It didn't work, of course. Nobody's going to fly out anywhere on receving a single picture that was obviously Photoshopped from one of his dead fiancee's photos. It wasn't, but he had no way of knowing that.
After three days, Sally finally decided to stop ignoring Calvin's text messages. She read through screens of them and finally composed a reply. "Not a fake picture. Get on Skype. Now."
Within five minutes she got a reply and started the connection. And she began speaking when Calvin's face appeared. "I found this magic medallion at a yard sale." She waved the phone around. Where had she dropped it? She realized from reading those Internet websites that one rumor said that the Medallion of Zulo liked to get lost, like a sort of One Ring. She held the phone up to her face and then moved it around to show the interior of her house as she walked to her and Mark's room. Mark was still there, of course--or rather the pregnant black woman that he had turned into.
Seeing live video footage of a pregnant Shareen, Calvin said, "What? Who are you? Why do you look like Shareen?"
"I'm not Shareen!" she said. "I'm Mark. Sally used a magic medallion to...."
"Now, really, Shareen..." said Sally.
"Not so many people are housewives these days. She decided that she wanted to be. She got bored, of course. Bored enough that when she found a magic medallion, she turned me into your fiancee. I'm not Shareen, but this is Shareen's body. And I really am pregnant, and with a real child. I'm still myself even in this body so the child is the child of me and you." She lifted her loose dress to show her stomach on the camera. "I bet you never expected to have a child with your dead fiancee's sister's husband."
"You need to get over here, Calvin," said Sally as she kept holding the camera up to Mark. "You can see this isn't a Photoshop. Not like you thought it was in your text messages."
"Oh, it's not a Photoshop," said Mark. "It's a magic medallion." She indicated the medallion around her chest. "Sally just discarded it. I picked it up. Here's how it works." Mark suddenly held it and thrust it into Sally's arm, nearly making her drop the phone. "I researched the medallion too. You know something funny about it?" she said. "You have to keep wearing it to transform you. You can stop by taking it off. But there's one exception. If you touch it to another person you each change into the other. The other person doesn't need to wear the medallion for this. They can't take it off--they can't stop changing."
Mark wasn't sure that taking it off of herself wouldn't stop the other person's change, but hoped Sally didn't think of it.
She continued. "And the medallion doesn't work on pregnant women. Which means that I'm not affected. Only Sally."
Sally looked at her arm, horrified. The skin was turning dark brown and the color was spreading up her arm. Mark grabbed the phone out of her darker hand and held it to show Sally's transformation to Calvin over the phone. "Sally," she said, "you messed up. Badly. A prank is doing something for a couple of hours. I'm going to be like this for another month. I'm going to lose my job unless I'm lucky, and you know what? You're a housewife. How smart is it to kill the job of the only person in the family earning any money? And even when I can change back, the baby is permanent. You know, we could make lots of money with this, and now we may have to--people would pay a lot to lose 10 or 40 years of age, or change their sex, or instantly become pregnant. The doctor says that I'm going to give birth in another four weeks. I suggest you come just before that. We'll both be giving birth. Please call first though."
The color had spread to Sally's face and her hair was slowly curling up and darkening. Mark kept holding the phone to show Sally.
"You know," said Mark, "this really wasn't fair to poor Calvin either. How's he going to be able to raise two children."
"You did that," said Sally.
"Yes, but if I hadn't it would still be almost as bad--he still can't raise even one child without quitting his job, paying for day care, or convincing a friend or relative that yes, it's his child. I think you're going to end up raising them. At least they'll have birth certificates and a paternity test will show that Calvin's the father."
"Maybe I can use the medallion to make them older. It does some mental changes."
"It only does small changes to make you comfortable with your body, especially if you wear it for a long time. You probably can't affect their minds more than getting them walking and potty trained. But look at it this way. You won't be a bored housewife nay more. You'll be pretty busy." Sally's belly was beginning to bulge and her face had already become her sister's. "Calvin, you there?"
"I am but... this is unbelievable. I'll... I guess I'll see you for the birth. What else can I do?"
"What can I do?" asked Sally. "This is terrible. It..."
"... is exactly what you did to me," said Mark. "Except for the whole unemployment thing. Unless you planned to turn into me, learn my job in an hour, and replace me at work."
Sally couldn't respond.
The month went by slowly. Sally had to admit she treated Mark pretty terribly, but admitting that couldn't change their situation. When it came time for the two copies of Shareen to give birth, Calvin was at the door along with two surprise visitors--Shareen's parents....
