"So if it was James's wish and not you that made him dissapear, I can just wish him back right?" Nicola challenged the mysterious proprietor.
"You can certainly try" Meredith shrugged "though I would be very cautious if I were you. The curse has an unfortunate way of.."
"Yeah, yeah I know. Choose my words carefully" Nicola cut in impatiently "I know how this works. Anyway, I have to at least try and bring him back."
"Then be my guest" Meredith folded her arms in amusement.
"Ok, I wish for James to go back to how he was before he made the wish about not having to work. I want him to be human, I want him to have exactly the same mind and personality as before, be the exact same size and look just like he used to. And the same as he was immediately before, not 25 years before or something. Understood?"
---
Back on the roof, James the pigeon was ready to make his way back towards the magic shop in his new form. He had practiced flying a little by hovering about on top of the roof and it seemed to come quite naturally to him. He was at least confident enough in his new abilities that he felt sure could get to ground safely and avoid the pitfalls of making another wish before alerting Nicola and the store owner to his situation.
Hiwever, just as he was peering over the edge of the building and getting the nerve to jump he suddenly felt an instant, dramatic change. He was much bigger than the other birds now. And he had human hands, and legs and feet and ...he was naked on the edge of a building in a crowded London street just a few feet from his work!
Having no idea why he had returned to normal right when he hadn't asked to, James lurched back from the buildings edge and curled up into a ball to minimise the chances of him being spotted. It was a flat roof at least, but there was no way down that he could see and he was in plain sight less than a hundred yards from his office. How would he explain this if anyone he knew looked up? On top of that he was absolutely freezing. Obviously pigeons were insulated much better than humans. This was a disaster, why had he turned back now of all times?
---
"Nothing happened" Nicola looked down angrily at the pile of clothes that James hadn't magically rematerialised in "I know I said everything right"
"Are you sure?" Meredith enquired "perhaps you aren't quite as clever as you think you are"
"Perhaps this whole curse is a farce" Nicola argued back.
"Well, there's nothing stopping you from trying again if you think you can fix this" the shop keeper taunted her.