So let's see just how far out you're willing to stretch. How surprised were you to discover that all of those people had recently – within the past ...ew months, in fact – laid the groundwork for another family to adopt their children if something should happen to them?"By changing the subject, he was purposely handing me time to think about this, why?"We were surprised," I admitted. "Personally, I was more surprised to hear them cite you as the reason. Apparently, one of your sermons moved them. I pulledout a Bible, a picture of Jesus, and... the crucifix necklace they'dgiven me on my Confirmation. I'd worn it for a month, then put it away.There was nothing in the world that could have made me happier. I had anecklace."I want a slender neck." The necklace made its pronouncement almostimmediately. "I want smaller shoulders." The breasts didn't even giveme time to think. "I want smooth arms." The bra. "I want a smallerwaist." The dress. "I want a flat tummy." The panties.The. "Mother Nature has selected me to be the next ruler of my country."All Dr. Abrams could do was stare with a big question mark on her face;so I continued. ?Dr. Withers - the leading historian in my country -found, buried deep in the archives, how Mother Nature supplies the newruler, when the ruling bloodline runs out. A month after the death ofthe bloodline, a person will change sex on their sixteenth birthday, andthen continue to change sex every day afterwards. I was that. He was going to have to carry considerably more gear on the Beargrease, enough more that he'd have to take the new toboggan sled that he and Mark had built over the summer."Let's do it," he said, pulling on a pair of cheap sunglasses, to try and limit the damage the floodlights were going to do to his night vision; two hundred yards out, he'd rip them off and throw them away.Mark and Jackie and Mike and Kirsten and Gil and Josh each grabbed a dog by the collar, and Mark led the crowd down to.