It was a brilliant moonlit night. The warm weather of the past few weeks had made the nights unbearable for sleeping.
One of those who couldn’t sleep was William(Bill) Clancy. That night he’d gone for a drive down to the coast in his car.

As he topped the crest of a hill, he saw the gleam of the sea ahead. He wasn’t there yet. There was a steep hill to negotiate first.

He carefully started down the hillside. He saw another pair of headlights on the other side of the valley. He judged that the car was heading his way.

The route down to the sea actually headed inland a bit. Then it turned back at a hairpin bend towards the sea. The road was dark as the trees overhead hid the moon almost completely.

Bill had just negotiated the tight bend when the car he’d seen earlier appeared out of the blackness. It had its full beam on. Bill was temporarily blinded as it sped past him with only inches to spare.
Somehow Bill managed to keep control of the car.
The unfamiliar shoes he was wearing didn’t help but he managed it.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally reached the coast.
The place was deserted just as he’d hoped.
He stopped the car and got out.

The night was still. The only sounds were the gently lapping of the sea on the sandy beach and the ‘tinging’ sounds of bits of his car cooling off.

He walked along the path that led down to the beach.

He stopped at the end of the path. He was unsure about continuing further. The high heels of his strappy sandals would sink right into the sand. They were brand new and he didn’t want to ruin them on their first outing.

Yes, Bill is a Tranny. A Transvestite rather than Transgendered. He just loved dressing as a woman but had no intention of ever becoming one.

He called himself Nadia when he was ‘en femme’. Nadia was the girl of his dreams at school. She gave him his first kiss and a lot more besides.
On this particular night, was wearing a summer dress that on a normal sized woman would have reached below the knees but on him because he stood 6ft 6in in his stockinged feet, it was well above the knee. Still he thought he had good legs and the sheer nearly black stockings he wore over his freshly shaved legs felt really good in the light breeze that was coming off the sea.

As his eyes grew accustomed to the ambient light he began to see things. The Lighthouse on the headland that was some 20 miles away seemed to be almost within touching distance. The lights of the few beach houses on this part of the coast added to the feeling of space.

Space was the reason he’d driven this far that night. Working in the City was getting very claustrophobic these past years. His all too infrequent escapes to the countryside were the only things that were keeping him sane.

He turned back towards to sea. He could see the lights of a freighter of some sort slowly disappearing over the horizon.
As it slowly went out of site, Bill noticed something on the beach close to the incoming tide.
At first, he thought it was the action of the sea that was making it move. He did a double take and realised that it was moving itself.

He didn’t think any more about his new shoes but he took off across the beach to investigate.
As he neared the object he could see that it had human form but was covered in a black cloth of some sort. There was also a rope wrapped around the body. Well, he assumed it was a body.

By the time he reached the object he was sure it was a body. There were muffled sounds coming from it.

He knelt down into the coldish water. He tore at the rope that was wrapped tightly around the body. The muffling sounds increased their urgency as the water became deeper.

He soon freed the head. He gasped when he saw it was a woman. Her mouth was sealed with broad sticky tape. He peeled it off in one movement.

“Help me please” came her cry.

“I’m trying to” replied Bill.

She shrieked.
“You... You?”

“Yeah, I’m wearing a dress. A lot of men do it. What is more important is you and getting you free.”

She started struggling.

“Stop struggling. I’m trying to get these knots undone”

Just then a bigger wave came in and almost covered her.

Bill made a decision there and then to pick her up.

He tried only to realised that he bounds were attached to a large lump of iron or some other metal.
With a heave, he lifted her up and over his shoulder. He picked up the lump of metal and ran as fast as the now ruined heels would let him off the beach.

He reached his car and gently lowered the woman down onto the tarmac. The lump of metal hit it with a dull thud.

“We are off the beach. Now lie still and let me get these ropes off you.”

She struggled for a second or two before relaxing.

“Go ahead” she sobbed.

It took him several minutes but in the end and with now totally ruined nails he released her from her bounds.

When she was free, he pulled her upright. She wasn’t very tall.

“How do you feel?”

All she was wearing was a flimsy nightdress. It was wet. She started to shiver.

“Stay right there. I’ve got a blanket in the car”

He went to the back of the car and opened the boot. He quickly pulled it out and went to wrap it around her shoulders.

Then he realised she’d gone.

In the few seconds that it had taken for him to get the blanket, she’d disappeared.

He spent a good half hour looking for any sign of the mysterious woman. He singularly failed.

He only gave up when his aching feet and the approaching dawn told him that it was time to go home and get back to normality.

Bill would never forget that encounter on the beach. Whenever he dressed up in the future he would wonder where she went and more importantly who she was.

They were truly strangers in the night.