“No,” Anna said. “I can take care of my friends.” The man shrugged.
“If that’s what you want,” he said.
“It is,” Anna said firmly. “But, um, do you have anything that could…change reality or something?”
“Yep! I design reality alteration spells to order. They cost a pretty penny, but since you and your friends were inconvenienced, I can give you a discount.”
“Perfect.”
“What do you want?” the man asked. He took out a piece of paper and a pen. Anna beamed.
“I want Laura and Kaitlin to be my daughters. My current daughter, I’d like her to be my sister.” The man wrote something down on the paper. “I’d also like to be married, but I don’t know if you can do that.”
“I can do that. Since it will presumably involve someone who is not currently under a spell of mine, it will cost extra.”
“That’s fine. I want to be married to my coworker, Thomas the security guard.” Anna had been nursing a crush on Thomas for quite some time, but knew he was too young for her. Now, though, they were finally in the same league.
“Got it.” The man wrote on the paper again. “Now, just so you know, Laura and Kaitlin will not be his daughters. Just yours. And their physical appearances will not change.”
“Not at all?”
“No. The explanation for why they look different from you is that they take after their fathers. Yes, plural. They have different fathers.”
“But Thomas still loves them as his own?” Anna asked.
“If that’s what you want.”
“That is.”
“All right. Anything else?”
“Hmm, no.”
“Okay.” The man rolled up his sleeves. “You might feel a strange tingling sensation when the new reality settles.” Anna closed her eyes. Like the man had said, she felt tingling spread through her body. She opened her eyes again. New memories of the new reality settled into her mind, in addition to the memories from the previous reality. “Everything’s ready for you.”
“Thank you,” Anna said. She took her card out of her purse and handed it to the man. As she did so, she noticed a golden wedding band on her ring finger. The man swiped her card on a card reader, pressed a few buttons, then handed the card back.
“Feel free to come back if you want to make any other changes to your life. Oh. But one thing before you leave.”
“Yes?”
“Like you, Laura and Kaitlin have memories of this reality and the former one,” the man explained. “I can alter their memories later, but it will cost extra and they need to be in person for it.”
“Okay. Thank you.” Anna left the magic shop. She got into her car, which suddenly seemed much nicer than before. It was unfortunate that Laura and Kaitlin remembered everything. She would have preferred a clean break. But if the girls didn’t take well to their new reality, she could always bring them to the magic shop and fix the problem.
As Anna buckled her seat belt, she felt a sudden tenderness in her breasts. Her eyes widened as she recognized it. She had breastfed her daughter until four, and apparently was doing the same with Laura. Anna played with her wedding ring, thinking. She would love to have a child with Thomas. Her new memories informed her that Thomas was at their home, as it was his day off work. She could go see him and the two of them could make a beautiful baby together.
Or she could go pick up Kaitlin and explain what had happened. The little girl would be done with ballet soon.
The third option was to pick up Laura. After all, Anna’s full breasts desperately needed some release. And she wouldn’t mind breastfeeding for the first time in decades.