“See you when you get back in a month or so Josie, enjoy your holiday with Jack, but whatever you do make sure that you don’t come back pregnant.” I joked with my sister as she left to go away for a long holiday with her boyfriend, Jack.”

"Thanks Joey, I’ll try to avoid that but I still intend to have a good time. Take care of things while I am away, and let me know if anything comes up.We’re going up in to the mountains and reception will not be wonderful, so there may be times when toucan’t reach me, just leave a message and I’ll pick it up when I can.”

When they had twin babies, my parents thought it would be cute if we had similar names, so I was called Joseph (Joey) Leslie and my sister Josephine (Josie) Lesley. If we got unto mischief or were making too much noise when we were children, Mum used used to shout out to us "Jo, stop that, settle down, so that she could tell us off without particularly blaming either of us.”

Although we grew up with our own sets of friends and with our own personalities, we were always quite close as brother and sister and were very comfortable in each other’s company, had many shared interests and looked out for each other much more than most siblings. As near as it could be for gender-different twins we were almost identical in looks too, and when dressed casually we were often mistaken for each other, at least until she started to develop in puberty, when the differences became more obvious, and she developed into a very attractive young woman.

When it was time for university we even signed up for the same course in ancient history and archaeology, intending to later make careers in museum administration. The first year we had to stay in the Halls of Residence, which were gender segregated, the first time we had really been apart since we were children. After that with a few roommates we shared a flat for the rest of our time there, shared many friends and experiences, each of us going out occasionally with the friends of the other, and she and I were often referred to as Jo#1 and Jo#2. We probably knew more about each other than most siblings, how the other thought and how they would react in certain situations.

While we were away at Uni, Mum and Dad had decided to go and live in France, and had bought a run-down old farmhouse next to the Dordogne in Lot- et-Garonne that they were renovating and improving, and intended to settle there in semi-retirement after it was all completed. We liked and wanted to stay in the family house where we had grown up, so Josie and I took a formal lease from them, and moved in together.

After Uni, we found that the market for our talents and qualifications was limited, there were very few vacancies for the jobs we were looking for as they were the type that people had a great interest in and stayed with throughout their career. We shared the costs of the house and made ends meet by taking on any sort of temporary work to keep the money coming in, burger flipping, gardening, pizza delivery and shelf-stacking for me, and temporary secretarial or care assistant jobs for Josie. Even in these more enlightened times jobs still had a strong gender bias, but they kept us going while we were trying to get something more fulfilling.

Josie had only been away a few days when, checking her mail, I came across an invitation for her to attend for interview as an assistant curator at the local County Heritage Museum, one of the many applications she had made a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, although I had applied too, there was no invitation for me, we were very similarly qualified and I grudgingly assumed that, as with many public bodies, they were trying to up the gender balance and appoint more females. Knowing that she would want to seriously try for this appointment I tried to phone Josie to let her know the good news so she could come back for the interview, but she was up in the wilds of the mountains and forests and must be somewhere in a signal-free area, have her phone turned off, or a dead battery. I tried many times to get through without success and was on the point of calling the museum to apologise for her when she finally returned my call.

"Hi Sis, you will be delighted to know that you have an interview for that curator job at the museum next Friday, can you get back for it?”

"Damn and double-damn, I won’t be able to make it, Jack’s car broke a suspension spring on one of the mountain tracks and is in the garage waiting for a new one to be delivered. That’s what happens when you take your eyes off the road to look at the view, and don’t see the potholes and dangers on the road ahead. When the spring broke broke the car rolled into a ditch, threw me around as I wasn’t wearing my seat belt, and I’ve broken my ankle. I have to keep it rested so travel on buses is out of the question, we just have to wait until the car is fixed.”

“Sorry to hear that, are you ok otherwise, and did Jack get hurt too ?

"Yea, I am ok, or at least will be, and Jack got away with just a couple of bruises and scratches.”

“I’ll give the museum a call for you to see if they can reschedule, as I know how much you would like the job.”

“Usually these interviews are with a panel of people, the museum director, some of the trustees, and sometimes exhibition sponsors, it is difficult to get them all together so I doubt if they will agree, but can you try please?”

Rather than phone them, I thought that I had more chance if I went to see them to explain and decided to leave it until later in the afternoon when I had to go into town anyway for my shift in the burger bar. The job was not exciting or challenging and paid just over the minimum wage, but it kept me busy and helped to pay the bills. For the first time that I could remember I was jealous of Josie and the opportunity that she now had to get the sort of job that we had both been hoping for.

Before I left for work and to go to the museum I was surprised when I had another call from Josie.

“Hi Joey, I’ve been thinking about how to get to the interview and I have had an idea, please just listen for a minute before saying no. You can do the interview for me, we did the same course and know the same things, you should just breeze through it.”

"I didn’t get invited, they chose you and that’s who they would want to see.”

“You're not listening, I didn’t say that you should go instead of me, I said that you should go for me, if I have to spell it out I mean go as me.”

"You must be joking, in case you haven’t noticed over the years, I am male and you are female we look nothing like each other, it would never work.”

"What do you mean ‘we look nothing like each other’? When we were kids you were often mistaken for me and vice-versa. If you remember a couple of times we swapped Halloween costumes, you dressed as Maid Marion while I was Robin Hood or at Christmas as the Fairy and the Elf, nobody noticed the difference.”

"That was a long time ago, we have both changed a lot since then, it wouldn’t be the same, and we would never get away with that sort of thing now.”

“Although there are obvious differences, you are still about the same size as me, your skin is still quite smooth and not too hairy, your hair is long enough to be styled, with the right clothes and make-up you could pass as a reasonable copy of the real me, but obviously not as good-looking.”

“I you keep being cheeky like that, you stand no chance of convincing me to help. If I agree to this, and that is a big if, there is no way I could turn myself into a believable copy of you in a few days.”

"I’m not that flakey, I realise that you will need a lot of help. Do you remember Susie from college, she set up and runs a beauty salon business across the city? If I gave her a call I’m sure that she will be delighted to help, you always got on with her, and she likes you. When she stops laughing she will see it as a challenge to her skills. Please Joey, this could be an important step for me. You only have to do the interview and if we are successful just delay the starting of work until I can get back.”

"You owe me big time for this Sis, but if you get a decently paid job, I may be able to stop working at the burger bar and look for something more appropriate. Give Susie a call, see what she says, and if she will help I will give it a try.”

A half-hour later I heard a car pull into the drive and opened the door to find a grinning Susie carrying a huge holdall.

“Hi Susie, I didn’t know you were coming, Josie hasn’t called me back to tell me.”

"That’s because she thought that you would chicken out when you had time to think about it. Let me come in Joey, it’s cold out here, and we’ll talk through what needs to be done.”

"I’m not sure Susie, I have thought about it and I’m sure that I will look stupid and make a complete fool of myself.”

‘Hey, I’m the best beautician in town, even if I am blowing my own trumpet, if I can’t make you look presentable as an imitation of Josie, I’l eat…my mascara wand. Go upstairs take off all your clothes, put on just a dressing gown and we’ll have a look to see what I have to work with.”

If I didn’t know Susie Really well, including times when I went ‘skinny-dipping’ with Josie’s friends, I would not have been comfortable facing her in just a dressing gown. But I stripped completely and just followed her when she said to drop the dressing gown too.

"Hmm, not too bad, you are still quite slim and not too hairy, but we can soon sort that out. Have a close shave of your face, then I’ll come up with you and smear your back and the back of your thighs with Nair and leave you to do all the other hairy bits, arms, legs, chest and stomach.Leave it all on for 10 minutes, have a good shower afterwards, use Josie’s body scrub and exfoliating brush to clean it all off, then wash your hair using her shampoo and conditioner.”

An hour later I shyly made my way downstairs where Susie was waiting for me.

“That’s an awful lot better, it will do for now, but you are still not fit to go on the beach in a bikini."she said afterwards with a big grin.

"Josie told me to have a rummage through her stuff to find something for you to wear, just put on the panties so I don’t have to look at your dangly bits anymore, and if you know what I mean, tuck yourself back between your legs before pulling them up tight.”

"Do I really need to do all this Susie, I thought it would just be a matter of trying on some clothes?”

"If we are going to do this properly you have to start at the inside and work outwards. Try this bra for size and if it is ok I have some inserts to use to give you a bit more shape, then put your dressing gown back on again and I’ll see what I can do with your hair.”

Soon she had lightly trimmed my hair to give it the shape she wanted and set it in rollers. “While that is drying off, let’s have a look at your nails. My god, they are awful, I know you do gardening but they are terrible, there is not a lot I can do with them as they are. I thought I might find that so I have got some acrylic add-ons with me. Lets get them on and we can shape them and get some polish on, and while they are drying I’ll see what I can do with your toenails too. After what seemed forever, she was satisfied and turned her attention to my face.

"I need to trim and shape your eyebrows, I’ll not go too mad, they will still look ok when you go back to being Joey.” After trimming them short she waxed them to shape and cleaned up the edges. “That will do for now. If this all works out ok, we’’ll do a full wax face-mask tomorrow to exfoliate, but you are ok today for just putting the make-up on as you are.”

She opened up a huge case with a tray of all sorts of creams, cosmetics in a rainbow of colours, and sat for a few moments looking at me and then looking at the tray.

“I’m sure that you have watched Josie doing her face many times, and sat there making all sorts of sarcastic comments, like my brothers have to me, well now it’s payback time for all that. I’ll talk you through everything I am doing, but pay attention, I can’t do this for you every day.”

"What do you mean every day, I will only be doing this one time on Friday.”

"You must be joking, do you think you can pass as a girl with just a half-day session with me, you need to stay as a girl for the rest of the week until Friday, get used to the clothes, practice your makeup and the way you walk and talk, and you might just about be passable. Sit still, watch, listen and remember.”

I had a rough idea of what she was doing having sat and chatted to Josie many times when she was getting ready, but I soon learned that it was like turning the ignition on and thinking you knew how to drive a car, there were all sorts of subtleties and techniques that I hadn’t even thought of, and when she was finished and satisfied my mind was buzzing with everything she had said and demonstrated.

“Get yourself properly dressed, I’ve picked out a skirt and top for you a fresh pack of tights and the biggest pair of Josie’s shoes I can find. I’ll just take out the rollers and brush out your hair and then we can see the finished result, You can go and look at yourself in the full length mirror on her wardrobe.”

I quickly put on all the things she had laid out for me and stood up to make my way upstairs.

“Are you sure that these clothes are the right size , they fit really tight to me.”

“They are exactly as they should be, girl’s clothes fit a lot more snugly than the sloppy things that boys wear, we like to emphasise our figures.”

The shoes only had a low chunky heel but were still strange enough for me to totter up the stairs to the bedroom. When I saw my reflection I was amazed, looking back at me was the image of Josie, only with a shorter hair style. "I would never have believed it Susie, you are a miracle worker, Josie may be right, this could possibly work.”

"You’ve only just started, we may have got the look right Joey, but there is a lot more to do before you can pass as Josie in public. Walking up the stairs even in those low heels, you were very ungainly, you need to get used to walking in heels and to change your gait, put one foot directly in front of the other it will give a bit more sway to your hips, and hold your shoulders back otherwise your arms will keep brushing against the sides of your breasts.”

“ Stop criticising, you have 20-odd years to get used to all this, I have only had a couple of hours.”

“I have to go back to the salon for a while, you need to practice walking around, try to remember how Josie moves, how she stands, how she moves her arms and hands, copy her mannerisms. When I get back I want you to be moving and acting much more naturally as a girl.”

"I was just going to get cleaned up and changed for work, so there is not much point you coming back later.”

"I hope you are joking, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort getting you to look like that, you don’t want to waste all that do you? Phone in saying you are feeling unwell, this is far more important, unless of course you want to go into work as you are now.”

"I can’t go in looking like this, I know I have to get used to acting like a girl, but my life wouldn’t be worth living if I turned up there with boobs and wearing a skirt.”

“You have no choice really, if you are going to pull this off you have to be Josie 24 hours a day. I’ll be back in about 3 hours, and I will expect you to be a lot more believable."

She picked up with her bag and most of her things, left me a cosmetic bag with all the makeup items she had used, gave me a goodbye girly hug and was off. I was in a state of confusion, she had come in, done what she had to do, and rushed off, it was if a whirlwind had turned my life upside down without giving me time to think about what I was doing.

I did as I had been told for the rest of the day, walking around, going up and down the stairs, even going to check out Josie’s shoes to find a pair with a higher heel, if I was going to do this, I had to learn to do it properly. The hardest part to get realistic was my voice, so I practised using the voice recorder on my phone making mock call conversations, until I found something reasonably believable. It was impossible to lift the pitch too much without it sounding totally false, but calling to memory all the times I had been out with Josie and her friends, I softened my accent, changed to a more sing-song tone and used a lot more feminine words and phrases. I didn’t really sound much like Josie, but it was near enough if I told people that I had a sore throat and apologised for the husky voice.

Tired out with all the mental efforts and stress i was just sitting down to a refreshing coffee and piece of cake when I heard someone at the front door. I was in a panic, was I ready for anyone to see me, would I be read as a man in a skirt? I looked out of the window and saw that it was just a delivery courier. Thinking that those guys run on automatic and don’t really relate to anybody I decided that I had to meet someone for the first time as a girl, and he was probably one of the safest tests for me. I took a deep breath and opened the door to him.

"Good afternoon, parcel for Miss Jo Johnson, is that you?”

"Yes it is, do I need to sign for it?" I asked giving him a big smile He handed me one of those electronic note books and the pen stick, but I can never do a decent signature on them at the best of times, and it ended up as a swirly scrawl, which actually looked quite feminine and a bit like Josie’s. A quick “thank you very much Miss, have a good day."and he was off, It had not been a big problem at all. I put the parcel to one side for later and sat down to finish my coffee.

I spent a bit more time moving around, as Susie had suggested, and was getting used to walking in the heels when I saw her car arrive back in our drive. I opened the door to welcome her with a smile and a cheek kiss and a big hug. "I was wondering how long you were going to be, come on in.” I greeted her using my new voice.

"I’m glad you are taking this seriously Jo, and incidentally, for the duration of this little performance you are now called Jo, the feminine version without the ‘e’, I like the voice and I see that you have graduated to proper heels, i am impressed, I thought you might have decided not to do it.”

“I’ve been working hard at it, and even answered to door to a courier who seemed to just accept me as another one of his delivery customers. That convinced me that this might work so I kept at it and it seems to be going ok. That reminds me, I haven’t checked the parcel yet, I was surprised that it came addressed to Jo, not Josie, I was a bit curious, but she doesn’t like me opening her mail”

‘It’s ok, it’s for you, I ordered something for you, express delivery, but didn’t expect it to arrive before I got here, go and open it.”

I soon had the parcel open took the lid of the box inside to discover what looked like large wobbly breasts.

"I thought this morning that the inserts I gave you would do, but they are really just enhancements to push up smaller natural breasts and are not really big enough for your frame or to match Josie. These forms which I ordered for you are much more realistic. Take your top and bra off and lie down and I will see how they look on you."When she put them on my chest they felt cold but she told me to hold them in place with my hands while they warmed up a bit.

"Ok just stand up and take your hands away."I found that the forms stayed in place and I could feel the weight of them pulling on my skin. “They look fine, put your bra and top back on and we’ll just check that everything sits right. That’s an awful lot better, what do you think?”

"It feels weird, as if they are pulling me forward, i don’t know if I can get used to them.”

"You will have to get used to them, they are in place now until after your interview. The glue on them needs a special solvent to release it and I am keeping that, You are, literally, stuck with them now, Just try to arch your back a bit more and push your shoulders back, that should help to balance out the weight of the breasts.”

"But I need to go in to work, I can’t go in like this.”

"I told you, you need to be Jo 24 hours a day. This is a gamble, if it works out, and you get the job for Josie, it will all be worthwhile, you can always find another job that pays the same as flipping burgers. Just call and tell them that you now have a full-time long-term job, they will easily get somebody to replace you. You are now reasonably believable, grab a coat, we are going out for a walk, down at the park.”

"What if we see someone who knows me and I get recognised, I will be a laughing stock.”

“Look in a mirror, you are the spitting image of Josie. The courier guy didn’t recognise you, did he? You will be going for interview in a couple of days time, you have to get used to meeting people, or you have no chance of pulling it off. Let’s get out and show the world the new you, put on a coat and don’t forget your bag.“

To be continued