To catch up:

Laura (the “knockout”) visited the girls at home and brought, among other things, information regarding the quality of the teachers at their school. The information included good points and bad points, teaching ability, testing issues, etc.

Laura had been gone only about five minutes when the doorbell rang again. I opened the door saying, “Laura, did you forget something ...?”

It wasn’t Laura. It was a tall woman about my mom’s age.

She stared at me … and I at her. After a several second “stare-down”, she said, “Sarah Brooks?”

“Uh, yeah, but I gave at the office.”

She smiled. “You’re sweet, Sarah. You’re just as you were written.”

“Written?”

“I have some information for you. Please believe me, I’m not selling anything. Mind if I come in?”

She was nice looking and neatly dressed in a business skirt and blouse. She had a briefcase and looked professional and harmless enough. “Oh, please come in. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“It’s alright. I’m a fiction writer. This visit is very unusual. I don’t know that this has ever been done. Let me show you something that might help you to understand.”

She pulled a computer printout from a briefcase. “Read some of this. I think it will help you understand what’s going on. I’ll also give you the link to look at it online. That way you can read more as the story continues. You wouldn’t need to, but you will probably find it interesting to see my ‘take’ on it.”

I began to read:
Rivers and Brooks

Chapter 1

Living – or going through the motions

“Yeah, I scored a touchdown.”

I looked up from my reading, “This looks like a story about me! It looks familiar and I think I remember it a little.”

“If you read on, I think you’ll remember more. It’s the day you showed Lisa your enlarged nipples. Soon after that, your mom took you to the doctor, who mistakenly diagnosed it as ‘gynecomastia’. You see; my name is Jamie Simms, and I’m your writer.”

OK, that cinches it. I’m dreaming again. Since it’s just a dream, I can say anything I want. “Ma’am, do you fell ok? Maybe I need to call the guys with the white coats and butterfly nets. They’ll take really good care of ….”

“Sarah!”

I stopped talking.

“Sarah, apparently you don’t believe me. Where do you think I got the information on that printout?”

She had details she had gotten from … where? I realized I wasn’t dreaming. “I don’t know. You realize how crazy this sounds?”

“Did you think you were dreaming? I’m a fiction writer, and just showed you some of what I’ve written. There is a lot more. I know a lot about you and your family because I wrote the story.”

Suddenly, it was clear. It was true. This was a woman who was writing a documentary of a child who was thought to be a boy until “his” body began maturing as a female and attempting to menstruate. That child, of course, was me, and she was my writer! But she said she’s a fiction writer! Are we all fiction? Can a fiction writer meet her characters? I thought the discovery that I actually have two “X” chromosomes was the strangest thing that could ever happen to me, but now I saw a situation that could quickly go to the top of the “strange occurrences” list. This brings up the question of whether I am a real person or a fictional character. If I’m fiction, does that mean I can meet Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? Maybe I can meet some of Shakespeare’s characters, or Jane Eyre! Wait … all those are historical characters. Can I meet some of today’s fictional characters? I realized there isn’t much great fiction being written these days. If there was, I hadn’t seen it. I sat, stunned, for several seconds. Finally, she broke the silence, “Sarah?”

“I’m so sorry. I just don’t know what to say. I don’t even know what to think. Would you like some coffee … a soft drink?”

“No thank you. Is Lisa home?”

“Yes, hold on a second.” I sent Lisa a text, asking her to come to the living room.

“It’s a big house when you have to text each other inside the house. It seems even bigger than I imagined it.”

I thought a few seconds. “You say ‘bigger than I imagined it’. So … you imagined our house?”

“It wasn’t totally from my imagination. I used to live in this area and I’ve passed this house many times, and I thought it was the most beautiful house in the neighborhood. That’s why I had y’all move into it. I had never been inside, so I imagined the rooms and so forth. I’ve imagined quite a bit about the two of you, your family, your lives, etc. I’m your writer.”

Lisa now walked into the room. “Lisa, this is Jamie Simms. Ms. Simms, Lisa.”

“Just call me Jamie, please.”

Lisa smiled, “Pleased to meet you, Jamie Please.”

“Lisa!”

“No, it’s fine. She’s so cute … just as I wrote her!”

Lisa sat down. “’wrote’ me?”

“Yes, Lisa”, I broke in, “she’s our writer.” I handed her the printouts and she began to read. She read about half of it in about thirty seconds. She seemed as puzzled as I was. “You say you’re our writer. Is it, ‘We can’t do anything unless you write it?’, or ‘You can’t write unless we do something.’”

“Yes, exactly!”

“What do you mean, ‘Yes, exactly’? It was a question! An either-or question!”

She smiled as though Lisa were a child. “Have you ever watched a politician when he doesn’t know the answer to a question? He becomes evasive. That’s what’s happening here. I don’t know the whole story, but I’m glad to tell you what I know. It’s true, I have quite a bit of control, but I write more like a documentary. I get the ball rolling on something, so to speak, and as you two and your families react to events, each in keeping with his or her personality, I write. Of course, I’m the one that created your personalities with my writing. Also, I write in first person as Sarah, except for a couple of chapters where Lisa finds out about her real dad. Those two chapters are written in first person as Lisa. Some writers find it limiting to write in first person, but I find it easier. Any limits are easy to overcome, and the more first person one writes, the easier it becomes.”

I had become silent by this time. I was thinking about Bryan. “Ms. Simms … Jamie, can you make major changes about things that have already happened … you know?” I was going to keep the “major changes” of which I was thinking to myself.

“Sarah, you’re not being evasive, are you? Are you talking about Bryan?”

I said nothing, but she saw my eyes welling up.

“Sarah, I’m so sorry. I know you’re sensitive, and I think maybe I ‘overwrote’ your sensitivity, so I didn’t realize the depth of your feelings for Bryan after so short a time and considering your history with him! In answer to your question; yes, I can make changes. I can make unlimited changes before a chapter is published with no problem, as long as they’re in ‘sync’ with previous chapters. Once a chapter is published it’s difficult. Oh, I can still make any changes at all, but they have to be realistic. For example, bringing the dead back to life is not realistic. I could turn around and say, ‘it was a mistake … it turned out that it wasn’t Bryan in that car’. If I do something like that, though, I chance losing my credibility, and that is difficult to get back. Without credibility, readership drops. The story and your lives begin to lose any sense of reality or importance. I had a goal of writing a novel, beginning with a girl struggling with the issue of anomalous genitalia and continuing the story with her family becoming successful; that success coming from a high quality of character of the adults and that character passed on to the children.

“So, an occurrence that is just not believable taints everything. The novel descends into some genre other than a novel. That genre would be called, I guess, The ‘Almost made it’ genre or maybe ‘Fairy tale’ genre. So the amazing characters of your dad and everyone else in the family ends up in a bin reserved for either failures or some genre nothing like I intended.

“Besides all this, even if Bryan had not died, and you and Bryan had a relationship that culminated in marriage, I afraid it would bring a lot of disappointment for you in the short term and unhappiness in the long term. This is going to sound very callous, but Bryan is not of the same caliber as you. The term ‘All men are created equal.’ should be followed by the word ‘except’ and a very long list of reasons some people succeed and some fail. Those reason are almost exclusively connected with the way you are brought up. There are notable exceptions, but, generally, parents bring up their children up as they were brought up. They may see some of the mistakes their parents made and try to make some corrections, but the family status quo is a hard current to fight. Both of you have a big responsibility when you choose a spouse, and when you have children. That responsibility is to your children. They should be conceived with a man of high character and raised with the discipline and strength of family ties with which y’all were raised. If you marry badly, that’s one strike against you. It makes it more difficult to bring up your children right. Lisa’s mom can tell you some about this. That’s why I couldn’t have Steve be Lisa’s father. Katy was blessed to have James to help. Even though he was just Lisa’s uncle, he gave her an excellent role model of what a man should be. Without him, her role model would be, ‘A man is someone who like to drink, take drugs, and run around; then, when things don’t please him, just disappear.’ Lisa’s case brings up the old controversy about nature versus nurture. How different would she be if Steve were actually her father? We’ll never know. Sarah, you’re on your way to becoming one of the most respected members of society; a doctor. Bryan was on his way to a successful career, mostly thanks to you. But, he would have always been limited by a lack of formal education. In the long run, this would begin to cause friction between the two of you. Oh, I’m not saying you would feel superior to him, but you both would be constantly aware of the disparity in incomes; it’s just the way humans are. Studies have shown that a disparity in education and/or income between the spouses put a strain on a marriage, especially when the more educated or higher-paid is the wife. Additionally, people with wide differences in education tend to have greatly differing interests. Can you see you and Bryan going to see La bohème. Would you accompany him to a professional football game?

“In addition to all of this, Sarah, you have a history which makes it difficult to have a relationship with a man. Were you to marry a man, every time he undressed you would have memories of that dreadful boys’ locker room, and you would subconsciously be watching for personality traits in your husband that are similar to Bryan as he was the first time you knew him. Problem is, you would manage to find them! This would be another source of friction in the marriage.
“Sarah, it’s time to move forward. I think you know that Laura is part of that. Get to know her better. You and Lisa both think she’s beautiful. I’ll tell you a secret; she’s crazy about both of you. We don’t have a class system in the USA. If we did, though, Laura would be among the upper class and she wants friends who are peers. Your family is now to be considered in that very exclusive club of the unofficial upper class and she knows that. Laura is not after money, she doesn’t need it. She wants and needs friends. Her parents are gone, and many of her friends have married and/or moved away. As a single woman … among other things, it’s difficult for her to socialize with friends who are married. The two of you have a strong, loving family, and it’s easy to forget that everyone needs friends, including yourselves. Laura even loves the family and has said as much. Please, embrace Laura.

“Now, I realize it sounds as if I’m trying to be a matchmaker. Please don’t take it like that. If I wanted to do that, I could ‘matchmake’ with my pen. I’m the writer, remember? I don’t want to do that. I want your lives to flow naturally. If one of you ends up with Laura, I don’t want it to be because I forced it. For now embrace her, as I said, but as a friend.”

We sat silently for a few seconds, then Lisa said, “Wow, that’s a lot to take in! Do you have some advice for me?”

“Well, here something you might think ironic. You both get your sensitivity from your fathers. Lisa, you don’t know a lot about your father yet, but you will find he is very sensitive. Yes, he’s an attorney, and he uses his sensitivity to ‘read’ people. This is very helpful to him when picking a jury or questioning a witness. You’re not as sensitive as Sarah but in your case, I thought I overwrote your assertiveness. So I eased it up a bit; hence your reaction to seeing the specter. It shows you’re more sensitive than you pretend to be. Remember trying to talk to your dad at the dinner when you first met him? Yes, you’re very sensitive, but not super-sensitive. Here’s something neither of you have considered. Sarah was born with anomalous genitalia due to excessive male hormones during gestation. This hormone imbalance came from your mother. Since your mothers are sisters, that same hormone imbalance came into play with you, but in a different way. It gave you a somewhat more assertive personality alloyed with your sensitivity. Just as Sarah’s sensitivity will serve her well as a physician, your assertiveness combined with your sensitivity will be a great asset for you as an attorney.

“You’re both on your way to successful lives. Just don’t be tempted by anything that will side-track you. That’s a broad statement, right? ‘Don’t be tempted by anything.’ I can’t tell you everything that’s going to tempt you, but please be wary, and you will recognize the temptation when it comes. For most people, it’s very hard to resist, but the way you two have been raised gives you more than enough strength not only to recognize, but to also resist. Once again, this may sound callous, but Bryan could be thought of as one of those temptations. I don’t mean to be negative about Bryan, but he was not a match for you, Sarah.”

We sat, again, speechless. Finally, Lisa asked, “There are twenty-eight chapters here. How many more chapters in our novel?”

“It’s hard to say. I could say I’ll write as long as you two do things that are interesting. The word, ‘interesting’ however, cuts both ways. There is said to be an old English curse, ‘May you live in interesting times’. You see, if times are good and everyone is reasonably happy, that’s not interesting. The curse wishes the opposite on a person. I guess it would be interesting if the two of you robbed a bank, but it wouldn’t be pleasant for you or the readers. After the initial interest, readership would drop. The story would descend into a tale about two beautiful young girls in prison, and while that has a potential readership I have no interest in writing anything about that.

“Children and teens are usually inherently interesting. You two continue to interest … me, anyway. I think that’s possibly because your lives are not anything like most people’s lives, and most people take an interest in ‘how the other half lives’. Y’all are not, of course, representative of half the population, so I think a better term is the term used quite a bit these days; the term ‘the two-percent’. I think you know you have pretty easy lives, and the story is good escapism for those who don’t have it so good.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening. We were actually talking to our writer! “Jamie, you’re tall, and you have blue eyes … beautiful blue eyes. I would think you would have made us somewhat like you.”

Jamie smiled. “I hate blue eyes. The two of you look something like I would wish to look if I had a choice. Laura is beautiful, but it’s the two of you who are ‘knockouts’!”

Lisa smiled and waved her away. “I’ll bet you say that to all your female characters you visit.”

“Sure, if I had visited any others. This is a first. I really didn’t know what would happen. I’m sure I’ve broken some kind of literary law. The literature police might pull up in your driveway any time now. If that happens, I’ll have to start writing really fast to get Lisa her law degree so she can help me.”

“But, you can just write the police away!”

“That’s an interesting concept. I’m hoping to get a lot of feedback on the ‘Big Closet’ website. As far as I know, this has never been done before. We’ll see what happens.”

“Well, what’s next for us in the novel?”

“That’s the main reason for my visit. I’m kind of ‘blocked’, and I wanted to ask y’all to do … something interesting. Try not get in a rut, as so many people do, but don’t make it something that would get you in trouble. The two of you are young and creative. That’s why I’m asking for your help. I guess I’d better be going. I don’t want to interrupt so much that the story ends up in shambles. Where are the adults?”

“Dad went to the office and Aunt Katy is shopping. I’m not sure where my Mom is.”

“That’s good. I’m not sure they would believe I am who I say I am. If they refuse to believe me, it might cause a rip in the ‘time-space’ continuum. I think they said something like that in the movie ‘Back to the Future’.”

“Will you come back for a visit?”

“I’m not sure, but take my card. Call me if you need to.”

“OK, Jamie, we’ll try to do something … outrageous?”

“No, just interesting.”

“You got it.”

NOTE TO READERS:

Strange enough for you? I’ve wondered if this had ever been done before, but there are many scenarios that would prevent this type of thing. For instance, if you’re writing about something many years ago, a visit would be impossible with current technology. If the characters are on the other side of the world, or in some place very difficult to access, that would be a problem unless you have unlimited funds.

In my case, the advice given me about writing I took to heart most is, “Write what you know.” So my story is set in Texas, the state in which I have lived all my life … so far. More specifically, I had my characters move from Central Texas to Houston, in Southeast Texas, in an area where I used to live. I had them go to Rice University, which I attended. I now live only about 30 miles from the River Oaks area, where the Brooks and Rivers families reside. I knew the location of the house. So it wasn’t a long drive to go visit.

I have expressed a lot of views in this chapter. I don’t really think these views are controversial, but I’ll bet I’m wrong. I want criticism! Remember, criticism is not only disagreement. It is about what you think about what I’ve written. You can say you agree or disagree. Either is criticism.

Where do we go from here? Had enough of Rivers & Brooks? I have some ideas.

1. The girls run away with the circus.

2. The girls open up a brothel in the “servants quarters”

3. Sarah and Laura get married, but during an argument, Sarah strangles Laura. Lisa, now with her law degree, gets her found “not guilty”.

4. Lisa marries Laura. During an argument, they shoot each other, and neither is expected to live. Since Laura is shot in the head, Sarah, now with her medical degree, transplants Lisa’s brain into Laura’s body. Sarah then marries “Laura” who has the brain, personality, etc. of Lisa. Since they are no longer cousins legally, they marry and live happily ever after.

5. Sarah wanders into the woods and finds a cabin inhabited by three bears. Wait … scratch that one. Someone just told me it’s been done. Good! I can’t spell “porige”, and it doesn’t sound very tempting anyway.
.
6. At the beginning of the story, Tracy’s mom goes to wake him up for school. We’re led to believe he woke up and had all the subsequent experiences. He didn’t wake up, however. Since he didn’t wake up right away, she lets him sleep and tells Lisa to go on to school without him. “She says, I’m fucking sick and tired of having to wake this little faggot up three or four times every morning!” Tracy continues to sleep, and dreams everything else in the story from that point. Now, he wakes up, has missed a day of school, and has to go back to school the next day and face Bryan and all the other miseries he has always had to deal with.

7. I like this one: Jamie Simms wins the lottery of $10,000,000, buys the Brooks house for a mere $4,000,000, moves her family in, (yes, husband, too) and the entire Simms … and other surnames connected in some way (at my discretion) … families live happily ever after. Oh, she invites the Brooks and Rivers families to stay, and they agree. Hey … it’s a big house! Jamie also uses her funds to hire people to find Travis. He is found, and Jamie visits him to tell him all is forgiven, thanking him not following through with his plan to “make a baby” with her when she was eight years old, and wishing him well.

I dunno. Any ideas … anybody?

I may continue the story … or end it as gracefully as possible. Sarah, Lisa, and all the others will be a memory. I hope, for my readers, a good memory.

Note: just heard from Lisa so:

Next: Hush money