How the book found it's way from Elizabeth's library to the rural town of Sandy Springs, I never knew but there was an old abandoned house in Sandy Springs that teenagers liked to use as a hangout. Nothing crazy happened there because the population of Sandy Springs just wasn't large enough for big city problems. Nearly all the teenagers were farm children. They might have sex or drink some alcohol but crime wasn't a big issue. Besides, the peer pressure to be a member of the local evangelical church was high so even hanging out at the old house was risky. The only way teenagers could get away with anything in that house was to keep quiet and make the house seem empty at all times. No loud music or loud anything. Teenagers caught anywhere near that house were severely punished.
But the house was huge, a two story plantation style mansion. It's size is one of the reasons the city didn't demolish it, that and it's distance from town, the cost of demolition and the legal battles over ownership. But it was plenty big enough that while one couple had sex in the master bedroom, another group of five could get drunk in the parlor while Jeff read books in the library.
I know, I know, how rebellious of Jeff to read books. But Jeff had a secret that he couldn't tell anyone. He couldn't even tell the couple having sex or the five getting drunk. If anyone found out, he'd likely be expelled from his home town with no money or prospects. So Jeff turned to reading to learn more about the world outside Sandy Springs. He knew one day, he would have to leave Sandy Springs so he learned all he could in order to plan his move.
He picked up a very old, small book. The book had no words on the outside to tell him what it was about so he opened to the first page and read, "Think about what you want to know and then turn the page."
Jeff wondered, "What controls a person's sexuality?"
He turned the page and read, "Modern scientists have found three places in the limbic system that are affected by ones sexual development. That is, although the majority of a male brain is exactly the same as a female brain, these three places in the limbic system are different. Scientist still don't fully understand this but they have noticed that some men have brains that are feminized while some women have brains that are masculinized leading scientists to speculate that this might be the cause of homosexuality or transsexuality." (The book doesn't know everything. It only knows what humans know. It essentially reads the minds of the entire human race to come up with its answers.)
Jeff wondered, "So can it be cured?"
He turned the page and read, "Not with current technology. Because the limbic system is so deep inside the brain that surgery is out of the question. Scientists would have to figure out how to remove a brain completely without killing the patient to even reach the limbic system and then what? Insert plastic? That might change the shape of the brain but would fail to masculinize or feminize the brain."
By this time, Jeff was figuring out that this was no ordinary book. It responded to his thoughts. Jeff wondered, "What kind of book are you?"
He turned the page and read the books history.
Jeff wondered, "What kind of transformations can this book do?"
He turned the page and read, "There are limits to this book. It would take too long to detail all the limits but a good summary is that this book is more about transforming rules then it is about transforming anything else."
Jeff wondered, "Can I change myself?"
He turned the page and read, "Not without changing other people. Only Elizabeth could apply a transformation to an individual person. You can transform a type of person and everyone fitting that type would transform accordingly."
Jeff thought about making all queer people just like everyone else but decided against it. Maybe he might change his mind in the future but there were other things he wanted to try first.