Micah's summer vacation was supposed to fun and relaxing. What he didn't expect, was for it to turn out to be...   Eccentric Chapter 1 By Torey Copyright © 2013 Torey All Rights Reserved.

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Chapter 1
 
"About to board the plane. Have fun this summer, sweetie."

"Easy for her to say," Micah thought as he read the text from his mom.

They had been inseparable since he was born. He was used to her traveling. She was a fashion designer, her career was taking off.

But usually, she would be gone for a week, maybe two. Not the whole summer. Not to Paris.

It was a project she could not pass up. She thought about it long and hard before agreeing to accept the assignment.

But what to do with Micah? That was her concern. She looked into camps.

Her mother and brother also volunteered to keep him for the summer.

"I can show him how to really be a man," Micah remembered his uncle Todd making a pitch to his sister about letting her 14-year-old son stay with him and his brood, which included three younger boys who were all into "manlier pursuits."

In truth, Micah had no objections to staying with his uncle in Florida. Or his grandmother in Pennsylvania.

But Great-Aunt Lillian in San Francisco? Come on, how lame was that?

"Best summer of my life, I spent with Aunt Lil," his mom said as he packed his suitcase for the plane trip west.

"Aunt Lil," was what Uncle Todd called a "Femi-nazi lesbo." His grandmother called her "eccentric."

His mother called her a "free spirit" who helped her find direction in life.

In truth, his mother stayed with Aunt Lillian the last few months of her pregnancy with Micah. He was born out of wedlock from a relationship his mother had her freshman year of college with a track athlete who wanted nothing to do with being a father.

His grandparents wanted his mother to give him up for adoption. She fled to California for "some space."

It was there she decided to keep her child, and started on her way to being Uber-Single Mom and Fashion Designer.

"Liz Hamilton and Babe against the world," his grandmother described his mother.

He didn't know it then, but "Aunt Lil" was his mother's biggest supporter during those days of uncertainty.

It was one of the reasons his mother decided to send her son west when she landed the biggest assignment of her career.

"Aunt Lil will expand your horizons," his mother said when she said goodbye to him at the airport.

He wasn't quite as optimistic as the taxi pulled up to the Victorian house he would call home for the next three months.

Aunt Lillian was sitting on the front porch with her life partner Heidi when he pulled up. She was in her late 50s, but looked much younger. She had brown hair, with streaks of gray. She looked almost the same as she did the last time he saw his aunt a few years ago.

Heidi, her partner, was actually closer to his mom's age. She was blond, pale, tattooed and smoking a cigarette. Heidi was more edgy to Aunt Lillian's more stately hippie style. Both were artists. Aunt Lillian was a painter and sculptor who owned one of the largest museums in town. Heidi was a modern dance teacher who ran her own studio

"Oh my God! Let me look at you!" Aunt Lillian exclaimed as he walked up the stairs to the porch. "I swear you've grown a foot since the last time I saw you."

"He was seven, I think," she said Heidi.

Heidi held out her hand and said "I'm your auntie's sidekick, Heidi."

"I'm Micah," I said as she grabbed one of my bags and led me upstairs to what would be my room for the summer.

The room was spacious, with an antique bed, drawer and a computer.

"This was the room your mother stayed in when she came to stay with me," Aunt Lillian said.

He saw a painting of a nude pregnant woman holding her belly sitting in a rocking chair. It was a beautiful painting. He recognized the woman.

"Mom?" he asked.

"And you, too," his aunt said. "I painted it in the parlor. Heidi will tell you've I had quite a few offers for the painting. It's too priceless to give up."

He blushed as he saw a framed photograph sitting on the drawer.

"She gave you one of those?" he asked.

"You don't want me to have it?" she asked. "It's my favorite of you and your mom."

"You look really cute in it," Heidi said. "Can't believe you did that together."

The photo in question? It was from Halloween two years before. He and his mom wore matching Katy Perry costumes to a party.

"No, it's OK," Micah said as he put his things away.

"I know it wasn't quite the summer you had planned," Aunt Lillian said. "But we've got some things planned I think you'll like."

She mentioned going up to Yosemite and out to Lake Taho, to art museums and concerts. Turns out Heidi liked some of the same bands he did.

He also liked to draw and paint. Aunt Lillian promised to help him expand his artistry.

"I've got plenty of paints, pencils, paper, boards, just about everything you'll need," Aunt Lillian said. "Might even let you try your hand at sculpting."

"They're OK Mom," he said to his mother when she called to let him know she'd arrived in Paris. "I think I might like it better than I thought."

"I thought you would," his mother said, reassuring him. "Approach everything with an open mind. The experience may change everything you think about the world ... and yourself. I know it did me."

He emerged from his bedroom to find the smell of pasta in the air. His aunt and her lover had planned a special dinner in his honor, and in celebration of Aunt Lillian selling some of her works to an important art patron.

Two of her friends who helped secure the deal were coming over to help celebrate.

"You'll love Bran and Margo," Heidi said. "They're very colorful."

She wasn't kidding. They were a gay couple. Bran was pretty flamboyant and wore very "loud" colors. Margo was ... well ... a crossdresser ... who arrived fresh from a show where he or "she" performed as Marilyn Monroe.

They spent most of the meal talking about Aunt Lillian's artwork that sold, and plans for a new exhibition at her museum.

"Some really big art critics are coming to town," Aunt Lillian told her nephew. "Can't wait for you to meet them."

Margo and Bran were both interested in Aunt Lillian's summer guest. They asked him about home, about things he liked to do, and how it felt the son of a rising fashion star.

"Do you want to follow in your mom's footsteps?" Margo asked.

"That's her thing, I mean it interests me," Micah said. "But I don't really know what my thing is right now."

Aunt Lillian disappeared for a few minutes and came back holding the photo of him and his mom.

"I wanted to show Margo because I thought she'd like to see it," Aunt Lillian said. "Hope you don't mind."

"That's OK," Micah said, although he admitted being a little embarrassed.

"Oh my God, you're a beauty as Katy Perry, don't you agree Bran?" Margo asked his partner.

"You're embarrassing him, Lil," Heidi said as she held my arm.

"Really, it's OK," Micah told Heidi.

"You were very brave to do something like that. And you know what? I couldn't tell that you are a boy in that picture," Margo said.

"Thanks, I think," Micah said in response.

"So you did that for Halloween, or do you like to dress up?" Bran asked.

Micah was surprised to see Margo's reaction. Margo elbowed Bran.

"Don't embarrass the boy, he's a sweet kid," Margo said.

Micah was also silent. He didn't know what to say.

"He likes to dress up like a girl, yes," Aunt Lillian said in a matter-of-fact way.

His mother had told his aunt of the times she caught him dressing. She had permitted him to dress up every once in a while.

She didn't encourage it. Or discourage it.

Again Aunt Lillian broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to out you," she said.

"That's OK," Micah said.

"I feel like the evil aunt, though," Aunt Lillian said. "Any way I can make it up to you?"

"Well," Micah thought. "You said there is a big art show next week?

"Yes," Aunt Lillian said.

"Can I go dressed up like Katy Perry?" Micah asked.

Suddenly everyone at the table burst out in laughter.

"You're incredibly funny," Margo said. "Most people need your attitude."

But Heidi recognized him as being serious.

"You really want to... don't you?" she asked.

Micah shook his head yes.

"Micah," Aunt Lillian said as she grabbed his hand, "I'd be disappointed if you didn't come to all of my shows en femme."
 
End Chapter 1
 

 
To Be Continued...