The extent of Jean's wish astonished me. "Do you realize what you've done?" I asked her. Her face frozen in shock, Jean didn't reply. My hands gripping her shoulders, I continued. "Imagine how confused and resentful the new women are going to feel. Do you really think just changing their gender is going to be enough to change their behavior and bring on the utopia you were expecting?"
"I didn't... I didn't think the wish would work," she finally replied, her voice just a whisper. "What's going to happen now?" As a therapist, I knew that distress brought on by radical changes in someone's life could drive her to act irrationally and aggressively toward others. Before the new women could feel the pacifying impact of their new hormones, they might destroy themselves and many others.
"Give me the ring," I told her, finally.
Jean frowned, still not looking at me, but clutching her hands to her chest. "It's mine. You can't have it."
"Didn't you wish for us to love each other? You know that means I can't keep the ring permanently, or use it against you. I just want to fix things."
"You're going to undo my wish?" Jean looked panicked at the suggestion.
"Not exactly," I said, touching her wrist. "But I'm going to make sure that nothing too horrible will happen because of the actions of afraid and possibly angry ex men."
Wordlessly, she passed the ring to me. What could I do... of course, part of me thought it would be best just to wish for her wish to be undone, but my love for Jean would not allow me to do that. But there was something else I could do...
"I wish that, besides being the most girly women, the ex women will also become younger and begin to view those women currently around them, the unchanged, as authority figures. All the ex men will have a great desire to please and obey unchanged women, especially those with whom they have a close relationship."
I held my breath and waited for my wish to come true.