I read this post a few times after coming here, but didn't think to reply. (Sorry.) I still remember the response that section (parts 8-10) of my story "A Bikini Beach Summer" engendered. Of course, by the time I read it, this entry was moot, as the rest of the story had intervened.

I must congratulate you. You received a very high like-love-thank response here.

If I had decided to end the story here, except for winding down Luke/Lucy's story, there wouldn't have been any issue of Ruth wanting an F2M gender change. Badly unjust as it was, BB's injustice would have set in. Ruth and Luke, along with everyone else, would have thought of Ruth having always been the girl, and nobody would have thought of an F2M for Ruth. She would have been the little girl that Ma (perhaps) always wanted.

But of course, the story went on. I think I was in a state where the characters acted, spoke, reacted -- and I wrote it down, although I did decide certain things. As I understand it, one usually does his best writing in that state.

Usually, that is. You noticed that Ruth was still a bit of her old self in the following section (11-13) -- the reality-shift didn't fully take, even though she did forget about being Peter. I think that what happened in my writing was that my mind couldn't change Ruth as quickly as BB changed her, so to some degree, it was the old Ruth acting -- giving orders, taking charge, etc. She was surprisingly receptive to the possibility that she'd been Peter.

Nevertheless, I don't think that she would have gone for the F2M. I think she had mostly accepted becoming 9yo Ruth already -- at least for the summer. Who knows what would have happened with school, being forced back into 4th grade?

And I really must apologize for stalling on the sequel.