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I was still a bit nervous about going to Alfred for Hell Night, but, with much prodding from Sarah, I ended up going. It was good to see the old faces again and meet the guys who would become the future of the house. All in all, it was a relaxing time. We were up on the hill and partook in adult beverages until late, when some one said something that sent a chill through my body.
“Hey, I’ve got the munches. Who want’s to go for Chinese food?”
Have you ever had one of those moments of déja vu? I sat there by the fire and saw that whole dream I’d had flash before my eyes. All I could think to myself was that line Harry Gant used in the movie ‘Stroker Ace’, “Aw hell, here we go again.”
We started to make our way down the snow covered hill and déja vu struck again as I felt my foot slip, and I grabbed onto the same tree that I’d done in the dream. Then I heard it.
“Cup check!”
Followed by two quick claps, and a sharp pain in my nuts. The last thing I remember thinking to myself was “I really need to start wearing a cup to these parties,” and that was it, before my whole world went black as I tumbled down the hill.
I woke up in the hospital just as they were showering me with hot water to get whatever I’d fallen in off me. I let out a scream and passed out again as I felt the water scald my skin. The next thing I knew, I was in a room and as I opened my eyes there were my parents, Sarah, and my step dad sitting there having a quiet conversation.
“What the hell happened?” came my groggy voice, which was met with a hug from Sarah and my mom.
“You fell down the a hill behind the ‘U’ hun,” Sarah informed me.
“All I remember was waking up when they started to spray me with that hot water.”
“That was to wash the toxic waste off you,” mom said, with a concerned look on her face.
“Toxic WHAT?” I shouted, which caused one of the nurses to come in and then leave.
“Calm down,” Sarah told me as she held my hand. “You’re going to be alright. They say you’ll be fine, as soon as your hair grows back.”
“Fuck,” was my only reply as déja vu struck again.
“We should leave, you need your rest hun.,” mom said, and she gave me a tender kiss on the head.
Sarah refused to leave. Even when the doctor came in and asked her to step out into the hall, she stayed right there by my side. The doctor told us both that I was found and brought to the hospital by some friends. To which I’d nodded.
“Let me guess, one looks like he could play football, and the other looks like Jeffery Dalmer?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s them,” he said in a bit of shock. “So how did you get there?”
“I was at a party at the top of the hill and fell as I was coming down.”
“I see, so you don’t know about what you landed in?”
“Not a clue. What was it?” I asked
“It was something they dumped behind the bio-chem building. We’re still running tests to see what it was,” he said as he saw the look of concern cross my face. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t radio active.”
“Well that’s a relief, but you still don’t know what it was right?” Sarah spoke up.
“Not yet, but we’re trying to find out.”
He told us that I didn’t have any broken bones, but he did want to keep me there for observation for a while to make sure there were no adverse effects from the fall and the bath I’d taken in the chemicals. As he left, I started to get an itchy feeling in my chest and started to scratch. Sarah just sat there and held my free hand, with a smile of contentment on her face. The nurse came in a while later and told Sarah that visiting hours were over and that she’d have to leave.
“No she doesn’t. My wife is allowed to stay here as long as she wants,” I shot back at the nurse.
“Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Trepasso,” she blushed. “We didn’t know you were married.”
I held up Sarah’s hand and showed the nurse the diamond there and made a hand sign for her to shoo. My bride to be just smiled at me, knowing that all I really wanted to do at that point was spend time with her. She walked over and shut my door. After shutting off the main lights, she climbed into bed with me and we cuddled. It felt good to hold Sarah again, but two things were bothering the shit out of me. The first was that damn itch I had in my chest, and the other was the constant feeling of déja vu, that I couldn’t shake.
I woke up the next morning and climbed out of bed to go take care of my morning ritual. As I stood there in the bathroom, I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. I still looked the same as I’d always looked except for the cuts and bruises, but, when I bent down to wash my hands, I caught a glimpse of my chest down the front of the hospital gown. My itchy chest looked swollen and actually felt warm to the touch. I went back to the bed and woke up Sarah.
“Hey hun, wake up. Something’s not right,” I told her, gently shaking her.
“Huh? What’s wrong Pat?”
“My chest. It’s swollen and warm,” I told her, as I pulled down the top of the gown.
“Wow, it is pretty red. Does it hurt?”
“A little. It itches more then anything.”
“My breasts itch when they're starting to grow,” she told me, as I plopped down in a chair. I just looked at her slack-jawed, as déja vu hit again.
Sarah has one of those rare conditions where her breasts never really stop growing like most women her age would experience. Every once and a while, usually a couple of times a year, she finds she has to buy new bras, because her old ones just don’t fit any more. Since I’ve known her, she’s gone from a 38D, to a 38 G. I always kid her that at the rate she’s going, she’ll be in custom ones by the time the wedding gets here, but all I could do was think of that damn dream I’d had that night in Niagra Falls.
The nurse came in to take my vital signs, and Sarah mentioned to her about my chest. She looked down my gown and mumbled about it looking red, then left. After a couple of minutes, she came back with the doctor, and he made everyone leave as he examined me.
“Any tenderness in your chest Pat?”
“I wouldn’t call it pain, or tenderness. It’s more of an itchy feeling. It started last night.”
“I see. Has your chest always been this swollen?”
“Uh, no, not really. I mean when I was playing sports, I’d get a bit of a pump on in the gym, but this looks and feels different then that did,” I told him, as I started to worry.
“We’re going to have to run some tests, but I think it might be a reaction to some of the pain medication. We’re going to need a blood sample to make sure.”
“Whatever it takes to find out what’s going on.” I told him. “I’ve never itched this bad. Even when I had poison oak as a kid.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s anything that serious,” he said with a chuckle, “but I think we can find what’s wrong.”
For the next couple of days, all they did was take my blood and make me pee in a large container when I had to go. I couldn’t help but feeling like some sort of science experiment. I was constantly poked and prodded by the nursing staff and photographed by the doctors who came in to check on me. In the mean time, my chest still itched like hell. Every day, I swear I could watch my chest swelling bigger and bigger, almost like I was growing a pair of female breasts. It wasn’t until about a week after I’d woken up, when Sarah pointed out to me that my penis seemed smaller than it had been before. To borrow from Yogi Berra, it was déja vu, all over again. The only difference was, unlike my dream, I was awake and able to actually see myself change, instead of just having to look at the pictures the doctors were taking.
The following morning, the doctor in charge of my case came in with some disturbing news that almost made me sick to my stomach. He informed me that the blood tests came back with some interesting results. It seems that what ever I landed in behind the bio-chem lab was causing my chromosomes to mutate. In essence, the chemical was tricking my body into believing it was female. That is why my chest was itching and swelling, since breast growth is usually one of the first signs that a young girl is entering womanhood. I started to cry and just sat there in a chair as the doctor said something else, but I was to far lost in my own thoughts to make any sense of it. I felt Sarah sit on the arm of the chair and put her arm around me. It kind of felt good to have someone hold me as I just sat there and cried.
“It’s alright Pat, let it out. We’ll get through this,” she told me as she held me tight against her chest.
“Why is this happening?” I asked as I looked up at her with tears streaming down my face.
“I don’t know. But we’re in this together. I’m not going any...” she cut herself off and ran into the bathroom.
Then next sound I heard was her vomiting. I knew right there that yet another part of my dream was coming to fruition. She came out of the bathroom, and I could see that she wasn’t feeling all that well.
“Congratulations,” I told her. “We’re having a baby.”
She just looked at me in shock. It was as if she was thinking the same thing, but she hadn’t yet had a chance to get a test to confirm what she thought. I suggested she ask a nurse if she could get a test, and she left the room, while I sat there looking at the mirror on the back of my door. Some of my hair had started to grow back, but it didn’t look the same. In fact, it was taking on the reddish tint that I’d seen in my dream. This was all getting too weird for me, and I went to the bed and laid down.
I woke from my nap when I felt something touch me. Come to find out it was Sarah, climbing back into bed with me. I could see she’d been crying, and I held her tight.
“What’s wrong hun? I asked her as I kissed her forehead.
“How did you know?” she asked me, as she started to tear up again.
“Remember when we were in Niagra Falls, and I woke up that night in a daze?”
“Yeah, you mumbled something about not being a woman anymore,” she asked me with a puzzled look.
“I had a dream and for the most part it’s all coming true,” I started, “the party, the fall, the landing in something behind the bio-chem building, now the changing into a woman, and you being pregnant. It’s all from my dream.”
“This is crazy,” she said to me with a shocked look. “Things like this don’t happen, do they?”
“Apparently they do,” I said as I gently stroked her hair. “I guess it was the gods and goddesses way of giving me a heads up, so I wouldn’t fuck things up like I had in the dream.”
“Oh?” she asked starting to smile. “Do tell.”
“Well for starters I was unconscious for a lot longer in the dream than I was here. I didn’t wake up until after the change was over.” She nodded for me to continue. “Well, then I pushed you out of my life. I forced you to leave the hospital. It was stupid of me, but all I wanted was for you to live out your dream of being a mother. Then, we didn’t talk or see each other for about five years, but by then I’d already married someone else, and she died on me in an accident at the race track. You and I did get back together, but I felt empty for having missed the first five years of my kid’s life. That’s not going to happen. That is,” I paused and smiled at her, “if you’ll still allow me in your life.”
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Good,” I smiled back to her. “It’s not going to be easy, but I think together, we can get through this, and raise our child the best way that two people can.”
She nodded and hugged me as my cell phone went off. It was my dad. I picked up and asked him to please come down to the hospital, there was something I wanted him to hear from me, and not from a doctor or nurse.
“Oh, and Dad, can you bring mom? This effects her just as much as it does you.”
He and mom showed up a few hours later, having made the trip together from Syracuse. Mom’s new husband Doug was staying back, since he had work in the morning. I sat everyone down and held Sarah’s hand as we told them the good news first.
“Oh my god!” mom said, jumping up to hug Sarah.
“Congratulations,” dad told me as he shook my hand. “I’m proud of you son.”
“Uh, then you might want to sit down for the other news we have,” I told him.
Mom joined him after hugging me. I took a deep breath and tried to remember what I had rehearsed saying in my head before they got here.
“The doctors have found some issues with whatever I fell into behind the ‘U’.” I started and could see the worry growing on both their faces. “I’m not dying, so get that thought right out of your heads.” I could watch them both start to relax having heard that. “But, I am changing, that is to say my DNA is mutating. Whatever I landed in is telling my body that I’m a woman.”
All my parents did was sit there with looks of shock on their faces, but then again, who could blame them? I was a bit in shock myself, thinking that so far, everything in that dream I had come true. I watched them both and the looks on their faces as they both tried to wrap their brains around the fact that their ‘little boy’ was soon going to be known as their ‘little girl.’
Dad spoke up first, “Whatever you need, I’m here for you Pat.”
“That goes for me and Doug too honey,” mom told me as she reached out and held my hand.
“So you’re both alright with this?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
“It’s not like we have much of a choice. I mean it’s either that, or loose my kid from my life right?” dad asked me. “I’m just happy you’re still alive and as far as the doctors know, still healthy.”
“I couldn’t have said it any better myself Tony,” mom said as she took one of his hands in her free one.
We all sat there for a while just talking about the baby, and what Sarah and I had as far as plans for the future. When visiting hours finally ended, mom and dad left for the hotel rooms they rented near the hospital. Sarah went with them. She hadn’t left my side since she’d arrived at the hospital. It felt good to see my parents and the mother of my unborn child sharing such a tender moment together when they all walked out hand in hand, but at that moment I’d never felt so alone in my life. I struggled to get to sleep that night. I kept flashing back to parts of the dream.
When dawn broke through the windows, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. That’s when I saw it. I could see that my face, although subtle, was indeed changing, becoming softer and more feminine looking than it had been. I went into the bathroom, took off my gown to shower, and saw that my breasts were already the size of a lemon. They were as red as ever, telling me that they weren’t done growing yet. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh of a mix of frustration and pride, at the fact that I had bigger breasts than a couple of the girls I used to work with, one I graduated highschool with and the other was the wife of one of the team owners I’d worked for in Arizona.
I let my eyes trace their way down my body and saw that much of my beer gut appeared to be melting away as the days went by. 'Bonus' I thought to myself, since I’d been struggling with my weight lately. Like most athletes, I’d put on a few since I’d stopped playing college rugby. As I continued down the reflection in the mirror with my eyes, I could see that my penis, although never THAT big to begin with was all but nonexistent now. Then, I noticed my hands.
The hands that had served me well all these years as a mechanic and construction worker, were taking on a softer less ‘beat the shit out of’ look. My fingers looked a touch thinner, and the scars were vanishing. To compare it to the dream I’d had, this was a bit more bazar. It’s one thing to wake up and find the changes that had already taken place, it’s a whole new ball game to actually watch them happen. I just shook my head and stepped into the shower.
The warm water felt good on my skin. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it had been over a week since I’d last done this. It felt good to get all those layers of dead skin off my body. I got out and made sure I got everything as dry as I could, since I didn’t have any underwear that fit me anymore. That’s when the idea struck me. Mom, dad, and Sarah were in the only hotel in town, and that was near a Wally-World. So I wrapped the towel around myself and grabbed my cell to call them. Sarah told me it wouldn’t be a problem, she would just buy a few different sizes for me. They got arrived just after lunch, each of them carrying a couple of bags in each hand.
“What the hell?” I asked in a bit of confusion. “All I wanted was a pair of shorts or sweat pants and a t-shirt or two. What’s all this?”
“Oh, we picked up a few things we figured you’d need,” Sarah told me as she gave mom a wink. Dad for his part just shrugged, and I could see him start to blush a bit.
“What did you guys do?” I asked
“Here, go try these on” Mom told me handing me one of the bags.
I took it into the bathroom and to my relief saw a t-shirt. It wasn’t until I tried it on that I realized it was a graphic tee with the slogan, ‘I see you’ve met the twins,’ printed right about nipple high. I shook my head and pulled out the shorts I found, again shaking my head to the fact that these were purple. It wasn’t until I went to try them on that I saw the ass had the word, ‘Juicy,’ printed across it.
“You guys are all ASSHOLES!” I shouted through the closed bathroom door. Which was met with two female voices giggling, followed by a knock on the door.
“I tried to stop them Pat, really I did, but you know your mother.” dad told me.
“Yeah, always cracking jokes.”
“Here, open the door, I got you some stuff you might actually wear.” he told me.
I opened the door and was met by an arm thrust through it holding another bag of clothes. I started pulling out the contents and saw that these weren’t too bad. I switched out the shirt I had on for the Mark Martin shirt dad bought me. The shorts were much better also, just a simple green pair of soccer shorts. Dad always knew my style, and for this I owed him big time. As I searched for something to put on under the shorts all I found was panties.
“Uh, you guys forgot to get me underwear,” I called from the bathroom.
“No we didn’t,” Sarah told me. “There are like three packs in there, just pick the right size and we’ll take the rest back.”
I searched through the bags and saw the only things in there were women’s panties. Then I saw the words I dreaded the most. “Is this a fucking joke? You bought me fucking THONGS?” I shouted.
“I swear I tried to talk them out of it,” dad shot back again.
“Oh come on they aren’t that bad,” Sarah piped in. “You don’t even notice it after a minute or so.”
“BULLSHIT!” I shouted back. “You spend all day in a hot mill picking your underwear out of the crack of your ass from the high humidity and tell me that it’s comfortable.”
“Don’t be a wussie and just try them on,” came Sarah's reply with a giggle.
I relented and did as I was told. I knew that wearing soccer shorts without some sort of cotton between your privates and the nylon of the shorts would only lead to trouble. To my shock and disgust, they didn’t feel all that bad. To make things better, I had guessed right on the size, so I didn’t have to open the other packs.
I made my way back into my room and saw mom and Sarah giggling as I tied the string around my waist. I just shook my head and whipped an unopened pack of thongs at each of them. Then, I gave dad a hug.
“Thanks dad, I knew I could count on you,” I told him so only he and I could hear. “You two, I ask for some help, and you buy me fucking shorts with the word ‘juicy’ across the ass? Were you both dropped on your heads while eating lead paint chips as children?”
“Oh settle down, we were just messing with you.”
“Now is not the time to be fucking around. I’m dealing with some heavy shit, and I don’t need any more stress from two of the three people in my life I figured I could count on,” I shot back at them.
“We’re sorry, we didn’t think you’d get so mad,” Sarah told me as she stood up and put her arm around my shoulder.
“Look, let’s get one thing straight. I know I’m changing into a woman, but everyone needs to understand that I’ve been a man my whole life. I didn’t ask for this to happen. I’m not saying that it’s going to be so bad. I mean both of you are successful,” I said to Sarah and mom. “But, for the past 30 years, all I’d known was being a guy, and guys don’t wear shorts that say ‘juicy’ on the ass.”
They both hugged me and apologized for trying to be the comic relief. It was during that tender moment that the doctor came in and asked if I was ready to go home.
“You mean so soon? Am I done changing?” I asked her.
“Well not completely, but in another month or so, no one would ever guess you were born a male.”
“Then, what am I going to do?”
“I spoke with my sister who works for one of the hospitals in Syracuse. I figured that would be a bit closer to home for you, so your family could come visit you after work and not have to run up that much of a gas bill driving all the way here to see you. They have a room for you on the rehabilitation floor. Also, they have you set up with one of the psychologists locally so you can have someone to talk to about what you’re feeling. She can help you with the new identification you’re going to need, since all your current ones say male on them.”
Mom told me later that you could watch all the color drain from my face before I passed out. This was the one part of the dream I hadn’t come to yet. Dad left for home to make sure he could get some clean sheets on my bed, so it was just mom and Sarah when I came around.
“How are you feeling?” mom asked me, as Sarah went to get me a cup of water.
“I’ll be alright. It was just a shock to hear the doctor talk about changing my ID’s.”
“Any thoughts on names?” mom asked me.
“Yeah, I have one, but it’s a surprise.”
“Ok, I think Sarah went to get you some water and tell the doctor you’re awake.”
Sure enough, Sarah came back with the doctor and the charge nurse in tow. They had me sign the papers for my release and, just as I was finishing, I looked up and saw Captain Brown.
“Before you even start. NO, it wasn’t hazing. NO, I wasn’t beat up. And NO, my brothers didn’t do this to me.” I told him, then watched him raise his eye brows as if I’d already answered all his questions without him even asking.
“Alright, fair enough. Then can you tell me how you got behind the bio-chem building?”
“I tripped.”
“From where?”
“Who have you already talked to Cap?” I asked him.
“I know about the party if that’s what you’re asking Pat.”
“Ok. Then where do we go next?”
“Well, I need you to give me a statement telling me exactly what you were doing. Then I go to the DA and the school and let them decide what to do.”
“You have more pull then that Cap. You know it, and I know it,” I told him straight faced. “I’ve never lied to you.”
“True, you haven’t to my knowledge.”
“Let me guess, the school is going to wait until the DA makes up his mind on whether or not to press charges for the party, before they make up their minds on what to do with the guys, right?”
“From what I hear, yes.”
“There aren’t any signs posting that the nature trail we were on closes at dark. And there aren’t any signs that post where the nature trail ends and where private property begins. So I can see where there might be a problem” I told him with a slight grin.
“I think I know how this goes,” he told me with a smile. “I want your statement, and your brothers are off the hook?”
“Basically that and nothing I put in that statement can be used against the house by the DA nor the school.”
He picked up his cell phone and made a call. It wasn’t a long conversation, and I didn’t ask him who he was calling, but after he ended that call, he made another one. This one was a bit longer, and I heard him use the name of the president of the college, so I can only guess that the first one was to the District Attorney.
“Done. So what were you doing up there,” he told me.
“We were just hanging out. Cracking jokes. Nothing big.”
“Was there any alcohol involved?”
“Ah, you see that’s where that whole not being able to use it against us comes into play.”
“Right.” he said with a sigh. “Alright, can you just write down what happened?” he asked me, handing me a pad of paper.
I nodded and put started the statement with the part about the DA and the school not being able to use this information to prosecute any member of the house. Then I wrote down what happened, the gathering of friends, as I called it, the idea to go for food, then the fall and rescue by my brothers. After I finished, I had Captain Brown sign it after I did. Then, I asked the nurse to make me a couple of copies of it for my records. I bid fair well to Captain Brown, collected my things and was off for home.
I made Sarah swing by Opiee’s before we hit the road though. I needed to see my big and thank him for saving my life. We got to his house, and it was a touching moment as he gave me a brotherly hug and a line about worrying that I was dead. I gave him a copy of the statement I’d made and told him everything was going to be alright, just don’t have any hill parties for a while. I told him to call me when they had a date for Alumni weekend and headed for home with my wife to be, thinking to my self, “Whoever is writing my life story really needs to get laid.”
To be continued.
Comments
Deja vu?!?! Why you, sneaky you!!
Hello Toni!! ^___^ ;-D hah, hah, hah...
So what scenes you have for encore? Apparently we already read about them, but what will be the subtle differences as Toni's life is played out? I am getting a headache enough as it is right now. I guess we will have to wait and read. Not only deja vu, but also the phrase: Looking through a glass darkly. Which means we are given a glimpse of the future but the details are fuzzy until they happen.
Have a great and Happy New Year y'all!!
Rachel
Rush the damn wedding
Hey Toni,
You were right.. you told me it was going to get strange and it really did.. Now darlin' you're going to have to ruch Pat and Sarah's wedding a bit so they are legally married BEFORE s/he gets h/ir id's all changed and s/he is issued a new birth certificate.
Bright Blessings
Nora
I rush nothing...
You'll see how it happens. Just keep reading.