Chapter 4

Billy was glad to get the cellphone—it would have saved him some aggravation if he'd had one while he was waiting with the baseball equipment. But that wasn't all, he got a nice letter from the City Parks Commissioner thanking him for protecting the equipment from theft or vandalism. Again, Billy was a hero, and it was all thanks to Genie. Billy didn't know exactly what to say, so he simply thanked the being for his support.

I was glad to do it, Master. After all, it's a part of my job. By the way, have you looked in the mirror lately?

As it happened, Billy normally looked in the mirror only while he was brushing his teeth or combing his hair, but he never paid much attention. Genie's remark was enough to send him to the mirror, and he was startled. Holy moley, Genie! I don't look much like me, anymore, do I? I wouldn't have recognized myself in a crowd photo, I've changed so much. No more of that darned baby fat, and my chin looks like it belongs to a movie star. Thanks a lot. Man, this is great!

Thank you, Master. I'm glad you like the new look. There is still some detail work to do, but you now are pretty close to what I was aiming for. I hope that you continue to like it after I'm through. If not, we can touch up on the details.

Genie, I can't imagine wanting to change anything. You've done a great job! I wonder what Mom and Dad think?

Well, you might bring the subject up at dinner. The change may have been so gradual that nobody really noticed it. All you can do is ask.

Billy promised Genie that he would do so that very night at dinner. He could hardly wait for their answer. He was pretty sure he knew what Ann would say, since she had been sticking as close to him as she could for the past month or so. He had found out that she was jealous of the other girls who were chasing him, and he went out of his way not to tease her over her feelings. He was too flattered by his sister's attention to make any trouble. In a way, it was hard to believe, but they had grown closer together.

That evening, all three of his family members praised Billy on his looks after he mentioned it. The two parents apologized for not noticing, but they excused themselves by saying that the change had been so gradual that they had not realized how different he now looked. Genie commented, See, that's what we were trying for.

Ann reacted a little differently. She broke into tears and blubbered, "Now, all of the girls in school will be chasing you, and you won't even know that I exist. At least half of the girls at school are prettier than I am, and I won't stand a chance with you."

There was a general effort to calm her down, and Billy said, "Ann, you will always be first in my heart. Sure, I'm gonna react when other girls come on to me. Darn it, I'm a boy, so I can't help it. But you will always mean too much to me to be replaced by someone else. I love you, and I want you to remember that, always!"

Ann calmed down after Billy said that, but she responded with a big hug and a kiss on his cheek. She wanted to do more, but she was afraid of getting too big a reaction from her parents.

Billy's little speech and Ann's reaction did trigger an alarm in Elsie's brain. She thought, "Uh-oh, I had better get Ann on the Pill as soon as possible. She's fixated on her brother, and we need to head off trouble before it starts."

By coincidence, Ann started her first menstrual flow a few days later, so she and Elsie made a trip to the gynecologist to make sure that the girl was OK and to get her started on the Pill. Ann passed with flying colors and got her first prescription for birth-control pills. Elsie and Jim knew that it was impossible to get positive results by ordering the two siblings to stay away from each other, sexually, so they hoped the Pills would provide the necessary protection. Nevertheless, they did make it plain that they wanted the kids to hold off on real sex until they were older. Both kids had always tried to respond positively to the wishes of their parents, so they might hold off for a while longer. Hopefully, as the kids aged, they would find some others to occupy them that way.

The summer continued and Ann found a way to be at every one of Billy's baseball games, both league and pickup. She was never bored because Billy always played. He was conceded to be the best short stop in the county, and the age group made no difference, so he was always selected among the first for pickup games. Ann attended, not so much because she was a baseball nut, but because she wanted to keep an eye on her competition.

The Wilder family still went on many camping trips, but less than in previous years because of Billy's attraction to baseball and the effect it was having on his social life. He was still not allowed to date, but he went on many more group outings than he had ever done before this last year. Ann went along on every one of these events as Billy's "date," just so that she could keep an eye out for what she thought of as trouble.

It was on one of these outings that Billy was forced into defending his friends. A small church group of mixed boys and girls had gone on a swimming outing to a nearby state park with a large lake. There were two adults along to supervise, but nobody expected them to have much to do, since all of the kids had such good reputations. Therefore, the adults were off to one side doing what young adults often do on such occasions, and the kids were left pretty much to themselves.

Billy told Ann what he was going to do, so that she would not worry. He swam out far enough to escape the attention of the other members of the outing. Aquaman was all Billy needed to think, and he was transformed immediately. The comic Aquaman could breath underwater as well as in the air, so Billy was under no danger of drowning. He swam underwater all around the lake and down to the bottom. Billy could see so well under water while in the guise of Aquaman that he found several pieces of lost jewelry. Those he slipped under his swimsuit to hold them while he continued to swim about and thoroughly enjoy the complete freedom of the water. Billy figured that he had been away from the group too long as it was, and he needed to return before he was missed and feared drowned.

Just before he reached the floating raft, he returned to his normal form and climbed up there with some other kids. Five of the kids were sunning themselves on the raft that was not very far from shore, and the rest of the kids were diving off the raft and swimming around, laughing and splashing each other. Suddenly, they heard the scream of an air horn, and a large power boat came flying straight toward them. There were half a dozen or so college kids in the boat, and they were waving beer cans and bikini tops at the middle school kids on the raft.

At first, the kids on the raft waved back, but then they realized that the boat was heading straight for them. The boy driving the boat must have been very drunk because he was aiming directly for the raft. His intention was to scare the "little kids," but he had not judged well enough how close he was to the raft. It certainly was not intentional, but the boat crashed into the floating raft at about 25-30 knots.