I stood in my covert spot near the stuffed toy isle, watching May as she rang up a mother-daughter pair. May smiled to all the customers with genuine affection, and always with a little twinkle in her eye. God, I wanted her to smile at me like that. We went to school together. We worked together. But we never talked. At least, we never talked more than a casual hello. Which was a shame. because her voice had a special lilt to it that made my heart thump a little faster every time I heard it.

I tried not to watch her too carefully, or openly, from my vantage point, and pretended to arrange toys. May watched the customers leave, and waved the little girl good bye with one hand while she put on an earbud with the other. She hit the play button and began bouncing her head and body to a tune I couldn't hear. She turned to me. My heart skipped. She started singing. To Me. My heart stopped.

"Everybody, everybody just wanna fall in love." My cheeks burned and I turned back to the toys I didn't care about.

May was a cute girl, barely five feet tall with a lithe body. She framed her face with long blond bangs and kept the rest of her hair in a pony tail. She usually wore a T-shirt and khakis to work, but I longed for the days like today when she traded the pants for a cute skirt and colorful tights.

Why she would see anything in me, I didn't know. I was freakishly tall with arms that reached the floor. And my hair? My hair was a brown mess that could be used as a mop. Oh God, what was I doing here? I turned to go find a hiding place, and ran right into a woman.

"Dude, just go talk to her." I tripped and started to fall into a pile of toys, but for a slender hand reaching out to me. I looked to see a woman who must have just stepped out of a fashion magazine.

She was as tall as me with golden hair twisted into light curls. Her eyes were sky blue and matched her trendy jacket. My eyes lingered a little on her . . . assets. "Eyes up her, junior." The woman snapped her fingers and my head snapped up to look into her enchanting eyes.

"Do you need help, ma'am?"

"Don't change the subject, and don't call me ma'am. My name is Genie." She help up a hand to stop me from saying anything, "And yes, you do get a wish. One. Uno."

When she said the word wish, my mind flashed. I wished I had the courage to talk to May. I tried to say something, but my mind and my mouth mouth argued with each other.

"A-wha." It was not my finest sentence, though it was a perfect expression of what I felt at that moment. So I guess it was a good sentence, after all.

"Well said." Genie, or the genie, looked to the shelves of dolls and ran her hands across the toys. "I grant your wish, David." The woman's voice sent chills through my body.

Then, starting from my gut, I felt a shift in my body. I felt things moving and changing inside me. It didn't hurt, and I knew it should. But instead of fear or pain, I felt giddy. My wish was somehow granted. I looked up to where May was, still bouncing, but arranging toys behind the counter. I could talk her. I gulped and started to walk to the counter.

And then the change hit me. It started with a . . . not a pain, but something pressing against my chest. I looked down and saw a shiny gold buttons pop into existence down my chest, and my t-shirt turn into a red jacket with blue cuffs and gold epaulets.

I tried to shout, but I choked down the sound. "No yelling. Indoor voice only." The Genie said. The strange feeling changing me reached my hands and I watched a sharp glove cover them. Except the fingers fused into a mitten with a stubby thumb. I pressed one hand into the other and my stomach dropped away. Each hand was filled with soft stuffing.

A black leather belt wrapped around my waist, clicking together with a gold buckle. Then a red stripe ran down the length of my jeans, followed by their transformation into navy blue pants. My shoes plumped a little as stuffing took over for my feet, and then grew up into black riding boots.

Something strapped down across my chin, and I looked up to see a plastic hat brim appear above my brow.

"I'm a toy soldier? A plush toy soldier?" I said.

"Not yet, exactly." The Genie replied. I felt a wave come down on me, pushing my stuffing body into deeper and deeper into the world.I felt a pang of terror as I inhaled and found no oxygen. And then the change pulled away like the tide. It took my fear and my pain, and left me staring into the brilliant sky blue eyes of Genie. She smiled like the sun, and the world felt right.

Except she was huge, and her face was as large as my body. From the corner of my eye I could see teddy bears larger than me. The genie grabbed me around the middle and picked me off the floor. I couldn't keep track of things moving and swaying as she walked, with me a small passenger in the crook of her arm. Then the movement stopped, and I sat on the front counter looking up at May.

The counter girl looked at me and smiled. "That is an adorable doll." She said, "He looks so happy." I wanted to blush, and the realized that I was blushing. Somehow, I could feel red circles on my cheeks; the ones so many toys have.

"The cute stock boy helped me pick him out." the Genie said, absently.

I watched May. Her cheeks burned a little and she coughed. What? I thought. She couldn't . . . it wasn't possible. She composed herself and  picked me up with dainty fingers, whooshing me past the scanning laser.

"That's $14.13, ma'am." She put me back on the counter. I can't tell you how much I wanted her to keep holding me.

"Don't call me ma'am, my name is Genie." The woman said, mirroring her words to me. "And, yes, you do get a wish. One. Une."

I watched May, and saw her face turn from confusion, and then satisfaction. She smiled, probably about the same way I smiled when I thought of my wish.

"Good wish." The genie said. May's mouth dropped open, and I watched her begin to change.