The girls have put a lot of work into making those costumes, and Karen, in particular is becoming a very competent seamstress. I wasn’t sure what to think about their dressing up Jenny’s brother in that way, in front of his mother, but he didn’t seem too upset about it. However, I had to leave them all soon afterwards to answer the phone downstairs. It was Denise’s mother, Alice, on the phone.

‘Jean, I’m terribly sorry but Denise has been admitted to hospital with acute appendicitis and is scheduled to have an operation tomorrow evening’.

‘Oh that is a pity, I hope she’s going to be alright.’

‘I don’t think her condition is thought to be particularly dangerous as long as they can operate before there is any chance of it bursting and her developing peritonitis. However, I’m afraid that neither Denise nor I will be able to go away next weekend. I‘m really sorry to let you all down. Is there anyone who could go in our places?’

‘I’ll talk to the girls and see if they know of anyone, but the main difficulty is going to be getting there together with all of their costumes, as I don’t drive’.

‘I would ask my husband to take you all and collect you again afterwards but he has to be away on business that weekend, That was why I’d offered to come in the first place,’ she said.

‘Don’t worry Alice, I’m sure I can work something out. Your priority will be looking after Denise.’

‘Thanks for being so understanding, and I am so sorry to let you down. By the way, Denise has asked if Karen would be able to call in to see her at the hospital tomorrow morning to discuss the arrangements’.

‘I’ll tell her,’ I said, putting down the phone.

I now wish that I’d learned to drive, but I simply couldn’t face taking lessons immediately after Frank’s death, and then, before I knew it, I was spending all my time on the business or bringing up the twins. However, we live near the town centre and public transport in Crawley is not too bad, so it has never been a major issue before now. I was quite relieved that Carol was with me when I had to break the bad news to the girls. I asked the three of them to come downstairs. . Joe also came, still wearing Denise’s dress, high heels and my wig.

‘Girls, that was Denise’s mother on the phone, I’m afraid there’s some bad news; she’s in hospital with appendicitis.’

‘Is she going to be alright?’ asked Karen.

‘I would imagine so, but neither Denise nor her mother will now be able to go to your convention next weekend, and I don’t drive, so unless you know of someone else to take you, I’m afraid we’ll have to cancel.’

I could see from all their faces just what a blow this would be.

‘Mum, how about you? Your work car would be big enough for us all. Would you be able to drive us there instead next weekend?’ asked Jenny.

Carol thought for a few moments before replying.

‘I’m not sure. I suppose I could probably re-arrange my schedule for next week and take next Friday as annual leave. The car would certainly be big enough, but what would we do about accommodation?’

‘Alice and I had arranged to share a hotel room for the weekend, Karen and Denise were going to share another and also Sue with Jenny. You could take Alice’s place Carol, and then Joe could share a room with his sister,’ I said.

I then turned to the twins, ‘girls, if Joe were to come instead of Denise would you be able to arrange a suitable costume for him as well?’

‘The only problem is that we’ve already entered the group competition as an all-female singing group and our entry would be meaningless if one of the contestants were to be a guy,’ said Karen.

‘Also I’m not sure that a teenage boy and a girl would be allowed to share a bedroom, even if they were brother and sister,’ added Jenny a little sourly. I suspect that she’d been looking forward to the prospect of sharing a room with her best friend.

‘Well I can’t leave Joe at home alone for a weekend. If he doesn’t go I won’t be able to take you,’ said Carol definitively.

‘I’ll go along as a spectator,’ suggested Joe.

‘But that would still leave us one short for our entry. The dance routines are all designed for four,’ said Sue.

‘Since Joe looks so good wearing Denise’s baby-doll dress he could always pretend to be one of our girl-group in the first competition, if he were willing to learn the song and dance routine. That way we would only need to find him an 1890s male costume for the Saturday competition,’ said Karen.

‘I am sorry but I’m not prepared to appear in public pretending to be a girl,’ answered Joe, looking rather incongruous as he did so since he was wearing a baby blue dress, long wig and high heels.

‘It is only fancy dress Joe,’ said Karen, soothingly.

‘Quite a few of the girl entrants will be dressing up as guys,’ added Sue.

‘Maybe, but it is different for boys,’ said Joe. ‘I’d never live it down at school if it were to be discovered.

‘I imagine there will also be some other guys dressed as girls as well. In any event, it is most unlikely that there will be anyone else who knows you at the convention,’ added Karen.

‘Even if there’s no-one present who knows me, there’ll be pictures and a list of competitors on the convention website and so some of your friends at school will be bound to have a look,’ said Joe. ‘They’d soon work out that I must have taken part dressed as a girl’.

‘In that case the answer would be for you to spend the whole weekend as a girl. There would be nothing to stop you from registering in a female name, pretending to be my cousin. Your real name would never be recorded and nobody other than the six of us would ever know your true identity,’ said Jenny.

‘That’s a good idea,’ said Karen. ‘Also, I know that, Denise has already bought herself a rather special costume for the Saturday night, which we now know will fit you. She may be willing to lend it to you,’ as well.

‘Hang on a minute! I’d be bound to be found out by someone during the course of a weekend’.

‘I don’t see why, as long as you’re careful, you look most convincing to me at the moment,’ said Jenny.

‘But I’ve never worn high heels before, or put on makeup, or coped with long hair,’ he complained.

‘We could teach you all those things over the next few days, and we would promise to look after you during the competition,’ said Karen. ‘We all think that you really look convincing as a girl wearing that dress and long wig. Your voice hasn’t yet broken, so you also sound like a girl’.

‘Mum, would it be possible for Joe and Jenny to stay at our house for the next few days, if he agrees to the plan,’ asked Sue. ‘That would give us plenty of time to provide him with the necessary practice in wearing female clothes and for us to teach him some of our dance routines and finish working on the costumes.’

I hesitated for a minute before answering, This was all beginning to get out of hand.

‘I would have no objection, but it is up to Joe and his mother to decide without you putting on any pressure,’ I replied.

Jenny looked across at her mother looking for an answer from her.

‘I would only be willing to go along with the proposal, if Joe were agreeable,’ replied Carol.

The three girls turned and looked pleadingly at the young man, who now seemed a little overwhelmed by the enormity of what was being suggested.

‘Please Joe, say yes,’ said Jenny.

‘I don’t know’ he said abstractedly. ‘I’ll need a little time to think about the implications of what you’re suggesting. I’m not saying no, but I have to be sure that there would be no danger of me ever being found out.’

‘Joe, I promise that nobody outside this room will ever know,’ re-iterated Karen.

I felt it was time to come to his rescue.

‘Now hold on a minute, everyone, before anyone can make any decision about next weekend there are a number of questions that need to be resolved. First of all, Carol needs to find out whether she can have the time off work next Friday and borrow the firm’s car. Karen, you will need to visit Denise in hospital tomorrow morning to see if she is prepared to let you borrow her two costumes, and then go to see her mother to find out whether Carol and ‘her niece’ would be able to take over their bookings for the convention. At the same time I’ll contact the organisers to find out if it is too late to change the names of the entrants. I therefore suggest that we should all meet tomorrow lunch time when we’ll be in a much better position to decide what, if anything is going to happen next weekend. That way Joe will have time to sleep on the idea before deciding whether or not he is agreeable to the plan. If he isn’t happy about it, then that will be an end of the matter’

All concerned accepted that this was a sensible course of action.

‘I have to work in the salon tomorrow, but can probably arrange to take a long lunch break,’ I continued. ‘I suggest that we should all meet here at 1.30 pm and then make a final decision about what is happening next week. If Jenny and Joe want to stay here after that they will need to bring a change of clothes with them.’

‘I think I’d like to change back into my own clothes now,’ said Joe.

‘Yes of course, I’ll help you,’ said Karen.

Once Joe and Karen had left us, Sue approached Carol and myself

‘Is there anything that Jenny and I can be doing to help in the meantime?’ she asked.

‘I suppose you could sort out between you some female clothing that Joe could wear if he were to agree with your plan and stay here next week,’ said Carol.