Orphan Petal
August 2023 - Part 3
Shirley must decide if he is brave enough to be like the girl in his dreams
Doctor Mary:
Time for me to give my comments about the last show. The bullying seems to be just as bad as ever for Shirley, Austin and Susan. Austin finds it hard to cope with. Shirley cries when he is teased and Susan seems to shrug her shoulders. It seems as if they are finding strength and support with each other. I do think that adults should put their feet down when it comes to bullying. Aunty seems now to be very interested in Shirley and this has started since he has been regressing and becoming more feminine. Shirley is starting to believe that he is transgender. Has Auntie's sudden attention something to do with this? I would hope that Aunty or Miss Hawthorne would get some help for Shirley and see if he has any emotional or mental issues.
Shirley:
Susan is a good friend and so is Austin. I still didn’t tell Austin that everyone thinks that he is gay because I told Justin. Otherwise, Aunty now likes me. She no longer tells me to leave her alone when I try to hang around with her. She talks a lot to me and is very nice. Otherwise, the other children here either ignore me or tease me. A lot has happened has happened since I came here. I was becoming a person that I once despised. At times, this was so overwhelming. I sometimes need time to think by myself. This is quite hard when you live in an orphanage. I found a small corner in the attic. It had a lot of pillows that I could sit on. I put a picture I had of my parents there. This was a perfect place where I could be alone and think about the thoughts that were flying around in my head.
Aunty:
Shirley reminds me so much of Allie, my nephew. The difference was that I had to manipulate and persuade Allie that he was a girl in a boy's body. Shirley is different. He asked me if I could give him some dresses. Allie was also in doubt that he was transgender and was always afraid of what people thought. Shirley was different. Yes, he was being teased very badly at times, but he does not shy away from what he wants. He asked me to get him some dresses. He is sure that he should have been born a girl. It is Shirley who asked me for dresses. I did not try and persuade him or manipulate him into wearing dresses. He came to me and asked me for dresses. I did not even suggest it. I found some old dresses and gave them to him. I suggested that he did not wear them in public, but used them when he was playing dress up. Shirley was a bit sad when I said this, but he understood.
Austin:
I had enough of how Jason was treating others. I did not think that I could ever beat Jason in a fight. Maybe I could if I was determined enough. Today my patience slipped up. I marched over to Jason while he was calling Shirley a baby and diaper boy. I pushed Jason against the wall and told him that he was just a bully. Yes, Shirley may have problems. I could be gay or not. It was none of his business. Jason most likely is a bully because he has more problems than we have. He probably has a secret that he does not want anyone to know. At any rate, I told Jason that I would not tolerate him tormenting anyone at the school. When I said this, everyone started clapping. I felt as if I was about to faint. My heart was beating so fast while I was warning Jason. I think that I said something many were thinking.
Jason:
I am so mad at Austin. He had embarrassed me and made me look like a thug. I am not a bully. I do call Shirley and Austin names, but that is their own fault. If they could be more normal, then I could not call them names. They are both mental cases and should be locked up. Now Austin threatened me and the whole school clapped at him. I felt so humiliated and alone. Who does Austin think that he is? After he threatened me, I vowed to get revenge on him. I would not beat him up. I will do something he will feel for a long time. I am not evil, but I will not let anyone threaten me and have everyone at the orphanage think I am a bad person.
Aunty:
A woman from the orphanage's board of directors came for a visit. She did not want to inspect the orphanage. She wanted to speak to me about Miss Hawthorne. I praised Hawthorne as a good boss. I said she was experienced and she was very tolerant. Then I told the woman about Shirley, explaining that we had a boy who had regressed and could be transgender. Miss Hawthorne suggested a girl's nursery. I sorta lied when I said that I thought at first that this was a punishment, but the boy loves his new room. It was Miss Hawthorne's way of supporting Shirley. The woman told me that she heard that the school had a problem with bullying and what was Hawthorne doing about this? I admitted that there was a problem and as of yet, there is no plan. The lady left and I was wondering what this was all about. Was Hawthorne's job in danger? If she lost her job, then there was a possibility that I could be in charge of the orphanage.
Susan:
Shirley told me a week ago that he thought that he was a girl in a boy's body. When he told me this, I was shocked. How can a boy be a girl? Then the more I thought of it, the more I thought that some boys are girly. Logan is and I have seen it on TV. When Shirley told me this, it made me sad, as I also heard that sissy boys are gay. The thought of Shirley being gay would break my heart. I hoped that one day he would notice me… you know…. Romantically… and he would fancy me… and then we would be my boyfriend. I had to try and keep this out of my mind. I heard once that boys mature much slower than girls. This means that Shirley has no clue what it is like to fancy someone. I have to be a good friend and support him as much as possible. Shirley is way smaller in size than me and this gave me an idea. I found some of my old dresses and gave them to Shirley. I had never seen Shirley smile so much. He had tears of happiness in his eyes. He told me that I was his best friend ever. Then he wanted to play dress-up
Shirley:
Life is good. Jason has not teased me for a few days. Aunty and Susan gave me some dresses. I feel so much like a princess now. I am the diaper girl in my dreams! The only problem I had was the daytime wetting accidents. I was afraid to tell Aunty. Would she make me wear diapers all the time? I do not know if I would like that or not. I mean an 11-year-old should not accept wearing diapers all the time. It would make me a baby. Still, I have no problem sleeping in a crib and the diaper girl in my dreams is the same age as me. I would just have to wait and see what happens. I may have been meant to be a girl and maybe even still a baby, but I do not want the world to know yet. I decided to keep hiding the secret that I wet during the day and hope that Aunty did not see the laundry.
Aunty:
When you work in an orphanage, not much gets by you. It's like I even have eyes in the back of my head at times. I know that Shirley has been having daytime accidents. It makes sense. He may have started wetting the bed on purpose, but now it is a habit and his bladder is getting weaker. It will most likely get worse. I could try to get him some help and find out why he started wetting on purpose. Why does he like sleeping in a nursery? Why is he interested in girl things? Then why should I? My nephew went through the same and he was 2 years older than Shirley when he acted like a baby and a girl. The thing is that Shirley has changed since he started being a sissy baby. He is much nicer now and is even adorable. I found some baby toys and things such as baby bottles, pacifiers and rattlers. I put them in his nursery room with the excuse that I did not know where to put them. Shirley said it was fine. He didn't mind. I also told him I would find him a new bedroom that is better for an 11-year-old boy. Shirley did not reply. When I left the room, I could see that he started playing with some baby blocks that I just gave him.
Shirley:
Aunty wants me to have a boy's bedroom. Why should I? I am happy in the room I have. I know it's a girl's room and a baby's room. I know I sleep in a crib and is surrounded by baby things. I know no other boy my age would ever accept this. I am not like other boys. I am not even like Logan. He is a girl… I am much more. I wanted to keep my room. The diaper girl in my dreams has the same room. She is a boy as well. She is just as happy as I am. I bet she is left alone and decides how she wants to be. I also know what you are thinking. You are thinking that she is just a girl in my dreams. She is not real. That is not true. To me she is real. I think she is me and my brain telling me who I am. The idea of getting a new room made me panic. It also made me cry. I begged Aunty to let me stay. She just smiled and told me that she was only trying to help. She promised me that I could keep my room if it made me feel safe and I didn’t mind the baby things. I hugged Aunty. She is the best.
Miss Hawthorne:
The chairwoman of the board of directors has been snooping around and talking with staff and pupils. I am sure that it is Aunty who is trying to remove me from my post. I asked Susan to come into my office. She was a bit surprised as I never spoke with her before. I asked her what she and the chairwoman talked about. Susan said she was asked what it was like here and the bullying. Why was the chairwoman so worried about bullying? There is no bullying here. We are like one big happy family. Then I asked what was happening with Shirley and Aunty. Susan said Aunty was never interested in Shirley until he started acting more like a baby and a sissy. Now Aunty is very interested in Shirley. She gives him toys and clothes and Shirley always follows Aunty like a little pet. The toys and clothes Aunty gives him are for baby girls. Susan told me that she was worried about Shirley, He changed so much since he came here and she thought that he needed some help. I did not want to talk about Shirley. I wanted to know what Aunty was doing to him.
Logan:
Susan and Shirley have been writing to me. Shirley even wrote that he felt as if he was transgender but did not know what the world to know. He wrote about 100 times that he was sorry for how he treated me. I wrote him a letter and told him that maybe he is transgender. Maybe he was so mean and a bully because he was trying to hide this side of himself. Shirley needs to accept who he is and not care what others think. Some will tease him, but his friends will always support him. It means that he must be brave. The important thing is that he is happy and he is not like he used to be. If he is transgender, I could understand why he treated me so badly. It takes time to accept. Of course, I forgive him!
Austin:
Logan and his mother visited the orphanage today. It seems as if they want to adopt someone. I thought that they would speak a lot with Shirley, but this did not happen. They spoke a lot with me. His mom was asking me a lot of weird questions. She asked me if I thought it was bad that Logan was transgender. What did I do if I disagreed with someone? Do I think it's important to respect others? I answered as truthfully as I could. I do not understand why boys want to be girls. If they do, then that's up to them. People should not judge each other. It seemed as if they liked my answers as they asked me if we could meet again. It's very hard for a teen to get adopted, but I wondered if they were interested in adopting me. Do I want to be adopted?
Jason:
Today I saw that a woman and her child were speaking a lot with Austin. I bet that they were interested in adopting Austin. I still owed Austin some revenge and I knew how I could do this. I spoke with the lady and told her that she should not adopt Austin. He is gay and I was sure that she did not want a gay son. The woman gave me a strange confused look when I said this. Revenge is so sweet!
Victoria Temple
Thanks for reading this part. I hope you will comment. Do you think Shirley is transgender? I hope to see you in the next part of “Orphan Petal"
