Sing a Healing Song, Chapter 5.

I’ll give my dad credit - after a moment of shock, he recovered nicely and listened to me recount my encounter without interrupting until I finished.

Then he sighed, and said, “I guess there are worse things than to discover you’re hetrosexual.”

“Well ... I could be bi. I mean, I haven’t been exposed to a lot of girls, yet.”

He gave me a “I dont want to hear this” look, and sighed again.

“Look. This might be premature, but if you like guys, I need to give you a talk about ... sex.”

“I’ve taken classes in Human Biology, Dad. I know how babies are made.”

“That’s a good start, but have you figured out that you are going to have periods, that you could be the one carrying the baby? If you’re a typical teen, you’re going to have to ... resist temptation. I remember how it was as a boy, and girls aren’t that different in that sense.”

“Yeah, but Dad, I’ve had trouble even looking at myself naked. I’m way not ready to show off my body to somebody else, much less have sex.”

“Which is why it might be a good idea for you to start thinking about it now, so maybe by the time you are ready, some precautions are second nature to you.”

“Okay, Dad. You’re making sense. I should learn all I can.”

“Good girl. I’ll look and see about getting you some information.”

Then I thought of something. “Just a second, Dad. The goddess said I had all I needed, I just had to ask the question. Let me see what information she left me.”

“Okay.”

I closed my eyes, and thought about having a period - and just like the goddess had promised, I knew what I needed to know. But it wasn’t like reading it in a textbook, but more like a memory of my girl self’s past - In this reality (I had started to think of my change as an alternate reality), I had started having my period at thirteen, and Dad had actually given me the sex lecture more than a year ago. Curious, I looked further, and found that this girl I had become had some boy band crushes, but had not so much as kissed a real boy yet.

However, I (as she) had “practiced” kissing with a girlfriend, and enjoyed it enough for me to know that under the right circumstances, I could fall for another girl as easily as for a guy.

I blushed as I told my dad about the memories of doing the “I kissed a girl and I liked it” thing, but he just said, “So that means you will have to be just as careful around girls as boys. Being with another girl wont get you pregnant, but being in any kind of relationship can be risky, and there are lots of ways you can get hurt, or hurt the other person even when you don’t mean to.”

“But I cant be alone forever just because I’m afraid of taking a risk. You had mom, do you regret it?”

“No, but I was in college, and therefore a had a little easier time realizing the physical aspect was only one part of a whole relationship. As much as I wanted to sleep with your mother ...”

“Dad! T.M.I.!”

“What?”

“Too much information. I really dont wanna picture you and mom doing it, okay?”

“Why not. You weren’t brought to us by the stork, you know.”

“Now you’re just trying to get back at me for telling you my girl self has kissed another girl.”

He grinned and me, and we both started laughing.
Then my dad said, “Its almost lunch time. You want to order a pizza, or something? Its pretty hot to cook anything.”

“Sounds good to me.” I said, and gave him a sideways hug. “I promise I’ll take things slow. I want you to be proud of me.”

“I know I will be. I already am. You’ve handled a massive change as well as anyone could have. “

“These memories of a girl’s life are helping, Dad. Its almost like I grew up a girl.”

“What about your boy memories?”

“Still have them, as far as I can tell. The girl memories only come to mind when I ask myself a question.”

“And you just get the memory that answers that particular question? You arn’t being overwhelmed?”

“Just those particular memories, or a least so far. I’m okay, Dad. I promise I’ll say something if it gets too much.”

“Make sure you do.”

“I will. Now order that pizza!”

He smiled at me, and went to the phone. Beside the phone was a list of takeout places, and he showed me the list and asked “Boston Pizza sound good?”

“Sure. Back bacon * and mushrooms, please.”

“Back bacon? You plan on singing ‘Oh Canada’ and saying ‘eh’ every other word while you eat it?”

“No, because you’d start saying ‘Take off, eh’ if I did that.”

We both laughed, and then Dad picked up the phone. He placed the order, and then said, “While we wait, I was wondering what other subjects your girl memory covers.”

“I don’t know, Dad. Its a little like the internet. I can get an answer, but I kinda need to know the best question first.”

“I hope it has a lot less porn than the internet.”

“Pretty sure of that. Rule 34, you know.”

“Rule 34?”

“Rule 34 says, ‘if it exists, there’s porn of it.’ I thought everybody knew that.”

“You haven’t ...”

“Dad. I was stuck in a wheelchair with nothing to do a lot of the time, and I knew my chances of a real girl even talking to me was virtually non-existent. What do you think?”

“How did you just put it? T.M.I.?”

“Gotcha!” I giggled at him. “The truth is I had very little sex drive. So actually, the answer is ‘I haven’t looked at much, if any.’ But I had you going, didn’t I?”

“You did. I can see you’re going to be a handful, aren't you?”

“Some of the time, Dad. I think that’s my job as a teenage girl - to give her dad grey hairs.”

“Don’t give me too many. Remember, karma will get you - if you give me too many headaches, it will make sure you have a kid who gives you just as many.”

“Anything but that! I’ll be good!”

We both killed ourselves laughing.

Eventually, the pizza arrived, and I ate more than half of it. When I was a boy, I had very little appetite, which might have been a blessing since I wouldn’t have been able to exercise any extra calories off. Now, I relished eating a solid meal, and enjoyed it greatly.

We had just finished the pizza and I was putting the leftovers into the fridge when I heard someone unlocking our front door. I looked at my dad, and he looked at me, then the door opened and in came ...

“M ... Mom?”

At least this time, I didn’t faint ...

*( Back bacon is known as Canadian Bacon outside of Canada.)