The late afternoon sun warmed the winding paths of the park as three cousins walked together beneath rows of tall maple trees. People strolled by quietly, enjoying the day, but the trio moved a little more slowly than everyone else.

In the center walked Kara, a slim, beautiful thirty-year-old woman with medium brown hair that brushed her shoulders. She wore bright red leggings, a small red top, and high heels that clicked lightly against the pavement.

On Kara’s right walked Lila, the youngest of the cousins who had already undergone the government transformation a couple of years earlier. She was twenty-two, with long curly brown hair and glasses perched on her nose. Her short pleated yellow skirt swayed as she walked, the black print tights and her low-cut white blouse with thin straps giving her a stylish, youthful look.

On Kara’s left was Angus.

Angus was short and stocky, twenty years old, with short brown hair and nervous eyes. His gray shorts and white T-shirt seemed painfully plain compared to the outfits his cousins wore. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets as he walked.

He kept glancing toward the distant white building visible through the trees.

“That’s it?” he asked quietly.

Lila nodded gently.

“Yep,” she said. “Transformation Center Four. That’s where I went.”

Angus swallowed.

The policy had been in effect for years now. Every man between the ages of twenty and forty was required to undergo the transformation-living those two decades as a woman during the childbearing years. When they turned forty, they would be restored to their male bodies.

Angus had known it was coming all his life.

But knowing it and walking toward the building were two very different things.

“I’m still not sure,” Angus muttered. “What if it feels weird? What if I don’t recognize myself?”

Kara smiled warmly and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I said the exact same things when it was my turn,” she said.

Angus looked at her skeptically.

“You?” he said. “You seem pretty comfortable.”

Kara laughed.

“You should have seen me the morning of my transformation. I was pacing the floor like a nervous cat.”

Lila nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh, she was worse than I was,” Lila added. “And I nearly fainted in the waiting room.”

Angus looked back and forth between them.

“But now you’re… okay with it?”

“More than okay,” Kara said.

She gestured down at herself.

“Honestly, I kind of love it.”

Lila grinned.

“Same here.”