On a bed in Springfield Memorial Hospital lay Tegan, her eyes firmly closed, her body motionless. A pair of electrodes attached to her temples led to an encephalograph, which measured what little remained of her brain activity.
The clock on the wall showed a time of 3 p.m. as resident physician Julius Hibbert welcomed Tegan's family into the hospital room. Her parents appeared terribly worried, her younger brother Alan even more so—his pale, glum expression hinted that he had stepped into the future and watched her die.
"Has she shown any improvement at all?" Mrs. Powers asked the doctor.
"She smells a lot better since the nurses gave her a sponge bath," replied Dr. Hibbert. "Heh heh heh heh heh."
Tegan's father simply grasped the sleeping girl's wrist and squeezed gently. "I don't know if you can feel this," he half-whispered. "I don't know if you can hear me. If it helps you wake up faster, I'll come here every day and hold your hand and talk to you. If you're not all there when you wake up, that's all right—we'll muddle through. I don't know who took away our memories, but that's not important now, because we're together again."
Tegan breathed shallowly.
In Elwood City, D.W. was sharing with her best friend, Nadine, her fond memories of Greta and the adventures they had enjoyed.
"I don't get it," said Nadine. "If she was a unicorn, why didn't she walk on all fours, and have a tail, and stuff?"
"She wasn't that kind of unicorn," D.W. explained to her friend. "She was like you and me, except she had a horn stuck in her head. When I turned into a unicorn, I had a horn too."
"What's that like?" Nadine wondered.
"It was kinda cool. If I wished hard enough I could make my horn disappear, or even come off. If you find a unicorn horn, you get three wishes."
"Cool," said Nadine, brushing her stringy white hair from her face.
"If you had three wishes," D.W. asked her, "what would you wish for?"
"Three cupcakes," replied Nadine without hesitation. "Or maybe two cupcakes and two cream puffs."
Maria Harris lovingly watched the two girls as they sat on the bedroom floor, lazily walking their cowgirl toys. "I'll tell you what I'd wish for if I had wishes," she said to Nadine.
"What?" asked her daughter.
"Three more little girls just like you."
D.W. and Nadine giggled. Maria, hearing a knock at the door, spun around.
A rabbit woman with flowing blond hair stood in the doorway—it was her good friend, Augusta Winslow.
"How are you, Augusta?" she asked with delight.
The woman had put on a casual pantsuit, but her face indicated that she had serious business to discuss. "Walk with me, Maria."
The October sun warmed the two ladies as they strolled along the sidewalk and talked in hushed tones.
"I'm going to ask you something," said Augusta, "and I want an honest answer."
"Go ahead," said Maria.
Augusta swallowed. A sparrow flew past her head.
"Are you still in love with Angus?"
The question startled Maria to the point that her lower lip quivered.
"I'm sorry to put you on the spot like this," said Augusta, "but it's important that I know."
"Angus is gone," said Maria quietly. "At first I didn't want to date other men, because I knew they wouldn't measure up to you…I mean, him. But when I saw that you were adjusting well to the change, and that you were determined to get over Rick and find someone new, I felt…I felt we'd both be happier if we bottled up our feelings and moved on."
"What if Angus were here, right now, standing in front of you?" said Augusta, stopping at a street corner.
Maria chuckled. "That would be different, of course. But we both know that's…"
With a dramatic wave of her hand, Augusta produced a golden unicorn horn from her pocket.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Maria, gazing curiously at the object. "Nadine would love a toy like that. The point's not too sharp, is it?"
"It's not a toy," Augusta told her. "It's the genuine item, and as far as I can tell from examining it, it's good for one more wish."
Maria laughed again. "You sound just like D.W., going on and on about unicorns and wishes."
"I'm not joking," said Augusta, her voice shaking slightly. "With the magic in this horn, I could be a man again." She looked down at the cement. "The problem is, I'm not sure if that's what I want."
Maria smiled tenderly.
"Maybe it's the female hormones talking," Augusta admitted. "Maybe if I was a man, I wouldn't feel this way at all. Oh, Maria…" She shook her head, and the unicorn horn drooped in her hand. "Deep in my heart, I don't wish to be a man—I wish to have a little baby girl, one with witch powers."
"Wouldn't that be sweet," said Maria wistfully.
Augusta suddenly gasped, dropped the horn, and clutched her solar plexus. "What's the matter?" Maria asked her with concern.
"I…I've got this strange feeling," stammered Augusta as her body started to quake. "Like…like something's inside my body that wasn't there before."
The next thing she felt was her waist straining against her increasingly tight, uncomfortable slacks.
"Look at you," said Maria in unbelieving wonderment. "You're…getting…bigger…"
"Oh, my God," panted Augusta as her knees weakened. "Maria, help me out of my pants, quickly!"
By the time she was naked from the hips down, her belly had swollen enormously. Maria carefully lowered her onto the sidewalk, supporting her heaving back all the way.
"Get…help," mumbled the panicked rabbit woman, her breaths coming faster and faster. "I'm…I'm going…into labor."
To be continued in Arthur Goes Fifth VI