Mr. Davidson returned and said "Okay, Tomi, you can go. I need to talk to Patrick for a little while."
Tomi said, "Thanks!" and left.
"Wait a minute," said Patrick after Tomi left, "I didn't do anything wrong. She was sneaking into Tommy's locker."
"Let me explain something to you," said Mr. Davidson. "Any guy who goes into the girl's locker room turns into a girl. I'm sure that that's what happened. She was in Tommy's locker because she is Tommy."
"What?"
"You must have heard about it. You probably didn't believe it though."
Neither of them had ever really heard about it. But the stone affects reality--it's as if anything the stone does had always been true. If a wish affects the locker room so that it changes guys into girls--then people think and remember that the locker room had always made guys change into girls.
"Of course I've heard about it," said Patrick, "but I never thought it was real."
"Well, it is. About one guy a year changes. Now, I'm going to send you back, and I'm not going to do anything to you. You had no way to know that it wasn't just a rumor. But I'm going to ask something of you."
"Yes, Mr. Davidson?" asked Patrick.
"Tomi doesn't remember that she was once a guy. But you do. Everyone does, except her--you, her parents, the girls. Those books in her locker still have her male name written on them. Someone's going to tell her, sooner or later, that she was affected by the locker room and that her girl memories aren't real. You're her friend, so I'd like you to do it."
"I don't even know her," said Patrick. "I know Tommy, the guy. She's someone else."
"She's just about the same," replied Mr. Davidson. "The locker room doesn't completely make someone over. She'll still think the same things she did, like the same things she liked."
"So she's a girl, but she hates dresses and she's a lesbian?"
"Hates dresses, probably, unless Tommy liked them, and I don't think he was like that. Lesbian--I don't know. She could like guys now--that's one thing that can change. Anyway, will you tell her that she used to be a guy?"
"I, um... sure, Mr. Davidson."
