The Goths 1
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I met Cassandra Goth one afternoon when she came home from school with Katrina. "Is it true that you have a well that grants wishes?" she asked me.
"I do have a wishing well," I said. "It grants some wishes, but sometimes not in the way that the person wanted."
"If there's someone I want to marry, can it give me that?"
I shook my head. "If you want a boyfriend, it can provide that, although possibly not in the way you want. You'd be better off relying on your own abilities and personality."
Katrina soon filled me in on the object of Cassandra's affections. "She's got a crush on Don Lothario," she said. "Totally unsuitable, of course, but that might be part of the attraction."
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Not long after Katrina moved out, I got to meet Don. He was walking by the house when I was surveying my broken clothesline, and he helped me fix it. "You help people who have problems, don't you?" he asked. "Big problems, 'what should I do with the rest of my life kind of stuff,' right?"
"Yes," I said. "Do you have a problem?"
"It's this whole noncommittal mindset," he said. "I'm tired of working sometimes as a waiter and sometimes as a street vendor and sometimes subbing for a lab assistant. And I'm even kind of tired of being a boyfriend to many but a husband to no one. I know you helped Katrina work through some of her pre-arranged issues, and I was wondering if you could help me, too."
I reminded him that Katrina had been regressed to adolescence. "I don't know about that," said Don. "Let me get back to you.
He called me back that very evening. "My draft notice arrived in the mail today," he said. "You can't regress me, but could you help me make a few changes?"
"I can try," I said.
"What I really want to find out is what my future career path should be, once I get out of the military," said Don.
"I can arrange for you to have a dream that will give you some guidance," I told him.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed.
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The next morning I was a little surprised to see Cassandra Goth in my kitchen. "I know you've got Don here," she said. "I want you to make me older so I can marry him."
"Slow down," I said. "Do your parents know you're here?"
"I told them I was going to get you to help me lose my gloominess," she said. "I don't want to be a Debby Downer any more. And I also want you to make me beautiful so that Don will fall in love with me."
"I don't do physical transformation," I said, "just psychological. But you're already quite pretty."
"Pretty isn't good enough," said Cassandra. "I want Don to be filled with overwhelming desire when he looks at me."
"No you don't," I said. "He's already experienced overwhelming desire for a great many women. You want to start out by being his friend."
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I told Cassandra that she could stay only if she agreed to follow my advice. "Try asking him for help with your schoolwork," I suggested. "He can't flirt with you because of your age, so you'll both get a chance to know each other better." To tell the truth, I thought it might cure Cassandra of her crush.
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They finished building her electricity project together. Cassandra was disappointed in the result. "It just gave off a few sparks," she said, "kind of like the way we reacted to each other. Basically a fizzle."
That night Don had the "guiding" dream I'd promised him. He told us all about it at breakfast.
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"I was a pirate, I'm ashamed to say," he started, "and my crew captured a beautiful young maiden who was out on the sea on her yacht. When she was brought on board, she fainted dead away from terror.
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"I caught her in my arms as she collapsed and I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
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"When she regained consciousness, I introduced myself and asked if there was anything she wanted."
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"'My freedom,' she said icily. Her contempt for me and the other pirates was obvious.
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"Stung, I attempted to placate her. I wasn't really a pirate, I told her, but an undercover agent who had infiltrated the gang. I promised that I would restore her to her people as soon as my mission was over. 'See that you do,' was all she said.
"And that was the end of my dream," said Don.
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"What did the young woman look like?" asked Cassandra.
Was it my imagination, or did Don's cheeks slightly redden? "Her hat had a veil on it," he said. "I couldn't see her face very clearly."
He turned to me. "I guess I'll have to have another dream tonight. I really don't want to be a pirate, and that seems to be the only career that was in my dream."
"Not true," I said. "You told the young woman you were an undercover agent. The military will give you some training for that, and you can make even more progress later."
"Hey, that's right," said Don.
With Don satisfied, I made a birthday cake for Cassandra.
"Do you think Don thought the young woman in his dream was me?" she asked.
"I'm sure of it," I said. "I saw the way he blushed."
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With a new hairstyle and an outfit that didn't shout "schoolgirl," Cassandra was enough to inspire passion in any young man, let alone one as susceptible as Don.
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Don soon proposed to her. I overheard some of his speech: "Cassandra, I've played the field so long that I don't even know where the goalposts are..." I quickly withdrew.
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Cassandra accepted.
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They pledged their vows at the arch in my backyard.
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The two of them bought the Oakenstead lot in Willow Creek and decorated it in red, white, and black.
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Cassandra got a job as a critic, while Don quickly moved from raw recruit to private. Hardly had they settled in...
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...but Don was panicking and Cassandra was having a baby.
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He had good reason to panic: Cassandra gave birth to twins, Cornelia and Claudia.
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Don recently assured me that he's very happy, even if he is living with three women again
