I first ran away from home when I was 10 years old, my mom had left two years earlier... The first time I ran away, I was caught and returned home... The next time I changed my name was when I ran away into New York City... I became what we called a street rat; living on and under the streets... Until I followed this woman Bridgette too closely. Ashley Phoenix Riley Chapter 9 A Not so Happy Day by Jessica C. Copyright © 2013 Jessica C All Rights Reserved.

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Chapter 9
 
“Ashley, come on an unzip your skirt and just let it fall.” I took the zipper half way down and expected the skirt to fall, but the skirt was still resting on my hips. “Now that’s nice for a girl,” Cathy said. “I hadn’t realized how nicely you are filling out.” I tried lightly to pull it down, but needed to bring the zipper completely down. It was good to feel it coming down over my hips.

I looked to Mom as I began pulling my top from the bottom and bring it up over my head. I was thinking of one of those strip-tease songs as it came off. My bra was one of those that unhooked in the front. I wanted too, but I was now embarrassed. “Phoenix, it is okay you are a beautiful girl… no young woman,” Mom reflected me. So I unsnapped the bra and sat down across from Mom and Cathy.

“O Phoenix, you have blossomed,” I looked down as she spoke and the signs of the surgery had disappeared. I could see my vagina.

“Mommy, I thought one of you would have teased me with one of those songs for a girl stripping off her clothes?"

“Not today; it would take away from the moment,” Mom said as she lightly stroked my hand.

“I don’t know, I’m too nervous, maybe we should do it another time when I am more of a girl?”

Mom lifted my chin and asked me to look at her. “Phoenix, you are a girl and I think that is why you asked for the vagina talk. You’re nervous because being a girl is like a second language to you. Being a girl needs to be normal for you. You are Ashley Phoenix Riley; wonderfully and completely a beautiful young woman in the best sense. What would you like to talk about?”

“Silly stuff, like bikini brief panties, they don’t really cover my ass? And why is this called vagina talks?”

Cathy spoke, “It’s because you are not used to talking to your Mom or a best friend about such things. The bikini cut is so your panties don’t show above your pants or when a girl wants jus the barest coverage. Once you're used to them they’re a good feel.”

“What’s different about a vagina from a man, Mom asked?” Well, dah.

I giggled, “He doesn’t have one, he just wants into it. He doesn’t understand, it’s just a slit to him.”

“…And for a woman?”

“It is life, even the bleeding is a sign a woman can create something beautiful. It would be funny to see a baby try to come through a boy’s penis.” We all giggled at that image. “As a boy, I thought girls were just missing something, but being a girl has much more feeling and power.”

I continued, “I don’t like that it gets yucky, or cramps, headaches or that I feel fatter during the curse. Your vagina looks beautiful.

“Men think with their dick, but women don’t just feel with their vagina.” Cathy moved around behind me and hugged me from there. I was nestled in her arms and I could feel her breasts against my back. I just relaxed instead of getting excited.

“I don’t mean to look at your vagina or Cathy’s but I can’t see mine to well. I’m kind of jealous.”

Mom soon placed a hand mirror that she put down in front of me. “Women sometimes think like that; like the way, men think about size. Look can you see your vagina there is a beauty to it? If you or Cathy lightly touches it, you can feel and see it come to life. Do you feel the joy and sensation beginning to grow?”

For some reason, I guided Cathy’s hand to lightly touch me there. Watching my vagina change did have its own beauty. Cathy withdrew her hand and guided me to explore. It was like exploring something I was a stranger to. It grew, becoming warm and wet to my touch.

We soon were back to visit. “How does a girl know if she really loves another girl,” I asked. Mom leaned toward Cathy and gave her a kiss, cupping Cathy’s breast, I could feel her hand.

“That is a very good question; the body could enjoy most anyone’s touch and become aroused. But the body and your heart feel it deeper. Cathy and I feel different about each other than we do about others. It is like friendship, love and our sensual relationship are all tied together; where one part begins or ends isn’t so clear. We’ve known we were in love for a long time but because of society we had to work through some things about being together and being seen as a couple.”

“It is like my relationship with you. I cared about you since the beginning, you became a friend I cared about first, and then my daughter. Now as you became a woman the bond of love and mother/daughter take our relationship deeper. You are my daughter and that’s special. I knew weeks before Cathy proposed, you became her daughter and that was very important to me.” I now had trouble looking through my watery eyes, but I liked looking through my tears. Life had a feminine look through tears; it was not as weak as I use to think of it.

We talked for another hour and then we watched a movie. Mom had a lotion that she spread over my back and massaged it. It was after 1:00 a.m. when Mom woke me and walked me to my room. I hugged Mom’s arm until she lied down behind me and I fell asleep in her arms.

I was up early while Mom and Cathy were sleeping in. I made coffee and had other things ready to cook breakfast when I knew they were up. Mom and Cathy both preferred pancakes when we had fresh berries and presently we had both raspberries and blueberries, so I made pancakes and took a little Karo-syrup and made a berry compote to go with them. I put out some almond slices as well. I had cooked the sausage and it stayed warm in the oven. There was orange-pineapple-banana juice as well as plain orange juice and coffee.

Mom was the first to come to the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised by all I had done. I looked a little bit of a mess so Mom put a pretty apron around me and brushed my hair up to a pretty ponytail with pink and white ribbons in my hair. She wiped the pancake powder from my face and replaced it with blush, lipstick and a very light eyeshadow. I rose on my toes and twirled around twice as Cathy came into the kitchen.

“I don’t expect that you have a song you could sing to serenade us through breakfast with.” I quickly thought of George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun, I played it on my iPod and sang along. Mom and Cathy were duly amused.

It was a nice day outside so the three of us went for a walk, but it soon became apparent that Mom and Cathy were enjoying the walk in a different way. “Mom, Cathy is it alright if I go window shopping and people watching?”

Watching people around NYC is an interesting event between watching residents, workers and visitors alike. Visitors have cameras for pictures. You can tell if someone is lost, trying to figure where they are. Then there are opportunists and vultures looking at them and seeing dollar signs or consignment goods. Men looking at women, but often clueless that the woman with them also has her fantasy.

I remembered one time as a street rat, seeing both a husband and wife sneak out of a hotel to be with someone else. I wasn’t sure if the man knew he was walking off with a T-girl, but he was happy when he came back.

Someone tapped me from behind, and I knew it was a street person before I turned around. “Jeff, you know better than that, what’s up?”

“I thought I would tell you Norm is sick. I was wondering if you could get me some of that Night stuff that I can take down to him?”

“If he is really sick you should get to a clinic or hospital;” ‘I was now talking as someone in a different world.’ But Jeff wouldn’t hear of it and Norm wouldn’t go on his own. I bought the night and daytime medicine, as well as a liquid Mrs. Geortelli gave to her daughter when she was sick. It was to help make sure she did not dehydrate.

I wanted to go down with Jeff but he said “No, you might have been on the streets but you haven’t been down there. There is no way I am going to let you know the way!” I wouldn’t tell Jeff I knew the way and I knew enough to stop arguing.

I went back home and changed into some dark jeans and a dark pullover. I knew where Mom had a stocking cap that I put in a fanny pack along with a knife and flashlight. I walked back to what I considered my emergency exit to the underground. I was two flights down before I heard someone walking above me. I became still and quiet, to make sure the person was not coming down toward me.

I forgot there was a turn I had to make on the third level to the left or behind me. I paused and remembered it was the hall and door behind me that I wanted. It was here I also needed the flashlight as well as let my eyes adjust. Another flight and half down, I came out to the tracks between my hole in the wall and the platform where they resided, hopefully, they are still there.

I heard rats or cats moving and some other creature, ‘They’re more afraid of me than I am of them’; it might not be true but it is a comforting thought. Once I saw a light from the platform I spoke up, “It’s Ashley; I am coming in to see Norm!” I waited to hear Jeff bark back for me to “get the hell out!”

“No can do, just don’t shoot or throw anything; I’m alone and no one followed.” I had only been to the platform twice and only once did they knew Jack had made it that far.

Before I could get up on the platform Jeff pushed me back and jumped into my face. “How the f** did you find your way?”

“Jack told me. And no, I don’t have it written down stupid.” I got up on the platform trusting hoping Jeff would not stop or hit me. He didn’t and I looked to find the direction I should walk. They used old boxes, blankets, even a tablecloth to partition off their areas. It wasn’t clean except by their standards. Norm was nervous or sick as I could hear him trying to throw up. Norm’s sleeping bag mattress was lying on three inches of old newspapers. The bucket he was using did cause my stomach to churn, but I held it down.

I bent down next to Norm and smiled, but he was at all well, he was at least twenty-five pounds thinner and he hadn’t had the weight to lose. One of Norm’s hands was down near his crotch, but yet a good six inches too high. When Norm needed to cough both hands went down there.

“Norm, does it hurt here when I press?” I was sensitive and yet pressed just a bit more than needed. I knew he needed to respond to the pain if I was going to talk him into doing what was needed.

“Man sx@t! He needs to get help before his appendix bursts or he’s f**king dead.” I didn’t need the language for me, but I did need to get through their thick skulls, meeting fire with fire.

“You’re not one of us, you don’t call the shots!”

“I know you Penis! I also need your help to get him above ground. Jeff, you can wait until it bursts and races the clock when it does or you can plan to watch a painful death. Or you can f**king help, there are no other options! Unless you gag him, he will cry loud enough for others to hear and your precious cover will be over!”

“I want to know how you got here and we’re not moving and you’re not going any place.”

“Stop me, and Julio and Hector will come looking and reign in holy terror; one is Special Forces dip s**.” “…Norm, help me get you up.”

Two others were there and one moved to help me; ‘thanks good god’. Jeff pushed me out of the way, “You better be right or you’re paying for this!” ‘I knew he didn’t mean money.’

The four of them were carrying Norm on the sturdiest dirty old blanket they had. We were one level down yet when I call Julio and told him, “Julio we’re coming out at 49th between 7th and 8th Avenue. Norm needs to be seen his appendix is about to burst.”

It took a moment for Julio to figure out what I did. “It better be worth it, your Mother is going to eat you for dinner?”

“Right or wrong she will do that, but at least Norm might be alive. I didn’t ask because the answer would be NO!”

“It will take me ten minutes to get there.” “Please make it five.” “Sorry, it already should take me twenty.”

We huddled around Norm on the street with Jeff getting across to people it was none of their business.” Officer Roger arrived a minute before Julio, which did not go well. But Roger wasn’t calling anyone, just making sure other police didn’t get involved. “I am glad we can do something to pay you guys back,” he said. No one thanked him.

Julio drove up and with a tarp to set Norm on in his SUV. I went with Julio as did Jeff; the others were given the address of where we were going. It was the Emergency Med/Surgery Clinic. Norm was taken in, but as the staff was telling Julio why they couldn’t do anything, Julio was writing out a Ten thousand dollar check. “Will this let you get started?”

“How do we know this is good?” I was losing my cool and had already said something questioning their ancestry. Julio kicked me out to the waiting area and they reached an agreement without me. Mom was there before Julio made it back out. “You are so grounded.”

I smiled, “I know, I can already see China.” Mom was now angry enough she needed to go in and see Julio so she did not kill me. We were waiting and didn’t know Julio and Mom were staying in with Norm. “Okay everyone can use the restrooms and wash some of the stink off. And then we might still wait outside.” Others in the waiting area actually clapped.

I went outside but Jeff pushed me back in, “We need you in there to bring out any word of what is going on. Julio came out and told me to go back to bed #7. They were now ready to take Norman back to surgery. I had tears as I leaned over and gave Norm a kiss. He joked, “Give me a kiss when I can do something about it?” I turned and hugged Mom. The nurse said we could wait there but we went back out to tell Jeff and the others.

I made a call to Ryta and was talking with her when Ken from school came and gave me a hug. Ryta said, “I am just blocks away from the clinic and should be there quickly.” Mom told me, “I text both of them saying you could use some support.”

“How did you get their phone numbers?” I was sure Mom had been into my phone. “Ryta had given me hers and Julio and Hector both had Ken’s.” When Ryta came I was too happy with Mom to be angry.

Ken had already backed off because of my aroma when Ryta handed me a sack. “It has a skirt and blouse, please go in and change.” I was soon out in the waiting area. The clothes were clean and fresh but I had squeezed into Ryta’s clothes. “Thanks, Ryta but I am almost bursting out of this; I must look a sight.”

“Everyone with the possible exception of you likes what they see?” I looked around the waiting area and even a boy about eight was wide-eyed and smiling. I took my lip-gloss out and redid my lips. I walked over to the boy and carefully bent down and asked to whisper something. Looking at his Dad, I smiled and gave him a kiss on his cheek. His dad smiled as I stood up and walked back to my seat.

By the time I turned around and sat down the boy was already in the boy’s restroom. When he came back out, my kiss mark was still on his cheek. “I guess he’ll keep it until his mother wipes it off,” his dad said with a laugh.

It was another forty minutes before we got word that Norman was through the surgery and safe. Jeff gave me a quick hug and thanks. Mom and Julio talked about who would take Norman for the next few days. Officer Rog had checked in but if they helped, Norm would be in the Human Services system. We would take Norm home for three days, and Julio would take him or find a place after that.

Julio had bought a sweat suit for Norman to wear home as well as sneakers. I whispered to Mom, “I was hoping we would get to dress him up?” Mom smiled and I knew she was thinking but she decided not to share it there.

Mom talked to Jeff and gave him some money for cleaning supplies, a sleeping bag and enough for them to get something good to eat. I still had feelings for Jeff but when he walked away I knew we wouldn’t be any more than just friends. Now Ken and Ryta were a different matter. With Ryta around Ken knew not to take me for granted. Ryta, well Ryta wasn’t giving Ken any more room than she needed too.

We went and got a bite to eat so when we got back Norman would be close to going home. Ken wasn’t sure about getting something to eat, “Julio, I don’t know how you can take being around these women alone. I already feel immersed and it offends me. If Ashley wasn’t so hot I would leave.”

We got to the restaurant and Mom asked to talk to Ken as we were seated. I only heard Mom suggest he go to the men’s room and either do something or leave. Mom joined us at the table and our waiter Claude seems to know mom and understood her request to come back.

Ken seemed a bit timid when he came to sit down and only after he did, I understood why. Ken had on lip-gloss and a little mascara. I looked toward Mom but there was no expression. “I hope you don’t feel bad Ken, I like you.” He just glanced up and when he saw I was not laughing, I saw a little smile.

Claude went around the table and asked names and what each of us wanted to order. Ken was the last to order, “I would like bacon burger, fries, onion rings, and a cola.” “…And your name please?” “My name is Ken.” “…can I call you Kensey?” Ken pause, “That would be fine for now.”

I thought Ryta was about to lose it. Ken, on the other hand, relaxed and changed. We casually ate our light lunch and were on our way back to the clinic. Mom invited, “Ryta and Ken when we go back to our place, when we leave the clinic you are invited over for dinner.”

Ryta quickly said, “No thanks, another time please.”

I was surprised when Ken said he hopes to, “I will have to check with my mother Ms. Riley; I will if she says it is okay, I will come.” ‘How does Mom do that, did she threaten him?’

Ryta, Julio and Ken went in to be with Norman and I grabbed Mom to talk with her, “What happened with Ken?

“I heard Ken had a temper around women that started with comments like he made that climaxed with him going into a rage. I didn’t want boys dropping out of your life, so I took a chance and suggested the lip-gloss and mascara or for him to cool down and go home. He took the makeup and went to the men’s room.”

“I think he is a sensitive boy, but he surprises even me. Other than Claude being ready, I was surprised by how everyone received him. I wonder what Norman is thinking right now.”

“I’m sorry Mom but I suspected you threatened him or something.”

“I suspected you thought something like that. Thanks for waiting and getting me aside to talk with you. You handled things quite well. Do you mind if I suggest something, …after Ryta leaves, you might want to give Ken a kiss even if it is just on the cheek.”

“Moms don’t usually suggest kissing to their daughter,” I began to giggle. I took hold of Mom’s hand and we went in to see Norman.

Julio, “Ryta received a phone call and left; she said, she would call you later. Norman laughed when he saw Ken and Ken told him it was therapy and they both laughed.”

It appeared Ken had touched up his lips as he tried to give the lip-gloss back to mom. “I suggest you hold onto it as a keepsake or in case of emergencies.” Mom gave Ken a hug and told him she was proud of him.

I held Ken with one hand and took hold of Norman with the other. I looked to a nurse, “Is he already feeling better or is it the medication?”

She smiled and said, “Both, we will send him home with two prescriptions for you to pick up.” She drew me aside and asked in a soft voice, “Is she really Bridgette Riley? I know she has helped others before but this is the first time I have seen her.”

“Did she help others this year,” I asked?

“I shouldn’t say as I shouldn’t have asked, but this is the third one I know of. This is by far the most expensive, but someone said that this one is credited to you. We think you save his life.” With that, she gave me a hug and left. I needed to sit before I fell on the floor. I looked at Norm realizing he could have died and began to cry. Norm reached through the railing and touched my hair. I looked up and he was smiling.

‘Ms. Riley, can I show you how to care for Norman’s wound?”

Mom asked for Julio and me to learn as well. The surgical area didn’t look as bad as I thought it might. But the idea of smelling it as well as looking for an infection turned my stomach. We went to the waiting area as the nurse was to help dress Norm.

While we were sitting down, the eight-year-old boy and his sister and dad were coming through. I thought they were already gone. But the Dad wasn’t happy. We heard him say, “Thanks Doc, we would like to do more but…”

I looked to Mom and she was already rising, “Dr. Bennett, what is the problem?”

“I can’t say unless Mr. Pulaski gives me permission.” Mom looked to the father and he gave his approval. “Renee needs to be hospitalized, but her father owes too much and earns too much to get more help. We have tried for over an hour and a half to find someone to take her.”

Mom asks, “Would Columbia Presbyterian be able to treat her?” “…They can’t treat her because she is outside of their district.” “…If you know a doctor there who could treat her call her or him and let me talk to them.”

“Mr. Pulaski, is it alright if I help you? We will get her into a good hospital and treated, but I would like it to be Columbia Presbyterian if possible.” I was crying like Mr. Pulaski. The nurse came to tell us Norman was ready to go home. She saw Mom and put up four fingers and I smiled through my tears.

“Julio, why don’t you get Kensey and Norm in the car and we will join you in just a moment. If you rather you could take them to the house and we will be right behind you.” Julio agreed and got his group together.

Dr. Bennett was back out with a phone, “I have a Dr. Canfield on the phone, and he says he knows you.” Mom took the phone and the conversation was light yet serious. Dr. Canfield was agreeing to be the admitting doctor and get the appropriate medical people. “Bridgette, would you mind if I put my intern on her case to treat the infection and watch over things with me?”

“If this is the one you advocated for, please by all means. I agree she is super. I will send a check for Renee’s visit and treatment this time. You make sure the city and the state don’t take it for a prior bill somewhere.”

Mom wrote a second check to Emergency Med/Surgery Clinic. “Dr. Bennett thanks for your help. Give Mr. Pulaski his payment back and use the remainder wisely.”

I kneeled down to Renee and even through her discomfort, she took my heart. “Renee can I please come and visit you tomorrow?” “…can you bring me some pretty ...stick?” I looked to her Dad and then said, “would pink be nice?”

Mom tugged me as we needed to get back to Norman…

Is the story still fresh and should it be continued…?