Home leave.

Fiction by Johnny Cumlately

The envelope was addressed to Steve Smith, The Cottage, Combe Farm, in familiar writing and the post mark said "BFPO 952." Inside was a photograph of an attractive girl dressed in Army desert combat uniform. She wore a regimental beret, camouflage shirt with corporal's stripes, trousers and army boots. The picture was taken at an angle so that the outline of her breasts was clearly visible. Her hair was tied back and she had just a hint of makeup. Very obviously female. There was a short note:

"Hi! Joe. This is me, Karen, who you knew as Joe. I'm due some home leave next month and hope to see you after all this long time. Just wanted to prepare you for a possible shock. All the best, Karen."

It was nearly four years since they had met but they had once been inseparable. They were almost exactly the same age and had started school together in the local primary school. They lived in the same small village in Devonshire where everyone knew everyone else. They both went on the secondary school in the local town and both left when they were 18.

Joe was an orphan. Both his parents had been killed in a motor accident when he was only five and he had been taken in and brought up by his maternal grandparents. His only other relatives were some cousins living in Australia. It was therefore not surprising that he chose to sign up in the army when he left school and after initial training was posted abroad.

Steve went on to agricultural college and later became manager of a large local farm. A year ago he had met and married Mary, a girl from a neighbouring village. They now lived in a farm cottage on the estate.

Steve remembered Joe sometimes saying that he should have been a girl but had taken little notice and certainly would never have thought that Joe was serious about it. And now, here was a photograph of a girl who claimed to be Joe. On close inspection, Steve realised that there was a strong resemblance to his friend, but could not really believe what he was looking at. Maybe his mates had dressed him up as a girl as a joke but the picture looked too real for that. He showed it to Mary who, knowing that Joe's grandparents had died, immediately said that they would put Karen up in their spare room when she arrived home and insisted that she should write the reply:

"Dear Karen,
Lovely surprise! We have some news too. Steve and I were married just a year ago. We have a spare room here in the cottage and hope you will stay with us while you are here. You will be very welcome. Just give us a call as soon as you are back in England. Love, Mary."

.....................................................................

Four weeks later, the phone rang. Steve answered it. The voice was familiar but somehow different. "Hi! Its Karen. I'm in the UK and would love to come and see you. Would tomorrow be OK?......................... Great! I can get a lift into London, then a train which arrives 4.15. ........... You'll meet it? ........... No way. I don't wear a uniform when I'm on leave. Just jeans and a sweater. .............Thanks, Can't wait to see you and meet Mary."

Mary had already prepared the spare room and they were waiting on the platform when the train arrived only two minutes late. Steve would have recognised Karen immediately even if he had not seen her photograph, but she looked even more feminine casually dressed, with more makeup and hair nicely styled in a sort of page boy cut. There was a nip of autumn in the air and she had a brown roll neck sweater, blue denim jeans and brown calf length boots with two inch heels which made her look taller than Steve remembered Joe. Mary immediately gave her a big welcome hug and kisses and Steve, although feeling embarrassed to be kissing his old mate, did the same. On the drive back to the cottage, Steve was strangely silent but the two girls chatted happily.

Mary showed Karen to her room and then set about preparing the evening meal. As soon as Karen came down she offered to help but had to explain that cooking was one of many things she had yet to learn about since she became a girl.

Later, Steve got around to asking the inevitable question. How had all this come about? This is Karen's story in her own words:

"I don't really remember either of my parents as I was only five when they died, but Nanna often told me that Mum was convinced that I was going to be a girl and was disappointed when I turned out to be a boy. Mum was Nanna's only child, so Nanna herself had no experience of bringing up a boy and treated me more as a girl in my early years. I think I was a normal boy at school though, and I remember how you and I, Steve, used to muck around together. However, when I joined the Army, it was pretty much a male dominated macho environment and I always felt that I didn't quite fit. Nevertheless, I got through the hard initial training - "Square Bashing" - and went on to train as a radio operator which I enjoyed. As soon as I finished that course, I was posted out to the Middle East.

"Conditions out there were rather basic, but again, I enjoyed the work and, in spite of my previous comment, the camaraderie. After twelve months, I had earned a month's leave. By that time, Nanna had died and Grandad was in a home - he also died soon after - so I had no reason to come back to England and chose to travel round the Far East. I finished up in Thailand.

"I was having a drink in a bar one night when I was approached by a glamorous girl who I guessed was a prostitute. I didn't want sex, but I was lonely and decided to pay her for a couple of hours of her company. Her name was Tina and our discussion got quite intimate as she revealed that she was a "ladyboy", born male but now living as a female and still possessing her male bits. I was fascinated because that somehow forced me to face up to growing doubts about my own gender. We spent several evenings together. I think she sympathised with me as after the first two, she refused any further payment and when I left at the end of my leave, she insisted on giving me a large supply of hormone pills in an unlabelled box. They were are cocktail of oestrogen and anti-testosterone drugs which were readily available in that part of the world.

"In hindsight, my decision to take them was probably reckless and should have led to the end of my military career. After about three months, I was aware of increasing tenderness around my nipples but it took six before my breasts had developed enough to cause embarrassment and force me to report sick. The unit medical officer told me that breast development in males, gynaecomastia, is not uncommon and normally dealt with by surgery. He had recently seen another similar case and wondered whether it was caused by something in the local water supply! I was sent back to the UK and told to report to a military hospital where I was seen by a Captain Browne.

"He proved to be a kindly and experienced doctor to whom I owe a large debt of gratitude. I did not at first admit to taking the pills. However, the prospect of undergoing what would have been a double mastectomy prompted me to "come clean" and tell the doctor about the pills and my doubts about my gender. He was very sympathetic and arranged for me to go to a private gender clinic where I would spend a week at the Army's expense undergoing a full assessment.

"The clinic was a large house in the country. After a brief preliminary examination, I was given a complete outfit of women's clothes which I was required to wear all the time I was there. I had hours of questioning by psychologists and medical tests, but I think they were anxious to see how I would adjust to being dressed and treated as a female. I loved it, feeling completely relaxed and at ease with myself and clearly passed all their tests with flying colours so that I returned to see Captain Browne with a recommendation to that I be allowed to start on my long journey to womanhood.

"He did all he could to help me, even sending me out with his wife on a shopping trip for a basic wardrobe. He signed me up for three months further sick leave and, having discovered that I had long lost cousins in Australia and no remaining relations in England, suggested that I go there as a woman. 'If they've never met you before, they might not be too surprised that you are a girl!' Finally, he arranged for all my army records changed to Corporal Karen Jones.

"I had a very happy three months in Australia where I made contact with a transgender club and received a huge amount of help from like-minded people. My cousins were indeed rather surprised to find that I was female but made me very welcome nonetheless and I was sorry when the time came to return home and report back to Captain Browne and to a new army life. He was delighted that I was now completely confident in my new gender and told me to see him again in nine months when he would arrange reassignment surgery if I so wished. I was again posted to the Middle East, but this time to a unit where there were quite a few female soldiers. They soon discovered my secret but mostly proved supportive and friendly.

"On my next home leave I had surgery, again at the army's expense, and have been an - almost - complete woman ever since."

Steve and Mary had listened to her story in silence. "No regrets?", Steve asked.

"Only a few, such as that I can never have children. Oh! And I wish my voice was a bit lighter. It took me ages to sound even half feminine."

Mary commented "We think you are very brave to come back here to the village where everyone knew you as Joe."

"Well, I have to face it sometime."

Karen went with Steve and Mary to several village events and coped well with the natural curiosity of the locals. She made a point of answering their questions in an honest and straightforward way, even those which concerned intimate parts of her anatomy, so that her return became just a 10 day wonder and after that almost everyone accepted her as the lively natural and confident girl she had turned into.

Steve, however, felt her presence in the cottage disturbing because he found himself more and more attracted to her as a girl. Shortly towards the end of her leave, Mary had gone to a Farmer's Wives meeting, so that he was alone with her and could not resist making a pass. He took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. For a few moments, Karen responded eagerly but then pulled away.

"Thank you, Steve, that's boosted my ego a lot but I cannot come between you and Mary. In two days I shall be thousands of miles away and your life is here with your lovely wife. I would have loved you to be the first to try out my new - er - equipment. Maybe one day I'll find a nice unattached guy and fall for him. Who knows?"

Fiction by Johnny Cumlately.

October 2010

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