Take two young people: - John in England and Amy in California. Take a common factor: - both recognised that they had been born into the wrong gender. As they grow up, they realise that their bodies are in imminent danger of changing into something neither wants.
 
Result: - Two very unhappy souls.
 
Their dreams are the only place they can find solace. Then they start to dream of each other, and to get a little glimpse of the other’s life. Over time they learn how to crossover at will and not just when asleep. They start to leave childhood behind as puberty beckons. The lines become blurred, who is where?
 
Solution: - One of them takes the bold step and suggests they try to live each other’s lives. Will it work?
 
Find out……………………….

---

Viewing Note: This story should be viewed with the Edwardian Script ITC font installed on your Windows platform in the c:/Windows/Fonts directory. Microsoft Word installs this font automatically.

---

Tanya's Book Shop where she is selling her works in book form is at http://tanyaallan.authorshaunt.com/shop.php . Please Visit!
Also, Tanya has a new website where she will display her latest works first and then to BigCloset TopShelf a few weeks later is here at Tanya Allan's Tales .

---

Originally written in 2006 - never posted, Reworked & Revised in 2009.
 
I have Dedicated this story to Sephrena Miller, for all of her help and guidance... May all her dreams come true!
 
The Legal Stuff:The Other Side Of Dreams  ©2006, 2009 Tanya Allan
 
This work is the property of the author, and the author retains full copyright in relation to printed material, whether on paper or electronically. Any adaptation of the whole or part of the material for broadcast by radio, TV, or for stage plays or film, is the right of the author unless negotiated through legal contract. Any commercial use by anyone other than the author is strictly prohibited.
 
This work is fictitious, and any similarities to any persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental. Mention is made of persons in public life only for the purposes of realism, and for that reason alone. Certain licence is taken in respect of medical procedures, terms and conditions, and the author does not claim to be the fount of all knowledge.
 
The author accepts the right of the individual to hold his/her (or whatever) own political, religious and social views, and there is no intention to deliberately offend anyone. If you wish to take offence, that is your problem.
 
This is only a story, and it contains adult material, which includes sex and intimate descriptive details pertaining to genitalia. If this is likely to offend, then don’t read it.
 
 
Chapter 11
 
 
It was a very thoughtful and distracted James who joined the gathering of the families at dinner that evening. Wisely, he’d been entirely non-judgemental after John and Amy had told him their very strange story. He was actually very pleased that he hadn’t reacted, apart from saying, “I see’,” at the end.

Helen and Kathleen were behaving strangely, but he was so distracted that he failed to notice their conspiratorial looks and whispering. Neil was barbequed up to his red-rimmed eyes, so he couldn’t see anything amiss, even if he’d wanted to.

It was a very logical tale, albeit impossible.

What had staggered James was how suddenly Amy dropped her American accent, so her voice sounded so like John’s had been, prior to his voice breaking.

In fact she’d started the story.

“It began back when I was bullied at Churchill School,” she said, which caused him to frown.

“Before you say anything, please hear us out. I have to start if you want to get the truth. You see, I was John, so this is really hard for me, as I hear him call you dad, yet I feel I want to.”

The girl seemed close to tears, so James decided that saying nothing would be the best course of action for him at this stage.

“D..d.dad, my goodness that sounds so weird! I know I was always a disappointment to you, but you see, I always knew I should have been a girl. Jacquie knew my secret, and I think mum did, in a way. Anyway, I was particularly unhappy, so the best time of the day was when I was in bed and able to become, in my mind at least, the person I knew I should have been. One night, I dreamed that I was in a different bed, in a different house. As there was only one bed, Miles wasn’t in the dream. I woke up, got up and found that I was a girl, wearing a night dress and in a girl’s room.

“I looked out the window and saw funny cars with different number plates and the steering wheels on the wrong side. A woman came in and thought that I had had a strange dream, so put me back to bed. Except, I wasn’t asleep and I wasn’t dreaming.”

At this point John took up the story.

“I was the girl called Amy. It was to my room that John ended up, in fact, it was my body she invaded, while I crossed the Atlantic and ended up in John’s body,” he said. James couldn’t get used to his son admitting that he was a girl called Amy. Still he said nothing. Amy picked up the story.

“We crossed over several times, each time for longer and longer. It was fun, at first, but we always came home, as that was where we belonged. But then we got to like our lives in the new bodies more than our original ones. I suppose I was the first, because my body changed more than John’s. I was becoming a woman, so I realised I wanted to stay like this.”

“And I was having too much fun. I was good at football, I’d changed schools, so she’d have had to learn all my new friends, and that would never have worked. I missed my folks and my brothers, but I didn’t want to go back to being a girl. I was so much more content as John.”

“And I was so pleased to feel my outside was the same as what I felt inside. I would have stayed only because of you and Mum, but knew I’d be miserable. I suggested we stayed at we were,” Amy said, with a sad smile.

“And I heartily agreed,” added John.

“Did ya not think that we, yer parents, hadda right ta know and perhaps hav’ a say?” James asked.

“It wasn’t possible at the time. By the time we’d sort of got stuck at who we were, it was too late,” Amy said.

“Besides, we didn’t think you would either understand or let us continue. Then we may have had to do it anyway. We’re who we want to be now, so even if you protested we would stay as we are.”

The pair of them stared at James, looking uncertain but unafraid. James knew what they’d told him was impossible, but he believed them. No one could ever make up such a story. Besides, all the evidence supported it. His mind went back to the day that John suddenly fought back against his elder brother; the same day that he spoke with a silly American accent.

All of a sudden, other memories rushed in and overwhelmed him with evidence that supported the story.

“Whut about that gol’den weddin party? Ya knew ever’one, and we’d nat seen most of them since be’fore ya say ya swapped?”

“I was there too, briefly, just to tell John who everyone was,” Amy admitted.

“So ya went lassie? Nat him?”

“No,” John said, “but Amy dropped in and told me what I needed to know.”

“How?”

“Telepathically. We’ve been talking like that since we stopped swapping,” Amy said.

James shook his head.

“I’m can’fused, do ya think of ya’selves as ya new lives or rigin’als?”

“New ones,” they said in unison.

He nodded, as that made sense. Then he frowned again.

“So the time Amy had t’at accident, wut…?”

“She came to me and stayed in here,” John said, tapping his head.

“So, when ya said ya could get her back, she was with ya all the time?”

“Yup.”

James smiled, shaking his head and rubbing his hair with his hand.

“I knew that sumetin funny happ’ened, but wouldda nev’r hava thought it was like this. Does anny’un else know?”

“Paul and Jacquie, but no one else,” John said, holding Amy’s hand.

“This pen-friend thing? T’was yer idea?”

“Mine,” said Amy. “I wanted to keep in touch and give us a genuine reason to be in communication.”

James stood up and rubbed some feeling back into his numb behind, for he’d been sitting on the hard ground for quite a while.

“Why tell me naw? Ya couldda kept it se’cret fer as long as ya wanted,” he asked.

The couple glanced at each other.

“I don’t think we could. We both were getting quite emotionally stressed out by seeing our old families and not being able to relate to you guys as we wanted to,” John said.

“We’re both getting tired of pretending,” Amy added. “We felt you’d understand.”

“I’m nat complainin’. I’m pleased ya felt ya could tell me. As ta whe’ther I unner’stand, I dun’t, quite frankly. I hear whut ya say and accept that whut ya say is whut happuned. I accept whut happened. I dun’t unner’stand how ner why, but I do accept it’s true. But, the others need ta know as well.”

“The others?” the pair said together.

“Aye. All the parents, as it’s a only right. So Neil, Helen and Kathleen need ta know, ta start with. I dun’t suppose ya have ta tell yer bruthers an sister just yet. That can wait a while, as the fewer that know, the better. We need ta sit down an discuss what happuned, just ya two an us parents. In a way, yer deception has the power ta hurt us, so this needs ta be done care’fully.”

They nodded as John stared at each of them.

“Phew! Whut a bombshell, eh? It makes a daft kinna sense now that I think about it, but it’s nat somethin’ I ever imagined I’d have ta deal with,” James admitted.

Both of the young people looked sheepish but adamant that they’d done the right thing — for them.

John laughed with little humour.

“Okay. So who’s ma son?”

They glanced at each other and then John looked him in the eye.

“I am. I’m John and I’m proud to be your son. I always will be,” he said.

“I’m your daughter, if you want me?” Amy said, with tears in her enormous eyes.

James, feeling tears not far away in his own eyes, said nothing but opened his arms, enveloping both in an embrace that sealed their relationship.

“You’ll nat find me arguin’ with either of ya about this, but best we keep it ta ourselves,” James said at last. “We’d bet’ter get back, as tha others willa start gettin’ worried soon.”
 

*          *          *
 
Dinner was quiet. Neil produced masses of food, so that Kathleen never thought it would be all eaten. Yet again, she was surprised as every last sausage and hunk of meat seemed to disappear, as did the mountain of salad, bread and baked potatoes. Miles and Jeff wanted to see if they could catch some deep water trout, so took the boat onto the lake. A group was playing at one of the bars in town, so Rebecca and the other two boys took off in a pickup to go listen to it. That left the parents, Paul, Jacquie, Amy and John, so James nodded at John.

Try as he might, James still saw John as his boy, despite knowing the truth. However, as he looked at Amy, he realised that he’d gained a daughter, as he had deep paternal feelings for her as well. He shook his head, this was so strange!

John cleared his throat.

“Dad, Mum, everyone. Amy and I would like to tell you something,” he said, looking distinctly uncomfortable, as he scratched his head.

Helen looked at Kathleen quizzically, but the other woman shook her head and shrugged, for she was as much in the dark as Helen.

Amy stood up next to John and took his hand.

“It’s not like we’re getting engaged, or anything, but it’s kinda strange, so bear with us, as we might not tell it right,” she said.

Haltingly, and not without some tears, they told their story. They took it in turns, sharing their feelings at the time, the weird experiences and the exceptional abilities that had been bestowed upon them. They were careful to explain how important their parents were to them and how the hardest part was to leave their birth parents to try to enjoy a better life as the gender they both imagined they should have been.

“I know it sounds as if we’re ungrateful, but we’re not in the slightest. We love you all so much that it became a nightmare trying to decide what to do. The question was - do we stay where we started and be miserable, or do we leave our parents and find fulfilment as the people we should have been, but knowing we might never see our real families again,” Amy said.

“That’s why we started the pen-friend thing, as we hoped that something like this could happen and we’d all get together,” John told them.

It was Kathleen who broke the silence.

“I bloody knew it!” she said, smiling at Helen.

Amy and John were relieved and not a little surprised that the two mothers had figured it out and had even been discussing the very subject earlier that afternoon.

James was a little miffed that Kathleen had almost figured it out, whereas Neil was hit straight between the eyes and was sitting in his chair with a bewildered expression on his face.

Needless to say, it wasn’t that simple, because there were many questions, a few accusations and some expressions of hurt feelings. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that regardless of all the love in the world, a transgendered child is still miserable while forced to be something they clearly aren’t.

Paul and Jacquie breathed a joint sigh of relief as they escaped to the lakeside to let the two families settle things.

“Thank God!” said Paul, lying back on the grass.

“I never thought they’d actually tell,” admitted Jacquie.

“I’m so goddamn relieved that I’m not the only person who knows,” Paul said.

“You never were the only one!” Jacquie said, poking him in the ribs with her finger. He laughed, grabbed her and pulled her close to him, kissing her. She put up no resistance, enjoying being close to him.

“Do you think they planned for us to get close?” he asked.

“Probably. I think they feel guilty about us, so hoped we’d, um, you know?”

“You mean make out?” he asked, chuckling.

“I don’t know, do I?”

“I think you do. I’m not sure I’d feel right making out with Amy, as I know, deep down, there’s a guy in there!” he said, semi-joking.

Jacquie simply laughed and snuggled close to Paul. They lay there a while, looking at the moon reflecting on the surface of the water, so everything was bathed in a silvery wash. A light bobbed out on the water, showing everyone where Jeff and Miles were in their boat.

“Jacquie?”

“Mmm?”

“You reckon they’ll marry?”

“Probably. I mean, they’ll have to as they’re so bloody close, they’re almost one person.”

“Where does that leave us?” he asked.

She looked at him. He was frowning and seemed troubled.

“Where do you want to be left?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I know what I want, but I’m not sure how things will pan out.”

“What do you want?” she asked.

Turning towards her, he kissed her.

“You.”

“Then, just for this night only, you’ve got me. And, if you’re lucky, things may last a little longer than that, but, hey, we got the rest of our lives!”
 
 
Epilogue
 
 
It was sunny in California, but then it is most days. James Brightwell was too warm, as were his wife Kathleen, elder son Miles and daughter Rebecca. They were much more used to the English climate, and March was a cool month, normally.

The church was full, with the majority of the happy congregation there as friends or relations of the bride. There were only about twenty or so from the UK. James felt rather self-conscious dressed in his kilt and seated in the front pew, where everyone could see him. His elder brother, Bruce, was wearing a kilt as well, and they looked fine, feeling pride in their national dress.

However, two of the ushers were also wearing kilts as they were in the dress uniform of his son’s regiment, being his fellow officers.

There was a buzz amongst the people and they turned round to see three men enter the church. At the front was their son, Wee John, and his best man, Paul Ross, closely followed by another colleague of John’s, Andy McLeish. Both the Scotsmen were wearing full dress kilts, as they were subalterns in the Black Watch. Paul wore a smart tuxedo, but was outclassed by the other men. Andy shook his friend’s hand and went off to help the ushers.

Their uniform was splendid and, although the American guys mocked them, it was a little half-hearted because all the local girls had other ideas. There was nothing the slightest sissy about these two rugged looking soldiers. With their dress swords strapped to their sides, and their well-muscled and hairy legs on display for all to appreciate, already the girls were speculating as to what really was worn under the kilt.

Wee John was still called that in spite of now being six foot five. He had been selected to play rugby for Scotland under twenty-ones. Unfortunately, he had decided to go to Sandhurst and obtain his Commission in the army instead. However, in compensation, he had represented the Army against the other services and civilian teams many times.

His short but unruly sandy hair had a rumour of ginger in there somewhere, while his broken nose actually made him better looking. It took away any suggestion of prettiness, to which his otherwise handsome face may have alluded.

Andy was almost as tall, as was Paul, and they made a fine pair. The mainly American bridesmaids had seen Andy at the rehearsal, and one in particular was more than interested in the young Scot.

Unusually, one of the bridesmaids wasn’t American, and although dressed identically, Jacquie Mann, was feeling a little outnumbered, but she did have a special relationship with the bride, and with the best man, as it happened.

James felt his chest swell with pride as he looked at his son, now greeting some relatives who had flown in from Scotland that morning. There was Aunty Jean, who hadn’t seen the lad for nearly ten years.

Mind you, there had been a time when he thought that the poor wee man was going to be in a right mess. However, by the time he went off to secondary school, he suddenly blossomed and there was no looking back. He shook his head as he now understood what had happened.

John came up to his parents.

“Hi Ma, Dad. Good to see you!” he said with a grin. James smiled. The lad had a slight Scottish accent, despite the fact he had never lived in Scotland.

“Becky, you look fantastic. If we can’t find a husband for you here, we never will,” John said, kissing his sister. Rebecca grinned and gave her favourite brother a big hug. The two were very close, which couldn’t be said for the other brother, Miles.

He stared at his brother and held out his hand.

“Miles. Good to see you, man. I’m chuffed you got time off for this.”

Miles looked up at his younger brother as they shook hands. He was a good four inches shorter, and he knew that any advantage he had over John was now in the past.

He smiled.

“No problem. It isn’t every day that your wee brother gets wed.”

John and Paul took their places at the front of the church, and the organist started to play in the bride.

John turned and watched his bride as she made her entrance, holding tightly to her father’s arm. She was shaking slightly and couldn’t help smiling. This was the culmination of her dreams for the last sixteen years or so.

Amy was absolutely stunning.

Her dress was an original creation of a personal friend of her mother’s. She was a designer based in Beverley Hills, and well used to supplying the rich and famous. It had a hint of Gone with the Wind, but the low cut bodice and the embroidered veil was more contemporary.

She met John’s eyes, noticing that they shone with love, desire, humour and complete happiness, reflecting what was in her own eyes. He smiled at her and she ached for him. She was utterly content. Not only was she marrying her dream boy, she was back amongst the extended family in which she knew she belonged.

She walked up the aisle until she was beside him, and she looked sideways at him.

His smile was infectious and he glanced at her father. A strange look of understanding, even affection and approval was exchanged, and Amy smiled as her eyes locked with James.

 

---