Chapter 24

“We are the administrators of the Swan Club. It all started when a few of us got together, one evening, to watch your classical DVD. When it finished, we were all crying and felt as if we could tell each other what we had been holding back.”

“Before that, we had been best friends. Now, we are best girlfriends. That evening we planned our transformations and haven’t looked back. All six of us, here today, were getting by as guys, and one by one got liberated by the Swan. Some of us aren’t quite as successful in passing as others. None of us care. We’re living the life we were meant to live but had kept repressed. We’ve registered the Swan Club, and we would like the two of you to be our patrons and wear these brooches.”

She passed each of us a box and when I opened it, I gasped. The feather brooch was exquisite in its beauty, filigree platinum and gold with a covering of tiny diamonds. They must have quite a bit of cash behind them to get these.

“I have a third one for the brilliant cello player but have not had a chance to get in touch with him.”

Pet told her that we’ll be seeing him at the end of August when we play a concert in Boston. The girl told us that she, Dianne, was the nominated leader of the club. She said that she’ll arrange for one of their number to contact us there so that he could be presented with it.

We agreed to be patrons although I didn’t say that I was also like them. We were given a flier that detailed the club. It had started in Los Angeles but was growing like wildfire across the country.

Dianne told us to expect to see more “girls” at our shows, and that they would appreciate it if we wore the brooch on stage.

We said we would be honored and gave each of them a hug and an air kiss. I gave Dianne one of Allans’ cards and said that he would be able to tell them what we were going to be doing.

Dianne was amazed. “Surely you have a fan club website?”

We admitted that we didn’t know of one.

“Leave that to me,” she said. “I’ll email this guy with an alpha version for you to accept, and you’ll have one within a week or two. We have some clever guys, well, girls now, who do web work from home, and they’ll be happy to work for our patrons.”

We spoke some more, and then said we had a show to get ready for. I told them where we were likely to go after the show if they wanted to come along.

As we walked back to the pool Pet mused. “I wonder if we can do something as an encore for them. It could be with the Stability tune, but it shouldn’t take much to come up with some new words.”

By the time we had finished our light dinner before the show we had come up with some verses that spoke of the life of a person, who was not in the body of their choice, and the problems that caused.

The last verse concerned the ability to change that was all now readily available. We showed the words to Abigail who could sing from them. She is a quick study and sang them without the pages during the encore.

Pet and I wore our feathers on stage and could see a lot more of them scattered around the audience. The Swan Club members were all standing out in pale dresses. The front row had all seven of the family from last night, Maureen and Martyn holding hands and smiling a lot. I took it as read that they had finally viewed the DVD.

We did the same show and then did the new version of Stability with Pet going to the front of the stage and acknowledging the members in the audience. “Swans of the world, this is just for you.” We then played a song which was captured on several hundred phones and had probably reached the four corners of the country as we sang it. It had been a sidebar for the show but, unwittingly, we might have just created an anthem for the transgendered of the country. After it appeared on the new fan site two weeks later, it spread across the world.

After the show we had a visit from the family. Maureen gave Pet and I big hugs when she saw us. She explained that they both had cried and shed their fears. Martyn was now ready to get back behind a mixing desk, and wanted it to be ours, if we would let him.

I gave him the two CDs and told him we had the masters in the studio and that they were from the sessions to record the Cleveland show. I also said that we may be distributing them as a double CD set in Europe before a tour there next year.

Many of the Swan Club members came to the restaurant. They just wanted to hug and tell us how we had changed their lives. A lot of them were very good at passing and some were not so good. All of them were happy with their new lifestyle and were determined to keep moving down the track to womanhood. Several that I spoke to were well connected and well educated.

I spoke to Dianne, and she told me that they were developing a support group for new members to help them with clothing, make-up, and medical procedures. She said that most had not been changed long enough to be on serious hormone treatment. She knew of some that had gone out and had breast augmentation already. The pale and pastel colors, she told me, was just a way to recognize each other.

I pointed out that they had black swans in Australia, and she laughed. “Ooohh, party dresses!”

On the Saturday evening we extended the show a bit with both encores from the previous nights and it was a lot of fun. I could see little pockets of pale outfits among the crowd, and I hoped that they were enjoying themselves. I never had time to have hang-ups when I started dressing as both Mom and Josie were there for me. I hadn’t come up against any bad situations, but I knew enough of the world to know what some of these new girls would encounter.

Sunday we were off to Dallas, where we had another two shows at the end of the week and then we would be home. Pet and I needed to finalize the double violin pieces and the aria as the encore. The Dallas shows had several Swans in the audience and waved as we went on with our brooches.

When we got home the first thing I did, after making up for lost time with Jordan, was to go to our dress supplier and talk about a range of pastel dresses. I wanted the feather motif embroidered on the left shoulder so that I could keep the diamond brooch safe.

The manager photographed and measured it and told me that they would organize a pink A-line for me as a test. Eventually, I ended up with a range of styles, colors, and hem lengths and, as soon as she saw mine, Pet wanted some for her own use.

Pet and I rehearsed the double violin pieces, and Joyce and I did the Rodrigo until we were happy with them. We recorded all the pieces and sent the Rodrigo off to Kelly.

By the time we got to Boston, in the few days before the concert, Kelly had finalized a special concert as a Christmas Present for her subscribers. She had set three concerts over the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the first week of November.

It took all of four days for all three to be booked out. She told us that she had a list that she could contact whenever we would be playing. Algernon and Fiona were underwriting it as a one-off.

We did two rehearsals with the orchestra, the second in full dress. Our dress supplier had done us proud and was obviously following the pastel trend as both were strapless and floaty. We decided that our Sisters’ pendants with our diamond feathers would look good.

Kelly was very interested in the story about the Swans and got her IT guy to look it up. What they found was that the club already had more than a thousand members. The fan clubs that we had never heard of, in various places around the country, were now linked to the main website. We even had a few small ones in Canada.

At the hotel we were approached by a delegate from the Swans. We arranged for her to come to the hall and present his feather to Antonio during the second rehearsal, in front of the whole orchestra.

The three concerts went like a charm. The orchestra did the first half, had a break and we came on to do the two main pieces which were both about a half an hour. The encore was the Aria 5 as we had rehearsed, and we were led off on all three nights to a standing ovation.

Both of us had noticed Swans in the audience and I think our own feather was a good thing for them to see. I went on the website when I got home, and it was full of posts about us on stage with the orchestra.

Another nice pair of faces I saw at the concert was Maureen and Martyn. I introduced them to my parents, who had come along to see us.

There was a party at Algernon’s house after the show on the Saturday, and I pointed out my folks and the Prentices to Kelly to see if they could come.

Pet and I had a Town car to take us, and Geoffrey drove my folks, the Prentices, and Kelly in the Rolls.

My Mom and Dad were overawed by all the luxury they saw that night. Kelly and Algernon made sure that they and the Prentices were made very welcome.

Fiona was every inch the perfect hostess and Kelly even asked Martyn if he would produce the albums that she had on tape of the concerts, after we had completed the Rodrigo.

Martyn and Maureen were invited to stay with us, and Martyn wanted to come up as soon as he could. He said he had some ideas about our current unreleased tracks. He told me that he had been to Cleveland and now had a copy of the live performance audio and he thought it would make a better CD than the one we first made.

He went to the farm while we were on the last leg of the tour and worked quietly by himself. When I got home, I listened to what he had done with the masters he had available, and it was like chalk and cheese. He had remastered the Cleveland audio to enhance the live feel, reset some of the odd volume settings, and it was great. He had also remastered the Sisters’ songs we had done in a jazz style in the studio to also give it a live feel.

He suggested that we release the Sisters’ one as a separate album which we ended up calling “Stable Sisters Swing” and then allow the DVD to have a run before releasing a CD of the audio.

He told us that it would be nice to remaster our earlier CDs but a waste of time considering the new songs we would be recording before Christmas. He did say that our setup was great and suggested a couple of things that would make it greater, so I gave him the authority to do whatever he needed.

Martyn and Maureen were now living in the stable apartment and were quite comfortable and settled in. We had swapped the two singles with a new queen-size. Maureen told me that she was happy to get away from the heat of California and the constant background of the past.

Mom and Dad had found a place in Fort Lauderdale which they liked. Allan had told them that I would pay for it, and they weren’t happy at taking my money. I was adamant and we flew down one week to sign the documents and hand over the check. They would move there after the beginning of the following year but wanted to spend the holiday season with the rest of us.

It looked as if next year would be starting with as much change as ever. Jordan and I decided that we would stay in the extension bedroom and to refurbish my parents’ bedroom as a guest room once they had moved. My old bedroom would become a guest room and the smaller room that Dad had used as an office would become Alis’ playroom to keep her bedroom uncluttered.

While all this was happening, Jordan went down to California for a few days and stayed with Tony and Josie and patched up all the old problems. He told me that Josie had spoken to him about signing the adoption papers, and that she was now very ashamed of leaving her baby behind.

They made the arrangement for the two of them to come to the farm to live. I also planned for them to join Jordan and me at Boston when we went with Joyce and Matty for the concert.

That organized we just needed to furnish the apartment over the clinic for them to stay in, and that took about a week to complete. The farm could now sleep five couples. I hoped that we would never need more than that.

Between us Pet and I had about a dozen new songs for another album. We had tossed up about doing it in jazz style, but then decided that we would end the year in our Sisters’ style and work on something else to be released next year.

If we were spending some time in Europe, we could do one called “Postcards from the Sisters.” All we needed to do was look up the places we would be playing at and write a song about each one. That could be done before we got there and would still be relevant here at home. Allan and Martyn agreed with our idea.

We got a lot of the next album recorded before the week of the guitar concert and looked like we would get that album finished, and the European one started, before Christmas. Martyn kept telling us to slow down but said it with a smile.

The big event for that year was a certain little poppet turning two. This was a family affair. Brad and Alicia came for the day. Everyone else was already living at the farm. She got a lot of birthday gifts. The one that excited her most was a small piano that I had commissioned. It was big enough for her to keep playing for a couple of years, and the keys had been specially made thin enough for her hands to be able to make some simple chords.

Ali ended up with a load of new clothes and some new dolls and plush toys. We had already put a small single in her room and it was strewn with various dolls and cuddly animals. She was growing to be a very girly girl and would always want a different outfit every day. She could now carry on a conversation, and the picture books now had a lot more words in them, which she often read to me. She had a good supply of female role models to follow now.

Mom was still about, although she and Dad were taking trips down south to organize furniture and gadgets for their new home. Mom told me that the best bit for her was shopping for new warm climate outfits. Then we had Maureen and Martyn out in the stable and getting very well settled in. Doris was almost full time, now in my old room.

Tony and Josie were now living over the clinic and Josie was starting to get a handle on the new dynamics of the farm business. I could see that Josie made sure she always treated Ali like a niece. I could also see the joy on her face as she did so.

The guitar concert was something else again. Dad stayed at home to oversee the farm. Mom, Jordan, all four Prentices, Allan, and Helen, Joyces’ parents and her Matty joined Joyce, Ali, and me in the first class for the trip. The rest of the Sisters would be going for the weekend show. Kelly had been told who were coming so there was a line of Town Cars waiting for us when we cleared the airport terminal.

Joyce and I had our classical guitars as well as a spare each, supplied by our instrument store. We did one rehearsal in casual gear and the next day we did one in costume. I say costume because we were both in Spanish outfits, long skirts with petticoats, and peasant tops. We would do the concerts sitting down with microphones in front of us to amplify the guitars.

The orchestra and Richard were all in Spanish rig as well. Antonio had his brooch that stood out on the bright red bolero jacket he wore. On Thursday evening as we went on the stage, I could see a big block of pastel dressed girls who all waved as we appeared. It wasn’t seemly to wave back, but we both smiled in their general direction.

At the end of the Rodrigo, we stood with Richard and took our bows. “I hope you girls have worked out an encore,” he whispered.

I just grinned and when he went and stood next to his podium, Joyce and I sat down on our seats and the applause hushed. Of course, we had worked out an encore, in fact we had two.

The first was a Julian Bream piece which we swapped leads while the other played a rhythm and bass line. The audience demanded more so we did our second one, a Segovia piece which we played together. That one had been very hard to master but we nailed it, thank goodness. I could see a big grin on Martyn’s face because he had been the only other person to hear both pieces which were now on a master in the studio.

The local music reporter joined us at the hotel the next morning. He asked me if I was playing any other debuts next year. He had seen me on stage with the piano, violin and now the guitar. I told him that I had run out of instruments.

He suggested that with my keyboard skills I could always do an organ recital, perhaps the sonata and fugue that everyone wished they could be able to play. The following week Kelly emailed me a copy of his column which was very nice but ended with a question to his readers. “What would you like to see Edie Grosse play next and what piece would you suggest?” I suppose that it was a good way to gauge just how many readers he had.

The Saturday evening concert had the same block of Swans as the previous two evenings, but it looked as if they had block booked and were sharing the seats around. Saturday, I thought that I could see Dianne and the other five of the committee.

The rest of the Sisters had flown in on Saturday afternoon and were in the front row with the rest of our crowd. The concert was good, our part was lovely, and the two encores were well received. When the audience wanted even more, I had a quick word to Joyce and then asked for a microphone that I could sing into.

Joyce started to doodle around the tune of “Stability”, and I adjusted the microphone. “On this stage last year, Petunia, Antonio and I played a little encore that we had put together that has had far-reaching consequences. It has led to a very large portion of tonight’s audience being here. You can tell them by their dresses and the feather brooch. They are the Swans, and all want to live a new life. I know that a lot of you tonight have experienced the effect that the trio we played that night and have some idea of what they have experienced. We wrote this song in a two-hour window between being asked to be patrons of the Swan Club and going on stage that night. We called it “Ability” and it has become something of an anthem.”

I then joined in with Joyce and we worked the doodle into the intro of the song which I sang. When we finished there was roar that was almost pop concert in its loudness. I think the orchestra experienced the first time it had followed someone off stage to clapping, hooting, and stomping feet.

I could see a lot of them with big grins on their faces. Richard smiled. “That should give them an idea of what might happen when we get all of you on stage with us next season.”

Algernon had gone over the top with his party that night and had sent a couple of attendants to tell the Swans to hang around as there was a party to go to. How he rustled up a fleet of coaches at such short notice, and at such a late hour, says a lot about the power of unlimited funds.

The party ran into early Sunday morning. The girls from the Swans were perfect party guests, mostly careful with the drinks, and very entertaining to talk to.

Maureen and Martyn went early with my folks and Ali. That left us to enjoy ourselves. Of course, there was some finger food, and he had the small band playing again but we didn’t take over from them. Well, not all together. Each of us would find ourselves singing along with them for a song or two but we left the stage to them.

Algernon made a short speech where he spoke about the likely season to come but didn’t give away too much detail. He also spoke about the “For those who Served” concerts which were coming together quite well and would kick off in the summer.

That led to several the Swans speaking to us and asking how they could help, seeing that they had a wealth of computer knowledge, and many of their number were in transport and logistics. We pointed out the members of the office staff for them to have further discussion.

Pet had also worn her brooch and there were a lot of selfies taken with the three of us with various Swans, as well as most of the orchestra.

Even Kelly, Richard, Algernon, and his family wanted to have one. The Swans had talks with Kelly and were discussing the work that the Grove Institute were doing.

Kelly told me that they hadn’t managed to isolate any one sound that affected people. Everyone started to cry at different parts of the piece. It looked as if the tones needed to synchronise with a persons’ own harmonics for the effect to occur. She said that it would take a lot of number crunching to find any link between the subjects that brought about a particular result. It may even come down to what hang-ups they had in common. Who knows?

Marianne Gregory © 2023