Meetings and Partings - A Jaci and Dottie Story

Dottie stood in the kitchen and shook.

“Dottie? You okay?” Tante Drea asked.

“Ccccaaant sssstoooppp shshshshaking....”

“Well, as long as that’s the case....” Jaci said, and handed Dottie a glass of milk.

“Wwwhaatss ththaattt forrr?”

“Well, since you’re shaking anyway, you can make me a milkshake.”

“NNNNNooot ffffunnnny ,.....”

“Jaci!” Drea glowered at her.

“What?”

“Dottie’s nervous about going to the hospital again. We have to help her, okay?”

“Okay. But I bet it would work.”

“Sssooorrry Tttante ...I’mmmm ssscarred.”

Drea hugged the girl and held her close for a while, until the shaking stopped.

“Better?”

Dottie nodded.

“Okay. Before we go, let’s do your fingernails, okay?”

“Okay Tante.”

Tante went into her room, and pulled out several bottles with different colors on them, and asked, “Which color?”

“Pink!”

“Like your toes?”

Dottie looked down at her feet, which were in white socks with a pink bow on the side by the ankle, and said, “Sure. Nobody’s gonna see my feet today, so they can look at my hands instead.”

“Makes sense to me.”

Drea quickly and carefully applied the polish to Dottie’s fingers while Jaci watched. Seeing her sister looking, Dottie asked “You want your fingers done, Jaci?”

“No way! I’m a boy, not some girly girl like you!”

Dottie looked at the blue sundress her sister was wearing, and shook her head, but said nothing.

“You really are nervous if you cant tease your sister, Dottie. But it will be okay, I promise.”

“They wont take out my over, will they?”

“Not unless they must, Dottie. Trust me.”

“Okay, Tante.”

The three of them got in their car, and drove to the hospital, and soon Dottie had taken off her yellow sundress and put on the pink hospital gown over her panties. She kept her socks on, since her feet were cold, and they were not likely to to interfere with the tests they were doing today.

Jaci tried to joke with Dottie, but the girl was simply too nervous to laugh with her, and finally, Jaci just held her hand while Tante Drea held the other, and finally, she was finished.

Jaci and Drea stepped out for a moment, and Dottie was half-dozing on the bed when two nurses came in to do some last checks before Dottie would be able to dress. One nurse said to the other, “She’s a cute thing, Cant believe the chart says she was born a boy.”

“Well, less of a boy than than they thought at the time, I guess.” The other said.

“Did you notice the last name? I know a patient with the same last name in the cancer ward, I wonder if she’s related?”

That statement shocked Dottie out of her doze, and she said, “There’s another patient with my name? Please, tell me who they are, they might be family?”

“Well, the patient’s name is Neoma, but ...”

“That’s my mom!” Dottie shouted, and jumped off the bed, and sped out of the room, running past Drea and Jaci.

“Dottie, what’s happening!” Drea shouted.

“My mom’s here, she’s in the hospital, I gotta go!”

Dottie then sped away, looking for the cancer ward. She looked at the hospital map on the wall, and then ran in the direction it indicated, and finally got to the ward. She went up to the nurse’s desk, and caught her breath before saying, “My mother is here, please tell me which room she’s in.”

“Room 4C-1, but I should ...” The nurse never got to finish that statement before Dottie had taken off, and moments later she found the room.

Outside the room she saw her brother, looking glum, talking to a doctor. Unsure about confronting her brother at the moment, she quietly slipped past the two to them, and went inside the room.

Her mother looked so frail Dottie started to cry before she reached the bed.

“D...Dorothy?”

“Mom!”

Dottie’s mom opened up her arms, and Dottie didn’t hesitate for a second, she bounded into them.

“Careful d.... Dorothy. You’re a little bigger than the last time you were on my lap.”

“Oh mom!” Dottie couldnt contain her tears, and she wept freely for a while, and her mother gently stroked her back. Finally, Dottie subsided, and asked, “What’s happening mom? Last time I knew you were ... still having trouble with me being a girl, and you looked healthy as a horse. What happened?”

“Well, to answer the first, I saw a video Drea made of you trying to be a boy with your .... sister?”

“A video of me and Jaci?”

Dottie’s mom nodded, and said, “And in that video, I didnt see a boy in girl’s clothes. I saw a girl, who couldnt even pretend to be a boy successfully. And I felt ashamed I hadn’t seen it sooner. Then Drea got a hold of me to tell me they found out you had an ovary, and well, I couldn’t hardly stand to think how I’d treated you. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Of course! All I wanted ... but why are you in the hospital?”

“I ... I have cancer, Dottie. Leukemia, and .... its not good. I’m sorry.”

“Oh mom!” Dottie cried, and hugged her mother tightly. Eventually, her sobs subsided, and exhausted by the stress of her day, she fell asleep on her mother’s chest.

Which is where she was a short time later when her brother came into the room.

As much as Dottie had changed, her brother had changed almost as much. He saw this girl on his mother’s lap, and shouted, “What the fuck are you doing here? That’s my mother!”

His outburst woke both Dottie and her mother, and so when he grabbed the girl to pull her off her mother’s lap, making Dottie squeal, her mother said, “MIke! Stop it!”

“But what is this strange girl doing here?”

“She’s not a strange girl, she’s your sister.”

“Sister? But ... Todd?”

“No. We got that wrong. She is and was a girl.”

Dottie continued to flinch and held onto her mother, but she managed to say “H... Hi Mike. I .... I really am a girl, they found out I have an ovary, and everything.”

Before her brother could reply, a nurse came in, and said, “What’s all the noise in here? We have a very sick patient here.You kids, out, now!”

“But she’s our mother!” Dottie said.

“Which means you can come back, later. and judging from how you’re dressed, you have somewhere of your own you’re supposed to be.”

Dottie looked down at the pink hospital gown she was wearing, and blushed.

“Come on, you two.” the nurse said.

Dottie slid down off the bed, and she and her brother went outside the room. When they were outside the door, her brother turned to her and said, “So, why are you dressed like that, anyway?”

“I ... I was here in the hospital getting checked about my ovary. They .... They think they might have to take it out, so it doesnt turn into cancer.”

“I ..I’m sorry I got so angry in there. I ... didnt recognize you.”

“I guess I’ve changed a bit since you saw me last. But you’ve changed a bit too. You look like a man, now.”

“Thanks.”

Just then, a nurse came up and said to Dottie, “Dorothy! There you are! Your Tante Drea and your sister are worried about you! You better come with me now, little missy!”

Dottie blushed, and said, “I better go. Probably gonna get grounded for this, but I’m glad I saw you and Mom.”

“I’ll make sure you get an update on her.”

Dottie stood up, and took the hand of the nurse, and said, “I’m ready now. Nice to see you, Mike.”

Then the nurse took the girl, and soon they were out of sight.

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Dorothy.”