The aftermath of Marissa’s transformation has some interesting results. The Wizard explains why he can’t do anything for Randy. He gets a bit philosophical about things. Randy accepts his fate and the inevitable happens. Cindy is left with the feeling that The Wizard didn’t try hard enough.

Cindy and Bobbie’s training in the world of magic continues and we learn some interesting things about Bobbie’s ancestry. Marissa’s two thirds bimboization rekindles her love life (which wasn’t really that bad) and she has two children over the next three years, and she might have more. Bobbie’s athletic skills are coming to the front. She learns that she will never be able to use magic to give her an advantage in sports. She won’t need it. Cindy’s little sister asks her an interesting question.

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

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

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

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Chapter 8
 

Cindy and Tommy bounded down the stairs for their Sunday breakfast. The aroma of bacon and something else was almost intoxicating. Marissa was also cooking waffles and eggs. The coffee maker contained a freshly brewed pot of coffee, and the aroma was wonderful — a lot better than the taste of the coffee, as far as Cindy was concerned.

Marissa was in an especially good mood. She was wearing a light robe over what couldn’t for the moment be seen, but Cindy knew it was a see-through baby doll nightie. The robe did little to hide what was now a spectacularly well endowed body.

Tommy had been with Bobbie’s brothers the day before at a movie in the mall’s multiplex theater while the others were at The Wizard’s shop. The boys made no mention of the changes in Marissa and Cindy, nor did they seem to notice that Tommy was much blonder than he had been when they had entered the theater. As far as they were concerned, everything was perfectly normal.

Randy had finished breakfast a bit earlier, and he and Maddy were out on the deck taking in the pleasant summer morning. Maddy was watching the hummingbirds coming to the feeder. Her tail was twitching, but the birds knew she was not a threat. Once in a while one would come down and hover a few feet in front of her before going back to the feeder; however, there seemed to be an unwritten truce.

Cindy and Tommy were diving into their waffles when their dad came down the stairs. He too was in a great mood, and came up behind Marissa and gave her a kiss on the nape of her neck. He buried his nose in her beautiful blond hair, and Cindy couldn’t help but notice that his hand snuck around and lifted a beautiful breast while tweaking a prominent nipple. Marissa leaned back and accepted a kiss. “Stop that, you naughty boy,” she admonished while snuggling back into her husband, “The children ….” Cindy gave her mother a knowing look. She knew her time would come soon enough.

After the brother and sister had left the shop, The Wizard asked the group to come to the back room for some refreshments and a little discussion.

“That was certainly nice, what you did for those two,” Sally said, wiping a tear from her eye. “That was just real sweet.

“I have a feeling that this is not a store to go to, to try out as much of the merchandise as is possible,” she said while glancing at the new blonde.

“There are some things that can be arranged without serious consequences,” the Wizard advised. “Just remember the old saying ‘Be careful what you wish for.’

“The shop is no longer in the mall; however, when it is time to leave, you may go out the back door. It will open into the corridor that leads to the restrooms. Cindy has used that door several times.

“Now, about Randy, I am afraid I have some news that is not what you have hoped for. Randy’s transference to this world has some in the home office scratching their heads. As I said before, most mortals aren’t able to make the jump from one world to another. Dorothy was an exception, or at least we thought she was. But now we know she is part fairy. Pixel, the cat, is another mystery to everyone. Apparently, he doesn’t know it is impossible to do what he does, so he does it. That group that hangs out with Lazarus Long knows how to do it, but they control the method and it hasn’t reached this universe yet. If it ever does, there could be all sorts of chaos.

“It’s a moot point about how Randy got here, because he is here. The lightning and the configuration of the bridge must have weakened a spot in the continuum and Randy was at the right place at the right time. They are trying to duplicate what happened in the lab, but nothing has come of it yet.

“Unfortunately, a great deal of Randy is still of that other universe. My magic can only work on the part of him that is from this world. If I tried anything right now, he would probably end up being a pile of disassociated protein and that wouldn’t be very pleasant.

“Do you mean Randy is going to die?” Bobbie said, barely able to hold back her tears.

“My dear, the physical body always dies sooner or later. I’m not sure how old I am in accumulated years. Using the current calendar, I am over 900 years old; however, I’ve had many detours. Someday it will be time, and then I will just have to see what happens. I’m not going to worry about it.

“You are a wonderful group of people, and there are many adventures ahead for you. You have gone far beyond what anyone would have expected of you in taking Randy in. That will never be forgotten.

“Now I need to talk to Randy and Marissa in the other room.”

About ten minutes later Marissa returned pushing Randy in the wheel chair. She was expressionless as was Randy. “I think we need to go home now.”

Randy’s decline continued over the next few weeks. His tremors became worse and worse, and there were a number of occasions where he seemed to black out. His eyes were open, but he wouldn’t respond to stimulation. Other times he was alert and quite upbeat. He would say the voices were there, but that they weren’t that important anymore.

For the two weeks following the visit to the Spells-R-Us shop he was able to get around fairly well. There finally came the day when he was limited to getting from his bed to the bathroom, or his chair to the toilet. His attitude was remarkable. He and the other adults would stay up at night comparing the differences in this world from the world he came from. He had to laugh about the fact that in this world the Chicago Cubs were frequent World Series victors.

It bothered all of them that in his world the schism between the Moslem and western world was so severe. There were still many differences; however, the Moslem world had begun to accept the fact that there needed to be a separation of church and state. This was also something that the western world had picked up on, and many of the fanatical Christian sects had lost a great deal of political influence. Randy was amazed that a Catholic Pope had actually been forced to step down. He was also surprised that celibacy was considered to be strictly voluntary and not looked at as a sign of religious commitment in the Church.

The end came suddenly and much more quickly than they had expected. Randy had a severe seizure and it took several hours before he regained consciousness. From that point on there was a nurse with him at all times. The second seizure was even worse. He had left a ‘do not resuscitate’ order; however, he continued to breathe on his own.

He regained consciousness to see two tear-stained faces. “Ah, my angels are here, good. Don’t worry little ones. You have made my life worth while. This is such a wonderful world and so many wonderful things can happen.

“Death is part of reality and my dying in this world is so much better than if I had died in my old world. I think I need to go to sleep now.” He never woke up.

There was a quiet funeral where the two families said goodbye to their recently found friend. The Wizard and Wolf appeared, and Maddy and the wolf sat silently together as the coffin was lowered into the grave. No one tried to explain why the flowers never wilted and why their perfume was so strong.

Things did get back to a certain degree of normality, but Cindy was upset that this world’s magic couldn’t help Randy. She had felt from the beginning that the reason he had shown up was so that her world’s magic would allow him to be the girl or woman he knew he was. It just wasn’t right that he had gone through so much torment and strife to not be able to experience what she and Bobbie had experienced. She had seen so many transformations with so many potentially happy outcomes, and in the back of her mind she felt that The Wizard had just not really tried.

Chapter 9
 

Things happened over the next few weeks that helped take the edge off the events leading to Randy’s death and their failure to rescue him.

Cindy, Maddy and Bobbie were spending an afternoon in The Wizard’s shop. Since Randy’s death, Bobbie had not been able to duplicate her ability to recognize serious illnesses in people, and they were running some simple tests in order to see if there were any latent powers showing.

“Bobbie, you and Cindy are very young. It is unusual for ones your age to demonstrate the powers you already have. Most likely, there was a very strong affinity among the three of you, and it brought your powers to the surface.”

Their discussion was interrupted by Maddy streaking by with the wolf close behind. His feet were slipping and sliding on the wood floor. They could hear his toe nails rattling on the hard surface. Maddy went under the curtains, but the wolf hit them full force and the strings of beads were thrown in many directions. Seconds later, there was a huge crash in the rear of the back room. The wolf came flying back through the curtain with Maddy hot on his trail. Her tail was appropriately fluffed and the hair on the wolf’s back was raised in a body length ridge.

“That’s enough you two. Go play outside.” The Wizard waved his wand and there was a pop as the space the two playmates had occupied imploded.

“I hope you didn’t send them out to the parking lot. That’s not a very safe place,” Cindy said, obviously concerned.

“No, they’re up in Hockett Meadows. I’m going to let them wear off some of that energy. The wolf and I don’t get out often enough as it is. By the way, Maddy is now a mountain lion. That should make things a bit more even.

“Now watch this. The words are ‘Osteo Erectus’.” He waved his wand and the totally disassembled skeleton quickly re-assembled itself and hung back up on the hook. “Once you get the pronunciation correct, you only have to form the words in your mind. That’s why you never or seldom will ever hear me say any of the words when I am doing a spell. It’s not a good idea for the untrained to be hearing these things.

“Now, we have a little surprise for Bobbie.”

“Oh goodie, are you going to teach me a spell?” Bobbie’s voice sparkled with excitement.

“Not yet; I think we will need to find out more where your abilities lie.”

The shop door opened, followed by the tinkling of the bell. The girls looked up to see an older woman enter. She was carrying a bag of golf clubs.

“Gramma Naomi!” Bobbie shouted, “I thought you were in Visalia. What a surprise!”

“Dear, I am in Visalia.

“Your Wisdom, did you move the shop and not tell them?”

“Apparently I did. That’s right, I had it programmed to move: forgot completely about it,” he said winking at her.

“Gramma, you know The Wizard?”

“We have known each other for a long time. There’s a lot to tell you, and we will just take it a little bit at a time. My-oh-my, you just get prettier and prettier.

“Cindy, thank you so much for speeding things up. I know he told you he had the change scheduled for when she was 18, but that was before you arrived. Realities have been shifted a bit since then.

“Gramma, you know about me?”

“Yes dear, I know everything. I must say, you are positively gorgeous, and the best thing is you have some powers. They didn’t get lost after all.”

“I don’t think I understand.”

“Sweet, sweet Bobbie, you come from a long line of magical people. Call us sorceresses, witches, wizards, whatever. We thought the line stopped with your mother, but now we know it is continuing.

“I deliberately dropped a hint last year when we were visiting, and your mother picked up on it. She knows that I know.

“There was a horrible accident when your mother was about four. She learned to read early. It was totally my fault. I left a spell book out and she got hold of it. She randomly opened it and just started reading. It was an obfuscation spell and she erased her mind. Before I could do anything she was a babbling baby. We got the basic things back, but the magic was gone, maybe forever. I never worked magic around her after that.

“I hoped that she would have a girl and that the powers might be passed on. Instead, she had three handsome athletic boys, one of whom was a girl. I have always known that, Bobbie, and you were so strong about it. I knew eventually that the change was going to happen, but we didn’t know if the magic would come back. Now Cindy has worked her own special magic, and you have magic, too. The other wonderful thing is that your mother, father and brothers believe in magic because of what Cindy did. There’s hope now that your mother might get some of it back.

“You need to get back east to that mall, but I wanted to give you something. I found this set of lady’s golf clubs at a sale and they are perfect for you. There is one caveat.”

“What’s a caveat?” Bobbie was a bit overpowered at the moment. She had many questions to ask, but they would have to be asked later.

“It’s an advisory or warning. I made a little spell. Anything you do athletically cannot be magically enhanced. You have to do it on your own. It’s only fair.”

“Thank you so much, Gramma. These are so much nicer than the child’s set I have now. You never would have had to worry about me using magic on the golf course. That would not be good golf etiquette.”

They were interrupted by a crash in the back room. The wolf flew through the curtains and over the counter closely followed by a sleek puma. She grabbed him and they rolled down the aisle.

“Stop!” shouted The Wizard. The two sat back on their haunches while panting in exhaustion. Naomi peered into the back room. “Osteo Erectus”.

Gramma Naomi hugged the two girls, kissing their cheeks. She and The Wizard exchanged embraces. She stroked Maddy’s head, she was a kitten again, and scratched the wolf’s ears. “We’ll see everyone at Thanksgiving. Your grandfather is at the garden shop getting some bulbs. I need to make sure he is getting the right ones.”

Maddy didn’t wake up that night until Cindy rattled the cat food can with the spoon. She trotted down the stairs, ate her dinner, bathed and returned to Cindy’s bed.

Dinner was quiet, but Cindy could tell something was going on. Her mother positively glowed. She was reveling in the changes that had occurred, and seemed to take a bit more interest in how she appeared. Cindy had always considered her pretty, although she down played her appearance a bit. Now she was beauty pageant gorgeous. She didn’t overdo it, she kept her appearance very tastefully done, but she was a real attention getter regardless.

After twelve years of marriage, her parents love making had waned a bit; however, that was different now. Cindy knew her parents couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. She was sure that the wizard had probably done some tweaking of the spell that had changed her mother’s, and consequently her appearance as well. She began to think that her mother’s donning the wig may not have been an accident. It may have been planned.

“Children, your father and I have an announcement. We are so happy to tell you I am going to have a baby in about eight months.”

Cindy thought the news was wonderful. Her brother wasn’t too sure; however, he would be fine with it after a while.

Marissa’s pregnancy proceeded normally, and in the fourth month they confirmed she was going to have a little girl. Marissa went into labor on a Saturday morning and delivered after only four hours of labor. By the second day little Christine Miranda Lewis was feeding like a champ.

Little Christine flourished. She was a beautiful platinum blonde like her mother, and her eyes were dark blue. Cindy could not remember her ever having an unhappy moment.

When Christine was three, Marissa gave birth to a little boy. He was Stan Junior.

Although, Christine was a very happy child, she had some serious moments, too. She would get very involved in computer games, and more than once, in fact many times, she would come into her sister’s room while her sister was doing something with The Wizard. The Wizard would look over Cindy’s shoulder and say hello to the little girl. Christine would say “Hi” and take in whatever was going on.

Cindy asked The Wizard if it was alright for her little sister to watch. “I don’t think any harm will come from it. You know, I think Maddy needs a playmate. It might be time to find a kitten out there somewhere.”

“No toms,” Maddy responded.

It was around Christine’s fifth birthday that she asked the question that changed everything. “Cindy, how come you don’t call me Chrissy like everyone does at school?”

“I’m not sure. I guess it just seemed too ordinary for my favorite little sister.”

“What’s the nickname for Miranda?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Why don’t you look it up on the computer?”

“Sure,” She typed in ‘Nickname “Miranda”’.

“Well look at that! The nickname for Miranda is Randi. I never knew that.” She turned around and looked at her little sister. She was smiling up at her big sister. There were some tears in her eyes.

“I remember everything. It’s just that the voices are gone. I love you so much.”

They hugged and cried for a long time.

Marissa was working on the evening meal when she heard approaching footsteps, Stan and Amos were reviewing the status of one of the ongoing construction projects, and her husband would be a bit late for dinner. She recognized the footsteps immediately as those of her two daughters. She turned to welcome two of the many joys in her life, and was greeted by two tear stained but smiling faces.

“Mo-o-o-ther, why didn’t you tell me?”

Marissa could tell there was something important behind the question. She took in the two smiling faces and sensed there was something very serious in the words. Then she saw her youngest daughter's questioning nod. “About what, dear?”

“Mom, you had to have known. I just never gave it a thought; then Christine asked me why I never gave her a nickname. She knows, Mom. She knows who she is and you never told me. For almost five years, I thought Randy was gone, but Randi has been here the entire time, and you never told me.”

Marissa’s mixing spoon clattered to the floor, spattering batter across the cabinet. “Oh my God, when did this happen?” She gathered her two daughters to her as she sat at the breakfast table. Now she knew what the tears were for. She gently kissed Christine on the forehead and then pulled Cindy to her and kissed her, too. She placed Christine on her lap and Cindy sat on the chair next to her.

“We were never sure that it would work, but The Wizard assured us it would. He just wasn’t sure whether she would remember like you did, Cindy.

“What happened, Chris? How long have you known?”

“Mom, she’s Randi from now on,” Cindy said while holding her little sister’s hand firmly in her own.

“Mommy, a fairy came to me in a dream. She said I was old enough to start remembering some things. I had some scary dreams, and I was doing all sorts of things. There was fighting, and sometimes I would walk and walk. I dreamed about Cindy and Bobbie, ‘cept they were little girls, not all grown up like they are now. They were nice to me, not like some of the grown ups were. I dreamed about you and Daddy and The Wizard, too.

“The fairy said I would remember the nice things, mostly, but it would all be there, sorta like a book. I didn’t have to be scared any more. I remembered something about bad people coming after me and all of their voices. She told me that they weren’t real. I was sick then but I wasn’t sick any more and that all of you would take care of me. She called me Randi. I asked her why, and she said because that was my name. Then I remembered. Randi was my name, but once I wanted to be called Christine, and then I knew why.

“My old dream came true, and all of you are part of that dream. The Wizard told me you are supposed to find a kitten for me. Maddy said she would help when the time was right.”

“Randi, are you using my computer when I’m not there?” Cindy asked with a bit of a scolding tone.

“Oh no, he talks to me on mine. He’s real friendly, just like that first time I met him before I died. Mommy, he said it was okay for you to tell Cindy what happened.”

“Mo-o-o-ther, exactly what did happen, and why haven’t you told me any of this?” said an exasperated Cindy.

“That was quite a day, wasn’t it? I became a blonde, something I had always sort of wanted to do, although I never expected to become a natural blonde. I hadn’t bargained for these two ‘girls’, though,” she said while lifting her perfect DD breasts, “but I must say I’m not disappointed. Your father certainly isn’t. I also found out that I was going to become a mother again if I agreed to the plan.

“The Wizard set me up. The timing was pretty important, because I had to be ready when Randy died. He explained it to us that afternoon. If I was pregnant when Randy died, they might be able to arrange for Randy to be transferred to me. The thing was, even if Randy’s spirit was transferred, it was so early in the pregnancy that we didn’t know how many of the memories could be saved.

“His Wisdom put us, including himself, into a trance, and the spirit met us like she did before when Cindy was recovering. She said she would do the best she could do to help us. She told Randy not to worry. She didn’t want her to have his old memories for the first years as she grew up. There just wasn’t any reason for it. She needed to have a normal childhood. There was also a chance that the memories could be damaged, lost or that Randi would just never allow them to surface.

“We didn’t tell you any of this Cindy, because it wouldn’t have done any good to have you and Bobbie worrying about it. We also felt that you and Bobbie might try to force things too much. This way, you just let Randi have a normal early childhood. The Wizard knew you would be disappointed in that Randy could not be immediately saved, but he felt it best that we just keep you two out of the loop for a while. I have to agree.

“I see Bobbie coming up the drive. Why don’t you tell her while I clean up this mess?”

The two sisters met Bobbie as she parked her bike at the edge of the driveway. She had played golf that morning with her father and some of his friends. As usual, she trounced them, and she played from the men’s tees. At fifteen, she was a scratch golfer and a member of her high school’s golf team. There had been an uproar about letting a girl play on the boy’s team; however, there was no girl’s team. Besides, she beat all the male members when she tried out.

“Hi, guys; what’s going on?”

“Bobbie, Randi has something to tell you.”

“Randi? Since when has she been Randi?”

“Well, Randi is a nickname for Miranda. She asked me today why I didn’t call her Chrissy like all her friends do. I hadn’t really thought about it much. She just never seemed like a ‘Chrissy’ to me.

“Randi, you tell her.”

“Bobbie, I still think you and Cindy are angels, and I always will.”

“OH, MY, GOD!”

Next: That’s it for this episode. There are several more stories about Cynthia and her friends lurking out there. I think we need to go back a few years, essentially to the period after Randy’s death, and see how Cindy and Bobbie fare as they enter the great adventure of puberty. Cindy and Bobbie should find their powers starting to surface. There is also a question about where Cindy’s powers came from and what the implications are.

Portia