Tim lived with his mother, Cindy, and his older brother Robert. It was the same house they had lived in when his father had died in an airplane accident in the mountains of Colorado. He had been traveling on a business trip when the aircraft experienced severe icing on the wings as they were crossing the Rockies. Eighty-seven people were lost, only the First Officer and a flight attendant survived the crash initially, but later froze to death trying to descend the craggy mountain heights trying to get help. Now, eight years later the pain of their loss was just beginning to become a distant memory. Life finally felt normal again.

 

Their home was not an uncommon structure. It was a four bedroom home, two stories tall and painted white with black false shutters and large, simple columns in front that held up a heavy awning that hung over both the lower porch and an upper balcony. The house was anything but palatial, but it was large and roomy, left to Thomas Glass by his parents after they passed away when he was 20. It was nestled in an up-scale neighborhood called Creekside in the northern suburbs of Baker, TN. and had been Thomas’s boyhood home.

 

The yard out front was large, almost sprawling with a distinct lack of shrubs, its wide open slightly rolling expanse had seen its fair share of touch football games, Easter egg hunts and block parties over the years. The crisp, manicured appearance of the lawn was broken only by a long winding stone walkway that led directly to the steps of the long front porch where rocking chairs waited for weary visitors.

 

The Glass’s had some money thanks to a one million dollar trust funded from two separate life insurance policies Tom Glass had purchased on himself, one only days before the crash that had claimed his life. It was all there was to last a very long time, This included college for both boys, one of whom would be leaving in the fall. Their income was supplemented by Cindy’s job as a travel agent, but it didn’t bring in much and the trust fund had been tapped several times for home and automotive repairs and necessities.

 

In spite of the trust fund and the outwardly appearance of wealth, The Glass’s were not rich. Given their financial needs, the Glass’s were just on the poor side of upper middle class. They had enough money to live comfortably and send both their sons’ to school. This was aided by the fact that Robert Glass was an athlete. He had, much to the relief of his mother, secured a partial scholarship to LSU after graduation last year with the contingence that he defer for one year. In the mean time Robert lived at home, working and saving money for the upcoming year to help keep their family’s trust fund intact.

 

At the house, Ben parked in front of the main walkway on the street. Robert was home, building a rather large sandwich at the kitchen table when Tim and Ben arrived back from the mall. It was 5:37 in the afternoon and their mother would be home any minute. Robert, known as Bob to both Tim and Ben, was just stuffing the first large bite of a bologna, cheese and jelly sandwich into his mouth when the two came in the back door. “Mumph Dim, Wasssss Uhump!” Robert asked though a mouth full of sandwich, spraying crumbs on the table like white confetti the whole time.

 

“Not much Bob,” Tim answered, perhaps a little too cheerfully.

 

Bob held his hand high and Ben slapped it as he passed, “Bmem, my manm!” Bob spat with sandwich still in his mouth.

 

“Yo!” Ben responded.

 

Now, while there was nothing extraordinary about the mask from its appearance, Tim none the less felt self-conscious about having it. If seen, the question would be asked, Hey, what’s that for? Anticipating this, Tim found he could not fabricate a plausible answer to that question. This was compounded by the fact that Tim was an awful liar as was Ben. So rather than stop and chat as they often did with Bob, the two went directly up to Tim’s room, the mask hidden under Tim’s shirt. There was no way to explain it; nothing about the thing seemed sufficient or easy to explain. They trudged upstairs not wanting anyone or anything to stop them before they could, at the very least, hide the thing.

 

They slid into Tim’s room and Ben closed the door behind them. “Okay, try it on. I want to see what happens.”

 

Tim pulled the mask from beneath his shirt and once more, held it up to his face. He could see Ben standing before him through the eyes of it. There was a light tugging on Tim’s arms. It felt to Tim that the mask was trying to pull itself to his face. Tim yanked the mask away from him in a panic. With a confused and slightly frightened voice said, “I can’t put it on, remember?”

 

A frustrated, cross look clouded Ben’s face for a moment and then, recollection spread over Ben’s features, “Oh... Oh yeah. Okay, gimme the mask.” But Tim didn’t give it to him. He continued to stare through the eyes at a distance, his hands shook. “What are you afraid of? The old man said that I could take it back off.”

 

“He also said that you were the only one that could take it off. What if something happens to you between now and then?”

 

“You don’t believe in magic, remember? And even if it is true, I’m not going to have a heart attack at 16 or get hit by a bus in the next twenty-four hours.”

 

No, but you could ram your Mustang into an oak tree on the way home tonight! Tim thought.

 

“Look Tim, let’s just do this. I don’t think the old man is going to give me one anyway, I was just a little too excited for his tastes. I should have just kept my fucking yap shut about the sex part.”

 

“Horn dog ¾”

 

“Don’t tell me you don’t think about it Tim. I bet if I looked I could find four or five crusty towels under your bed your Mom has long since given up on finding,” Tim blushed a bright red and tried to deny it; but his mortified face told the real story. He did, in fact, have one or two ‘launching pads’ sequestered away. “Yeah, I’m a ‘horn dog’. Most boys our age are already doing it all the time.” Ben fired back. “I like girls... so shoot me! I don’t want to be a geek and excluded from the fun for another day. I hate being a fucking nerd. All we need is one break to be cool, one point in our history where we fit in and the doors will open up for us.”

 

“I don’t think that’s true either, no more so than magic is real. They hate us because we’re different Ben. Because I’m fat and have pimples and you’re a fucking beanpole that possesses no more social graces than a glass of water. You never learned how to talk to people, you’re too blunt. You can’t just blurt out inappropriate crap all the time. It makes you look stupid.”

 

This was the first time they had said these things to each other. Each of them knew what their short comings were without having to cut each other with the gleaming razors edge of that reality. The pressures of being outcasts coupled with the stress of what the mask might really mean for both of them was coming to bear on their fragile peace of mind.

 

“That hurt Tim,” Ben admitted as he snatched the mask from Tim’s hands. The rest of Tim’s explanation was ignored. Ben believed that once accepted, always excepted. Ben felt he wore a sign put on him without his knowledge, one that read, “KICK ME AS HARD AND AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN.” Like the magic of the mask, it could only be removed by someone else. If he could lose that sign, life would turn around. Admitting that the problem was not with others, but rested with Ben himself was too much of a trap. Ben couldn’t change who he was any more than he could change the direction of the setting sun. Getting people see that he could be cool being who he was though, would change everything. The door to the world would open and he would be welcomed in with open arms.

 

“That’s the thing I’ve been trying to explain all day Ben. We DON’T fit in and we never will. One night with a couple of good looking girls isn’t going to change that. The beautiful people aren’t going to think we’re cool. In fact, they’ll probably come and take our dates from us and then kick our asses for good measure. If you think I like this shit any more than you do, then you’re fucking crazy! The one thing I do know is that we can’t change history.” Tim was getting red in the face with anger, anger at the abuse he and Ben both took because they hadn’t been born with favorable looks. He was tired of feeling that the laughs dished out by his contemporaries were all at his expense. Most of all, just when Tim was becoming comfortable with who he was, he was tried of trying hair-brained scheme’s like this in an endless series of failed attempts to conform with people that didn’t want him anyway. Fuck ‘um.

 

“You boys hold it down to a dull roar please.” It was his mother, Cindy. She was home.

 

“Great!” Tim said. “Yeah. Okay Mom. Sorry.” Tim hollered through the closed door.

 

“Dinner in ten Tim, Ben can stay if he wants to.”

 

“Thanks Mrs. Glass.” Ben responded.

 

Tim turned to Ben and reached for the mask. Ben pulled it away with a confused look, “What?”

 

“Come on Ben, my mother is home. All bets are off.”

 

Tim could almost see the whine a mile off steaming his way. “Aw come on Tim! We only have this thing for the next twenty-four. If you don’t put it on now, then we might not get another chance.”

 

“That’s not how I read what the old man said,” Tim answered, happy to be off the hook. “He said he wanted the person who would wear it to keep you in check. That’s what I’m doing. Maybe by exercising some responsibility, he’ll let you use it again in time for the prom.”

 

“Shit! Shit!” Ben muttered. “Fine you old fucking woman. Take it! I’m leaving.” Ben tossed the mask to Tim and it hit him in the chest. After a second of fumbling, Tim managed to catch it in his open arms as Ben got up to storm off.

 

“Ben.” Tim called after him, “Come on.”

 

He hated it when Ben acted this way. It was an embarrassment when it happened in plain view of others. More than anything else, it made Tim feel guilty. He understood Ben had some issues and that he really counted on Tim to help make them go away. Now, in a very large sense, Tim was beginning to lose that sense of duty to Ben that had plagued him in years past. Tim was growing to understand that childhood was fleeting and so too the predigests that often follow hand in hand. He was not responsible for Ben’s happiness. Ben didn’t see things as clear cut however, and so employed the same games that he had since he was six to get his own way when ever possible.

 

Every so often, like now, they still pulled on Tim’s heart strings.

 

“Okay, let’s do this and get it over with. I want it off before dinner.” Tim handed Ben the mask.

 

“Tim, the old man said until tomorrow.” Ben reminded him. “24 hours, remember?” Ben said with a twinge of disappointment in his voice.

 

“Ben, if this thing makes me look stupid or doesn’t work or is some big fucking set up by those jock assholes, then it comes off tonight. That’s all the negotiating I’m going to do.

 

“Look, I’m eager to try it out,” Ben told Tim. “You put it on me and I’ll just prove to that old fart that I can control myself. That will leave you off the hook buddy.”

 

The offer was tempting. Tim felt that was a situation he could trust. Then the old man’s stern warning about Tim’s stabilizing influence came back hauntingly to him and Tim knew that he could not violate the strict code of ethics set down by the so called wizard. “No, you know what the old man said. Shit! Listen to me. Now you’ve got me doubting what I know to be rational. Just put it on my face and let’s get this over with, dinner’s almost ready.” Tim said with angry resignation.

 

Tim bent forward closed his eyes. Ben began to move the mask to Tim’s face. When it was about three or four inches from Tim’s face, the mask leapt from Ben’s fingers and seated to Tim’s face with an audible * SMACK *. Tim’s head rocked backward with the impact. Instantly his hands flew to his face to remove the mask. Ben could see the cords of muscles in his arms stand out as Tim tried hopelessly to pull the device from his face.

 

It took only a brief second for both to realize that the old man was right about one thing; Tim could not take the mask off by himself. Tim’s struggles were fruitless. No matter how he fought to get free of the mask on his face, he could not remove it.

 

Without warning, the room was rocked by a powerful Whump! that they both felt and heard. The books and personal items on the shelves around the room rattled with the impact. It felt as if the entire house had fallen two feet into a hole. This was followed by a deep thrumming vibration that reverberated through the house. Tim’s eyes flew open wide in shock and fear. As Tim bent forward, Ben could hear the deeply muffled screams of a terrified boy trapped behind the plastic facade of a decidedly girlish looking face. Ben watched as the mask vanished from sight. It seemed to blend into Tim’s flesh and then into the skull beneath. What was left was the face of a young lady, perhaps Tim’s age. There were no animated facial gestures; the mouth was still cast in that delicate smile of the mask. Tim’s brown eyes on the other hand were wild with fear and terror, trapped in the face’s frozen sea of serenity. Ben watched amazed as those terrified brown eyes began to change not only color, but hue.

 

Fluid rings of distortion, like ripples on a pond, emanated from Tim. Ben backed away uncertain what might happen if he were to become caught up in those silvery, distortions. Through them Ben could see that the room behind Tim was much different than the room on his side of the rings. There were light, pastel hues of pink and yellow on the walls, though he could not clearly see the details yet. The room, the walls, and bed beyond it were vastly different.

 

Behind the mask, stirring in his brain like a thousand tornados were the thoughts and memories of his lifetime. Images of he and his father, his brother, times and places flashed and flowed before him. However, something alarming began to happen to them. Each one near and far, dear to his heart or incidental began to fade. They turned to half seen ghosts before his eyes. Some vanished completely while others seemed to remain visible but just out of reach. Mentally, he reached for them in an attempt to cling to them but their distance seemed to great for his brain to span and they remained fuzzy and obscure.

 

Not all of his memories vanished or became hazy. There seemed to be no pattern to this decay. Some abandon him, while others remained strong and yet others became translucent. At the same time he became aware of experiences flooding his mind, strong memories, fresh and vivid crowding in. People he didn’t recognize, voices he could not place, smells, places, picture that were all alien but rapidly gaining a sense of familiarity.

 

The face of a boy, maybe fifteen flooded her mind. Tim knew he had never seen this boy before and still, deep in him somewhere was the idea that this boy was very familiar to him. He was kind looking, happy and sad at the same time. His visage filled Tim’s vision for a split second. He was descending down on Tim, smiling. He knew this boy was going to kiss him, had in fact kissed him some time ago. “I love you Kim,” the image said and Tim was horrified to find that his heart, in spite of the fear he was experiencing, was thrilled at the words spoken by this boy next door.

 

He still had the presence of mind to wonder, Who the FUCK is Kim? But Tim lost all cogent ability after his brain answered, You are stupid, duh!

 

Tim’s mind was not the only thing going through changes. His body too was changing. He seemed to have become smaller when Ben returned his attention to him. Ben watched, transfixed on the miraculous transformation occurring in his friend. Tim’s face had narrowed. Tim’s eyes changed shape; they widened and became more angled. Ben felt they almost appeared more cat-like. Ben watched as the iris’s changed color from brown to blue, then to a very pale shade of blue in only a few moments.

 

Tim had begun to develop what looked like breasts, a narrow, feminine waist, long slender jean clad legs with cute button toes sticking out of split toe sandals. It was then that Ben realized that not only had Tim’s body change but the clothes he had worn that day. Gone was his ordinary, and usually hand smeared jeans and old, hole pocked T-shirt and grimy old sneakers had been replaced. Tim now wore a slim pair of low-rise black jeans with a wide band of suede around the waist and a large white belt. His top was a small, black cotton T-shirt with pink letters across the breast that read, “American Born Hottie.”

 

Tim’s hands were still on his face and he appeared to struggle with something that was no longer there. Still he could not seem to speak. Beneath his frozen lips Ben could still hear the muffled cries for help but now the voice belonged to that of a girl screaming in terror and not Tim’s voice at all.

 

There were new smells in the room as well. Ben registered the smell of strawberry shampoo and the delicate smell of some sort of perfume as well. Ben was also aware that the mustiness of the room had vanished. It was replaced by a fresh smell of clean, sun dried laundry and talcum powder.

 

Tim’s hair shot out of his head, almost as a fountain might jet water up and out of a nozzle. It came out in a thick shock of pale platinum hair, almost white in color and it lay well past his friend’s shoulders, framing those light blue eyes in a halo of almost mystic qualities. These colors offset the girl’s face that was now stuck to his friend and seemed to give it beautiful life.

 

Slowly, flexibility returned to Tim’s face, around the eyes at first, so that the terror of the moment was now visible in the reflection of the girl’s features. From the cheeks up, Ben fancied that this is what it would look like if a mannequin were to miraculously come to life in a department store window in front of unbelieving shoppers.

 

Ben understood that Tim was pleading for help, but Ben wanted to see the final results of this extraordinary change taking place before him. That old fart was right! She can’t get it off by herself. She’s stuck like that until I decide to let her out. Then on the heels of that thought came one more, How very interesting.

 

The waves that haloed Tim’s body widened and consumed the room. Instantly the appearance of the room in all directions was different. Kim reached out for Ben from a kneeling position, arms outstretched and palms up, finger splayed out in desperation, soundlessly pleading for help.

 

Ben considered how she was going to feel when she realized the extent of the changes that had happened, Could he really do that to Kim? Ben stopped confused by the mental slip, Wait... that’s not her name... Her name is Kim! Ben tried to insert his friend’s true name into his thoughts. Oh shit! How totally Kewl! Whatever that stuff is; it’s changing everything I ever knew about her.

 

No matter how hard Ben tried to think of his friend as Tim, the thoughts that centered around his friend’s identity, or history were always associated with the name Kim. He could not inject his friend’s former name into them, even in his thoughts. Now the sympathy Ben had been feeling for Tim fled with the idea that this was no longer Tim. This was a girl who was completely dependent on him for her freedom this life.

 

Internally, Ben smiled to himself. This could have some very rewarding possibilities.

 

Without warning, the girl’s face seemed to loosen completely from the stiff and rigid mask it had been and quickly softened, and smooth into the face of an angel, a screaming scared to shit angel. The girl was now where Tim had been sitting only moments ago was suddenly wailing in fear. The waves of distortion continued to radiate out ward away from Kim and out of the walls and seemingly out into space itself. There were now, however, no new waves following them. Each concentric waved moved away, carrying with them any sign of what had once been. How far will the changes reach? Ben wondered. How far out into the world will this change things?

 

As soon as the girl heard herself screaming she was quiet. She knelt in the precise spot where Tim had been only seconds ago, sitting back on her calves. She was still. Her hands still on the sides of her face, clutching it as if it had tried to fly off her head. Her chest rose and fell with the deep breaths of one who had only recently, recovered her ability to breathe normally. Kim stared at Ben with a look of thankfulness, smiled unknowingly, and sighed. She let her hands fall to her lap as she closed her eyes to enjoy the blissful feel of air as it was drawn into her lungs.

 

“Jesus...” Ben whispered. He remembered the Wizard’s words about hiding their identities, “So that’s what he meant.”

 

The girl opened her eyes groggily and asked, “What?” At the sound of her own voice she froze. Instinctively, she clapped both hands over her mouth with an audible smack. Her eyes once more practically exploded with surprise. She did not look around, her eyes remained trained on Ben’s who simply sat and smiled.

 

Slowly, she let her hands slip from her mouth and she managed to squeak out a questioning, “Ben?”. The sound of his name coming from her mouth was enough to start the domino’s falling in her mind. “Oh no!”

 

“Don’t panic Kim.” Ben said.

 

Panic however, seemed to be the only appropriate thing to do. She flashed Ben a surprised wild-eyed look at the sound of her name as it hit her ears. At the same time, Kim’s hands flew to the place where the mask should have been but she could not feel a thing and she began chanting, “No, no, no, no, no, no…” It wasn’t there or didn’t seem to be. There was nothing there for her to remove. Still, she dug at her jawbone trying to gain leverage over something she could not feel or see.

 

“I can’t find it! I can’t find where it starts! BEN!” she shrieked, “What’s wrong with my voice? What’s it done to me?” Kim pulled and tugged on her face, behind the jaw line and along her forehead. The results were the same everywhere she felt. There was no longer a mask on her face. “BEN? What did it do...” she happened to look down at the body below the head and gasped.

 

“Kim, relax... its not that bad.”

 

Ben watched as the hands of the girl in front of him grabbed the two mounds that had grown on her chest, “what are, what are…” the girl whispered. She mashed them flat as if by pushing them back in she might cure whatever had caused such grotesque protrusions. It didn’t work. When she removed her hands, her newly formed breasts simply popped back out, taking their natural form and size once more beneath her shirt. She was left without explanation to what had happened to her and dark, surrealism swallowed her reality. “Oh God,” she whispered desperate for this nightmare to end and end fast.

 

For Ben, it was an amazing thing to watch the dawning self recognition. She glanced up at Ben as her hands explored her hips. She wore a pained look in her eyes and on her mouth. It seemed she would begin to break down and cry any second. “Ben?” she asked, but there was nothing Ben could say to comfort her, so he said nothing. Her hands slipped between her legs and the switch was flipped. Her eyes flew open wide with the revelation her hand had found. She then looked back to Ben as she searched for a confirmation of some sort, an explanation for something that was no longer there, “BEN?”

 

“Kim, it’s just until tomorrow. Try to relax.” Ben said again.

 

The girl’s eyes glazed over and her face turned pale, her skin losing all color. She seemed to swoon and she wavered there on her knees, pitching a little to her port side then some to her starboard; like an abandon ship moored to a rotting, unstable dock. She whispered in utter disbelief, “I’m a girl...” Ben leaned forward, taking her by the shoulders and gently shook her. The girl blinked, once, twice and then clarity seemed to fill her face. She looked around, saw Ben sitting before her and again her face became animated and agitated. Her hands flew to her face and she cupped the sides of her head with them, “This fucking mask turned me into a girl!” Again she struggled to get the mask off her face without success at even loosening it. “Ooooooh no. I’m a girl.” Her hands began to tremble perceptibly with shock and fear.

 

Kim’s face bunched into a tight ball that was so pinched it resembled a wad of notebook paper. She pointed an angry accusatory finger at Ben and cried. “I told you that it looked like a girl’s face to me!”

 

“Hum, whatdoyaknow, you were right!” Ben said with a chuckle, the girl again began struggling to remove the mask again. Ben sat, watched and listened for a moment as the young girl before him fought to free herself from some unseen thing. “You know what that old man said. You can’t take it off yourself.”

 

She looked up at Ben with tears welling up behind her eyes. He was right... Ben could though, “Please Ben, help me. Please take it off. I don’t want to ¾”

 

“Why? You look cute!” Kimberly Glass sat back as if she’d been punched in the stomach, her mouth hung open in shock, her eyes wide with hatred.

 

“What do you mean why Ben? How could you even ask such a thing? You have to get this off me, NOW,” Kim bellowed.

 

“I have to take it off in time to take it back tomorrow,” Ben corrected, toying with her.

 

“This is exactly why girls don’t like you Ben Ackerman,” She leaned forward and struck at Ben’s shoulder with a clumsy, overhand fist. “You’re not going to leave me like this, not for one more minute!”

 

Then suddenly, the door to the girl’s rearranged bedroom opened unexpectedly, startling Kim. Reflexively she tried to hide herself, unaware how much the world around her had changed and unwilling to let her family see her like this. How could she possibly explain it? Ben caught her foot as she tried to crawl away and hide between her canopy bed and the wall. When she couldn’t pull away she turned angrily to Ben who was shaking his head, ‘no’ as the person at the door entered. It was Bobby. “Kim! It’s time for dinner. Mom wants you to set the ....” Robert paused, looking at Ben kneeling on the floor in front of his sister, “Hey, what’s Ben doing up here?”

 

Kim couldn’t answer; the shock of the last seven minutes had overloaded the thought centers of her mind. “I... I... he... I’m...” she could feel her face beginning to break apart in emotional stress. She felt like crying. She turned to Ben and asked, “Ben?”

 

“We came up here to ¾” Ben started. Just what was he doing up here with a girl, in a girl’s room. What would a guy be doing in a place like this except… Ben’s eye’s lit up, “We weren’t really doing anything except talking.”

 

“About what?” demanded Robert.

 

“Not much, school, homework the prom.” Ben smiled his usual toothy grin for his friend’s brother, but this time Robert didn’t return the gesture. Instead, Robert simply glared menacingly at Ben making Ben feel like something vile in Robert’s eye. Is that simply an impression, or does Robert really think I’m scum? Ben discovered that he KNEW that Robert felt he was scum. In fact, Ben could remember back into some sort of distorted sense of the past, at least one argument between Robert and his mother about why his mother allowed Kim to continue to be friends with such a dead-beat, geek, trouble making looser like Ben. Ben’s memory drifted back to an event he couldn’t remember attending but seemed to have happened just the same.

 

He could almost see the scene being played out in his head. In his mind, he could see himself, pressed against the exterior wall beneath the kitchen window in the back yard. He had been hooking up the hose for Kim to help her wash her brother’s car when he heard Robert talking angrily to his mother.

 

“…Mom, Ben is nothing but trouble. You know it, I know it, Hell the entire school knows it! He’s going to wind up just like his old man, and if we’re not careful, he’s going to drag Kimmy down with him, just like Mrs. Ackerman.”

 

“That’s enough Robert Lee Glass. First of all, I don’t tell you who you can have for friends. That Oswalter boy isn’t the most savory character in my judgment, but he’s your friend, I respect that. I’m not going to treat your sister with any less respect.”

 

“Mom, she’s a girl!” Robert cried, as if to imply his sister was handicapped by her gender.

 

‘So am I if you hadn’t noticed,’ Cindy Glass retorted with surprise, ‘Are you suggesting she deserves less respect than you since she’s a girl?’

 

In his mind, Ben could picture himself in the back yard, stooped beneath the window to what had once been Mr. Glass’s home office, and Cindy and Robert just on the other side of it.

 

“Er ah… no! That’s not what I ¾” Robert stammered, “ ¾ She’s vulnerable that’s all. She’s…” Robert had stammered trying to recover his point. “You’re the one that put all those restrictions on her, no boys in her bedroom, not out unescorted after 10:00 p.m. and not out at all after 11:30 p.m. She can’t go out with anyone you don’t know well. Come on, why put all those restrictions in place if you’re going to let her have a friend like that Ackerman Kid?” Robert cried.

 

“Those aren’t restrictions Robert, they’re safety precautions. Believe it or not, I was young like you once too,” Cindy had paused and smiled softly to her son though Ben hadn’t seen it, “It wasn’t all that long ago either. She’s still young Robert, and so are you, neither of you knows everything about the world. In one respect, you’re right, she’s vulnerable. But only because this is still a man’s world, she just hasn’t figured that out yet. I still have to let her make her own mistakes from time to time so she’ll learn what a woman’s limitations are because of the way the world is structured; and how best to break through those limitations. I can’t protect her forever Robert, neither can you. I don’t think she’d want that either. At some point, we’re going to have to give her ownership of all of her decisions, good or bad. If you hadn’t noticed, majority age in this country is just a couple of years off for her.”

 

“But Mom…”

 

“Robert, in the end, if she wants to see Ben as more than a friend, we can’t stop her. We just can’t. It’s her life. This runs just a little deeper than what your friends think of you because you’re sister might be developing feelings for Ben Ackerman.”

 

Now, looking at Robert, he could sense the malevolence behind his eyes, ‘Jeeze… the guy hates me now. What the fuck did I ever do to him?’ No answer came to him. All Ben knew was that more than just his friend Tim had changed. With his change it seemed, had come a host of other changes, not all of them clear and apparent to them.

 

From the door, Robert looked at his kid sister and she was nodding her head wildly trying to force a smile. Ben also somehow knew that Kim’s brother was embarrassed that some of the friends he had that were now seniors in the same high school saw Robert as a pansy for letting his sister associate at all with Ben. It wouldn’t have hurt Robert one bit if the earth opened up and Ben fell into the pit that formed there.

 

We have a history, Ben marveled. She already likes me. It’s like stepping into a pre-fabricated world.

 

The glee at the knowledge that Kim was his friend in spite of what everyone else believed was soon tempered by a quite inner voice, one Ben would soon grow to hate worse than he hated his own life. Yeah, that may be my boy, but you’re an even bigger asshole now than you ever were. Good form old man, bully and all that rot!

 

Kim had noticed the differences in their relationship as well. She could sort of... remember it! It was almost as if she had lived it in the past. That’s not all that had changed. Kim quickly surveyed her surroundings. Everything was different. Worse, it was familiar. She knew this room well. She knew where her things were, WHAT they were... Hell, she knew that she had a quarter of a box of tampons in her bathroom under the sink. Worse, she knew that in a couple of days, she was probably going to need them.

 

Why the fuck would I want to know that? she thought desperately.

 

The answer that came back was an unpleasant one... Because that’s the kind of thing you WANT to know since you’re going to start your period soon and you only have three left!

 

Kim began to tremble even harder. Holy shit, time out! Time out I said! The ride is too fast. I want off, I want to get off this fucking ride!

 

“Ben and I want to be alone for just a minute, please Bobby.” Kim asked. Since when do I call him Bobby? She wanted to call him Rob, but she had felt the name Bobby coming out of her mouth and tried to stem it but was helpless to do so. This was starting to get more than scary for her. The worst was perhaps the helpless and constant use of the name Kim. She understood that was the name of the girl whose body she was in, but wanted to rebel against that. She wanted to scream out MY NAME IS TIM, but she couldn’t even formulate that sentence in her head. The name Tim kept coming out as Kim, involuntarily.

 

Robert was shaking his head, “No can do. You know how Mom feels about boys upstairs.” Robert looked at Ben and gestured with one finger, “Come on Ben, down stairs. You want to talk to him Kim; you have to do it down stairs.” Ben stood and made his way to the door; he looked back at Kim and shrugged. Kim sat wide-eyed and in shock. She could easily see the combination dial on the safe door turning, locking the door with her still inside the safe. She could not get out Kim’s life without Ben. If he left before taking the mask off, she would have to remain a girl for… for… Oh GOD! Maybe forever!

 

“WAIT!” Kim pleaded. She practically sprung to her feet from a dead sitting position.

 

“What Kim?” Robert stood now between Ben and his sister.

 

“We’ll...ah... follow you down right now.” She would have to try to get Ben to remove the mask on the way down stairs while they followed her brother. With luck, he wouldn’t notice until the changes were complete. By then everything should have changed back to normal and there would be nothing to explain except perhaps where the white plastic mask he would have by then had come from.

 

She bounded to where Ben stood with her brother. Her center of gravity was different. Her chest felt heavy and the constant movement there when she walked was foreign to her. Coupled with the awful void she felt between her legs where there had only moments ago been a male organ, served only to frighten her and remind her of what she was now.

 

As luck would have it, Robert stood between them the entire way down the stairs. There would be no opportunity here for Ben to remove the mask from her face. As they walked, Ben smiled to himself. She was beautiful, the kind of girl that would never be interested in him. Best of all for Ben, he came to realize she was totally dependent on him if she wanted to ever see the other side of the gender tunnel again.

 

Kim pushed past her brother who had moved Ben out of her room, “Excuse me please,” she said sweetly as she eased her way around her brother and drew up next to Ben. She couldn’t afford to let Ben out of the house without removing the mask that had done this to her. Having gone around Robert however put Robert behind them. Instead of following him down the stairs so Ben could try to remove the mask from her face. They would lead the way down the stairs and be in full sight of Robert the whole way. Kim tried let to Robert pass, but he extended his hand indicating, ‘ladies first’ and Kim slumped slightly, reluctantly moving toward the stairs with a smirk of frustration on her face.

 

Near the bottom of the stairs, Robert said, “Tell Mom I’ll be right down Kimmy, I’m want to get my class catalog so I can go over some of my electives with her at dinner.” Before waiting for an answer, Robert turned and leapt back up the stairs two at a time and was gone.

 

Kim nodded, then turned quickly to Ben and hissed, “Okay Ben, get this off me, quick!” She put her palms and fingers on the sides of her face and began pulling.

 

When she didn’t feel Ben’s fingers on the sides of her head, she looked up, “What are you waiting for Ben? We don’t have much time, get it off me.”

 

Ben began to reach for her face and then dropped his hands for a second, “Let’s think about this for a moment. This doesn’t seem to be a problem, they don’t know what’s happened, it’s like you had been born a girl.”

 

“This isn’t funny Ben. I’m canceling the test. We’re alone! Take it off,” Kim demanded and added, with teeth clinched and an almost cute, feminine growl, “Right now!”

 

“But this is so cool. I mean, they think that you’re really Kim!”

 

Kim went slack jawed in shock when she realized that Ben wasn’t going to remove the mask, “I really am Kim,” she growled, “look at me!” Her mind seemed to work at the issue for a moment, her face clouded with suspicion and she asked, “Ben, what are you doing?”

 

“Nothing, I don’t know what you mean,” Ben lied, “The guy was nice enough to let us test drive the damned thing. And I mean, God damn it really works. I just think we owe it to ourselves to find out what this thing is all about, that’s all.” Ben tried to bluff that his intentions were honorable, but a deep red blush that crept into his features betrayed Ben.

 

“You’re stalling―”

 

“No I’m not,” Ben said in a cheesy sort of voice.

 

“Now you’re lying to me. You’re stalling until someone comes along and then you won’t have to worry about getting this off me. You’re a real shit Ben.”

 

“Kim, really―”

 

Kim pressed her lips together in stubborn determination, “You think this is so cool, fine, you want to find out what it’s all about, you put it on. You can take all the crap in my room with you when you go, including my tampons! Now take this off me.”

 

Ben just stood there. He made no move to rescue his friend from her fate.

 

Slowly, Kim’s features began to sink. Her eyes filled with a sort of sadness that only comes with betrayal. Kim put her hand back on her face and began wrestling to get the mask off, “You’re trying to trap me because you’re hoping that this will turn into something that will never be. I’m not your girlfriend Ben. I’m a bo…” Kim struggled to get the words past her teeth, “I’m a gu… I’m a…” Frustrated she finally spat, “Get it off me Ben, Now,” her arms fully extended past her hips, rigid, fists in tight balls at the ends, in a girlish gesture of Do what I tell you to do right now or I swear…

 

With visible reluctance, Ben again reached for Kim’s face.

 

The second Ben’s fingers touched her face; the edges of the mask rose in stark contrast to her skin. Her face began to turn white and the mask rose from the skin of Kim’s face. He could feel the slick and now warmed, smooth surface of the hard plastic, or acrylic or whatever it was made of, beneath his finger tips. He could see the eyes of a startled teenager, a teen that from the neck down was still female, he could hear her breathing rhythmically, but heavily through the nostrils provided in the mask.

 

‘God damn this shit if freaky…’ Ben thought to himself.

 

“Do it Ben!” growled Kim furiously in a voice that was starting to become distant as the effects of the mask’s hardening began to move forward to Kim’s face.

 

All he had to do’ was wedge his fingers beneath the edges of the mask and pull. Before he could get a purchase to remove the mask the edges vanished beneath his fingers. The mask settled back into her skin on its own, without warning, reseeded back becoming once more the sweet face of a beautiful teen age girl, a girl whose face and body promised that one day she would grow into a stunningly beautiful adult woman.

 

Kim clutched at her face and jaw trying to pry the thing up and off her face where Ben had failed. Her eyes burned at Ben with hate. Just as she was about to speak, they were startled by a voice from the landing below.

 

Kim suddenly stopped her exaggerated struggles with a jolt, but her hands remained on the sides of her face along the jaw line. She turned like that to face the direction of where the voice had come from. Cindy Glass stood at the bottom of the stairs. “What are you two doing? Come down here and set the table like you’re supposed to.”

 

Kim groaned, she had felt the mask recede back into her flesh with the presence of her mother. Further, she knew with horrible certainty that she was not going to be left unattended with Ben. She slowly turned and faced her mother. Her mother looked exactly the same as she had when Tim had left that morning. She was still dressed in the same clothes she had worn when Tim had last seen her before leaving for school. It seemed the only thing that had changed was Tim’s entire life. Kim gave a weak wave from the hip to Cindy, “Hi... Mom.”

 

“Don’t ‘hi Mom’ me Missy. I asked your brother to―”

 

“Yeah he did.” Kim said hastily cutting her mother off. The surrealism of the moment was strong enough to make Kim want to swoon. She held fast however and did her best to buy Ben and herself more time to fix what had come unhinged in the universe. “I was just coming down.” Kim however could not keep the agitation she felt at Ben from her voice, this raised more than just her mother’s eyebrows. Kim knew it was not a good omen when she realized what her mother must be thinking.

 

Cindy however did not give them the time they wanted, instead, hands on hips she asked, “Well?” and Kim knew her window of opportunity was gone. This is how it feels to know the jaws of the trap are closing and you’re not fast enough to beat them out, she thought. Kim turned and glared with a ‘Gee, thanks for nothin!,’ look at Ben for a moment before heading down one stair to the landing, but not before striking him in the shoulder with a balled up fist just out of eyesight of her mother.

 

“Hello Ben.” Cindy Glass said in a slightly cynical voice.

 

“Hi Mrs. Glass.” Ben countered with unexplainable shame. He made his way down the last riser behind Kim. His eyes followed the lines and shape of Kim’s ass as she jiggled her way into the kitchen.

 

The sound of flatware being pulled from a drawer floated into the hall as Ben descended the stairs. “You two were up in Kimberly’s room?” Mrs. Glass asked.

 

“Um.... We were just talking.” Ben replied. Stashed in his head was the memory of an ancient conversation that had never really happened. It boiled down to no boy’s in Kim’s bedroom.

 

“I know Ben. And it’s not that I don’t trust you (although in reality she didn’t), but if you go up and some of Kimberly’s other male friends find out, then they might try to convince Kim it’s Okay for them to be up there too.”

 

Kim came out of the kitchen with, her hands laden with flatware. She glared at Ben again, apparently still upset about not being able to take off the mask that was holding her in her current body. “We’ve been up there a lot of times Mom. I don’t know what you’re so worried about.”

 

Cindy gave a surprised look at the idea that these two had been up in Kimberly’s room “a lot”; turned to give Kim a questioning look as she passed back into the kitchen for some something-or-other she needed to finish setting the table, and then turned back to Ben even though she was addressing Kim’s question, “I worry about lots of things Kim. It’s a rule I put in place to keep you safe. And since it’s my rule, and this is my house then all the boys that come over are going to obey it. I just don’t want you out of sight or alone in the house with boys for a while. That’s final. From now on I want you to be in plain sight when boys are concerned. That includes Ben.”

 

“We were just up there talking about the prom. Besides, I’m sixteen…” Kim was about to add to her argument when Cindy broke it up.

 

“Kim, I’m not trying to make your life a living Hell. I know that Brenda Tomlinson has much tighter restrictions than you have,”

 

“Brenda has also slept with every boy in school. She needs a chastity belt not restrictions.” Kim snapped back and returned to the dining room wide eyed and in shock. ‘Did that come out of my mouth?’

 

“That’s enough Kim…”

 

“Yes Ma’am.” Kim said humbly.

 

“The point is,” Cindy continued, “I let you pick pretty much whatever it is you want to wear, you pick your own music; I don’t interfere with who you choose as friends. These may all seem like rights to you but I could just as easily ban Rap music from the house and a quarter of your music collection would simply have to vanish. I like Hip Hop? Kim wondered. In return, I get to make sure you’re not put in a compromising or pressure filled situation where something might happen.”

 

Kim understood what her counterpart’s response would have been at that moment, Like getting pregnant? And she caught it just before it slipped out, Pregnant? Me Pregnant, Oh my God, let me out of this fucking nightmare, PLEASE!

 

“I’m sorry Mom. Is that what you want to hear me say? I’m sorry, it really was about the prom,” and then muttered under her breath, “in some strange twisted sort of way I guess.”

 

Cindy stood, arms folded under her breasts, “Hummmm, well I guess there’s no harm done really. Did you decide on who was going to take you?”

 

Kim froze; this was a situation she hadn’t expected from her mother. The implication of her mother’s statement was that she had not only had an offer from a boy to take her, but had received several offers. Kim was panic stricken, This is real, I’m in my house, with my family and they believe I’m a girl!

 

“Well, Ben asked me. I might just go with Ben.” Kim searched her mind for a moment, Kirk Oswalter had asked her to go with him, demanded that she go with him really. Kim could feel her respiration become shallow and something she called the creep factor rise. She discovered that most of her intrinsic memory was recent, short term memory she had never actually been party to. Oh my God, I’m remembering things I wasn’t here for… Kim felt there had been other offers to the prom as well, but she had committed to no one yet, Thank God. Not that any of this mattered, Kim intended for this to end tonight, now if at all possible. That would negate her having to accept any invitation to anything in this strange parody of her life. If her mother felt that she and Ben were an item, then some private time with Ben to say good night would be enough to stop this right now, before things got out of control.

 

Cindy tried to hide the reaction to this piece of news, but Kim saw her cringe slightly at the announcement. That served to do nothing but make her mad. What could her mother be thinking? This was Ben, she and Ben had been friends for years.

 

That was back when you were someone else, not her little girl and certainly not a potential date for your childhood chum. Everything has changed now.

 

“So Ben asked you to go to the prom?” Cindy asked, not looking at her daughter, but rather at Ben, as she probed for the truth.

 

“Well, not really.” Kim admitted. She went that extra mile by smiling what felt like to be a sweet and tender smile of desire and batted her eyelashes (perhaps a bit too much,) at Ben to get the message through loud and clear.

 

This train was moving far too fast for Kim. In reality, it was life at normal speed, but it was someone else’s life and the car she was on was moving too fast for her to just jump off and back in to her life as Tim. The idea she had been asked by other boys to the prom was much too shocking for her to even acknowledge, except for the idea that she had to somehow make all those other inquiries go away.

 

Ben didn’t waste a second at Kim’s prompt, “You want to go to the prom with me?” It wasn’t a proposal. It was more of a stunned question spawned by disbelief.

 

“Sure, I’ll go to the prom with you.” She said sounding every bit the happy high school teenage girl she knew her mother would expect to hear.

 

Without warning, however, there was a sudden pain that struck her around the perimeter of her face along the out line of where the mask would have sat. It started as a dull ache and rapidly turned to a blinding white pain that blocked out her vision. In an instant, all she could see was static snow, like that you might see on a television with no reception. Kim dropped the forks and knives on the floor and brought her hands to her temples.

 

Alarmed, Cindy dashed the three steps to her daughter, “Kim?” Her mother asked as she tried to cradle her, “Are you all right?”

 

“Mmmmmm,” she groaned with her hands set flush to the sides of her face. Already however, the pain was fading back into a dull ache and her vision was clearing. “I think so.”

 

“What happened Kim?” Cindy asked, the concern in her voice was now very plain. Gone was any agitation that may have been left by tonight’s incident with Ben.

 

“Just a head ache Mom. One of those sinus splitters, you know?”

 

“I’m going to call the doctor,” Cindy said, beneath them both, Ben had kneeled and was trying to gather the flatware off the floor, scooping it into a small pile.

 

“No Mom, I’m fine, it’s gone, really.”

 

“I don’t know Kim.”

 

“Please,” Kim begged. If she let her mother rush her out of the house to the emergency room, any chance of getting back to what Kim was beginning to identify as her “real life” would be gone tonight.

 

Cindy looked intently into her daughter’s eyes. They were not blood shot, the pupils seemed to react appropriately with the light when she turned Kim’s head to the ceiling. Cindy was perplexed.

 

“See. I’m fine,” Kim insisted.

 

Ben, who hadn’t keyed in on what was happening to Kim handed the bundled knives and forks up to Mrs. Glass.

 

“Hum? Oh, thank you Ben,” Cindy said. She gathered the flatware together from his hands and she took it to the kitchen and began loading it in the dishwasher. Perhaps this was a sign that Cindy was relaxing a little bit. Kim thought she knew better than to believe that however. She turned to Ben quickly, her hands on the sides of her head, preparing for another burst of pain begged, “Ben, take it off now. Something’s wrong.”

 

Worried now, Ben agreed without hesitation, “Okay,” This time something was different. When he began to feel for the seam, he could not find it. “Kim...” he said searching. “Something’s wrong...”

 

“I just told you that…” Then she realized that they were probably talking about two different situations and she asked, “What do you mean?” Kim was counting the seconds they could expect to be alone.

 

“When I touched it before, on the stairs, I could feel where the mask began. It just sort of lifted up under my touch. I could feel the edges of it. I can’t feel it now, the edges are gone.” In his secret heart, he was deeply relieved that he had not had to resolve to trickery to keep Kim where she was.

 

“Just pull,” Kim ordered. Ben pulled and she could feel a sort of separation start, only now, it was her jaw that was separating from her skull at the hinge. There was no sensation as there had been before on the stairs. Then, she had felt her mouth sealing into a solid thing she could not open. She had felt the skin on her face go rigid and her jaw lock in place like it were some artificial thing. Now she knew what she felt was bone and tendon being pried apart. She could sense Ben’s fingers digging into the flesh covered cavity beneath her jaw. When Ben pulled, Kim was jerked forward by the force of it, but nothing happened. “Pull harder!” Kim hissed in spite of the pain that Ben was causing. For Kim, there was no amount of pain she would not endure to free herself of this identity.

 

After several seconds of having her head jerked about, Ben let go and both Kim and Ben grunted with the release of effort. Ben’s demeanor changed. It was reflected in his next statement. For Kim, it conjured more dread in her heart than facing the specter of death could have at that moment. “Kim, it’s stuck for some reason.”

 

Her reaction was intense and immediate, “NO! You’re lying.” Kim snapped under her breath. Kim’s mind couldn’t accept the concept that this wasn’t going to end instantly, she couldn’t allow her self to believe that Ben was telling the truth, she was petrified of the implication and wasn’t about to accept It’s stuck, as an answer. It’s stuck, didn’t come with a time limit, or a money back guarantee. It’s stuck, often meant that it’s stuck FOREVER.

 

Ben’s tone was truly remorseful, “I’m sorry. I can’t get it off. I don’t know what to do, I can’t find the edges. You’re going to have to stay in it until we can get back to the mall and talk with the old man.”

 

“No Ben, don’t you even think that. I can’t stay like this all night.”

 

“You’re going to have to. I can’t get it off of you.” Ben insisted.

 

“You’re lying. You want me to be like this. You’re trying to keep me like this. Aren’t you?” Kim finished with her signature gesture, the accusatory finger in the face. She finished with a flourish this time by punching him in the chest with a girlish effort.

 

“Ouch! Stop hitting me!” Ben ordered.

 

“Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do! I want this off!” Kim cupped her face to illustrate she meant the mask. “I don’t want to stay like this another minute. Take it off!” she hissed.

 

“I tried Kim, honest! I wouldn’t....”

 

The sound of utensils being put away stopped and Kim quickly dropped her hands from her face, as Cindy suddenly appeared with a fresh supply of forks and knives in her hand. Cindy stopped short, “You still Okay?” she asked Kim.

 

Sensing that her mother was eyeing her with hawk-like intensity, Kim did her best to put on the happy face she had forced herself to wear only seconds before the pain had blinded her. “Nonsense, I’m as right as the mail,” Kim said quoting a line from one of Tim’s favorite movies.

 

“Ugh, I hate that movie.” Cindy said. “Yeah, you’re fine. Here, put these on the table, then get the plates and glasses set,” Cindy turned to Ben, “I’d ask you to stay for dinner we really didn’t plan for that. I hope you’ll forgive us Ben. Tonight just isn’t a good night.”

 

“Uh, Okay, sure!” Ben answer, even Ben understood he was being given the bums rush.

 

Kim was still standing in the hall between the kitchen and the dining room, mouth agape at the realization that her chance to return to being Tim was slipping away. She had understood everything the Wizard or whatever he was had said, but things had changed. Her mind for one, she didn’t want to be a girl, not for 24 hours, not even for another 24 seconds for that matter. What she wanted had to count for something, didn’t she deserve a vote?

 

“Mom...” Kim started, trying to stall the inevitable, but what was there to say, what argument could she use? She couldn’t tell anyone what had happened. It wasn’t for lack of trying. She would gladly have spilled the entire story if she had been able to, but then proving it would have been hopeless. Her mother and brother saw her as if she’d been born Kimberly. If she couldn’t make a convincing case with evidence on her side, then the only thing that was likely to happen was a nice long vacation trapped in this body in the palatial suites of Chattanooga General Psychiatric Ward.

“Set the table Kim. That’s your job.”

 

Kim opened her mouth to say something else. She looked back and forth from Ben to her mother but when no words came, she turned toward the dining room and huffed off utensils in hand. As Kim saw things, she had no choice; she had to try to play this part the way those around her expected her to play it out or her access to her real life might not be as conveniently available as it might otherwise be.

 

Cindy placed her small hand in the center of Ben’s back and began guiding him to the door, “Ben, I’m afraid it’s time to go home. You’ll see Kim tomorrow at school.”

 

“Yes Ma’am.”

 

“Kim, say goodnight to Ben, he’s going home.” Cindy called out.

 

Once more came the sound of clattering flatware. This time it sounded as if it were being spilled out on a wooden surface. “Wait!” Kim called out.

 

“No, it’s time for Ben to go home Kim. I’m sure his parents are wondering where he is.” Neither Ben nor Kim felt the statement was unusually out of context or odd for any reason. But it was, and Ben would find out soon enough how badly askew their world had become.

 

Kim came rushing out of the dining room. “Can I just go out on the porch and―”

 

“No Kim,” her mother admonished. “Set the table.”

 

“But―”

 

“Kim.” Cindy said sternly her hand on her hips, back to Ben who stood behind her.

 

“Moooommmm?” begged Kim with obvious frustration.

 

Cindy glared balefully at her disobedient daughter as she turned to show Ben out repeating what she’d said to him only moments before, “Ben, Kim will see you tomorrow at school, goodnight.” Cindy ushered him out the door and closed it before Ben could say so much as ‘goodnight’ in return.

 

Robert appeared behind them from the landing to Kim’s right, as he usually did when there was someone at the door, in support of his mother. This tactic annoyed Cindy at times. Now however, even though Ben did not intimidate her, she was grateful for the support, even if it was silent support.

 

Kim stood there staring at the closing door. How very appropriate, Kim thought. A closed door with Ben on the other side. I bet if I open that door now, Ben would be almost to his car. In a couple of seconds he’ll be pulling away. I’m a girl now. Oh God help me, I’m a girl and I can’t get out of it

 

The door latched closed. The bolt caught and slammed home. To Kim, it sounded every bit the theatrical echoing bolt of a prison door slamming closed in the movies. Cindy turned, happy that the incident was over and asked happily, “Okay, whose hungry?”