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Jimmy Elia finds out that empathy is much more than feeling sorry for someone, as Billy Pellegrino teaches him how to feel sorry with someone.

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Previously...Parsippany, New Jersey, Fall, 1969...

"Oooohhhhhh." Jimmy moaned as he sat up. He felt dizzy almost immediately and fell back, hitting his head on something soft....someone soft. He sat up again, this time slower. Turning around he noticed he had fallen on a girl....a girl who seemed vaguely familiar. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Oooohhhhh." The girl moaned as well and then began to cry.

"Hey...it's alright. The lightening must have missed us." Jimmy said, trying to reassure her, but feeling immediately odd.

"What...what the..." The voice was crude in a way, but didn't sound at all like his own voice...It sounded....high."

"Jimmy?" The girl shook her head and stared at him as if he had two heads.

"Huh?" The girl's voice, on the other hand, sounded very familiar, but the voice didn't match the face...much.

"Hey...Pellegrino...you look like a girl." Jimmy noticed that his voice still sounded odd. It didn't immediately strike him as odd that his words were more of an observation than a cruel taunt. The girl looked at him and began to laugh.

"What's so funny, Pellegrino...you think you're funny?" The bravado was lost as his voice nearly raised an octave at the end of the sentence. The girl smiled politely.

"What's so funny?" Jimmy asked once again; no demand...his face was a mask of confusion.

"Jimmy...you look like a girl too!" Billy tried not to laugh; it really wasn't a laugh so much as a nervous giggle. Jimmy jumped up and noticed two things immediately. He felt very cold, and out of sorts, as some might say. Billy struggled to stand up and Jimmy once again did something way out of character; he offered his hand to Billy and helped him up. Him?

"Jimmy...I have a feeling we're not in Parsippany anymore." Billy's attempt at humor was not only pointless but incorrect. That they were still in Parsippany, New Jersey was obvious, but even more obvious is that they weren't ....'Them.' Jimmy turned and noticed his mother's Chevy Bel-Air in the drive way. When the lightning struck, they were in front of Billy's house; now they were in front of his....three blocks away. He walked up to the car and looked at his reflection in the driver's side window. His eyes widened in horror as he saw his image.

"Oh gosh, Jimmy..." The voice came from behind as Billy walked up to the car. Jimmy noticed a girl's reflection next to his; her hand pointing at the images in the window. The girl had the same exact expression as his....as hers.

"Oh...no!" The words escaped his lips, but instead of an angry screed or plaint, the sound was that of a fourteen year old girl that was crying, for crying she was.

"Ohhhh.....yes." The other girl began to cry as well, but her voice sounded softer; almost sweet. As you might have expected it would. Billy Pellegrino had finally gotten her wish; she was a girl...a sweet and pretty girl...a smart girl. Jimmy Elia was crying because someone somewhere had gotten their wish. She was a girl...a smart girl...a sweet and precious girl...and an identical twin to the girl who stood next to her!

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Meanwhile...in the parking lot of Brooklawn Junior High

Carla sat in her car; spent. She had been praying nearly an hour from the time she left the classroom until now, and her face was red and puffy from crying. She barely noticed that she had left the windows open a crack and the rain had soaked her left arm.

“It’s not fair,” She thought to herself. “Family should trump anything.”

She had her own home; a small two bedroom bungalow in Indian Lake that she had inherited from her parents after they had died in the same car crash that had killed Billy’s mom and dad...her aunt and uncle. She was a sophomore in college at the time, and had vowed to seek custody once she graduated. But in 1969 it was near impossible for a single woman to gain custody of a minor child...even a boy on the verge of his fifteenth birthday. So Billy stayed in the foster care system. His first family was kind enough, but chose to return him to the system when their efforts to adopt him were thwarted. It was a catch twenty-two, as they say. As long as a living relative was available, no foster family could adopt him. And because she was a single woman barely out of college, her efforts to adopt him were thwarted as well. So he languished in foster care.

Almost like a little girl, she put her hands together and her head rested on the steering wheel as she prayed.

“Dear God...please bless Billy this day and keep him safe. Amen.”

Some may come and some may go
He will surely pass
When the one that left us here
returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
fading in the grass

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Meanwhile, at the Elia home...

Jimmy stood and stared at his (his?) reflection in the car window. He had managed to stop crying, mostly due to the ministrations of his twin.

"It's okay, Jimmy...it's going to be okay." Billy had managed to contain her glee at the transformation, but she was still excited enough that it didn't occur to her to question her present state. Jimmy, however, was very aware of their state.

"Billy? What the hell just happened? You're a girl...I'm....a girl?" Uncharacteristic tears flowed once again. The stoic boy who sat in quiet defiance after the beatings his father gave him gave way to a confused and scared young lady.

"Jimmy...I don't know...but...." Billy paused.

"But what?"

"Maybe this was....supposed to happen?" She tried not to smile, but her new form was apparently accompanied by a new and confident peace.

"Supposed to...supposed to? This can't be happening....it just can't." His voice grew loud enough that the cat on the neighbor’s porch jumped down and ran behind the house. And it caught the attention of someone else.

"Jimmy? Billy? Is that you?" Amelia Elia stood on her front porch and called to her children...her two children.

"Oh god...what am I gonna do." Jimmy was practically hysterical until his mother called out once again.

"Jimmy...Billy...For Christ's sakes, get in the house before your father gets home. You know what he's like after work, and if he sees you two? Come on." Without a thought, Billy grabbed Jimmy's hand and ran toward the front porch.

"For God's sakes, Billy, what were you thinking? Come in this instant...both of you. You better get changed real quick before it gets too late." Amelia shook her head as she ushered the two into the house.

"Mom?" Jimmy tried to speak but his mother cut him off?

"Jimmy...come on...if your dad catches you, it will make last night seem like a picnic." Jimmy felt his mother nudge him quickly down the hall to his room. Her hand pushed against his back and the familiar ache of a day-old bruise reminded him that yesterday's beating was all too real. Some things apparently hadn’t changed. She opened the door and pushed him in.

"Better take a quick shower, too. Now quick!"

She closed the door before he had a chance to talk. Turning around, he was prepared for something entirely different than what he saw. In the brief chaos of the past few minutes he had things flash before him. Posters of The Archies or Tommy James. Pink and yellow curtains and ponies and dolphins. Why he thought that remained a mystery as his eyes widened in confusion.

"Holy shit!" He shook his head as his eyes scanned the room. His basketball and baseball trophies still adorned the wall. A plaque or two seemed out of place. His catcher's mitt still hung on the bed post. The posters of Bill Bradley and Willis Reed still adorned the wall. On his nightstand lay his prized possession; an autographed football from Joe Namath. His concentration was broken by his mother's shout.

"My god, Jimmy, are you crazy...I don't hear the water running." He turned toward the door and he could almost imagine the sound of his father's Caddy pulling into the drive way. In a panic, he ran into the bathroom, not even knowing why he was hiding from his father. In a few moments, he would get the shock...second-most shock of his life....

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Meanwhile, in Billy's bedroom...

Billy had walked to her room and sat down on the bed. New and wondrous colors and smells filled her senses. She noticed a poster of a Shetland Sheepdog on her closet door. Posters of the Osmonds and the Jackson 5 were on the wall above her bed, and her prized possession lay on her dresser. She walked over and picked up the riding crop of her hero...rather heroine, Diane Crump, the first woman to jockey a thoroughbred at Hialeah. She looked up at the framed jacket and gloves...the used but treasured silks of her idol. Looking around the room she was almost intoxicated by the waves of senses until she heard her mother.

"You know your dad doesn’t like it when you go out looking like that. Make sure you change, okay, honey?"

"Okay, mom!" The sound of her voice was unfamiliar for two reasons. First, away from the chaos of the events of the past half-hour, she realized her voice had changed. It was no longer squeaky or...boyish. It sounded different but somehow didn't feel strange.

The second reason her voice was unfamiliar is because that apart from the times she cried herself to sleep at her foster home, she didn't remember ever saying the word "Mom." She stepped up to her dresser and opened the top drawer only to find...what she somehow oddly expected. The small top middle drawer was filled with cotton panties. Opening up the adjacent drawer, she pulled out a bra and a folded white satin half slip. Gathering the clothes she walked to her bathroom and placed them on the pink and black Formica counter before reaching in and turning on the shower.

"Why don't you wear your pink corduroy skirt, honey? I took down the hem so it isn't so short. You don't want to set your Dad off, okay?" Billy felt a bit disappointed, but nodded as if she were talking face to face with her...mother. She started to strip, pulling off the sweatshirt and tee shirt with one pull. Her long brown hair spilled over her face as the shirts came off. Pushing the hair back, she reached around and unhooked her bra and tossed it on the clothes hamper. She looked down at her small breasts and smiled. Her breasts?

She kicked off her tennies and peeled off the socks with her toes before pulling off the jeans and panties in one motion. She noticed her hair seemed a bit thicker down there, and she touched herself, feeling her mound...her mound? The newness of the moment was lost immediately in a flood of joy as she realized she wasn't dreaming. She was a girl...in every way shape and form. She stepped into the shower....

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And back in Jimmy's bathroom...

Jimmy pulled off his sweatshirt and tee shirt in one motion. His long brown hair caught on the shirts and came off with them, falling onto the floor. On the floor? He reached up and felt short brown hair, albeit sweaty from the wig. Reaching behind his back he felt nothing there was no bra to unhook. His chest was boyish, with the beginnings of a soft down on his pecs. He kicked his tennies off and noticed he wasn't wearing socks. He pulled off his jeans and his panties in one quick motion. He noticed that the hair had gotten much darker, along with some new hair that climbed down his leg. His penis drooped almost sadly as he felt down below. His penis?

"I don't hear that shower, young man!" His mother called out.

"Young man?" He thought. He gazed in the mirror, and apart from the short hair, he still looked like Billy's twin. The same deep brown eyes set off by a soft pale lavender shadow and a bit of mascara and liner. His lip-gloss was almost iridescent. His lip gloss?"

"And make sure, for god's sake that you wash your face good. You remember that your Dad nearly caught you the last time!" A vague memory about a discovery fortuitously coinciding with Halloween flashed through his mind; new but old; strange but familiar.

He turned on the shower before turning back to the bathroom mirror. Taking a wash cloth from the towel rack, he ran it under the hot water and soaped it up with the bar of Ivory lying on the sink. As he removed the makeup an odd feeling overtook him. Not an hour ago he had been crying because he thought he was a girl. He began to cry as he realized with crystal clarity that he wasn't a girl after all. He just wanted to be one.....

Next: Shoes!

Come on people now
smile on your brother
everybody get together
and try to love one another right now

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Get Together
Words and Music by
Chet Powers
as performed by
The Youngbloods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e2XAN3wcJc&feature=fvst