Not What We Expected by Tiffany B. Quinn A few weeks later I received my new birth certificate. It was a bittersweet experience. The date hadn't changed, just the gender and name. Other changed documents were also trickling in. The legal process had run its course, and, by the coloring of the crystal, my physical changes would soon be completed.

Chapter 12

Late that Saturday afternoon while Tom and Sandra were in Louisiana, I received a rather unexpected and odd phone call. I was at the boatyard with my parents working to get their sailboat ready to launch for the summer season.

"Hello?" I answered the call. The caller ID indicated that the call was being made from a Louisiana number.

"Is this Andy?" An authoritatively gruff male voice inquired.

"Yes sir," I replied, "Who is this?"

"I am Tom's father," he replied. "Sandra gave me your number. I was wondering if you would have the time and be willing to help me understand a few things."

"I'm with my parents right now," I inform him. "Give me a minute and I will take the time."

I muted the phone and let my parents know what was going on. They agreed that I should take the call, so I went to an office in a corner of the boatyard for a little privacy.

"Thank you," he sounded sincere. "I am trying to get to the bottom of what happened to you and Sandra and what role my son played in it."

"While I like Tom, he's not exactly my favorite person today," I told him. Even though I was at peace with the dissolution, I still couldn't completely let go of a feeling of displeasure for the situation and Tom's role in it.

"I can understand that," he says, "and if what I'm hearing is true, he's not exactly high on my list of favorite people either. I might be able to help you if I can find out what's really going on."

Over the phone I could sense his displeasure with his son and felt confident that I could talk with him. So, I did.

We talked for almost an hour. He asked a lot of questions about the visit that Sandra and I had made to his mother, Grandma Broussard, and what happened there. He wanted to know what our marriage was like before the visit. He asked about the impact that these actions had on my life. He specifically wanted to know about how it impacted my employability and my relationship with Sandra.

At one point, my mother had come to join me and was eavesdropping on my side of the conversation. With the Judge’s permission, I put the phone on speaker so that she could join the conversation.

He also asked mom a few questions about me and Sandra. She let it be known that neither she nor my father were happy about losing such a wonderful daughter-in-law and hoped that they would appreciate her as much as they had.

While he was flawlessly polite, the conversation was very much an inquisition. When he was done, he thanked me, and my mother, for our time and frankness. He said that he was impressed with my maturity.

He never said what he was going to do with all the information that I provided. It was a strange conversation.

Then Tom's mother got on the phone. A similar long friendly but firm inquisition ensued. She focused mostly on searching out the nature and status of my current relationship with Sandra and my future plans, which were totally unclear at that point. She also asked about how I felt about my transformation and how well I was adapting to my new reality.

She and my mother also spent time chatting about the situation.

Like her husband, she was polite and thanked me for my time and complimented my maturity and apologized for her son's thoughtlessness and mother-in-law's meddling.

Also like her husband, she made no comment about what they were going to do with this information. Neither of them said anything about what was going on in Louisiana. Judging from the questions, I imagine that they had grilled Sandra and Tom before calling me.

I found out what it was all about when Tom brought Sandra home Sunday evening.

-----<0>-----

Tom brought Sandra home to the condo late in the evening after having gone out for dinner on the way home from the airport.

As they came in the door, I couldn't help thinking what a good-looking couple they were. He was tall, a little over six feet, and was starting to look much fitter than he did when I first met him. The slacks he was wearing looked good on him, as did the open collared shirt and sports coat. Sandra was by now a tall, willowy dark-haired beauty wearing a sheath dress that came to mid-thigh, dark stockings, and matching heels. She was definitely going to be a trophy wife. As I looked at her, I realized that, in many ways, she no longer resembled the plainer, shorter, slightly plump girl that I had been married to. The changes had been good to both of them.

"Do you have a few minutes to talk Andi?" Tom asked me. He seemed to be a bit subdued.

"Sure," I replied, "Come on in."

Tom and Sandra settled on the love seat, of course, holding hands while I took a seat on the opposing couch.

Tom gave Sandra a look and she gave his hand an encouraging squeeze.

Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Tom looked me in the eye and began, "Andi, I know that I've apologized to you before for this mess, but I need to apologize to you again. I understand that my parents called you yesterday and they found out a lot more than what I had told them about how our current situation came to be. My parents had taken Sandra for a long walk earlier in the day and gotten similar information out of her. I was summoned to the study and really raked over the coals before they called you. They opened my eyes as to just how badly I had interfered with your life and marriage. I tried to tell them that I had no intention of causing harm or of breaking up your marriage, that I didn't know that Grandma would do something like this when I set up your meeting with her. I was just trying to help a friend get her heart's desire. They are pretty upset with Grandma too.

"There is nothing that I can do to undo the harm that Grandma and I have done to you. And to Sandra." He gave Sandra a stricken look.

"Tom, your love has made up for much of the harm that you have done to me. I know that it wasn't intentional, and I still miss my Andy. There are still times that I feel unfaithful to him when I am with you, but what can we do about it? It as if he has died and left me behind." Sandra interrupted him. She looked at me with a gentle smile, "The sisterly love that Andi and I now share is different than what we had before all this, but it is good. Very good."

Tom smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss then turned his attention back to me.

Continuing he said, "As you know, my father is a civil court Judge. He spends his whole working day, and many an evening and weekend, trying to help people redress their wrongs to the greatest extent possible. He impressed on me that I need to do the same for you. I can't return you to your adult male status. And with you being a young girl now, I cannot give you your wife back. My father, the Judge, says that in situations such as this, an effort is made to determine what the real monetary damages are and compensate for those. Additionally, punitive damages are determined based on the maliciousness of the act that caused the harm or the need to teach the offender a lesson. My father is convinced that, in this case, my maliciousness is much greater that I think it is, but he's the Judge, so what he says goes. Sandra has tried to be more than fair in the dissolution, but it was impressed on me that I need to do something as well in an attempt to make right the damage you have received as the result of my actions.

"So, this morning before church, Sandra and I had a very long conversation with my parents about what I should do to address the harm that I have done to you."

"Believe me," Sandra interjected, looking a bit uneasy. "Both of us got an earful, but Tom bore the brunt of it."

Tom put his arm around her and pulled her close. She snuggled into his embrace.

"With Sandra's help and the information that you gave my parents, we've arrived at a settlement proposal of sorts." he paused for a minute to look into Sandra eyes. She gave him an encouraging nod.

"The first part of the proposal is monetary." He continued. "Mom acted as your court representative and pointed out that it would be at least ten years before you will be able to enter the workforce at the level you did when you left college and another ten years until you could reach the level of seniority that you enjoyed when you were let go. Over that 20 years that you have lost, your income would only have increased. Adjusting for inflation and a few generous assumptions, we arrived at a figure of $1.8 million dollars as being the lost future income that you would have received if you had continued unharmed. We used twenty years as the time period since that is how long it will take to get you back to where you were before the changes.

"That's a lot of money!" I exclaim. "I hadn't thought about it in those terms."

He held up his hand, "There's more. You will also have expenses and intangible damages that you would not have had, had things stayed the same. For example, the cost of clothing and accessories for a girl or woman is much greater than for a man. You will also lose the benefit of Sandra's future income to improve your situation in life. It can be reasonably extrapolated that you two would have moved into a much nicer home and neighborhood in the not-too-distant future and you would have enjoyed a much higher standard of living than you did when this all started. That future has been taken away from you unless you are fortunate enough to someday find a partner with similar earning potential to Sandra's or change your profession."

Now there's a thought that somehow had never to that point crossed my radar. Would I ever become a wife? In fact, would I ever date a male?

Sandra noticed the shock on my face and correctly interpreted it. "Yes, Andi, as a girl now I hope that you can someday enjoy the love that I have found twice now." She smiled at Tom and snuggled even closer to him. "It is what I want for my BFF. I want you to find the happiness that the right man can give you."

Finally, an upside to my age regression, I remember thinking. I have years to get used to this idea.

Getting back to the topic, Tom held Sandra close and continued. "The intangibles are impossible to predict and to monetize. So, my mother, as your advocate, proposed that I pay off the mortgage on your condo, or buy it outright and give it to you so that you will always have your own space, should you need it. In addition, she suggested that we offer to adopt you as our daughter and thus become responsible for providing your support through your teen years. That would include the expense of maintaining the condo. As our daughter you would enjoy a much higher standard of living than you have at any other time of your life. You will also continue your close friendship with Sandra, only being her daughter instead of her sister."

This sounded a lot like Grandma Broussard's prophecy.

"I could continue helping you to adapt to your new reality." Sandra said with a smile. "It's been fun so far, and you are a quick learner."

She did have a point there. I had to admit that I enjoyed our long chats and girl lessons and had not been looking forward to losing that when she moved in with Tom.

"Also, by acting as our daughter," Sandra pressed the sale of the idea, "You could stop trying to explain to every stranger that you really are a thirty-two-year-old in disguise. You'd have the cover to just be the young girl you portray. That should make things much easier for you."

That had been another great point. I had found myself just going with people's natural assumptions instead of explaining things at that time. I had had no parents to refer to when people ask to speak to one, which had forced me to try and explain my real age. Not too many people had believed me. It had been getting tiresome. If I were to be adopted by Tom and Sandra, I wouldn't have to explain about my age and emancipation status anymore. I could just go with the flow. I could also start gaining the experiences of a teen girl as I work toward becoming a full fledged woman. There were some real advantages to the plan.

There were some downsides to the adoption proposal. I knew that I would definitely have to restart my life. I would have to restart it as a twelve-year-old girl. That meant going back to school, curfews, and daily watching Sandra and Tom live out the life that I had hoped for Sandra and I. I could be grounded, have my friends vetted by Tom and Sandra, and any number of other parental rights could be exercised over me.

I knew that I would have to think about that part of their proposal, and I told them so.

"Well," Sandra sighed, "You didn't outright reject the adoption option as I thought you would."

"I can see some upsides and downsides to that part of the idea," I responded. "We should talk more about that before I make a decision."

Tom continues his proposition with a frown. "Well, don’t take too long to decide. My parents have given me a deadline of Thursday to reach a settlement with you or they will withdraw support for the wedding. We'd have to postpone the wedding indefinitely if I don't work out a satisfactory agreement with you. We have considered eloping but that would cause irreparable damage to my family relations. And I really do love my family. I also really do want to make restitution to you. But, we’re not through with the settlement proposal.

"My Father, the Judge, insists that I pay punitive damages for the malicious nature of my behavior. I agreed, but not to the level that he and my mother proposed."

Sandra gave him a squeeze. "Don't be such a spoil sport, my love. We can more than afford it."

By then I was more than a little curious. "So, what's the bottom line?"

Tom takes a deep breath and laid it out, "I pay off the condo and give you clear title to it. You will always have a place of your own to go to if things don't work out with us. I will also pay taxes, insurance, condo fees, and utilities on the property until you graduate from high school, again. We find a way to become your parents, by adoption, for the next six years and agree to pay all costs normal to the raising of a teenage daughter. If you decide to go to college to retrain, we will cover all expenses. And we will set up a trust fund with a $4.0 million dollar endowment that will pay out $60,000 dollars a year over the next six years. After six years it will pay out $100,000 per year for another ten years. After that period, you will have full and unencumbered access to the remaining funds."

"Who would manage the trust?" I asked.

Smiling at Sandra, he said to me, "That would be up to you, but I can recommend an excellent investment counselor."

"I think that we should take it out of house, so to speak," I replied dryly. Not that I don't trust Sandra, but I think that mixing family and business is not a good idea. "So, I have until Thursday to consider a counter proposal?"

"The sooner the better," Tom looked worried. "We have that deadline of Thursday to make you happy before things go bad with our wedding plans. The wedding is a little under four weeks away and the invitations were sent out last week."

"I'll see what I can do." I promised him. "I'm sure that we can work something out."

"One last question," I gave Tom a sly grin. "If I do agree to the adoption, do I get to play with your computer center?"

He laughed before replying, "Sure, munchkin. I think that we can arrange that."

"I will have it put in the agreement," my grin got even bigger. I felt a giant burden lift from my shoulders.