by Erin Halfelven
 

2.3 Sandwich

I stared for only a second then snatched it out of his hand and tried to put it on while I got up and out of his reach. Somehow, I could not get it to fit any finger of my right hand, where I had on the invisible green ring, so I tried it on the left. It fit the ring finger there, and I clenched my fist to look at it.

But the stone had turned green instead of blue.

"Unk told me that would happen," Kevin said.

I glared at him.

"It's not which ring we got to put on; it's who we are. You're the... child and grandchild of women who've worn the green ring, and guys in my side of the family have worn the blue one."

"Crap," I said.

"Fate, karma, whatever," said Kevin. "Whichever ring I chose to pick up from Unk's hand would have been the blue one and you would get the green one."

"Double square crap with cubical corners," I said. "What happens if I twist this ring around?"

"Go ahead and try it," he said. "Unk thinks maybe you can change back to your boy-self with it."

I felt hopeful. "Clockwise or counter-clockwise?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said, shrugging again. "One way probably makes your tits bigger though." He grinned.

I glared at him, knowing his bullpucky when I heard it. I gave him a raspberry.

He laughed. "Took Unk a while to think of doing this and I wasn't so sure... well, anyway. Try it. It's one reason I came out here."

I twisted the ring completely around, clockwise. I looked down and still saw tits but in the Damselfly costume instead of the borrowed top and slacks. Except the colors were different, hot pink with green trim instead of green with yellow. The stone I saw had changed to red, too. "This is actually worser," I complained.

"Wow," said Kevin. "That's the Maidenfly costume instead of Damselfly."

"Still sucks," I said. "Who's Maidenfly?"

"When there have been two women using the rings at the same time, one of them had on the Maidenfly version. Unk showed me pictures. According to him, one was of your grandmother and mother in the costumes."

"Mom?" I still found that hard to believe, my mom wearing a costume like I had on just then, but didn't dispute it. "Who comes up with these insect names?"

He shrugged. "I think both of those are better than the name used when a boy wears the green ring and stays a boy in costume. You could be known as Beetle-Boy."

I remembered Gumpy saying something about that. Shit, I'd almost rather be Damselfly than let myself be called Beetle-Boy. Almost. On second thought, bring on your Beetle-Boys.

Something else occurred to me though. "So the green ring is always a sidekick ring?"

He grinned. "You said it, not me."

I sniffed at him. It wasn't funny to me, but it seemed to amuse him. I looked at the ring again, heavy and gold in my hand.

"Try something," he suggested. "If it makes your tits bigger, I'm sure I can adjust to that."

"Moron," I said.

I experimented. It didn't matter how many times I turned the ring or which direction, it had only two settings, my 'Darla'-shape and the Maidenfly costume. I even took it off and reversed it that way, too, but no joy. It made me want to cuss but somehow, I just couldn't say the words.

I couldn't get the ring off in costume so I changed back to the pink top and green slacks and then it came off easily. "Here's your ring," I said. "Thanks for trying but the magic is... not done... messing with me." I bit my lip to keep from crying again.

Kevin took the ring and slipped it on. As soon as he touched it, the stone changed back to blue. "One more thing to try," he said. He held out the hand not wearing the ring. "Take my hand in yours then reach over and turn the ring on my other hand."

I blinked, but it was worth an effort. Maybe it would turn him into a girl, too.

It didn't but it worked, sort of. Using that method, I could change between 'Darla' and 'Damselfly" at the same time that Kevin switched between himself and the Skarab costume.

I turned it twice, counter-clockwise, and we both stood there naked for a moment. He let go of my hand and turned it back quickly.

That restored our clothes, even though we weren't touching anymore. "Sorry about that," he said, grinning. "Unk told me that if you are quick with the turning, you can go back to a clothed setting before the ring goes into safety and disappears. But you can use the… the naked settings to set up new sets of clothes. Quick changes."

He peered sideways at me, I guess to see if I was pissed off about being naked for a moment. It had been my own fault, of course, so I tried not to blame him.

"Your tits are still the same size," he observed, waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up," I said. I couldn't help it; he was so absurd that I smiled and blushed. "That's sexual harassment, you know."

"Okay, then; we have a budding feminist." He grinned.

"Let's try something else," I said. "Let's not turn the ring twice the same direction, we know what that does."

"Boy, howdy," he said.

Somehow, instead of me holding his hand, it had ended up that he was holding mine. But no matter how we turned the rings, I didn't change back to Darryl.

Hope had faded so gradually that I almost hadn't noticed but when we gave up, it all hit me at once.
"It's no use! I'm stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck!" I said, bursting into sobs, to my complete surprise.

Wasn't I cried out by now? But this was different. Before I had just leaked tears or squeezed them out when I was angry, but this was gasping, wrenching, weeping like something terrible had happened to Mom or Tanya.

Kevin moved randomly around me while I wept, I knew he wanted to put an arm around me or something and I couldn't stand that so I backed away, turning to run again, maybe up in the hills where I could live off of acorns and cowberries or something.

"Darryl!" said Kevin, startling me. "Stop crying."

"You called me Darryl," I said, staring at him.

"Yeah, well, you stopped crying, didn't you?" He grinned at me. "I knew if I hugged you, you'd probably try to kick me in the balls again."

I snorted. Well, I intended to snort but it came out sounding more like a sniff. He handed me a napkin, and I turned away to wipe my eyes and blow my nose. "I'm not ever going to change back, am I?" I said.

"Hey, half the human race is female, most of them seem okay with that," he said. "Maybe you'll get used to it."

I made a face. "The idea of getting used to it somehow makes it worse."

"Oog, sorry. I've been... I haven't been making this easy on you, I'm not sure why. Joking around, trying to embarrass you…."

"Is that an apology for having been a jerk?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. That's probably what it is. You know I ain't any good at saying I'm sorry. Frankly, what happened to you scared me, and made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world and a little bit guilty for feeling that way."

I thought about it. “Like that, huh?” I said. It did explain a little his attitude and why he kept up the aggravating comments.

“Yeah, like that. Sorry,” he said it again.

The smell from the meatball subs, partly unwrapped on the picnic table hit me just then, and suddenly I remembered being hungry. My stomach growled, loudly, like a pit bull sensing a wounded postman.

Kevin laughed. "How delicate, how ladylike, how lovely," he said.

"Shut up," I said. "You're still a jerk. But I guess we can eat, huh?"

"I guess so," he agreed. He smiled at me and held a hand out, I suppose to help me sit down at the awkward bench around the picnic table. I ignored the hand and he snatched it back.

We both sat, on the same side of the table since the other bench was broken. I picked one of the sandwiches up, being careful. Sliced meatballs, spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, and green pepper rings on an Italian roll. "Messy," I commented.

He shrugged. "I brought a whole roll of paper towels."

"Good thing," I said, opening a soda.

"I would have brought you some diet soda, too, but Unk doesn't have any," he said.

I looked at him carefully to see if he was kidding and caught the hidden grin around his eyes. "Still trying to goof on me," I complained.

He laughed and unwrapped the other sandwich. "Almost forgot," he added before taking a huge bite, "Unk says he'll do some training with us, show us what we can do with our powers. After we eat."

I thought about it while we ate. I had superpowers now, along with the girly parts. Hadn't I always wanted to have superpowers? What kid living in the Promethean Age didn't?

Almost as if he'd been reading my mind, Kevin suddenly asked, "If you'd been offered this deal yesterday, superpowers but you have to be a girl, would you have taken it?"

I thought about it a moment. A few years before, I might have made a wish for powers without conditions. Being super was, well, it was pretty damn neat. I glanced down as I moved quickly out of the way of dripping spaghetti sauce. Very, very quickly, one evidence of my powers….

So I had tits now, it didn't have to be permanent, maybe only a few nights a week?

Could I live with that? Would I have taken that deal yesterday if it had been offered in those terms? I would never know because no one had offered.

"Chips?" offered Kevin, holding out a bag each of Doritos and Ruffles. "Your choice?"

"Eat your sandwich and shut up," I said.