“Wait a moment,” Lee interrupted. “You’re saying you were a cat?”
Charlotte paused and looked at the two across the table from her. Going back over what she had and hadn’t told them, like how she had been a guy before she’d been a cat, or what she and Spenser had done at the restaurant and dance club, among a few other things, she nodded and explained, “Yes. Just as you,” she indicated Chris, “were a boy. And you,” she nodded toward Lee, “are cursed to turn into a dog, sometimes against your will.”
It had been several hours since the three had met. And at first, Charlie was leery about talking to Chris. But once they’d found a table upstairs, the same it turned out Lee and Chris had used before, and each had explained why it was they wanted Amulet of Zulo, Charlotte accepted the boy-turned-girl being there. Thinking back over what she’d told them, trying to see if there was anything else, such as that all this happened to her almost a month ago, Charlie waited for a moment before she said, “If I could, I would love to return to being a cat. I don’t mind being human. But,” before she trailed off with a shrug.
“It doesn’t feel right,” Chris filled in and looking at her, Charlie nodded and whispered, “Yeah. That’s exactly it.”
“So why can’t you go back to being a feline?” Lee inquired.
Another shrug from the young woman and she said, “I do not know. As I said, I figured to only stay like this a week, maybe two at the most. Afterward, I would decide what to do. Well, when the week deadline came, I thought about becoming Rune, but felt I wasn’t quite ready to do so. Something, I don’t know, held me back. It was almost like I wanted to further explore this new world I’d been thrust into.
“Instead, because I lost track of time, I ended up waiting another week and a little less than half before I tried to turn myself back into Rune. I wasn’t sure what would become of Jason’s mom, and was sad and a little frightened that her life might go back to being something close to as horrible as it had been. But, as it turned out, my fears were for nothing. I touched the necklace to a cat collar exactly like the one I had worn when I was Rune, though it wasn’t the actual one. That one I don’t know what happened to it. Touching them to my bare skin, I expected something to happen, but was disappointed when it didn’t.
“Waiting two days, I began to grow afraid that I was stuck like this, as Charlotte. That’s when I started to do research about it. But nothing I found would explain why I couldn’t go back to being a cat. Why it seemed I was stuck as a human. Which, I should add, there isn’t really wrong with my life. I have a loving mother, a great boyfriend, and in a couple days I start my second year at the local university. I just wish I could be Rune again. Even if it were only for a day.”
A silence fell between the three and for a moment, neither of the them said anything. Lee thought about his want for the necklace and found himself wondering if it would actually work to remove his curse. Next to him, Chris went back over how she’d hadn’t been born a girl, but had been turned into one by her sister as part of an agreement, and how she wanted to go back to being a boy. As both sat and found themselves wondering whether the Amulet of Zulo would work for them, like how it had been described on the websites, or if what would happen was what Charlie experienced, the young woman reached down and picked up the small backpack she’d brought with her.
Her thoughts on the brother she used to have when she’d been Wade, and how she’d had discovered that for some reason reality had been rewritten so that Kathy no longer lived next door, rather, it was instead two nice middle aged women, Charlotte began to search inside her pack. When she found the baggy she’d put the necklace in, she paused for a moment. About to tell Chris and Lee how she’d wanted to try and use the amulet to turn Kathy back into a guy, find the doll and turn in back into Kathy, she changed her mind. Setting the plastic bag on the table, she pushed it toward the two as she figured that, if they wanted to know what had become of the real Jason and Kathy they could ask and that it was but one of several things she would have to live with when it came to how muddled up things had become since she’d come in contact with the Amulet of Zulo.
Across from her, Lee furrowed his brow as he watched her do this as he asked, “What’s that?”
“It’s the amulet,” Charlie stated matter of factly.
“And you’re just going to give it to us?” Chris inquired as she peered at the bag.
With a nod, the young woman told them, “Mm hm. I have no use for it, as the one thing I want it do, it for some reason shan’t do that. So, I’ll do what I think is the next best thing; give it to someone who I feel might have a better use for it.”
Both felt, at first, that there had to be a catch. But then, as Lee reached for the bag, and Charlie stood and picked up her backpack, the feeling passed as the college student told them, “I’m going to go now. I wish you both the best of luck and hope it works for you,” before she gave them one final look, pushed her chair and walked away.
The minutes slipped by as the two watched Charlotte for a bit, then turned their attention to what they had been given, but didn’t look inside the baggy. After some time, Lee, who still held the white plastic bag in one hand, whispered, “Do you think the thing inside here is actually the Amulet of Zulo?”
“We shan’t know until we look,” Chris replied and with a nod, Lee took a deep breath and upended the bag.
After a quick shake to free the thing inside, the two watched with bated breath as something heavy and solid thunked out on the table. Leaning forward, their heads almost colliding as they did so, Chris and Lee peered at the object. Seeing the image of someone that could be male, female, or both, in the throes of change, the hints of animalistic features also present, Chris breathed out, “The Amulet of Zulo,” before she looked at Lee and asked, “So which one of us should try to use it first?” as the boy inquired the same thing.
Fits of giggles overcame them and they each took a moment to get control of themselves. When they’d finally calmed down, they stared at the necklace, glad they had found it at last, but unsure whether to pick it up, certain that the other would reach for it. Not wanting to be turned into Lee, who also didn’t want to become Chris, the teenage girl studied the amulet and thought about how she would turn herself back into her former male self as she hoped it would work for her. Thinking on what she had worn as a teenage boy, she figured that she would have to buy something, which she didn’t believe would be a problem, as she still had a fair part of her weekly allowance set aside, plus money from a few odd jobs she could remember doing over the summer.
“Either I could purchase something, or I could make my sister, since she’s the one that got me in this mess in the first place,” she decided after a moment.
Next to her, Lee also contemplated how he might use the amulet. Wanting only to remove the curse that caused him to turn into a canine, he considered that the best way to do so would be to get a brand new shirt, similar to something he already had.
“The only problem with that is that I don’t have the money to purchase one,” he thought to himself and grousing, he mulled over the problem before he finally wondered, “Do I have to buy something. Couldn’t I just take the thing to a store, find a shirt or something like what I already have and touch the necklace to it and myself?” and unsure, he furrowed his brow and huffed noisily through his nose.
When it seemed like neither would pick up the Amulet of Zulo, Chris broke the silence that had fallen between them by offering, “You take it first.”
“Are you sure?” Lee countered.
“I’ve waited this long. I’m sure I can wait a little bit longer, so long as it doesn’t disappear again,” Chris responded.
“How about I take it, but you come along with me?” Lee asked before he explained, “That way, I can use it, find out if it worked, then give it to you right away.”
Seeing the logic in this, Chris nodded, smiled and said, “Deal,” as Lee reached out, grabbed the bag, and used it to grasp the necklace, which he wiggled back into the plastic baggy.
With the Amulet of Zulo secured, Lee stood. Following his lead, Chris brushed an errant strand of hair from her forehead and asked, “So how do you plan to use it to remove your curse?”
Bag clenched in his hand, Lee shrugged and replied, “I haven’t quite got that part figured out. But I am thinking of maybe going to the nearest department store, or maybe over to the mall, and finding a shirt or something that is the same as what I own and try my luck with that.”
“The mall’s closer,” Chris told him and feeling as if this settled the matter, Lee nodded and started downstairs.
After she’d scooped up her purse and taken a final look to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, Chris took a deep breath and before she to headed downstairs, she whispered to herself, “Just a little bit longer. Then it will be all over and I’ll be back to being Christopher instead of Christine,” and with a sense of relief slipping over her, glad that she might be able to go back to school as a guy, she followed Lee.