Dion sat in the long grass of the back forty, looking out at the field, lost in thought. School had been over for about two weeks or so and in a little while it would be the first day of summer, though it already felt like summer was already here, as the temperature was already in the upper eighties, lower nineties and Dion, much to his displeasure, was already wearing the summer clothes his mom had bought him, including the swimsuit.
Clutched tightly in his hand was the amulet, still in its baggy, which he still believed had caused the whole mess he viewed his life to be. Next to him, lying on the ground, was an item he was considering using, and was hoping would finally put an end to things and set everything back to as close to it was going to be before the amulet had been used.
Yet, a small sliver of doubt ate away at him and he couldn't quite bring himself to believe that.
Nothing seemed to ever go right when the necklace was used. His sister, Holly, had used it on him, for reasons he couldn't remember, and it had turned his life into a feminine nightmare. He was called Denise Taylor, was stuck in the body of a ten-year-old tomboy girl, and, to his dismay, he actually didn't mind. Even found that the longer he stayed like that, it wasn't so bad and that he would feel so much better about it if he let go what seemed like a ridiculous notion that he'd been a boy, that his name had been Dion and that his sister had used the amulet on him. And that when she had, she had been his older sister.
But he couldn't accept it. Just as he could not allow himself to think of himself in terms of her and she. It just didn't feel quite right, like a persistent itch that he couldn't quite get to.
Just as he had a difficult time accepting Holly as she was now.
Certain she was, at one time, his older sister, the girl was now his younger sister. He didn't know how this all worked out, only that it did. And that the seven-year-old girl had somehow come into being when he'd used the necklace on his original sister, who he'd turned into a goat in an attempt to teach her a lesson about forcing people to be something they weren't.
"None of what happened seems to make sense," Dion thought to himself as, feeling confused, he went over how, in a fit of remorse for his actions, he had used the amulet to turn goat Holly back into a human, figuring that by doing so, it would make everything all right.
Yet, it hadn't. The goat had become a boy, like he wanted. And now he had a five-year-old brother, called Martin. Were it got weird, in Dion's opinion, was that by creating himself a younger brother, he had somehow erased his dad, given himself a younger sister, another Holly, and reset his aunt's life so that she never had married Paul, never had two daughters, but was still coming to stay, as she wanted to talk with his mom about a joint business proposal.
This, he guessed, was the one good thing that had happened. Beyond that, he was unhappy that he was still a girl, though he did have a way out, if he wanted to take that road, and that now he was the oldest. Before, when it had been Holly who had been the older sister, he realised now that he'd been happy. Now, he figured it was too late to have come to such an understanding, unless he was willing to use the item he had acquired a little while ago, which he believed would turn him back into a boy, as well as turning back the clock and making him the youngest of his siblings.
"But at what cost," he mused aloud.
Unable to come up with an answer, he leaned back in the grass, dropped the baggy on his stomach and stared up at the sky. Thinking, he knew this was the one thing that had always kept him from going back, back to being a boy, back to being younger. He was scared that by doing so, it would somehow make this worse. On the other hand, he toyed with the idea that it could actually make this better.
"Like maybe my dad being alive again," he muttered and wistfully staring upward, he found that, even as a girl, he missed his daddy, even if, in his current form, they'd never been too close, and that he had a better relationship with his mom.
Idly, he reached for the item he had considered a number of times using on himself, but had always talked himself out doing so at the last moment. Picking it up, he stared at the diaper, a plain white thing he was sure was for a boy between the age of one and two. Disliking the fact that if he used it, he would essentially be making himself go back to a time when he peed and pooped himself, he smirked as he considered these to be the least of his worries. Sitting up, dropping the baggy into his lap, Dion continued to stare at the diaper some time before looking down at the button fly shorts and the top he had on, a strapless white garment that hugged his chest area and went down to a inch or so above his navel before ballooning out in something that resembled a skirt and had a blue stitched pattern of flowers and butterflys on the lower part of it.
He wouldn't have to wear clothes like that again if he used the amulet, he knew. His garments would more suitable for a boy, not just some unisex clothing every so often, like he wore as a tomboy. Reaching for the baggy, he was about to open when he stopped. Asking himself, "What if something goes wrong? Like mom vanishes. Or you become a boy who wants to be a girl? Or Marty or Holly become someone else. Someone not as happy as they seem right now," and doubting washing over him, he dropped the bagged necklace back into his lap.
He'd experienced such indecision before, where he found himself close, ready, to use the amulet, but hesitation and fear had taken a hold and he changed his mind at the last moment. A deep breath and as he exhaled, Dion whispered, "Suppose, suppose, suppose," as he thought about the number of times before he almost used the amulet, and each time had changed his mind, with the last time being because he'd been worried it would somehow effect Henry and Davis.
Yet, he was unsure how it could. When he had been a boy, he hadn't met Davis until he had started school at the age of five, and through Davis had met Henry. And it still had happened that way as Denise, or so his memories assured him. Picking up the baggy, Dion sighed as he thought that, maybe, things wouldn't be as bad as he believed, as he tried to convince himself to go through with what he was planning. Thinking of what he had decided, he stood, looked out at the fields, and went back over his decision to come out here to either have one final transformation and then throw the amulet away, or to simply chuck the necklace as far away as he could and let it be someone else's problem. Hefting the baggy, letting it bounce in his hand, he considered how much of a good distance he could get. Deciding it would go further if it wasn't in the bag he took the amulet out for the first time in weeks.
Peering at the strange word, which he knew was pronounced Zoo Loo, as he had done some research on it when he had been able to get to the library, he also knew now more about what it was capable of, not only because of studying, but what he'd witnessed. Disgusted by the image of something that could have been a man, a woman, an animal, in the throes of turning into something else, he shuddered as he thought about how painful it might have been for Holly, now Martin, to turn into a goat, then thought about how smooth his own transformation had been.
"So easy, I would not have noticed it, if I hadn't been aware that something was off," he mused and looking at the diaper, he considered touching the two together, and instead bent down and set the amulet down in the grass and the diaper down a foot or so away.
"This is crazy, this is nuts, this is insane," he thought as he briefly looked out at the open field. Not seeing anyone, he muttered, "I want to be a boy again," and before he could change his mind, proceeded to shuck off the jean shorts he had on and the white cotton panties that had pink unicorns printed on them.
Naked from the waist down, glad he hadn't worn any shoes, Dion dropped the two articles of clothing and lifted up on the hem of his shirt, which hung down far enough to cover his groin. Peering at the flat skin, the subtle hint of his girlhood, he whined out, "I want my twig and berries back. I want my boy parts," before letting go of his shirt, reaching out and, before he could change his mind, grabbed for the amulet of Zulo in one hand, the diaper in the other, and proceeded to touch the two against his bare leg.
A slight shock, like when he touched something metal in winter and got a static electric shock from it, ran up and down his leg, and vanished by the time it got to his foot and groin. Not sure what to expect, he stared down for a minute or so before looking back out at the field. Winding up, he proceeded to huck the necklace as far as he could. Watching it arc up, spinning, the sun catching the surface in spurts of glitter, he watched it fall and disappear into the grass some feet away. Not anxious to go look for it, he instead turned his attention to trying to put the diaper on.
Curious as to how long the change would take, unaware that it had already begun and that he'd lost three inches from his height, Dion decided this wasn't something he was going to fight. Looking forward to being a boy again, finally getting the diaper on, he turned and began to toddle back to the house. Crossing the stone was difficult, as he could already see he was smaller and pegged his height at about three foot five or so, and that, for reasons he had trouble understanding, it was getting harder and harder to coordinate his arms and legs.
"Like I had only learned to walk," he started to say, but then lost most of it in a babble on baby talk. Giggling, he tried to say a couple of other words, but found he could only manage a number of them, with the majority being simple two and three letter words.
Excited that it was already working, his mind and age starting to regress back to nineteen months faster and faster, Dion missed it as his shirt turned a pastel purple, the blue stitching disappeared, a glittery white unicorn with a pink mane and tail, rearing up on its back legs, appeared on the front, and then whole thing lengthed into a dress that fell down past his knees. Spotting the house, he began to run as fast as his legs would take him, only slowing his approach when he became aware of what he was wearing. Finding it harder and harder to process the more complex thoughts of a ten year old, he stared, not able to comprehend what he was seeing. And as his height settled at two foot six, his weigh around 21 to 22 pounds, and his bladder released, Dion had one final thought, "Shit. It no work. I'm still girl," before everything was lost in the mind of a toddler who'd be having her second birthday in five months.
---
Blistfully unaware that moments ago she had been anyone else, Denise Taylor sat down hard and stared out at her world. Close by, she could hear her older sister and her older brother playing, but she had no real interest, at the moment, in joining them. Studying everything around her in the manner a child takes everything in, she didn't understand some of it, just as she didn't understand that she had had a daddy, but he had died shortly after a first birthday. Time passage didn't mean much to her, so didn't she know that her aunt Michelle would soon be ther to talk to her mom about a business deal that would be accepted and that it would mean they would move. Her thoughts simple, she babbled the number of words she could say, tasted her fingers, some dirt, examined the world around her, and when her mommy came out to get her, she cooed in contentment when she was taken inside. There, she had her diaper changed, was given lunch, then to be put down for a nap. And in dreams, she dreamed of a boy named Dion, at least for a little while, until, after a little while, they stopped and she completely forgot about it.