The others didn’t seem to be as concerned about ’Joe or Josie’s’ recent behaviour as I was. I suppose they’re not as closely involved. He has always been a little bit of an embarrassment to have around, but that would be nothing compared to the shame that would be heaped upon our family name if his present antics ever became common knowledge at school, and of course I would be guilty by association. I decided that the time had come to discuss my concerns with Mum.

On the way home from Denise’s house I arranged with Sue that she would take a bath followed by a self-grooming session after dinner to give me the opportunity to have a private word with Mum. We’d prepared a salad before we went over to see Denise, and finished making the meal as soon as we got home so that it was ready by the time Mum arrived from work. Mum inevitably wanted to know what we’d been doing during the day and we explained that we’d cycled over to say goodbye to Denise before she went away on holiday and that Karen was also there.

‘How about Josie?’ asked Mum.

‘No, she was at Aunt Jean’s house going through her business records,’ I replied, not quite sure whether I should be referring to my brother or sister as a ‘he’ or ‘she’.

As soon as we’d finished eating Sue excused herself to go upstairs and Mum started to clear the table.

‘Mum, would you like a hand with the washing up?’ I asked.

‘You don’t have to, Jenny, after all you prepared the meal.’

‘It’s all right; in fact I wanted the opportunity to have a quiet word with you about Joe.’

‘Alright then, what’s on your mind?’

‘I’m just getting a bit worried about the way he seems to have changed over the last week.’

‘But I thought that was what you wanted?’ she replied.

‘I wanted him to help us to enter the talent competition, not to turn into a full-time girly girl.’

‘Wasn’t that was one of the requirements of his entering the competition.’

‘Yes, maybe it was, but the convention finished on Sunday. It’s now Monday evening and apparently he’s still wearing a dress and pretending to be a girl.’

‘Do the twins feel the same way as you do?’

I sighed.

‘Not really, Karen actually seems to prefer having Josie around, and Sue just shrugs her shoulders and accepts things as they are, but he’s supposed to be my brother, not my sister. He may be a nerd and a miseryguts for most of the time but at least people never laughed at him for being a sissy.’

‘Has anyone been laughing at him over the last week?’

‘Not that I’m aware of, but they will do so once the news gets out at school.’

‘You said that he was a ‘miseryguts’. Did you find that to be the case last week?’ asked Mum.

‘No; and that’s another thing, it was as if the ‘happy fairy’ had sprinkled her fairy dust over him in his sleep. Apart from that little hissy fit last Friday evening, I’ve never seen Joe so happy as when he was pretending to be Josie.’

‘Me neither,’ answered Mum. ‘That’s why Jean and I arranged to let him spend a little more time as Josie, if that was what ‘she’ wanted.’

‘But, Mum, where will it all end?’

‘I really don’t know, dear, but I was worried about Joe’s depression long before anyone had even thought about Josie. In some respects it has been a relief for me to see my child so happy, even if it does mean that there might be problems for her in the future.’

‘You keep saying her,’ I said with a note of exasperation.

‘We can’t forever keep saying ’him or her’, or ’he or she’ all the time. In future I’m going to refer to him if he is dressed as Joe and her, if she is dressed as Josie, and, as far as I know, it is the latter case this week. I’d prefer if you did the same.’

I didn’t know what to say in response to that so I changed the subject.

‘Denise suspects that she may be transgendered, whatever that is!’

‘I will give you something to read on the subject, which I found to be clear and easy to understand. Denise may well be right, but I don’t want to put any labels on my child, or put any ideas into her head. Jean and I arranged this week and the coming weekend away to provide her with the opportunity of exploring and perhaps coming to terms with her feelings about herself. It will also give me the chance to take advice on what we should do.’

‘So are you happy about what is happening?’

‘I wouldn’t say I was happy, but at the same time I don’t want Joe to feel as unhappy as he appears to have been.’

I sighed.

‘I don’t want her to be unhappy either but at the same time I’d rather she wasn’t a constant source of embarrassment to me.’

‘That may not be possible, dear. I may have to come to terms with having a second daughter, and you a sister, named Josie.’

’That’s all I need! Life is difficult enough as it is without my so-called little sister destroying the last vestiges of my street credibility!’ I thought, but of course didn’t say so.

‘What do you think I should do?’ I asked, instead.

‘Firstly, I should like you to read this document,’ she said, handing me five or six closely printed pages which she had downloaded from some website. ‘I’m also hoping that you and the twins will continue to accept Josie as ‘one of the girls’ and not leave her feeling isolated when we go to Southport at the weekend.’

’I suppose it is a couple of hundred miles away from Crawley, and so at least we won’t be meeting anyone that we know,’ I thought.

‘Alright I’ll do my best for the coming weekend, and I’m sure the twins will do so as well. But I don’t promise anything after we get back.’

Once Sue emerged from her bath, I spent the remainder of the evening in her room, going through Mum’s document with her, whilst Mum continued her own researches on the Internet. Sue and I also had a MSN chat session with Karen in her bedroom, having first checked that Josie was well out of earshot. I related my conversation with Mum and that she hoped we would accept Josie as one of us, over the next few days,

‘My Mum said much the same when I spoke to her; she thinks we should all encourage Josie,’ said Karen.

‘Encourage her in what?’ asked Sue.

‘To continue to learn how to act like a girl, if that’s what she wants, and provide with the opportunity to decide for herself how she wants to live her life,’ said Karen

‘So what are we going to do with her in Southport next weekend?’ I asked.

‘Josie appears to react well to a challenge, so why don’t we set her another goal that she has to achieve over the coming weekend?’ said Sue.

‘I suppose she’s going to need to buy herself a few more clothes,’ said Karen.

‘No she’s already done that for us,’ I said.

‘Alright, we’ll have to think of something else for her. What about sending her out on a date with a lad for the evening to see how she gets on?’ suggested Sue, only half seriously.

‘Josie may look a year or two older than Joe but she’s still under age,’ said Karen. ‘I don’t think our mothers would be very keen to see her going out on a date.’

‘She wouldn’t need actually to go out with anyone, merely prove to us that she has been asked out,’ I suggested.

‘Where are we going to get a young lad to co-operate in Southport?’

‘There’s bound to be some hanging around, there always are,’ I replied.

I don’t think any of us took the suggestion particularly seriously.

‘What are you planning to do over the next few days, Sis?’ Sue asked Karen.

‘I promised Mum to do some ironing tomorrow and then on Wednesday Josie and I are going to see Denise again before she leaves for her holiday in Wales. How about you?’

‘Jenny and I have plenty to do and some people to see, including a couple of lads from the village that we’ve both had our eyes on. However, we’re planning to get the bus in to town on Friday afternoon if you want to meet up.’

‘Alright, it will be a good opportunity for us to discuss what we’re going to do over the weekend,’ she replied.

‘Are you going to bring Josie with you?’

‘Is that ok with you Jenny?’ Karen asked.

‘I guess so, as Mum says that we ought to treat her just like one of the girls for this week,’ I replied.

‘Does that even include discussing our period cramps with her?’ asked Sue, laughing.

‘Well if she wants to be treated like a girl, then nothing should be off-limits.’