As Steve stood there in stunned silence reading the note, in handwriting eerily similar to his own, he failed
to notice his husband 'Gene' entering the room and slowly walking up behind him.
“Stephanie?” asked Gene.
Steve jumped and let out a startled cry of surprise.
“Sorry, babe,” replied Gene, gently. “Didn't mean to sneak up on you.”
“Oh... erm... I'm... that is... I'm fine,” stuttered Steve.
“Stephie?” asked Gene, eying his wife carefully. “Or... are you 'Steve'?”
“Ohmigod!” blurted out Steve. “H-H-How did you...?”
“You told me everything, babe,” said Gene calmly. “You did it for Janet. But you told me there was only the
slightest remote possibilities that your fictional masculine self... the... oh, what did you call it... your
animus? Y'know, your masculine inner personality? You said there was only a tiny chance that it would
temporarily take over your body when the spell terminated. That's why you wrote yourself that note there. And
why you told me all about your plans.”
“You mean... I'm really not... not real?” sobbed Steve, on the verge of tears now.
“You're real!” smiled Gene. “You're really Stephanie Seaton-Crowley – my wife.”
“B-B-But my whole life,” cried Steve. “Everything that I remember about being married to Janet... and being
father of Alan and Megan... and... my job, my youth, my entire existences – all those memories are... are just
fiction?”
“Yup,” nodded Gene. “Sorry, but you're just a magical illusion – a spell-powered version of virtual reality.
You're an artificial personality, a simulacrum created for a temporary fantasy life of my sister-in-law Janet.
I guess you're 'real' in the same sense that, oh say, a computer program is 'real.' But your memories are all
one-hundred percent pure fiction. And your male physical body never really existed at all. You were just a
complex, very important piece of a hallucination deliberately experienced by Janet.”
“Th-This can't be happening,” stammered Steve. “I... I want my life back. This isn't my body. I'm not a woman!
You're not my husband... I'm Steve, not Stephanie! Janet is my wife, I remember falling in love with her,
marrying her, raising children with her... you- you- you can't just take all that away from me and tell me I'm
not real.”
“I'm sorry,” said Gene somberly.
“I am a man!” shouted Steve, in Stephanie's mezzo-soprano. “I exist – and my name is Steven Donaldson!”
“Why don't we cast that spell you left for yourself, there,” said Gene gently. “It will give you another day
or so to set your affairs in order. Otherwise you could just fade away into non-existence any time now. I'm
really sorry you have to go, uh... 'Steve.' But the thing of it is, that's my wife's body you're inhabiting
right now. And I love her and really want her back with us.”
What next?