Babe in the Woods

by Jennifer White

  

Andre was walking in the woods, just taking a hike, enjoying nature. He was on a camping trip, and had been heading north for three days since he left the small town. He was an expert in the woods, so he made very good time. He wanted to make it to the mountains, then spend a few days there before heading home.

He was getting tired and hungry, so he sat down in a clearing, and set up his picnic from the supplies he had been carrying in his backpack.

He ate his sandwiches, drank his lemonade, then cleaned up everything so as not to leave any trash behind. 'Leave only footprints, take only pictures' was a great motto for nature lovers.

As he cleaned up though, he had a strange feeling, with the hair standing up on the back of his neck. Like he was being watched. He looked over his shoulder a few times, but didn't see anything.

He picked up his backpack, and started back into the woods. But he had been bothered by the odd sense of being watched, so after he went into the woods, he quietly doubled back, and looked from behind a tree to see what might be out there.

A minute passed, with only the wind moving the grass. But then to Andre's surprise, he saw someone! Out here, deep in the woods, miles and miles away from even the nearest campground. It was a little blonde girl, dressed all in white.

Andre ran out after her.

"Hello!" he cried as he jumped out, startling her. "It's okay, I won't hurt you."

The little girl stood her ground, and just glared at him. It was a strange reaction.

"Are you lost? Where's your mommy and daddy?" he said.

"I'm not lost" she replied in her little voice.

"Then where are your parents?" replied Andre. He was very concerned. Out here alone, a little girl stood no chance. She would starve or worse within a few days. There were bears, wolves and other wild animals around. He had to save her.

"Just go. Look what you did to my flowers!" she said angrily.

He looked down.

"What, these? Those are just wildflowers."

"They were *my* wildflowers" she said defensively.

"Look. I've got to get you to safety. You can't be out here alone."

"Why?" she said.

"Because you're just a little girl!" he said.

He looked at her again. Why was she so resistant to him helping her. She didn't belong here. She wore small white wildflowers in her long wild hair, but seemed very clean for a little girl alone in the woods.

But there was no trail anywhere near here. There was no campsite. He would have to take her back to town, and call the police. There was no other course of action.

"Look little girl, you need to come with me. I'll take you to safety."

"You think you can tell me what to do?" she said. It startled him to hear words like that from such a young little thing.

"I'm an adult. You need help. I am going to help you."

She looked at him, then suddenly smiled.

"I'm Daisy, who are you?" she said.

"I am Andre" he said in a friendly tone of voice. Now he was getting somewhere.

Daisy took some of the wildflowers out of her hair, and held them in her hand.

"Andre, can I put some flowers in your hair?" she said.

Hey, if it got her on his side, then it would be worth it. Now she was acting like the silly little helpless girl that she was. No more pretending to be brave.

"Sure Daisy."

He crouched down, and let her weave them into his hair. When she was done, he went to stand up, but found that his legs were locked in place.

"You think that just because someone looks like me, that they are completely helpless? You think that based on only my looks I am weak? You think that because you are a *man* you can tell me what to do?"

"No, it's just that you're a girl and..."

"I am tired of being told 'you are just a girl'! I may look like a girl to you, but I am actually thousands of years old. I am from a race that came from over the great seas before your kind ever settled here. We look like waifs or children to you, but you mortals do not realize what we are!"

"Then what are you?" he said, frightened that his paralysis had moved up to his arms now.

"Some have called us 'elves' or 'fairies'. There are other words in other cultures, but don't you find it strange that almost every culture speaks of us little people with powers, but nobody believes that we exist?"

"So you..."

"So I am not just a girl. I know more than you will even know, even if *you* lived a thousand years. And not only have you angered me, but you have killed my flowers. We have great powers, those of us who still inhabit this earth. And you are about to learn some of them."

"What are you going to do to me?" said Andre, with a nervous high pitched voice.

"I have already done it" she said.

Andre looked at Daisy, who was looking right into his eyes, only a few inches away.

"Stand up" she said.

Andre tried to, but nothing happened.

"Oh I'm sorry" she said, "you *are* standing up."

Andre realized that this was true. He was staring her in the eye, and he *was* standing up. He was her size now.

"My, what pretty hair you have" she said.

"Pretty hair? Me?" he said. He reached up to touch his head, and found that it was now covered with long golden hair. It was wavy and wild, full and thick. How could this be?

"We can fix that wild hair with a few ribbons" she said, braiding it up, and putting in red ribbons. Andre wondered what had happened to the wildflowers she had placed there before.

"My, what a pretty face you have" she said.

"I don't have a pretty face!" said Andre. Daisy shook her head, and led him by the hand to the brook, which was gurgling with rushing water through the woods. In a still pool near the banks, Andre looked down. His eyes opened wide when he saw that he looked like Daisy's sister now, with the face of a pretty young girl.

"And what a pretty dress you are wearing" she said. It was only then that Andre noticed that he was wearing a white dress with lacy edges and pretty embroidery. He looked completely like a little girl.

Look like a girl? Impossible! But he looked in the book again, and it was impossible to tell that it was really him in the reflection.

"Andre thought, if I look like a girl...."

Instinctively his hand reached down between his legs. He felt nothing there. Nothing there at all.

 

"That's not ladylike!" scolded Daisy. "For that, you get punished."

"Punished?" said Andre, "how?"

"Like this" she said, waving her arms wide open, then towards him. Andre tingled all over, then looked up at her.

"What's your name?" asked Daisy.

"I'm Andrea" was the reply from the person previously known as Andre.

"That's a pretty name, for a pretty girl" said Daisy.

"Thank you!" replied Andrea.

Andrea took Daisy's hand, and they skipped off together through the woods.

* * *

 

After helping Daisy tend to some of her flowers, Andrea started to sneeze from all the pollen. She wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"That is not very ladylike, and you must be punished!" scolded Daisy. She waved her arms, and pointed at Andrea, who suddenly got a strange look on her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Daisy.

"Oh, its just that I wish I was older. I can't wait until I get my boobs like the big girls have, and I can do what the big girls get to do, like staying up late, and going out on dates."

"But you're just a little girl!" said Daisy. "You can't do those things!"

"But I want to!" said Andrea, who started to cry. "Its not fair! Why do I have to be a little girl? I want to be a woman!"

Daisy had to console her, to keep her from crying.

"There there, you'll grow up to be a big girl some day" she said.

 

Daisy took Andrea to her house, which was underground. You had to go through the trunk of a tree to get inside, but once there you would never suspect that you were underground. It was like a wonderful home, but it was hidden from unwanted intruders.

Andrea took a hot bath, put on a flannel nightie, and sat around the fire with Daisy who told her old stories, fairy tales of princesses and enchanted animals.

Andrea longed to be a princess who was rescued from her high tower by a handsome prince. She imagined being kissed by the prince as she fell asleep.

 

"I put a spell on you" intoned Daisy. "When you wake up, you will again remember who you are. But you are unable to tell anyone! And you will remember who I am, but you are unable to tell a soul! If you return to this spot in two years and two days, at noon, and I will consider setting things back to how they were, if you have learned your lesson!"

Andrea slept, unaware of the magic working on her...

* * *

 

"Look, it's a little girl!" said the teenager, pointing to the blanket in the clearing where the golden haired child slept.

"Alone in the woods! Where's her parents?" said the mother, racing over.

"Look at her hair mom, she's a mess. She must have been here for some time."

"Little girl! Little girl! Wake up!" said the mother.

Andrea woke up. The events of the past day flooded back to her memory. Daisy the fairy had transformed her into a little girl! And she had lived one day with all of her thoughts being childlike and girlish.

Now she knew who she was, and where she was. But when she went to tell the kindly lady who had found her about the evil fairy, what came out of her mouth was different.

"Hello, I'm Andrea!" she said. "I'm so glad you found me. I've been lost out here for days!"

"You couldn't have been here for days. You're just a girl! Now where's your mom and dad Andrea?" asked the lady.

"I don't know" said Andrea, who suddenly was overwhelmed and started crying. She found that when she tried to talk about herself or Daisy, then the girlish thoughts would fill her head, and she had no control.

"Please take me away from here" she said, of her own free will. She vowed to talk about herself and Daisy as little as possible. She hated how it felt when she couldn't even control the thoughts in her head. And to have the thoughts of a young girl in a mind that had been male for almost thirty years was too much to take!

* * *

 

The next few days were so frustrating to Andrea. First of all, she was really Andre, trapped in the body of a girl. He had grown up as a boy, so he was completely unprepared for being a girl. As a girl, women wanted to dress her up in pretty clothes. Other girls wanted to play with her, doing girly things. Boys though she was yucky, and didn't want anything to do with her. And all adults dismissed her right away as not knowing anything.

"You're just a little girl" they'd say if Andrea ever suggested anything. As if she didn't know anything at all! She had 30 years of life experience, and realized that she knew more about things than most of the adults she was around. But it didn't matter; no adult (particularly a man) is willing to take advice from a child. And especially a girl.

So Andrea quickly learned it was best to just keep quiet, and 'act her age'. Otherwise, the adults just got upset with her.

 

A couple of times Andrea made the mistake of trying to tell someone about Daisy, or about what had happened to her. It was a mistake, because just like hitting a light switch, her head would suddenly fill with girlish thoughts, like the light that floods a room when the switch is thrown.

Andrea couldn't tell, but it seemed that each time her thoughts were ripped away, and replaced with those more appropriate to a girl her age, it seemed to take longer to get back to being herself. She wondered if *both* set of thoughts were always going on in her head, but only one of them was in control at a given time.

And it seemed that when the silly girlish thoughts had been in her mind, that something subtle within her was changed just a little bit. Like the way that she now accepted being a girl, referring to herself as 'she' or 'her'. She knew that she was really supposed to be a man, but she also accepted who she was, for now.

 

When no parents were found in the woods, and there were no reports of a missing child fitting her description, the authorities decided to put Andrea in a foster home. Fortunately for her, the nice family which had found her in the first place applied for custodianship, and they were granted temporary custody.

"A wise man called a judge will decide where you're going to live" said Sharon, the mother.

"Until then, you're going to stay with us" said Daniel, the father.

There were also two young children, a boy and a girl. Paula was the same age as Andrea, and Annie was two years older.

The good part was that Andrea had a nice place to stay, and was provided with all of the essentials of life: shelter, good food, safety, warmth, and even clothes. Although the clothes they gave her were appropriate for a young girl, she just couldn't quite get used to having to wear a dress, or having long pretty hair.

It was a second childhood for Andrea, but she really wanted to do all of the things she had as a little boy. But she was forced to play with Annie and Paula. They wanted to play house, play with dolls, play school teacher to the stuffed animals, and all sorts of games which were boring for Andrea.

But Andrea played along. What choice did she have? If she was antisocial with the girls, then perhaps they'd move her to another foster home. She realized that her only chance to ever get back to being Andre was to stay with this family, and somehow talk them into going camping in the forest where Daisy had transformed him.

If he could hang on until 2 years and 2 days from when he had been changed, then he could find her and get changed back. If not...the implication of having to live his whole life as a girl sent dark shivers up and down his spine. He would look to the future with dread and horror if he had to continue on like this.

Girls grow up to be young ladies, then to become women. Andrea wondered if the physical urges that her body would feel as she matured sexually would override the thoughts in her male psyche within.

She suddenly saw in her mind an image of herself as a young woman, with curves, breasts, a pretty face, looking sweat and attractive. It was a future that she would do anything to avoid.

* * *

 

When Andrea played with Annie and Paula, she would often laugh to herself when the topic of boys came up. The two of them had some strange ideas about boys, and why they acted like they did. They were very ignorant on many topics, but when Andrea started to speak out to correct them, she found that it was another trigger that would plunge her into the 'girl mode'. She would have to fight and claw her way back out to be herself again.

She decided that it was best to just play along, and agree with them so that she wouldn't lose control of herself again. She *hated* it when that happened. And she was sure now that when she spent time in 'girl mode', that it effected her somehow when she came back out of it. She had to avoid it at all costs.

But every now and then she'd do something stupid, and slip into really being a girl in her mind. Perhaps it was her new body, but she sometimes acted her age, even when she was fully in charge.

"Its not fair! That's my toy!" she told Sharon, her foster mother.

She had been playing with it, and Annie just took it from her. It made her cry.

"But that belongs to Annie" said Sharon. "Its really hers, and she was just letting you use it. If it was your toy, and she was playing with it, you might want it back, right?"

"I guess so" said Andrea, through the tears. It just wasn't fair.

Andrea went to go mope. It scared her how she hadn't done anything to put her into girl mode, but here she was, acting like a little girl! She decided that the best thing for her would be to start doing things like reading books more, instead of trying to play toys.

She looked through the library of books, and found of course that they were all books for little girls (duh...with 2 girls in the house, what else would you expect?). But she was determined to keep her mind sharp, so she read whenever she could.

* * *

 

Andrea was enrolled in the elementary school, and started going there every day too. The lessons were very easy, so she was getting A+ on almost everything. It was a breeze, so she got bored sometimes. But since children had short attention spans, they were always going to something else quickly.

Recess was hard to take. Andrea wanted to play with the boys, whether it was throwing around the ball, shooting hoops, or wrestling with each other. The girls would all play on the merry-go-round, or play hopscotch and other games he had no clue about.

Paula would hang out with her most of the time, and she taught Andrea how to play. At least it was something new to learn. So she would play the games with all the girls, although she still longed to be her former self again.

 

Andrea also started going with Paula and Annie on their after school activities. She played on a soccer team with Paula, as well as ballet lessons, swimming and tennis. She hated having to put on cute little outfits for each activity. The leotard for dance lessons was bad enough, but the little pink outfit for the recital was the worst! She felt so *emasculated* to wear it, even though she was a girl.

Seeing herself in the mirror: a little girl with long pretty hair, wearing a pink tutu. She almost wanted to cry.

"I'm never going to get back to being myself" she thought.

* * *

 

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and soon enough, a year had passed. Andrea marked the days in a diary, making sure to keep track of when she needed to get back to the woods, so she could find Daisy. It was the one thing that kept her going.

She was more used to being a girl now, and had developed many friends at school. There was always some birthday party going on, or a sleep over, or something. Summer vacation had been nice, but instead of watching baseball games and mowing lawns, she had spent the summer hanging out with friends, and doing what girls do instead.

Activities for boys had tended to be sports based or goal based. But for girls, it was *social* based activities. As a boy, he would meet a friend to shoot hoops, to trade baseball cards, or some other activity. But as a girl, she would meet a friend just to be with the friend, to hang out, to talk. It was completely different, and Andrea was beginning to understand why girls and boys were so different when they started getting together socially when they matured.

It was almost as if each had come from a different culture, with a different background. Andrea took notes in her diary, for the day when she became Andre again. Then he would be able to read her diary, and understand some of these things. That would let him relate to women better. So she was doing it for him.

* * *

 

When you are a child, sometimes time seems to drag on forever, and something like waiting in line to see the pediatrician can seem like an eternity. But on the other hand, sometimes as a child, you look up and suddenly it's another birthday party, or suddenly its the end of the year.

Andrea was so busy with activities, school, friends and her new family, that almost before she knew it, she was coming up on the two year anniversary of having become a girl.

She had plotted out what she would do to get the family to go camping. She rehearsed her speeches many times, and finally went ahead and tried to convince Sharon, her foster mother, first.

"I want to go camping" she announced as Sharon drove her to the dentist office.

"That's nice dear" she replied, in a tone which Andrea understood to mean 'no'.

"No really mom, I want to go camping. Its almost 2 years since you found me out there, and I want to go visit that place again."

"Is that such a good idea? You might have been traumatized."

"But I really want to go. That's where you found me, and that is where I need to be. Part of me really wants to see that place again. Please mom, can we?"

Andrea didn't often call her 'mom'. Just at times that she needed to manipulate her. She didn't do it often, keeping it as her secret weapon.

She worked on Sharon on the way back too, and decided that she had done enough. She would let Sharon try on talk Daniel into it. She was glad to hear a few days later that the family was going on a camping trip! Back to the woods! She hugged Sharon, then Daniel.

"Oh thank you so much! This means so much to me!" she said, with real tears of joy forming in her eyes. She was going to be able to get back to being herself!

* * *

 

Now time really seemed to drag on, as she counted the minutes until they left for the trip. They had two tents, one of the parents, and one for the girls. They arrived on the 2 year anniversary of the day that they found Andrea.

Annie and Paula weren't too thrilled with being out in the woods. It was dirty, full of bugs and yucky things, and they hated being in a tent in sleeping bags instead of in comfortable beds. They did however stay up late, telling ghost stories around the campfire.

Andrea could not wait for the next day to go by. They went hiking, took a rowboat out on the lake, and went on the nature trail. That night, Andrea could not sleep, as she was filled with so much excitement. Just 12 hours to go!

 

She finally did fall asleep, waking up at 10:00am.

"Look at little Miss Sleepyhead!" said Sharon, as Andrea finally emerged from her tent.

They were less than half a mile from the field where she needed to be in 2 hours. Everything was ready. After breakfast (she could hardly eat because she was so giddy with excitement), Sharon and Daniel started to tear down the tents. Now was the perfect time to slip away.

"I'm going to go pick some wildflowers" said Andrea.

"Stay in sight honey" said Sharon.

"Sure thing mom" said Andrea, knowing full well that she would do the opposite. She picked flowers for a while, keeping a careful eye on her foster parents. When they turned their backs to haul off the tents to the family minivan, she ducked under the ferns, and made her break for it.

She headed through the woods towards the clearing where Daisy was waiting for her (she hoped!). She wore a pretty little watch she had received for her birthday, and it read 11:45. Just 15 minutes to make it over the ridge, and descend down towards the meadow.

Andrea stopped, and looked back. Nobody was following her. By now they would be missing her, so she had better hurry. She did feel bad for them, in that once she was changed back, they would never find Andrea, and would feel guilty for losing her. But getting back to being Andre was more important than hurting some feelings!

She could now see the trees thinning out, at the edge of the woods. She was almost there! She emerged into the sunshine, and ran into the middle of the meadow.

Daisy was nowhere to be seen. Andrea turned around, and looked in all directions. Still no sign of her. The watch on her frail little wrist read 11:59. One minute! She was almost shaking, and could barely contain her excitement.

Then she saw her: Daisy stood up, flowers in her hair and everything, just like she had appeared before. Andrea was surprised to find that she was taller than Daisy now. Andrea had kept growing for two years, as little girls do. But Daisy was completely unchanged.

Andrea was so excited that she jumped up and down for joy. She just couldn't help it. The expression on Daisy's face suddenly changed. She seemed to be staring at Andrea's feet.

Andrea looked down. She had been jumping up and down on a small patch of wildflowers, and had trampled them.

"You didn't learn, did you" said Daisy, disappointed.

"But I did! I learned how people treat us, little girls that is, and what it is to be one. And I made lots of girlfriends, and I went to school, and then I took dance lessons and played soccer and..."

"But you didn't *learn*" said Daisy.

Daisy looked over to Andrea, then suddenly yelled in a surprisingly loud voice: "OVER HERE!!!!"

The strange thing was her voice sounded exactly like Andrea's.

 

Less than a minute later, Daniel emerged into the clearing. He ran over to Andrea, and grabbed her.

"We've been looking all over for you!" he said. "How could you wander off like that?"

Andrea wanted to tell him to let her go, but the words that emerged from her mouth were: "Oh daddy, I'm so glad you saved me! I was lost, and I'm so scared!"

Inside, Andrea was fuming! Just because she stepped on a flower, Daisy was going to make her continue to live as a girl? Her foster dad took her by the hand, and headed back to camp. She skipped happily alongside him, even as she wanted to turn around and talk to Daisy.

Right before the reached the edge of the forest, she heard Daisy's voice wafting on the air.

"He can't hear me now, only you Andrea. You are a girl now, and for the rest of your life. I will never allow you to see me again. Do not come back to this place. Good-bye little *girl*."

Andre's spirit inside his new *permanent* body shrank back, just a little. His presence within Andrea's head was greatly diminished at that moment. Her mind was in full girl mode now, never to revert again. Only enough of Andre remained inside to give her vague memories of the distant past. Perhaps on the edge of sleep at night, she might recall something from his life, as if from a dream. The girl within was fully in charge now, and what was left of Andre's spirit could only look on helplessly as she experienced life.

Each passing signpost on the road to womanhood would kill him off a bit more. And as Andrea moved from being a girl into being a woman, he would be completely forgotten.

He suddenly knew all this in a flash, as his brain was swallowed up into girl mode. A moment later, Andrea looked up to her step father, grateful for all he had done.

"I'm so sorry daddy" she said. "I'll never leave you again. Please don't ever take me to the woods. I'm too scared. I want to go home. I want to be with you and mommy and my sisters."

"There, there" said Daniel, "everything is going to be all right. You're safe now. We'll get you home, and you can sleep in your own bed tonight."

"I'll be a good girl from now on, I promise!" said Andrea, meaning it with all her heart.

  

  

  

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