The rest of the week dragged on at a glacial pace. Eddie spent one day and an overnight at his friend Kirby's farm, which was mostly spent shooting cans and bottles with BB guns. That was fine until Kirby turned the gun on him, and made him go stand against the fence and wiggle his butt, upon threat of getting shot. He did as commanded but got shot in the butt anyway. Pretty tame stuff as gunshots go, but boy did it sting, and the humiliation stung even more. He knew he should stand up to the bully, be a man and challenge him when he pulled this kind of stuff. But he just didn't have it in him. Anyway, his protests hadn't amounted to anything when Kirby was turning over June bugs and holding lit matches to their undersides. Kirby had just laughed and called him a sissy.

He hung out with his other friend Danny a couple times, and that was fine too, certainly less trying than dealing with Kirby. But mostly he spent time in his room, reading comic books and daydreaming, and waiting for Mickie to return. He kept thinking about her in that Sunday dress, wondering why he felt excitement and discomfort all at once, whenever he pictured it.

One afternoon he took a nap, and dreamt of Mickie in a princess gown, sitting on a throne, her hair long and flowing. He walked up to her, and she stood up, stepped aside, and motioned for him to sit down. He stood there staring at the chair, immobilized, and then awoke.

On Saturday afternoon the phone rang, and after answering it, his mom called him down, saying the call was for him. It was Mickie on the other end.

"Hey Eddie, I'm back," came her voice through the earpiece.

"OK, that's great," Eddie spoke into the mouthpiece. "How was camp?"

"Listen Eddie, I've got something important to talk to you about. Can you meet me at Paradise?"

Eddie asked his mom if he could go, and got an affirmative. "Yeah I can. When?"

"Meet me in half an hour," and she abruptly hung up.

An odd fluttering feeling sat in Eddie's stomach as he jumped on his bike. Something had definitely shifted in the last couple weeks in the way he felt about Mickie, and the idea of seeing her had him a bit flustered. He flew down Harrison street, down Park street, over the little bridge to the lonely highway that led out of town. He parked his bicycle at the culvert next to Mickie's, and stooped down to waddle through to the other side.

Mickie was sitting on the creek bank, back in her usual attire of t-shirt, cutoff shorts, and tennis shoes. She smiled when she saw him, but right away he sensed a little tension.

"Hey Mickie," he waved. "So what was camp like?"

"Ah, it was OK, I guess. Had to do a lot of boring stuff like learn how to macrame, and dealing with my tent mate crying a lot. But there was some cool stuff like playing volleyball, and canoeing." She shrugged her shoulders. "All in all I s'pose it was fine."

Eddie paused a bit before asking anything. "So, you said you have to tell me something important..." he finally ventured.

She shifted uncomfortably, fiddling nervously with a stick. "I met this girl at camp. Laura, is her name. About halfway through the week, she asked me to go for a walk with her in the woods." She had a faraway look. "She told me some weird stuff..."

"What kinda weird stuff?"

"Well, it's like... well, she said she used to be a boy."

Mickie looked at Eddie to see how he was processing that. He wasn't. "I don't get it," he said, "how could a girl used to be a boy?"

"I know, I didn't get it either. But, she said it was... magic?"

Eddie was surprised. It sounded like this girl was playing a silly prank on Mickie, and Mickie wasn't one to fall for something like that.

"C'mon Mick, she was pulling your leg. Why would you believe something like that?"

"I didn't at first, even though she didn't seem like a liar. But then she showed me this." She pulled something out of her pocket and came closer to Eddie, holding out her palm. The thing in her palm seemed to be made of stone, but carved into a shape like two torsos stuck together. Coming out to the left was one torso, with two stubs like arms stopping at the elbows, and a head shape with small gemstones set into the stone as eyes and a mouth, with a little bump of the stone as a nose. Coming out to the right was a similar torso and head, but there were two more small mounds in the chest area. It looked ancient and worn, but pretty well crafted for its day, whenever that was.

"What the heck is that?" Eddie asked. "She gave you this?"

"Yes. Hold it in your hand, and I think you'll see why I believed her." She grabbed Eddie's palm with her free hand and placed the stone in it. He jumped a little at the almost electrical vibration he felt as it settled into his hand. It was warm, more so than could be explained by the afternoon sun. He looked over at Mickie, whose face was part bemused, part apprehensive, and part thrilled.

"Geez, that's real weird," Eddie gasped. "Did it do this when you held it?"

"The first time, yeah," she replied. Eddie tried to give it back but she held up her hand in a stop gesture.

"This is nuts," Eddie marveled. "But why does this make you believe that girl's story?"

"Keep holding it," Mickie encouraged him. He didn't want to, but felt he'd be letting her down somehow if he didn't. It continued to vibrate, but in a less intense way. They both stared at the strange relic, waiting for something else to happen.

Suddenly Eddie's mind was swirling in a psychedelic frenzy. A rush of memories from his twelve short years paraded by. It was so intense he couldn't enumerate the memories, he could only unconsciously note them for future debriefing. All the memories had a common theme, but were too jumbled to process in the moment. The only impression he could consciously perceive was an image of jagged pegs being yanked out of round holes. Meanwhile the gems in the eyes and mouth were pulsing with a red glow.

Gradually the mental flood subsided, the gems dulled, and the warm electric feeling faded. Eddie was breathing heavily, just staring at the relic in his hand.

"What just happened?"

"It's crazy isn't it?" Mickie shook her head. "All the memories, I know it feels confusing but just give it a little time, your head will kinda figure it all out."

Eddie felt light headed, and had to sit down on the ground. Mickie sat down as well, sitting cross legged in front of him.

"You ok?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I think so. I just felt dizzy for a second." After composing himself, he continued. "OK, what is this thing and what does it have to do with the girl who used to be a boy?"

"It's some kind of magic thing," Mickie explained. "She called it a talisman, I don't really know what that means. But it's how she became a girl. See, there was another girl who wanted to be a boy, and this boy wanted to be a girl. And so they used this magic talisman to do a trade. Get it?"

"No."

"It's like switching teams, you know? Like in football - let's say the Browns have an extra running back they don't really need, but they really need a good linebacker. And then the Oilers have a linebacker they don't need, but they don't have a good running back. So the two teams do a trade, and then everything works out."

"I still don't get it."

"See, this Laura that I met, she used to be Larry, and Larry didn't belong on the boys' team. And Larry met this other girl Caroline who was no good being on the girls' team. So they used this magic talisman and did a trade. And now Larry is Laura and Caroline is Carl. And everybody's happy."

Eddie's mind was short circuiting and he didn't know which of a thousand questions to ask. "I don't understand how any of that can be real. Anyway, why did she give this thing to you?"

Mickie took a deep breath, and looked him square in the eyes. "Eddie, I'm on the wrong team. I wanna get traded, to the boys' team." She kept her gaze fixed on him. He wanted to look away, but couldn't somehow.

"You mean, you wanna use that thing yourself? Turn into a boy?" She nodded at him.

"But... don't you have to find a boy to trade with then?"

"Yep." She was still staring at him.

"Well, how are you gonna do that? No boys we know are gonna want to be a girl."

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and sighed, then opened it again. "It already picked you," she suddenly blurted out.

"Picked me? What do you mean?"

"See, this girl Caroline, before she got Larry to trade with her, she tried to get another boy to do it. But it didn't work. Like, the talisman didn't think it was right. Then she tried it with Larry and it worked, cuz it was a good trade."

"So?"

"So, that thing that happened when you held it, that means it's going to work. It happened to me too when I first held it."

"Wait, you mean you want me to turn into a girl?!" Eddie stood up quickly, and Mickie jumped up too. He shoved the talisman back into her hand. "You're just as crazy as this Laura girl! Why would I wanna be a girl? It's not possible anyway! This is just some stupid joke you're playing so you can laugh at me!"

"Eddie no, it's not a joke! It's real! When have I ever played a joke like this on you?"

"Anyway, why do you want to be a boy? Don't you think that's weird?"

"No it's not weird, it just makes sense! They won't let me play on the baseball team, they won't let me play on the football team, my mom puts me in these stupid dresses, I have to take dumb classes like Home Ec so I can learn how to cook and clean for my husband someday! Well I don't want any of it! I got put on the wrong team!"

Eddie was upset but he still felt a twinge of sympathy for Mickie. It did kind of make sense. Mickie had always struggled against the expectations thrust upon her.

"Well why don't you find some other boy then? Why'd you give this to me?"

"Eddie, think about it. Is being a boy really the right thing for you? I know you'll have to think about it, but I think inside, you'd rather be a girl." She was giving him her steely look again.

"What?! Why would you say that?!"

"We're really close friends, right? I know you pretty well."

"Oh, so you know I want to be a girl, even though I don't know it myself?" He was getting exasperated again.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, good for you, smartypants. I'm going home! Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do!"

Eddie ran back to the culvert and hurried through it, knocking his head against the concrete a bit in his haste. On the other side he jumped back on his bike and started riding as fast as he could back to town. He was in a panic, not really fully understanding why, but the odd memory flood and Mickie's proposition had twisted his insides all up, and all he could do was flee. He wanted to go somewhere he could be truly alone, but Mickie knew about all his secret hideouts, so he opted for just going back home and being in his bedroom. He made it into the house and up to his room without any interference from family members, and closed the door behind him and flung himself onto the bed.

As the panic receded a little, it was replaced by an aching, adrift feeling. He gently sobbed into his pillow, taking care to stay quiet so his mother wouldn't hear and come console him, or worse, his father hearing and coming to berate him. The memories that the talisman had unleashed were replaying in a loop, over and over, and the theme was beginning to become clear. Some were events that he actively remembered, whereas others were things he had tried to repress, unconsciously - things that didn't fit with who he was supposed to be, and had therefore been pushed down into some murky place where they wouldn't disturb him.

He remembered his teacher pulling him aside at recess, telling him it wasn't right that he only played with the girls on the playground, and that from now on he needed to play only with the boys.

He remembered the wedding rehearsal when he was five years old, where he was the ring bearer, and how, after walking down the aisle, he kept going over to stand with the bridesmaids rather than the groomsmen.

He remembered sneaking into his parents' bedroom when they were out, staring at the frosted tip wig his mother had on a foam head, and how he had tried it on and looked in the mirror, his ears on high alert for any sound signaling their return.

He remembered the third grade play and how he'd wanted to try out for the part of Snow White, and the teacher gently explaining that he'd have to try for the prince or one of the dwarves instead.

He remembered the thrill he'd felt when reading the Marvelous Land of Oz, when the witch Mombi transformed the boy Tip into the princess Ozma.

And he remembered seeing Mickie in church last week, and how he felt seeing her in that dress. He had told himself she looked pretty in it, and that made him feel strange. But now he realized it was something different. It was envy. He had felt strange because he wished it was him wearing that lovely pink dress.

It was as though the talisman had cleared away a fog in his brain. He knew these things had happened to him, but he had somehow purged them from the ledger of official events of his life. They hadn't made the cut in the narrative he needed to present to the world, and so they had been relegated to some dusty drawer in the basement. But now they'd been brought up and arranged neatly before him.

Was Mickie right, would he rather be a girl? Did she really know him better than he knew himself? Or was she trying to make him agree to this pact, so that she could realize her own aims? She needed him to make it work. Any attempts on her part to convince him he wants this - those were surely suspect. He started to feel angry again.

But his anger quickly subsided. He'd never known Mickie to do anything underhanded to him or anyone else. She had a strong moral compass and was a loyal friend. It didn't feel right to think she was tricking him. She must really believe what she said.

But how was it even possible? Magic, really? He was young enough to still have a child's openness to such ideas, but old enough to know he should be skeptical. Mickie can be trusted, but he knew nothing about this Laura girl. It could still be a big prank. But the way he felt holding that thing...

He heard his mom's voice calling from downstairs. "Kids, it's suppertime." He wasn't hungry, but he knew it'd spark a conflict if he didn't come down, so he went downstairs, ate his hamburger and cole slaw quietly with his family, and then returned to his bed, and stared into space for the longest time, trying to figure out what to do with so many inconvenient memories.