Confrontation --

"Where are you going young lady?" My father's stern voice reverberated in the living room finishing as an echo down the hallway. I was trying to escape from him once I heard someone come home. I froze not knowing what to do next. "Turn around and face me young lady!" My father's voice was now firm, but there was a gentle touch to it that invited me to turn around and face him. I turned around with my cast eyes down not wanting to catch what I expect to be his wrath.

"Does your mother know you are wearing her good clothes, young lady?" How could he know it was her clothes and not my sister's nice ones? I have seen mom walking through our living room a hundred times to go out with him on their date night and never once did he seem to notice her outfits or say something about them.

It was always me that noticed what a beautiful woman she was. "Mom, you look beautiful in that dress." Or, I might say, "That clasp is so elegant. I just love the way the fabric gathers and is so billowy across your shoulders." All those times, my dad just smiled at me and then kissed her. She knew how he felt about her.

A half hour ago, I found a note from my mom when I got home from school. She had to go to take my grandmother to the airport and would be back after six-thirty. My brother and sister wouldn't be getting home until after six because of football and cheer leading at the high school. And finally, my dad usually didn't get home until after six too. My elementary school lets out at 2:50, so that gave me at least a couple of hours of being alone time. Or so I thought. All I wanted to do was to try on some of her clothes to see something. My dad was supposed to be at work!

"Look at me, Young Lady!" I turned my eyes up and looked at him. He was trying to hide a smirk but look mad at the same time. I giggled. I heard him almost giggle too.

"I know you didn't get permission from your mom to put on her clothes." He titled his head to look me over. "And, they are too big on you anyway."

I moved as if to go down the hallway and take them off. "Oh no you don't. Come and sit down in the living room. I think we need to talk." I felt like crying. I went to sit down but almost tripped on the hem of the dress I was wearing. Before I could regain my balance, my dad reached down and picked me up into his arms like he was taking me to bed. He had a smile on his face and nuzzled me in the face. After a quick kiss on my forehead, he placed me on the couch and did something I had never seen him do before. He kicked off his shoes, sat on the couch with me, and drew his legs cross legged and was looking straight at me.

I love my dad. He grabbed my nose and after pulling his hand away to show a fist with his thumb pretending to be my nose, he said, "You're not getting your nose back until you tell me the truth. Why are you wearing your mom's clothes?" He pursed his lips and scrunched his nose as if to be stern, but his eyes twinkled.

I blushed. "I don't know. I just wanted to see what I would look like in them." He laughed.

"Well, your mom looks prettier in them than you do." But, with a smile, he added, "But, you are a bit cuter in them at the moment." I giggled.

"Thank you Daddy. That was nice of you to say." I said with a big sigh of relief. With that, he just shook his head. He pretended to put my nose back and then gave me a big hug.

"Does this have anything to do with your friend Melissa?" I gave him a blank stare. Had he read my mind? He nodded as if he hit the nail on the head.

"Why don't you go get out of those clothes and lay them on your mom's bed. Then, we can talk about pee wee football, if you want."

As I started to get off the couch, I stopped and asked, "Do I have to play football?"

"No, son. You don't have to. I just thought you like might to play with all your friends."

"I don't have many friends, Daddy."

"Maybe football would give you a chance to make more friends?" I started to cry thinking about how I was treated at school. I seemed to be the runt of the class. I couldn't imagine that football would be any better. Dad tenderly rubbed my shoulder.

"Are you scared to play?" he inquired.

"Maybe," I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. Maybe ..." I climbed back onto the couch.

"Maybe what?"

"Nothing Dad." I started to go back to their bedroom, but my dad stopped me.

"Maybe it would have been easier to make friends if you were a girl?" For the first time in my short life I knew my dad was secretly a mind reader. I looked up to him as if to say, 'how did you know?' He just chuckled.

"I just mentioned there is someone at your school by the name of Melissa, isn't there? And she used to be a boy, a friend in fact, you knew as Greg, right? He even came over here frequently to play with you, didn't he?"

I frowned. He seemed to know a lot more than I thought he should. "Yeah."

"Is she making a lot of friends now that she didn't have before?"

I shook my head in admiration of his question. "She sure is. She is the center of attention."

"And you were thinking if you were like her too, then things would be different for you too, eh?"

"But, what if I am girl and I don't know it?" I frumped.

"Oh, Taylor, that doesn't matter. What matters is why you think you need to become a girl. If it is because you are one, born in the wrong body, then we are here for you. But, if you are doing it because you think you will be more popular at school or because you miss your friend Greg, then you would be doing it for the wrong reasons. Reasons, one day, you might regret because you haven't take a good look at the downsides."

"Why would I regret it?" I asked him sincerely. "It got her a bunch of friends."

"Only because she is a passing curiosity which will wear off one day. Well, for another thing, you wouldn't be a real girl biologically. That means you wouldn't be able to have babies. That may not mean something to you at the age of eight, but it will be by the age of eighteen." I looked at him with a big question mark all over my face that he went ahead and answered. "Doctors can make you look like a girl on the outside, but on the inside, they still can't give you want girls are born with that allows them to make babies as well as turn them into women as they grow up. Plus, in making you look like a girl, you could lose the ability to ever become a father if you don't save something from your body first."

I gave him that special face when I don't understand him, so he added, "Those special boy bits between your legs that you pee with will be reconstructed in order to make you look like a girl on the outside by turning them inside. And those special extra bits that give you the ability to become a father will be removed forever. Plus, those bits are important because they will turn you into a man one day."

"So, Daddy, how does a girl, who was a boy, have a baby?"

"She can't, sadly. Generally, she adopts a baby. That is one of the many reasons your mom and I are pro-life."

"Daddy ... ummm ... how do my boy bits make a baby again?"

For the next few minutes, Daddy explained some scary stuff to me about how boys and girls make babies.

"So, is that how you and mommy made me?"

Daddy laughed and blushed at the same time. I didn't know he could do that. "Yeah, son. Something like that."

"Will Melissa have to adopt?"

"More than likely. She will not be able to get pregnant and have a baby herself. That is hard to get around, even using current medical technology. In the future that may change. At least one hopes that will happen. I would guess that she dreams of being a mother even now."

I started to get up again when dad stopped me. "Taylor, let me take a photo of you and send it to your mom. I think she will love it."

After posing, I watched him send her a text. "Daddy, what did you say to Mom?"

He showed me his phone. I saw the picture of me and the comment, "Like we talked about, our son is growing up."

"That's funny, Dad." I laughed.

A moment later, Mom texted my dad back. "Guess He will start shopping for me next. You've got competition Bucko!" I looked at my dad and he just grinned.

"I do all of your mom's clothes shopping you know."`

"Really!"

"Yup. Your mom hates to shop and I love to shop."

"But, I thought only girls liked to go shopping, you know, just like Stacey does, dad." I was confused.

"Not all women or men are the same way, son. Girls can love sports. Boys can love chick flicks. Boys can love to shop. Your sister Stacey loves to shop, but your mom doesn't."

I looked out the living room window and commented, "So wearing mom's clothes won't turn me into a girl."

"Not really. And, one day, you will grow up into a man which means I am going to lose you. You will walk out the door as an adult maybe to start your own family, get a job, and build a life."

"Will you be sad to see me go?"

"Of course I will. I may even cry like a girl does. Boys can cry too, you know." He ran his fingers through my hair. "Let's get those clothes off of you." He led me to their bedroom and we began to put the clothes away.

As I put my boy clothes back on, I asked, "Did you always want to have a family, Dad?"

"No. Frankly, when I was your age I couldn't stand girls. I only wanted to play with matchbox cars with my friends. I even loved to play cops and robbers with the no girls allowed rule. I never once thought of myself as a husband or being a dad or having children in my younger days."

"When did that change?"

My Dad sat down on the bed and thought for a long moment. Now dressed back in my own clothes, I sat down next to him. Then he said, "I don't know really. One day, I looked at a girl and realized that I wanted to be with her. I wanted to get to know her. Then a few years later, I realized that I wanted to have a family with her. And then one day, I made a vow to spend the rest of my life with her."

I sadly realized something. "Melissa isn't going to have a family, is she?"

"I don't know son. Somewhere along the way, men start wanting kids. And because of abortion, adoption is often out of the question for wanna be dads or a dad and a mom who can't have kids. So, most men, when they start dating a woman, instinctively want a woman that can have children. So, since Melissa can't have any of her own, I suspect many guys won't want her."

"If you weren't married to mom, and my age, would you want to marry Melissa?"

"Oh boy. That is a tough question. As much as I want to support her, I just don't know. As a man, I want to have a family. Somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to chase women and settle down for that reason. I wanted to have a home. I wanted to have kids. To be honest, knowing adoption would be our only option to have kids might have made me think twice about marrying your mother. Granted, that issue never came up. Thankfully, I will never have to answer that question because I knew she was able to have children."

"Mom says that you couldn't wait to be a dad."

"She's right. No, I couldn't. Having you, Stacey, and Richard was an unexpected joy every time we went to the hospital." He gave me a big hug and a kiss. "And I love you all so much too."

"Then what hope is there for Melissa?" I asked with more than a hint of worry.

"Well, unless things change, her best hope is to raise what many girls are told is only a mistake which they are then convinced can be erased without any real consequences."

"Mistake?" I asked.

"Yeah. Boys and girls have these things called raging hormones that cause babies to be made. They can make us act stupid in a moment of heated passion. So, a boy and a girl just a little older than Stacey, or about Richard's age, could make a baby they can't afford or don't want. Instead of embracing their 'mistake' and using it to bless others, the girls often go down to a place where they can erase that so called 'mistake.' But ..." My dad began to cry. "... that mistake is still a human being. It could be a doctor, a lawyer, an astronaut, a teacher, or anything. And it deserves a choice too. Most importantly, it could be a child for a childless couple that has lost all hope of having a family of their own."

A voice came from the doorway to my parent's room, "Yes, Taylor. Your dad is right. You okay Dan?" Mom came in and sat on my other side. I had never seen my parents so emotional before.

"It's still tough, Sue." I looked up at my dad who was still crying silent tears.

"Tough?" I inquired.

Mom answered for my dad, "When your dad was young, he got a girlfriend pregnant. He wasn't proud of what happened." My dad nodded. "But, the girl's solution hurt him very deeply." I paused and looked up at her waiting for her to explain. She choked out, "She had an abortion."

I was beginning to see there was more to my dad than I had first thought. "Would you have had the abortion Mom if it was you?"

She smiled softly and began to cry herself. Dad answered this time correcting me first, "'If it were you' ... No, your mom decided to give the baby she and a boy created up for adoption." There was a certain pride in my dad's voice as he said that. "You see, both your mom and I made mistakes when we were young."

"That's why we were made for each other." She blew my dad a kiss. He blew one back. My mom continued, "But, I choose life for my baby. I gave him up for adoption to a family that couldn't have kids, but dearly loved them and wanted them."

The thought struck me and I had to ask right away, "You mean I have a brother somewhere?"

"Yes. A half-brother. But a very much alive brother, I might add." my dad interjected. "Whereas the baby I fathered is no longer with us."

"Taylor, you know our friends Sam and Allen, right?" my mom said.

"Yes, I like them. Allen always does magic tricks for me. And Sam lets me steal his fries."

My mom continued, "Well, they are married now."

"I know, we attended their wedding. It was different to see two men kiss."

My dad asked, "They can't have children biologically. But, they want them. So, do you think they could benefit from someone's mistake?"

I thought for a moment. "But who would be the mommy?"

Dad laughed. "Look Taylor, just because they don't have a mommy in the house doesn't mean that Sam and Allen can't raise a child together. Sadly, they have to fight to adopt in a world where there are few babies to adopt."

The three of us went out to the living room where mommy showed me pictures of herself pregnant with a boy I never knew about. "Do you hear from him?" I asked.

"No, but I might. His parents have agreed to send me a letter when he turns eighteen telling me about him. I have a letter for him telling him why I gave him away. I told him it was an act of love. And, if he wants, his parents will tell him where I am when he is eighteen too." I saw her smile. Then she cried a little, "It was tough to give him up. But it would have been so much harder to murder him so I could go on with my life as if nothing happened."

Dad added, "You see son, they don't tell women the rest of the story. A small percentage of women will become sterile after an abortion. That risk goes up with each additional abortion. The guilt from aborting a child can hurt lots of women too."

Mom chimed in, "Many abortion facilities aren't inspected either and a small percentage of women will die after an abortion too. But, that is not the only serious flaw. Pregnant women aren't being told that they will be less likely to die carrying a baby to full term than if they abort their child. A study in Europe that followed women eight years after they either gave birth or had an abortion found that a full term pregnancy improves the health of women who give birth versus women who get an abortion. It found those who abort their baby are four to six times more likely to die in the eight years after having an abortion than women who didn't abort."

Dad said, "And, Taylor, other studies have show women who are pregnant versus women who aren't pregnant are even less likely to die by a dramatic eighty per cent. Which means that the safest a woman will ever be in her life is when she is pregnant."

I then had this horrible thought. "Mom, Dad, is Melissa a mistake?"

Mom took my hand and sat down. "Depends on what you say is a mistake. Certainly she was born into the wrong body which can be considered a mistake. Even though some see the remedy as worse than the cure, gender affirmation surgery. They forget she is still a living human being and the dysphoria needs to be treated somehow. Life isn't a mistake. It's a journey worth taking. Though her road is harder than most, it doesn't make it any less important and of no value because she can't have kids naturaly. If she were in my womb and I found out she was going to be transgender, I would still give birth to her. Her life adds to the tapestry of our existence. And that makes Melissa just as valuable to me as a human being as if she was born with the right body."

"Or born with Down syndrome." added my dad. "Did you know that someone with Down Syndrome seems to be impervious to Alzheimer's disease and certain cancers. Helping those with Down Syndrome has greatly improved our understanding of various diseases that plague humanity. And technology is changing all the time. Today, we can operate on babies in the womb and cure spine bifida. Who knows, in ten years, it is quite possible that with the help of science, Melissa can be a mom without having to adopt."

Mom chimed in, "Did you know a man with cystic fibrosis won the Star Academy 4 competition in France and captured a nation's heart. While he died young, he has left a lasting legacy of inspiration for millions of his fans. If he were to have been aborted because of testing positive for cystic fibrosis in the womb, the world would have lost his wonderful talent and passion for music."

She pulled out her wallet and showed me her driver's license, "See Taylor, I have opted to be an organ donor if I get killed in an accident. Life is an important gift. I've tested for bone marrow donation and more. But, the best gift I ever gave was the mistake I made to a couple who were blessed by my child. I know there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel their love and joy. I am so glad that your grandparents supported me."

My folks gave me a lot to think about. After our talk, I booted up our living room X-box thinking about what they told me. Just then, Stacey opened the door and teased me, "Hey you little brat. I ran into someone here who wants to play with you?" She giggled.

I drew a blank. "Who?" Turning around, I saw Melissa come past her.

"Hey Taylor, can we still play Minecraft together? I still like to play it with you." she asked timidly.

With a big smile on my face, "Sure, Melissa. You will love the new village I have made. By the way, I like your dress. You looked real pretty today at school. The color suits you."

As I handed her a controller, "Thanks Taylor. It's one of the first dresses my Mom and I bought together." I think I saw her blush.

"I am glad things are working out for you." I said. She smoothed out her dress and sat on the couch next to me. I grabbed my controller and began setting up the split screen for two players. "And thanks for coming over, I have really missed playing with you too."

Her smile said a bunch. My mom and dad are right, she isn't a mistake. I'm really glad she was born. I like being her friend. And being part of her journey makes me feel special.

----

Epilogue:

Ten years on, I was in a fancy tux. I knocked on Melissa's door. She looked radiant in her dress. I pinned a corsage on her left wrist careful to avoid staring down her dress and admiring her pretty breasts. Which was hard to do because I was so much taller than her now. I can't say how I won a date with her to the prom. I'd like to say it was because I was more handsome, stronger, or more popular than all the other ton of guys who asked her out. I know I am not because I know the guys she turned down. They're my good friends now. Rather, I think it was because she knows every day since that fateful day I was caught wearing my mother's dress, I pray for her. I pray she will find someone who will love her always, who won't mind adopting children, and who will enjoy a world in which she has a far better chance to become a mother.

I know that in the months to come, as we head off to different colleges, that this moment was paid for by lots of babysitting of Uncles Sam and Allen's baby, Melvin. And taking her to prom was worth changing every stinky diaper of Melvin's.

We all make mistakes in life. My parents taught me how we confront what mistakes we make is how we can change the world for the better.

Copyright © 2020 by AuP reviner