“I don’t know,” said Cady.
“It can be almost anything,” I assured.
Cady shook her head. “I can’t think of anything,” she said.
“There’s nothing that you know you’d like to wish for?” I asked.
Again she shook her head. “Nothing that I’d only like to have temporarily,” she said.
She had a point there. I looked at Karyn. Karyn seemed to ponder something. “Cady, I know you’re going to
get mad at me, so please don’t,” she said, “but…since you’ve graduated…what’s your sex life been?”
Cady did look agitated at the question. However, she kept her cool. “What sex life?” she asked
sarcastically.
“What about while you were still in school?” I asked.
Cady gave me a very odd look. “What kind of question is that?” she demanded.
“Well, I-I…” I stammered.
Cady cut me off and said, “Did you really forget that we’re not allowed to have sex until after graduation?
You think I’m dumb enough to risk going to detention?”
“Oh, yea, duh,” I said. “I guess I’ve been out of high school too long.” Obviously this was something I’d
need to get more information to avoid another occurrence like that.
“Or you’re just having too much sex,” Cady said with a wry smile.
“Cady!” Karyn said sternly.
“Joking, joking,” Cady said as she gestured with her hands defensively.
“Fine, back to the subject,” Karyn said. “I thought there was someone you really liked. Did you ever ask her
out or anything?”
“No,” Cady said. Again she looked down at her feet. I remembered now that, as a boy, Cady seemed to have
confidence issues. At least that’s what Karyn told me. I thought maybe that could explain why she acted out
to Karyn and why she seemed to take things out on her siblings. Middle kid syndrome, I thought to myself.
Karyn asked, “What was her name again?”
“Samantha Rogers,” Cady said. I wasn’t familiar with that name, but I wouldn’t have been anyway. Due to
that, I had no idea if this Samantha was a boy or a girl before the change.
“How come you never asked her out?” I asked.
“Because,” Cady said. “She was popular, and always surrounded by other girls, and way above me.”
“What do you mean ‘above you?’” I asked. “There’s no such thing as that.”
“You have been out of high school too long,” Cady replied. “Yea, that’s what everyone tells you but it
doesn’t work in high school. All the cliques and everything.”
I understood what Cady meant. High school had certainly been like that when I was there, which was just a few
years ago. But my high school was in another world. I just assumed that it would be different in this world
based upon the other things we had learned.
“Did you ever talk to her at all?” I asked.
“Sure, in class, about classwork,” said Cady.
“Never any personal conversations?” I asked.
Cady shook her head. “No. Maybe. I can’t really remember,” she said.
“I’m not sure what a temporary wish can do to help this, Joey,” said Karyn.
“Yea, this is a tough one,” I admitted.
“Look,” said Cady. “I appreciate this, but I don’t think it’s going to work. I could wish for her to be my
sexfriend now but tomorrow she wouldn’t be.”
It occurred to me now that “sexfriend” might have replaced “girlfriend” in popular usage. Since everyone was
now a “girl” and only feminine words were used, “girlfriend” would be a redundant term. It also made sense
considering the openness of this world.
“So just call her up and ask her out,” Karyn insisted.
“No,” Cady shook her head. “What if she says ‘no?’”
“Then you have your answer and you move on,” Karyn answered.
Cady thought for a minute, but then just shook her head again. “No,” she said. “I’d be to embarrassed.”
“Is there anything that would make you call her?” I asked.
“If I knew she’d say ‘yes’ to me,” Cady replied.
“OK, that’s your wish,” I said. Before Cady could object I said, “I wish Cady would know if Samantha Rogers
would say ‘yes’ to going on a date with her.” Cady shuddered in much the same way Karyn and I had done
previously when we wished for knowledge. Cady gathered her wits as she shook her head violently. “Kind of a
rush, huh?” I asked.
“I’ll say,” Cady answered.
“Well?” Karyn asked. “What’s the verdict?”
Cady smiled. “She’ll say ‘yes.’”