Josie is turning into a sweet young lady and I think that her looks would be the envy of many genetic girls of her own age. It is almost as if there was a seed waiting to germinate inside a hard casing. Once the shell had been cracked, the seed began to spring into life. Over the last couple of days during the convention I’ve become more and more convinced that the plan that Carol and I had cooked up for her was the right thing to do. It would at least buy her a little more time to discover how she wants to live her life. It would also give Carol the opportunity of researching the matter more thoroughly and perhaps getting some professional advice. In the meanwhile, Josie may even be able to come up with some ideas to help with my record keeping problems which seem to get worse every month. These were some of the thoughts that were beginning to form in my head as we drove home, with the four girls chatting together happily in the back seats of the car as if there was nothing out of the ordinary in their situation.

We arrived at Crawley just before 9.00pm last night, where a certain amount of unpacking and repacking of suitcases took place, together with the collection of clean clothes and depositing of soiled ones in the laundry basket. Half an hour later Carol set off for her own home together with Jenny and Sue. However, before leaving, she decided that she and I should have a quick cautionary word with her younger daughter without the others present.

‘First of all, are you quite sure that you want to remain as Josie for the whole of next week?’ she began.

Josie blushed a little and hesitated before answering, but then appeared to make up her mind.

‘Yes Mum, I’ve had a great time over the last weekend, and this way I’ll be able to get some more practice in before next weekend. Also, I’ll have something useful to do here in Crawley; Jenny and Sue will want to meet up with some lads and won't want me tagging along. I would only be bored staying at home in Rusper on my own.’

‘Alright then, if that’s what you want to do, but promise me that you will be careful. I know that you did really well in the competition yesterday, and nobody doubted your gender over the weekend, but don’t get too confident and give yourself away. Remember also that teenage girls have to be more careful about what they say and do than boys of the same age.’

‘Don’t worry Mum, I promise to be careful and not to talk to any strange men. In fact, I doubt if I’ll be going out anywhere this week,’ she replied sighing.

‘I’m not expecting you to spend the whole week helping me,’ I said. ‘If you want to go in to town or go to see Denise with Karen, that’ll be fine by me, as long as you’re careful what you say and do.’

‘Yes, I know, Aunt Jean. I promise to take care; after all, I don’t want anyone else from school to know what I’ve been doing.’

‘Good, but also please keep in touch with me by phone and I’ll see you on Saturday morning.’

‘Yes of course, and thanks for everything this weekend, Mum.’

‘Good luck my dear,’ said Carol, kissing her on the cheek, before she left together with Sue and Jenny. I turned to the two who’d been left behind.

‘OK young ladies, it has been a busy weekend, so I think it is probably time we unpacked our cases, had a shower and then went to bed.’

This morning Josie dressed herself in a pair of tightly fitting ski pants and a simple pink knitted top, both of which had been loaned to her by Sue. She’d also put on a pair of pop socks, with a pair of medium heels. She also appeared to have put on some makeup, as well as the pair of earrings that she’d been borrowing from Karen. She didn't look as glamorous as she'd done over the weekend, but was quite presentable, all the same.

‘Good morning Josie, you look nice, that’s the first time I’ve seen you wear trousers,’ I commented.

‘I’m afraid it is all I have left to wear after our weekend away. I tried to wear them one day last week, but the others said that they showed a slight bulge between my legs, and in any event they were then encouraging me to wear a dress or a skirt whenever possible to get used to the feeling.’

‘So what has happened to the bulge?’

‘It is safely tucked out of the way and is no longer a problem,’ she replied without showing any trace of embarrassment.

‘I hope you’re not doing yourself any harm?’ I asked a little bit anxious.

‘I don’t think so, but I’m going to take off the sticking plaster and also my breast forms this evening, just to make sure that everything is alright. I would have done so this morning, but I didn’t want to run any risk of being mistaken for a boy in these trousers.’

‘I don’t think there’s much danger of that, with the way you look now,' I thought to myself.

'I would offer to loan you one of my skirts to wear until you’ve had a chance to do some laundry, but I suspect they'll be too big for you.’

‘That’s alright, Aunt Jean, this jumper will successfully disguise any bulge until I have a chance to put on a skirt again.

Karen emerged from her shower and joined us at the breakfast table.

‘So what are you two planning to do today?’ I asked.

‘I’ll be happy to have a look at your business records today Aunt Jean, if you want,’ answered Josie.

‘Thank you dear, I will bring them home at lunchtime, if you like. Is there anything you would like to do in the meanwhile?’

‘Would you mind if I did some of my laundry this morning? I could also do some for you and Karen if you like’

‘That would be very helpful.’

‘If you will do the washing today, Josie, I’ll do some ironing tomorrow,’ said Karen, ‘but I’ve promised to go and see Denise this morning, to tell her what happened at the convention and show her all the pictures that I took.'

Then, turning to me she said: M'um please may I borrow your camera to show her the video of our performance?’

‘Alright, as long as you take good care of it.’

‘Aunt Jean, what should I do about washing the dress and the underwear that I borrowed from Denise?’ asked Josie.

‘I suggest you hand wash them very carefully in warm water, and gently squeeze the water out rather than trying to spin them dry. If Karen goes to see her friend today then she can iron them for you tomorrow’.

‘In that case Karen, please would you thank Denise once again for me for the loan of her clothes and tell her that I’ll arrange to return them to her as soon as they are washed and ironed,’ said Josie.

When I got into work, I arranged to take a couple of hours off during the afternoon so that I could sit down with Josie and go through our various ledgers. By the time I returned at lunchtime she had completed several loads of laundry, including washing the clothes she had borrowed from Denise, all of which were hanging out to dry.

‘I wasn’t expecting you to do all our washing, Josie,’ I said.

‘That’s alright: it was just as easy to do it for everybody at the same time as it would have been just for my own stuff. I’ve also taken off my breast forms and the sticking plaster down below, and everything seems to be fine so I may ask Karen to help me put them back this evening.’

‘I suggest that you should leave them off for at least twenty-four hours.’

‘Alright, I’ll see if Karen will help me tomorrow morning then.’

Why is it that other people’s teenagers always appear to be so much more polite and co-operative than your own?

After lunch Josie and I spent an hour or so going through the shop ledgers. I also showed her the financial records prepared by my accountant, and had also brought home the manual for the software package that I’d bought for the shop but hadn’t got round to using.

‘What do you think?’ I asked.

‘I think I can probably help. Leave them with me and I’ll draw up a list of everything that would be required to automate your business.’

I wasn’t entirely convinced that a fifteen year old would be able to solve my bookkeeping problems, but I doubted if she would do any harm. What is more it would be something to keep her occupied and largely out of the public gaze for the next few days until they all went away for the weekend.

‘Alright Josie, if you are sure you don’t mind. I have to get back to the shop now, but when Karen gets back from Ifield, please would you ask her to organize some dinner for us all.