Hanging on the Telephone Line (with thanks to ELO and Jeff Lynn for the inspiration)

“Hello. How are you?
Have you been alright, through all those lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely nights
That's what I'd say. I'd tell you everything
If you'd pick up that telephone yeah yeah yeah”
I looked at the phone for the umpteenth time.

Why didn’t it ring?

What was wrong?

Has something happened to him?

[A few weeks previously]

“Come on Dee, you need a night out and I have these two gorgeous guys wanting to date us. Are you going to go or not?”

Anne was persistent if nothing else. We’d known each other for a few months since I’d come to town. We both worked at the main offices of local building company. We were the only women there so it was natural that we’d stick together.

The problem is that I’m not properly female. I was born a boy and only completed my transition to my true character some 18 months ago. No one in the town knew my past, not even Anne.

Anne is almost 5 years older than me but does not show her age. She is my best friend. Well, she is my only friend but I just can’t tell her who I really am. I’m scared to tell her.

I haven’t dated in several years. This is more out of fear than anything.

My last date with him put me in hospital with a broken nose, two broken ribs and one eye so swollen that I couldn’t see out of for a week. The pig who did it was my former boyfriend. He’d gone berserk when I told him about myself. We’d been dating for a few weeks and he wanted to take things to the next level. He did that alright as I spend far too many long and boring days in Hospital for my troubles. In return, he got to spend a year in Prison for his efforts, but the slightly gory details of the case and my picture was splashed all over the media.

After his friends vandalised my home, I had to move. In the end, I moved to a different part of the country to escape them and the attentions of social media.

I look into the sky, the love you need ain't gonna see you through
And I wonder why the little things you planned ain't coming true

Oh oh Telephone Line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight
Oh oh Telephone Line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight

Four similar disasters later and I was currently residing in Nashua, NH. I’d been living here for about a year. To say that I’d been keeping my head down would be an understatement.

Finally, my only friend in the world, Dee arranged a blind date with two people she’d met in a coffee shop at the Mall of New Hampshire on ‘Black Friday’.

After an undue amount of arm twisting I’d agreed to make up the foursome. In the end, I told Dee the truth about myself whilst at the same time mentally working out how much ‘stuff’ I could cram into my car as I did a runner when she did as most people had done when they found out about me and wanted me to disappear from their lives forever.

Dee astounded me by not being concerned that I was once a man named Jack.

“So? You are a woman now. The only difference between us is that you can’t have kids.”

I tried to stop laughing but I failed miserably.

Dee took me out that night and we got rat-arsed drunk to celebrate my ‘coming out’ to her. She could not imagine the load that had been taken off my mind.

I wanted to hop and skip down the road I was so happy.

Back to almost the present, Dee and I went out on the Blind Date with Chad (hers) and Jeff (mine). The venue for the date was the bowling alley. Not a place I’d have chosen but, in the end, we all had fun and the relaxed nature of the evening ensured that at the end there were no uneasy silences as we said our goodbyes.

Dee soon realised that Chad was not for her but there was something… well Jeff and I clicked.

Our relationship blossomed and by Christmas I was on first name terms with his parents. Dee even got back with Chad so we often went out as a foursome.

All the signs were that that something romantic was going to happen on Valentines day. I knew that I had to tell him before that.
I invited him over to my place for dinner in the middle of January. I’d done this before and I knew from bitter experience that it had to be done sooner rather than later. What is it with these men who say that they want to take things slowly then when you give an inch they try to take a hundred miles.

Ok. So no one's answering

And let it ring for evermore oh oh ooohhhhh yeah yeah yeah

Well I told him. Then he literally ran out of my house as fast as he could. His last words were, ‘I need time. I’ll call you’.

For the next few days, I looked at the phone and again.

Why didn’t it ring?

What was wrong?

Has something happened to him?

When I look into the sky, the love you need ain't gonna see you through

Oh oh Telephone Line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight.

He never did call. Oh well back to square one only this time I didn’t get beaten up by my former lover or their friends.

Anne’s getting married next month to Chad and Jeff has specifically requested that I not be invited to the wedding. Anne won't return my calls now and has changed jobs. Perhaps Chad has gotten to her?

Perhaps it is time to move again. Now what the number for the Nashua ‘U-Haul’?

Doowop dooby doo doowop doowah doolang
Blue days black nights doowah doolang

[Authors note]
This is an old piece that I wrote around 2010 but never published.

I lived for a while in Nashua, N.H. so that’s why I used this reference to ‘U-Haul’.