Kirk had arrived at school this morning still brooding about yesterday’s news from Bob Glass about his sister’s decision to go to the prom with the weasel. Now, something else had happened to upset his happy universe, something he couldn’t quite get his mind wrapped around.

 

Bob had come and damn near attacked him. Worse he had done this in front of everyone! Well, everyone important anyway. The others looking on could be dealt with in time. What they thought could be… corrected. But Kirk’s peers would see something all together different now. They would see that Bob Glass had, for some reason, withdrawn his support for Kirk. Kirk’s mind drifted back thirty-five minutes, to the parking lot where he had been socializing as he did every morning, being worshiped by his idolizers as he should have been.

 

Then Bob had shown up and all that had changed.

 

Kirk had smiled as the car came to a short sliding stop. He had no reason to believe that anything else was wrong. In fact, he had hoped for good news from Bob. Kirk had almost imagined that Bob was eager to tell him all things were back in fluid harmony with the gears and cogs of the Universe of Kirk. But time had not righted itself. Bob got out of the car, a mask of revulsion and hatred clouded his face and for the first time in quite awhile, Kirk experienced a pang of fear in his heart.

 

“What’s up Bob?” Kirk had asked. What was up soon became apparent.

 

“What’s up? Here’s what’s up! Kim tells me you think you’re going to use her as cum sack.” Bob said as he approached Kirk swiftly. Bob laid his forearm harshly over Kirks chest and forced him back ward onto the trunk of his car.

 

“What the FUCK!” Kirk had cried out angrily.

 

“Shut your fucking mouth.” Bob had ordered, growling. “You don’t talk about my sister that way, you piece of shit. You don’t think about my sister like that! Those thoughts do not exist for you about her.”

 

“Get off me!” Kirk ordered and tried to break free, but Robert had only leaned in, bearing down on him with the full force of his weight. Kirk’s back dug painfully into the rise of the airfoil on the back of the Camaro trunk lid.

 

“Shut up!” Robert ordered. “Last warning.”

 

Kirk fell silent this time as three girls from the cheerleading squad looked on in horror and to be truthful, a pinch of excitement. “I don’t know how you managed to keep it from me, maybe I just wasn’t listening hard enough. I think that’s probably more true than I wanted to believe, but I’m listening now. Kim’s different. You’re not going to treat her like she’s a piece of meat to wrap around your stinking dick. She’s my kid sister. Do you understand this?”

 

“You don’t live here any more Bob!” Kirk said defiantly, speaking of the campus as a kingdom and the school as his castle.

 

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Robert cried out. He grabbed Kirk by his T-shirt, lifted him six inches off the car and slammed him back down hard enough to leave a small indentation in the trunk of Kirk’s car. “You don’t scare me Kirk. I’m bigger, I’m stronger and I know a hell of a lot more about hurting people that try to hurt Kim than you do.”

 

“Whatcha gonna do, kick my ass?”

 

Robert smiled. “I probably won’t have to do that.”

 

Confusion crossed Kirk’s face, “Huh?”

 

“My mother will have you killed if you hurt her. But if for some reason she doesn’t, I’ll do it myself. That’s the only warning you’re going to get, remember it.”

 

Robert let Kirk go. For good measure, he swept Kirks feet out from under him with a wide arching swipe of his right leg. He then turned and went back to his vehicle leaving Kirk hanging on the back of his car by his arms, crucified on the trunk of his Camaro. Kirk, red faced and full of shame at the idea that other’s had seen this display got up angrily. He straightened out his shirt and hoisted his pants back into place and cried out, “You can’t stop her if she wants to be with me.”

 

Robert, back in his car pointed an index finger angrily at Kirk. “You’re a young man Kirk, you want to think about your future before you do anything that will land you in a wheelchair for the rest of your miserable life,” Robert shouted from inside his car. He then screeched out of the parking lot furious, worried that if he stayed he would be unable to stop the rage in his heart before something else happened.

 

Once he had recovered as much as he could, Kirk had spotted Ben entering the school. Just as Ben had predicted, Kirk had charged after him. If Kim hadn’t come along, well, Kirk may have had the chance to hurt Ben enough to keep him out of school for a few days.

 

Now, what was he going to do? Talk to her, tell her how much she’s going to be missing out on. Show her how important it is for her to be with me. All the other girls see it, why can’t Kim?

 

And this was the issue at the very core of the problem. In Kirk’s mind, Kim and her ilk were waiting around to be chosen. They were supposed to wait until he, Kirk, came around and selected them. For Kirk, the girls of this school were his harem. Other guys could select from the general population, but there were some that were marked especially for him. They wore special uniforms to let the others know that those girls were off limits. Somewhere however, the message hadn’t gotten to one of the girls. The memo had been lost. Kim was unaware that her status on the squad was a reservation, a commitment to a hierarchy that started with him. For some reason, Kim was unaware how important it was to her that she not be allowed to mingle with the cattle of the school’s common people. She was elite, she was off limits, and most importantly she was HIS.

 

How had the weasel gotten in to the hen house? How had Kim been allowed to think she could choose? These were the questions that nagged Kirk as he blundered blindly down the hall. People in his way moved to let him pass, as they usually did. Some however, were not fast enough and ended up glancing off him, bugs on the windshield of a semi-trailer speeding down the highway. Every so often, there would be an indignant cry of “Hey!” or a mumbled grumble of “Asshole.” But Kirk did not respond, either because he did not hear or did not care.

 

The weasel was the problem. For a brief moment, the idea of killing the weasel actually settled on the branch of cogent thought in Kirk’s head. Fortunately for Kirk, he was not yet enough of a sociopath to believe that he could get away with that. It was not a moral decision for Kirk, merely a logical one. He would not be able to have Kim if he were in jail. While Kirk knew no one really cared one way or the other about Ben Ackerman, he did know that even the deaths of homeless men didn’t go uninvestigated.

 

For the moment Kirk shoved the idea aside.

 

“Kirk,” a voice from behind him said.

 

Kirk spun and found Eric Devlon standing behind him. Devlon could tell right away that something had deeply disturbed his friend. “What?” Kirk said moodily and now, for the first time, Eric found himself simply wanting to walk away.

 

Instead Eric pushed the issue, “What in the hell happened back there?”

 

“Back there? You mean that dead little fucking puke Ben Ackerman? SSDD.”

 

The news about Kim and Ben was now all over the school. The teenage-girl-grapevine had once more proved that if Daniel Morse used the power of girl rumor instead of wire and telegraph poles, communications might be far more advanced today than they are. Even kids who had no stake in the outcome had watched the ensuing build up in aggressions that morning with raw fascination, much the same way most people can not look away from an accident on the highway. Everyone wants to see something they’ll be sorry they saw later. “Look man this thing with Ackerman is going"

 

“Going where Eric? He stole my girlfriend.” Kirk’s massive frame approached the more diminutive running back. “Don’t tell me you’re a traitor too.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Eric asked, genuinely perplexed.

 

“Kim said she’s going to the fucking dance with that pencil neck. Someone’s gotten to Bob, turn him against me.”

 

“You mean Glass? He probably just found out what you’ve been sayin about his sister.”

 

Kirk’s face knotted up into a snarl, “That’s EXCACTLY what he said. How would you know that unless you had sumpin’ to do with it?” Kirk growled.

 

Eric put the flat of his hands on Kirk’s chest, “First of all, step back. You’re breath stinks and so does what you’re accusing me of. I haven’t said a word to anyone about anything. It’s not my business. If Glass found out you’ve been talkin’ trash about lil Kimmy, then I say, he should’a kicked your ass. Other than that, as far as I’m concerned it’s just talk, you can have it. This shit with Ackerman though; you’ve stepped over a line in the sand with that. You’re hurting the dwarf.”

 

“So,”

 

“Man, if you can’t see that little geek is human, then you need professional help. He’s just a little guy. Did you see the black eye you put on that sad little man.”

 

“As much as I’d like to take credit for that, he came to the party with that on already.” Kirk said snickering at his own joke.

 

“Then that’s a bigger problem, because others are beginning to follow your lead. He ain’t tough. One well placed punch and someone’s gonna be facein’ murder charges my overgrown oafish friend.”

 

Kirk grumbled, “He’d be better off dead.”

 

“Oh I did NOT just hear you say that.” Eric, aware that soon the halls would be clear rested his hand on Kirk’s back and walked him down the hall. “Let her go,”

 

“NO,” Kirk screamed, enraged.

 

“Shut up man, this is a school. People around here are trying to sleep.” He patted Kirk on the back, “She don’t want you man. That’s the simple fact.”

 

“Again, I have to ask you, so what? She’s mine. I want her.”

 

“You can’t have her until she gives herself to you. Listen to me. Man you know how this works! You weren’t born yesterday. Get your act together. There are at least ten other girls… well five, yeah five other… I know there’s at least three other girls that want you, may be more!”

 

Kirk stared wordlessly at Eric. Let her go? Why? He couldn’t figure that one out. There was nothing in that deal for him. Kim got everything. Possession was six tenths of the law wasn’t it? He should get something for his six tenths. She was his. He saw her first, years ago. This wasn’t right. How could she profit for not wanting to be with him?

 

“Good, it looks like it’s registering,” Eric said, unsure if he’d gotten through or not. “I’ve gotta run. Oh and, leave that Ackerman kid alone Kirk. If she likes him, she likes him. You can’t split that apart. If it’s really love, then she’ll do anything for him. You lost.”

 

Eric turned and shambled off.

 

“Anything,” Kirk whispered to himself. Kirk smiled. If she’d do anything for him, what would she do to make sure, say, his legs didn’t accidentally break off? While the idea of pounding that pathetic little worm brightened his mood a little, the idea that Kim might not try to tear herself away from the weasel only served to darkened Kirk’s day further.

 

-*-

 

“I’d like to get out of here before your boy friend comes back and breaks me in half.” Ben was scrabbling about trying to gather his papers and books.

 

The last bell rang as Kim crawled her way to Ben, picking up the last of his papers and books as she went, “I’m sorry Ben, I didn’t know he was nuts and he’s not my boy friend!”

 

“Well, that’s not what he says.” Ben grumbled. “Besides, it doesn’t matter; I know this whole thing was all just a joke at my expense.” Ben continued to hobble about on his hands and knees, noticeably hurt. “I mean, what else would a girl like you be talking to me for anyway?”

 

Uh oh, Kim thought, recognizing the syndrome of fading in and out of two realities, I’m losing him again. “Ben I didn’t set anyone up.”

 

“Well, Okay little Miss Innocent. I hope you got a hat full of laughs out of it…”

 

“Oh Ben, come back to me. Try to remember…” Her voice was filled with the absolute terror that she had been the one set up. She was alone here, female and doomed to remain as she was. “Look Ben, there’s not going to be a prom, not for us, not like this.”

 

Ben looked at her as if he had expected what she’d just said the whole time, “See,” Ben exclaimed, dropping papers back down to the floor in his frustration, “I knew it.” He sounded completely heart broken. His pain tore at Kim’s heart like a rusty knife blade.

 

“Ben,” She clasp his hand tightly in hers and whispered, “Please Ben, remember. You put that mask on me the other night. It did this to us. I need you to take it off Ben. We need to go home.”

 

Like Kim, the last two mornings, Ben was hit with a tsunami of memories. His body went rigid and Kim leapt to his side to support him. From the outside, watching infusion what she felt certain were memories into Ben’s mind was an awful sight to see. She could only be thankful that her mother had not yet witnessed this in her. Quickly, Ben relaxed. The image reminded her of what she’d seen when she and Robert had gone to see the Matrix when Morpheus had put that metal rod in the back of ‘Neo’s’ head and turned the machine on.

 

“Ben?” Ben blinked a few times, then looked down and regarded Kim. His eyes were as empty of recognition as when she had come to help him. Kim almost fled crying, convinced that Ben didn’t remember the mask or any such thing. Then he surprised her by smiling.

 

“Hi Kim,” he said cheerfully. Kim burst out in emotional laughter and did weep a few tears of gratitude.

 

“Hi Ben, how ya been?” she asked in a light and happy voice.

 

“Pretty good I thin―” Ben trailed off with recollection, “Oh Kim, we are in deep shit.”

 

“The mask Ben, if you take the mask off of me, then it all goes back to the way it’s supposed to be.”

 

Kim waited for a response but none came. Then a horrible thought crossed her mind. What if he doesn’t remember it all? How much time have I got to give him a crash course in history? How much do I have the ability to even talk about? “Ben, you do remember what happened the day before yesterday, don’t you?”

 

“You mean at that magic shop, the old man?” Ben asked and Kim blew a sigh of relief.

 

“Yes,” Kim answered, “the magic shop, the mask!”

 

“We can’t do that here!” Ben looked around, here and there were stragglers still making their way to class.

 

“No, I think that’s part of our problem. We weren’t truly alone the other night when you tried to get it off of me the second time. We have to leave school, now.”

 

“Leave? We can’t leave. That would be ditching.” Ben protested.

 

“Ben, it’ll only be ditching in this place where I’m a girl, not back where we’re supposed to be.” Kim explained with excited urgency. “We need to go, get this thing off me and get back to our lives.”

 

“I’ve never ditched before, Kim. If someone catches us…” Ben argued.

 

“It’s not going to happen, Ben. I’ve done this before.”

 

“You’ve never ditched …”

 

“No, I haven’t but Kim has, and in about ten or fifteen minutes, it won’t matter. You and I won’t have to worry about who answers for it.”

 

Ben rose to his feet and Kimberly took the stack of books and papers he carried and deposited them in a near by trash can. “Hey,” Ben cried as Kim dumped all the school work they had just rescued together.

 

“Shush,” Kim warned, “You’ll get them all back once we’ve reversed what you did to me. Now come on.” Kim took Ben’s hand and moved in the direction of the cafeteria, dragging Ben behind her like a lost puppy on a short leash.

 

Kim hit the exterior doors that gave egress to the parking lot and the P.E. field that sat on a large piece of property behind the school.

 

The large floor to ceiling windows of the classrooms reviled their trek across the sidewalks, framed within them were the heads of classmates some peered out at them as they hurriedly passed by. Ben watched several with, their faces frozen in shocked masks of surprise at the sight of Kim, arguably the most popular girl in school, dragging Ben by his jacket sleeve to destinations unknown.

 

“We’re being watched,” Ben warned as Kim dragged him along behind her. Kim said nothing. She simply followed the course she’d plotted, hell-bent on escape from her soft, feminine jail cell back to the world of harsh but familiar realities.

 

“Where are you going?” Ben complained, obviously nervous about still being so far from class after the first bell had already sounded. Ben pulled away in the direction of the doors they had just passed through. For Ben, they seemed a million miles away.

 

Kim pulled him back to her, “Get back here, I want to get this off Ben. I want to… I want to be a … Grrrrrrrrr,” she growled frustrated again at her inability to voice her gender preference.

 

“Kim, we’re going to be late for class!”

 

“We’re already late Ben,” Kim turned desperately, a wild look on her face, “I’m not going back in there like this Ben, and you’re not going to class while I’m stuck like this! I can’t do it any longer.”

 

Something’s had changed, but for Ben, he was still lockstep in tune with whatever syndrome or whatever, his dear old daddy had passed on to him. This was turning into a maze of surreal experiences for both of them. It didn’t matter to anyone that Ben was being victimized on a nearly daily basis, not just at home. So why was Ben so worried about what happened here, in this world? Why wasn’t he more eager to get home?

 

Still, Ben was a mess. He was clearly in pain. How could people just turn their heads to this? With all that, he was still afraid to leave school, even if it made all the sense in the world to go back to where they had come from and leave Weirdo World behind. “Ben, your father. You said your father did that to you,” she said pointing to his eye.

 

He once again touched the eye and winced. “Oh yeah, my Dad,” Ben said. Kim watched as Ben’s shoulders hunched and what little life that still remained in him drained out of his shoes. Ben’s resolve was fortified a bit with whatever memory he had been graced with and he said, “Let’s do this.”

 

Still clutching his jacket sleeve, she pulled in to a place where the corners of two buildings stood some six feet apart. To the east was the corner of the academics building, to the west, the wood and metal shop along with the graphic arts shop. Large, over grown red tips stood to the north and south between the two buildings providing cover from sight for an area about six feet by eight feet square in the center between the bushes and buildings. Except for a path that ran between two of the Red Tips that was used as a short cut to get back and forth from the P.E. field, the small space was about as secluded as any on school grounds.

 

Kim ducked her head and slipped between the hedges. Not having much of a choice, Ben followed her. When Ben slipped into the small clearing Kim was waiting. “Okay Ben, do it!” She mashed her eyes closed and waited, looking as if she were expecting a blow to the back of the head. Ben looked around for a minute, saw no one, but still hesitated.

 

She peeked at him with one open eye, when she saw him standing there just looking around, she got worried. “Don’t do this Ben,” she warned.

 

“Do what? Oh!” Ben exclaimed. “No, I was just thinking, the last time, things got pretty out of hand. I was thinking that you might want to sit down for this, you know, in case you fall or something.”

 

Surprised, but grateful, Kim said, “Oh, sure,” and knelt down on the dirt path before Ben. Kim was sitting back on the heels of her feet, knees planted on the leaf strewn soil that served as a floor to the clearing. “Okay, let’s get this thing off me,” Kim declared. She closed her eyes and pushed her face forward. To Ben it looked as if she were waiting for a kiss.

 

Kneeling before her, he raised his hands to her face, much as he had the two nights before on the stairs of her house the night he had placed the damnable thing on her face. He gently touched the line of her jaw just below her ear and waited with anticipation for the feeling of the mask rising from the surface of her face.

 

Nothing happened.

 

“Come on Ben, pull it off,” whined Kim.

 

“There’s nothing there to pull off Kim,” Ben informed Kim rudely.

 

“What are you talking about? Just pull the thing off Ben, now.”

 

Not wanting to hurt her, Ben gave a gentle tug. All Kim felt were fingers hooked behind her jaw, pulling softly, but firmly forward. “Ben, I swear, if you’re trying to keep me in this body so you can get a little, you’re barking up the wrong tree. The only thing that’s going to happen is more of whatever you’ve already been through. Now, pull the mask off me and let’s get back home.”

 

Ben sat back, insulted. “Why would I do that Kim? I’ve spent the last two days in a waking nightmare. I live in a fucking hovel, the roaches are so thick at home they’ll tie you up and hijack your dinner plate. As for eating, that’s an entirely different subject anyway, we have nothing! My Dad takes all the money my Mom earns and smokes it or drinks it up. We have nothing. Everyone hates me. I’m probably going to get my ass kicked again today by your fucking boyfriend…”

 

“I told you, he’s not my boyfriend,” Kim corrected angrily.

 

“You want to tell him that! He doesn’t seem to believe me,” Ben cracked. “He tries to break my head open every time I try to tell him.”

 

Kim gestured back to the school with a wide sweep of her arm, “Already did, remember?” Kim asked him to try again, only calmer this time, gentler. Ben repositioned himself and once more tried to make the mask work its magic. He pulled and tugged, his finger hooked behind Kim’s jaw.

 

“It’s no use Kim, it’s stuck.”

 

“That can’t be possible!” Kim’s eyes were wild with fear, “That old man said you could take it off! Jesus…” Once more she grabbed the edges of her face with her fingers and began to try to pull the mask off. She grunted short, high pitched, feminine grunts of effort with each tug. “Come off!” she soon began to chant, “Come off, come off, comeoff, comeoffcomeoffcomeoffcomeoff,” she chanted until her chant became one long comeoff, she finally screamed! “GOD DAMN IT!” brought her hands to her face and wept. “I’m trapped.”

 

Ben didn’t know what to do. He sat and watched as Kim cried. Tears began to well up in his eyes as well, he wanted to weep for so much, he wanted to weep because he was stuck here too, his mother was miserable and on the edge of suicide. He strongly suspected that, were it not of him, she might have already have taken the drop.

 

“Oh Ben,” she said pulling her hands away from her face, “what are we going to do? I can’t just be a girl! Not all of a sudden like this.”

 

He wanted to offer something, anything that might absolve him of the responsibility of this thing, all he could say however was, “I don’t know Kim; I don’t know what’s happened. If I could take it off of you I would.” Kim appeared to anguish over the idea. For her, if the mask couldn’t be taken off, then she would remain a girl for the rest of her life. Ben peered out between the narrow opening of the bushes while Kim’s mind whirled around in a mental vortex of confusion and irrationality. “No one’s around Kim, they’ve all gone to class”, Ben pulled his head back. “We’re late.”

 

“I don’t care,” she declared, “I’m not going to school like this, not ever.”

 

“Kim…”

 

“No Ben, not ever. I mean, lookit me. God damn it! I told you Ben! I told you this was a bad idea!” Her hands moved around her body, finger splayed, hovering just bare centimeters above her clothes. To Ben it looked like she was avoiding touching something indescribably horrible.

 

“I’m sorry Kim. I’m sorry I got you into this.”

 

“I don’t want sorry, I want out! I don’t want to do this anymore Ben!” Ben looked on and to Kim’s surprise he looked as if he might not comprehend the severity of Kim’s predicament. “Do you understand what I’m saying Ben? If the mask doesn’t come off, then I don’t change back. Not ever Ben. I have to stay like this as long as I’m stuck with the mask.”

 

“What about the old man?” Ben asked.

 

Kim calmed for a moment, and then she began to nod slightly. It was not a new idea but one she had lost in the panic of the moment. “Sure, yeah…” she said softly, “The old man, he has to have a way for me to get this off. A smile broke out on her face. For a moment, Ben could see the woman Kim had yet to develop into should she truly end up stuck in that body. It made him ache for her. Watching her smile, Ben almost wished that something would happen to prevent her from ever being anyone else. But Ben hated his father and wanted to put the old man back behind bars as quickly as he could. He also believed he would never be this close to anyone as beautiful as Kim ever again. The suffering he endured now seemed worth the sacrifice his wish would bring.

 

Kim, still crying some, gave a burst of grateful laughter, “It’s funny you know. I was thinking about that yesterday when I was stuck at home. How did I forget that?”

 

Kim scrabbled to her feet, “Come on!” she shouted, reaching around behind her to grab his jacket.

 

Startled, Ben cried, “Now? Wait, I didn’t mean now! I can’t go,” Ben insisted. Kim turned on him with another accusation on her lips but Ben stymied it, “I want it to stop Kim, I really do, but I’m not the same person here, I can’t afford to be. I think we’re all different here.” Ben said a little subdued.

 

“I don’t understand,” Kim said, “you said…”

 

“I know what I said. But Kim, I’m scared, my father…”

 

Kim swallowed as the half remembered moments of whispered brutalities of Abs Ackerman tried to penetrate her conscious mind. “Yes Ben, of course. You can’t help us, there’s no reason for you to… you know, in case we’re really―”

“I wish I could go.”

 

“It’s Okay Ben. I’m not angry at you.” Ben searched Kim’s pale blue eyes. He thought for a moment he caught the flicker of a lie hiding in the corner of one of them, but decided not to look too closely. “I’m not, really. I’m just scared.”

 

Ben shuffled his feet in the dirt, “I’d better go get my books and stuff out of the trash.”

 

Kim closed her eyes, one more indignity, “I’ll help Ben.”

 

“No, go see that fucker, get him at least to tell you how to do this and I’ll take it off Kim, I swear.”

 

Kim nodded. There was no conviction in either of them now. Whatever they were going go do, it seemed it was going to be done as they both existed now. “I’m sorry.” Ben offered once more and then pushed his way through the hedges back out into the open. Kim’s hands flew to her face and she gave the mask one more desperate pull. “SHIT!” she cried as the mask stubbornly refused to materialize.

 

It was clear to her now that Ben hadn’t been lying the other night. From all appearances, she was going to be Kimberly Glass for the foreseeable future. A fog of fury shadowed her face. She balled up her fists and kicked her leg up behind her at the knee and stomped it back down on the dirt, “NO!” She did this several more times, emphasizing each stop with a fierce and angry “NO! NO! NO!” Frantic and frightened, she paced around in a circle for a bit and stopped dead in her tracks.

 

Kim felt her face and body, a thing that now seemed less and less unfamiliar to her. She muttered, “I never wanted this. Oh God, please, PLEASE!” Nothing changed; she was still a girl, only now there seemed no future for her but that of a female. She wiped new born tears from her face and stood clinched against the onslaught of tears that threatened. I won’t cry, I’m not going to cry.

 

Kim gathered herself for a moment and ducked through the branches where Ben, only seconds ago had exited. She stood in the light of a world she didn’t want to live in. Trapped as a person she could not escape from being. She wondered weakly how everything could have gone so wrong. Three days ago, there had been no such thing as magic. She had been a brilliant male child well on his way to a full scholarship, a geek perhaps to most of the population of the school, but a happy one. There was nothing wrong with her life.

 

Now she was locked in someone else’s body, a different sexed body, captain of the Cheerleading Team for God’s sake! The name ‘The Tigresses’ popped into her head and she groaned out loud. In the time before, as Tim, she had been unaware that the cheerleading squad even had a name. How perfectly horrible was that name? She was a Tigress.

 

“That’s perfect. My day’s complete now,” she said sarcastically to herself.

 

There was fear and uncertainty at every turn and now, alone, the only thing she could do was walk into a school where the people of this place knew her as someone she had never been meant to be. The world was spinning on its ear for her. In every way, she was the exact opposite of the person she had been meant to be, in a life she couldn’t seem to get back to.

 

She had just built enough courage to turn and run off the ground of the school and make a bee line for the mall and the Wizard’s shop when someone called, “Miss Glass?” Kim’s head whipped around in surprise in the direction the voice had come from. It was Coach Monte, “Last bell rang over ten minutes ago, something wrong?”

 

Flustered, Kim flushed, “Ah… no Sir, Coach… I…”

 

“Want to come on in and join us then?” Monte said with a sarcastic smile. He waved her in with a large overhead sweeping motion of his arm, “Come on, have some fun with us today.”

 

Kim looked about in distress, she was once again, trapped. The Wizard and any remaining hope she might have for freedom from femdom would have to wait. She trudged labouringly toward the steps. It seemed to Coach Monte that Kim’s feet must weigh eighty pounds each for her to labor so over getting them to move. There must be something wrong. He knew this child, knew her brother even better. She was always a lively, happy, energetic student, enthusiastic on the field. What could be so wrong that she would behave as if she were going to meet the executioner?

 

Coach Monte made a mental note to talk to Coach Karnes, Kim’s cheer coach, about this and see if she had noted any changes in Kim’s behavior, he decided however, to refrain from getting involved here and now except to say, “Kim, are you sure there’s nothing you want to talk about?”

 

“No Coach, thank you. I’m fine.”

 

“Yes, I can see that. You’re going to have to put your feet on a diet if they’re getting so heavy they’ve become useless for walking.” Kim smiled a sweet but obviously strained smile and moved away from Monte and toward her home-room class.

 

As Kim vanished around the corner, Coach Monte shook his head and mumbled, “Good kid, I sure hope she hasn’t gotten involved with something that’s going to wreck her life.” At that precise moment Kurt Oswalter stepped around the corner from the Dean’s office. Coach noted that his face was clouded and angrily dark. “Kirk, how’s it hangin?”

 

Kirk, who had obviously seen Monte as he had made the corner, kept his head down, his eyes on his shoes and growled low in his throat as he passed to wherever it was he was going, stopping Monte dead in his tracks. “Glad to see everyone is in such fine spirits today,” he muttered after Oswalter had passed. Coach Monte collected himself and made his way down the hall toward the math pod. While Coach Monte was unaware of the changes in everyone’s lives, time, life, normalcy had once more seemed to regain much of its steam and was now pressing forward, carrying all those it could with it.

 

-*-

 

Kim Glass, Ben Ackerman and the rest of the world moved deeper into their appointed futures. Kim saw Ben once more that day, during forth period. The two barely spoke. Ben chose to keep his words to himself out of fear and guilt. Kim, now four and a half hours past the devastating news that she would still be Kim over the weekend had begun to nurture a single seed of resentment for Ben. Seeds such as those often germinate and grow rapidly, like Kudzu on a Tennessee roadside, it had already begun to hide her heart.

 

Kim began her own period between the schools forth and fifth. She became aware that her flow had begun with the slick, slippery sensation her mind told her was blood. Diverting to one of the girl’s restrooms along the way, she locked herself into one of the stalls there to see. There were two small blood spots on the cotton crotch of her panties. “Great!” she groused. She quickly extracted on of the tampons she had brought with her from its wrapper. She removed one leg completely from her jeans and lifted one leg and rested it on the toilet seat, giving her better access to her genitals. She stared at the pink plastic tube with its bulbous end she realized she was about to deliver a cotton plug inside her and leave it there. “I hate you Ben,” she said absently. No one was around to hear her. It wouldn’t have mattered if there had been, she would have said it anyway.

 

She applied the tampon; gently guiding it in had the effect of the final insult. The walls of her vagina were sensitive as the plastic applicator parted them and settled inside of her. She pressed the plunger and withdrew the plastic tube. The string that was left behind tickled the inside of her thigh. She would never be able to expunge the memory of that experience from her mind. The entire experience seemed some how dehumanizing.

 

School ended at the close of sixth period. As promised, Robert was right there to pick her up. So too was Kirk. He glared at them as he passed right in front of Robert’s car on the way to his. Kim watched him pass nervously until Kirk finally broke his gaze.

 

“What a creep,” she said.

 

“Yeah well, I don’t think he’ll bother again.” Robert fell silent for a moment, then he shifted in his seat to better face his sister and said, “I’m sorry Kim. I don’t have an excuse except to say that I really didn’t hurt anyone.”

 

Kim smiled tenderly, all the love she had ever had for her brother in both lives welled up inside her, “I’m know Bobby. And I didn’t mean to be so blunt. Sometimes we have to hear things the way they really are to understand.” She kept quite about Kirk’s comments earlier that day in the hall. She didn’t want things snowballing out of control any further than they already had. Perhaps if she kept them to herself, it might all just go away.

 

“Don’t ever be afraid to talk to me Kim. If I do something stupid, then I need to know what it was so I don’t do it again.” Robert regarded his sister for a moment. She seemed melancholy and out of sorts. “Everything Okay Kim?”

 

“I don’t know how to answer that,” she said abruptly and was sorry she had chosen those words. “I guess so. I started by period.”

 

“Nice, thanks for sharing,” Robert said with a look as if he’d just bitten into something bitter. Kim giggled a little, grateful for being able to still find humor in something.

 

On the way home, Kim asked her brother if he wouldn’t drive her to the mall on Saturday on his way to work. The old man was her last hope. If he couldn’t help her she had no idea how she was ever going to restore her life to where it had been.

 

Robert agreed and asked who she was meeting there. Cindy’s over protective nature loomed large over her head and the shadow of it seemed to further cool any chances of getting out. She was as honest as she could be with Robert. He trusted her; she would have to do the same if she expected to enlist his support. “No one, I just want some time to myself. I can’t get that at home, not with Mom there.”

 

“Then tell her you’re meeting up with Sarah or something,” he warned her. Kim looked at him surprised, “What?” he asked. “I’m not in on it,” Robert confessed. “Mom’s anal ways don’t extend to me. I just don’t want to get caught in the fan when the shit hits it, that’s all.”

 

“Fair enough, Thanks Bobby.”

 

That night, Kim was more herself. With no choice and now 48 hours into her new life, making waves didn’t seem wise. After dinner she cleaned up the kitchen, had a glass of diet soda and watched a little television. She informed her mother that she and her best friend Sarah Becklock wanted to go to the mall Saturday and asked if it would be Okay if Robert drive her. Kim braced for the worst, but the news of her grades and her change in behavior seemed to have done wonders for her mother’s trust level. Without batting an eyelash, Cindy gave her approval.

 

It wouldn’t matter if her mother found out later that this was a lie; that Sarah would not be at the mall. If the information came back to Cindy, it would only come back to her because Kim had been unable to escape this reality. Nothing else at that point would matter. She’d be trapped and there would be little else to it. If the old man could change her back, then the lie would disappear along with Kimberly.

 

-*-

 

At Heritage Mall, her fears were renewed at the prospect of returning time to what she saw as its normal course. She walked the Mall’s open plaza for almost thirty minutes in the place where she and Ben had first spotted the Spells R Us boutique without finding it. It wasn’t until she sat, distraught and worried that the store might not even exist in this timeline that she saw the sign directly across from where she sat. She raced in, hopeful that soon, all this would be over. As soon as she was inside however, hope turned rapidly to anger.

 

The Wizard’s attention was drawn to the chiming of the door bell as the door opened and closed. As he turned he could scarcely imagine the reaction, even with is ability to occasionally foretell the future.

 

Kim, relinquishing control to her fear, immediately gave the Wizard a healthy, steaming portion of her mind for lunch. “You old LIAR!” she shouted. “LOOK AT ME!”

 

The Wizard smiled good-naturedly. He peered over his spectacles that were seated low over his nose and said, “Good afternoon to you too Kim,”

 

“Don’t you even play nice with me. This wasn’t supposed to happen!” Her anger had now manifested itself in tears. Kim had wanted to put on a powerful persona but her fear of the recent developments and disgust of her body overpowered her.

 

Again, calmly the Wizard asked, “What wasn’t supposed to happen Kim?”

 

“THIS!” She shouted, waving her hands in front of her body to indicate the extreme changes. “I’M A GIRL!” Forgotten, though not permanently, was the self-gratification of her abilities as an athlete. All the positives she had so subtly enjoyed had been replaced with the fury of having been deceived.

 

“Yes, and a lovely girl at that. Funny how life from a...”

 

“I don’t want anymore philosophy,” Kim announced pacing back and forth. “I want out of this... this... Grrrrrrrr” she growled, “I can’t even say it! I can’t deny what I look like; I can’t even say my old name.”

 

“That’s because the mask changes you into your counterpart in life.”

 

“It won’t come OFF!” She cried. “Ben tried, once Thursday and once more on Friday. It’s stuck somehow.” She placed her hands on the side of her face and pulled in an exaggerated fashion pulling her head around from side to side to illustrate her point. “See?”

 

“That tells me nothing. You will never be able to remove it yourself. I told you that. The person wearing the mask can not take it off under any circumstances. Where’s Ben?” asked the Wizard.

 

“You don’t know?” Kim asked skeptically. “I think you do. I think you know what’s happened to him as well.”

 

“He’s a different person too,” the Wizard inquired?

 

“You might say that. He’s become a fucking punching bag for the entire state of Tennessee.”

 

“Have you noticed other changes, other than yours and Ben’s?”

 

“Sure, I know what you’re going to say. My mom is different, at least she acts different. Maybe she’s really the same person, but I know why. It’s the changes in me since the mask put Ben and I here…” Kim looked around a bit distractedly and added, “Wherever here is?”

 

“Kim, here is the planet Earth. It’s Friday May 16th 2002. Everything was the same as it was before, up to the time you were born April 9^th 1986.”

 

“That’s not right…” Kim said confused, “I was born on…” Kim paused, she knew the Wizard was right, her birthday was April ninth. “What’s happening to me?”

“Your birth on the ninth as Kimberly is a sign that you developed in your mother from a different fertilization. It could have been different sperm, different egg, a different cycle, something that caused you to develop into a female rather than a male. This event influenced all the other choices, decisions and ideas of everyone that would come in contact with them and with you and changed the world as you once knew it to be. That’s why Ben’s father is not in jail but rather a detrimental force in Ben’s life.” The wizard waited but the light in Kim’s eyes didn’t come on. “Ben’s father wasn’t there the day he shot that police officer. He wasn’t there because of something that happened three years earlier. He was at a doctor’s office in Nashville trying to have an issue with his eye corrected. An injury your father gave him.”

 

Kim jolted and became rigid as the Kimmory fell upon her.

 

The day had been hot and muggy. Cindy’s schoolgirl friend, Susan Ackerman had come by with her son, Ben. Ben and Kim had been playing in a wading pool in the large front lawn. It was one of those small blue plastic shells, the kind with the small slide that kids play in when they’re too young to use a real pool.

 

Kim could vaguely remember an outline of the events. Most of what she remembered had been handed down to her however. She had been too young to remember the events of the day herself without assistance. Susan and Cindy had been in lawn chairs, sipping tea and chatting pleasantly when they had decided to get up and leave for just a moment.

 

That was when Abs had arrived. He had come looking for his wife.

 

The chopped out Harley had pulled up along the curb and what Kim could remember was the terrified look on Ben’s face when the noise from the bike’s exhaust had caught his attention. Ben had begun to cry as he toppled out of the pool and waddled away. Kim had been left there alone. When she turned around, the human tattoo was nearly on her. His size, his fearsome appearance was more than she could cope with and she immediately peed where she sat in the pool.

 

Abs stood at the edge of the pool saying nothing. He surveyed the yard for signs of life as little Ben disappeared around the corner of the house at the back yard. He then had looked down at poor little Kimberly in the pool all alone. “Well now, what have we got here?”

 

Kim had been frozen with fear. This too she remembered on her own quite well. In later years, she equated it to what it must feel like to fall out of the watchful gaze of God and into the sight of Satan himself, if you believed in that sort of thing.

 

Abs had bent to pick her up. To that day no one knew if Abs had pulled down her bathing suit bottoms or if they had slid down by virtue of some other force. What was certain is that to Tom, it didn’t much matter.

 

“What the fuck are you doing Ackerman?” Bellowed Tom from across the lawn.

 

“Be cool man. I’m just looking for my wife,” Abs as informed Tom dismissively as he set Kim on the ground. Kim had immediately turned and run for the house where Cindy and Susan now stood watching from the porch.

 

“What’s wrong?” Cindy had called, the uncertainty was strong and clear in her voice.

 

“Son-of-a-bitch had Kimberly’s pants down.” Tom cried back.

 

“Whoa, wait just a fuckin minute.” Abs began to protest, but Tom, who had been advancing reached back and unleashed a cannon ball at the end of his right hand. It made contact with Abs left eye, blinding him directly. Abs had fallen to the ground, screaming. Kim remembered that sound a little. She wished at times she didn’t. She had had a rabbit once. The neighbor’s dog had ambushed it in the yard on day when they had it out of its pen. The way that rabbit screamed before it was mercifully killed had reminded Kim of the way Abs had screamed as he writhed on the ground.

 

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY YARD ACKERMAN. GET OUT OR I’M CALLING THE FUCKING COPS.”

 

 

When Kim came back she was sweating slightly. “Dear God.”

 

“That’s been happening a lot I presume?” deduced the old man.

 

Kim clutched her head as if it might explode, “I hate this. I hate being locked in her life.”

 

“It’s your life Kim. You’ve always been a girl. You have to let go of this idea that there’s ever been anything else.”

 

“But I can remember being―”

 

“A paradox, that’s all,” explained the Wizard.

 

“But you said―” Kim started

 

“For you, you have always been Kim. To go back, you have to have access to the mask to change the realities. Something you don’t have.”

 

His words were cryptic, meaningless gobble. Even worse for Kim, they vaguely pointed to something far more final than she wanted to listen to. Forcing herself to remain clam, she asked, “Why then. Can you tell me that? We did just what you said.”

 

“I said only Ben would have the ability to get it off once he put it on you. But your place in this life is fragile. All things in the life you came from had filled in a balance.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kim asked confused.

 

“Everything has a balance Kimberly. The entire world, the universe is poised that way to ensure that the scales of balance, of equity don’t over tip and send the entire house of cards spilling to the celestial floor.”

 

“Sounds like another load of philosophical bullshit to me.” The Wizard eyed her disapprovingly. Kim understood why immediately, the word bullshit seemed to hang uncomfortably in the air between them and Kim realized that she didn’t curse, at least, not out loud. “Sorry.” She said humbly and lowered her eyes in shame.

 

“That’s alright Kimberly, just try harder to follow your own lead.”

 

“But that’s just it. I don’t want to; I want to go back to where I came from.” Kim whined, desperation was rising in her voice again. “Ben can’t get it off now. How come?”

 

“I told you, balance.”

 

“I don’t understand,” Kim said beginning to cry. “I just want to go home, why can’t I just go home to what I was, who I was.”

 

The Wizard came from around the corner and crouched beside the girl. She threw her arms around his neck and cried the tears of a girl that needed only comfort from a world that offered little of that precious commodity. “Kim, you made a promise to Ben that can’t be withdrawn.”

 

“Promise,” she asked, “what promise?” Kim said in a muffled tone with her head in the crook of the old man’s neck and shoulder.

 

“You promised to go with Ben to the prom.” Kim groaned with regret and fear. “Now, because of your birth as a girl, fate is trying to stabilize everything that has changed. You see, not all things are right with the world yet.”

 

“Well, if I could get this…” The Wizard could sense the tension in the young girl’s body as she tried to say what the mask would never let her say, “if you could take it off then the world would go back to the way it was supposed to be, right? Wouldn’t that solve all the problems?”

 

“Not really, it’s sort of complicated Kim,” He said compassionately. “I’m not sure you’d understand.”

 

Kim took great offence at that and withdrew from the Wizard’s comforting embrace. “What, I’m stupid now?”

 

The Wizard sighed. “Even with Ben’s withdrawn behavior, he still wants to go to the prom with a beautiful girl. More over; without really understanding what’s happening, he’s beginning to fall in love with you. Kim shook her head in stunned denial. “This is the element he sees as that life changing event in his life that will elevate him beyond his status as human trash.”

 

“Now that that seems within his reach, even his deepest fear of his father’s wrath or what might befall him at the hands of the thugs in school won’t let his heart admit that it’s in his best interest to leg go of that idea. I told you both that love is the most powerful magic of all. It could not be broken, forsaken yes, broken never. If Ben is not truly in love with you, then he’s in love with the idea of being in love with you. AND he’s even more excited about any chance he may have, no matter how remote a possibility it might be, that you could someday fall in love with him. You see Kim, Ben has to want to change you back. He has to want to let go of the idea that he is falling in love with you and he doesn’t want to do that.”

 

“You never told us about anything like this! Don’t you think you should have told me this thing would change me into someone Ben would fall in love with? Or maybe you should have told me about making promises and what that might do to me while I had this thing on?” Kim paced around, upset, trying to think through the problem.

 

“I did tell you, its part of the reason you can’t just change your mind about the prom and have Ben remove the mask. See, it’s not your choice alone. Ben is reverting to the person he would be if he had come from your dimension Kim. A more confident Ben might have had the courage to change his mind. He’s in a disparate situation now. While he wants it to be over and done with, he either won’t or can’t let go of the idea that this may be his only chance at a love of his own. The problem here is that he’s so frightened now he hasn’t put any of this together yet.”

 

“His father is partly to blame for that. Abs is now still in his life. That means he won’t have the second chance and the nurturing environment his mother provided for him, however overindulgent it may have been. Then there’s the problem of you. You haven’t been there as a friend all this time. The two of you were virtually separated from each other after a fight between your Father and Abs at a back yard…”

 

“I remember that, but that…” Kim trailed off uncertain of her memory on this issue.

 

“Fate is trying to put the pieces in an order that won’t let you disrupt the fabric normalcy again. It knows you want to return to a time and a life that you and Ben erased. As fate sees it, it’s not your choice to jump back and forth between the two existences. The rules are the only reason the magic is allowed to work. Fate wants its payment for the disruption you caused. But more than that, it doesn’t want this to happen again.”

 

“No,” Kim protested. The old man stopped and raised his eyebrows in curiosity. Kim finally dropped her gaze, “Oh God, there’s no way out this,”

 

Everything I told you and much, much more is all interconnected. It’s impossible to avoid the tendrils of influence.” The wizard paused, “Have you ever seen the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life?

 

“Yeah,” Kim said dejectedly.

 

“Well, it’s kind of like that raised to the power of a million, in reverse. Everything out there that you touch or that touches you has the potential to require the girl you were born as in this timeline to stay and complete. If you make a promise then all that potential you give birth to needs to be satisfied before the magic will work again.”

 

As Kim tried to allow her mind to open to the infinite possibilities, the more stymied she seemed to feel. “My head hurts,” Kim whined, stroking her forehead. “Nothing you’re saying makes any sense to me. How could Ben be falling in love with me? I’m his best friend. We practically grew up together…” Even as Kim said the words, she understood that it wasn’t true. What she had known to be true as Tim more and more felt like a dream she was waking up from.

 

“As I said, you were not there to be Ben’s friend. You know each other, but that’s it. Ben has no more connection to you now than anyone else at school. It comes down to this Kim. As long as the mask is locked on you, you’re going to remain Kimberly. That may be five weeks; it could be another 60 or so years. There are no answers for you today.”

 

Kimberly audibly groaned.

 

“Ben can’t change his mind about any of this. No matter what else happens, no matter how badly he’ll come to believe that he wants out, there will always be part of him that wanted your promise to him to come true. He’s not capable of setting aside that desire for himself. If Ben doesn’t truly want to give up his dream, then you’ll remain stuck until you fulfill it Kim. That has become your job in all of this.”

 

Kim tried to envision the Ben she had seen doing anything outside of school and home and couldn’t draw a mental image of it. Yesterday, he was so withdrawn and scared of his own shadow that she was unsure of what he was to become in this place and time.

 

“ME? How in the hell did it suddenly become my responsibility to fulfill anything to anyone? I didn’t want to do this in the first place and what’s my reward?”

 

“I feel your pain sister,” a young woman behind the counter said. She had come from the back of the store with an armful of what looked like medieval costumes and hats. Kim eyed her curiously for a moment but ignored the remark as she made her way deep into store and began to hang the costumes on racks for display.

 

“You made the promise Kim.”

 

“But I didn’t know, you didn’t tell me anything about that…” Kim protested as if it would make a difference

 

“Perhaps, not in the strictest of senses, but I did warn you not to make promises you could not keep. You chose to ignore what I said. I even told Ben to warn you.”

 

“Well he didn’t. And I barely remember you saying anything like that, forget understanding it at the time. That should be enough for you to get me out of this.” The old man simply shook his head. Kim stared at the old man in disbelief. The Wizard stood and began to stroll to his place behind the counter. “You tricked us! You tricked me! I never wanted to be this…”

 

“If you sign a contract Kim, without reading it, do you think a judge would let you just walk away because you complained that you didn’t really understand what was expected of you?” the old man asked.

 

“This isn’t a contract. Contracts can’t change a person into someone else! I didn’t ask to be changed into a girl. I am NOT STAYING LIKE THIS!” Kim finished by screaming.

 

“You never asked to be a boy either, that’s what you would have gotten if had put the mask on as Kim.” The Wizard reminded her. “You would have been changed into Tim if the shoe had been on the other foot to begin with. And you be standing here demanding that I change you back into a girl.”

 

“I. wasn’t… I did… That’s not fair,” She strained against the ideas and thoughts that were floating around in her head. “I just want to go home.”

 

“You keep saying that Kim, but you are home.”

 

Kim had had her fill of the niceties of trying to understand what the old man was explaining to her, she was finished with the explanations of how she was going to have to remain as she was, “TAKE IT OFF OF ME!” Kim shrieked.

 

“I can’t do that. No one can. No amount of shouting at me is going to change that now, no one but Ben can remove that mask and he can only remove it once his dreams have been granted by you. The magic is very strong, the rules very strict. If it won’t come off by Ben’s hand, then you’re going to have to start getting used to being Kim from here on out.”

 

“NO! I won’t.” Kim stomped her foot down on the floor. “I won’t do it. I can’t take one more minute of this. I will not be a―” but Kim couldn’t finish.

 

“If you hadn’t already noticed, you already are Kim. The mask does have the potential for becoming stuck; trapping the wearer in the form he or she took. I’m sorry, but you knew there were risks involved.” The Wizard said compassionately.

 

“Oh my God... this is not happening to me.” She mumbled to herself. “You’re telling me I’m going to be like this for the rest of my life?”

 

“That likely hood is entirely possible Kim.” Kim, hearing the unthinkable out loud for the first time stared slack-jawed at the old wizard. “There is always a chance Kim that for all of Ben’s problems, he will let you go once you have completed your obligation to your promise.”

 

“None of this is up to you or me any longer. Let me tell you however, if you don’t go and that means WITH Ben, then the mask will not unlock itself and Ben will not be able to take it off until you attend a prom with him.”

 

Kim sat, dejected, on a small pile of boxes near a rack of what looked like costumes. “I can’t believe this. This was only supposed to last until the end of school Thursday. I didn’t even want to do this.” Kim moped.

 

“You know, being a girl isn’t that bad. I’ve been a woman on several occasions. I expect gender reversal of my help, those young kids that come in here for jobs in the summer.” The Wizard admitted.

 

“You change the guys that come to work for you into girls?” Kim sounded appalled.

 

“Not only the boys... I insist that the girls become boys. It’s an important life lesson. It teaches you how to think for both groups of people. They are very different you know, boys and girls.” At that point the same young lady from before walked out of the back carrying a basket with several small boxes and items that looked to Kim like they were to be put out on display.

 

“That’s sick.” Kim said disgustedly. Then her mind hit on an idea, “I don’t suppose I could get a summer job here.”

 

“Nice try Kim, but I can’t change you back, even if I gave you a job. Besides, I already have an assistant. Darrel here. I’ve named her Darla, more appropriate don’t you think?”

 

“That’s a boy?” Kim asked astonished.

 

Darrel turned with an angry look on her face, “Was... I was a boy.” Darrel barked in a sweet but angry girl’s voice.

 

“Sooorrrrrrrry!” Kim remarked snidely.

 

“She’s still upset about the arrangement,” admitted the Wizard.

 

“It wasn’t an arrangement. I was tricked!” insisted Darrel. Now Kim felt she could understand the girl’s comment from earlier.

 

“You wanted to become a Wizard, you signed the contract, and you graduate when you figure out the spell and can change yourself back.”

 

“Nope, that’s not how it went. Even at that, I graduate as a woman! You said I’d never be capable of holding my former form for more than a month at a time after that,” argued the young girl.

 

“It’s unfortunate, but you have to graduate and hold your degree as you were when you were an apprentice. Your diploma will say Sorceress not Wizard. But they’re really the same thing.” The Wizard paused and waited. “You could always just leave.”

 

“Oh no. If I’m stuck this way, then I’m going to get something out of it,” Darrel answered quickly.

 

“That’s the spirit!” Cried the Wizard and slapped the girl on the back as if she were still one of the guys.

 

“Ooooowwwwww. That hurts!” cried Darla doing her best not to drop the basket of goodies while writhing in pain.

 

“Sorry.” The Wizard said sheepishly.

 

“Ahem!” coughed Kim. The Wizard turned with eyebrows raised questioningly. “My problem?”

 

“I heard you to talking about that from back there,” said Darla. “Stop saying you’re going to be places as you are if you want to change back. Consider yourself lucky. You want to talk about stuck, how’s this? You have six weeks. I have at least two hundred years before I can change myself back for five minutes.”

 

“It’s really that simple,” said the Wizard. “Don’t make appointments that Kim has to keep. No dates, no commitments. If you do, the mask will make sure that Kim exists to fulfill the commitment. If you decide not to be where you said you’ll be, the mask will stay on until you follow through with what you said you’d do. Whatever you do, don’t give a date and time, at the very least not a date and certainly not a year. If you do, and you don’t show, then the only thing to do is resign yourself that you’re going to be Kim for the rest of your life. Remember Kim, time travel for you isn’t possible. You will not be able to go back and fulfill an appointment for a date that has already passed. At that point the mask will never let you go.”

 

“Anything else you haven’t told me?” Kim asked sarcastically.

 

“No sex. If you have sex as Kim, Kim stays. That includes voluntary intercourse, masturbation, genital fondling and rape...” The Wizard eyed her, “You have ah... you know...”

 

“NO!” Kim said with girlish indignation. “I most certainly haven’t.” Then she remembered David Pratt, “Does that include anything that Kim did before I put the mask on?”

 

The Wizard coughed, blushed, “No, I’m pretty sure that things that happened in the line of time before the date and time you slipped into her life won’t count.” Beneath the counter, Darla giggled under her breath as she put a tray of magic rings in the display case.

 

“That will be enough of that Darla,” commanded the Wizard.

 

“I hate that name.” Darla muttered as she collected the trash and arrogantly marched back to the rear of the store.”

 

Kim watched her go, her heart was heavy for the young girl who, it seemed, was doomed to remain a young girl for sometime to come. “What will happen to her?”

 

“Darla? I suspected that she’ll quit eventually. She doesn’t have the stomach for this.”

 

“Will you change her back then?” Kim asked, digging for a flaw somewhere, something that would point to a way out for herself.

 

“I can’t. That’s the thing about magic. Spells are almost exclusively designed to prevent or repel tampering. Whether you believe it or not, magic won’t work unless you make a conscious decision to let it work. It’s sort of like giving consent. Once you’ve given consent, the magic is free to run its course without interference. Only she can change what she’s done. The rules are fairly simple in your case too. I admit, I should have given greater detail about what might happen, but then, this is what I do.”

 

“This is all just one big game to you, changing people around into people they aren’t supposed to be?” Kim asked bitterly.

 

“As I said, the magic won’t really work unless you consent to it. Contracts are for the contracted to investigate, not the drafter to reveal. Since you’re here as you are now, you consented. I would be careful of making vague accusations young lady. That can only lead to trouble.” The Wizard met her gaze with stony intensity and did not waver.

 

“I don’t like this.” she pouted, “I want to go home, my real home, my real time. I want to be the self that I perceive myself to be.” Kim paused, lost in thought and then asked. “What if something keeps me from going to the Prom or Ben decides not to take me.”

 

“I wish I could help Kim, I do. I can’t change what’s been done, but if you follow the rules, barring a catastrophe, you do stand a chance at getting home soon enough.”

 

Kim stood shaking her head unbelievingly. “You were my last hope,” she mumbled, then shrieked, “I can not believe this!” She plopped back down on the boxes she’s been sitting on only a moment before and laced her fingers through her platinum hair. “What now?”

 

“You go home Kim. You go home and you do what you can to try to play by the rules. And if the rules say that you stay as you are, then you go on. Does it really matter what body you do that in anyway.”

 

“I used to think so,” Kim admitted dejectedly. “Thanks for nothing.” She stood without so much as a single glance back and exited the store. Behind her, the bell chimed her exit.

 

Maurice turned as Darla just coming back from the storage area deep within the shop, “She doomed you know.”

 

“Doomed Darla, please explain yourself.” The old man said.

 

“Explain myself,” She asked. She turned angrily on The Wizard, “Okay. Look at me. All I was looking for was what amounted to a job.

 

“You were asking for a bit more than just a job Darla,” the Wizard reminded her.

 

“Whatever…” Darla dismissed him. “I got the job alright, but I didn’t realize that the stipulation to acceptance was that I had to become a girl to work here. Once that happened, I became caught in a never ending series of circumstances that prevented me from becoming me again. Finally, in the forlorn hope that I might be able to change myself back, I decided to become a wizard.”

 

“Now look at me. I’m stuck like this. And the council has made sure that I’m going to remain like this. THEN they added insult to injury by dangling a carrot out in front of me the whole time by giving me the slimmest hope that I could make myself male again. If I quit, I’m a girl for the rest of my life, BUUUUT, if I hang in there I have some hope of occasionally being male again for short periods of time. Oh yeah... that’s fair.”

 

Darla paused for a moment, “I’ve seen how this magic works... Spells that change people rarely offer any real solution to a way back. Even if someone has the option of going back, it’s not really an option. That’s the real illusion. Once you’re changed, you’d better get used to it.” Darla paused again shaking her head and returning to her work, “She’s going to be that poor little girl all her life and you know it.” Darla quipped sarcastically.

 

“Believe it or not Darla, that will be her choice entirely.”

 

Darla snorted a very unladylike nasal growl and went back to her work. “I’ve heard that before,” she groused under her breath.