I rang Denise yesterday evening and we had a long chat. It was the first time that we’d spoken since her operation and we were both anxious to exchange our news.

‘How are you feeling?’ I asked.

‘I'm alright I suppose; a little bit sore, and I’ve been told to take it easy for a while and must not exert myself as I still have stitches and a dressing in place. I just hope the scar won’t be visible when I wear a bikini.’

‘Operation scars these days tend to be much smaller than they used to be. When are they taking your stitches out?’ I asked.

‘I have an appointment at the Outpatient Department next Tuesday morning,’ she replied. Then, as soon as I'm discharged Mum and Dad are planning to take me to our cottage in North Wales for a while afterwards.’

‘How long for?’ I asked.

‘They are talking about staying until the beginning of September, although Dad will have to come back for some meetings at his work from time to time.

‘So I won’t be seeing you much this summer,’ I said feeling a little disappointed.

‘I am sorry,’ said Denise, ‘I’m not too happy about it myself, but they want to take me away somewhere where I can take things easy and won’t be tempted to go out dancing or shopping. Maybe after I’ve been there for a week or two I'll be able to persuade Mum to let you come out and stay with us as there’s plenty of room.’

'OK then,' I responded flatly.

I was rather disappointed by this news as Denise had become my best friend over the last few months, and now I had the prospect of a fairly bleak summer in the company of my sister and her friend.

‘We’ll have to see when the time comes, but in the meanwhile is it still alright for us to come to your place tomorrow afternoon and hold a rehearsal?’

‘Oh yes; I’m most anxious to meet my stand-in and get to know how he’s getting on.’

‘Her new name is Josie, at least until after the convention is over, and she is doing very well indeed. Denise, please remember that you promised to keep this to yourself. Josie really looks and acts the part well and so the only way her secret is likely to be uncovered would be if one of us lets something slip.’

‘Yes, of course, I’ll be careful what I say tomorrow. As far as my parents know, my place is being taken by Jenny’s cousin.’

‘Good, let’s keep it that way for Josie’s sake.’

‘By the way, how will you all get over here tomorrow?’

‘As there are four of us and we’ll be bringing our costumes, I suppose we’ll have to take two taxis.’

‘Shall I ask my Mum if she can pick you up in her station wagon?’

‘Yes please, if she’s willing to do so.’

Denise’s Mum rang me back ten minutes later and confirmed that she would collect us at 2.00 pm. She also invited us all to stay for dinner, and promised that her husband would drive us home when he got back from work in the evening. I went in to see Mum to check that this would be alright with her. She was just finishing off Josie’s hair, which was looking really smart.

‘Are you sure that Josie is going to be alright tomorrow afternoon?’ Mum asked. ‘After all Denise’s parents have no knowledge about her true situation’.

‘If Josie can manage to go in to a lingerie department on her own and buy herself some girlie underwear, I don’t think she should have too much trouble dealing with Denise’s parents,’ Sue said.

I noticed Mum smile, but she didn’t say anything. Josie blushed a little.

‘Maybe I did get a bit carried away and was being reckless on Tuesday, but I don’t think anyone realised about me,’ she replied.

‘I’m sure she’ll be alright, as long as we can do something about hiding Joseph’s left over dangly bits, as a bulge will be visible when she wears that tight pink dress,’ Sue continued.

‘Well don’t do anything too drastic, remember that Joseph is going to need those dangly bits in good working order next week,’ said Mum laughing.

Josie looked as if she wasn’t sure whether we were joking or not. She did however accept that we were going to have to do something, no matter how embarrassing it might be for her.

‘You’ll soon discover that any girl has to suffer a little discomfort for the sake of her appearance,’ Sue suggested.

‘Most girls will have to suffer far greater indignities than that during the course of their lives,' added Jenny.

Josie reluctantly agreed to let us do something for her after Mum had left for work this morning. I’d privately warned the other two about making any funny or derogatory comments about her anatomy beforehand — it was going to be embarrassing enough for the poor girl as it was. We invited Josie to come through to my bedroom, take off her knickers and lie down, whilst we decided what to do. She did so but looked extremely embarrassed.

‘It’ a strange looking organ, I’m glad I don’t have one of those,’ I thought to myself, but said nothing and adopted a detached and professional attitude to my task. I also gave my sister a sly but nevertheless sharp kick when it seemed as if a smirk was about to break out on her face. I put on some latex gloves from the medicine cabinet, and began the task of strapping the organ out of the way by using strips of surgical tape.

‘Remember she still has to be able to urinate, so don’t make it too tight and don’t cover the tip’ Sue suggested.

Jenny looked on in horrified disgust, but kept her thoughts to herself.

‘How does it feel Josie?’ I asked, when I’d finished.

‘It doesn’t feel particularly uncomfortable at present but I’ll have to see what I feel like when I need to have a wee. The main problem is that with these breasts in place I can no longer see myself down there’.

‘That’s alright, most girls are unable to see themselves down there. If necessary you can always look at yourself using a hand mirror, but the whole object is to hide everything from view’ Sue said.

‘By the way how are your breasts feeling today?’ I asked.

‘They are fine, they are both securely fixed and not at all sore.

‘Good, so they should be alright until Sunday?’

‘I guess so.’

‘That’ll be one less thing for us to worry about.

Jenny handed her sister a pair of clean knickers to put on, and I went and found the tight skirt that we’d asked her to wear on Saturday, and to try it on for a few minutes. Josie walked around, sat down, crossed and uncrossed her legs, whilst we all looked carefully before confirming that there were no signs of any giveaway bulge.

‘If you can bear to keep it stuck down until the competition on Saturday night, that should be the answer to the problem’ said Jenny.

‘I’ll have to see whether I can urinate like this first of all,’ said Josie.

‘Let us all have a glass of orange juice, and then we’ll wait and see what happens’ said Jenny.

Ten minutes later Josie announced that with a little bit of discomfort and after some minor adjustment down below she’d managed to empty her bladder, and wiped the tip without too much trouble. Since it would inevitably be painful for her to keep pulling off the sticking plaster and then replacing it, she was willing to leave it in place for a few days until after the competition.

Once we’d finished sorting out Josie’s nether regions we tidied up the house and began to help one another to get ready for our dress rehearsal. As usual, Jenny and Sue helped each other in Sue's room, and so Josie came through to my room. As she was fixing my hair for me it occurred to me that I was right in what I’d said to Denise. Josie was doing remarkably well as a young woman, given her age and lack of experience.