I don`t know what happened, one minute I was lying in a stinking cellar with a couple of broken ribs, arm and leg and several stitches in my head thanks to my ever loving parents and the next I`m living a totally different life.

I might be better if I explained what happened over the last couple of days.

I was a 10 yr old boy who had a tendancy to dress up in womens clothing when I thought it was safe but I got caught by my mother, she told me to get changed and wait in my bedroom which I did, she never asked for an explanation or anything. It was a couple of hours later when my father came home from work the fun started. Mum told him how she caught me wearing her clothes and he came running up the stairs into my room and grabbed me by the hair, I was dragged to the top of stairs and literally kicked down them, which caused my injuries. Once they saw what they had done Dad took me out to the car and just threw me into the back seat and drove to the hospital.

On arrival at the hospital he took me from the car and acting the caring and loving father carefully carried me inside, while I was being treated he told them I had while coming down the stairs. Oh yeah he could lie like the best of them and the doctors did believe him. I had casts on my arm and leg a bandage round my chest and stitches in my head, I was kept in over night for observation and sent home the next day with pain killers which my ever loving parents threw in the garbage so I was in constant pain.

Today or I think it was today Christmas Eve day or what ever they call it I struggled out of the house and managed to walk somehow to the church which was a few hundred yards away, outside was a glass case with the scene of the nativity which I looked at for quite a while and my pain seemed to ease for a while I had always liked the story of the Nativity and really liked the figures that made up the scene. One of the neighbours saw me and told my parents were I was and they took me back home and locked me in the cellar.

Dad had ranted and raved , for a couple of hours calling me a queer, homo, and weirdo amongst other things, neither of them asked why I liked dressing up and made no attempt to understand what I tried to tell them. Dad was bigoted and loutish and very much the he man type in to sports something I had no interest in. Mum didn`t help she was just as bad as he was if not worse she hated anything out of the norm, there was no in between to her everything was black and white, the two must have been throwbacks from the middle ages when the church ruled and they burnt witches or people who were different.
Since I had been home I hadn`t had anything to eat apart from some mouldy damp bread and had been made to sit at the dining table while the rest of family ate, My brother and sister daren`t try and sneak me any food as the would have punished as well and sympathised with me although they couldn`t say anything. Danny and Anne knew how I felt and did what I did and accepted me as I was and the three of us were pretty close, I knew that as soon as they could they would be gone from here, no longer could they stand our parents attitude to people or their cruelty, both of them had a year left at school.

So there I was lying in the dark stinking cellar in agony and very hungry, I eventually fell asleep what time it was I had no idea the next think I heard were the church bells calling everyone to the midnight services and I knew my parents would be going and dragging my siblings along with them, when the bells stopped I knew it was midnight and it was now Christmas Day.

I think I fell asleep again and I must have been dreaming because when I opened my eyes it looked like I was at the nativity, there was a woman and a baby that was wrapped in blanket lying the straw, a man stood near them looking the proud father, going by the smell this place was stable. Yeah It must have been a dream there were shepherds and what looked three very rich men laying present in front of the infant.
The woman saw me and beckoned me over, she held up the child that I might see him better and I heard a voice in my head saying
"Today your pain and suffering has ended, those that have done you wrong will not know or remember you. Go know and enjoy your new life"

The next thing I knew I was lying here in a bed, No pain, no casts and no stitches and no terrible stink.

A womans voice called " Cindy, time to get up dear Santa`s been"

I got up put on robe and went down stairs, time seemed to stop and I heard the voice in my head again

"This your life now, you will forget everything soon and remember a new life, your now a girl called Cindy and are six years old, yes you did see the real nativity as it happened two thousand years ago, it wasn`t a dream. Just remember that Christ loves you for you not for your prayers, you have always been a kind child and sensitive to the feeling of others, you`ve comforted others and asked no reward, your parents were truly evil towards you and are now living a lonely life with no children and no friends, whether they`ll ask for forgiveness for all their sins of the past and the future I can`t say but they will have their chance one day before the throne of God. Your Brother and Sister are still with you and will remember no other life than the one the have know and like you they are a lot younger. So go child and enjoy a long and fruitful life just remember the future is how you make it and always think of others before yourself"

I walked into the room and there sat Mum and Dad watching Danny and Anne unwrapping their presents and looking about five years younger and very happy.