I had no choice at this point. I simply wished for him to know without any doubt that we were being truthful with him. He immediately stopped in his tracks. Slowly he turned around to look at us. He had a stunned expression on his face. "I told you so," I said.
He quickly returned to us and sat on the stool again. "But how can this be so?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, it's nothing scientific," I said. "It's more or less magic."
"There cannot be magic!" he protested.
"And yet, how are your shoes black all of a sudden?" I asked as I made a quick wish for them to change color.
He looked down to see that his shoes were indeed black. He looked back up at me. "You did this?" he asked.
"I sure did," I answered.
"But then...why are you both girls now?" he asked.
"That's a bit of a long story," I said. "The short version is that I have a power to change things as I want to, and this is where it's lead us so far."
He shook his head. "I don't understand. Why girls? And what do you want with me?" he asked.
"Why are we girls?" said Myrintha. "Because girls have more fun, of course." She giggled at her remark.
I had to keep from rolling my eyes at her. "Mostly because we wanted to be," I said. "It's just sort of turned out that way. But Myrintha is right. Girls do have more fun."
"Myrintha?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, that's right. We're not Joe and George anymore so we gave ourselves new names. I was Joe, now I'm Chrystalia. She was George, now she's Myrintha," I explained. "To answer your other question, we want you to join us."
"Join you?" he repeated with skepticism in his voice and on his face.
"Right," I said. "We're forming a little group of people. A close, tight-knit group who are going to support me as I remake the world." His look of skepticism did not fade. "Trust me when I say that I can do that. And that I will do that. Considering what you meant to the two of us, we'd rather you be in our group than just another person once we begin."
"If I agree, what is in it for me?" he asked.
"Well, you'll be our science person," I explained. "You'll have the power of the scientific community after we're done. Even if you don't know everything, that will be fine, there will be tons of people working under your leadership."
"I don't want that kind of power," he said. "I'd rather just work and research."
"You can still do that!" I said. "You can do more than you ever would otherwise. I mean, look, Tommy..." I took a deep breath. "I know what happened to your parents and I'm so, so sorry about that. It's just terrible." Tommy looked upset. "But I know that other colleges want you to transfer and do research work for them. That's a great opportunity. But we can offer you more than that. You wouldn't have to work under someone else's direction. You could do whatever you wanted. You would dictate your own work, be your own boss, pursue whatever line of research you want."
"But best of all," Myrintha interjected. "You'd be surrounded by great friends who would have your complete support and adoration. I mean, it would be a great environment as opposed to being surrounded by a bunch of strangers and stuffed shirts."
That was a big help to my sales pitch. It offered him something that he didn't currently have. In fact he appeared to be a bit more receptive if I judged his face correctly. At the same time I was becoming nervous. I was afraid he would not go for it. If that was going to be the case, I was afraid I'd have to do something I didn't want to do and make him accept.
"You two have never lied to me," he said. "Even now you didn't lie to me. So I know that what you're saying is the truth. You're also the closest things I've had to friends for a long time. So...I accept your offer."
"Great," I said. "There's one other thing that you need to know."