Friday morning started roughly. It was hot and muggy, and the sheets felt extra cloying against the body that Eddie was increasingly resentful of. He couldn't remember his dreams, but he knew they had been troubling and discordant.

The sense of endless opportunities he'd felt at moments over the last couple days was choked to a faint flicker now, after the visit in the chapel the night before. The project was going to be shut down, he feared, and he would have to go back to tolerating boyhood.

Would that be so bad? Wasn't that what he'd done all his life so far? It should be tolerable, but now that he'd had a taste of how it might feel to really be himself, or herself, the idea of going back to that was crushing.

Getting out of bed seemed pointless, but eventually his bladder forced the issue. On the way back down the hall from the bathroom, he heard his sister calling him from her room.

"What is it, Rosey?" he asked, poking his head through her open door.

"Come play dollies with me!"

"I don't think so, I'm not feeling very good."

"Pleeeeeaase?? Pretty pleeeeeaaase?""

Eddie sighed. He'd established with Rosemary quite some time ago that boys didn't play with dolls, and she had stopped requesting it of him. It wasn't just about worrying what his parents would think. It was also the discomfort of watching her cheerfully doing something that he hadn't been allowed to do at her age. He hadn't really articulated that thought to himself before, but now it was quite clear.

"Rosey I told you I can't play dollies with you. That's a girl's game."

"Well it's ok now, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Now it's ok for you to play dollies!" She grinned at him sweetly.

Eddie stepped into her room and pulled the door shut behind him. "Rosey what are you talking about?"

"The tooth fairy told me all about it!"

Rosemary had indeed lost a tooth a couple days ago. "Umm, what did the tooth fairy say..."

"She said Eddie doesn't have to pretend to be a boy any more, and now you can do all kinds of fun things together, like sisters should!"

Eddie was stunned. A little sprout of hope snaked its way up through the lid he had just been squashing it with.

"Uh, did she say anything else?"

"She said, you're so little, Rosey, but you can still help Eddie, cuz he gets so scared sometimes, and you can tell him everything's gonna be alright!"

"She said that?"

"Yeah! And she said you'd play dollies with me!"

A smile made its way onto Eddie's face. Who was he to turn down a direct order from the tooth fairy? He took a deep breath and sat down next to his sister. She handed him one of the dolls and started talking about the things they would do with their babies today. He felt a little embarrassed but he tried his best to play along, and in time, he started getting swept up in it. They fed their babies bottles, and burped them, and put them night night, and dressed them up, and scolded them for being naughty.

"Eddie?" She said during a pause in their play.

"Yeah Rosey?"

"I knew you were just pretending, even before the tooth fairy."

"You did?"

"I'm glad you can stop now, cuz I really like having a big sister."

He took another deep breath. "I hope I can be a good sister to you Rosey."

"You already are, silly!" She giggled. Eddie pulled her into a hug, and felt something new. Sisterly love. It dawned on him that he would be expected to guide his little sister through the things that girls go through. He had no idea how to do that! How could he be a guide? But somehow he knew he would.

Suddenly the door swung open and their mother walked in. "Oh, Eddie, I didn't know you were in here."

"We're playing dollies, Mommy!" Rosemary squeaked.

"Oh, look at you two! So sweet! I was just coming in to hang this up. Look at how cute these are, I got you matching dresses!"

Eddie's jaw dropped as Marian held up two pink dresses - one in Rosemary's size, and the other one bigger. The larger one looked almost identical to the one Mickie had been wearing in church a couple weeks ago.

"You two are going to look as cute as two chicks in a nest!" She hung up the smaller one. "I'll go hang yours in your closet, Eddie," and she left the room.

"I can't wait to wear our dresses Eddie!" Rosey said enthusiastically. Eddie was still in shock as he got up, giving his sister a kiss on the head, and following his mother into his bedroom.

She had just hung up the dress when he walked in.

"Mom, last night when we got home, did you and Dad talk?"

"Oh don't you worry about that, honey," she assured him, sitting on his bed and patting a spot beside her. He sat down next to her and she draped her arm over his shoulders. "Your father's a little mixed up right now, I don't know why," she said softly and a bit sadly.

"The Reverend and him, they think... well, they think..."

"I know sweetie, they think you're a boy. I don't understand it..."

"What do you think, Mom?"

She pulled back and looked in him in the eye. "I think you're my darling little angel. You're my beautiful daughter, of course. My sweet little peach."

Eddie leaned into her, the tears coming again. "But if Rev. Bremer thinks I'm a boy, doesn't that mean that God..."

"Shhh, don't you fret. He's a wonderful pastor, but he's still just a man. He can get crazy ideas just like any other human. Like your father. You just hold tight, this strange business will pass soon enough."

"Thanks Mom. I'm so glad I have you to help me."

"Of course sweetie. We girls gotta stick together."

The last comment filled his heart with happiness. He was going to be on Mom's team. Not Dad and Rev. Bremer's team. With her on his side, everything would work out. The oppressive thoughts of that morning and the night before melted away.

A few minutes later there was a call from Mickie.

"Eddie, come to my house at 4:00. We'll ride out to Grady's Ford together. Today's the last bit!"

"Why so late, Mickie?" he whispered into the phone. "It takes a half hour to ride out there, and again to ride back. If we're there for very long we'll be late for supper!"

"I have to go with my dad today. He's taking me to help at his job! He's never done that with me!"

Mickie's father ran a small construction business. He was always working on some house - sometimes in Prairie Falls, but more often in surrounding towns. Eddie could tell she was excited at what it meant for her to be invited to something like that.

"Ok. I might get in trouble, but we'll deal with that later. See you then."

The afternoon crawled by. Eddie whittled in the back yard, and tried to read some comics, but it was hard to focus, and he found himself pacing a lot. Finally, it was five minutes to 4:00, and he jumped on his bike and headed to Mickie's house.

Mickie was already waiting with her bike in the front yard, beaming. As soon as Eddie arrived they hit the road to head out to Grady's Ford.

"I had the best afternoon! Dad had me hammering nails, and carrying heavy stuff and everything!" Mickie exclaimed as they rode side by side. "He was treating me just like my brother!"

Eddie wasn't sure why hammering nails was so exciting, but he was happy for Mickie. "It sounds like he thinks you're a boy already."

"It really feels like it!"

"It's not as good with my dad. He took me to Rev. Bremer - they think there's something wrong with me."

Mickie frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry. That sounds kinda rough."

"Yeah. But my mom's already treating me like a girl. So's my sister."

"Funny - my mom still treats me like a girl mostly. Seems like this thing is kinda patchy so far."

"Yeah. I hope it hurries up. I'm just ready for my outsides to match up with my insides."

"Today's the final step, Eddie. It's gonna be done before we know it."

Grady's Ford was a county park a mile or two out of town. There was a little picnic area right by the driveway into the park, and that part was frequented quite often. But there were numerous trails heading into the woods that were very rarely traveled, and Eddie had a feeling that was where Mickie intended for them to go.

Once they arrived, they parked their bikes by the picnic tables and Mickie led Eddie down a trail into the woods. After walking for about ten minutes they reached a fork in the trail. Mickie motioned for them to sit down on the ground.

"Ok Eddie, this is the very last thing we have to do for this. After we do this, things are supposed to just kinda finish up. You still wanna go through with this? This is your last chance to back out."

Eddie was surprised. "Back out? You mean we could back out now? Undo this thing?"

"Well I don't really know what would happen if we did. But I do know if we do this bit today, there's nothing we can do to stop it."

"Well, I'm sorta scared. I mean, I don't wanna back out, but I'm worried about..."

"About what?"

"Well, what if God doesn't want this? Aren't we sorta going against his plan?"

"Ah, I don't know, I'm not sure I even believe that stuff. I've prayed plenty of times to be a boy, and nothing ever happened. And now this talisman has already done more than any old prayer ever did. Maybe God isn't even real."

"Mickie!" Eddie was still a little unnerved by such outright blasphemy, even though he'd secretly wondered such things himself.

"Well think about it Eddie. If God is so wise and powerful, why'd he make us like this? Put us on the wrong team? It don't make no sense."

"Yeah I guess when you put it like that... Anyway, I'm not backing out. Not now. I wanna get this thing finished."

"Me too. I can feel it. We're almost there."

"Mickie?"

"Yeah?"

"I... I missed you. I mean, since yesterday, in the stable..."

Mickie smiled benevolently. "You're sweet. I missed you too. You're... well, I'm glad we're doing this together."

"Me too." Eddie felt that warm feeling again. He felt off balance, a little flushed.

Mickie seemed ready to change the subject. "Ok, let's get this going. Laura called this last part 'the welcome walk'. It's like you're getting welcomed onto the other team, I guess. See this fork in the trail? Well it's a big loop. You'll go one way and I'll go the other way, and we'll meet in the middle. And on the way is where the welcoming happens. By the time we meet up it'll be done."

"What's it gonna be like?"

"I don't really know. She thought it would be different for each person, cuz it wasn't the same for her as the person they got the talisman from. You just gotta walk and it'll do whatever it's gonna do."

She pulled the talisman out of her pocket and held it out for him to hold the other end, which he did. As soon as he grabbed it, he felt lightheaded. Mickie's expression confirmed she was feeling it as well.

Suddenly there was a loud clap of thunder. About ten seconds later an intense downpour came out of nowhere. There was a nearby tree with some sheltering undergrowth, and they quickly scrambled under the low branches to shield themselves as much as possible from the rain.

"Did we make this storm happen?" Eddie yelled through the din.

"I don't know but it sure seems like it!"

They huddled for about five minutes, until the downpour abruptly stopped. The sun came out and the air was glistening. The two friends emerged from their shelter, a little damp but relatively unscathed.

Mickie took Eddie's hand. "Ok, you go that way and I'll go this way." They locked eyes, and a lump formed in Eddie's throat. "See you on the other side," she said, and let go his hand and headed off down her path.

Eddie stood there a moment, gathering himself. His heart was pounding, from the excitement of the storm, the momentousness of what they were doing, and the unfamiliar feelings he was having towards Mickie. He took a deep breath, oriented himself toward the left fork, and stepped forward.