My mother finally broke the silence, "Are you really sure you'd be OK being a boy, Melody?"
"Uh-huh!" Melody nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna be gwowed up even if I hafta be a boy!"
I started to protest again but mom shushed me, "Just let your father and me think about this for a moment."
Mom and dad went off to talk in the other room as I sat there, shocked that they were taking this seriously. Amelia looked rather like a football fan watching his favorite team line up to kick a 45-yard field goal to win with only 1 second left on the clock. Optimistic, but definitely tense. Melody, on the other hand, was bouncing around like she'd been told she might get a pony for Christmas. The only real consolation was that Cassandra seemed to be as surprised as I was that our parents were considering this. She and I just stared at each other as I tried to process the possibility of being four-year-old Melody. The idea of being Amelia was bad enough, but to have to live as a four-year-old again?
I was still going over things in my head when mom and dad came back into the room.
"Your mother and I have given this a lot of thought and we've decided to let Melody take Amelia's place."
"WHAT?!" I screamed.
Melody ran up to give dad a huge hug and Amelia, who looked visibly relieved, gave me a smug smile.
"Dad, you can't do that!" I protested again, but mom broke in again.
"David, think about this for a moment, OK? I know that neither you nor Amelia wanted to switch, and this way only one person who doesn't want to switch has to. That's better, right? Instead of two unhappy people we only have one. It will be a lot less stress for your father and me if only one of you is upset with things."
"OK, but why me? Why not let Melody switch with Amelia? I mean, that way they'll both still be girls." Amelia looked less smug after I suggested that; for some reason she didn't seem to like that idea.
"Your father and I thought of that, David, but Amelia doesn't want to switch at all and you at least admit that it's something we should do. Besides, your name was picked first, and if we'd let Melody volunteer we'd have never even picked Amelia's name from the bowl last night. I know this is rough for you, but overall it seemed the fairest way to handle things and to make sure that it's as smooth as possible overall."
I sighed. My parents were right; overall it just made more sense to let Melody take Amelia's place instead of mine.
"I suppose you're right and this really is the best way. But I'm not happy about it."
"It's OK David! I happy for bof of us!" Melody's exclamation drew a big "I win" smile from Amelia as I simply tried to resign myself to this new development.
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