Sisters

Mary had been worried about her friend for some time now. They had met some months ago an anime convention. They both shared their love of series like Ranma 1/2 and Battle Athletes and their initial conversation had turned into what was looking like a lasting friendship.

Lasting, that is, if Robert survived. Mary had learned a lot about Robert but not everything. She knew enough to be worried that he might take his own life. Robert was over fifty a tall, rather unattractive man, a little overweight and suffering from the deepest depression Mary had seen in anyone. He was divorced, his first wife having thrown him out once she found out about his secret.

Robert was one of those men who believed that he had been born the wrong sex. His belief that he really should have been born female was something that Mary knew was very, very deep in him. His sadness that he had not been born a girl had only deepened as the years went on until it had finally reached the point where he was seriously considering ending it all.

Mary understood the feelings well herself, having been born a male also, but she had fully transitioned, having had the surgery to become a female.

She learned that Robert had led a rather lonely life. He had grown up without any brothers or sisters and, for some reason that he never could exactly figure out, never had any friends through his early schooling. Even at college he had few friends. After he had graduated he had married; his marriage had gone badly wrong resulting in an attempt to kill himself by taking every prescription drug there was in the house.

She knew that Robert was very loving person, yet despite of his caring and loving he seemed to be consumed by an intense self-hatred whose intensity frightened her at times. She could never convince him that he was anything but some kind of horrid creature that deserved to be punished by being in the wrong sex.

Mary had her own share of difficulties. As a young boy named Mark she soon realized that she was really a girl. She played with girls and tried to wear girl's clothes whenever she could. Mary was very close to her older sister and shared her feelings with her. Her sister had even given Mary the clothes she had worn when Mary's age.

Her parents, on the other hand, were shocked when they found out about Mark's "secret life" as they called it. Her father had always tried to raise a macho son. He had taken the small stash of girl's clothes she had been given and threw them away; yelling and screaming at his "son" to start acting like a man.

Even after she was living on her own, a successful businesswoman, they had tried to get her to act "normal". The last straw proved to be when she told them that she was going to have the surgery necessary to change her from a male into a female.

Her mother broke down into tears. Her father took one look at her and she backed away from the hatred in his eyes. "I have no child", he said coldly, turning his back on her. Mary (at the time still Mark) turned and walked back to her car, tears flowing freely down her face.

Her friendship with Robert had deepened quickly. Mary had seen the way his eyes seemed to light up whenever he talked about having bought this or that piece of female clothing and wearing it, something which she knew she had also done when she was in her male form.

She had also watched him at times look at something, perhaps a scene from an anime show, or sometimes just look off into the distance and appear to start to cry but then shut down like some kind of massive steel door suddenly descended to block his emotions.

It was a Saturday and Mary had asked Robert to go to the mall with her shopping. She had even offered to help him in buying women's shoes by getting them herself since he was still uncomfortable actually shopping in a woman's store. The city where they lived was full of people who disliked anyone "unusual" and the wrong word by a salesperson could get someone arrested.

So they walked through the mall, doing window shopping at some stores, going into others. Once they entered a pet store and Mary watched as Robert picked up a rabbit from a large open bin where several of them had been placed. Almost as soon as he picked the rabbit up she was able to see the Robert calm noticeably. She watched as he gently stroked its fur then held it so he could give it a quick kiss on its nose and then put it back into the bin.

About a half-hour later they had turned down a side corridor of the mall when Mary spotted a somewhat strange-looking storefront. 'Spells R Us' was the title posted above the store entrance.

"Look's interesting," she said, taking Robert's hand and leading him into the store. Once through the door it seemed like they had entered some kind of wonderland. Almost every inch of the store was crammed with items that looked like crystal balls or wands or other magical materials. Mary and Robert walked through the store, picking up items, looking and them and then returning them to their shelves.

Just then they heard a sound behind the counter. They turned and saw a man wearing what appeared to be some kind of wizard's outfit. He had a long, white beard and a nice, friendly smile. His eyes seemed to look through their very souls as he looked at each one of them in turn.

"I see that you're finally found my store," he said.

"Finally?" Mary replied. Before she could say anything else, though, she saw that Robert had moved to another part of the store. He was looking at a display of knives, some with intricately carved handles. What scared her was the look on his face. She could almost see his mind thinking about buying one of those knives and later using it on himself.

She walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder. He turned at looked at her, his eyes brimming with unspilled tears. Suddenly he turned sharply away from her and walked several steps away. He stood with his back towards her and she watched as he lowered his arms to his sides and then clenched his fists tightly, so tightly that his nails began to dig into the skin of his hands, blood beginning to flow where the nails had cut through the skin.

"He can't let go, can he," the wizard said to her. She turned and looked at him for a second and then turned back to watch Robert.

"He has all that emotion bottled up inside. All the pain, the goodness, the sadness, all bottled up." The wizard seemed to sigh and then suddenly he face broke into a smile.

"I think I have the exact thing the two of you need," he said, reaching under the counter and bringing out a small box.

"The two of us?" Mary replied.

"Yes, the two of you," he answered.

"Why both of us?" she questioned.

"He wants to be a girl, actually a very young girl so he can grow up and experience everything as a female. You were born male but had yourself surgically altered yet you also would like to be a young girl, just like him."

Before Mary could make any reply Robert walked back to her, no tears showing on his face but his body still noticeably trembling.

The wizard turned towards Robert. "What do you wish most in life?" he asked.

Robert hesitated. Mary knew that he had major problems trusting anyone. Anyone at all, even including himself.

Barely containing his tears he answered. "Anything at all? It'd be complicated," he began. "I want to be a young girl and grow up as a woman. I'd want to do this but at the same time have no financial or other harm come to my wife or my parents."

He shook his head. "It's just dreaming, though. Right; like there's real magic and I'd be allowed to have my wish granted," he said, his voice becoming softer and full of even greater sadness then before.

Robert looked up. "I'm suddenly rather thirsty. Is there some water I could have, please?"

"Just a moment," the wizard answered. "I'll get you something to drink."

He ducked through a door and then, a couple of minutes later, emerged carrying a glass full of something that looked like tea. Robert noticed that the glass contained two straws.

"Here, this should help you," the wizard said.

"But there's one of me and two straws," Robert said, a puzzled look on his face.

"Maybe your friend here is also thirsty," the wizard replied, gently pushing the glass forward until it was directly between the two shoppers.

Mary looked at Robert. "Why not? I am thirsty, now that you mention it."

She picked up the glass and put her lips to one of the straws. Robert hesitated then He also began to use one of the straws. The two friends soon finished off the drink.

"Thank you for the drink," Mary said. The two continued to look at items in the store and before long both had purchased something that appealed to them. Mary had bought a beautiful, expensive-looking necklace while Robert had bought one of those snow globes with a unicorn inside. The wizard also handed Mary a slip of paper. "Don't open this yet. You will know when the time is right." Mary took the paper and put it into her purse

They paid the wizard and left, continuing to do shopping at other stores for a while.

Mary started to yawn. "All of a sudden I'm starting to feel really tired," she said.

"We have been shopping for hours," Robert noted. "But I've enjoyed every minute of it," he added, a very rare smile appearing on his face for a few fleeting moments.

"Let's go to my house first," Mary said. "I want to drop these off," she added, indicating the various bags full of things she had bought on their trip. So a little later both of them were at Mary's house. Robert followed her as she entered her bedroom and watched as she put her packages near the closet.

Suddenly Mary yawned again. She moved to her bed and sat down, Robert joining her a few moments later, also yawning.

"Normally I don't get so tired shopping," Mary said. "I think I need to rest for a few minutes." Robert started to get up and then fell back on to the bed.

"Oops." he said. "Shouldn't stand up so quickly; one of the medicines I take causes me to get dizzy when I get up suddenly."

By now, though, Mary was now laying on her bed, apparently asleep.

Robert smiled at her and then tried to get up again, this time with even less success. He shook his head to try and clear the cobwebs but a few minutes later he was also laying on her bed, eyes closed, asleep.

"Time to get up you two sleepy-heads," a voice said. Mary and Robert opened their eyes almost at the same time in response to the voice. They looked up and saw a woman, around her mid-thirties, looking at them and smiling.

"You two have a good nap?" she asked.

Mary and Robert looked at each other and then the realization set in.

They had changed. Mary was now a young girl.

And so was Robert.

The woman smiled at them again. "Better hurry up," she said. "Breakfast's ready." With that she turned and walked out of the room.

Mary and Robert looked around the room. All the furniture had changed. Even the walls were different. The bed they were on was much smaller, the right size for young children.

As Mary and Robert looked at each other Mary's hand brushed against the slip of paper the wizard had given her. She opened the paper and read it and then handed it to her friend. The note was short. "Your wishes have been granted," it began. "And no one has been harmed. Robert's wife is now married to another man and is doing quite well. "

Robert, now Roberta, looked up at Mary. "Then this means..." he started.

"That you got your wish," Mary chimed in. "You're a girl!"

Roberta and Mary laughed and hugged and cried together then finally both got up and rushed out of their bedroom to enjoy their first day of being together as sisters, wide smiles on both of their faces.

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