SRU: Wonderful Life                by: Carol Collins

 

It was the day before Christmas. George Bailey, a tall thirty year old man, virtually ignored the holiday music playing on the public address speakers as he moved from store to store in the large shopping mall in a vain search for a "Trixi" doll. He passed within feet of a very beautiful, very large and very ornate Christmas tree without even noticing it. He was a man on a desperate search for a promised gift for his ten year old daughter. "I must find her that doll!" He thought to himself for the tenth time as he entered the last toy store in the mall, only to be disappointed once again.

The "Trixi" doll was this year’s most demanded girl’s Christmas gift. A computer in a doll, she had speech recognition circuits, analog converter sensors for touch and articulated arms and legs for movement. She was both cute and the cutting edge in toy technology. At three hundred fifty nine dollars each, the doll cost more than George could afford right now. He was, however, willing to go without eating to buy Zuzu, his only daughter, the one present that she had asked for this Christmas.

George had heard that some of the dolls were being sold on the black market for between six hundred to eight hundred dollars a piece. If he paid that much for one of the dolls, he would have to use most of his rent money. He had run out of sick leave from work and was on extended federal emergency family sick leave. Money was tight, but the doll would be worth any price. If he only knew a black marketeer, he would gladly buy Zuzu what she had requested if it took the last penny he had. After all, she had asked for very little in her short life. And, he felt that she deserved so much.

George found himself in an isolated corner of the mall. For some reason, his attention was attracted to a small shop that looked out of place in a modern shopping center. A small door with a hand painted sign declared that the store’s name was "Spells Are Us". Even though he suspected that there would be no "Trixi" dolls in such an unusual shop, he found himself drawn to the shop and entered the doorway. A small bell announced his arrival. The store appeared larger on the inside than it had looked from the outside. Although the shelves were cluttered with all sorts of second hand junk, George’s eyes zeroed in on a "Trixi" doll sitting on the end of the counter. His heart raced as he moved very quickly to examine the only example of a "Trixi" doll that he had seen in weeks. George scooped up the doll and it began to talk to him, "Hello. My name is Trixi and I am very glad to meet you." George smiled for the first time in two days. He felt elated! Zuzu would get her doll. That is, she would get her doll if he had enough money to pay for it.

"Season’s Greetings, George." A voice said from behind the counter. George had been so focused on the doll that he had not even noticed the old man in the bathrobe standing next to the cash register. "Zuzu will love the doll. It is very popular this year." George tried to decide how the old man knew his and his daughter’s names. He had never seen the man before. "No, you do not know me. I am a wizard. That is how I knew about your search for little Zuzu’s present." He moved closer as he added, "Even though it works perfectly, this doll is a trade in. The price is only one hundred dollars." George could not get his wallet out fast enough. He could afford to buy Zuzu her gift, pay his rent, and still have enough money to pay his utility bills plus buy food for the next month! When he asked about taxes, the man who claimed to be a wizard just waved his hand and told him, "Don’t worry about taxes when you are buying a doll for such a sweet little girl."

George happily clutched the doll to his chest as he watched his hundred dollar bill being placed in the cash register. He began to thank the obviously eccentric older man for his generosity when the wizard reached beneath the counter. "I have a gift for the two of you." A small bottle was placed on the counter in front of George. "If two people each drink half of this bottle’s contents at about the same time, they can switch bodies." George’s eyes incredulously dropped to the small bottle of amber colored liquid. "You can decide if you want to use it." George shifted his gaze up to the wizard’s usually mischievous eyes. Surely, the old man was joking! "Go ahead, put it in your pocket. You can always decide later if you will use it."

George slowly picked up the bottle and carefully placed it in his coat pocket. He thanked the man again before leaving the strange little shop. The wizard, now alone, turned to go through the doorway into the back room. He waved his hand and the mall door to the SRU store changed into a blank wall. He muttered to himself, "I guess I am getting to be an old softy."

George drove to the children’s hospital with his treasure. Since it was now Christmas Eve, he had no trouble finding a parking space. As he entered the special ward for cancer patients, he encountered Cathy Collins, a very pretty twenty five year old registered nurse, as she was making her rounds. She was Zuzu’s favorite nurse because she spent every spare moment with the sweet little girl. She smiled when she saw the "Trixi" doll in George’s arms. "Wonderful! You found one! That is all that Zuzu has talked about for the last few days. She will be so thrilled!" She smiled up at George as she patted him on the arm. She thought that he was such a wonderful man. His only child had terminal cancer, yet he had always put on a brave front for little Zuzu. She knew that he must be dying inside as he had watched his ten year old daughter become progressively worse and worse. He had lost his wife to a drunk driver traffic accident only two years earlier, and now, this. Cathy admired the inner strength possessed by both father and daughter as she watched him walking down the hallway.

George stuck his head around the door frame of his daughter’s room and said, "Surprise! Daddy is back!" The thin little girl sitting in the middle of the bed, wearing a long pink night gown, with an IV in one arm, smiled up at her father as he entered the room. The chemo therapy had caused all of Zuzu’s hair to fall out the month before. She wore a red and green stocking cap on her bald little head. Her body was frail due to the ravages of her illness. She still managed a bright smile for her father. She had not noticed that he concealed something behind his back. She was always glad to see him, whether he brought her a gift, or not. Her personality was considered to be a treasure by all that knew her.

"Hello, Daddy! Merry Christmas!" George returned the greeting as he moved toward the bed and gave his daughter a kiss on her cheek and she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on his cheek in return. Zuzu saw part of the doll peeking around her father and squealed, "Daddy! Is that for me?" He held the "Trixi" doll up for her to see. He loved the way her eyes brightened up even more. He knew that he should have waited for tomorrow morning, but he loved to give her what little happiness that he could. He smiled as she wrapped her thin arms around the doll. It began to talk to her immediately. He sat on the side of his daughter’s bed and listened to the conversation between the computer controlled doll and his daughter. If he did not know better, he would have thought that the doll had the intelligence of a real human being. He loved to hear Zuzu laugh as she played with the doll. Each laugh was worth the hundred dollar price of the doll many times over.

George’s mind wandered back to the eccentric older man that claimed to be a wizard. "Spells Are Us" was certainly a strange name for a store, too. Then, George remembered the bottle of amber liquid that he had been given. He placed his hand in his coat pocket and found the bottle safely resting there. The man had said that two people could switch bodies if they drank the liquid. Even though George knew that was something that was impossible, he also knew that he would do anything to keep his young daughter from dying. The doctors had told him that she had two months left to live. His boss, a good man, had promised to hold his job for him until his ordeal was over. He had taken family sick leave to spend as much time with Zuzu as possible. He would gladly take her place so that she may live. He slowly pulled the bottle from his pocket.

George made up his mind. Even if the liquid was a poison, Zuzu had only weeks to live and he had already considered suicide after his daughter’s funeral. Consuming a strange liquid would be a desperate act of a desperate man. He let his daughter play with her new doll for an hour before he spoke, "Zuzu, Daddy loves you very much." Zuzu jumped up, wrapped her arms around his neck, gave him a hug and told him that she loved him, too. George continued, "A man gave me some medicine today. It probably will not cure you, but, we need to try it." He paused as he searched ZuZu’s little face for her reaction. "I think that it is worth trying. Will you take half of the medicine?" Zuzu told him that she would do whatever he thought was best. George opened the bottle.

George turned the little bottle up and drank half of the amber liquid. It had a peppermint taste. He did not hesitate as he handed the half empty bottle to his ten year old daughter. He watched as she swallowed the rest of the fluid. He sat there on the side of the bed awaiting some reaction. The wizard had said that he could switch bodies with his daughter if they drank the contents of the bottle. Nothing happened. He decided that he must have been a fool to believe the crazy old man wearing a bath robe in a public place!

Zuzu seemed to become sleepy. Since she had become sick, she tired so easily. George covered her with a blanket, kissed her cheek and sat in the arm chair beside the hospital bed. Within ten minutes, he was also asleep. Fifteen minutes later, Cathy Collins entered the room. She had hoped that she could arrive before Zuzu fell asleep so that the sweet child could demonstrate her new doll. She tucked the little girl in and checked her pulse. Satisfied that Zuzu was as well as could be expected, she turned to the man sleeping in the bedside chair. She had grown to admire him. She hoped that, some day, she would meet some one as nice as he was. She had sent him signals that she was interested in him, but, he was so focused on Zuzu’s problems, he never even noticed. She retrieved a blanket from a closet and covered George Bailey before she quietly left the room.

George awoke slowly. He opened his eyes and found himself looking up at the ceiling. He remembered falling asleep in the chair next to Zuzu’s bed, but now felt that he was lying on his back rather than sitting in a chair. He raised his head and found that he actually was laying on a large bed. Then, he realized that he was in his daughter’s body! The amber liquid had worked! George sat upright in bed and looked over at his body, or, what had been his body, sitting in a chair, covered with a blanket.

George pushed the blanket covering his ten year old girl’s body downwards to examine his new body. It had really worked! His pink night gown covered his thin body from neck to ankles. He had an IV in his arm and the stocking cap was still on his hairless head. He realized that he was now the one with only two months to live. He should have felt sad but was actually happy. His daughter would live.

Zuzu stirred as she shifted position in her chair. She slowly opened her eyes and saw herself sitting up in bed. She came awake quickly as she realized that this could not be happening. She heard her little girl’s voice saying, "It’s okay, Zuzu. Do you remember the medicine that we drank last night? It switched us into each other’s body. Daddy couldn’t watch his little girl suffer any longer. I would rather be the one with cancer than to have a daughter with it."

Zuzu slowly stood up from the chair and moved to the bed. She had tears in her eyes as she wrapped her big strong arms around her father’s frail little body. "Daddy, now you have cancer!" George hugged Zuzu’s much larger body. He was still glad that his daughter would live on after he was gone and told her so. "But, Daddy, I don’t want to loose you, either!" They held each other for the next hour. George told Zuzu of the "Spells Are Us" shop and the peculiar old man that ran it. He told her that the man claimed to be a wizard. After the switch that had taken place, George and Zuzu knew that he was telling the truth.

George lay his head on the shoulder of his now adult male daughter. He looked up into her concerned eyes and said, "It’s Christmas morning, Zuzu. Merry Christmas!" She wished him a Merry Christmas as well. George figured that his male body would last for another forty years. That would be his gift to his daughter. Zuzu only knew that she did not want her father to die. She would rather it be her than him.

Doctor Goldberg and Nurse Collins came into the room for the morning physical. For the first time, Zuzu sat in the chair and watched as her father was examined and blood samples were taken. She had learned to hate needles since she had been in the hospital and knew that they would hurt her father. He took it like a man and never even made a face as the nurse drew the blood from his tiny arm.

Doctor Goldberg, who had volunteered to cover all of the duties on Christmas to let the other doctors have the day off, became excited while examining George’s little girl’s body. He could find no trace of the malignancies that had been threatening the life of the ten year old patient. He ordered a lab test to be done on the blood sample immediately. Cathy, who was doubling over to let another nurse spend Christmas morning home with her children, hurriedly left to take the vials to the lab in person. She pulled the laboratory technician away from his turkey and dressing to run the test.

Doctor Goldberg asked Zuzu, whom he thought was the father, to step out into the hall for a moment. "George, I do not want to get your hopes up, but it appears that the carcinoma is in remission. If that is the case, then your little girl will be getting better and you may get to take her home in another week or two." The doctor saw the smile slowly spreading across the man’s face and cautioned him to wait until the test results were in before getting his hopes up all the way. Zuzu hugged his neck and nearly kissed him on the cheek. She was so happy. As soon as the doctor left to check on the other patients, she went into the room and told her father the good news. Later that day, the test results confirmed the doctors analysis of George’s condition. The cancer had completely disappeared.

George rubbed his arm where the IV had been removed. He sat on the side of the bed as Cathy hugged him and told him that she was thrilled that he had recovered. She had grown to love the sweet little girl as if she were her own daughter. Cathy knew that she would have had to take a few days away from work when Zuzu died. Working in a children’s cancer ward required a great deal of love. She cared too much about her young patients. Especially Zuzu Bailey. Cathy considered this the best Christmas gift that she had ever received as she hugged the young girl again.

George later sat on the side of the bed eating his bland hospital lunch as the real Zuzu and the pretty blonde nurse walked to the break room to get some refreshments. George realized that he and Zuzu might be stuck in each other’s body for a very long time. Maybe, after he got out of the hospital, he and Zuzu could go back to the mall and get another bottle of that amber liquid? That way, they could switch back. He did not know that he would never see the "Spells Are Us" store again.

Zuzu returned to the room with an extra chocolate bar for her father. He found it to be a very tasty desert after the hospital lunch. Zuzu talked as he ate, "Cathy and I carried on a long conversation in the break room. She is such a nice person and you never noticed that she liked you. Well, I made a date with her for Friday night. I think Cathy would make a great Mommy. Who knows? Maybe, she will be your new Mommy?" George was shocked! He and Zuzu discussed the situation. Finally, he gave up his arguments as his daughter sat on the side of the bed and held his smaller body in her arms. "Don’t worry, Daddy, I will always take care of you."

In the dimensional realm of wizards, in the back room of the SRU store, the old wizard sat in a comfortable chair, with a crystal goblet of eggnog in one had and a moist handkerchief in the other. He had watched the scene in the hospital room through the eyes of the "Trixi" doll. He could see some of the father and daughter’s future. Zuzu would marry the cute nurse and they would raise three children. Cathy would love Zuzu as much as her own children. She would be impressed with how mature Zuzu appeared to be. One of the endearing qualities that she would love the most about her husband was the youthful innocence that he would always have. George would live the life of a normal girl. His hair would grown to reach half way down his back. He would grow up doing most of the things that other girls and women did. He would eventually get married to a very nice man and raise two children of his own. The wizard was pleased.

Back in the hospital room, George once again wished his daughter a merry Christmas. Zuzu replied, "Merry Christmas, Daddy. And, a big thank you and a Merry Christmas to the nice wizard."

The wizard raised his goblet and whispered, "Merry Christmas, George and Zuzu."

 

 

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