David, awkward around boys and unable to fit into their rough and tumble activities, had felt much more at home with girls and their generally gentler pursuits. By the time he was seven he’d developed a deep longing to be one of them and detested the body he’d been born with. Connie decided to take matters into her own hands and become the girl that she knew she was supposed to be! Hello David Chapter 3 by Sydney Moya Copyright © 2016 Sydney Moya All Rights Reserved.

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Chapter Seven
 

Connie smiled as she walked out of her company’s head office. The interview had gone quite well despite her worst fears and her rushed start that morning as she tried to keep time while making sure she looked perfect and that Kellan was fed and clothed too. They had just made it and she felt she might get the job.

She hoped it was the British post as she was already based there and didn’t want to uproot Kellan who she noted had a faint English accent now. She loved the US as much as the next person but she wasn’t sure she wanted her child to grow up in a country where people could walk into schools and shoot kids.

It seemed like every time she switched on the news there was some new shooting. The only solution she'd heard was more guns, which in her opinion was ludicrous. Considering what had happened to Jason she wasn’t sure she wanted his son to grow up here facing the same dangers. Plus Kellan had a bunch of friends back in the UK; especially one girl named Stacy who he’d declared was his future wife.

Why take the interview, knowing she might be posted back to the States?

It was a question she’d asked herself many times but in the end there were a number of reasons. A part of her wanted to go see her home again as well as show her son where he came from. She also wanted to see where she stood professionally, was she good enough for a place in senior management?

All this had made her apply and she didn’t regret it. It had been nice to see her old team again. The guys hadn’t changed except that some of their tables now had pictures of their kids. Aside from that it was just like old times.

Dion Lansing wondered how crazy some people could be. The story he’d just heard beggared belief. Basically this woman had a son who’d had surgery to become a woman and when the parents found out they disowned him. Helen, the client had no idea where her child was. Their other kid had gone to England and hardly spoke to them. She thought she had no intention of returning. Who could blame her, he wondered.

He shook his head. He didn’t have kids but liked to think if he did, his door would always be open for them. He shook his head again to clear his mind. It wasn’t up to him to judge his clients especially when they were paying top dollar for his services.

He had to establish his quarry’s name first. The mother didn’t even know what the kid’s name was. More work for him and more money he thought. He turned to his desktop, knowing that name changes are a matter of public record.

It didn’t take him too long to find the record of a name change. Some years before, his client’s child had petitioned for a name change, possibly because of the sex-change she'd done. He knew who to look for now, a Constance David Richards.

He googled her, knowing that people left more information than they realised online. There was no sign of her. He sighed; he was going to have to work for this money. He picked up the dossier he'd compiled on Connie from the information her mother had passed onto him.

She was the second of two siblings, sandwiched between a now deceased brother and a little sister who was in the UK. Mrs. Richards had said they barely talked to the younger girl; maybe it was because of their reaction to the transition.

He decided a cold call might be in order.

"Mummy," yelled little Kellan when he spotted his mother.

He hadn't reached that age when little boys don't want to be seen as too close to their mothers in public thought Connie with a smile as she embraced her son.

Truth be told, the two of them were quite close, Kellan simply adored his parent while Connie loved him more than life itself. She couldn’t imagine her life without him.

She looked into his impossibly blue eyes, which reminded her of her brother's.

"Hi honey, did you have fun today?'' Connie asked him

Kellan nodded happily, "Yes, we made paper planes and mine flew the furthest,'' he chirped.

Basil Koumakis coughed, making a rasping noise that was the result of years of cigarette smoking.

“A kid who looks like Jason," Basil wheezed.

"I know it sounds crazy but he is the spitting image of our boy Basil. I thought I was hallucinating," Lynn said shaking her head.

Basil wanted to say she was but he knew that wouldn’t be fair to his wife. Losing their son was the worst thing that had happened in their long marriage. They were still struggling to get over it.

He squeezed her hand gently.

"I took a picture," said Lynn, pulling her phone out of her bag, "look,'' she said scrolling through her phone.

Basil took the proffered phone if only to indulge the woman he'd loved for so long.

Lynn had one of these new android phones that took excellent pictures even at a distance. It had been a gift from their daughter Leia and she now fancied herself an amateur photographer. She wasn't half bad too and he was glad she had something to interest her.

The image on the screen nearly stopped Basil's old heart.

"Goodness," he murmured.

"See I told you," Lynn remarked, happy that she'd proved her point.

Basil looked at her, immediately seeing the potential for her heart to break again if as he still thought this wasn't Jason's boy.

"He would have told us," he argued.

"What if he didn’t know?''

"This is a big city Lynn, I'm sure we can find someone who looks like you if we try hard enough,'' Basil argued.

"I need to know, what if we have a grandson out there." Lynn argued.

Basil sighed heavily, "I don't want you to get hurt," he said softly.

Lynn embraced her husband, "Nothing could hurt more than this," she murmured.

Gina had just arrived home when the telephone rang. She sighed having the house to herself was not as fun as she'd thought it would be, for one she had to answer the phone instead of Connie. She saw it was a US number which wasn't her parents (which had a special ringtone so Connie wouldn’t pick it up).

Her heart leapt, she hoped it might be Connie and Kellan, they'd been gone three days, and she missed them already.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Hello ma'am, may I speak to Constance Richards please?"

"Sorry I didn’t get your name?" Gina said, rather wary.

"Oh, I apologise, my name is Lenny Weiss, and I’m calling on behalf of the Eastwood University Alumni Association. Ms Richards left this number on a contact form, we are currently organising some programs to help Eastwood and are looking up alumni we have on record to see if their interested."

Dion Lansing was an excellent liar when he needed to get information.

Gina suspicions settled, her university did this at least every year too. She didn’t recall Connie ever mentioning it but it was one of those things that you wouldn’t mention anyway. It sounded legit too.

"I'm sorry Ms.Richards isn't around at the moment. Try calling again in a week," Gina responded before putting the phone down.

Lansing sat in his little office, brows knitted, opening, and closing a bull clip repeatedly. It was something he'd picked up back when he was still a cop and was deep in thought about a case. He carefully pieced together the clues he'd gathered.

A woman had answered Gina Richards’s phone. She didn’t have a British accent but she'd confirmed that was a number where one could reach Connie. Ergo Connie lived with Gina. Connie wasn't around at the moment but would be in a week.

He thought Gina was very safety conscious, she didn’t say anything other than confirm a hunch. He now knew the siblings lived together in England and Gina obviously hadn't let her parents know that she wasn't estranged from her sibling as they were.

On another hunch he visited the site of Connie Richard's last employer. He checked under the human capital link. There was no sign of her. He then saw a link to the companies British operations. He followed the link and then visited the people page.

He saw his first picture of Constance Richards; he stared for a whole minute. She had the loveliest smile, bright green eyes, and gorgeous mane of strawberry blonde hair. He was stunned; there was no way that used to be a man. He couldn’t see any of the telltale signs that indicated someone who'd had a sex-change.

He noted that she was the Senior Systems administrator for a British region. Her qualifications matched the information he'd been given by Helen except for the name. He did a double take when he read that she was a mother of one.

He knew enough about gender reassignment to know that wasn't possible, unless she adopted.

Yes that was probably it, she'd adopted. He also noted that there was no mention of her marital status.

‘Interesting,’ Dion thought.

He tried to imagine why parents would disown a child. He didn’t have kids and had never married as he simply hadn’t met the right girl; his own father had been a marine sergeant while his mother had been a housewife. They had been loving but strict. Unless he was naughty there wasn't much he'd feared to be open with them about. Of course he didn’t pretend to understand the first thing about why someone would change their gender, except he knew that the people who felt like were very cut up and couldn't live what their mind insisted was a lie.

He glanced at Connie's graduation picture, heck she didn’t even look like a 22 year old man but like a girl acting as a man. Well she'd certainly grown into quite a woman; she wasn't turning tricks like so many other transwomen did to survive and clearly ascending the career ladder and had a kid to boot. He was sure she was a daughter most would be proud of. A woman he would ask out no questions asked.

'Except she used to be a man,'

He shook his head; Jack Richards was a fool he thought.

He needed to find out where Connie was and the easiest way was to call her employer.

Connie listened to her child regaling her with his exploits at school. She couldn’t help thinking how beautiful the world was when you saw it through the eyes of a child. Had she ever had that happiness?

She wanted to think so, before her gender issues had all but consumed her waking existence. Maybe when she was 4 or 5 and her world revolved around Gina, Julian and her mother. Julian would place her on his shoulders and race around the garden with her while she shrieked with joy. Mom made the most amazing treats for them and was always there with a kiss and hug. Gina was her playmate, following her around all the time. Even Dad hadn’t been so bad he was an idol to them. Life had been much simpler back then. It was a crying shame that people grew up and things had to change.

“Mom, are you listening?” Kellan asked worried look on his face.

“Of course honey, you were telling me all about Mark,” Connie said giving her son an indulgent smile.

Jack Richards looked at his wife of over 3 decades wondering what was bothering her. She’d been behaving funny lately. He didn’t know what it was but she wasn’t acting her normal self these days. There were furtive calls in the hallway when she thought he was outside, he thought she was avoiding him somewhat.

All in all he was highly suspicious. Something was up but he was prepared to let it go, she probably had a good reason for it. He looked across the room and saw a family portrait from years back. He sighed as he asked himself what he had done wrong to have his family destroyed.

Julian was dead, the little boy who’d been so cheerful and brought so much joy to their lives, gone at 24. His heart still ached at the loss, it was so unfair. He wondered why he couldn’t have died instead. Then there was David, as if Julian dying wasn’t enough he had got some notion into his head that he was a woman. He’d even had the surgery, that had been six years back.

“I wouldn’t stand for that,’’ he muttered.

Still deep down he wondered where he’d gone wrong with the boy.

He could barely recall if he had beaten him or anything. Had anyone abused him, the kid was a loner and they had tried to bring him out of his shell but he’d seemed happy enough with his books. He tried to remember what he’d said.

“Ever since I was four or five I’ve felt something was wrong with me. It’s like I was something inside that I wasn’t on the outside”.

“Because I had to. Like I said I hated being a boy and my body and that was the only way I could feel comfortable with myself and it worked. I like the body I have now and living as a woman feels so right,” David had explained.

He remembered his disbelief and anger then his disgust when he’d revealed that he’d mutilated his body. His anger had been justified but now with time he believed he should have counselled his child not disowned him.

They hadn’t heard from him since that day and didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. His pride wouldn’t let him look for him, call him home. He wasn’t going to accept that shit but he couldn’t help feeling an acute sadness at the loss of his kid. He’d been so proud of David, he wasn’t a sportsman or popular but he had always respected his intelligence and kind heart. Of the three of them he knew David was the cleverest, kindest, and most mature of his kids which is why he’d been so upset at him being a homo. He was willing to admit that he was quite disappointed.

Then there was Gina, he’d spoilt the girl no doubt but after what had happened with her brother, she’d transferred to England and barely talked to them. She hadn’t said as much but he knew she wasn’t pursuing educational opportunities. She didn’t trust them anymore. Not that he blamed her, she probably saw him as a monster for how he’d treated David.

Jack rubbed his eyes, tired.

He sighed heavily, unable to fathom the answer to why his family was broken. This wasn’t how he’d envisioned his retirement. He stood up and walked outside hoping to lose himself in his garden.

For a while he could forget all his troubles.

To be continued