Dreams, Secrets, and Transformations: Beyond the Enchanted Looking Glass

it's time ch5

"For your fifth birthday, mom and dad took us to that drive-through animal safari at Pine Mountain. Remember? The entire drive over you talked about how you were gonna be brave and couldn't wait to hand feed the animals. Dad got our tickets at the gift shop and bought a bag of animal feed for each of us. When he returned to the car and drove across the cattle gate we lowered all of the windows and um, several goats, a camel, and a couple head of cattle approached to beg for food. Oh and that wild emu with the two crazy looking different colored eyes. We hadn't been in the safari for even a whole minute before the camel stuck its head inside and ripped your bag of feed from your hand. You immediatly began to cry. You were bawling and do you remember what I did?  I gave you my bag."

Roger paused, looking for a reaction from his sister. He knew this story would have to prove to her he was Roger. No one else would know that story and its details.

"Huh?!? Oh. My. Gawd....."

Her voice trailed off as she began to realize only Roger would know that story. She stared at the pretty girl sitting on the edge of Roger's bed and began to see a slight resemblance between this girl and her brother. She saw the same scar on this girl that Roger had over his right eye and recognized the same crooked smile, although this girl's lips were smaller, yet fuller.

Roger, in the body of this beautiful girl, could see the confusion and fear in his sister's eyes. He stood up and took a step forward, wanting to comfort her. "It's okay, Dana. I-I'm still me... inside. I just... It's just, I  uh, I think, I uh, guess I'm supposed to be a girl." He reached out and gently touched her shoulder, offering her a reassuring smile.

His sister, still unable to fully comprehend the situation, pulled away. She felt a lump forming in her throat as she struggled to find the words to say. "But... but why? H-how... how did this happen?" she inquired, her voice trembling. "Ho-how did you ... I mean, you're, you're...a girl. Well, you look like a girl. You sound like a girl. You have boobs?"

Her eyes trailed downward from Roger's chest to his crotch and then immediately she diverted her gaze away. She didn't say anything but Roger was pretty sure he knew what she was thinking.

Roger hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should reveal the truth about the mirror and its magic. He took a deep breath and decided to be honest with his sister.

He exhaled and began, "It was an old mirror in the attic, a magic mirror. It let me see what it would be like to be a girl, to know how it felt to be desired and loved... and it made me realize that this is who I am. I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth. When I looked into the mirror, I became the girl I had created in my mind. Here, it's all in this book."

He took his seat back on the edge of the bed and held up the book. "It says the mirror reveals your deepest desires."

"I'm supposed to believe a magic mirror turned my brother into a girl, you, and this is what you've always wanted?"

Roger held the book out towards his sister.

"I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it's true. The mirror let me see myself as a girl, and transformed me into one. I don't know. I can't explain it any better than that. Please, just try to understand. I'm still the same soul. Inside I'm the same person you've always known, even if I'm in a girl's body now."

Roger's sister took the book from him, her hands shaking. She sat down beside him on the bed, still unable to process everything. She noticed, for the first time, the translucent, glossy pearlescent sheen of his painted fingernails and the slight hint of a fruty/floral scent radiating from his shoulder length hair.

"But why would you want this? Why would you want to be a girl?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Well," Roger began, before pausing. He was trying to gather the courage to admit out loud, his deepest secret.