At some point, Brenda wasn't sure when, she stopped viewing herself as a girl and as a boy. And about this time he stopped thinking of himself as Brian and not Brenda. But, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he was not Brian and that he was in fact Brenda. And when his cousin wandered in a couple hours later, moping and complaining about her chest, he just mentally confirmed that they indeed had somehow switched bodies.
"But how?" he asked himself as he revised his search and entered different parameters into the online search engine.
Sitting on his bed, Brenda commented, "This is totally unreal. When you were a girl, did you ever have the problem where your breasts got in the way," and shifting about, Brenda muttered something about a bra and the joyless prospect of having to live the rest of her life this way.
"When I was a girl," Brian responded. "My breasts grew in at a natural pace and not within the space of a couple hours," and glancing at the digital clock on his bedside, he noted that it was almost six and that this oddity of him and Brenda becoming each other had begun nearly three hours ago. Turning his attention back to the computer, he was just about to try another search, when he stopped.
Halfway down the page there was a short article about magick items that were thought to do just what he had been looking for. Clicking on the link, Brian began to browse the page as his cousin started to whine about the prospect of her monthly and how her thoughts were shifting into a feminine frame of mind.
"The necklace," he whispered as he found an article about an amulet from or made by some cult or person calling themselves, or itself, Zulo.
Standing, feeling like a fog was lifting, barely hearing what Brenda was saying now, Brian ran a hand through his short hair, wondered when it gotten so short and glancing at his cousin, he muttered, "Be right back," and taking off out of his room, he tore down the stairs, stopped to grab a flashlight from the linen closet in the laundry room and telling his mom, "Be right back," he hurried out the back door as she called out to him that dinner was almost ready.
As he retraced his steps, Brian wondered how it was that something appeared to be nothing more than costume jewelry could possibly cause a person to change into something or someone else. When he reached the first storm drain, he shined the flashlight down into it, but found that it was empty.
"Maybe it got washed away," he thought, worrying that maybe he will have to live the rest of his life like a boy, always troubled, slightly, by the fact that at one time he had been a girl.
Hurrying across the street, Brian shined the flashlight down through the grating and was just about to move on when a glint of bright metal caught the light. Lying down on the ground, Brian attempted to force his hand down the storm drain, but found that his hands and arms were much too big to get very far.
Frustrated, he looked up and around him, trying to think of some way he could get the amulet back. Standing, he began to walk back and forth, not really wanting to go far from the drain, fearing that if he did, the amulet might disappear. A thought comes to him and shining the flashlight on various parts of the nearby boulevard, Brian eventually located a thick enough stick. Returning to the storm drain, he adjusted the light so that he could see and dipping the stick down between the grating, he began his attempts to try and fish the amulet out.
After what felt like several long hours, it was actually only about fifteen minutes, and several times having to get a new stick because he kept breaking the one he had, Brian eventually managed to get to amulet hooked. Slowly bring it up, he grasped it in his hands, fearing to let it go and that he would somehow drop it back into the storm drain.
Collecting the flashlight, he stood and moved a couple steps away from the drain and shining the light on the amulet, he brushed the bits of debris off the trinket, unable to fully make out the imprinted detail. Pocketing the necklace, he clicked off the amulet and began the walk home. Letting himself in, he was immediately greeted by his father, who started hollering at him that dinner was on the table and that his mother was worried because he had taken off without so much as a word as to where he was going.
Unsure how to tell his father about the amulet, Brian instead shrugged and explained that he had dropped something he needed for class, that he was unable to find it and that he would need to get another copy from the teacher.
"I don't care," his father replied gruffly as he turned away and headed for the dining room.
Following after his father, Brian made a quick detour to the linen closet, where he returned the flashlight, and then to the bathroom, where he washed up, knowing that he was saving himself from another verbal tongue lashing, this time from his mother, who would be upset that he had come to the table dirty.