Chronicles Of Ashley Elizabeth Fisherman
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-7-
When one door closes, another opens.

Slowly I opened my eyes. My body did not feel as hot, and I was no longer seeing pastel unicorns floating around my head, also those pastel colored unicorns were no longer being preyed upon by the neon glowing dinosaurs. The room though was full of shadows, lots of shadows.

“So.” I said I looked down. I noticed somebody had covered me up with a brownish looking blanket. I quickly reached down and pulled the blanket to the side. My foot, the one the snake bit, was still there, the swelling was going down and it looked almost normal. It seemed they managed to save the thing.

“So.” I said as I switched my eyes from the foot to a small, paper-like band that had been placed on my wrist. The name printed on the band was 'Fisherman, Ash.” under it was printed my age “16” and printed under that was my date of birth. “December 18th 2009” and the last bit of information was my gender, a big bold “M” was printed under my date of birth.

I felt a crushing weight fall down upon my shoulders. I wanted to reach down and snatch the band off with my teeth. Once the band was between my teeth I wanted to spit it in the face of the next doctor or nurse that walked into my room and loudly proclaim my name was 'Ashely Fisherman' and that I was not a 'Male' but a 'Female' but I quicked decided that that would rude and a southern belle was never rude.

“I guess that makes sense though.” I said, sighing as I leaned back. I mean all my medical records had the name 'Fisherman, Ash' printed on them. All of my important documents had the same name printed on them. It would take time I guessed for the system to reset itself.

But I guessed I was in the right place for all that to happen. I mean I did tell the woman paramedic that I was transgender and I guess she put that down in her report and I'm sure somebody saw that report. I'm sure somebody from the state would come and visit me soon enough.

All I needed to do was to kick up my feet, and stir a little dust and form a little torrando. That would get the ball rolling. And then like a snowball being rolled down a hill it would pick up more and more snow and go faster and faster.

“But am I strong enough to wither the storm..” I muttered under my breath as I turned to look out the window. Judging from the skyline I guess I was on the fourth floor of the local hospital. The moon still appear to full but it was starting to wax a little.

And from my hospital window I could see the skyline of all of downtown, I could see the  regal five floor 'Princess Anna Hotel' a historic landmark. I could see the bell towers of 'Our Lady of Sorrow' often considered to be the largest church in town as well as the oldest. In front of it I could see the bell tower that belonged to the local Episcopal Church and beside that the one that belonged to local United Methodist Church.

All of these seemed to tower above a sea of glowing yellow street lights. And in a faint distance I could see the glimmer of the outskirts of New Orleans.

“Who am I'm kidding, of course I'm strong enough”

I'm not sure what came over me at that very moment. But it was a kind of quiet courage. I thought of Rain, my favorite webcomic character and how slowly came out of her shell with the help of her friends. I thought of how I held my breath the moment I finally reached the panel where she took her first HR pill.

I thought of how eagerly I donated to fund the 'Rain the Animated Series' by sneaking off to the local dollar general and buying a prepaid visa card. That took courage, because if my dad had found out that I'd been supporting anything transgender he would have beaten my ass within an inch of the gates of Hades. I also reflected on all the transgender artists and writers who I followed.

All the blogs I followed, all the discords I lurked in. Those discords were more than a mere cyber hangout for me, they were a safe haven, a port in the storm of life. Places were I could come and be refreshed and renewed.

“I'm going to do it!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “I'm going to transition and live the life I want to live! And nobody is going to stop me.

The End.