Fern's computer screen displayed a picture of her late friend, Greta von Horstein. On each side of the monitor she had lit a tall candle, and laid a few black roses. Her daily moment of silence had arrived. She bowed her head reverently, as Buster, at the other end of the room, looked over her collection of Brooke McEldowney cartoon books.
"Heh heh," chuckled the rabbit boy as he flipped a page in Hallmarks of Felinity. "This is inspiring me to draw cartoons about my puppy. She's got as much personality as this cat."
Ending her silence, Fern extinguished the candles and closed the picture of Greta. "I was under Tegan's influence when she was killed," she recalled. "I didn't experience the full impact of her death. Wherever she is, I hope she can see what I'm doing in her memory."
"Maybe unicorns don't die the same way as the rest of us," Buster suggested. "They're magical, after all."
"I was only beginning to get to know her," Fern reflected, "and then she was taken away from me."
The doorbell rang, and she hurried to answer it, imagining that Greta's parents might have dropped by to commiserate with her. Instead, it was Arthur, Francine, and Van, now known as Vanessa.
Fern welcomed them inside, and then her eyes nearly burst out of her face. "Oh, my gosh!" she exclaimed. "Van, you're walking! What happened?"
The duck girl only grinned sheepishly. "We learned something new about unicorn horns," Francine replied for her. "Never, ever try to get a fourth wish out of one."
Buster jumped up to greet them. "I don't believe what I'm seeing," he remarked. "Was it some kind of miracle cure, or magic spell?"
"This is gonna sound funny, Fern," said Vanessa to the poodle girl, "but I wonder if I could borrow some of your clothes."
"Sure," said Fern generously. "Who do you want them for?"
"Myself," answered Vanessa. "I've turned into a girl, and my old clothes don't fit anymore, plus they're boy's clothes."
Fern gaped for a moment, then started to laugh. After a few seconds of laughing, she gaped again.
"You're serious," she said incredulously. Vanessa, Francine, and Arthur nodded.
"I'll need some shoes, a dress, stockings, and underpants," said Vanessa. "I won't keep them for very long, just until I get some girl clothes of my own."
Fern swallowed and tried to will herself to speak.
"You're a girl," she acknowledged.
"A girl who can walk," said Vanessa proudly.
"How long will you be a girl?" Buster asked her.
"Probably for the rest of my life," the duck girl replied. "Or, until I find a magic spell that turns me back into a boy without making me crippled again. But that may take a long time, so I'll have to make some changes to my lifestyle."
"You don't have to wear a dress," said Fern.
"Why shouldn't I?" was Vanessa's response. "Girls look pretty in dresses."
"All right," said Fern, starting toward her bedroom, "but you'll have to dress yourself."
Francine volunteered to help Vanessa change, and within minutes, the duck girl emerged from the bathroom with a blue dress dangling over her body. Her feet were clad in long white stockings, and protected by a pair of Fern's buckle shoes.
"How do I look?" she asked Arthur and Fern.
"Beautiful," replied Fern in astonishment.
"Will you marry me?" joked Arthur.
"That's a relief," said Vanessa, fiddling with her skirt. "I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life as an ugly girl."
"Your hair makes you look like a boy, though," Fern added. "I've got a few wigs from the drama club. I think you should wear one."
"Wigs are fake," Vanessa protested. "I'll wait for my hair to grow."
"But I insist," said Fern, reaching into the lowest drawer of her dresser. "Here's a spiky blond wig that'll make you look like Ellen DeGeneres. Or if you'd rather be a brunette, here's a Jennifer Lopez wig. I wore it when I acted in Cheaper by the Dozen. Since you just turned into a girl, you may want to start with something simple, like this Shirley Temple wig…"
"Well, I suppose it won't hurt to see what I look like with long hair," said Vanessa, taking the brown wig that Fern was holding out.
The wavy tresses descended over her shoulders as she clamped the wig over her head. "Now the illusion is complete," Fern remarked.
Vanessa stepped in front of the bathroom mirror and admired her new appearance. "This is no illusion," she told Fern. "This is the new me."
Buster watched curiously as the pleased duck gave her wig a shake. "When I was a girl, it felt weird," he related. "Don't you feel weird at all?"
"I'm a girl, and I'm wearing a dress," said Vanessa flippantly. "What's there to feel weird about?"
Glancing out the window, Arthur noticed that a police car was speeding by. "Guys, we've got a problem," he informed the others.
Vanessa quickly learned that Fern's buckle shoes were unsuited for running. Nonetheless, she hurried with Arthur and Francine to Westboro Apartments, where a squad car had parked. Wasting no time, they rushed into the building and discovered that Augusta had company—Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, Odette, and policewomen Pinsky and Jones.
"That is my son's wheelchair," claimed Mrs. Cooper. "I know it from the drawings on the leather arm rests. This witch woman has done something terrible to him, I'm sure of it."
"His wheelchair is here because he left under his own power," said Augusta, clutching baby Petula to her chest.
"You can't expect us to believe that nonsense," said Mrs. Cooper sternly.
"What's this?" her husband interjected. "Have you stopped believing in miracle healings?"
"Don't start, Mel," said the duck woman.
"Yeah, Mom," said Vanessa as she charged into the apartment. "Augusta made me walk, and I didn't have to break my beak for it."
Mrs. Cooper scowled at the little girl in the blue dress who so resembled Van. "Hey, she's wearing a dress," joked Odette. "She must be him."
"Van did turn into a girl," Francine insisted. "Arthur and I watched the whole thing happen." The aardvark boy nodded in agreement.
"Slow down, everyone," said Officer Pinsky, waving her hand. "No, don't slow down. Stop."
"Let's see if we've got the details straight," said her partner, Jones. "Mr. and Mrs. Cooper claim that their son Van was last seen here, and now there's nothing left but his wheelchair. Ms. Winslow claims that Van was not only cured of his paralysis, but magically changed into a girl as well."
"This is even weirder than the couple whose memories of their kids were wiped," Pinsky commented.
"Is that a wig?" asked Odette as she rudely plucked the hairpiece from Vanessa's scalp.
"Hey!" the duck girl complained. "I need that!"
"You even cut your hair to match Van's," Odette marveled. "Why did you go to so much trouble?"
"I told you, I'm Van!" said Vanessa, reaching after the wig in her sister's hand.
"I like the can-opener orphan story better," said Odette as she tossed the wig into Petula's crib.
While Vanessa chased after her hairpiece and the officers consulted with Augusta and the Coopers, Arthur and Francine reflected on what they had seen. "This is scary," Arthur confided. "I'd never want to be a girl. Why is he taking it so well?"
Francine shrugged. "The unicorn spell must have jumbled his brain."
"Yeah," said Arthur, and then a possibility struck him. "Maybe that's how the unicorn horn's supposed to work. It doesn't just change your body—it changes your mind, so you'll be happy as the thing you've turned into."
"You think so?" said Francine in amazement.
"When D.W. turned into a unicorn, she didn't want to go back to being human," Arthur remembered.
"And when I used the horn to turn into a teenager," added Francine, "I liked it so much, I wanted to stay that way."
"And look at Augusta," said Arthur, unaware that the rabbit woman was bending one of her ears to listen. "She was pregnant for, like, half a minute."
"It's like somebody threw a baby in her lap, and she loved it as her own," Francine remarked.
A corner of Augusta's mouth drooped.
"Hey, Van…er, Vanessa," said Arthur to the duck girl as she was replacing her wig, "do you enjoy being a girl?"
"Not really," Vanessa replied.
Francine leaned over to Arthur's ear. "So much for that theory," she whispered.
"But that's only because I haven't done any girl things yet," Vanessa continued. "I'm sure I'll have a great time shopping for clothes, and collecting dolls, dancing ballet, making cookies…"
Arthur shot Francine a smug look.
"Ms. Winslow," said Officer Jones, "we'd like you to come to the station with us so we can ask a few more questions."
Concern filled the rabbit woman's hazel eyes. "All right," she answered, "as long as I can take Petula with me."
"Of course," said the policewoman. "Now come along."
Augusta's mind raced as she followed the officers to their car. I just know they're going to lock me up. Is it because of Van, or because they think I'm crazy? Even worse…what if Arthur's right? What if my love for Petula isn't natural?
"I hope they can get the truth out of her," said Mrs. Cooper bitterly. "My poor little boy—what did that witch do to him?"
"Valerie, what have I told you about guilt by association?" her husband snapped.
"What about Vanessa?" said Odette. "She must know something about what happened to Van."
"Who, me?" said Vanessa innocently.
"You have a point, Odette," said Mr. Cooper. "If she has no other place to stay, we should let her come home with us."
Mrs. Cooper glared at her husband. "Come home with us? Why?"
"Because you disapprove of it," said Mr. Cooper flatly. "Also, I've got…a feeling about her."
"Hooray!" cheered Vanessa as she threw her arms around Odette. "I'll be your little sister!"
"She is not sharing my room," said the swan girl peevishly.
to be continued