Cierra nodded solemnly and swallowed, “But … I think I could be pretty good at sports … for a girl that is … and … and I know it wouldn’t be as much fun for you … like it would be if I was your son … but … I’ll try really hard and I won’t cry and … if I’m tall I bet I’ll be good at basketball if my knees aint busted again … or I’ll play baseball … or maybe even football … and that would be cheaper for you then if I was a boy ‘cause you won’t got to buy me a cup … just pads.”

David’s face turned crimson as he dropped it against his chest and whined. “Five women in the house … I’m always buying pads.”

by Maggie the Kitten

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Cierra banished tears from her eyes and bad thoughts from her mind. The child had won this battle … but the adult in the shadows knew it was only a five minute cease fire and the voice would wait patiently to wage war once again.

Cici regained control, but anxiety crept in as she feared her tearful outburst may have crossed the line with her parents. Praying they weren’t going to send her back early … she found the courage to meet their gaze. First David, then Terry … and yes … whilst there was concern in their eyes … there were also love and encouragement. Wind filled her sails as joy filled her heart and once again this mix of adult and child was living the dream.

“Hey … I’m an off the rack girl!” She had yet another epiphany.

David looked to Terry who couldn’t translate, but Cierra quickly did. “Don’t you see? Now … when I get something at the girls’ section at Target, I don’t have to lie and tell the sales person it’s a gift for my niece. I … I don’t have to take it home and hang it on the wall and wish I could wear it. I don’t have to spend hours on line searching sites and hoping to find a giant sized copy without a giant sized price tag. I don’t have to find a sympathetic and discreet seamstress to create an adult reproduction of a classic princess masterpiece and I don’t have to wait six weeks to be able to wear it. And … when I do wear it … I can wear it outside … and not just at some camp for other lost little girls like me … but I can wear it outside … everywhere … and … and anywhere I go if people see me wearing it … they won’t think I’m pretty weird … maybe … just maybe … they’ll just think I’m pretty.”

Cierra was feeling very pretty and very happy with the simplest of childhood joys … simple and plain as an everyday play dress … but to a little girl who never had one of her own … it was as if she was wearing Cinderella’s ball gown and as the clock continued to tick … she too like the fairy tale princess had lost track of time and the fast approaching midnight.

Cici was still laying waste to the Girls’ section like Sherman through Atlanta. “And you know what else will be so great? I won’t have to take the original outfit back to the store … and return it saying that my niece didn’t like it or that it didn’t fit … because I’m the niece and now it will fit and ‘I’ will like it and …”

She stopped mid gush, smiling devilishly at David and Terry, whilst she waggled a finger in their direction. “I … won’t have to pay for it ‘cause you … get to!”

“Lucky us”, Terry groaned, smelling burnt plastic in the air and marvelling at how her bank account seemed to shrink when her friend did.

Cierra did a pirouette and bubbled over more. “Everything is possible and nothing is impossible … and I’m warm and safe … and happy and home and loved … and … and it’s all just … just …”

“Perfect?” Terry tried to give Cierra her next line.

Cierra’s eyes went wide and her pig tails bounced as she shook her head. “No … no Mom … not perfect … I had perfect. I had perfect in my dreams and I had it in my stories and … and I could find that in a fairy tale or any 50’s sitcom on TV Land. No … not perfect! Never again perfect. I’m not the perfect little girl and … I know you’re not the perfect parents … and this won’t ever be the perfect life … but it’s the perfect life for me and I know this is the perfect place for me and you’re the perfect parents for me. I don’t want perfect anymore … I just … want … real.”

Cierra closed the distance to Terry. She reached out a hand and Terry took it. It was cold to touch as always … but the look in Cierra’s blue eyes was pure warmth.

“Mom I … I know you didn’t want another kid … especially one with a past, but you brought me home anyway! Thank you … thank you both.” She shot a quick smile David’s way.

When she turned her eyes to Terry again … mist filled them and her voice struggled with the emotions of her words. “And I know something else … as much as I wish you could … I know that you can’t love me as much as you do the girls … I mean c’mon … their your babies and I’m not … but that’s okay ‘cause I’m gonna love you back so much that I’ll make up the difference. And … and I don’t really expect you to do all the things with me that you did with them when they were my age … because well … you’re probably tired of doing all that stuff … but … but that’s okay … honest it is … cause you know what? I’ll take whatever time and attention you got left to give … and I’ll be happy to have it because tomorrow when I wake up … I know … well at least I think … I won’t remember the old me anymore. I’ll just be one of the girls … treated equally and at least seemingly ... wanted and loved just as much as them … and because you’re both such wonderful parents … that will be one beautiful little lie in my life that will never be ruined by the truth. You’ll never … ever … let me know that you love me less.”

Despite Cierra’s insistence on keeping the living room a tear free zone … a few stray one’s rolled down her cheeks and a light mist threatened in Terry’s.

“And … I don’t know how old I am but … but I’ll try to grow up really … really fast so you won’t be stuck with me so long.”

The devil smile peeked out as she did a 180. “No … no I won’t grow up fast will I? I’ll probably wring every minute of childhood out of every day … kicking and screaming all the way to bed. I’ll never want to go to sleep and probably never want to leave home.”

“Sorry ‘bout that.” She apologized with a sad frown, but the sparkle in her eyes said there was little sincerity in it.

“But … even if you are stuck with me for a whole long time, I promise you that you won’t regret bringing me home.”

A smile peeked through the mist. “Okay … so maybe sometimes you will regret it … like during Christmas shopping … or when I need braces … or when you want to use the phone or the bathroom … but I promise you … I will make you proud and I will make you laugh and I’ll make you glad that you gave me this chance … that you saved my life by giving me one with you. Oh I’m going to try so hard to be the best kid I can be. I mean it. I’ll … I’ll be the ‘tryingest’ kid in the whole … family.”

“You’ll have to go a long way to beat Donna,” Terry couldn’t resist. “But I’m sure you’ll be trying ... in every sense of the word.”

“Oh Mom!” Cierra sighed. “You know what I mean. I … I’m just going make you … going to show you … that you did the right thing. That’s all.”

Terry squeezed Cierra’s hand. “We know that Cici … we already know that … no matter what happens tomorrow.”

“And Mom? Member how I was always scared of things … everything? Well … I don’t feel so scared no more.”

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at the gentle giant just a few feet away. “Well … maybe just a little scared … but only of the things I probably should be scared of and … you wanna know why I’m not scared?”

“Sure …” Terry drawled.

“Cause I’m not alone no more. I’m a princess in the castle and you’re the wise queen and … you’ll teach me what not to be afraid of … and … and …”

Cierra’s eyes darted to the right. “He’s the brave knight and he won’t let nobody ever hurt me and … and you’ll both teach me how to take care of myself too … ‘cause that’s what parents do right? They teach kids how to take care of themselves so they can grow up and leave their parents alone.”

David nodded … smiling appreciatively, “I’m starting to like this daughter more and more.”

Cierra giggled and instinctively stepped toward David for a hug, but stopped mid pounce fearing she might be sent to the tower without her supper. Discretion being the better part of valour she returned her attention to the Queen Mum.

“And Mom … I just want you to know something else important too. I’m not going to have any babies for a real long time because I’m not going to make you a … a … you know … “m to the g?” … like Donna did … and sides I just got here being a kid … I don’t wanna quit having fun and be a momma yet.”
 
 
David was tempted to ask just how a fifty year old transgender woman without the baby making mechanism was going to pull off the second Immaculate Conception, but was afraid that Cierra might just explain how.

Terry winced at the thought of being a grandmother twice … even in her friend’s fantasy world and quickly commended Cici for her “willingness to wait.”

“Yep … and … I’m going to go to college too, but that’s after I finish high school … and I’ve decided I’m going to like boys … but even if I liked girls … I know you wouldn’t be mad at me ‘cause … it’s okay to love who you love … isn’t it?”

Terry fumbled the surprise pitch that Cierra had just thrown her. “Well … yes, that’s umm … true, but … but when it comes to love … you don’t really choose which …”

“And … I was thinking …” Cierra cut her off, paying no more attention to her mom’s reply than her new sister’s normally did. “I hope at least some of me is still the same as before … ‘cause if I left all of me back there in the other life … then that means none of me is here and if none of me is here … then … well … none of me is here … and I think that means I’m not really here at all doesn’t it?”

She whirled round to give David a turn on the hot seat. “Do you think some of me is here or none of me is here … or … do you think I’m not all here?”

David opened his mouth … but no words were forth coming. Terry’s had hers covered trying to keep from laughing. Cierra waited the maximum three seconds that most hyper “however old she is” kids do and then moved on without an answer.

“Oh … and just so you know … you’re back on the parent point system too … just like you were with Victoria when you first came here. So far … you’re doing pretty good with me I think … but I’d watch it if I were you.”

“Point system? And I need to watch it?” David leaned forward … losing himself a bit in the bubble and tempted to tell Cici just who watches who around the place, when her body and her attentions directed themselves once again to Terry.

“Mom do you think that I still like to write and draw and that I got a good imagination? I sure hope so … I hope I didn’t leave that stuff behind … cause I like writing … and now maybe I can write things other than dumb stupid second rate TG fiction all the time… and maybe I can write a zillion different stories … instead of the same one a zillion times … and I’ll probably be a little crazy … and a little weird … but you know … not the really bad kind like before … just the kind that makes me sort of fun and interesting … kinda like you Mom. And oh yeah … do you think I’ll talk too talk much just I like I used to before?”

Terry didn’t need to consult the magic 8 ball to proclaim “It is certain.”
 
 
Cierra seemed to continue to pick up speed and intensity as her time dwindled. “I wanna join Green Peace and save Polar bears like Rose too! And … I want Little Mermaid stuff in my room … and … and … oh yeah … I wanna room too. Do I have to share with Victoria … or do I get my own room? I don’t mind sharing ‘cause I like to cuddle … and I said I would be good. Umm … I don’t like meat neither just like you Mom … so I only wanna eat chicken and fish sticks and pepperoni ‘cause pepperoni aint meat … it’s a pizza ingredient … and … and can we go to Target this weekend ‘cause I don’t think I got no clothes.”

Terry leaned back against the cushion, folding her arms across her chest as she regarded the woman child before her. Yes … her eyes still beheld the middle aged woman in school girl dress … but her ears and her heart were seeing and feeling someone younger and oh so familiar. Cierra’s lists of wants and string of endless questions without waiting for proper answers were déjá  vu. She’d heard it so many times before from her “other” daughters. She had to remember to tell Cierra she was running true to family form after all this was over. Terry knew it would put her friend over the moon.

“Is there anything else Cici?” Terry gently teased and tempted her.

Cierra thought for a moment and then smiled as she nodded. “Yeah … please. I forgot to say please.”

Terry shook her head and chuckled. “Sounds to me like you’ve covered about everything haven’t you?”

“Almost …” she turned away from Terry and found the courage to address the Brave Knight once again.

She edged dangerously closer to him and then met his eyes. This was a delicate subject in a delicate situation, but it was important and she had to brave it. Her voice started as a whisper but picked up volume as she picked up steam.

“Umm … I know … that umm … if … if you were ever going to have another kid … I mean well … you can’t have kids ‘cause you’re a boy … I … I mean a man … because men don’t have kids … that’s what girls do … and I’m a girl and you’re not … but what I’m trying to say …”

“Then just say it Cici”. He gently nudged her along with a father’s patience.

“Umm … well … it’s just that I know you would really rather have a son, instead of another daughter … but … but … if you think about it … what’s one more cup of oestrogen when you’re already drowning in an ocean of it … right?”

Cierra smiled nervously … hoping her "A" material would get a laugh from the tough crowd. She had to settle for a grin from old green eyes, but it was enough to give her the courage to continue.

“But … I was thinking ‘bout stuff and … and … I think I still like sports … so maybe … if you want to … you could help me with sports kinda like if I was a boy, but I hope you won’t holler at me a whole lot. I don’t like it when you holler.”

David raised an eyebrow. “Then don’t give me a reason too.”

Cierra nodded solemnly and swallowed, “But … I think I could be pretty good at sports … for a girl that is … and … and I know it wouldn’t be as much fun for you … like it would be if I was your son … but … I’ll try really hard and I won’t cry and … if I’m tall I bet I’ll be good at basketball if my knees aint busted again … or I’ll play baseball … or maybe even football … and that would be cheaper for you then if I was a boy ‘cause you won’t got to buy me a cup … just pads.”

David’s face turned crimson as he dropped it against his chest and whined. “Five women in the house … I’m always buying pads.”

Terry smiled sympathetically at the lone source of testosterone in the house. Cierra gently tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up to meet her smiling gaze. “Whatever I played … I’d try really … really hard to make you proud of me. I promise I would.”

David looked into the eyes of a child … yes a child … despite what his mind knew to be physical fact … his heart was forced him to see an alternate reality. Somehow … someway … he was having a Cici sighting. As impossible as it had to be, there was a little girl standing in front of him … begging for his approval … his love and for a chance to include him in the waning moments of her magical measured by minutes existence. The brave knight was as powerless against this princess as he was the others who dwelled her. He spoke honestly and easily.

“I know you’d try Cici … with all your heart you’d try to make us proud.

Cierra positively glowed. David’s praise was food to a child who had been starving for so long.

She needed no other encouragement. “And I know you’ll come to my games to watch me play and … and …”

She turned to Terry. “And you can come to the game and watch both of us!”

“Both of you?”

Cierra nodded. “Uh huh … you can watch me play and watch him close so he don’t get thrown out for hollering at the stupid refs.”

Terry and Cierra giggled as David gave them both the evil eye, “Really? Really?”
 
 
When Terry stopped giggling, she reached out and grabbed hold of Cierra’s skirt, pulling her big little girl toward her. “Cici … sounds to me like you have your whole future planned out.”

Cierra shook her head. “No … I don’t. I don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow except … that I’ll be me and I’ll be here with the people who love me and … and the rest is what I … what you … both of you … help me make it and that’s all I really want to know, but …”

Her pixie smiled fade. “In my other life, the old me knew the future … because every day was ‘bout the same except maybe … just a little bit worse sometimes. Then … I knew what was going to happen but I still couldn’t change it. I mean … I could change some things, but nothing that really mattered. I couldn’t change the things I needed to change … the things that would make a difference. My life … was well … full of guarantees.”

Terry eyed her suspiciously. “C’mon Cici … guaranteed? You really believe everyday was destined to be the same? That you couldn’t change anything that mattered?”

“Uh huh … pretty much.”

Cierra paused … thinking back to life before … a Cici’s life “bfm” … before five minutes. “I was guaranteed to wake up and be sad because I didn’t wake up here or I didn’t wake up in heaven. I was guaranteed to look in the bathroom mirror and see a reflection that wasn’t mine and that I hated more and more every day. I was guaranteed to pedal my bicycle into work no matter what the weather because driving was one of my ten thousand phobias I couldn’t conquer. I was guaranteed to come to work carrying bags of candy and granola bars and other gifts … desperately trying to buy a place in your life and a type of love from you that you didn’t have to sell for any price.”

Cierra turned to David. He was not unscathed from her life before. “And … I was guaranteed to corner you in the break room and torture you with pointless conversation and a hug when I knew all you wanted was to get your coffee and get back to the lab.”

Shame and frustration was etched on her face when she looked at Terry again.

“It was guaranteed that I’d light up like a Christmas tree as soon as I saw you walk in … and I was guaranteed to never smile on the days you didn’t. And … during the course of the day I would say your name twenty times, but it was guaranteed that beneath my breath I was saying ‘Mom’ every time.”

She looked to David and then back to Terry. “It was guaranteed that the highlight of my day was our thirty minute lunch together. Most of the time … I didn’t really bring much to the table aside from yogurt … and truth be told … you’d probably both been happier to just have a cosy little lunch on your own … but it was guaranteed that if you were both here … I was invited. It was guaranteed that whenever I sat across from you … you’d both let your guards down a little … and let your fingers do the walking on each other … and it was almost like being home at the dining room table. I felt forty years younger and three feet shorter watching and listening to the two of you … and that was the best guarantee of all.”
 
 
A sweet smile of remembrance from lunches past snuck in but faded quick as she continued down the mental list. “And I guarantee you that if you were at work when I left … I’d have to come in and say goodbye and hope you’d let me stay awhile … even if it was just to run and fill your water bottle … or fix you a cup of tea. Those things weren’t much to you, but to me … they were guaranteed joy because I was a daughter helping her mom. And it was extra special if we shared granola bars and you told me about the girls or smiled and listened when I told you stuff … and if I made you laugh … oh if I made you laugh, I guarantee you I was over the moon, but then … then I had to come back down again because it was time for you to go home. It was guaranteed that I’d walk you to the car … ask you to send my love to everyone … as I do every … single … night. And then … I’d watch you drive away … unless … unless it was Friday which is guaranteed hug day and I’d get my weekend fix first. And then … it was guaranteed I’d watch you until your car disappeared … hoping when I knew there was no hope or no reason … that you would stop and come back for me.”

Cierra stopped and sighed heavily. “And then I’d cycle home to my little English tea cottage with a bedroom built for Barbie. I was guaranteed to find Muffin the cat waiting for me, but no one else. I’d put on the kettle … put in a frozen pizza and then go to the computer to continue working on yet another fantasy story where … where this …”

Cierra waved her arms round. “Finally came true … but up until now … was guaranteed to never come true no matter how many times I wrote it. And it was guaranteed that over the course of tea, pizza and tapping keys … that I would think of both of you and the girls and wonder what you were doing that night … wondering how I would fit in and knowing that I would … if only I could. And if I got really sad … or scared … or couldn’t write or daydream anymore … I’d sit in my rocker and rock or walk the floors until bedtime and then I’d climb the stairs, get into my Eeyore nightshirt and wiggle under my Little Mermaid comforter. It was guaranteed that I would wish you both good night as I blew a kiss to your picture on my nightstand and then I’d continue the time honoured tradition of asking the powers that be to please let me wake up the next morning … finally home and finally your daughter or … not wake up on this Earth at all … and … one more guarantee. I guarantee you that I’d wake up around 3 a.m. and that stupid voice would start again … and it would remind me that you weren’t just down the hall and you never would be … and then I’d cry and go back to sleep.”

Cierra shuttered from a cold soul deep and memories of a life that was slowly killing her. David and Terry were helpless do anything else other than let her release the poison.

“The weekends … oh how I hated the weekends! They were even worse, because it was guaranteed I would not see or hear from either of you for two whole days, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be looking for you, ‘cause I guarantee you that every time I heard a car pull up I’d run to the window hoping to see it was the two of you coming to collect me. I guarantee you I’d beg the phone to ring hoping it would be you calling to invite me over … but knowing it wouldn’t be … because there was no reason to invite me over and every reason not to. It was guaranteed to be 48 of the loneliest hours I’d ever spend … and yes … I know what you’re thinking … you’re thinking I could break that guarantee. I didn’t have to sit in the house alone all weekend … I just choose to. You’re right … I could go out and be around people but I couldn’t come home and I guarantee you that was the only place and the only people I wanted to see, and finally I guarantee you that if I wanted any sleep on a Sunday night, I’d better take a pill, because I’d be so wound up about Monday … happy to be seeing you but so afraid I’d say or do something stupid when I do … that I couldn’t get to sleep.”

Cierra finished with a heavy sigh … expelling the sickness and sadness of a life recently past. “Gosh … that all sounds pretty bad huh?”

She looked from face to face. “I mean … when you step back and look at what I was … and what I did and … how I used to live … and … and what I did to both of you … oh wow … that’s … that’s just sad … really sick and really sad and I’m so sorry for the things I did to you … and so grateful that you stuck with me and gave me this chance … and now …”
 
 
The smile returned like the sun from behind dark clouds. “I don’t have all those guarantees no more … but I do have some … and I think there the good kind! It’s guaranteed that you’re stuck with me now. I mean even on the days you don’t like me so much you won’t get rid of me. It’s guaranteed that were stuck with each other forever and ... and don’t worry … it won’t be so bad. I know you’re going to like me ‘cause after awhile I bet I’ll kinda grow on ya.”

“Like mould on soap?” David couldn’t resist a little lab humour.

Cierra shrugged her shoulders and giggled. “Maybe! And … it’s guaranteed that I got sisters and even if we fight …”

“No … there’s no IF to that one … that’s another guarantee.” Terry exercised her experienced Mother’s prerogative, “Sisters ALWAYS fight.”

“And even WHEN we fight”, Cierra corrected herself. “We’ll still love each other and I know we’ll be there for each other … and a part of each other’s lives for the rest of our lives … no matter how far away life takes us … we’ll be connected always!”

“And … I know there’s no guarantee about what life is going to throw at me tomorrow, but what is guaranteed is that you’ll both be here to help me face it. I guarantee you that every wonderful thing that happens I’m going to want to share it with you and every good thing I do … I’m going to want you to be there to see it ‘cause I guarantee you that nothing makes me happier than making you proud and … and I guarantee you that when bad things happen and I mess up really bad … I’m still going to come to you … even if I know I’m going to get in trouble or hollered at … because I can come to you … because I’ll WANT to come to you and I know after you get done being mad … you’ll listen and you’ll care and you’ll help and you’ll still love me, because that’s what good parents do and you’re the best!”

Cierra pounced on Terry, sharing her overflowing “hug energy” and then sent an “air hug” to David before starting again. “But I know … even with the best parents in the whole world … sometimes life kicks you in the bum … and I know I’ll have some problems and maybe some bad ones … maybe I’ll even get sick in the head again … but I don’t think I’ll be transgender again, because … I think that’s probably double jeopardy or something and they can’t do that one to me again. But … whatever happens … I guarantee you I won’t be so scared ‘cause you’ll teach me to be brave and I guarantee you I won’t be so naíve and dumb ‘cause you’ll teach me things and I guarantee you I’ll believe I can do almost anything and beat almost anything … especially the things people tell me I can’t … because I love you and I believe in you and I trust you … and because you feel the same way about me … you’ll teach me to find those things within myself … just like you did my sisters, and that’s one of the very best guarantees of all!”

Cierra reached out and offered hands. Each took the one closest. “And I know it’s not guaranteed that I will ever find my soul mate like the two of you did … or that I’ll get married and have a family and then get paid back by my kids for all the rotten things I did to the two of you … but I hope so … ‘cause I want to know big girl love and I wanna be a big girl … but for now … I just wanna be a little one first … and get there one day at a time just like every other girl.”

Cierra blue eyes risked contact with David’s green. “And … I hope someday I do find me a handsome prince that I can love like Mom loves you and makes me happy like you do her, but … I know that’s not guaranteed. What IS guaranteed … is that I have a chance … a real chance for all those things … just as in my life before … I was guaranteed to have no chance at all … especially when it came to love ‘cause to me … even on the high side of forty … men … were fathers and uncles and love was something with a fairy tale knight or prince. It was giggles and blushes and at best a playground kiss or crush. It … just couldn’t be grown up ‘cause I wasn’t grown up and I never would be.”

Cierra searched Terry’s eyes for understanding. “Does that make any sense?”

Terry gave it to her with a knowing smile and nod. “Actually … it makes perfect sense.”

Cierra lit up and gave her best brave smile. “And you wanna know something? Even if I’m not lucky enough to find a brave knight like you did and … and I end up living by myself with a cat in a little English tea cottage … I’ll never be alone … not really … because I’ll always be connected to you and my sisters … even if you all do runaway and change your phone numbers ‘cause you know I’ll find you. That’s a guarantee too!”

Terry winked at David. “And she means it too. I guarantee you.”

“Mom … David”, Cierra squeezed their hands and poured her heart. “And the bestest guarantee of all is that this isn’t a dream … it’s not one of my stupid stories … it’s … it’s not thirty minutes of lunch magic … it’s not me being on the outside looking in the windows … wishing I was on the inside and knowing I never will be. Oh don’t you see? You came … I waited and waited and I hurt and … I almost gave up but I didn’t ... and in the end you came … you came and took me home and now it’s all guaranteed. I’ll always be loved … and accepted … and part of this family. I’ll always belong … which is all I ever wanted … and that’s the best guarantee of all ‘cause it lasts forever and ever and that’s … a really … really … long time!”
 
 
All the bad that was … and the good that now was … finally overwhelmed the big little girl and she wrapped arms round half the team that brought her home and hugged Terry tight.

David had one eye on the coupling and one eye on the clock. As much as he hated to be the bad guy, normally leaving that job to Terry who enjoyed it too much … he felt he had no choice but to be.

“Uh … speaking of time Cici … I think you’re about out of it. I’m afraid your five minutes are almost up.”

Terry glanced over at David warning him off with a look, but the words were already in the air. Perhaps it was her women’s “institution” as Cici often called it or perhaps she knew too well the woman who would be her girl … but she had a feeling Cierra’s re-entry into reality wouldn’t go well. The look of horror that her friend gave her when she pulled back from the hug confirmed it.

“Five minutes? Five minutes?” She repeated, taking a step back and shaking her head as an old reality was forcing itself into the new one.

“No … not five minutes … no … no ... it’s forever!” She tried to convince herself but it was pointless as the damn had burst and all hell came flooding back in. It was midnight for Cici … the ball was over and the magic was coming undone.

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To Be Continued...