"Yes?" replied Becky.
"I know about the sticky notes. I know who's responsible for the sticky notes, too. And I need to talk to you and the other people affected so we can figure out what to do about it."
"Uh-huh." Becky felt embarrassed and didn't really want to discuss her life story with this stranger. "Really?"
"Really," said Jennifer.
"How much do you know?" she asked. "If you really know about it you know why it's hard to talk about. Tell me what you know. I want to hear what you've already found out before I tell you any more."
"All right," said Jennifer. "I'll tell you everything I found out. Your Dad found a note that swapped the genitals between him and your Mom, adjusted for ages and not affecting the rest of their bodies. He tore it up and your sister found it. The torn version swapped her genitals and yours, but only her body is unaffected. So you, your sister, and your parents have the opposite genitals, but your body changed as well. You were homeschooled for a few weeks, and returned to school as Becky instead of Benny, now obviously a girl. This was several months ago, just after spring break."
"Wow, you know a lot," said Becky.
"I'm still not finished," said Jennifer. "Your sister became friends with my sister Michelle and discovered that she was a mermaid. She even came to the lake with my family. You became friends with some girls your age and began to wonder if you were attracted to your friend Andrew. In the meantime, Jason, who is about your age, found another magic sticky note which gave him female genitals. You and him had had disagreements, but he came to you to find out what's up with the notes. Am I right?"
Becky sighed. "You're right. Did Jenny tell you all of that when you were out at the lake?"
"No," said Jennifer. "First of all, Michelle slipped. She said she didn't remember anything, but she once said something about losing the stone and 'it wasn't supposed to have turned out like this.' Come to think of it, I think Becky was visiting--she might have heard it too. I confronted her and she said she remembered some stone but nothing else, which didn't really match what she had said. I sneaked into her room once and found a pad of blank sticky notes. I didn't remember the magic stone...."
"Magic stone?" asked Becky.
"I'm getting to that. I did remember that I was affected by a sticky note just like that. That note started with 'I wish', so I wrote down 'I wish I knew what's going on'. I tore it off, read it, and found out."
"Okay, so you came here to tell me what you found out. And...."
"I had a magic wishing stone I inherited from my grandfather. The biggest limit on the wishes is that they can't be reversed. My brother Mikey stole it and wished for the sticky pad. It turns out pad wishes can't be reversed either. But any later stone wishes can't reverse the wish that the sticky pad grants wishes, which means that stone wishes can be reversed with the sticky pad, but sticky pad wishes can't be reversed with the stone. That's why using the sticky pad was able to restore my memory--he had used the stone to wipe it."
Jennifer continued, "Mikey did accidentally see one of his own notes and turn into a mermaid--he's Michelle now."
"I don't understand. Michelle has always been a girl in a wheelchair. She lives just a few blocks up the street, I ran into her a lot. But when I was transformed, people remember that I was transformed."
"The wishes from the stone normally change reality. The wishes from the pad normally don't, but they can if the wish says so. The wish that changed Mikey into a mermaid was like that. So was the wish on me. Mine was 'I wish that I will become a girl, and everyone else will remember me as a girl, until I have my first child.' Karyn and Michelle were with me at the time and I suppose that means they didn't count as 'everyone else'."
"Did you get your magic stone back?"
"Of course I did. The second thing I wrote on the sticky notes was that I wish I know where the stone is."
"And reversing the wishes...."
"Wishes can't be reversed. Not wishes from the notes, anyway. The best I can do is reinterpret the wish. For instance, the note didn't say whether people remember your switch, except for your family, it didn't say whether your body changes, it didn't say that people treat you like a girl, and it certainly didn't say whether you like guys, so I could change those things if they really disturb you. Now, we need to get everyone together to decide if there's anything I can do to help. That's me, you, Jenny, your parents, and Jason. Your parents and Jenny should be home eventually, so that only leaves Jason. You probably want to do it before school starts next week."
"Okay, I'll call him." She unlocked the door and said "Come on in, Jennifer. But I have just one question before we get together."
"Ask away," replied Jennifer as she followed behind Becky.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"What?"
"You were changed, just like me, even if you were a little older. Were you able to live like a girl now that you became one? Because I'm getting confused trying to live like one. I want to know what your life is like."
