Galactic Marshal
by
Hilltopper

CHAPTER 2

After the shuttle landed and I rented a vehicle, we headed toward my home. I, hesitantly, turned to Karen.

“Uh, there is something I should tell you before we get there. I was essentially a girl before puberty.”

Karen looked at me and smiled.

“It’s not a surprise to me but go ahead and tell me about it.”

“Well, I now know I am intersexed. At the time, I was just confused. My dad and, of course your dad as well, was gone most of the time. Since I felt like a girl, I was treated as one. When puberty hit, I was more or less forced to man up. The rest is history but you will find many things at the house that a growing boy would not have.”

She patted my knee.

“I want to see everything. I am not one to judge. After all, you were female when I met you.”

I blushed.

“Yeah, I’m trying to forget that.”

Karen laughed.

“Don’t you dare!”

We reached the house in about an hour. The place has been kept up pretty well. I have a service that takes care of it. As we drove up the drive, Karen broke out in a big smile.

“This is just what I imagined.”

She started to tear up.

“I wish we had grown up together. That damn council just about ruined us.”

I shrugged.

“The past is past. At least we finally found each other.”

We spent the rest of the day looking around the place. It really hasn’t been changed much since I was little. Certainly, nothing has been thrown away. In fact, the place is full of stuff dating back to when my family built it over 200 years ago. We sat down to eat supper and Karen shook her head.

“I must say, I have never seen so much ancient things in my life.”

I laughed.

“You have to remember, the family has lived here a long time. Much longer than Fledora has even existed.”

Karen nodded.

“This place is like a time machine.”

“Yeah and you haven’t even seen the attic yet.”

Karen raised her eyebrows. I quickly interjected.

“Tomorrow, I promise.”

“OK”

After eating, we settled on the couch and watched some old videos of me.

“I don’t see any thing younger than when you are about 12 years old.”

I nodded.

“Dad either hid them or threw them away. He was very disappointed in me I think.”

Karen thought a few seconds.

“Maybe they are in the attic.”

“Tomorrow”

“Alright, alright! When was the last time you were up there?”

“I really don’t remember. I must have been real young and I don’t think I ever was up there by myself.”

Karen looked surprised.

“You mean that in all the time you have been here, you never went up there?”

I shook my head.

“Until all this Fledora thing happened, I wanted to forget my past.”

Karen looked sadly at me.

“I know how you felt but we can never escape our past.”

I nodded.

“So I have found out. It’s getting late. I’m going to go crash. Feel free to look around all you want.”

“No, I’m tired too. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She went to the guest room and I to my old room. I, to this day, did not feel comfortable sleeping in my dad’s room. Sleep quickly over took me. I awoke to the smell of coffee. Now, I hate to drink coffee but the odor is very pleasant and potent. I staggered into the kitchen. Karen looked at me and laughed.

“I see you still aren’t a morning person.”

I grinned.

“The only good thing about morning is it ends at noon.”

“How are you felling this morning? Any lingering affects?”

“Not really. My headache is gone but my abdomen is cramping a little.”

“What do you want for breakfast?”

“I never eat until lunch so have what ever you want.”

After eating, we went out to the back porch. It was going to be a hot day. We sat down and I shook my head.

“This will be your kind of day: hot.”

“Yeah, I know your climate is far different from Fledora so this is not usual. I’d like to go into your attic but I guess we better wait until this evening.”

I nodded.

“Yep, it will be over 40 degrees up there during the daytime.”

We talked for a little while enjoying the great view. Suddenly, some one came around the side of the house. It was one of the local police officers.

“Hey, John, you’ve been gone quite a while.”

“Yeah, my marshal duties keep me hopping.”

“Who’s your friend?”

Karen stood up and the officer’s eyes got huge. She grinned and stuck out here hand. I laughed.

“Jim, meet Karen Singleton.”

He shook Karen’s hand.

“No offence, but you’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”

“I consider it a complement.”

Jim turned to me.

“I hate to ask you on your time off but I’m going over to the Jenkins place. I have a warrant for one of the brothers. I don’t want to serve it alone.”

“I don’t blame you. Those boys are nothing but trouble.”

I turned to Karen.

“Just make yourself at home. I’ll help Jim here and be back tonight.”

“Oh no you don’t! I’m going too.”

I looked at Jim.

“It’s up to you but she looks like she can handle herself to me.”

I sighed.

“I never seem to win an argument with you. OK, let’s go.”

We rode with Jim to the Jenkins place. We parked around the bend and walked stealthfully up to the house. I went around back and Jim with Karen went to the front door. A few seconds later, I heard two shots. The back door flew open and a man ran out. I stepped out from behind the shed.

“Freeze Roscoe!”

He stopped and looked hard at me.

“Well, if it isn’t Marshal John. I thought you were out of this world.”

“Just drop the gun.”

He grinned and started to raise it. I was carrying a stun gun and I shot him in the chest. He dropped like a rock. I ran around to the front of the house. Karen was kneeling over Jim. She looked up as I stepped onto the porch.

“He knocked on the door and someone shot through it. The bullet went into his stomach.”

Jim moaned.

“We better get him to the hospital. I stunned a man around back. Go grab him and I’ll take Jim to his cruiser.”

I drove to the hospital and dropped Jim off. We then turned Roscoe over to the police at their station. I called Sam and reported what had happened.

“God, John, you can’t even stay out of trouble down there. OK, file a report with the police and send me a copy.”

“Sure thing.”

I wrote up my report and we went back to the hospital. Jim had just come out of surgery. I knew the doctor and went over to him.

“How’s Jim doing?”

“Hey, John. It’s been awhile. Oh, he’s tough. In a few days, he will be as good as ever.”

“That’s great news. Can we see him?”

“Sure”

He led us to the recovery room. Jim was groggy but smiled.

“I guess I should be more careful, huh?”

I laughed.

“I’m just glad you came and got me. That Roscoe is a piece of work.”

“Yeah, well, thanks. You get back to your vacation. I won’t bother you again.”

“You just get well. See you later.”

We left and went back to the station. One of the officers drove us home.

“I don’t know about you but I’m starving.”

Karen laughed.

“You got any steaks?”

“You bet. How about we grill out?”

“Sounds good to me.”

We had a great steak dinner. Nothing is better than a steak grilled over charcoal. After eating, we sat back and watched the sun set.

“It is beautiful here, John.”

“Yeah, I was lucky to be raised here.”

Karen sighed.

“I still wonder what it would have been like if we had grown up together.”

“You can’t go back. Do you still want to go into the attic?”

“You bet I do.”

“OK”

I got the key and unlocked the attic door. It was still a bit hot but not intolerable. The boxes in the front were mostly my things from when I grew up here. Karen started going through them.

“Are these things yours? There sure are a lot of girl stuff.”

I blushed.

“I told you that.”

She nodded and kept scrounging.

“Hey, this isn’t a little girl’s dress.”

“Uh, well. I had some episodes as a teenager when my dad was away.”

She stared at me a few seconds.

“This has been a problem all your life, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, sometimes more than others. I don’t know if my stay on Fledora has helped or hurt.”

“It, at least, gave you time to live as a woman.”

I nodded.

“But the changing back and forth may have exacerbated my intersex issues.”

“What do you mean?”

“The doctors tell me that my internal female organs are developing. I may have to make some decisions soon.”

Karen sat back.

“Wow, I don’t know whether to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘finally’.”

“Yeah, Fledoran laws also complicate the problem.”

She nodded and stood up.

“What’s back here?”

“That’s mostly stuff left from my grandparents and beyond.”

“Oh, goody.”

I laughed.

“You’re enjoying this.”

“Yep”

She prowled around through everything and gradually reached the rear of the attic.

“It’s pretty dusty back here.”

“Yeah, I’ve never looked back here.”

She poked through stuff and, suddenly, looked up.

“Hey, this trunk has your name on it.”

I walked over.

“John Harper, my namesake, originally built this house. That is probably his trunk. I think he was a police officer.”

She looked closely at it.

“It has a lock on it. I don’t suppose you have a key.”

“Not hardly.”

“OK, go get a pry bar. I want to see what’s in here.”

I went downstairs and came back with a small crowbar. Karen made quick work of the lock and opened the trunk. She started going through the contents and stopped.

“How much do you know about this John Harper?”

“Not much. It was a long time ago.”

“Hmm”

She continued looking at various items. She finally brought out a book.

“I think this is a journal of some kind. There are several of these in the bottom of the trunk.”

Karen flipped through the pages.

“This makes no sense. It’s like a woman’s diary.”

I stepped closer.

“This appears to be a later one.”

Karen dug down and pulled all of the books out of the trunk. There were eight of them.

“Ah, there are dates. Let me see if I can put them in order.”

She looked at each one and rearranged them.

“This is heavy stuff. Let’s take them downstairs. I’m getting hot.”

I smiled.

“You! Hot!”

We took the books into the study and sat down on a comfortable couch. Karen looked off into space a couple of minutes.

“What are you thinking about?”

She looked back at me.

“Well, we definitely need to read these. If I’m right, I think I see why you had gender problems. I believe this ancestor of yours did too.”

“You mean ----.”

“Yep! The original John Harper was a transsexual.”