John was depressed. He had really blown it in school today. His parents were gonna be so "P.O.'ed" at him. He knew what the problem was, he just didn't know how to fix it. He always got very nervous under pressure and, when he got nervous, he tended to lie. He just couldn't seem to help himself. He started out meaning to just tell the truth and take his punishment like a man, but then his brain shut down and his mouth took over.

Mrs. McGillicudy, his English teacher, had wanted to know where his essay on the Iliad was. Well the plain unvarnished truth was that he found "Homer's Epic" about some stupid war so boring that he never got more than two or three pages into it without falling asleep. So he never did the essay.

When Mrs. McGillicudy had looked at him, down her long thin nose, with those piercing blue eyes he had panicked. The next thing he knew he was trying to convince her that a burglar had broken into his house the night before and taken his homework, along with other valuables. He told her he figured it was probably someone else with the same assignment and that's why they took his oh so excellent report.

Needless to say, Mrs. McGillicudy was having none of it. Oh she wouldn't call him a liar right out, she just told him to have his Mother call her at the school, confirm the break in, and all would be fine. Now he was sunk. His Mom and Dad had told him that if he got into trouble for lying once more, he was going to loose the use of the family car for a year, and be confined to his room for a month. John felt miserable. So lost in thought was the hapless high schooler, he failed to notice the tall, thin man standing on the sidewalk just ahead of him.

John's first indication that anyone else was present on the entire planet besides him was when he heard a deep voice say, "Don't feel so badly John. There's still time to change."

Looking up suddenly, John found himself almost nose to nose with a man who gave new meaning to the word thin. He was emaciated looking, taller than John, with golden curls framing his thin, horsey looking face.

"Man is this guy homely," John thought as he stepped back. John studied the man carefully, he could be one of those fanatics from the Kingdom Hall his parents attended. The man was about six foot five inches tall. He had a hawk-like nose, piercing black eyes, pallid complexion, and was dressed all in blacks and greys. His clothing looked, somehow, archaic to John.

"Sorry Mister. I didn't see you there," John said as he made to move around the stranger and continue on his way.

"J. Pennington Pennyworth at your service," the man smiled as he extended his hand for John to shake. "And you are Mr. John Calvin O'Rourke, recently in trouble with your fifth period English teacher, one Mrs. McGillicudy, over an undone essay on the Iliad. Your parents resent having a twelfth grade son who continually lies whenever he gets into trouble, which is frequently, and are prepared to punish you to the extreme that their love allows. Am I close?"

John was stunned. Just who was this guy? Did he work for the school? Was he trying to trap John by getting him to confess to his wrong doing?

"Look Mister, I don't have no idea what you're talking about. I gotta go." Again John moved to pass the tall stranger, but the scarecrow of a man moved to block his passage once again.

"No John, I don't work for the school, and I am not trying to trap you. I'm trying to help," he smiled at the frustrated teen.

Now John was really confused. It was almost as if this guy could read his mind. "Okay," John said, "I'm listening. You got three minutes and then I'm outta here even if I gotta go right through you."

Five minutes later, John stood alone on the sidewalk, staring at the shiny new penny in his hand. The story he had been told had been unbelievable, yet Pennyworth had known all about his little problem. Pennyworth had sworn that the penny could help. All John had to do was make an unselfish wish upon it.

John was tempted to wish that everyone would always believe him and he could do as he pleased, but he figured that would be a selfish wish and would not work. Instead he squeezed his eyes shut and said, "I wish that from now on everything I say would be the literal and absolute truth!"

Not realizing what he had done, John headed home figuring his problems were now over. After all, if everything he said was the truth then that meant that he could never lie.

As he was approaching his house, John noticed his neighbor's Rottweiler barking its head off at him. He hated the large and stupid dog. He also feared it. If it weren't for the chain link fence restraining it, he figured he would have been doggy chow long ago.

John glared at the animal as he passed the house, "Stupid dog. What a mangy cur. I wish you had been a bitch. They're not so aggressive."

Entering his front door John called out, "Hi Mom I'm home." He headed into the kitchen for a snack. Food, and a tendency to be lazy, were his downfalls in life. He loved to eat and he hated to work.

As John piled cheese and meat onto a bun with pickles and olives, his Mother entered the room. "Hi Sweetheart. How was school today?"

Immediately John began to sweat. "Oh well," he thought. "At least I can't lie anymore. Maybe I'll get some brownie points for being honest about this." But when he opened his mouth, the truth was not forthcoming.

"School was great Mom. My English teacher even told me that my work is so good that I don't have to do any more assignments or homework for the rest of the year." John was stunned. "Oh crap! What did I tell her that for? Now I'm really gonna get it. No way will she buy that load of baloney."

His Mother gave him a "you have to be kidding me" look.

"Umm, you do believe me don't you Mom?" he asked her nervously.

His Mother's face brightened suddenly. "Of course I do Dear. Why wouldn't I believe you?"

Huh? Now John was starting to get cold chills. His Mom was nobody's fool. There was no way she would buy such a ridiculous story, but she had. Why? Puzzling over this new conundrum, he completed his monster sandwich and began to eat.

"Don't spoil your appetite Dear," his Mother cautioned. "We're having fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner."

"Don't worry Mom," he managed around a large mouthful of sandwich, "I'm hungry enough to eat a horse." Suddenly John realized it was true. He was ravenous, with a hunger that surpassed understanding. Quickly finishing his sandwich he looked around for anything else to eat, preferably meat. Horse meat!

"Whoa! What's wrong with me? I know I love food, but I'm never this hungry," he mumbled as he pawed through the refrigerator for more food.

As suddenly as it came, the ravenous hunger left him. Shaking his head John walked slowly out of the kitchen. "I'm gonna go to my room until supper is ready Mom," he called back to his Mother. "I've got some thinking to do about what the heck is going on," he finished privately to himself.

It took him a while, but he did finally figure it out. Everything he said was now the literal and absolute truth, just as he had wished. He had meant to make himself unable to lie, and in a way he had. Now whatever he said became reality.

"This is great," John thought as he looked out his bedroom window at the confused mixed breed bitch, wandering aimlessly, in the neighbor's yard.

John smiled to himself. "The world is mine now. Guess I don't need this anymore." With that he tossed the Wish Penny into the large jug with the rest of his huge collection of pennies.

"John. Supper is ready!" His Mother's voice shocked John out of his gloating thoughts.

"Be there in a minute Mom," he called back, intending to spend a few moments more in idle contemplation of how he was going to start making his life better and his enemies' lives worse, before going out to supper.

Exactly sixty seconds later John found himself sitting at the supper table. "Whoa!" he thought to himself. "What the heck happened? One minute I'm sitting there planning on how I'm going to make Darla and the other snotty cheerleaders into my own little pleasure toys, and suddenly I jump up and run in here. Why'd I do that?"

"Something wrong Son?" his Father's taciturn voice cut through his thoughts.

"Huh? Wha..? No. No, Dad. I was just thinking." John had been caught off guard by his Father's question. His Father rarely spoke during dinner, or any other time for that matter.

"Pass the mashed potatoes." His Father's attention had already left John before the boy could complete his answer.

It was a quieter than usual dinner for John. He was deep in thought through most of it, and replied with monosyllabic answers whenever his Mother tried to talk to him. As dinner drew to a close, John's Mom reminded him, "Now don't forget Dear, you promised to clean your room up tonight."

"Hmm. This could be a perfect test of this new power thingie," he quietly mused to himself. Out loud he said, "But Mom, don't you remember? You promised to clean the room up for me." As usual John's Father was oblivious to the dinner conversation. His nose was buried in the paper.

John's Mother's face brightened. "That's right. I remember now. Whatever could I have been thinking? I'll get on it right after I do the dishes."

Deciding to push it a bit further John said, "You remember telling me that I could use the car tonight, don't you Dad?"

Setting his evening paper down the elder O'Rourke stared blankly at him for a moment before responding. "Of course Son. Have a good time and be home by ten. You have school tomorrow."

"Midnight is what you meant to say, wasn't it Dad?" John prodded his Father.

"Isn't that what I said?" his Father seemed confused. "Midnight is your usual curfew for a school night after all."

"Thanks Dad. Oh yeah I could use a little cash for this evening."

Ten minutes later, John was cruising in his parent's Cadillac toward his cousin's house. "This is great," he thought for the hundredth time. "I've got the car, a midnight curfew that I can expand to whatever time I want, and fifty bucks to spend. Yeah, life is sweet." Arriving at his cousin Terry's house he virtually skipped up to the door.

"Hi Dot, is Terry home?" he called through the screen door to his twenty year-old cousin Dorothy.

"Sure John. Come on in. I'll call him. He's in his room finishing his homework."

"No need to bother yourself," he told his elder cousin. "I'll surprise him."

"Hey Cuz! What's happenin'?" John asked as he walked into his cousin Terry's room.

"Nyaahh. Shit! John, you asshole! You almost scared me to death. Don't ever sneak up on me like that." Terry was red-faced and breathing hard.

"I guess I did surprise him," John thought with a chuckle. "Hey, you wanna go grab a pizza or something?"

"I've got no money, Moron. Allowance day isn't until Friday, and you already ate up all of my last week's allowance this past weekend, remember?" Terry sounded a bit peeved at John.

"No problem-o cousin mine. I've got plenty of money -- and the family car," John was openly gloating now.

"Money? And the family car? What happened, your Dad finally snap from the strain of knowing his son is a mutant?" This sort of banter was normal between the two best friends.

John smiled complacently, "C'mon let's go."

"Can't. Wish I could. Got too much homework to do." Terry responded disconsolately.

John decided to tweak reality with his power again. "No you don't. See your homework is all done, and it's all guaranteed one hundred percent correct."

Looking down at the pile of paperwork on his desk, Terry saw that his homework was indeed all done. "Now how the hell..?"

"C'mon. I'll explain as we go," John grinned like a Cheshire cat.

Thirty minutes, twenty five miles and one lengthy explanation later, Terry sat stunned beside his cousin. "You mean to tell me that anything you say becomes reality, instantly? No freakin' way."

"It's true. Want a demonstration?" John was eager to try his power out again.

"Yeah, sure." Terry was intensely curious. He could not explain what had happened to his homework, or his cousin's sudden largesse, but what John had told him was just impossible.

"Okay," John said with an evil glint in his eye. "Since you choose to be immature and not believe me. You are a six year old again."

Terry felt his world contract and then expand suddenly. He noticed that everything looked much larger. His cousin looked like a giant sitting next to him. His clothes were huge and pooled around him on the seat. His tiny upper lip began to quiver. Where was his Mommy? Why was he in this car with this big man? His six year old mind couldn't understand it at all.

"Whoa man. Don't cry." John hastily said.

Immediately Terry aged to twenty-one years. His clothes were now stretched tightly over his expanded frame. "Why would I cry?" he asked.

"Oh shit!" John moaned. "I've gotta be more careful about what I say."

Immediately there was an odor in the car and his, now, adult cousin looked acutely uncomfortable.

"Okay, that's enough!" John all but shouted. "Terry you are seventeen again, and you have not shit in your pants and you remember everything that just happened."

Reality hiccupped. His cousin sat beside him with a bewildered expression on his face. "Somana bitch," he said in a stunned voice. "Howthefuck did you do that?"

John had been paying so much attention to his cousin that he had not watched traffic closely enough. His car lurched to a stop by virtue of impacting the rear bumper of the truck stopped ahead of him at the light.

"Oh no," John groaned. "I didn't just hit that truck? Did I?"

"No." Terry replied. "Why would ask such a stupid question anyway?"

As the light changed to green and the undamaged truck pulled away again, John headed to Pizza Hut. He needed some time out of traffic to sit and talk for a bit. He wasn't sure how much more his nerves could take.

"I'll have a beer please," John told the frumpy looking pizza waitress.

"Yeah right kid," she replied. "Got an I.D.?"

"You don't need to see an I.D. for me or my friend. Anyone can tell we are old enough to drink. Oh yeah, be nicer to us. We are V-E-R-Y important people."

"Two beers coming right up, Sir!" The waitress scurried off as if the devil himself were on her tail.

"Yo John!" Terry hissed at him. "Scope out the babe with the wad of muscle at the next table."

"Yeah." John breathed. "What a fox! Too bad she's with such a muscle bound weenie."

As he spoke John saw the auburn haired girl shrink and transform into a red fox. When he looked for her boyfriend he saw a huge wiener steaming on his seat.

"That's the biggest fucking weenie I've ever seen," Terry said, the hint of an hysterical giggle starting in his voice. "You don't suppose his name is -- Oscar do you?"

"Oh no." John groaned. "I did it again. The girl is herself once more and not a fox, and her boyfriend is himself and not a weenie."

The fox had started to devour the delicious looking weenie as John spoke. As the animal's lips and teeth closed around the scrumptious morsel it changed back into a girl. The young woman tried to scream but found her mouth engaged in the act of fellatio -- in the middle of the pizza joint! The boyfriend had a bewildered look in his eyes but seemed to be enjoying his girlfriend's oral manipulations too much to focus.

"No, no, NO!" John said. "That's not what I meant at all. None of the stuff I said about her being a fox and him being a weenie ever happened. They're still sitting there having their dinner."

The scene reset, with the two hapless victims apparently none the worse for the experience. No one else seemed to notice. John groaned with his face in his hands. "What am I gonna do? I've gotta watch what I say." His words seemed to take shape and float just before his eyes. Hanging, unsupported, in the empty air.

John sighed in exasperation.

After eating and settling up their bill, John and Terry headed back to Punta Gorda. John was deep in thought and not watching his speed. Red and blue lights lit up on top of the car following them.

"Uh oh, John. Looks like you got fuzz on your tail." Terry said.

"City Kitty, County Mounty, or State Bull?" John asked.

"State Trooper I think," Terry said.

Elsewhere, Mrs. June Waters heard a knock at her door. "Who is it?" the elderly woman called out tremulously.

"Fort Myers City Police, Ma'am," a male voice answered her. "You called about kids running around being a nuisance?"

"Oh yes, Officer. Please come in." Mrs. June Waters, retired high school teacher and septuagenarian, fainted at the sight that greeted her as she opened the door. Standing before her, decked out in a Fort Myers City Police uniform, stood a creature that resembled Tony the Tiger come to life.

"I wonder what the hell is wrong with her?" Officer John Maddington thought as he knelt to check on the elderly woman's pulse. Purring to himself, he pulled out his portable radio, with his right forepaw, and called for an ambulance.

"License, registration and insurance proof please." The voice at John's car window was gruff and very deep.

"Sure Officer, got it all right here," John said. The documents dropped from his nerveless fingers as he stared at the Minotaur standing before him, dressed in a Florida State Trooper's uniform.

John swallowed loudly as he stared at the huge man-bull standing beside his car. The Minotaur bent down and picked up the paperwork John had dropped to the pavement.

In a deep rumbling bass voice the Trooper asked, "You seem to be nervous. Is anything wrong?"

"N-N-Not a thing Sir." John squeaked.

"I'll be right back." With that the State Minotaur turned and walked ponderously back to his car. "Wow John." Terry said. "I always thought cops were bull headed, but this is ridiculous."

At that moment Nena Jansen, dispatcher for the Lee County Sheriff's Department, was trying to calm down a frantic caller. "Sir. Please calm down. You're not making any sense. We are the Sheriff's Department, not the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"No, we don't have any R.C.M.P. assigned to our department.

"No sir, that is just not possible. The deputy that responded to the barking dog complaint you made could not have been dressed like a Mountie. Thank you for calling though. Goodbye." As she hung up she noticed that all the phone lines were lighting up.

"Is it a full moon tonight or something?" she wondered. "Why do all the nut cases call us?"

Similar panicked calls were coming in to the Highway Patrol offices in Lee County and to the Fort Myers City Police Station. Reports of anthropomorphic catmen in police uniforms, Minotaurs in State Trooper uniforms, and R.C.M.P.'s responding to calls for the Sheriff's Department were coming in from all areas of the county.

"I've gotta stop this," John thought. "Okay! Enough is enough," he said aloud. "Every one of the officers I caused to transform are back to normal." A few moments later a very normal looking State Trooper brought John's paperwork back to him, along with a warning citation for speeding. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, John and Terry were once again on their way.

"Man you really have to start paying attention to what you say." Terry commented.

"I know," John replied. "I never realized just how dangerous this power could be." So of course it was now more dangerous than ever.

In a small shop at the mall an old man in a frayed robe watched the unfolding chaos, on a nine inch color television set resting on top of a display counter. "Hmm," he mused to himself. "This could get very interesting before it's all over. I hope I don't have to involve myself. This is just too much fun to watch."

After dropping his cousin off, John headed straight home and collapsed into bed. He never noticed that his jar of pennies was now a large stack of neatly rolled coins, courtesy of his Mother. The next morning John felt better. After all, he had only to be more cautious in his speech and he could have anything he ever wanted. After a quick breakfast and a hurried goodbye to his Mother, John headed off to school.

"Wait up dorc-ass," Terry called out to John as he walked briskly onto the High School grounds. "Since when are you in such a rush to get to school anyway?"

"Since I no longer have to take any tests, I never get any homework, and I don't have to do any class assignments. I have perfect scores for all work through the end of the year," John laughed.

"You know John," his cousin said in a worried tone. "There are consequences for everything we do. Aren't you afraid of the eventual price of all these changes you're making?"

"You worry too much," John said. So, of course, his cousin immediately found himself obsessing over the slightest detail of everything he could imagine. John never noticed.

"Look at that." John said, and so Terry found himself compelled to look. "Can you believe that David Chaffin? He really thinks he is the B.M.O.C. Well I'm gonna change that. He needs to get in touch with his feminine side! I think he looks much better as a five foot four inch, one hundred and two pound, blonde haired, blue eyed, well built, giggling bimbette!"

Terry gaped, his worries increasing exponentially, as the hulking linebacker transformed into the petite beauty John had just described.

"He also should be dressed very 'slutty,'" John said with venom in his voice.

Terry knew John resented David. The larger boy had humiliated John in front of the entire senior class at the last assembly, calling him a blimp and other not nice names. As the transformed boy's clothes shifted into a midriff blouse and tiny miniskirt, Terry could only stare and worry.

"What the hell is happening to me!" the new girl screamed in a high soprano voice.

"No one notices anything out of the ordinary about this or any other transformations I make, except for me -- and you of course -- Terry." John told his cousin. "Oh yeah. David will know what has happened to him, but will be unable to act any different than any other horny teenage bimbette." The new girl licked her lips and began to swivel into the hallway at the front of the high school, a look of panic in her eyes.

"This is gonna be so much fun," John said with an evil little chuckle.

"I don't know John," Terry said.

"Oh will you lighten up," John responded crossly, then gaped as he saw his cousin begin to drift towards the sky.

"Ulp!" John swallowed. "You weigh what you normally do, just stop worrying." Terry immediately fell the couple of feet to the ground.

"Ufff," he gasped upon landing. "Thanks. I feel better."

As the first bell rang they headed off to their classes. The day proceeded slowly. John soon found himself bored. With no work to do and with his teachers now fawning over him, after he made little mental adjustment to them all, he had nothing to do. Finally the bell rang, signaling lunch.

As John walked into the cafeteria he noticed his reflection in the glass doors. He had to admit he was out of shape. "Well," he thought to himself. "I can fix that." Aloud he said, "I'm in perfect physical condition. I'm handsome, and I have the best physique of all the guys at this school." No one noticed his body and face change as John got into line behind some girls.

"Did you hear about Mr. Johnson and that little tramp Davina Chaffin?" one girl asked the other.

"No, tell me." The other, eager for gossip, giggled in reply.

"Well, I heard she got caught giving him a 'B.J.' in his office. Now she is being expelled and he is being fired." Both girls laughed at this.

"Oh no!" John thought. "What have I done?" While he intensely disliked David, now Davina, Chaffin, John had no desire to see her expelled. He also liked Mr. Johnson very much. The science teacher cum football coach had always been nice to John.

John then sighed and ordered the events erased that had caused the expulsion and firing. He also transformed David back into his old self and erased everyone's memories of the incident, except for David, thinking it should help take some of the wind out of David's sails if he thought he was having homosexual fantasies about the football coach.

As John sat down with his lunch he was feeling concerned. Maybe Terry was right. Maybe this power was more trouble than it was worth. Soon however more immediate concerns occupied his attention. The prom was coming up the next night and John had no date. He could, he mused, cause any girl at the school to want to go with him. But then he reconsidered. What did he have in common with any of them? They didn't like the things he did. They didn't have the sort of personality he got along well with. What he needed was a beautiful girl who thought the way he did and whose personality meshed well with his. As he pondered this his cousin sat down beside him.

"Hey scuzzola what's up with you? Whoa, you've been making some adjustments to yourself I see," Terry commented.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact I have cousin-o-mine," John replied with a wicked gleam in his eye. "Got a date yet for the prom?"

"No freakin' way John!" Terry was almost shouting. "There is no way I'm gonna let you change me into a girl so you can have a date for the Prom, so just forget it!"

"Why Terry," John's voice fairly dripped sarcasm as he spoke. "You talk as if you have a choice in the matter. You WANT to be a girl. It is eating you up inside. You can never feel whole or content until you are physically female."

"Oh God John, what did you go and do that for?" His cousin's voice had been reduced to a small whimper."I know what's happening. Remember you said I would be able to tell when you caused any changes? But now, even though I know you caused it, it's killing me. I need to be myself. I can't stand living in this hateful male body one second longer. Please John, make me a girl!"

John smiled and made sure no one noticed his distraught cousin's outburst. "Not just yet. I think you need a lesson. You will go through the rest of the school day with the need building inside you. At the end of the day, after the last bell, meet me in the front of 'A' wing and I'll see if I can't do something about your craving."

"No John, please. You don't understand!"

"Oh I understand alright. I'm not just a man anymore, I'm a demi-god! See you after school." With that John stood up to leave. As he did an underclassman, head bowed and trying desperately not to be noticed by any of the seniors present, bumped into him.

Turning with a snarl John said, "Watch where you're going you 'jackoff'." As John stalked off, leaving a whimpering Terry behind at the table, the young boy who had bumped into him began to unfasten his pants and masturbate uncontrollably. Amazingly no one seemed to notice except for the sobbing young man sitting nearby.

John stood in front of the school as the last dismissal bell of the day sounded, smiling as he thought of all he had done today. There had been that idiot weight lifter in gym class. The guy had wanted to challenge John to a contest of strength. After John showed him up the guy had been stupid enough to call John an asshole, so John called him a pussy. There was now a very athletic girl wandering around the gym trying to understand why she was taking Boy's P.E. Then there had been that stupid bitch of an Assistant Principal, Ms. Jacobs. When she started to get on John's case about smoking in class, he told her to eat shit. The large fly was still buzzing around the boy's rest room. Yes, life was good when you were answerable to no one. As John stood quietly reveling in his power, his cousin approached.

"John, oh Jesus, John! This is worse than being addicted to drugs! I know that I don't really want this. That you made me want it. But I've got to have it anyway or I'll go mad." Tears were streaming down the distraught boy's face.

"Oh alright. If you're going to cry, then I'll change you. But just remember, it was your idea." This thought would haunt Terry for the rest of his life.

"You are now a five foot four inch, one hundred and two pound, seventeen year old girl. You have flawless skin, straight, jet black hair, and perfect teeth. Your measurements are 35C-20-34. You have perfectly arched eyebrows which you maintain by plucking them daily. Your lashes are long, and I do mean loonnngggg, and thick. You have no pubic hair and no hair on your legs or under your arms. Your skin has the natural coloration of an oriental or polynesian. Your eyes though, are still blue. You are graceful, coordinated, and extremely limber. Your voice is a sexy alto. Oh yeah, you have no gag reflex. That should do it."

Terry felt John's power once again take hold of him. He lost ten inches in height and forty three pounds in body weight. His hair lengthened into a cascade of ebony reaching his, now, tiny waist. His lashes lengthened as he felt virtually all of his body hair fall out. His sex wriggled about like a snake before it retracted into his body. It was almost as if it were fighting it's banishment. He could feel the flesh of his chest push outwards into heavy mounds with tiny points of sensitivity on the ends. Finally he felt his insides churn as his bones and organs shifted. His center of gravity dropped into his bottom, which rounded out nicely.

"Oh God. What's happening to me?" the new girl cried in a sexy, almost breathless, alto voice.

"I gave you what you wanted," John smirked at his transformed cousin. "Oh, but these clothes will never do."Looking down at herself Terry had to agree that she looked ridiculous in the boy's size fifteen shirt and men's size thirty two - thirty two jeans. As she staggered forward, she stepped right out of her size 13EEE shoes.

"You should be wearing a tight black dress that comes to about mid-thigh. Under it you have on black bikini panties, black stockings with a garter belt, and a black lacy bra. Oh yeah. You should also have on thee inch high heels."

Terry stared at her transformed body, encased in it's new clothes. "I feel so strange. I feel as if I really wanted this, but I know I didn't. Why John? I thought we were friends. Water Brothers like in Heinlein's book, Stranger In A Strange Land. Why would you do this to me?"

"Because I can," was her cousin's only reply.

No one questioned how the very American family who lived at the corner of Burland and Elizabeth Streets had a daughter who looked to be a cross between Oriental and Polynesian, with faint traces of American. Not even them.

As Terry got home her Mother greeted her at the door. "Hi sweetheart. How was school today?"

"Umm -- fine I guess Mom. I'm not feeling real good right now, so I think I'll go lay down in my room."

"Oh, I'm sorry Baby, but you can't. You know we have an appointment to get your dress finished for the Prom tomorrow night. You do want to look your best for John now don't you? You're such a lucky girl to have him for a boyfriend."

"Sure Mom. I guess I just forgot." Terry headed back to her room to change into something more comfortable. "Great! Now he's used his power to make me his damn girlfriend! He's gotta be stopped."

Just then a thought occurred to her that had been niggling at the back of her mind, ever since her earlier encounter with John. "I wonder why he made me have no gag reflex?"

The old man watched the TV screen with growing concern. He could appreciate a good "bimbo" transformation, but turning Assistant Principals into huge, feces-eating flies, or future Olympic weight lifting champion Carl Rigby into Cathy Rigby? And what about that poor freshman who was still mindlessly masturbating in the school cafeteria? Then there were all the ripples in the fabric of reality caused when he had changed all of the law enforcement officers in Lee County into R.C.M.P.'s, Minotaurs, and Cat People. No, the home office was going to probably blame him for this mess if he did not act to straighten it out before it got much farther out of hand, but how exactly could he do it without anyone knowing of his interference? That would take some thought.

John walked into his room and flopped onto his bed. He noticed, for the first time, how clean and neat everything was. His pile of old comics were neatly stacked, in plastic covers, according to company and date. His clothes were all folded and put away, or hung neatly in his closet. His shoes were sitting displayed on his shoe tree. His shelves were neat and dusted, even his TV was cleaned within an inch of it's life.

"Wow! When Mom cleans a room, she really cleans a room!" That's when he noticed the pennies. All three thousand plus pennies were neatly rolled and stacked in the far corner from his bed.

"The wish penny!" John exclaimed. Then he calmed. What did he need that stupid penny for anymore anyway. He didn't need anyone or anything. From now on he was going to be on easy street. Still his cousin's tear streaked face kept haunting his memory. "Why John?" The words echoed through his head.

"Aw, Hell." John muttered. "It's only for one night. He should thank me. After all he will have a whole new insight into how the other half lives. Maybe after this he can actually get a date for himself." John fell asleep still justifying his betrayal of his best friend in this manner.

Terri was boiling mad. The reason being that she was sitting on the toilet and peeing. "Damn him!" she thought angrily. "He had no right! He even made me beg him to do this to me. Look at me! The only way I could write my name in the snow now is to hobble around like some sort of retarded crab!"

Finishing up she washed her hands and exited the bathroom. The door read "Ladies". "I'm gonna kill him if it's the last thing I do, and considering his present abilities, it just may be." She thought as she stalked off to her first period class.

He was unhappy. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Even when he said things to accomplish specific effects now they seemed to go awry. Like when he told Ms. Neal, his first period math teacher, to "get fucked." He had intended to do the honors, but she had grabbed Shayna Jenkins from the first row and immediately began a lesbian lovemaking session. Who knew she was a dike? Still it was fun watching her creative uses of a pointer, but he would have rather had her use his pointer.

His Father had been short with him that morning ands as a result John had lost his temper. He did not have to take that crap from anyone, after all he was a demi-god now, so he had told his father to "get lost." His Father had left the house and had not been seen or heard from since. John was so distraught that it never occurred to him to simply command his Father back.

Then there was that stupid kid in Future Farmers of America that he had called "mule headed." The kid's head had transformed into a mule's head, but the boy had seemed happy about it. He had always heard that Jack was a bit strange but who in the world would want to be a mule? In a fit of pique John had changed him back and the boy had looked shattered. "Take that DeMule," John had thought viscously as he walked off, leaving the distraught youth sobbing in the animal pen.

He had called that skinny geek in band a bird brain, and the kid had been transformed into an anthropomorphic bird form. Some sort of albatross John thought. Birds were never his big thing, but he had watched as the bird boy had flapped off, unable to tell if he was distraught or enraptured by his new form and freedom. "What was the fun in torturing somebody if you couldn't tell if they were tortured by what you did or not?" John grumbled to himself.

The girl next door was a fat bitch who was always after him to date her, so he had called her a cow. He had left her like that as a lesson and been gone when the bull, from the next pasture over, broke through the fence and mated with her. John had already decreed that she would transform back at the end of the day, when school let out.

Nothing seemed to give him any pleasure anymore. Even turning his cousin into his own personal walking wet dream had backfired. He had slept horribly. He kept seeing his cousin's shocked face, and hearing her plaintive "Why?" over and over in his mind. Head hanging he walked into his third period class.

Terri was uncomfortable with the stares of the other boys. She was used to being ignored or, at worst bullied, but not being lusted after. The short dress she wore was no help either. John had seen to it that all her clothes had converted into his image of proper attire for a young woman. Sheer blouses, short skirts and dresses, hot pants, halter tops, and micro bikini's. All her underwear was sheer and designed for exhibition rather than modesty, comfort, or support. She now had one pair of flat shoes. Pink tennis shoes. PINK! (S)he hated pink! The rest were all high heels.

The old man was on the phone in the back of the shop. It was the home office. "Yes dammit I know that he has to be stopped.

"Yes, yes I realize that he has set things in motion that will cause any number of alternate futures to be created, and others to be canceled. Just what do you want me to do about it?

"Well yes I did give the wish penny power to that Pennyworth fellow, but I was just doing what you told me to.

"Yes what you told me! You said to create repeat business, and keep customers happy. How was I, or even he, to know that the boy's wish would go so far awry?" The old man was sweating profusely now.

"Alright, alright! I'll take care of it." With that he hung up the phone. Grabbing a black leather briefcase, he adjusted his clothing from his usual bathrobe to a blue serge suit. He headed out the front door muttering to himself about bureaucrats.

It was lunch time and John waited outside the cafeteria for his "girlfriend" Terri. He shuffled his feet as she approached. "I guess you don't really wanna see me, huh?"

"You know as well as I do that I can't help but want to be with you. Just like I can't help but want to look like this." She hissed as she took his arm.

"Look. I'm sorry, okay? I guess I just got carried away. You always were the only one who understood me, so I thought that if you had been born a girl, well things would be so much better." He looked sheepish.

"Better for who John? I was very happy as a boy. Pathetic, but happy. Now I shudder when I think about being male again. I'm so confused. Knowing what you have done to me, and still being unable to feel the way I think I should, is driving me crazy." She smiled and hugged him close to her as she said this.

"I'm sorry. Look, I'll release you to feel what you normally would if you will consider just staying that way until after the dance. I just want to be with a pretty girl who thinks like me and understands me. Is that so wrong?" John seemed very pathetic right then.

"You do that voodoo that you do so well, and then we'll talk." Of course Terri knew she would have no choice but to consider staying this way until after the dance, since John had said it.

"Okay, Terri. You are free to feel anything you would normally feel under these circumstances, without my influence. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course I forgive you, you big lug. But next time you decide to redesign my body and world, how about asking me first?"

"Ok, I promise. But will you stay that way until after midnight tonight? I promise that at midnight you will change back into your old self." John's face was hopeful.

Terri sighed. "Okay John, if you promise, but tell me one thing. Why did you give me no gag reflex?"

John whispered into her ear. "You sick pervert!" She slapped his arm. "I'll see you at six sharp. I want flowers, candy, and a limo. Oh yeah, you better make us both able to dance or we're gonna look real stupid out on the dance floor."

At that exact moment Mrs. O'Rourke was busily cleaning the house. She was trying to take her mind off of her husband's mysterious exodus from the house this morning.

There was a knock at the front door. When she opened the door she saw a medium height, elderly man in a blue serge suit. He held a black briefcase in his hands. "Hello." The man said. "I'm a collector of comics, coins, memorabilia, and the like. I own a little shop called Spells R Us. May I come in and talk to you?" His smile was positively hypnotic.

Terri sat fidgeting in "her" prom dress. "Dammit. It's almost quarter after six. Where is that dork? If he did all this to me, made me go through all this female shit, and then he stands me up for the prom... Wait a minute... what the fuck am I thinking? Oh shit! I'm thinking just like a girl! I'm actually upset that John is late and may not show up to take me dancing? Midnight can't come soon enough."

At that moment a long black limo pulled up in the driveway outside. "About friggin time." Terri fumed as she grabbed the small black clutch purse her Mother had picked out to go with her slinky black prom dress.

As she hurried out the door Terri heard her Mother call to her, "Wait Honey. I want to get a picture of you and John in your prom outfits."

"No time right now Mom. We'll get pictures taken at the dance. See ya'." Terri hurried to the limo. "Yeah right. It'll be a cold day in hell when I let anyone get a picture of me this way." She thought as she climbed in the door the chauffeur was holding open for her.

As she slid into the car she noticed a very large, and slightly odd looking bird flying by overhead. "Oh geez," she thought. "That bird looked almost like that geeky kid Bolehouse. Now I'm seeing things. Or am I?"

She looked at the other occupant of the rear seat and realized that answers would not be forthcoming from him tonight, not comprehensible ones in any case. John was drunk.

Back in his shop the old man looked at the magic wish penny. He could see the trails of power coiling around in it. It was linked directly with the person to whom it had originally been given. Through it he could trace, and correct the biggest problems caused by John. Then he would have to do something about the boy himself.

It had been a relatively simple matter to fascinate John's Mother and obtain the magic penny where it was hidden in the midst the many rolls of coins. All this trouble because of a poorly spoken wish. But then that was his stock in trade. People confusing directions, making poorly thought out wishes, etc. Still, he was a professional, this boy now... hmm.

"John you great ass, you're drunk!" her voice was a sexy whisper, slightly husky and oozing with erotic appeal. It was pitched at exactly the right level to get John's little soldier to come to attention.

"Well o' course I'm drunk. You would be too if you had consummumm, consomme, drunk a whole bottle of Wild Turkey."

Inwardly Terri groaned. If John kept insisting he was drunk he would stay that way. This was not good. "John?"

"Yeah Terri?"

"Don't you think it would be more fun if you were sober? I mean how're you going to enjoy the dance if you're chicken fat blotto?" She hoped her logic could penetrate the alcoholic haze John was lost in.

"Shit no. I'm havin' a great time right now." There was an odor.

"Oops, sorry. I didn't mean that you were supposed ta shit. I mean you didn't shit. Right?" The air cleared.

Terri looked at him crossly. "Never mind." John was too intoxicated to notice the icy chill in her voice.

"Ya know Terri, you're really cute as a girl. Maybe I should jus' leave you this way." John was trying to slyly move his arm around the angry young woman's shoulders and grope her breast as he spoke. Unfortunately his watch got caught in her hair, pulling it painfully.

"Ow! Will you be careful you big asshole!" she snapped. "And don't you even think of leaving me like this. You promised me that at midnight you would change me back! You gave me your word as a water brother!"

"Ya know I don't think pretty young women should talk like that. They should speak sweetly and like a lady." John said as he retracted the offending arm.

Terri, who found that she could no longer swear, no matter how badly she wanted to, merely muttered, "Well you got that half right. You don't think."

At that moment pretty young women everywhere found themselves unable to speak, except in a sweet and demure fashion. It was most frustrating for some of them.

"We're here Sir, Madam." The chauffeur announced over the intercom.

"Great. Let's just get this evening over with." Terri just knew that things were going to get worse as the evening progressed.

As they walked into the, already, crowded gymnasium the room fell momentarily silent. They looked like a couple of slumming movie stars. John had so far enhanced their appearances that neither even looked like real people anymore. They were just too perfect.

All the girls felt a surge of heat to their nether regions as they spotted John's six foot three inche, two hundred and fifty pounds of ruggedly handsome face and form. They all felt jealous that he dated Terri.

Meanwhile, their boyfriends were desperately trying to unobtrusively move their erections into a more comfortable position. They all knew exactly what a girl who looked and moved like Terri was good for. If only her boyfriend wasn't such a biiiggggg guy.

One of the football players walked by, en route to the refreshment table.

He called out jovially to John, "Hey O'Roinnkkk!"

It was a joke, and meant to be received in a friendly manner, but John was so intoxicated that he took umbrage to the remark. "Hey you walkin' penis with ears!" He shouted back.

Immediately the other boy felt his legs fuse together. His arms became small and nearly useless. His testicles fused into two large feet as they enlarged and dropped to the end of where his legs used to be. His ears and eyes became small slits in his engorged crown of a head. Large veins appeared on his long, thick, tubular body. If he felt shock at his transformation, and the disappearance of his clothing, he did not show it. He merely waddled along toward the refreshment table. No one else noticed.

"Ha! Didja see that. He turned into a dick! A walkin' dick!" John was laughing so hard he almost fell.

"Quiet!" Terri hissed. "People are staring. You can't go 'round making boys into giant penises! Now change him back this instant!"

"No way... I'm havin' too much fun. Now who's next? Hey how about Brad? He's always tryin' ta get inna some girl's pants. Maybe he'd like ta be a pair o' panties?" John was on a roll now. "Hey Brad." He called. "Panty boy! Look over here."

As the boy started to turn toward the sound of John's voice, he vanished. Fluttering to the floor where he had stood were a pair of hot pink, women's bikini panties.

"Oh no!" Terri groaned. This was getting way out of hand now. John was so drunk on alcohol and power that he was going berserk. "John, please. Stop this!"

"Oh quit being so critikl, cretekikl, crit... oh quit giving me a hard time." Instantly the raging erection John had been sporting, since he had picked up his cousin, subsided. "If you're gonna be that way 'bout my fun, why don't you just go fuck yourself?"

Terri "gleeped" as she hurried off toward the ladies room, a desperate look in her eye.

"I wonner where she's goin'?" John wondered silently. "Guess she's gotta piss."

John surveyed the crowd for his next victim. He spotted some of the "socials" dancing in the middle of the dance floor. Grinning evilly John said, "What a couple of stiffs." He chortled with joy as the two students began to become rigid, until only two mannequins stood in their place. The crowd surged around them, ignoring the strange sight of two department store dummies, in full prom regalia, standing in the middle of the dance floor. No one noticed that another girl was dancing with a giant penis either.

As Nancy finished her business and flushed, she heard low moans coming from the stall next to hers. Chuckling to herself she wondered who could be horny enough to masturbate in a public rest room.

"Oh I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" Terri moaned silently to herself as she squatted in the next stall over, following John's last directions to her.

A large fly flew in the door and buzzed around the stall that had just been vacated, frustrated to find the bowl empty.

John wandered around the dance floor starting to get frustrated. Where the hell was Terri? He was distracted by a couple arguing nearby.

Sneering John noted "how childish" they were. As he turned away, the two teenagers shrank into five year olds and began to bawl at the top of their lungs for their Mothers.

This went on all over the dance floor. The more frustrated John became, the more people got transformed. One girl yelled at him for bumping into her, causing her to spill punch on her dress. John called her a bitch.

Another offered to see if she could find Terri for him. He thanked her and called her Dear.

Finally John had enough and said, "I wish Terri would get her ass out here right now!" Looking up he saw Terri, her panties off and her dress hiked up around her waist, hurrying toward John with a donkey trailing behind her. John was fascinated by the glistening folds of flesh revealed by her state of undress.

"Damn you John. You could have at least let me get dressed before summoning me!" she snapped at him as she fixed her disheveled clothing. The donkey brayed.

She looked up to notice her cousin leering at her. "Oh put your eyes back in your head John. You made me this way."

"Yeah," he sighed. "But I didn't realize I'd done such a good job."

Suddenly he remembered why he had been upset. "Say just where you been anyway?"

"WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!" Terri was almost apoplectic. "I've been in the ladies' room. Remember, YOU told me to go fuck myself!"

Suddenly John realized what the smell was he had been detecting. A big grin broke out on his face. "Ya mean you were -- Ha!!! That's great. So, was it good for you? Was it better'n as a guy?"

Terri was no longer listening. She noticed the donkey nibbling at her dress, and all the other transformed people around. "Oh Good God John! What have you been doing while you had me back there diddling myself?"

"Done? Nuttin' much. I just made people look more like the way they were actin'."

"John, these people have lives. People who love them. Now I want you to do something for me, okay?"

"If you give me a kiss." John smiled at her.

"Oh great! Just fucking great! Now I've gotta kiss him!" She thought to herself. Out loud she said only, "Okay John if that's what you want. Pucker up."

Gritting her teeth Terry pressed her lips tightly together and lifted her face toward John.

"With tongues!" John laughed.

A moment later his transformed cousin found herself passionately kissing him. "Bleegh" she spat when it was over. "Don't you ever make me do something like that again. I'm gonna have to gargle with gasoline for a month! Now repeat after me."

John looked a little hurt but he agreed.

"I am not drunk." Terri said.

"You are not drunk." John faithfully repeated.

Holding her head in her hands Terri thought, "Why me God? Why me all the time?" Terri shivered and shifted from foot to foot.

"What the heck's wrong wi' you?" John slurred at his cousin.

"If you must know... you called me out so fast I left my underwear in the bathroom stall!" Terri hissed at

him."No problem-o cuz," John intoned. Snapping his fingers he said, "Panties just for Terri!" A pair of hot pink bikini panties appeared in his hand.

"Ewwww pink. They're not used are they?" His embarrased cousin asked.

"Naw... I can guarantee that these have never been worn by any girl before you."

"Oh thanks loads." The sarcasm in the transformed boy's voice was evident as she donned the panties.

A few moments later John noticed that she was still squirming.

"Whazz wrong now?" His voice seemed to be getting even more slurred. If that was possible.

"I don't know. It's like these things are riding up in my cracks constantly. It feels almost like they are squirming around trying to get up in there." Her distress was evident as she picked at the offending underwear.

"Yeah that Brad. He's gotta be in eggz... ecstasy right now." John chuckled.

Terri felt the crotch of her underwear become rather stiff and wet, but not from her.

"Brad!" she all but shrieked. "You mean that these are that hormone factory you turned into a pair of girls underwear? I'm wearing Brad Nelson next to my..?"

"Oh calm down. You're the one who tole me ta be nicer ta people." John leered.

"Get him off of me and change him back right now!" John blanched to see the cold fury in his cousin's face. He could never remember seeing pure hate upon his, or her, face before.

"Okay, okay!" John held up his hands defensively as if his cousin was about to attack him, which may have been the truth for all he knew.

"Brad's not a pair o' panties. He's the same's he always was 'fore this." John intoned.

"No wait!" Terri shrieked. "Get him off..."

Too late John realized his mistake. Brad materialized squatting, with his face upthrust, under Terri's dress.

"Gleep!!!!!!"

"Oops. Sorry Cuz. Brad go home an' forget 'bout everythin' 'at happened ta'night."

The object of his magic extracted himself from between Terri's legs and wandered in the direction of the door, a look of ecstacy on his young face. John smiled sheepishly at his cousin as she looked daggers back at him.

"Now will you please listen to me?" She asked hotly.

"Sure. I'm sorry. I'll be good."

"Hello John, Terri." Both turned toward the voice that had addressed them. There was an old man standing beside them. He snapped his fingers and John was no longer drunk.

"Excuse me," Terri said, "but are you wearing a bathrobe?"

"Yes I am. Now do be quiet for a moment won't you Terri." The old man then looked at John. "I've fixed everything that needed fixing from the messes you have made." His tone was rather severe. "You'll be happy to hear that your Father is back home and none the worse for wear. David's memory has been wiped. Really John, you had the boy doubting his sexual orientation. Ms. Jacobs is restored... though hopefully she will be a kinder and gentler Assistant Principal now. Carl I left as Cathy as it seems she was destined to be a girl all along. Just one of nature's little screw ups I guess. I have restored the deer, the dog morph, and your neighbor's dog also."

Terri was trying desperately to speak but found herself unable. She glanced at the huge clock on the wall. It was two minutes until midnight.

"What about Bolhouse and the kid in the cafeteria?" John asked as he sagged in defeat.

Terri felt badly for John. All his life he had only wanted to be someone, to make his parents proud and to make a difference. But when given the chance he had blown it. Now he would have to pay. It was one minute 'til midnight.

"The masturbating boy is restored to normal and as for Mr. Bolhouse... well I turned him all the way into an albatross."

"You did?" John asked incredulously. "Why?"

"He was fated to become a police officer after he grew up. His father would not let him pursue the career he really wanted, Ornithology. The stress would be too much. At the age of twenty seven he would die of an aneurism. I just felt he would be happier this way. I think he is." The old man smiled at John.

"What about me?" John asked. Thirty seconds until midnight, and Terri still could not make a sound. Frantically she waved her hands at the two men, but they ignored her.

"You must decide between this power... and your life." The old man told John.

"I can't go back to being a nobody, a nothing." John said sadly. It was ten seconds until midnight.

"I thought that would be your answer. I'm sorry." The old man sadly intoned as he threw some sparkly dust into the air, and John vanished from sight.

The old man turned toward Terri and said, "I regret that it came to this. I hope you will be happy and responsible in your life. You will not be able to talk to others about this, but you won't forget either." Then he smiled and vanished from sight.

Everyone turned and stared at the beautiful girl in the middle of the dance floor as, at precisely midnight, she screamed, "Nnnnoooooo!!!!"

It was one in the morning and the dance was winding down. Terry, now Terri, wandered outside into the humid night air. John was gone, taken before midnight. Now Terri was stuck in this transformed state for the rest of his... err... her life. She was miserable. She had lost her manhood and her best friend in the whole world in one fell swoop.

As she stumbled toward the waiting limo Terri heard a drunken voice say, "Whooo nice ass babe!" She turned in shock to see Chuck Arenal talking to her. He was one of the biggest womanizers, and in Terri's opinion, assholes in school.

"Leave me alone you brainless ape!" She said with dark menace in her voice.

As she turned away she didn't notice Chuck crouch down and start to put on mass. His arms elongated until his knuckles dragged the ground. His hair became longer and coarser on his body. His skin darkened. His brow ridge grew and his jaw thrust forward. Soon a four hundred pound mountain gorilla stood where Chuck had been. As the limo pulled away from the curb the air sparkled around the ape-boy and he vanished.

The gorilla appeared in a small shop in the mall. His animal brain could not take in what was happening to him. A wolf stood nearby growling softly at it. An old man gestured and the ape shrank into a leopard skin loincloth. He picked the musky garment up and put it into a box. "You never know when one of these will come in handy," he said to the handsome youth standing nearby.

"So what's going to happen to Terri now?" John asked.

"I'll give her some time to slowly discover her powers and then confront her as I did you. The rest is up to her. She can stay female and retain her transformational power, though for her it takes deliberate will to activate it, or she can revert to who she was and lose the ability."

"Why can't she be a guy and have the power?" John asked. "After all she gained it when I willed it into her as I was disappearing."

"Yes and that is exactly it. You willed it into her! You had already begun to think of your cousin as a female. So your power attached the ability to her form, not his."

"What happens to me now?" John sighed.

"You will be happy to know that you received your diploma early due to your academic excellence. Now you can go back to being John again or..."

"Or what?" John was clearly intrigued.

"Well, I run a franchise business. We are always looking for up-and-comers to place in our apprenticeship program. You could be running a store of your own in a couple hundred years. As soon as we have taught you to control that power of yours."

John smiled broadly. "Mister, you got yourself a deal." The two men, one young and one old, shook hands and laughed as the limo rolled through the night.

Dawn sent rosy shafts of brilliance through the chintz curtains of her room. Slowly Terri moaned in her sleep. In her mind she kept replaying the events of the previous evening over and over. Always they ended the same. Just before her cousin was set to return her to her normal state of masculinity, he had been destroyed by that oddly dressed old man. And she was trapped... forever... as a girl!!!!!!!

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up in bed, panting with fear.

"Damn!" Terri thought to herself. "If only that old geezer hadn't interfered I'd be me again. Instead of someone who looks more like Miss July. Damn you John. How could you do this to me?"

Groaning, she slowly got out of bed. Her bed... her bed. Yeah. It was all frilly and lacy and soft. She used to have a very utilitarian, single bed. Now she had this big 4 poster job with fluffy pillows, and a big downy comforter on top. Everything was in pinks, and pastels. Her chest of drawers had become a dresser, with a large vanity mirror on top. She had a make up vanity in the corner where she used to have the card table with her Battle of the Bulge game set up. Her closet was bigger, and full of dresses -- and blouses -- and skirts -- and high heels -- and other feminine things. Her underwear drawers were overflowing with silky panties and lacy bras. She had slips and half slips and other things for which she had no idea of the purpose. She had tons of make up and pictures on the walls of -- bleggh -- David Cassidy! She even had a pink phone in the corner of her room. A pink phone!

"Oh John," Terri moaned to herself softly. "I wish I could talk to you. Just one more time."

Then the phone rang. Terri really didn't want to talk to anyone. Just the sound of her new voice deeply disturbed her, but it wouldn't be proper for a young lady to ignore a caller.

"Now where the hell did that thought come from?" Terri wondered, as she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Cuz how's it hangin'? Oh... Heh... I guess it ain't exactly hangin' right now are they?"

Terri felt the world contract around her. That voice. That voice! Then the world steadied and she got her mind to settle around the fact that her cousin -- her fat disreputable pig of a cousin who did this to her -- was still alive!!!!!

"You Asshole!" Terri shouted at the phone, though with her new voice it did not have the same impact it used to have when she shouted such things. "How can you still be alive? And why the hell am I still a girl? We had a deal!"

"Whoa! Calm down there Cuz and I'll explain everything." John knew his cousin would be a tad upset -- but really -- he felt she was overreacting.

John proceeded to explain all about the old man, the wishing penny and exactly what happened the night before, in her reality. He explained how he had willed a portion of his power into her and how she could do the same things he could, except she would have to consciously will it to happen, not just casually speak it. He also explained that the more she used the power the more it would tire her until she built up her endurance, rather like an athlete in training. Then, he went on to say how he had been at the Academy of Magic and Mercantilism for almost a hundred years now in the reality in which he was currently living where he was in his dorm studying when he had the sudden irresistible urge to call her.

"You mean," Terri said, "that with all that magic at their disposal they use telephones?"

"Oh no. We use crystal balls. Still costs 35 cents though."

"Crystal balls? As in looking in the crystal ball and seeing the person whom you are spying on or communicating with? That kind of crystal ball?"

"Yeah," John said. "Is there another?"

Terri shrieked! She had been so depressed last night that she had simply stripped off her dirty outer clothes and bra -- she had no panties at the end of the evening -- and gone to bed in the nude. In the few seconds of wakefulness she had enjoyed before John's call, she had not bothered to dress. Dropping the phone she grabbed her see-through robe with the feather boa top and whirled it around her, at least partially screening her charms from prying eyes.

"You rotten prick!" Terri's voice rose an octave in anger. "You could have told me at the beginning of our conversation that you could see me standing here naked!"

"Now where would the fun be in that?" She could hear John's smile even over the phone.

Terri found herself smiling in spite of her anger.

"Rotten bastard," she said, but without real heat. "So now I can turn myself back into a boy whenever I want?"

John's hesitancy in answering concerned her. "Well yes, but..."

"'But'? What does 'but' mean?"

"If you change yourself back into Terry instead of staying Terri, you lose the power forever. You will also cancel out any magic you did while Terri, and will lose all memory of me and the things I have told you. In effect you will simply be plain old Terry Garrett again."

"Why? If you gave me the magic then why will I lose it if I become myself again?

"Because I gave it to Terri -- a magically transformed, unchanging, perfect female -- not to Terry, an average, slightly thin, underachieving boy. As you are now, you are immortal, just like any of the creatures of fairy or the magicians and sorcerers of this multiverse. As Terry you're not. The magic was attached to a magical being. If she gives up her 'birthright' then she gives up her magic. I'm sorry Cuz. It's one of those immutable laws of magic that even wizards can't change."

"I see. Well I guess I have some thinking to do. Call me this evening?"

"Sure Cuz. I promise." As John hung up the phone he felt happy. He was positive Terri would do the right thing. He could see the possibilities opening up for her. As for him he had that test on algorithmic enchantments to bone up for. Sighing he walked back into his dorm room.

Terri slowly hung up the phone. A tear crawled down her cheek. She had just discovered she could do almost anything, but the price was her masculinity, her very identity. What to do? What to do? Dropping onto her bed, Terri began doing her nails and contemplating her options.

In the distance Terri could hear the phone ring in the living room. Her Mother's voice came to her as a muffled sound that suddenly escalated in volume into a cry of shock and grief. Rushing to her Mother's side, Terri breathlessly asked her what was wrong.

"There's been an accident. Your sister. Valerie. She's in intensive care. They don't think she is going to make it."

Terri held her sobbing Mother. "Oh yes she will Mother!" She said with grim determination. "Val's going to be just fine. I promise."