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Characters
Charles James Davis Wilder (Charlie) age 13
Teresa Joy Wilder Davis (TJ) age 11
Francine Wilder (Frankie) mom to kids, Wife to Jane, Age 40
Jane Davis (Jane) mother to kids, Wife to Frankie, recently deceased
Dr. Julia West (Julie) Physiatrist, a College friend of Frankie
Summary of significant previous events.
Frankie and Jane fall in love, get married, decide to raise a family together, they impregnate each other with donor sperm, Charlie born, TJ born.
House spray painted “Lezzies shouldn’t raise kids”. Frankie and Jane decide to homestead in a remote location and homeschool the kids. During house build 4-year-old Charly is put in charge of TJ and two puppies. They play house as two mommies.
Frankie and Jane have a recommitment ceremony. 9-year-old Charlie protests having to wear a suit and tie instead of pretty dress like TJ.
Jane is killed in an auto accident, while on a trip for her consulting business. Frankie sells the house to go back to teaching.
The family is staying with Frankie’s friend Dr. Julia West. Dr. West is testing Charlie and TJ for school placement, as they have only been homeschooled to this point.
As part of the placement testing, Charlie is put in a playgroup of 12-13 year old boys. The group rejects him.
As we begin Frankie is off at St. Katherine’s, the private girl's school she will be teaching at.
Chapter 1 The end of testing
“Hi, Aunt Julie. Have you got more testing for me?”
“No. You are just about done. I just wanted to have a talk with you, before I consult with your mom about the results. Do you have any questions?”
“How did I do?”
“I’m gonna play a doctor trick and answer with a question. How do you think you did?”
“Most of the tests were to help you figure me out better. So they aren’t really graded. But I think I did OK. I don’t think they revealed me as a serial killer or anything like that.”
“Actually you did great on the tests. Academically, I think you could do well in college right now.”
“I sense a but.”
“You are very sharp. Few of my adult patients can read me that well. There are a couple areas of concern. First, the playgroup didn’t accept you very well.”
“They treated me like an idiot, just because I didn’t know about those stupid football players.”
“I agree you didn’t do anything wrong. But I fear similar or worse situations, if we mix you with a group of older boys, whom you are likely to be academically superior to.”
“ Are you suggesting I need to dumb down to fit in?”
“That is not the solution I had in mind?”
“What’s your solution?”
“I think we need to involve your mom before we discuss that.”
“OK so what now?”
“Well, the other area is that you had an unusual score on the Prince-Hopkins gender scale.”
“Does that mean I’m too girly?”
“I don’t think so. I suspect it is more the way your mothers raised you. Can I ask some more questions?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Do you ever wish you were a girl.”
“No. I’m happy being me. I don’t think being a boy or a girl has much to do with it.”
“Good answer. Do you ever wish to wear girls clothing?”
“I like jeans and tee shirts and sneakers, not much difference, girls are more colorful and more decorated. At the wedding, I did wish that I could wear a pretty dress and Mary-Janes instead of the suit and tie and heavy leather shoes.”
“I wish all my patients were as clear and articulate in their answers. What do you like to do when you play?”
“Play with the dogs and TJ. Teach them to obey and do tricks. Play house with TJ. Play with cars and trucks and Lego’s. Play soccer and basketball. Explore the woods. Play video games. Read. Build things. Listen to music. Write. Computer program.”
“When you played house with TJ what did you do?”
“Usually we would play mommies to our dolls and stuffies. Sometimes we would have tea parties.”
“How do you feel about your penis?”
“I don’t think about it much. I like being able to point and shoot.”
“You have been very helpful. I think that is enough for me to have the talk with your mom. I suspect you have some idea where this might be going. Don’t worry, we will not make any decisions without you, and the final decision will be yours.”
Chapter 2 Research
I ran to my room. I wanted to throw myself on the bed and cry. But I didn’t. I sat at the computer and tried to research transgender through my tears.
Three hours later, I was more confused than before I started. I had never given gender much thought. It never seemed like it made much difference. TJ and I were treated slightly differently, but I had always attributed that to the age difference, not the gender difference. I had never felt like a girl (but when I think about it, I never felt like a boy either). I was just happy being me and gender didn’t play much of a role in my self-image either way. I could play mommy and not feel unnatural about it. But I could imagine myself driving a big rig, or building houses, or programming computers. I didn’t consider any of these gender-specific (although I knew others did). But from my experience with the playgroup, I might well find it easier to fit in at school as a girl. It wouldn’t change my life options much. Either way, I could choose to like girls (or boys or both). I was pretty sure either way it would be girls. Here I was, seriously considering trying to live as a girl, without that suggestion even being made.
At this point, I heard mom’s car in the driveway. I rushed down to meet mom at the door, with a hug.
“That was a nice welcome, but what brought that on?”
“Aunt Julie had a talk with me about the test results. It reminded me how much you have done for us, and how much we love each other.”
“Does that mean I need to have a talk with Julie?”
“I think so.”
Mom ruffled my hair and kissed me of the forehead. Then went and knock on Dr. Julie’s office door.
I ran off to get the stethoscope from our blood pressure testing kit. I knew I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but I had to know what was going on.
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Comments
Nice start
I'm glad that you entered the Reader Retention Story Contest. Nice beginning.
Donna
Great
This is a great opening. I think the characters are interesting and I can't wait for the plot to develop.
Smart thinking
I shall give this a try with the stethoscope from my cars first aid kit. Hm, now just need to fine a willing victim...
:-)
Interesting story with a - for me - new constellation to get started.
Thank you very much for sharing it.
Best regards from Germany
Tom
Thanks for the comment. Didn
Thanks for the comment. Didn't understand new constellation comment. (did you mean star formation or something else)
Cheryl
No, Cheryl,
Tom used the word in more of the sense it takes on in German as a term for the whole starting situation and the relations between the main characters.
Had it been me using it we'd definitely be talking about stars or more precisely horoscopes.
Charlie's approach is very logical, something that one would normally class as masculin, but then women are the better programmers, so a certain orderliness in thought patterns seems a given for females also.
Monique.
Monique S
Questions that need to be asked ...
Wow, this really impacted me!
I'm very late realizing that perhaps(?) most GID folk just fiddle around with women's clothing once in a while, but don't live full time as women and don't have the surgery. I don't see that as simple cross dressing but they are astute enough to realize that trying to live as a woman FT is the hard path.
I'm feeling very shaky about all this. The idea that he would want to just be a girl because of the way he was raised ??? It is not surprising that he would have some adjustment issues in this scenario, exactly as he has.
And yes, I see Mental Health counselors as a very sinister force. The one's I've had were nuttier than me.
This is very hard for me to process, and I won't promise that I'll stay with it. I recently fired my own MH counselor for demeaning me, so no support there. LOOK HERE, don't any of you rain any drama into my life because I am showing my distress. No Suicide, or any of that crap. I do not want the Police showing up here and dragging me off, and it has happened before, years ago. If one of you calls the plod to even do a welfare check, they will drag me off.
I'll get over this.
Gwen
I somehow missed this
blame the avalanche of stories. but an interesting start.
This all raises an interesting issue.
The spectrum of TG - ranging from crossdressing, gender fluid, transgender, to post op full on transsexual - used to be closeted, so that only the most persistent and most mentally female ones were finally given permission (and medical treatment) to live as the opposite sex. Any one short of that was expected to live their life as a full on male.
Now, the LGBT community has more acceptance and influence than ever (even though it has a ways to go before it's considered "normal". As a result, I expect the pendulum to swing to the other side, where now children who are questioning their gender - or as in this story, just score gender neutral on a psych test - will be encouraged to pursue a more vigorous transition than is called for. i think this is already happening in real life. We have to watch for excesses on both sides of the spectrum. (this opens up so many possibilities for fiction!0 Good start!
Hugz! - **Sigh**
Sighs are the natural language of the heart.
-Thomas Shadwell
Great comment.
I fear that I should have pointed out that Charlie has acquired Speech patterns and mannerisms that will make it easier to be accepted as a girl, than as a boy. Dr. West has noted this but has failed to convey that to Frankie or Charlie.
But it does raise the question, are some being herded into the wrong corral.
It's nice to see ...
... a story about someone who is okay identifying as male, even though he may be feminine in some ways. I think it might be okay with him experimenting with presenting as female, so long as he can get to change back, if he decides it's really not his thing. Forcing someone to present as female feels just as bad as forcing someone to present as male.