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

The Meadow - ch 6

Hailey looked up from where she's been examining a particularly interesting flower and saw Lily approaching her. She noded, feeling a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. "Yes, I think I've found what I'm meant to do. I want to return to Denzel's family. I love my family and don't want to go on without them, and I want to become a compassionate, hardworking labor and delivery nurse eventually helping to deliver babies in a makeshift hospital on the savanna in the sweltering heat of the motherland of central Africa."

"That can be arranged," Lily explained, "however, there are stipulations for returning to your previous life, as a girl. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I like you and want to see you experience all life has in store for such a sweet girl as you.  If you allowed me to place you, you'd find yourself in a family where you assume the life of a girl that they have always known as a girl and you will assume that girls entire life's worth of momories, knowledge, and experiences. That family will be exactly what you need and have the means and support structure to allow you to easily achieve your goals and will allow you to comfortably live the exact life you've chosen."

"Okay and if I go back to my family?"

"You'll find you are the same person you were before you fell through the mirror, only you'll be female. You'll have all the same memories and experiences from your male life before and this will cause you to struggle to navigate your new life as a girl, without the advantage of having the knowledge and experiences of the first fifteen years of life as a girl. Your family and friends, will know you as a boy. A boy who has just found out he is really a girl, born with XX chromosomes, and a medical condition, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, that caused her to be born with an enlarged clitoris, (a "pseudo-penis") and fused labia. This led them to belive they had a boy and raised you as such until now, when a doctor discovered your true gender. You will have to go through corrective surgeries and have to transition to living as a girl, and go through the difficult time of your friends and particularly your family struggling to understand and accept your misgendering at birth due to a medical condition. The desire you had as a boy to experience life as a girl will translate into you being even more in tune with your gender. You'll become more in touch with your femininity than most girls, even as you struggle to adapt to daily life. This will lead to much more passionate relationships with others and make you a much more compassionate, deeply emotional, and sexually passionate woman, once you figure it all out."

"But, I'm willing to go through all of that to stay with my family," Bailey stated, interrupting Lily. "It doesn't change my mind. I'm ready."

"Hold on. Just wait, there's more. You won't have the same support structure you otherwise would have had. By choosing to go back to your diesel mechanic father and stay-at-home, part time work from home mother, parents who live paycheck to paycheck,  you will still end up reaching your goal, but getting there will be harder, much, much harder and with financial hardships and a lot of heartache along the way. If you would have chosen to allow me to place you, your new father would have been a world renown pediatric surgeon and your mom a highly respected labor and delivery nurse, so you can see the environment you would have grown up in along with having parents who constantly work to instill in you a love for learning as well as having the means to send you to the best schools. Life would be much more comfortable and you would have gotten to enjoy the finer things in life, as you became a young woman."

Hailey remained quiet, pondering what she just learned.

"So, what's your choice?"

Hailey took a deep breath, thinking about the two options. On one hand, she could return to her family as she knew them, with all the struggles and uncertainties that came with it. On the other hand, she could start anew in a supportive, loving, financially secure family that would help her achieve her dreams and provide her with the stability she needed to thrive, all without having to go through the medical struggles.

She thought about her parents and how much they had sacrificed up to this point, for her, as Denzel. She thought about her love for them and the bond that held them together. But she also couldn't deny the pull she felt towards the life that Lily described, where she could easily pursue her passion and make a difference in the world.

With a heavy heart, but a determination in her eyes, Bailey said, "I choose to go back to my own family, as a girl. I want to be with them and I want to make them proud, but I also want to make a difference in the world. I think I can do that best by not abandoning them."

"Very well," Lily replied with a nod. "I will prepare the necessary changes. However," she paused for a moment to take in the emotions she felt from seeing Hailey's unconditional love for her family,

Hailey saw something strange happen in Lily's eyes before she began to speak agaim. It was a brief shimmer of light that flickered from insid each of Lily'seyes, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. It was so odd, Hailey wasn't even sure if it had actually happened or not.

"You must really be special Hailey. This never happens, but I've just been informed to make an exception to the rules. Because of the unconditional, pure love you have shown for your family, and your desire to go back to them without a second thought for the difficulties you've been told you'll face, I have been granted permission to modify the conditions of your return. Tomorrow morning you will wake up back in your own bed, as a girl, with all of Denzel's life memories intact, along with a retention of everything you learned through your experiences here. You will not, however, have any memory of actually visiting this place. This place will be a figment of your imagination in your mind. You'll be living with your same family, and they will not remember you as ever having been a boy. To them you were born a happy, healthy girl. They will not understand why their daughter has suddenly become so awkward and doesn't remember how to do basic feminine tasks such as putting on makeup, walking in heels, or using tampons, other than beliving it to be the result of the concussion you suffered when you lost your balance while trying on some of your mothers old clothes in your grandmother's garage, and busted an antique mirror when your hit head against it in the fall."

As Lily walked away, Hailey felt a mix of emotions. She was both excited and terrified about the prospect of living as a girl and adjusting to her new life. But deep down, she knew that this was what she wanted, what she needed. She wanted to be with her family and make them proud, and she wanted to make a difference in the world.

"Wait," she called out to Lily.

Lily turned around. "It's already done."

"But you haven't even heard what I was going to ask."

"No need, it concerns your physical appearance as a girl. Every girl who leaves here wants to be beautiful. You're no different. So like I said, it's already done. You see, every girl, when they leave here, automatically receives the deepest desires of her heart concerning what her new physical appearance will be, down to the smallest detail. Although, I have to tell you, going back to your birth family, I will get your appearance as close to your dream as possible, but I can not alter your features and skin color so as to alter your ethnicity. Your father is a dark African man and your mother a white passing, half-black woman. Your skin tone will fall somewhere in between those two. Otherwise I will get you as close to looking like your dream, the beautiful Ms. Dua Lipa, as I can. Trust me, you'll be beautiful."

Hailey smiles at the thought, feeling a surge of confidence and hope. As she prepares to rejoin the world of the living, she reflects on her time in the meadow. She has grown as a person, discovered her passions, and found her purpose. She has made friends and learned valuable lessons that will stay with her for the rest of her life.  She knows that she has made the right choice, and that her new life will be full of possibilities.

As she drifts off to sleep, she imagines her first day at school as a girl, making friends, and pursuing her dreams of helping deliver at risk babies into the world and taking care of tiny newborns daily. Her family will be proud of her, and she will make them proud, too.

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The End

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