In my eyes the town looked as miserable as it had done 25 years before when I left it. I suppose it was OK if you had a thing for Midwest small towns. A long way from any sizeable city it was the commercial center for a wide swathe of the countryside. Not that the aforementioned countryside was particularly densely populated. I passed a small mall when entering the town. That was new. However, the main reason for the existence of the town was The Mill. Most of the working population worked for the mill directly or indirectly. The fact that I arrived on a cold and windy December day didn’t matter. I couldn’t have hated South Odom any more anyway.

The only reason that I had returned was the funeral of my parents. They had both died in a car accident. The only traffic light in town had malfunctioned. I did not look forward to the ceremony but I felt an obligation to attend. Not to my parents but to myself. Besides their lawyer had called and asked me to attend the reading of the will. Apparently I was mentioned in it which surprised me.

I checked in at the only hotel in town that had any claim to some comfort, not that that claim was any strong. I had dinner at what I remembered to be a good restaurant. Bad mistake. The food was still good but I was recognized and the owner didn’t exactly throw me out but the experience wasn’t pleasant. Well, I wouldn’t stay in town long. Only two nights and then I’d be gone again.

The funeral was the day after, on December 23. My so called siblings actively abused me, apart from Mary. The one family member that had always stood by me before and after I had declared that I was a girl, now a woman. One. The ceremony was OK as such things go. I had expected to be filled by hate towards my parents but now with them passed on all I felt was a mild regret of what could have been. My siblings on the other hand was another matter. The same applied to the rest of those attending. I was standing there alone within a “quarantine zone of about two meters. Actually that was a benefit since some of them had spat at me when first seeing me. They had same high opinion of me as my parents had had. At least Reverend Smith had passed away some years ago. I had always believed his bigotry, intolerance and hatred had largely shaped the mentality of the town. Not that people, including my family, hadn’t, listened eagerly, even enthusiastically, to him week after week.

I didn’t go to the reception afterwards. Mary had quietly advised me that my siblings had hired security to forcefully prevent me attending if I tried. My old friend Karl heard that and invited me to a tour of the mill. This saved face. Karl had been Marvin’s best friend through high school and Eve’s only friend after revealing myself. Two. Now he was the manager for the mill. I was very grateful for him. Not only for the face-saving but also because I genuinely wanted to visit The Mill. He showed around the place and I got a thorough insight into the working of the place. He also spent quite a lot of time telling me about the situation of the mill. How the old owner family had let the place run down before selling it earlier in the year. How Karl thought the mill with some upgrades and expansion, not retrenchment, could make the company very profitable again. How he had failed to engage the new owners.

After lunch I had to go to the reading of the will. I had expected it to be a depressing experience. It turned out to be much worse. The only reason I was called was because my parents wanted to humiliate me one last time. Oh, I was mentioned in the will. The text was vituperate and ended by declaring that their unnatural son Marvin Schmidt, or whatever name that blemish to the earth was hiding under was explicitly and completely excluded from inheriting anything at all.

Afterwards Mary managed to get a moment alone with me and handed me a small package. It turned out to be Moma’s old music box with the twirling ballerina that had fascinated me as a child and that Moma always said was to be mine one day. My parents had denied me that. Had my siblings been aware of how much it meant to be it would have been destroyed long ago but Mary had saved it for me.

After that I had only one more errand in town. I was going to visit my old Principal. The person that had made it possible for me to survive high school and had made sure that my teachers had given me fair grades. Three. These grades had earned me a full scholarship at an Ivy League university. A good thing too since after attending the commencement ceremony as myself things really had gone the drain. And I had made such an effort to make myself beautiful and the dress really was beautiful. When I got home afterwards there were two suitcases with my stuff standing on the porch. My parents were still a bit soft at that time. I left town on the night bus that evening and hadn’t returned until my parents’ funeral.

Fortunately the university had declined my parents demand that they rescind my scholarship. The university had no problem with a girl attending instead of a boy. Well, there were some paperwork and workarounds until my status was all legal.

When I got to my old Principal’s house I was a bit surprised. He wasn’t alone. My old coach was there as well. A bit awkward since Coach never had liked me and had not been very good at hiding it. On the other hand I had later learnt that he had written an unsolicited letter of recommendation to the university and that was what had tipped the scales to give me a full scholarship.

The evening went much better than I had expected though. We had a very nice time. I realized that Coach really had despised me when I was in high school. He thoroughly disliked me not because I was a girlish wimp, which was the reason I was bullied before I came out as a girl, but because he couldn’t stand my swottish know-it-all attitude. The reason he wrote the letter was because he despised even more how people treated me and had a grudging respect for the fact that however inept I was athletically I always tried the hardest I could. Four.

The last night ever I had planned to spend in my old hometown was thus quite a good one. I had to admit that I had misjudged my old coach. A humbling experience. I seldom make such mistakes.

The next morning I checked out. By now word about who I was had spread so I was abused as being a disgrace and how dared I defile my parents’ funeral by attending. I left the breakfast room without eating. The girl in the reception was embarrassed and softly offered her excuses when the manager went away. Five.

I stayed in the hotel lobby to make one short call to my Vice President.

- John, you lost. Implement my instructions.
- You have got a point there John. It can wait until after Christmas.

John had been with me since the day I started my company. He would hate to do what I instructed him to do but he would do it. He was completely devoted to me. So devoted that he proposed to me every New Year’s Eve. Suitable date given my name he claimed. I felt a bit sorry for him. He really should find some nice woman to marry. One that could love him. I wasn’t the one. I had had all love beaten out of me years ago.

When I left the hotel to get into my car I felt I couldn’t leave the town fast enough. That wasn’t to be. Two demons from my past waited by the car. Two of the gang of three bullies that had made high school hell for me. The grabbed me and deftly had me in a secluded alley within a minute. They were still much stronger than I and they soon had my arms and legs hand-cuffed despite my struggle. They gleefully reminded me how much I had “enjoyed” the last time they had raped me and now they had three holes instead of two to use. As they were ripping the clothes off me the third of the gang appeared. Great, now he’d get the chance to do what he had missed last time due to being at home with the flu.

For the second time in two days I was wrong. A first for me. Arnold first told them to stop what they were doing and when they refused despite him asking politely several times he “persuaded” them. The two bullies were unconscious by then and Arnold had a broken arm. Arnold called the police and an ambulance.

At the hospital we both were checked. I had only a few bruises and Arnold’s arm had a clean break that they set quickly.

I was curious why Arnold had stopped the bullies instead of joining them. This was not the Arnold I had known and hated in high school. Arnold explained that he had met an angel disguised as a woman that had made him see the error of his ways. Not only that, when he heard that I was leaving town the same day he was appalled that I wasn’t going to spend Christmas eve in loving company. He invited me home. The aforementioned angel most likely had food enough for six and not only five. I was curious so I accepted.

I hadn’t realized that Arnold came from Swedish ancestry and that Christmas eve was the main family holiday in his family. Had I done so I’d have refused. As it turned out Arnold hadn’t lied about his wife. She really was an angel. I was a bit nervous when I saw that the kids were teenagers, two boys and a girl. My experience with teenagers had not been very good over the years and it was obvious they knew who I was and, more importantly, who I had been. Once more I was wrong. There was only acceptance. Not even for second was there any resentment even for the fact that I was the cause for the father of family to have a broken arm. Or for that matter that this meant his staying home from his job at The Mill would cause a financial burden on the family. Arnold had done the right thing and that was enough. The kids were curious, not antagonistic. Politely curious. I saw that they were eager to know more about my situation and in particular about transgender people. I also saw that they were hesitant to ask and would stop immediately if I gave the slightest hint of being uncomfortable. I usually was but this time it felt good to talk about it, really good. I had never really talked about it earlier. The atmosphere was so relaxed. The dinner was a treat. I had expected to feel awkward when they started handing out the Christmas presents. There was no need. The family just included me completely naturally. There even was small symbolic present for me. Ten.

Despite their protestations I left them late in the evening. I had to get back to the big city to prepare for a meeting I had with an Arab emir early on Boxing Day. The night was clear and starlit so driving at night was no problem. As soon as I had left town I stopped and made another call to my Vice.

- John, you were right after all. There are at least ten righteous people in S. Odom. Don’t close The Mill. Don’t close the mall. Make sure that the proposal from the manager of The Mill gets an unbiased and fair evaluation and if positive we’ll invest what he needs. Also, you could hint to Karl that Arnold Svensson deserves a raise.

I had bought The Mill and the mall earlier in the year with the intention to obliterate S. Odom. I had decided to destroy the economic base for that hell-hole. My good conscience, fundamentally kind John, had persuaded me to spare the town. I had reluctantly agreed if I could find ten righteous people in town when I went to my parents’ funeral. I hadn’t expected to. Once more it turned out that I was wrong. Maybe I wasn’t as infallible as I had thought. I also felt like an enormous burden had fallen from me. I still despised most people in my old home town but I no longer hated. The relief was enormous. For twenty-five years hate had been my driving force. It had been the basis for my whole existence. It had caused me to build up a billion dollar business. Now that I had shed it I found that I didn’t really need it. Of course, I have always believed that the sum of your vices is constant so I had to replace hate with another vice. I added to John

- Just a warning. I plan to say yes on New Year’s Eve.