Meanwhile Kate and Kerry arrive at the shop only to find it was closed. There was no signage on the shop. Indeed there was no evidence that it had been operational only a few days ago.
They asked around at neighbouring shops. Evidently the shop popped up in a vacant building a week ago and closed on Thursday. There were no signs saying where the shop had moved to. Kate had virtually given up in frustration when she and Kerry were approached by a ridiculously good looking young woman “Are you the people asking what happened to the magic shop?”
“Yes that’s us. I was here last week and bought something. But it didn’t come with proper instructions and it has caused a problem” Kate didn’t want to admit to a stranger that her husband had been turned into a woman.
“I have some knowledge of the items they sold. Perhaps I could help?”
Kate thought about admitting her problem to a stranger, what harm could it do? The woman looked friendly enough “I bought something called ‘Transformation socks’ for my husband for his birthday. They actually worked but we can’t actually change him back to how he should be”
“What colour socks?”
“Red. Why? Is the colour important?”
“No it identifies the type of sock. And do you mind if I ask how your husband changed”
Kerry spoke up “He used the socks and my shoes”
The woman looked at Kerry “I see. So I’m guessing you now have a twin?”
“Yes” Both Kate and Kerry were relieved to find the woman clearly knew something about the socks. Kerry added “Not quite. The changes stopped when he took the socks off”
The woman explained. “If he puts the socks back on the last change he underwent will proceed until he takes the socks off again”
“We figured that out” explained Kate. She had guessed as much.
“But if he is wearing the socks and puts on a different pair of shoes he will change into whoever last wore those shoes”
“We tried that. He put his own shoes back on but he kept changing into Kerry” Kate pointed to her sister-in-law
“So I’m guessing Kerry was the last person to wear those shoes”
“I don’t think so….” Kate stopped when she noticed Kerry was blushing.
The woman spoke. “You two might like to discuss what happened. Good luck”
Kate looked at Kerry “Did you? Did you wear Tom’s shoes?”
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t actually wear them. But I did put my feet in to them just to confirm that Tom’s feet had been way bigger than mine. I didn’t think that constituted wearing them”
“Well it seems it did. It makes sense now. All we need to do is use a different pair of Tom’s shoes and he should be able to change back. Is that right?” Kate turned to the mysterious woman but she was gone. They looked up and down the street there was no sign of her.
“I better ring Tom. He’ll be very relieved to know he can change back”
A few moments later she had dialled Tom.