With thanks to Bill Hart and all the other creative writers who keep us all hoping that someday Spells R Us store will open at our local malls.

 

SRU: Harry and Harriet                 by: Emmie Dee                 © 2000

 

When the Wizard’s away, Dannie will play! The pretty young wizard’s apprentice had her laptop computer out on the counter of the Sprells R Us store, looking strangely incongruous amid the relics, apothecary bottles, dusty antiques, ancient coins, and other eccentric artifacts. Dannie didn’t care, though, since her master had been called away to an emergency meeting of the Wizard’s Council. This old mall wasn’t busy, and she was bored. She had been a girl long enough that seeing another girl in the mall with turquoise hair made her curious. Being curious made Dannie inventive. She had purchased a makeover program for her computer, and adapted it to her own use. Now Dannie looked at the picture of herself she had scanned into the machine. She smiled. It smiled back. She tilted her head. The image’s head tilted, too. She used the mouse to click on the color bar. She clicked the green square, moved the mouse, and clicked the hair on the image. Immediately, its hair, eyebrows and all turned bright green. She glanced over at a cracked oval mirror in a walnut frame and grinned at the green-haired image looking back at her. This self-morphing program she had written was fun! Red, Dark blue, turquoise, and finally hot pink hair graced her head. After clicking her lips and nails to match, Dannie clicked off the color box, deciding to keep the tousled pink mop for awhile. Using the draw feature, the apprentice drew two graceful, bowed antennae coming out of her image’s head, each ending in a pink ball. *I wonder how I could draw fairy wings so they would look proportional and symmetrical, like a real fairy’s wings,*she wondered. As she pondered, her wizardly womanly intuition chimed somewhere deep in her head. Looking up, she saw a tall man staring through the window. It was okay. Her intuition would have gone to red alert (clashing with her pink hair), had the man at the window seen the antennae grow out of her head. It was too late to delete them, so she would just pretend that they weren’t really attached to her head as if she had been born with them.

Smiling, she waved the visitor in.

"Come on in, Harry," Dannie invited, as a tall man with short dark brown hair and a gentle face stepped through the door. "You look like you've never seen a girl with pink hair and antennae before." Dannie reached up to tap an antenna, and it vibrated and hummed like a tuning fork. "$5.95 at Samson's Gifts," she said. "The pink hair costs more."

Harry blushed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so obvious," he said. "Your hair was just so striking. Did you buy that at Samson's, too?"

The attractive young woman laughed. "No, it's really my hair," she said, tugging at some strands near her temple to demonstrate that it was attached. "Not the color I was born with, actually. I was just in the mood to try something different, so I changed color today. I'm glad you like it."

"I wish my wife had your kind of courage to try something new with her hair," Harry muttered. "She never colors her hair, or tries any really new style, or even cuts it short."

Perhaps it the rose color that crept into his cheeks, Danni's sense of his rising pulse rate, or her intuition that led her to say, "Something makes me think you would like to cut your wife's hair short--very short."

Harry blushed a deeper crimson and looked down at the floor. "You're right. That's the one touchy subject in an otherwise perfect marriage. I do have a hair fetish. That's why I stared at you. Ever since I was a kid, I've enjoyed looking at women's hair--or the lack thereof. The shorter the sexier, and bald is best. Now please--don't think of me as a pervert or anything. When I was 8 or 9, a neighbor girl had her head shaved so the doctors could better treat a severe allergic rash. She wore a bandana most of the time, but since we were good friends, she let me see her without it. She was prettier without hair than with it, I thought. And that's sort of remained my standard of beauty."

"But not your wife's, I take it?" Dannie asked.

"No, not at all. She's very feminine in so many ways. Even though we both work at a software company with no dress code, she always dresses or skirts and blouses. She loves her long, wavy hair. As a matter of fact, she's at Miracle Salon now getting a trim and a perm."

"Have you ever told her about your fetish?" Dannie asked. "Or asked her to cut her hair?"

"Oh, yes. She discovered a video I had purchased from the web, showing some ladies getting their heads shaved. She asked if that turned me on. I said yes. She started crying because she felt that she wasn't beautiful to me. I hugged her and told her she was beautiful, and that I loved her hair. I was honest when I said it, too, I just didn't say I'd love a hairless style better. Anyway, things were a little uncomfortable and strained between us, and finally she said, 'I'd do anything for you because I love you, Harry. I'd even get all my hair cut off if it were that important to you, but I would think of myself as ugly, and wouldn't be happy. But I'd do it.' I didn't want to take advantage of her. So I told her that no, it was just a fantasy of mine, and I wouldn't do anything to make her unhappy. People have different tastes, and I didn't want to force mine on her. I meant it, too. I wouldn't want to hurt her just because of my fetish."

"You and Harriet must love each other very much," Dannie observed.

"Yes we do," Harry started--"wait a minute. How did you know her name? And how did you know mine when I came into the shop?"

"Because I'm a wizard, silly. An acting wizard, anyway. My master--uh, manager--is away on business." Dannie smiled. It was a good thing Harry asked her instead of him that question. He had threatened to turn the next customer who asked it into a banana slug, at least for a while. "Didn't you see the name of the store, and notice anything strange about its merchandise?"

"I thought it was just a funky little magic store," Harry admitted, "A place to buy two-headed coins or rings that link together and come apart. Things like that. You're really a wizard? With pink hair?"

Dannie tapped her mouse a couple of times. Her antennae were now gone, and her tousled, short pink hair was straightening, growing, and turning bright green. Harry watched with his mouth hanging open as the apprentice's grew to meet her ankles. "No, Harry, real magic," she said. "I know you like short hair better, but this was just a way of proving a point." She pulled the long green locks from behind her neck and began to braid them. As she looked down, Dannie noticed how badly the bright green hair clashed with her hot pink dress and fingernails. Holding onto her hair with one hand, she tapped the mouse again and again her clothing and nails matched her hair color. "A bit much, huh? But I might keep it in mind for St. Pat's Day."

"Wow," the tall man said. "I believe in magic now. But you do it on a computer?"

"It's something I'm experimenting on. A little morphing program I wrote that morphs reality, too. Just a toy," said Danni.

"A toy? Not! A toy like that could make billions!" shouted the astonished man.

"I forgot you were into software, Harry," Dannie admitted. "I'm sorry, but this program can't be emulated. See that printer cable that doesn't go to a printer?" She pointed at a cable attached to the computer and wrapped tightly around a stick. "That's a magic wand in there. It powers the transformations. The program itself isn't much different than makeover programs that women buy now. It's the way it's outputted that makes the difference. Now that we've cleared that up, do you want to buy anything? My boss gets mad when people come in but don't but anything."

Harry had the distinct feeling that he shouldn't anger Danni's boss, even at long distance. "Uh, sure, I'll buy something. What do you have?"

"Oh, spells, incantations, potions, elixers, wolfbain, the usual."

"Uh--well, I hate to ask this, but could I have a bald but happy wife, who enjoys being bald as much as I would enjoy her being that way?"

Dannie stalled for time, and thumbed through an old book of spells. That sounded too easy, in a way, and it bothered her sense that a woman had ownership over her own body. "Harry," she finally said. "You're a sensitive, caring guy. I could do what you ask, but I would have to mess with your wife's mind too much. She wouldn't be the same person, and I think you'd feel really guilty about it. Besides, we have our own code of ethics about not doing spells on truly nice people to change them into something they don't want to be."

"You're probably right," he sighed. "So maybe you could cure my fetish, instead?"

"Your fetish doesn't hurt anyone as long as you don't force it on them. If you enjoy it, and it isn't hurting anybody, why cure it? Say--I have an idea. You'd like to see your wife bald, right? But you don't want to hurt her? If you want to pay for the use of the equipment, I can do some morphing here, and you're wife wouldn't even need to know."

Harry smiled. "Sounds great. How much?"

"Twenty five dollars will be fine for one temporary transition," she said. Harry pulled the cash out of his billfold. "Thank you. While your billfold's open, do you have a photo of Harriet?" He carefully pulled out a snapshot and handed it to Danni. It was a mountain scene from a vacation, showing Harry in jeans and a flannel shirt and a lovely petite Harriet, her shapely body clad in a denim dress and peasant skirt. "She is lovely," Dannie said, "And I can see why she doesn't want to cut her hair--so thick, and wavy, and such a pretty auburn color."

"Her hair is beautiful, and I've always thought so," responded Harriet's husband. "She jokingly told me one day that one reason she'd never cut her hair is that short hair would make her too short--if you measure to the top of her scalp, not her hair, she's just a little under 5 feet tall. Her mane allows her to tell people that she's five-two."

"So you're over a foot taller, even allowing for hair," Dannie commented. "Now let's step over to the magic makeover machine. First of all, let me get the scanner. Obviously, that's why I needed the photo." She left the room briefly, leaving Harry to stare around the room. Harry spent most of the time looking not at the marvels around on the shelves, but at the computer. It seemed common enough a model, and the instructions to the makeover program on the monitor looked like typical windows format. As Dannie came through the doorway, he met her to get the scanner. He plugged it in to the power outlet, and linked the cable. Dannie started to click off of her image. "Should I keep my hair like this, before I close the file?" she asked.

"The pink was cuter, I think," he said. Dannie quickly recolored the image and herself and then closed the file. Then they uploaded the picture from the scanner. "So--are we going to create a holograph of how Harriet would look hairless? Or are you going to morph yourself to look like her?" asked the tall man as the upload progressed.

"I had a different model in mind--you," Dannie smiled. "If you like to see bald women, I thought you should try being one for a few minutes. Since you know Harriet so well, the transformation would be much easier, and much more accurate. Don't worry--it'll still be you inside."

For a moment, Harry considered dashing out of the store. There were times that he fantasized what it would be like to be a completely hairless woman, but the thought of that becoming a reality scared him. Still, he was attracted to the idea. Finally he nodded.

"Since I see you're a bit nervous, you can operate the controls, just to be sure I don't pull any tricks on you," Dannie said gently.

"Oh, I trust you, Danni," he said. "But, well, okay. Just show me what to do." Dannie had him click on his wife's image so it was framed and highlighted. The hair drop-down listed dialogue boxes on length, color, style, and other options. He clicked on the latter. One of the options was "Remove all hair." Trembling, he clicked it. An "Are you sure?" box popped up. Dannie nodded. He clicked twice, impatiently. Hair disappeared from the figure on the photo, and Harriet's naked scalp shone in the sunlight.

"I have to admit that I morphed a photo of her once before," Harry told the young woman. "But I had to draw in what was under the hair once I zapped it. I couldn't get it looking right. Can we enlarge the picture?" he asked, with a tremor of excitement in his voice.

"Better. Just put one hand over the wand, go to file, click on apply, then yes," Dannie explained. Harry double clicked, then clicked again on another "Are you Sure?" failsafe box. As soon as Harry's finger lifted from the mouse button, he felt queasy and panicky. He hoped this young woman knew what she was doing! He could hardly see anything but shadows, and he felt like he was spinning in a whirlpool, and he worried that he would go right through the floor of this strange shop into hell. She tried to cry out, but her voice was muffled, as in a dream. As she grabbed the edge of the counter, Harry noticed two things--her nails, long and pink like her wife's were in the photo, and how she was now nose level with the monitor that she had been leaning over to look at before. Then she noticed two more things, under the peasant blouse that Harriet had been wearing in the picture. As she grew more alert, Harry noticed a slight difference in her arms. There was no peach fuzz on them. She reached up and started to caress her smooth scalp, from back to front, and then with both hands.

Harry's face was filled with astonishment and delight. The hair hadn't fallen off, it had just disappeared. "Now if I had a mirror," he said slowly, in a contralto voice, "I would be in hair fetish heaven."

Dannie picked the small walnut-framed mirror and stretched it until it was full-length. "You are completely hairless, by the way, not just bald on top," she said, as he admired his visage. No eyebrows or lashes even, nose hairs, leg hairs," Harry's hand started to slip inside the denim skirt, "or down there between your legs, either," Dannie wryly said. Harry pulled her own hand out like a kid caught in a cookie jar. Dannie could tell that Harry's fetish wasn't limited to her previous male nature, but that she was truly delighted to be a totally hairless woman. Dannie also had to admit that Harry--as Harriet--could pull off the bald look. The smooth scalp drew attention to her large, beautiful eyes, dainty ears, pert nose, and upturned, smiling mouth. In the transformation, she wore the dangling turquoise and silver Navajo-style earrings and necklace that Harriet had worn in the photo.

"I am in heaven," Harry said softly. "I am in heaven. Thank you, Danni, thank you, thank you, thank you!" The short bald woman turned to hug the taller long pink-haired wizard's apprentice, and cried.

Dannie was feeling benevolent. It was fun to bring joy to a truly nice person. "When you're ready to change back, I will teach you a little mental trick. When you're by yourself and can concentrate on the way you look now, you will totally experience yourself as you appear now, but anyone else looking at you would just see tall old Harry. It'd be better than a video, really. But I'd only advise you go to that mode when you're alone. You might get some pretty strange looks if you're acting like Harriet but looking to everybody else like Harry."

Again, Harry thanked the young wizard profusely. "You have made me so happy, Danni. Except for loving Harriet so much and wanting to be her husband, I could stay like this forever. But if I can bring back this experience from time to time, I'll be happy, and Harriet will be happy to have such a contented husband. So I guess you can change me back, now."

"Okay, you can do it yourself, Harry," she told her. Click on the Harriet image on the screen, go to file, move file, and then click on your own image. But hold onto the table. Transformations are pretty stressful."

"Tell me about it," Harry smiled. She followed the instructions and waited. Nothing happened. She tried again, holding her hand directly to the cable-wound wand. Nothing happened. "What's wrong?" she cried. "What's happening?"

Dannie was genuinely mystified. "I don't know," she admitted. She checked the settings, tried clicking them herself, then tried jiggling the cables. Nothing. Uh, oh. The wizard looked down nervously at the petite Harry. "Uh, Harry? When you were changing yourself into this form, can you trace what you did?" Harry told her, and showed her the steps he had taken, all according to Danni's instructions. "Harry, when you clicked apply, did you single click or double click?"

"Double click, I think. I was so excited that I was just trying to make it happen."

"Oh, dear." The wizard apprentice twirled a stand of green hair in her fingers.

"Oh, dear? I shouldn't have?" Harry asked nervously, a painted fingernail rubbing where an eyebrow would have been.

Just then, the phone rang. "Hi, Danni, this is Mindy at the Miracle Salon. We've eaten lunch together at the food court. The strangest thing just happened. I almost fainted. I called you because that nice Mrs. Westerman--Harriet Westerman--was in here for a perm and set, and had mentioned that her husband was killing time down in your end of the mall, and I thought you might have seen him. Tall man, nice, mid 30s, pleasant? I had given Harriet Westerman a nice perm and set, oh, I guess I said that, and she had left for a minute before coming back for me to do the comb-out. Harriet didn't come back, but her husband Harry wandered in, with long hair on his head, all curled and gooped, waiting to be combed out. His hair looked just like Harriet’s did when she left. I hadn't seen Harry for a long time, so I didn't know he had colored his hair and let it grow long. He's just sitting there, with a blank little smile on his face, like he was in a trance, or something. Should I call 911? Or does your strange little store have something to do with this?" Because she liked Mindy, Dannie had referred a lot of new customers to her--bimbos who once were make chauvinist jerks, who had suddenly found themselves wondering where they were and where a good beauty shop might be.

Mindy's message confirmed Danni's suspicions. When Harry had double clicked and clicked the failsafe, it started a permanent body swap between the two people whose images were shown in the scanned photo, not just a temporary bodily transformation. Will the old man be furious at me, or delighted? She wondered. But what should she tell Mindy? "Uh, Mindy? Yes. I know what's going on, sort of. Harry Westerman was here earlier. We had a nice talk, earlier this morning. I helped him sort some things out. He had these really strong transgendered feelings, and wanted to see what he would look like as a woman. He didn't want to be a woman, because he really loves Harriet and wants to keep on being her husband. Harriet, you know how feminine she is, decided that it was okay for him to try it out, to live out his fetish. So they decided to get his-and-her perms." Dannie glanced over at the shocked look on Harry's cute face, and shrugged apologetically. "I'm doing the best I can," she mouthed to Harry. Then back to Mindy she said, "So he must have wandered into your booth by mistake. Go ahead and give him the comb-out you were planning to give Harriet. Yes, I know it's a feminine style, but believe me, that's what he wants. If he decides he doesn't like it, he can get a crewcut later. Actually, I'll bet if you offer to do his makeup for him after the comb-out, he'd agree. Really, Mindy. It's what the customers want, so give it to them. I bet Harriet saw Harry in your booth and went to ask another beautician to finish her set." Dannie hung up the old wooden wall phone.

"Wait a minute!" the bald woman exploded. "Did I understand you right? My wife and I have swapped bodies? Swap us back! Please! You have to! You got us like this, you can change us back."

"I can't," Dannie admitted. "You got you like that because you didn't follow directions precisely. The double click and failsafe were the problem. It's a bug in the software, or in its interface with the wand. It only allows one body swap per customer--or set of customers. You've always liked bald women, so now you get to be one."

"I can live like this," Harry wailed. "As a matter of fact, I love looking like this. But what about Harriet? You didn't want to mess with her mind, or change the basic character of her personality, but now you've messed with her body. It'll kill her to be living in my body. When she sees herself in the mirror, she'll freak."

"Uh, actually it was you that changed her, Harry," Dannie reminded her. "The body swap, by the way, isn't complete yet. She's sort of in your old body, but doesn't have much consciousness yet. I have some spells that will help her with the transition."

"But why the hair? Why all this stuff about being transgendered? I was never transgendered, so why do you want her to think she is?" Harry protested. "You said it wasn't fair to change her so she would like the bald look, but now she has to get used to being a man."

Dannie looked down at the floor, nervously working the pink hair in her fingers, brushing some behind her ear. "Harry, or Harriet, since you will stay Harriet now, please accept my apologies. But I cannot change you back. I do have ways, like I started to say, of reconfiguring the past and both of your memories in such a way that they won't change your personalities. Tell me what the basic things you want and that you think she wants."

The hairless woman brooded a while. She looked Dannie in the eyes. Dannie thought how pretty Harry--Harriet--was going to be with eye makeup and maybe false lashes. "Bottom line. Okay. I love Harriet like nobody could believe and I don't want to have her hurt because of my mistake. I want her to be who she is, happy with herself, the same sweet, loving girl I married, but that's impossible. I want us to stay married as husband and wife, but I guess that's impossible. So why should I even answer?"

"Actually, I can give you everything you want, within the limits of you keeping the bodies you now possess," Dannie told him. "Let me do my work. Some people will consider you kind of an odd couple, you'll both attract stares, but hey, you should have known that bald women attract stares. Especially ones as beautiful as you. Just sit down in that rocker and rest. Try to think of some ways that you can enjoy your new status, living out your fantasy." Dannie patted Harriet on her scalp, behind her right ear. Harriet returned a quivering little smile. Tears still trickled down her cheek. "Harry will be more or less in a trance until he enters the door. Then you will both have a new set of memories, and a whole new start on life, and you will continue to be happy together. Okay? Harriet nodded and went to the chair.

After some furious incantations, mumbling, hand waving, and computer pounding, Dannie sat down, too, and waited. She noticed that the new Harriet had a vague, half-asleep look on her face, like the one that Mindy had described on the new Harry. After one of the incantations, both personalities were in a kind of limbo, waiting for the shop door to open. From the outside, the Spells R Us store was a blank piece of wall. Only Harry would see it when he came from the Miracle Salon. At least the comb-out and makeover gave Dannie time to finish her work. The new Harry coming in--that would be the key, if the inexperienced Dannie had done everything just right. She trembled at the possibilities.

Dannie saw the tall, slender woman with beautiful hair, expert makeup, trimmed brows, and studs in her ears, as she came around the corner. Yes, it was the same person--the same body, anyway--who had entered the store hours before. The jeans and polo shirt she wore gave no hint of gender, while the face and hair looked beautifully female. Mindy had done good work. A vague smile was on the new Harry’s face. She turned and opened the door. Dannie sighed in relief.

As Harry came through the door, lights came back into the eyes of the couple. Harriet jumped up from her chair. They hugged like newlyweds.

Finally, they broke their clinch. The new Harry spoke. "And who is this green-haired beauty?"

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry. I was just so overwhelmed and pleased with your new look that I wanted to hug you first, and welcome you into your new life. I didn't mean to be rude. This is Danni, and she's managing the store. She was so helpful to me. I feel good about the way I look for the first time since--" the new Harriet patted her scalp--"the morning a few days ago when I woke up with alopecia. Remember how I screamed when all my hair was sitting on the pillow?"

"How can I forget, dear? I tried to tell you that you still looked beautiful, but you weren't about to believe it," replied the tall man with the beautiful wavy hair hanging down past his shoulders. "And now this is the first time you've been out without that cheap wig or a scarf. If Dannie convinced you how beautiful you look now, I'm very grateful to her."

"Harry has such a hair fetish," the new Harriet giggled. "Didn't I tell you? He loves rollers and perms, and long hair on women. He used to set my hair. I swear, it was harder for him when my hair fell out than it was on me. And I was so worried that he wouldn't love me anymore, just because of this. Since his hair had grown long, I teased him that maybe he could get his own perm since that was what he really wanted. As big as the lug is, he's always been a little girl. So sweet and cuddly." She hugged her husband again. "Then he admitted to me that he had always wanted to be a girl, but didn't want to give up on being a man because he loved me so much. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard? So I told him that if he didn't mind having a bald wife, I certainly didn't mind a husband who looked like a girl. Well, a tall girl, anyway." She turned to the new Harry. "Mindy did a wonderful job on you, dear, just like I said she would. And it was fun, too, wasn't it?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," the new Harry admitted, patting his curls. "And when she asked to do my makeup, right then I thought, let's go for it. Although I know it's going to be hard to buy woman’s clothes and to pass as a girl, Harriet agreed that I should try it. I'm going to live as a woman, except in our bedroom. Oh--I hope that doesn't shock you, Danni!"

"No, not at all," Dannie said. Everything was working perfectly. "As a matter of fact, your wife and I were talking about making a few adjustments on you so you could pass as a girl better."

"Adjustments?" Harry was puzzled. After the explanation, he joyously agreed, and placed his hand on the cable and wand. Oddly enough, he wanted to remain tall. But the wider hips and busts proportional to his size completed the job that Mindy had started. The new Harry could live and be accepted as a gracious, attractive woman, but still be husband to the new Harriet in all the ways that counted. Dannie used the computer program to clean off his whiskers and body hair, too, and adjusted the clothing to better fit Harry's new form.

"Dear?" Harry asked Harriet. "I hate to go when Dannie has been so wonderful to us, but her pink hair reminds me of a pink jumper I saw at the plus sized women's store. Maybe we can get there before the store closes? I'd love to wear it when I 'come out' at work Monday."

"Sure," said Harriet. "And I bet that we both have time to for you to get a set of pink acrylic nails, and for me to get mine painted a bright red. And I'm going to get some really big earrings, to draw attention to my new hairless-do. We want to let the world know that bald is beautiful, and so are big, tall special girls like you." She looked back at Danni. "Have you ever seen as odd a couple as we are, Danni?"

"Actually," Dannie said, "I have. But none as happy as you two. Thanks for coming by."

* * * *

"Hmmph. Not much business on Sunday afternoon. Only $25 worth," the old man in the battered bathrobe grumbled. "And I told you not to use the computer in magic until you had a chance to test it more. You fool kids like to rush into things and then make mistakes."

"But it all worked out! You saw what happened. They're both delighted in their new lives," said Danni, now back to her original hair style and color.

"Maybe so," he said. But you need a little reminder that it might not have come out so well. One or both of them could have been lost in limbo, you know."

"Yes, I know," the nervous assistant admitted. "So what can I do to make up for it?"

"Here's your punishment, one that fits the crime," he said with an evil grin. "It's just another makeover, one the computer can't erase, and it will only last a month."

Dannie remembered another makeover that gave her four legs and fur. "Will I still be me, though?" she asked nervously.

"Sure," he smiled. "Since you liked to try new color schemes so much, here's a new one." Sparks flew from his wand. Dannie felt her hair growing long, wavy, and bright yellow, down past her waist. Her fashionable minidress became a little girl's frock, a floppy white hat appeared on her head, and her stacked heels became white little girl's shoes. Her skin took on a pale blue cast, then darkened, finally turning a bright, vivid blue. "Rats," she wondered. "I wonder what kind of social life a full-sized smurfette has these days?"

 

The End

 
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