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Our sweet little adopted daughter was only 6 years-old so she couldn't possibly have a devious plan to reshape our entire family, could she? WENDY by BobH (c) 2012 -1- "Oh, honey that was just what I needed!" said Mel, as she rolled off me to lay panting at my side. "Glad to be of service," I said, giving a thin smile and thinking that 'service' was exactly the right word for what I'd just done for Melissa. I was really low on energy and hadn't been able to summon any enthusiasm. Just doing the bare minimum that was acceptable had left me feeling exhausted. I was surprised Mel didn't seem to have noticed. I still loved her - at least I think I did - but our love-making had become perfunctory. Was my passion for her fading, I wondered? I'd heard that happened to a lot of couples after they'd been together a few years but Melissa and I had been together barely a year. I watched pensively as she reached over to her bedside table for a post-coital cigarette. "That's funny," she said, frowning at the contents of the cigarette packet, "I'd swear I haven't smoked that many." "Well, if you didn't then Jessica must've been filching them," I said. Jessica was Melissa's 15 year-old daughter. "Jess? Do you really think it could be her? Do you know if she even smokes?" "Teenage girl, in the right age range they start experimenting, spreading their wings and discovering who they are." "I suppose," said Melissa, lighting her cigarette and taking a long, appreciative drag. "We'd better have a word with her about it." "I guess," I said, feeling vaguely uneasy about that 'we'. Jessica was her daughter, not mine, and I didn't feel comfortable at the idea of disciplining her. I understood Mel wanting me to take a greater role with Jessica, but she and I were still building a relationship and I didn't want to jeopardise it. When Mel's husband abandoned them he severed all ties with his family, leaving Jessica without a father. After the divorce is finalised I'd be honoured to assume that role, but we're not there yet. I hope she'll call me 'Dad' one day, but for now I'm still 'Jason'. Suddenly the door burst open and a small pink-clad figure burst into the room. "Mommy, Daddy!" she said, grabbing my hand, "me and Jessica made breakfast, you must come downstairs now." This was our 6 year-old, Wendy, who we'd adopted together three months ago. She was a real girly-girl who loved Barbie and the Disney princesses more than anything. The only time she had ever given us any trouble was when we tried to put her in pants, which she had refused point blank to wear saying she didn't want to look like a "yucky boy". With Wendy it was dresses all the way, and the prettier the better. "Whoa there, princess!" I said. "What have Mommy and I told you about knocking before coming into our bedroom?" Wendy's face fell, and she lowered her head. "I'm sorry," she said, "please don't be mad." "Oh honey, we're not mad at you," said Mel, stubbing out her cigarette in an ashtray, grabbing her robe, and leaping out of bed. In a single fluid movement she had thrown the robe on and was kneeling beside Wendy, hugging her. "It's really, really nice that you and your sister have made us breakfast. Daddy didn't mean to shout at you." Daddy didn't think he *had* shouted at her, but with the way Mel was glaring at me I knew better than to say anything. "Now go and set the table and Mommy and Daddy will be down when their dressed, OK sweetie?" "OK, Mommy," she said, giving my wife a big hug. "I love you, Mommy!" She really was adorable. "And we love you, too, baby." When Wendy had gone Mel gave me a reproachful look. "Honestly, Jason," she said, "you know how eager to please she is and how she still thinks that if she upsets us we'll send her back to the orphanage." "I didn't shout at her!" I protested. "I wouldn't do that. I know we have to build up her confidence and convince her she never has to worry about us sending her back to that place." Mel didn't look entirely mollified, but she accepted my apology, after which we quickly got dressed. I glanced across at Mel as we did so, casting an appreciative eye over her perfect figure. She was tall and slender with small, high breasts and could easily have been a model had she been interested, which she wasn't. No, though she loved wearing designer clothes Mel's interests had always been more cerebral. She was by profession a hedge fund manager, a one-woman operation but a very profitable one. We first met when she successfully pitched to take over management of my stock portfolio, after which one thing led to another and here we now are. I was actually surprised to find myself living with someone at all. I'd reached the age of twenty-five without ever being in a significant relationship and far from convinced I ever wanted to be. Pulling on a shirt I winced at a sudden stab of pain in my left hand as I accidentally snagged one of the stitches in my palm. That wound was the result of my somehow managing to slip and slice open my palm while carving our Sunday joint a few weeks earlier. There was blood everywhere, necessitating a visit to our local ER. And the joint was ruined, of course. Downstairs the girls were at the breakfast counter and serving up eggs, bacon, and hash browns. Already seated there were my sister Karen and her 8 year-old daughter Mandy, who were currently staying with us. As well as the food, there was also a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea or coffee for each of us, already poured out. "'Morning, all. Wow, that all looks delicious!" I said, encouragingly. And it would be, too. Jessica was actually a pretty good cook, which was just as well since Melissa let her do most of the cooking. She was also forever bringing us mugs of tea and coffee between meals, which hadn't been asked of her but was still very considerate. But then she was a very thoughtful young lady what with this and volunteering at the local orphanage, the one Wendy had come from. "Thanks, Jason," she said, smiling at me shyly. It always puzzled me when she did that since Jessica was usually pretty confident and self-assured. We all sat down and tucked into our breakfasts while the TV on the kitchen wall ran a morning news show with the sound turned down. Gazing across at Wendy and Jess I couldn't help smiling fondly at them. With their blonde hair and similar complexions you could almost believe they were biological siblings, even though they weren't. It was because of Jessica that we had found Wendy. Jessica used to visit a friend at the orphanage - at Bellhaven - a girl her age named Anya Dravic, but they had a falling out over something - probably a boy - and stopped speaking to each other. However, while visiting Anya she met Wendy, who she decided was the little sister she'd never had. Mel and I took some persuading, but when we met her for ourselves we had to agree, and so we adopted her. Jessica was the same height as Melissa and had pretty much the same figure, though the school uniform she was wearing helped conceal this. She could easily wear clothes borrowed from her mother, and it was a source off some friction between them that Melissa wouldn't let her do so, or wear make-up. I was pretty sure I knew what the problem was, too. It wasn't just that Mel didn't want to take a chance on her expensive designer clothes getting damaged - having paid for them I shared that desire - but that she didn't want to acknowledge that her little girl wasn't so little anymore. Mel was thirty-two, seven years older than me, but still young. If she let Jessica have her way, let her start looking like the young woman she was fast becoming, then it would make Mel feel middle-aged and I think the idea that her youth was passing terrified her, particularly when she had sacrificed so much of it. She was a teenage single mother when Carl Bentley came along and married her. If he hadn't she would almost certainly never have got the education that let her start her business. But doing so, getting that education and starting the business while caring for her baby meant that she had entirely missed out on doing most of the things kids get up to in their teens and early twenties. Now she was trying to hang on to what remained of her youth for as long as she could, and who can blame her? "Oh look, it's that horrible man again," said Karen, who'd been watching the TV as she ate. I glanced up to see the face of Doctor Peter Brodus staring back at me. Brodus had killed himself last year, and good riddance. He'd been in charge of the Sunnybrook orphanage in Tennessee and it had caused a national sensation two years ago when he admitted pimping out the vulnerable kids in his charge to local businessmen, politicians, judges and cops. He'd named names too, and according to the TV strapline the trial of those bastards was about to kick into high gear. Good. I looked at Wendy, my adorable little daughter, and shuddered at the thought of her in a place like Sunnybrook. Thank God she was in Bellhaven, which was held up nationwide as an example of how an orphanage should be run. Any sentence that didn't include those creeps in Tennessee being worked over with baseball bats would be too lenient for me. "Me and Mandy have finished," announced Wendy. "Can we go an' play outside now?" I glanced over at Karen, who nodded her assent. "Of course you can, but make sure to stay away from the edge of the pool." Both Wendy and Mandy could swim well enough to get themselves to the poolside if they fell in, but I'd still prefer for them not to have to. "Thank you, Uncle Jason," said Mandy. She took Wendy's hand and the two of them trotted off, giggling all the way. "You do remember it's your turn to take Jessica to school today, right?" said Mel. "Of course," I said, "and happy to do so." "Good. I'll pick her up after school." Wendy had finished her school year last week, but Jessica still had today left to do before her school broke for the summer recess. Throwing back the rest of my coffee, I stood up and stretched. "Right," I said to Jessica. "You ready?" "I just need to run upstairs and get my blazer and my school bag." While she dashed off to do that Karen got to her feet. "I'll walk out to the garage with you," she said. This meant she wanted to have a word with me about something, and I was pretty sure I knew what. Karen was five years older than me and had always been the more responsible of the two of us. Our parents had died in a plane crash four years ago and I had inherited the bulk of their fortune, with only a relatively small sum going to her. The reason she and Mandy were currently staying with us was that they were moving abroad for several years and had already sold their house. Her husband Frank had gone ahead to get everything ready and they would be joining him soon. The garage contained five cars including my pride and joy, a classic Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray coupe, though the one we'd be driving today was the Lexus. "Does it bother you," I asked Karen, "seeing all this and knowing our folks left almost everything to me?" "Not really, no," she said, "because I understand why they did it. Frank and I both have college degrees, professional skills, and are doing very well. What they left me was a welcome extra, but we didn't need it. You on the other hand have no qualifications and have never done a day's work in your life. Mom and Dad probably figured the money would act as a cushion until you got your shit together, but you never have. You're still living an extended childhood, using it to hold off assuming the responsibilities of adulthood and spending your days having mindless fun. I was surprised as hell when Melissa and her daughter moved in with you, and even more when you adopted Wendy. I had hoped that might change your attitude to life but it hasn't, not really." "Yeah, so?" I said, more than a little defensively. "What's wrong with that? If I can keep doing whatever I want, why shouldn't I?" "You can't stay a child all your life," said Karen. "Whether you like it or not you have responsibilities now and you have to step up to the plate. Sooner or later everyone has to." "Not me," I said, "not if I can avoid it." Karen let out a sigh of frustration, and would probably have said more if Jessica hadn't turned up right then. "I'm ready now, Jason," she said. "OK, get in the Lexus. See you later, Karen." She frowned at me disapprovingly and was still frowning as Jessica and I set off in the car. "Is everything OK between you and your sister?" asked Jessica as we reached the main gates and turned onto the road that ran past our property. "Yeah," I said. "We were just rehashing an old argument." Karen and Melissa would be leaving us in a few days to join Frank and it was likely to be several years before we saw them again. Frank and Karen would be working on a start-up in Europe, the sort of project that demands full attention and for which you are on call 24/7 all 365 days of the year in the beginning. It was not the sort of schedule that allowed breaks for family visits to the US. On the plus side, if it came off they stood to make incredible amounts of money. It was only a fifteen minute drive to St. Theodora's, an all-girl school with a great academic record and strict rules on dress and behaviour: no make-up, skirts no shorter than two inches above the knee, all teachers to be addressed formally and not by their first names. We pulled up outside the gates just behind the car carrying Natalie, Jessica's best friend and a near-neighbour of ours. "Thanks for the lift, Jason," said Jess, leaning in to kiss me on the cheek, then swiftly exiting the car and setting off through the school gates with Natalie. She turned once to blow me another kiss, which was kinda odd, and then they were lost to my sight. When I turned the car round ready to pull out into traffic, I was surprised to see that building had started on the lot opposite the school. According to the hoarding outside this was going to be a new branch of the Church of Stark. I'd heard the cult - I refused to call it a church - had been growing by leaps and bounds, particularly here in California, but I hadn't realised they were already wealthy enough to break ground on a building in an area as upmarket as this one. I happened to see Karl Stark assassinated on live TV a few years ago. I'd only been watching because I had the hots for the TV reporter doing that segment, Julia Tamm. Then I found out she's a lesbian, which only made her hotter of course. I was actually in the same room as her a few months ago, at the Osterman's party, but I was too tongue-tied to introduce myself. Didn't stop me ogling her, though. Fortunately, Mel didn't notice. When I got back to the house I found Wendy and Mandy still playing together oustside, which seemed to involve lots of laughing and chasing each other around the pool, while Mel kept an eye on them from inside, working at her laptop in the main living area and glancing up every few seconds and watching them through the sliding glass door that led out from the living area to the swimming pool surrounds. Behind her was Carlotta, our housemaid. We had no full-time staff but she came in three times a week to clean the place and also to prepare an evening meal. She was always gone by five so this was left cooking in a slow cooker. We also had a gardner who worked for us on a similar basis, and that was the sum total of the 'help'. My father had never seen the need for anything more and neither did I. Leaving Mel to her work and watching over the girls I retired to my study and was surprised to see a thermos flask of tea on my desk. There was a small note attached from Jessica. She and Mel and made this to sustain me through a hard day of gaming. "Very thoughtful," I chuckled. And it *would* help. Pulling out my gaming console, I settled back into my chair and turned on the giant plasma screen that hung on the wall beneath the shelves holding my Star Wars collectables. I smiled. Today was the day I was going to beat my all time best score, I was sure of it. As it happened I didn't, though I got close to it. Several hours later, having consumed nothing but tea from the flask, I decided it was time I had something to eat, so I got to my feet. Or at least I tried to. I got about half way out of my chair then, feeling suddenly weak, I slumped back into it. "What the fuck?" I mumbled, head spinning. Boy, did I feel woozy! I made a second attempt to get up and this time I managed it, though I was none too steady on my feet. I was bone weary, as if I'd pulled an all-nighter on the console or actually done some physical exercise. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs, but this wasn't something that was going to be dismissed so easily. Shuffling along, I used the bannister to haul myself upstairs, intending to take a shower, but I never made it to the bathroom. It was passing the open door to my bedroom that did it. The bed was so very inviting, and I was so very tired. I think I may have been asleep before my head hit the pillow. -2- "I can't believe you slept as long as you did," said Karen at breakfast the following morning. "Believe it," said Melissa, spreading marmalade on her toast. "I thought Jason was still gaming in his study so I left him to it. It wasn't until I went into the bedroom to change after collecting Jess from school that I found him there on the bed, snoring away." "I don't snore," I said, to snorts of derision from the women. "My bedroom was next to yours when we were growing up, remember?" said Karen. "I *know* Melissa is telling the truth about your snoring." "Yeah, whatever." "Seriously though, darling," said Mel, "are you sure you're not coming down with something?" "Yeah, I probably just haven't been sleeping well at night and it's finally caught up with me, that's all." I sipped my coffee, prepared for me by Jessica and Mandy as usual, and wondered if I actually might be coming down with something. I certainly felt odd, as if somehow disconnected from my body. The coffee was giving me a temporary boost but I had a feeling that wasn't going to last. I glanced across at the girls. Jessica was texting friends on her phone and tucking into a bowl of cereal while Wendy was watching me with a curious intensity. I smiled at her, and she grinned back at me. "That was delicious as always, girls," I said, getting up from the breakfast bar, "now if you'll all excuse me...." With enormous effort I made my way to my bedroom and fell back on to the bed. That exertion seemed to completely drain my last reserves of energy and I lay there, staring at the ceiling, totally unable to move or even to speak. A minute or so later Wendy came into view, climbing up first onto the bed, and then onto my chest. She was dressed in her sparkly fairy dress, wire and mesh wings on her back, a plastic tiara in her hair, and holding a 'magic' wand in her hand. This was a tinfoil wrapped stick with a rubber star on the end. "Look Daddy," she said, staring down into my eyes and giggling, "I'm a fairy princess! An' my magic wand really works. I'm going to be the Daddy now and you can be my little girl." So saying she tapped me on the head with the wand three times and shouted "Abradadabra!" Putting the wand down she turned my head to one side, pinched my nose with one hand and pulled my chin down with the other to open my mouth slightly. What was she doing? As puzzling as this was, what she did next was downright alarming. Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and clamped her little mouth down over mine. She then exhaled, forcing her breath into my lungs. I did not have the strength to protest or to resist her in any way. Coming up for air, she took another deep breath before clamping her mouth over mine once more and forcing her breath into my lungs again. I could feel something coming loose inside me, not something physical but something spiritual. With a feeling of dread I realised what it must be: my soul. Wendy repeated this a third time and then I felt it. I felt my soul finally break free from my body before flowing out of it and past something coming the other way, something that looked like me. Before I really knew what was happening I felt my soul slotting into place... somewhere else. I was sitting on something warm and hard. Momentarily disoriented I didn't realize what it was until strong hands clamped around my waist and hoisted me into the air. That's when I snapped out of my fugue and looked down. Down into my own grinning face! "Wow, I love being this big!" he said in a deep voice. In my voice. In a daze I looked down at my own now smaller body, a body clad in a little white dress that sparked, sandals and ankle socks, now aware of the fairy wings on my back and the plastic tiara in my hair. With a lurch in my stomach and a sickening sensation of vertigo, what had happened finally hit me. I was in Wendy's body. She had done it! Somehow she had switched places with me. But how? I stared down at the toy wand in disbelief. Wendy had said it was really magic, but that just wasn't possible, was it? "I see what you're thinking, princess," said the man...said Jason, "but it wasn't the wand. That was just my little joke. It was a spell. And it will take another spell to reverse the switch, which just isn't going to happen. Now run along and play with your dolls. Daddy needs to get dressed." So saying, he carried me out to the landing, put me down, then went back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. I stood there in a daze, in shock and unable to move, still not believing what had just happened. "Wendy?" I turned my head. It was Jessica. She had just climbed the stairs and was looking at me with concern written on her face. "Is everything alright?" That broke my paralysis, and I ran over to her as fast as my little legs would carry me, throwing my arms around her waist. She hugged me back and ruffled my hair. "Wendy, what is it?" Looking up at her, I opened my mouth to speak...and nothing came out! "Sweetie, you have to tell me what you want if you want me to help you." "Dolls!" I said, suddenly. Why had I said that? "Dolls?" "Dolls!" I said, again. "I wanna play with my dollies." What?!? "OK," said Jessica, smiling but puzzled, "let's take you to your room and you can play with them all you want." She took my hand and led me, unresisting, into Wendy's bedroom. Lifting me up, she placed me on the bed and took several dolls from the higher shelves. "Here you go," she said, placing them on the bed beside me, "plenty of dolls to be going on with. OK, you have a nice time playing with them. I'm going over to Natalie's house." So saying, she turned on her heel and left me there, surrounded by dolls and all alone in what would now be my room unless I could reverse what had been done to me. I heard her go out, heard her set off down the drive on her bicycle, but my mind was elsewhere, my thoughts racing. What was going on? Why hadn't I been able to tell her what had happened to me? "I can guess what must be going through your mind." I looked up to see him, the new Jason, in the doorway to the room, leaning against the frame. He was dressed in jeans and a shirt with the top few buttons undone, exposing a stretch of my - now his - hairy chest. He came over and sat down on the bed beside me, looking huge. But then with all the height I'd lost everything looked huge to me now. "You're wondering why you couldn't tell Jess about our body switch," he said. "The truth is you can't tell *anyone*. That's because as well as switching us I put a geas on you. It won't let you give away that we're not who we've always been, either by word or by deed. I let everyone think I was a very feminine girly-girl, so that's what you'll have to be from now on. Also, you can only speak as if you really were the 6 year-old little girl you appear to be, even with me." "Why did you do this to us, Daddy?" I asked. 'Daddy'? Why had I called him 'Daddy'? "And there's another example of the geas in action," he said, chuckling. "As to why... Make yourself comfortable, sweetie, because Daddy's going to tell you a story." I did as he asked, removing my fairy wings then pushing the pillows up against the wall and leaning back into them. When I was done he began. "Once upon a time," he said, "there was a little boy who was born in the body of a little girl. He always knew he was really a boy but no one believed him. They treated him like a girl, putting him in pretty dresses and calling him Wendy, which is a really girly name. The boy lived in an orphanage, the only home he had ever known. He supposed he must have had a mummy and daddy at some point but if so it was in a time before he could remember. There was something else strange about the boy. Not only did he have the body of a little girl, but when he reached the age of six he stopped getting any older. It turns out he suffered from something called hypopituitarism, which affects all manner of hormones in the body and which in his case resulted in his growth stopping and his aging appearing to halt along with it, though this last was more illusion than reality, of course. Inside he was still aging like everyone else. And there was one other thing. The boy was dyslexic which, coincidentally, kept his reading age at that of the 6 year-old he appeared to be. It was almost as if the universe was determined to keep him frozen at that age. Sadly, no one ever adopted the little boy. Because of his condition they probably thought he was a freak. "Years passed with the boy never appearing to get any older. One day, when he was in his teens, he and a friend were surfing the web on the orphanage's ancient computer when they found a website in those dark regions of the internet no browser ever reaches that claimed to be an old spell book that someone had put online. His friend thought this was nonsense but the boy disagreed. He got her to read it to him, memorizing everything she said, and was intrigued by two spells in particular. The first allowed you to put a geas on someone, to bend them to your will in ways you could define so long as these did not cause them physical harm. The other was a body-switching spell. The boy did not know whether or not the spellbook was for real, but it was easy to put it to the test. He used the first spell to lay a small geas on one of the other children in the orphanage, and it worked perfectly. He was very excited by this, and made plans to escape that place. "First, he stopped fighting their attempts to convince him he was a little girl and embraced the femininity they had been trying to force on him for so long. Next, he put a geas on the head of the orphanage, getting him first to doctor his records so that the boy was listed as still being the age he appeared to be rather than his true age, and then to get him transferred to another orphanage in a much better area, one where the boy was sure to be adopted by a wealthy family. When he was adopted by Jason Meade and Melissa Bentley he was delighted. Jason had just the body the boy wanted. He would first have to live with them as their little daughter for several months, of course, until he had learned enough about their lives to be able to take Jason's place and have no one suspect he hadn't always been him. So it was that on his eighteenth birthday the boy gave himself a present, the best present he had ever had, and became Jason Meade. The original Jason ended up in the boy's old body, of course, and because of the geas he had to pretend to be the 6 year-old little girl everyone thought he was. Then something wonderful happened. He decided he really did like being a little girl after all, and they all lived happily ever after. The end. There, isn't that a beautiful story?" "No," I said, folding my arms across my chest and pouting. "Didn't like it. I'm not gonna be a little girl an' live happily ever after." "'Course you will, sweetie," he said, patting my head and laughing. "You don't have any choice in the matter." He got to his feet then and headed out of the room. Pausing at the door he ran his fingers through his chest hair and smiled. "I always dreamed of having chest hair, you know," he said, "because it's something men have." When he had gone I stayed where I was, processing what he had told me. Thinking about it helped distract me from my condition (A GIRL!! I WAS A LITTLE GIRL!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!). He said a spell had done this, one he'd found in some dark corner of the internet, and that only a spell could undo it. I needed that spell and I needed it quickly. When we brought Wendy home from the orphanage she had very little with her, and certainly no papers. I suppose it's possible she might have had a memory stick concealed about her person but it seemed more likely to me that she had accessed that site again since being here. Which meant there might be a record of it on the computer she had used. If so, and if Jason hadn't yet wiped the web visit history from the browser, I needed to get to it before he did. There was no a computer in this room which meant he had to have used one of the others in the house. Mel worked from home and had hers with her most of the time, and my own had multiple passwords to stop anyone gaining access to it mainly, I'm ashamed to say, because I didn't want them seeing the kind of porn I liked downloading. Not every woman is going to understand why her partner likes looking at pictures of ladyboys. Which only left Jessica's computer. Like most teens she spent more time using her phone and accessing the web that way and mostly left it unused in her room except for when she was working on homework or some other school project. Yes, it had to be Jess's computer. I climbed down off the bed and headed out onto the landing...only to run into Mel. "There you are, Wendy," she said, swooping in and sweeping me up in her arms. "Did you forget that you and Mandy have your play group this morning?" As she carried me down the stairs, I watched over her shoulder, feeling a panic the geas would not let me show, as Jessica's room receded behind us. If I couldn't get hold of that spell I was going to be stuck like this and that couldn't...mustn't happen. Mel put me down in the kitchen, where Karen and Mandy awaited us. "C'mon, silly," said Mandy, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the house, "we'll be late for play group." I'd noticed that as the older, larger child she liked to take charge when playing with Wendy, which meant she was now taking charge with me and because of the geas I had to let her. She took us over to Karen's car and we climbed into the back seats, where Karen and Mel buckled us in. Karen then got into the driver's seat, while Mel leaned in to give me a quick hug and a kiss. "Enjoy yourself, baby," she said. "OK, Mommy," I replied with a smile, while trying franticly to scream at her that I was Jason in Wendy's body and that I really, really needed to get on to Jessica's computer. And so it was that I watched through the rear window as the house I desperately needed to be in disappeared into the distance behind us. None of my intense effort to tell someone, anyone what had happened to me got past the geas but that effort still took its toll. Exhausted and lulled by the motion of the car, I fell asleep. -3- I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my back, staring up at a pink ceiling. Lifting my hand, I stared at it and my heart soared: it was the hand of a grown man, my hand. "Yes!" I said, laughing, as I sat up. That's when I noticed something was wrong. I was in Wendy's bedroom and it was huge. No, that wasn't it. The room wasn't huge - I was small. I stared down at myself and was dismayed to see I was wearing Wendy's fairy outfit. Clambering down off the too-high bed, I scrambled over to the wall mirror. It showed me in my own body but now as short as Wendy, and looking ludicrous in her clothes. The door to the room suddenly opened and there were Karen, Mel, and Jessica, all laughing down at me. "Look, he's a little girl!" shrieked Melissa. "Aww, he's so pretty!" said Jessica, grinning. "Pink is so his color!" "He was always a child, never really a grown up!" laughed Karen. "Stop it! Stop it!" I shouted. "Wendy's the little girl, not me." They parted then and there, standing behind them, was Wendy. Her body was still that of a 6 year-old, yet somehow grown to full adult height. She was wearing the same fairy outfit I was. "I'm the Daddy," she said, "an' you're my little girl! You're going to be my little girl for ever an' ever, amen!" I knew this was all a dream but I couldn't break out of it, not until I was woken by Karen unbuckling my seatbelt and gently shaking me. "My, someone's sleepy today!" she said. "I think your mommy needs to put you to bed earlier tonight, young lady." Karen lifted me out of the car and carried me into the building where the play group was held while also holding Mandy's hand. Inside, she handed us off to the play group leader, a bubbly twentysomething by the name of Kirsty Crenshaw. When Karen had left, Kirsty split Mandy and me up with Mandy going off to play in the 8-to-10s group and me in the 5-to-7s. Our activities involved moulding plasticene, drawing on large sheets of paper with crayons, singing nursery rhymes, together, and a whole lot of running around, all supervised by friendly young women with the patience of saints. The purpose of the exercise was to warehouse the kids for a while to give the adults a few hours to themselves. Off by herself and keeping her distance from the other children in our group was Johanna Michaelson, the daughter of my near-neighbours John and Heather Michaelson. I was pretty damn wealthy, but they were billionaires. I'd heard they would be relocating to San Francisco very shortly. A pretty little girl, Johanna was wearing a short-sleeved yellow dress, white ankle socks, and Mary Janes. Her long brown hair was done in pigtails, tied off with large yellow ribbons. Like Wendy she was also adopted, and around the same time, too. Since they were both six years old, and had both started at the school at the same time, Mel and I had hoped she and Wendy might hit it off and become friends, but it hadn't happened. Johanna was a solitary child who seemed to prefer her own company, yet she never looked very happy by herself. Several hours later, at the end of the session, parents and guardians arrived to take their children home. Karen turned up a little late due to traffic with the result that Mandy and I were among the last to leave. As we walked over to our car we saw Johanna Michaelson standing next to hers. She was with her governess, Maria, who was still quite young herself - maybe nineteen years old - and dressed in a sharply-tailored trouser suit, three inch neels, and dark glasses. She was smoking a cigarette while Johanna watched her, one of those black ones with the golden tips. Johanna looked oddly wistful, a strange expression for one so young, while Maria seemed almost to be gloating about something. Dropping her cigarette to the ground and grinding it out with the toe of her shoe, Maria exhaled with an extravagant sigh of pleasure before turning and opening the passenger side door of her car. "OK, honey," she said to Johanna, "we have to get you to you home. Your mommy won't thank me if we're late."" Despite my own predicament, I found myself replaying this little scene in my head for most of the drive home. It was none of my business, but I couldn't help but wonder what was going on there. When we got back I wanted to dash upstairs and get at Jessica's computer, but no sooner had I climbed out of the car than Mandy grabbed my hand. "C'mon," she said, "let's play hide and go seek!" As the older child she got to decide what we did and thanks to the geas I had no choice but to go along with her. So it was that I found myself playing in the grounds for several hours. At one point, just before dinner, Mandy looked up in puzzlement. "What's Unca Jason doin'?" she said, pointing towards the driveway. The Lexus was lurching up the road, with Jason at the wheel. It was obvious what he was doing. With Mel and Karen's attention elsewhere he had taken the opportunity to sneak out and to get some practice in. Unlike me he had never driven before and it was a skill he was going to have to quickly master. Not long after this Mel called us in for our evening meal. Sitting at the table, I watched the others for any sign they realised the man at its head was not me, but there was none. And why would there be? He'd had six months to observe me, to learn how to *be* me, and his performance was note perfect. I had hoped to be able to sneak away to Jess's room, but what with one thing and another I was never left alone long enough for this to even be a possible. Not until eight o'clock, and my bedtime. "Goodnight, sweetie," said Mel, finishing the fairy story she had been reading me and kissing me on the forehead. "G'night, Mommy," I replied. After Mel had left, I waited a few minutes then got out of bed and crossed the landing to Jessica's room. Fortunately, she had gone out after our meal to visit her friend Natalie so as long as no one came up to check on me I should have all the time I needed. I turned on her computer, but when the screen lit up I stared at in dismay. The words were there, but I couldn't read them. The dyslexia, I'd forgotten the dyslexia! My heart sank...but only for a moment. Fortunately, Jess's computer had text-reading software installed, and while reading file names and the internet browsing history was a painstakingly slow process of trying to sound out the syllables, I knew enough about the actual file hierarchies and could recognise enough symbols that I was able to negotiate my way through them more smoothly than I'd feared I could. Of course that didn't mean what I was looking for was going to be easy to find. There was nothing in the browser history so I was counting on Jason having dropped everything into a file. He would hardly have put it in an easily findable one labelled 'spells' after all. Having to use headphones to take advantage of the text-reading software meant I wouldn't be able to hear if someone was coming, but it was a chance I just had to take. Several hours later, and barely able to stay awake, I finally found the file I was looking for, hidden away in a sub-directory. Elated, I copied it onto a memory stick, then closed down the computer and headed back to bed. This body needed its sleep and now that I had copied the file there would be plenty time to examine it in detail tomorrow. Needless to say, I was wrong. "Rise and shine, sweetie," said a disgustingly cheerful voice, as someone shook me awake. "Go 'way," I said, trying to hold on to the bedclothes as they were yanked off me with remarkable ease. I blearily opened my eyes to see Mel grinning down at me. What the fuck was my wife playing at? "If you don't hurry up you and Mandy are going to be late for your ballet lesson." "Ballet....?" That's when the events of yesterday came flooding back, crashing in on me with surprising force. I wasn't a man anymore I was a little girl, and Mel was now not my wife but my mother. Picking me up, Mel carried me through to the bathroom. "OK young lady," she said, putting me down, brush your teeth, wash your hands and face, and come down for breakfast. Then as soon as we've eaten I'll get you into your ballet clothes." She then left and I did as she asked, still not quite able to believe the little girl staring back from the mirror was me. Breakfast was a relatively subdued affair, all of us eating with purpose and saying very little. Jason barely acknowledged my presence, spending most of the meal with his head buried in the morning newspaper. Not being cursed with dyslexia anymore he was obviously bringing his reading skills up to speed. What had always been a limited and frustrating experience for him could very soon become one of his life's great pleasures. Afterwards, when Mel had tied my hair up in a bun and dressed me in ballet shoes, tights, and tutu, I found myself in the back of Karen's car sitting next to a similarly-attired Mandy, being driven to our lesson. Mel was in the passenger seat and the two women were talking animatedly about Karen and Mandy's imminent departure for parts foreign. Not that I was paying much attention to their conversation. No, I was far more concerned by the look Jess and Jason had exchanged as we were leaving. It had taken way too long for the penny to drop, but it finally had and I belatedly realised what those odd exchanges I'd had with Jess and those strange looks she'd been giving me meant: she had a crush on me. Now that Wendy was Jason that crush was focussed on him. And from the look he'd given Jess, her feelings were returned. It made sense - there was a 16 year-old in that body now so of course he was going to be attracted to her. I just had to hope he didn't act on that attraction before I could get my body back. At the ballet school, I was surprised to see Johanna Michaelson. She was as surly and uncommunicative as ever so I gave up on trying to make friends with her. Anyway, of more immediate concern was the ballet lesson itself. Fortunately they didn't try to make girls as young as us dance en pointe, but what with all the poses we had to strike I still found the whole experience hideously embarassing. Jessica was in her room working at her computer when we got back, so I wasn't able to get on it that day or, as it happened, the day after. But the day after that I got it to myself for several hours. The first thing I discovered was that the file containing the spells had gone. Obviously Jason had deleted it at some point over the past few days. Fortunately, I still had it on the memory stick and so was finally able to give its contents the extensive study they required. Using the text-to-speech software slowed things down considerably, of course, but I had no option but to use it. What I gleaned from the file was that I had to first prepare a potion, most of the ingredients for which were fairly common and should be easy to obtain. After drinking the potion I would need to speak the relevant spell. This was not in English or any other language I recognized, but fortunately Jason had written out a syllable-by-syllable transliteration and the text-to-speech software could sound this out for me. Of course, being unable to read the spell meant that I would have to memorize it. As it turned out I would have plenty of time to do so as it only worked if spoken on the day before a full moon, the next one of which was three weeks away. It was frustrating to have to wait that long, but on the other hand I now had a definite date for when my ordeal would be over. The following day was a very big event. It was the day Karen and Mandy were finally leaving us. They had hoped to be able to stay for Jessica's birthday but the company wanted Karen now so that was that. Their stuff had been packed for weeks so when the time came they only had to throw their day-to-day stuff into a couple of suitcases and they were ready to go. Not that we were ready to see them go. There was much hugging and teary farewells when the taxi arrived to carry them off to the airport. "Gonna miss you, squirt!" said Mandy, enfolding me in a big hug. "Me too," I replied, sniffling. And then, almost before we knew it, they were gone. I thought this would be the biggest thing to happen in the weeks left until I could read the reversal spell. I was wrong. -5- The following week Jessica's sixteenth birthday arrived, and it turned out to be a day of high drama. It began at breakfast when we all gathered at the breakfast bar. Jessica was the last to arrive, and as she entered the kitchen we burst into a chorus of "Happy birthday". "Thanks guys you're the best!" she said as we finished. She then opened our cards to her and those that had arrived in the mail. "This is from me, honey," said Melissa, handing her a small package. "Happy birthday!" "Thanks, Mom!" Jess tore the wrapping paper off to find a jewellery box. Inside this was a tasteful (and expensive) gold necklace. "And this is from me, Jess," said Jason, handing her a slightly larger package that also contained a jewellery box. However, inside this one was a key. Melissa recognized it before Jessica did. "You're giving her the Lexus?!" she said, turning to Jason and staring at him in shock. "This is the best present ever!" said a delighted Jessica, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him. "Don't you think you should've discussed this with me first?" said Melissa, icily. "She's sixteen now, she aced all her drivers' ed classes, and I've arranged it so we can pick up her license tomorrow. She needs a car so I decided she should have the Lexus." Melissa opened her mouth to respond to this but she was cut off by the doorbell ringing. "Who could that be?" she said, frowning. "We're not expecting anyone." She went to the door and opened it to find several cops there along with their police car, the noise of whose arrival our singing had drowned out. "Melissa Bentley?" said one. "Yes," she replied. "What's this about?" "We have a warrant for your arrest so you'll have to come with us. I'm going to have to ask you to turn around so that I can cuff you." "Is that really necessary?" "Yes ma'am, I'm afraid it is. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?" Melissa nodded, and I stared at her open-mouthed, because when she had turned to be cuffed and so was facing us I could see it in her eyes: resignation. She had been expecting this to happen one day and knew exactly what it was about. And whatever that was, she was guilty. "Stay here and look after Wendy," Jason said to Jessica, grabbing up his jacket. "I'm going with your mother." And then he was gone. As the sound of the police car faded away Jessica and I turned to look at each other in amazement. I think we were both in shock. "What do you think Mommy did?" I asked. "I've got no idea," said Jessica, "but I have to tell all my friends the news and to cancel my party tonight. I can't have it now, not when Mom's just been arrested. That would look really bad. So I'm stepping outside for a few minutes." Melissa's purse was on the coffee table. Jessica reached into it, pulled out her mother's cigarettes and lighter, and smiled down at me. "I'm going to smoke a cigarette too, but you mustn't tell Mommy or Jason, OK?" I nodded. So she *was* a smoker after all. "Good girl!" With that she slid open the glass door leading to the swimming pool, stepped out, and closed it behind her. She then lit up a cigarette and called the first of her friends on her phone. Watching Jessica walking up and down beside the pool, smoking and talking animatedly, I tried to imagine what Melissa had done that had gotten her arrested. And whatever it was, how had the police found out about it? Eventually, Jessica came back in. "Let's watch a Disney princess movie," she said. "I think even *I* could use one of them right now." She slid the disc of 'Sleeping Beauty' into the player and we snuggled up together on the couch to watch it. We watched three princess movies in all until, late in the afternoon, a police car brought Jason back to the house. Jessica rushed over to hug him as soon as he came in. He kissed the top of her head and gave me a tired smile. "Your mom's being held until the arraignment, girls" he said, "and since they seem to think there's a flight risk she's likely to be refused bail. So I don't think we'll be seeing her for several months." "What did she do?" asked Jessica, still clinging on to Jason. "They're saying she's been stealing from her clients for years, including me and even since we've been together. The evidence against her is apparently overwhelming. I...I don't know what to think." "We'll get through this, Jason," said Jessica, hugging him again. "Yes, yes we will," he said, "but there are going to have to be some changes around here." "What do you mean? What changes?" Jason pushed her gently away from him and grasped her shoulders. "I mean that for the forseeable future you're going to have to be the lady of the house," he said, "and if you're going to take on those responsibilities it's only fair that you get the perks too." "Perks? What perks?" "Melissa's wardrobe is now your wardrobe. Her clothes, her shoes, her jewellery, her cosmetics are all yours, too. She can't use them, so you will. Oh, and I know you smoke. As of now you can do that openly, too. No more furtively sneaking a cigarette when we're not around." "I...that's great!" said Jessica, looking pleased. "I mean, not that Mom is in jail, but...." "I understand," said Jason, "and despite everything that's happened it's still your birthday. You had to cancel your party but the three of us are still going to celebrate it. I've ordered food in and we're all going to dress for dinner. Wendy will wear her best party dress and I want you to look glamorous and sophisticated. I assume your visits to your friend Natalie's house involved lots of practicing with make-up?" Jessica nodded. "Then help Wendy get dressed first, and go to it." "OK, c'mon, Wendy!" said Jess, taking my hand and leading me upstairs. In my bedroom, Jess went through my wardrobe and pulled out a black party dress with pink edging. "This will be perfect for you," she said, holding it against me. I offered no resistance as she got me into it, nor when she tied my hair back in a ponytail with a pink ribbon. Once she was satisfied with how I looked we moved to another bedroom - not hers but Jason and Melissa's. Sitting me on the bed, Jess then pulled out various of her mother's designer dresses. Holding them against her body and examining herself critically in the full-length wall mirror, she went through about twenty gowns before settling on one, a simple yet elegant backless white dress, high-collared at the front so it showed no cleavage. Laying it on the bed beside me, she picked out suitable underwear, stockings, a garter belt and five inch heels, all of which she carefully donned before sitting down in front of the dressing table mirror and starting in on her make-up. She did a good job, too - it looked like all that practice with her friend Natalie had paid off. Finally, her make-up complete, she climbed into the gown, added some jewellery, and we headed out. "Wow!" said Jason, as we descended the stairs. "You both look amazing." As it turned out, our timing was perfect, as well. No sooner had we reached the bottom of the stairs than the doorbell rang. Jason opened the door to three men in the livery of an expensive restaurant, each of whom was carrying a silver salver. We sat down, Jason pulling out chairs for us both, and the meal was served. And delicious it was, too. Jason and Jess shared a bottle of wine, but I was of course limited to soda. Good as the meal was, I also found it uncomfortable. Jason and Jessica flirted with each other outrageously throughout. When eventually it was time for me to go to bed I climbed the stairs with a feeling of dread, fearing things between them could go further than mere flirting. I was right. When I woke the next morning I crept into Jess's room. Her bed had not been slept in. Fearing the worst I then carefully opened the door to the master bedroom. Jason was asleep in the bed...with Jess slumbering in his arms, both of them obviously naked. Given this turn of events, I found myself thinking about Mel's arrest and wondering how the police had discovered her crimes. Could Jess have dropped a dime on her mother, I wondered? Was getting her rival for my - for Jason's - affections out of the way her birthday present to herself? It was a disturbing thought, but why wouldn't she be as capable of the same ruthlessness in pursuit of her desires as her mother obviously was? Later, at breakfast, I studied their faces carefully, searching for some acknowledgement of the change in their relationship and finding nothing. Both of them were playing it cool. But from that day forth, Jessica never slept in her own bed again in the weeks that followed. I was desperate to get back in my own body and put a stop to this. As far as I was concerned, the day before the full moon could not come fast enough. -6- The big day had finally arrived, the day I got my own body and my life back. I could hardly wait. When she called me down for breakfast, I was surprised to see Jessica dressed in her school uniform, her hair pulled back in a pony-tail, and wearing no make-up. "Morning, sleepy-head," she said, greeting me cheerily and putting a bowl of cereal and some toast down in front of me. Jason had already eaten and was reading the morning paper. He was wearing a smart suit, the jacket hanging off the back of his chair. What *was* going on? After she'd eaten Jessica had a cigarette with her coffee as she now routinely did every morning, but she'd barely finished it before Jason folded his newspaper and announced: "OK, ladies, it's time to go." He then put on his jacket, Jessica her school blazer, and we headed off in the Lexus. "Where we going, Jessica?" I asked her, curiosity getting the better of me. "We have to see a judge, baby," she replied, "but it's nothing you need worry your pretty head about." Except of course I did. I found out what was going on a couple of hours later when the three of us were standing before the bench of Judge Doris Barnes in a family court. Save for the judge, the stenographer, and a guard of some sort, we were the only ones present. "I see from your application that you wish to be appointed the legal guardian of the older of these young ladies until she reaches the age of eighteen, and to be awarded sole custody of the other, your adopted daughter?" "That is correct, your honor, yes." "Your contention is that their mother, who is awaiting trial on fraud charges will be found guilty and that in the meantime your legal status in relation to them needs to be clarified. Is that correct? "Yes, your honor, it is. Jessica recently turned sixteen. By the time her mother Melissa appears in court, is convicted, and exhausts the appeals process several years will have passed. The evidence against her is overwhelming, and her guilt isn't in doubt. I never married Melissa or adopted Jessica so I have no legal claim over her, but my home is her home and not surprisingly she wants to remain there. Until she's eighteen she doesn't have the authority to make that or other important decisions for herself. Someone has to exercise that authority for her over the next two years, and in the absence of her mother that someone should be me." I now appreciated why Jessica was dressed in her school uniform, and why she and Jason daren't let the judge get even a hint of the true nature of their relationship. The judge looked over her glasses at Jessica. "And what is your view of the matter, Miss Bentley?" "I think I'm old enough to make my own decisions," said Jessica, "but the law disagrees. So, yes, I want to stay with Jason and Wendy. My step-father isn't interested in me so I'm happy for Jason to be my legal guardian until I turn eighteen." "Thank you," said the judge. "Now we come to the matter of young Wendy. What are your grounds for seeking sole custody?" "With the time the trial will take and the sentence she's likely to receive, it's going to be seven or eight years until Melissa is free again. So she won't be in a position to make any decisions on Wendy's behalf or to be the parent a young child needs. Also, I'm one of those she stole from. After that breach of trust I'm afraid our relationship is over. I also believe that her criminal ways make her a bad influence on our daughter and would prefer that Wendy not be exposed to that influence." "Hmmm, I'm inclined to agree, but you've given me a lot to think about. Let's adjourn for lunch now and I'll give you my verdict after I've had time to deliberate." There weren't too many places to eat near the courthouse, so we ducked into a KFC for chicken. "So how do you think it went?" asked Jason, nervously. "It went great," said Jessica, placing her hand over his and giving it a little squeeze. "You'll see." Tucking into my own chicken burger I regarded them thoughtfully. It was obvious what they were doing. They wanted Melissa out of their lives and this was the best way to accomplish that. Nor did I disagree with that aim. She had betrayed my trust, stealing from me while we were supposedly in a loving relationship. There really is no coming back from something like that. Our afternoon session with the judge lasted barely five minutes. She granted both of Jason's petitions, making him Jessica's legal guardian and granting him sole custody of me. In the Lexus afterwards, as Jason drove us home, Jessica let out a whoop of joy. "Boy , I'm glad that's behind us!" she said, unclipping her hair and shaking it loose before lighting a cigarette. When we got home Jessica went straight up to their bedroom to change, emerging half an hour later in a green minidress and matching heels, dark pantihose, and full make up. She found me in my bedroom, reading a picture-book. "That's better," she sighed, sitting down on the bed beside me, "I feel much more comfortable like this now. This is the real me. I'm not that kid I still have sometimes to pretend to be anymore." "You look very pretty," I said. "Why, thank you, sweetie," she said, looking pleased. "Now I have something to tell you." "Yes?" "It's about what happened this afternoon," she said. "Now that Melissa is gone I'll be your new mommy." "OK, Jessica," I said, smiling but feeling pretty gobsmacked by this announcement. "No, not 'Jessica'," she said. "You have to call me 'mommy' now. baby." "OK, mommy," I replied. "Good girl!" said Jessica, laughing and hugging me, "I'm going to be the best mommy you've ever had, just you wait and see." With that she left me. When she'd gone I put down the picture book and smiled. Just how good a mother Jessica might be to me I would never get the chance to find out. Tonight was the next full moon and so it was time to finally undo the body switch. Once I'd gotten over the shock of the switch, being Wendy hadn't been as bad as I expected. In fact the whole experience had been very educational. But I was glad it would soon be over. From under my matress I took out the small pill bottle containing the potion I'd secretly and painstakingly prepared a few days earlier. Having memorised the spell and been over it in my mind a hundred times I had it down pat. I was trembling as I spoke the spell, but I managed to get through it without fumbling the words. Having spoken the spell I threw back the potion in one. Almost immediately I felt a tingling begin in my stomach and spread through my whole body. It lasted for a few seconds, to be replaced by a wonderful feeling of calm. I waited expectantly for something else to happen, but nothing did. "If you expect that spell to return you to your original body you're in for a long wait." I looked up. Standing in the doorway, smiling down at me was Jessica. "Jessica?" I said, dumbfounded. "No, sweetie, it's 'mommy' now, remember?" She came over and sat down on the bed beside me again. "The spell you just spoke wasn't a spell of reversal; it was a spell of acceptance. Those who created the spell that swapped your bodies designed it to be temporary," she said, "unless one of you dies while in the other body, of course. It was meant as a way of seeing what someone else's life was like. Over time the swapped souls - which had assumed the shape of their new bodies - would gradually resume their original shapes until, after about five weeks or so, they would spontaneously return to their original bodies. Sometimes those who swapped would decide they preferred the other life to their own and, fortunately, there was also a spell of acceptance for when that happened. If both people spoke that spell voluntarily then the transfer would be made permanent. In speaking the spell you're basically affirming that you want to keep your new body and new life and renouncing all claim to your original life and body. Jason spoke it just after the transfer, of course, and you spoke it a few minutes ago." "You tricked me!" "Yes, I'm afraid I did." "But why?" "I wasn't always Jessica Bentley," she said. "I used to be Anya Dravic. I was thirteen when my mother and I moved here from the old country. Having grown up on Hollywood movies she expected America to be a land of milk and honey. Things didn't quite work out that way. The uncle we were to stay with lived not in California but in Tennessee, which is quite a way from Hollywood. Also, my uncle had got himself involved with some bad men and with a drugs shipment that had gone wrong. One night those bad men drove by my uncle's house and opened up on it with machine guns. I survived unscathed. My mother and my uncle did not. She dreamed her whole life about coming here, and barely three months after arriving she was dead. Which is how I ended up in the Sunnybrook orphanage." "Sunnybrook?" I said, my heart sinking, "Oh, Jessica!" "You've heard what happened there, but then who hasn't? As Anya Dravic I was tall and thin, had a prominent hooked nose, thin lips, a receeding chin, large dark eyes, long center-parted black hair that fell on either side of my face like curtains, and sallow, acne-scarred skin. The other kids called me 'the Vulture'. So I was far from the prettiest child there, but that didn't save me from the attentions of the men who came by to have their needs tended to. They knew they could get away with it of course, because orphans like us are disposable. We're forgotten kids that no one actually gives a shit about except when it comes to budgets and what it costs to keep us in orphanages. They care then. What they care about is slashing those budgets. Money is always more important than the care and safety of children, after all." There was a lot of pain and bitterness in her voice. Given what she'd been through I could hardly blame her for feeling the way she did. "The one bright spot in all this was Wendall." "'Wendall'?" "That's what he called himself instead of 'Wendy'. He was a boy and I always accepted him as a boy, regardless of what he looked like. I had to descend into Hell - and Sunnybrook was Hell - to find my soulmate, and when I did he was in the body of a little girl who was stuck at the age of six. Fortunately, most of the men who came by weren't into pre-pubescents - they prefered girls who had just 'ripened', as they put it - so he was relatively safe. I was strong enough to deal with what they were doing to me but I couldn't bear it if they had harmed him. And unknown to them I also had an ace up my sleeve: my mother was a witch." "But she died." "Yes, but she had made me memorize two magics from her ancient spellbook as a way of protecting myself should she ever not be there to do so. The first of these let you put a geas on someone, to bend them to your will in specific ways you could define so long as these caused them no physical harm. The other was a body-switching spell." "So it was *you* an' not him!" I said. "You didn' find them with a 'puter, you fibbers!." "Yes. Wendall...Jason...didn't tell you the entire truth, either