing, then resumed and swallowed. “What do you mean, ‘she forgives me?’ ”

“She doesn’t know why you did what you did to her. Most of the time she barely even remembers what her life was like before, but you gave her the chance to be what she wanted to be, a real girl, like you.”

Racinne took a moment to take in what she had just heard. “You want me to believe that that pretty toddler was once the teenaged boy who thought he was a girl? The one I killed?”

“You didn’t kill her, dear.” The woman gently took her face in her hands and looked her in the eyes. “You had a lot of the spell all wrong, except for the part about making her younger. Instead of making her so young she could not live, it just made her into a two year old, but more importantly, you made her into a real girl, As nearly most people can tell, she is just a slightly precocious two year old. Oh, and the spell did one more thing. It projected her, from what we’ve learned, a bit over five months into her future. Apparently no time passed for her while you were lying on life support.

“One more thing. Where were you while you cast the spell?”

“Wichita,” Racinne told her.

Holly went on, “Then it apparently moved her about than 1500 miles west, onto the side of a mountain east of San Francisco. That’s where we found her. It’s a good thing we are ‘white witches,’ so we were able to take her in and fix her up. And a good thing for you, too, so we could find you and heal you. Otherwise you would still be in that bed, all wired up and wishing you were dead.”

“What do you mean, you are witches? There is no such thing!”

“Oh? You believed in magic enough to try and kill Shannon with a spell, but still think witches don’t exist? There is magic, good white magic such as we use, and evil black magic such as you used. We call ourselves ‘white witches,’ who only use it for good purposes. But actually, we got our powers from God, through an angel many of us knew before she died. I wish I had …”

“Then why are you trying me in this kangaroo court? What are you going to do to me if you decide I’m guilty?” It seemed as if it what she might be facing was finally sinking in.

“We will not harm you, no matter what the verdict. If we find you guilty, we might make sure you can never do magic again, and that you can’t speak of what happened, and let you go, though we will keep track of you. If you ever repent, you can come to us and we will help you get over your guilt.”

“If we find you innocent, things will be pretty much the same as if we find you guilty. Our hope is that either way, you will realize that what you did was wrong, that the way you were brought up is wrong, and that you will not see harmless human nature as evil. You saw my little girl out there. Can you really think that she is evil? I can’t. She is innocence itself.”

“She couldn’t help it that her mind was that of a girl while her body said boy. All she was doing was try to fix it as best she could. That would still not have let her be a girl or woman in all ways, and she would have faced disapproval and hatred such as yours from some people anytime the word got out. But she would still have been closer to what she felt in her soul was the way she should have been.”

“But …” Racinne stopped, and Holly let her think about whatever had made her stop.

Finally, minutes later, she went on, “But what she was doing to herself is evil. My pastor said so. Why can’t all of you see that it is evil?”

“Why does he say that? I’m a Christian, and that isn’t what I read in the Bible.

Didn’t Christ say, ‘“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye’ ”

“He also said, ‘Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.’

He is forgiving, for he also said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ He put no other conditions on it.

“Tell me, have you ever actually read the Bible for yourself?

“Oh, we shouldn’t read it for ourselves. We’re too likely to misinter …” She stopped and thought for a bit. “You’re saying that by not reading it, we are being told what he, my pastor, that is, thinks it said, and that if I read it for myself, I will learn that he might be wrong?”

“Dear, what makes you think that he is right, and that for everyone that thinks his way, hundreds, or many thousands of others are wrong?” Holly held out her hand, and a Bible appeared in it. “Here, read it for yourself. If you believe that magic is evil, then how can I do magic on the book itself?”

The next morning, Racinne looked haggard when they came for her at breakfast time. When Rachel asked why, she answered, “I haven’t been to sleep since Holly came in to see me. Everything she said seems to be what this says, not what my pastor told me.”

When the trial resumed, she stopped the questioning to make a statement, telling the Gathering, that she had been wrong in her beliefs, and in what she had done, that she was ready to accept whatever punishment they felt she merited.

The family looked at each other and began to talk among themselves. Racinne couldn’t hear a thing, and everyone’s mouths appeared blurred to her. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at some sort of consensus.

Shelly, who had been the most vocal critic until then, was the first to resume speaking to her. “Racinne, will you consent to have your mind examined to prove you have truly changed, and are not just saying that to try and get out of being punished?”

“You mean you will read my mind? You can?”

“No, we will not read your mind.” Prue told her. “Oh, we could, but no, all we need to do is examine your aura to determine if you have spoken the truth, your intent, I guess you could say.”

Racinne hesitated not one moment. “Yes. Yes, you can.”

The women gathered around Racinne as Jan questioned her.

“Thank you, dear.” Jan turned to the others as she finished her questioning. “There, as you can see, she has told us the truth this morning. She has no intention of ever trying to harm anyone ever again, and she plans to think for herself, not let anyone else tell her what to think, or interpret things for her without at least thinking about what they have said.”

The members of the Gathering nodded, and Jan turned to Racinne. “We have decided that while you were not innocent, you were misguided, and not wholly responsible for what you did. For that reason, you will not be punished. You are what, nineteen?”

Racine nodded.

“”You haven’t finished high school, is that correct?”

“That is correct. My pastor told us that it was a waste of time for a girl to learn too much from the evil teachings of schools. He was teaching me, teaching me what I now see was misguided.”

“Would you like to go back to school, and finish, maybe even go on to college?”

I … I think … But I’m too old”

“That can be fixed, dear, and you needn’t think you cannot afford it, either. We can take care of the obstacles. We can even make you younger, and if you will agree, make you a member of our family, so that your other needs can be taken care of. Or, we could just let you go to fend for yourself as you were doing before you tried to hurt Shannon. But we hope you will be willing to join us, as part of our family.”

Racinne’s tired face blossomed. “You would? You won’t punish me?”

“No, dear. You didn’t kill Shannon, and for that matter, what you did for her was to give her her fondest dream, one she never thought possible, to be a real girl. I suppose you could say you harmed her in that she lost her memories of most of her life, except that we were able to recover most of her memories, and they will be there for her to make a final decision on whether or not she wants to keep them when she becomes an adult. From our experience with similar cases, we doubt she will want to keep most of them, except as faint, almost dreamlike memories. She will have a full life that is much better than the life she was running from when you tried to harm her. The way she felt, if you had killed her, it would have almost been welcomed.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No, dear. her father felt much like you did, that she was bad, crazy bad. He beat her many times, and finally threw her out and locked her out of the house after beating her very badly. But her feelings of rightness in what she was doing were so strong she was overcoming the obstacles. What you did was for her, even though you did not intend it, a wonderful dream that has come true.

“As I said, if you wish to remain as you are, you may, and we will help you with your education. And if you wish, we can make you younger, so that you can repeat these last few years, and get a regular diploma, rather than one from an adult school, which many regard as wrong, rather than as a sign you had worked hard to better yourself. We won’t ask you to make the decision right now. Think it over for a few days if you need to.

“In the meantime, you will have the freedom of the place. For that matter, if you wish, you can leave, though you find you will never be able to speak about what you have learned here, or what you did. If you want to learn more about what the family does, you have only to ask, subject to the same restrictions if you should decide not to stay.”

Holly went over and hugged Racinne. Her welcome was repeated by all of the others, women and men. As the meeting broke up, and people began to leave, Shannon, followed by the other toddlers, snaked between the larger bodies, and ran over to hug Racinne’s knees. “Fank you,” she got out as she began to cry. “Mommy told me what you did, F-Tank-Thank you, Racinne. Does this mean you’re gonna be my big sister now?”

Racinne sat in the chair Holly shoved behind her knees, and lifted Shannon to her lap. “I … I don’t know, Shannon. You mean, even though you know what a horrible thing I did, you forgive me?”

Shannon nodded, suddenly shy.

Racinne looked at Holly, who mouthed, ‘We’ll see’.

Over the next week, Racinne explored, getting to know all of the children and adults, and went with Scotty to visit the nearest Pleides Resources facility, and visited Kids Kamp several times, even spending an afternoon as a four year old, playing with the others that age. But she decided that was not for her. She had been through that age as a girl, so she hadn’t missed it as most of the others had, ( She had been let in on the fact that many of the girl toddlers had once been girls or women in boys or men’s bodies, who had missed out on that part of the lives they felt they should have had. Now, they had been given the chance to live the life they had missed, just as Shannon had.)

She also spent some time as an older girl, one day as an eight year old, and another as a twelve year old, before finally deciding that she wanted to stay as part of the family, and she wanted to restart her life as a twelve year old, and see why the other girls in high school, that she has thought of as sinners, had seemed so much happier than she had been.

Holly had been unable to stay, and had taken her brood with her. During the week before she returned, Racinne found herself being escorted by Rachel, and a bond was formed. Rachel agreed, at her request, to be a new mother to her.

When Holly returned, Racinne carefully explained to Shannon that Rachel was going to be her new Mommy, “… but that will make me your cousin, and we will still see each other a lot.”

She picked Shannon up and hugged her, then carried her as she became acquainted with Holly’s other children, Heather Rose and Dean. “I’ve heard a lot about you, and I’m glad that you are happy now. I was so mis-guided. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry for what I did to so many people. I must have been pretty hateful.”

Dean hugged her waist, for she was still a lot taller than he was. “Mommy told us what you were, but she told us you will never be that way again.”

Heather Rose held back for a moment, then slowly approached Racinne and hugged her tightly as she said, “I’m sorry.”

Frowning with confusion, Racinne asked, “What are you sorry for?”

Heather Rose looked up at her new cousin, her face creased with anguish and guilt. “When I’d heard ‘bout what’d happened to Shannon, I got really mad. I wanted whoever hurted her to hurt … a lot. I feel awful now, ‘cause I see you’re really a nice person.”

Racinne, nearly overcome by emotions she’d been keeping bottled up, shed a silent tear as she hugged all three of her cousins, or were they going to be sisters?.

Over the next few months, Holly and her kids often went east to be with the family, and spent a lot of time with Racinne and Rachel, happy to see how things were turning out.

But while that was working a miracle for Racinne, lilSara, who had never bonded particularly well with Rachel after her adoption, drew further away from her. She began asking Holly to be her Mommy every time Holly visited.

Not wanting to get in the middle, Holly repeatedly turned her down, explaining the Rachel was her mommy. But her resistance disappeared when Rachel herself asked her what she thought of the idea. “You know, most of our kids are adopted, however unofficially that is. In most cases, it is strong, unbreakable. But this doesn’t seem to be that way, and I don’t think it ever will be. She wants so badly to be Shannon’s sister. Why don’t we give it a try for a month or so, and if it seems to be working, magic it into being permanent?”

Jan and Shelly came out from the Kamp offices, and nodded their approval, and Holly realized she had been had, or was it, that she now had another daughter? She’d had a feeling it would go that way, and during the week, still out in California, she had asked Heather Rose and Dean if they would help her take care of the two younger girls. One thing she had going for her, was that unlike so many parents, she knew she could trust them to keep their word.

Every time we visited The Street of Dreams for one of my audits, Heather Rose looked for the old woman who had so fascinated her the first audit after she came into my life. But the woman was never there.

Then on a rather warm day for November, after a tasty snack at Amelia’s, Heather talked me into visiting the park even though the ground would still be soggy in places from the rain that had fallen the day before, so we went down to Bob’s Café to have him fill a picnic basket.

When we got to the park, Dean wanted to play on the slide and wooden pirate ship near the tables, so I decided to start getting our dinner out of the picnic basket while I kept an eye on him, and let Heather Rose take her sisters for a walk while she looked for the old woman. “Stay on the big loop where I can see you, dear,” I called after her as they started off.

I figured it was about half a mile around the loop, which surrounded a grassy area large enough for four softball fields or several soccer pitches. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll stay in sight.” As they left, Shannon was tugging on her hand, urging her to get a move on, while lilSara was content to walk beside her new big sister. I think a good part of her problems had been because she saw that all of her cousins had siblings, while she was alone when away from family get-togethers.

I tried to keep one eye on Dean, and the other on Heather Rose and her sisters as they followed the long loop, while I was setting things up on the table.

I noticed a number of kids apparently taking part in a contest with balsa wood gliders. Since Sarge’s shop was only a couple of blocks away, I rather felt many of them, or at least, the materials for them, had come from the Bear Market.

Once I had the table set, I noticed Heather Rose was carrying Shannon, while lilSara was still plugging away. They were most of the way back, so I began getting out the food from Bob’s Café and Amelia’s Meals. Looking up halfway through, I saw Heather Rose had stopped and was looking over the shoulder of an old man seated on a bench.

‘Could that be …? Nah. That’s an old man, She was sure it was a lady she had seen painting. But it does look like he is sketching or painting ...’ I decided to keep a closer eye on her till she got back.

After a couple of minutes, still carrying Shannon, Heather Rose came directly to me, cutting across the grass at a run, with both lilSara & Shannon in her arms. As she got close to me, she called out, but not yelling, like she wanted me to hear her but not anyone else, "Mommy! Mommy, she's back. She's back!"

"Easy now, remember, we talked about your running. You don't want to fall down and scrape your knees again!" I reminded Heather Rose with a smile. "Now tell me, who's back?"

"The lady who’d done ‘em funny drawings," she replied, sounding a little out of breath as she set her sisters down on the picnic bench.

I quickly scanned the park. Not detecting any changes, I looked back at Heather Rose . "I don't see her. Are you sure you saw her?"

Heather Rose nodded emphatically from her waist as she said, "Uh huh, but today she ain’t dressed like a lady."

Surprised by Heather Rose’s last statement I looked around once again. Focusing on the elderly gentleman I asked, "Are you talking about the old man on the other side of the park?"

Heather Rose replied again, nodding her whole body, an action that not only told me she was certain about what she'd seen; but was also amusing as it caused her pigtails to fly wildly, as if she were being beaten by hair and ribbons. "At first I was wonderin’ why some man had her drawin’ paper and her box of special pencils, but when looked closer, I knew it was her. I prolly wouldn’t have even realized it was her if it weren’t for that neat case she gots."

“You’re sure?” As I asked, my eyes went back to the ‘man?;’ He was putting his things away.

“I looked across the park at the gentlemen in question, trying to remember if I'd seen him before.. "Heather, I want you and Dean to go play together on the other side of the playground. I'm going to have a chat with our mysterious artist."

"But I wanna watch him, I mean her, draw. It's lots different from my pictures."

"I know you do, but I need to talk with him first. After we talk, and if it's okay with him, then you may watch him draw. Perhaps we can get him to do a drawing of you. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Oh all wight … I'll watch after Dean, but don't talk too long."

"I'll try to be brief, Punkin. Now, go distract him so he won't notice me as I come up behind him."

"Okie," HR replied. She tilted her head and gave me a suspicious look before she scurried off to round up brother, stage whispering, “You gonna do something sneaky?”

I wasn’t sure if it was something related to the magic in or family, or just the natural ability of all eight-year-old girls, but she’d caught me red-handed. “Well, it is slightly sneaky. I just need you and Dean to provide a little distraction so I can get close enough to our friend to talk to him.”

Heather Rose replied with a grin, then ran over to her brother, tapped him on the shoulder and shouted, “Tag, you’re it!” She squealed with glee when Dean ran after her. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, my youngest daughters joined in, and soon all four were making quite a racket as they chased each other around the playground.

'Hmm, I wonder if I could get away with using the teleportation I've been working on? Let’s see, nobody is looking directly at me, concentrate on my destination, concentrate on exactly who and what I want to move, and in what condition I want to arrive. Double check to make sure there are no eyewitnesses, close my eyes ... now open them and ...’

‘WOW that's neat! I'm just where I wanted to be, right behind him.'

"Good afternoon, mind if I join you?" I asked softly as I stepped around the end of the bench.

Startled, he looked as if he was going to run away. Then he remembered his drawings and supplies, and hurriedly started collecting everything together.

I smiled to myself as I watched for just a moment. I remembered how I had reacted under similar circumstances, that is, before my sisters helped me. I gently placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's alright. There's no need to leave or to be afraid. I'd like to talk with you for a few minutes. Would that be alright?"

"Umm, I, I guess so," he replied timidly.

"Would it bother you if I sat down?"

"N No! You can sit down if you really want to." Under his breath he muttered, "Nobody ever sits by me for long."

"Shall we start with the formalities? My name's Holly, Holly Hart. What's your name?" I asked as I extended my hand.

He looked at my hand as if it were the head of a snake about to strike, then he looked up into my eyes. Cautiously he put his hand in mine. He had a light, gentle touch to his hand, almost feminine, smooth and without any calluses. For several moments we simply held hands; no shaking, just gently touching.

"My name's Penn — n - no, no, no. Um, Paul, my name's Paul ... Paul Smith," he stammered, as he looked away.

"Hello, Paul, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"You say that now, but wait until you get to know me. Soon you'll ignore me or run away like everyone else does."

"Now, why would you say something like that?"

"Because nobody ever wants to be around me after they get to know me," Paul replied sadly.

"I find that hard to believe. You appear to be such a nice person; and believe me, I do know how to read people," I added, trying to build up his self-esteem.

"Yes, well, you must not be from around here," he added glumly.

"That may be, but I can still tell a good and kind person when I meet one. Changing the subject, I'd like to ask you a question; right now you're dressed male. Last time we saw you, you were dressed as a female. Which do you prefer?"

"What? What are you talking about? I don't ... I mean … when did you ... " Reluctantly and sadly he continued. "How did you recognize ... "

"Relax Paul, I'm not here to criticize your lifestyle or make any kind of judgment concerning how you live your life. Having been a man myself a few years ago … I think I can understand how you feel." ’Don’t want to give away too much information just yet, so a little white lie, to back up a little white magic, shouldn't be considered out of order.'

"But how did you ... I'm mean what did I do to that gave myself away?"

"Actually, it was my eight-year-old daughter that figured it out."

"Oh, that's just great, I've been outed by an eight-year-old," Paul moaned, as he hung and shook his head.

"Honestly, it wasn't you she picked up on, it was your drawing supplies."

"What?" he asked, his head snapping back up

"The case you keep your paper and pencils in, it's somewhat unique."

"Oh, yes it is, I made it myself. I couldn't find anything I liked, so I got some oak and built a box that fit my needs and with the ornamentation I wanted. I didn't think anyone would notice or pay attention to a box."

"Well, most people probably wouldn't pay any attention, but my little girl would notice, she's sort of our family artist."

Paul’s head came up as he remembered what I’d said earlier, "Wait, you said you’re post-op. How can you have a daughter?"

"Well, let’s just say that we mutually adopted each other."

"How?"

"It's a long story, one that I don't really want to go into right now. But I promise, I will tell you after I hear some of your story. But right now, my daughter would like to meet you and talk to you about your drawings. Would that be all right with you?"

With tears forming in his eyes, Paul answered, "Oh my ... yes, of course, I'd love to see her. It has been a long time since I've had the opportunity to visit with any young people. Since I ... well, came out of the closet, my children won't see me or speak to me. And of course, that means that I don't get to see my grandchildren, either."

“Would you join us for dinner? We’ve got lots of food, more than we can possibly eat before we go home tonight.”

“I couldn’t do that. I’m not homeless. I don’t need charity.”

“This isn’t charity. It’s a friendly offer. As I said, Heather Rose over there is also an artist, and she was fascinated watching you. I’d like to give her a chance to talk to you. Please, won’t you join us so we don’t have to eat in front of you as the two of you talk?”

“Well, put that way I guess I could nibble on something.”

“We’ve got pizza, sandwiches, ‘sgetti, as my kids call it, and your choice of fruit juices, milk, and soft drinks.”

“I’ll take a slice of the pizza, if it doesn’t have anchovies, please.”

"I thought ya was gonna keep it short," Heather Rose complained sarcastically after I motioned to her that she could come talk to Paul.

"We did keep it short, relatively speaking," I replied with a giggle. The game of tag had been abandoned during the time I had been talking, because all four of my children were busy digging in a sandbox when I waved to Heather Rose. She jumped to her feet and came running. Dean was right behind her, while the little ones came more slowly.

"Heather Rose, this is Paul; Paul, meet my precocious little artist, Heather Rose and her overzealous little brother, Dean."

"It's certainly a pleasure to meet both of you," Paul replied, as he extended his hand, Heather Rose returned the gesture. Paul, instead of shaking hands, rotated Heather Rose’s hand and kissed the back of it, sending her into a fit giggles.

Dean, seeing Paul kiss his sister's hand, drew back. When Paul greeted him, Dean replied with a wary hello, but refused to shake hands. Even after it was explained that gentlemen don't kiss each others hands, my son stubbornly refused to shake hands.

I could understand that, having all my memories from when I was a little boy his age. When I’d asked my sisters not to take away any of my memories, I found that I’d gained memory. I can clearly remember everything that has happened to me since around the time I began to walk, and quite a bit before that.

As we ate, Paul and Heather Rose talked a blue streak. I won’t try to tell you everything they said, as it was mostly about art, the biggest thing they had in common at that moment.

When everyone had eaten all they wanted, I sent Heather Rose and Dean off to play, while I took a blanket from the picnic hamper and wrapped lilSara for the nap she’d already started.

“Could I persuade you to make a drawing of my kids? Heather Rose first, I think.”

“I suppose so. But I must warn you, sometimes my drawings aren’t what people expect. I sort of go into a trance, and my mind’s eye sees something different than what anybody else sees. With adults, the few times one of my subjects has seen my drawing, they tell me I’ve drawn them the way they wish they were, instead of how they are.

“With children, it seems to work the same way. I see them the way they want to be. At least, the way they want to be at that moment. You know how kids are. They don’t know enough to really choose what they will want to be when they are older.”

I just nodded agreement. “That’s good enough for me, Paul. How do you want her to pose?”

“Oh, she needn’t pose.”Paul turned to look at her. He got out his sketch pad, and smiling, raised his voice, “Heather Rose? Would you be good enough to stay there and play with your brother for a few minutes?”

“But I wanna watch ya draw!”

“You can come back and watch once I start drawing. But I need to really see you for a few minutes before I start to draw. When I start drawing your mother can call you over to watch. OK?”

“Okie.” Heather darted off and resumed playing catch with Dean. Shannon decided she was worn out, too, so I took a blanket from the picnic hamper and let her take a nap on it next to her sister.

“Once I’ve seen what I need, a picture will form in my mind and I'll start drawing, and unless something happens to take me out of my trance, like when you spoke to me, I don’t see anything but what is in my mind’s eye, and what I’m putting on the paper.”

For a few minutes he sat motionless, just watching Heather Rose playing with Dean. Then, without taking his eyes from her, he picked up his pad and began to sketch faint lines on the pad.

I waited until Heather Rose looked our way, and motioned for the kids to come to me, but stepped aside maybe 10 yards. When they reached me, I told them both, “You can go over and watch Paul if you wish, but don’t say anything. If you disturb him, he’ll lose his concentration, and might spoil the picture.”

I didn’t even have to look at Heather Rose, knowing she’d know what I meant. Dean gave it a moment’s thought before nodding. I knew I had no worries, for some of Ida must have rubbed off on him. I haven’t heard a lie from him, or had him break a promise.

“Mommy, can I go play? Dean whispered after a few minutes.

I could tell he wasn’t really interested in watching someone draw, so I nodded. “Just don’t go too far.’

“I just wanna go play with those boys.” He pointed at some kids maybe 50 yards away.

“OK, but don’t go much farther than that.”

Heather and I wandered quietly over behind Paul, and saw him drawing a very close likeness of her. I kept looking up to check on Dean, but found nothing to worry about.

Then, when I thought he’d finished, Paul began to draw smaller images all around the outside edges of the paper. The first one was a young boy, with sort of a wistful look on his face, followed by a series of images of the same boy, maybe 3-5 years apart, each with the same sad look.

For a bit, I was unsure why Heather Rose began to get excited. Then an idea, correct as it turned out, began to tickle my mind.

When the faces reached what I guessed was maybe 18, there were two at each age, one remaining masculine, the other one becoming more and more feminine. By the twelfth image or set of images, I saw the Heather Rose who had worked for me in the bank just 6 months before, and the Mark Jackson who had taken her place.

When it was completed, Paul came out of his trance, and for a moment, just stared at what he had drawn.

“It can’t be,” he whispered to himself. “It just isn’t possible. But oh, how I wish it was …”

“It might be more possible than you think, Paul. But first, I need to hear more of your story, and I think some of my sisters would like to hear the story, too.”

“Oh wow,” Heather Rose said in an awed voice.” I don’t bleeve it,” she told him, astonished at what was on the paper before her. “That’s me! But how doos ya know?”

“I don’t know what happened. That’s the first time my gift has failed … You say that’s you? But … the picture says you were a boy, and grew up, and then became both a man and a woman, … and now you’re a little girl?”

Heather Rose looked at me questioningly.

“Go ahead, dear. I think he needs to know the truth.” I was breaking one of our rules, but Paul’s gift had already told him most of the story.

There was an almost imperceptible shift in her expression.

“Your picture tells the truth, uh, may I call you Paul?” she asked, shifting from child mode as to adult mode. Both Paul and I nodded, Heather Rose continued. "I was born over 30 years ago, and grew up to be a very unhappy young man. Even after I transitioned, I wasn’t happy, because I’d never gotten the chance to be a little girl. Then mom and her sisters helped me be ME … THIS ME!” She held her arms out wide and spun around, smiling and giggling as her braids went flying.

Paul lifted his eyes from her face, and turned to me. “What are you, some kind of aliens?”

“Nope. I’m just a banker. I was born right here. Well, in this country at least, during World War II, and until not quite three years ago, I was in the same boat you are. Then some friends, whom I want you to meet, made me the young woman I am today.” I opened my purse, took out my wallet, and handed him a copy of the one picture of the old me I’d made sure my sisters didn’t change, so I would have something to remind me of who I used to be.

“That was me a few years ago, just after my wife passed away.”

“If … if … it wasn’t for … my drawing, I’d say this is an elaborate and cruel hoax. But my pictures have never lied before … You said you wanted me to meet your sisters? The ones who changed you? Both, of you?”

‘Might as well go for broke.’ “And my son, too, who was a mean old woman just a few months ago. She hated herself, she wanted to lose all of her old memories when she became a boy. Paul, you started to use a different name, then switched to Paul. What is your real name, the name you call yourself, young lady?”

Paul’s mouth dropped open, and he couldn’t speak. I could see he wanted to bolt, but he was in the middle of the bench, between Heather Rose and myself.

“Whoever you really are, it’s okay. We all know about Little Girls, and being trapped in the wrong body.

“You know? But how?”

“I’m a sort of witch, but a good witch. If you could be the young lady you want to be, how old are you, and what’s your name?”

Still a bit leery, Paul looked around as if looking for the cameras of the second reincarnation of Candid Camera.

“Alan Funt is gone, Paul. There are no cameras.”

"You can't blame me for wondering. After all, what you've just told me sounds more like an episode of the 'Twilight Zone' than a casual conversation in your average park." He paused, looking again at the drawing he'd made of Heather Rose. "If it weren't for this … I'd call the men in the white coats to come take you away. However, all things considered, I feel like you're someone I can trust. My real name is Penny.

“And to answer your other question, maybe eleven? I hate dressing this way. The only reason I'm dressed as Paul, is there was a meeting I couldn't get out of and my accountant insisted that Paul attend. I 'm usually dressed feminine”

Penny, whose name seemed to perfectly fit the girl I saw peeking out from behind the disguise of an older man, paused for a few seconds, then smiled shyly as she added, “Not modern feminine, mind you,. I really love the dress styles from around the 1900's. Of course, I have to settle for the ladies clothes from that period, but what I really love are the clothes for the girls of that period, skirts or dresses just below the knee, knee high stockings, buckle shoes, bloomers, and of course, the lace collars. .”

I saw a wistful look in her eyes as she sighed. “If I could be a ten-year-old girl, maybe eleven or twelve, I'd dress in period clothes every day. I wouldn't care if the other kids called me a freak. I’ve been called a freak most of my life anyway."

'That's something to consider, it might be nice to have an older girl around to help take care of the little ones. Although, Heather Rose would probably complain if I referred to her as a little one. Still, this could be mutually beneficial.'

Heather Rose came around the table and hugged Penny, dirty trench coat and all.

Penny wrapped her arms around my bundle of energy as she turned her face to me. “But … but you say you’re a witch. There’s no such thing!”

“Penny, it’s November. You’re obviously dressed for it. Haven’t you noticed there is no wind here? Yet look at the trees all around us! And does this feel like November to you?”

“No. In fact, it’s a little too warm for my trench coat. But how …”

“I’m still sort of an apprentice witch, not nearly as powerful as a lot of the family, but blocking the wind and keeping us comfortable is a minor spell.

“Heather Rose was nowhere near as old as you or I when my sisters helped her have her dream of being the lovely young lady seated next to you.”

I turned, pointing, “Dean was a bitter old woman about your age.”

“And Shannon,” I pointed at the angel sleeping on the table, “used to be a teenaged boy, miserable because he didn’t fit in. Her father beat him and finally threw him out, nearly naked on a winter afternoon.

“My family had nothing to do with changing her to a 2 year old girl. That was done by an enemy who hated her, and found a spell in an ancient grimoire. She didn’t translate the spell properly, and what she did is so strong we are glad Shannon decided she would like to grow up from her present state.”

“Penny,” Heather Rose began hesitantly, “is this you?” She held out a portrait she’d been sketching on the back of a landscape she’d done earlier. “I did this while you were talkin’ with Mom.”

“Why, that IS me. Well, almost … You can do it too, can’t you/ That’s the way I see myself in my dreams.”

“I was jus’ sorta guessin’ at some of the details.”

I moved around to where I could see it. Heather Rose’s portrait was of a young woman not quite ready to blossom, dressed in the costume of a hundred years earlier.

“You’re right, Holly, She is an excellent artist.”

I nodded, and began putting things away. As I worked, Penny’s doubts came back. “Holly, I don’t know how you blocked the wind, or made it so warm, but … witchcraft?”

“We’re not really witches, just users of God given white magic, Would you like to go home with us? Maybe that will convince you. Is there anyone who will miss you if you’re gone for a day or two?”

“No … well, yes, my cat. So I can’t go.””

“Would you like to go home and care for it, or bring it with you? We’re cat people, too.”

“Why would I want to take Pancake with me? She’ll be okay for a couple of days if I can go take care of her.”

“Because I have a feeling you won’t want to come back, Dear.”

I think that ‘Dear’ kind of shook Penny. “I … I don’t know what you mean … but if you think I should …”

“I do.” I turned, “Okay, kids, time to go home, but we need to make a couple of stops along the way.”

I picked up the picnic hamper, and Heather Rose picked up our trash bag, which she dropped in a can as we left the park. Across the street and down the block we came to the Bear Market.

As we passed, Penny slowed to look in the window with a wistful look on her face. I had just looked back at her when Sarge opened the door and stepped out to beckon us inside.

“Welcome, Ladies, and Dean.” I found out later that Sarge had caught the same vibes I had, in regard to Penny. Looking right at Penny, “Which of the stuffies or dolls in particular caught your eye, Miss?”

“What is this? Some sort of conspiracy? Why does everyone think I’m a girl?”

“Well, aren’t you? Sarge is a member of the family, so she can sense the real you, too.”

“This one?” Sarge held up a lovely white teddy bear similar to the one that spent most of her time on my pillow.

Penny shook her head. Timidly, she pointed at the frilliest doll in sight. The doll was dressed and painted as a young woman in the early 1900s. Her dress was filled out with layer upon layer of frilly petticoats.

“Angelique … Of course!” She handed Angelique to Penny, then motioned Penny to the counter. “Wait right here,” she commanded in her no nonsense top sergeant manner.

“I … I can’t afford a doll like this, it must be very expensive.” Penny turned to me with a strange light in her eyes. The wistful look of a young girl who desperately wants something , and thinks, ‘just maybe…’ but afraid she is being teased, peeking out from her scruffy old man’s face.

Penny was still standing there, gently stroking the doll when Sarge came back with a huge doll house on a cart. It barely made it through the doorway from the back room. This is Angelique’s home,” she announced, “the other part of her ensemble. Her clothes are all inside.

“I can’t afford all of this,” Penny protested.

“Yes you can, young lady. For Penny, it’s just a penny for Angelique and all her stuff. Surely you can come up with one penny?”

Penny shook her head unbelievingly, looking at me with a helpless expression. “I hope you have a big van.”

“It’ll fit, don’t worry.”

Still shaking her head, Penny dug in her pocket and came out with a penny. “Are you certain? I didn’t fall asleep on that bench or something?” She was still looking at me.

“No, dear, you’re not dreaming, and I am certain of that.” I motioned to Sarge, whose hand was outstretched, and Penny started to hand it over. She hesitated, “I can’t!” she almost wailed, “What will I do with her?”

Sarge looked startled, “Why, play with her with the rest of Holly’s girls, of course.”

“The rest of … ? You means you believe her nonsense …”

“… about being a white witch?” Sarge broke in and finished her sentence for her. She took Angelique from Penny and placed her in a chair in the house, then gently squeezed the house, which began to shrink, ending up only about six inches by twelve by twelve, with a tiny Angelique still seated in the chair. “I’m a witch, too. Enjoy spending time with Angelique and Holly’s girl’s, Penny.”

“But how did you …”

“… know your name?” Sarge again finished her sentence for her. “I just said, I’m a witch, pretty girl.”

“But I’m not… ! I’m an ugly old man.”

“I’m not looking at the outside. I’m looking inside, at the real you, dear.” Now, here is a piece of candy for each of you, and I think you’d better be going. I think you have things to do, don’t you?”

Penny joined us as we walked out, still looking dazed. I thanked Sarge, handing her a slip of paper after she gave everyone an extra piece of candy.

When we got to the car, Penny looked at my Mustang Mach I, Lady Galadriel. “No way are we all going to fit in there.”

“Yes we will. Just watch! Heather Rose, you ride behind me, then Dean in back.”

While they climbed into the back seats, which were custom buckets raised to improve the visibility, I slipped Shannon and lilSara into their special seats, which were firmly anchored to a special bracket between the front bucket seats and let them see out, too.

Taking the house from Penny, I put it into the trunk, saying, “You’re riding shotgun, so you can show me how to get to your place.”

I had to show Penny how to fasten the racing style 5 point seat harnesses installed for everyone.

A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of a small marina. Penny got out and went down the dock a little way, climbing aboard what looked to me as a large sailboat, but was small compared to some of the others. The name ‘Munchkin’ had been carefully painted on the boat’s stern.

A few minutes later Penny came up from the cabin carrying Pancake and a small bag. When she got in she explained “I know you said I wouldn’t need to bring her food because you’ve got cat food, but I decided to bring her favorite toys, and a couple of changes of clothes for myself.”

As she got in, I held out my hands to take Pancake while Penny got in. “She doesn’t take to strangers …” Penny stopped when Pancake jumped into my arms and began purring. As soon as Penny was seated and buckled in, Pancake jumped over into her lap.

“I’ve never seen her take to anyone like that before.”

“She can tell I’m cat people. We have two ourselves. An interesting place you live, by your choice or …”

“Yes. I bought her a number of years ago, before I decided I couldn’t pretend any longer. Since most people don’t want someone like me around. Living aboard the Munchkin seemed to be the best way of avoiding the close minded. Since I’m retired, I don’t need much and the Munchkin has been … well, more of a companion than just someplace to live.”

I took a good look at Penny’s home, noting her smooth lines and especially her location.

We talked about inconsequentials as we headed out of town. Finally, she asked, “Where do you live? I thought you lived in town?”

I checked the mirrors. Seeing nobody in sight, I stopped the car, then reached down and gave the shifter knob the special twist. “No, we live in California.”

“California? But …”

I pushed down, and suddenly we were no longer in the cold November twilight of the East Coast, but in bright mid-afternoon sunshine. It even looked a lot warmer. “This is where we live.”

Penny looked around, staring at the bright sunlight that was hours earlier than where we’d left. In front of us was the huge old home I, or should I say, ‘we’, had purchased just months before. The renovation and upgrades to make it more environmentally friendly, and bring the wiring into the 21st century were almost completed. We were still on the grid, but supplied most of our own electricity with solar power. The sun also supplied most of our heating, not that we needed much here, compared to Shelly’s requirements back in Delmarva.

Yet with all we’d done, the house still looked as if it hadn’t been touched since its original construction 100 years before, when it had started as the home of the son of one of San Francisco’s silver millionaires, who’d moved his family there after the 1906 quake.

Penny, I could no longer think of her as Paul, even if she did look like an old man, helped Heather Rose, Dean and me unload the car, including my two angels. Penny carried the picnic basket as Shannon took her other hand and tried to drag her into the house. “C’mon, Penny. I wanna show you your room!”

‘I could have sworn she was asleep when we talked about her being Penny. Oh, that’s right, Sarge called her Penny, and I guess I have been, too.’ I mentally slapped my forehead.

Shannon showed Penny to the room next to Heather’s and across from mine, the one I’d had in mind for her, even though I hadn’t told any of the kids where I wanted to put her.

Penny looked into the frilly girl’s room, and turned back to me, a questioning look on her face. I nodded. “Yes, that will be your room as long as you want it. I’m sure you want to get out of those things you are wearing. The room has its own bath. Go in and get clean and make yourself comfortable. There’s a cat box in there for Pancake, but as soon as she is used to the place, and meets ours, I’ll put a cat door in this one so she can go in and out, and use the one in the cattery.”

Looking stunned, Penny turned to do as I’d suggested.

The kids helped me take everything into the house and put it away, then went and found something to do while we waited for Penny.

Much sooner than I expected, she came out wearing, as she had intimated, clothing that appeared appropriate for a ten year old girl of the late 1800’s or early 1900’s; a bit of a large girl, but good things come to those who wait.

She looked apprehensive until lilSara, followed closely by Shannon, ran over and hugged her knees. Penny broke into tears, and turning, found a chair, sinking into it, dragging my twins with her.

The one month trail for Lilsara had become permanent. She had thrived, being with Shannon, and Rachel and I had agreed she would become my 4th child, while Rachel would become Racinne’s mother.

Over the next months, she and Shannon had come to look more and more like identical twins. One thing about the way our families grow, is that our children really do become our children. By the time they have been with us for a year, if not much earlier, DNA tests will even say they are our children. And the twins were already identical, after just a couple of months, according to my sister Misty, the Pediatrician in Pink.

Racinne had decided to be no younger than 14, figuring she had not missed being a young girl, even though her girlhood had not been nearly as nice as her cousins. She had also taken advantage of being with her new cousins, especially my two youngest, whom she could seldom tell apart. That meant that when Marcia had a date on Friday nights, I had a fall back I could trust, for now I trusted her around all of them,

I had sneaked into my room for just a couple of minutes while waiting, and used my mirror to call for a gathering, here, tonight, if possible.

Enough of my sisters could make it that they were due here in about 20 minutes, so I told the other kids they had just a few minutes until they would have to go to bed. The timing was almost perfect. Shelly was the only one to show up before Heather Rose led the twins away to get them ready for bed, and Dean went quietly on his own.

Shelly and I led Penny to the back of the house to the room we had set aside for Gatherings. Soon, everyone arrived, and after questioning Penny, and my transforming to my old self as I had for Heather Rose, she excitedly agreed that she wanted to be a ten year old.

All of my sisters wanted to know more about her before deciding to help her gain her wish. As they had with Racinne, and for that matter, with everyone who wanted such a radical change, they asked to examine her mind as she talked, and she readily agreed when the process was explained.

The following is a compilation of her answers to our many questions .

Being that I don't remember much of anything before the age of six, I'll assume that it was uneventful. At the ripe old age of six, I, along with every other little six-year-old, started attending public school.

Elementary school wasn't too bad, all things considered. After all, there were other kids to play with, things to learn, pictures to color and games to play. I had some great friends at school and we did almost everything together.

The first time I had a problem, was on my first day. I was going to the bathroom, along with several of my friends. We were talking as we were escorted down the hall by our teacher, when she suddenly stopped me. She told me that I couldn't go with my friends; I had to use the boy's bathroom. When I asked what the difference was, the boys started laughing and several girls broke into giggles. My teacher said that we would talk about it later, but we never did. When my mommy came to get me, she and my teacher talked quietly for a few minutes.

That wasn't the only time I had to be reminded that I was a boy, not a girl. The problem was, I didn't feel like a boy, I didn't want to play the boy's games, I didn’t want to talk and act the way the boys did, and I didn't like having short hair like the boys. To tell the truth, I had more in common with the girls than I did with the boys.

I tried talking to mom about how I felt, but that was a waste of time. "But dear," She'd say, "you are a boy and boys just aren't girls." It was then that mom showed me a book with some drawings that showed the differences between boys and girls as they grow up. I almost got sick as I looked at the drawing of an adult man, covered in hair like a gorilla, thinking that someday I'd look like that. To help me feel better mom took me shopping for a new toy. She excitedly picked out some new G I Joe toys; I wanted the Strawberry Shortcake doll.

It was hard for me to hide my true feelings, even when everything and everyone told me that I should be and act like the rest of the boys.

The rest of my life in elementary school went by without too many incidents, aside from getting beat up now and then by one bully or another. However, some neat things did happen during those years; I was recruited into the school orchestra and learned to play the French horn, I also discovered my love of reading. My best friends were still girls, although we kept that quiet, at least through the years where boys are supposed to loathe girls, and vice versa. I think one or two of them recognized me as a kindred spirit as they treated me with kindness and love.

Starting in junior high, I guess they call it middle school now, and continuing through high school there is a horrible little custom called gym class. Now don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against exercise and keeping fit, or organized group sports, as long as I'm not forced to participate in some barbaric exhibition of 'Hey wimp, I'm better than you'. The real problem with gym class is the ritualistic game of 'Pick on the shy kid', that takes place before and after gym class in the locker room.

For six years, I had to put up with the pokes, jabs, pinching, bottom slapping, bruised arms, tripping, and towel snapping. Sounds like great fun doesn't it? Yes great fun, unless you're always the one on the receiving end of things. Needles to say, I survived the horror of an insensitive and uncaring public education system.

Did anything good come of those six years? Let me think. In junior high I had one good friend. Of course, my friend was a girl. She understood and accepted me for the person I was inside. Unfortunately, her family moved away in the middle of our second year. I didn't really look for someone to fill the void that Becky left in my life. I was too afraid of being called a pervert for wanting to wear cute dresses.

The only other good thing to happen during junior high was that I was introduced to the field of electronics, which turned out to be my best love. Others came and went over the years, but electronics has always been both an income and an escape.

My first year of high school was at a new school in a big city. Trying to fit in, I volunteered to take part in the sophomore play. They were doing a period comedy set in the Roman Empire. I was a Roman soldier wearing a short toga. For the first time I really felt good about myself. After all, it was almost a dress. I just couldn't let anyone know that I liked wearing that costume.

It was during my sophomore year of High School that my glands woke up and puberty descended on me, like a ton of feathers. It was as if overnight my body changed, I grew six inches in no time at all, my voice went from soprano to almost a baritone, I started growing fine blonde hair all over, and as for what changes took place between my legs - let's just say that I wasn't happy about that either.

Then, as suddenly as puberty had set in, it departed. I didn't grow enough body hair to be considered attractive, just enough to be considered male; like that was something I wanted. My voice hadn't dropped through the basement, but singing with the girls in the choir was definitely out. As for the other things, they did grow some but nothing that your average man would be proud of, still smaller than what is considered normal. So there I was; stuck halfway between boy and man, no hope of finishing the process and wishing it hadn’t started in the first place.

The summer between my sophomore and junior years, my family moved from the big city to something that barely qualified as a city. To be honest, there was a college, there were three interstate off-ramps, a downtown shopping district that was more than four city blocks, and there were about six traffic lights throughout the entire city. Now tell the truth, does that sound like a city, or simply a large town?

After finishing High School and going to the local college, I met a gal and thought I was in love. As it turns out, she was just someone I was more comfortable with. Considering my early experiences with girls, it seemed odd to be shy while in high school. The young lady I married, on the other hand was just looking for a meal ticket, that is someone to take care of care of her so she didn't have to do anything. You know the old saying; 'Love is blind', I can testify to the fact that the saying is absolutely true. The problem was that before I woke up and realized what was going on, we had a bunch of kids.

During twenty plus years of marriage, my inner feelings surfaced from time to time. The time between each uncontrollable need to express, or embrace, my inner self became shorter and shorter. The first few times my, then wife thought it was amusing to help me dress in a feminine manner. Of course she thought it was just a sexual thing, not really understanding.

As time went on, she wanted less and less to do with helping me fulfill my need to express my feminine desires. This regressed from once buying clothes for me, to allowing me to wear them in her presence, to not wanting to know when I dressed, to demanding that I stop all together. An ever-increasing rift grew between us, along with my need to satisfy my hunger for feminine expression.

Fortunately, we had three daughters. I was able to keep my balance by expressing myself through them. I could buy for them the frilly clothes that I so desperately wanted to wear. The only problem with living your life vicariously through someone else is that by nature, they have to change. After the age of about six, my daughters refused to let me buy their clothes, calling them too frilly. So once again, I was left with no way to express my inner feelings.

For the next ten years, I was forced to hide all outward expression of the person that I truly wanted to be, but my personality couldn't hide. The kind and loving person that I'd become refused to allow my former insensitive and uncaring personality reemerge. So there I was, the father of eight, expected to be a strong, tough, macho kind of guy, that my wife and children could be proud of and look up to. I just wish I liked the person that looked back at me from the mirror.

Between the birth of our fifth and sixth child, I accepted a position with a new company in order to provide for my still growing family. Of course, this required moving, as I did not want to commute an hour and a half each way.

We purchased what I thought was a beautiful old house; built in 1911, it had two stories, a massive family room, and a half an acre of ground for the kids to play on. The kids loved that old house and yard; the wife on the other hand let it be known that she wasn’t happy there. As much remodeling as I did and as often as I explained to her that we couldn’t afford a new house, being a single income family, she still wasn’t happy.

Before long, we parted company and I was free to do as I wished, but what did I want to do? I knew I wanted to wear feminine clothes, but I still didn’t know exactly why. It was almost a year later that I learned why I felt the way I did. Before that time I’d never seen or heard the word ‘Transgender’ or its meaning. After reading everything I could I realized that I was indeed Transgender. As time went on, I happily gave more and more of myself to the feminine side of my personality. I started by wearing nightgowns to bed, then panties under my clothes all the time, then trouser socks under my work boots. In the evenings, when I am alone I wear long skirts, platform shoes, turtleneck blouses, breast forms and a long blonde wig.

I’ve developed many friendships on-line, and with their encouragement, I started writing some TG fiction. Stories about the young girl I wish I could have been and the school I wish existed.

That was ten years ago. Today I spend ninety-five percent of my time as the woman I should have been. It was a shocker at work the first time I showed up wearing a skirt and blouse, but after a while everyone accepted it as just being me. They didn’t want to let me go because I was the best automation troubleshooter there is. Remember, the stress I was under with the house, the wife, the kids, and the job; well, living with major stress does different things to different people. In my case, I was left with a slight incontinence problem. It’s not too bad, I wear a pad in the gusset of my panties and everything is fine, I just think of it as having my time of month, all month long. You remember that person that I didn’t like, the one that looked out of the mirror at me. Well I can honestly say that I like that person now.

My only regret is that I never had the chance of being a girl and wearing cute girl clothes. Why is it, that adult clothes can’t be cute? Why is it that an adult wearing a dress style that is typically thought of as a child’s style is treated as if they are crazy? A man can dress as a woman, that’s usually acceptable. An adult, dressed as a child and you’re considered a freak, why is that? Just one more area of intolerance to overcome.

We went into closed session, discussing her story. My mind was already made up. I know how my kids felt about her, and how I felt about her. My sisters agreed, and that that her mind really was that of a girl child. A few minutes later, she got her wish. Like Heather Rose, she kept enough of her old self to be very responsible, becoming Mommy’s big helper in taking care of the younger ones and the house.

Even when she realized, that like Heather Rose and Dean, she would have to attend school again, she never whimpered. She was so happy being herself, that she was willing to do anything. She even volunteered to be much more mature, even adult mature when I needed it.

I couldn’t help but wonder what her reaction would be when she discovers her old companion quietly waiting in a marina near the one time navy base that will become the Pleiades West Coast base of operations, and Kids Kamp West. I assume that a boat like the Munchkin will require regular maintenance and wonder how much of her old self Penny will retain to keep Munchkin in shape. I think maybe she will want to be her older self, even a bit physically older in order to enjoy her Munchkin. Someday I’ll have to ask her how she came up with the name.

Going back to the night when she became my fifth child, before they left, Shelly took me aside, “I was just kidding when I told you that ‘It means you have about 3 months to find the right man to keep the 3 year progression.’ You seem to have been doing all right on your own. Six more months, and you have 2 more kids. I really think you should think about slowing down, dear.”

I received a surprise myself, even hoping it might happen, when Chris got down on one knee facing me with all my kids around behind him as if rehearsed, as I later found it had been, and asked me to marry him.

I was sure of the answer, but still, took the time to look each of my daughters, and my son in the eyes, questioning them, and seeing from each in return, that they were all for it.

Some of the times when Chris and I had gone out, we had gone out as Holly and Christine, and I was able to use a temporary spell Prue had taught me to turn Christine into a real younger woman my age. We’d made no attempt to hide the fact from the kids. Okay, so ours is a strange family, but this switching from Chris to Christine was no problem, obviously.

Prue, who was the only one of my sisters to really know about Chris/tine, had assured me there should be no problem in returning Chris to my age, and not even in allowing him/her to switch genders as she wished.

Somehow, I knew that I was destined to have still more children.

 

Will the contemptible, way too curious Ida, from TGIF get hers? This prologue is almost guaranteed to confuse my regular collaborators, as it has almost nothing to do with the story they have been reviewing for me. Or does it?

Ida The Spy

By
Holly H Hart

Copyright 2007

Permission to post to other sites is not explicitly granted. Please request permission via private message via Big Closet / Top shelf site

 

PROLOGUE

* * * * * *

Three months before Maggie the Kitten’s TGIF, and four before California Girls

* * * * * *

The figure in the darkened room peered through the tiny opening between the dark drapes, its anger building, until it muttered, “There he goes. That abomination against all womankind.” Turning away, it went to the table where a single candle illuminated a musty book, its leather binding cracked and powdering away.” As it began studying intently, another mutter escaped the pinched lips. “There has got to be something in here to let me punish ‘him’ as ‘he’ deserves.”

Below on the street, a well dressed young woman shuddered, feeling something of the malevolence directed at it. “Every time I leave my apartment I get this awful feeling. It’s like the hate I sometimes feel at school, but much worse.” She set off again, adjusting her blouse at the waist as she left for her Twenty hour a week minimum wage job as a hamburger flipper.

* * * * * *

Two months later

Once again, as she left for work after school, she felt a malevolence that seemed to be aimed at her, but she saw nobody. Where could it be coming from?

As she walked dejectedly along the sidewalk, her backpack hanging from her shoulder, her mind incessantly replayed the drama of her day at school. Sadly, the scenes weren't any different from those of the past three months.

That train of thought led her to remember the day three months before, when her life had suffered a massive shift. Things had been going pretty well until ... that day. Coming home from school to find your father going through your secret stash of clothes and makeup is not something she would recommend to other girls. It had forced her to come out to her parents in the worst possible way.

How do you explain to your parents that the son they thought they had was instead a daughter? Whatever she said had certainly not worked. Even now, it took an effort to not run her hands over her the areas of her body that still bore testament to that night. Even if the pain had faded away, the scars were still visible; the physical ones at least.

The emotional pain was even harder to deal with. Tossed out of her house by her father for being a pervert, with no sympathy from her mother or siblings, she had been forced to grow up much faster than her fellow seventeen year-old classmates.

What had hurt the worst was the looks of disgust from her two sisters, her older sister Deirdre and her little sister Allison. That rejection, from the two people who she loved and looked up to most of all had been enough to cause her to sink into a dark pit of despair and an immense sadness she had never felt before.

* * * * * *

She had just finished cleaning the fryer and replacing the oil when she heard a familiar voice. It was Racinne Witherspoon, one of the few students at school who still talked to her. Still she always felt a bit uneasy around her, despite her pleasant demeanor. Maybe it was Racinne’s goth look, for her black outfits and dark makeup really did stand out, and she always felt creepy when she was around..

She had tried to make friends with Racinne, but they still were nothing more than acquaintances. Yet Racinne had even defended her sometimes when other kids picked on her at school. But like them, she wouldn’t use the same facilities, or undress for gym with her.

Yet Racinne was the only person from school who would seek her out to talk here at work. It was never about much, but at least it took her mind off her troubles for a while. If anyone else spoke to her, it was at most a word or two of recognition, flowed by a food order, or a request to clean up the mess they’ made.

When business was slow, she had time to think, too much time. Tonight she had once again been going over how it had all started. She and her therapist had been going over that, that afternoon. She was unable to put her finger on it. Had it been before, or after her older sister had dressed her up to have a younger sister with whom to play house? Or had it been there even before that? She couldn’t remember.

As far back as she could remember, she’d always felt she was a girl. She’d never been happier than playing with her older sister, Dierdre, as Dierdre’s younger sister. Then Deirdre had outgrown playing with her younger sibling, leaving her nothing to do except … be a boy!

Finally, five years before, she’d asked the family doctor if she could help her grow up to be a girl. Thinking back on it, she was amazed that Dr. Hearns had not only listened to her, but helped her to explore her feelings, eventually deciding that ‘Sean Michael Wilson’  really was a girl trapped in the wrong body. And Dr. Hearns had decided to help her attain her goal, despite knowing her father’s beliefs, and she had done it for free! She’d just said, “All I ask is that someday when you are able, you help others, whether it is this way, or in another.”

At that time, it was too early for any sort of intervention, but during regular checkups, and the special few minutes she set aside for the young woman to see her, she kept track of how things were going.

Eventually, it was time, and she began writing, and paying for, the prescriptions needed to prevent development as a ‘young man entering puberty’. Of course, her father who had always been upset at his ‘sissy’ son, had grown more agitated when ‘he’ never had a growth spurt, or developed facial or body hair. And his voice never cracked, either.

Luckily, he’d taken her to Dr. Hearns, who assured him that this, while uncommon, often happened, and that despite what he’d heard, trying to force things with medications would have ‘unwanted side effects’ that would be worse for him than letting nature finally take its course.

They’d both had a giggle when she told her, “Of course, I didn’t tell him that the unwanted side effects were mostly those YOU do not want.”

When she had her Seventeenth birthday, she still looked like a ten year old, to her father’s disgust. Dr. Hearns and the young woman celebrated, “Just one more year to go. You know, you’re lucky this state is the first in the nation to pass laws allowing Doctors to prescribe any medications they feel necessary without being required to tell the parents. I’m not sure they had these medications in mind, but hey, I’m not the only one using this law like this. We’ve had it checked by attorneys, and even by the State Supreme Court, who stated unequivocally that, ‘It covers all medications currently in use and any new ones that the patient’s doctor feels necessary for their good health.’

She had recently brought in a therapist to begin the year of therapy usually required before the start of actual Hormone Replacement Therapy for someone her age.

Then a month later, three months ago, just after the Winter Holidays, the bottom had dropped out of her life.

As usual, Dr. Hearns picked up the medications for her and they walked back to her office where she put them in innocuously labeled bottles for her to take home. And as usual, she had waited outside the pharmacy for her to make the actual pickup.

But something had gone wrong. Apparently, a new, very nosy employee had followed Dr. Hearns as she left the pharmacy, and saw her hand the bag to the girl for the walk back to the office.

A couple of weeks later, when she had picked up some medicine for her mom, he’d put two plus two together, and unfortunately, came up with four. The day of reckoning was the next day, after he got hold of her father.

She hadn’t seen her father’s car, for he’d put it in the garage. The first she knew of his presence was the moment she’d entered her room to change and be herself for the brief hour she had before her mom came home.

As she came home and closed the door to her room, she heard a voice from behind her while her eyes were still registering the mess someone had made of her room. “I suppose there is some innocent story behind these sissy clothes you had hidden?”

Stunned speechless, all she could do was look at her things, neatly spread out, but no longer hidden. Eventually her father grew tired of waiting for an answer. Getting to his feet from her study chair, he advanced behind her still turned back and grabbed her arm. “Well, is there? Is there?

Still getting no answer he grabbed her arm and turned her around so fast her arm still hurt now, a month later. “Well, tell me the truth!”

Scared almost witless, she tried to tell him, but at her first words, and every time she tried to speak, he hit her, yelling. “Lies! Now tell me the truth!” But he’d never even let her start to tell her the truth, and eventually began calling her names with each blow, not stopping till she was unconscious, with, it was later determined, a number of broken bones. The last thing she remembered him saying was, “I’m going to get that witch who has been giving you medicine in defiance of me.”

Of course, he hadn’t pronounced it with a ‘w’, but the sound led to her last confused conscious thought, “I wish Dr. Hearns was a witch. Maybe then she could cast a spell and give me the body I should have had.”

She didn’t know how near, and yet how far from what was going to happen, that thought was.

* * * * * *

Waking in your back yard, wearing nothing but bruises and aches for clothes, on a blustery January day with a few isolated white flakes falling is not the best recipe for good health. Somehow she had been able to get to her feet, and put on some of HER clothes, for they were all he’d thrown after her before he left. She dragged herself to Dr. Hearn’s office, thankful it was only 6 blocks from home, though the place she was leaving would never be home again.

Dr. Hearns had taken her to ER, and had her patched up, though mainly that was just taping her chest to immobilize the broken ribs as well as they could. Afterwards, Dr. Hearns, who now told her, “Call me Jill,” took her back by the house, which was dark in the winter twilight. Going around to the alley, she showed Jill her where some old suitcases had been stored in a rickety garden shed. Bundling up her things, Jill packed them away and put them in her car.

In the meantime, she had slowly been busy. She had not a shred of anything except her clothes, but she did find her father had forgotten, or never knew about, the key Mom had hidden so her kids could get in if they lost theirs. Letting herself in, she gathered a few thing she wanted, but he hadn’t thrown after her. That included a couple sets of her father’s clothes she could wear to get her money from the bank, her favorite books, her Raggedy Anne patchwork doll, and a check her dad had voided but not shredded. It might have been voided, but it had a nice clean copy of his signature.

As she took a look around her room for the last time in her life, the room where her father had cut and torn all of ‘Sean’s clothing to bits, she thought of her femme wallet, which she’d had in a different hiding place. Painfully bending, she lifted the loose floorboard and took it and a few other things from the hiding place.

Fortunately, maybe the only thing that had made her decide to carry on was the fact she wasn’t destitute. In her account was the first payment from grandma’s trust, money her father couldn’t touch.

Unfortunately, the account was in the name Sean Michael Wilson.

Fortunately, her father had not found the duplicate of her ATM card also or the prepaid credit card in her femme wallet.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know what she was going to do next.

Fortunately, Dr. Hearns helped her get a room for the night in a cheap motel while they tried to figure out what she was going to do.

Grandma’s trust had given her, or Sean, that is, a hefty sum to buy a first car, but Dad had convinced Sean to buy it on credit, with him as cosigner, to build up a credit record. He’d even agreed to pay the interest, so the money could stay in Sean’s account earning interest instead of just being gone. The upside was that the money was still there. The downside was that Dad had taken all of the keys, including the emergency one hidden in the magnetic case in the wheel well. She remembered him saying, “The car is going back tonight.”

* * * * * *

Dr. Hearns had also co-signed for her, so she could get the cheapest apartment in town. She didn’t want to make it too obvious by taking her into her own home, but she couldn’t hold that against her.

The apartment wasn’t much to look at, a simple efficiency with one 'large’ main room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom barely big enough to hold a shower, sink, and toilet.  Still, for now this would be her home and it was her private place.

Surveying her small closet, filled only with female clothes had at least buoyed her spirits and she worked hard to keep the place as clean as possible.  She still had to keep up with school and her boring and thankless job at a well-known fast food chain restaurant.

* * * * * *

One night a few weeks later as she walked home from her after school job, she felt a malevolence that seemed to be aimed at her, but looking around, she saw nothing, nobody.

Several times a week she felt it, always passing the same rundown apartment building, though it was no worse than her own.

One spring evening on her way home after work, she was feeling pretty good, most of the aches gone, the bandages were off, the weather was warming up, and even the harassment at school seemed to be easing off. Her only regret was that Jill hadn’t been willing to start her on female hormones for a few more months. Medications to slow or halt puberty was specifically approved for minors, but medications to begin the actual transition had been specifically forbidden. So even with the new law, there were still almost eight months to wait.

Then she felt it again, that hostile, evil feeling, stronger than ever before, and her good mood was broken. Looking up once again, she decided it must be coming from that room that always had the blinds drawn, for as she looked up, she saw a faint glimmer through a crack.

* * * * * *

Inside the room, the figure watched her go past, hating, then returned to translating the bad French the hand written spell book had been written in, using her French text. ‘Why didn’t they correct the spelling?’ the figure wondered, not realizing the book was older than the first dictionaries, and spelling hadn’t been standardized yet, not to mention that her ancestors hadn’t been all that well educated, either..  Women in the Fifteen-Hundreds had been lucky to receive more than on the job training for motherhood and being a wife.

The person watching the teen make the journey from the high school to the run-down apartment complex was one of her classmates. The figure was disgusted that the school allowed a boy to pretend to be a girl and mock natural born females, and she took a vow to rectify this injustice, as she saw it.

The figure’s mother had taught her that males rarely ever took females seriously. The fact that this male was thumbing his nose at the female population of Warwick High School demanded some form of retribution. The shadowy figure could not conceive of anyone being conflicted about such a basic thing as their own gender.

Thankfully, she had found the old spell book that had been passed down through the women of the family, from grandmother to grand-daughter, as it seemed only alternate generations could make use of its spells. But why, oh why, did it have to be written in a foreign language!?! If there was anything she hated almost as much as this male, it was foreigners. The fact that her own ancestors had all arrived across the Atlantic didn’t seem to matter to her, for it had been centuries since they’d settle in the southern bayous before moving here.

When the sissy was out of sight, she went back to studying the old book. She had deciphered the three spells she needed, and had already obtained all of the ingredients she needed.

She hadn’t realized how important it was to get the right word and get it exactly right, despite the poor spelling, and how important it was to study more than just pronunciation.

* * * * * *

Holly

After an exhausting, but happy three day weekend Holly Happy Hart bicycled her way to work. Although she’d hated to leave Heather Rose, an eight-year-old should not be in a bank all day, even though it was summer, and Heather Rose had begged to go sit out of the way with her artwork. However, Holly felt that as soon as she got to the day care and could actually be one of the kids she’d longed to play with, she’d feel better about it.

Her worries about what to do with her had been banished when she checked her mail after they arrived home the previous evening, and found a note from Mrs. Blomfontaine, who operated the day care center where Heather Rose used to visit. The note was to remind her she needed to pay for July’s day care, and suggesting that she wish to pay for August as well, which meant she didn’t even have to go through any administrative details. Not for the first time since she’d become a witch, she thought, ‘Ain’t magic wonderful?’

They also found that Heather Rose’s bicycle, which had still not been repaired on Friday, was sitting in the front hallway, and ready to go, though now much smaller, but still pink, with a white basket with Hello Kitty carefully hand painted by her little artist.

So Tuesday, she escorted Heather Rose to the place she’d spent a lot of time, wishing she could be a customer, or rather, a customer’s child. As she led Heather Rose though the gate to where she could park her bike, Heather Rose was mobbed by the other kids, all of whom knew her.

The last of her worries flew away as she saw Heather Rose instantly revert to being an eight-year-old, happy to interact with the other kids, but also almost immediately agreeing to help keep an eye on the smaller ones during the busy period when parents were arriving to drop off still more kids.

“Good morning, Bob,” she said with a happier tone than even her usual cheerful greeting as she arrived at work.

“Somebody had a good weekend. You and Heather must have gone someplace nice.”

“That we did, Bob.” ‘I wish I dared tell him that’s an understatement.’

“Good morning, Ray.”

“Good morning, Cathy.”

After greeting everyone with that same happy cheer she raised her voice, “Everyone listen up! Most of us had a three day weekend. We had time to be with friends and family or at least chill out. I want our customers to get a cheerful greeting and service today! A happy employee will make our customers happy and a happy customer should keep you happy. So let’s do it!”

After that pep talk, and the cheerful response from her employees, Holly felt as if she could fly. Actually she could, but she knew she should not do it in front of the customers or employees. She’d noticed a new face, but said nothing, and did not wish to stare, but after everyone had gone to their work areas, she took a look at the nameplate on his desk.

Mark Anthony Jackson. Reading it, she almost went into hysterics, but quickly calmed down. ‘It has to be a coincidence, but no, the face is a bit familiar. No, it can’t be.’

She went to the personnel files and pulled a folder. It verified her suspicions, however. Not only did his name match exactly with the name she’d promised Heather Rose she would never give out, but the birth date and birth place matched perfectly. Looking at the attached photo she began to see a resemblance.

‘It has to be. This Mark is the young man Heather Rose would have become if she wasn’t transgendered. or …a transsexual. … I guess I have another use for Misty’s gadget.’

As fate would have it, her phone chimed pleasantly. Looking at the readout she realized, ‘It’s him!’ Pressing the button for speakerphone, she said, “I’ll be right out, Mark. Do I need to bring anything?”

“No, Miss Hart. I just want you to look at some information on my screen.”

“All right, one minute.” She quickly pawed through her purse, pulling out what appeared to be her usual PDA.

Out on the floor, she leaned down, steadying herself with one hand on the edge of his desk as she surreptitiously moved the PDA around behind his back.

“I can’t answer that one. I suggest you give them a call and see what the proper address is. One of them is obviously a typo.”

On the way back to her office, Ida nearly ran her down. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Hart. Guess I was still thinking about the weekend.”

‘I’ll bet you were. Whose privacy were you invading this time? Holly, behave yourself. You don’t know that. Be nice!’ “I understand, Ida. Just don’t roll over any customers, please?”

As she waited for the official opening of the bank for the day, Holly began to play back the PDA’s recordings as Misty had showed her.

‘I don’t understand it,’ she puzzled. ‘He shows indications of being both Gender Dysphoric and Age Dysphoric, just as Heather Rose did, but the signs are a lot weaker than hers were, except in this one area, where they are off the screen. Wait! These say he is a woman, who wants to be a little boy? I don’t ... Oh! I got those readings after I left his desk. They were only seconds old when I got in here. Who? IDA! IDA? I’ve got to call Pipster.’

Before doing that, however, she connected the PDA to a USB port on her computer, and read the PDA output into a file, which she attached to a blank email to the Pipster.

Then she called, and after brief greeting, “Pip, take a look at the file I just sent you and call me back….No, I don’t want to say anything that might make you misread it.…Byee.”

For the next hour she waited, … and waited, … and just for variety, went out and paced the floor. Then she got the call she’d been waiting for.

But it wasn’t Misty. Or at least, not just Misty. “Hi, Honey.” It took her a moment to recognize Gina’s voice. And just as she recognized her, Kimmie and Misty chimed in with hellos of their own.”

“To what do I owe this telephonic invasion?” she asked, though she was thinking, ‘It’s serious!’

“We need one answer before we can say anything. That is Ida’s reading at the end? And who was the first one? He’s a perfectly adjusted man, maybe what, Thirty-Five?”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that is the young man Heather’s family always expected her to become. Even their background, and his name all match up.”

It was as if she could see them looking at each other, even though they had to be far away from each other on the ends of more telephone line. Finally. Gina spoke up. “Uh, Holly, I guess we didn’t tell you about doppelgangers?”

“Doppelganger? Isn’t that a double, or look-alike some say, or an evil twin of a person?”

“If you go by the dictionary, yes. But we use the term for the one person in around nine who splits when we use magic to cure their GD. The doppelganger is invariably a well adjusted person of the apparent birth gender of the body. It apparently doesn’t happen when we do a temporary vacation type change. A couple of us family members have them, and so do some of the ones who come through the Kamp and decide to stay changed. Effectively, just as you noticed, the second version of them is who they would have been if they weren’t transgendered. They are always well-adjusted, at least as far as their gender is concerned, and always the physical gender the body was born as. So yeah, that is Heather, or who Heather would have been if she hadn’t been Heather.”

Misty interrupted, “I have to get back to patients, but first, you didn’t answer. That other reading, that’s Ida the Spy, isn’t it?”

“You’ve got it.”

“Well, if you hadn’t already guessed, that’s one sick little puppy. What has been keeping her … him, together, heaven only knows. That spike indicates he should have been a vegetable long before this. That spike indicates just how much the rest of the chart had to be shrunk to keep it on the screen. His levels are far above Heather’s. You need to get him here, fast.”

Holly looked at the clock, “She … he takes the early lunch, so he’s out the door. I’ll see what I can do as soon as he comes back. Thanks, sis’es.”

 She went out and sat in the central atrium while waiting for Ida’s return. ‘I keep forgetting to thank Scotty for talking me into this.’ She had not been at all sure it would work when he’d suggested building the bank as a U shape, with a large central courtyard built around the huge oak tree already on the site, instead of axing it. Especially when he suggested being able to open the wall from the main lobby area to the courtyard, and he meant, completely open, with bulletproof glass curtain walls that went down to close it off while we are closed.

And then, he’d had her add a superfine mister that provided all the cooling  needed even on the hottest days, which could reach over One-Hundred on a summer day like this. But there she was, sitting in a curtain of cool air, flowing down and then across to cool the banking lobby, and which was also drawn in through vents to cool the offices and vault area. The oak was also noticeably healthier than when the bank had been built around it. Of course, the curtain walls could be closed to keep heat in during the winter and on windy, rainy days.

Holly’s patience was rewarded after 20 minutes as Ida returned from wherever it was she went for lunch. “Ida could I see you in my office for a few minutes?”

“Of course, Ms. Hart.” Her voice was calm and cool, but Holly could see in her eyes that she was worried about something.

When they got to her office, Holly said, “Please close the door, Ida.”

“Is there a problem Ms. Hart?” Ida  asked nervously as she closed the door.

“I don’t know. I understand you know something about the Little Kids Kamp.”

“I do?” Ida denied.

“I know you know something. I got that information from a highly reliable source. How would you like to know the truth about the camp, the whole truth? We owe you some time off. You can have a three days at the camp as comp time that won’t count against your vacation or PTO, ( personal time off ). Other than spending the three days at the camp at our expense, there are no strings attached.”

“How can I trust you, if what I heard was true?”

“It would be very easy for me to make you disappear with nobody knowing that you ever existed, if what you believe to be true about the camp was true. But we made a pledge to do no harm.”

“We?”

“The owners of the camp, which includes me. Besides, it is only for three days. If you leave after work tonight, you can even stretch it to Five days.”

Ida was obviously tempted, but she was wary of the danger. “And if I say, no?”

“Get back to me if you change your mind.”

“Could it be for two days?”

“Or one. Or a week. But anything over 3 working days counts against your PTO.”

“No strings?”

“The only thing we need is for you to fill out a form, so we know what to do.”

“May I see the form?”

Holly opened her desk drawer and magically produced a copy of the change form.

“Are you serious?” asked Ida as she read the paper.

“Quite. Everything is voluntary.”

“I’ll let you know.”

“Don’t worry about making mistakes or erasing. I can always get you another copy.”

Ida left, but at 2PM came in with the completed form.

Having Gina’s evaluation of the test she’d run, Holly was only mildly surprised with what Ida had put down.

“I want to see how far you can really go with these supposed changes,” Ida challenged. “You do realize that I’ve faxed a copy of the filled out form to some friends, in case I disappear. And as soon as you countersign, I’ll fax that to them, too.”

“As long as this is what you want we know you’ll be happy for the three days. I need to leave early for the camp, so I’m giving you the rest of the day off with pay. I can leave in about fifteen minutes.”

“OK, I can close my till.”

Holly called Cathy over and told her she was in charge for the rest of the day, but that she’d be back in the morning. Her next call was to Mrs. Blomfontaine, to tell her she’d be picking up Heather Rose in just a few minutes, and that she might not be back until Monday, as she would be with surprise out of town visitors.

Holly drove Ida to her place, so she could get a few things she said she needed. Then she swung by to pick up her daughter, bringing the thought, ‘MY daughter! That has such a wonderful sound to it.’

When she went in to pick her up, Heather Rose was already waiting, so Holly didn’t have time to tell her the whole story. After Heather told her, “Mommy, I misses you,” she just got as far as telling her they were going back to Aunt Shelly’s, and Heather could stay until Sunday if she wished, before they got to the car.

As Ida climbed out of the passenger seat so Heather could get in back, Heather exclaimed, “Hi Aunt Ida! You comin’ to the camp, too?”

“Do I know you?” Ida asked.

Holly saw a momentary flicker of fear in Heather’s face as she realized she’d goofed in recognizing Ida, before she saw a different look that told her that for a moment, at least, either big girl Heather or adult Heather was there.

“Er … uh … Mommy told me who you was when I visit’d one day. She said be good, and I must’a been if ya din’t see me.”

Ida looked puzzled, as if surprised she didn’t remember Heather Rose, but then let out a yell, “Where are we going? The airports are that way.” She’d noticed that they was headed up that almost deserted road. As Holly continued, Ida pulled a small pistol from her handbag.

“Put it away. That thing won’t hurt me,” Holly told her as she turned the pistol into licorice whips. Then she had to do the same with Ida’s knife, except she turned it into raspberry vines. As Ida reached for her cell phone, Holly popped her handbag into the trunk. While Ida gaped, Holly saw her chance, and moment later, they were in Delaware

Giving the GPS, ( Sure, even witches use technology. ), time to recalculate, she headed for the Kamp.

Just before they got to Kids Kamp, they passed Plieades Resources.

“That place is a major polluter,” Ida grumbled.

“Not really, In fact we’ve greatly reduced air, ground, and water pollutants throughout the world. Look at it, do you see any pollution?”

“No, it looks good, but that’s all part of the cover-up The Big Lie.” Then what Holly’d said sank in. “You own it?”

“Yes, we do. My sister Janet and her husband are the CEOs.”

“Janet, that biker chick that comes into the bank sometimes?”

“One and the same. She’s a pretty wild lady when she is not working, isn’t she?”

“What about your problems with the EPA?”

“We’ve showed that the pollutants near the plant have dropped despite the danger of the raw materials entering, yet the EPA is pushing to close us down.”

“But you produce so many toxic effluents!”

“Only by a definition drawn up by a few EPS bureaucrats to let them harass anybody who steps on their friends toes. Their worst complaint is all the water given off, because it came from toxic waste, even though it is hundreds of time purer than the FDA requires for drinking water. We have industrial customers lining up to buy it from us because it is so pure. Everything leaving our plant is a chemical in demand, sold by competitors who create pollution in producing it, and ours is almost always of higher purity than they can supply.”

They were just crossing under the railroad on Children’s Way as Holly finished. “But I didn’t bring you here to listen to me on my soapbox. I brought you here, because we are here!” as they went under the “Little Kids Kamp” sign just before 6PM local time.

“But … but … that’s back east. We just left my apartment!”

“You did sign that paper authorizing us, and I’m one of us, to use magic, didn’t you?”

* * * * * *

Ida

‘What have I gotten into here? If we hadn’t somehow made it from California to Delaware in nothing flat, I’d think Miss Hart is nutso. But how did she do that? Magic? There’s no such thing as magic! But … my gun, and my knife … AIEEEE!!!! What’s going on?’

“Ida? IDA!” Miss Hart was looking at me with a worried look on her face. “Uh, I’m sorry, I guess I was a bit distracted.”

She started to step towards me, and I stepped back. She stopped, and motioned in the direction of a building with a small pink and blue sign saying, ADMINISTRATION.

“I … I’d rather stay outside, if you don’t mind.”

“OK. If that’s what you wish. Heather Rose, would you go in and get whoever Jenna has assigned to show Miss Ida around?”

“Sure, Mom!” My daughter took off as only a carefree little kid out of school for the summer can.

“Jenna? That blonde with all the pink hair?”

“Yes, she’s another of my sisters, and runs the Kamp Kulinary Korp. But when I asked for someone to show you around, she volunteered to find someone.”

I shuddered inside, thinking about the bad things I’d said to some people about the people who run this place, wondering what they are going to do to me. ‘Why did I ever agree to this?’

I did not have long to wait. Holly’s daughter came out with a two pairs of girls maybe 15-17 years old. I’d seen them in the bank, but never knew there were two of them. To my surprise, when they introduced themselves, Alysson and Elsa had a noticeable British accents.

From her accent, I would have placed one of the other pairs of twins as being from somewhere on the East Coast, even without Steffie’s strange ball cap which simultaneously made it clear she was a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, Flyers and Eagles, Her twin, Isobel, was dressed a bit less casually, in neat slacks, with a lace trimmed white blouse and black flats, had a delightful Spanish accent to match her name.

“We’re supposed to show you around the place, Ida, and let you decided if you’d like to spend some time here. Heather Rose, thank you for introducing us. But I think your mom wants you now.”

As the twins led me off, my head was spinning. ‘I still can’t get over Miss Hart having a daughter. And all this ...’ “This place took money,” I commented.

“Yep,” Steffie answered. “But our environmental plants are making much more than we need, even though we can undercut all the competitors. And once we got Kamp up and operating, we were able to build the mall and theme park over there. Now, they provide everything we need to stay afloat, even though we’ve cut our charges and give hardship discounts.”

‘She seems much more up on things than I would have expected from someone her age.’ “Huh?” I realized I’d just missed something Alysson asked me.

“What would you like to see first? If we go over there and sit down, I can make a map for you.”

‘Why would she say “make” a map?’ I soon found out. As we sat down at one of the shaded picnic tables, she waved her had across the table, and a three dimensional map suddenly appeared.

“We’re here.” She pointed at an area and it seemed to grow until I could see three people seated at a table, though only as tiny specks. Over there is admin, and staff and visitor cabins, the playgrounds ball fields, pool, theater, costume shop, and so forth. Over that way are the stables. This one is for the horses most of the staff and guests ride, while over there is the barn the unicorns use to get out of winter weather and summer heat.”

“Unicorns? They’re mythological!”

“You haven’t been to the New York Zoo lately, have you? If you’d like, we can take you down to meet some of them if they are willing to come close. And over there is the area for the Zenghong Peacocks. They were imaginary, until we created them. The St Louis Zoo has a small flock now, too. But we’ve had to put up a barrier to keep the noise from driving everyone crazy, and to keep them from flying away.”

‘Unicorns? That should expose them. I suppose they’ve glued some fancy ivory horns on horses. In fact, I’ll bet they used illegal ivory!’ “Let’s go see these unicorns first.” ‘I know nada about peacocks, so they could sell me any line about them, hook line, and stinker.’

‘If they had produced flying carpets, or broomsticks, I might believe them, but golf carts? Ordinary golf carts?’ Alysson drove, with me beside her, while Elsa had to sit riding backwards. We rode along a very smooth dirt trail, ‘without even raising any dust,’ I noticed. Soon we had passed the horse stables, which appeared to be a substantial structure.

I was just realizing there had been no corrals or fences when we came over a small hill and Elsa, who’d twisted around, called out, “We’re in luck. There are some unicorns now!”

I saw five white horses, and could just make out what seemed to be horns.

“And look, over there where the stream comes out of the trees, the new ones! They’ve bonded with Holly and Heather Rose.”

“This is the first time we’ve ever seen them. Until 3 days ago, they were just a myth,” Alysson added about the black, gold and silver unicorns watching us.

‘Still no fences. How do they keep them in? And if they’re real, keep others out?’

The white ones spotted us and came running, as if to greet us. Alysson stopped the cart and we got off. “Feather,” Elsa began, “This is Miss Ida. She doesn’t believe you exist.”

That drew a snort from the smaller of the horses.

‘No, from close up, they look real … I could swear he …’ Having grown up on a farm, I knew where to look, and realized my mistake after a quick glance. ‘… she is laughing at me.’

As if she could read my mind, she nodded her head and winked at me.

I felt a bit weak in the knees, but kept my feet. “Feather?” She nodded. “May I touch you?’ My question drew a firm nod.

“Just don’t touch the horn,” came a voice from behind me. As I turned, the young man continued, “That is a apparently a very private part, part of what makes them magical creatures. Hi, I’m Jack, down here from the zoo in New York to see if I can spot anything that will make our exhibit better.” This tall black haired young man was dressed in a gray green uniform, with his name and NYZG embroidered on the pockets.

He gestured toward Feather, “Go ahead, touch her. She says she won’t mind …”

“As long as I don’t touch her horn, got it.” I ran my hands over everything except her horn, noting the featheriness of her mane, tail, and fetlocks.

“Feather, would you let Ida ride you?” Alysson asked, answered by an emphatic nod.

“I’ll help you,” Jack’s words scared me. I didn’t want a man touching me. Then I saw he had joined his hands to form a stirrup for me to get on.

“But what about a saddle, and reins?”

“The ’corns won’t let anyone use any tack, but nobody has ever fallen off yet,” he informed me.

Feather stood rock steady while I got on, glad I’d worn a long skirt, especially with Jack there. “Just think about where you want to go, and how fast. That’s what most of us do,” Alysson told me as the twins got on the other two unicorns. She led off, heading towards the three at the edge of the woods.

They stood there watching as we got closer, as Elsa whispered, “I hope they don’t spook. As far as I know, nobody but Aunt Holly, Heather, Aunt Janet, Tamar and Bill have ever gotten even this close.”

But they just stood there, and as we came to a stop, I heard several woodwinds playing a tune I recognized, but couldn’t put a name to. Looking around for a boombox, I saw none, and saw the girls looked as perplexed as I was. As the music came to a close, Alysson said, “I wonder what that song was?”

So help me, I giggled, something I haven’t done since I was around her age, for I’d remembered the name of the tune. “One of you knows. That was ‘Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider’, but it’s from before your time.”

“Maybe so, but we didn’t know it. They,” she waved at the colored unicorns, “are able to play music on their horns. We were told, but now we know.”

As if planned, Feather took me up to where the three surrounded me, and began to play again. This time I could tell the music had to be coming from the trio.

When they were finished, they trotted back into the woods. “I guess they know we want to take you other places.” Alysson led off.

While we were traveling, I added, “How do you make them stay, and how do you protect them from someone who wants a unicorn of their own?”

“Wards.” Seeing the perplexed look on my face, “Wards are magical barriers. They keep us protected. Anyone wanting to harm anything about the Kamp, or for that matter, the Mall or Theme Park, either can’t get in at all, or we know about them, and can keep an eye on them. The merchants don’t know why, but they’ve never even lost anything to shoplifting or employee theft here.”

As I was trying to digest that fact, if fact it was, my ears were suddenly assaulted by some horrible screeches. As I put my hands over my ears, I asked “What in the ….” I hesitated, “… world is that noise?”

 As my ears became a bit more used to it, I heard Elsa yell, “Peacocks! Turn around!”

Feather was already turning, and in a moment, as if a switch had been thrown, it was quiet. “I was hoping we’d get there before they stated their evening tune-up. That sound barrier is part of the wards Mom put around the peafowl area. I don’t know what she likes about them, unless it is just the way they look.” Well, you’ve seen a lot, why don’t we go back and have dinner? It’s late for us, but you’re from California, so Jenna has the cooks fixing something for your dinnertime.”

Holly and her daughter met us at the dinner table.

“Ida, now that you’ve seen a few ‘impossible things’, what would you say to spending a few days as a kid again? Say a little boy, maybe five?”

At her words, I broke down. When I could speak again, Holly had her arms around me. “I was just guessing, but I know you’d like to be a little boy. Would some other age work?”

“N …n …no …Dean is five, or four. But how?”

“As I told Heather Rose, ‘We’re witches. Good witches.’ We have our own technology. After we heard some of the things you’ve been saying about us, and found out how hard you’ve been pumping Maggie, we started calling you, Ida the Spy. But what we wanted to know, was why?”

“This morning I had a little gadget that would take a lot of readings about you, and hoped you’d be willing to come here and let us give you a chance to be, Dean, is it? Would you like to be Dean for a day or so? Don’t worry. You can be Ida again anytime, or at least, as soon as someone on the staff can locate one of the senior staff.”

* * * * * *

Holly

As she pondered my question, I saw a gamut of emotions cross Ida’s face, but slowly, it relaxed, and even before she said anything, began to appear more childlike. In fact, she didn’t say anything at first, but gave me a tentative nod, before whispering, “Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said less tentatively.

I leaned down and picked up a small box Shelly had sent down from her office.

“I don’t have trouble with a lot of spells, but I am still learning to handle the big ones, so Shelly canned the spell for me. This is your last chance to back out, Ida. The spell will last till midnight, Friday.”

I removed a glowing silvery sphere, with streaks of red flickering on the surface.

She looked at it, fascinated. “Would you like to hold it? It won’t hurt you.”

She reached out hungrily, and took it from me.

“All you need to do is toss it up over your head, dear.”

She looked at me strangely at the endearment, then with a deep breath, tossed it in the air. As it came down, it burst and pure light flowed down over her, and a moment later a small boy in a tee, short pants, and somehow, already a dirty smudge on his nose and a scuff on one knee was looking up at me, then down at himself in amazement.

“What’s your name, dear?”

“Uh … Dean?”

“Heather Rose, would you go see if you can find Johnny? Dean is going to need another boy his age to show him the ropes.”

While she was looking, I went around to Dean and held out my arms. He lifted his own arms and began to cry, but I could see he was fighting it.

“It’s all right for boys to cry happy tears, Dean.” He squeezed me as hard as he could, sobbing even harder.

The tears were slowing by the time I saw Heather Rose returning with Johnny.

I put him down, and watched as Johnny hugged him, and heard a whispered, “You’re going to have a lot more fun as a little boy than as an old lady. I know!’

The tears stopped as a look of astonishment came over his face, “You?”

“Um, huh! I used to be like you were, except I was an old man. I wasn’t an older woman.”

I knelt and held out my arms to Heather Rose, who was smiling as tears rolled down her face, too.

“Would you like to stay here with Ida, I mean, Dean, until I come back for him? You can get to know your cousins better, too.”

“I’d like to, but…I don’t wanna lose ya, Mommy.”

“You’ll never lose me. Would it help if I come here every night so we can be together?”

“Would ya?” Heather’s face brightened.

“Of course, darling. It only takes a few minutes to get from here to the bank or the other way around.”

As it appeared Johnny was going to drag Dean away, I suggested, “Why don’t you go meet more of the girls here, while I keep an eye on him?”

“OK, Mom.” And she scampered off to look for more friends her age, or close.

I followed Ida…uh, Dean from a distance, hoping he would not notice. I got closer when they became involved in some baseball, or at least a 4-7-year-olds’ version of it. Bodies that age usually aren’t all that well coordinated, and I also knew that most of the boys were real 4-7-year-olds, so their lack of knowledge was normal. Dean was careful to be a 5-year-old, and not show off that her knew more about the game than the rest. Sunset soon called the game, but as they quit, I knew the important thing was, they’d all had fun, There hadn’t even been any fights, which had not been that uncommon when I’d watched before.

As the players dispersed, it appeared that Dean was leading Johnny as they came over to me.

“T’ank you for watchin’ Aunt Holly. Where do I sleep? Johnny wants me stay with him.”

I wasn’t sure. I gave Jenna a call, knowing she was on duty overnight. After I explained the situation, she made a couple of calls and called me back.

“Things are a bit hectic over at Johnny’s place tonight. His mom is expecting anytime. Could the two of them stay with you? You are staying the night, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m staying, but our cabin used to be just my cabin, and it will be tight for more than two.”

“I can fix that. I’ll send someone over to help you move things to Cabin 44, It has three bedrooms, one for you, one for Heather, and one for the boys. Oh, and Johnny’s dad has already approved him staying with you. In fact, I get the feeling he’s counting on it.”

I turned to the waiting boys. “Sorry, but you can’t go stay with Johnny tonight, but …” I let it drag out for a moment, “Johnny can come stay with us, you, Heather Rose and me, if you’d like. The two of you can have one room all to yourselves.”

“YEAH!” the combined cheer made me wish I’d put in earplugs.

I didn’t have to ask if they were up to the ordeal.

Now I only had to worry about whether my princess would go for it. I was not at all surprised to find out that it did not bother her.

So, once we’d found the cabin, we piled in. I was happy to find that Johnny’s dad, knowing the situation, sent over a spare pair of PJ’s for Dean. There was a brief squabble over who got the top bunk, but I settled that.

“I don’t think either of you should have a top bunk,” I told them as I yanked the mattress from it.

I followed that with the mattress and bedding from the bottom bunk.

As I straightened out the bedding, I went on, “Why don’t you pretend you’re camping?”

That sounded okay to them. ‘Squabble over!’ I thought. ‘If I can do this well with Heather Rose, then maybe I can make it as a mommy.”

As I was getting Heather Rose ready for bed, she asked, “Mommy? Can I seep w you? It differnt with boys here.”

She looked so innocent and childlike, how could I say no. It was obvious too, at that moment she was at the youngest end of her little girl spectrum.

I hugged her and told her it was fine with me. “I guess you’ve never had boys in the same house with you, huh?”

“Ony when I was one,” she got out in a sleepy tone.

It had been all too short a day for Dean, since it was after 6PM when we got there. The ball game had barely lasted an hour before it got dark. But Dean had looked happier when he went to bed, than Ida ever had.

Morning came all too early for this California Girl. It was still Four AM back home when I got up to get the kids over for a Seven AM breakfast, so they could join their friends.

* * * * * *

Dean — Dean’s first full day—Wednesday

I woke up A BOY! WOW! The day before hadn’t been a dream. ‘This is amazing! I wonder what I can do today that’s fun. I know! I’ll play pirates with Johnny. Maybe we can fight Sam and Joe from the baseball game. We could use the island in the lake as the boat, or bury the treasure there. With that much lake, there must be rowboats.

I jostled Johnny awake, “Hey, Johnny, you want ta play pirates?”

 

Heather’s mom came in and suggested, “Want breakfast?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Anything that’s good for pirates!” Johnny agreed.

“Just as long as you don’t use the magic swords,” she agreed.

“Magic swords?” I asked.

“We have Excalibur and the “Warrior of Peace’s” sword in one of our vaults.”

That made me remember things from before, when I was a big. … Holly had told me that I’d still be able to remember things if I really wanted to. I’d heard of Excalibur but not the other sword.

“We are holding Excalibur for Prince Harry’s second child. So what if she isn’t supposed to inherit the throne?”

“She?”

“Yes, she.”

“But, but Arthur is supposed to be the once and future king! How can she be a king?”

“You’re Dean, now, and you ask me THAT question?”

“Oh ...”

“Actually, Merlin explained it to Shelly when she got the sword.”

I looked at her confused.

“Shelly, you know, the mother of your paid informant, Maggie.”

“The one with the unusual hair?”

“Yup.”

“How did she meet him? He’s just a myth. And if he isn’t, that was a long time ago.” I was full of questions. “Can I see it? And what’s this other sword?”

“I’ll ask Betty to arrange it for you. That sword is one that Nachman of Brotslav, a Chassidic Rabbi once talked about in a story called, ‘The Master of Prayer.’ It has the power of defeating opposing armies without hurting anyone.”

“Wow!”

“Shelly met Merlin when she went back to invite the unicorns here, since they were being hunted by bad people who wanted their horns, because they thought the horn was magic. They didn’t know it was the unicorns that were magic, and that making a knife from their horn, or that grinding it up and using it on food or in a drink wouldn’t give them any special powers or protect them, or anything like that.

But I’m sure some of the camp counselors can find you all the Pirate swords you need. Swords that won’t let you hurt anyone else or be hurt, too. But now I’m sure you must be ready to get started, so let’s go over to the play center, where the day really starts for all you kids. Heather, Johnny, let’s go.”

I followed Johnny over to the Kamp Day Kare center, running ahead of Miss Hart. Even though she’d called it the Play Center, I could still read …

 

* * * * * *

Holly

Wednesday was a strange one for me.

As I dropped the kids off at the Play Center, I told Johnny, “Your mommy still hasn’t gone to get your baby brother from the stork, but that could happen any time now.”

To all of them, “You be good. I’ll be back before sunset, and Dean, you and Johnny will be staying with us again.”

That drew smiles all around. I was touched when Dean threw his arms around me as I knelt to say goodbye, saying, “Bye, Aunt Holly,” just as Heather Rose had done before she started calling me “Mom.” Johnny copied his words, but didn’t give me a hug.

* * * * * *

interlude.

After I left the kids at Kamp, I returned home, where it was just barely 6AM.I had three hours to kill, as even I could not get into the bank before 9AM without setting off the alarms the insurance company had insisted on.

I decided to go sit in the bank’s atrium, and just relax while I waited.

Once there I thought back over the first 60 years of my 20-year-old body’s life.

I was already 21 when the Beach Boy’s ‘California Girls hit the airwaves, and soon became a term rolling off the lips of people all over, not just in California, where I had grown up. It was 14 years since I’d tried to tell my folks my name was Holly, and 8 years later that they’d caught me ‘playing Holly.’

8 painful years of doing a pretty good job of pretending to be a boy followed, while somehow managing to escape the ‘queer’ label that was all they seemed to have to hang on anyone whose gender was not ‘straight’ at the time. My parents had not made too big a thing of it, but I had promised not to dress again, and I stuck to it until just before I got out of the Navy.

Going into the Navy hadn’t been what I had really wanted to do, but as I suspected, after flunking out of Junior College, it was that or be drafted in 1965. In fact, the Army tried to draft me even after I was in the Navy.

Three and a half years later, with six months to go on my enlistment, the urge to be ME once more grew too much, and I began to dress in private whenever I could swing a couple of days away from the base. But I knew then, that as much as I liked the Navy, it would be too much to wish for to think that I could get away with being ME, for long enough to make it a career.

After getting out, I went to school, working part time jobs to make it on the GI Bill credits I had. Most of my part time work was at a bank, where I drew the attention of the branch manager, who recommended me for a scholarship, which allowed me to go on and specialize in accounting and as a minor, financial counseling.

The bank liked what I was doing, and fast tracked me until at 35, I was a branch manager. I owed them a lot, and know they had me slated for bigger things, but straight banking was not my thing.

I giggled, thinking, ‘And what am I now, but a glorified branch manager, even if it is the only branch, and I own it?’

It was around then that I married the woman whom I’d loved till death did us part, or even beyond, to this day. That was before I had learned much, really almost nothing about Transgender, For 50 years, I thought I was alone in the world with that sort of feelings.

But the financial consulting I’d been doing on the side had caught the attention of one of the big stock brokerage companies. 401Ks were brand new, and really, still experimental. They wanted someone able to think on their feet that could manage the program for a couple of their branches. My program seemed to do better for our customers than what any of our other branches were doing and by the time I was 40, I was running the 401K operation for the entire company, which primarily meant I was training our other counselors on the best ways to help clients with differing needs.

I’d always liked new things, and after a while, that was becoming boring. Then I was approached by a pure investment counseling service into going to work for them. This didn’t look as if it would be dealing with individual people as much as it was with companies. But after talking with a few of the companies that they dealt with, I realized these were small companies trying to become big companies, and I’d be working not with large corporate staffs, as much as with small top management groups, and some very interesting and inventive people.

That is where I met Bill Picklesworth, who said he represented a company with some unique new methods of recycling and toxic waste disposal.

“Our methods are so unique, they, and I agree, should be kept as trade secrets, rather than trying to patent them. To that means, we plan to manufacture all of our reactors ourselves, in a couple of subsidiary firms. We believe that they can turn any waste, toxic or otherwise, into its basic fractions, for less than half the cost of present systems, with the added advantage that we will produce absolutely no toxic waste ourselves.”

That had sounded like a pretty tall order, but he kept at me to at least consult on the side. When I did so, I found that they were already in business in a small way, back in Delaware, where it was easy to incorporate, and the state pretty much keeps its nose out of your business as long as you pay their fees.

When some of the competition began to be worried about the way the company, Plieades Resources was stealing their bread and butter, we, (I was beginning to think of myself as one of them), began to get hassles over even the tiniest bits of toxic waste that spilled from the trucks bringing material to our plants, so I figured out what to do about it. In California I had worked with a major truck trailer manufacturer, so I went to them and got them to come up with a trailer that could be completely sealed so nothing could get out.

With a huge triple layer plastic bag liner, it would not be subject to corrosion. That raised our costs a bit, but still left us well below the competition. And we hired many of the drivers who had been delivering to us, so we had total control over all waste delivery that didn’t come in by pipeline.

Soon, just after my wife passed away, I was working for Bill exclusively, and when not helping Plieades Resources, began helping to finance and set up a strange new business. It was to be a Kamp to help adults and teens with the strange idea that they were really the other gender, and stranger still, needed to be kids. At first, it had been just a series of weekend Kamps, but I began to hear quickly how satisfied the customers, their parents, spouses, or significant others were.

And then looking into it, I began to realize that other than wanting to be a kid again, they were describing me. Holly came back full force, and one day I had a breakdown. That was just a bit over two years ago. When I came out of it, I was at the Kamp, and had been introduced to the owners, I mean, really introduced to them.

I had given up looking into anything about why I thought I was Holly a long time before. I had found out, I knew, ( or thought I knew ), that it was impossible to ever really be Holly. At best, I could go to some surgeon and be turned into a fake, like a couple of transsexuals I’d read about, derided by anyone who knew, embarrassed on daytime TV scandal shows, or the like.

But these women, who ran the Kamps and owned PR, had somehow found out my secret while I was in my breakdown, and they told me that most of them had once been men, too, until they were made witches. I was totally skeptical, until they proved it by turning me into the young woman I am now when I, still skeptical agreed to let them do their darnedest.

I never let them change me back, and soon, was accepted into the sisterhood. I still do the necessary consulting, though things pretty much run themselves now, so Bill gave me this bank as a present welcoming me to true womanhood.

Bob arrived, breaking my train of reminiscing as we talked about inconsequentials. I did mention that Heather Rose was away at camp for the week, when he asked about her, as if she had always been my daughter. I noticed he didn’t ask about Ida, even though we’d left together.

Later in the day, he did mention her, but sounded as if as far as he was concerned, it would be better for everyone if she never came back.

“Sometimes she scares me,” he even said.

Luckily, I have always been able to compartmentalize, or I’d never have been able to do a good job for my clients, as I still spent most of my day as the bank’s financial advisor. In fact, I had two offices, and two different cards, so that most probably never knew I was also the bank president.

But the rest of the day, I spent worrying, wondering how my two kids were doing, and counting the minutes till I could close the doors.

* * * * * *

Wednesday Dean, continued.

After Miss Hart left us, two big boys came and got us and led us away from the girls. Over at the picnic tables, they made a map like Steffie had made. “What would you like to do today?” they asked us.

Nobody answered, so finally I spoke up, “Can we plays pirates?

Suddenly, everyone wanted to play pirates, so we went back to the costume place and soon looked like real pirates, especially after Miss Prue stuck moustaches and beards on our faces. She even gave Johnny a thing so it looked like he had a peg leg.

It was so much fun! When I’d been a kid the other time, all the other kids who lived there were boys, so I always had to be the damsel in distress. I was usually left tied to a tree or something else they were using as a mast, while they had all the fun.

For lunch, we got real pirate food, hardtack ( really biscuits ), dried beef ( jerky), and grog ( some kinda really yummy juice).

After lunch, we played baseball again for a while then went swimming. I had to stop myself and think though, before I realized I could go swimming without a top!

* * * * * *

Heather Rose

At first, when Mom left us to go home and work in the bank, I felt sorta helpless. I tried remembering how long I’d been a girl for, and eventually had to count on my fingers before I’d figgered it’d only been four days, if ya din’t count Friday night. In the back of my head, I sometimes still felt scared of losing her, even though I knew she wouldn’t let me go. Then I ‘membered that she left me at the day care that one day back home, and how much fun I had. Of course, it helped lots that I knew all the kids there from when I visited after work when I was a grown up.

But Mom had said we’d be okay, at the Play Center. Mommy’s really smart. We hadn’t been there more than a minute or two when Aunt Shelly came out with Baruchah and Maggie, telling them, “You two know your way around. Go take Heather around and get into mischief. But not too much, mind you.”

Right behind her were a couple of guys that looked like they was like maybe in highschool. They took Dean and Johnny off to do ‘guy’ things.

One pair of Aunt Shelly's twins, Kay and Karen Anne, led me, Maggie, and Baruchah over to where half a dozen other girls was waiting. “C’mon, Heather Rose. We’ll show you what kids our age can do to have fun.”

They was only like a year older than me but sometimes they acted lots older, 'specially when they was being responsible for younger kids. They were kinda the unofficial big sisters for all the Play Center girls from my age down to around older kindergartener age. I couldn't help skipping as the two older girls led us off to one of the play areas where the camp had lots of dress-up clothes for us.

What was really neat was how instead of being mommy sized and dragging on the ground, they looked like mommy clothes, but in our sizes. At first I wasn't sure how I'd feel about dressing like a grownup, since it wasn't that long ago I kinda had to. I gave it a chance anyways. After a while, I just gave up worrying about silly stuff like that and had fun playing with the other girls.

When we got tired of that, we all went outside and played jump rope. All the songs came back to me. The jumping songs was almost the same as when I’d watched the other little girls jumping rope, and memorizing their songs. It really hurt sometimes when I’d tried to join them and get told, “Boys can’t jump rope.” Baru and Maggie goed over to be with some of their friends, cuz they wern’t beg ‘nff to jump good.

By lunch time we was really, really hungry, so the twins led us over to the Kookhouse, though they pronounced it ‘cook, not ‘kook’, where we had soup ‘n sammiches, ‘n cookies. The younger kids was there, too. Dean, Baruchah, and Maggie (Karen and Kay called them the imp twins) joined us. As soon as we was through, Dean surprised me with a hug before he runned off to play for the afternoon.

After lunch, me and the other girls in my group played beauty parlor for a while. Karen had to call in for help to magic a ponytail back on, while Kay had held the crying girl who lost her hair and promised her it'll all get fixed. Once everything was more settled down, the two K's decided we needed to do something quiet for a while, so they gathered us around one of them really big flat TV's and started up a video for us.  

Eventually, all hurt feelings was forgotten as we all sat and giggled with each other while watching a Little Mermaid cartoon. Karen and Kay had ’corded them for like weeks and weeks, just for a time like this. After watching a couple videos, the girl who lost her ponytail asked if anyone wanted to play Go Fish. Everyone still seemed to feel bad for her and a little guilty about how the beauty parlor game had kinda gotten out of hand, which is probably why almost everyone said yes at almost the same time. Time went pretty fast while we was playing and before ya knew it, it was time for most of the girls' mommies to come get them.

When most of the boy’s mommies had gotten them too, Baruchah and Maggie brought Dean over, and the K twins as almost all the girls on my play group had called them read story books to us. Even though I was a really good reader for an eight-year-old, it was still really nice to have someone read to me. We'd got through two short books and was in the middle of a longer one by the time Mommy came for us.

We all loaded into one of the Kamp minivans and Mommy took us all over to Bob’s Café in town. As we munched on our dinner, she listened to everything that happened to us, then explained why she'd taken so long getting back. She started off kinda late 'cause the bank didn't close 'til like six at night east coast time. I nearly choked on a french fry when she said she got holded up. Once I was breathing again okay and had taken a sip of my orange soda, she explained it hadn't been a bank robbery. She just that she saw a car wreck and stayed to help the woman who was hurt and then tell the cops what happened.

After she dropped Aunt Shelly's kids off at their house, she took us to the cabin, and we went to our rooms to get changed for bed. A few minutes later, I came out wearing my Hello Kitty nightgown. Dean (in his Superman jammies) and Johnny (in his Batman jammies) was sitting at the table and seemed purdy surprised when mommy’s phone started singing bird calls. Johnny put down his milk and seemed to be looking for where the sound was coming from while Dean asked around half a mouthful of chocolate chip cookies, "Where ya got a bird at?" Without even looking at the phone, she opened it up, brought it to the table, and held it out. “Johnny, this is for you.”

Johnny took the phone and stared at it for a second. “I never got a ph .. phone call b’fore.” He put it to his ear, then dropped the phone, and started jumping up and down, “I got’sa sister! I got’sa sister.”

* * * * * *

For the past week, the figure had observed the travesty making his way around town. She had figured out everywhere her unremarkable classmate went, and how often. No longer would she tolerate such an affront of nature. Everything was ready. He would be passing a park near a new residential section of town, where there were still very few people, so this was her best chance.

She drove past the seated monster and parked ahead of it. Walking into the park as if she hadn’t noticed ‘him’, she sat on a bench facing the sidewalk. When ‘he’ got closer, Racinne called to ‘him’, “Hey, got a minute?”

“Oh, Hi, Racinne. Uh. . .sure, I guess I can spare a couple of moments.” The guy who thought he was a girl walked over to Racinne. Stopping, ‘he’ asked, “What’s up?”

While his mouth was open, Racinne threw a handful of dust into the abomination’s face, sure that enough would get into his nose and mouth. Almost instantly, though still alert, his eyes still open, he found he could not move, even to blink.

“You horrid fake … ‘thing!’ You abominable … male! What makes you think any decent woman, or man, for that matter, would want to have anything to do with you? Looking at you makes me ill. My insides want to spew all over you! You’ll never be a woman, and I’m going to make sure it will take along time before you have another chance at even being a man again. But I’d advise you to take that chance, because next time, I, or someone else with the power, may not let you live.”

She tilted the stiff body until it was lying on the ground. Realizing she had to hurry, or someone might notice her standing over this … loathsome, deceitful male … she opened the second jar of powder, and sprinkled it all over the prone form.

The first time she said the words, nothing happened. She thought back to her French lessons, and tried again, with equal lack of success. Was this not going to work? The third time, it once more failed to do a thing. Angry, she yelled it out. Maybe it was the yell, or maybe it was a change in inflection, but almost instantly, Sean’s form shrank, becoming no more than Thirty-Five inches tall if it had been standing. For clothing, it had only many yards of rough cloth wrapped around it. Racinne hadn’t known that modern toddlers under things were just that, modern. The 487 year old spell had clothed the form in what children of the 16th century wore if they wore anything at all.

In a hurry now, Racinne opened the 3rd and largest container in her bag, not realizing that she had made several mistakes. For one, she’d made One-Thousand times as much as called for, and two, she had mistaken one ingredient. She sprinkled it over the confused toddler, who was stiff as a board. She could see terror reflected in the eyes, and almost cackled as she began to sprinkle it over the young child.

When the jar was empty, she stood back and laughed again. “Now you will get the punishment you deserve. When I light this match and drop it on you, you will disappear from here, and reappear in the most horrid orphanage the spell can find. You will remember this forever, as you are tormented day and night.” Racinne lit the match and dropped it.

Instead of the small flash that she expected, there was an earthshaking roar as the powder blew a hole six feet in diameter, and two feet deep where the form had been lying. But Racinne did not see it. She had been blown through the air almost thirty feet, landing on her head, snapping her neck. But she did not die. A passing motorist heard the tremendous roar, and ran over. When he saw her, with her neck at a crazy angle, he pulled out his phone and dialed 911.

When the paramedics arrived, they thanked him for not moving her. “I doubt we can save her in any case, but if you had moved her, it would almost certainly have killed her.”

As the paramedics worked to stabilize Racinne, the police arrived, and began to investigate the scene of the accident, becoming more and more curious as they tried to figure what she had been doing playing with high explosives all by herself. And what had she been playing with? The smell was like no explosives either of them had ever come across.

While waiting for the special equipment they were going to need to properly immobilize her, they took pictures of Racinne’s prone form, the shattered bench, and the hole in the ground.

After the shattered figure was on its way to ER, they found samples of powder in all three powders in jars in the handbag which had been blown a good seventy feet,

Of the small form, there was not a trace. Racinne’s third mistake was in not realizing that the second and third powders, when mixed, changed the action altogether, and her intentions had been erased.

* * * * * *

Thursday

Holly

The next evening, when I returned from the bank Misty grabbed me. “I want you to watch this. Do you know what your daughter has been doing all day?”

“Search me. She’s been a surprise since the day she came in looking for a job, and also looking like she expected to be kicked. I didn’t know why, but we do now, don’t we. She must have had so many bad experiences in trying to be what she wanted to be. But she never gave up. I’ve never had anyone come in to apply for a job wearing pink short-alls over a tee-shirt covered with tiny printed flowers before.”

“And you probably never will again, sis.”

“I asked her about it after she became my daughter. You know what she said?” Misty shook her head.

“She said that she heard one time that you should see what everyone else was wearing, and she’d seen on Fridays, how relaxed I was on wear for everyone but me. That’s when she decided she wanted to work for me. So she decided to push it a bit and see if she could be herself. But that isn’t why you shanghaied me. What has she been up to?”

“Watch!” Misty waved her hand and a vision appeared over her desk. Heather was seated in a comfortable chair in the shade of a tree, doing a pencil and charcoal portrait of one of the girls.

“She’s been doing those all day, about 2-3 an hour, so the other girls will have a souvenir to take back with them when they leave. When some of their mothers wanted to pay for them, she refused. Many of them left some money at the front desk, anyway. We’ll have to figure out what to do with it.”

“If she’s refused it, I don’t think I want to force it on her. It’s not as if I’m not able to grant her every wish. Let’s just tell her some of them left money - to pay for her materials, at least. If not, give it to charity”

“Hi, Mommy.” I turned to find Heather Rose, with Dean, Baruchah and Maggie in tow just coming in the door as Misty quickly made the vision disappear.

“Mommy, thank you so much for finding a way I could still draw and paint. I made so many of my friends happy today.”

“Auntie Misty has been telling me about it.” I knelt and turned, “How about you, Dean? Did you have a nice day, too?”

“Umh hum. We goed hiking, ‘n eated Venison jerky, ‘n wil’ rice we picked o’selves, ‘n’ had Smores!”

I saw Misty winking and guessed not all had been related.

“ ‘N then after we’s rested, we hiked back ‘n sawed the unick corns. T’ only bad thing was Heather was drawing pictures of alla girls, ‘n wooden do none of us.” He gave Heather Rose a dirty look.

“Dean, I said I’ll do you boys tomorrow.”

The frown left his face, and he ran over and hugged her. “Then I won’ be mad no more. I like you after all.”

‘Ah, the changeability of the innocent,’ I thought, comparing Dean to the Ida he had once been. ‘I wonder whose child he will become? I somehow doubt he will want to go back. Besides, there is already a doppelganger back at the bank. Does that mean anything? I’ll have to ask Shelly and see if she knows.’

 

It was Heather who provided an answer. As we walked over to the Kamp Day Kare center, she came over and put her arm around my waist. Johnny and Dean were - out of earshot as she said, “Dean looks lots happier than Ida ever did. Ya think I might have a younger brother in a few days?”

Her question hit me like a bolt of lightning. I wasn’t even used to having a daughter yet, and now she was hinting I might soon have (TWO) kids? I stopped walking as I tried to think about her question, and when I looked down at her, I think she realized what she’d just done to me. I could see it in her eyes. She told me later, that I’d turned white as the proverbial sheet for a moment, then as the color returned, followed the boys once more. But I didn’t even try to answer her question. ‘Why is it that the question caught me by surprise? Now that she’s put it into words, I see it. I may not be able to avoid it. Sh … he has imprinted on me. Now that I think about it, the word “mommy” has slipped from his lips a time or two.’

“Would you like that, darling?” She looked up shyly using just her eyes, with her head down as she nodded.

“I guess I won’t be able to avoid it if he asks …”

“Mommy? don'tcha like him?”

“Well, yes, I guess I do. But this is so sudden. I fell in love with you over several weeks, and even then I wasn’t sure I could take care of one child, even as well behaved a one as you. Please, don’t say anything to him, except to answer questions. It has to be his decision.

 

* * * * * *

Friday - Decision Day.

Holly

While I went back to work, the next day was play day for the kids. On play days we made them mix, instead of the guys doing purely guy things, and the girls doing just girly things. Cooperative games where guys were partnered a girl as 2 person teams competing in activities that made them cooperate were the order of the day.

Heather Rose exempted herself, so she could hold to her promise, and by the end of the day, every kid in camp had a picture of themselves as they were while at camp. I don’t know whose idea it was, but at the end of the day, when she was finished, one by one, all of the kids of both genders came up to her to thank her, most including a hug in their thanks.

That night after the boys were asleep. Heather Rose brought the subject up. “Ya know, Mom? It wasn’t as hard as I thought it'd be to bring the big me up so I could do the portraits. It didn’t leave me all jangly, neither, like I was afraid it would. I guess bein’ the real me most of the time is what I needed. Thanks for giving me this chance.”

“I’m thanking me for thinking of it, too, darling. I don’t know where it came from, but when it did, it just seemed right. But I don’t think it would work for Dean. He seems so happy just the way he is. I don’t think we’ll ever see the old Ida again.”

That was very clear when I returned for the weekend that night. I saw them together on the far side of the athletic fields, and gunned Lady Galadriel, letting the RPMs drop slowly enjoying the burbling of the exhaust. I guess you sometimes can’t take all of the little boy out of the big girl.

They came running, or rather, skipping hand in hand. By the time they reached me, I was out of the car, seated at one of the picnic tables. “Dean spoke first, “Mom? I’s kinda wondrin’, ‘ve you gots room for me when you go back? Heather Rose sez therz another room, but its kinda full of yur stuff.”

“Well, she is right, but I’m sure we can do something about that. I guess this means you want to keep on being Dean?” I knew the spell was wearing off, at least as far as his mind, I could see the effort he was making to keep talking like a kid.

“You bet. I don’t ever want to be that sour old lady ever again.” This was the adult Ida speaking from the 5 year old little boy body.

“And I guess it means that Heather Rose is going to have a brother, then too?”

They looked at each other, then gave each other a high five, “Yeah!!!!!”

‘And here I thought it was going to be difficult to get an answer on the subject. Sort of like Jeopardy. The answer came before the question.'

When I called Shelly to let her know we were on our way to dinner, I mentioned the decision to her.

“I’m glad I didn’t bet against it. I’ve seen it coming all day. Now, that brings up another question, do you want to sit in on the gathering for Dean, or sit it out?”

 

“I’m his new Mommy. Of course I’m in! Just try and keep me away!”

 

Friday night

Holly

 

Since Dean had already had 3 days to experience this life, we did not change him back, but never-the-less the grilling he got, with all of his Ida memories restored, explained a lot. But it was torture for the poor kid. He didn’t want to be Ida at all any more. He relaxed a bit when promised he would have them only in the background, and if any of the memories really bothered him, he would be able to make them go away later even after we told him he needed to have all of Ida’s memories for a few hours.

 

Ida’s story

 

Ida had always been a loner. Having grown up in the same time, I could understand it. In the 1950s, when your mind told you one thing and your body said something else, there was no sympathy from anyone if you tried to tell them. And if your mind told you it was wrong to do girly things, you could get away with a bit as a tomboy, in Ida’s case. But only a bit. If you pushed the limits too far, as we gathered Ida had, you faced ostracism, bullying, and abuse. Ida had faced all of this, but thankfully, not much from her parents. They had just not wanted to know about it, and ignored her attempts to tell them.

 

After graduating from high school because she’d put in the mandatory 4 years, and they never flunked anybody, no matter how abysmal their grades, Ida joined the Marines, trying to get them to make a man out of her, metaphorically speaking. Somehow she ended up in an intelligence unit, because that was a spot for women, who at that time, had to be non-combatants. That didn’t mean she wasn’t so close to the front lines that she wasn’t captured in a Viet Cong raid.

 

But Ida developed a plan, and led a successful escape of almost 2 dozen prisoners while they were being marched north. Before her enlistment was up, she had been contacted by what she called ‘the Company’, better known as the CIA, so our guesses had been right on that score. All her resume had told me when I hired her, because it had been so far back, was, 22 years working for the US Government. She hadn’t liked it, as all she had done was desk interpretations and investigations of financial records needed for others to solve situations.

 

But she had become good at investigating things and what she’d heard about Little Kids Kamp made her mad. These ‘people’ were apparently making a lot of money by faking the ability to provide just what she had wished for all her life. She had been bound and determined to expose us.

 

That was why she came to work for me. She hadn’t tied me to the plot at first, but she knew that for some reason, Shelly and the rest of the family came all the way across the country to bank in my little one branch bank.

 

She had been surprised that we caught her, but was now very happy we had. Being in the offices, she’d always been on the investigating end, but never exposed to those she was investigating before.

* * * * * *

Saturday

Overall, the weekend was just fun and relaxing, and a chance for me to get to know my new and now welcome obligation.

 

At dinner on Saturday, Janet, Bill and Tamar showed up, and Janet made sure they were seated with us. From across the table she spoke up, “Hey sis, We have a proposal for you. Bill and I are good wrenches, and we’d like a chance to get your old Indians up and running for you. We’ve never seen anything but the new ones. You said you have one of them, too, right?”

 

I hadn’t really given the bikes a thought, but it might be fun to ride them, with the kids in a sidecar, as long as we didn’t have too much of our trips near home. There are just too many people, and too many idiots on the road. That is why I’d stopped riding in the first place. Well, that and a wife and too many kids to fit a sidecar.

 

“I know what you’re thinking. Hey, we can do magic, right? Do you think Tamar and I or Bill would ride here if we didn’t use some magic to keep us safe? The spell is easy. It just casts a bubble around you, and anyone coming towards you automatically changes their mind about getting close to you, if they were going to. Heck, it’s safer than lying in bed out there in earthquake country,” she giggled. “Or at least safer than lying in bed without a protective spell.”

 

“Well, I suppose I should let you do it. I’m going to have my hands full for quite a while, what with 2 kids, and looking for a new place to live, and my day job.”

 

“So, Holly, you’re finding out that being a mommy is a 24/7job?” Shelly’s voice came all the way from the far end of the table.

 

“I think it is more like 28/8,” I riposted.

* * * * * *

Sunday

This Sunday was a bit more relaxed than a week ago. We weren’t trying to get ready for a big 4th of July blowout, and Dean had already had more time to find out about Little Kids Kamp, his huge new loving family. Since there was time, I got the kids up for breakfast, dressed Heather Rose in her prettiest non-party dress, Dean in brand new ( still clean ) jeans and a white dress shirt, myself in a conservative, but not old and dowdy dress, with two inch heels, and we went to church.

 

Afterwards, the day was a family day, doing things around Shelly’s as a family

* * * * * *

Monday morning

 

On Monday I let the kids, ( and myself, giggle ), sleep in , just barely getting them up for the last serving of breakfast. Afterwards we packed the things they wanted to take with them, and say our goodbyes before we left.

On the way back to California, I asked, “Did you have a good time, Dean?”

 

“The bestest!”

 

I took the kids straight to the house. Dean looked around at his sister’s pink palace and wrinkled his nose. “Eyuck! This is all too girly.”

 

“Well, I’m afraid you will have to put up with it until I can find someplace with more space, young man. That’s one reason I wanted you and your sister here, so we can go looking at places after work this week.”

 

Once we had everything put away, we bicycled over to Mrs. Blomfontaine’s preschool and day care. Dean was very proud of his ability to ride the small bicycle we’d found in the front room. “Look, Mommy! No training wheels!”

 

After a somewhat tearful goodbye, I went on to the bank, arriving early, as I usually did, there, to find Bob … and … Ida waiting for me.

 

‘Another doppleganger ? At least this one has a smile on her face.’ Not only did Ida have a smile on her face, but she was dressed much better than she ever had before.

 

“Good morning, Bob. Good morning, Ida.”

 

“Did you have fun with your kids?” Ida asked.

 

“You know, I actually enjoyed myself,” I smiled.

 

“I had my grandchildren over this weekend and we had a ball. I now know what they mean about it’s being best if you can have the grandkids first.”

 

‘Grandchildren? The old Ida was single. This is getting better.’

 

“Miss Hart,” she continued. “I understand you have an in at this camp back East called, Little Kids Kamp?”

 

‘Oh, oh! Do I still have my spy?’ “I have some connections. Why?”

 

“Maggie, your niece told me about it the last time she was here and it sound like a fun place to visit. I’d like to take my grandchildren there.”

 

“I think I could arrange that. When would you like to go?”

 

“Not soon. I’m planning for next summer.”

 

I gave a mental sigh, as things were hectic enough, and I wasn’t sure how much she really knew about the Kamp. It might be that they wouldn’t fit. Most normal kids don’t, unless they have close relatives or friends who need the Kamp, and they know their secret.

 

It isn’t that we would refuse them, but we would want to make sure they and their guardians or parents knew what they were getting into. Luckily, our staff could reply with a letter on which a spell had been cast. The letter asked them to call us, and when they did, a couple of words would make them stay on the line until we were sure they knew what we were all about. If they were still interested, a couple more words released them form the spell with full knowledge.

 

However, if it was not what they wanted, different words would make them forget all about us, and made them tear up anything they had in writing, without remembering or noticing what they were doing.

* * * * * *

The month flew by.

 

At work, the new Ida was soon my most productive employee, filling in where the original Heather Rose had been, and taking many of her accounts from Mark, though mainly those wanting a woman’s touch, and adding more.

 

Mark did more than OK, starting an aggressive campaign to bring in new accounts, all on his own. In fact, he even paid for a couple of small newspaper ads from his own pocket. When I heard about it, even before they proved successful beyond our expectations, I reimbursed him, and he soon had earned a nice bonus.

 

On the home front, the only bad aspect of everything was we were crowded. I had to clear stuff from my den/workroom to give Dean a bedroom. Some of it was just stacked against one wall.

 

So almost immediately, we went looking for a bigger house. I really wanted someplace where a lot of the family could visit. At least 6 bedrooms, if I could afford it. But affording it was going to be a trick. With the outrageous home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, I could get almost $650,000 for my townhouse, but the cheapest 6 bedroom place was over a million. One with any sort of land around it would only be higher.

Friday morning, Dean and Heather Rose began pestering me, quite nicely, to go visit Baruchah and Maggie, and the K twins and all their other new cousins.

 

Mommy is a softy. I held out my arm, and told Heather Rose, “twist my arm, why don’t you?” She took it and gently twisted it behind my back as I pirouetted to make it easier. “OK! That’s enough! I give!” I think my giggle spoiled it. “All right be good at day care, and we’ll go visit everyone.”

 

I hadn’t been surprised at all to have a call from at least one of my sisters each night, wanting me to fill them in on how things were going. I think they didn’t expect me to take to mommying so easily. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t expected it either. But Dean and HR made it easy for me.

 

On my lunch break, I almost always stay at my desk, and either eat stuff I’ve brought from home, or from the deli around the corner. When it didn’t look as if any customers were clamoring for me, I called Shelly. What time is dinner? We can’t get there till about seven, but if you are already done, we’ll take warmed over leftovers.”

 

“I think I can put everything on hold until you get here. The imps have been asking when they can see their new cousins all week.”

 

“OK. We’ll be there with bells on.”

 

I left Cathy to close the doors, and headed over to pick up the kids right at 3PM. By 3:20 we were on our way out Marsh Creek Road. I wasn’t even thinking of house hunting, when Dean, in his elevated kids sat, yelled, “Mommy. For Sale!” In becoming Dean, Ida had chosen to not even be able to read until Dean learned again. And when I checked later, he couldn’t. But he’d seen enough ’FOR SALE’ signs recently to recognize them.

 

I checked to see if anyone was coming behind me, and finding it safe, slowed down. The house was only maybe half the size of Shelly’s, but that meant it probably had at least six bedrooms. But the listed price was $1,950,000 quite a bit more than I wanted to pay. Then a line at the bottom of the sign caught my eyes. “6.6 Acres. Sub dividable.”

 

‘The land should be more than that. I wonder what is wrong with it? It’s worth checking.’

 

“Shelly, we may be delayed. I’ve found a place I want to check on. If it is in as good a shape as it appears to be, I may want to tap some family funds.”

 

“Are you alone?”

 

“Just me and the kids.”

 

“Where are you?” before I could answer, I heard, “Oh, there you are. Are you sure you can’t swing the price for one of those? I assume you plan to turn it into a single home?”

I turned to see her staring at a row of three duplexes, which were posted at $670,000 a pair, as investment properties.

 

I turned and hugged her as the kids hugged her legs, and used the hug to turn her around. “Sis, this one.”

 

“It’s perfect! Grab it before it gets away!” She screamed.

 

“Shelly, I don’t have two million dollars for a house. Besides, there may be, must be, something wrong with it. It’s too cheap.”

 

“Too cheap? It should only be half that.”

 

“Sis, this is California, where land ain’t cheap, and houses are dear. Only a few miles from here, a quarter acre lot with nothing on it is going for over $250,000 dollars or more.”

 

“OK. We’ll give it a miss. Or better yet, let’s get the kids to my place and come back tomorrow to find out why it’s so cheap.”

 

As soon as we were in Lady Galadriel, Shelly used her powers to jump us right into her garage. Boy, I wish I was 1/10 as strong as she is.

 

We got into the house in time for dinners, and sent the kids out to wash up, as dinner had been waiting a few minutes.

 

After they’d eaten, we let the kids out to enjoy the twilight while we did the dishes, then got onto the Internet. ( Yes, we’re modern witches. Some of us are even pretty geeky ).

Using maps and satellite overhead views, we realized that the four properties were in a notch sort of cut into the side of a state park. Some time back, from the looks of it, someone had cut some roads into the almost mile square chunk of land, but it appeared that whatever had been planned had later been abandoned. But we still didn’t know what a windfall we were about to step into.

 

Shelly didn’t jump us right away, saying, "There is someone there.” But then she jumped Lady Galadriel, herself, me, Misty and Prue to a spot right in front of the big house. I drove back towards town a few hundred yards and turned up the overgrown roadway we’d seen on he computer. Once we were of the roadway, I stopped and we all got out.

 

Hiking up the bulldozed strip it was readily apparent that whatever work had been done, had been abandoned, judging by the weeds coming up where the blade had scraped everything bare By my judgment, however, it went up more than halfway to the park boundary.

 

Prue and Misty decided to go cross country back to the houses, but Shelly and I walked and drove back. We were already nosing around behind the house when our sisters showed up. From the outside, everyone thought it looked as if it was in very good shape, Once I explained again about local property values, we were all wondering why it was so cheap. "I guess we’ll just have to go in and see the realtor,” I told the others. “Luckily, I know the branch manager, and we are in several clubs together."

 

As luck would have it, as we came around the side of the house, my friend Jack Palmer was in the process of doing something to the sign. “Hey! Jack!” I yelled., “don’t tell me we’re too late. Tell me that’s not a sold sign.”

 

“Holly? No, It’s better for you, and worse for me, if you should buy it. The sellers just gave me orders to cut the price 20% for a quick sale. Why? You aren’t really interested, are you?”

 

“We might be, if we can figure out why it isn’t selling. What can you tell us?”

 

“Why don’t we go inside and sit down while I explain.”

 

The house was fully furnished, so we arranged ourselves on three of the couches in the huge front room, while Jack took an overstuffed chair. “OK, what’s wrong with the place?” I asked.

 

“There is nothing wrong with the house. The problems are with restrictions the county and the previous owners put on the place. Their heirs thought they had a gold mine, and began to dump a lot of money into clearing the entire chuck of land. They inherited almost a square mile here. You might have noticed the dirt road headed up the hill back towards town aways?”

 

I just nodded, and my sisters also said not a word. “They planned to subdivide and sell a few parcels and use the profits to finish fixing it up and sell everything else to a developer. They’d put almost all of their ready cash into it when a developer gave them the bad news. While their parents owned the places, they could uses the common septic system they’d installed for all four parcels. But now, they must connect to the local sanitation districts pipes before anybody can move.”

 

I nodded non-committally as I waited for him to continue. “That is when they were hit between the eyes. Until somebody else comes along and hooks up to the line and starts to repay them, they must pay for the entire connection, That’s over 5 miles of line just along the Marsh Creek Rd, plus branches to every parcel before they can be used. They ran out of funds, but are hoping to make enough off these seven units, somehow, to get them started again, but to be honest, I don’t think they are going to clear enough to even break even, after the price cuts.”

 

“And another thing. They also didn’t know that the entire top half had been green belted, and they couldn’t sell it for development without returning many years of back tax breaks, and the owners of this house, or someone they get to manage it, are responsible for making sure it is never developed. That meant more expense, or less income. Then they found that the four developed properties can’t be split because of deed restrictions put on before their parents bought the places. All in all, now they are just trying to get what they can and run.”

 

“What about the rest of the land? Is it available?”

 

"Yes, and no. They’re hoping to be able to sell it later. Right now, they just want to break even on the cost of making the land usable.”

 

“Is it able to be used commercially? For say, a recycling center?”

I suddenly saw where Prue was going. We had just begun negotiations with the city for a Plieades Resources center, and were facing stiff opposition from local recycling interests, who were using the same lies that were being used all over in attempts to stop us, the ones Ida had alluded to.

 

As if to bear me out, Jack asked, “You don’t mean you would try to let those Plieades people in to pollute, do you?”

 

“Jack, I don’t know exactly who you are getting your information from, but Plieades removes pollution. They cleaned up our 10,000 acres back in the Delmarva area when nobody else would touch it because of all the toxic waste at the military base.”

 

“Miss, Prue was it? You seem to know a lot about Plieades Resources. What’s your interest?”

 

“Well, as I said, they cleaned up the military base we bought for development. We, my sisters and I and our husbands, own EWF Enterprises. In turn, EWF owns the Delmarva Mills Mall, Legends of the Past theme park, and a special Section, Little Kids Kamp where young people can live a relaxed Kids life, without modern distractions such as television, and until after dinner with their parent, the internet or cells phones and the like. And EWF also owns a number of other businesses around the US, England, Australia and New Zealand.”

 

I noticed she carefully did not admit to owning PR. She went on, “We were very careful to check on PR’s operation. Their toxic customers load the PR trucks, and there might be some dust or spills there. The trucks have never leaked, even when shot at, and nobody has ever found any toxic escapes from the plants, despite claims to the contrary. The outputs are chemically pure to the limits of detection. Any toxic materials leaving the plants are purer forms of the same substances being produced and sold by some of the big chemical firms a few miles north. They are in great demand from labs around the world. And nothing toxic leaves the plant except in triple walled railroad tank cars.”

 

“The misinformation you are getting is put out by competitors who are being put out of business by our operation … ” “Oops, I think I just let the cat out of the bag,” “… s. And at far lower costs and with a far cleaner operation.”

 

Jack was sharp. “Uh, Holly, did you say ‘our’?”

 

My face, which had, I think, turned pink at my slip, got hotter, and as Misty teased me later, got redder. “Yes Jack. Some of those other operations Prue alluded to include Plieades Resources. We’re just trying to clean up the mistakes of our ancestor’s dirty work, as well as our own generation’s excesses.”

 

“To get back to the original question,” Misty put in. She and Shelly had been conferring while Prue and I had Jack’s attention. “How much would they want to sell the entire operation, lock stock and barrel?”

 

“You mean the entire 500 plus acres? I don’t know. They’ve never talked about selling all of it. And do you know how much it is going to take to make it usable?”

 

“Not exactly, no. But believe me, we can afford it. Jack, you know me. Would you trust me with the key to the place while you go to the office and confer with your clients?”

 

“I can do that from here. The Harison clan, one ‘r’, live in Delaware.”

 

“Would that be George, Mary, Roger, and Jane, well, Harison was her name before she married, Harison?”

 

“What? You know them?”

 

“I did say we operated out of the Delmarva area. That’s where Delaware, Maryland and Virginia come together. George is on the school board where we live, and Mary is on the city council. And we know all of them socially.” Shelly was all excited. “Why don’t you let me deal with them while you show the others what we are buying.”

 

Jack looked stunned, but gave her George’s phone number, though in fact, she already had it.

 

We quickly found that the house was immaculate, fully furnished, even to toys in the bedrooms they kept for their grandchildren All the non-perishables had been removed from the kitchen, pantries, yes, two pantries, and storeroom. And we’d already seen that the ground had been kept up.

 

When we came back downstairs, Shelly announced, “I think you just earned yourself a million dollars for your morning’s work, Mr. Palmer. They’ve agreed to sell the whole shebang for 17 million.”

 

“Not bad for an hour’s work, Jack. I’ll tell you what. You have a lot of influence here. Why don’t you and a few friends fly back to Baltimore, and do some investigating of PR? Talk to the people who live there, the county people, and I’m sure you will be able to give you a plant tour. I’ll tell Scotty to be expecting you. He’s the main plant manager and Plieades Troubleshooter. Oh, and he was also the one came up with the idea of the bank’s atrium and layout you like so much.”

 

“I think I can afford to take you up on that now. How soon do you want to close?”

 

“As soon as we can, but I realize it might take some time to get everything taken care of, as many restrictions as have to be met,” I replied. “Jack, thanks a million … I guess that’s literally, isn’t it?” Thanks for being so honest with us.”

 

“You know me, I would be anyway. But it’s the law, too. I found out all that after I started studying the deeds, before I posted the places for sale.”

 

“Keep being honest. How many of your competitors would have been that open about it?”

 

“Hey, we’re not used … I think most of them would be. Not all, but most.. But seriously, what do you need from me now? I guess from the size of the commission you mentioned, that I’m working for you, as well as the Harisons? I guess I will need you to sign some papers then. How many of you are there?”

 

“It is a big family,” Misty told him. “But Holly has power of attorney to handle money matters like this.”

 

Jack’s jaw sort of dropped. “She can handle a seventeen million dollar deal all by herself?”

 

“No, not the main deal, but I thought you were talking about the agency paperwork.”

* * * * * *

Time passes

Things began moving pretty quickly after that, but resolving some of the restrictions took some time. Jack chartered a small plane and flew the County Board back to view the Delmarva facility and talk to anyone they wanted to, and changed their minds. It was in his best interest, too, as removing the restrictions would open up a number of other possible sales that had been held up by them. Now all we needed was an OK to build a Plieades plant close by.

 

When the hearing came up with the city and county over allowing permits to allow Plieades Resources to build a plant on the edge of the land we were buying, it turned into a media circus. So many local citizens wanted to be there, that it needed to be moved to the civic auditorium.

As both the only local resident who also officially represented Plieades, I was on one side of the stage with other supporters such as Jack, and the opposition was across from us at another row of tables.

 

It was pretty much an open and shut case as far as the city council and County board of Supervisors were concerned, after their visits to several of our existing facilities. But arrayed against us were lobbyists from our competition, and local citizens who apparently had listened to them.

My eye was caught by one of the opposition, who was introduced as Christopher Scott. My mind wandered as I remembered a long time friend by that name I’d lost track of some time back. Chris had been one of my closest friends, ‘face it, girl, one of your only friends’. While neither of us was a great athletes, we has enjoyed participating in pickup games, whether it was just the two of us, or enough for official sized teams.

 

But where Chris had breezed through high school, just missing being valedictorian, I had struggled. I know now that I’d had the smarts, but I’d let my gender issues distract me from applying myself.

 

Thankfully, my four years in the Navy had straightened me out before I returned to studying after deciding not to go career.

 

Chris had gone on to the Air Force Academy, and the last I’d heard from him, was a Lt. General serving in the Middle East.

 

The more I looked at him, the more I began to hope that this was my old friend, and I decided to look him up after the meeting broke up.

 

Nothing was settled that evening, except to decide to hold a number of daytime meetings to let the two sides hash things out.

 

The kids were back at Shelly’s as we’d expected this to drag out a bit, so I joined them for the night before going back to the bank for half a day the next day. Thursday I planned to stay in the townhouse in case it dragged on late again.

 

Surprisingly, it didn’t. But rather than change my plans, I decided to stay home and get plenty of rest. It was almost bedtime back east, and the previous night I hadn’t got there until the kids were in bed, anyway.

 

I relaxed for a bit, then went out for a late dinner by myself. My reservation at my favorite restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown was honored, but when the place filled up, the waiter asked if I would mind if he seated another woman with me.. When I acquiesced, he brought an older woman and seated her. When she looked across the table at me, I saw a flicker of dismay cross her face, and wondered why. Then I took a second look, and realized she looked fam … “Chris …tine?” I blurted without thinking. The last part was a guess, but somehow, I knew this was my old friend.

 

There was no doubting the dismay on her face, and I was dismayed at what I’d said, too. ‘How do I explain that I’m forty years younger all of a sudden?’

 

“How did you know?” she finally got out. ‘I was sure nobody around here knew about Christine. And I don’t recognize you at all, except from sitting across the table from you. You’re Miss Hart, aren’t you?”.”

 

“Yes, That’s me. And your last name is, or sometimes is Hart, too.” I made it a statement, not a question. I’ve known Chris a lot longer than you would believe if I told you. And I can’t tell you about it here. I promise to tell you all about it if you can hold your questions till after dinner. And I want to hear your story, too. It doesn’t look as if you were planning to go back to your hotel right away?”

 

We were both itching to talk things over, and once our dinners arrived, rushed through them, not giving them the attention due them. Do you trust a member of the opposition enough to go with me? Or do you have a car of your own stuck in a garage?”

 

“No, I came by taxi.” Chris/Christine followed me back to the elevator at the back of the restaurant. Downstairs Chris was amazed to find my pony in a tiny sub-basement garage. And then she recognized the car. “What? How? I know that car, but how did you get it? … You’re too young to …”

 

“I knew you were sharp. Christine, I’ve known you since we were both wearing three cornered pants.”

 

“No way in … It can’t be. You’re at least 30 years too young. And I know you never cross-dressed.”

 

“I could have said the same thing, but we’re both wrong, aren’t we?” Since we hadn’t gotten into the car yet, I gave her a big hug. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk, Colonel.” I added the last just to make sure Christine knew I knew exactly who she was.

 

Once in Lady Galadriel, I pressed a button and the door rolled up so we could get out. “I’m not going to ask how you rate a private parking spot here. But how?”

 

As we drove back to my place, I told Christine everything, and though she didn’t want to believe it, no other explanation fit. “Occam’s Razor*,” she finally said when she came up for air.

 * The explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.

In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions. Or, until proven wrong, accept the simplest explanation.

 

Before we had parked, I made my mind. “Christine, I can prove it to you, right now. Would you like to visit a Plieades facility and see for yourself what we’ve been telling you.”

 

“But how? There’s no time.”

 

“Magic, I told you.” Fifteen minutes later we were on the East Coast. While getting to my jump space, I’d called poor Scotty and got him out of bed to meet us at the plant.

 

“Scotty is our expert. He knows as much about the overall operation of every plant as anyone,” I explained as I introduced them to each other.

 

“Scotty, this is my cousin, Christine Hart, Christine, Scotty Bishop.. “Scotty, I want you to give Christine the deluxe tour. Not the nickel tour, or the twenty cent tour. Make it a least a five dollar tour.”

 

Poor Scotty decided not to even go to bed, as his regular shift started in only two hours. But his openness in showing Christine everything converted her. She’d seen how we kept everything spotless. The sealed trucks drove in and were emptied over grates where anything that spilled was washed down and into a converter. And everything else came in by pipeline.

“I can’t tell you how the converters work,” Scotty was honest. “I can’t figure out the principles myself. All I know is that it’s not like with computers. “Garbage in, no garbage out.”

 

When we got back to California, it was barely one AM. “I’m not going to seduce you, but you’re welcome to stay at my place if you’d like. It’ll save you some travel, at least.”

* * * * * *

After two days of acrimonious debate, Chris surprised everyone but me by standing up and stating, “All of the figures my side has been giving you are fiction. Puffery intended to sway your votes.” Turning to the chief of the opposition, “I dare you to show us any facts to put behind your lies. Go visit any of their facilities and take any measurement equipment you want. You won’t find any pollution, unless you bring it in yourself.”

 

“You’re fired!” The leader didn’t seem to realize he was making it obvious that the opposition was all paid help to back their stories. Chris made that obvious, by pointing it out, naming each of the committee who were in the pay of our competitors, and one by one, naming who their true employers were.

 

The talks were recessed for 3 days, and when they resumed, all of the people he’d pointed out were not there. The rest of the opposition was disorganized, finding itself dependent on statistics we had been calling lies all along.. When it was recessed after two hours, it went back to a combined meeting of the Board of Supervisors and City Council the following week.

 

Chris wasn’t bothered at all. “They were just using me and my prestige, and suckered me as much as they did the rest. I certainly don’t need their money.”

 

“I’m sure we can make it worth your while to attend similar meetings. …”

 

“No, I can live without your money too. But I’m going to do it anyway because I’m so ashamed I got caught out. I’m beginning to see that the reason I was elected to the boards of directors of several of your opponents, was to be a figurehead, silently endorsing their lies by my silence.

 

By this time I had heard his/her whole story. It had both many parallels, and differences from my own. We’d both suffered in silence, fearful of losing our best buddy if we said anything. We’d both entered the service at nearly the same time, but Chris’ better grades and loftier target had let him go places I could never dream of. As a trained flight surgeon, put through medical school by the Air Force, Chris had learned a lot more than I has about transgender than I had, and as an officer had more privacy to be Christine than I ever had in the Navy. Even so, he was taking a chance, but it had paid off. Also, For Chris, it began and ended with crossdressing. He had no intention of ever transitioning and especially not going all the way.

 

That being the case, I didn’t tell him what we could do for him, and let him believe I was a surgical transsexual, rather then a real woman. After a couple of days, I was able to find out where we planned to build more facilities, and pass that along. With “Keep in touch!’ coming from both of us, I wondered how long it would be before I saw either Chris, or Christine again.

* * * * * *

In the meantime, we were coming together as a family. Dean and Heather Rose were best friends. Heather remembered the Ida of old, but as he’d wished, Dean no longer did. The next weekend we didn’t go to Shelly’s, as it was time for my periodic checks of the family businesses on ‘The Street of Dreams’ as I call it in my mind. Sure, I know the real name, but we do not want to attract a lot of lookie-loos.

 

As the family businesses in Delmarva started to take more and more time, Jenna, Amelia and Prue had needed to turn more and more of the day to day operation of their shops over to hired management and employees. So I went in to look for any funny business in the books. The kids stayed at their Auntie Jenna’s Toy Shop, R & J Toys, in the back room out of the way. Jenna and I had agreed that she would have some new toys set out and they would be ‘official toy testers’ while I was busy.

 

When I was finished with my audits, I stopped at Amelia’s for the usual ‘surprise’ I always got, then went across the street to pick up the kids. Until the weather got bad, we always went down the street to the park to eat, after a stop at Bob’s Café to pick up the hot meals they always prepared for me. I always did my last audit at the cafe, so I could place my order when I finished and know it would be hot and fresh, not cold and stale, or not finished, when we came for it.

 

I took my time eating, knowing that the kids had a lot of pent up energy to burn off. When they finished their sandwiches and potato salads, I let them go. I worked on the papers and files I had collected, looking up every minute or so to check on the kids.

 

After a bit I saw Heather Rose walking over to look over the shoulder of an old woman who appeared to be sketching on a large pad of paper. After a moment of looking at her I realized I had seen her there before. I decided to stop working and put all of my attention on her. Heather Rose seemed fascinated by whatever she was looking at. I was just about to go over and see for myself, when the woman put everything in a large shoulder bag, got up and walked away.

* * * * *

We went on back home, with at least half our weekend remaining, and I took the kids out to see a movie, since in California, it was still early.

 

The next day, Shelly and Misty came out and met us at the house. Maggie, Baruchah and Steffie came with Shelly so they could see my kids, ‘MY kids’, I still couldn’t get over it. From being alone, to a family of 3 in less than a week, and now we’d had three months to become even closer. “Steffie, you’re the oldest, so you’re in charge. Keep an eye on your cousins, and most particularly on your sisters while we’re looking around,” Shelly charged her.

 

“It looks as if we can close this week, maybe as early as Tuesday,” Misty informed me as the kids were going off to explore.

* * * * * *

Many weeks after Racinne had dumped the powders on it, and lit them, a small form appeared on the dry mountainside in the shade of a tall wide spreading tree whose glossy, yet dusty leaves prevented sunburn and dehydration for several hours. The form opened its eyes at a strange snuffling sound, seeing a lean tawny shape wrinkling its nose at the strange odors. The tawny beast would take a step closer, then as the odors became too strong it would back away a step or two, only to repeat the process a moment later.

 

The form tried to move, to say anything, but barely stirred. However, the movement was enough, when combined with the odors to make up the shape’s mind. The puma would look for its next meal elsewhere.

 

The form moved again near sunset, not knowing it was already over twenty four hours since its arrival on the dry hillside. Eventually it was able to sit up. But by the time it could stand, the sun had set. It wrapped the long shroud around itself for warmth, vaguely happy that it had it, just as vaguely wondering where it was. Off in the distance, downhill, it could hear the occasional sound of traffic, but did not know it for what it was. At one point it saw the bright flash of headlights. Wobbling in that direction, barely able to stay on its feet for more than a few steps, it headed toward the light.

 

The tenth or eleventh time it tripped over an unseen obstacle, it sat once more, lucky not to have been hurt worse by falling over a cliff, for the only light was starlight and a little bit to the right of where the sun had set, the skyglow of a city. Wrapping the cloth around itself, it went to sleep between two boulders.

 

Sunlight came again, and the determined little figure wobbled down the hill again, eventually reaching a small, make that, a tiny stream, for it was only as wide as the baby’s hand. Still, the child was thirsty, and knew that it needed this water, for it was very thirsty and hungry. The water would not help both, but at least would take care of its thirst.

 

Its thirst satisfied, the tiny form resumed its trek. Eventually, though it was still just mid-morning, it reached the road it had seen, just as a troop of children, all of them larger than the form, approached the spot. For a moment, the small child didn’t know whether to go to them, or hide, finally settling on the latter, dropping to the ground at the base of a small tree.

* * * * * *

The redheaded twins were ranging ahead of the others, but not so far that Steffie had to worry about them. But she had to call them back once in a while so Heather Rose could point out a new plant to them, for the west coast plants were far different from those where they lived.

 

Steffie saw them stop, turning their heads back and forth, She heard a faint “Eeeuuuuw! Sompin small bad,” and hurried forward, afraid they’d found some poor unfortunate animal that had been hit by a car, and fallen to the ground off the road, mortally injured.

 

Before she reached the twins, she smelled what they had smelled. It was horrible, whatever it was. “Baruchah! Maggie! Stay where you are. Don’t move!” She motioned to Heather and Dean to stop where they were, too. She turned back to the twins before she could see that her motion had been misinterpreted.

 

It wasn’t until she reached her siblings that Steffie recognized the smell, or smells. There was a strong odor of brimstone, and underlying it, the smell only a trained mind could detect. The odor of black magic!

 

Quickly gathering her sisters, she turned to go to where she’d left her cousins, only to bump into Heather Rose, who asked, “What’s that smell? It’s kinda like fireworks, but worse. It was Dean who spotted the small white form as it got to its feet and came towards them.

 

Steffie was about to grab the kids and run when she saw a small innocent face peeking from the dirty white cloth. Her powers, unlike her cousins and sisters, were such that she was able to discern the true innocence of the child despite the overlying miasma of evil. “”Don’t move, any of you!” she ordered the tribe for which she was responsible.

 

It took a lot of will power to approach the little figure, which stopped and sat down as she approached. Somehow though, the sense of innocence grew stronger more quickly than the evil. As she was about thirty feet away, she saw that the lower portion of whatever she, somehow Steffie knew it was a little girl, was wearing, was tinged with red.

 

Abandoning her caution, Steffie ran to her, “What are you doing here? Who are you? Where are your mommy and daddy?” The questions poured from her so fast that the poor child really didn’t have time to answer. When she got to “Where are you from?” the child pointed up the hill, and looking in the direction she pointed, Steffie was able to make out marks on the dusty ground where her ‘rags?’ had been dragging.

 

She took out her phone. “Mom. Come here, quick!” before she could say more there was a quiet ‘pop!’ as Shelly arrived, trying to look in all directions at once, before her nose and witch senses centered her attention on the form in her daughter's arms. “Steffie, put that down and get away! I thought you knew how to identify black magic.”

 

“Yes, but I’m sure she is innocent. The black magic was used against her.”

 

“She?” Shelly slowed down and took a good look. “I think you’re right,” she apologized. “But where did she come from? Who is she?” She began to ask many of the same questions Steffie had.

 

“Mom! The questions can wait till later. She needs help. All I know is she said she came from up there. And something tells me we had better not use magic to move her. Something is dreadfully wrong here.”

 

Shelly took another look and agreed. Taking out her own phone, she called Holly, “Sis? We need you to come here at once … No, In your pony. We have a badly injured little girl, injured with black magic, so we can’t just take her to you. Yes, the kids are all here and they’re all okay. Get moving, sis!”

* * * * * *

When I got the call from Shelly, I ran for the car, yelling back to Prue and Misty, “No time to explain. Shelly needs me fast!” As I got in the car, I realized I didn’t know where Shelly was, but I did know which way the kids had gone, so I headed east.

 

 Over a mile from the house, I spotted them, and with them, Misty and Prue. I was just reaching the point where I could move myself anywhere I wanted to go, but not yet powerful enough to take anything with me.

 

As I pulled to a stop, they came rushing to me. Shelly piled in the shotgun seat and turned to accept a bundle of rags from Steffie. “Ok, step on it. We’re taking her to your place.”

 

‘Her? My place? Oh yes, my place?’ Before I could ask anything I punched it and did a half a donut, because the road was too marrow for a U-turn.”

 

Shelly anticipated my question, ignoring the fancy turn I hadn’t done since I was a teen, what was it, forty years ago? “I’m not sure what happened, but someone used black magic on her, and we don’t want to take a chance moving her magically. It’s the magic that makes me not want to move her magically until we can check her out. And for the same reason, we can’t take her to a hospital. Prue and Misty will meet us at your place. Misty didn’t bring her bag. She said she had everything out of it, doing an inventory. She and Prue will have everybody meet us at your place, and Gina will make sure all Misty’s stuff is there, too.”

 

“What’s that smell?” I finally asked, hoping it wouldn’t permeate Lady G’s interior forever.

 

“That’s right. You’re only just finished with Spells 101. That, my dear, is brimstone. Mostly sulfur, but mixed with a lot of other things I haven’t tried to identify, and it was all used on this poor innocent young lady.”

 

I made record time, thanks to Shelly using a spell to make us invisible to the eyes of the law, even the radar gun one cop was using. When we stopped, Shelly waited for me to get out, handed me the odiferous bundle, and grabbed my keys from my hand, “I’ll get the door.”

 

When Shelly let me in, I found that she was right. My town house, cozy for one or two, a tight squeeze for three, now held almost two dozen, well, a dozen and a half or so. The nine of us who had gathered earlier, and all the rest of my sisters, plus a couple of Shelly’s older girls. Poor Dean found himself the lone male, till Shelly noticed and asked, “Would you like to go to my place and be with your cousins? She hesitated, looking at HR, who shook her head.

 

When Shelly looked speculatively at the imp twins, they knew instinctively what she was thinking. “Awww, Mom! We finded her,” they chorused in unison

 

Shelly relented, “OK, Dean, it looks as if you have to go on your own.” Prue was already talking to Alysson on her cell, to warn her of Dean’s imminent arrival. She looked at Shelly, who nodded as she pointed at Dean, and shook her head when she pointed at the twins. A moment later, Dean was gone, to the sound of a faint pop.

 

Misty and Gina were already examining the young girl, and we were sure by then that it was a girl, when Angel arrived. They quickly verified that the thing she seemed to need most was water, followed by nourishment, even before they went to work on her shredded feet. By the time she had some milk and soup she was falling asleep.

* * * * * *

Racinne’s fourth mistake , due to her limited French, had been mispronouncing a gender specific word, creating a two year old girl, instead of a two year old boy. You see, she only took enough French to learn approximately how to pronounce the words.

* * * * * *

As she slept, Gina and Misty cleaned her feet and put a potion on them that would heal them quickly. Then we all began trying to determine what had happened to her. I was beginning to gain more power, and working with my sisters, could feel almost everything they did.

 

Of course we all felt the wrongness of the black magic, but we got a real shock when we realized that until two days before, this young girl had been a young man!

 

I began to lose the thread when they got to the subtleties. More investigation convinced them that he, had been a she inside, a transsexual like us, but try as they might, they found no signs of Age Dysphoria such as had bothered my daughter.

 

We could get no further, so Shelly asked most of them to go back home so there would be less confusion when she woke.

* * * * * *

I think I was the only one alert when she woke in late afternoon. When I saw her stirring, I went over, kneeling beside the couch. When she opened her eyes and looked at me, she gave me great big smile. Wiggling her arms out form under the blankets we’d put over her and reached out her arms. “Mommy?”

 

‘Oh no!’ But I put a smile on my face, “Helloooo, pretty girl. What’s your name?”

 

I thought I saw a flicker of confusion in her eyes, but it was gone almost instantly. “Mommy,’ she burbled happily. Then, “Shannon Michelle.”

 

“Shannon Michelle,” I repeated. “Do you want me to be your mommy, Shannon?”

 

The smile she gave me would have melted the Antarctic ice cap.

 

“An eight year old, a five year old, and now a two year old.” Shelly said from behind me. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

 

What?”

 

“It means you have about 3 months to find the right man to continue the 3 year progression.”

 

“Eeep!”

* * * * * *

Finis

* * * * * *

There will be more to the story of Holly, her kids, and the little kids camp.

I’m not sure if that is a threat, or a promise.

 

 

Maggie the Kitten Grows Up

 

by Holly H Hart


 

Maggie, who was known to her closest friends as Maggie the Kitten, now a tall beautiful young woman, woke with a smile on her face. As she opened her eyes the feeling didn’t go away, but it was joined by another feeling. The redheaded Miss O’Malley sometimes had the sight, from her Irish ancestors. Usually, though, she knew what was about to happen, unless it was going to happen to her. In that case, as now, all she had was a premonition, but if she was happy, she knew that whatever was happening would be good.

After she’d fixed and eaten breakfast, she got on her bike for the ride to work, but rather than taking the shortest route, something seemed to be drawing her in a different direction. Remembering her premonition, she followed her feeling, until it led her to the train station. After carefully locking her bike in a rack, she entered the station just in time for the arrival of one of the few passenger trains that still came to the city, for like all cities, train travel was way down, if not non-existent. “I wonder who I know would be coming in by train?’

She kept a sharp eye out, which wasn’t difficult, as only a dozen or so people got off the train. She looked carefully at all of them, but didn’t recognize any of them. Just before the train started to pull out, a tall man jumped down to the platform, dragging a wheeled suitcase behind him. As the train pulled out, he just stood there, looking puzzled. Seeing her looking at him, he called to her, “Oh, Miss? What city is this?”

Puzzled at the strange question, Maggie moved a bit closer, and told him. His next words puzzled her even more, “I was sound asleep when I woke up and something told me to get off the train right away. You don’t suppose something awful is going to happen to the train, do you?”

Maggie thought back to her feeling when she woke up. “No, I don’t believe anyhthing bad is going to happen today.”

“Say, you don’t happen to know where I could get a good breakfast around here, do you?”

That, Maggie had an answer for. Quickly she gave him directions to Ameilia’s Meals. “Be sure to try the muffins. They’re the best in the world.”

After the man left, Maggie hung around a bit longer, but the feeling was growing weaker, and she didn’t see anyone she knew. A bit puzzled, she got back on her bike and went to work.

After work, she decided to go see her mother, because if anyone could help her figure it out, it would be the woman she still thought of as Mommy, or her sisterAunt Jenna, whose store was just down the street.
When she reached the store, her mother’s face lit up. “There you are. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“But Mom, you know I never get off work any earlier than this! And why were you waiting for me?”

“I have some special delivery magic for someone, and I want you to help me deliver it.” Shelly picked up pair of white boxes, which she handed to Maggie as they went out the door. Once the door had been locked, she took one back. “Follow me, Dear.”

Their first stop was none other than Aunt Jenna’s ‘Jumping Jacks Toy Store’. Mystified, Maggie followed her mother towards the back. “You wait right there, Darling, while I talk to Sis.”

Maggie felt a bit foolish standing there holding the white box, especially when from around the far side of a rack, came the stranger she’d spoken to at the train station. But at least she didn’t have to stumble around thinking of something to say. “How did you like your breakfast? Wasn’t it as good as I said it was?”

“No. It wasn’t.” The man’s words surprised Maggie so much she dropped the box she was holding.

“It was much better than that,” he added with a laugh as he dove for the two toned green tennis ball that bounced out of the box when it hit the floor.

Maggie also dove after it, recognizing it, sort of. When they both reached it, they sort of slid together until their noses were just inches apart, on opposite sides of the ball. “Mmmmm! Smells good,” the man said, and almost instantly began to shrink. Maggie also got a good whiff of the ball, and found the shop growing around her. Both of them lost their grip on the ball, for furry paws aren’t built to hold onto things like that.

Maggie and the stranger played keep-away, giving each other gentle, claws in slaps whenever it looked as if the other was going to gain full possession of the two toned green ball. It wasn’t long before they both tired, and seeing a fuzzy yellow pillow, the two kittens curled up and went to sleep.

It was dark outside when they woke. Maggie woke first. She had been through this before, so it was just a game to her, but she wondered what the stranger had thought when he found he was a kitten.

After they’d both had a good stretch, Cathleen picked them up and carried them into the back room, where Jenna and Shelly were waiting. “Put them on the floor, Cathleen,” Mommy Shelly told her.

When they were on their feet, looking up at Shelly towering over them, she tossed a new ball to them. This one was bright pink. The other kitten got to it first, took a deep sniff, then sneezed.

As if the sneeze had been a signal, the kitten began to grow, and in seconds, was a young girl, appearing to be just about the same age as Maggie was whenever Shelly let her use magic to return to being a five year old. In fact, when the ball rolled over to her, and Maggie sniffed, she also grew into her five year old self.

Shelly handed Cathleen another ball, and in no time there were three preschoolers looking at each other. Of course, Cathleen and Maggie had been through this many times before, so it was no big thing to them. But, “What is ...” the other little girl stopped speaking for a minute, and looked down at herself.

“What’s going on? Have you drugged me? A bit ago I thought I was a kitten, and now, a little girl?” She looked as if she wanted to break into tears, her lower lip quivering as she tried to hold them back.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to be a little girl?” Shelly asked, kneeling to get down the her level.

The tyke suddenly looked fearful. “You don’t have to be afraid to tell us anything. Maggie used to be a man, and then became a woman, and with my magic, can be a little girl anytime she wants to.” She held out her arms, and the youngster tentatively took a couple of steps towards her.
“Magic?”

“Yes, I am what some would call a witch, but a good witch. I make things that help people become what they want to be, if that is something good, that is. I knew you were coming, and made a special charmed ball to help you find your dream. I made it special, so that Maggie, who has more familiarity with this sort of thing, could share it with you.”

“Maggie, is that the young lady who came into the shop, and turned into a kitten with me?”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

The new little girl turned towards the other who had been a second kitten such a short time before, “You’re Maggie!” It was a statement, not a question. “You’re the young lady who told me where to find something to eat, aren’t you? Is this really, real?”

Maggie came over to her and took her hand. “Yes’s. Me Maggie. What your name?”

“Holl .... Holl ... Holly. That’s not right, it’s Holly.” She looked startled, and stopped. “I guess it must be ... Holly. Mark isn’t a girl’s name, is it?”

“Holly!” Maggie pulled her close as Shelly let her go, so Maggie could hug her. In a second, Cathleen had joined the group hug. “Holly, this’s my cuzn, Cafleen.”

“Hi, Cafleen. Tha’s’a funny name. Cafleen.”

“Silly, it Cathleen. Cafleen is just the way Maggie say it.”

“Come girl’s, it’s time to go eat. Aunt Jenna has already gone down to Bob’s Cyber Café to get dinner. Let Holly guess first, girls. Can you guess what it is, Holly?”

The little girl looked bewildered, and shook her head.

“Can’I hint her Mommy?” Maggie asked.

Shelly nodded, knowing Maggie already knew. “What do you get in a box this big?” She held her hands further apart than her shoulders, “ ‘n this thick.”
She held her finger and thumb about an inch and a half apart.

“Pizza?” “PIZZA! The other two girls echoed her.

"I think we’d better get home. But first, maybe you should all grow older. Maggie, you have to take you bicycle home, and you’re too little to ride it that way. And Holly, you’ll need to be bigger to pull your suitcase.” She motioned at the balls, one of which was half bright red, and half a deep purple.

Cathleen was first, and was soon a fetching blonde goddess, the type any high school aged boy dreamed about. Maggie was next. Having lots of experience with this sort of magic, she sniffed the ball and returned to being the young woman she had been when she’d entered the store.

Then Holly sniffed, becoming a raven haired beauty about Maggie’s age. Shelly locked the door after them before leading them to her sister’s home.

At Aunt Jenna’s, Shelly held out the boxes she had been carrying, and soon three preschoolers were waiting impatiently for their promised treat. When Aunt Jenna came through the door carrying the large flat box from Bob’s Cyber Café, she was greeted with ‘PIZZA!” from the mouths of three pretty, freshly scrubbed little girls.

Not much later, the box was empty. Jenna and her sister were still only halfway through with their second slices, but the rest of the pizza was gone, most having gone in, but some on, three smiling faces. Before long, Maggie looked up at the adults, asking, “May we be excused to go play?”

At Jenna’s nod, the three burst from their chairs, only to be stopped, “As soon as your faces and hands are clean.” Seemingly only moments later, the three presented themselves for inspection. Jenna excused Cathleen and Holly, but held Maggie for a second while she dipped a napkin in the glass of water to remove the tiniest bit of pizza sauce from the tip of Maggie’s nose.

While the two girls who had always been girls, today, anyway, showed Holly around the house, Jenna and Shelly were deep in thought, discussing the day’s events. Eventually Shelly looked at the clock, startled to see how late it was. “Girls!” she called out.

When the three well behaved, slightly exhausted little girls were once more in the dining room, she announced, “I’m afraid it is bedtime for three pretty young ladies. And Holly, you will need to decide where you are going to spend the night, but I think you should grow up again before making that decision.”

Shelly first held out the box with the ball that had changed Maggie and Holly. And once more, Maggie was a tall, stunning looking red haired young woman.

However, when Holly sniffed the purple side, she did not turn into the black haired beauty she had been on her arrival. Nor did she turn into the older man who had arrived by train that morning. Instead, a handsome young man about Maggie’s age, still with the shiny coal black hair, stood before them.

“Holly?’ Maggie asked tentatively.

Looking down at himself, the young man replied, “I think you had better call me Mark.”

On the way home, Shelly explained to Mark about how the magic balls could let the person for whom they were intended choose whether to be a child or someone of an older age, depending on their desires. And how they could also let someone who felt that they had been born in a body of the wrong sex, choose which sex they wanted to be.

“And the other ball lets you be your animal spirit. We’re both kittens. Isn’t that nice?” Maggie added, then went on, “But Mommy, you said the other ball would be pink for a girl or blue for a boy?” Shelly nodded. Knowing that would be enough, as they were under a streetlight.

Mommy, this was special magic ball, wasn’t it, half for me and half for Holly ... Mark?” When Shelly nodded again, Maggie went on. “Well, pink is for a little girl, like when I’m lttle girl Maggie, and red for like now. And way back, didn’t you tell me that blue was for a little boy?”

“Yes, Darling, powder blue.”

“Well, Mark part of the ball was pink when Shelly first gave it to us. But just now, shouldn’t it have been deep blue then, for an older boy?”

As they reached their own home, Shelly unlocked the front door as she replied, “Yes, it should have, But somehow, I suspect that when Holly is a little girl, it wasn’t really a deep blue, is it?”

“No, uh ... Shelly? May I call you Shelly?” Mark asked, then went on before she could answer, “It was purple, deep royal purple.”

“Uh, huh, I saw it that way, too.” Maggie sounded concerned.

“You could see Holly’s .. Mark’s half of the ball? Shelly asked her. “Oh, I see. You’re afraid that it might turn you into a boy? Don’t worry. Only his half of the ball will work on him, and your half on you. But you’re not supposed to be able to see his half, nor should he see yours, except as grayish white.”

“No, Momma" ?"No, Shelly,” Both of the young people tried to talk at once.

“What color was it, Mark?”

“Well, the first time, it was pink all over, like you said. And again, when we were both young ladies, like Maggie is now.” But whenever I was a ... a ... a little girl, half of it was red, and the other half, purple, never red or deep blue.”

“That’s sort of what I expected. Even though I’m the witch, I can’t see the magic colors. And the two of you shouldn’t be able to see each other’s half of the ball, either.”

“Mommy, I could see Mark’s half, too, and it was purple. Why did you make one ball half and half? You’ve never done that before, have you?”

“No, I haven’t But for some reason, something made me try it this morning. It is all the same, except for the spell, which split in two somehow as I cast it. And somehow, Holly’s spirit can choose whether to be a young woman or a young man when little girl Holly is growing older.” Shelly stopped for a moment, “Before, when you first saw the ball, was it half pink and half lavender?”

Both young people shook their heads. Mark nodded at Maggie, who answered for both of them, “No, Mom. It was pink, all over.”

“Interesting. .. .But then when you are both little girls, Holly’s side is purple. .... hmmmm ...”

There was a moment of silence. .... “Since Holly can decide whether to become grown up Holly, or grown up Mark, when she is little girl Holly, that could cause problems. Somehow, you must learn to control it to become whomever you consciously need to be when growing older.”

“Does this mean I can never become myself again?”

“Yourself, dear? You are yourself. Do you mean that you might want to become that rather tired man who came into town on the train? I suppose you could, but do you really want to become him?”

Mark pondered for a bit. “No, I suppose not, really .... except, there are some things I should do, maybe. I mean, if I’m going to become this me, or, those other me’s ...” Mark’s face seemed to light up as he said the latter, “There are things I should do to make it easier on the people I left behind. I was running away to think about things, but I never meant to leave people behind who will worry about me ...”

“Don’t worry, Dear. The magic works all over, not just on you. If you decide you want to be this Mark, or either of the Holly’s you were tonight, those you left behind will either not remember you at all, or remember you fondly, as someone they once knew. Even your enemies, if you had any, will only remember you as someone they once knew, someone whom they never need worry about again. And the ticket you used to come here? It will never appear on any records. So, do you really want to become that older Mark again?”

Mark looked at the two women seated in the front room with him. “No, I don’t think so. But what do I call you? I don’t think I want to call you Mommy, or Mom, like Maggie does.”

“No, I don’t suppose you would, at least, not yet. ...” Shelly chuckled, and after a moment as they caught on, Maggie and Mark both turned as pink as the ball would appear to them the next time they saw it. “I suppose you could call me Aunt Shelly, but you are old enough to just call me Shelly, if you would rather.”

Maggie turned towards this interesting new person who had come into her life. “Which would you rather be, Holly, or Mark when you are this old?”

“I think I’d rather be ...”

Finis

Holly Afterword

I wrote this story for Maggie, before the first time I met her. I was going to present her with a pair of tennis balls the same color as the ones in her 'The Kitten Tail'.

Have you ever tried to find pink and emerald tennis balls? How about old fashioned gray ones that might, just might, be dyed the right color?
I had some of the day-glo greenish yellow ones and tried to bleach the color out so I could dye them. N0 Go. The color is part of whatever the fuzz is made from.

I'd about given up, when I found a pair of two toned tennis balls in a pet shop, and suddenly, the story came alive.

As Maggie was reading the story, I presented the two tennis balls to her, each smelling of the appropriate odor, chocolate/vanilla for chocolate chip cookies, and catnip.

The story was also written carefully to fit both with 'The Kitten Tail' and with 'The Girl Who Touched the Stars', the original version.

I had a lot of fun writing it, presenting it to Maggie, and I hope you did, too.