Sometime during the night, it started snowing again. When Jessie and Charlie wake-up and outside, they see that the snow was coming down heavily, and the parking lot was covered in snow. Charlie checks the weather for the area and a snow advisory has been issued, they were telling people to stay off the streets and allow the snow ploughs and salt trucks to do their job.

Charlie pulls out his cell phone and sees there is a message from Mary.

Forced to stay at hotel. Stuck for a while. Snowed in, won’t be able to get there tonight.
Mary
Charlie sends a return text.

Same conditions here. Advised to stay off roads. Truck snowed in.
CB

Will you be okay?

Mary
Your daughter was thoughtful enough to buy some food before I got here. Also, the hotel lobby has a continental breakfast set-up for the guest. So, we should be fine.

CB
Thank you, Charlie.

Mary
Charlie looks over towards Jessie. He looks as he takes care of Maggie, he’s never seen such a devoted brother before.

“Jessie, I’m going to go down and get us some breakfast from the hotel lobby. You stay here and watch after your baby sister.”

“Okay Charlie.” Jessie watches as Charlie leaves the hotel room.

Jessie walks over and makes sure the door is locked. He looks out the window and notices how bad the snow is coming down. Tears stream down his cheek as memories of a time him and his mother had gone out and made snow angels and a snowman. He wipes the tears away as he walks away and over towards the bed to wait for Charlie to return. He feels sorry for Maggie, because she will never experience what he had with their mother.

Twenty minutes later there is a knock on his door, Jessie checks to make sure it was Charlie before letting him in. As he comes in, his arms were full of lunch boxes some plastic cups with lids.

“Sorry for taking so long Jessie. The manager wanted to make sure you had enough breakfast, she made you a breakfast box. I think you’re going to enjoy what she put in it.” Charlie puts them down on the table.

Jessie opens his and sees it was filled with pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausages. Jessie looks up at Charlie, with tears in his eyes. He hasn’t had this type of food since his mother made it for him one day while his father was gone. The two of them had gone to the store and she used her last ten dollars to buy the material to make pancakes, egg and sausage patties.

Charlie sees the tears run down Jessie’s cheek.

“Is everything alright Jessie?”

“Yes sir.” Jessie wipes the tears away.

“Do you want to tell me why you were crying?” Charlie sits down at the table with his lunch box.

Jessie sits down at the table as well and takes a bite of the eggs.

“Before my mother disappeared, she made a similar breakfast for me. We went to the store and she used the last of her money to buy the items to make the same breakfast. She let me cook the pancakes while she cooked the eggs and sausage patties while my father was gone.” The tears had started again. Jessie wipes them away and picks up a napkin to blow his nose.

“It sounds like you and your mother were close.” Charlie takes another bite of his breakfast.

“We were. She said one time that Maggie and I were the reason for her living. That without us, she didn’t think she could go on. She wanted to leave my father, but every time she threatened to do so. He would grab me and hold a knife to my throat. I have a scar where he cut me to remind my mother of his promise.” Jessie takes a bite of the pancakes and mixes them with some eggs and sausage.

“Well, when your aunt gets here, you’ll be safe, you won’t have to worry about your father anymore.” Charlie was going to make sure of that.

“Jessie, when your father isn’t home. Where does he go?”

“He normally spends time either at the club’s bar or at his girlfriend’s house, I don’t know where she lives, because he never took me. He would say I was too much of an embarrassment to him and that he didn’t want others to know that.” Jessie takes a bite of his breakfast.

The two eat in quiet. When they are done, Charlie tosses their boxes into the trash. Jessie gets up and checks on his sister. She’s been quiet while Charlie and he ate their breakfast.

“Charlie, do you have any children of your own?”

“At one time, I did. I used to have a daughter I didn’t know anything about, her mother hid her birth from me. I didn’t find out till a police officer came to inform me that she and her mother had died in a car accident. I wouldn’t ever know I had a daughter unless she tracked me down and let me know. I regret that I wasn’t there when she was born or when she spoke her first word or took her first steps. I managed to get a picture of her and I keep it in my wallet to remind me of her.” Charlie pulls his wallet out and shows Jessie his daughter.

“She’s cute.” Jessie liked her looks. He could see some of Charlie in her.

“I guess my sister is like you, she’ll never know what mom was like. She’ll never be able to speak her first words to her or let her see her take her first steps. I’m happy I had my mom with me, but I miss her.” Jessie just looks at his sister.

“Jessie, I know your aunt can never replace your mother and it should be that way. However, I do know, your aunt and if there’s one thing I know she was extremely jealous of her sister having you too. Your aunt can’t have children of her own, during her youth, she used to be a daredevil type of person. She would never turn down a dare or let some smart remark be said about women can’t do this or women shouldn’t do that.

Well, one day she let her ego get the better of her and she accepted a challenge from a cowboy new to the circuit. He pushed her so far that she accepted his offer to ride a bull. Now, your aunt wasn’t trained as a bull rider. She could ride a bucking bronco and stay in the saddle, but she had never ridden a bull. Not only had she never ridden a bull, but the bull she got on had a reputation for seriously injuring the most experience riders.

She got on that bull and stayed on it longer then the cowboy who challenged her, but when she got thrown, that bull charged her and got her with his horns. He damaged her so badly, that we weren’t sure she was going to make it. The damage he did to her, made it so she can never have children, unless they implant them into her. The bull damaged her ovaries so severely, that they had to be taken out. Not only that, but he damaged her hip as well. She doesn’t do any more broncos and such, she has a scar going across her abdomen that is a constant reminder from that day. Does she regret it, yes? However, there’s no cowboy on the circuit that will ever say she isn’t the best or talk bad about a woman around her.”

“Wow! I didn’t know that about my aunt.” Jessie was impress hearing a story about his aunt.

Charlie could see the pride Jessie felt about hearing something about his aunt.

“I can tell you right now for sure, that as soon as she gets you home and settled in, you and Maggie are going to be the most spoiled kids there are. Like your mother your aunt will love you and care or you as if she gave birth to you. Your uncle will be the father that your real one should have been to you and won’t care if you choose to be a girl.” Charlie hopes he didn’t just say something wrong to Jessie.

Jessie thinks about Charlie’s words and wonders if he was a girl inside. Everyone that has seen him has called him miss, he didn’t know what to feel about it.

“Charlie, is it wrong if I decided I would like to be treated as a girl?” Jessie watches Charlie’s face.

“Is it wrong that you feel and want to be treated that way, no? During my time on the rodeo circuit, I have met a lot of different people. Some have been gay, some have been lesbians, I’ve met a few female to male people and I have met a person that didn’t identify with either gender. All I can tell you is it doesn’t matter what other people think of you, it’s what you think of yourself. All the rest can go F themselves and if they don’t like it, so be it. You are the only one that matters and how you want to live your life is your decision. When I first saw, you look at me through the window; I thought I was looking at a little abused girl. Even knowing you are a boy, I still see a girl in front of me. Your looks add to what I saw and what others saw, but the rest is mannerism, you move like a girl, you sound like a girl and your expressions are female like. Everything about you screams female.”

“Do you think my aunt and uncle will be upset about me wanting to be a girl?” Jessie was afraid of they might think.

A smile appears on Charlie’s face “I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty, that not only will they be happy about having you and Maggie, but they will not have any problems treating you the way you want to be treated. Don’t be surprised if your uncle is more protective than normal about you, he had a sister that was forced into prostitution by an old boyfriend. She had fallen onto hard times and her boyfriend took advantage of her situation. Once your uncle found out about what she was being forced to do. He took matters into his own hands.

Let’s just say the boyfriend won’t be walking for years to come.”

“You mean my uncle broke his legs?” Jessie looked amazed.

“No, he did more than that. He made sure the person was going to take years to get some mobility back so he could walk again. Your uncle is very protective of his family and his wife. Just as I am protective of your aunt.” Charlie still loved Mary and would do anything for her, he didn’t fault her for choosing his best friend.

“Since we’re stuck inside today, is there anything special you would like to do or see? I have a Netflix account if you would like to watch a movie or if you want to play a game or something.”

“Why don’t you play some of your favorites songs for me, please? I like music and couldn’t listen to anything after my father found my mp3 player my mother gave me for a birthday gift. We did have a radio in the house, not that it mattered, we didn’t have power most of the time.”
Jessie remembers the mp3 player his mother had brought for him. It wasn’t anything fancy, but she had loaded it up with music she liked and music he liked and shared it with him.

“Sure, thing kiddo.” Charlie loads a collection of music he had saved on his laptop and played it for Jessie.

Edited By: Dave