"I call someone a thug when I see someone behaving like a thug, I remember what you were like at school. You leave that young lady alone and pick on someone your own size," challenged Mr Rees. The thug turned back towards me and spat in my face. "That's not a young lady, that's a queer, shemale tranny," he sneered, before turning back towards Seren's father,"but if you want some, Rees, I'll give it to you first" The Price to Pay - Vol. 4.16 - Conclusion - A Dream by Alys

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Vol. 4.15
 
"Y tráªn nesaf ym mhlatfform chwech.....Llundain.........The next train at platform six....London..." was the distorted announcement over the station PA I heard as I walked into the Caerdydd Canolog* station.

"Great," I thought to myself as I sat down with my coffee in the station cafe," I can fail to make out the meaning of train information in two languages"

I looked at the information board and noted the arrival I was waiting for was expected in about fifteen minutes.

I opened my shoulder bag and took out the folded envelope. I opened the envelope and pulled out the plain piece of paper with the half page of writing on it. I unfolded it and placed it down on the table. The folds in the paper were showing signs of turning into permanent cuts. I noticed the numerous stains from the tears that I had shed. In places the ink had blurred. I re-read the ninety seven words again. I had lost count of the number of times I had searched for some hope in the three short paragraphs, always disappointed.

Dear Celyn

Please forgive me. I have reached a personal crisis. You are just so amazing in every way. The problem is I am jealous of your achievements. I don’t feel I can compete.

Please believe me there is nothing between me and Meryl, she is happy with Gethin, she saw me in the corridor when she brought a message for Mr Jones and asked me what was wrong.

I guess you and I slipped into boyfriend/girlfriend mode too easily. You are too good for me, I’m sorry. I hope we can still be friends.

xx

Siá´n

"Bloody male ego!" I muttered aloud as the piece of paper in my hand absorbed yet another tear.

I felt I was being watched, I looked up to see a middle aged man and woman, sitting at a table nearby, looking at me with a mixture of concern and apprehension. I briefly smiled at them, to allay any fears they have about my psychiatric state following my outburst, and then turned back to my coffee.

I checked the information screen again and decided that I might as well wait on the platform as in the concourse. As I made my way along the tunnel, to platform six, I thought back to the events of only a week ago that had turned my world upside down.

It had taken my Mother almost an hour to prise me away from the female toilets where I had fled after discovering Siá´n and Meryl embracing. I spent the rest of the weekend refusing to answer the phone to my friends or talk to anyone. Eventually Siá´n and Meryl had come round to see me, but I had refused to see them. In the end my Mother had suggested that they write me notes explaining what had happened.

The draught caused by a train arriving almost blew the beret off my head, I grabbed it and held it down. The passenger doors opened and I searched for the familiar face.

"Celyn!" called a familiar voice from the opposite direction to where I was looking.

"Amarjit!" I said as I turned to meet my friend from Southhall, who was walking towards me.

"So nice to see you again," she said in her beautiful South London accent, putting her arms around me.

"You too," I responded and then the rest of the words I had to say were cut off by Amarjit kissing me. My initial hesitation was overcome and I soon responded to her embrace in kind.

"Mmmm, that was nice," she said, with a broad grin, putting her arm around my waist as we walked down the passageway to the exit," and how is my favourite Welsh girl today?"

"How many Welsh girls do you know?" I asked, teasingly.

"Well only one," she admitted," but she's still my favourite"

"In that case," I said," you'd better close your eyes for the whole weekend"

"Why's that," asked Amarjit, with a look of puzzlement on her face.

"Cos, Wales is full of Welsh girls and I want to stay your favourite!" I replied, laughing.

"There are responsibilities, though, in being the favourite," Amarjit said, after we had sat down, next to each other, at a table in the cafe.

"What are the responsibilities?" I asked.

"They have to like this," she replied before leaning towards me and kissing me gently on the lips. I responded and we lost ourselves in the pleasure of the embrace for a little while.

"I like it, Amarjit, but.." I said hesitantly, after I had extracted myself from our clinch.

"It's OK, Celyn, I know that you prefer boys, well at least one boy, how is it with Siá´n?" Amarjit asked, " you didn't give much detail on the phone when you asked me to come down for your LGBT day"

"It's not good, here read this," I said, taking out Siá´n's letter and handing it to her.

She quickly scanned the contents and then put her arm around my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Celyn, from the way you described things in your emails it sounded really, really good." she said softly.

"That's what I thought too, I don't know what I did wrong to spoil things," I responded, feeling another tear welling up in my eye.

"Celyn, you didn't do anything wrong, he's the one with the issues, whatever they are," she said, stroking my back.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," I responded, glumly.

We sat in silence for a few minutes as I dwelled on my sadness. Amarjit drank her coffee slowly and appeared deep in thought. Eventually she said.

"Let's talk about everything later, for now why don't you show me around your great capital city," she suggested.

"Yes, I said," I responded, being glad to have something positive to do to take my mind off my failed relationship.

"By the way, apart from having a chance to see you again I have another reason to be grateful to you for the invite to Cardiff," Amarjit said.

"What's that?" I wondered.

"Well, you remember I told you on MSN a few weeks ago that I had come out to my parents?" she asked.

"Yes"

"Well when I told them I was a Lesbian, they thought about it for a few days and then sat me down in the lounge and said, "If you have decided that you want to be Lesbian for a while instead of marrying Mr Singh's eldest....."" Amarjit said.

"Lesbian for a while!" I interjected.

"Yes," chuckled Amarjit," they think that it's some sort of lifestyle choice, it was so funny when they said it I wanted to burst out laughing, but anyway they said that I would have to do medicine, you know, become a doctor, to make up for my refusal to marry, I think that they have an ulterior motive though"

"What's that?" I asked.

"Where do you think you'll find one of the highest concentrations of educated Asians in the UK?" she asked.

"Dunno....oh you mean medicine," I replied," there's sneaky parents you have"

"Yes, they are," said Amarjit," and do you know where there is a really good medical school?"

"Manchester, Liverpool and London I guess." I replied.

"And?"

"Oh, I'm slow, here in Cardiff of course," I said

"Yes," said Amarjit," I'm thinking of applying here, so hopefully your sister can show me around some of the student facilities this weekend. Do you know what my parents said about going to Cardiff?"

"No, can't guess at all," I responded.

"They said that Cardiff would be a good place to go because my friend Celyn would be nearby and she's not trying to be Lesbian like me!" Amarjit said, laughing.

I joined her in the laughter and then after we had calmed down we carried on chatting for a while. I explained our plans about LGBT awareness day in school. Amarjit made some suggestions about what I should say at the beginning. We then worked out a plan for the weekend. She was especially happy to know that we would be sharing a room in my sister's flat for the night before going back to my parents' house on Sunday afternoon.

******************************

It was a crisp, dry, sunny late November morning as I stood outside the main school entrance, welcoming parents and children into the school, and distributing programmes for the day's activities.

Above me the massive pink banner with yellow writing and male, female, gay, lesbian and transgender symbols on greeted those attending with the message.

Celebrate Diversity
Cwm Wysg's LGBT Day

"Hi Celyn!" shouted a familiar voice.

I turned just as Seren bounded up to me and gave me a hug.

"Hi Seren, how are you? Is that your Mum and your Dad?" I asked of the couple who were about ten metres away.

"Yes, it's great isn't it, Dad said that he would come to try and find out what it was all about," my young friend replied.

"Good morning, Mrs Rees and Mr Rees, thanks for coming," I said politely.

Seren's father was about to reply when we heard a shout from the car park and turned to see what the commotion was.

"Don't go into that freak school!" yelled John James, the father of one of the thugs who had got expelled for assaulting Seren and were now facing five years of youth custody at her Majesty's pleasure.

"It is an abomination, don't go there," the thug's father continued to yell as he made his way uncertainly towards the entrance of the school. He was carrying a can of lager, taking swigs of it as he staggered towards me.

"Seren, run into reception and tell them to call the police and get the Games department to come here." I said urgently.

I stood in the entrance, blocking any possible way in for the drunken parent.

"Out of my way, you tranny freak," he slurred at me.

"I am sorry, Mr James, you know that you are not allowed on the premises," I said defiantly. I had no intention of letting him into the school to destroy the positive atmosphere there.

"In that case, I'll have to teach you the lesson your father should have done," he shouted at me while raising his hand.

I prepared to take evasive action.

"Like father, like son, is it James?" boomed the challenging voice of Seren's father, "once a thug, always a thug"

"Who are you calling a thug, Rees," shouted Mr James, turning away from me to face his accuser.

"I call someone a thug when I see someone behaving like a thug, I remember what you were like at school. You leave that young lady alone and pick on someone your own size," challenged Mr Rees.

The thug turned back towards me and spat in my face.

"That's not a young lady, that's a queer, shemale tranny," he sneered, before turning back towards Seren's father,"but if you want some, Rees, I'll give it to you first"

The drunken, aggressive adult staggered towards Mr Rees, swinging wildly as he got near. Seren's father took up a defensive stance as if to parry whatever blows would land on him. At the last moment, as he was about to be caught with a haymaker, he deftly slipped out of the way leaving the punch's momentum to carry the thug onwards.

Splash!!

The sound of Mr James crashing into the school fish pond caught the attention of parents in the far car park as they came towards the school.

The stupid, aggressive father sat up in the water, a butterfly tail goldfish slithered out of his hair back into the sanctuary of the water while fronds of pond weed decorated his face.

"Are you OK, sweetie?" asked Amarjit gently, putting her arm around my shoulder.

I squeezed her hand in response.

I felt another touch on my arm.

"You were very brave, Celyn, are you OK?" asked Meryl.

"Yes thanks," I replied, smiling at both of them.

Within a couple of minutes a crowd of male teachers, led by the head of games, Mr Jones, had crowded around my potential assailant. One of the younger teachers was restraining Siá´n as he tried to jump into the pond.

"How dare you try and attack Celyn," he shouted at the bedraggled fool," she's better than you or your son will ever be, in every way!"

Soon the police arrived to take away our trespasser and it was time for everyone to return to the hall. I thanked my unexpected saviour and made my way to the stage.

Once everyone had found their seats, Mrs Williams strode to the podium and looked out on the packed room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen and pupils of Cwm Wysg, I would like to wholeheartedly welcome you to the school's LGBT day, to celebrate diversity," she said warmly, " we have a wide range of activities planned for the day, as you will see from your programme. We will begin with a brief address by each of the guests on the stage, who have been invited to show the range of people who are open about their LGBT status"

Mrs Williams paused to take a sip of water from her glass.

"But before that there are two things I would like to do. Firstly I would ask for a minutes' silence to remember the victims of hate crime worldwide, you may or may not be aware that there are seventy seven countries in the world today where it is a criminal offence to be gay or transgendered. These countries punish women, men and children because of their sexuality and gender identity. In seven of these countries the punishment for being gay is death. Let us bow our heads and think about the victims of this bigotry and prejudice"

For the next minute you could have heard a pin drop in the hall as the only sound was the breathing of over twelve hundred people.

"Thank you," said Mrs Williams, wiping a tear away," that was very dignified."

As I wiped away my tears I looked around to see many others, men and women, with their handkerchiefs in their hands.

"The next thing, before we listen to our invited guests, is to ask the person who was the inspiration for today's event, in more ways that she realises, and who worked so hard, with her friends in the sixth form to make it happen, Celyn Morus, to come and say a few words"

At the invitation I stepped forward, feeling extremely nervous as I placed the piece of paper, containing what I wanted to say, on the podium. I stared out at the expectant audience and then looked at the words I had written down.

"I would also like to thank everyone for coming," I said quietly. I noticed Mr Johnson, the Physics teacher, who was running the PA furiously indicating for me to raise my voice.

"I'm not going to say much, just to thank Mrs Williams for allowing this day to happen and to all the students and staff who have helped to make it a reality. I hope everyone enjoys the day. I wonder how many of you have heard of the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King?"

I paused to look and noticed that a number of the parents were nodding their heads.

"Well, as some of you may know, just over thirty four years ago, at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington D.C., Martin Luther King made a very famous speech. I would like to quote a little of it. This is what he said,
"I have a dream.. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists....... little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.""

I paused again then to take a deep breath before continuing.

"Well I too have a dream, I have a dream that one day in our school and in any school, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transboys, transgirls, people who are intersex will hold hands together and be a family that welcomes and celebrates diversity. Realising that dream starts today. Thank you for listening," I said and then returned to my seat.

The applause started slowly but then seemed to last a long time.

*Cardiff Central

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Conclusion of Volume 4
 

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( The Missing Bit )

Note from your Friendly Neighborhood Webspider Grrl: Alys posted a blog (linked directly above) to help those that read the story before she added in a correction. Yes, "The Missing Bit," is already in the story as a whole, but some people don't pay attention to the blog list, and those that missed it (approximately the first 200 or so readers) may check back to see the comments, so I (Edeyn) inserted the link to Alys' blog and this note to explain why.